#166 - Non Stanford, Olympian & Ascent Academy Coach

Olympian, coach, and lifelong learner—Non Stanford joins Seth from her new home on Australia’s Gold Coast for a heartfelt conversation about reinvention, resilience, and what it means to start again. From finishing fourth at the Rio Olympics (by just two seconds) to building a new triathlon performance center with eyes on Brisbane 2032, Non opens up about the emotional toll of narrowly missing the podium, the evolution of her identity post-retirement, and the hard-earned shift from chasing medals to mentoring young athletes.

Together, they explore her move from the UK to Australia, her partnership with fellow Olympian Aaron Royle, lessons from marriage, and the tension between personal ambition and meaningful contribution. Vulnerable, wise, and refreshingly honest, this episode dives deep into what success really means—and how to keep showing up when dreams don’t go to plan.

If you’ve ever felt the sting of unmet expectations or wondered who you are outside your achievements, this one’s for you.

Non’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/nonstanford/

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
This is a different area that I'm recording in today.
If you're not watching, you won't even be able to tell at
all. But I am up in Lake Tahoe for a
race this weekend. So we'll be recording from this
humble abode today on the pod. We're going to be talking with
non Stanford. She is a British Olympian,
awesome lady. She is the wife of Erin Royal

(00:21):
and she is working on some pretty cool stuff on the Go
Coast in Australia, starting a triathlon center there.
So some cool conversations aboutthat, cool conversations about
who she is as an individual and much more.
So without further ado, I want to introduce you to Don
Stanford. Oh, yeah, it's up here, Lake
Tahoe. It's just small triathlon.
It looks like a pretty hard one.It's got like almost 5000 feet

(00:43):
of gain and 56 miles, but I'm a little disappointed that only 35
people raced it last year, at least the half distance.
So I'm hoping that more people show up this year to make it a
little more competitive. But yeah, I'm up here in Tahoe.
It's gorgeous. I'm usually down in Redding, CA
and it's 100 plus, you know, a lot of the summer, so very hot.

(01:03):
So it's nice to be up here and get the chill out a little bit.
Pull off a bit, yeah, Yeah, well, I'm going to have to get
used to those hotter temperatures over here so.
Yeah, yeah. So where?
Where are you at right now? I'm currently on the Gold Coast
in Australia, moved to the startof May.
So yeah, big life change. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(01:25):
I was hearing, I guess, a littlebit about it whenever I was
talking with Aaron. But tell me, like what draw drew
you to the Gold Coast? Work, to be honest with you, a
job opportunity came up here with Oz Triathlon and yeah, it
was a big decision because it's obviously it's not on.

(01:45):
It's not a small move from the UK to Australia.
It's like literally the other side of the world.
But yeah, it was a a brilliant opportunity to, to sort of work
with Oz Triathlon. So yeah, decided to take the
leap and moved our life over over to here, to the Sunnyside.
Yeah. What's it like moving so far?
Like I'm assuming you're shipping cars via boat or what?

(02:07):
What all did you do to make the logistics work?
We actually didn't end up doing doing that.
We just took about 6070 kilos, maybe even more.
It's probably more than that actually.
It's probably about 90 kilos of luggage with us on the flight
between me and Aaron and took asmuch stuff as we could.
But we were really fortunate to already own property in

(02:28):
Australia because obviously Aaron is Australian.
And so we had a lot of furnitureand, and, and stuff over here.
So we sold our car back in the UK.
We had a car here. So yeah, it wasn't as difficult
as it could be for a lot of people.
I think having an Australian husband and family and friends
on this side of the world made it a little bit easier to do.

(02:50):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that.
So I know with moving, it can always be tough to maybe set up
a semblance of community to like, feel like it's home, but
you already had some of that setup, at least from Aaron's side,
it sounds like. Yeah, definitely.
I mean Australian property is down in Wollongong, which is
about a 90 minute flight from here or a 10 hour drive.

(03:11):
So not super close, but yeah. And Aaron's majority of Aaron's
family are in NSW, so we've had to kind of set up here, but it's
a lot easier when I have got a little bit of family here and I
know a few people that live here.
So it's not been like we've had to both start completely from
scratch, which has made it a lot, a lot easier to do.

(03:32):
Yeah, for sure. So one more question on the job
thing, because I'm just curious.With any new job change, there's
usually a number of things that have to kind of fall into place
for you to have the piece to say, like, yeah, I think this is
the direction that I should go. What was the final, like, straw
that I don't know if broke the camel's back is the worst, the
best phrase to use? But what was like the final
thing that made you turn over tosay like, yeah, I think this is

(03:55):
our next move? It's hard to say one one thing
to be honest, you know, completely honest.
It's an accumulation of, of, of factors, I think personally, I
think Aaron was really keen to, to come back and spend some time
in Australia. And obviously it's a beautiful

(04:15):
place to live and, and a lovely way of life.
It's a lovely culture here and it's certainly better weather
wise. I mean, we're in the mid the
middle of winter here in Australia and I've been swimming
in the ocean this morning and the sun is out.
Went for a nice stroll for a coffee.
So yeah, it's definitely a, a different way of life over here.

(04:40):
But professionally it was, you know, a big step forward for me.
Professionally, I was assistant coach at the Leeds Triathlon
Centre in Leeds and I've come over here and we're setting up a
performance centre from scratch.So I've got the opportunity to
to sort of be the lead coach alongside Daniel Unger from

(05:03):
Germany, who's also coming over in a few months time.
And yeah, we're going to sort ofCo create this this new centre
here on the Gold Coast with the aim of sort of delivering
athletes towards Brisbane in 2032.
So a lot more responsibility anda lot more opportunity to sort
of have my own own stamp on things and and have a bit more

(05:25):
free range to do. You know, what I wanted to do
was in the Uki think progressionwas a lot harder for absolutely
the right reasons. The coaches that were were there
were, you know, not going anywhere and, and quite settled
and happy in their roles. And so for me to to progress
professionally, I think I had tomove away.

