Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 220. Valarie Allman, Discus Olympic Champion

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220. Valarie Allman, Discus Olympic Champion · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Life is not linear. If you're gonna take on a
0:03
Speaker 1: really big, a really hairy, a really scary goal, it
0:07
Speaker 1: is going to be uncomfortable. But the process of being vulnerable,
0:12
Speaker 1: of being uncomfortable leads to actually potentially accomplishing it, but
0:17
Speaker 1: also finding meaning in what you're going after.
0:36
Speaker 2: What is going on? Emily A Body Here?
0:40
Speaker 3: You are listening to Hurdle, a Whileness focus podcast where
0:44
Speaker 3: I connect with everyone from your favorite athletes to top
0:47
Speaker 3: experts and industry CEOs about their highest highs, toughest moments,
0:51
Speaker 3: and everything in between. We all go through hurdles in life,
0:55
Speaker 3: and my goal through these discussions is to empower you
0:58
Speaker 3: to better navigate yours and move with intention so that
1:02
Speaker 3: you can stride towards your own big potential and of
1:05
Speaker 3: course have some fun along the way. For today's episode,
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Speaker 3: number two hundred and twenty, I am chatting with Valerie Allmon.
1:15
Speaker 3: She's an ASEX discus athlete. She's also an Olympic champion,
1:20
Speaker 3: and I was so so lit for this conversation. Val
1:26
Speaker 3: and I first crossed paths this year at the World Championships,
1:30
Speaker 3: and we actually have a lengthy discussion about her performance
1:36
Speaker 3: at World. She went into that meet with a goal
1:39
Speaker 3: of snagging the gold, and ultimately it came.
1:42
Speaker 2: Out with a bronze.
1:44
Speaker 3: Now, for Val, that has been something that has been
1:47
Speaker 3: emotionally difficult to work through, and of course we talk
1:51
Speaker 3: about that.
1:52
Speaker 2: We talk about.
1:53
Speaker 3: What it's like to fall short of your goals and
1:56
Speaker 3: the importance that is having greece with yourself when things
2:00
Speaker 3: don't go as planned. I really really loved VAL's perspective
2:04
Speaker 3: on this and her vulnerability and admitting that she aimed
2:08
Speaker 3: high and it didn't go as she'd hoped. She also
2:12
Speaker 3: shares with us how she got into throwing in the
2:16
Speaker 3: first place, not necessarily something she dreamed of doing from
2:20
Speaker 3: a young age. She ties some really interesting parallels between
2:24
Speaker 3: throwing the discus and one of her first loves, which
2:28
Speaker 3: is dance, and we also chat about her journey to
2:32
Speaker 3: body acceptance and learning to love her body and all
2:35
Speaker 3: that it is capable of as such a strong athlete.
2:39
Speaker 3: Val also shed some light on the type of training
2:43
Speaker 3: what she's doing on the regular to be such a
2:47
Speaker 3: stellar discus athlete, and she also gives us some context
2:50
Speaker 3: which is really helpful on what is a quote unquote
2:55
Speaker 3: good distance throw in terms of discus and also maybe
3:00
Speaker 3: dispels some of the myths or preconceived notions you might
3:06
Speaker 3: have about.
3:07
Speaker 2: What it really means to be a discus athlete.
3:12
Speaker 3: I said it before, I'll say it again, the really
3:15
Speaker 3: candid way that Val speaks about her big goals, her aspirations,
3:20
Speaker 3: how she's felt along her journey being the best of
3:24
Speaker 3: the best in her sport. It's a good reminder for me,
3:27
Speaker 3: and I would say it's a good reminder for us
3:29
Speaker 3: all that no matter how.
3:31
Speaker 2: Quote unquote good you are, you're still.
3:33
Speaker 3: Going to have bad days, and it is up to
3:36
Speaker 3: each and every one of us to pick ourselves up
3:39
Speaker 3: and move forward knowing that there is more for us
3:43
Speaker 3: out there. Also got ATASA huge thank you into the
3:46
Speaker 3: mix too, my friends at Asex, VAL's sponsor for helping
3:50
Speaker 3: to set this up. I am so appreciative. Make sure
3:53
Speaker 3: you're following along with Hurdle over on the socials. That's
3:56
Speaker 3: at Curdle Podcast. I am over at Emily a Body
4:00
Speaker 3: and with that, let's get to hurdling.
4:15
Speaker 2: Today.
4:15
Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Valerie Allman that she is
4:19
Speaker 3: a discus athlete. I'm so amped to have you on
4:24
Speaker 3: the show. She's an Olympic gold medalist. She recently won
4:27
Speaker 3: the bronze at the World Championships.
4:29
Speaker 2: How are you doing today, I'm doing good.
4:31
Speaker 1: I'm so so excited to be here with you and
4:33
Speaker 1: excited chat today.
4:35
Speaker 3: I know I'm amped. I know that you don't do
4:38
Speaker 3: many podcasts.
4:40
Speaker 1: You're definitely right about that. This is my second one,
4:43
Speaker 1: so I'm excited.
4:45
Speaker 3: I like hunting for like the rare gems that need
4:49
Speaker 3: their voice in the Apple Podcasts catalogs.
4:52
Speaker 1: Personally, I've been asked to do quite a few, but
4:55
Speaker 1: I always I get kind of nervous. So I'm gonna
4:58
Speaker 1: rely on you today to to help me get my
5:00
Speaker 1: story out there.
5:01
Speaker 3: This is my purpose, is to make you more comfortable
5:04
Speaker 3: before we really dive in, just so I have a
5:07
Speaker 3: baseline of where we're at.
5:10
Speaker 2: How are you really doing right now?
5:12
Speaker 3: How do you feel right now coming off of Worlds
5:15
Speaker 3: leaving soon for your final meat of the twenty twenty
5:18
Speaker 3: two season.
5:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think the answer is a bit complicated.
5:24
Speaker 1: In some ways, I feel happy and content with where
5:30
Speaker 1: I'm at. In some ways, I feel at the moment
5:34
Speaker 1: like I've left some things on the table this past season,
5:37
Speaker 1: which kind of pulls at my heart. But I'm excited
5:40
Speaker 1: to go after these last few competitions and then have
5:42
Speaker 1: some time to reset. I think that that's going to
5:45
Speaker 1: be really nice to kind of to hunker down and
5:49
Speaker 1: also just like kind of shake off some of the
5:52
Speaker 1: stress you feel when you're going after your passion to
5:55
Speaker 1: be able to really reset for twenty twenty three.
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Speaker 3: This is definitely a topic I wanted to talk with
6:00
Speaker 3: you about because from the outside looking in, there was
6:06
Speaker 3: no doubt from both the content that you posted and
6:11
Speaker 3: the content that your coach shared, that the both of
6:15
Speaker 3: you had just like these crazy big goals and dreams
6:20
Speaker 3: for what was going to happen at Worlds. And again,
6:23
Speaker 3: as someone looking in to see you podium at Worlds
6:29
Speaker 3: is so remarkable, notably because you're the first American to
6:33
Speaker 3: podium at Worlds.
6:34
Speaker 1: Ever so to your point, right, I mean, it is
6:37
Speaker 1: so tough to fall fall short of big goals, right,
6:39
Speaker 1: But you know it is after the event kind of
6:42
Speaker 1: has passed that you can see some of the silver
6:44
Speaker 1: linings and the things that you wouldn't expect to find
6:49
Speaker 1: meaning in, you know, And I mean, as I said
6:51
Speaker 1: that a lot, it does feel pretty special. You know,
6:54
Speaker 1: sometimes when you're going for something and you don't get
6:56
Speaker 1: it the first try, and you know it would have
6:57
Speaker 1: been really great to walk away with gold. But we
7:00
Speaker 1: make the joke now the bronze medals just rose gold.
7:03
Speaker 2: But have you always been this hard on yourself?
7:08
Speaker 1: It is my nature, you know, to be definitely self
7:11
Speaker 1: critical and also struggle to like talk about accomplishments, you know.
7:15
Speaker 1: I think like it's so easy to always want more,
7:20
Speaker 1: you know, and I think like as you get close
7:22
Speaker 1: to that, it becomes difficult to be able to focus
7:27
Speaker 1: on like what you've done to get where you are,
7:30
Speaker 1: because there's always just that next thing. And I think
7:32
Speaker 1: that's really like I feel like we're with where I'm
7:34
Speaker 1: at in my career. The number one thing that I'm
7:36
Speaker 1: struggling with is like being able to appreciate the accomplishments
7:41
Speaker 1: and the challenge that's led to being to growing, to
7:45
Speaker 1: maturing to being where I'm at, but also not putting
7:48
Speaker 1: so much pressure that in order to be accomplished. It's
7:51
Speaker 1: really the next thing that matters.
