Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #174: Gill1918 Presents Mechelle Freeman "Part 1 Women in Leadership"

Transcript

#174: Gill1918 Presents Mechelle Freeman "Part 1 Women in Leadership" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  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 this 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. We're bringing the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  We are. Closing tonight with a speaker
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  who embodies excellence, impact and empowerment at the highest
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  level. It is an absolute honor to
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  welcome Michelle Lewis Freeman not only as our final Women for
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  Women, Women Speaker of the Night, but also as a Women for
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  Women clinician and the Sprint's clinician for the 2026 clinic.
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  So definitely check out their sessions tomorrow.
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  Michelle is a 2008 Olympian and a World Champion, a cornerstone
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  of Team USA's women's relay success and one of the most
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  respected relay strategists in the world.
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  As a Team USA Women's Relay coach at the Olympic Games and
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  World Championships, she has helped guide athletes to gold
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  medals and historic performances on the global stage.
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  Beyond the medals of podiums, Michelle's impact runs even
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  deeper. As the NSAF Nike Program
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  Director and the founder of Track Girls, a nonprofit
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  dedicated to mentoring and empowering girls through track
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  and field, she is committed her career to developing not just
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  faster athletes, but stronger, more confident women.
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  Michelle brings together elite Sprint mechanics, championship
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  level coaching, and an unwavering passion for lifting
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  women in sport. Coaches will leave this session
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  inspired, informed, and ready to elevate their programs.
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  Before we begin, just a quick reminder.
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  Please plan to stay after this session for our annual Women for
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  Women through photo. We want everyone in it.
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  Please join me in welcoming an Olympian, a champion, a mentor,
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  and a powerful voice for women in athletics.
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  Michelle. OK, intro.
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  I'd like the intro. Yeah, thank you.
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  But I'm going to switch it out. Or I could just hold it.
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  All right. Good evening, everyone.
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  How are you? All OK.
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  All right, All right. Out there.
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  All right. You know, it's a pleasure to be
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  here. I I I I spent.
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  I said I did my time, but I lived in Minnesota and coached.
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  That was out of high school for four years, so I had my share of
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  one lane and snow all the way around and we were still outside
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  at practice and the sprinters were outside running and 27°.
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  And it was not about the time, but it was about effort.
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  And that is the way I coach my wise out of girls and the one
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  thing I taught them how to do was how to win.
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  Because if it's only one thing that I hate more, no.
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  But I love more it. No.
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  What is it? I don't like losing.
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  How do you say that I love winning more than I hate losing?
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  Thank you. So that's what I'm going to talk
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  about this evening. I I started in a position where
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  I was the first woman to ever do it.
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  There was never a woman to lead the relay program once it began
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  to have its own position. Before we had coaches, Coach
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  Bonnie was on teams with me. We will have our Sprint coaches
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  handle the relays, but we started to pull the relay coach
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  position out of our national teams so we can lead with
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  independence. It's the one event where it's
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  subjective selection. Everything else, you cross the
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  line, you make the team. The relays is a little
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  different. So the athletes that you see on
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  the track, there were more athletes that work on the track.
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  And that was my job. How did I put the best athletes
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  on the track? And so the task 2024, we had our
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  meeting with the USOPC and they said, hey, the Olympic Games are
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  six months from from now and the task is not just winning any
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  medal, but the world is catching up.
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  And in 2020, we had just won the medal count, outing China just
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  by a medal. And the charge is we don't want
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  it to be that close. And so the relay program is
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  responsible for five medals, two women's relays, 2 men's relays,
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  and now the mixed 4 by 4. And so we bring in 15% of the
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  medal count, 14 USA track and field medals.
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  And so they said we only want you all to win gold medals.
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  So the charge was different. It wasn't make the podium, it
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  was win. So I Fast forward to a pivotal
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  moment because as coaches we all have been in one and you will
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  all be in another 1. And I was in the warm up area
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  and it was the 4x4 4 by 400 meter relay final 24 hours
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  before I knew my team. I had it in my my heart, my
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  mind, my soul. And that morning I announced the
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  team and it was one particular athlete that did not like that
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  announcement. And so she challenged me and she
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  called the meeting and had representation to make sure that
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  she was heard. And so we had this meeting and
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  in a moment like I, I knew all the stats.
