February 12, 2025 • 61 mins
Sarah Hildebrandt shares her remarkable journey from a dancer in Indiana to an Olympic gold medalist, discussing the emotional and mental challenges of wrestling. She emphasizes the importance of a supportive environment and intrinsic motivation, explaining how her experiences shaped her resilience and growth as an athlete.
• Transition from dance to wrestling
• Importance of family and community support
• Emotional challenges faced in competition
• Achieving success at national and international levels
• Coping with pressure and fear during the Olympics
• Reflecting on the complex emotions of winning medals
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
and we're live.
Like I told you, there's like30 seconds.
So this is very exciting and wehad an actually pretty exciting
time before we even jumped down.
Here we are joined with thegreat, great sarah hildebrand.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Thank you very much for joining us thank you for
having me, despite my almosttechnical difficulties, uh,
leading in my multipledifficulties, not just technical
, that was awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
That was awesome.
I I had, I had fun just goingthrough that.
So this is episode like number108 or something like that and.
But we've been away for alittle bit.
I've been doing so.
I, if you can't tell, I gotvirginia cavalier stuff on, so
I've been doing a littlecavalier coverage of of things
and and uh duels and everything.
But I've been waiting to to getsomeone, uh, as a guest on.
(01:19):
We've had some time in betweenhere, but we finally were able
to get in touch with you and getyou on.
So thank you, sarah, very muchfor taking the time out to do
this.
Greatly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Oh, of course, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I'm pumped you bet, so a lot of people listen.
This is the premise of the showis all about you.
It's not about I throw a littlein about you know, maybe
something I went through thatcan relate, kind of thing.
But we're talking about you,from the remembering of sports
to to now, to you running aroundfor chargers, to now this old
(01:51):
woman, oh man you call, you'recalling you're, you're calling
yourself an old woman and I'molder.
I know that.
So I'm like an ancient.
I'm an ancient man then.
So, so, okay, so let's, let'sstart out from the beginning
here.
So is it?
Is it Granger, indiana, thatyou're from?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Granger, Indiana, but I was actually born in Memphis,
Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh, okay, okay so.
So birth records brought you,brought you to Tennessee, but
then you guys wound up over inIndiana.
Was that before you rememberanything?
You guys wound up in Indiana,wound up over in indiana.
Was that before you rememberanything?
You guys wound up in indiana?
Or did you grow up in tennesseefor a?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
little bit.
Yeah, no, I was in memphis fora little bit, I can remember
that.
And then we moved to ronovirginia when I was in maybe
like first and second grade.
Oh okay, yeah, so I canremember, but I was not playing
sports at this.
Well, I was a dancer.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, yeah, that's a good start.
So dance, was that competitivedance or was it just?
You know, we wanted to get ourdaughter in something and have
her do something, kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It started as that and then it was getting
competitive and I loved it.
I danced for a long time,actually, once we moved to
Indiana, even I was dancing,still danced for a long time.
Actually, once we moved toindiana, even I was dancing
still so um I would say I dancedfor maybe about 10 years.
Okay, yeah, oh, my god, it wasthe best ballet, tap, jazz, the
whole thing was that okay?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
so we started out in dance and did you wind up?
Like you know how some kids are, we'll say, like a boy is like
football, soccer, baseball, thatkind of thing.
Were you doing dance?
Were you doing volleyball?
Were you other other sportsincluded with that in that time
frame?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
yeah, so pre-indiana time, I suppose, yeah, yeah,
mostly danced and then I triedplaying soccer.
But get this, okay, I was soafraid my the coach had to hold
my hand and run up and down thefield holding my hand.
My parents would pay me if Ijust touched the ball because I
(03:50):
would like run away from theball.
So I would get five dollars for, like, literally just touch it.
Like most kids got five dollarsfor scoring.
No, I got five dollars fortouching the ball wow and I
don't think I made any money, soso I enjoy.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I enjoy kids, like you.
So I I did have a kid, but whenI first started coaching,
deathly afraid of the ball, justdeathly afraid of it, right,
and no no one.
I don't know what happened tohim before he ever got to soccer
.
So I don't know if, like hisfriends, threw the ball at him
or something, yeah, right.
But he got to the point andthis is where coach, where I
really started to think I reallyenjoy coaching.
But I mean by the end of theseason I had it to where a ball
(04:31):
would go up in the air and hewould go for it, right.
