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Thread the Needle · Do I Need My Racket?

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  Wecome to Do I Need My Racket? podcast brought to you by In Her Name Foundation. And I am Cindy Swain,
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  the host of this show. I founded In Her Name Foundation back in 2020. We're a small nonprofit
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  organization that supports young girls and women in sports. Part of the work that we do to support
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  that effort is this very podcast where we share stories of triumph, tragedy, heartache, success,
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  or stories of inspiration. One thing I know for sure, if you're listening, you'll learn something
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  and you definitely will be inspired.
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  And hopefully, maybe it'll get you to think just a little bit.
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  Well, it's been a few months since we dropped our last episode.
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  And as any athlete will tell you, when you take time away,
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  you might be a bit rusty on your return.
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  But hopefully refreshed, focused, with more insight, and ready to go.
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  Well, that is definitely true for me.
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  I am rusty, but definitely ready to be back
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  with renewed energy, focus, and insight.
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  So here we go.
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  This is episode number 26, called Thread the Needle.
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  You're probably wondering where I came up with that title,
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  because what on earth does sewing have to do with sports?
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  Well, I love metaphors, and there is a connection.
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  So listen for a minute and let me explain.
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  I don't know if you've ever tried threading a needle, especially without a threader.
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  I have countless times, and it's difficult.
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  Take a small piece of thread and attempt to poke it through a hole,
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  a very tiny hole that you don't think it will fit through,
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  Well, there was one person in my life that could do it with precision, accuracy, consistency,
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  and tenacity.
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  That was my grandmother, Lottie Yelkin.
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  Born in 1908, she had no opportunity for sport.
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  But if she had, I could imagine her standing in the softball circle, windmill wind-up pitching
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  strikes at will, with precision, accuracy, consistency, tenacity.
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  She would be able to disguise each pitch masterfully, much like threading a needle.
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  Or maybe, maybe, she could have been that point guard on a basketball team that dished
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  out more assists than points, weaving in and out of players, just like threading a needle,
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  going to the free throw line and shooting 10 for 10 right through the net.
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  Again, with flawless mastery of threading the needle.
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  I fortunately came along a bit later in time when women's sports were just taking off.
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  Yes, I could thread a needle.
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  My grandmother taught me well.
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  But what I took away, which is more important,
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  were the experiences I had with her,
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  with tenacity and persistence.
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  And that's something in the inside of her
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  that she never would give up.
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  There was always a way through difficulty.
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  There was always a way through to the other side.
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  That there was always a thread out there somewhere.
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  Find it. Hang on to it.
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  Let it pull you through the eye, out of your despair,
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  your hopelessness, your difficulties.
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  And if there's one thing I've tried to teach my own three kids,
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  look for that thread out there somewhere.
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  It is there, and it will pull you through to the other side.
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  Well, these past few months, I've been looking for another thread
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  as I've been recovering from five major surgeries,
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  with the last one being definitely the most difficult one of them all.
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  Lumbar fusion at L3, L4 to relieve nerve compression.
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  That nerve compression was making it difficult for me to even walk, put one foot in front
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  of the other, and it was painful, both in my back and both legs.
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  The doctor told me that this surgery would have a longer recovery and be more difficult
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  to recover from, but maybe I didn't take it seriously, but I had no idea just how difficult
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  it would be.
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  After a six and a half hour surgery, four day hospital stay, I came home needing help
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  with most everything.
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  I walked a few feet with a rolling walker, needed assist dressing, taking a shower, getting to the bathroom, going up and down steps.
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  I couldn't even cook or do anything in the kitchen to take care of myself.
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  And it was excruciatingly painful.
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  And to top it off, while I was working my way through recovery, I had a setback.
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  Landing back in the hospital for another four days, the incisions wouldn't heal.
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  And I had to have a revision surgery.
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  Four rounds of heavy-duty antibiotics, three weeks on a wound vac.
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  It was rough. I mean, really rough.
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  And I began to lose my way a bit, like kind of totally forgetting about trying to find a thread.
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  But there was something maybe in the back of my mind of me imagining my grandmother sitting on the sewing bench
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  with consistency, persistence, and tenacity, threading that needle.
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  So I started to look for a thread and checked my In Her Name Foundation email.
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  found an interesting inquiry about our foundation from a young woman in Italy,
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  an aspiring alpine skier,
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  dreaming someday to possibly be a World Cup skier,
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  and maybe on to the Olympics.
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  Well, I have to be honest here.
