Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 99. Georgia Ellenwood, Heptathlete

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99. Georgia Ellenwood, Heptathlete · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

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Speaker 1: Failure is one of the best things that can happen
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Speaker 1: to you. It's okay to be sad in that moment.
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Speaker 1: When I go through those moments, I need to realize
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Speaker 1: feels so horrible.
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Speaker 2: Right now, what's shaken? Hurdler's My name is Emily Abadi.
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Speaker 2: You are listening to episode ninety nine. Oh that sounds
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Speaker 2: so good of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I
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Speaker 2: sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from
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Speaker 2: their big wins to how they've gotten through some of
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Speaker 2: life's toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
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1:03
Speaker 2: the way. I am keeping it business as usual over
1:07
Speaker 2: here on the feed because I think we can all
1:09
Speaker 2: agree a little bit of normalcy is a good thing.
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Speaker 2: Right now, today, I am chatting with Georgia ellen Wood.
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Speaker 2: She's a pro heptathlete, which, if you don't know what
1:21
Speaker 2: that track and field event consists, of you will very soon.
1:26
Speaker 3: We sat down earlier this year at.
1:27
Speaker 2: The under Armour Human Performance Summit, and let me tell you,
1:31
Speaker 2: for a woman in her mid twenties, Georgia is wise
1:34
Speaker 2: beyond her years and stunning both inside and out. In
1:38
Speaker 2: today's episode, we talk about everything from what life was
1:41
Speaker 2: like for her growing up in the Vancouver area, crossing
1:44
Speaker 2: the border to go to college at the University of Wisconsin,
1:48
Speaker 2: and the struggles she's had along.
1:50
Speaker 3: The way in her athletic career thus far. We talked
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Speaker 3: about what was.
1:54
Speaker 2: A major hurdle moment for her, dropping out of a
1:57
Speaker 2: meet part way through and accepting that she wouldn't be
2:00
Speaker 2: going to World Championships, and how she learned not to
2:04
Speaker 2: let one.
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Speaker 3: Quote unquote failure define her.
2:07
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Speaker 3: To me over email.
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Speaker 2: It's Emily at hurdle dot us. I am here for you.
4:31
Speaker 2: And with that, let's get to hurdling.
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Speaker 3: Today.
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Speaker 2: I'm sitting down with Georgia Ellenwood. She is a heptathlete.
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Speaker 2: It sounds so fancy when you say about so. First off, Georgia,
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Speaker 2: talk to me about what a heptathlete is.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So, a heptathlete is someone who could beats in
4:58
Speaker 1: the heptathon. And it's over the span of two days,
5:02
Speaker 1: four events on the first day, three on the second day,
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Speaker 1: and the first day consists of the one hundred meter hurdles,
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Speaker 1: high jump, shot put two hundred, and then the second
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Speaker 1: day is long jump javelin eight hundred. And it's on
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Speaker 1: a point system, so you get points for every single
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Speaker 1: event and then whoever has the most points at the
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Speaker 1: end is the winner. So you don't necessarily have to
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Speaker 1: win every single event. You can just be the most
5:24
Speaker 1: consistent and the most well rounded and that's who's who
5:28
Speaker 1: wins in the end. So you're just trying to be
5:30
Speaker 1: very balanced, balanced. You have to do everything a lot
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Speaker 1: of events.
5:34
Speaker 2: I'm so curious, so how did you get into being
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Speaker 2: a heptathlete. I mean, we're going to bring it back
5:41
Speaker 2: and talk about growing up, but was this something that
5:44
Speaker 2: you always wanted to do or did you fall into it.
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Speaker 1: I don't think I knew of the heptathlon when I
5:49
Speaker 1: was young. I don't think a lot of kids do.
5:53
Speaker 1: Like when you start track, you do like baseball throw
5:56
Speaker 1: and like the sixty meter dash and eighty meter hurdles
5:59
Speaker 1: and stuff, So you don't technically know all the events
6:02
Speaker 1: in the heptathlon when you're that young. But I think
6:04
Speaker 1: I was always a active person and someone who did
6:08
Speaker 1: so many different sports, so many different events and track
6:12
Speaker 1: and field, and so it kind of just fell into place.
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Speaker 1: I was never like, oh, that's a heptathlon, I'm going
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Speaker 1: to do that one day. It was more I do
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Speaker 1: the four hundred and maybe I'll do a little bit
6:22
Speaker 1: of hurdling, maybe able to try and throw a shot put.
6:25
Speaker 1: Just because I was so active and I wanted to
6:26
Speaker 1: try everything, I got envious of someone who could do
6:29
Speaker 1: something that I wasn't going to get to try totally,
6:33
Speaker 1: and so I think that's just how it fell into place.
6:35
Speaker 1: And my coach one day was like, oh, I heard
6:37
Speaker 1: of this thing called the pentathlon. I think I was
6:39
Speaker 1: like twelve or thirteen, and she's like, we can go
6:42
Speaker 1: over to the States, which I don't often go to
6:44
Speaker 1: the US and try this and see how it works out.
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Speaker 1: And so pentathlon is five events, it's an indoor competition,
6:51
Speaker 1: and I did it, and I think for the facility,
6:53
Speaker 1: I like broke the record as like a thirteen year old.
6:56
Speaker 1: I mean not that impressive, to be honest, because it
6:58
Speaker 1: was probably like some really small meat or something. But
7:02
Speaker 1: that's when I was kind of like, wait, this is
7:03
Speaker 1: kind of cool. I can do all the events, and
7:05
Speaker 1: it means something like there's a point total at the end,
7:08
Speaker 1: so I can do all these events in the same
7:10
Speaker 1: setting and earn something for it.
7:13
Speaker 2: So that's when it started, all right. So then talk
7:15
Speaker 2: to me about growing up. Where did you grow up?
7:18
Speaker 1: I grew up in Langley, British Columbia, so it's a
7:22
Speaker 1: suburb of Vancouver, so most people know Vancouver. I just
7:26
Speaker 1: say that I live in Vancouver. I think my older
7:29
Speaker 1: brother had signed up for it. My parents were always
7:32
Speaker 1: trying to get him involved in something because he wasn't
7:35
Speaker 1: a sports guy. And I heard them in the other
7:39
Speaker 1: room saying, oh, we'll sign you up for track and field.
7:41
Speaker 1: Are you interested in that? And before he could answered,
7:43
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll sign up, sign me up, Like please,
7:45
Speaker 1: sign me up. I need to do this. I can't
7:47
Speaker 1: let my brother do it, not me, And so I
7:50
Speaker 1: think that's how it started. And I didn't you know,
7:52
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, like, nothing's that serious. You just
7:54
Speaker 1: sign up and go out there and have fun and
7:56
Speaker 1: meet people. And so I think that's where my passion
7:59
Speaker 1: kind of develop from the get go.
