President Obama and the First Lady have delightful conversations.

One of the more recent ones the couple had was about the Olympics. Watch it below.

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The Rio Olympics Impact on the City [Video]
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It seems like everywhere you turn, people are talking about the Rio Olympics. Whether it’s Zika, pollution or pondering if the Olympics are actually helpful to the city where the games occur, Rio is on our minds.

Well, Grist recently took a look at one of those topics: what happens to cities after they host the Olympics.

Related on EcoSalon
Is this the Secret to Keeping Zika Mosquitoes Away?
19 Empowering Quotes By Powerful Female Athletes
2016 Olympics Hopes To Leave Sustainable Legacy

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Empower your body and mind with the help of inspiring and successful female athletes!

The 2016 Summer Olympic games in Rio are a reminder of how hard work can pay off. For many, the highlight of the Olympics is witnessing female athletes dominate, showcasing their mental and physical strength at its peak. Whether they are taking part (or have taken part) in the Olympics or not, the following female athletes are (or have once been) at the top of their athletic game. Here are 19 inspiring quotes from female athletes so that you, too, are motivated to conquer your passion.

19 Quotes By Female Athletes

1. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
2. “Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.” – Wilma Rudolph
3. “Do your best, one shot at a time, and then move on.” – Nancy Lopez
4. “I decided I can’t pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.” – Serena Williams
5. “The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration, then more practice and concentration.” – Babe Didrikson Zaharias
6. “If you don’t love what you do, you won’t do it with much conviction or passion.” – Mia Hamm
7. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” – Jackie Joyner Kersee
8. “A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.” – Mary Lou Retton
9. “True champions aren’t always the ones that win, but those with the most guts.” – Mia Hamm
10. “No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.” – Althea Gibson
11. “My motto has always been that you can’t say, ‘Oh, it won’t happen to me.’ You have to say, ‘That can happen to me.’ So always be aware that things can happen.” – Venus Williams
12. “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.” – Bethany Hamilton
13. “Don’t be afraid if things seem difficult in the beginning. That’s only the initial impression. The important thing is not to retreat: you have to master yourself.” – Olga Korbut
14. “When you fall, get right back up. Just keep going, keep pushing it.” – Lindsey Vonn
15. “To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have.” – Shawn Johnson
16. “We have to fight the entire time, we can’t start at the end when it’s getting down to crunch time. We can’t leave anything on the floor.” – Kerri Walsh, volleyball player
17. “Always work hard, never give up, and fight until the end because it’s never really over until the whistle blows.” – Alex Morgan
18. “Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you’ll never know. I truly believe what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Even if you fail, learning and moving on is sometimes the best thing.” – Danica Patrick
19. “You can always say, ‘I wish I had landed that triple flip better, or I wish I didn’t fall.’ They’re not regrets, just mistakes.” – Michelle Kwan

Related on EcoSalon
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Athlete on Starting Block Image from Shutterstock

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Gorgeous red carpet-worthy dresses made from upcycled Speedo fabric, from suits worn by Olympic swimmers.

Now that the Olympics are over, and the American swimmers nabbed more gold medals in swimming than ever before, what happens to all those old Speedos? UK-based designer Orsola de Castro has been making high-end fashion from recycled materials since 1997, through the fashion label From Somewhere. One of the brand’s newest collections is made from, you guessed it, upcycled Speedo fabric.

The high tech quality and intense accent colors of the fabric lends a strange, yet very fashion forward quality to de Castro’s elegantly tailored dresses. If it wasn’t for the small logo that makes an appearance on some of the garments, you would never guess what they were made from.

De Castro runs From Somewhere with her partner Filippo Ricci, and the two are also the founders and curators of The British Council Estethica during London Fashion Week. They want to use their fashion label to further the discussion about overproduction and waste, two very urgent issues that the fashion industry needs to figure out how to deal with. To de Castro and Ricci, upcycling becomes a design solution to this environmental problem.

