From Cortina to Childhood: What Training, Freedom, and Fairness Taught Me

By Suzanne Rampe

Suzanne Littrell

While sitting in a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, watching the Olympics, I find myself unexpectedly emotional. The Games are being held in Cortina, Italy — the very place where, 35 years ago, I filmed Cliffhanger in those breathtaking Dolomite mountains.

The mountains are beautiful. But they are also honest. They do not bend. They do not soften. They demand respect.

Years after my competitive athletic career, I stood in those same mountains as a stunt double for Janine Turner alongside Sylvester Stallone. The training was relentless, weight work, hill sprints, the weight room, staying lean enough to match the frame and movements of Jeanine.

Danny, Stallone’s trainer, was training me as well. Every rep mattered. Every ounce mattered. Discipline was not optional.

I once told Danny that Stallone looked like Michelangelo’s David. I was mortified when I learned Danny told him. But Danny said he wanted Sly to know that his hard work was showing. That physique wasn’t accidental. It was biology shaped by discipline.

And biology matters.

Standing in those mountains — even now in memory — I am reminded that the body has structure. It has strengths. It has limits. Those truths do not change because we wish them to.

Watching the Olympics set in Cortina brings it full circle. Before Hollywood, I had Olympic dreams.

Growing up, sport was not an activity. It was oxygen. I woke at 6 a.m. to ice-cold water. I ran soft sand, alternating deep squat jumps and sprints. I climbed dunes to build power. I trained in the pool until my feet were raw. Five-hour gym sessions were routine. Then running on the track. Then weights. Then school.

I was often the smallest competitor. That meant I had to outwork everyone. I learned early that effort could compensate for size, but only to a point. Biology sets a framework. Discipline works within it.

Sports shaped my character. They shaped my understanding of fairness.

The Road Not Taken

As a junior at USC, I was invited to join an Olympic handball team after a single practice and I would have started. I didn’t pursue it. Not because I couldn’t. Because it didn’t feel earned. I had already poured years into disciplined training, but in other sports. With handball, I walked in, practiced once, and was handed an opportunity others had trained years for. It would have been ego, not heart. A feather in my hat instead of something forged slowly, painfully, honestly.

At the time, I was just beginning my stunt career. I was still in college, searching for the right trainer, someone who would build skill properly, step by step. I found that mentor shortly after college ended. Stunts required growth, humility, repetition, progression. You did not skip the climb. Handball felt like stepping into the reward without walking the road.

That has never been who I am.

And that belief — that achievement must be earned — shapes how I think about women’s sports today.

Women’s Sports and the Structure of Reality

Women’s athletic categories exist for a reason.

Male puberty produces measurable increases in muscle mass, bone density, hemoglobin levels, lung capacity, limb length, and cardiac output. These differences influence speed, strength, and endurance.

Research indicates that some advantages developed during male puberty may persist even after hormone therapy.¹ Reviews of muscle mass and strength retention note that certain structural differences are not fully reversed.² Surveys of elite female athletes show many express concerns about preserving fairness in women’s categories when biological differences are present.³

This is not about dignity. Adults deserve respect.

But sport is not structured around identity. It is structured around physiology.

Female categories were created to offset average male biological advantage. If that distinction is erased, the purpose of women’s sport shifts.

A Tomboy in Corduroy

When I was 4 years of age, I was the epitome of a tomboy.

Dresses restricted movement. Skirts flew up when you climbed. Dress shoes were useless if you wanted to run. I lived in corduroy jeans and T-shirts, not delicate, not frilly. I wanted my hair short. It was easier. Practical. I was a creature of motion.

I wore out my sneakers every six months. I would go through two pairs of Vans deck shoes in that time. That astonishes me now. Today I barely scuff the bottom of my shoes. But back then, I ran everywhere. Climbed everything. Jumped off anything.

For about four years, people assumed I was a boy. They called me “sonny.” I remember being at restaurants and hearing, “sonny, what would you like?” At first, I corrected them. “I’m a girl.” But after a while, I simply answered back. It didn’t change who I was. It didn’t confuse me. It was just how others perceived a child who didn’t fit their expectations.

My father was a military police officer and a Golden Gloves boxer — strong, traditionally masculine. I was his only child. And I was accepted exactly as I was.

There was no panic.

No labeling.

No rush to define me.

I was simply a girl who loved to move.

And that freedom mattered.

I wasn’t confused.

I was growing.

I needed patience, not intervention. Time, not labels.

The Haircut That Brought Me Back

Years later, when I was chosen to be Janine Turner’s stunt double, something unexpected happened.

Janine’s hair was short brown, practical, strong. At the time, I was also doubling Meg Ryan, whose hair was longer and blonde. My stylist had worked hard to create that beautiful blonde shade to match Meg’s. When I told her I needed to cut it short and take it back to brown for Janine, she hesitated. She was almost afraid to make such a drastic change.

But I wasn’t.

I was excited.

For the first time in years, I had a reason to cut my hair short again. Or was it really drastic? My most freeing time had been that seven-year-old girl with short hair, running in corduroy jeans, unconcerned with how she was perceived.

While the hairdresser panicked over the change, I felt joy.

It didn’t feel like losing something.

It felt like coming home. And here’s the truth — I love being a blonde with long hair. It suits me. But sometimes I still want to cut it all off and go brown again. Or maybe blonde. I like having the choice. I like that it’s expression, not definition.

My husband would probably freak out over the change and that makes me smile. Because even now, decades later, it’s still just hair. It’s still just me. It’s still freedom.

*6

Children and Caution

Recently, a New York jury awarded $2 million to a young woman who underwent a double mastectomy at age 16 and later detransitioned. The jury found malpractice, concluding that proper standards of care and informed consent were not adequately met.⁴

Minors are still developing neurologically and physically. Permanent medical interventions require mature, fully informed consent.

Chromosomes do not change. Puberty permanently reshapes skeletal and cardiovascular development.

Compassion and caution must coexist.

  *7

Coming Full Circle

As I watch the Olympics unfold in Cortina, I don’t just see medals. I see discipline. I see sacrifice. I see years, sometimes decades of relentless preparation.

Every athlete on that stage has walked a long road. Early mornings. Injuries. Doubt. Repetition. Growth. Their bodies have been shaped by biology and refined by training. Their victories are earned.

The Olympics represent the highest expression of earned excellence.

I want children to have the freedom I had, the space to grow without being rushed toward permanent conclusions.

And I want female athletes to stand on that Olympic stage knowing the field is level, that their years of discipline are measured fairly.

Excellence is built on truth.

And truth matters.

Footnotes

¹ Emma N. Hilton and Tommy R. Lundberg, “Transgender Women in the Female Category of Sport,” British Journal of Sports Medicine 55, no. 11 (2021): 577–583, https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/11/577.

² Timothy A. Roberts et al., “Muscle Mass and Strength Retention in Transgender Women,” PubMed Central, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7846503/.

³ Reuters, “Elite UK Sportswomen Survey Finds Majority Uneasy With Transgender Athletes,” March 26, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/elite-uk-sportswomen-survey-finds-majority-uneasy-with-transgender-athletes-2024-03-26/.

⁴ Furman Honick Law, “First U.S. Detransitioner Lawsuit Results in $2 Million Jury Verdict,” https://www.furmanhonick.com/first-u-s-detransitioner-lawsuit/. 5 https://www.instagram.com/p/DUjJ2Jak7kD/ 6 https://www.foxnews.com/sports/us-snowboarder-chloe-kim-stunned-south-koreas-gaon-choi-wins-silver-womens-halfpipe-olympics

Because opportunities gained should never become opportunities lost.

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