Latest / Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash / #97 Gold Medals and Toddler Tantrums: Paralympian Vanessa Low

Transcript

#97 Gold Medals and Toddler Tantrums: Paralympian Vanessa Low · Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, Ash, you know there should be I reckon a
0:02
Speaker 1: medal for parents.
0:04
Speaker 2: Yes, I would love the opportunity to compete and win
0:08
Speaker 2: a medal for my dadding efforts.
0:10
Speaker 1: Well, Paralympian Vanessa Lowe has owned herself a real gold
0:14
Speaker 1: medal after achieving a world record in the long jump
0:17
Speaker 1: at the twenty twenty four Para Olympics.
0:19
Speaker 2: Matt, it is an incredible story to drag a toddler
0:24
Speaker 2: all the way to Paris, compete and win a gold
0:27
Speaker 2: medal as stars for.
0:29
Speaker 1: Me, and do it with a smile on your face. Look,
0:31
Speaker 1: Vanessa has faced challenges that would leave most of us breathless,
0:35
Speaker 1: but she's here today to share how being a mom
0:37
Speaker 1: has made her stronger than ever.
0:39
Speaker 2: Do you think, Matt, that maybe she will give us
0:41
Speaker 2: a few tips on how we can turn chasing these
0:45
Speaker 2: children into an Olympic sport.
0:47
Speaker 1: That is genius, Ash, You're very good.
0:48
Speaker 3: Let's get stuck into it.
1:05
Speaker 1: Good tag gets. Welcome back to do noting dads. My
1:09
Speaker 1: name is Smart, what I am Ash.
1:13
Speaker 4: And my name is Vanessa. Thanks for having me.
1:15
Speaker 5: That was very good.
1:17
Speaker 1: Thank you.
1:17
Speaker 5: I was I shouldn't say that us. How would I know?
1:21
Speaker 1: I was hoping for more of a reaction. I'm gonna
1:23
Speaker 1: be honest, I've been saving that the whole time.
1:25
Speaker 5: I thought you were making that up.
1:27
Speaker 1: No I did.
1:28
Speaker 4: I learned a little bit that not on like it
1:30
Speaker 4: actually almost like free me up.
1:33
Speaker 2: Very thank you.
1:37
Speaker 1: This is a podcast all about parenting. It is the good,
1:41
Speaker 1: it is the bad, and they're relatable and we never
1:44
Speaker 1: give advice at all. But Vanessa, if you have any
1:47
Speaker 1: advice to give, you're more than welcome to throw it
1:49
Speaker 1: out there for ask for the listeners. But Ash and I,
1:52
Speaker 1: for legal reasons, we have to say that we don't
1:54
Speaker 1: give advice.
1:56
Speaker 4: Look, I'm still winging it, so I'm not sure if
1:58
Speaker 4: I'm really right.
2:00
Speaker 1: We always like to start at the beginning and we
2:01
Speaker 1: will down the track in this interview, obviously talk about
2:05
Speaker 1: your recent accomplishments in Paris at the Olympics. But before
2:09
Speaker 1: we do that, I would like to know what a
2:11
Speaker 1: young Vanessa was like. Was she as disciplined and well
2:14
Speaker 1: behaved as what she is right now?
2:15
Speaker 4: I was a feral teenager. I am already am a
2:19
Speaker 4: bit scared about what's to come when Materio is going
2:21
Speaker 4: to be a teenager. Because you always say you know
2:24
Speaker 4: never doesn't fall far from the tree at the moment,
2:26
Speaker 4: he's not. But I was wild, and I apologize to
2:29
Speaker 4: my parents because I know no understand how hard it is,
2:33
Speaker 4: and I was pretty wild. I did not listen, and
2:37
Speaker 4: my parents did an amazing job. But somehow I found
2:40
Speaker 4: a way to be really Fairal.
2:42
Speaker 1: Did you get in much trouble when you were younger?
2:45
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, there was actually still a story that my
2:47
Speaker 4: parents only found out recently. Like I was grounded for
2:51
Speaker 4: good reasons as well, and I managed to climb out
2:54
Speaker 4: the basement window to hitchhike to the next ton dance
3:00
Speaker 4: underaged worth it?
3:03
Speaker 5: How were you?
3:05
Speaker 4: I was sixteen?
3:06
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness.
3:08
Speaker 2: You know it's funny when you're a kid, you don't
3:09
Speaker 2: realize how dangerous it is until like now you are.
3:12
Speaker 5: My god, I'd never do that.
3:13
Speaker 4: Now that's a life.
3:15
Speaker 5: How long we're grounded for?
3:17
Speaker 4: Well, I was grinded for a week, but my parents
3:19
Speaker 4: didn't find that one out, so I never actually got
3:22
Speaker 4: punished for it.
3:23
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, do they know now?
3:25
Speaker 4: They know?
3:25
Speaker 5: No?
3:26
Speaker 4: And it's like, don't tell us anymore.
3:30
Speaker 5: Fair enough?
3:31
Speaker 1: Holy shit, that's I did not expect that I was not.
3:35
Speaker 1: I'm rattled so when did you start behaving? When did
3:39
Speaker 1: you get that reckless behavior on track?
3:41
Speaker 4: I think I just had my wild for years and
3:43
Speaker 4: I think I just found spored And it sounds silly
3:47
Speaker 4: because sport, I think is part of my teenager By
3:50
Speaker 4: the same time, I was almost like a way to
3:52
Speaker 4: find myself. And I think we all go through these
3:55
Speaker 4: phases where we just reveled. And I think I did
3:58
Speaker 4: that and I was done with it and just moved
4:01
Speaker 4: forward with finding my passion. And I think just finding sport,
4:04
Speaker 4: like you had to find that discipline, right, and no
4:07
Speaker 4: one can find that for you, Like if you don't
4:09
Speaker 4: want to do it, like, no one else will do
4:10
Speaker 4: for you, no one can force you to it.
4:11
Speaker 5: And was it always athletics?
4:13
Speaker 4: I was a long distance runner. I was very different too,
4:15
Speaker 4: now being a long jump up. By growing up I did.
4:18
Speaker 4: I just stopped to run. And I grew up in
4:20
Speaker 4: a beautiful little town surrounded by the lakes and woods,
4:23
Speaker 4: and I just stopped being outside and running and that
4:25
Speaker 4: was my thing.
4:26
Speaker 1: When you were fifteen, you were involved in an accident
4:29
Speaker 1: that would change your life. What were the events that
4:32
Speaker 1: led up to that moment.
4:33
Speaker 4: I actually don't remember much and I now got fed
4:37
Speaker 4: back some off like what was happening around that time,
4:39
Speaker 4: but like a loss of my memory, just like from
4:42
Speaker 4: the bad injuries that I had to my head as
4:45
Speaker 4: well as I think the body just going into shock
4:47
Speaker 4: and just like putting everything aside that isn't essential. But
4:50
Speaker 4: I was told I was on my way to meet
4:52
Speaker 4: friends and it was really normal in Europe to just
4:55
Speaker 4: catch the local train to you know, meet up with
4:57
Speaker 4: the friends and the next town over and the next
5:00
Speaker 4: seeing our members waking up in hospital and I was
5:03
Speaker 4: told that I was struck by a train and I
5:06
Speaker 4: was essentially hit and overrun by a train. So just
5:09
Speaker 4: being here today and being able to tell the story,
5:12
Speaker 4: like it's incredible.
5:13
Speaker 1: Who was the person who told you that when you
5:15
Speaker 1: woke up in hospital?
5:16
Speaker 4: So like there were a couple people on the train
5:19
Speaker 4: that told obviously their perspective. There were a couple of
5:21
Speaker 4: people that were like on the train platform, but like
5:24
Speaker 4: it was dark outside, so like some of the things
5:26
Speaker 4: lined up, some of the things didn't exactly. Like I
5:28
Speaker 4: think we're all the same, Like we don't really pay
5:31
Speaker 4: attention to anything that's outside of our bubble, so no
5:33
Speaker 4: one was really paying too close attention to what had
5:36
Speaker 4: happened exactly. We think I must have been bumped, didn't
5:41
Speaker 4: pay attention, stumbled on the train platform, and just didn't
5:45
Speaker 4: have the time to react.
5:46
Speaker 1: And so, my goodness, when you woke up with your
5:50
Speaker 1: mum and dad in hospital.
5:51
Speaker 4: I eventually was, and I think now being a parent,
5:55
Speaker 4: actually my heart sings a little bit because I was
5:57
Speaker 4: on my own when I was traveling, so I was
5:59
Speaker 4: meeting with my friends there and so my parents just
6:03
Speaker 4: had to call up the police because I didn't come home.
