Training Like An Olympian: A Day With Team USA’s Ariana Ramsey

What does it take to train like an Olympian?

Well, the answer may not shock you — a whole lot. I recently got a glimpse of just how much, thanks to a mild training session (and I use that word loosely) with one of Team USA’s most dominant Olympic squads: the history-making U.S. women’s rugby sevens team, who took home the country’s first-ever Olympic rugby medal at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

Thanks to Quest Nutrition, I got to spend the day with a few of these elite athletes and not only train like an Olympian but eat like one too. (I'm now officially obsessed with Quest Overload Bars and chips.)

The training took place at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, where I had the chance to learn directly from Josh Schell, USA Men’s Head of Performance, and Jacque Scaramella, MS, RD, CSSD, Sports Dietitian for U.S. Rugby 7s. Let's just say, I was in the hands of the best.

Before we dive into the training — and yes, we’ll get to that — I got the chance to chat with Ariana Ramsey, a breakout star of Team USA. She opened up about how she fuels her body through an intense training schedule that's already preparing her for the road to LA 2028.

For Ariana, proper fuel is key, and that includes her go-to snack: Quest Chips. “At every meeting, we’re eating Quest chips," she told me. "The spicy chili and loaded taco flavors are my favorite.” With two-a-day sessions, weight training, and team meetings all packed into a typical day, it’s no surprise that recovery and protein-packed fuel are essential.

Now, back to that training session. With coaching from the pros, I jumped, well, power walked, into a series of drills to test whether I had what it takes to make the Olympic team (spoiler alert: I don’t). But I did learn how to tackle, throw, catch, and kick like a rugby player, getting a small taste of what these powerhouse athletes go through daily.

While the team is already gearing up for LA 2028, I couldn’t help but ask Ariana what it meant to take home that historic bronze medal almost one year ago. “Winning something at the Olympics changed everything,” she shared. “The momentum, the publicity, the support. It meant more funding for the program and more visibility for the sport. Now, we have to medal again in LA. That pressure is real, but it’s motivating.”

Keep scrolling to read more from my Q&A with Ariana Ramsey.

It’s been nearly a year since the Paris Olympics. What has life been like since?

Right after the Olympics I was getting so many opportunities, speaking engagements, content creation opportunities. My Instagram just went from, you know, freaking 10K to 100K. I was just really grateful for that. Ever since, I’ve just been trying to continue to build my brand, create content, and still try to inspire people from the Games. Life’s been good. I’m back into training, looking ahead to LA 2028. So yeah, I'm really excited for that.

Have you felt the weight of your Olympic impact, in terms of just how far your story has reached?

Yes. I went to the Tokyo Olympics, and when we didn’t win anything it was like, 'Okay, she went to the Olympics,' and that was it. But when we actually medaled. That was a huge shift. Publicity, the amount of money we received as a program... it just felt so good to actually win something.

The weight is definitely there, especially for LA 2028. Like, we have to medal now. If we don’t, it’s like, 'Was it just a fluke back then?' So the weight is definitely there, but all I can do is put in the work every day, be focused every practice, so that I don’t have any regrets. I just want to do everything right and hopefully the outcome is what I want.

Since medaling, have you noticed a shift in how people view or support rugby?

Oh my God, yes. A lot of people I talk to say their daughter has joined rugby because we won. That’s so inspiring. I’m trying to grow the game. We all are. Hopefully we can open more rugby teams in high schools, that’s the goal now and in colleges too. I think the game is growing. People tell me it is, and I just hope that by us playing, it’ll all pay off.

You’re inspiring so many. Who inspired you when it came to the game of rugby?

Definitely Naya Tapper. She was one of the only Black women on the team. Kris Thomas too, she’s from Philly. But Naya was the top try scorer and I was like, 'Oh my God, I want to be like her.' And then I finally got to play with her, watching her as a leader was so inspiring. I want to be that for people. So yeah, I would say her.