Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 373. Scoring Goals & Taking Names: Lynn Biyendolo On When To Take Advice, How To Be A Good Teammate & Olympic Dreams Come True

Transcript

373. Scoring Goals & Taking Names: Lynn Biyendolo On When To Take Advice, How To Be A Good Teammate & Olympic Dreams Come True · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I still have a lot to learn, but I have
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: a lot to give, and I'm not going to be
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: able to play soccer forever. And it would be a
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: shame if I just left the game and just took
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: all the knowledge right I had and didn't share it.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: What's going on, everyone, Emily A Badi.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Here You are listening to episode three seventy three of Hurdle,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: a wellness focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: about everything from their highest tides and toughest moments to
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: essential tips on how to live a healthier, happier, more
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: motivated life.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: We all go through our fair share of hurdles.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: My goal through these discussions is to empower you to
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: better navigate yours and move with intention so that you
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: can stride towards your own big potential and of course
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: have some fun along the way. Today I am I'm excited, amped,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: geeked to bring you my conversation with Lynn Biandolo. Originally
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: coming onto the soccer scene as Lynn Williams. Lynn is
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: a forward for the Seattle Range. She's also the National
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Woman Soccer League's all time leading scorer.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Seriously, I hate, I.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Don't love the term fangirl, but that's really how I
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: walked into this conversation with Lynn. We kick things off
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: joking about her new YouTube project with her husband Marley
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: and what it was like picking up and moving to
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Seattle to start a new chapter with the Rain. Of course,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: we dive into her backstory, talking about playing at Pepperdine
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: and the lessons that she's learned along the way as
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: both the league and Lynn have evolved. We dive into
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: what it was like to go from alternate to roster
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: for both of the past Olympic Games, and of course
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: detailed the epic noss that was the win in Paris,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: something that I was absolute slutely geeked to be there
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: for on the ground.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So many good takeaways in this episode.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: If there's anything you can expect from Lynn, it's laughs
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: and of course a whole lot of grit. Make sure
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: you're following along over on social It's at Hurdle Podcast.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I am over at Emily a body.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: For all of you that are keeping up with my
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: travels in Tokyo, I appreciate you. It has been one
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: hell of a time out here cheering on all of
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: the team USA athletes as they take on the World
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Athletics championships, and honestly, I'm just in my feels watching
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: so many stellar humans chase their own potential.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I'm motivated, and.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: I hope that you are too today listening to this.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: With that, let's get to it, let's get it's a hurdling.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Lynn Biandolo. She's the NWSL's
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: all time leading scorer, a forward for the Seattle Rain,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: a two time Olympian. Lynn, Welcome to hurdle. How are
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: we Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing well.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited to have you here. I'm good. I'm good.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I'm better now that we're here together. And I have
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: a confession for you in that I am a fan
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: of this is cooked.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, thank you so much, first and foremost,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: but what a wild ride that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Is going to be so for those that are not
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: of my level of fandom.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Lynn has a relatively new cooking show with her husband Marley,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: and it's pretty good.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: We started it back in like twenty eighteen, and then
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: he was in Australia, I was here and we were like,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: we can't obviously do it by continentally, and so we
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: started to do the show on TikTok and we're like,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: well we should take it to YouTube, and so far
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: we've gotten really good reviews. But it's crazy it's Cozzy
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: in there.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Is YouTube like so much different than the other platforms
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that you're used to.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's well, first of all, he does
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: like all the tech stuff, so I just show up
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and do it and come up with like what we're
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: gonna cook and he does everything else. But I think
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: it's just like a way to get like long form
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: videos out there, and with TikTok, they're just such a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: small snippet that people aren't seeing actually what's going on
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: This is just a way for them to do that.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: So it's everyone needs a passion project, right, Yeah, exactly exactly.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: We can't be like just working all the time.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And I enjoy it, Like we don't really cook together
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: that often except for that one moment in the week, and.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Every time I'm like, why are we like this? Why
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: are we like this?
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Well? I always start off the show by level setting
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: and expectation.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: How are you doing really today? Lynn?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm good, I'm a little tired, not gonna lie.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: We just had a game last night and we tied,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: but we should have won, so a little disappointing.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: But other than that, I mean, life's good.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: The sun is out, I'm breathing, you can't really can fly,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and I play soccer for a living.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: You know, like, I'm fine, Everything is fine. How are
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: we liking this shift to Seattle? I love it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I honestly wasn't expecting it to like it so much.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know why.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: When I like thought about Seattle as a place, like
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the only thought I had was like people love hiking
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: or downtown and coming from like the New York, New
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Jersey area, the downtown here is like not as robust
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and thriving. But no, then I got here love it. It's
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it's amazing. The summertime has been amazing. Maybe I'm like
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a little naive. I haven't really spent a whole winter here,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: so come talk to me later about that. But you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the team is awesome, the girls have been amazing, and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I'm really close to my family, So the kind has
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: ticked all the boxes that anybody could want.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm sure that Megan gave you some tips
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: some things to do in Seattle.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Honestly, no like she's she she she was great of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: like where I should live, but other than that, she's like, yeah,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: just like figure it out.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: And you're like, okay, thanks, I will.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate what you said. You were like, life
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: can't be that bad. I play soccer for a living.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: When you say sentences like that, now, is this what
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: you always foresaw yourself doing when you got to this
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: point in your life?
