Latest / The Standard / He Learned He Could Compete at 25. Two Years Later He Was on the Paralympic Podium in Paris. | Ep. 66 Ryan Medrano

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He Learned He Could Compete at 25. Two Years Later He Was on the Paralympic Podium in Paris. | Ep. 66 Ryan Medrano · The Standard

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect, perfect.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Team, welcome to the standard podcast where we raise the bar, rebuild the culture, and call out the lies or misconceptions that nobody else will.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't motivation, this is a movement.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Thomas Row, alongside my co-host and co-founder, Aaron Sarles of Blueprint Blue Chip.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: And today we're sitting down with Ryan Madrano, a 2024 Paris Paralympic silver medal medalist, team USA T38, and we'll get into that qualification, track and field athlete, and one of the most remarkable origin stories in American Paralympic history.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: As a little uh precursor here to pull back the curtain, we actually had Ryan on our show for Path to the Pros, and what we learned about Ryan is just nothing short of remarkable.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna get into it because it started all off on Survivor.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: I know when we shared Ryan last time that we we were having you on, there were actually a few people like, is that the dude from Survivor?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've got it's it's hopefully your career will be defined by your Olympic athletic performance and not Survivor, but you got a lot of people out there that knew you from Survivor, so it's awesome.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan was born three months premature in Savannah, Georgia.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: The early birth resulted in fluid in his cerebellum and his and he was born with cerebral palsy.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: He grew up living his life fully and never knew that his cerebral palsy qualified him to compete as a Paralympic athlete.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: In the fall of 2020, uh Ryan appeared on season 43 of Survivor.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: While competing on the show, he met 2020 Paralympic athlete Noelle Lambert, and she told him something that changed the trajectory of his life, and it really did.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Cerebral Pulsy was recognized as a disability score classification, and he could compete internationally as a paraath.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: He started training shortly thereafter in December 2022.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: By the July of 23, he was competing at the World Championships on the world stage.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: By November 23, he had won gold at the Parapan American Games in the 100 and 400 meters.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: By 2024, he was on the floor of the Paris Olympics, winning silver medals in both the 100 and the 400 meters at the Paralympic Games.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Less than two years from the first training session to the Paralympic Podium.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: That is remarkable.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: This is not a story about overcoming a disability.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: This is a story about a man who found out what he's capable of doing at 25 years old and then ran directly towards it, no pun intended.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: We're guiding into the truth behind what it really takes to build identity, discipline, and legacy and in sports and in life.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into it.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, like I said, uh we we met before.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is just, I mean, this is just gonna be like a conversation of old friends.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for joining us, taking time out of your training schedule.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you've probably lifted 4,000 pounds and run, you know, 1,500 sprints by now.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: So not what the average person is doing.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: But let's start with before Survivor, before paraathics, and before any of it, you grew up with cerebral palsy and you didn't know you could compete as a paraath until you were 25 years old.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: What was it like before that moment?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: And how did you think about your cerebral palsy in terms of who you were and how it was going to define you?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: First off, I'd like to say thank you for the phenomenal introduction.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: You always do a great job, leaves me speechless.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Really allows me to appreciate the things I've accomplished when somebody else puts it in that type of order.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: But honestly, life before the Paralympics, going back to childhood, my parents put me in sports as soon as I could walk.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't walk until I was four.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: When we learned I had mild streamopausal, I was about 10 months old.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: My grandma came over and she goes, That baby's not rolling over, there's something wrong with him.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So they took me in, they did the MRIs and they learned that I had mild streamopausy.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: They told me I'd never walk, or they told my mom I'd never walk.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Well, I'm still going to take them to therapy.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen miracles happen.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see if we can make one happen again.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: So within about four years, two hours of therapy every Thursday, they'd have to massage my body because it was so stiff from my neurological system always.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, thus creating the ability for me to walk when I was four.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: My brain reconnected and made new neural pathways to understand that my body could work.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And luckily, I was able to run, jump, swim, fly through the air, you know.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So being a kid and growing up with mouse root palsy, it was a bit difficult.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: My parents would come by and tell my teachers, he's not ignoring you.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: He's just processing what he has to do.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So give him a few seconds and he'll be able to do it just fine.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The longer I worked on it and the more I got accustomed with how life worked, I learned to basically perceive the world a couple of steps ahead.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: I would be able to learn body language and tone and situation awareness to allow me to already think about what I need to do before I needed to do it.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I could respond quick enough to not be an outcast.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was bullied very early on, lost my two front teeth in second grade, and really was almost like an outcast.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was always by myself until I learned that talking to people and connecting with them allowed them to understand me.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And early on, that ability to learn that people can understand you and accept you allowed me to create this pathway of being the best version of myself, really being proud of the difference that I had and the things I had to bring, such as laughter, kindness, and really wanting to connect with others.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: This allowed me to excel and not only sports, but in making friends, making connections outside of school, within work.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I started working at 14 as a fish and wildlife deputy, and this is because of the connections I made while I was in Alaska.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So this really allowed me to understand that there isn't necessarily limitations for my disability.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's the limitations of the mind that you place on yourself.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: So when you have a goal, break it down into things that you can do, focus on the things that you excel at, and then also work at the things you need to be better at.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: This allowed me to create a community of people that understood what I needed to do and what my limitations were and held me accountable while also being there for me to ask questions and lean on.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: So when I as a layman, when I think and I don't have anybody in my immediate family or my circle that has cerebral balls, I I think of as a layman, I think of seizures.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever had any seizures, or do you are you able to figure out an onset of like do you have episodes or kind of walk us through?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: You shared enough already, but walk us through like, is there really a disability?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because it doesn't sound like it.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've really managed to overcome it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh therapalsy has a broad spectrum of different I'd say disability or effects on the body.