About Kathryn Bertine
Kathryn Bertine is an author, activist, athlete, filmmaker, and keynote speaker.
As a former professional cyclist, Bertine is a three-time Caribbean Champion, six-time national champion of St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN) who raced for five years on the UCI World Tour circuit.
Before cycling, Bertine had professional sports careers in triathlon as well as figure skating.
Off the bike, she was an ESPN columnist and senior editor for ESPNW, and the author of four nonfiction books:
STAND: A memoir on activism. A manual for progress. What really happens when we stand on the front lines of change
In 2006, ESPN hired Kathryn Bertine as a columnist, putting her on a quest to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. After six months of trying just about every summer sport on the planet, road cycling became Kathryn’s chosen path for the remaining eighteen months of the assignment.
Her Olympic assignment—So You Wanna Be an Olympian?—concluded without a berth to the Beijing Games. What was supposed to be the end of her athletic journey ended up yielding a new path: activism. Bertine’s infatuation with road cycling, equal opportunity, and gender equity was just beginning both on and off the bike.
Kathryn Bertine had three goals: a) turn professional in bike racing b) change the patriarchal system and get women into the Tour de France c) find some inner peace with her private demons of worthlessness.
The odds were stacked against her. Cycling’s governing body (UCI) and the Tour de France’s antiquated rules and good ol’ boy network (ASO) had no intention of recognizing or including women in the male-dominated sport and ignored all her attempts at connecting. In 2012, Bertine signed her first professional contract in pro cycling at the age of 37. The following year, the female team manager warned Bertine to keep quiet about the inequity in women’s sports. “Stop talking about this equality crap. No one will listen to you. You are a nothing, you are a no one.” Bertine was benched for one year, suffering verbal and physical abuse from the manager and staff. Still, she kept standing up and speaking out, using journalism, filmmaking, and Change.org petitions to effect change.
Re-hired as senior editor of ESPNW in 2011, Bertine pitched a documentary film to ESPN on inequity in women’s sports. They turned it down, citing no one would watch a film on women’s pro cycling. Undeterred, she struck out on her own and made the film anyway. In 2014, Half The Road was picked up
for international distribution, won three film festivals and screened in sixteen countries. Six years later, she still receives royalty checks from a film ESPN said no one would watch. During the filmmaking journey, Bertine discovered the power of visionary teamwork and benevolent disruption.
Forming the activism group Le Tour Entier (The Whole Tour) with three notable Olympic/World champions in 2013, Bertine lobbied the Tour de France for women’s inclusion. Nearly 100,000 people around the world signed their petition for equal opportunity, vaulting her Tour de France movement to
one of Change.org’s most successful campaigns. The news went viral. A social awakening on equal opportunity was taking place. Finally, Bertine and Le Tour Entier made history. La Course by Tour de France debuted in July 2014—the first official instatement of women at the Tour’s 105-year history.
Bertine effectively changed the mindsets of middle-aged men, million-dollar corporations, foreign rule-makers and victoriously challenged the fascinating boundaries of traditionalism.
Far beyond the niche of cycling, the rest of the world paid attention to a bigger message of Bertine’s activism: Change is possible. Activism isn’t relegated to the wealthy, the famous, the politicians, and superstars. We “regular people” have the power to make change happen, too.
But not without consequence. Kathryn Bertine’s seven-year journey through advocacy and activism took her through the gamut of private struggles. Counted out, harassed, bullied, labeled a “no one,” abandoned, suffering depression, brokenness, divorce, and on the cusp of suicide, for many years Bertine was unable to answer the internal question of activism, Is the journey worth the struggle? Does what we do truly matter? It wasn’t until 2016 when a devastating bicycle crash and traumatic brain injury opened her mind—literally and figuratively–to the healing powers of activism, the beauty of inner demons, and to finally answer the question: Yes. When it comes to equality, the journey is always worth the struggle.
With unabashed honesty, irreverence, humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, Bertine bares her soul and lays it all on the line. Activism isn’t pretty, but the truth is beautiful. Stand blends memoir, manual, and manifesto into an intimate journey of advocacy, unmasking what really happens when women/minorities stand up and fight for change. Bertine proves there aren’t any “no ones” in the world: When we rise and use our voice, we all have the power to move this world forward.
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