When you meet an athlete like Gaia Sabbatini, you expect discipline, focus, maybe even perfection. What you don’t expect is that the rhythm she follows is set by no one but herself.

We open the conversation on what “Not Here To Be Liked” means.
“It means breaking the rules. Thinking for yourself. Not caring too much about what others think.”

There is a spark behind those words. The kind that comes from someone who has learned to run not just forward, but inward. Because that’s what standing out really is. It’s not about shining brighter than everyone else. It’s about knowing who you are when no one is watching.

Her story begins in the spaces between expectation and self. The first time she felt out of place, she told us, at her very first Diamond League, she was new. Just a “novellina” among giants. She was supposed to feel intimidated. But it’s hidden in moments like this, the realization that being “the new one” isn’t a weakness, but a space where authenticity could breathe, finally, and grow.

Running has always been Gaia’s language. From the moment she could remember, it was how she expressed herself, how she shaped herself into something larger than the anxieties of youth. She remembers being a little girl, consumed at times by low self-esteem, doing things to be accepted, to fit in. Now, she runs to be free. She runs for herself. That is the real freedom.

She wrote it in her diary when she was eleven. Her biggest dream: become a professional athlete. Run at the 2020 Olympics. Make it real.
She did. Postponed by a pandemic, moved to 2021. But nothing stopped her.

She carries this mindset beyond the track. To anyone who feels “not enough,” she offers the advice she lives by: be yourself. Follow your values. Build your own standards. The world may not understand. It may not approve. But your truth doesn’t need validation.

When she speaks about rebellion, she doesn’t talk about chaos. She talks about staying on her own path, even when it’s lonelier. About saying what she thinks, even when it’s not liked.
“I used to care a lot”, she admits. “Now I just go my way.”

Maybe that’s what greatness looks like. Not noise. Not validation. Just the quiet certainty of someone who moves with purpose, not permission.

Today, she is on her track, right in front of us. Nike Shox Z on her feet, springing with every strike, carrying her forward with intention. Every step is deliberate. Every stride refuses to blend in.

We’ve listened to Gaia. Her quiet rebellion, her refusal to compromise, her freedom. Now we see it moving with her, beneath her feet. Nike Shox Z embodies that same pulse: unapologetic, bold, impossible to ignore. Like Gaia, they carve their own path. They just keep moving.

They are not here to fit in.
Not here for approval.
Not here to be liked.