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  I know them. I know my stats.
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  I know I knew all my stats. I knew my reason.
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  I sat down and and then my empathy started to take over my
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  boundaries. And so I say that because the
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  empathy should be there, but the standard is always going to be
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  the boundary. And that is something that you
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  can never compromise. And in that moment, I
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  compromised it and I changed my mind and I said, you can run,
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  you are going to run. I left that meeting and I was
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  upset because I changed my mind. And in my heart and in my mind
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  and in my soul, I knew my four women.
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  So now I had to go to the track and it's go time.
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  It's five people warming up. How much time do I have?
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  23 minutes, 23 minutes till it's time to report to the check in.
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  Everybody's warming up still. Am I going to really go against
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  my word for the process or am I going to stand up for the
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  process? Because the process was the one
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  thing that I have built over the last decade to decide what was
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  the best decision for the team. Anytime I went against that, we
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  failed 100% of the time. So here I was, 23 minutes to go.
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  Was I going to go against my my instinct, my heart, my Mama
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  soul, or do I stick to what I say?
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  How much time do I have left? 6 minutes, 6 minutes.
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  Everybody's outside cheering, the stadium got fireworks,
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  everybody's excited but me. 6 minutes is what I had to make a
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  decision that I knew was going to change my life depending on
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  the direction I went. And so I'm going to tell you
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  over these next moments that we have together, what I built over
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  the decade of being the coach, to come up with the decision
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  that was necessary for that moment.
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  So while this conversation matters, leadership is not just
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  about position, it's about your voice, your responsibility,
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  especially, you know, the action that you have to take when
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  things are uncomfortable. It is the hard conversations.
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  It is the truth and facing the truth.
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  And there will come a time like in that moment where you're
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  either going to stand up for it or not.
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  So leading up to how I became the women's relays coach, my
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  qualifier. So we're going to go back down
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  memory lane. I was an honor student in 6th
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  grades, the valedictorian of my 6th grade class.
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  I was in student government. I knew about advocacy at this
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  young age of 15. I have been winning
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  championships at every level. You talk about summer track,
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  high school club, we were winning championships.
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  Middle school basketball, boys and Girls Club, soccer.
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  We poured out the wins. I went to the University of
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  South Carolina. We bought the first national
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  championship in any sport to the university.
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  Winning was in my DNA and I say that because it started off with
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  my perception of what it took to win.
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  And the first role model for me was my mother.
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  My mother taught me from the very beginning, it is always a
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  way. You have to figure it out and it
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  may not be right in front of you, but just like when you get
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  in a maze, you may hit a wall, you got to turn around, you may
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  hit a wall, you got to turn around, but it is a way out.
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  And so I'm a problem solver and my mom has always been big on
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  that access, making sure that I was exposed to as many
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  activities and the school systems just to make sure I can
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  understand. I could do and be anything.
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  So I've always been a dreamer. At the University of South
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  Carolina, I studied advertising. So I was one of the top
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  promising advertising students in my program.
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  They flew us to New York City. I met one of the top ad
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  agencies. I ended up getting my master's
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  degree and decided to go work in that at that same ad agency
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  because I graduated in 2002 at the University of South
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  Carolina. I thought I was going to the
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  Olympic Games in 2004. I was injured, so I pivot and go
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  to Plan B master's degree. I still get to hang out with my
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  friends at South Carolina. I moved to New York City so I
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  can do my internship. At that point, it's a four year
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  break. I have not touched the track in
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  four years. Nothing.
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  All of my teammates were making the world championship teams,
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  the Olympic teams in 2004. So I was inspired and it was one
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  particular coach that told me that I should try out and run
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  again. So of course I have big dreams.
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  I'm again the 6th grade valedictorian.
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  I could do it all. I can make this Olympic team.
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  I hadn't run in four years. I could quit my job and be and
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  be on the Olympic team. Well, it actually happened.
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  And and before that, nine months after I quit my job, I was from
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  the cubicle to World Championships.
