Gaining Ground on the Pro Boards by Jane Pollack, Communications and Outreach Manager
Meet the Women Who Set Historic Fastest Known Time Records on the Florida Trail in 2022
and encourage women to set a majority of FKTs on the boards in 2022. As this style of hiking has gained in popularity, so too has the Florida Trail. While many women have tackled thru-hikes on the Florida Trail, with Solange Wiznia being the first female thru-hiker in 1994, no speed records had been recorded. This year, two women set their sights on the charts, and with extraordinary ambition and effort, made their mark on the history of the Florida Trail by setting new speed records in the women’s category. While they share ambition and charisma, their hiking styles, approaches, and perspectives make for unique tales of perseverance, self-awareness, and the power of aligning our behavior with our values. Shayna “Splash” Kott is a self-described “simple human,” but her record-setting hike suggests otherwise. She emphasizes the mental fortitude that propelled her through challenging moments during her FKT thru-hike of the Florida Trail, and offers a bold perspective that we can all learn from, regardless of our goals. I first met Shayna in pre-pandemic 2020 while we were both thru-hiking the Florida Trail for the first time. I was hiking with a cluster of folks through Big Cypress Swamp and I happened to be the only woman amidst a group of men. A few hundred yards behind us, I caught a glimpse of a pink baseball cap meandering around the dwarf cypress trees. At that moment, I was stoked to see another woman on the trail. She introduced herself as Splash, and I peppered her with questions about her previous long-distance hikes since I was new to the thru-hiking scene and had primarily seen male representation in the hiking world. I remember being impressed that Splash was rocking 30 mile days once we hit Ocala National Forest, so I wasn’t surprised when she an-
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n 2020-2021, the long-distance hiking community experienced a huge spike in the phenomenon of endurance athletics. Left and right, hikers were achieving Fastest Known Time (FKT) records on popular routes like the John Muir Trail, as well as lesser known trails and unique routes. Women have taken it upon themselves to claim those records in higher numbers than ever. The team at Fastest Known Time reported that women set 903 FKTs in 2021. Just within the first quarter of 2022, women have achieved 127 FKTs. A movement is emerging for women to “claim space on the trails.” This is the motto and call-to-action of the Women Who FKT Project, a group of women based in the Pacific Northwest who strive to flip gendered statistics 42
Florida Trail Association
Shayna hiking along Gulf Islands National Seashore near the northern terminus of the Florida Trail
FloridaTrail.org