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  At first, I didn't think it was legit,
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  because I do get a lot of bots or AI requests that I usually delete or ignore.
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  But something told me, write her back.
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  So I sent an email, and then she shared her story with me
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  about having a traumatic ski accident in 2021 that was life-threatening.
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  Only a 50-50 chance of even surviving.
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  She was in a medically induced coma for 20 days,
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  had several broken bones, severe internal injury,
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  needed to have part of her liver removed surgically.
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  She lost almost 45 pounds and had to relearn everything
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  from sitting up on the side of the bed, feeding herself,
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  dressing herself, getting to the bathroom and walking.
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  There was a part of me thinking, is this for real?
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  Or did this really happen?
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  Or is this the thread I've been looking for?
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  So I went one step further, asked her about being on the podcast.
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  We set a date and a time, being mindful that we were in opposite time zones, six hours
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  apart.
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  She was in the Central European time zone and me in Eastern Standard time zone.
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  And even until right before the interview, I still had thoughts in the back of my mind
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  of being ghosted.
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  It's happened before, once or twice, not often.
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  You set up what looks to be a promising interview only to have a last-minute cancellation
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  and then no response when you try to reschedule.
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  But not this time.
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  This was different.
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  And what I found was the thread I had been looking for, Margarita Sala, a young, energetic,
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  articulate, smart, capable young woman that captivated me with her conversation from the
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  very start.
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  Fluent in Italian, English, French, speaks some German.
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  She's amazing and really helped me realize that we are not alone in our despair or suffering.
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  We all go through that.
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  And I completely had forgotten that the world is a big place and can hold all of that.
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  Her message, think big, dream big.
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  We all need to be reminded of that from time to time.
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  The world is a big place and we are not alone in our suffering.
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  Well, at the time of the interview, Margarita was still considering several NCAA Division
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  I schools where she's going to continue her education in alpine skiing career, University
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  of Utah, Montana, and Vermont.
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  All of these schools are top tier for alpine skiing.
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  And at the end of the interview, in the outro, I will share with you where she finally decided
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  to go to school this fall.
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  Here are a couple facts about competitive skiing.
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  It's divided up between alpine and Nordic skiing.
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  Alpine is down the mountain.
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  Nordic is self-proposant across the mountain, like cross-country skiing.
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  Alpine skiing has four main events.
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  Downhill, which is straight downhill.
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  Mind you, you only have a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads,
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  and there are a few bumpers or hay bales along some turns
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  that might keep you from careening off a cliff.
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  And you go 70 to 80 miles per hour.
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  I think that is absolutely batshit crazy.
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  Number two is Super G.
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  Still fast going downhill with maybe a gate or two to slow you down just a little bit.
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  That's in some of those events where you see the skier actually lift off the slope to get through something.
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  Then there's the giant slalom.
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  It's a shorter course.
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  There are several gates spaced further apart.
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  You ski through them with agility and technique.
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  So you have a little bit of both.
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  Downhill and going through gates with technique and agility.
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  Then there's slalom.
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  The shorter course with multiple gates requiring quick turns and technique as well.
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  Margarita loves the giant slalom and slalom.
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  She'll tell you she's more of a technical skier with athleticism, not a speed skier.
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  I can imagine her going down the slope with her skis, the thread, weaving it in and out
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  of the gates, getting through the eye of the needle at the finish line.
