Right here’s Why Raven Saunders Competes With a Masks and Transforms Into ‘Hulk’ Persona

You’ve most likely heard of well-known celeb alter egos like Beyonce’s Sasha Fierce, Eminem’s Slim Shady, and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, however what in regards to the Hulk? We don’t imply Marvel’s Bruce Banner—we’re speaking about Olympian shot putter Raven Saunders, whose transformation was on full show on the qualifiers in Paris on August 8.

Saunders, a 28-year-old who beforehand competed on the Rio Video games in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, likes to channel the Hulk once they do their factor—aka hurl heavy objects lengthy distances. Not like Bruce Banner’s, Saunders’s metamorphosis usually includes a masks, sun shades, gold grills, and an elaborate manicure, as Related Press sports activities author Patrick Graham reported Thursday. (Per Saunders’s Insta story, they’re at the moment rocking blinged-out nails that spell out “H-U-L-Ok.”)

Through the qualification spherical on the Paris Video games on the morning of August 8, the viewers on the Stade de France in Paris was in a position to catch a glimpse. Sporting orange-tinted sunnies and a black balaclava-style garment that coated their total face, the green- and purple-haired Saunders threw the 8.8-pound shot put 18.62 meters on their third try—a mark ok to earn them a spot at Friday’s last. Moreover the sun shades and masks, that they had additionally accessorized with gold grills.

“I’m in full kind,” Saunders mentioned of their outfit, based on The Guardian. “I needed to remind the individuals, I’m who I’m.”

Elaborating, Sauders later mentioned the look was a approach to encourage athletes to faucet into their very own self-expression and “actually push their very own kinds,” CNN reported.

As shot putters, “we are able to do issues as massive and vibrant as any sprinter, any jumper, whoever,” Saunders mentioned, based on CNN. “So we deserve that highlight as effectively.”

However the Hulk look has a deeper which means too—it performs an vital function in serving to them handle the pressures that include being an elite athlete. Who they’re is completely different on the sphere of play than off, as Saunders informed Olympics.com in 2022. Recent off their silver-medal win on the Tokyo Video games, they mentioned they developed the Hulk alter ego after remedy helped them notice that they had been greater than their athletic skills.

“Early on, much like the Hulk, I had a tricky time differentiating between the 2; I had a tricky time controlling when the Hulk got here out or when the Hulk didn’t come out,” they informed Yahoo Sports activities in 2021. “However by way of my journey, particularly coping with psychological well being and issues like that, I discovered compartmentalize, the identical means that Bruce Banner discovered to manage the Hulk, discovered let the Hulk come out throughout the correct moments and that means it additionally gave him an indication of psychological peace. However when the Hulk got here out, the Hulk was smashing all the pieces that wanted to be smashed.”