6:05
Speaker 4: And it was really unlike me because I always like
6:07
Speaker 4: made sure that my parents knew where it was. And
6:09
Speaker 4: when I didn't come home, they called the police and
6:12
Speaker 4: they had to tell my parents that they found someone
6:14
Speaker 4: that is now in hospital that had an accident, and
6:17
Speaker 4: so they actually had to come into the hospital to
6:19
Speaker 4: identify their daughter. And at that point I had already
6:22
Speaker 4: gone through surgery and I had already done I was
6:25
Speaker 4: already in a coma, and so I did not look
6:28
Speaker 4: like myself obviously.
6:30
Speaker 2: And every parent out there right now is probably like,
6:33
Speaker 2: oh my god, do.
6:34
Speaker 4: You imagine, yes, just having to do that call, and
6:36
Speaker 4: I think it just like really only like years down
6:39
Speaker 4: the road, like dawned on me whole hard that must
6:41
Speaker 4: have been for my parents, and like how big of
6:43
Speaker 4: a shock that would have been, and it's so caught up,
6:46
Speaker 4: Like obviously it was a really difficult situation for me,
6:48
Speaker 4: but like for my parents, I think they did it
6:50
Speaker 4: a lot harder and just trying to deal with everything
6:52
Speaker 4: in their own emotions.
6:53
Speaker 5: And yeah, you know, questioning how long were you know comafore?
6:57
Speaker 4: I was in a coma for two weeks, but I
6:59
Speaker 4: can't I don't really remember, probably about three month just
7:03
Speaker 4: before and just after the accident. So there's actually a
7:05
Speaker 4: fair chunk of memories just never came back. I was
7:08
Speaker 4: always waiting for it, like some of the bits to
7:10
Speaker 4: come back, but it just never did.
7:11
Speaker 1: And what were the extent of your injuries?
7:14
Speaker 4: So at the very beginning, I was told that my
7:16
Speaker 4: left leg was amputated on side and my right leg
7:20
Speaker 4: was amputated in the first surgery, they had to make
7:23
Speaker 4: the decision whether or not to save it, but I
7:26
Speaker 4: was messing so much blood and was yeah, they had
7:29
Speaker 4: to decide to save my life rather than my legs,
7:31
Speaker 4: So they amputated the second leg. And I had a
7:35
Speaker 4: number of head injuries and a couple of injuries to
7:38
Speaker 4: my back. For the first five months, I was just
7:40
Speaker 4: paying just to let my back heel and make sure
7:43
Speaker 4: that I don't have any further injuries to mask.
7:44
Speaker 1: Fine, you must be lucky that you survive, though surely
7:47
Speaker 1: you know that the severity of an injury like that,
7:50
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that there's only a short portion of time
7:53
Speaker 1: with the amount of blood that you can lose before
7:55
Speaker 1: it's too late.
7:56
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean like to be sitting here today and
7:59
Speaker 4: tell a story like it's still like it's a pinched me,
8:02
Speaker 4: like once in a lifetime moment where you think, like
8:04
Speaker 4: everything must have aligned in my favor for me to
8:07
Speaker 4: be here, and the people like on site and in
8:11
Speaker 4: hospital just did an amazing job and just at their best.
8:14
Speaker 4: I'm here.
8:14
Speaker 5: Wow, what was your recovery like?
8:16
Speaker 2: Because you mentioned you were five months flat on your
8:19
Speaker 2: back trying to let you back here.
8:20
Speaker 5: And then what happens after that?
8:21
Speaker 4: I was I had a really long journey, and I
8:24
Speaker 4: think now that I'm like connected to so many different
8:26
Speaker 4: athletes that all went through their own little like journeys.
8:29
Speaker 4: I realized this whole long mind was in comparison because
8:33
Speaker 4: I was out for such a long time, and I
8:35
Speaker 4: went through nine surgeries and the whole process. After six
8:38
Speaker 4: months in hospital, I was finally able to not go home,
8:41
Speaker 4: but to go to rehab. I think even just recently
8:44
Speaker 4: realized that I wasn't going to rehab to learn how
8:47
Speaker 4: to walk. I went to rehab to learn how to
8:49
Speaker 4: do life in a weird chair. And I think it
8:51
Speaker 4: really didn't dawn on me because I had these goals
8:53
Speaker 4: of like I just wanted to go home. I wanted
8:55
Speaker 4: to sleep in my own bed. I wanted to, you know,
8:57
Speaker 4: go out with my friends again, go back to school
9:00
Speaker 4: the things we hate, you know.
9:01
Speaker 5: I was because also you're so young too.
9:04
Speaker 2: I mean we're talking about this now, and as an adult,
9:07
Speaker 2: you are a little bit more patient.
9:08
Speaker 5: As an adult, you just you just learn those skills.
9:11
Speaker 2: But as a teenager, you're not patient's been itching to
9:15
Speaker 2: get home.
9:16
Speaker 4: I think just like when they announced that they had
9:17
Speaker 4: to do another surgery, it's like no, like he said
9:19
Speaker 4: the last one was last one, Like I'm not going
9:22
Speaker 4: to do this, and it was. Yeah. I was definitely
9:25
Speaker 4: losing my patients along the way, especially once I was
9:27
Speaker 4: just like wide awake and well aware of the whole process.
9:30
Speaker 4: I think it really started to be like, no, I
9:32
Speaker 4: just want to go home now and I'll figure out
9:34
Speaker 4: from there. And I was in a YouTube errors had
9:36
Speaker 4: already watched all the YouTube videos of people like walking
9:39
Speaker 4: on prosthetics, just like, oh, this is not a big deal,
9:41
Speaker 4: Like I'm going to get my first prosthetic legs and
9:43
Speaker 4: I was going to walk back right into the life
9:46
Speaker 4: the way that I left it.
9:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, when you're in that recovering, you're doing the rehabilitation,
9:50
Speaker 1: how much assistance is given from a psychological perspective, Well.
9:54
Speaker 4: You're offered like psychological assistance. But I felt like it
9:59
Speaker 4: was just not for me, Like I felt I was
10:00
Speaker 4: always a person that kind of makes things up with
10:03
Speaker 4: myself or with the people that are really close to me.
10:06
Speaker 4: So it felt really foreign to me, just like lean
10:08
Speaker 4: on someone that you know seems to be a professional
10:11
Speaker 4: what they do, but like someone that don't know so
10:13
Speaker 4: like and I was still trying to figure this out myself.
10:16
Speaker 4: So I felt like I was just not up for
10:18
Speaker 4: having those conversations yet. And so I think that was
10:21
Speaker 4: something that I explought a lot later in my story,
10:24
Speaker 4: probably like ten years somehow on the track, and even
10:27
Speaker 4: still today. I mean It's now approaching almost twenty years ago,
10:31
Speaker 4: but I'm still like there's still aspects that I'm still healing,
10:34
Speaker 4: and I think still aspects that I still start to
10:36
Speaker 4: understand now. And I think it was a good thing
10:39
Speaker 4: that I gave myself the time to be ready for
10:41
Speaker 4: it and not try to, you know, rush through the
10:45
Speaker 4: rehab process and trying to you know, understand it all
10:48
Speaker 4: in the beginning.
10:49
Speaker 1: And do you remember the point then in your recovery
10:52
Speaker 1: phase where you thought, you know, I'm going to be
10:56
Speaker 1: an athlete.
10:57
Speaker 4: Still I never grew up thinking I was going to
10:58
Speaker 4: be at the Olympics. I think a lot of athletes
11:01
Speaker 4: that you see competing now there's like, yeah, I've dreamed
11:03
Speaker 4: of this since I've been four or five years old,
11:05
Speaker 4: And like I was just a kid that loved to run,
11:07
Speaker 4: and so I think when I lost my legs, like
11:09
Speaker 4: there was no question asked I was gonna go back
11:12
Speaker 4: running and this was going to be my thing. And
11:14
Speaker 4: I never did that to be the best in the world.
11:17
Speaker 4: Like I never wanted to break records or wanted to
11:19
Speaker 4: you know, compete on this massive stage. I just wanted
11:22
Speaker 4: to run again and do something that felt like me
11:25
Speaker 4: and so I guess that's what really drew me into
11:28
Speaker 4: the sport. And it wasn't until a lot later that
11:30
Speaker 4: I was like, maybe I can actually compete and maybe
11:33
Speaker 4: I can actually be pretty good at this.
11:35
Speaker 1: When when was that moment?
11:36
Speaker 5: Do you remember when.