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  So listen to Margarita while she shares her story of how she did thread the needle with
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  her skis and her agility and her ability right through the eye of the needle from coma to comeback
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  and as for me i'm feeling the best i felt in two years thanks margarita have a listen welcome to
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  the podcast margarita i'm happy to have you on the show today um you fell into my lap when i was
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  searching through my emails after I was going to get the podcast restarted and uh here you are
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  you're considering division one skiing um would really like to go to the University of Utah I can
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  vouch for that because the ski the the snow out west and I can say this because I've skied here
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  in Michigan and that's not really downhill skiing it's more like little hills but the snow conditions
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  in Utah are just phenomenal I mean it's just that nice fluffy dry powder you know you'll get some
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  ice but um i lived there six years and and it's they pride themselves in in skiing so um talk a
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  little bit about what it's like to be a collegiate skier and what what you what you want to do yeah
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  so uh this year i started to think about another way uh to reach my dreams and i i thought about
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  the u.s because you know here in italy sports and and schools doesn't really go together i mean
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  we don't have good structures for that and how so how so is that you don't so it's either you do
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  school or you ski you don't do both yeah you can do both i i did both like my entire life still
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  today but you know it's hard the school doesn't cooperate with the skiing part and not like they
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  do in the us with sports where they really promote the division one athlete and give you a scholarship
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  to study and pursue your dreams yeah so i thought maybe that's the place where i want to be also
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  because it seems like a super cool environment people are so relaxed they're there in order to
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  support you and here the environment it's not like that and i just thought maybe i need to be
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  surrounded by good people uh and be able to work in a in a good you know in good condition with
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  new snows new new friends maybe that's going to be what will help me to reach my goals
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  at the end you know let's go back just a little bit you got interested in skiing you started when
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  you were three because your mother was a world club skier um i'm just curious about your mom so
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  you know how far did she get in her career because she passed the bug on to you but talk about your
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  mom skiing do you know a little bit about that yeah uh not that much because she she doesn't talk
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  a lot about it but uh she started when she was little like me at i think three years old and
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  she was so good like she started and she was already good she she got to the national team
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  actually and when she was really young she she raised her first world cup and she continued for
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  a couple of years she also went to world championships in 1997 i think so she she did
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  a lot of good things and like me she had a lot of injuries and yeah when she stopped skiing she had
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  like a big big crash and so she decided to stop because she broke her her arm above both her legs
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  and oh my goodness and that was a skiing crash yeah there are yeah oh it is a high risk sport
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  a very high risk sport because you're going down the incline what do you know exactly like how
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  steep the slopes are that you go down do you do you know that i mean they're steep and you go
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  straight down yeah so they're steep they're i mean they're different some some of them are steeper
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  and yeah but generally we're going really fast that's the thing how fast do you go what's what
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  um i don't know i have no idea but so fast like i i think up to like 60 plus miles an hour
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  and you know yeah i think yeah even more sometimes like as fast as a car on a freeway
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  you're hurling down these mountains yeah and you know but when you're in the car you're kind of
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  protected by the car and when while you're skiing it's just you and your body so you have a helmet
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  i mean that's you know protects your head that's that's good we have uh other protections but you
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  know at the end it's it's just you yeah i mean they put a few bales of hay on some of the tight
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  turns in case you, you know, go careening off the course, but that's, that's, you know, that's about
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  it. And I, it's a, it's a, a crazy sport and it just takes a lot of grit, determination, just flat
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  out guts to, to be able to want to do that kind of thing. So what's your, what's your favorite
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  event? I mean, there's like the downhill, there's the slalom, giant slalom. Talk about the different
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  events that you ski and what your favorite one is so my favorite one at the moment is giant slalom
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  but you know it changes because when when you're good in slalom it's slalom it depends on the
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  period but right now it's giant slalom and so basically uh alpine skiing is you can split it
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  in technical disciplines and speed ones which are downhill and superging and you're going really fast
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  while you're doing downhill and then slalom and gs and i'm more of a technicals here and yeah so
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  that the giant slalom then is more turns in in you know talk about that that event is it the you
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  know i'm not sure i know the difference between the downhill and the giant solemn so um the slalom
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  is the most technical one and you have not that much space between gates then you have gs which
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  is a little bit larger than super g which is larger and downhill at the end so you know the
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  gates just get more and more you get more space between them so the gates are the poles that they
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  have set on on the course that you ski in and out of yeah that's it yeah and also uh giant slalom
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  are more turny while uh downhill and super g are you go straight basically yeah you do also jump