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: No, well, I think that it's I mean, it's hard
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: because when I was growing up, first of all, I
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: ran track and played soccer.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I knew that I was like an active person.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I wanted to play sports, but at the same time,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: there wasn't like a professional soccer league, so it was
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: like national team or bust. And I really wanted to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: be on the national team, but I also like wasn't
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: really getting recruited to play soccer. The only team that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: wanted me was Pepperdine, and I love Pepperdine, but it's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: not It's like a mid major school when it comes
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to soccer, and they do well for the type of
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: team that it is, but it wasn't It's not like
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: your UNC R, UCLA at the time, Stanford, all those
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: big schools, so I was like, well, what am I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: going to do? And then I got to the league,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and now that the league has like taken off, I like,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: look at my life and me and my husband all
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the time, we like pinch yourselves.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I can't believe this is my life. I
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: can't believe this is what I'm doing.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: So fun to be able to do it not only
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: and follow your passions, but then also make such lasting
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: special relationships within the sport. Teamwork being such a major
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: cornerstone of what you get to enjoy as a player.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: In the end of USL, what would you say from
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: the get go surprised you about getting into the league?
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Well, the league now that we're in is a very
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: different league than when I first started. I think that
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: what really surprised me is you expect to go to
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the professional level and it's going to be like this
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: jump or this hurdle in all areas of professionalism, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: it really wasn't.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: At the time.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: The locker room wasn't great, the training staff wasn't great.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I washed all my clothes and as like a rookie,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: we washed everybody's close. The travel, like everything across the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: board was like subpar. And on top of that, like
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I think my first contract, I was making like twelve
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year. So I just remember being like,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I really can't live off of this, and I relied
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: on my family a lot. And so I think that
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: that was the biggest hurdle first and foremost. And also
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: like the biggest shock is that I was like, I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: want to be on the national team. I want to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: have all these like dreams and goals and meet them,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and I want to be this amazing professional soccer player.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: And they were asking you to do this on like
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: such a small salary, and the conditions weren't great either, and.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: So it was like, well, how are we supposed to
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: do both?
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: So were there moments early on that you were literally
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: debating like, even though I have this deep passion for
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: this sport and this dream of what could happen for me,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: is it actually feasible?
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Oh one hundred percent?
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I think that I also on top of that, like
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I was in Western New York, I was as the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: country for my family.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: This is naive, Lynn.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: When I first got drafted to New York, I was like,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I'm going to the big city and it was in
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Buffalo and when I got there, I was like, I've
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: never seen so much snow on the ground in my life,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: and so I think I cried on the phone to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: my mom like once a week, being like I can't
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: do this. I don't know if this is for me.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: There was also some like our team wasn't very good.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: There were some like issues within the locker room and
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: with the coach and all of that kind of stuff,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and so I was like, this isn't what I signed
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: up for.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: I didn't this isn't what I thought I was getting
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: myself into.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: And I think that I was really lucky to at
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the time be amongst players that kind of had the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: same mindset as me and the same age. You know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I got drafted with Abby dal kepra Sam Muis, Jalen Hinkle,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Kristin Hamilton, and so all of us had the same
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: dreams and goals, but we're also going through all.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: The same stuff and we were like, this isn't good enough.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And I think that that group of of women now
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: kind of tried to push and be like, how do
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: we make this better?
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Do you remember when or where the turning point was? Yeah?
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: We okay.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: So I remember at the time they used to do
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: end of season surveys, and all of us in our
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: in our survey, I think wrote the same thing down
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of like this isn't good enough.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Something needs to change. Blah blah blah blah. Who knows?
