57 min

How Plants Powered Dotsie Bausch to the Olympic Podium The Allsorts Podcast

    • Nutrition

I am so fascinated by athletes and have to admit, hold them up as something quite magical. Who are they? What motivates them? Where did they get their superpowers?

And that is why today’s conversation is such a treat. I am speaking with Olympic silver medal cyclist, Dotsie Bausch…who smashes all preconceived notions about who an athlete is and how they are made.

Dotsie is proof positive that change is possible. While other athletes might get their start when someone puts a golf club in their hand at the age of 3, or as part of their family’s legacy, Dotsie overcame incredible obstacles to become a competitive cyclist in her mid-20s.

She went plant-based in the middle of her competitive career, when plant-based athletes were few and far between. And she climbed onto that podium at the 2012 Olympic games a hair before her 40th birthday, proving that athletic excellence is only not the domain of the under 30 crowd.

Are you ready to be inspired? To feel like anything is possible? Like there is no expiry date on dreams? Then get cozy and tune into my conversation with Olympic silver medalist, Dotsie Bausch.

About Dotsie Bausch:

Dotsie Bausch is the co-founder of Switch4Good, a non-profit organization committed to disrupting the disinformation of the dairy industry, which she started in response to the dairy’s sponsorship of the US Olympic Team. Dotsie holds a world record in cycling, she won a silver medal in cycling at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and is a star of the Netflix documentaries Personal Gold and Game Changers. She also co-hosts the Switch4Good podcast, which is a top US nutrition podcast.

On this episode we chat about:


How Dotsie fell in love with cycling in her 20s
Dotsie’s healing journey with anorexia
Discovering the sheer joy of movement for movement’s sake
How Dotsie turned a lie into a competitive cycling career
Her path from finishing last to the Olympic podium
How switching to a plant-based diet changed her cycling
The supplements Dotsie used in training and now
Anemia on a plant-based diet…are you really at risk?
How plant-based eating changed the foods that Dotsie craved
Why Dotsie started her non profit, Switch4Good to counter dairy marketing
The awesome free resource Switch4Good created to support plant-based athletes

Support the Pod!

We couldn’t make this podcast happen without the support of our amazing listeners.

I love hearing your feedback on these episodes to be sure to join the conversation on our instagram @theallsortspod @veganolympian as well as in our Nutrition with Desiree community.

If you love this episode, please share it with your friends and family, or take a minute to rate, review or subscribe on your favourite podcast app. We appreciate EVERY. SINGLE. LISTEN!

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Allsorts Podcast, which is produced by myself and edited by Brian McCalman. We are grateful to live and work and learn on the unceded and ancestral territory of the squamish, musqueum, and tsleil-waututh peoples.

Full show notes, including links and recommendations available at www.desireerd.com/podcast

I am so fascinated by athletes and have to admit, hold them up as something quite magical. Who are they? What motivates them? Where did they get their superpowers?

And that is why today’s conversation is such a treat. I am speaking with Olympic silver medal cyclist, Dotsie Bausch…who smashes all preconceived notions about who an athlete is and how they are made.

Dotsie is proof positive that change is possible. While other athletes might get their start when someone puts a golf club in their hand at the age of 3, or as part of their family’s legacy, Dotsie overcame incredible obstacles to become a competitive cyclist in her mid-20s.

She went plant-based in the middle of her competitive career, when plant-based athletes were few and far between. And she climbed onto that podium at the 2012 Olympic games a hair before her 40th birthday, proving that athletic excellence is only not the domain of the under 30 crowd.

Are you ready to be inspired? To feel like anything is possible? Like there is no expiry date on dreams? Then get cozy and tune into my conversation with Olympic silver medalist, Dotsie Bausch.

About Dotsie Bausch:

Dotsie Bausch is the co-founder of Switch4Good, a non-profit organization committed to disrupting the disinformation of the dairy industry, which she started in response to the dairy’s sponsorship of the US Olympic Team. Dotsie holds a world record in cycling, she won a silver medal in cycling at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and is a star of the Netflix documentaries Personal Gold and Game Changers. She also co-hosts the Switch4Good podcast, which is a top US nutrition podcast.

On this episode we chat about:


How Dotsie fell in love with cycling in her 20s
Dotsie’s healing journey with anorexia
Discovering the sheer joy of movement for movement’s sake
How Dotsie turned a lie into a competitive cycling career
Her path from finishing last to the Olympic podium
How switching to a plant-based diet changed her cycling
The supplements Dotsie used in training and now
Anemia on a plant-based diet…are you really at risk?
How plant-based eating changed the foods that Dotsie craved
Why Dotsie started her non profit, Switch4Good to counter dairy marketing
The awesome free resource Switch4Good created to support plant-based athletes

Support the Pod!

We couldn’t make this podcast happen without the support of our amazing listeners.

I love hearing your feedback on these episodes to be sure to join the conversation on our instagram @theallsortspod @veganolympian as well as in our Nutrition with Desiree community.

If you love this episode, please share it with your friends and family, or take a minute to rate, review or subscribe on your favourite podcast app. We appreciate EVERY. SINGLE. LISTEN!

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Allsorts Podcast, which is produced by myself and edited by Brian McCalman. We are grateful to live and work and learn on the unceded and ancestral territory of the squamish, musqueum, and tsleil-waututh peoples.

Full show notes, including links and recommendations available at www.desireerd.com/podcast

57 min