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  sometime. So your mother had this accident and I'm, you know, thinking about you and one of the
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  reasons you, you kind of came to me to want to talk is that you had a really bad accident as
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  well. And I'm thinking as a parent, you know, I have this accident, I break both arms, both legs,
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  you know, in a ski event, my daughter's a skier, she has an accident, is in the hospital for two
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  months flat on her back for over a month and a half and you know internal injuries fractured bones
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  remove part of your liver as a parent as a mom i would think pray to god as she gets through this
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  and i'm hoping that she decides to do something else but not you you went through all of that
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  talk about that where you you just came out of the your coma they medically induced coma and said
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  i'm gonna go back and ski you tell us a little bit about that yeah so when i woke up uh the first
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  thing i said to my mom was mom did i did i break my skis because they were so fast and my mom was
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  like oh my god no she she won't stop skiing never it's impossible and i think like for my parents
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  it was so hard because especially at the beginning uh we didn't know it was you know it was a bad
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  situation but then you didn't know if you're gonna make it through right yeah yeah life or death
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  yeah life or death exactly so it was so hard for everyone in my family but then when I woke up like
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  this and by saying those things they I think they understood that I I do love it so much and they
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  just want me to be happy and I remember that I also said to them like you know if it happen again
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  just be don't worry it's what i want to do and i will do it like millions millions and millions
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  of times again so don't worry i'm happy and you know just relax yeah so you've been skiing since
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  the accident and you know getting making a comeback and you're just about ready to move
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  to the u.s this fall and start school um in your number one school you'd love to ski out
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  university of utah uh yeah i would love to go to utah yeah yeah yeah i think i think it's such a
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  great school and it seems to work really well with alpine skiers the team is strong there
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  the coaches are super nice and also the places are amazing in utah it seems so good you know
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  we lived there for six years and I did a lot of downhill skiing and you know some cross-country
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  skiing too some backcountry ski a little bit of everything and I think it's one of the prettiest
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  states honestly that I've ever lived in or that's out there because it's so varied in terrain you
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  have the alpine mountains you have high desert you have the salt flats and then you go further south
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  and you get canyons and rock cliffs and it's amazing I mean it's just a beautiful state a lot
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  to do if you're an outdoorsy person yeah yeah i would i would really love to go there so you
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  you live in in um italy tell us what you're in the alps we're in the alps in italy so uh it's
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  near france and uh and swiss so near mont blanc so we're we're pretty close to france and we
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  travel a lot uh in france yeah and it's so nice because we can see you know different countries
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  speaks speak a lot of languages and i love it the alps are are amazing and they're the place in
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  italy if you want to ski they're they're so good the views and everything i love to be here yeah
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  we spent a summer um in france in southern france in grenoble and okay yeah so we were close to the
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  alps and did some hiking summer you know that was really fun um we got to see part of the la tour
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  to france bicycle race actually went through grenoble it's pretty cool but yeah it's beautiful
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  it's you know that that part of the country is just breathtaking yeah i'm gonna be in grenoble
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  like in uh three days because i'm going skiing in the salve for summer skiing is there summer
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  skiing up there yeah yeah it's really good i think it's the best really i didn't think there
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  would be any snow available to ski this time of year no yeah but here in europe uh luckily we have
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  a lot of glaciers and yeah we just move from one to another so your glaciers your glacier skiing
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  then basically yeah okay well that's kind of cool yeah yeah that's cool yeah it is do you speak any
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  other languages besides italian and english yeah i do speak french okay and a little bit of german
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  but i do speak french because here where i live it's like the second official language so
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  like in school we're always you know we've always studied it like italian so basically
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  that is what amazes me about um europe is that you guys just go back and forth to different
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  languages you have so much more exposure to different languages we're here in the u.s is
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  you know just really most people are just english maybe maybe the second highest language
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  would probably be spanish here um and then i'm trying to learn spanish with duolingo up
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  is not going well actually
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  so do you have english you know you can go everywhere with with english with italian i
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  can just stay here yeah yeah i just remember the the time i was in italy is that there's a lot of
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  gesturing with hands and people are in their faces and it looks like they're angry but you
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  guys are just very demonstrative when you when you talk yeah a lot yeah I noticed that a big
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  difference from other languages yeah we do gesture a lot do you have any other very expressive
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  very very expressive yes yes uh do you have any other siblings at home that yeah I have a sister
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  but right now she's in Canada because she's doing the the year abroad and she will be back
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  like in 20 days probably something like is she a skier she's not she's not didn't the bug didn't
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  hit her no she never likes i mean she she knows how to ski of course she she goes with her friends
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  but she's not into racing like she's so calm comparing to me and yeah yeah i think it takes