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Mine specifically, even right now, right here is cramping from training I did about an hour ago.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: While I was trying to shower and pick my hair out, I had to use my left hand the whole time.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because every time I'd bring, I don't even want to do it now because it hurts.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I'd bring this arm up, the muscle here on the right arm would cramp and it gets stuck.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it was funny because growing up, because I didn't have doctors or community of people that were like me, I would bring up questions of, hey, this always hurts or this is tight.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: When I do this, it does this.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, oh, that's normal, that's this, that's that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they would assume I was okay because they weren't looking at it as a perspective as I have an overactive neurological system that's always stimulating my muscles and causing tightness and never allowing the nerves or the muscles to relax.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: So when the nerves are always stimulating the muscles, the muscles can't relax to allow the nerves to relax.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a constant cycle.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: So as getting into my adolescence and learning more about recovery, because I used to just workhorse through it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: As a kid, I was doing shoveling driveways for I was at a time with my hands locked up on the shovel, and I had to tell my customers, hey, I'll be back tomorrow.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I can't let go of the shovel.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I learned that I can push my body past its limits, but that means I also have to rest just as hard, hydrate properly, get proper sleep, eat the proper nutrition, allow my mind to calm down, not overstimulate myself.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And this overstimulation happens even when I'm training.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm not properly rested, if I haven't hydrated properly the night before, I notice it because when I go to do block starts or I go to do drills, I'll kick my own calf and my legs won't listen as well.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm not as crisp as they would say.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I also have specific muscle groups that will be more stimulated or uncooperative, such as this arm here, um sometimes this the shoulder on my neck when I'll yawn will cramp up just randomly.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that I'm overstimulating my neck.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that when I get that stimulation from certain thoughts or certain certain movements, my brain goes extra, and then it's like, ah, oh.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um so for me, physically, it does affect my passive range of motion, but it'll always also affect me to the point of cramps.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or so bad that I've smashed my head on this wall behind me.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to sew something with my leg, and my leg cramps out and I jolt out so I don't have a massive cramp in my in my quad here.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the more physical aspect.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: But then even after training, let's say I run a 400 or I do a broken 400, I'll have these pulsing migraines that will resonate right here in the middle of my skull and just pulse out.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that, depending on how hard I push and the amount of recovery I take afterwards, will last two, sometimes three days.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I've run a 400, 4x4, and lost vision for a couple, not a couple minutes, but in and out vision afterwards.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's funny because Usada always wants to grab me when I'm having my worst episodes of locked legs and just brain network and like, hey, we need to take you to get your urine sample.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you're gonna have to stand with me for about 10, 15 minutes while I move my legs, or I'm gonna lock up and we're gonna take way longer.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it's little things that I have overcome and I've learned to deal with that normal people wouldn't necessarily understand because it's it's not like I'm broadcasting, hey, I'm in pain, hey, this, that.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's something I work through because that's what you do.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: You overcome, you adapt, and figure out the best way you can accomplish your goals.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if I was to let these these hurdles affect the way that I do things, I would never be where I'm at today.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: No doubt.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: No doubt.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: It almost seems like the Cheryl Pulsey, it didn't happen to you, it happened for you.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like a gift, right?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Where I mean, and we're gonna get into this.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: The next question I have is you can you're clearly a competitor because you competed on Survivor Season 43 in the fall of 2022.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: While you were out there, you met Paralympian Noelle Lambert, and she told you something that changed your life.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Walk us through that conversation.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're are you I'm imagining you're like, no, no, this can't be real.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: What did she say, and what did you feel at that moment?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: And what did you do second you got home?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So before I even got home, she told before I even she even told me, I got voted off a survivor and I had this burning passion, this innate desire to compete in something that I've never done before, to be somebody at something.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was just on a on an island show where you're learning to adapt, survive in the wild, instinctually get food, support others, and then socially maneuver your brain in a way that puts you in positions to win.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I am at the all-time heightened sense of wanting to beat somebody at something that I've ever felt.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: So before that even started, I was trying to figure out what I'm gonna do next.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: I need to start training my body because that's that I want to beat somebody at something physically.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I was already working out, ran my fastest mile in Fiji over under 530, um, was using all their weights to go up and down this hill, do tons of squats.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So then when she came to me with this, you know, eating her food and goes, You have cerebral palsy, right?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, dude, you can run the Paralympics.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: The Paralympics are for those with disability.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: You qualify, you'll probably be a T38.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'll help you get connected with the people who can.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's a certain few stages you need to go through to make it onto the US team.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And she told me the process of running fast enough sanctioned meets to then qualify for nationals, which actually I'm leaving for nationals this year, tomorrow.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um flying to New York and then training, uh doing a 400 the next day.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So which we thought, so there was this step half laid out for me, which is I'm very grateful for.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Again, this is from the connections that I made to even get onto Survivor, to then meet her on an island in Fiji to be given this opportunity.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was truly blessed.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: But then I had to take it into my own hands and really walk that path and push myself towards these goals while also juggling, being in a family, having a social life, working to pay my bills, but then also training hard enough to be one of the best in the world, taking time off of work to go and compete, and then believing in myself well enough to be confident on that starting.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to run fast enough to make it to nationals, run fast enough to nationals to make it to an international championship, which was Paris World Championships, and run fast enough there to qualify for the Team USA team to then actually get paid for all the stuff that I'm already doing.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Long story short, that happened.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I did that.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Whether people thought it was a Cinderella story or not, which I had been told, I wore the slipper.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: I got it done.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it was definitely something that I, you know, didn't necessarily doubt myself.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, there were challenges to overcome.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: There was, you know, hurdles along the way of failure, of figuring things out and learning to be dumb enough to teach.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that in a way so that I understand in that moment that I am not the best at what I'm doing.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: I am not the best.