11:37
Speaker 4: I first joined one of the sport clubs that actually
11:40
Speaker 4: had people with different physical disabilities, that I discovered that
11:43
Speaker 4: you can actually compete in that space, Like I'd never
11:46
Speaker 4: met another person as that that was an emputy before,
11:49
Speaker 4: like coming from a small town, like I don't think
11:51
Speaker 4: I knew someone in a weird chair before, to be
11:53
Speaker 4: completely honest, So wow, just like being exposed to that
11:56
Speaker 4: whole different world of like people with different abilities, like
12:00
Speaker 4: doing different sports, like all of a sudden discovered there
12:03
Speaker 4: was a different world, and I think I really desired
12:07
Speaker 4: to make the most out of that when I discovered
12:10
Speaker 4: that my disability actually didn't exist in that system. So
12:13
Speaker 4: I was always on my feet and I wanted to
12:15
Speaker 4: be back running on my feet, and everyone told me,
12:18
Speaker 4: with your disability, you do a weird sport or do
12:20
Speaker 4: my seated sport And I was like, well, I didn't
12:23
Speaker 4: quite sit right and it didn't feel right, And I
12:26
Speaker 4: think the more people told me like this was, you know,
12:29
Speaker 4: a wish that was just too big and like unachievable.
12:32
Speaker 4: I think the more I wanted to try it, and
12:34
Speaker 4: I was probably like to still the rebellious teeth, Like
12:38
Speaker 4: I wanted to like just achieve things that people told
12:41
Speaker 4: you like I couldn't do. I think that's what really
12:43
Speaker 4: pushed me.
12:43
Speaker 1: So you spoke before about when you snuck out a
12:46
Speaker 1: home and you hitchhiked. That happened after your accident.
12:50
Speaker 4: Wait what did it did not slow? Mens?
12:56
Speaker 5: How did you Okay? Yeah, because you did so that
13:00
Speaker 5: was sixteen years it was a year on, it.
13:02
Speaker 4: Was a year on. Yeah, it did not stole me
13:04
Speaker 4: downe yeah mile afterwards?
13:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you were hitch hiking, how many different rides
13:10
Speaker 1: did you need before you got to your destination?
13:12
Speaker 4: Oh? Just the one? Right? It wasn't really far, like
13:14
Speaker 4: nothing was really that far from where I was. But
13:17
Speaker 4: it was a positive Sorry, I mean, we had a
13:19
Speaker 4: nice person that actually drove us. And it was actually
13:21
Speaker 4: a female and it was me and a friend, so
13:24
Speaker 4: at least it was the two of us, two young girls.
13:26
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not sure if that makes a better
13:27
Speaker 4: or worse.
13:28
Speaker 1: I'm in shock.
13:29
Speaker 4: I know you guys have daughters. Are you ready?
13:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got two daughters. My version of naughty was
13:37
Speaker 1: like stealing a pot of noodles from talk shop. My
13:39
Speaker 1: sister was pretty naughty. I was too much of a
13:41
Speaker 1: scaredy cat to go hitch hiking.
13:42
Speaker 5: No, I couldn't imagine at sixteen.
13:44
Speaker 2: It's just crazy to thank you hitch hiking at sixteen,
13:48
Speaker 2: like in the middle of the night.
13:49
Speaker 5: I'm assuming.
13:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you remember then the first competition that you
13:54
Speaker 1: won in long job?
13:54
Speaker 4: I was really long time down the road because I
13:58
Speaker 4: was actual, really not that great at it. Yeah, I
14:01
Speaker 4: think I'm not because I've won the last the titles.
14:04
Speaker 4: Like I think a lot of people think I was
14:06
Speaker 4: so dominant, but like I didn't win until seven years
14:09
Speaker 4: of doing that like full time. So I think a
14:12
Speaker 4: lot of people didn't realize it actually took me really
14:14
Speaker 4: long time to be good at it.
14:16
Speaker 1: What clicked then? Did something happen that made you a
14:19
Speaker 1: hell of a lot better or was it just it
14:21
Speaker 1: took a long time.
14:22
Speaker 4: I think I've realized now that the best things in
14:25
Speaker 4: life come from the greatest adversities we faced, right, And
14:28
Speaker 4: so I think for me, what changed really was going
14:31
Speaker 4: to my first games in London, and I did not meddle,
14:36
Speaker 4: and I didn't do amazing and I think it was
14:38
Speaker 4: almost like all the people that told me, like, you
14:40
Speaker 4: were not gonna be good at this were right, And
14:43
Speaker 4: it was this big disappointment, and I actually decided to
14:46
Speaker 4: step away from the sport. And I felt like maybe
14:48
Speaker 4: it wasn't for me, maybe it was just a hobby,
14:50
Speaker 4: and maybe I'd just focus on my job and not
14:52
Speaker 4: do these big hours anymore. And then it was a
14:55
Speaker 4: friend of mine that I made this sport that was
14:57
Speaker 4: competing for Germany, that had married in a Marria so
15:00
Speaker 4: she lived in the US, that talk me into coming
15:03
Speaker 4: to visit them, and I was like, sure, I go
15:06
Speaker 4: for holiday. I just quit sports. So like, I have
15:09
Speaker 4: all this time on my hand.
15:10
Speaker 1: Now, how much time had you had off from the
15:12
Speaker 1: sport at this point?
15:13
Speaker 4: Six weeks? Six weeks? And so I arrived in the
15:16
Speaker 4: US and basically what was a holiday turned into a training.
15:19
Speaker 1: Camp and oh, wow, did you bring did you bring
15:24
Speaker 1: in equipment with you?
15:25
Speaker 4: No? I did not. I didn't even bring my jogger.
15:27
Speaker 4: So I was not prepared to do any sort of
15:30
Speaker 4: like training. And we literally just did weight training, like
15:32
Speaker 4: I didn't even have my running legs with me. And
15:35
Speaker 4: I think it was her husband that challenged me in
15:38
Speaker 4: ways that I hadn't felt since I lost my legs,
15:40
Speaker 4: and someone that for the first time didn't treat me
15:42
Speaker 4: like a person that had a disability, like he saw
15:45
Speaker 4: me for me as a person, and he wanted to
15:48
Speaker 4: challenge me in ways and wanted to find out and
15:50
Speaker 4: push me to see what I can do. And I
15:53
Speaker 4: decided in the last night out we had a world
15:56
Speaker 4: night out to like finish the holidays best training camp,
16:00
Speaker 4: and we made a bet. So he said, if you
16:02
Speaker 4: were to move to the US, I coulled you for
16:04
Speaker 4: gold medal. And I thought, well, every good decision is
16:09
Speaker 4: made on a wild night after so agreed, right, So
16:13
Speaker 4: I signed the deal and I went back to Germany
16:16
Speaker 4: to quit my full time job and I sold everything
16:18
Speaker 4: that I owned and I moved to Oklahoma City and
16:21
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, lived off my savings for the next
16:24
Speaker 4: four years.
16:24
Speaker 5: How old were you when you did that?
16:26
Speaker 4: Twenty two?
16:26
Speaker 5: Okay, so really I'm still yeah.
16:28
Speaker 4: Wow, left everything behind, leaving off my savings, not only
16:32
Speaker 4: mentioned my parents, quitting my well paid job to do
16:34
Speaker 4: something that wasn't really that great.
16:36
Speaker 1: At What were you doing for work at the time.
16:38
Speaker 4: I was an editor at a TV channel, so I
16:41
Speaker 4: was working big hours doing something that I actually loved doing.
16:44
Speaker 4: So I wasn't even like leaving a job that I
16:46
Speaker 4: didn't like, but actually leaving something behind that actually was
16:49
Speaker 4: really passionate about it.
16:50
Speaker 1: Did your parents try and talk you out of it?
16:52
Speaker 5: They didn't.
16:53
Speaker 4: And I think that's what I really admire about my
16:56
Speaker 4: parents is like looking back now, over all these years parenting,
17:01
Speaker 4: they never told us not to do something like no
17:04
Speaker 4: matter whole stupid. The decisions were that we made. They
17:07
Speaker 4: always supported us, and we always knew that if it
17:09
Speaker 4: didn't work out, we could come home and it would help.
17:11
Speaker 5: Excepting thing didn't support that one.
17:16
Speaker 4: Sure, probably never forgive me that one. But they were
17:19
Speaker 4: always there for us. They always let us made our
17:21
Speaker 4: own decisions.
17:21
Speaker 2: Four years in Oklahoma training for the next Olympics, Okay,
17:26
Speaker 2: which was what YE would have that pick.
17:27
Speaker 4: So they would have been twenty twelve. I moved there
17:29
Speaker 4: and then preparing for the Rio in twenty sixteen and.
17:33
Speaker 1: Was Scott in the picture who's now your husband?