The label originally began their collaboration with Speedo in 2010 when a stock of their LZR Racer Elite suit became redundant following FINA regulations regarding competitive swimwear. The company contacted From Somewhere to help create something with the waste, and that’s how the first collection, which debuted at Estethica, was born.

The new colorblocked “Unity” gown is made from offcuts produced in the making of Speedo’s Fastskin3 Super Elite swimsuit, which was used by the athletes at this summer’s Olympic Games in London. All the colors in the “Unity” dress represent all nations coming together in a non-competitive way and are also a reference to water. De Castro used the stretch of the fabric to emphasize different parts of the female body, and she also utilized Pinterest to gather inspiration and visual references.

“The idea was to combine sportswear and fashion in a way that it is 100% fashion but also 100% sportswear,” says de Castro. She also wants this dress to inspire the confidence of an Olympic athlete in any woman that wears it.

Watch the video below to hear de Castro talk about the inspiration and process behind the dress.

We like, and it seems Ryan Lochte does too.

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The best of the week at EcoSalon, hand-picked for your clicking pleasure.

How are you? We’ve spent the week mostly bemused by…

…the concept of Gross National Happiness (although admittedly it does sound a fun way to govern people).

…the way the House is starting to sound like a live-action roleplaying game – except, you know, with the welfare of millions of women at stake.

…how complicated diamonds can be.

…how easy it is to forget what’s in diet soda.

…all those condoms used in the Olympics. (Yes indeed).

The post The Friday 5: Raising An Eyebrow Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

All that twisting and turning and vaulting of Olympic bodies this week got us thinking…about sex, of course. This week’s Sex By Numbers offers Olympic-themed trivia about everyone’s other favorite sport.

150,000: Number of un-branded condoms delivered to the Olympic Village for the use of the 17,500 athletes who may be inclined to get it on after (or before) their event.

6 Weeks: Amount of time Muhammad Ali would reportedly go without sex before his big fights. Despite this, scientists say that there is no evidence that pre-competition sex reduces performance, endurance or power.

#1: Olympic Judo athlete Kayla Harrison became the first American gold medalist in her event this week. Her victory is even more sweet due to the fact that her sport has not always been kind to her: in 2007, she put her former coach behind bars for sexual abuse.

4th: Place that American hurdler Lolo Jones finished in the 100m hurdles final. Jones gained celebrity status earlier in the summer when she declared on Twitter that, at 30 years old, she was still a virgin.

12th: If the 100 million females who read the 64 international editions of Cosmopolitan made up a country, it would be the twelfth largest nation in the world. It’s fairly likely that their strongest sport would involve inventive sexual positions.

6: In addition to the times of year when the Olympic Games are held, Summer and Winter are also when people are most interested in finding sex. When examining this 6 month seasonality cycle, researchers found a spike in Google searches for dating sites and prostitutes during these times of year.

3: Number of experts—an endocrinologist, gynaecologist and a genetic specialist—on an Olympic “expert panel” which was assembled to determine cases of gender ambiguity at London 2012. Thus far, the panel has not been used.

65%: Those who support same sex marriage seem to be edging ahead of the competition; 65% of Democrats report that they now support the equal right to marry.

Image: The Drum Fauxlympics

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In praise of the female Olympic athlete.

The Olympics officially kick off today, but the irksome tendency to praise the bodies of female athletes for their sexiness rather than their speed, stamina, power, or strength, began weeks ago.

The most egregious example is a viral YouTube video (and an avalanche of derivative GIFs), which depicts Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke doing her pre-race routine before breezily winning her 100m hurdles heat at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona. Her routine—which involves lots of bouncing and smiling and pony tail swinging—seems to seamlessly play into everything we want a female athlete to be: perfectly proportioned, cute, feminine, and really, really hot.

