Tuesday, November 28, 2023

The Enduring Legacy Of The Game Changers

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The Game Changers & Veganism

The release of The Game Changers was a landmark event for the vegan movement. 

The documentary premiered across major cinema chains in the UK with almost every showing sold out. It showed us that the world is waking up and starting to take veganism more seriously.  

From the Ancient Roman gladiators to modern strongmen, leading athletes have not only survived on a vegan diet they have also thrived on it. They became the best versions of themselves because they were now stronger, faster and more enduring, which they credited to their vegan diet. by eating the foods that are scientifically proven to be the most beneficial for their bodies. 

The Game ChangersThe idea that meat gives you energy and that it makes you fitter proved to be an outdated and incorrect notion for the athletes on show. Every athlete in this film who previously ate an animal-based diet felt incredible differences in their bodies once they made a switch to a plant-based diet. Kendrick Faris the Olympic weightlifter, Dotsie Bausch the cycling champion and the ultra-runner Scott Jurek all excelled tremendously because they recovered so much quicker than their animal-based competitors. They have the edge. 

New Arguments for Veganism

What makes The Game Changers so effective is its narrow focus on the benefits of veganism on sporting performance. These arguments have the potential to sway a new audience of people who may not have been brought over to veganism with arguments for environmental ethics and animal liberation. 

The film focuses almost exclusively on human performance. Damien Mander, the sniper turned vegan and anti-hunt activist, is the only cast member to fully detail the ethics of choosing to save life rather than destroy it in the final cut of the film. The end results are the same. He looks to the natural world, to powerful animals like gorillas that are entirely vegan and knows that he can be the same with his compassion. 

“Have you ever seen an ox eating meat?” – Patrik Baboumian

Which brings us to Patrik Baboumian, the strongman who can lift cars and match the strength of an ox by eating only plants. His strength is near superhuman, and like all the athletes in the film, he destroys the weak vegan stereotype. And that’s important because it’s one that still lingers today. 

The Game Changers

There are not just those who made the final cut of the film. There are so many other vegan athletes out there who are also game changers. Fiona Oakes, who holds four world records for her exceptional running feats, is among the best of them. The film will help identify the pertinence of such vegan athletes for those interested in seeing exactly how far the evidence goes. 

Vegan Health Benefits

The Game Changers is cinematic proof of the health benefits of the vegan diet because there are so many top performers who excel on it. This information cannot be ignored, and the legacy of the film will speak for itself as more and more people pick up the vegan diet on the back of its success.

Sean Barrs
Sean is a vegan activist and academic. He is writing his English Literature PhD thesis on the politics of diet. He is also an ultra-runner and a proud member of Vegan Runners UK. In the past, he has written for numerous publications including Plant Based News. He came to The Vegan Review to help promote the work of others, he is especially interested in writing on individuals who advocate for the vegan lifestyle through sports and other forms of activism.