profiles / Teachers + Leaders
by Emma Herrick
COLLEEN CANNON
S
tanding on the coarse, volcanic rock that jutted into the turquoise water, Colleen Cannon and I looked across Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook Monument. The obelisk looked like a small white blur in the distance, towered by sheer cliffs. “All right! Let’s go!” Cannon chirped as she slipped her swim cap over her sunbleached hair and plunged into the ocean. We were about to swim a two-mile, open water swim to the monument and back. For fun. I grew up surfing, but I had never swum seriously, let alone two miles. But when Colleen Cannon tells you that you can do something, you do it. So, I dove in after her. I met Cannon at the start of the pandemic. She was working to shift her women’s yoga and adventure retreat company, Women’s Quest, online. Women’s Quest is designed to light “a spark and passion in people for the outdoors, their own bodies and their spirits.” At that moment, Women’s Quest’s
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mission was more important, and more unattainable, than ever. In 1992, Cannon founded Women’s Quest with a dream of creating a safe environment where women could find balance and strength through movement and play. Women’s Quest’s transformational retreats combined physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing — the first adventure retreat company to do so. They were more than just fitness retreats; they were a place where women could connect to each other, their bodies and the world. It didn’t take much; all they needed was the greatest “playground” of all: the outdoors, and Cannon. 30 plus years later, Cannon still runs retreats all year long to places like Canyonlands and Jackson Hole, Greece and Italy, Bhutan and Peru. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Women’s Quest grew out of Cannon’s lifelong belief in the power of movement, connection and play, especially for women. Whether it was swimming, biking, running or horseback
riding, Cannon grew up outside and in motion. She grew up in the midst of the formation of Title IX, and it was evident that not everyone had the opportunity. When she moved to Alabama in high school, Cannon found that the only sports she could choose from were baton twirling, cheerleading or the marching band — none of which particularly interested her. Steadfast in the belief that girls deserved the right to play sports as much as boys did, she helped create the school’s first women’s basketball and track teams. Her love for movement eventually led Cannon to race professionally. On scholarship for both swimming and track, she competed at Auburn University and later stumbled, albeit unintentionally, into triathlons. Soon enough, she became World Champion in 1984, National Champion in 1988 and 1990, and a U.S. National team member multiple times. Alongside training, she worked to get equal prize money for men and women and helped make triathlons an Olympic sport, which
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PHOTOs Courtesy of Colleen Cannon
+ the Art of Lifelong Play