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  definitely a certain type of personality to be able to handle that kind of pressure and stress
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  of competition and the the drive to continue to improve you know that that is innate I mean I can
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  relate to that when I was back in my tennis years where you just every opportunity that you had you
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  know you were out on the court or playing or hitting or running or doing conditioning or agility
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  and skiing you know when you're at that level that such as you it's the same thing you know you you
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  go wherever you can I just think that's fascinating that you guys are going to be in southern France
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  and out skiing on glaciers to to continue so you pretty much ski year-round then yeah pretty much
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  we just stop like in in the end of the spring like may we don't ski much then uh back on skis in
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  june some days in july august if there's still snow and then a different thing about us is that
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  here um yeah i'm just keeping skiing all the year long but you know in the states you don't
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  have glaciers so we're gonna start skiing a little bit a little bit late probably
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  you know it depends on where you go but november you know yeah yeah that's what he told me yeah
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  especially well in utah i know that there's some there's some places that are pretty high altitude
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  that do get some early really good snow one of my favorite places is alta i don't know if you guys
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  do would do any training there i would just you know but there's so many different places you can
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  ski um yeah i think my favorite place in utah is uh tucked it used to be kind of an unknown spot
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  but it's snow basin and they redid it for the olympics that was there in the early 2000s and
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  it's just amazing how they expanded it and they could they have a lot of events there and it's
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  huge i mean it's just such a big place um one of the things that my kids found interesting when we
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  were out there you go from the top to the bottom and just you know we're going at a moderate speed
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  you know and without stopping it might take you 20 30 minutes to get down to the bottom if you
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  kind of weave around and you know from top to bottom well here in michigan um it's like three
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  minutes from the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill so you go up and down you know about 50
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  times uh yeah but it's yeah it's the snow out there is just phenomenal you'll you'll love it
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  have you been there have you been there have you seen it i've never been to the states actually
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  never you've never been to the united states no never okay um so yeah that's interesting because
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  you know you were telling me that Italy doesn't support skiing in college kind of like we do here
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  where it's you can come and ski and get a scholarship and get a degree do you have any
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  idea of of what you'd like to study in college? Yeah I think I'm gonna study business international
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  business probably because I was already studying here in Italy and so I will you know keep going
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  with what I what I choose but I do like it and also maybe um I want to study a little bit of
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  psychology because I'm really interested in sports psychology or also sport management because I
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  want to stay in this field even when I will finish with my skiing I I want to work with sports
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  because yeah it's my passion yeah and I think there's a lot to sports psychology I mean that
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  wasn't when i was playing tennis it was kind of around but not like it is now and um there's it's
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  a really multi-faceted field i think it'd be fascinating to get into it for sure so when your
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  mom quit skiing did she take up another profession after she stopped being a world cup skier yeah
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  actually she uh she's a ski teacher and she she does it like all the winter and she's also a chef
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  right now oh she is yeah at her at her own restaurant or does she work yeah yeah okay
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  what's the specialty there uh to be honest I don't know because she always
• 29:37
  cook at the restaurant but never for me when she she comes home she never cook like well of course
• 29:44
  not I mean you're not gonna work job yeah yeah yeah so I'm just eating salad and pizza and pasta
• 29:51
  because it's it's easier that's funny yeah yeah um yeah so i i just think you know i look at those
• 30:03
  downhill skiers that are going you know 60 70 plus miles an hour straight down the hill with
• 30:10
  just a helmet and some elbow pads and knee pads i think you guys are crazy honestly because it's a
• 30:16
  really high injury sport what keeps you going i mean what is it is it the thrill of the speed
• 30:24
  or is it the the thrill of the wind in your face or you know that you're gonna win this
• 30:31
  what what is it that keeps you guys going wanting to go just downhill as fast as you can
• 30:37
  that's a difficult question but i'm feeling like i do really like the speed the wind of my face on
• 30:46
  my face like you said but also uh i i feel like skiing it's it's kind of a dance because you when
• 30:56
  you got into the rhythm and you have the right rhythm it's just like dancing on the snow and it's
• 31:02
  so good and you always want more of it you know yeah yeah and when you when you hit the finish
• 31:10
  line you're just like if it's if it was a good run because otherwise it's it's not that good
• 31:16
  you're like oh my god i want to do it again and again and again and you know when you go so fast
• 31:22
  like that to the to the average person it all looks great but how do you know like you get to
• 31:29
  the end and like oh that was awful and you you know I'm like to me it looks like it was just
• 31:34
  phenomenal how do you know it was a bad run when you're going so fast I don't know I think that
• 31:41
  when you're doing it every day things just start to get a little bit slower in your mind because
• 31:48
  you have everything under control you know what you're doing so you can feel if if your foot if
• 31:56
  your feet are you know are not in the right positions and you're also really focused on
• 32:02
  what you're doing so you're feeling everything like so much yeah and i think that's because of
• 32:09
  it yeah do you i'm sure you've heard the the name of the american skier lindsey vaughn of course
• 32:16
  Yeah. So some of, and she's had multiple accidents and broken bones and all kinds of stuff. But one of the things she did, um, when one of the competitions, I don't know if it was the last Olympics or what, but they had a little segment on her where she would close her eyes. She knew the, she knew the, um, the route down the hill or the mountain so well that she could envision it in her mind, like almost to the point.
• 32:44
  And so she would close her eyes and then she would just kind of feel herself moving through the slalom event from top to bottom.