(05:47):
And yeah, really excited to to work within a different
federation. You know, British triathlon has
been my life for a long, long time.
I know everybody there and know all the athletes and it was very
comfortable and, and growth often doesn't happen in your
comfort zone. So yeah, stepping outside of my
comfort zone, working with new people, working with a new

(06:08):
federation, it's all a really big learning curve for me.
And yeah, I'm excited to get stuck in and and learn a
different way of doing things inmany ways.
Yeah, I can only imagine like you said, all of those things
that are going to be somewhat uncomfortable.
But you know with the idea of planning with A7 year road map
to help people progress to get to a certain level in that

(06:30):
amount of time. I mean, for me it's hard to plan
to off plan often beyond a few weeks.
And I know for triathletes in general, that's typically a very
hard thing to do. So what does it look like for
you and you're trying to tackle just how to actually road map
and create objectives that wouldyou would check off over the
course of seven years? I mean, initially coming in,

(06:50):
it's been about right, how do weget the initial structure in
place? How do we create a stable
structure that, you know, everyone knows when we're
swimming, when we're doing our run sessions, what are the
locations that we're using? What are the staff that we have
around us so that, you know, we create that base, that stable

(07:14):
base that we can then progress from.
So the first few months of of work is basically around
creating, creating something that athletes can come into and
and thrive. But going forward it's, you
know, it's each, each athlete isdifferent for a start.
So each plan is going to be fairly individual and working

(07:34):
out how we how we progress them in in the best way.
We're going to have various agesfrom probably around 17
currently through to about 28 years old.
Well, that's discluding Aaron, to be fair.
But yeah, he's the old man of the squad at 35 and but he very

(07:56):
much plays a sort of a very senior role in in it all.
And yeah, probably doesn't classhimself as a true Academy
athlete, but an affiliate memberprobably.
But yeah, so 17 through to 28, that kind of age range, which
was pretty big age range in terms of development.
So everything will be very personalized, but with some of

(08:16):
them sort of really trying to make that gradual and sort of
calculated progression towards towards 2032 and hopefully
beyond for most of them because life does not end, it does not
end that year. So.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Wow.
So there's so many questions that I want to start off with,
but I want to ask one more just because this is such a current

(08:37):
thing that your, your mind's wrapped around and it seems
appropriate to ask it now. But you know, you're obviously
very qualified to be in a position such as this with your
experience at Leeds, with your own professional experience,
being in elite level athlete, going through these programs,
you know, making it to the Olympics and different in
different ways. But with all of that said, what

(08:58):
you're doing now to start something up new is very
entrepreneurial. It seems you have you and then
the German gentleman who you're partnering with, obviously
you're going to be doing a lot of things outside of your maybe
that you know what you're talking about, your realm of
comfortability and just the different tasks.
I'm sure they're associated withjust stuff outside of what it
looks like to be a triathlon coach.

(09:19):
So what do you think that you are most under qualified for?
Oh, good question. If if we were responsible for
any commercial sort of aspects of it then I would definitely be
under qualified for that. But we're heavily supported by
the Federation and we have a manager of the, of the Academy

(09:42):
who will be responsible sort of for the funding sort of streams
and managing the budget and really allowing me to focus on,
on coaching and making sure we're delivering the best
coaching for, for the athletes. But it's inevitable that you
know, as if you're heading up a centre and, and really a big
part of driving the creation of something that you're going to

(10:03):
be involved and want to be involved in a lot of those
aspects. So I think I'll be learning a
lot as we go around sort of the budgeting sides of a performance
centre because inevitably there are, there are expenses and, and
you know, there's not an indefinite pot of money.
So working out how we prioritizewhere we spend our money and on

(10:28):
who and on what, to be honest with you.
So I think that's going to be a really big, big learning curve
for me. From your experience at Leeds,
one more question. This area, from your experience
at Leeds to like you're saying everything you're going to have
to do now. What are some things that you
have observed and experienced inyour previous tenure that you

(10:49):
will leave behind that you want to change and have a better way
about doing? Wow, that's a really tough
question. Because I mean, Leeds Triathlon
Centre, I think many people would struggle, would struggle
to argue that, you know, it's, it's the most successful
triathlon centre that's that's ever been.

(11:10):
You know, you've heard multiple gold medallists at the Olympic
Games, multiple world champions.I think there's been Olympic
Games where 80 to 90% of the British team have been Leeds
triathletes. So and I think it was a maybe
even at the last games where every single one of the athletes

(11:31):
had at least been through the Leeds system at some point in
their career. So it's really difficult to sort
of discount overlook a lot of what's of what's gone on there.
But I think what I'm trying my best to do is not recreate leads
in Australia. I think I have to be really

(11:53):
respectful of the fact that yes,our cultures are very similar,
but there are differences. For a start, they're seasons
opposite. So we're currently in the middle
of winter, which is the summer season and the main season in in
northern hemisphere. So actually navigating that is
quite, is quite tricky and there's certain nuances to, to
being on the other side of the world in terms of managing

(12:14):
academics and study and and travel.
So my main focus is to is to yestake everything that I've learnt
from Leeds, but make sure I do it to fit the the culture and
the lifestyle over here as well.Very well said.

(12:35):
You're you're quite articulate. Would you consider yourself
articulate? I don't know.
I like to talk. Yeah, maybe that helps.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Oh man.
So if I was to just Google your name, I could come up with
obviously your Wikipedia page and a barrage of things going
back from probably as early as 2008, bigger stuffs happening
around 2012 all the way up to 2022-2023.

(12:59):
So I could get an idea and and build a frame and a picture in
my mind of like who you are. But according to you who is non.
I guess I'm probably a lot of different things to a lot of
different people and you know, the the obvious of of being a
wife and a friend and a family member to being a coach.

(13:20):
And I think to a lot of people still probably an athlete.
But since retiring for myself, it's been something that I've
really had to think about more, or not that necessarily I've had
to, but I have thought about a lot more and gained a lot more
self-awareness of what motivatesme, what makes me happy,

(13:42):
actually maybe my flaws and my strengths as a person.
I think you have to think about that a bit more when you go into
employment and actually life isn't about you anymore.
You know, as an athlete. It is with everybody always says
it, but it is quite a selfish pursuit, you know?
Yeah. Everything that you do is about

(14:04):
bettering you as an, as an athlete in in many ways.
And now I don't have to think about myself as much in that
way. It's it's more about everybody
else that's around me and, and helping other people be better.
So yeah, I think I'm still on a journey of discovering, you

(14:24):
know, who I am and who I want tobe.
And I think that's probably trueof everybody, right.
As you go through life, you evolve and change and adapt to
your new roles and the new positions that you find yourself
in life. But yeah, I think it's an
ongoing evolution of, of workingout who I am and, and, and where
it is I want to go. Yeah, yeah.
It's always a fascinating question for me to hear the

(14:46):
answer to. Depending on what level of the
cycle or what specific section of the cycle the people find
themselves in. Typically it's revolving around
age and specifically around athletes.
You know, you're talking about. Well, when you're young, you're
going for the Olympics or whatever it is, and that's kind
of all your focus is. That's where the world revolves
around. And then you come to retirement