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  I was in the 2007 World Championships for the 100 meters
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  nine months after leaving my job after making a world
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  championship team. I finished 9th in the world on
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  100. I was a world champion on the 4
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  by 100 meters. Started training for the Olympic
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  Games. Ended up making it for the
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  relays. Once I made it for the relays, I
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  retired. I went back into work and back
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  into marketing. Long story short, I keep talking
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  about my qualifications because as women you better USOPCA A/C
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  Rep. You need to know all these
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  things because it comes into who you are.
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  It comes into why you are a leader.
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  All of these things. I'm a wife.
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  I know how to, I don't want to say regulate the men they
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  recorded. I know how to be a health mate
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  and be a partner. London 2012.
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  I went back to the Olympic Games but working with Coca-Cola on
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  the sports marketing side. They had one position for a
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  retired Olympian to work with their global sports marketing
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  team. I applied and I was selected.
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  I always thought if everything was possible the same way I did
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  it when I was leading these relays, it's going to all make
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  sense. I was a mom then started having
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  these babies. I have two, One is 12/1 is 10
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  now. So now imagine being pregnant
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  and having and starting to coach and how how's this going to
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  work? We'll talk about it. 2015.
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  That's when I started to get into coaching.
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  I didn't think I would ever be a coach.
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  We'll talk about that because I know some of you didn't think
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  you would be a coach. 2020 years later, here we are and I found
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  it. Track girls, track girls and
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  soul is my heart. Just seeing what we can do for
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  the next generation. Stepped into my leadership
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  journey as a coach in 2015. I was back working in marketing.
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  Like I said, I got a phone call, random on a Tuesday maybe, and
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  it was Sue Humphries. No, it was Sue.
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  But before that, let me tell you the first phone call.
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  The first phone call was from Terry coach Terry Crawford and
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  she called me and she said the USA track and field, you know,
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  we want our elite athletes to get coaching certifications.
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  We want you to transition into coaching.
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  And so I did my level ones and my level twos because, you know,
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  Terry said they needed women in coaching.
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  So when we talk about women for women, the doors were open for
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  me by women. This is going to be a constant
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  story, someone opening the door for me, lifting me up.
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  Terry Crawford. She didn't have to call me and
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  tell me that now I was coaching it for the four years.
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  Sue calls me on a random Tuesday back there.
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  Hey, we're looking for a retired Olympian to be our women's
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  relays coach or assistant relays coach working with Dennis
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  Mitchell. Would you be interested in
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  applying? I'm like, of course, Sue, I will
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  be interested. I applied.
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  I got it. Two women, two women opening the
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  door from me who saw me, that called me and said I think it
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  should be you. It changed my life.
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  I started being a assistant relays coach, but before then I
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  took in all my lessons of the relay program.
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  I was on the relay program for three years from 2007 through
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  2009. The tutelage of Brooks, Johnson
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  and Orange Richburg gave me all the empowerment and tools.
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  Always spoke up for women. These male allies that we just
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  we were just speaking about. Thank you, you need them.
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  They spoke into me all the way into Brooks past two years ago.
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  The last text I got from him is lead on.
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  I just looked at it before I came up here.
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  Lead on. Those are the people that going
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  to encourage you in those moments when you are in the warm
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  up area and you have to figure out what you're going to do.
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  How are you going to be consistent with what the
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  foundation is of the things they told you when it was just you
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  and them and how to hold up the standard?
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  It was a lot of decisions that I saw the two of them make on the
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  back end. My experience as the relays
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  coach, assistant relays coach, it came in.
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  We started working with the women from you see all these
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  faces. You see these are the Olympians
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  on our 20/20/14, our 2020 team. I was working with them since
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  they were 16171819, all the teams.
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  Tara Davis was my anchor leg on the 4 by 1.
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  I didn't care if you were a long jump or a thrower.
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  We needed you. You were running on the relays.
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  We broke U20 records. Three years you junior records,
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  these women, this, this, this group right here to the right.
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  They ran. 323 in the 4 by 4 is still the world record.
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  The amount of talent that I was able to come across and learn.
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  I went on all these teams by myself.
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  The head relays coach didn't go, he went to the senior teams.
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  I went on all these junior teams on my own.
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  My first senior team was Doha 2019.