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: When I started, I wasn't the best at all.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: I showed my coach one of the first sprints I had sent him, and he goes, wow.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was bad off.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, You came a long way.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it was knowing that I had a long way to go that allowed me to push and make positive decisions, whether they were small or they were big, eventually they piled up to reach that achievement.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a phenomenal series of events that, like you said, changed the course of my life and the life of those around me forever.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's incredible.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: So now you ran a mile in what time?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was in Fiji on the treadmill.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: I hit about 526.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's funny, my friend Leo Morel goes, yeah, a treadmill time that fast is even faster if you're running on the track.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't do that anymore.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Tell you right now, I'm a sprinter.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: I I had had endurance because I used to do 5K's.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: I used to do 10 mile runs with my mom.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: We used to cycle, but now I'm strictly sprints.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when my body starts doing anything over a mile, it's like, hey, our muscles don't know how to do this long stuff anymore.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna need to stop.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: So you you're now a tell our audience what a T38 sprinter is.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: So to start, you have to understand that the Paralympics and the Olympics are two separate events.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Olympics are for those top of the world competing from all over the world to be the best in their race or in their event, their discipline.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: The same thing is for the Paralympics for those with disability.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't stand for paraphlegic, it stands for para, which comes from, I think, the Greek, and it's parallel.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it runs parallel to the Olympics.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we run about a month after, and we do all the same events, but we're broken into classifications.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Classifications allows you to compete against people with similar disability so that you are not running next to somebody that is more disabled than you.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we never think of it as a way of saying, oh, I'm more disabled, but to level the playing field, you don't want somebody that's let's say has more mobility in their hips and arms, a T38 running against what is called a T35, which has hemiplegic and one or two limbs are majorly affected, and the passive range of motion of, let's say, their hips or their arm is almost stuck where it's at.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: So if you break it down, they're not going to be able, their best performance is hindered by their disability.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: So to level it out, you go through classification to then see what level of disability you have and what type of disability you have to put you in the same classification of people with the same or similar disability.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: That way you have a level playing field of competing your best and then making it to Paralympics, which is the world stage where you will be considered the best of the best.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, that is incredible.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm inspired just listening to I mean what you've overcome and in the I'm learning more in this conversation.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna turn it over to Erin, and she's gonna set the stage for um the next segment of yourself.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: Erin, it's all yours.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Take it away.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be here with you guys.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, Ryan, it's yeah, unbelievable.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Thomas already laid out the timeline, December 2022, the first training session, July 2023, World Championships, November 23, Parapan American Games Gold Medal in the 100, 2024, two silver mirrors at the Paris Paralympic Games.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: That timeline is almost impossible to believe.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: What did those 20 months actually look like?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And where did you what were you doing every single day to go from zero to, I mean, the Olympic stage in 20 months?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's unbelievable.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: So when I started, I still had a job that ran from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I was on my feet all day long at an electrical warehouse, pulling wire, making deliveries, driving a truck.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I was exhausted by the time I started, but I wasn't gonna let that stop.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it was dark outside and I had to run with a flashlight shining at me, but I was gonna get it done.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was communicating with Coach Mac, which at that time wasn't my solidified coach.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna stay with him regardless.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: But he was, he would critique what I would do, and then he'd say, Hey, this is what you're doing wrong.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is what you're aiming for.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: So then I would continue to improve and improve.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I did a lot, a lot of video analysis of how others ran, how I was running, what the difference was, and how to fix that.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: So then I did something called visualization training, which I can give that to my ADHD.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're always having a browser in the background processing something when you are obsessed with it.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm obsessed with running, obviously.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I would be at work and I literally would be pushing a cart, doing sprint form, getting my feet prepared.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: People would be like, What are you doing?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, uh, I have a dream to reach.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing sprint form.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, you're moving pretty fast, so it's not taking away from your work effort effort.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So go ahead.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I would be doing that, and then I'd get to the track, you know, exhausted after being on my feet for, you know, eight, nine hours, and I would do my workout.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then from there, I'd go to the gym, do a superset of either heavy explosive lifts with biometrics, and then I would try to recover as best as I could before I had to wake up the next day to go back to work.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this was a constant cycle of getting faster, which was very helpful in the mindset of I am moving towards something.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: I had a baseline of where I started and I had a goal of what I wanted to hit.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I continued to work towards that goal while always considering what that next step was.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't looking at it as necessarily a whole, I was looking at it as effort toward performance rather than effort towards an outcome, which allowed me to be able to appreciate the change each practice, the change between recs.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: I would even sit there and look at my video and go, okay, this rep was this fast.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to try to get a little bit faster that next rep.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I would continuously do that.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it would really push me to be able to get to a point where I came out to California where I'm at now and did a training camp with Coach Mac and goes, oh, okay, you you really are putting the work in, you really, you know, have a chance of doing this.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And um nationals, I ran before nationals, about two months before nationals, I ran twice Long Beach invitation on Mount Sack.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Mount Sac's Mount Sack's phenomenal.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I've hit my Instagram both times, first try and the 100.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then I go to sign up for Nationals.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And while I'm signing up, I learned that there's 100, 400, and long jump in my classification.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: I said, same price for three events, sign me up.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Did I train for long jump?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Did I train for 400?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Nah.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: But why not?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the 100 was first, and then the two after that are just another chance to really push myself to see where I'm at.