All Episodes

October 8, 2025 39 mins

In this episode, host Matt Lieto sits down with 2024 Pro Series winner Kat Matthews and IRONMAN World Champion Chelsea Sodaro, who each share powerful stories of overcoming adversity to make it to the Kona start line.

First, Kat Matthews opens up about the immense psychological challenges she faced in her last Kona appearance. She reveals that she was dealing with hidden "post traumatic stress" from her near-fatal accident, which led to irrational fear and ultimately contributed to her race-day struggles. Now, having worked through that trauma, she returns to the island feeling happy, confident, and prepared. With her training numbers better than ever, Kat is motivated by the rising level of competition and is unequivocally here with one goal in mind: to win.

Next, Chelsea Sodaro discusses her "really crazy year" of setbacks, including catching "every preschool virus one can get" from her daughter and suffering a torn calf. These challenges forced her to make a gritty, late-season trip to IRONMAN Kalmar in Sweden to validate her spot, an experience she describes as incredibly difficult. Despite the lack of consistency in her preparation, Chelsea reflects on her identity as a gritty, determined athlete who always gives everything on race day, and she is ready to do the same on the island that "makes me feel alive."

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.