7:53
Speaker 3: Watching you and seeing the strides that you've made in
7:59
Speaker 3: your sport. But I was so excited to have you
8:02
Speaker 3: on the show because a I've never had someone that
8:07
Speaker 3: competes in discus on the show, but b your athleticism
8:12
Speaker 3: really does. It's not summed up but by what we
8:15
Speaker 3: see out there. And that's really where I want to
8:18
Speaker 3: start us off, because in order to succeed and do
8:22
Speaker 3: well in discus, there are so many things that we
8:27
Speaker 3: don't see that you have to work on. So can
8:30
Speaker 3: you talk to us a little bit about what training
8:33
Speaker 3: for your event actually looks like?
8:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, I mean, thank you so much also for
8:40
Speaker 1: branching out, you know, I mean it is like hard
8:43
Speaker 1: to sometimes know how to talk about discus right when
8:46
Speaker 1: it's like not obviously the most common sport. So thank
8:50
Speaker 1: you for having me. I love to like share about
8:54
Speaker 1: what I do and what it looks like. So much
8:57
Speaker 1: of throwing is like a very technical, rhythmic sport. You know,
9:01
Speaker 1: it takes about a second and a half to throw
9:03
Speaker 1: a discus, but your body is moving through a bunch
9:07
Speaker 1: of different positions where you're trying to build as much
9:11
Speaker 1: power as you can. So the number one way we
9:13
Speaker 1: train discuss is by throwing the discus. We do a
9:16
Speaker 1: lot of that, and we'll use different tools to do it.
9:20
Speaker 1: So some a discuss is one kilogram, So sometimes we'll
9:23
Speaker 1: do underweight stuff or overweight things, and then we do
9:27
Speaker 1: a lot of Olympic lifting. It's actually like one of
9:30
Speaker 1: my favorite parts of training is being in the gym
9:34
Speaker 1: and getting stronger moving a barbell, and then we do
9:39
Speaker 1: a lot of fitness things, a lot of biking, swimming, sprints, plios.
9:44
Speaker 1: My coach has the philosophy that, like, in order to
9:47
Speaker 1: be a really great discusstar, you have to be a
9:49
Speaker 1: really great athlete, So it's really having a well rounded
9:54
Speaker 1: kind of base of training that leads to being able
9:56
Speaker 1: to perform at a high level.
9:59
Speaker 3: Did you think before getting involved in discus that you
10:05
Speaker 3: wanted to get involved in discus?
10:07
Speaker 2: How did this kind of happen for you?
10:10
Speaker 1: No, it was totally by surprise. I think no one
10:14
Speaker 1: plans to be a professional discus star. You know, it's
10:17
Speaker 1: such a like there's like probably I mean there's actually
10:20
Speaker 1: like three women in the US like trying to do
10:22
Speaker 1: it right now, so it is pretty niche For me.
10:25
Speaker 1: My story, it is like still so crazy. I ended
10:29
Speaker 1: up finding such a rewarding passion. Growing up, I was
10:32
Speaker 1: really into dance. There used to be a TV show
10:35
Speaker 1: called So you think you can dance, and when I
10:37
Speaker 1: was going into high school, I actually got invited to
10:39
Speaker 1: travel with them, and it was awesome. I would go
10:43
Speaker 1: to high school during the week and then on the
10:44
Speaker 1: weekends I would go travel and be with the choreographers
10:48
Speaker 1: and it was a really like special time. But my brother,
10:52
Speaker 1: he was a senior on the track team, and he said,
10:55
Speaker 1: you know, Val, I think you should do something that's
10:57
Speaker 1: also like part of the school. And I was like, yeah, actually,
11:00
Speaker 1: like I feel like that would be really great. So
11:03
Speaker 1: he went and talked to the chat coach and she said,
11:05
Speaker 1: you know, just come whenever you can, and you have
11:07
Speaker 1: other commitments. And I tried a bunch of different events,
11:10
Speaker 1: this prince high jump, long jump, and nothing really clicked.
11:14
Speaker 1: And the throwers were getting ready to have their annual
11:17
Speaker 1: spaghetti dinner and they said that anybody that came and
11:19
Speaker 1: tried throwing could come to the dinner, and something about
11:22
Speaker 1: that got me, and I was so excited. I went
11:25
Speaker 1: and tried it and just found that I kind of
11:26
Speaker 1: had a weird knack for discuss right from the start.
11:30
Speaker 1: And I mean, looking back, it's not definitely the best
11:32
Speaker 1: spaghetti I've ever had in my entire.
11:34
Speaker 3: Life, but you know, it's funny to me because even
11:38
Speaker 3: earlier I believe that you described it as rhythmic, so
11:40
Speaker 3: clearly you at some point started to tie parallels between
11:45
Speaker 3: this thing that you were so passionate in dance and
11:48
Speaker 3: then this sport that you were just kind of feeling out.
11:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, totally. My brain at first was like, Okay,
11:55
Speaker 1: this is choreography. My left arm goes here and my
11:57
Speaker 1: right leg goes here, and it did feel so much
12:00
Speaker 1: so like a dance when I was learning early on.
12:04
Speaker 3: When you started, do you remember any hesitations you had?
12:09
Speaker 1: They're part of me struggled with, you know, the stereotype
12:13
Speaker 1: of being a thrower. I think I felt aware and honestly,
12:17
Speaker 1: kind of what I had prevented me early on was,
12:19
Speaker 1: you know, there haven't been like there's just not a
12:22
Speaker 1: lot of positive role models that I felt like existed
12:26
Speaker 1: in the sport or that I truthfully really knew about
12:28
Speaker 1: at the time. You know, being a thrower was kind
12:31
Speaker 1: of like you know, I've at least in my high school.
12:36
Speaker 1: You know, it kind of made me feel like I
12:37
Speaker 1: was an athletic just by like doing the sport, and
12:40
Speaker 1: I did think I felt that in the back of
12:42
Speaker 1: my mind.
12:43
Speaker 2: But once I.
12:43
Speaker 1: Started doing it, it was actually like so fun. There
12:46
Speaker 1: was something so great about like how black and white
12:49
Speaker 1: it was. Right, it was like just a distance where
12:51
Speaker 1: it landed. You could tell when you're getting better, right,
12:54
Speaker 1: it was so easy to track that. Once I kind
12:56
Speaker 1: of got bast that notion, it only really ended up
13:00
Speaker 1: being energizing and such a fun competitive outlet.
13:06
Speaker 3: Aside from that stigma of being unathletic, where there are
13:11
Speaker 3: other stigmas that were associated with throwing that we should
13:13
Speaker 3: be in the loupan.
13:17
Speaker 1: I'm not sure there's like other stigmas. You know. There's
13:22
Speaker 1: a movie called Matilda, you know, and I don't know
13:25
Speaker 1: if you know Miss trench Bowl, but she's like, of
13:27
Speaker 1: course I do, yeah, you know. I mean I think like,
13:30
Speaker 1: unfortunately Miss trench Bowl is like the stereotype, you know,
13:35
Speaker 1: and I think that that really like that captures what
13:39
Speaker 1: like when you are a fifteen year old, sixteen year
13:42
Speaker 1: old girl, when that's like what you're kind of being,
13:45
Speaker 1: like think you're you're trending towards it's hard to feel confident,
13:49
Speaker 1: you know. But I mean, I think for me, that
13:52
Speaker 1: was really kind of the biggest hurdle of like what
13:55
Speaker 1: prevented me from wanting to lean into it and let
13:58
Speaker 1: it be part of my identity at first.
14:01
Speaker 3: Right, So, as this becomes part of your identity as
14:04
Speaker 3: you get more involved with discus, do you start to
14:09
Speaker 3: lean away from dance or how does that balance out
14:11
Speaker 3: for you? Yeah?
14:13
Speaker 1: I mean in about a year, I really started to
14:19
Speaker 1: lean way more into track and field than to dance.
14:23
Speaker 1: You know, there is something that was so special about
14:28
Speaker 1: like doing a sport that also could lead to going
14:31
Speaker 1: to college and too university was ended up being something
14:34
Speaker 1: that was really motivating to me. You can go to
14:38
Speaker 1: school and study dance, you know, which is great, but
14:41
Speaker 1: to have an outlet that led to me being able
14:45
Speaker 1: to potentially go to a university where I could study
14:48
Speaker 1: a degree that I was really interested became such a
14:51
Speaker 1: driver for me and really led to me wanting to
14:54
Speaker 1: pursue track and field.
14:55
Speaker 2: Wow.
14:56
Speaker 3: So as you start to realize what doors the discus
15:00
Speaker 3: can open for you, would you say that you excelled
15:03
Speaker 3: at the sport early on?
15:06
Speaker 1: I think there was something that was a really natural fit,
15:10
Speaker 1: especially early on about with discuss and kind of the
15:13
Speaker 1: way my body was and what my previous experiences were.