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: That just feels like a lifetime ago.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: And then that next year we had a new coach
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and we also had new players coming in and it
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: was kind of like a mosh posh of outcast players
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: that came together that like weren't having a lot of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: success or fun in their previous clubs or on their
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: previous teams and kind of came together and we're like, well,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: this is it. Like, look, let's look around. We're all
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: in Buffalo. If we want to have a better season
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: we did last year and have more fun, something's got
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to change. And so we had a new coach and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: we kind of like bought into this idea that the
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: coach wanted us to do, and we ended up going
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: on and winning the championship and we had no business
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: doing that, but it was kind of just like we
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: got back to loving soccer and enjoying going to work,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: even though like the conditions still weren't great. It was
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: it was just like we have to make the best
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: or the most of the situation we have. Yeah, and
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: then also like at the time, there was this host
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: family in Western New York, the Maloys, and they had
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: five little girls, and one of our teammates lived with them,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and they kind of just like took us in as well,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and it was like a little home away from home
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: where you could go and get a home cooked meal,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: you could play with the kids and really feel like
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: you're like living life and not just like a soccer
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: player all the time.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And I think that that was the first time of like,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: oh we can have like we can do both.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: We can like be a soccer player and you could
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: have a life outside and everything can be good. You know.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: It's so interesting.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: I've heard of like host families abroad, but I don't
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: know if I realized that that was something that players
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: did domestically.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: When the league first started, it was like you had
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: a couple of options. You either had shared housing a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: host family, or a couple of players had team housing
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: that the league and the team paid for.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: But that was like a select few. Yeah, that's wild,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that's absolutely I know.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure like this is rare, but like Jess
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Fishlock still lives with her host family from like thirteen
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: years ago, So it's.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: That is so rare, I mean, and I feel like
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: that's definitely not something really that you hear of much
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: more like talk about how far things have gone.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: No, definitely, I mean, I think that was my choice
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: now with her, she like loves them and their house
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: is beautiful, but why not?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: This league is very different than the league that I
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: first started in, which is a good thing. It is
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: a good thing. It is a good thing, and it's
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: so interesting to me.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: I think a really good point that you made is
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: like you all consciously made the decision.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: You were like, what is within our power to make
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: this better?
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: And I think that oftentimes, when you're going through a
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: challenging situation or a hurdle, you can get kind of
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: wrapped up in your circumstance. You can get frustrated, you
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: can embody, maybe unintentionally, this victim mindset, right, And so
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: until you can get to this place where you're like,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: what can I take ownership out of here, that's when
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: things are really going to change.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Oh one hundred percent.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that, Like, obviously you need to be
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: able to reflect and say, like, what is something that
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: is like my own issue that I need to work on,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: or what is like a larger issue that every single
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: person is going through.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, like what can
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I control? I can't.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I can't harp on for example, like if there's a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: coach that I don't like, I can't just harp on that.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: It's like can I can I change that situation?
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Probably not? But what can I change?
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And that was something that we did in Western New
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: York at the time, Like there were some things that
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: we were like this just isn't good enough, and what
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: can we do as young twenty one year old twenty
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: two year olds that don't really know anything just yet
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and what this league is about just yet?
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: How can we try to implement change? And at that time,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: like the league was.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Only it had only been two years old, and so
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: it was kind of ground up. It's like, if we
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: want to change things, we have to do it right
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: now when it's starting. Then things to get worse and
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: worse and worse, and then five years down the road
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: is going to be harder to change.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: I know that Typically speaking athletes, when they're young in
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: their career, they're really dialed in on the physical, the
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: performance side of things. When would you say, in your
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: professional career you started to really have a good understanding
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: that the mental really is just as important.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great question.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I think that after twenty nineteen I really started to
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: take it seriously. So by that time, I was playing
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: in North Carolina, and I was in and out of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the national team, and I was trying to make the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: World Cup roster. But I was failing miserably at it
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: just because I want it so bad. I describe it
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: as like when you're holding the bar soap so tightly
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: that it like slips from your grass.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: And that's how I felt with the World Cup.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted it so badly that I was holding on
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: so tight that I wasn't even playing like myself. I
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: wasn't being my personality. I wasn't being myself on the field.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I was afraid to make a mistake, and then in turn,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: I made all of the mistakes, and so I realized, like, Okay,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I can't do that again.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: That was horrible.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Go back play with my club team and thought, well,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I need to do something to change, And I went
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: to Australia played soccer there for a bit, and I
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: got called back into the national team after being out
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: for like I think it was like almost a whole year,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and then it was time to like go for the Olympics.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: This is right before COVID hit and I could see
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: myself doing it again and I was like, oh my gosh,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I want this Olympic so bad, and I was like
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: holding on again so tightly, And in that moment, I said,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: you know what, when you need to get a sports
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: psyche because I could. I was like recognizing this pattern
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in myself and it was probably the best thing I
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: ever did for my career.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really impressive, this moment where you're like, okay, again,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: it's up to me to make a change, and how
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: I talk to myself here matters, and also being to
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: being able to identify like, hey, this really isn't working
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: That's super impressive. Oh thank you.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that like when when you're a professional athlete,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you're like super self critical anyways, Like we're getting feedback
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: all the time from whatever your coaches online, how you perform,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and so we're again being self critical on ourselves. And
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I think in those moments is when I realized, like Okay,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: let me reflect, let me watch film on myself, what
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is going on? And again I was like, I'm this
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: is a pattern. This isn't like a one off. I
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: just experienced this a year ago. So how do I
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: get myself out of this? I clearly can't do it
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: by myself.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: On the topic of feedback, would you say, now you're
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: at a place where you know, like what feedback is
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: helpful feedback versus like maybe how to let unsolicited feedback go?