17:36
Speaker 4: No, he actually wasn't. I only met him in twenty thirteen,
17:39
Speaker 4: the year after so I met him at a competition
17:42
Speaker 4: in London. Out of all places, So I never would
17:44
Speaker 4: have met him if I would have retired from sport age.
17:47
Speaker 1: The girls falling into places? Was it love at first sight?
17:53
Speaker 4: He ask him. I think he had an eye on
17:55
Speaker 4: Mads since since we started competing, and like I think
17:59
Speaker 4: we first met inwenty eleven and I knew that he
18:01
Speaker 4: was there. I mean, it's a small world, like in competition, well,
18:04
Speaker 4: you kind of know who's there, especially those guys that
18:06
Speaker 4: are in the shot for medals, and but it wasn't
18:08
Speaker 4: until we had a quick conversation. We both want to
18:10
Speaker 4: medal at those at that competition, so we're both sitting
18:13
Speaker 4: in a room waiting for a metal ceremony. You had
18:15
Speaker 4: the better placement, Scott was definitely more successful one.
18:18
Speaker 1: But you would love that makes it?
18:22
Speaker 4: No, it was great. We became Facebook friends after, which
18:25
Speaker 4: was a big thing back then.
18:26
Speaker 1: Like I mean, and then, I always think it must
18:31
Speaker 1: be such a difficult conversation to have when you're an athlete,
18:34
Speaker 1: when you're thinking when will I have kids, knowing what
18:37
Speaker 1: impact it has on your career. How was that conversation
18:40
Speaker 1: between you and Scott.
18:41
Speaker 4: It's so interesting because when we first met, I was
18:43
Speaker 4: actually the ones like I don't actually know if I
18:45
Speaker 4: want kids. I don't think I was there yet, and
18:49
Speaker 4: I don't think I was there to decide, Like I
18:51
Speaker 4: wasn't necessarily a baby person, if that makes sense. Like
18:54
Speaker 4: a lot of females my age were like doting on
18:56
Speaker 4: little babies, and I was like, I thought they were cute,
18:58
Speaker 4: but I was always happy to give them back.
19:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I knows the feeling.
19:03
Speaker 5: Still, and I.
19:05
Speaker 4: Think it wasn't until like many years down the road,
19:07
Speaker 4: when Scott and I were thing and we were already married,
19:10
Speaker 4: that I was like, actually, maybe I do want this
19:12
Speaker 4: and I found the right person.
19:13
Speaker 5: What year did you get married?
19:14
Speaker 4: Oh my god, when are you on a spot? I
19:16
Speaker 4: think sorrenty eighteen you got married.
19:19
Speaker 5: So you've been together for five years?
19:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, somewhat. Yeah, we became officially think in twenty fourteen,
19:25
Speaker 4: and then I moved to Australia on twenty sixteen just
19:28
Speaker 4: after the Games and we got engaged a yeah after
19:32
Speaker 4: on them.
19:33
Speaker 1: So do you have to then map out competitions and
19:36
Speaker 1: dates to figure out when would be the best window
19:39
Speaker 1: to start trying? Then to fall pregnant knowing how much
19:42
Speaker 1: time you're going to have away from the sport.
19:43
Speaker 4: We actually mapped up when we got married to when
19:45
Speaker 4: would fit in between competitions. It's so funny, like that's
19:48
Speaker 4: all sport works because he's so like always in the
19:50
Speaker 4: schedule of sport, but you kind of try to fit
19:53
Speaker 4: it in. We didn't really talk about kids up until
19:55
Speaker 4: after Tokyo because I think we were both so immersed
19:58
Speaker 4: and so focused on our is that we didn't really
20:01
Speaker 4: think that far and we just you know, we're just
20:04
Speaker 4: trying to not have kids up until then because like
20:08
Speaker 4: Tokyo was a weird period where we all had to
20:10
Speaker 4: go to quarantine way home after the games, and so
20:14
Speaker 4: that was the first time we actually had the conversations
20:16
Speaker 4: like do you maybe want to try to not have kids?
20:19
Speaker 4: And well, ten months post quarantine we had a baby.
20:24
Speaker 1: So didn't go.
20:27
Speaker 5: Well, it was more than a conversation.
20:33
Speaker 1: When you're talking about pregnancy, how often are you speaking
20:37
Speaker 1: to your GP about what impact pregnancy will have on
20:40
Speaker 1: your body?
20:41
Speaker 4: So funny ass because like, ever since I moved to Australia,
20:44
Speaker 4: I never had a GP because I was always an athlete.
20:48
Speaker 4: So we have a medical system at our training center,
20:51
Speaker 4: so I had essentially confirm a pregnancy going to the
20:54
Speaker 4: sport doctor doing a blood test, and so it was
20:57
Speaker 4: a really awkward conversation to have because I'm expected to
21:00
Speaker 4: be there to perform and at that point being there
21:04
Speaker 4: was no policy in place, so I didn't know how
21:07
Speaker 4: that was going to go down, like, am I going
21:08
Speaker 4: to lose my funding? Am I going to lose access
21:11
Speaker 4: to all these facilities? And putting my doctor and everyone involved,
21:15
Speaker 4: and so it was really interesting because I felt like
21:18
Speaker 4: almost like a big part of me, which was me
21:20
Speaker 4: the athlete, was kind of like almost jeopardized by me
21:24
Speaker 4: the wish of wanting a family and actually no starting
21:26
Speaker 4: a family. So it was really interesting to start the
21:30
Speaker 4: conversation and my doctor was amazing. He's like, well, obviously
21:33
Speaker 4: it's like with me and you have to decide yourself
21:36
Speaker 4: when you want to, you know, share the news. But
21:38
Speaker 4: just in that time period being there happened to be
21:41
Speaker 4: two other athletes that were still currently competing that were
21:44
Speaker 4: also pregnant, and so my organization Athletics decided to actually
21:48
Speaker 4: introduce a pregnancy policy.
21:49
Speaker 5: For the first time ever. Well that is huge.
21:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, so all of a sudden, we actually did have
21:54
Speaker 4: a safe space to not only share the news but
21:56
Speaker 4: actually feel supported.
21:58
Speaker 1: It seems crazy there wasn't a policy before.
22:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah it is.
22:02
Speaker 4: Because like there's sport like netball and basketball. They figured
22:05
Speaker 4: out like years ago that if they want to send
22:07
Speaker 4: the best team, they have to find a way to
22:09
Speaker 4: you know, allow moms to return back to the sports,
22:11
Speaker 4: otherwise they won't have the best athletes there athletics for
22:14
Speaker 4: a long time, they just always had other people. So
22:17
Speaker 4: I feel like there was almost like a big turnover
22:20
Speaker 4: of people that either had a care career or I
22:23
Speaker 4: decided to move on to have a family. I think
22:25
Speaker 4: there was very limited amount of athletes that decided to
22:27
Speaker 4: do both. And I think it has really changed because
22:31
Speaker 4: I think now the organization realized, you know, we're all
22:33
Speaker 4: peaking and twenties, early thirties, So if you want to
22:36
Speaker 4: send the best athletes, they actually have to allow those
22:38
Speaker 4: athletes to stay in their sport for as long as
22:41
Speaker 4: they can and as long as they want to.
22:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, at that point, how long do you continue training
22:45
Speaker 2: up until too?
22:46
Speaker 4: Honest, like in my first trimester, like I felt so unwell,
22:50
Speaker 4: and I think a lot of females do, and it's like,
22:52
Speaker 4: oh my god, I'd just rather sit on the coach
22:54
Speaker 4: and feel sick. And then I realized I might as
22:56
Speaker 4: well be running and feel sick because like amazing. But
23:03
Speaker 4: like my the first trimester, like feeling unwell didn't go away,
23:07
Speaker 4: so it wasn't just you know, the initial like morning sickness.
23:10
Speaker 4: Like I was sick every day of pregnancy until the end.
23:13
Speaker 4: And I actually trained all through our pregnancy because it
23:16
Speaker 4: was the one thing that actually made me feel better
23:18
Speaker 4: out of all things. So I ran until twenty six
23:21
Speaker 4: weeks and then I was just turn around and too
23:24
Speaker 4: big to fit in my running vest. That was the
23:27
Speaker 4: end of that. But I did water running until the
23:29
Speaker 4: day before I gave birth, so I actually, what's so
23:33
Speaker 4: you put like a big belt on, like a floating belt,
23:35
Speaker 4: and then you can just run in the water, so
23:37
Speaker 4: essentially still do floating flooding. It's here, Yeah, there you go,
23:42
Speaker 4: so deep water water running.
23:43
Speaker 5: Water running. To check that out, we actually run on
23:47
Speaker 5: top of the water. Yeah, no quiet.