(15:07):
and you're figuring out, well, who am I exactly?
And how do I step outside of this?
So I first of all, thank you so much for sharing in the way that
you did. But, and this is an unfair
question because I don't think that there's a black and white
way to answer it. But if you were to compare and
contrast your lead up to 2022 ofbeing a professional athlete to
where you are now, you know, three years and you're starting

(15:28):
this new center. In terms of the fulfilment and
kind of overall joy that you feel from the execution of your
work. Do you think that one of them is
something that you would choose over the other?
That is a really a really hard question.
I think I got all the satisfaction that I could out of

(15:48):
being an athlete. I think by the time I got to the
end of my career, I wasn't getting the same satisfaction
out of it as I was when I was a young athlete.
And that was a major part of my retirement.
I think I'd got to a point whereI just didn't want it as much as
I used to. You know, you kind of learn lose

(16:09):
that burning desire to a certainextent and some of that comes
through. You almost get a little bit
jaded, right? You go to the same races every
year and you're racing the same people and and nothing really
changes. So as you get older, you know,
you, you, you, I guess just get used to things and it's not as
exciting as it as it used to be.But also your body doesn't work

(16:32):
in the same way as it used to and doesn't doesn't do exactly
as, as you want it to do all thetime.
So you get less, I think a bit less satisfaction from it.
So I think I've got everything out of being an athlete.
So I don't think I could have continued to get the same
satisfaction as I used to get from it.

(16:52):
And, and now that I'm in this role and I feel like I'm getting
a lot of satisfaction from helping other people.
It's sort of one of my core values, I think is sort of
supporting and, and, and helpingothers.
Actually, before I became an athlete or a professional
triathlete, I really wanted to go into medicine and changed my

(17:13):
mind last minute because somebody's like, oh, you already
struggled to be a runner and, you know, and study, study
medicine. And rightly or wrongly, I was
like took that advice and ended up doing sports science instead
of medicine. And for a long time, other sort
of the latter part of my career,I thought I'd probably go into
being a paramedic or something like something like that because

(17:35):
I was really sort of keen to be useful in society.
I always felt like as an athlete, I wasn't really
contributing that positively to society.
And when I retired, I wanted to go and do something like that.
And inevitably, I haven't ended up going into sort of the
medical side of thing or the public sector, mainly because I

(17:55):
wasn't sure about going back to university for three to five
years. Yeah, at the age of 34.
But yeah, I now get a lot of satisfaction from seeing other
ambitious younger athletes come through and trying to help them,
mainly developers, people. You know, ultimately as a coach,
what you want when an athlete moves on from you is that

(18:15):
they've grown as a person and they have more life skills to
take forward into whatever area of life that they're going to go
into. But also just helping other
people realize their potential and realize their own dreams,
because I know how powerful thatis as a young athlete.
Very well said. There's one thing that you did
say that really threw off like aflag in my head because I wanted

(18:36):
to ask more questions about it because I'd love for to hear why
you think this. But you mentioned that, you
know, you felt for a long time that being an athlete isn't as
valuable to society or you don'tfeel like that you're
contributing something worth of value to be, I guess, notarized.
Does that come from? Where does that come from?
Is that a parental thing? Is that just?

(18:58):
Where did you develop that mindset?
I think it's definitely not sortof driven, I don't think by by
anybody else. I think I was just acutely aware
that, you know, a lot of my existence was around looking
after me and like I said before,making myself the best version

(19:21):
that I could be. And that didn't necessarily help
anybody else. And I know there's a lot of, you
know, people will often turn around and say, yes, but elite
athletes inspire the generation that's already the population to
get fit and stay healthy and be active and encourage younger
athletes into into sport. And sport is a fantastic vehicle

(19:43):
for a lot of things and has certainly given me an amazing
life and and, you know, given mea lot of opportunities along the
way. But yeah, I just never felt like
I was, you know, contributing tosociety in, you know, the way
that sort of doctors do, for example.
You know, and of course not everybody's a doctor.

(20:05):
And, and, and there's a lot of people contributing very
positively to society. But yeah, I always battled a
little bit with the selfish nature of being an athlete.
Yeah, a couple of things. I think that I think you're
right, like being an athlete, even in an amateur level, like
I've seen it destroy families and marriages.
And you know, there's definitelya right and wrong, wrong way to
do it. But I do think that it is a

(20:26):
positive and in a weird sort of way that our athletic ability is
only for a season. Because if I was to always have
the ability to continue to progress and progress and
progress. And for someone who's chasing
the mountaintop of being a worldchampion or whatever it is.
And if they were able to continue to do that, I think
after a while, it'd probably burn out all of the people that
we hold close to us because it is a season thing.

(20:47):
And I think that's the same witha lot of different things,
having children, raising them tothe age because nobody wants to
take care of their kid through their 90s.
I mean, you know, to to a certain degree.
So that's an interesting way to think about it.
But on the doctor front, becausemedicine obviously is something
that you really gravity gravitated to from a young age.
Do you remember who was who or what happened that was starting

(21:12):
the plant? The seed for the you maybe
wanted to be a doctor or a paramedic or something.
I don't remember specifically where I came from.
I think I was very academic at school, always very ambitious,
always wanted to have the best grades, be at the top of the
class. And I guess maybe medicine was

(21:35):
always seen as sort of like a successful academic path.
And I think that's probably kindof where it came from.
I, I enjoyed science, I loved maths so, and generally had like
read people quite well. And I think that's one of my
strengths as a person is I can relate to a lot of different

(21:56):
people and, and, and get on withmost people.
So I just felt like going into the care sector was kind of, you
know, a good fit for me. Yeah, good, good answer.
So your name, your first and middle name to be specific.
I have never heard your first name or your middle name ever in
my life, so I would love to knowthe etymology of the name Nod.

(22:19):
And then how do you say your middle name?
Is it Rihanna rin yad rin yad? Good shot, good, good shot.
It's Rihanna's. So like Rianna, I guess, is
quite a common, far more common name, but Rianne.
And then if at the end. So Welsh has its own alphabet
and a double D in Welsh makes a sound.

(22:42):
So it's Rhiannon, a bit like a TH.
Yeah, Yeah. But Non is a Welsh name.
It's actually the name of a St. in Wales.
St. Non, who was, I think, I don't
want to get this wrong, but I think it's like the patron state
of mothers or something like that.
But she was the mother of our national St.