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean early on in my career, I think.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, especially with social media now it's like crazy.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: You have a good game, you get on there and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: you like scroll and you're like, what is everybody saying
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: about me? And you have a bad game and you're like,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: what is everybody saying about me? Like I and and
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: it's almost like this addictive thing that's happening. Now, I'm like,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: not on social media at all until I have to be,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and I don't.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I don't go into the comments. Look like, you could
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: be the best person.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: For example, you could give a million dollars to like
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: cancer research, and somebody's gonna come out and say, well,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: why aren't you giving to MS research?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: And you're like sorry, Like there's.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: You're never gonna please everybody and you're gonna have people
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: who like you as well. And so I found that
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: you can't get your validation from people online of if
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: they hate you or if they like you. Like it's
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: it's dangerous both ways. I think I learned that a
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: while ago as well. It's just it's like a toxic environment.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: So if I'm not coming to you for advice, like
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I don't care what you have to say, and that
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: sounds and that sounds like harsh, but it's the truth.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: I think that's brilliant. Yeah, It's something that I really
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: try to keep like.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: In the back of my mind as well.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I remember that I had Tunday oion A and on
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: the show a while back, and she said to me
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: that when she first got onto the Peloton platform, it
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: was so hard for her because so many people had
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: an opinion. And a colleague of her said to her,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: would you ever go on someone's social media page and
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: say something nasty? And Tunday was like, absolutely not, and
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: she was like, then why would you ever take someone
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: seriously that would do that to you?
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And I'm like, I'm imagine nobody would ever
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: come up to me in person and say that either.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And so that's like hiding behind a keyboard, hide behind
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: your phone, and it's like easy to say it when
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: you don't have that personal connection. And then obviously there's
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: like lovely messages too, which don't get me wrong, I
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: love them and I think they're amazing, and I like
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: try to show like that I love that and that
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I love like fans and coming out when I see
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: them in person. But like again, I can't get my
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: validation from that, Like you have to get that from within.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing about sports is like you can't
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: get too high and you can't get too low. You
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: just have to stay in this middle ground. And that's
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: like part of it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Too, staying neutral. Babies.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: So you talked about working with that sports psychologist or
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: seeking out a sports psychologist to really get your mind right.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: What did you notice changed for you when you started
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: consciously working on your mind.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Oh? Everything.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I think like the way that I was approaching the game,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: being able to like just do breath work of just
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: when we get up tight, our shoulders get high, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: then we perceive that we're tired when we're not actually tired.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: It's because our heart is racing and our everything is
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: going on, So being able to like take a deep breath,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: being able to like visualize what is going on or
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: what I envision myself doing. So it's not the first
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: time I'm seeing it when I'm out there and then
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: going down like if I'm having a really big spiral,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: going down the whole spiral path of well what if
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: that happens?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, and then what if that happens?
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And then what if and then you get down to
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the very end and you're like, well, what's what was
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the biggest or the worst thing they possibly happened. And
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, the first thing that possibly happened is
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: you get cut from the team and then you're done
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: playing soccer and you're like, well, your life's not over.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Like that's what suck, but you'll figure it out, you
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, like entirely. So I think that
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: that was part of it. It's like, take me down
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: to like deepest fears in this moment, and I realized
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: that they weren't that deep, and so so that was
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: like an ability to like let go and just perform
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and just play and love the game. And I'm really happy.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I got back to that moment because yes, it's a job,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and yes it's stressful and you feel like the weight
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of the world is on you. But when you like
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: look up and actually like look at it as a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: whole picture, it's you're fine.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: We're all fine.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're fine. Every real's fine. It's not the world ending.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: No, I totally relate to you on that, like allow
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: yourself to go through the spiral, because yes, that's scary,
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: but also you get to this point where you realize
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: that this quote unquote worst case scenario that you've been
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: building up in your head really isn't going to be
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: the worst thing that could ever happen to you.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And again, like I kept saying to myself too, like
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm I'm gonna fail in front of
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the world, like everybody's gonna.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Talk about it, blah blah blah blah blah.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: And then I had to kind of remind myself of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: like Lynn, you were cut from the national team for
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: a year, anyways, you were fine.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Also, it was like a spotlight effect.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: People talked about it for like maybe point five seconds,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: and then nobody cared, like you care about your career
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: way more than anybody else, So like, relax, girl.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: But it's entirely understandable because it's your career and you're
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: putting so much time and energy into.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: It, oh d percent, And I'm not saying my feelings
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: aren't valid and anybody else going through that their feelings
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: aren't valid, and it's like real emotion.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Where are you then when you learn that you made
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: your first Olympic team.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I, first of all, it's so funny because I'm
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: like two for two and Olympic alternates turned to Olympian
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: turned medalists, which is like crazy.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: But I remembered that I was told that I was.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Going to be an alternate, and I was obviously like
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: disappointed in the moment, but then I was really proud
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of myself because again I recognized that I was like
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: spiraling and the last couple of camps that leading up
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: to Olympics, like I was in the camps, but I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: didn't play a single minute. So I was like, there's
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: no way I'm making this Olympic roster. And you start
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: like counting numbers right like you're like there's going to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: be six defenders, There's going to be six forwards, there's
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: gonna be five midfielders, and then you start like going
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and you're like which one am I what is player for?