8:01
Speaker 3: Did you love running or was it kind of just
8:03
Speaker 3: bigger than that.
8:04
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I thought that I could
8:07
Speaker 1: take track and field to where I am. I never
8:09
Speaker 1: as a kid. I'm so clear minded. I think I
8:12
Speaker 1: wanted to go at the Olympics when I was young,
8:14
Speaker 1: didn't know what for, just thought you could sign up
8:16
Speaker 1: for the Olympics, I guess and go. And so when
8:20
Speaker 1: I was young, I just liked showing up, meeting my friends,
8:23
Speaker 1: having fun, something to let my energy out. And I
8:26
Speaker 1: think I started realizing that I was pretty good at
8:29
Speaker 1: it when I bought my first pair of spikes. So
8:32
Speaker 1: maybe when I was like thirteen or fourteen and I
8:34
Speaker 1: used sprint spikes for every single event, which is such
8:36
Speaker 1: a no no for like where I am now, that's
8:40
Speaker 1: when I started getting good and started saying like maybe
8:43
Speaker 1: I should quit my other sports. Maybe this is something
8:45
Speaker 1: that I should focus on and we'll see where it
8:48
Speaker 1: can take me.
8:49
Speaker 2: See where it can day cam. So in high school,
8:51
Speaker 2: obviously you're like a big time athlete.
8:54
Speaker 1: Then well, in Canadian high school, like the where I
8:59
Speaker 1: was Vancouver, no one knew that I was good at
9:03
Speaker 1: track and field. I would just go to school and
9:06
Speaker 1: then thirty minutes after school, I'd go to practice. And
9:11
Speaker 1: in high school where I'm from, you don't have a
9:13
Speaker 1: high school track and field team. So I did track
9:16
Speaker 1: a club, and so I would go to school, have
9:20
Speaker 1: a few friends at my high school, not anything too crazy.
9:23
Speaker 1: Jocks were not like a big thing at my high school,
9:25
Speaker 1: and so I'm out with a few people and I
9:27
Speaker 1: would be excited to go to track practice to meet
9:30
Speaker 1: my real friends. Like it was kind of like an
9:32
Speaker 1: outlet for a lot of the people who are on
9:34
Speaker 1: the team from a bunch of different high schools. We
9:36
Speaker 1: all met at the track and we're like, this is
9:37
Speaker 1: where we feel comfortable. This is where we can show
9:40
Speaker 1: our passion for what we do. And so I think
9:43
Speaker 1: that's where it started. And I've always had such a
9:45
Speaker 1: good experience on the track and the people that I
9:47
Speaker 1: work with that I wanted to continue doing it.
9:50
Speaker 2: And then, so did you know without a doubt that
9:52
Speaker 2: you wanted to continue athletics in college.
9:56
Speaker 1: I didn't know that that was an option for a
9:58
Speaker 1: while until maybe grade eleven. So junior year, yeah, they
10:03
Speaker 1: say junior.
10:04
Speaker 3: Year the translation.
10:06
Speaker 1: And so I remember talking to my parents about it,
10:10
Speaker 1: and I'm so lucky to have parents that were involved.
10:13
Speaker 1: They we did some research on different schools and they're like,
10:17
Speaker 1: if you want to be good at this. If you
10:18
Speaker 1: want to take this and be serious about it, we're
10:22
Speaker 1: going to look in the US and we're going to
10:23
Speaker 1: look at it some big Division one colleges because I
10:26
Speaker 1: think your score is good enough to get in there.
10:29
Speaker 1: So that's when I was like, WHOA, maybe maybe I
10:31
Speaker 1: could take this somewhere I didn't know, and so we did.
10:35
Speaker 1: We filled a couple of questionnaires on a few different
10:38
Speaker 1: universities in Wisconsin being one of them, and the coach
10:41
Speaker 1: got back and he wanted to do a home visit.
10:43
Speaker 1: So this is a big D one university and this
10:46
Speaker 1: coach is coming to my house to visit me, like
10:49
Speaker 1: it's exactly like it is in the movies. That's what
10:51
Speaker 1: I was thinking. I was like, how do I behave?
10:54
Speaker 1: And I remember we made him a pie, like an
10:56
Speaker 1: apple pie, and we all sat down and ate it.
10:58
Speaker 1: We connected right away, and I thought I was going
11:01
Speaker 1: to do my five visits. You get five recruiting visits
11:03
Speaker 1: in the US, and I was like, I'm going to
11:05
Speaker 1: do all of them. People tell you to do all
11:07
Speaker 1: them as advice, just to know what the system is like,
11:10
Speaker 1: get familiar with it and really make this decision smartly.
11:14
Speaker 1: And so Wisconsin ended up being the school that I
11:17
Speaker 1: wanted to go do fit my personality, and they're really
11:20
Speaker 1: focused on the heptathlon, which I had never seen before,
11:23
Speaker 1: and they had a ton of school spirits, so I
11:25
Speaker 1: was like, let's give this a shot.
11:26
Speaker 2: I feel like I need to digress and ask you about,
11:30
Speaker 2: like your first experience with some of like the odder
11:33
Speaker 2: events in your sports.
11:37
Speaker 1: Do you remember that you mean, like some of the
11:41
Speaker 1: technical events. Oh, totally so. I think the first events
11:45
Speaker 1: that I did were the four underd and high jump right,
11:48
Speaker 1: and when they got me introduced to throwing events, I
11:52
Speaker 1: think that was pretty pathetic for the first little bit.
11:55
Speaker 3: Well why do you say pathetics?
11:56
Speaker 1: Oh? I was a skinny little girl like holding a
11:59
Speaker 1: really heavy ball trying to throw it as far as
12:01
Speaker 1: I can, And I was like, why am I not
12:02
Speaker 1: good at this? Like I didn't like not being good
12:05
Speaker 1: at something, And to this day, I'm still that's probably
12:08
Speaker 1: my weakest event. So I struggled going back and forth
12:11
Speaker 1: at the shot put.
12:12
Speaker 2: But I always think of Matilda.
12:15
Speaker 3: What was missus trench bul miss trench Bowl? Was she married?
12:19
Speaker 2: I don't remember, I don't remember, but I remember she
12:23
Speaker 2: threw a heavy thing.
12:24
Speaker 1: Yep, yep. So my goal is to be like her.
12:28
Speaker 2: Personal victory, Yes, but you remember it being super difficult
12:31
Speaker 2: at the time.
12:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I realized that I needed to start maybe weight
12:35
Speaker 1: training or maybe gaining some strength. And so I even
12:39
Speaker 1: now I'm trying to figure out which body works for
12:43
Speaker 1: this event, because you have to be well rounded, you
12:45
Speaker 1: have to be able to have endurance, you have to
12:47
Speaker 1: be powerful, you have to be able to throw things
12:49
Speaker 1: and jump over high bars. And so how can I
12:52
Speaker 1: keep my body at a weight or at a way
12:56
Speaker 1: that I can use it as a tool for this event?
12:58
Speaker 1: And so I think I'm constantly trying to figure that out,
13:01
Speaker 1: and so right now it's working. But you know, if
13:03
Speaker 1: I lose a little bit of strength, then I might
13:06
Speaker 1: not be good at the shop. But if I gain
13:08
Speaker 1: too much strength, and I can't go over the bar
13:09
Speaker 1: in the high jump. So it's really interesting to keep
13:11
Speaker 1: that balance.
13:12
Speaker 2: And I think, I mean that balance for so many,
13:15
Speaker 2: especially women, is so difficult as it is to find
13:19
Speaker 2: a place where you feel really at peace with your body.
13:22
Speaker 2: So when your body is your instrument, I feel like
13:26
Speaker 2: the pressure sometimes can probably feel a little bit overwhelming.
13:30
Speaker 1: Yeah it is, And obviously, like women want to look
13:33
Speaker 1: a certain way. Like I'm not saying for all women,
13:35
Speaker 1: but I'm saying personally, I might not want to look
13:38
Speaker 1: this way if I didn't do the heptath one. And
13:41
Speaker 1: I think right now, I have to see it as
13:44
Speaker 1: an instrument for what I do, And so that means
13:48
Speaker 1: this year I need to focus on what I do
13:49
Speaker 1: in the weight room. I need to become more powerful
13:52
Speaker 1: and for my body, that might mean gaining ten pounds,
13:55
Speaker 1: and I don't want to do that, but I think
13:58
Speaker 1: if it's going to pay off for what I do,
14:00
Speaker 1: and it's it's gonna make me a more successful athlete,
14:04
Speaker 1: I have the rest of my life to look how
14:06
Speaker 1: I want to. Like right now, this is what is
14:08
Speaker 1: going to work for me, and I have to accept
14:10
Speaker 1: it and realize that it's okay to look that way
14:12
Speaker 1: and you can still be very fit and very powerful
14:14
Speaker 1: and still be ten twenty pounds of year.
14:16
Speaker 3: Talk me through what it's like moving to the United States.
14:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think so many people think, oh, it's
14:24
Speaker 1: probably just like Canada. It's so similar, like blend in
14:28
Speaker 1: right away. And so first of all, Vancouver is very outdoorsy.
14:32
Speaker 1: It's on the coast, so you see the mountains, you
14:35
Speaker 1: see the ocean. And so I moved to the Midwest
14:38
Speaker 1: right smack dab in the middle of the country, and
14:40
Speaker 1: so I was like, where are the mountains? Like, I
14:44
Speaker 1: don't even see any hills. What's going on? No hill? Yeah,
14:47
Speaker 1: But what I was really happy with is that the
14:50
Speaker 1: people there were so nice and I met so many
14:53
Speaker 1: people that brought me to where I am right now.
14:56
Speaker 1: I thought the people in the Midwest were really inviting.
14:59
Speaker 1: I have to say portion sizes food and some of
15:06
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. It was a shock even football games.
15:09
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about American football. I was like,
15:12
Speaker 1: where's the hockey?
15:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:14
Speaker 1: So, but I totally immerse myself, and I think at
15:18
Speaker 1: first it maybe wasn't good because I just did everything
15:21
Speaker 1: everyone else did. I just wanted to get the American
15:24
Speaker 1: college experience, and so it took me about a year
15:27
Speaker 1: or two to really figure myself out, especially athletically.
15:31
Speaker 2: All Right, so you get to college and you are
15:35
Speaker 2: figuring out what lane you want to drive in. I
15:38
Speaker 2: feel like there's a track analogy I could have thrown
15:40
Speaker 2: in there, but I'm just going to keep going with this.
15:41
Speaker 2: So then talk to me about what it's like being
15:43
Speaker 2: part of a team.
15:46
Speaker 1: It's interesting because track and field is technically an individual sport,
15:49
Speaker 1: but you are competing for a team at university and
15:54
Speaker 1: in the NCAA you get points for placement you get
15:57
Speaker 1: at like say a Big Ten conference, TREMP and ships
16:00
Speaker 1: or whatever conference you're in. So you're trying to do
16:03
Speaker 1: the best that you can for you but also for
16:06
Speaker 1: your team's points. And so I think one of the
16:10
Speaker 1: best things is that I had teammates for the first time,
16:12
Speaker 1: teammates that did have tath on. I had teammates in
16:15
Speaker 1: high school and in my club, but now there's people
16:19
Speaker 1: that focus on the exact same thing that I do,
16:22
Speaker 1: and so I can race them in the hurdles, or
16:25
Speaker 1: we do hurdles and then we'll go over the high jumps.
16:28
Speaker 1: So you're going through everything together. And then when you
16:31
Speaker 1: get to a competition, you warm up with those teammates
16:33
Speaker 1: and they're going through the same mental and physical struggles as
16:35
Speaker 1: you do. So it's a really good opportunity to connect
16:40
Speaker 1: with people and to to make friends that do that
16:44
Speaker 1: have the same focus as you pretty much. And so yeah,
16:47
Speaker 1: I think college was such a good opportunity for that.
16:50
Speaker 1: And I'm so happy that I went to the US
16:52
Speaker 1: for school, because I don't think I would have got
16:54
Speaker 1: that opportunity otherwise.
16:55
Speaker 2: Okay, And so you start competing and you probably start
16:57
Speaker 2: traveling around the US as well, which was nice.
17:00
Speaker 1: Experience it was, and I think I started seeing how
17:05
Speaker 1: competitive the INCITABLA was. And I had always been good
17:10
Speaker 1: in high school or I had kind of been in
17:15
Speaker 1: my own world, I guess in high school because not
17:17
Speaker 1: many people could get to that elite level. And so
17:22
Speaker 1: when I was in the NCBLA, I was like, Wow,
17:24
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that are like me and
17:25
Speaker 1: way better, and so I was like, how do I
17:28
Speaker 1: elevate myself to that level? And so I struggle a lot,
17:31
Speaker 1: and I think it was maybe my third year that
17:34
Speaker 1: I actually figured it out and I started placing in
17:38
Speaker 1: the Big ten. I remember my first my freshman year.