23:51
Speaker 1: And then how did your body react to the change
23:53
Speaker 1: of pregnancy.
23:54
Speaker 4: It was like a big learning experience for everyone because
23:58
Speaker 4: I'm missing both of my legs so most of like
24:01
Speaker 4: females get a lot of like liquids in their legs,
24:04
Speaker 4: So like where was it going to go for me? Yeah,
24:07
Speaker 4: like I still had the same amuet of swelling. It
24:09
Speaker 4: just went everywhere else. So like I was already out
24:11
Speaker 4: of my normal walking legs after twelve weeks of pregnancy.
24:14
Speaker 4: Aud he had so much swelling, so I had to
24:16
Speaker 4: get new sockets made, new prosthetics made, and I went
24:20
Speaker 4: through the sockets in the pregnancy, so thiepair of prosthetics
24:24
Speaker 4: just like to deal with all like the swelling and
24:26
Speaker 4: a different point of like balance, Like that was really challenging.
24:31
Speaker 2: True, And do we warn by it, like by anybody
24:34
Speaker 2: leading into like this is what's gonna happen or do
24:36
Speaker 2: you just have to adapt?
24:38
Speaker 4: No, we didn't really know, because we didn't really know
24:40
Speaker 4: anyone that had a really similar circumstance because a lot
24:42
Speaker 4: of people with my pairment usually are in a weird chair,
24:45
Speaker 4: so a lot of people aren't on their feet like
24:48
Speaker 4: I am. And because I'm so active and I've always
24:51
Speaker 4: always been running, so I'm just used to being like
24:54
Speaker 4: on my feet and doing all these exercises and running.
24:58
Speaker 4: So the moment I stopped doing that. All of a sudden,
25:00
Speaker 4: my body starts to change, and like, losing the core
25:03
Speaker 4: function was almost like the hardest bit because that's what
25:05
Speaker 4: I need to be, like standing and walking, and it
25:09
Speaker 4: was a big learning curve and like I had to
25:11
Speaker 4: fall back on using crutches towards the end, and then
25:15
Speaker 4: even using my wheelchair the last few weeks leading into birth.
25:18
Speaker 4: So it was, yeah, it was quite interesting.
25:21
Speaker 2: I can imagine would have been close to the end
25:24
Speaker 2: then would have been really uncomfortable.
25:25
Speaker 5: I mean our wives were very uncomfortable.
25:28
Speaker 4: I hit the thirty week mark ands like, and he
25:34
Speaker 4: came a bit early. Looks to think it was.
25:37
Speaker 1: Birth smooth sailing, though for you.
25:39
Speaker 4: It actually was. So I don't know if it's just
25:42
Speaker 4: like a screwed memory, because you know, you don't memorize
25:44
Speaker 4: pain really, But like I find the pregnancy so much
25:47
Speaker 4: harder than giving birth, Like I keep saying I would
25:50
Speaker 4: do birth again, but like the pregnancy do that for me.
25:55
Speaker 4: I had a really good berth and we ended up
25:57
Speaker 4: having an epitrol and that was the best decision ever
26:00
Speaker 4: because it puts so much calmness into the whole process
26:03
Speaker 4: and we had a really positive experience.
26:05
Speaker 1: I remember someone said to us. They were like, make
26:08
Speaker 1: sure you get the eppy early on, because you don't
26:10
Speaker 1: want to get to the point.
26:11
Speaker 5: Where is it.
26:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's too late, so you like give it
26:15
Speaker 1: to me now.
26:16
Speaker 5: I want it now.
26:18
Speaker 4: So funny though I'm not sure if you know the process,
26:20
Speaker 4: but like you're already in labor, right, but you have
26:22
Speaker 4: to sit on the bed and get that massive needle
26:24
Speaker 4: in the back.
26:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then they do.
26:27
Speaker 4: Like a test to see if the epidrawl is working,
26:29
Speaker 4: so you don't feel pain, but you can still move.
26:32
Speaker 4: And she told me to like move like flex my
26:34
Speaker 4: leg up, and my husband like looking around the corner.
26:37
Speaker 4: It's like, that's not gonna that's so funny.
26:43
Speaker 5: I thought you were going to say, will do well.
26:50
Speaker 2: I do recall that big needle and it's traumatizing for me.
26:53
Speaker 5: I can't imagine how traumatizing it is for Mark.
26:55
Speaker 1: When do you start training again?
26:56
Speaker 5: Then?
26:57
Speaker 4: My first water running session, I think to weeks post birth,
27:01
Speaker 4: two weeks, two weeks, and I think that is right
27:03
Speaker 4: the time where a lot of females would start going
27:05
Speaker 4: on walks with their little bups. But I couldn't do
27:07
Speaker 4: that yet. Yeah, because I was still recovering and I
27:10
Speaker 4: couldn't fit my legs. So I think I saw the
27:12
Speaker 4: recovery process in the water, and I was really nice
27:15
Speaker 4: and I started running again, I think ten weeks hostgiving birth,
27:20
Speaker 4: and it was really just a trot, but it was
27:22
Speaker 4: so nice and it was actually so lovely just to
27:25
Speaker 4: return back to something that was just me.
27:27
Speaker 1: Logistically, when you have a newborn, what makes it so
27:30
Speaker 1: much harder when you don't have the ability to just
27:33
Speaker 1: you know, if baby's crying, just to like quickly go
27:36
Speaker 1: and care for them. How much harder are those types
27:38
Speaker 1: of areas of parenting.
27:40
Speaker 4: It was really challenging the early stages because I was
27:43
Speaker 4: still recovering as well from birth, and like I still
27:45
Speaker 4: didn't fit in my normal legs, and like my husband
27:48
Speaker 4: is on one leg, so like between the two of us,
27:50
Speaker 4: like it sucks, but like the person with one leg
27:52
Speaker 4: has to go first, just a little bit quicker putting
27:56
Speaker 4: one leg on. And I still remember, like our bar
28:00
Speaker 4: was a colleague baby, so he did not sleep and
28:03
Speaker 4: he just screen cried for the first six months was live.
28:07
Speaker 4: And so I still remember my husband but naked, like
28:10
Speaker 4: doing squads because I was the only thing that helped
28:14
Speaker 4: him from crying. But I had this big dream of like,
28:17
Speaker 4: you know, I recover and after so so many weeks,
28:20
Speaker 4: I'll be doing like this big walks with a pram
28:22
Speaker 4: with a bubba. And he hated the PREM altogether, so
28:25
Speaker 4: he never ever sat in it or late in it.
28:27
Speaker 4: So it was just literally having him in the carrier
28:29
Speaker 4: twenty four seven and walking naps around the kitchen aisle
28:32
Speaker 4: at two am. So that was something.
28:35
Speaker 1: Like the pram is like for me anyway, it was
28:37
Speaker 1: like when all else fails, I'm going to put baby
28:40
Speaker 1: in the PREM and just that emotion would soothe her.
28:42
Speaker 5: We were the same as you that hated the PREM, hat,
28:45
Speaker 5: the pram.
28:45
Speaker 4: And the car seat, Like I always heard about people
28:47
Speaker 4: putting the kid in the car seat.
28:48
Speaker 5: And drive traumatizing. It was.
28:51
Speaker 1: Do you remember one of the first competitions when you
28:53
Speaker 1: were back after giving birth and you brought my teo along.
28:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was an experience itself because like I mean,
29:00
Speaker 4: he was always there for training, right, but he was
29:02
Speaker 4: a colleague baby, so he's not really settled and he
29:05
Speaker 4: could never like lay him down anywhere, So it was
29:07
Speaker 4: always just like trying to manage him while training and
29:09
Speaker 4: my husband as my coach, so he was managing Mateo
29:12
Speaker 4: as well as me. But then we went to our
29:14
Speaker 4: first nationals and that would have been like maybe seven
29:17
Speaker 4: month post birth, and we had lots of people there
29:20
Speaker 4: that could help, that could hold Mateo, but he hated
29:23
Speaker 4: it because like he could see me and he couldn't
29:25
Speaker 4: come to me, couldn't get to know and like if
29:29
Speaker 4: you know athletics, like it's not as you know, just
29:31
Speaker 4: doing one run, like as a long JOm competition, you
29:33
Speaker 4: go to core room, then you go like that takes
29:35
Speaker 4: half an hour, then you go compete for an hour,
29:37
Speaker 4: so it's like a long process. And a Mateo saw
29:41
Speaker 4: me and then realize he's maybe hungry and then be
29:44
Speaker 4: like he was just like screaming murder the entire time
29:47
Speaker 4: because he did not want to be helped by any
29:49
Speaker 4: of these people. He just wanted to be with mom.