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: And start freaking yourself out a bit. And I was like,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not stubbing into games. And then the very last
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: before the roster is going to be announced, I wasn't
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: supposed to go in, and then all of a sudden,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: vlack coat goes Linn go in the game and I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: didn't even warm up yet, and there was like three
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: minutes left, and I said to myself, well, when you're
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: going to have to show all that you can in
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: these three minutes. And I remember defending hard, getting a ball,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: laying it off, scoring a goal when I was like,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: that's all I got? Like, I scored a goal quickly,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I defended as hard as I could, I kept the
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: ball whatever. And so when I was told I was
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: an alternate, I was proud because I had gotten myself
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: out of this like rut that I had been in
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: for months, and I think I switched it around within
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: like a month too, was the month amount of time
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I was spending with my sports sy like, and so
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, here we go, Like I'm proud
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and then I had heard whispers around that like, no,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you need to be ready because they might be opening
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: up this roster. And then that kind of went into
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: a different mindset of Okay.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Well, here we go, taking a break from today's episode
• 24:09
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• 26:51
  Speaker 3: com slash hurdle today. Are you someone that really believes
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: at all in like manifestation or I know we talked
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: about how you were working on visualization and so it's
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: not the first time you experienced it when you're in
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: the game, But were you doing any of that before
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: this happened?
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Not really.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't consider myself like a manifestation. I am more
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: of like positive energy attracts positivity and negative energy attracts negativity.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: That's like how I live my life.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: So if you want to call that manifesting, sure, but
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I'm just more like be positive and positive things will happen.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, and I think that's so important.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Energy Energy attracts like energy, right, So if you're willing
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: to put that goodness into the world, then you can
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: hope that goodness will find you again. So you go
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: to your first Olympics, you make that team, you get
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: your bronze medal. I want to talk to you about
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: how you feel navigating What was an outcome that was
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: exciting but probably.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Not what you had hoped for?
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, one hundred percent. Look, the Tokyo Olympics was hard,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: like for a plthor of reasons that we had no fans,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Tokyo was locked down, we weren't able to go outside.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: We had to eat meals with the same three people
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: every single day there, and so when you're trying to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: like connect as a team, it's really hard to do
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: that when you can't really connect with the whole team.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: On top of that, we got rocked our very first
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: game against Sweden. Tactical adjustments were happening, like everybody kind
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: of had like a different idea of how to be
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: successful in that moment, and.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: It was like a very hard situation to be in.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And mind you, at the same time, now the roster
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: is open and before that people. People normally had their
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: spot solidified and everybody was making the roster, and now
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: it was you have to leave four people off the
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: roster every single game, which it was is a new
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: added element to the Olympics and how it had run previously.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I think that our team really had a hard time
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: navigating all of those situations. And at the end of
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the day, I think that we should honestly be really
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: happy for getting our bronze slash Rose gold medal and
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: being able to put some performances together and get a medal.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: And obviously we're always driving for gold, and I think
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: that our expectation is gold. The world's expectation of us
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: is gold. But to have a bronze medal is also
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: a really incredible achievement. And if we were any other country,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: people would say that's a really incredible achievement.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, you mentioned that valuable word here, the word team.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: What do you think are some of the habits or
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: maybe the daily occurrences that have the biggest impact on
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: a team's culture.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think being able.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: To connect with each other. Look, you're a team of
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: twenty eight women. Let's say not everybody is gonna connect
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: with each other the same and sometimes you'll have band
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: like some disagreements and that's fine. But the ability to
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: truly try to understand each other off the field and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: what makes people tick, I think leads to stuff on
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the field as well. How do people like to be
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: talked to? How do people like to receive information? How
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: do people like to give information? You're going into like
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: battle quote unquote with each other every single day. So
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: if if I feel like you have my back, I'm
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: going to have your back as well. And I think
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: that that starts off the field of like trying to
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: connect with your teammates, trying to see what makes everybody tick,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and that translates on and so I think like that's
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the biggest bit of being a teammate, is actually putting
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the team before yourself.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: And is the coaching staff the ones that like facilitate
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: like basically communication work between the women off the field.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: I like hate when we have four force team building,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Like I hate that, but I think that like at
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the very beginning of the year, especially as as our
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: season has gone on and gotten longer, we we do
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: have like a bit of forced team building when we
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: go to pre season because we're with each other all
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the time, Like most teams go off somewhere, so then
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: you're you're in a hotel with each other or you're
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: doing whatever, so you have all your meals together and
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: it is like a little bit of force family fun,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: which is fine.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: But as the season goes on, you just naturally.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Are gonna start to, like one gravitate towards people, but
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: also get to know each other. Like you are spending
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: so much time with each other at training, but you're
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: also going when you go on away trips, you're like
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: in the hotels again, you're eating every meal together. Like
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: you don't really have to do that after a while
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: because it's it's just naturally occurring.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: So obviously communication is super important, and when you don't