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I ended up winning the long jump for nationals and then ran a phenomenal 400.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I qualified for Paris World Championships and then kept on going.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it really was about learning and adapting and being open to change and understanding that I have a goal, but performance and focusing on that each practice one thing at a time and manifesting that within my mind allowed me to reach that goal.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the power of visualization is incredible.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: You got like you have to believe it before it actually like I truly believe comes true.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: It follows whatever your belief is.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you won gold at the Parapan American Games before you ever stood on the Paralympic stage.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: What did winning feel like knowing you really?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Recently it started.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what did you change about how you saw, and how did that change about how you saw yourself as a competitor?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: So to give you a good perspective on that, I'd have to go back to World Championships Paris.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I got fifth, sixth, and seventh in the things that I did.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: I was coming off of a back injury.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: I had about five training sessions between nationals and then two months later, world championships.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I did as much as I could having that back injury so that I could be as confident as I could be.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: I knew I wasn't going to necessarily hit the podium very, very unlikely because of the reduced training, but I had a goal of hitting standard.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And hitting standard was what I did, which allowed me to continue being on the team and making money on the team.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this was important because to go to Paris Paralympics at work, they were like, hey, you either got to be here because you already were gone for Survivor, you're gone for track meets leading up to Nationals, and then you're gone at Nationals.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's either be here so that we can work with you and promote you and develop you as an employee, or run.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I love you guys.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're a phenomenal manager.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are all great, but I have to chase my dream, quite literally.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I can't hold back and have that regret in the back of my head because I will, you know, be in spite of myself for the rest of my life.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we had a good break, and then I can completely continue training.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, the money from Survivor came in.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to support myself in that time period.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: But man, did that really drive you when you're up against the wall to go, this needs to happen because you took that risk.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: You took that belief in yourself to be able to make it and shill out these other opportunities so that you can do what you believe you can do.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that pushed me to hit that standard and to make those turns.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then para Pan American came along.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that first gold medal, I passed the line and I looked surprised.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I passed, nobody here doesn't mean I got gold and it was a lecture feeling.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, I can do that, I can do this again.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I did.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: I got gold again.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was the hundred and the 400, which was great.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: I love that setup because you finish the hundred and you can go all out on the 400.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that hit those two golds, it was a big boost in a sense of confidence of yes, I've been putting in the work, but now it shows that it's paying off that I am actually becoming one of the best and the best, which helped drive and motivate me to go.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: I won.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's possible.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's possible to win.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's possible to continue getting better.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let's build on that.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I also understood, and I even did it in the Paralympics from that place and got set silver in my 100.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw my coach and he had the video.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of going, let's look at it to see how fast I went, I go, what can I improve?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not done here.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like immediately went to a state of, I appreciate what I've accomplished, but there's more work to be done, which is a dual uh-sided sword.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you can't do it too much.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have to take the time to actually appreciate yourself so you don't burn out.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I was only two years in.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I really had that drive to go, okay, I did great here.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: I placed, but it was three tenths of a second, three hundredths of a second between me and third place.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it really helped to motivate me to go.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: I won, but don't fixate and think you're the best because you're not the best yet.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: You're not the best yet.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's always, you know, more that you can do.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: So it helped to motivate me and gave me that that courage to go, this is possible, but keep digging and keep building.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's so important.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get to Paris and you won both the 100 and the 400 or got the silver, both times find your American teammate Jaden Blackwell.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: What does it feel like to stand on the Paralympic podium representing the United States, knowing that you had just started in December of 22?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a mix of emotions.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: My dad is uh was a military veteran.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: So to be able to represent my country and do something for my country, coming from that background, there was a sense of pride and joy to be able to hear that American anthem come on and put my hand over my heart to show appreciation for all of our military, for all of our country and all the athletes that come before me and after me.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it was joyful, joyous, like nothing I had seen before.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was bittersweet as well because my son was back home and literally the day after I got to Paris, he started walking.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So to really push myself, and because I know this career has sacrifices, such as me being here and away from him so that I can develop my career as an athlete and get sponsors and make money doing this so that I can spend more time with him in the long run.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: It is that bittersweet of I did this, I didn't choose the validation of the sacrifices I've made.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: It really was this weight lifted to make you feel like you are doing the right thing.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: You chase your dream and you accomplished this.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that mindset of let's keep going.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Once I was on that podium, I wasn't thinking what's next.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was enjoy this, you you achieved this, everybody that supported you, every person that you know pushed you forward, your coaches, your your teammates, your your parents, your family, your friends.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: We all did this.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: Though it's a singular, you know, event.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Without them, I wouldn't have made it.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a sense of appreciation, joy, and validation being up there on the podium.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's so awesome.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: With that, I'm gonna kick it back over to Thomas.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Aaron.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome, awesome.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's just remarkable.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Aaron.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, you're a team USA Paralympian, Parapan, Parapan American Games Gold Medalist, a 2024 Paralympic Silver Medalist, and a survivor alum.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: But beyond all that, who is Ryan Madrano?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Who and how do you define your character, your discipline, and your identity when your life has changed this this dramatically so fast?