(23:03):
St. David.
And so there's a little, little city in Wales called Saint
David's. And we used to, or my parents
used to holiday there a lot. And all the little girls that
are christened or baptised in this city of Saint David are
baptised Non. So that's where they got, that's

(23:23):
where they got the name from. So yes, it's very unusual.
You do have a few people in Wales called Non, but not sure.
Not hundreds of us, yeah. But yeah, it's very unique.
It's always a conversation starter.
But I used to hate it growing upbecause I didn't like that I had
such a unusual name. And when you go to France, it
obviously means no and it often confuses people.

(23:45):
So even now when I go to Starbucks or a coffee shop, my
Starbucks name is Emma. Yeah, because they're they're
like, wait, how do you spell that?
Yeah, yeah, that's fascinating. So what it was it like growing
up in Wales or in I believe it was actually, was it?
I had a note and I can't find Schwasnia.

(24:07):
Swansea. Swansea.
Sorry, not Swansea. Yeah, I'm really butchering the
pronunciations today. So where's the 70.3 was a couple
of weeks ago actually the Iron Man Pro series.
I grew up there in Swansea. Yeah, it was, it was great.
Grew up on the coast, very, veryactive sort of family life.

(24:29):
My mum was heavily involved withBritish gymnastics as I was
growing up, so I spent most of my childhood playing in a
gymnastics gym while my mum was coaching and then and the
athletes were training and my dad was very much into rugby.
Both my parents did a lot of running and my brother did every

(24:51):
sport you can imagine and was probably a far more talented
athlete than I ever was, but never really pursued anything
seriously until he went to university and then started
playing lacrosse and played lacrosse internationally.
So, yeah, I grew up in a very active, active family, but a
very close family, very close with my grandparents and my

(25:13):
cousins and would spend every weekends and every holiday with
my mum's sister's children. And yeah, still have a great,
great relationship with them. So it was a great place to grow
up, have really fond memories of, of growing up in Swansea and
and was fortunate to have a verysupportive family of anything

(25:37):
really that I that I wanted to do.
Yeah. Was there a chance that you were
to ever become an Olympic gymnast?
Gymnast. Well, I would have loved to have
been an Olympic gymnast, but when I was about 9, I was
selected to go over with a team from Wales to America, actually

(25:57):
to the Buckeye Classic. I think it was in, I can't
remember where it was, wherever that is in America.
And I, I kind of realised when Iwas there that like actually it
wasn't very good compared to a lot of the other sort of girls
my age. And I came home and I was like
sat at home 1 evening. And then I bear in mind I was 9.
And I said to my mom, I'm like, oh mum, like, do you think I'd

(26:18):
ever be able to go to the Olympics as a gymnast?
And she kind of was like, she hates me telling this story
because she thinks it makes her sound really mean.
But she was like, probably not. And so I decided there and then
that I would find a sport that Icould go to the Olympics in.
So from a really young age I wasvery sort of focused and and

(26:39):
determined and sort of had this ambition of going to the Olympic
Games. So when you're hearing that at
nine years old, did that crush your spirits or was it like
relatively easy for you to switch from that to, well, I'll
find a sport that I can do this well in?
Yeah, I from memory, I was pretty much like, oh, right, OK
then. Well, fair enough.
Let's let's find something that you know, that I could be good

(27:02):
at. And for some reason I asked to
start swimming. So got my mum to take me down to
the local swimming club, swim Swansea.
And yeah, started, started swimming.
I wasn't a particularly good swimmer.
I remember like at swim lessons when I was a kid, like I
definitely wasn't the strongest swimmer in the class.

(27:22):
But yeah, sort of persevered andimproved a lot in the pool over
the next few years. So yeah, I think I was just, I
was pretty, you know, my memory of me being a child and a
teenager doing sport, I was so incredibly intense about being
the best. And, you know, now if I look

(27:43):
back and saw a saw a young girl as intense as I was, I'd
probably be a bit like a bit worried that they were, you
know, too intense and probably going to burn out.
But yeah, I just had this burning desire to be the best at
whatever I did. And yeah, we're just going for
gas on everything, train super hard and be super sort of

(28:07):
competitive and intense at races.
And yeah, it's just, it's just who I was, I think.
Did you ever reach a place that from the younger years where you
did start to burn out and neededto take a break, or did that
never happen until the end of your career?
I'd say it did happen when I wasprobably 1718 and I was, I used

(28:30):
to be tiny, like tiny, tiny, look, short, skinny.
And then around 1617 I just started to grow and I think I
grew about 5 inches in one year.And as you do as a young girl,
you develop and everything changes.
And that was a really hard period for me because my running

(28:50):
gait changed. I started picking up lots of
different injuries and niggles and that sort of period there,
yeah, I really struggled becauseI'd been so successful as a
teenager running and sort of waslike, yeah, you know, this is
it. I found my sport running.
I'm going to go to the Olympic Games as a runner and it's going

(29:11):
to be great. And then all of a sudden, you
let you're on this progression. Then all of a sudden, like you
sort of fall off the end of the Cliff and it's really hard the
first time that happens to you as a young athlete to understand
it and to sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel.
And it's sort of, a lot of it coincided with me going to
university and, and, and starting at the University of

(29:32):
Birmingham. And that's actually in my second
year of of university where I started to rattle on because I
was really struggling to to run and losing the enjoyment for
running and sort of needed to get myself into something
different for a bit of a change.Yeah.
Do you think that you operate for more of a place of like head

(29:54):
knowledge or heart feel? In terms of.
It's just the way that you make decisions like the, I mean, it
can be anything like when you come to an impasse and you have,
you know, a book of knowledge onyour left and like, you know,
scenarios you've run through to figure out what is the best one.
But your gut, on the other hand,may be pointing in a different
direction. Which one do you typically go

(30:14):
with? Probably more my head.
I try anyway. There's always instances
obviously where your heart leadsand you have sort of moments
where you make decisions in the heat of the moment I guess.
But I always try to to think things through before I make
especially a big decision. Sometimes it's probably my
downfall because I probably overthink things.

(30:35):
I'm definitely somebody that lays in bed at night thinking
so. When making those big decisions,
who or what do you do or who is the person that you typically
will sound bored with to kind ofget the get the thoughts out,
verbalize them and maybe get a little bit of mentorship or or
seek some wisdom? I still always call my parents

(30:56):
when there's a problem. That's a beautiful thing.
Yeah, that's awesome. So that whenever I call, they're
probably like, oh gosh, something's wrong.
I hate it. They would never say that.
I'm sure parents. Every parent I've ever met
always just looks forward to those calls, especially as we
get older because we typically tend to spend a tend spend tend
to spend a little less time calling our parents I feel like.