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: have that, that can bring about a fair amount of challenges.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: When you look back on your professional career thus far,
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: what would you say has been one of the biggest
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: challenges that you faced as a player.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: That's a good question. I mean, injuries have been big challenges.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Those obviously sideline you and you're like away from the
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: team and you want to be a part of the team,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: but you're off on the side and you're not getting
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: to do what you love. And I honestly think the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: people that are doing rehab are probably working harder than
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the people that are healthy just to try to get back.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: So I would say that that has been a big hurdle.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: And then, like I said, getting cut from teams and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: then having to show up still with your club team
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and put your personal failures quote unquote what you find
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: as a failure to the side for the betterment of
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the team. And I think that that's like selfless and
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: it's hard to do, but it has to be done
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: if you.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Want to have a successful outcome.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: What does the inner dialogue look like for you after
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: get cut from a team? How do you now, with
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: the experience that you've had with your sports psychologists. I'm
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: sure that's helped so much flip the script so that
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: you can then be a little bit more selfless and
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: show up where you're needed.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that you have to start to like
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: reevaluate what your goals are first and foremost. I think
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: that like for myself, I have been fortunate to be
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: like very successful in my club career and wanted and
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: need it there and in my national team career have
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: been cut a couple of times, and so in my
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: mind I have said, Okay, do you want to be
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: back on the national team or do you not want
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: to be on the nation team? And it's always been
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: I want to be back there, and so how do
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I get back there? It's going back to my club
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: team and showing up there. If I just sit down
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and accept my faith and crumble, it's only hurting me.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: It's not hurting anybody else. It's only going to hurt
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: my career. And so that's how I've done it, and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: it's fun. Things is one my club team needs me.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I have shown that they're counting on me. And two, like,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to show up for myself as well.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: And that has been a really good mindset for me personally.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: It's so impressive to be able to take that step
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: back and say, okay, this is again what is within
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: my control right now? Fast forward getting ready for the
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Paris Olympics. Would you say that there's a vibe that
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: were coming in it's gold or bust?
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Well, definitely, yeah, I think.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Well, after the World Cup, so we had two back
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to back games that were not what we expected. The Olympics,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: obviously we got bronze, and then with the World Cup,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: we got out in the round of sixteen and that
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: was like a huge crush to us because we had
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: not been playing well either, and so going into the Olympics,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: it was like, we need to change something. We need
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to be the US, we need to be the United
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: States women's national team. But personally going into that, like
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I was coming off of an injury. I wasn't in
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the last camp before the roster was named. I went
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: out on a limb and called Emma and was like,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: I know I'm injured now, but don't count me out.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: And I was then named an alternate again. So my
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: like mindset going in was much different than the teams
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: originally until I was named to the full.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Roster and so getting named to the roster and being
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: able to play in Paris, I mean I was there
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: for that final match in the stadium and it was
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: one of my top witness sports moments of all time.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Bring me to what that was like for you? Oh,
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: it was incredible.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: You know. It's like that was the dream moment that
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: you like dream of when you say, like I want
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to go to the Olympics, and the stadium was amazing.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: The crowd was awesome.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Mal scoring that goal and having everybody just like erupt
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: in crazy was awesome. And then being able to like
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: be on the field when the whistle blue.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: You know, Brazil's a really.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Tough team to play against and you never know what's
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: going to happen, like they were fighting to the last minute,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and so to be able to be on that field
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: with the whistle blue knowing we won, like I didn't
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: even know what to do. I just jumped on Lindsey,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Like words can't describe the feeling, but I know it's
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: like a feeling I'll just like cherish and have for
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: a lifetime.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: It was such just unrivaled moment within the sport.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: And then for you as you get to celebrate that
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: in Paris and come home, is there a come down period?
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah?
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: First of all, like partied really hard at the night
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: of the championship game, and then me and my husband
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: went to MAYERCA for like four days to just like relax.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I think that what I've learned in my career is
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: that because our season is different than other Olympic sports,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: like we have to come back and play again, Like
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: you really need to take time yourself to allow yourself
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to debrief and like decompress, and if not, then it
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: might not catch up with you like the first week
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: or the second week. But as the weeks go on,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you're like, wow, I wish I like took a break
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: and so me and my husband went to my Erica
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: and just like kind of relaxed, and then I got
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: so sick, so sick there and.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: And it's fine, Like I knew that was going to come.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like when you like study for an
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: exam and then you like crash, and I really crashed,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: so yeah, and then I went back and played soccer.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Got got right back into this of things. Yeah, exactly.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: There's like you you take like a moment and then
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: you're like, all right, I got to get back to
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: my team again.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: When you're let's say like conventually during the season, you're
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: trying to make time for recovery and resetting.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: What does that look like for you? How do you
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: give back to Lynn?