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: I am how I say it.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's more than just being an athlete.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: It goes back to connecting, like my beginnings, my roots, being able to break out of my shell and understand who I was and what I had to bring to the world.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was a sense of connecting with others, empathizing, sympathizing with others to create more light.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of hard things people go through, regardless of your background or your origin.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to use my talents to create a platform to share my story so people know things are possible.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Even through dark times, trials, and tribulations, there's always a chance for adversity and to overcome that adversity and to become better and create a life that you are happy with.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: So to even give background, even when I was a wrestler in high school, some of the best coaches would come to me and say, Hey, I you're one hell of a wrestler, but my my team says you're an even better person.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: The advice you give to them, even though you're not on their team, and the care you have for them when you see them lose and you go and console them, it's speaks volumes for you as in your character.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: And those are some of the compliments and some of the statements that feel even better than the silver medals, is the impact that I have in somebody's life beyond the sport, to actually reach into their life and change it, change their perspective of being open to optimism and being able to know that there are people around you and whether you know them deeply or not.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: But we're all human and have this sense of connection and have the ability to share that burden.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sharing the burden creates half the burden, sharing the love creates twice the love.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite statements.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it is about that connection.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: I am a person of joy.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: I love making people laugh.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: I love being there for my friends, being able to help people with anything.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you need a TV mounted, you need your tire change, and I know how to do it, I'm gonna be there for you.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I would like to be remembered as a dependable person that not only helped in a physical aspect help people along with their life, but in that psychological and spiritual aspect to feel like there was somebody akin to them.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: How about for someone right now who has a disability or a physical difference and has never been told they could compete at any level, what would you tell them?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, your story speaks for itself, but what would you tell them and what would you want them to do after listening to this episode?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Your limitations are based on your perspective.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Bingo.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Perspective is reality.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Regardless, everybody has a different perspective.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: And to them, that influences every decision making.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: So by being able to change that perception into what I call relentless optimism, allows you to see opportunities and to understand the world can work for you.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, is it gonna be easy?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Optimism sometimes is harder than being negative because you have to tell yourself you can do it and believe it at the same time.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: That starts in being able to have positive self-talk and be able to communicate how you feel to yourself and to those around you.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Without being able to do that, you're gonna be stuck in this hole of misunderstanding what you need for your growth and for you to develop.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna shut you off from so many opportunities.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, with that perspective shift, you're able to see opportunities, you're able to reach out and have the confidence to fail.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Send a DM to a coach to see, hey, how do I start this?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes people are scared to even send the DM.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, yeah, right?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like at the end of the day, if they don't respond, you're still the same.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing changed.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: But if they do respond, now you have this opportunity.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're in the next step.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have the courage to then continue each step.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: That is a daily task of building yourself up and understanding what you need and what you want to do, finding what you love to do and anchoring down on that and creating a community of people that, like I said, I created, can hold you accountable, but also be there for you to lean on.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: To be able to go to your coach or your loved one and say, hey, I'm operating on 50% today.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm sluggish, if I'm if I'm a little snappy, it's not you, it's me.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Be soft with me today.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Allows you to have a better day and a better outcome for those around you, creating an environment for you to flourish.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: So perspective change to allow you to have positive optimism, positive self-talk, and creating a community of people around you to help you get to your goals allows you to really do it in the most effective way possible.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's so awesome.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: So in 2025 World Championships in New Delhi, you won the silver again in the 100 meters.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think you mentioned earlier, are you going to nationals or worlds tomorrow?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: Nationals in New York.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Nationals in New York.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: So my question is, where are you now?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're in Tula Vista, so you're going to nationals.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: What are you chasing and what still needs to be built?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: And what does the next chapter look like?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: So right now, this season, I was, it's more of an off-season.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: So hitting standards, going to races, as keeping yourself tuned and working on the little things you need to change, trying new things and ironing them out, see if they work for you, because there is things that can change, but changing things might, you know, set me back a couple steps.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then I, you know, work from there.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: So this season is about consistently hitting standards, finding the synergy being here in Tula Vista with my coach, which was different from me previously training by myself, recording every video, and really finding out those next steps I need to take for next year.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: Next year is another world championship.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: And now you must go to a world championship to maybe qualified to go to a Paralympic Game.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about ironing out the details, figuring out, you know, my flaws, fixing those to then continue being fast, continue to be able to recover, and creating opportunity for not just myself, but other athletes as well.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Using my voice to advocate for Paralympians and Olympians so that opportunity can be created for our sport.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's important because without opportunity, there is no sport.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Without sponsorships, without prize money, we're stuck working on nine to five so that we can't hone in on our passion, which is trapping field or whatever sport you do.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: So really is about making connections while I'm here, changing lives.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've done nonprofit work.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: I've been working with nonprofit companies to help with team USA athletes.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I've also been creating opportunities for myself so that I can work in with you guys, quite literally.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I can work with people like yourselves to create opportunity for my me so that I can live a life that I want to live.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: You clearly had an incredible support group in your parents.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: So my question for parents raising a child right now with cerebral palsy or any physical difference, and they're watching you right now, wondering what's possible for their son or daughter, what would you say to them and what do you think your parents would say to them?
