Tessa Philippaerts

Tessa has always loved dogs. After their first dog died her parents did not want another dog. Tessa was having trouble finishing her track and field endurance runs since she always had to run alone. Her parents decided to buy her a dog that she could take with her so she wouldn't feel so alone when running. Some months later her family figured out that there existed races where you could run with your dog together (canicross) and thought that would be something for Tessa and her whippet, Angel. After they tried the sport for the first time, they bought all equipment they needed to do Canicross. After trying out the sport she never missed out on a race ever since.

The sport means a lot to Tessa:

“Canicross has been my main motivation in life. It has helped me to stay focused and motivated during my studies, work and hard times in life”.

She says that she is a dreamer, so she likes to make goals and work hard to reach them. Her subgoal is to always be top 5 in any championships. Her main goal will always be to win the gold medal.

“Working with dogs is like a natural antidepressant. The bond you get with your dog by training together is unbreakable and so special that it is hard to explain”.

Her goal for the future is to keep improving, keep learning, and be a better person for my dogs.

Some other relevant information about Tessa is that she writes training programs for people who want to improve in canicross and running. She travels a couple of times a year around the world to hold training camps and seminars where she talks about canicross, and people can learn how to improve, based on Tessa’s training and experiences. She is a biomedical lab technician and knows a lot about health and blood tests, and she also is a first aid worker.