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: It's so funny, you asked, because I have been talking
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to a younger teammate here about she has shared that
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: she's like, I feel a little bit burnt out. I
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: feel like I went from season to season all these things,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: and one thing that I have learned is one this
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: job is weird because people think, like, oh, you go
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: to training from nine point thirty to two and then
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you have the rest of the day off, and you're like, well, yes,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: technically I do, but like, I'm also recovering for the
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: next day. So like all my day is making sure
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I'm fueling, resting to be prepared for the next time
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: I go out and train. That doesn't mean that you
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: don't like also live life and see friends and all
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: that stuff. But what I do is like, if I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: made plans with a friend, I'm not canceling on them.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: So I need to like make plans with myself and
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not canceling on myself. And if there's a moment
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: where I have people calling me or people want to
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: hang out or whatever, and it's like the time that
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: I've allotted for myself, I'm like, no, this isn't this
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: is my time. And the feedback sometimes you get it's like, well,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: you're not doing anything, and you're like I am.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm being with myself. I have plans with myself.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: With me, I have plans with me, And that is
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: something that I really think I'm good at I'm like
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: an introvert, extrovert, like I love hanging out with people,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I love talking, but like I love being by myself.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: But it's important, right, And it's something that I'm sure
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: it took time for you to understand and learn and
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: like prioritize. If you don't treat these recovery moments like
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: an important meeting, then something's going to fall by the wayside.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent. Yeah. And it's so funny because like
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: when my mom.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: First would like come visit me, she'd be like, I
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: want to go on this hike or I want to
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: do that, blah blah blah.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: And I'd be like, I can't do that. I'm going
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: to sit at home.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: And she she would always be like, why are you
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: doing that? And I'm like, well, I have to I
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: have to be ready for training tomorrow. I can't just
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: go out and do all these things. But if you
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: want to come hang out with me, we can hang
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: out on the couch. I would love that.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: It's a boundary, That's what I fact is the boundary exactly.
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: You mentioned talking to a younger teammate and offering her advice. Obviously,
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: now having been in the league for a minute. You
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: are certainly looked to by many as a bit of
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: a role model or a mentor.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: What does that mean to you?
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so funny, Like you just wake up one
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: day and you're like, Wow, I've been here forever.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, I take you out with a lot of pride.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I think that when I was coming up, I had
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of questions and I wanted to look for
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: somebody to like answer those questions and help me. And
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: I want to be that person for anybody else who
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: is willing to come up and talk to me as well.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Like I think that I still have a lot to learn,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: but I have a lot to give, and I'm not
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: going to be able to play soccer forever.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: And it would be.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: A shame if I just left the game and just
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: took all the knowledge I had and didn't share it.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: What would you say, has been one of the most
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: helpful lessons that you've learned from a mentor of yours?
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I think about it's like surrounding yourself with people that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: have like minded goals and want to reach those same
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: goals and outcomes. I think that this is an interesting sport,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: especially as you get higher, like your friends on the
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: team or all the also the same people you're competing
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: against for spots, and as hard as that is, it's
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: also the same people that like they're the only people
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that know what's going on or understand the environment that
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: you're in. And so finding your core group of people
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: who you can lean on, who can put their arm
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: around you when like things are tough, but also can
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: push you when they know that you're not being your
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: best self has been the greatest advice and also has
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: been like the biggest blessing I have had coming out
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: of this for is that I have like the best
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: friends and friends that I'll have for a lifetime, no
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: matter where we are in the country or the world,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: and I like owe a lot of my success to them.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and again, that's like why soccer is so such
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: a just different level of camaraderie and being on a team, right,
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: because you not only have each other, but then just
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: all these different opportunities to come back to one another
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: throughout the calendar year.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: No, it's really cool to see the people that like
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: I grew up playing with what they're doing now because
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: most of us aren't on the same team anymore. And
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: what I find actually really cool is like here in Seattle,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: we have such a young team and I see the
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: girls that are so young kind of like bonding with
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: each other like I did when I was first coming up,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, those are going to be your best
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: friends for ever, and I'm excited for you.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: It's just it's like a cute vantage point.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: Does it feel weird for you that so many of
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: the people that you came up with in the sport are,
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: you know, moving on and graduating In some.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Way, yes, I'm like, WHOA, what am I still doing?
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: But no, I think that it's like really cool. It's
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: just like natural and it's awesome. I think it's a
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: privilege to be able to be in this league for
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: as long as I have and how and this league
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: is crazy, anything can happen, and so to be able
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: to still keep up with the twenty.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: One year old's, nineteen year old, eighteen year olds.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Now every single day I get to put on boots,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I think it's just a privilegeon of blessing.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so awesome now.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: I know at the top of this we were talking
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: about just so much has changed since those years where
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: you were making twelve thousand dollars and asking yourself, like
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: what am I doing here? How do you feel about
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: the investment that we're seeing within both the NWSL and
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: then women's sports as a whole, And does that make
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: you hopeful for where the league is going?