(31:19):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. You get busy, don't you?
And especially now that I live on the other side of the world
and time zones different, it's it's often hard.
But yeah, that, I mean, I spent many an hour on the phone to my
mum about, you know, making the decision to to move out to to
Australia. And yeah, I think they're just
always you go to, aren't they? They're always that sort of

(31:41):
constant in your life, whether you're 5 or 35.
So yeah, no, that I lean on thema lot.
And obviously now that I've got a husband, I definitely sound
bored off off Aaron a lot as well now.
Yeah, yeah. What are some lessons you've
learned from being married? I know that's just been a few
years now and I have to earn thesame question.

(32:01):
I don't know if you heard that question or not, but what are
some lessons that you have learned about marriage?
I definitely listen to the podcast but I can't remember
what you said, so you mustn't have said anything.
Too bad that I'm holding againsthim.
No, I think it's all good. I think it's the classics.
And you know, everyone says it to you and you're like, yeah,
yeah, yeah. But it's it's patience and
compromise. Yeah, both both me and Aaron are

(32:25):
probably pretty stubborn. I think he's definitely said
that in in his podcast. He's more stubborn than me, I
would like to say, but he probably said the same but about
me. But yeah, I just think learning,
you know, when to picky battles and you know what, what's

(32:46):
important and what's not important and, and how to
support each other and, and support both of you to grow.
And, and there's times where, you know, he has to be the
priority and his ambitions and, and, and what he's doing in his
life has to be be the priority. And, and equally there's there's
points where it's been me as well.

(33:07):
So yeah, it's just about learning how to to work as a
team, I guess. And we definitely don't get that
right all the time. You know, we we're definitely
not a marriage where we don't sort of have disagreements and
and talk things through, but youknow, that's, that's fine.
And you know, we learn as we go and I think that's ultimately,

(33:31):
but hopefully we'll make it the long have longevity because, you
know, we we are willing to sort of learn and grow hopefully
together and support each other as we go.
Yeah. How long have you guys been
married again? Is it three years?
Three years, but together, I think.
Close to 10. Yeah.
So you guys have been through the cycle.
I I saw I've been married for eight years and.

(33:52):
And some change and the greatestrealization that I think I
figured out after three or four years was that there the
relationship, like you're saying, there's seasons of.
Well, I'll give more to you. You give more to me in this
cycle. But there has to be a faith and
understanding that that won't always be the case.
And it will kind of ebb and flow.
And sometimes it's like life's really good for, you know,

(34:13):
usually shorter seasons, but where everything just seems to
be going out and you're given equally.
But it does ebb and flow. And I maybe I was told that as a
younger person, but I never truly understood it until after
I experienced it. And I wish that there was a way
that we could give that really that feeling of experience of
knowing that whenever you go through the hard time, it will
come back around to a good time.Because once for me, the darkest

(34:36):
places I've ever gotten to, if Ilose the faith to understand
that it will not always last, the sun will rise again.
That's when things just completely fall apart.
And honestly, probably when mostmarriages fall apart is when,
you know, one side gives up and then the other just throws their
hands up. And, you know, and there's
there's obvious caveats and variables that are outside of
control and in instances when marriages probably should end.

(34:57):
But that being said, I wish thatthere was a way to like, hand
that to someone like, oh, you. Yeah, don't lose this.
Yeah, it is really hard and you know, there are always tough
periods and you know, I think both me and Aaron are lucky that
both our parents are still are still married and have been
married for a long time. So we both sort of have that

(35:20):
that guide and that that grounding and sort of lucky that
yeah, we can see that it is is possible.
And we both know that probably both our parents have been
through tough times in their marriage as well.
But you know, they've they've survived.
And and yeah, it is hard. There are periods that are that
are tough, but you get through it.
And like you say, they're the reward is that you have some

(35:40):
some brilliant times together aswell.
So, yeah, well, we'll persevere.We'll keep an eye.
Yeah, for sure. We'll enjoy the sunshine over
here together, so yeah. Well, thirteen years, you, you
definitely know if you love eachother or not.
So I have nothing but hope for you guys, especially because you
connect with your parents so often.
Then yeah, the statistical, the statistical likelihood of you

(36:01):
guys staying together because both of your parents are been
together for for so long and arestill together.
Like that's that's huge. But earlier you were talking
about, I forget what the name ofthe town was.
Maybe it was Swansea, but the the, I guess religious tradition
of being baptized and then you're considered a non like the
ladies. Did you grow up religious?

(36:22):
Was that like a pretty big emphasis on your household?
I grew up with my mum and my mum's side of the family were
very Christian. You know, I grew up going to
Sunday school every Sunday and actually went to, even though
I'm not Catholic, went to a Catholic school for secondary or
high school. My dad was never religious, but

(36:46):
classed himself as an atheist. So I guess I had the balance of,
of both. And if you were to ask if I was
sort of religious or, or spiritual now, I would probably
say no, but that I really believe in the morals and values
and teachings of the church. And the church has provided such

(37:11):
a wonderful community and life for my grandparents, especially
as they've got older. And, you know, I really value
that for them and, and, and the,the happiness and social life
that they've taken from, from being part of the church.
But the thing that I battle withis the the amount of conflict

(37:37):
and that is caused by religion. And you know, I'd be curious to
hear, well, you know, globally, worldwide, a lot of the
conflicts that are happening right now are a religious
religion based. And that's kind of where I lose
faith in, in religion a little bit, but absolutely believe in,

(37:59):
in the teachings of and, you know, and the, and the morals,
the, you know, the good morals that we can all take from, from
what the church actually teachesor whatever religion you believe
in. You know, I think all religions,
you know, their foundation is, is built on, on good, good
ethics and, and, and well, and good intentions.
And I think if everybody, if everything could be focused on

(38:23):
that instead of of what, you know, ultimately seems to be the
issues that are causing a lot ofissues in the world right now.
So yeah, that's that's kind of where I'm at with it.
I believe in the good that it does, but I struggle with the
sort of conflict that seems to come out of a lot of it as well.

