Inside the Lines: Body Positivity with track & field Olympian Anna Hall

As if one Olympic-level track & field event wasn’t hard enough, try seven. That’s just another day in the life for heptathlete Anna Hall — who earlier this month tied the record for second-most heptathlon points ever.

• Here’s more background on Hall before we dig into her Inside the Lines convo.

🐊 Hall competed collegiately at Florida, winning two NCAA individual national titles and helping the Gators win their first indoor team natty in 30 years. Chomp chomp.

🏅 While enrolled at Florida, Hall won her first World Championships medal — a bronze — before snagging the silver in 2023.

🇺🇲 After breaking her foot during the 2021 Olympic trials, Hall found redemption last year, winning the trials to secure her spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Unreal.

• She went on to finish fifth at the Games, a remarkable debut on the world’s biggest stage.

👊 Earlier in June, shortly after her Inside the Lines conversation, Hall competed at the Hypomeeting Götzis in Austria, scoring 7,032 total points, tied for the second-best mark in heptathlon history. What, like it’s hard?

Body image issues are, unfortunately, all too common, and athletes, especially female athletes, are no exception. In fact, a recent NCAA study found that men’s sports athletes reported 20 to 30 percent higher positive body image than female athletes.

• Beyond sport, one study reported that 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies,” a figure that jumps to 78% by age seventeen. As for adult women, nearly 70% reported withdrawing from activities due to body image. Devastating.

• Hall opened up about these struggles, sharing her journey and advice for navigating them. Let’s get into it.

Andrews: As women in sports, [body positivity and self acceptance] is something we are constantly conflicted with, it's something we're constantly made aware of, even if we feel confident…When you think about the word confidence and self-acceptance, and loving your body…when did you really begin to feel confident in your body?

Hall: I think I really started to gain some body confidence maybe in the 2022, 2023 season. So not until my junior year of college. I think I always really struggled with this dichotomy as a female athlete — sometimes people wouldn't say the nicest things about having muscles.

• And then that was the year where I really took a hard look with my coaches. ‘Okay, these are the girls that I'm chasing down in my event and they're all strong.’ So she was like, you need to get strong, we need to do that.

• I felt like I took my power back. It's almost like a light bulb went off in my head: when I think about people who have accomplished great things, the first thing I think about is not usually what their body looks like.

• It's just like [that] person set a world record or they won the gold medal. And so I was like, ‘why am I reducing myself to just what my body looks like?’ I really just felt like I had a renewed perspective of how to talk and treat myself.

Andrews: [You] have a legend like Jackie Joyner-Kersee, someone who is your idol, [as] the person that is personally calling you to make sure that you are in the proper head space. Is there one thing in particular that stuck out to you that she said?

Hall: The biggest piece of advice I ever got from her was to keep your joy, like keep your joy…People do the best when they’re having fun…I really feel like having had the lows in my career, I've really felt that when I'm happier, I am doing better. How I'm practicing is literally almost a direct reflection of my mental health sometimes. And how you speak to yourself is a direct reflection of your mental health.

• Making sure that you’re staying joyful [and] finding the fun in it, even when things are bad. I’m just going to celebrate every single little victory along the way and have fun that way.

Andrews: What was your favorite part [of your Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot]?

Hall: I think my favorite part was that, as the day [went on], I could feel my confidence building. The first day I came out and they were like, ‘have you done this before?’ And I was like, ‘nope.’ But I was like, ‘I can listen, I can take direction, coach me up.’ And then as the day went on, I started to come out of my shell and the whole team was so supportive. They made it so fun.

• And you have the editor-in-chief over in the corner and she was like, ‘okay, now do this. We really want to see your muscles.’ Like, and I feel like there's not been many times in the beauty world, so to speak, that like people were cheering so loudly.

• It's really cool to see [and] having the realization [that] muscles can be celebrated in any platform, whether you're in a dress, you're in a swimsuit, or you're actually on the track.

Whether it’s a body positivity journey or a general focus on mental wellness, mental health isn’t a one-time thing — here are some tangible takeaways from Hall’s convo that you can implement in your day-to-day.

✏️ Clear your head by writing it out. Just like gymnast Katelyn Ohashi (who shared how she uses writing as a creative outlet in our debut episode), Hall discussed her sports journal and how putting pen to paper helps her to center herself and focus on the task at hand.

• Grab some paper, set those goals, and declutter your mind.

☺️ Keep your joy. This was the advice shared with Hall from track & field legend Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Finding small pockets of joy and fun will power you through even the toughest of moments — it’s all about perspective.

‼️ Take up space. Hall took us behind-the-scenes of her Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot and shared the unlock she had while testing out different modeling positions. Whether you’re trying to get that perfect shot for Instagram or working up the courage to share in a big meeting, own it and take up space.