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Oh one hundred percent. Yeah, I'm like very excited. I
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: think that there is still so far to go. I
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: would love to see more teams own stadiums that are
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: women's specific, soccer specific. I know that's like so much money,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: but for example, like we still play on turf, and
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I know the men still play on turf too, but
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: like can we get off turf in general? And there's
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: like so many other things that we can always strive
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: to be better, But to see teams coming in, to
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: see a league that is stable, to see other nations
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: wanting to be here and play in this league, it
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: wasn't like that when I first got here. And then
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: also to like go you go to la you go
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: to the Bay, you go to Portland, and there's thousands
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: and thousands of fans screaming against you. But it's like
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: it's really cool to see where soccer is where it's
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: going to go, that there's young girls and young boys
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: that can look to this league and look and be like,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: that is what I want to strive and that's what
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I want to do and I didn't have that, and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: so yeah, it's.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Just really cool to see.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Always I know people want to strive and be on
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the national team. It's like another avenue too though.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: It's that.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: But if you don't get it on the national team again,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: it's not like a national team or nothing. There is
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: a thriving league where you can be here and have
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: a really good career and also make a good amount
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: of money and actually live. I think that that is
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: just like a really amazing thing because let me tell you,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: twelve thousand dollars a year was tough.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: You would live on that, not you're over the age
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: of sixteen years old, No, it was tough.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: Right now, someone comes to your Instagram page, they see
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: the end of USL's top leading scorer. They see a
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: woman who is now a two time Olympian. But when
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: you look in the mirror, what is it that you
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: see looking back at you?
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Lynn Oh, I still just see the same wind of
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: like growing up in Fresno. I see a wife, a friend, sister,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: a daughter, like I just am, you know. I like
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: to think of myself as an average person who just
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: has a lot of good soccer qualities.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: I put on my shoes just the same as you.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: I get dressed like you, and being humble has always
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: what's got me here, and that's what I'm going to
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: do for like the rest of my life.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: I just am always going to be Lynn and I
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: just see that, see me.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, humble being something that's definitely helped you. What other
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: qualities would you say that you have that really help
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: you be a leader for your teams.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's stubborn, being really stubborn and being really competitive.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I think that I am somebody who by nature leads
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: by example, and later on my career have learned to
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: like find my voice and vocalize when I think something
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: is wrong, when I think something is right, trying to
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: help everybody get on the same page. But I think
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: that comes with being really stubborn and not taking no
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: for an answer any at any time, and always wanting
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: to if the coach says something and I think it's wrong,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like gonna ask a question because I need to
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: know why you think that.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: Okay, yes, ask a question, But when was the last
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: time that that got you into trouble?
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're like, it's always getting me a trub and
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I think the people probably like, could she shut off?
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: So it might give me in trouble every day. But
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: again I'm stubborn and don't care.
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: But being stubborn knowing that your goals are the same,
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: I think that that's actually like, what's really important to
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: reiterate is that when you recognize, like, Okay, we actually
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: both want the same thing, then that gives context and
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: understanding to why you might act a certain way or
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: why someone else might act a certain way.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, one hundred percent.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: And again, like, I think you have to have some
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: humility to say, like I might be wrong in this position,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: but can you please explain to me why you think
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: you're right so I can potentially change my mindset or
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: change my point of view. And I don't think that
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: stubborn always means like I'm right one hundred percent of
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the time. I just think it means I'm going to
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: continue to fight for whatever is happening or what I
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: think needs to happen until you maybe sway my perception.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: What are you excited about right now. Ellen, Oh, I'm
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: excited for the playoff push. Right now. I think that
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: the table's tight, We're in a good position. We need
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: to win a game.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: We have had a tough back to back weekend, But
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: I think that that's what's so exciting about this league.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Look like, I feel like we're in a position where
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: we can push for playoffs and then from there anything
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: can happen.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: So I'm like really excited about that.
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: I'm so excited that we had the opportunity to chat today,
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: and I'm hoping that I get to see you over
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: here in my neck of the woods in New Jersey
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: quite soon. Right now, Lynn, you have an opportunity to
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: give yourself a piece of advice. I know you talked
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: about some of the most difficult moments to you in
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: your career being ones when you are down and out,
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: ones when you were injured.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Right now, knowing what you know, now.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: What advice would you offer yourself during that hurdle moment?
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just to enjoy it.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I think that there are times where we're like I
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: can't wait for this and I can't wait for that,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: and it's like you're wishing the time away, and so
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: my advice would be like even in the struggle, even
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: in the hurdle, even in the whatever, like it's always temporary,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: and then just enjoy the moment right now because it's
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: going to get better or it's gonna whatever. And I
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: think there's beauty in the journey. And so just like,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: be where your feet are, Be.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: Where your feet are. I am so happy that we
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: were able to do this.
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: Lynn, thank you so much for those that aren't following
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: along with you just yet, give me the details.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: Where do they find you online? You can find me
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: on Instagram at Lynn Williams nine. And you can find me, oh,
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: you can find me on YouTube on This is Cooked
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: with Me and Marley will you? Will you spoil alert?
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: What are what's the next recipe? I cannot spoilert because
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: it does not exist yet. Like we haven't gone to
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: whole to figure out what we want to cook exactly.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, do we do we need to like put
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: something elaborate together or we need to like maybe tone
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: it down. I don't know.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know if the lobster roll was pretty good.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Honestly it was. It was really good if you like
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: slightly spoiled lobster.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, my god, I'm over at a hurdle podcast and
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: at Emily Abodi another hurdle conquered.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.