(38:45):
Yeah, it is interesting. Some of the greatest, but
probably equally if not more so,some of the worst atrocities
ever committed on what are underthe guise of religion.
And even if you it's not even necessarily to a singular God or
something. I mean, the greatest atrocities
over time, just thinking of Hitler, because that's an easy
one, but to a degree he became areligious figure to the people

(39:08):
would give such fervor and commitment to regardless of, you
know, just looking out to the future of what word does this
lead? So it is it is a super difficult
thing. And that leads me to kind of
this next question. I can't remember if I asked
Aaron or not, but I assumed like, do you guys want to have
children someday? Yes, I think, I think so.
We're, I always thought that as soon as I retired, I'd be be

(39:31):
ready to have kids. But I think there's so much
change in my life that I wasn't quite ready.
But yeah, I think it it's something that we talk about and
yeah, if we're lucky enough, then yes.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So then let me ask you this
question. Knowing how you were brought up
and you had the balance, you know, your dad being atheist,
your mom being more on the religious side, do you think

(39:52):
that it is enough to have at least just one person in that
household to carry that? I don't know the tradition.
I mean I'm not saying your dad is an amoral person, but do you
think that it is enough to just carry those morals forward to
having children to where like they'll grow up with the same
value system and desire to uphold the same like ethical

(40:13):
standards? I think so.
I don't think you have to go to church or wherever you worship
every weekend to still be a goodperson and, and to live by good
morals and ethics. And I think as long as the
people that are around you as you're growing up instill those,
then, you know, you have, you have to hope that, that that

(40:36):
will be enough. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, good answer. I've never asked that one
before, so I was curious to see what you say.
It's always easier to ask the question than to answer the
question, especially with these.Subjects.
So if you had to choose like oneword or phrase to describe
yourself as a kid from like, say, ages 1 to 15, and then
maybe from like your 20s to now,what, what were those phrases be

(40:59):
like? Compare and contrast how you've
grown. Up to the age of 1516 to I mean,
I'm thinking yeah, yeah. Mid teens, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Very driven I think which is
unusual probably for such a young person for such a young

(41:24):
person yeah yeah. And then I think it's been like
a slow progression from driven and intense to hopefully more
balanced. I think having gaining that
realisation that there's more tolife than being the best at

(41:44):
something or continually progressing and developing and
moving up the ladder, so to speak.
And whilst I think success is still something that I value and
ultimately I'm still sort of working, you know, towards
success in what, you know, whatever success is.

(42:05):
I think it's a very subjective, A subjective thing, isn't it
means a lot of different things to different people.
But I've still got goals that I'm working to ultimately, you
know, I'm still still working hard and, and, you know, making
progress, hopefully personally, but also professionally.
But I think I've just got the balance a bit more as I've got

(42:26):
older and, you know, hopefully realise that yeah, you don't
this you can still be a good person.
And not that I ever don't think I wasn't, wasn't a good person
hopefully. But yeah, I think just, yeah,
you know, it's not winning at all costs or succeeding at all
costs kind of thing. If you were to have to ask

(42:48):
someone to write out just like ashort statement or page about
who you are as an individual, kind of judging who you are as a
person, who would you say would give you the most accurate
representation you would be comfortable with them doing such
a task? Probably Aaron.
I mean he's the one that that sees the good and and the bad.

(43:12):
You know, he, he sees me every day.
He sees me at my lowest, sees meat my highest.
So you'd have to be, you'd have to be Aaron or my mum.
But I think my mum sees me through rose tinted glasses.
So yeah, probably Aaron, my friends get the best of me.
Probably they, you know, they obviously my closest friends

(43:33):
have have been through some of the tough times with me as well.
But yeah, there's no one, I guess, like your your partner
that that really lives those those moments with you.
Yeah. What are the things that you do
when you're feeling extremely low or something like a season
is coming in, it's going to be alow season of life.
What are some of the things you notice about yourself?
Maybe that and you seem pretty in tune with yourself.

(43:55):
This may be a bad question, but for me, often times there's
these like little things that will show up in my life that it
will cue like, Oh, you're going through a bit of a rough time.
And then once I recognize those things, there's things that I
can do to try to set the groundwork for whatever it is
like never waste a good crisis, work through this, learn the
lessons and then like try to reach that next, you know, piece
of the cycle for you. Do you have those recognitions?

(44:17):
And then what are the things that you do to kind of graduate
out of that season I. Think, I mean, what I've noticed
since retiring is that sport isn't just a job, you know, for
me, it's a huge part of who I am.
And so always in many ways, prioritizing exercise every day

(44:40):
and just really helps me feel more like me, no matter if it's
a tough time or or an easy time.It gives a lot of balance to me
as a person. And then I think like we said
earlier on realising that, yeah,OK, it's a tough period, but it
will get easier. And I find it a lot easier to to

(45:01):
work through a tough period if Ikeep as much of the rest of my
life quiet in many ways. So keep the noise out and really
focus on getting through the tough sort of period in front of
me. And if my life is organised, I
feel like I deal with things andstress a lot, a lot better.
So sport organization and prioritizing the task that's in

(45:25):
front of me. So when you sit down and like
you have some work to do on yourlaptop now, I assume there's a
lot of emails and communication that has to go on for the work
that you do. If your house has a kitchen full
of dirty dishes, do you have to do the dishes before you can sit
down and focus? Yes, I like things to be clean
and tidy. Definitely.

(45:46):
Yeah. I think our house rarely gets
out of hand. Yeah, over weekends I'll
probably clean more than I wouldmidweek, but yeah.
And I think our house is generally pretty.
I think both me and Aaron are the same, actually.
We both like clean, tidy space. Otherwise, we can't really
settle. Yeah, Yeah.
I've never been able to pinpointwhy exactly that is.

(46:07):
I mean, intuitively it's like, oh, well, if it's clean, I can
think better because visually itseems in place.
But it's always fascinating to me to actually to people who can
function at least seemingly wellin a complete mess, which my
wife was one of those people. It's like she can sit down and
get work done if the place is kind of a wreck.
And I'm like, sitting here, like, I can't even think
straight. So that's always fascinating to
hear how people react in those ways.

(46:29):
I mean, it's probably a really useful skill to be able to work
in chaos, especially depending on your line of work.
But you know, life is rarely notchaotic, is it outside of the
outside of your four walls. So yeah, it's probably a good
skill to have. Yeah, you can.
You can give a semblance of non chaos or or or organization, I

(46:50):
guess, by getting these things visually around us.
But enough with that. You were appointed a member of
the Order of the British Empire given to you for your
performance, I guess I think in triathlon by the Prince of
Wales. I I didn't try to do a lot of
research into this because I wanted to hear like what your
experience is and how you would equate that to maybe something

(47:12):
else that people would understand.
Like, I don't know. Yeah, but how would you?
Well, how was that experience? What does it mean?
And how would you compare that to to tell someone else like,
oh, this is a big deal, maybe inAmerica or South America or
wherever? Yeah, so I mean, if you're
British, to be awarded an MBE, which is just what I got, and

(47:33):
then above MBE you'd go OBE and then there is another one, maybe
CBE, and then that's all. And then after that you'd get
knighted. So that's when you'd become a
Dame or a Lord or Sir. So yeah, it's kind of that first
step within that system in, in, in, in the UK And it's, it's a

(47:57):
huge, it's a huge honour to. I got got a letter through
through the post and I couldn't actually quite, quite believe
it. And I was awarded my MBE for
services to triathlon. So in 2012 actually it started
that every athlete that won an Olympic gold medal would receive

(48:21):
an MBE in the next the next honours list that was published.
So every gold medallist since 2012 will receive, has has
received an MBE. Obviously I'm not an Olympic
gold medallist. So I was nominated by British
Triathlon when I retired for formy services to triathlon.