So you're, you're like my guy,you're that, you're my kid, that
I would run after.
You're the girl.
I'd be like, hey, come here,I'm gonna show you something.
This sport's awesome.
Yeah, yes, so that's awesome.
Yeah, yes, so that's awesome.
So soccer was a part of it.
I love that.
What part of dance?
Do you think that helped you alot as far as some of the stuff
(04:53):
that you learned as a young girlgrowing up from dance taking
into wrestling?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of discipline required in
ballet dance in general.
There's a lot of disciplinerequired in ballet dance in
general.
And so from a very young age, Iwas used to a training dynamic
that was very serious and verydisciplined.
And I'm not saying that'snecessarily a good thing, Sure,
(05:20):
but I had exposure to it that Ithink, helped me later on down
the line.
I never had a problem beingserious and disciplined.
I needed to learn the playfulside of sport, and so maybe that
is from my ballerina roots,which is a very strict and
serious dynamic.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, yes, it is, yeah.
So you got you.
You were immersed I guessimmersed is the is the word into
structure, structure of sports,with the structure then and and
obviously you're kind ofdabbling in other little, you
know your parents putting you inother sports.
When did wrestling come intothe picture?
Is that pre-indiana still?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
no, yeah, wrestling didn't come in until I was in
seventh grade.
So in indiana, and at that Iwas just getting done with
dancing, um, I was playingsoccer and I was actually not
afraid of the ball anymore.
So I did all through highschool like soccer stuck with me
, um.
So I was playing soccer, I wasplaying tennis, I was swimming
(06:16):
which horrible swimmer, I wasthe worst swimmer.
Oh my god I was qualified every,every single meet and it was so
funny because it was like theylike announce it on like the
lane, so I would be likeswimming and I'd get so tired
that I'd start doggy paddlingand I just feel like
disqualification, lane four, andI'm like humiliating it's
(06:40):
humiliating, but I was like isit really lost if I'm like I'm
not drowning?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
so yeah, winner here, yeah what are you guys really
pointing out?
That I'm surviving?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I'm still floating, so I'm doing something, right,
that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So, so with with the entrance of wrestling, I guess
the the next question I, beforewe get into it too much, is
being that you're already inlike I like we said structured
sports things like that how were, how were your parents already
like?
I always ask everybody like,what was your support system
like?
What was, how were your parentslike?
Because, like with christinaand I I'm the sports guy,
(07:18):
christina's the educator side,right, she handles the schooling
, I handle the sports side.
I kind of drove li Liam a littlebit not I wouldn't say too hard
, when he was little.
We got I almost got to thatpoint, right, but but I was the,
I was the driving force behinddiscipline and doing this.
So you got to do it, you got tomake sure you're doing this
right.
But I also came from a side ofI played, you know, semi-pro
(07:41):
sports and it was.
It wasn't easy right away.
So I understood that there'scertain things you have to go
through while still slipping upas a parent, right, how was that
for you?
And what was that dynamic likefor you with with mom and dad
and things like that?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, so, um, my dad was a really talented athlete
growing up himself, so he alsohad experience through that.
Um, and then on top of that,that, my brothers were already
involved in wrestling.
So there were, they werefamiliar with wrestling and just
being a parent in the wrestlingworld already yeah familiar
with being a parent to a girlwrestler on an all boys team.
(08:16):
That was probably something new.
But they were so, um, you know,they, they never pushed me into
anything.
I had to ask them to go topractice every practice, like
they weren't like it's time togo to practice.
It's like every day.
I'd be like well, you tried meto practice, and so it always
had to come from me.
And then I did a lot of extratraining so I would wake up
(08:38):
early in the morning.
I had to be the one to godownstairs.
I had to wake my parents up IfI wanted to go wrestle on the
weekends at weekend tournaments.
They're like you need to ask usto go there.
So it was never them forcinganything, okay, something like I
would be like no, I'm notwrestling this weekend, it's my
choice.
And they would be like I'm notmad, but I'm disappointed and
(08:59):
I'm like, oh fine, I'll wrestlethis weekend.