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  Oren was starting to empower me. He would say, Michelle, you take
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  the women, I'll take the men. So I was like you by myself and
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  I started to have more confidence, started to coach
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  more, started to speak up more. It was Olympics 2022 weeks
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  before they had told me that they, you know, I still didn't
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  have a credential 2 weeks before I got the call that I had a
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  credential. I was preparing like I was going
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  to Tokyo the whole time. So it was no different if I
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  would have got the call 2 weeks before, two months before, 2
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  days before I was ready. Coach Richburg was not going to
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  be traveling. So that meant that I had to be
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  on the ground by myself. The first relay, the mix 4x4,
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  remember, it's COVID time. Everyone goes to the track and I
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  love to take the relays out to the track because you need to
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  see the exact zone marks. Every track is different.
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  I don't know if I'll show up, but for us, they need to see the
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  mark. You need to stand right here.
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  That is the communication that I needed with my group.
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  It was another coach that suggested that you don't need to
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  do all that. It's just the 4x4.
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  They've done 4 by fours all year and I'm like OK there it is
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  again, going against with your heart, your mind and your soul
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  tells you to do. So what else do you do?
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  Because if you got everybody else that's not going to care as
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  much as you, it's going to fall on you if it works or if it
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  doesn't. So the night before, I never
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  spend this much time on a technical manual.
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  I laid down for two hours and read the technical manual.
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  The technical manual for two hours, mixed relay, round one.
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  I'm looking at the Jumbotron and it looks like that I athlete is
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  standing outside of the zone waiting for the baton.
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  What can I do from up Yonder but watch and destruction?
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  That's the worst that's going through my brain and we get
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  disqualified. So I go back to the warm up
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  area. Hey, what happened?
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  The umpire didn't tell me where to stand and well, did you
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  notice the pattern? Because but hey, that neither
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  they're here. They're they're rules.
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  And according to rule 23.4 that was screenshotted on my
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  technical manual 2 hour session, the own power is has to place
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  you in the position in the zone. So of all the things on my phone
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  was that one rule I hit manager ba ba ba ba ba.
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  Hey, don't fire him. Place her in a position they
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  don't have to. Well, according to 23.7, here's
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  the screenshot. Bao 3:00 AM we're back in.
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  I want to tell you, when everybody is not for you, you
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  better be. You better think of every little
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  thing, every single thing, because there's nobody else
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  doing it but you. You have to think about
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  everything. I'm talking about preparation in
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  a way that no detail when I walk in, in the space, I have thought
• 22:32
  about everything for this team to win, because that's it.
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  That's the task, and the task has to be accomplished.
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  We have to win COVID. We had no relay practice 0.
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  So at this point I started to think about my process, right?
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  OK, I'm I'm the person that's in charge now.
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  And for me, if you haven't practiced, I'm going to go with
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  the people who know the most that what needs to be done in
• 23:05
  the short amount of time that we have now.
• 23:08
  That means that some people may not have, in their minds, an
• 23:13
  equal opportunity, but the time and space is what dictates the
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  opportunity. You as the head coach now have
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  to minimize that risk and put the right people on the track to
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  get the task done. So that's when I first started
• 23:32
  to make those hard decisions. We pulled off a silver.
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  Oh, if I just had more time. I knew.
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  Trust me, that was going to be my last silver, the 4x4.
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  This was my first time sticking up for, I mean, just taking
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  that, that risk, risk the national champion, risk the
• 23:54
  national champion who is the national champion 4 weeks
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  before, but four weeks later you're at the global
• 24:00
  championship and you see four others that and she's #5 now are
• 24:09
  you going to have that conversation because you feel
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  like you still can win with the national champion that in your
• 24:15
  heart, your mind and your soul is number 5?
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  Or are you, we can still do it and go with the national
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  champion and move 5 to 4. Nobody's going to know.
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  It's your process and you go out there.
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  No, your job is to put the best on the on the on the on the
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  track. If you don't start taking those
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  risks and standing up for which you really know to do, the gift
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  will die out. And it is your responsibility to
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  live up to the gift that you have been tasked to show the
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  world creating the process in 2022.
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  I got the call. I got these calls.
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  This call this time was, oh, we are going to you're going to
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  apply for the the head coach position.
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  But it was different this time because now that I was applying
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  for the head coach, it was the first time that the role split
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  genders. So now they had a women's head
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  relays coach and a men's head relays coach and they told me
• 25:25
  that I would take the women. And I said, hey, that's never
• 25:29
  been done before. What was it different?