• 32:57
  And in her mind, like she was living it and feeling it at the same time.
• 33:01
  And so that must be kind of what you're talking about.
• 33:04
  Yeah.
• 33:06
  That's what we do before our races, our training.
• 33:10
  Because, you know, like we said, it's a really dangerous sport.
• 33:13
  so you really have to be full focus when you do it you have to know uh what you want to do before
• 33:21
  doing it actually so uh at the start we're we're closing our eyes and try to uh do uh to do every
• 33:31
  move before before really doing it and sometimes i'm i'm sure lindsey is so good at doing this
• 33:38
  because you know she's she's a great skier she's right right and sometimes it's easier sometimes
• 33:45
  it is not but it really helps you because when you're going down we're going fast and your mind
• 33:53
  just know what to do most of the time you know where you are and what you have to do in the next
• 34:00
  gates and yeah that's really helpful yeah you know i can see that i know sometimes you
• 34:07
  you kind of envision you know what the competition is like and I think sometimes too it's just to
• 34:13
  when you close your eyes and kind of shut everything else out it does help you focus on just
• 34:19
  what your you know your inner self which I think it's something like that that is so critical and
• 34:25
  so difficult that you guys make look extremely easy would take this tremendous amount of focus
• 34:33
  and concentration because if you lose your focus and concentration I mean it could be life or death
• 34:36
  going down that hill that fast yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's fascinating i i yeah and and you
• 34:45
  know the difficulty of that i because we when we were skiing in my favorite place snow basin
• 34:51
  a few years ago after the olympics were over and they had redone it and there was a part of the
• 34:56
  hill where it was the the downhill and event and where it was where we were skiing and i was looking
• 35:02
  at the slope and how steep that was and under you know when you're there and you see
• 35:06
  i mean some places it's like like straight down i mean there's and you and you're off the mountain
• 35:13
  like you there's like you get lifted off you know for yeah you know maybe 20 30 yards and back down
• 35:20
  and and uh it's it is pretty amazing you guys are phenomenal athletes absolutely so yeah so um
• 35:29
  We're going to get back to how you ended up on Do I Need My Ragged podcast.
• 35:35
  Yeah, I was, you know, been recovering as well from a pretty significant surgery, low back lumbar fusion and was kind of out of commission for a while.
• 35:46
  So I was just kind of going through my emails and yours popped up is like, oh, wow, I love what you're doing, the work with young women and promoting sports.
• 35:55
  and then you were sharing about your tragic accident you had and and you're kind of making
• 36:01
  a comeback and yeah um yeah and i think that's fascinating and and um so in part of that comeback
• 36:09
  your goals are to be a world cup skier is that your ultimate goal yeah i mean that's my my dream
• 36:17
  since since i was a kid and it still is and i really hope that this new chapter in the u.s is
• 36:25
  going to be what will help me to reach it you know so when you're a world cup skier does that
• 36:33
  mean you'd like to participate in the olympics at some point yeah yeah yeah in italy not in italy
• 36:40
  because they're the next year so i'm oh yeah yeah the winter olympics are in italy next year
• 36:47
  yeah so i don't care really i just want to go to olympics so it would be it would be in
• 36:54
  in 2026 it'd be 2030 where where are the winter olympics in the next one after italy i don't even
• 36:59
  know in france in france okay yeah um so it's gonna be a home like home like home for you
• 37:08
  right yeah so who would be um like one of your favorite athletes or even skiing or not skiing
• 37:19
  event what who do you look up to as far as you know an influence for uh women athletes who's
• 37:26
  your do you have a favorite yeah like Michaela Schifrin has always been my favorite one Michaela
• 37:34
  Schifrin yeah since I was three she was like my favorite and she's she's such an amazing girl
• 37:44
  because I think uh in what ways how is she amazing um first of all she's the best of all the time of
• 37:52
  all the time so it's great for skiing yeah yeah she's also like a really good person i feel she's
• 38:01
  so discreet she she doesn't want to appear she's always kind and generous i mean i don't know her
• 38:10
  you're describing someone that's very humble yeah yeah that's it yeah that that doesn't
• 38:16
  want to be in the in the in the spotlight all the time but yes has a lot of gratitude for what she
• 38:21
  does and other people yeah well that sounds like you i i see those traits in you is that is that
• 38:27
  you're describing yourself uh no i'm not because i'm not as good as her yeah well i mean you're
