Lea Davison has a lot of bikes. From Olympic Games to world championships, the Jericho-born mountain biker collected a lot of wheels — and wisdom — during her two-decade career.
Though Davison, 43, officially retired in 2022, she still advocates for marginalized athletes in her sport. On June 22, “It Will Be Different for You,” an 18-minute documentary about her experience as a gay woman in a male-dominated sport, was publicly released to celebrate Pride Month.
Davison’s bikes became a way to frame her tale. Megan Mayhew Bergman, who codirected the film with Simon Perkins, said the storyline took shape after many hours of interviewing Davison in her garage in Sunderland, where the athlete now lives. In the documentary, Davison tells her story through the context of the bikes she rode at each point in her career and explains how both she and the technology have evolved.
“It Will Be Different for You” premiered in 2024 as Davison stepped up her advocacy work. Before then, when she was still competing, she didn’t want to risk losing her job by speaking candidly about her experience, she said.
“When you are in that process of pursuing Olympic goals and dreams, you have to pick and choose your battles and your words pretty wisely,” Davison said. “Telling this story after I retired, I was free from those constraints.”
Despite the barrier to advocacy she felt as a competitor, activism has long been important to Davison. One of her initiatives to support women in mountain biking is Little Bellas, a mentoring program for girls in elementary through high school. The organization, which she cofounded with her sister Sabra in 2007, has taught more than 2,700 young women to mountain bike. It also emphasizes team building and healthy lifestyles for participants and brings in professional female athletes to work with young bikers and teach them about their racing careers.
Since the documentary premiered, it has played at film festivals around the world, but Davison still hopes to make a local impact. She has hosted film screenings for audiences around the state with the specific goal of connecting with young female athletes. In Vermont schools, Davison has worked to inspire change by leading conversations about homophobia and sexism and helping younger generations learn to set goals and take risks.
Bergman, who lives in Dorset, is the mother of two teenage daughters and said she has noticed a lack of representation for women in sports. She pointed out that the majority of sports media focuses on male athletes, and when society hears about people who have given their all for a sport, those are usually stories about men. Because of that discrepancy, Bergman wants young women like her daughters to hear Davison’s story.
“It’s a lot about allowing yourself to dream big, allowing yourself to work hard and sacrifice in order to attain a goal that is outside of traditional boundaries,” Bergman said. “I just love the thought of other young women watching what has come before them so they don’t take progress for granted.”
Despite that progress, Davison noted how much work is still needed. She said many aspects of mountain biking were designed for and by men and that to be a woman in the sport is “an uphill battle” — literally and figuratively. Davison hopes the documentary will start discussions about improving accessibility and support systems for women in the field of mountain biking, as well as inspire young athletes from underrepresented communities to keep pedaling.
Above all, Bergman said she wants young women to see that it’s possible to change a sport from within, as Davison has.
At a time when the LGBTQ+ community is “getting attacked left and right,” Davison added, it’s especially important to emphasize stories of success.
“You can’t be what you can’t see,” she said, “and right now seeing a gay Olympian who is married and has a kid and is thriving in life is a really important narrative.”
Watch the full film at vimeo.com/921885882.
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