(48:45):
And in in many ways, of course Iwould love to have been an
Olympic gold medalist, but in many ways it was a bigger honour
for me personally to have received one for sort of my
General Services to triathlon. Obviously I've been an athlete
for a long time, but I also do alot of work in the athlete
committee space. I was on the British Olympic

(49:10):
Athlete Commission, I'm on the World Triathlon Athlete
Committee and I actually also sit on the the European
Triathlon Sustainability Committee.
So I'm really active in sort of areas outside of just being an
athlete as as well. And yeah, it was, it was a
really special, special thing to, to, to get.

(49:31):
And I don't know what would be the equivalent in other parts of
the world. I.
Don't think we have something that cool.
Yeah, yeah. And then yeah, it's really cool.
You get to go to, I got mine at Windsor Palace or Windsor
Castle. Sorry.
Some people get them at Buckingham Palace.
It just depends where, where theceremonies are happening that
day. And to receive it from the, from

(49:52):
the Prince of Wales, who was obviously the future king of,
of, of Britain was really, really special.
It was amazing. I got to take my parents and,
and, and Aaron as well. And it's a very, it's a once in
a lifetime opportunity, you know, you get to go in and
experience the, the royal household and the royal grounds.
And yeah, it was, it was really cool, really special, something

(50:13):
that I will always remember and definitely like a highlight of
of my career as an athlete. Yeah, for sure.
What would you have to do to getthe highest level?
I guess it's night. Do you feel like there's
something that you could do, or do you know what you would have
to do? So I'm trying to think of
athletes that have have receivedthe honour.
So I mean, Kelly Holmes, Dame Kelly Holmes won double Olympic

(50:37):
gold in Athens. I think it was the first ever
person or definitely first ever female to go the 815 double in
Olympic history. And then a lot of it's so
obviously outstanding sporting achievements like that.
I think David Beckham has just been received his knighthood.
So, you know, sort of really famous sports people, but then a

(50:57):
lot of it then is sort of humanitarian and Philan.
Yeah, yeah, that's it. You got it out endeavours.
So, you know, if you've got, if you work for charity arms or
you're, you're doing something particularly what's the opposite
of selfless, I guess to serve the community.

(51:20):
Yeah, it it'd have to be something pretty, pretty
impressive. So I think I'm a long way off
that, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot to live.
You got several lifetimes, stillhave you.
So we'll, we'll see what happens.
You know, you mentioned a littlebit ago that you obviously would
have loved to have meddled, gotten a gold medal.
Was it hard for you to let that dream kind of fade a bit and by.

(51:44):
Fade. I'm trying to sweeten it up but.
Yeah, it's no longer a possibility.
Yeah, well, I don't think by theend, I think by the end of my
career, you know, I'd already come made peace with the fact
that I wouldn't ever win an Olympic medal.

(52:05):
I think the hardest period for me was that period post Rio
where I finished fourth by two seconds, which was, yeah,
pretty, pretty tough. And honestly, and in many ways,
I'm ashamed to say it, it ruinedmy life for 18 months and

(52:25):
ashamed in that I let it take over and affect me for that for
that long. You know, I attached so much of
myself worth and so much of my identity to to go into Rio and
and meddling. And maybe it was harder because,
you know, I I genuinely was a medal chance at that games and I

(52:45):
let it slip through my fingers and I made a series of mistakes
in the build up and I got it wrong on the day and kind of
never forgave myself for that. And it took me a long time to.
I don't want to say I'll ever make peace with it because I
definitely would never, ever watch the race back.
I couldn't, I couldn't do that. But yeah, no way.

(53:10):
It'd be, I think just watching the race play out, knowing
what's going to happen and probably screaming at myself and
making any of the mistakes that I did make would be would be a
lot. And it was such a painful period
that I just don't really feel the need to relive it, to be
honest. Yeah, it that was the hardest

(53:32):
period, I think, in my whole sort of Olympic journey of not
winning a medal. Is it fair to say that you
haven't healed fully from that? Probably, yeah, yeah, I think
now it's distant, so it's almostlike a scar rather than a wound.

(53:55):
But yeah, I guess I, I, I struggle to see a way that I'll
ever fully get over it because I'll never have the opportunity
again. And I had that opportunity and I
and I unfortunately wasn't able to, to, to capitalise on it.
Do you think it's possible to have gotten the gold while still

(54:16):
making mistakes? I think you have to be pretty
good to to especially personally, I think for me to
have won gold, I'd have had to be exceptional because Gwen
Yorgenson at the time was, she was just that little step above
us her her run was that much better.

(54:37):
And the plan was to try and expose her vulnerabilities on
the bike. But, and we've got to try and do
that as a team. Me, Vicky and Helen who are the
British team for, for Rio. But unfortunately Helen missed
the front pack, which was very uncharacteristic for her because
she was an exceptional swimmer and Vicky had been unwell the

(54:58):
night before. And I jumped on the bike and
just felt really flat. And we just never got that team
together so that we could, the idea was to go off really hard
on the bike and and really expose Gwen as as early as we
possibly could. And we didn't manage to do that.
So I think it was always going to be tricky to to beat her on
the run because she was such an exceptional runner.

(55:18):
And, and don't get me wrong, I'mnot saying it was wasn't
possible. You you never know.
But yeah, it would have been, itwould have been tough.
So if I may poke at this a little bit more and if it gets
too much, just let me know. But what are some of the
internal voices that were going on in especially after that?