There’s no denying the fact that Jenneke is a talented sprinter and that she has a particularly attention-getting pre-race routine (and every athlete knows the sacred pre-race routine should never be changed). But the sensation she has sparked is a perfect example of an annoying trend: the female athletes that tend to get the most attention also happen to be the ones that can most easily grace the pages of a men’s magazine. While this happens to some degree with males as well (Michel Phelps’ abs anyone?), it is certainly not a pre-requisite for media attention in mens’ professional sports

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Because life is sexier when you’re going for the gold.

1. Have you seen my muscles? They’re pretty big.
2. Life is all about hurdles, especially this one by my bed.
3. I like to call them “running underwear.”
4. I’ve been carrying this torch for you all night, let’s go put it out at my place.
5. Looks like you’ve got a good archery arm, how’s your aim?
6. I’m not sure what sculling is but I like the sound of it.
7. Judo? Sure. I love taking people down on a mat.
8. Why don’t you pull in your mainsail and set a course for my lake.
9. You are so damn flexible.
10. Oh I’ve been playing handball for a long time.
11. I bet you could easily lift me off the ground.
12. I know a few other ways we could play table tennis.
13. Joint locks, pins and grappling? Is that what you do in wrestling?
14. You are such a good rider.
15. My backhand doesn’t feel right can you help me with my stroke.
16. A pentathlete? What else are you good at doing all at once?
17. I’m a black belt… somewhere.
18. Let me show you my javelin grip.
19. You won’t want to escape from my half nelson.
20. My you have an impressive shuttle cock.
21. I don’t understand a thing you’re saying but I will pretend to.
22. I’ll ping your pong if you pong my ping.
23. I think you’re done with those warmups, let’s get them off.
24. Do you always respond on the command of “stroke?”
25. I’d like to be your pommel horse.
26. I’d give you the gold any day.
27. Want to get sand in naughty places?
28. I’d be happy to take home your bronze.
29. Can I be a part of your training regimen?
30. Wanna teach me to sing your anthem?
31. Even if you don’t win a medal I’ll still raise your flag.
32. Can you help me with my tumbling routine?
33. My that’s one handsome steed.
34. Let’s see how perfectly we can time our dismounts.
35. I’d love to have you spin my discus.
36. You obviously have a lot of endurance, I’d love to test those skills.
37. Good game! I’m sure you’ll score again soon.
38. Do you always have that good of aim?
39. I’d like to give you a good dressage.
40. Milliseconds may matter, but I love a good slow play.
41. Can I touch your medal?
42. I’d give you a ten for synchronization.
43. You have been eating your Wheaties.
44. Your breast stroke has great form.
45. You can be my starboard any day.
46. Parallel bars? Is that what Olympians call them these days?
47. Do you rate dives on depth or form?
48. I never miss my hand off.
49. I’d love to be a sponsor so I could see my name all over you.
50. In the spirit of the games, we should get better acquainted.

Image: An Honorable German

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Carrying the torch for green.

In a London Olympics 2012 poster titled “being greener”, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games vows to keep this year’s Games eco-friendly.

London’s Olympic Park will be one of the biggest city parks newly constructed in Europe for more than 150 years. The Games will host 26 Olympic events, 20 Paralympic events, 14,700 athletes, 21,000 media, and 10.8 million ticket holders. While it will inevitably boost the city’s economy, the strain on resources is unavoidable. The Organizing Committee is working hard to maintain a high level of sustainability despite all that needs to be constructed, and the the “being greener” poster is a representation of London’s conscious efforts to make its Olympics the greenest of them all.

The Park will be equipped with some of the most cutting-edge technology to curtail the Games’ greenhouse gas emissions, preserve the natural habitat surrounding the area, as well as to recycle, reuse and reduce all waste. In a pamphlet distributed by the Organizing Committee, the extent of London’s green efforts are detailed.