• 38:35
  not maybe not at the level that she's skiing but your inner self your being what's the strongest
• 38:41
  point that i mean you have an amazing smile and your energy i can pick up just in the zoom call
• 38:46
  but what do you think your biggest inner strength is outside of skiing what tell tell me about what
• 38:52
  the biggest inner strength you have in your inside your inside your mind your soul I do think that
• 38:59
  probably I've got two and the first one is the fact that I'm you know I'm a really hard worker
• 39:07
  I always work hard and I never never give up like for no reason I'm just in doing my work till
• 39:18
  till i'm i'm reaching what i want to do and also um i love to to dream and dream big so um i i do
• 39:32
  think that my dreams are are always possible in some ways you know i don't you believe it you
• 39:41
  believe in yourself you you yeah it's hard but uh like in my heart i do know that if i do want
• 39:51
  something really really badly I can do it I mean at some points I will find the strength
• 39:59
  and yeah it's gonna work it that's something I feel inside my heart it's just a feeling I don't
• 40:07
  know maybe it won't well I mean just from talking to you and reading about you that is so true
• 40:12
  because to believe in yourself enough to make this comeback from such a tragic accident and
• 40:18
  look at you now I mean you're getting offers from division one schools in the United States to come
• 40:22
  ski possible scholarship um that says a lot about your grit and determination and just believing in
• 40:29
  yourself or dreaming big and i think that's so important for young women out there whether you're
• 40:34
  in a sport or not dream big you know believe in yourself i think that's the message that you you
• 40:43
  i see that in you yeah definitely yeah that's i think that's so important whatever you're doing
• 40:52
  in your life when you do believe in yourself you you're so powerful I mean sometimes as an athlete
• 41:00
  you just realize that it's only in your mind when you when you set something into your mind
• 41:06
  and you are really convinced that you can do it it's it's easier it's easier oh sure it's just
• 41:12
  the mind thing so I want to say to everybody just believe in yourself because it's gonna be easier
• 41:19
  yeah maybe you're not gonna get what you want but it's gonna be easier and you're gonna be happy at
• 41:25
  the end because you you gave it all you gave it all exactly yeah yeah well quite a comeback i mean
• 41:32
  really uh it's pretty fascinating so looking forward into the future for you um you are looking
• 41:41
  for some sponsors and sponsorships to help fund um your ongoing ski uh ventures and uh do you
• 41:50
  You know, if anybody's listening out there, do you have a way that you would be able to share that your contact information or how to get a hold of you if someone's interested in sponsoring you for skiing?
• 42:03
  yeah uh so uh i'm margherita sala if you want to reach out because you know uh the thing is that
• 42:11
  um those schools are being really generous with me they're offering big big scholarship
• 42:19
  but skiing is becoming so expensive oh it is it is just becoming it's pricing you know the thing
• 42:27
  at least in the united states it is pricing people out of being able to ski from uh you know
• 42:34
  when when we were living in utah wednesday afternoons was ladies day at beaver mountain
• 42:40
  and there are about six of us and we would rotate like one afternoon we all were moms with young
• 42:45
  children that every six weeks it would be your turn to babysit and everyone else would go skiing
• 42:50
  so you what we would always ski wednesday afternoon so you could drive 45 minutes from
• 42:54
  logan utah to beaver mountain be on the slope within an hour for 15 for a half day and i mean
• 43:03
  it's still reasonable to ski at Beaver Mountain for half day. I think it's double that now like
• 43:08
  30 or 40 bucks. But some of those places I used to ski when I grew up in Western Kansas, like
• 43:14
  Park City, not Park City, Winter Park and Copper Mountain, Keystone, we're talking just for a day
• 43:21
  pass a couple hundred dollars. Yeah. Then on top of that, if you don't have your own skis, you have
• 43:27
  to rent them. That's another hundred bucks. I mean, so you're easily just for one day with no
• 43:33
  accommodations you're talking three or four hundred dollars yeah and it's you can't the average
• 43:40
  families can't afford that anymore so i in there what's happening is that you know fewer people i
• 43:46
  think are skiing and so the prices keep going up but you're right it is extremely an expensive sport
• 43:51
  yeah you know when i started it wasn't like like this i mean it was an expensive sport of course
• 43:58
  but it's going crazy and my family they're doing everything they can in order to you know
• 44:04
  to help me but it's difficult sometimes it's difficult and I'm I'm so I'm so glad that I have