15:17
Speaker 1: I was so motivated. I mean, you know, me being
15:21
Speaker 1: a competitive person, I loved that because it was such
15:23
Speaker 1: as measurable sport. I could go online and see like
15:28
Speaker 1: what everyone my age was throwing, you know, and being
15:30
Speaker 1: able to track that and wanting to improve on that list.
15:35
Speaker 3: It was.
15:36
Speaker 1: It led to me wanting to like continue to push
15:39
Speaker 1: and want to continue to learn to be able to
15:41
Speaker 1: try to climb up that list so that I could
15:44
Speaker 1: really help my chances by the time I was a
15:46
Speaker 1: senior to go to a school that I was really
15:48
Speaker 1: really excited about.
15:51
Speaker 3: And you mentioned earlier that there are a few women
15:54
Speaker 3: that are trying to come up in the ranks. Now,
15:56
Speaker 3: when you started out, was there a plethora of people
15:59
Speaker 3: to come against or did you feel like the field
16:01
Speaker 3: was really narrow?
16:03
Speaker 1: I mean in high school it's actually I mean, it
16:06
Speaker 1: is such a popular sport and thousands and thousands of girls,
16:10
Speaker 1: you know, throw the discuss around the nation, and I mean,
16:14
Speaker 1: now I'm so aware that thousands more throw it around
16:18
Speaker 1: the world, which is actually really cool, but I mean
16:20
Speaker 1: it kind of it sorts itself out. In order to
16:23
Speaker 1: make it to university, right, you have to be in
16:25
Speaker 1: that top few percent in order to try to make
16:27
Speaker 1: it as a professional. You have to be in the
16:30
Speaker 1: narrowest of margins in order to really be able to
16:32
Speaker 1: make it a living. But I think that's just the
16:35
Speaker 1: nature of right time, and what it takes in order
16:39
Speaker 1: to really be at the top of your craft is
16:43
Speaker 1: just being as devoted as you can to want to
16:46
Speaker 1: make maximize every little bit of potential you have.
16:49
Speaker 2: What did you decide to study in college?
16:54
Speaker 1: I studied mechanical engineering with a focus in product design.
16:58
Speaker 3: Casual Did you foresee this being more than a sport
17:05
Speaker 3: that you played in college, or did you foresee yourself
17:08
Speaker 3: going down a path of utilizing that degree.
17:12
Speaker 1: I totally thought I was going to use my degree.
17:16
Speaker 1: I honestly thought discausse would help me get to college,
17:19
Speaker 1: And I mean I was really excited to compete for
17:21
Speaker 1: Stanford and want to be part of like a team
17:23
Speaker 1: and do well. But I very much so thought that,
17:27
Speaker 1: you know, the degree I would study, you would end
17:29
Speaker 1: up what I would end up using, you know, for
17:32
Speaker 1: my time after university. That it really ended up surprising me,
17:38
Speaker 1: you know now looking back that I'm still throwing the
17:41
Speaker 1: discuss and it's also incredibly rewarding. But it's one of
17:45
Speaker 1: those things where it's kind of sometimes you have to
17:47
Speaker 1: let life guide you and even when it doesn't seem
17:51
Speaker 1: like maybe what you should be doing, you know. Obviously
17:54
Speaker 1: I was super excited to use my degree and had
17:58
Speaker 1: some exciting opportunities, but it just it didn't feel right,
18:02
Speaker 1: And sometimes you have to trust your heart when you
18:04
Speaker 1: pursue a different path.
18:06
Speaker 3: Were you trying to fit your school into your training
18:08
Speaker 3: schedule or your training schedule into your schooling?
18:12
Speaker 2: Gosh, that's such a good question.
18:15
Speaker 1: I think during at the time, I felt like I
18:19
Speaker 1: was more trying to fit my training into school, especially
18:23
Speaker 1: like at first, you know, I mean so much of
18:26
Speaker 1: like how you become influenced, right is just what you're
18:29
Speaker 1: surrounded by. And at Stanford it was incredible to be
18:33
Speaker 1: around so many people that were brilliant and so devoted
18:37
Speaker 1: to their passions, you know, and being in such an
18:40
Speaker 1: academic place right, like the focus was on academia that
18:44
Speaker 1: I think it felt like the thing right to like
18:49
Speaker 1: obviously want to prioritize school and I love learning. It
18:52
Speaker 1: was like incredible, But you know, something about like athletics
18:57
Speaker 1: and particularly discuss for me, always ended up like pulling
19:00
Speaker 1: me more into the sport. And especially like you know,
19:05
Speaker 1: it's so hard to fight the feeling of like not
19:08
Speaker 1: just passion, right, but like results. You know, when you
19:11
Speaker 1: feel like you are getting closer to being who you
19:16
Speaker 1: want to be, your that accolade that like you've seen
19:19
Speaker 1: in the future and want to chase. I think that
19:21
Speaker 1: that is what like discuss has been for me, is
19:24
Speaker 1: because it is such an objective sport, right, like when
19:27
Speaker 1: you do hit big milestones, when you walk away as
19:31
Speaker 1: a champion or a winner or an All American, right
19:33
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be about winning, you know, it
19:35
Speaker 1: feels so good, and Discuss just always had a way
19:40
Speaker 1: of bringing me back. And I think by the time
19:41
Speaker 1: I graduated, school was always important, but it was definitely
19:47
Speaker 1: a bit more of figuring out how school can fit
19:50
Speaker 1: into training.
19:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, and about that about the setting big goals and
19:57
Speaker 3: going after them and envisioning what you're potential could be.
20:01
Speaker 3: I think it's important to note that that ebbs and
20:03
Speaker 3: flows and those goals shift over time. So to your
20:07
Speaker 3: point about really thinking that you were going to leave
20:11
Speaker 3: and use your mechanical engineering degree versus what your goal
20:15
Speaker 3: shifted to be. That's really powerful to be able to
20:19
Speaker 3: have that honest conversation with yourself, wouldn't you agree.
20:23
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, totally, you know. And I think sometimes
20:27
Speaker 1: it also takes like, you know, finding a mentor they
20:31
Speaker 1: can also help you realize what you're capable of. It's like,
20:35
Speaker 1: it's so easy to think like on a small scale,
20:38
Speaker 1: you know, of what you think your potential is right,
20:41
Speaker 1: or think too big you know, and not know how
20:43
Speaker 1: to close that gap. But when you find yourself in
20:46
Speaker 1: a situation where you're moving like consistently in the direction
20:50
Speaker 1: you want to go, that's when I think you have
20:52
Speaker 1: to lean into it, you know, but that you are
20:55
Speaker 1: that does totally ebb and flow, and it's about recognizing
20:59
Speaker 1: like if you're consistent in your lifestyle and your choices
21:03
Speaker 1: and what you're prioritizing, it'll always end up coming back
21:06
Speaker 1: to you and you'll keep making traction. But it is
21:09
Speaker 1: it is scary, you know, to lean into something when
21:12
Speaker 1: you know it's not going to be given to you.
21:14
Speaker 3: For granted, it's interesting your point about having to recognize
21:21
Speaker 3: when maybe you're thinking too big. That gave me a
21:25
Speaker 3: moment of pause. It made me wonder, is that a thing? Like, yes,
21:32
Speaker 3: it's a thing, right, But who's to tell anyone what
21:37
Speaker 3: too big really is.
21:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, the truth is I feel like it's human nature, right,
21:42
Speaker 1: Like you end up telling yourself right at some point
21:46
Speaker 1: when you have doubt or fear, right that like you're
21:48
Speaker 1: the one that's streaming too big, you know, and I think,
21:51
Speaker 1: unfortunately that's the voice that like is the scariest to hear.
21:55
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean it's right. You know, Like being free,
21:58
Speaker 1: being willing to like let yourself think those things is
22:01
Speaker 1: so important. It's essential, right if you actually want to
22:04
Speaker 1: get even close. You know, sometimes coming close to like
22:08
Speaker 1: a crazy goal is a huge milestone, but it is
22:12
Speaker 1: so easy to get in your own way.
22:15
Speaker 3: It seems as though if I was to bring us
22:17
Speaker 3: back to the top of our conversation, that you're in
22:20
Speaker 3: that position right now, not to skip around too much,
22:23
Speaker 3: because I do want to talk about the beginning of
22:24
Speaker 3: your career, but to think about this massive accomplishment that
22:28
Speaker 3: you just had, like you dared to dream so big.
22:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I mean you're right.
22:35
Speaker 1: I do. I feel really proud of what the accomplishment
22:39
Speaker 1: of our our twenty two World Athletic Championships was, But
22:44
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's making for a meaningful journey, you know,
22:49
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, I think that
22:51
Speaker 1: is what I hope I feel the end of my career,
22:54
Speaker 1: at the end of you know, my life, right is
22:57
Speaker 1: that like it's it's been a journey, a special one,
23:01
Speaker 1: and I definitely think my time in Eugene made for
23:06
Speaker 1: some moments that are gonna make it all the more
23:09
Speaker 1: impactful when I look back on my time as a
23:13
Speaker 1: disc starer and my time on dis Planet.
