TIMBERSPORTS® star Dee Hardwick a worthy LGBTQ+ role model

The beauty of STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® is the inclusive and collaborative community it engenders, alongside the dynamic and exciting nature of the competition.

The British Pro, Rookie and Women’s Championships took place at the Royal Three Counties Show in June, providing intense contest and entertainment for the watching crowds.

This fast-growing competition, which sees participants chop and saw wood against the clock, had its first British women’s event just last summer, 2022.

One of the most charismatic competitors is Dee Hardwick, who recorded personal bests in this year’s event and has set her sights on podium glory in future.

She explained: “I've played lots of different sports and loved a lot of them. This will be my 23rd year playing rugby and I've also played hockey, American football and done judo. You name it, I've played it. I'm a great believer in trying everything once.

“I was a medical rep for 10 years and I got furloughed during COVID. I was buying and selling chainsaws and flipping them and tinkering with them, just to keep myself sane.

“I just went on to the STIHL website for some bits and I saw an advert to come and try Timbersports. I'm a big strong girl and I thought hey, why don't I have a go at this? I went along to a trial day back in March 2022, and got selected for the programme. So, I've been doing it for just over a year now.

“Being big and strong is an advantage, but there's a lot of technique. Watching old videos of the first training day to now, it's just amazing how much the technique has changed. I loved it: it's very addictive.”

Last year's British Women’s STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Championship saw a field of eight women taking part in three disciplines – the Stock Saw, the Single Buck and the Underhand Chop. Points are accumulated for the fastest times with the person with the most points after all disciplines being crowned the ultimate winner.

Watching Dee compete, it’s obvious that she is a performer, engaging the crowd and yet determined to do herself justice.

Last year’s Women’s Championship proved to be a special moment for Dee, as she recalled: “It was really humbling, actually. It's amazing because it's a little bit of history. I'm really for women doing sport and it was great to be part of an inaugural event.

“It was an amazing feeling being on the stage. I used to do Burlesque and a bit of stand up so being in front of a load of people wasn't that much of a worry for me and actually, I used it to feed off their energy.”

Camaraderie is unusual in high-level sport, but Dee has noted the bonds that have grown with her fellow competitors.

She added: “What's really unusual about Timbersports is that everyone is so friendly and everyone wants everyone to succeed.

“This is the first sport where there's no cliques. I've made some amazing friends from it and in fact, one of them is going to be my best woman at my wedding!”

As a gay woman, Dee is well aware of the responsibilities and barriers that occur in sport and the opportunity she has taken to be a role model for future athletes.

“I love pushing down boundaries. I love being out there and proving that, you know, you don't have to be a man to do this. It takes all shapes and sizes. Tall, short, fat, thin, gay, straight, it doesn't matter.

“It's a really welcoming community and it's just the most amazing workout as well. You are absolutely blowing by the time you've finished it.”

Dee is also proud to promote the LGBTQ+ cause and added: “I had my lucky socks on, which are a pair of rainbow striped rugby socks. It's nice to be unique, but it's not seen as an issue and it's not seen as a barrier. It's a great community and I would encourage anyone within their LBGTQ+ community to come and have a go.

“I still think it's really difficult for people to come out. Hopefully one day we won't have to have this conversation about who is LGBTQ+. But it's changed massively. Those perceptions are going and that's nice.”

Dee’s approach underlines the power of sport to teach valuable life lessons, building connections between communities and empowering those for whom sport can provide the confidence and the focus to allow them to thrive.

She added: “I'm just, Dee the ‘lumberjill.’ It's nice to be introducing a great sport to that part of the community.

“If someone says you can't do it, go out and do it twice, to prove it to them. If someone says no, you can't do that because you're a girl or because you're a boy, stick it to them. Go out, do it and show them that you can do it. If you enjoy it, go and do it. Do not let anyone tell you that you can't do something.”

After getting married, Dee will be back training and competing and has dreams of representing her country in international competition.

“I would love to be able to go abroad. It’s huge in America and Canada, and I'd love to be able to do that,” she said.

“Standing on top of the podium with an LGBTQ+ flag flying behind me would be absolutely amazing.”

STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® features six disciplines which you can find out about HERE and more information on tools used in TIMBERSPORTS® HERE.