A lifelong love, I was not exceptional though I did get on the cross country and hockey teams. I was however a very physical child and loved climbing trees, cycling at high speed and stuff like that. I have a spine issue that is worsening with age so my impact sport days are over.
One thing is I never gave a shit about was getting sweaty and grubby, I remember bare foot running through mud for the experience as a child through woodland, swimming in the sea in the snow, I got really told off arriving back home from that experience I was about 11 and my sister was about 8. I also remember running in a blizzard at a regional cross country event, I loved it. I was a pretty dangerous kid and hung out with quite a few boys as they were the tree climbers and jumping off the pier in to shallow water. It was incredibly dangerous but lots of fun.
About body shaming, when I was young in the 1970’s literally no kids were overweight. But I do remember many girls hating getting grubby and also worrying about showers and people seeing them naked. People were excused if they were having their period and I know some used to lie.
DH and DS are very sporty but really very decent, DH rowed for his college at Cambridge. His parents were the captains of their hockey team and met in their twenties at their hockey club. My Mother was a professional dancer and circus performer when young doing a high wire act on those ribbon things that hang down so we are both from physical families. She could still stick both her legs behind her head at almost 70 and his Mum taught yoga till she was 74.
So we were both raised by people who loved physical exertion.