So there was a little bit ofthat.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and so and that's kind of
the and I guess I never reallypointed it out too much before,
but I'm really starting to takenote and seeing that kids that
had high level athletic parents,right, like it was part of
their parents life already andmaybe their parents went through
the harshness of a parent beinglike you have to do this and
(09:25):
why didn't you win by this much,and stuff like that, where
parents and again, I slipped upa little bit as a parent, no
matter what, but I'm noticingthat all these you included all
the athletes that have highlevel athlete parents, have a
different perspective and werebrought up a little differently
through the sport, right,because of that struggle,
because of some of thatstructure, that maybe some kids
(09:47):
aren't shown properly, right,you know, like the parent that
is telling, telling.
So I, I'm always intrigued bythat, especially with the
support system, becausesometimes there's one that does
something and sometimes there'sone that's the opposite, right,
they were always on the samepage with that.
And that's.
That's awesome and obviously soI.
I I almost want to expound onthat because it gives that kid,
(10:07):
that athlete, a level of a wholedifferent perspective of just
competing in general right andthings in discipline and how,
how well you're practicing andare you paying attention?
It's those things Whereas aparent that is nowadays that is
(10:29):
as new to sports, like maybetheir kid is finally in sports,
where they're the ones that arelike why aren't you?
You know you only, you're onlydoing this much, you only won
like this and I.
It's just very interesting,especially now with the way that
sports are with kids, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
And then they start younger and younger and they
become single sport athletessooner.
And I've been like.
I feel like and this wasabsolutely the case with my
parents was always, you know, ithad to come from me and effort
was the biggest thing.
I never, ever felt pushed towin or succeed because of them,
it was always an intrinsic thingand the effort was what they
cared most about and I promiseyou that stayed consistent my
whole career.
So that was just like oh,they're kids, it's winning's not
(11:13):
important, like wrestling foran Olympic title, and it was
like oh, you know, it's notabout winning.
And that's why I was capable todo something of that magnitude,
because of the freedom thatthis isn't about winning.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yep, Yep.
So that even spells out evenmore going into wrestling then.
So when you started wrestlingyou mentioned you were on an all
boys team, things like that.
But when you started in middleschool, what was your first
impression when you startedwrestling?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
You know, I had no idea what to expect.
It was just something thatlooked fun and I was like I want
to try that.
I think I um by no fault ofanyone's.
No one just expected me to begood.
It was like you're a girl, youknow you're not don't get pinned
, and so the expectation was solow I could just kind of have
fun.
Um, you know you're not, don'tget pinned, and so the
(12:05):
expectation was so low, I couldjust kind of have fun.
You know, there was a littlebit of like I don't know how
people are going to react tothis, or you know, I was kind of
like prepped, like you knowpeople might be mean to you and
kind of like getting ready forsomething like that.
But I think mostly, basically,what had happened how I joined
the team was they didn't havesomeone small enough to fill the
(12:27):
65 pound weight class for 70,and I was like 65 pounds.
So I was like bro, I'll justyou know they were like, as long
as we don't have to give upforfeit, aka just don't get
pinned, yeah, oh, I can do that,like I can do that.
So of course I ended up winningmy first match.
Actually my first day ofpractice, I knocked a kid's
tooth out.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I'm like I love this that's awesome, that's great,
that's great.
So, with, with the, with, Iguess, the competing starting in
middle school, things like that, and obviously now we know the
dynamic with mom and dad.
What were, what were some ofthe?
Once you started, you liked itwere.
You kind of getting somefriends are like, oh, you should
(13:08):
try this tournament, you shoulddo this.
How can we're going to this onethis weekend and you tell your
parents, oh, can I go to that?
When did you really start kindof, I guess, spreading your
wings a little bit when it cameto wrestling?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
yeah, you know I was lucky enough like, uh, my school
program, it was just natural togo through that.
And then we had a club programattached to it, so everything
was kind of calendared out, youknow.
You could just kind of pick andchoose.
And then I got to be in high.
School is when I started beinglike, oh I want to go here, and
I had my group of friends, soit's like, you know, all the one
(13:40):
of the years like we're goingto Portage next weekend, so we
would do things like that.
That was when I kind of gotmore autonomy from that.
And I was such a multi-sportathlete all the way through high
school, even Like I was not asingle sport athlete until my
senior year that a lot of timesit was like I just had another
(14:01):
season, so like wrestling seasonhad an end, actually end
actually, and I would go then ortrack or whatever.
So that kind of came fromhaving to pick a lot of things
Always.
I just it was busy.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Sure, sure.