23:16
Speaker 2: It got detail that.
23:18
Speaker 3: So back to looking back on the beginning of your career,
23:22
Speaker 3: talk to me about what it was like to graduate
23:24
Speaker 3: college knowing that this is the basket that you wanted
23:28
Speaker 3: to really put your eggs into. What did that look
23:31
Speaker 3: like for you and how were you finding financial support
23:35
Speaker 3: stability during that time.
23:37
Speaker 1: So at the time, I had just turned down an
23:41
Speaker 1: offer to go work full time at Microsoft and was
23:44
Speaker 1: deciding to be a Discus Star. I had a coaching
23:47
Speaker 1: change happen before I was going into my senior year, Zebulanzi,
23:52
Speaker 1: and he's actually my current coach. He took the job
23:54
Speaker 1: at Stanford and it was really worth working together with
23:57
Speaker 1: him that I found like one and someone that just
24:01
Speaker 1: like saw so much potential in me, which was really exciting,
24:03
Speaker 1: but also was helping me like figure out how to
24:07
Speaker 1: actually like accomplish that, which was awesome. That season, I
24:11
Speaker 1: improved by like I think it was like almost fourteen
24:15
Speaker 1: feet four meters and earned a spot to make my
24:19
Speaker 1: first World Championships, which was like a really big step.
24:23
Speaker 2: And kind of in development.
24:26
Speaker 1: And as I was graduating, I think in my heart
24:30
Speaker 1: I found that like the number one thing that I
24:32
Speaker 1: still felt like I wanted to accomplish was becoming an Olympian.
24:36
Speaker 1: At the time, it was twenty eighteen, so I felt
24:39
Speaker 1: like in two more years I would be in a
24:41
Speaker 1: really good spot to be able to earn that title.
24:46
Speaker 1: But then everything went crazy. Zebulan ended up getting offered
24:50
Speaker 1: a job at the University of Texas, So within like
24:53
Speaker 1: a week of graduation, I was moving down south, and
24:58
Speaker 1: all of the familiarity I knew the Bay Area was
25:01
Speaker 1: totally gone. So I found myself like honestly starting from
25:07
Speaker 1: a pretty pretty clean slate relative to figuring out what
25:12
Speaker 1: life was going to look like as an elite discus thrower,
25:15
Speaker 1: And there really was not a lot of financial support,
25:19
Speaker 1: you know, so much of it was a huge leap
25:23
Speaker 1: of faith to think, like Okay, if I can have
25:27
Speaker 1: a good season six months from now, right, I can
25:29
Speaker 1: be able to earn money and kind of be able
25:32
Speaker 1: to cover my costs. But it was relying on USA
25:37
Speaker 1: Track and Field. I was so fortunate to be sponsored
25:39
Speaker 1: by a company called Wazel, which really believes in empowering women.
25:44
Speaker 1: They have like an incredible bond and culture that they
25:48
Speaker 1: call their sisterhood, and they provided some financial support. But
25:52
Speaker 1: it really was just trying to come up with the
25:54
Speaker 1: lifestyle of training, recovery, nutrition, learning things that like I
25:59
Speaker 1: didn't have the time to do when I was at Stanford,
26:01
Speaker 1: to just be able to be consistent and healthy, and
26:05
Speaker 1: working with my coach to figure out, like, Okay, how
26:08
Speaker 1: can we now that this is like all that I'm doing,
26:11
Speaker 1: how can we continue to really like make huge strides?
26:15
Speaker 1: And it ended up being awesome. I improved another three meters
26:18
Speaker 1: that season and felt like I really was actually like
26:23
Speaker 1: going to be able to live and survive as a
26:27
Speaker 1: professional discuss star of that first year.
26:29
Speaker 2: When did asex come into the mix?
26:32
Speaker 1: AAIX came into the mix in January of twenty twenty one.
26:39
Speaker 1: At the end, well, it was actually kind of truthfully,
26:42
Speaker 1: in the middle of the pandemic when the Olympics got
26:44
Speaker 1: postponed and we were just training with kind of really
26:47
Speaker 1: no objective. One meat ended up materializing. It was a
26:53
Speaker 1: super small meat in Idaho, and I went with my coach,
26:58
Speaker 1: my mom, and my tiny puppy at the time. Came
27:02
Speaker 1: and there was five people in the discs competition and
27:07
Speaker 1: I ended up throwing the American record at that meet.
27:10
Speaker 1: It was a super small, intimate setting, but it was
27:13
Speaker 1: so special to be able to feel like that time
27:17
Speaker 1: period of just like putting in the work of like
27:21
Speaker 1: renewing my passion ended up materializing in such a special moment.
27:27
Speaker 1: A six then came into my life and they wanted
27:32
Speaker 1: to sponsor me, and you know, it's been incredible. They've
27:35
Speaker 1: been so authentic and genuine. They've really cared about like
27:39
Speaker 1: my well being, which has been awesome, and it's been
27:43
Speaker 1: such an incredible partnership that's led to some really special moments,
27:48
Speaker 1: and I feel so lucky to be with the brand.
27:50
Speaker 3: In the exposure that I've had to A six, it
27:52
Speaker 3: seems like that's a through line that like they care
27:55
Speaker 3: about my whole well being and knowing that their whole
28:00
Speaker 3: tagline is sound Mind, Sound body. How would you say
28:04
Speaker 3: that you give back to your body when you're off
28:08
Speaker 3: the field.
28:09
Speaker 1: I wholeheartedly believe that the body follows the mind. Where
28:13
Speaker 1: you're at and where your headspace is, like that will
28:15
Speaker 1: totally lead your life. I think for me, it's like
28:19
Speaker 1: it's just reconnecting with like with your roots, reconnecting with
28:23
Speaker 1: the other parts of yourself that for me isn't sports,
28:27
Speaker 1: you know, whether that's like my dog or going for
28:30
Speaker 1: a walk, or cooking a new recipe or being with
28:33
Speaker 1: friends and family. It's like those smaller connecting pieces of
28:38
Speaker 1: life that end up giving you such deep meaning. And
28:41
Speaker 1: for me, it's that's really how I've tried to find balance.
28:44
Speaker 3: Before we go on, I think it could be helpful
28:47
Speaker 3: if you give some context as to what your farthest
28:52
Speaker 3: throw has been, and maybe if we could kind of
28:55
Speaker 3: get an understanding for what an average throw could be.
29:00
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, my personal best I sat in April of
29:05
Speaker 1: this year, and it's seventy one meters and forty six centimeters,
29:09
Speaker 1: which I think is two hundred and thirty four feet,
29:14
Speaker 1: And that was actually the farthest throw in the world
29:16
Speaker 1: in the last thirty years, which is pretty crazy.
29:20
Speaker 3: Just so to put this into context for the listeners,
29:23
Speaker 3: A football field is about three hundred feet, so you
29:28
Speaker 3: are throwing two hundred and thirty two feet, which is
29:30
Speaker 3: in my eyes, essentially almost a whole football field.
29:34
Speaker 2: Like, okay, continue and then an average throw.
29:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, in order to be like top ten in the US,
29:43
Speaker 1: you probably have to throw like one hundred and ninety
29:48
Speaker 1: five feet to two hundred feet. It's probably like what
29:51
Speaker 1: would get you to like top ten in the US?
29:53
Speaker 1: Is that helpful?
29:54
Speaker 2: Wow? Yeah?
29:55
Speaker 3: No, I mean you're thirty two feet beyond that. So
29:58
Speaker 3: really you are just really impressive, is what I want
30:02
Speaker 3: to make sure that we demonstrate here with these numbers.
30:07
Speaker 2: Thanks.
30:09
Speaker 3: So, in moving down south from the Bay Area, I
30:13
Speaker 3: could imagine that that also came with some challenges. I mean,
30:17
Speaker 3: being in a new area, what was it like for
30:20
Speaker 3: you to try to find community there?
30:22
Speaker 2: Did you feel lonely?
30:24
Speaker 1: Yeah?
30:24
Speaker 2: Definitely.
30:25
Speaker 1: I mean I think the loneliness was absolutely like the
30:29
Speaker 1: number one thing I felt. It really was like a
30:32
Speaker 1: tough way to figure out how to make friends, you know,
30:34
Speaker 1: because I think so much of culture now right is
30:37
Speaker 1: like going out, and that social aspect wasn't something that
30:40
Speaker 1: really was going to like fit in with the lifestyle
30:44
Speaker 1: that I was trying to like dive into so much
30:47
Speaker 1: so it was honestly kind of like a slow way
30:49
Speaker 1: of like making friends of just like at the grocery
30:54
Speaker 1: store or friends of friends and trying to connect with them.