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  Was it me? They can I not coach the men?
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  I didn't know, but I just took the women and was like, well,
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  say less, let's go do our thing. And that's exactly what I
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  started to do. The process.
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  What was I looking at? Here we go.
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  What problems needed to be addressed to improve the
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  outcomes In 2022, the women had not won a gold medal in five
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  years. 2017 was our last gold medal.
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  We had gone through Olympic Cycle World Championships and we
• 26:02
  were losing to Jamaica. Jamaica was the powerhouse for
• 26:05
  the last five years and the women's sport, well, all the
• 26:08
  four by ones. I know you know the history of
• 26:10
  the USA relay program and a lot of that is what you see at the
• 26:13
  bottom of the screen, which was my experience.
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  We were DQ D in 2008. It was the first time that the
• 26:21
  men and the women were DQ D at the same Olympic Games and I was
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  a part of that. The men have not won a gold
• 26:32
  medal in 25 years and counting. What are we doing wrong?
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  What I learned going through the relay program is that we had no
• 26:48
  time together. Once you go to the USA
• 26:53
  Championship Olympic trials, 4 weeks later you're at a global
• 26:57
  championship. The only practice you have is a
• 27:00
  relay camp, if you have it. And when you do have that relay
• 27:04
  camp, you only have three days with the exact team.
• 27:11
  So how are we going to maximize the opportunity with having the
• 27:15
  fastest athletes but minimal time?
• 27:20
  So I started to see that we needed to think about our
• 27:24
  process. How do we minimize process?
• 27:30
  Here we go. How do we maximize, how do we
• 27:33
  maximize our time? I'm sorry, hold on.
• 27:36
  How do we maximize our performance while we minimize
• 27:38
  our risk? The skill side was being
• 27:42
  negated. They will put the four fastest
• 27:45
  out there, but once you've got in the zones, we weren't really
• 27:47
  keeping track of what we needed to do.
• 27:50
  So I wanted to put an emphasis on the skill side.
• 27:52
  How are we keeping track of our baton speeds and our skills and
• 27:56
  the continuity amongst our teams?
• 27:59
  How are we getting each other to understand the value in one
• 28:02
  another so when it came time to get the job done, you can look
• 28:06
  to your left and your right and respect one another in that time
• 28:09
  because you needed each other to win.
• 28:12
  And then how do we navigate the distraction, the
• 28:16
  counterproductive culture, retaliation, intimidation?
• 28:22
  If you don't run my athlete, it's going to be a problem.
• 28:24
  Conversations because that's the real thing.
• 28:28
  Are you going to be able to stand up to those things?
• 28:30
  So I wanted to bring objectivity to the talent identification
• 28:35
  process. I started to create a leg based
• 28:39
  program so that people will understand what the differences
• 28:42
  were in the first leg, second leg, third leg, fourth leg.
• 28:45
  It was very important for them to understand.
• 28:46
  So that way, whenever you cast, they understood that even if
• 28:51
  they were good at something, I needed this particular demand.
• 28:56
  And that means that somebody may be better at that demand.
• 29:00
  Are you following? Yes.
• 29:02
  So now articulating the demand, I need to make sure I'm casting
• 29:06
  appropriately. My legs are important.
• 29:07
  I just don't want fast people. I want a fast first leg, a fast
• 29:10
  third leg, fast second leg, a fast anchor leg.
• 29:15
  I started measuring the baton speed, started saying what are
• 29:19
  we keeping track of around the zones?
• 29:21
  How fast are we moving the stick?
• 29:22
  And then I started to videotape that and time it.
• 29:26
  We weren't doing that ever, which is crazy.
• 29:34
  I have been in a relay program in 2007.
• 29:38
  I have been in college. We had never kept track of baton
• 29:41
  speeds ever in the national team program.
• 29:45
  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
• 29:49
  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
• 29:52
  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
• 29:55
  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
• 29:59
  The Guild 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
• 30:04
  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 30:07
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
• 30:11
  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 30:13
  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
• 30:18
  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
• 30:21
  Project. Hope you enjoy today and we'll
• 30:23
  see you tomorrow.