So with with that, with themiddle school, you know, middle
school wrestling is is what itis, Right, but Indiana is not a
slouch when it comes towrestling.
So it's not to say that everysingle town is a Perry, right.
It's kind of like Wisconsin,where you guys have like maybe
three or four schools that arereally good.
Then we have three or fourschools that are really good,
(14:34):
but none of us are nationallyranked right.
It's one of those things wherewe still had good competition,
it was a good level of wrestling, but then once you went outside
and did national stuff, you'relike holy crap, there's a whole
different level, right?
yeah, so we we took liam on hisfirst national tournament when
he was like nine.
When was your first like bigtournament?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
oh, I would say, well , I didn't even start wrestling
until I was 10 and then maybe 13or okay.
So, um, that was like my firstbig nationals.
Yeah, probably about 13 yearsold.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Where was that?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Banked man.
It took me a while to do wellat a national tournament.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I remember I did Iowa nationals I don't know what
they're called now.
We just were in Iowa, it was.
I think it's called now.
We just were in Iowa, it was.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I think it's Folk Style Nationals or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It was rough.
Oh my God, that was versus boys.
I lost very badly.
My first girls nationaltournament was USGWA.
It was actually.
Michigan.
It was in Michiganigan, yousaid yeah, okay, livonia,
(15:51):
michigan, I believe, and I alsolost very badly, yeah it doesn't
really matter, because you'reholding an olympic gold medal
now, so that loss I can'tcomplain right, right, um.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So when you guys because you mentioned too about
you know all boys and you knowsome people will be harsh,
things like that were.
Were you ever at tournamentswhere your parents saw people
acting just completely insanetowards their boy, having to
wrestle a girl, and they're likenope, we're out?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
you know, it was like a lot of like boys would just
like forfeit, like refuse towrestle me, so that would happen
.
A bunch of shit yeah, it's likeokay, well, nothing like yeah,
it was yeah, so that wouldhappen.
I don't think ever anything.
I mean that's probably a reallygreat question.
I've never asked them that theyexperienced, maybe in the
(16:45):
stands or anything, say thingsto me, but I think they were far
enough away that they didn'tsee or hear it and I wasn't
going to go tell them.
You know, maybe guys were meanto me on the mat or a little
rougher, you know what I meanLike, but they were never.
You know they're like she'swere never.
You know they're like she'stough.
(17:06):
We're good.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, we're good, we're good, all right so, uh, it
says here, as far as theinformation that I have, the
town you're granger, indiana.
But what high school did you goto?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Penn High School.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Penn, that's right, penn.
Okay.
So what was what was that like?
What was that like growing up?
How was that high schoolenvironment for you?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh, it was fantastic.
I mean, they're so supportive.
You know so many girls andwomen that I talked to and had
their experience in high schoolwas very brutal, like I feel,
even silly, even, you know,having something to say in that
department, because for the mostpart, everyone was so
supportive and, like those boyson my team that I wrestled with
(17:56):
are still, to this day, my bestfriend.
In fact, my drill partner fromseventh grade, all the way
through high school, came toParis this last summer to watch
and cheer me on, like that's howclose we still are so you know,
and it was like that reallyacross the board.
Um, now there were moments therewere people who were absolutely
jerks to me at that time, forsure, but few and far between,
(18:21):
and so that was just super cooland the whole, the whole
administration supported it.
You know, it wasn't just thewrestling team, it was the
school superintendent, like thewhole community came behind with
a few bad seeds in there thatwere easy to manage because
overwhelmingly supported rightthat and that's awesome, so
that's.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I guess that's never something we really touched on
before.
As far as with the, any athleteis just having that.
Not only do you have yourparents support, but having
school support all the waythrough and coaches and partners
and things like that, Because Imean you had you had made a
post too, because I know yourbrother is a Drew.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, so he's been.
He's been around with you for alittle while too as far as
practicing, helping, so you hada really good nucleus around you
as far as the the you know,parents and and friends and all
that.
So that's to me that alsospeaks volumes when it comes to
a high level athlete, right, you, you know your ups and downs.
Everybody wins, everybody loses, but it's always because I
(19:21):
think, we forget about how hardthe mental and such as
physically, but how hard themental side of the sport is
Right, and especially when youguys are starting to blaze a
path, you know, for other girlscoming up and doing the things
that you guys are doing at thetime that you didn't know you
were doing.