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: I would say communic always I always go back to communication.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry if I'm a broken record, but if they don't know how they feel and how they need to be helped, they can never express it to you.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: So ask questions, be there, and also don't necessarily baby us.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: My mom never babied me.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, 14-mile bike rides, learning how to swim before I could really walk.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Pushing us to understand that even with our disability, we can accomplish things and we can do things, allows us to have confidence.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: That confidence allows us to see ourselves in a different way.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: We don't see us as we are a disability.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: We see us as we have a disability, but you know, that doesn't define us.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: That just makes us have to approach things differently.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: So to parents that have children that have a disability, be there for them.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Learn as much as you can, be their advocate because you know it's hard for them.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: I when I grew up, I didn't have a role model like myself.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't, again, I didn't know about the Paralympics 24, 25.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: So by having and creating support groups or reaching out to people that are similar, such as myself, if that's Ru, Paul Z, I've done Zoom calls to talk to them so that they can be inspired.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've had fans that went from wheelchair to running 5Ks because they have been, you know, really motivated to go, I have a disability, but that's not going to stop me from doing something I am passionate about.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Will it look the same as the person next to you?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be proud of it.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that it's not something you can't accomplish.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: What my parents would say, that's a hard one.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: My parents were amazing, are amazing.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: Not we're amazing.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: They are amazing.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: They still, you know, we still text to this day.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: My mom was just asking me when I'm coming to visit.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: But they never allowed me to let me use my disability as a crutch.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: My dad actually worked towards him because, in my opinion, he is a great leader.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: So he was able to see my strengths and my weaknesses, being a military individual without having a military background.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, one day, uh to give you a little side story, on the back porch of our home in Missouri, he, I was very young, seven years old.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: So my cognitive and neurological function wasn't at its peak yet.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: So to teach me to have foresight to work towards for future goals or do things as a group to increase my productivity, he swept up a few piles on of dirt on the back porch.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Gave me a room and dustpin and go, hey, can you sweep that one up?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, again, if you remember, my parents go, he's processing it.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: So literally, my brain goes, I have to sweep up that pile with these.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: All right, do it.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: Done now.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: To me, the job is done.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: He comes back and he says, Now you're not in trouble.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: You did what I asked.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: But did you notice there was more piles that you could have accomplished without going, you know, above and beyond in the sense of breaking your back, but you have the ability to do more with the same amount of energy with that task.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to take that into how you approach things so that you can accomplish more for yourself and for those you care about without burning yourself out.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know, you know, things are hard, harder for you.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: Your processing speed is different.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if you can group these things together and learn how to anticipate what your next step should be, it'll allow you to work through the world a lot.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: My mom was always there, and that story stuck with me for the rest of my life.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't remember it.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: I asked him about it, and it's glued into the back of my brain.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think about it all the time.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I don't remember that.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, yeah, it was like 19, 20, 21 years ago.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh, it's definitely something that has stuck with me a whole lot.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: My mom never allowed my disability or her disability because when she was 33, she had a stroke, killed two-thirds of her brain.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: So she was also told she would never walk, never talk.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, I saw her as supermom.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: I still see her as super mom.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: But at 11 years old, it was hard to comprehend.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: But the more I learned for my mom, vice versa, and the more you learn for your kid, and the more you take the time to ask questions and go to, we went to traumatic brain injury groups to understand how other people's experiences affected them so that we can then one, have a sense of community and understand that you're not alone.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think one of the hardest things for her was going from a woman that supported her four children on her own, worked multiple jobs.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you told us she couldn't do anything, you were gonna get proven wrong to somebody that, you know, before she learned to use her hand again, because, you know, little foreshadowing, she learns to walk, talk, feed herself, do marathons, cycles, has her own business.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: She is refinishing a camper right now to make it a mobile gallery, but she was never supposed to walk on her own.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it is not impossible, but you have to create your own roadmap.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's not going to be somebody that's exactly like you.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes you have to think outside of the box.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: But with connecting with her and understanding that my disability, in the sense of processing and finding words and how stress affects me and how fatigue affects me, I was able to connect with my mother and use my experience to help her understand her disability.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember one time we were walking at this candlelight visual for cancer patients that were terminal.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: And she was having a hard time coming to grips with her disability.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, Why did this happen to me?
