Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #105: Gill1918 Presents 3-time Olympian Shannon Rowbury “Ask an Olympian Anything Highlights” Powered by Coach O

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#105: Gill1918 Presents 3-time Olympian Shannon Rowbury “Ask an Olympian Anything Highlights” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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  Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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  In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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  youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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  and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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  With that in mind, let's grow. Hello everybody, Thank you for
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  joining me tonight for this open session.
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  We're calling it Ask Olympian Shannon Robbery anything but
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  really the goal was to create a space where I could share some
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  updates and also be able to just great space as well to let you
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  ask your questions because I I get these incredible messages
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  from you on social media, on LinkedIn, through our
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  newsletter. But there's something special
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  about coming together as a group and being able to talk about
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  what's top of mind, especially in that group setting.
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  And you know, I've been in many of these scenarios before too or
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  some of the other participants can can add value as well or
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  even just the willingness to ask the question help someone else
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  who who thought it themselves. I want to kick off by just
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  giving you some exciting updates, some things that have
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  been happening over the last six months or so, few months, I
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  guess less than six, but so topics for tonight, it will be
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  really this like a little bit of my journey, some exciting
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  updates. I don't want to go away too
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  much, but you can see the table of contents and then we'll open
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  it up to questions for my journey.
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  A lot of you probably know me and probably know my story, but
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  I love this visual as just a way to sort of show especially, I
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  guess pretty much my running career and where it has taken
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  me. I never thought when I started
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  running back in high school in San Francisco at Sacred Heart
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  Cathedral, that I would have this long career in life defined
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  by running. And some of the things I am most
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  excited about now are kind of extensions of that running
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  experience. So, you know, becoming a mother
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  for the first time in 2018 and then my son was born in 2022.
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  That has really informed a lot of the work that I've done in in
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  advocating for female athletes and maternal maternity
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  protections and better resources.
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  And I'm going to touch on that in a second.
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  Last year I got it. I worked with NBC for the Paris
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  Olympics and was so honored to be part of that team.
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  And then to find out that our team got an Emmy was like such
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  unexpected icing on the cake. And the biggest news that has
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  come since the summer is my London bronze medal which some
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  of you may know has been reallocated from London 2012.
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  It was confirmed June 26th of 2025.
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  And by like July, August, they agreed like I was able to, to
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  work with US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Kara
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  Winger, who I love, who is wonderful and confirm with IOC
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  that I would be getting my medal in LA 2028 at the Olympics,
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  which is just the most meaningful kind of silver lining
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  that could come. So other exciting news that I
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  wanted to share. I've been kind of sharing it
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  with my closer circle. And this has been in the works
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  since 2017 when I was pregnant with my daughter Sienna.
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  And I started working with Jessica Dorrington, who you can
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  see in the photo next to me. She's my co-author, but I have a
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  book coming out in February. It's in pre sale and we're going
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  to start kind of spreading the word more like next week.
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  It'll be 3 months out. So we're going to start
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  spreading the news more broadly, but I wanted to give you guys a
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  sneak peek. Strong as a mother.
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  It's your complete pregnancy to postpartum health program.
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  Jess is a pelvic floor and orthopedic certified PT and
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  she's worked with everyone from, you know, first time moms,
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  you're not super active to Olympic medalist and everything
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  in between. Our publisher is Sasquatch
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  Books, which is part of Penguin Random House.
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  You can find more information on my website.
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  But really, the book was designed to be a resource for
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  moms to help them understand what's happening to their body
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  each trimester of pregnancy and sort of empower them with
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  information. And then it also includes
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  exercise programs. These aren't meant to be like,
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  you know, competitive athlete. I'm going to, you know, do crazy
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  Olympic things during pregnancy. Although it can support that,
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  really the goal is foundationally helping you feel
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  strong so that you can support your body as it grows your baby.
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  So strong as a mother coming soon.
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  So excited for that. But if anything, could someone
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  have told about 10 or 11 year old Shannon that would lead them
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  to believe that you might be an Olympian someday?
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  Oh my gosh, yeah. I don't, I don't know if anyone.
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  I think the things about me that people saw early were sure like
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  my work ethic, my attention to detail.
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  I'm an optimistic person. So, you know, even when there's
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  a set back, I love to say like if you I'm going to make if I
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  get lemons, I'm going to make best star in lemonade you've
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  ever tasted. Like that's just the world view
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  that I have a fun, a fun challenge.
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  And this kind of answers your question.
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  If you could describe yourself in three words, what would it
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  be? It's a fun question to ask kids.
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  It's a fun like dinner table game for me.
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  Positive and persistent. We're always who I was.
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  And my third word has kind of evolved from smarter strategic
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  to like Trail Blazers. I've tried to now do things
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  beyond like, like try to like just move the needle a bit in my
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  industry. But I think those, yeah, I think
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  those traits have always been part of who I am.
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  And, and I think that, you know, they were nurtured by an
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  environment at home where the consistent feedback from my
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  parents, especially my mom, was do what you love, work hard,
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  success will find you. And like that encouragement to
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  find my own path. But that expectation of hard
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  work, we're always married. And so there was this like
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  flexibility, but also this expectation of like, you know,
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  you have to do the work to get there.
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  And, and that I think that has enabled me to be successful in a
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  variety of areas because it was just constantly like like that's
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  a, that's a, like a life motto, not necessarily specific to
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  anyone thing. Right.
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  And and then the third part was who, who was the first one to
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  really speak to you about the potential that you had as a
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  runner and, and what did that feel like when you heard that?