• 20% of the energy used on the Olympic Park will come from renewable sources
• 4,000 newts and hundreds of toads have been removed from the Park to be protected
• 90% of the materials from the demolition of building in the Olympic Park have been recovered so they can be reused or recycled.
• 50% of materials that are being used to construct the Park will be transported by water or rail, saving thousands of trips on local roads.
• A 120-meter wind turbine in the Park will produce enough electricity for 1,000 homes
• 80 lampposts, 2 tons of red bricks, and 76 tons of paving stones will be saved for reuse on the Park.
• A 3-kilometer footpath and cycle-way will be improved for the local population as well as wildlife.
• Rubbish was removed from 8.35 kilometers of waterways running through the Olympic Park
• 45 hectares of wildlife habitats will be left on and around the Park after the games

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

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ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

It could have been when I listened to Nick Hahn, former CEO and co-founder of Cotton, Inc., a keynote speaker at a recent sustainable fashion event at FIT. It might have been when he told the audience that Monsanto may have made his company better and that the use of organic cotton wasn’t all that favorable. After all, regular cotton uses less water and with the impending water crisis well…we all have to pick our battles.

I had to determine which statement was more absurd. I looked around at the women I was surrounded by which included Ecouterre Managing Editor, Jasmin Malik Chua, EcoSalon writers Jessica Marati and Jennifer Barckley, Greta Eagan of GretaGuide, Rona Berg, Editor-in-Chief of Organic Spa magazine, representatives from Eileen Fisher, sustainability professors from FIT, Parsons and Pratt, not to mention a bevy of sustainable designers and fabric suppliers and I cringed.

Who could he be trying to sell his idea too and did he really think this platform was the proper place? We muttered under our breaths “What about the pesticides?,” “What about contaminating the water?,” and most popular, “What a bunch of horseshit.”

Still, people were listening and he might have planted his own genetically modified seed into the brains of some of the audience there. Later in the day, watching him sleepily nodding off in a corner, head on his chest, I had to ask myself again, who are these people running the show?

The next day I literally ran from a breakfast with the Eileen Fisher sustainability team – where we’d just talked about how eco fashion is very political – to meet Erica Wolf of Save the Garment Center who is also designer Nanette Lepore’s assistant.

“I am so slammed,” she said over the phone as I picked up my pace nearing Midtown. “Have you heard what’s going on?”

“Nope. What have I missed?”

By the time I pushed the elevator button to bring me up to Nanette Lepore’s 5th floor studio, I had already passed ABC News outside on the street. Sweat covered and trying to fix myself in the elevator, I was greeted by a Fox News camera man and reporter who were just leaving the studio.

“Sit down there,” Erica whispered pointing to a corner chair and covering the phone.

Here is where I learned of the Olympic uniforms being made in China. As a major supporter of Save the Garment Center, Lepore was on tap to tell the world just how possible it would have been to make that entire uniform in the U.S. After all, it’s the American team so why wouldn’t Ralph Lauren have thought of maybe just this once, taking his American inspirational brand and made it, well, truly American not faux American?

Still, there’s an issue that looms large and it’s this: why now. Why do so many Americans care about U.S. made clothing now? Because it’s the Olympics? Because it’s election year? What about all the other weeks of the year when U.S. consumers are shopping China-cheap buys at Walmart, Forever21 and H&M stores nationwide? Do YOU ever flip the label to see where your clothes are from? Let’s not get all righteous now unless we want to keep walking the talk.

With the Olympics starting in just 10 days, the entire Olympic committee, the athletes, and the entire United States of America now need to get their minds off of why weren’t those tacky Lauren-logo-emblazoned uniforms made here (really? That polo logo passed the committee?) and start backing all the athletes looking for a shot at their personal best. Those men and women waiting for their chance at a glory they have been waiting for since they were little kids swimming in public pools and racing their friends up and down the street.

“I’m so upset. I think the Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Fox News reporters when asked about an ABC News report on the origin of the Ralph Lauren-designed uniforms.

“I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them,” Reid added.

Between the Lines is a weekly column navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of conscious life and culture between city and country, between inner worlds and outer.

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