17:42
Speaker 1: Everyone it was my first Big ten outdoor championship and
17:46
Speaker 1: I was not in the best ship in my life,
17:48
Speaker 1: and so I remember my teammates coming up to me
17:51
Speaker 1: and being like, are you gonna continue the streak? Are
17:54
Speaker 1: you gonna? And I was like what streak? Like what
17:56
Speaker 1: are they talking about? And I had realized that someone
17:58
Speaker 1: had won the Big ten Championshi for like ten years
18:01
Speaker 1: in a row, and they were putting that pressure on
18:03
Speaker 1: me to win.
18:04
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
18:04
Speaker 1: And I was kind of and this was like two
18:06
Speaker 1: days before maybe the championships, and so I was in
18:11
Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, I have to win now, like
18:12
Speaker 1: I have to and I was like, people are going
18:15
Speaker 1: to be upset. And I think that's my biggest fears
18:17
Speaker 1: of disappointing other people, Like I disappoint myself a lot,
18:20
Speaker 1: but I can cope with that. And so I think
18:23
Speaker 1: it's hard when I know that I've disappointed someone else.
18:26
Speaker 1: And so I put too much pressure on myself that
18:29
Speaker 1: competition and I came forth and so nowhere, not even
18:33
Speaker 1: on the podium. And I think that's where I was like, Okay,
18:38
Speaker 1: I need to change something or I need to change
18:40
Speaker 1: something mentally. I don't know what it is, but I'm
18:42
Speaker 1: going to reflect back on what I've done and make
18:44
Speaker 1: these next three years worth it.
18:46
Speaker 3: So you make the shift.
18:47
Speaker 2: But something interesting that you said was like you figured
18:49
Speaker 2: out the unlock, like what was the unlocked to change
18:52
Speaker 2: what had been happening.
18:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this was the first time that I actually
18:56
Speaker 1: had been through like some sort of conflict, I guess
19:00
Speaker 1: internally and physically because I wasn't getting better for the
19:03
Speaker 1: first time in my life, and I had always been
19:06
Speaker 1: on a natural progression, and so I think this was
19:10
Speaker 1: more of a I had to confront how I'm going
19:15
Speaker 1: to make these next few years in college useful and
19:18
Speaker 1: how I'm going to do something for the team. I'm
19:20
Speaker 1: on a full ride scholarship and I can't. I have
19:22
Speaker 1: to prove that to myself and that I deserve it.
19:26
Speaker 1: And so I think after that, I was like, I'm
19:29
Speaker 1: gonna start eating healthier. I'm not going to be so
19:32
Speaker 1: defensive when people give me criticism. I'm going to absorb
19:36
Speaker 1: all the advice that I can. And so that summer,
19:39
Speaker 1: I went to the World champion or the World Junior
19:43
Speaker 1: Championships in Oregon and I play seventh and fit again,
19:47
Speaker 1: and I was like on the right track, and I
19:49
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this is what it feels like. And
19:51
Speaker 1: I got a two hundred point PB and so I
19:52
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, Like why maybe I needed to go
19:55
Speaker 1: through that to figure something out. I had done that
19:58
Speaker 1: a few different times in my college career in different ways,
20:01
Speaker 1: whether it be figuring out how to live at a
20:04
Speaker 1: US college, or on twenty seventeen going through one of
20:07
Speaker 1: the worst injuries in my life and having to take
20:10
Speaker 1: another step back, or last year when I had to
20:14
Speaker 1: pull out of one of the biggest championships heptathlons, that
20:18
Speaker 1: I've ever had to So it breaks your heart, but
20:20
Speaker 1: I think failure is really necessary to become successful, and
20:23
Speaker 1: so when I go through those moments, I need to
20:26
Speaker 1: realize that this, this can develop into something good, even
20:29
Speaker 1: though it feels so horrible right now.
20:31
Speaker 2: You also mentioned really bad injury, So what happened with that.
20:34
Speaker 1: First injury, which is probably the worst one was in
20:37
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and I was also injured a bit of
20:42
Speaker 1: last year as well, But I think the first injury
20:44
Speaker 1: probably taught me the most, just because I had always
20:47
Speaker 1: breezed through even if I wasn't getting better, I was
20:50
Speaker 1: always healthy, and so I think this was the first
20:52
Speaker 1: time where I had a successful year and then something
20:56
Speaker 1: that I can't control, something out of my control, limited me,
21:01
Speaker 1: and so I had to figure out how to deal
21:03
Speaker 1: with that and how to work through it pretty much
21:09
Speaker 1: because I was just devastated at why can't I complete
21:12
Speaker 1: this or why can't I get better? Like why is
21:17
Speaker 1: my foot not working?
21:18
Speaker 3: Is that what was up?
21:19
Speaker 2: Yeah?
21:20
Speaker 1: I had this is scientific terms, but I had to
21:23
Speaker 1: extend our digital and briefest strain in my foot.
21:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, don't even worry about it.
21:27
Speaker 1: It's just every time I jumped, pretty much like high
21:30
Speaker 1: jump or long jump, it would swell up and bruise
21:32
Speaker 1: and it was just really painful. And so I got
21:35
Speaker 1: MRI done and they had told me that what it was,
21:38
Speaker 1: and I pretty much still had to compete at the
21:40
Speaker 1: n CIBY Indoors and I had it all taped up.
21:43
Speaker 1: And there's so many instances where I've seen athletes compete
21:46
Speaker 1: through injury and they don't let anyone know. They're just
21:49
Speaker 1: in their own head trying to struggle through it. And
21:51
Speaker 1: it's really sad because you know what they're going through
21:54
Speaker 1: and you know that they're not the best of their abilities,
21:56
Speaker 1: but they still have to try and perform. And I
21:58
Speaker 1: think it takes told more on you mentally because your
22:03
Speaker 1: confidence is completely shot. You're like, maybe I'm not that
22:06
Speaker 1: good or is this like the end of it? Or
22:10
Speaker 1: how do I get better after recovering from such a
22:12
Speaker 1: bad injury.
22:13
Speaker 2: But the thing is is that you were that good
22:15
Speaker 2: because as college went on, you really started to thrive
22:18
Speaker 2: in your sport.
22:20
Speaker 1: I think to get to this level it definitely took
22:24
Speaker 1: a lot of mental and physical battles. I am this
22:28
Speaker 1: good because of those adversities, and I think maybe if
22:34
Speaker 1: I wasn't forced to be like, Okay, you need to change,
22:37
Speaker 1: then I might not be at the level that I'm at.
22:40
Speaker 1: For someone like me and someone who's considers themself to
22:43
Speaker 1: be strong minded, or someone who is brought up to
22:47
Speaker 1: be tough, I think when you experience adversity, it seems
22:50
Speaker 1: like it's the worst thing in the world. But when
22:52
Speaker 1: you push through it and you learn from it, it
22:55
Speaker 1: makes you such a better athlete. I think especially this
22:58
Speaker 1: last year and to eighteen, when I had to pull
23:00
Speaker 1: out with a plant of feshitis, I realized that here
23:05
Speaker 1: we go again, here's another injury. What's it going to
23:08
Speaker 1: do to me this time? And in a good way,
23:11
Speaker 1: because I remember writing down at that moment like this
23:14
Speaker 1: feels so horrible. I don't want to feel like this again.