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  Did you believe it? I think I still have a hard time
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  believing that I've done what I've done, but I think that's
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  also part of that like perfectionism or that like sort
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  of like you just keep pushing forward.
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  You know, my, I think my high school coach, he had been a
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  manager for UCLA under, you know, kind of in the, I guess it
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  would have been like the 90s who had some export exposure to some
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  incredible athletes. I don't think that he expected
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  necessarily I'd be an Olympian, but I did by my junior senior
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  year go to the Olympic training center as one of the athletes in
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  the kind of like Junior Olympic develop.
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  I forget exactly what it was called, but like a development
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  program. And so I got to go down to Chula
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  Vista and be exposed to some coaches there.
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  I think he definitely knew that collegiate running was in my
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  future. And I think it was my collegiate
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  coach, Kevin Germaine, who Kate and I worked with at Duke and
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  who's now back as the coach there.
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  He had had a pro career right before starting to coach.
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  He worked with Gags Gagliano in Georgetown, And I think it was
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  him that as I got further along and just continued to develop
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  that he could sort of see that potential of like getting to the
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  next level. But I think it's like, important
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  to, you know, maybe have a dream of what's possible, but then
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  really hone in on being the best at the level you're at.
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  So for me, that always was. I was like, could I be the best
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  on my team? How about the league, the
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  section, the state, the nation? And then do it again in college.
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  And like, can you just keep chipping away?
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  Because the only way to be an Olympian is to get to the best
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  at each of those levels. And so I think, you know, having
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  an idea of like where you want to go, but then really focusing
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  on that process so that you can have these like kind of carrots
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  to achieve on along the way keeps it like a little bit more
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  manageable. For me, that was important.
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  Yeah, yeah. So I said it was three-part, but
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  here's a little follow up on one.
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  How do you how do you reconcile being a perfectionist and an
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  optimist? Yeah, I, that's a great
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  question. Yeah, I don't know if I do
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  fully, but I think a lot of the, you know, I think that optimism
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  and probably the perfectionism is like as a voice that sort of
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  develops in you through the environment you're in.
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  Like I definitely have a perfectionist mother, but I also
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  had that mother who said like, you know, do what you love.
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  And and when things would go wrong or, you know, I wouldn't
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  get the outcome I wanted, she and my dad and my grandma and my
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  coaches, like the voices in my head were like, like, it's just
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  one race, like it's just another.
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  It's just, you know, yes, that's disappointing for today, but
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  that doesn't define you. Like that message was reinforced
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  to me. And I think for a perfectionist
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  understanding that we are sometimes our own worst enemies
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  and really ensuring that as that person around them, you know,
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  sure. Like like I knew they knew I was
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  disappointed. It wasn't like they didn't they
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  weren't flip flipping about it. And we all acknowledged that,
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  like that wasn't the outcome we wanted, but but at the end of
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  the day, my value as a person was never defined by that.
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  And so I think that that like, you know, if I had to like kind
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  of try to answer that question, my initial thought would be just
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  that like that perfectionism, perfectionism and optimism were
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  sort of like built into me through that, in like, through
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  that kind of core environment around me.
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  And, and helped me like, like kind of manage that balance.
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  And it was an essential balance to like survive in, in an
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  industry like track and field for so long where the field
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  isn't always there, unfortunately.
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  But like, but if you love to just like continue to chip away
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  at improvement, it's it's, it's perfect for that kind of
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  personality. So we also got a question from
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  Brett ahead of this live chat session.
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  So what's the most memorable race day of your career and what
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  did you learn from it? Oh gosh, feel like any of those
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  races where you're trying to jump to the next level are
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  really scary and exciting because you believe you might be
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  able to, but you haven't proved it yet.
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  And the one I the one that comes to mind first is 2008 Olympic
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  trials. I had been injured the year
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  before, so 2007. I have a got a stress fracture
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  in my left femoral neck, had to miss my senior season of track
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  and field at Duke. And I was one year out from the
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  Olympic trials and really committed to that process of
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  like recovering, figuring out why I got injured, doing the
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  work. And by the time I came to the
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  Olympic trials, I'd actually had like a phenomenal comeback, had
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  the top time for an American, was running really well.
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  And so I felt going into the trials like this could be a
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  reality, this dream of being Olympian like that actually
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  could happen. But I remember sitting in the
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  bus from the hotel to the track, like just so nervous because I
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  didn't know what to expect. And it was also new and I was so
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  excited by the potential, but like terrified that maybe, you
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  know, maybe I, you know, could I do it?
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  Like could I actually do it? I remember just in that race, I
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  would say for me, the, the, the hardest part is like the lead
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  up, the final hours leading up to the warm up, because once the
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  warm up starts, I have a task to achieve.
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  It's your job, 20 minutes, do the dynamic flexibility, do the
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  strides. All those things go to the call
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  room and I had a process, but that bus right over was so nerve
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  racking. Ultimately, I still love the
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  quote. Get well warmed up and let the
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  gun release you like that Chariots of Quiet Fire quote.
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  And so for me, you know, once I got to the starting line and it
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  was like, OK, just give it everything you have.
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  And that race, you know, fortunately turned out really
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  well. I won by a large margin.
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  I made my first Olympic team. And that sort of was the
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  transition into the start of my kind of like I would say really
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  like my entree into my pro running career.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Thanks for joining us for this
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  episode in the Youth and beginner series Powered by Coach
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