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Mom, I'm not trying to make light of your disability.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to make you feel any less because your feelings are valid.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: But every one of these candles are for somebody that might not make it.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that perspective shift of instead of thinking, why did this happen to me, to going, I survived and can make more of my life, I have this and I can do this with it, made her hug me and go, thank you so much for that.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we were able to then to really belt and understand that I'm just different now, and I can I can completely do things differently, and that's okay.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: So to make a long story short, be there for them, communicate with them, try to understand them.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Don't baby them, don't assume you know how they feel.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Listen.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes just listening without trying to get solutions is the best you can do as a parent.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's listen, be there, and and learn as much as you can.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's remarkable.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Clearly, your parents had an important impact and influence on you.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that, that they never let you use, if we can call it a disability as a crutch.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: They're just like, get get back, you know, get up, get it back into the game.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: On that one, I'm gonna turn it over to Aaron.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the rapid fire round.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron, take it away.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is a fun segment.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna start a sentence and you're gonna finish it for me, okay?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, let's see how I do.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, discipline equals.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Consistency.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: Without consistency, discipline doesn't matter because it's the consistent little things that get you up the mountain, not one big thing, one big thing there.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: So consistency.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, leadership equals.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: I would say a listener.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: You have to listen as a leader.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Understanding the people around you allows you to put them in the best position to succeed.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: So listening.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Faith equals grace.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: Being able to be faithful allows you to understand that, or at least for me, gives myself faith.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: I I have faith in myself, which allows me to understand I will fail, which gives me the understanding that grace is something I need to give myself.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're too hard on yourself, it's harder to get back up.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Legacy equals.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Legacy equals.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: I would say kindness, that is the way.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thing is, humans that we can give to one another that is irreplaceable.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Time goes, time passes by, money comes and goes.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: But one compliment can change the course of somebody's life forever.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it is somebody that's having a hard day, and in my experience, needed that compliment to make it through that day, or just completely just makes them smile and then pass that on, creating a butterfly.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: That legacy for me strongly resides in kindness, or at least that's one I want my legacy to be.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: What is one thing that you would never compromise on?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: That is, oh that is that is a hard one.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's a good question.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: My dreams, my goals.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's you know, not necessarily cliche, but I think compromising on your dreams allows you to leave room for regret.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you've if you believe you can do something, if you're truly in love with it, you will make it happen.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: Put yourself up against the wall in a corner and you will figure out how to do it.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's the amazing thing about the human spirit.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're indomitable.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: You we figure it out.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we drive around in cars when we used to ride horses.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: People have made phenomenal things when their backs are against the wall.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: So really, you know, take a chance on yourself and read great dreams.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's something I would never compromise on.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you could put a message on a billboard for the next generation of athletes, what would that message be?
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Your character speaks better.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: Your character speaks louder than your skill.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: The character of you as a person on and off the track will be talked about more than the accomplishers' accompliments, accomplishments you have in those important circles.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: Again, like I said, the compliments I got that really stuck with me are, you know, I helped change somebody's perspective and it helped them throughout the year to have a more positive year, even though it was a terrible year.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've had Nike representatives talking amongst themselves and saying, yeah, I wanted to reach out to Ryan.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: I remembered, I will never forget the smile he had on the podium on 2024.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is because my character was to share that joy of that medal.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: My character is to ask questions and genuinely want to learn about somebody because I care.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: But your character can do the opposite.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: It can bring it down, it can, you know, create gaps and lose opportunity, no matter how fast, how far you jump, or you know, how far you throw something.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: So your character speaks louder than your skill.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that might be our our billboard message for I love it.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is right.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your character speaks greater than any of your skills.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Thomas, follow that up.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I don't have to give a billboard.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's Ryan's billboard.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, Ryan, if so, if anybody listening to this or the people that are listening to this tonight, they're gonna say, my God, he has overcome so much.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: He's accomplished this, he's a he's not just a professional athlete, he's an Olympian, he must have it made in the shade, he's got it all figured out.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: But it's not true because you're human.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: At some point, you dealt with imposter syndrome.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: What did that feel like?
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: I assume you did.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: What did that feel like and how did you overcome it?
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: That is, yes, you definitely, you know, and it and that it doesn't even, it's not even a one-time thing, I feel, at least for me.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a one-time thing because you do, but I had 11 PRs in a row my first two years.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, you yeah, well, I was just starting, so it was easy to hit a PR.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now you hit that, you hit that, you know, you get to those speeds where it's harder to get faster than that, and you start, you have those slight doubts.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: Not, oh, I can't do this, but you know, you you have this, am I supposed to be here?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it really is about again looking inwards.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you thinking that?
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: Reflect on what you're doing on a day-to-day basis that's making you feel that way.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're succeeding off a talent, eventually somebody's determination and their consistency will outshine you, unless you're a phenomenon.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna say myself, uh, obviously I have a disability.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: Within two years, I was, you know, hadn't ran track in nine years to be second in the world in two different events.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: It was the consistent, my my voice that said I can do it, spoke louder than the voice that said I couldn't.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so it it is about being consistent and having that determination to follow through.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna start something, finish it.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um so following through, going to the end and really being consistent.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not doing the things you think you should be doing, that's probably why you feel that way.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you're slacking off, if you're not getting proper sleep, if you're not eating well, you're doing half reps at at practice, it's gonna feel like you shouldn't be there.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: But again, by being able to communicate and look inwards, you can find why you're doing these things.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: And finding out why allows you to change your habits to then correct the actions.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that will then affect your psychological health in the sense of, okay, I'm doing what I should be doing.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: The confidence is there.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not nearly mimicking, I am creating my own road, my own path to be my own athlete.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just sitting here in this interview right now, talking to you just with the shirt that you're wearing, our viewers will probably would probably think, oh man, this guy, you know, yeah, he's had it made.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's he's where he needs to be.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: But you're right, you you've overcome so much and you will continue to do that.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: So have you ever been starstruck?