29:51
Speaker 4: And it was so distracting because I was like I
29:53
Speaker 4: could literally hear him at the start of the runway
29:55
Speaker 4: like trying to focus on my competition. I still remember today,
30:00
Speaker 4: like hole challenging. It was because like as a breastfed baby,
30:03
Speaker 4: like the mom hears to cry in the milk, shoots endslactate. Yeah,
30:08
Speaker 4: because like you hear the baby crying, so the body
30:10
Speaker 4: knows it one's food. But like at that point, being
30:13
Speaker 4: like I already had like try to like put everything
30:16
Speaker 4: up tight like it is like tucked away, but like,
30:19
Speaker 4: oh my god, it was so uncomfortable. It was horrible.
30:23
Speaker 1: That is so unfair to go through this, and.
30:28
Speaker 5: Like what did you place in that? Did you remember I.
30:31
Speaker 4: Won national really well and I am qualified to go
30:37
Speaker 4: to World Chance. Yeah, it was great.
30:39
Speaker 1: Maybe a bit of lactating helps.
30:40
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe maybe his performance enhancing lactating.
30:44
Speaker 1: I have to ask God about that one.
30:47
Speaker 4: I think there's actually some evidence saying that people like
30:50
Speaker 4: females returning back to sport after birth are actually having
30:53
Speaker 4: a second wind in their career.
30:56
Speaker 5: Supermum.
30:57
Speaker 2: Serious, you know when they talk about mom's strength, that
30:59
Speaker 2: mom who lift the car, about toddler.
31:01
Speaker 1: Kind of like you look at your stats and you're
31:03
Speaker 1: proving that correct.
31:04
Speaker 4: It shows how important it is to allow people to
31:07
Speaker 4: do that, like not just in sport, but like in
31:09
Speaker 4: any career, Like you can really use like the things
31:12
Speaker 4: that shape you as a mom to be better at
31:15
Speaker 4: your profession.
31:16
Speaker 1: Always want it interesting with athletes, especially with the Olympics,
31:19
Speaker 1: because you like there's so man different factors that could
31:23
Speaker 1: impact you being at your absolute best leading into that competition.
31:26
Speaker 1: The Paralympics is just it's the pinnacle, right for yourself.
31:29
Speaker 1: How was your lead up into that comp Well.
31:32
Speaker 4: This year it went really well and it was based
31:35
Speaker 4: on last year going really shit. I think we did
31:38
Speaker 4: like our first major competition as a mom last year,
31:41
Speaker 4: going to World Championships, which also happened to be in
31:43
Speaker 4: Paris or was a really good test round. Cool and
31:46
Speaker 4: we got to the other end of competition stuff. This
31:48
Speaker 4: was not like this was a horrible experience.
31:51
Speaker 5: Just talk us through that.
31:52
Speaker 4: I think it was a like I've never been a
31:54
Speaker 4: parent before, right, so I don't know what I'm doing.
31:56
Speaker 4: So like taking this little tiny human with me on
31:59
Speaker 4: a big trip over seas to try work in a
32:02
Speaker 4: team environment and trying to compete, like you know, they
32:05
Speaker 4: tell you like the day and the time and that's
32:07
Speaker 4: when you have to compete. Like the team did their best.
32:14
Speaker 4: The hardest bit was because like the because it was
32:17
Speaker 4: an evening competition, so it's in the middle of where
32:19
Speaker 4: I'm doing, like the nighttime feed. So like we were
32:22
Speaker 4: trying to work out can I take my breast pump
32:24
Speaker 4: into the cour room, Like can I do like a
32:26
Speaker 4: last minute like feed just before? You can't do any
32:28
Speaker 4: of that, so you have to really trying to It's
32:31
Speaker 4: just your breastfeeding times, like leading into the competition, and
32:34
Speaker 4: it's like some of those things where it's like it was,
32:37
Speaker 4: it was really difficult and material now is a really
32:41
Speaker 4: good sleeper, but he always knew when I was competing,
32:43
Speaker 4: and the night before com was when he was partying,
32:46
Speaker 4: Like there was no sleep to be had between. It
32:52
Speaker 4: was a big learning experience, like to I actually really
32:55
Speaker 4: lean into trusting what we think is right for us
32:58
Speaker 4: and not relying on the team to set up an
33:00
Speaker 4: environment for you as a family because no one knows
33:03
Speaker 4: what you need other than yourself. And B is actually
33:07
Speaker 4: lean into support network And actually this time I had
33:10
Speaker 4: my mom there and a couple friends there that could
33:12
Speaker 4: help with a little one. So don't try to do
33:15
Speaker 4: it yourself because it's it's impossible to do.
33:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you previously competed at other Paralympics. So you've
33:21
Speaker 1: done Tokyo, you've done London, you've done Rio as well.
33:27
Speaker 1: Is it all pretty similar in terms of when you're competing.
33:31
Speaker 1: You're standing there in the stadium. Is there a bit
33:33
Speaker 1: of muscle memory where you're like, oh, this feels like
33:35
Speaker 1: the last one or are they all really different?
33:37
Speaker 4: They're all really unique. And like my first, like my
33:41
Speaker 4: first big one was in London, and that was one
33:43
Speaker 4: of those Paralympics that was still like it's still in
33:45
Speaker 4: a history books, Like you walk into the stadium filled
33:48
Speaker 4: with eighty thousand people and it took your breath away.
33:51
Speaker 4: And it was my first big competition, so I was
33:53
Speaker 4: so overwhelmed with like the impressions and the emotions and
33:57
Speaker 4: being there, and it's still something that sticks to me
34:00
Speaker 4: today because it gives me goose bums, to be honest,
34:02
Speaker 4: to think about it. And then Rio was like the
34:05
Speaker 4: Games where I felt like I was on the top
34:07
Speaker 4: of my games and I had these massive expectations for myself,
34:10
Speaker 4: so I was really nervous about it and I was
34:13
Speaker 4: like really focused on the performance and it was almost
34:15
Speaker 4: like my healing competition from from London and walking away
34:19
Speaker 4: with the gold and the silva was really special. And
34:22
Speaker 4: then Tokyo was so odd because there was no one
34:24
Speaker 4: in the stadium.
34:25
Speaker 5: Rightly weird, that's it.
34:28
Speaker 4: But I had my husband there because he was an
34:30
Speaker 4: athlete himself, so I got to have my love one there,
34:32
Speaker 4: which was special. And then this time around, having Mattia
34:36
Speaker 4: in scott in the stadium like that was nuts, Like
34:38
Speaker 4: it just reminded me of the journey that we had
34:41
Speaker 4: like the last the years of like pregnancy and coming
34:43
Speaker 4: back to the sport and like winging parenthood, parenting, and yeah,
34:49
Speaker 4: that was just very different. And I think this time around,
34:52
Speaker 4: I felt the pressure up until before my first jump,
34:56
Speaker 4: and then I stood on the runway and just all
34:58
Speaker 4: the pressure fell off, Like I felt like I was
35:00
Speaker 4: just accomplished, like what I wanted to accomplish, just being
35:04
Speaker 4: there and coming back from pregnancy and returning to the sport,
35:08
Speaker 4: and yeah, I fell on top of my game.
35:11
Speaker 1: Your very first jump was a good one. When I
35:15
Speaker 1: say good, I'm selling it short because it's a world record.
35:19
Speaker 5: Wow.
35:19
Speaker 1: When you're running down about to take off, at any point,
35:23
Speaker 1: are you're thinking this one feels like it's going to
35:25
Speaker 1: be fucking great?
35:26
Speaker 4: Oh? You know? You know It's like I felt the takeoff,
35:30
Speaker 4: It's like, yep, that's it. Like I knew it was
35:32
Speaker 4: a good jump, And I think it just all came
35:34
Speaker 4: together because I think the pressure fell off and I
35:36
Speaker 4: felt like so in control of what I was doing.
35:38
Speaker 4: And when I practiced this almost every day, so like
35:40
Speaker 4: I kind of know what I'm doing, but when you
35:42
Speaker 4: get nervous, it's really hard. And I think this time
35:45
Speaker 4: run I felt so I feel like I felt so
35:48
Speaker 4: in control, and yeah, it was. It was amazing.
35:50
Speaker 2: How many times do you have to jump over the
35:52
Speaker 2: course of a Paralympic competition?
35:56
Speaker 4: So you have three jumps and then the top eight
35:59
Speaker 4: have another thing jumps, but you can win and lose
36:01
Speaker 4: in the first job essentially, so every jump columns so you.
36:04
Speaker 2: Could say your world record jump you could not jump it,
36:07
Speaker 2: just say that's the leading jump.
36:09
Speaker 5: You could not jump. The rest of the competition is
36:11
Speaker 5: still wind. Yeah, so you can just.