30:58
Speaker 1: But over time, I've built some really great, meaningful friendships.
31:02
Speaker 1: But that first six months was really tough, and I
31:07
Speaker 1: facetimed with my family so much friends and just kind
31:10
Speaker 1: of was trying to get through it day by day
31:13
Speaker 1: when I was in a place with no familiarity.
31:16
Speaker 2: How did you cope with that?
31:18
Speaker 3: Like what strategies did you implement or was there anything
31:21
Speaker 3: that you became aware of that helped you navigate that
31:25
Speaker 3: feeling of loneliness.
31:27
Speaker 1: Looking back, my mindset was just to like maximize the day.
31:31
Speaker 1: You know, maybe I feel pretty unhappy with like aspects
31:36
Speaker 1: of my life currently, right, but there's still so many
31:38
Speaker 1: things that I can do to find value or to
31:43
Speaker 1: create meaning in my life, you know. And I found
31:46
Speaker 1: ways to fill time right of like things that I
31:48
Speaker 1: just hadn't been doing right, like for going for a
31:51
Speaker 1: walk or trying to meditate, or going to the grocery
31:53
Speaker 1: store four times a week. You know, so much of
31:55
Speaker 1: it at first was kind of like a survival mindset
31:58
Speaker 1: to get comfortable with trying to discover and explore this
32:04
Speaker 1: new lifestyle. But it was also just like kind of
32:08
Speaker 1: like I was saying, of relying on people that knew me,
32:10
Speaker 1: that were positive, that could you know, just give some
32:15
Speaker 1: optimism right that, like this way of being was going
32:18
Speaker 1: to pay off. And it also led to really bonding
32:21
Speaker 1: with my coach a lot more. I mean, he was
32:23
Speaker 1: the one that was working with me daily, and you know,
32:26
Speaker 1: he could see that I was really trying just to
32:29
Speaker 1: like figure it out. But when he would give affirmation
32:32
Speaker 1: right that, like he could see I was improving or
32:34
Speaker 1: getting stronger. I was more rested, powerful, ready for training,
32:40
Speaker 1: like all of those tiny little things that I was
32:43
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to work on optimize. Knowing
32:46
Speaker 1: that that was yielding result felt good. So I think
32:49
Speaker 1: loneliness is such a hard thing to combat, but if
32:52
Speaker 1: you can find ways to make yourself feel like you
32:56
Speaker 1: have value, it can really help kind of get through
33:00
Speaker 1: that until you can find a sense of community.
33:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, pre pandemic, I started to really explore
33:10
Speaker 3: what it felt like to choose to spend more time
33:14
Speaker 3: on my own and in doing that, I created and
33:18
Speaker 3: come back to something that is not I'm not the
33:21
Speaker 3: first team to do this, but a joy list. So
33:24
Speaker 3: when I have time, or when I am feeling a
33:27
Speaker 3: little out of sorts and I am spending time by myself,
33:30
Speaker 3: maybe by choice or because no one's lot around, I'll
33:34
Speaker 3: go to this notebook that I have this list in
33:37
Speaker 3: and I'll choose something that I know makes me happy
33:39
Speaker 3: to do in that moment. And it's not rocket science,
33:43
Speaker 3: but it helps and it works, and it has taught
33:47
Speaker 3: me to embrace the time on my own and that
33:51
Speaker 3: I can make my own joy.
33:52
Speaker 2: I don't need to rely on others to source it.
33:56
Speaker 1: I love that, And honestly, yeah, you're so right. You know,
33:59
Speaker 1: I think I didn't know myself really well like at
34:02
Speaker 1: that time, right, Like all my life experiences were built
34:07
Speaker 1: around other people, right, like family and friends, and now
34:09
Speaker 1: I had this time period to kind of figure out
34:12
Speaker 1: who I was.
34:12
Speaker 2: You know, what do I like to read? If I
34:14
Speaker 2: have like a whole day in myself, what do I
34:15
Speaker 2: want to do?
34:16
Speaker 1: You know? And it can be uncomfortable figuring that out,
34:19
Speaker 1: but like when you do find those sources of joy,
34:22
Speaker 1: it's so powerful, right, it's like, you know, knowing who
34:26
Speaker 1: you are, like your heart, your core, your soul. It
34:29
Speaker 1: feels good, but it is such a scary process to discover.
34:34
Speaker 2: It is a scary process to discover.
34:36
Speaker 3: So it would seem as though that time period right
34:41
Speaker 3: before the pandemic probably really prepared you for what was
34:44
Speaker 3: to come.
34:46
Speaker 1: Totally totally. Yeah, you're so right. I mean, I think
34:50
Speaker 1: if the timing of it ended up being really great.
34:55
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, when you're living in right, it's
34:59
Speaker 1: so hard to know how your experiences are preparing you
35:02
Speaker 1: for what's to come. But I definitely feel grateful that
35:05
Speaker 1: I got moved, I got set up, I had that
35:07
Speaker 1: time to kind of be able to figure myself out
35:10
Speaker 1: before total adversity struck.
35:14
Speaker 3: When that struck, where were you and what were your feelings?
35:21
Speaker 1: I was in Austin. I was truthfully pretty devastated. I
35:28
Speaker 1: think for me, the biggest thing that I felt was
35:31
Speaker 1: I was in training really well. I was really excited
35:35
Speaker 1: with how things were going. And we were about four
35:38
Speaker 1: months away from Olympic trials and like five months away
35:43
Speaker 1: from what was supposed to be the twenty twenty Olympics,
35:46
Speaker 1: and I was just devastated. You know, I felt like
35:50
Speaker 1: it's so hard to become an Olympian. It's so difficult,
35:54
Speaker 1: right that, like you know, you can get injured, you
35:56
Speaker 1: can get you can just have a bad day, right,
35:59
Speaker 1: and like that dream can just like fade away for
36:02
Speaker 1: four years, right, you get the chance to do it.
36:05
Speaker 1: And I felt that at that point, like I was
36:08
Speaker 1: doing all the things that was trending towards earning a
36:11
Speaker 1: spot on Team USA. And at first, they they really
36:17
Speaker 1: weren't sure if the Olympics were going to be just
36:19
Speaker 1: postponed or if they were going to be canceled. And
36:23
Speaker 1: I really was struggling of like, gosh, this like dream,
36:27
Speaker 1: I feel like I've like put all of my eggs
36:29
Speaker 1: into this basket. Is now like is it gone? You know,
36:33
Speaker 1: like is it gonna be like four more years? Is
36:36
Speaker 1: it gonna just be postponed?
36:38
Speaker 2: Is it?
36:38
Speaker 1: Like I just was struggling of like, you know, finally
36:43
Speaker 1: track it with so many goals, you know, it's like
36:45
Speaker 1: such a clear date right of like when you get
36:48
Speaker 1: to like do it, and now it was just a
36:51
Speaker 1: complete unknown as to what was going to happen.
36:53
Speaker 2: And that really really rattled me at first.
36:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's understandable that you felt that way. You
37:04
Speaker 3: are spending all of your time working toward this goal,
37:07
Speaker 3: and when that goal becomes something that's completely out of
37:10
Speaker 3: your control, it is scary. On top of the fact
37:15
Speaker 3: that the world is in absolute chaos right absolutely, As
37:22
Speaker 3: time progresses and it's still feel shaky, things still feel
37:26
Speaker 3: still unknown, what are you doing to cope and are
37:29
Speaker 3: you still training?
37:31
Speaker 1: So the first thing I did, I was like very sad,
37:34
Speaker 1: and I started looking at puppies online. I love that,
37:39
Speaker 1: and I ended up getting a dog at the beginning
37:43
Speaker 1: of April, so just like a month into the pandemic,
37:47
Speaker 1: totally got a pandemic puppy. Her name's Allie, and it
37:50
Speaker 1: was actually like when we talk about versus of joy,
37:53
Speaker 1: she has been one of the best things in my life,
37:55
Speaker 1: you know, like having just such a bundle of energy
38:00
Speaker 1: to come home to like during that time, it like
38:02
Speaker 1: totally helps it with the loneliness. So that wasn't the
38:06
Speaker 1: first thing that really like ended up impacting my time
38:09
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. But then my coach also we kind
38:13
Speaker 1: of like the first couple of weeks were unsure of
38:16
Speaker 1: like how to plan training, just with not knowing if
38:19
Speaker 1: there's going to be any meats the rest of the season.
38:22
Speaker 1: And eventually he was like, you know what, Valerie, Like,
38:24
Speaker 1: we're going to get fit, We're going to get strong,
38:27
Speaker 1: we are going to like maximize this time and just
38:29
Speaker 1: like work on some technical things like we haven't had
38:32
Speaker 1: the time to do because of competitions, and we that. Honestly,
38:38
Speaker 1: that summer ended up being one of my favorite times
38:40
Speaker 1: I've ever had as a discus thrower. It just was
38:44
Speaker 1: so great to end up like reconnecting with the sport.
