Athlete jumps back into competition
Given earns golds at the worlds while proving that there’s a place for longevity in her sport
Six-year-old Eilea Given had four brothers and an interest in athletics. As her gymnastics classes grew too costly, Given’s mother began a search for a more affordable opportunity for her daughter.
And that’s when an ad in the paper for the Lincoln Leapers – a local jump rope team – recreation program caught her eye. She told her daughter, “You’re a skipper now,” and with the $100 fee paid, Given received a skipping rope, a T-shirt and a one-year membership. Turns out that was all she needed. “I was just made for it … I always wanted to be skipping all the time. I would’ve skipped myself to death if there wasn’t school and meals and sleeping,” Given recalled.
Given competed in jump rope throughout her teen years, including at the Junior Olympic Games. In 2015, at the age of 26, she competed in her first World Jump Rope Championships.
Then came a four-year break, when everyday life took over. Given had a husband, a mortgage and a full-time job with limited vacation days. She stayed active provincially, but the time and money required to compete internationally became too much.
But as Given celebrated her 30th birthday — and with the World Jump Rope Championships 2019 in Oslo around the corner — she saw a chance to be an example, not just for jump rope athletes, but for young women. She wanted to show that no
matter one’s age, gender or physique, none of those were reasons to stop growing and achieving.
“When I was six, there was nobody in the 30-plus age category. Athletes didn’t last that long,” Given explained.
“You can’t control what everyone else is doing and thinking, but if you want to put your head down and work, you can control what you become. You can make sure that you are always getting better.
“I wish somebody told me that when I was 10.”
And at the same time Given saw a chance to put her name in the history books.
Looking to earn a spot in the 2028 Olympic Games, the sport formed the International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) and changed the jump rope competition rules. The 2019 event in Oslo would be the final world championship dividing athletes into age categories. Given remembers thinking if she could get a speed record, “Canada will always, always hold that record.”
“If I can have the highest score ever recorded for this age category, it’s going to crystalize because there’s no more World Jump Rope,” Given said.
And that’s exactly what she did.
Last month Given not only won gold in the individual single rope speed 1x30, but she broke the record with a total score of 184 in the 30-second event. In single rope speed 1x180, Givens won gold with a personal best score, 859, in the three-minute competition.
Given also won gold in the single rope speed relay 4x30 and double dutch pairs speed 2x60 team events. She won two silver medals in single rope pairs freestyle and single rope pairs double-under 2x30.
But the medals around her neck were about more than the colours.
In the beginning of her career, Given never though she would be competing at 30 years old.
Her results in Oslo — especially in the three-minute endurance event she calls “the bane of my existence” — was a “sweet moment” she said.
“For me, I’m like this is the fastest I’ve ever been. This is the strongest I’ve ever been.”
It hasn’t been easy; Given has had to make adjustments. But with age, comes wisdom. She can’t eat hotdogs or do back handsprings on the lawn all night (as she once did). Now she goes to sleep at 6 p.m. with a sleep mask before competitions; she spends 45 minutes warming up for a 30-second event. She has found a way to be smarter and more strategic about how she trains and recovers.
“I have to be very, very mindful of that. But the intensity is still there obviously. My scores are still going up but it doesn’t go up in leaps like it used to,” Given said.
Instead of looking at others, Given focuses on what she can control.
“When you’re working as hard as you can possibly work — like you know what you’ve done everything you can, given your choices and balance that you have in your life — you’re not looking at everyone else as much,” Given said.
While the 2028 Olympics are off the table – “I’ll be 39 by the time the sport gets into the Olympics so that’s a little bit much” — Ottawa will hold the first IJRU 2020 World Championships next year. Given doesn’t feel any pressure after Oslo, but her results do give her pause.
“If I keep my training up and I work at it, there’s a chance that I would qualify to go,” Given said. “Essentially the world championships are coming to me next year.”
But that means another year on a meal plan, and day after day with multiple training sessions. Despite the hours of commitment required to compete in Oslo, Given was not willing to sacrifice from other parts of her life, such as her husband or her job. That will play a role in the decisions moving forward, because as strong as Given is right now, she knows it won’t last forever.
“I’m not invincible. I’m very sore, and it’s very real some days. It’s taken its toll.”
Given also worries by competing in Ottawa she would be taking away that experience from a younger Canadian prospect.
“I feel like that’s kind of heavy on my heart. Like what should I do next to make sure these athletes have the resources I didn’t have,” Given said. “I think if we really invest and support in them, we give them a great chance.”
Maybe what’s next for Given will come in a different form, through coaching — she has her own double dutch team #30nohurty — or as a judge.
And with everything she has learned, Given’s experience could provide athletes with something she didn’t have as a young athlete.
“I’ve definitely demonstrated you don’t fall off the earth when you turn 30. And you can get better,” Given said. “If I can find a way to bestow (my experience) upon the younger athletes coming after me … whatever I have I want to give them.”
‘‘ I’ve definitely demonstrated you don’t fall off the earth when you turn 30. EILEA GIVEN World jump rope champion