Lowvelder Alicia Bullen continues her pursuit of brilliance

Alicia Bullen is a born-and-raised Lowvelder and over the years has never rested on her laurels, consistently proving that anything she touches turns to gold.

When someone is referred to as an athlete, one can usually pinpoint a singular sports code in which this person excels. You can therefore label them a netball or tennis player, a sprinter, a long-distance runner, an obstacle course racer, a Crossfit athlete or whatever their code demands.

However, in the case of the 37-year-old Bullen, all of these labels can be applied, depending on what phase of her life you choose to isolate. Having been born in Waterval Boven (now Emgwenya), Bullen lived on her family’s farm in Badfontein for the duration of her childhood. She initially attended Klipspruit School, a small farm school where a mere 50 children made up the pupil tally.

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But sport was in her blood and she took to any form of physical activity like a duck to water, with the first bug to bite being cross-country.

Although still attending Klipspruit, Bullen would represent Laerskool Lydenburg at times too. When the time came to choose a high school, the decision was made to head off to Hoërskool Ermelo, where Bullen continued to flourish.

Throughout primary and high school, Bullen represented Mpumalanga in various sporting codes and athletics disciplines, never pinning herself down to anything in particular. She also competed in the 2004 SA Games, representing Mpumalanga in athletics.

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Having dreamt of becoming an Olympian all her life, upon matriculating in 2005, Bullen abandoned this idea and opted for a career in entertainment instead. She dabbled in modelling and acting, on her way to obtaining a BA in live performance from the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance in 2009.

Thereafter, Bullen ventured behind the camera instead and found success as one of South Africa’s very first rugby YouTube vloggers through her channel, RuggaChick. She found great success in this, working with many high-profile clients, including SA Rugby.

But in 2015, her life would take a turn for the worst as her parents suffered a brutal attack on their family farm.

This meant Bullen traded her life in the city to move back to the farm to be with her parents. Over the next few years, Bullen would get back into the sporty side of things again after she helped her mum get back into running.

But she wanted to do more, and so got involved in obstacle course racing, completing her first Warrior Race in 2018. From there, the athletics and fitness bug really bit again. She took the Warrior world by storm, quickly becoming one of the best around thanks to her immense work ethic.

With a host of race and category wins to her name, Bullen decided to venture out once more, taking on Crossfit and eventually dipping her toe into the fitness challenge discipline. This falls under the banner of the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation (IFBB), and now, living in Mbombela as of 2022, Bullen is excelling in this once again.

Having completed her first fitness challenge event in May 2023, Bullen has since earned medals at provincial, national and even global level. The pinnacle of her achievements was a third in the female masters category at the 2023 IFBB World Championships – Fitness Challenge in Spain.

A year later and Bullen is preparing to once again take on the world stage, having triumphed once more at the IFBB SA Championships in August. Currently ranked 10th in the world, she will be heading to Spain for the world championships at the end of October.

But while this is her focus as a professional athlete, Bullen is also juggling being an influencer and ambassador for various races and charity organisations. This just goes to show that Bullen is never quite satisfied, and is someone who is consistently in pursuit of a new challenge in which she can excel.

One day, when she feels it is time to hang up her boots, Bullen hopes to venture into coaching the next generation of athletes too.