38:47
Speaker 1: It wasn't about like that big meat coming up, and
38:50
Speaker 1: it wasn't about like really improving distance. It was about
38:55
Speaker 1: like becoming connected with my body, feeling things that I
38:58
Speaker 1: hadn't had the capacity to feel before, getting strong, getting fit.
39:02
Speaker 2: I like that.
39:03
Speaker 1: I was so proud of like the sheep that I
39:05
Speaker 1: got into that summer that it led to me finding
39:09
Speaker 1: a different sense of confidence and composure as an athlete.
39:12
Speaker 1: That had those big competitions been what had happened in
39:16
Speaker 1: that summer, I never would have been able to find.
39:24
Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
39:27
Speaker 3: about my sponsors.
39:29
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39:33
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39:37
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39:39
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39:41
Speaker 3: It is the first thing I look forward to drinking
39:43
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39:46
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39:51
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39:54
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39:57
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41:09
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41:18
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41:34
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42:18
Speaker 3: Talk about a silver lining in retrospect you talk about
42:22
Speaker 3: feeling really fit and really confident in your body. You
42:25
Speaker 3: also earlier at the top of this kind of joked
42:28
Speaker 3: about what people think a discus thrower would look like
42:32
Speaker 3: or could be like, as you said, a lot of
42:36
Speaker 3: Olympic lifting. Way more I would argue than maybe other
42:40
Speaker 3: track athletes. Talk to me about what it feels like
42:44
Speaker 3: for you to feel at home in your body and
42:48
Speaker 3: how it's felt for you maybe to navigate what the
42:52
Speaker 3: stereotypes could be as a discus athlete.
42:55
Speaker 1: Truthfully, now with where I'm at, I do feel like
42:59
Speaker 1: so grateful to be in a spot where I do
43:02
Speaker 1: feel like happy and content with like not just how
43:07
Speaker 1: my body looks right, but like that it has purpose,
43:10
Speaker 1: which has been something that like I've had to learn
43:14
Speaker 1: right that that is like something that should give you
43:16
Speaker 1: a ton of gratification about how you feel about yourself.
43:19
Speaker 1: But I really did struggle just with body image and
43:23
Speaker 1: trying to figure out like what the sport was going
43:28
Speaker 1: to shape me into. You know, I think it's like
43:30
Speaker 1: hard to be told that, like, you know, if you
43:33
Speaker 1: want to be a good thrower, you got to be
43:35
Speaker 1: like a big, sturdy girl. And I just I never
43:38
Speaker 1: believed that that was like how it had to be.
43:40
Speaker 1: But you know, it took finding also a coach right
43:45
Speaker 1: that like believed that and it could help me like
43:47
Speaker 1: train into something that was was strong and powerful. But
43:53
Speaker 1: it's been it's been really special to be able to
43:56
Speaker 1: kind of reshape the mold of what being in a
43:59
Speaker 1: lead discussed throw is that you can be long, you
44:03
Speaker 1: can be lean, you can be strong and be able
44:05
Speaker 1: to push the boundary of the sport in a way
44:07
Speaker 1: that hasn't been seen in a long time.
44:10
Speaker 3: I'd love to talk a little bit about coming into
44:13
Speaker 3: this place of body acceptance because regardless of what your
44:18
Speaker 3: shape is, I feel like this is something that every
44:21
Speaker 3: woman deals with at one point or another, and even
44:25
Speaker 3: men too. For you, on your journey to this place,
44:29
Speaker 3: what would you say was a landmark moment where you
44:33
Speaker 3: really started to appreciate your body for what it was
44:36
Speaker 3: capable of, regardless of what it looked like.
44:39
Speaker 1: There's kind of two things I think when you say that.
44:42
Speaker 1: I think for so long I thought that being healthy
44:48
Speaker 1: was just about like food, you know what I mean?
44:51
Speaker 1: And I do think that is like such a big
44:53
Speaker 1: part of health, right, but like there's ten more layers
45:00
Speaker 1: just like eating healthy, right, Like I really dove into
45:05
Speaker 1: actually like the education part of like understanding what my
45:09
Speaker 1: body needs, you know, and when you take a sense
45:13
Speaker 1: of like responsibility and accountability for what you can control.
45:18
Speaker 1: And for me, so much of that was like understanding
45:21
Speaker 1: what protein sources I could have or how much fat
45:24
Speaker 1: I need. Did I actually start to like be able
45:28
Speaker 1: to kind of shape the way that my body was developing.
45:32
Speaker 1: And it felt so good. It felt so good to
45:34
Speaker 1: like be able to see change, to feel change. But
45:40
Speaker 1: it was only by putting in like that effort and
45:42
Speaker 1: awareness to it.
45:44
Speaker 2: I think.
45:44
Speaker 1: The other thing is like when you are an athlete,
45:48
Speaker 1: so much of like what people are going to judge
45:52
Speaker 1: you on is like how you look, and that is
45:55
Speaker 1: an unfortunate reality of just like I think being a female,
45:59
Speaker 1: and I've really wanted to continue for myself to be
46:05
Speaker 1: able to to know that like what matters right is
46:08
Speaker 1: like not other people's opinions, but truly like when you
46:13
Speaker 1: wake up in the morning you're brushing your teeth when
46:14
Speaker 1: you see yourself, right, like how do you feel about
46:16
Speaker 1: like what you see? And it's been difficult to be
46:20
Speaker 1: able to continue to focus more on that, But I
46:24
Speaker 1: think I've I've found that it is about like the
46:27
Speaker 1: overall lifestyle, right, Like bodies are just like big bags
46:32
Speaker 1: of bones, right, but like the care you put into them,
46:35
Speaker 1: like it matters, you know, like waking up and like
46:38
Speaker 1: just feeling energized, feeling like excited. There was like a
46:41
Speaker 1: long time where I just felt like dull, you know.
46:44
Speaker 1: And it's been like such a full process to be
46:47
Speaker 1: able to get to a point of like wanting to
46:51
Speaker 1: take care of your body. And you know, that's something
46:55
Speaker 1: that I've really tried to dive into. And there's days
46:58
Speaker 1: where like I feel so gross. You know, it's like
47:01
Speaker 1: I just you just can't like see the good. But
47:03
Speaker 1: it always like fades, you know. It's like it is
47:08
Speaker 1: so easy to let your mind kind of play tricks
47:10
Speaker 1: on you about you how you feel and what you
47:14
Speaker 1: think you see. But it is just about like trying
47:17
Speaker 1: to be consistent and put in that extra love and
47:20
Speaker 1: care to bond and fall in love with with who
47:23
Speaker 1: you are and what you can take care of.
47:26
Speaker 3: You said that it can feel harder sometimes, especially maybe
47:31
Speaker 3: these days, to base your opinion of yourself on how
47:36
Speaker 3: you feel or what you see.
47:38
Speaker 2: In the mirror.
47:39
Speaker 3: Why now do you think that that goes hand in
47:42
Speaker 3: hand with being on this larger stage and finding more
47:47
Speaker 3: success in your sport.
47:50
Speaker 1: I think so yeah, I mean it is sometimes I
47:54
Speaker 1: feel aware of right that, like I feel so fortunate
47:59
Speaker 1: for the things I have a call. But sometimes it
48:01
Speaker 1: is crazy. You can just be like have such a
48:04
Speaker 1: like a delicate critical mindset, you know, sometimes I feel
48:09
Speaker 1: like the highs are so high, but then the lows
48:12
Speaker 1: feel really low, you know, And when you're when you're
48:16
Speaker 1: the underdog, it's so fun to try to be like
48:19
Speaker 1: chasing down the people you've that have been ahead of
48:21
Speaker 1: you to to earn, you know, take one step up,
48:24
Speaker 1: you know, to feel like you're like becoming a master
48:30
Speaker 1: and in ways right that like you can control. But
48:33
Speaker 1: when you're at the top, like it's hard, it is hard.
48:37
Speaker 1: It becomes about perspective, right, Like I want so badly
48:41
Speaker 1: to like continue to improve, to continue to win, to
48:43
Speaker 1: continue to like feel confident in who I am. But
48:47
Speaker 1: like you just can get rattled. You just can get rattled,
48:50
Speaker 1: and it happens so quickly. It can be like in
48:53
Speaker 1: a comment on an Instagram post, It can be in
48:56
Speaker 1: an article that can come comes out.
48:58
Speaker 2: It can be.
48:59
Speaker 1: Because like you have a bad practice, right, Like the pressure,
49:02
Speaker 1: the expectation you feel if you don't manage it, if
49:06
Speaker 1: you don't like have ways to deal with it, whether
49:08
Speaker 1: that's talking to people, whether that's like being able to
49:12
Speaker 1: just like have thick skin. It is scary the impacts
49:17
Speaker 1: it can have on you and how it can shape you.