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: And if so, who was who was the athlete or otherwise?
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can meet any Olympian right now, who would it be?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: Starstruck is gonna be when I first learned Noelle Lambert was Paralympian.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like I we started training together because she had to get back to national.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: She had lost weight, so her leg wasn't staying on because it's suction.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we were trying to get her back up in weight.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: She was eating a bunch of food training with me.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I kept, we were doing ab exercises and I was adjusting them because she has, you know, the below knee amputee.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I was thinking, this is so cool.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: My background in being a trainer allows me to train somebody that's a paralympian and has a disability because I can think outside the box because I've been a trainer before, and my life has led me to be able to think for people that have disability as well, to be inclusive because they're awesome too.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, I myself have a disability and then growing up with a mother that, you know, can't use her left hand, can't see through her left eye, and was told she'd never, you know, accomplished anything on her own.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now is kick ass.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: So to see her, I was like, she's awesome.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: Before I even knew she's a Paralympic, I was like, she's gonna be great on the show.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: That was my first one.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then my brain's drawn a blank.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: She's a 400 runner.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sydney, Sid Sydney McLaughlin.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sydney McLaughlin, when I first met her, I think it was the Internationals or Pre-Fontaines.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't help myself.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: I saw her and I was like, I'm a huge fan.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's like watching her run a 400, I was like, that looks majestic.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: Why can't I do it like that?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it helped me to be more aggressive towards my tempo runs to have less fear towards a four before I pay 400, because for me, it affects me different.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: So then psychologically, my brain's like, this is gonna lock up your hamstrings.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: You might not want to push too hard.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, you're gonna have to just push too hard because I gotta finish this phrase.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: So she was phenomenal.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if what who would I want to meet?
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan Reynolds.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to meet Ryan Reynolds.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great guy.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that would and I know it's not an athlete, but that is one of the people I would love to meet.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's Ryan Reynolds.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or Mike Tyson.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: That would be cool.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: I hear he's pretty fun.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: That is so awesome.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: I love you your humility to be able to share because you know, when we work with young athletes, imposter syndrome is real.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, the fact that you're able to share that in all your other colleagues on your on Team Olympia or on the Olympian, uh, American Olympic team, it's just it's nice to hear you share that with such humility.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just awesome.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then also to hear that like you get starstruck because a lot of these guys, they have to remember that you know, Tom Brady, Tom Brady wasn't always Tom Brady.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_02: Mike Tyson wasn't always Mike Tyson.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yes, they were, but they had to work for it, right?
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing ever gets handed to you.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_02: And that's exactly what you're getting on the plane tomorrow to go prove.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's not getting handed to you.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to earn it, you've got to work for it.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_02: And there's no shortcuts, there's no quick fixes, you're just gonna have to embrace the suck and do the work.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's awesome.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, where can people get a hold of you?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's a website, your social media handles, or an email.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: So my email is r-y-an-m-t-r-n at iCloud.com.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: First name, last name with no vowels at iCloud.com.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: All of my social media handles are fast underscore track182.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think my LinkedIn is Ryan Medrano.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: It'll pop up as well.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have any questions, whether you're an athlete, somebody trying to become an athlete, whether you need a speaker for speaking engagements, or just need somebody to reach out to, you know, I'm I'm there.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: I got you guys.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome, Ryan.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for showing us what happens when someone finds out what they're capable of and decides to run directly towards it.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: And you did just that.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Tim, if this conversation hits you, do two things for us.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_02: One, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: Someone who has been told their disability means a lower ceiling.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: A young athlete who can't get can't yet see how far they can actually go.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: A parent raising a child with cerebral palsy or another physical difference and wondering what it what is actually possible.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: And two, follow Ryan, get into his corner.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: He mentioned his social media handles.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: We'll drop it into the show notes here.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: He wants silver in Paris, he wants silver again in New Delhi.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: The story is not finished, and you want you want to be there to watch what comes next in the next chapter that it gets written.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're an athlete parent or coach ready to raise the standard, reach out to Aaron and myself at blueprintbluechip.com.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: We help athletes build identity, discipline, and a legacy that goes far beyond the game.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: Team, if this episode resonated with you, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: It helps us reach more athletes, parents, and leaders who need to hear Ryan's message.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: This is a standard podcast.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: This is a movement that only grows when we raise the standard together.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: Talent fades, but truth endures.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let's raise the bar, rebuild the culture, and become the standard.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, best of luck tomorrow.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're pulling for you.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: We're you're in our prayers, you're in our thoughts.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: As you get on the plane to head to Nashals, we'll be pulling for you.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_02: We we'll be reaching out and following you closely on your social media.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron, thank you so much for putting this together.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_02: You're an absolute magician to make this magic happen.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Aaron.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, thank you.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: Best of luck.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate you guys.