23:18
Speaker 1: You're just shut down. You're at like your weakest moment.
23:21
Speaker 1: But it's been a couple months now and I'm back
23:23
Speaker 1: on the positive train. So you just need to get
23:27
Speaker 1: through those moments because it will get better. It's just
23:30
Speaker 1: in that moment you feel like it's the worst thing
23:32
Speaker 1: that could ever happen to you.
23:33
Speaker 2: Of course, and it's been a little while now since
23:37
Speaker 2: you've graduated from college. When did you have to pull
23:40
Speaker 2: out of that competition?
23:42
Speaker 1: So it was very recent. It was last year, and
23:47
Speaker 1: it was my first year as a professional athlete with
23:49
Speaker 1: under Armour, and my sites were set on the World Championships.
23:53
Speaker 1: I'd been to an indoor World Championships in twenty sixteen,
23:56
Speaker 1: but I hadn't been to an outdoor World Championships, and
23:59
Speaker 1: I thought this would be really good opportunity to gain
24:01
Speaker 1: experience going into twenty twenty as Olympic hopeful. And so
24:07
Speaker 1: I was like, I have to make the world team.
24:09
Speaker 1: I want to go to Katar, I want to compete
24:12
Speaker 1: on a world stage. And I didn't think anything was
24:15
Speaker 1: going to stop me from doing that. And I trained
24:18
Speaker 1: really hard, probably too hard because I had my sight
24:22
Speaker 1: set on that, and an injury came up with plant
24:25
Speaker 1: fasci itis, and I was like, not now, not now,
24:28
Speaker 1: it can't happen now, train through it, whatever, Just go
24:31
Speaker 1: through it like you're tough. You could do this, and
24:33
Speaker 1: so that was not a good decision, and it just
24:37
Speaker 1: got worse and I didn't treat my body well. It
24:40
Speaker 1: taught me a big lesson.
24:41
Speaker 2: What for those listeners that don't know exactly is plantar
24:44
Speaker 2: fasci i itis.
24:45
Speaker 1: You know, I think I wish I knew more about
24:48
Speaker 1: it too. I did learn a bit about it, but
24:50
Speaker 1: it's the tendon that runs down the bottom of your
24:53
Speaker 1: foot and it's completely inflamed. I think I had a
24:57
Speaker 1: partial tear in it as well, and so it's just
25:00
Speaker 1: a lot of pain in the heel and the start
25:03
Speaker 1: of your heel to the middle of your arch, and
25:06
Speaker 1: so for sprinting and coming off the hurdle is probably
25:09
Speaker 1: the most painful. A lot of people had told me
25:11
Speaker 1: that I just had a bone bruise on my heel,
25:13
Speaker 1: and it did feel like that. It just felt like
25:15
Speaker 1: ripping every time that I would take a step, and
25:18
Speaker 1: so yeah, and it got to the point where I
25:21
Speaker 1: couldn't really walk, but I'm still willing to train, which
25:24
Speaker 1: is very stupid. I had such a focus on where
25:27
Speaker 1: I was going that year, and so I think I
25:31
Speaker 1: wasn't very smart with knowing that it's not the end
25:35
Speaker 1: of the world. If I don't do that, I need
25:36
Speaker 1: to make sure I'm healthy before anything. And so that's
25:39
Speaker 1: the approach that I'm taking this year.
25:47
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk up LinkedIn
25:50
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26:33
Speaker 3: Let's get back to hurdling.
26:41
Speaker 2: Talk to me about the actual experience of pulling out
26:43
Speaker 2: of that meat.
26:45
Speaker 1: I had trained for a couple weeks after my first teptathlon,
26:52
Speaker 1: and I knew that I had a couple of big
26:54
Speaker 1: competitions coming up, and one of them being the Canadian Championships,
26:57
Speaker 1: and then I had already been named to the PanAm
26:59
Speaker 1: Team American team, and that was another senior team that
27:03
Speaker 1: was a really big opportunity and I had an opportunity
27:07
Speaker 1: to win that, and so I was like, I really
27:09
Speaker 1: want to go, and I declared I had been confirmed
27:11
Speaker 1: on the team, and so I went to the Canadian Championships.
27:16
Speaker 1: Everyone was there, like my family and my coach is
27:18
Speaker 1: in Toronto. And it wasn't run very well, like I
27:23
Speaker 1: don't think hept athletes are often taking good care of,
27:27
Speaker 1: especially in Canada, And so what do you mean by that?
27:31
Speaker 1: It just means that the meat was quite disorganized. I'd
27:34
Speaker 1: been the NCAA for so long and they do everything
27:37
Speaker 1: so professionally, and so they know when you're called out,
27:41
Speaker 1: They have your BIB numbers, they have everything. They have
27:44
Speaker 1: you in heats that are set up to accommodate how
27:47
Speaker 1: fast you are and people with similar times, and so
27:51
Speaker 1: at this competition, I was quite disappointed with the organization
27:55
Speaker 1: because we were just treated like, oh, they just have athletes.
27:58
Speaker 1: They'll just go out there and do their thing and
28:00
Speaker 1: we'll just put them on the line. And so there
28:03
Speaker 1: was no call room anything. You just we did our
28:06
Speaker 1: two hundred in the middle of like a memorial service.
28:11
Speaker 1: It was so unorganized and so and this is supposed
28:14
Speaker 1: to be my Canadian Championships and so I was already
28:18
Speaker 1: kind of like totally put off guard. I was upset
28:22
Speaker 1: about the meat, and I was trying to perform well
28:26
Speaker 1: in those conditions, and I was hurting at the same time,
28:30
Speaker 1: and so everything just put together. I was like, I
28:31
Speaker 1: don't want to be here, like I don't want to
28:34
Speaker 1: The first day didn't go very well, and after the
28:36
Speaker 1: two hundred, I was limping off, probably because we didn't
28:39
Speaker 1: get much warm up or the conditions weren't right to
28:43
Speaker 1: perform well. And I remember someone asking like, oh, Georgia,
28:47
Speaker 1: you're okay, like you look like you're limping, and I
28:49
Speaker 1: was just like, yeah, I'm fine, just sore, Like I'm
28:51
Speaker 1: just sore. And so I was even lying to myself,
28:53
Speaker 1: and I was very nervous of whether or not I
28:58
Speaker 1: would be able to finish, because I still had three
29:00
Speaker 1: more events the next day. And at that point it
29:03
Speaker 1: wasn't even like I need to perform well, it was
29:05
Speaker 1: I need to finish this heptath on. So my mind
29:09
Speaker 1: totally shifted. I went home I tried to recover the
29:12
Speaker 1: best that I could in the time that I had,
29:14
Speaker 1: and then the next morning, I couldn't put weight on
29:16
Speaker 1: my foot. I couldn't do anything. But I still had
29:18
Speaker 1: my mindset that I was going to compete, and so
29:21
Speaker 1: I showed up the track completely not engaged in the competition.