49:19
Speaker 1: If you're not.
49:21
Speaker 2: Ready for it, how do you navigate it?
49:24
Speaker 1: Part of it is like just continuing to know that
49:28
Speaker 1: there's going to be a tomorrow and there's going to
49:30
Speaker 1: be more experiences that can keep giving you perspective. I
49:33
Speaker 1: think for me, the biggest thing I've done is like
49:36
Speaker 1: I keep a really tight inner circle. You know, the
49:39
Speaker 1: people I'm close with, they really know me. They like
49:42
Speaker 1: I know, they've got my back, and they see me
49:44
Speaker 1: as more's than just an athlete. And that's been super
49:48
Speaker 1: helpful to be able to have my people that I
49:50
Speaker 1: can just rely on and connect with. It's it's hard.
49:54
Speaker 1: I think I'm honestly still trying to navigate it. And
49:57
Speaker 1: I mean we talked about hurdles. This World Championships. It's
50:00
Speaker 1: a hurdle, and I don't feel like I've had my
50:01
Speaker 1: like time yet to to show my like redemption period. Yet,
50:06
Speaker 1: you know, but I'm still trying to figure it out.
50:09
Speaker 1: That's I think that's the truth, and I think that
50:12
Speaker 1: I'm actually okay with that.
50:17
Speaker 3: The question arises you said redemption period. You also, as
50:22
Speaker 3: we mentioned earlier, discus Olympic champion, what are you fighting
50:28
Speaker 3: for redemption from that?
50:30
Speaker 2: Before World championship?
50:31
Speaker 1: This article came out and it was kind of doing
50:34
Speaker 1: like a discus review. There was a line in there
50:36
Speaker 1: that said, like, Valerie almon is the Simone Biles or
50:40
Speaker 1: Serena Williams of the discus throw, just like completely dominant.
50:44
Speaker 1: And I read that and like it was an extreme compliment,
50:48
Speaker 1: but like I didn't, like, I know, something about it
50:51
Speaker 1: made me feel like anxious, Like gosh, am I like
50:53
Speaker 1: really that person? I don't feel like I'm that person,
50:56
Speaker 1: you know, Like winning the Olympics was like an amazing,
51:00
Speaker 1: amazing like accomplishment, so exciting, but like I don't know
51:06
Speaker 1: how to like embrace that type of persona, you know,
51:10
Speaker 1: in this sport. Now it's like, obviously Simone has not
51:14
Speaker 1: been undefeated and Serena has not been sported. It has
51:16
Speaker 1: not been undefeated, and that is just like part of sport.
51:20
Speaker 1: And I think for me, in redemption, right, it's like
51:22
Speaker 1: I want to just be like consistently competitive, you know.
51:26
Speaker 1: And I think that because discus throw in the last
51:31
Speaker 1: thirty years, it's and we call it like the modern area.
51:36
Speaker 1: It's been really hard to push boundaries, and I'm excited
51:39
Speaker 1: to continue to try to like push those but it's
51:42
Speaker 1: just being able to get like back on the horse
51:44
Speaker 1: and just compete again. You know. Winning feels really great,
51:48
Speaker 1: but so just competing, you know, Like I love being
51:50
Speaker 1: in the fight, and like that can feel just as
51:53
Speaker 1: good regardless of like what the result is. It's about
51:56
Speaker 1: like the preparation, the excitement, the energy, the sometimes a sacrifice,
52:01
Speaker 1: you know, but like when you've done those things, then
52:03
Speaker 1: you get to a point of getting to see where
52:05
Speaker 1: you're at. It's one of the best feelings. And I
52:08
Speaker 1: think for me, redemption is like continuing to make those
52:11
Speaker 1: choices that like when it's time to fight, I know
52:14
Speaker 1: I can put my best effort out there.
52:16
Speaker 2: My best effort out there. You know.
52:18
Speaker 3: It's interesting to hear you say, like I don't know
52:21
Speaker 3: if I'm ready to be at that level, because if
52:24
Speaker 3: you weren't ready, then you wouldn't be performing the way
52:28
Speaker 3: that you are. And there doesn't need to be a
52:33
Speaker 3: Simone Biles in discus or Serena in discus.
52:36
Speaker 2: There can just be a vow in discus.
52:39
Speaker 3: And what a great opportunity that is for you to
52:42
Speaker 3: be the person who pays your own way, who makes
52:45
Speaker 3: your own name.
52:46
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I like that.
52:47
Speaker 1: I really like that.
52:49
Speaker 3: I want to touch briefly on the Olympics and that
52:54
Speaker 3: feeling how it felt for you to finally realize a
52:58
Speaker 3: dream not only to be come an Olympian, but to
53:01
Speaker 3: do it to such fan fare and to such a
53:05
Speaker 3: degree of excellence. Talk us through what it felt when
53:09
Speaker 3: you realized what you had actually accomplished.
53:13
Speaker 1: It was such an incredible feeling. Now looking back, right,
53:18
Speaker 1: the path to become an Olympic champion was filled with
53:21
Speaker 1: so much adversity, and you know, I thought that my
53:25
Speaker 1: dream was going to be like totally deferred. That when
53:29
Speaker 1: it ended up materializing, you know that like magic moment happened.
53:34
Speaker 1: It was it was like incredibly special, impactful. The pride
53:41
Speaker 1: that I felt has been like, honestly, it's been uncompared,
53:45
Speaker 1: you know, I think it really has given me such
53:47
Speaker 1: a badge of honor that, like I always feel of
53:52
Speaker 1: being able to have that magic moment.
53:54
Speaker 2: Talk to me about the difference in how you felt
53:58
Speaker 2: going into the Olympics versus how you felt going in
54:02
Speaker 2: to this summer's World champs.
54:05
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of reflection over this, I promise,
54:08
Speaker 1: and it's you know, going into Tokyo, I think I
54:13
Speaker 1: was like, my coach has come up with this, he said.
54:16
Speaker 1: You know, we've said like I was the unproven favorite,
54:18
Speaker 1: you know, like going into it, I think there was
54:21
Speaker 1: still a sense of like wild and freedom. I felt
54:25
Speaker 1: of just like I'm going to go for it, you know,
54:27
Speaker 1: and like if I fall short, that's okay, right, Like
54:30
Speaker 1: earning an Olympic medal will be like my first time
54:33
Speaker 1: ever being on a world podium. That will be incredible.
54:38
Speaker 1: That I think I just like I still felt pressure,
54:40
Speaker 1: I still felt expectation, but it wasn't like overwhelming.
54:46
Speaker 2: You know.
54:47
Speaker 1: The Olympics is a it's an animal, you know, like
54:50
Speaker 1: when you're in on that stage, it is really intense.
54:53
Speaker 1: But I had didn't feel the same expectations that I
54:57
Speaker 1: then felt going into World Championship. And I wish now
55:04
Speaker 1: looking back that I had taken some more time after
55:07
Speaker 1: Tokyo to kind of decompress. When you win an Olympic title,
55:11
Speaker 1: like it does make it feel like your identity is
55:15
Speaker 1: like being the best you know. And I think I
55:19
Speaker 1: dove into hard too quickly of wanting to just like
55:23
Speaker 1: training and be better and feel like I could maintain
55:26
Speaker 1: that title. And by the time I got to World Championships,
55:30
Speaker 1: I think it wasn't as authentic as like I needed
55:34
Speaker 1: it to be. You know, I'd been putting up really
55:36
Speaker 1: good results all year. I'd been competing up against like
55:39
Speaker 1: the best of the best at that point, and ap
55:42
Speaker 1: World champions I like I threw what my average was
55:45
Speaker 1: like over the last season, Like I competed well, but
55:47
Speaker 1: I didn't have that fire to rise up, you know.
55:51
Speaker 1: I like I played it too safe, right, I didn't
55:54
Speaker 1: have that like wild component that like I needed to
55:57
Speaker 1: be able to find that throw that was like three
56:00
Speaker 1: feet farther that would have ended up winning. And I
56:03
Speaker 1: think I've learned that, like, you know, you can't be comfortable.
56:07
Speaker 1: You know, you got to like always figure out how
56:09
Speaker 1: to like push the boundaries to be able to figure
56:11
Speaker 1: out how to like flirt with that next gear so
56:13
Speaker 1: that when you're in that moment, you know you can
56:15
Speaker 1: go for it, and I just I don't think I
56:18
Speaker 1: tapped into that enough over the last year.
56:20
Speaker 3: Your reference earlier of Simone and Serena not always being
56:26
Speaker 3: undefeated anymore just because they are Simone and Serena. Just
56:30
Speaker 3: because you are val doesn't mean that every single day
56:34
Speaker 3: you're going to show up and hit it out of
56:37
Speaker 3: the park.