(55:38):
The kind of things that you tellyourself that maybe are still
running around in your mind as true today?
I think a lot of it was the, thefact that I like, I felt like
I'd let so many people down. I felt like I'd let so many

(56:00):
people that believed in me and so many people that were willing
me to win a medal, I'd kind of let them down.
I'd let my friends and family down who've endured so many
sacrifices from me, you know, missing family events and
missing friends, weddings and babies being born and all that
kind of stuff. I felt like I owed it to them

(56:23):
and that finishing fourth was insignificant in so many ways.
It didn't really pay back to them.
Whereas if you have a medal and something physical that you can
share with someone, then I, I just felt like I'd, I'd missed,
I'd missed that. And, and so for me, I'd really
kind of let them down. And I think another part of it

(56:43):
was that sort of everything thatI, I guess put into it, I just
didn't feel like I'd put my bestself on show that day.
And I'd let myself down as well in in many ways.
And I knew that, you know, Olympic opportunities don't,
aren't guaranteed to come aroundevery four years.

(57:05):
And I wasn't guaranteed to, to be on the start line again in
Tokyo. And, and certainly maybe not in
the form that I had been over those last four years.
It's really hard to, you know, to to put 2 Olympic cycles
back-to-back. So yeah, I just felt like I'd
really thrown an opportunity, anopportunity away to to do

(57:28):
something not just for me, but for everybody around me as well.
And I was kind of just kicking myself, I think, for a really
long time. Yeah, but hopefully not now as
much. No, not now as much.
I mean, like I said, it's with any pain or trauma.
The further away you get from it, the easier it is or you sort

(57:48):
of forget a little bit about about it.
So and I definitely am able to be a bit more rational about it
now and and also realise the importance of it in the grand
scheme of things. You know, I still have a
brilliant life and I've still lived a brilliant life and it
had so many brilliant experiences since since Rio.

(58:14):
And I think actually, how much would my life have changed if
I'd got that bronze, bronze medal?
I don't know, a little bit maybe, but you know,
insurmountable to the fact that,you know, to the point where I'd
beat myself up for 18 months andyou know, was was probably
borderline depressed for for 18 months.
I'm sure more than borderline, yeah.

(58:37):
Yeah, yeah. And it was a really tough, it
was a really tough period. And I just, I regret throwing
away those 18 months and not sort of maybe dealing with the
emotions ready in the immediate and then being able to move on a
bit quicker. I don't think I ever really
faced those emotions head on andI wish I had.
Yeah. What do you think would have had
to have happened for for you or anyone, any Olympian who goes

(59:00):
through because this, this kind of a story happens I think quite
frequently. The difference between 1st and
2nd, 3rd and 4th, you know, is just a couple of seconds.
But the emotional turmoil that is hoisted upon the shoulders of
those who finish behind the medalists like often tends to be
that. So what do you think would have

(59:22):
had to have happened or can happen for people who go through
future events like this to get them to a place to, I guess, be
to the willingness to try to face those emotions head on?
Do you think it's possible? I think it is possible, yeah.
And I think there's a lot, there's a lot more systems and
support networks in place now. I think there probably was a few

(59:43):
back then, but I don't think it was as well documented or as
well publicised. Since I've been on the the
British Olympic Association Athletic Commission, there's
been, you know, there is a very well publicized, they call it
decompression service available to all Olympians whereby you can

(01:00:09):
speak with a trained somebody that's been trained in
delivering this decompression session.
And I think and then also additional psychological or.
You know, support or emotional support for athletes because
even those that win medals oftenfind that they struggle a lot.
Oh, I got it. Now what?
Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's

(01:00:30):
such a big build up to something, you know, it's not
just like the build up to Christmas, which happens every
year. It's, it's a huge thing in
someone's life. You know, it's not just a four
year cycle. It's it's much more than that.
And it finally, yeah, it is, it's, it's a lifelong thing and
it happens. And then life goes on and you're

(01:00:51):
expected just to go along with it as well.
And yeah, there's a lot more support systems in place now.
And I would just encourage anybody, whether good, good day
or bad day, reach out and, and sign yourself up and, and
whether you feel like you're fine or whether you know, you
know, you're clearly not, I would encourage them to get
involved and do it because thoseemotions can cycle around a bit

(01:01:12):
later and, and take a lot longerto, to recover from.
So talk to people and access theservices that your your NOC is
is providing. So we've talked a little bit
around this topic of success andyou know, it's a subjective
thing and it's different for everybody.
But for you, how has your definition of success changed

(01:01:34):
over the years? I think it's gone from being a
maybe more like a tangible thing, so like an end goal or an
end result to being more holistic.
You know, it's more about at theend of 2025, can I look back and

(01:01:58):
say that I've had fun. I'm in a happy loving
relationship. I have a good relationship with
my family. I've got great friends around me
who I love and, and you know, they, they equally love me back
and have I made progress in my career?
Have I done some, have I had a positive impact on the athletes

(01:02:22):
around me and had done positive things within my career and made
the progress that I or some of the progress that I want to
make. I think that's definitely how I
would view success more now rather than do I have a gold
medal around my neck or have I run a certain time.
Yeah, very well said. Again, thank you so much for

(01:02:45):
explaining that. And thank you so much for just
being so open to answer my questions about all these
different topics. It's been an honor to get to
know you a bit. You're very easy to talk to.
I'm not afraid to ask really anyquestion.
You took it all with grace. So I really appreciate you for
being vulnerable and opening up.And yeah, I feel like I could
talk to you for many more hours,but I know you've got stuff to

(01:03:05):
do, so maybe have to have you onagain in the future.
But thank you so much for comingon and and making it happen.
No, thank you so much for, for having me.
It's a it's a real honour looking back at some of the the
people that you had on. I really, really enjoyed your
chats with obviously Aaron. I've got to say that with, with
Tim Don and and Michael Dalsta, I found Michael particularly

(01:03:27):
interesting. I know Michael through a super
tribe, but he obviously comes atit from the commercial
entrepreneur side rather than the athlete side.
So yeah, it was really fascinating.
And so yeah, thank you for putting out a great podcast and
and for having me on and it's really exciting when he when he
contacted me. Yeah, for sure.
Well, the pleasure's on mine. Well, thank you so much.

(01:03:47):
And we'll have to have you on again in the future if you're
open to it. Yeah, definitely.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Tune on for coming on the podcast today and sharing in the
way that she did. She's a great gal, obviously
doing a lot and it's still quitebusy in the triathlon world.
So make sure to go follow her onInstagram to check out all the

(01:04:07):
stuff that she has going on in her world.
If you guys may disappoint the podcast, just want to say thank
you so much. Really appreciate you being
here. Check out the links in the show
notes for all the things. If you want some SQ socks, check
those out to help support the pod.
And if you're watching on YouTube, like comment,
subscribe. If you're on Spotify or Apple
Podcasts, reviewing, liking, commenting, all of those things
continue to help to grow the pod.
Thank you so much for being here.

(01:04:28):
Thank you so much for doing those things, and I will catch
you in the next one. Peace.