29:26
Speaker 1: I didn't warm up at all because I knew if
29:28
Speaker 1: I jogged, I would just be confronted with the terror
29:31
Speaker 1: that my foot wasn't going to be okay. And I
29:35
Speaker 1: showed up the long jump, put my shoes on. I
29:37
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not even gonna do a run through.
29:39
Speaker 1: I'm just going to step on the line and try
29:40
Speaker 1: and do this because there for me, there was no alternative.
29:43
Speaker 1: I was going to finish like I don't care how
29:45
Speaker 1: painful it was. And then I like rocked back to
29:48
Speaker 1: go to take my first step, and I just like
29:51
Speaker 1: started crying, and I went over to my coach and
29:52
Speaker 1: I was like, this is the most painful thing I've
29:55
Speaker 1: ever experienced, and he just said and my mom was
29:58
Speaker 1: there too, and they're like, you don't have have to finish, Like,
30:01
Speaker 1: don't don't do this yourself. There's bigger things in life
30:04
Speaker 1: than this. Moment right now, and I just I was
30:09
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed by the thought of not being able to
30:11
Speaker 1: finish ap tathlon. I'd never done that in my life,
30:13
Speaker 1: and I had prided myself from doing that, like I've
30:17
Speaker 1: always finished the competition. And in my head, I'm like,
30:20
Speaker 1: I can't pull out, I can't not finish. I'm quitting
30:23
Speaker 1: like that. I've never quit in my life. I've always
30:26
Speaker 1: finished something. And so I couldn't even stay to watch
30:31
Speaker 1: the rest of the competition. I was just like, get
30:32
Speaker 1: me out here, like I need to figure out what's wrong.
30:35
Speaker 1: And my parents just kept saying like this isn't it,
30:38
Speaker 1: Like this isn't something you need to be upset about
30:40
Speaker 1: right now. You're not going to go to the world,
30:42
Speaker 1: so you just have to accept that. And next year
30:44
Speaker 1: is a bigger year. Would you rather make your run
30:46
Speaker 1: for Tokyo or would you rather suffer right now? And
30:49
Speaker 1: so I decided that I was just going to put
30:51
Speaker 1: all my folks into making sure what was wrong was
30:56
Speaker 1: fixed in the next few months. And I think I
30:59
Speaker 1: took the necessary steps because I was so focused on that.
31:02
Speaker 1: All the focus that I had in that competition was
31:04
Speaker 1: now shifted to getting what was wrong right. I think
31:07
Speaker 1: it's paid off and my my perspective has changed again
31:10
Speaker 1: because of it.
31:11
Speaker 2: How did you? How did you rehab that?
31:16
Speaker 1: So I went to a bunch of different doctors. I
31:18
Speaker 1: had done a bit of shockwave therapy on it, which
31:21
Speaker 1: was really really painful, and I figured out that it
31:24
Speaker 1: might not be smart to do that if I had
31:26
Speaker 1: a tear. I looked. I went to someone who did
31:31
Speaker 1: PRP injections, and I talked to other athletes who had
31:35
Speaker 1: been through similar situations, and they said that this was
31:37
Speaker 1: a good option. And in my head, I was like,
31:39
Speaker 1: I will try anything that anyone says I don't. It's
31:43
Speaker 1: at its worse point. It can't get worse. And so
31:46
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll just I'll just try it. And
31:48
Speaker 1: so we met with a couple of doctors and this
31:50
Speaker 1: was really a good doctor, and I was like, let's
31:54
Speaker 1: just go through with it. I don't care how much
31:55
Speaker 1: it costs, I don't care anything. I just want to
31:57
Speaker 1: do this. I want to get it better. So it
32:00
Speaker 1: took a couple I'm still recovering. Like I think, peer
32:03
Speaker 1: P takes about six months to fully have its full effect,
32:08
Speaker 1: and so every day it's seeming to get better. So
32:11
Speaker 1: it's just a long process and you have to trust it.
32:13
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I had Collin Quigley on the pod, and
32:17
Speaker 2: she's had a bunch of different bouts of PRP in
32:20
Speaker 2: different areas, and she also, you know, had to swallow
32:24
Speaker 2: a tough pill last year and take a seat out
32:26
Speaker 2: at the World Championships. It's definitely not a magic pill.
32:29
Speaker 2: There's still a lot of research that needs to be
32:32
Speaker 2: done on the procedure and what it does for the body.
32:35
Speaker 2: And I am, by no means an expert, but what
32:38
Speaker 2: I do know is that it's definitely becoming something that
32:40
Speaker 2: you're hearing about a lot more right now.
32:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, And that's the thing I don't My experience
32:47
Speaker 1: is really good. Someone else's might not be that good.
32:50
Speaker 1: But I think I had the right team behind me
32:53
Speaker 1: when I did it, and I had the right mindset
32:56
Speaker 1: in terms of recovery to get back and stronger than
32:58
Speaker 1: I was, and so all lost combined worked really well
33:01
Speaker 1: for me. So it might not work for somebody else,
33:04
Speaker 1: but in my case it.
33:05
Speaker 2: Did because what's happening during this procedure is they're just
33:08
Speaker 2: spinning your own blood and putting it back into your body,
33:11
Speaker 2: and a lot of it. It's bizarre, and I think
33:14
Speaker 2: that a lot of people are like, well, what is that?
33:16
Speaker 3: Is that like foreign stuff that's going into your body?
33:18
Speaker 2: Is this? I mean, I've written articles with people wondering
33:21
Speaker 2: if it's if it's getting a leg up or if
33:23
Speaker 2: it's cheating, and the answer to that is absolutely not.
33:27
Speaker 2: But I mean there's still research to be done and
33:29
Speaker 2: it's still like a relatively new technology that people are
33:33
Speaker 2: messing with.
33:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And I think the other option was
33:35
Speaker 1: quarter zone And I had gotten a quarter zone shot
33:39
Speaker 1: and tened ice in my wrists many times, and it's
33:42
Speaker 1: pretty much just masking the pain, and so I could
33:45
Speaker 1: manage it for a couple months and then it would
33:47
Speaker 1: come back and it would break down the cartilage and
33:49
Speaker 1: be a bit worse. And so that was an option,
33:53
Speaker 1: but that would only be for quick recovery, Like if
33:55
Speaker 1: I needed to do a competition in a month, I
33:57
Speaker 1: would get a quarter zone shot, but it's not long
34:02
Speaker 1: term healing, and that's exactly what I want. So if
34:05
Speaker 1: I had months to spend on recovery, PUREP would be
34:09
Speaker 1: a good option. And so that's why it was the
34:12
Speaker 1: best option for me. It makes sense, makes sense.
34:15
Speaker 2: Okay, so then tell me what does life and training
34:18
Speaker 2: look like for you now?
34:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I still live in Madison, Wisconsin for the
34:25
Speaker 1: majority of the year. This will probably my last year there,
34:29
Speaker 1: but I still trained with the same coach and a
34:30
Speaker 1: couple other professional athletes there, and I live by myself,
34:35
Speaker 1: but we every day is such a routine and I'm
34:39
Speaker 1: such not I'm not a routine type person, and so
34:43
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to do that, to eat breakfast
34:46
Speaker 1: at this time, go to training at this time, recover
34:48
Speaker 1: at this time, lift it this time, physio at this time,
34:51
Speaker 1: and so I need a break every now and then,
34:53
Speaker 1: whether that's just training somewhere else or changing up my
34:58
Speaker 1: meal prep or anything like. But for athletics, I think
35:02
Speaker 1: a routine is really important. It might sound boring to
35:05
Speaker 1: the average person, but athletics is such a lifestyle, so
35:09
Speaker 1: you kind of have to get in a routine to
35:11
Speaker 1: make sure that what you're doing is paying off. And
35:14
Speaker 1: I think I read something that it takes six weeks
35:17
Speaker 1: for any strength exercise to actually have an effect. So
35:20
Speaker 1: you can't do something really well one day and be like, oh,
35:22
Speaker 1: I'm a different athlete, Like you have to stay consistent
35:25
Speaker 1: with your training for it to actually work. And so
35:29
Speaker 1: I get up at like seven thirty eight and make
35:32
Speaker 1: breakfast and then go to training. We lift at ten
35:37
Speaker 1: and then I have a track session after. So my
35:39
Speaker 1: training can sometimes go from like ten till.
35:41
Speaker 2: Five, and.
35:44
Speaker 1: It's a long day and I don't think I have
35:47
Speaker 1: a lot of time for anything else, and it's exhausting.
35:53
Speaker 1: So you'll come home and make dinner, do something that
35:56
Speaker 1: you actually enjoy that's off the track, and then to
36:01
Speaker 1: go to sleep.
36:02
Speaker 2: So and that's it.
36:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not too And I'm I would consider myself
36:07
Speaker 1: to be an adventurous or kind of spontaneous person. So
36:10
Speaker 1: I know, if I discipline myself enough to have a
36:13
Speaker 1: routine every day and to know that it works for
36:17
Speaker 1: my sport, then I could reward myself after with something adventurous,
36:21
Speaker 1: something spontaneous, something that isn't so regimented, like what traveling
36:26
Speaker 1: but not traveling for sport, traveling for leisure. Yeah, and uh,
36:32
Speaker 1: or just going into the mountains for a little while,
36:34
Speaker 1: or yeah, I just hang out with friends that aren't
36:37
Speaker 1: athletes sometimes it's nice to get Then we don't talk track,
36:43
Speaker 1: you know, it's like we talk just regular person stuff.
36:46
Speaker 1: And we we just be goofy, you know, and sometimes
36:49
Speaker 1: you need that outlet.
36:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you are twenty four, so you're pretty young,
36:55
Speaker 2: and you need an outlet because you're like, what's the word.
36:59
Speaker 2: I'm in awe of how diligent you are with your sport,
37:03
Speaker 2: which is obviously kind of goes hand in hand with
37:05
Speaker 2: making it your full time thing. But it's so important
37:10
Speaker 2: that you realize how important it is to have some
37:14
Speaker 2: time to blow off steam and to not be training,
37:17
Speaker 2: and that you can do both. What would you say
37:20
Speaker 2: that some of your hobbies are right now.
37:22
Speaker 1: I'm a creative, artsy person, so I like painting and drawing.
37:26
Speaker 1: I would do that to kind of like a therapy
37:28
Speaker 1: if I'm stressed or if I need something outside of
37:31
Speaker 1: track or just outdoor stuff. I'm outgoing, so anything like
37:36
Speaker 1: in the mountains or even last week I was surfing
37:38
Speaker 1: in Australia, so something like that. Just something cross training
37:43
Speaker 1: like climbing and stuff like that. So I'm always open
37:46
Speaker 1: to try new things, and I like meeting other athletes
37:49
Speaker 1: so they can introduce me to that.
37:51
Speaker 2: Will there be a time where it gets to be
37:53
Speaker 2: just like very strict training going into the Olympics.
37:58
Speaker 1: Sadly, I think there has to be, just because I
38:01
Speaker 1: think I have to use all of my time to
38:03
Speaker 1: prepare for it, and I can still have hobbies when
38:06
Speaker 1: i'm but nothing that really distracts from it. And I
38:10
Speaker 1: think I need to be zoned in and I can
38:12
Speaker 1: do that for however many months, and I don't think
38:15
Speaker 1: I've ever really dedicated myself to the point where like
38:18
Speaker 1: I'm completely zoned in and I make major lifestyle changes.
38:22
Speaker 1: And so this year I'm going to experiment with that
38:24
Speaker 1: and see, because I just don't want any excuse, like
38:26
Speaker 1: if I don't make the Olympic team, I don't want
38:28
Speaker 1: to be like maybe it was because of this, or
38:30
Speaker 1: maybe because I did go on that trip, or maybe
38:33
Speaker 1: I didn't change my diet enough. And so I think
38:35
Speaker 1: I'm just going to completely go full throttle and see
38:39
Speaker 1: if that's what it takes.
38:40
Speaker 2: Hey, I mean I can respect that. I think you
38:43
Speaker 2: got to go full throttle, man, And you said try
38:47
Speaker 2: to take away those distractions. You have a very large
38:51
Speaker 2: social media following. Talk to me about how it's been
38:55
Speaker 2: kind of handling that and managing that and not allowing
38:58
Speaker 2: that to distract you.
39:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a lot of people sometimes they get
39:04
Speaker 1: rid of their social media because it's distracting or because
39:08
Speaker 1: they're using too much of their time online stuff like that.
