Vegan Olympian Morgan Mitchell named as F45’s Global Athlete for Australia

Morgan Mitchell is about to head to Paris for her third Olympics, but the Aussie champion says she still makes mistakes with her workouts.

Morgan Mitchell is an Olympian

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Morgan Mitchell is about to head to Paris for her third Olympics, but the Aussie champion says she still makes mistakes with her workouts.

Ahead of the huge competition where she will compete in the 800m track event after previously specialising in 400m, Mitchell has opened up on her journey to success, largely crediting her decision to switch to a vegan diet a decade ago.

“When I took on the diet, I thought nothing of it,” the 29-year-old told news.com.au.

“Once I sat down with my sports dietitian, she mapped out what my journey would look like trying to still run my best while being vegan.”

She said in 2014 there wasn’t many vegan athletes and so her new diet “blew up into this massive thing”.

Morgan Mitchell is a two-time Olympian. Picture: Instagram/@morganmitch

Mitchell, who has also been selected to be part of F45’s Global Athletes program recently, realised she needed to educate herself if she was going to be at the top of her game. She said for the first few months all she ate was French fries and so her athletic performance didn’t improve.

“It was deplorable because I was a kid. I think making a huge change at 19 is kind of like unorthodox for a lot of people, especially when you’re trying to go to the Olympics, trying to go to Commonwealth Games.”

She said she advised anyone considering making a huge lifestyle change to see an expert — someone wanting to change their diet, for instance, should consult with a dietitian.

“A clear example of why I knew it would work for me was back in 2012. I made the state team for netball, but I also had glandular fever,” she said.

“I could probably survive about three hours a day, outside and then I’d be sleeping for the rest. I’d get tonsillitis twice a year and turning to a vegan diet really helped with my overall health. I haven’t had tonsillitis since.”

She is a track runner in the 400 and 800 metres. Picture: Instagra/@morganmitch

The vegan athlete is an F45 Global Ambassador. Picture: Instagra/@morganmitch

Mitchell, like so many young girls, got into Little Athletics after seeing Cathy Freeman dominate at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Deep down, she knew she would be heading to the Olympics.

She also played netball and basketball and moved away from athletics as a teenager. But she got back into the sport after the Rio Olympics had been announced. She worked hard and made her Olympic debut at the Rio Games at the age of 21 and competed in Tokyo in 2021.

Now, she is working towards the Paris Olympics. Her training style has changed dramatically for every Olympics she has been part of.

For the Rio Olympics, she said she listened to her coach and did what she was told, but she tore her Achilles tendon ahead of Tokyo. It meant she had to change her entire training regimen. At the time, she’d recently discovered F45 through her sister so her coach had her in the studio three times a week to keep up general fitness so she could run in the 800m.

Mitchell is preparing for Paris 2024. Picture: Instagra/@morganmitch

Now, for Paris, she is keeping up with a mix of track training and F45, which she says she loves because of the sense of community, variety and fun to her rigorous training schedule.

She said she also loved that there are people from all walks of life in the classes.

“The first session I ever did, it was quite funny because as again, as an athlete, I thought it would be easy. And it can be depending on how hard you go. But I went into full athlete mode, and I was gassed for like three days after,” Mitchell said.

The athlete has been an ambassador for the brand since 2021.

In January, F45 Training announced the new 12-person global athlete roster including Alice Evans from Melbourne and Jordi Duff from Christchurch representing the APAC region.

Mitchell said she believes everyone should do an F45 challenge once in their life.