After taking a break from track and field, Tiffeny Parker, 38, enjoyed a satisfying return at the recent World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea. In addition to winning a silver medal in the javelin, she found a sense of peace and purpose. After the championships concluded, Parker stayed in South Korea for about a week, exploring Seoul and other interesting locations.
“I had this crazy idea that I was going to come out of retirement for the elite section, which is still the plan, but my first stop since I hadn’t really trained for two years was to not put that much pressure on myself,” said Parker. “Let’s see what my body will do, especially working full-time, which I didn’t do when I competed professionally. … My goal is to get healthy and really get back to the heptathlon.”
The heptathlon, an event comprising seven track and field events, is something that Parker decided to take on after her freshman year of college. She made it to the U.S. Olympic trials. In her early 30s, she moved into bobsled, a path other track and field athletes have taken. She gave it her all for four years, but ended her time in that sport in 2022.
“I decided I’m going to go into real life,” Parker said. “I stepped into what I thought the next chapter of life was going to look like.” With a bachelor’s and three master’s degrees, Parker moved into a corporate role. It was a phenomenal experience, but she felt herself longing for something more fulfilling. Eventually, she returned to training, changing her focus to finding internal satisfaction in performance.
Today, in addition to training and executive leadership coaching, which she does through her company, Side Tracked, she works with doctors in a functional health practice. Functional medicine is a personalized system that looks for the root causes of chronic illness.
“I investigate what the root cause is and I look at all … these pieces of data. I’m very good at finding the patterns and the similarities. I get a chance to help people feel better,” she explained. “Executive leadership coaching, I love helping people elevate who they are. It’s part of being an athlete, you always want to be the best version of yourself. I’m very fortunate to have a gift to see that in people and also be able to communicate it in a way that allows them to hear what I’m saying and put action to it.”