56:38
Speaker 2: And that's okay too.
56:40
Speaker 3: That goes back to our conversation on the importance of
56:44
Speaker 3: grace and maybe not always being your biggest critic or
56:48
Speaker 3: being a little less harsh on yourself. It's not easy
56:52
Speaker 3: to adopt that attitude because we want the best, but
56:56
Speaker 3: in our experiences and as we overcome these different hurdles,
57:00
Speaker 3: that understanding is absolutely critical to being able to function
57:05
Speaker 3: and keep going as they the hurdles keep coming.
57:10
Speaker 1: No, you're so right. You're so right, And I think
57:13
Speaker 1: it's like exactly what you're saying. You have to be
57:14
Speaker 1: willing to like keep running, you know, like stopping is
57:18
Speaker 1: like actually what prevents you from getting to where you
57:22
Speaker 1: want to go, right, but like figuring out to take
57:25
Speaker 1: that next step, to like work through it, to keep
57:27
Speaker 1: figuring it out, to keep like learning is how you
57:30
Speaker 1: become like that. You don't have to be a Serena
57:33
Speaker 1: and you don't have to be a simoon. You can
57:35
Speaker 1: be whoever you want to be right, But like that
57:37
Speaker 1: journey is only ever found by like continuing to try right.
57:44
Speaker 1: And I think that that is just you said it
57:48
Speaker 1: really well. I'm excited to keep being uncomfortable. I'm excited
57:50
Speaker 1: to keep figuring it out, and you know, I know
57:53
Speaker 1: there's thankfully you know, it's actually pretty great that there's
57:56
Speaker 1: still a lot left to learn, and I'm I'm excited
58:00
Speaker 1: about that.
58:01
Speaker 2: Wart what's that saying? It's like when you're tired, rest,
58:04
Speaker 2: don't stop. Yeah, I like that.
58:08
Speaker 3: When someone comes to your Instagram page, they see a
58:11
Speaker 3: discus Olympic champion, a very fitch athlete with one hundred
58:16
Speaker 3: and eight thousand followers. When you look in the mirror,
58:19
Speaker 3: what is it that you see looking back at you?
58:22
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I see someone that is proud of who
58:28
Speaker 1: she is and the life that she's like trying to live.
58:35
Speaker 1: I think I see the cracks of like doubt and
58:39
Speaker 1: fear and uncertainty, but I also see like the very
58:43
Speaker 1: like human side, you know, of like wanting to be
58:47
Speaker 1: a good daughter, wanting to be a good friend, wanting
58:50
Speaker 1: to be a good dog mom. You know, the very
58:53
Speaker 1: like humanside things of it.
58:57
Speaker 3: You got into it a little bit, But the next
59:00
Speaker 3: question really is who is Val Outside of discuss.
59:07
Speaker 1: Val is definitely like honestly pretty shy. I think I
59:13
Speaker 1: am someone that's like really genuine, really like kind of nerdy,
59:21
Speaker 1: but really like devoted to the things that she's passionate about.
59:26
Speaker 1: If I'm like the people that are my friends or
59:29
Speaker 1: my family, right like, I would do absolutely anything for them.
59:34
Speaker 1: I love learning, I love cooking, reading, I love being outside,
59:41
Speaker 1: I love like really deep, meaningful conversations, and I love truthfully.
59:49
Speaker 1: I also like love do maximizing like my body, you know,
59:54
Speaker 1: I love working out, I love sweating, I love being
59:57
Speaker 1: in the sun. I love like working towards a purpose.
1:00:00
Speaker 3: When you think about all that you've accomplished, you've set
1:00:05
Speaker 3: some big, hairy, audacious goals, as Hlne Flannagan calls them.
1:00:10
Speaker 3: For anyone else who is trying to go after their
1:00:13
Speaker 3: potential that's excited to set big goals of their own,
1:00:17
Speaker 3: what advice do you have for them?
1:00:22
Speaker 1: I think my biggest piece of advice is, like you
1:00:24
Speaker 1: have to know going into it that life is not linear.
1:00:28
Speaker 1: If you're going to take on a really big, a
1:00:31
Speaker 1: really hairy, a really scary goal, it is going to
1:00:35
Speaker 1: be uncomfortable and the person that you are like the
1:00:40
Speaker 1: start of this journey is going to end up like
1:00:44
Speaker 1: really evolving and changing if you want to get there.
1:00:47
Speaker 1: But if you can focus on the journey over the outcome,
1:00:51
Speaker 1: you're going to be so happy and so much more
1:00:54
Speaker 1: fulfilled no matter what the actual goal is you're going after.
1:00:58
Speaker 1: But it is really like the process of being vulnerable,
1:01:03
Speaker 1: of being uncomfortable that leads to actually potentially accomplishing it,
1:01:08
Speaker 1: but also finding meaning in what you're going after.
1:01:13
Speaker 3: You said that you are the kind of person who
1:01:16
Speaker 3: loves deep, meaningful conversations, and I would assume that after
1:01:21
Speaker 3: the World Championships you had just a few of those.
1:01:26
Speaker 3: When you think about the advice that was offered to
1:01:29
Speaker 3: you during that time working through and processing your emotions
1:01:33
Speaker 3: after being on the world stage, does anything come to mind?
1:01:37
Speaker 2: The number one thing I felt after.
1:01:41
Speaker 1: Was like, people who are so excited, you know it
1:01:46
Speaker 1: is it is hard to fall short of your goals, right,
1:01:48
Speaker 1: but like sometimes it is so healthy to like go
1:01:53
Speaker 1: of what you feel and let yourself be impacted by
1:01:57
Speaker 1: the people around you. Like after twenty four hours after
1:02:02
Speaker 1: the competition, I was like proud, I was happy. I
1:02:07
Speaker 1: was feeling excited to celebrate what had happened in Eugene.
1:02:11
Speaker 1: But it was like hard to let go of what
1:02:14
Speaker 1: I felt and let it actually feel like such an accomplishment,
1:02:19
Speaker 1: you know, And it is like, you know, it's okay
1:02:22
Speaker 1: to come up short of your goals. It is about
1:02:24
Speaker 1: the process, It's about the journey. It was about like
1:02:27
Speaker 1: being with like my favorite people, you know. In Tokyo
1:02:29
Speaker 1: was so hard to be in an empty stadium, you know,
1:02:32
Speaker 1: but to like have my family there cheering was incredible,
1:02:36
Speaker 1: right like that, Like it became so much more than
1:02:39
Speaker 1: about like the place, about the distance, about the competition,
1:02:43
Speaker 1: and really about like being able to celebrate the con
1:02:49
Speaker 1: what had happened there with the people.
1:02:50
Speaker 2: I cared about.
1:02:52
Speaker 3: What excites you right now? What are you looking forward
1:02:55
Speaker 3: to once the season is done?
1:02:57
Speaker 1: Kind of diving into more like those human parts of
1:02:59
Speaker 1: my life. My brother and his wife, they're expecting and
1:03:04
Speaker 1: having a baby shower, so I'm so excited to get
1:03:06
Speaker 1: to spend time with them. I'm so excited to go
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Speaker 1: to Colorado and be with my parents I'm excited to
1:03:13
Speaker 1: just like eat dessert for three meals a day. If
1:03:16
Speaker 1: that sounds sounds fun.
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Speaker 2: You love it all right?
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Speaker 3: Right now, you have an opportunity to offer yourself a
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Speaker 3: piece of advice. Looking back on the evening after your
1:03:30
Speaker 3: third place finish at World Championships, during that hurtle moment,
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Speaker 3: what do you tell yourself?
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Speaker 1: I would tell myself that I'm proud of the way
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Speaker 1: you thought. You know that putting yourself in it is
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Speaker 1: hard to do, and knowing you gave it all, sometimes
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Speaker 1: the best you can do, and you should feel really
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Speaker 1: good about that.
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Speaker 2: You should feel really good about that. You should feel
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Speaker 2: really good about that. Val I'm so.
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Speaker 3: Happy that we were able to make this happen and
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Speaker 3: I really appreciate you for opening up and sharing your
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Speaker 3: story with the hurdlers.
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Speaker 2: Speaking of the hurdlers, how do they follow along with you?
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Speaker 2: How do they keep up with you? Give us your details? Yeah,
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Speaker 2: oh my gosh.
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Speaker 1: I have loved this, Emily, and honestly, I'm so excited
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Speaker 1: to connect with with hurdlers. If you're interested in following along,
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Speaker 1: you can follow me on Instagram. My handle is v
1:04:27
Speaker 1: Alman one two three, which is b A L M.
1:04:31
Speaker 1: A N one two three perfect.
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Speaker 3: I am over at Emily, A Body and at Hurdle Podcast.
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Speaker 3: Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.