36:13
Speaker 2: Do it once and other people could do it, like
36:15
Speaker 2: what six arms or something like that.
36:16
Speaker 4: To John Is, I think in the first JOm because
36:18
Speaker 4: I jumped so big the first round, I think I
36:20
Speaker 4: ruined the girls as night and that because I think
36:27
Speaker 4: you start like just trying to taste it, and like
36:29
Speaker 4: if someone jumps beak, you're trying to counter it. You
36:32
Speaker 4: can't help but to compete, right, and all of a sudden,
36:34
Speaker 4: you forget everything that you did in the last the
36:36
Speaker 4: years of training, and so it was I think it
36:39
Speaker 4: was quite hard for the other girls.
36:41
Speaker 1: It's such an amazing achievement and I have to say,
36:43
Speaker 1: well done to be a multiple gold medalist at a Paralympics,
36:48
Speaker 1: but also to smash your own world record. It's just unbelievable.
36:54
Speaker 5: But how did the family take the win?
36:59
Speaker 4: There? They were part it was it was such a
37:01
Speaker 4: good experience.
37:02
Speaker 1: Hang on vinessa were they all punked? Because there's a
37:06
Speaker 1: video that you posted on social media which is the
37:08
Speaker 1: most relatable clip imaginable of Mateo and his reaction to
37:13
Speaker 1: you winning gold.
37:15
Speaker 4: I was so it was so funny because he loved
37:17
Speaker 4: the competition, like it was so different to like the
37:19
Speaker 4: first Nationals where it's not old enough to appreciate it.
37:22
Speaker 4: He loves it. He knows like mummy, we'll be like
37:24
Speaker 4: with him again shortly. But he did amazing until at
37:28
Speaker 4: the victory ceremony, which was about an hour after the competition,
37:32
Speaker 4: my Japanese competitor gifted him a little match box.
37:35
Speaker 5: Car, very generous, which was.
37:38
Speaker 4: Really can't get there because she didn't meddle and it
37:41
Speaker 4: wasn't a great night for her. But then he dropped
37:44
Speaker 4: it and it rolled under the stands and we couldn't
37:48
Speaker 4: get it. Scott asked one of the security guys and
37:50
Speaker 4: they couldn't help him. And then right after the victory ceremony,
37:53
Speaker 4: I just had the gold medal around my next door
37:56
Speaker 4: and I was on my hands and knees trying to
37:58
Speaker 4: find his match box car because like for him, it
38:00
Speaker 4: didn't matter.
38:00
Speaker 2: I want to all right, your mom made mom, Mom
38:06
Speaker 2: fixes thing.
38:07
Speaker 4: His mom couldn't fix it. That night, he was carried out,
38:10
Speaker 4: kicking and screaming, devastating. But we got it back, Okay,
38:17
Speaker 4: we got it bag. A photographer crawled under the stands
38:19
Speaker 4: the next day and he sent me a photo of
38:21
Speaker 4: the car and was it was the best, Like I
38:25
Speaker 4: don't want anyone moved on in the top pocket office
38:29
Speaker 4: shirt every day.
38:30
Speaker 6: So I suppose that's how he'll remember that moment, like
38:35
Speaker 6: I forgot my car back, doesn't matter, got the car back.
38:41
Speaker 1: So now are you thinking, Look, I've I've had such
38:46
Speaker 1: an amazing career, I've had so much success. Are you
38:49
Speaker 1: like I'm going to hang the shoes up? Are you
38:51
Speaker 1: going to still compete?
38:54
Speaker 4: It's a good question. I think at this present moment,
38:57
Speaker 4: I don't step away from it just yet. I think
39:00
Speaker 4: it's going to be really difficult to say, like I'm
39:02
Speaker 4: going to go for the next games because it's still
39:04
Speaker 4: four years ago, right, It's a long time. But I
39:09
Speaker 4: still love this. I still love the spot and like
39:11
Speaker 4: Mateo is still part of it, and it's like we
39:14
Speaker 4: all love this journey together. So and I'm still getting better,
39:18
Speaker 4: like I'm still giving, it's still improving, and I think
39:23
Speaker 4: I couldn't forgive myself and stepping away and never knowing
39:26
Speaker 4: what I'm capable of. So I think I want to
39:28
Speaker 4: go until like my body had enough or whether I'm
39:31
Speaker 4: like maybe jumping the six meter that'd be pretty cool?
39:34
Speaker 5: Oh?
39:34
Speaker 1: Is that the goal?
39:35
Speaker 4: That would be the big goal?
39:36
Speaker 5: Happy to jump over six meters?
39:39
Speaker 1: That's a big The current world record five forty.
39:42
Speaker 4: Three, forty five?
39:44
Speaker 1: Pretty five?
39:45
Speaker 5: You're good by forty five? Okay? Well are we watching?
39:49
Speaker 5: Are we watching?
39:51
Speaker 1: I don't know if this happens, but other people who
39:53
Speaker 1: have been a similar scenario to yourself when you're fifteen
39:56
Speaker 1: in that accident, do many of them reach out to
39:58
Speaker 1: you and ask a help or guidance with their situation?
40:02
Speaker 4: All the time, And I think that's the beauty that
40:04
Speaker 4: we have these days. Like with social media, I mean
40:06
Speaker 4: it has so many down sites, but this is our side,
40:09
Speaker 4: Like we can see things like so much more easily,
40:12
Speaker 4: and we can just reach out, right, we can just
40:14
Speaker 4: send a DM and like we usually get a response
40:17
Speaker 4: within a couple hours. So like it's so special being
40:19
Speaker 4: able to do that. And I now have like a
40:22
Speaker 4: handful of athletes that I talked to like really regularly.
40:25
Speaker 4: And there's actually a little Dutch athlete that we've like
40:29
Speaker 4: guided since he was like I think fourteen, and he
40:33
Speaker 4: ended up winning a gold medal this year at the Games. Wow,
40:36
Speaker 4: it's so amazing to see like these athletes grow up
40:39
Speaker 4: and shows how old I am saying to be twelve
40:43
Speaker 4: years or fourteen years and now like they're and winning
40:46
Speaker 4: gold medals.
40:46
Speaker 5: What event did he win? A long jump as long
40:49
Speaker 5: as well? Wow.
40:50
Speaker 4: We always, like both my husband and I, we always
40:52
Speaker 4: send out messages like young athletes coming through, like if
40:54
Speaker 4: you want a hand, if we want help, if you
40:57
Speaker 4: want to have like a conversation about how to set
40:59
Speaker 4: up a leg to do like fee free, just to
41:01
Speaker 4: reach out. And he was one of those ones that
41:04
Speaker 4: actually responded and yeah, let's do this and let's find
41:06
Speaker 4: a way.
41:07
Speaker 2: Having that impact on such a young person for them
41:10
Speaker 2: to go through and win a gold must feel amazing.
41:13
Speaker 4: I think it was also really good karma because he
41:15
Speaker 4: came last year to train with us in Australia and
41:18
Speaker 4: he was on like really crappy technology on his walking
41:21
Speaker 4: leg and it's like, hold on, I still have like
41:24
Speaker 4: something like we have like a leg covert in our garage.
41:28
Speaker 4: There's also a little different bag parts in there, but
41:31
Speaker 4: just in case like that we keep and it was
41:33
Speaker 4: one of my old legs. I was still really functional
41:36
Speaker 4: and really well usable. So we gifted him that leg,
41:39
Speaker 4: which is like.
41:41
Speaker 2: Wow, that's more than an actual human leg. I reckon,
41:46
Speaker 2: if you had to buy one on the black market,
41:48
Speaker 2: there's a lot of money.
41:50
Speaker 4: I know, they're so expensive. But he won the gold
41:52
Speaker 4: medal and he walked onto the podium with that leg
42:00
Speaker 4: and it was so special because it was like before
42:03
Speaker 4: I compete it, so it's like, oh my god, I
42:04
Speaker 4: already had one of her legs, So that was really cool.
42:08
Speaker 1: Does that want to make you become a coach, then,
42:10
Speaker 1: do you think?
42:10
Speaker 3: Later?
42:11
Speaker 5: On good question?
42:13
Speaker 4: I don't think so. I don't think I bring the
42:15
Speaker 4: amount of patients needs. I think that's all useful my
42:19
Speaker 4: own son, my husband is great at it, and I'm
42:22
Speaker 4: more than happy to do like some guidance and some mentoring.
42:24
Speaker 5: But like approaching to inspire.
42:27
Speaker 4: That's it.
42:27
Speaker 5: It seems to work.
42:28
Speaker 4: And therefore or land a leg.