• 44:15
  them and they're always helping and they've always been there for me in well at the end of
• 44:23
  the show when I always wrap it up with the outro I will add your email address if anyone is listening
• 44:29
  and they can contact you through that way if you have sponsorship you never know you might hit
• 44:33
  someone that say, Hey, looking for some ski sponsorships, because it sounds like you have
• 44:38
  a really promising career. I'm excited. I'm excited for you to come to the U S and just kind of,
• 44:44
  it was so different. I mean, if you've not been here, uh, I, you know, I think about my short time
• 44:49
  when I was in Italy and it's just, it's so different. Um, food is different. People are,
• 44:56
  people are different. Um, yeah, I think, I don't know much about, um, you know, University of
• 45:04
  vermont that's a that's one of the places you were considering but salt lake city is is very
• 45:09
  international and uh yeah a lot to do and see and it's a beautiful state so when are you going to
• 45:15
  make your decision do you know i think by the end of the week by the end of the week it's time to do
• 45:21
  it because i have to you know to buy flies and start to get organized because you know august
• 45:27
  they'll be here soon school starts in yeah yeah so i'm gonna know that in a few days yeah so um
• 45:36
  you listen to my first episode do i get my racket so you know my story how this all started and how
• 45:45
  influential sports can be and people can be in your lives right and at the end of every podcast
• 45:51
  i ask the guest you know do i need my racket is metaphoric for a lot of things so i'm gonna
• 46:00
  ask you margarita what is your racket i want to say my skis because like like i said before when
• 46:14
  i woke up i asked for my skis so probably your skis yeah i could see that i mean they are they
• 46:20
  represent you um i see you dancing in them down the slopes uh and i see you you know in that place
• 46:28
  where you know an athlete goes where you just feel like you're in the right spot and you know
• 46:34
  I could see that.
• 46:35
  Yeah.
• 46:36
  Yeah.
• 46:36
  I think that's the right answer for me.
• 46:39
  Yeah.
• 46:39
  Very good.
• 46:41
  So after all we've talked about, is there anything else you'd like to add?
• 46:46
  I just want to thank you because, you know, I heard your story and I'm so sorry.
• 46:54
  But what you did is I think is amazing.
• 46:57
  You're doing such a great job.
• 46:58
  Oh, thank you.
• 46:59
  Just that.
• 47:00
  Yeah. I, yeah. And I, it's just, yeah. A lot of good things can happen if you can, like you said, get your mind in the right place and believe in yourself. And I think, you know, I was in the right place at the right time with my high school tennis coach and, and yeah, it's pretty amazing. So, well, thank you for being on the show today. And I look forward to speaking with you in the future.
• 47:30
  Of course. Thank you so much.
• 47:33
  Well, I'm happy to say Margarita will be skiing and continuing her education at the University of Vermont.
• 47:47
  She will be a catamount, which is a term used for a large cat in a mountain lion.
• 47:52
  I had no idea what it was, so I had to look it up.
• 47:54
  And if you are listening and would like to be one of her sponsors, here is her contact information.
• 48:00
  I can tell you she would represent your company or agency well.
• 48:06
  Her email address is all lowercase M-A-R-G-H-E-R-I-T-A-S-A-L-A, the numeral 2, at gmail.com.
• 48:20
  Keep an eye out for Margarita in future World Cup skiing events and the Olympics,
• 48:28
  because I'm sure you're going to find her threading her way through the giant slalom on the Italian national team.
• 48:35
  And I hope all of you out there listening can look and find that thread.
• 48:42
  Let it pull you through the eye of the needle to success on your own comeback.
• 48:48
  And until then, for Margarita, it's go catamounts.
• 48:54
  Now for a bit more about Cindy Swain, president and CEO of In Her Name Foundation and the host of this podcast.
• 49:01
  Cindy is a licensed physical therapist, certified yoga instructor, former tennis coach, and Division I collegiate athlete.
• 49:09
  She is a happily married mother of three and spends her free time gardening, beekeeping, and cycling.
• 49:14
  Cindy loves the Kansas Jayhawks and is an exercise and sports fanatic.
• 49:18
  Thanks again to Tudor Big, the Big Sound and Lighting, for editing and producing this podcast and for providing the original theme music.
• 49:26
  For more information about In Her Name Foundation, visit our website at inhernamefoundation.org.
• 49:33
  Join us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe to our newsletter.
• 49:38
  or make a donation.
• 49:40
  We look forward to meeting all of you again
• 49:42
  and sharing our next episode of inspiration.
• 49:45
  Until then, see you next time,
• 49:47
  and be prepared to bring your racket.