39:11
Speaker 1: And I'd like to say that I haven't had a
39:14
Speaker 1: problem where it really interferes with my training or my
39:17
Speaker 1: personal life, because there's always going to be people that
39:20
Speaker 1: you know, common hate stuff, or people who aren't liking
39:23
Speaker 1: what you're doing, or people who love to be like
39:26
Speaker 1: Instagram coaches as they say, so and so. So many
39:31
Speaker 1: times I want to want to say something, but you
39:34
Speaker 1: think about it for maybe a minute or two, and
39:37
Speaker 1: then you get over it, like it's really not that
39:39
Speaker 1: big of a deal. And so I think what's important
39:42
Speaker 1: to me is that if I'm showing a little bit
39:44
Speaker 1: of who I am online, then I can just be
39:47
Speaker 1: who I am offline, too, and so I don't have
39:50
Speaker 1: that weighing on me a lot.
39:51
Speaker 2: So I think about that a lot. I mean, how
39:53
Speaker 2: much of the time are you putting into people that
39:55
Speaker 2: you don't know versus people that you do know and
39:58
Speaker 2: making sure that you're bringing your positive energy to both places.
40:03
Speaker 2: I am definitely the kind of person that I don't
40:07
Speaker 2: love confrontation. I really try to treat everyone with kindness,
40:11
Speaker 2: whether I know you or not. But sometimes it definitely
40:15
Speaker 2: gets to you when someone has an opinion that's like
40:18
Speaker 2: your stance on walking away from a competition where you're
40:21
Speaker 2: injured and there's nothing you can do about it. I
40:23
Speaker 2: can't always change someone's opinion about what I'm doing or
40:26
Speaker 2: what's going on, but I have to be willing to
40:29
Speaker 2: let that go and understand that that comes with the
40:31
Speaker 2: territory of being someone who shares publicly, who's open, and
40:36
Speaker 2: who's trying to do good.
40:38
Speaker 1: Like you said, I think I have to accept that
40:40
Speaker 1: if I'm going to share something with other people, then
40:43
Speaker 1: I have to be willing to also accept what they
40:45
Speaker 1: have to say about it. And so if I'm going
40:47
Speaker 1: to share a running video and I know people have
40:49
Speaker 1: a lot to say about my running technique, I just
40:51
Speaker 1: have to let them say what they want to say
40:53
Speaker 1: because I'm on my own track, Like I'm not going
40:55
Speaker 1: to go online and be like, oh, maybe i should
40:58
Speaker 1: do this because this person commented at this, like I've
41:01
Speaker 1: never thought that, And so I trust the people that
41:04
Speaker 1: are there physically in my life and who are there
41:08
Speaker 1: like really helping me, and so I don't let things
41:11
Speaker 1: like that get to me. But there are moments where
41:15
Speaker 1: I don't post online things that I like to keep,
41:18
Speaker 1: like maybe friendships or relationships that I keep offline, And
41:22
Speaker 1: people wonder why I keep it offline because today so
41:25
Speaker 1: much is shown online. But the only way that I
41:28
Speaker 1: explain it to them is that, like this is for me,
41:31
Speaker 1: Like this isn't for everyone else, Like this is something
41:33
Speaker 1: that I like to keep private because it's like one
41:36
Speaker 1: thing that I don't have to share with everyone. And
41:38
Speaker 1: so it's almost more important that you're not shown on
41:41
Speaker 1: my social media because that's only for me and you.
41:43
Speaker 2: A lot of your followers will come to your page
41:45
Speaker 2: and they will see a young woman who is excelling
41:48
Speaker 2: and gearing up for a big year in Tokyo. When
41:52
Speaker 2: you look in the mirror, what is it that you
41:55
Speaker 2: see looking back at you.
41:57
Speaker 1: I've matured as an athlete to the level where I
42:00
Speaker 1: won't say something unless I really believe that I can
42:02
Speaker 1: do it. And so the fact that I'm saying that
42:04
Speaker 1: I can be on an Olympic team is like really
42:07
Speaker 1: really big for me, because I would always hide that before.
42:10
Speaker 1: If I don't have one hundred percent confidence in what
42:13
Speaker 1: I'm capable of, then I won't say it to anyone,
42:16
Speaker 1: and I think that's different than a lot of people.
42:18
Speaker 1: I think people say speak it into existence, but I'm
42:21
Speaker 1: totally not like that. I like to believe wholeheartedly something
42:26
Speaker 1: for myself, and then I can tell somebody else, because
42:30
Speaker 1: I think I need to see the reality in it,
42:32
Speaker 1: and I need to be real with everyone else as
42:34
Speaker 1: I am with myself. And when I see myself now,
42:37
Speaker 1: I just believe what I'm capable of. And if I
42:39
Speaker 1: think that I'm capable of making the twenty twenty team,
42:42
Speaker 1: then then I wouldn't be I wouldn't be speaking of
42:45
Speaker 1: it if I don't think that I'm capable of it.
42:47
Speaker 2: I dig it. All right, we're winding down here. My
42:51
Speaker 2: last question for you. You have an opportunity, reflecting on
42:57
Speaker 2: when you had to pull out of that heptathlon. You
43:00
Speaker 2: have an opportunity right now to give yourself a piece
43:02
Speaker 2: of advice going through that hurdle moment. Looking back on it,
43:06
Speaker 2: what would you tell yourself.
43:08
Speaker 1: Failure is one of the best things that could happen
43:11
Speaker 1: to you. It's okay to be sad in that moment,
43:14
Speaker 1: but just to know that there's a light and to
43:18
Speaker 1: know that if you don't failure, won't succeed. And I
43:22
Speaker 1: didn't think failure was in an equation for success, but
43:24
Speaker 1: now I know that it fully is, and I see
43:28
Speaker 1: that through other athletes all the time, and so I
43:30
Speaker 1: just need to trust that in myself and to know
43:34
Speaker 1: what to do when I'm confronted with that.
43:35
Speaker 3: Again, thank you so much for sitting down.
43:37
Speaker 2: Thank you. Please take a quick moment and leave a
43:40
Speaker 2: review of the podcast by clicking the link with the
43:42
Speaker 2: description to this episode. We all face multiple hurdleism life.
43:46
Speaker 2: I want to hear about yours. Reach Out to me
43:48
Speaker 2: at Emily at hurdle dot us. Connect with the podcast
43:50
Speaker 2: on Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle Podcast Georgia. Tell me
43:54
Speaker 2: where can they find you? How do they keep up
43:56
Speaker 2: with you? Give me the details.
43:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm on Instagram mostly. I have Twitter too,
44:02
Speaker 1: but I don't I don't engage the followers as much.
44:05
Speaker 1: So my Instagram handle is George Underscore A h H
44:10
Speaker 1: H three.
44:10
Speaker 2: H s A H H H George George ah so calming.
44:16
Speaker 2: I am at Emily a body another hurdle conquered. Catch
44:20
Speaker 2: you guys next time.