42:31
Speaker 1: Do you notice that does Scott parent in a similar
42:33
Speaker 1: way to how he coaches?
42:35
Speaker 4: He does? He is amazing and like he was a
42:38
Speaker 4: person that made me want to be a parent, because
42:40
Speaker 4: I know, like he's going to bring all the aspects
42:43
Speaker 4: that I simply lack, like patients, and he's so calm
42:47
Speaker 4: with you know, all the big tantrums and the big emotions,
42:49
Speaker 4: Like he's so good in the way that he deals
42:52
Speaker 4: without both with me and my toddler, and like sport,
42:56
Speaker 4: like it's such an interesting environment where the emotions like
42:59
Speaker 4: all always ride like a roller coaster with you, like
43:02
Speaker 4: throughout the competition as well as the season, like going
43:05
Speaker 4: through injuries and all the different hiccups that happened, and
43:08
Speaker 4: he's always so calm through all of it and being
43:11
Speaker 4: able to deal with it in a way that allows
43:13
Speaker 4: me to chase my goals and our little one to
43:15
Speaker 4: be Yeah, it really switched on little toddler.
43:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a bit of a super team action going
43:20
Speaker 5: on at your house.
43:21
Speaker 1: Before we started recording, you mentioned that this week in
43:24
Speaker 1: particular is going to be a big one for you
43:26
Speaker 1: because Mitaya was heading off somewhere.
43:29
Speaker 4: Tea was starting dacab this big mom moment.
43:33
Speaker 1: How does that feel?
43:33
Speaker 4: Look the first day of dropping him off, like we
43:36
Speaker 4: had a horrible morning. He was just so feral, and
43:39
Speaker 4: I was so happy just to drop him off and
43:41
Speaker 4: someone else did. I felt like there was going to
43:45
Speaker 4: be tears, but not on that day. And that day
43:47
Speaker 4: I was just really happy just to get a haircut
43:49
Speaker 4: and have any time. But now definitely the motion starting
43:52
Speaker 4: to set in because he was part of every bit
43:54
Speaker 4: of this journey, Like he was there almost every training session,
43:57
Speaker 4: and it was so lovely to have him around, like
43:59
Speaker 4: a love this little man.
44:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, you go through a lot of days where it's
44:02
Speaker 2: like I like to home around today, It's like then
44:05
Speaker 2: Sundays I'll drop them off.
44:08
Speaker 1: Makes that's most days for me, if I'm being really honest.
44:12
Speaker 2: You also did come here with something very special which
44:16
Speaker 2: I really really want to see it.
44:18
Speaker 5: I'm actually a little bit sweaty.
44:20
Speaker 2: Just for those listening who can't actually see what I'm
44:22
Speaker 2: seeing there is my goodness, it is a golden medal,
44:30
Speaker 2: Paris twenty twenty four.
44:32
Speaker 1: It's very heavy, it is.
44:34
Speaker 4: I definitely know it's a real deal.
44:36
Speaker 1: Like that's not not god, oh my gosh, oh my god.
44:44
Speaker 2: I've never touched you touched the gold medal either. Yeah,
44:48
Speaker 2: so congratulation. This is amazing. I am, I am.
44:53
Speaker 5: I have goosebumps that I get to sit here in
44:55
Speaker 5: front of you and hold this.
44:56
Speaker 4: So so when you look at the France, so the
44:58
Speaker 4: dark bit that's the piece of the Eiffel Tower, you
45:02
Speaker 4: got to a piece. You've got to take a piece home,
45:04
Speaker 4: which is so cool.
45:05
Speaker 1: That's a nice touch.
45:06
Speaker 5: It is a nice word, you know.
45:09
Speaker 4: In the Athletic stadium, so you know, they're renovating the
45:12
Speaker 4: Notre Dumb after the burn that they have. So while
45:15
Speaker 4: they're renovating at they're put to the big bell into
45:18
Speaker 4: the Athletic stadium. So every person that won the competition
45:22
Speaker 4: got to ring the bell. Yeah.
45:24
Speaker 2: So some people are very clever and like this is
45:29
Speaker 2: part of it.
45:29
Speaker 5: So everyone got one. I did see the Eiffel Tower
45:32
Speaker 5: the other day. It's on a slightly.
45:34
Speaker 4: It's too many.
45:36
Speaker 2: It was, but that is unbelievable, and thank you so
45:39
Speaker 2: much for bringing that in.
45:41
Speaker 4: And then on the other side, it's basically, if you
45:43
Speaker 4: stand underneath the tower, that's the viewer.
45:46
Speaker 5: That is true, that is the view and then.
45:48
Speaker 4: You have written in braille there is twenty twenty four
45:52
Speaker 4: because you have people that are visual hair they can't see.
45:55
Speaker 4: And then they have like a tiny little dot on
45:57
Speaker 4: the side as well. So the one dot is for
45:59
Speaker 4: the goal.
46:00
Speaker 5: That's brow for gold.
46:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, otherwise you could just hand the bronze and you
46:03
Speaker 4: know they would never know.
46:07
Speaker 5: No, that's awesome. Thank you so much for bringing that in.
46:09
Speaker 5: I'm going to keep it if you don't.
46:11
Speaker 1: Before you go, Vanessa. We always ask I guests when
46:15
Speaker 1: Matteya was a young man. He's no longer living at home,
46:19
Speaker 1: he's flown the nest. What's the one thing you would
46:22
Speaker 1: like him to remember about the house that he grew
46:24
Speaker 1: up in.
46:24
Speaker 4: I hope you remembers. I was always like you could
46:26
Speaker 4: always show up as your full self, Like I think
46:29
Speaker 4: the door is always open, like we always have so
46:31
Speaker 4: many random people drop in and everyone is just welcome.
46:34
Speaker 4: I think that's what he remembers. I hope that you know,
46:37
Speaker 4: just the feeling of walking in, feeling welcome, feeling you
46:41
Speaker 4: could like show up as your whole self, don't have
46:43
Speaker 4: to hide who you are, but like to show up
46:45
Speaker 4: the way that you are.
46:46
Speaker 1: And I'm sure he is also going to add to
46:49
Speaker 1: that be so proud of his mom.
46:52
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely, I really hope that.
46:54
Speaker 4: I mean at the moment, like he's probably still too
46:57
Speaker 4: young to understand, but I hope that we get past
46:59
Speaker 4: that age where he's embarrassed by and then back to
47:03
Speaker 4: the stage before we can show him the medals and
47:05
Speaker 4: show them that we were actually cool one day.
47:07
Speaker 2: Guarantee he's going to be very proud. And I appreciate
47:09
Speaker 2: you so much coming in. It's a real privileged to
47:12
Speaker 2: sit in front of you and have this conversation and
47:14
Speaker 2: hold a gold medal, the closest I'll ever get, even
47:18
Speaker 2: though I mean in my mid thirties, I still think
47:20
Speaker 2: maybe I could be an athlete.
47:21
Speaker 5: Yes, that's just a dream.
47:23
Speaker 4: Thanks for having you guys.
47:25
Speaker 1: Love your podcast, shender ginnons a learning it is then.
47:28
Speaker 5: This bold very good, see you later.
47:35
Speaker 1: Enough.
47:36
Speaker 2: I can't believe how heavy the medal was, and I
47:39
Speaker 2: can't believe you stole it from Vanessa. She doesn't need
47:42
Speaker 2: to know that I've replaced it with something equally as heavy,
47:45
Speaker 2: one of Macy's nappies.
47:48
Speaker 1: Look, if you enjoyed this episode, or any episode from
47:50
Speaker 1: Two Doting Dads, we would absolutely love it. So with Vanessa,
47:53
Speaker 1: she said, make sure you tell everyone to leave a review,
47:56
Speaker 1: and I said, Vanessa, I.
47:57
Speaker 2: Would love to tell them that in those exact and
48:00
Speaker 2: she also said make sure you join us on socials
48:03
Speaker 2: on Instagram or Facebook. The Facebook group is booming with
48:07
Speaker 2: full of potential athletes.
48:09
Speaker 1: Kanessa did say she would be in tears if you
48:11
Speaker 1: didn't exact words.
48:13
Speaker 5: We are not paraphrasing whatsoever.
48:15
Speaker 1: So don't do it for us, do it for Vanessa, do.
48:17
Speaker 5: It for the country, do it for the nation.
48:19
Speaker 1: Goodbye bye. Two Doting Dads podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians
48:30
Speaker 1: of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, see
48:33
Speaker 1: and community.
48:34
Speaker 2: We pay our respects to their elders past and present
48:37
Speaker 2: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and torrestraight on
48:40
Speaker 2: the people's today. This episode was recorded on Gadagle Land