You're just trying to wrestle,right.
You're just trying to beat itRight, right, you guys are doing
your thing, but your thing wasexponentially larger than what
(19:44):
it really was.
Yeah, that's so true, knowingthat obviously you're coming up
and going through high schoolwrestling and things like that.
Did you ever have a momentwhere you're like I don't know
if I want to do this anymore?
I'm good on wrestling.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
My whole career every other week was probably like
what am I doing?
If you're going to bake a cakeor something, for sure, I mean,
wrestling is so hard, it is sohard and there's so many
elements to it and it's.
It takes a lot of courage and Inever identified as somebody
(20:20):
who is courageous.
I never identified as somebodywho was resilient or tough to
this day.
Even I'm like I feel very frail.
I'm a very emotional.
I never identified as somebodywho was resilient or tough to
this day.
Even I'm like I feel very frail.
I'm a very emotional.
I cry very easily and it'salways been the case.
And so when you put that nextto a picture of what you think
an Olympic gold medalist is,it's it's not me, like I.
I'm afraid of everything andI'm always crying and I'm sleepy
(20:44):
a lot.
I'm afraid of everything andI'm always crying and I'm sleepy
a lot.
Don't feel tough ever.
And so there's, of course, alot of moments where you doubt
that and so to that point ofjust like having this group of
people around you who supportyou and hold your hand through
that and just kind of just boostyou up in a way and remind you
(21:07):
like what you're trying to dohas nothing to do with winning,
it's just growing as a person,um, and I realized that when I
was in high school.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Of course, I didn't have that amount of wisdom yet,
but it was still between that,you know, and, and that was
helpful yeah, so going throughpen, and because this has always
been different for everyathlete, but it's always
especially different for thegirls, right?
What was you're going throughhigh school wrestling, and
(21:34):
obviously there's challenges,but you were doing other.
What other sports were?
Was it soccer in high school?
What else?
What other sports were youdoing?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Soccer in high school .
Yeah, I think it was justwrestling and soccer by high
school.
Maybe a little tennis here andthere.
I was hanging on that.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
You're, yeah you're.
You're already one of myfavorites for just hanging on to
soccer, that's fantastic soccerwas.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I still have dreams about playing soccer man, I tell
you what.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I didn't get to go.
My brother was sent over toeurope to play soccer for, um,
uh, usa soccer, whatever it wasat the time.
But my parents spent all themoney on him, right, like I
didn't get to go, because Iguarantee you, if I, yeah, if I
went over, I wasn't coming back.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
There's no way that's why they didn't have any money.
They're like we're not lettinghim go I would not be coming
back.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
So so that process that you wound up going through,
then you know wrestling doingand then you said you kind of
wound up doing, uh, wrestlingonly your senior year what was?
Were you getting calls fromcolleges, things like that?
I mean what?
What was that process like foryou?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
yeah, you know, there were so few schools at that
time which is just crazy tothink how we're at now.
But I was getting contacted byum a few coaches.
Funnily, the program I wantedto go to wasn't giving me a ton
of attention.
But I was like hell-bent, I'mlike we're going here.
But once I got there and Irealized they weren't like super
interested, I was like okay,maybe it is time to give it, but
(23:00):
which?
you know it all worked out inthe end and yeah, it was a lot
of that.
My parents were very um, youneed to take care of this type
of deal and it was.
I hated it, like even to thepoint when, like time to tell
the schools I wasn't gonna gothere.
I'm like they just like they'llfind out.
They're like you will call themand you'll thank them, you'll
(23:22):
tell them you're not going.
I'm like, oh my God, theconfrontation.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It's difficult, right ?
I mean, you guys are so young.
Yeah, you guys are young.
You haven't had to even call aboss and be like I can't make it
into work or anything, right?
No, Papa and mama, He'll bewe're like so when you made that
, when you made the first.
So there are a couple storiesthat we've heard where guys are
(23:47):
like, hey, I'm not going to gohere, kind of thing, and coach
is like fine, you know.
It's why you know, all of asudden, I think, did you have
coaches that were upset with youwhen you called them to tell
them no?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
no, everybody.
I mean.
You know they give you the hard, like you know, a little bit of
a hard time, but nothing, noteveryone was always so kind, and
even my career, I feel like Ijust had really great
relationships with all thecoaches that I had spoken with
and it was always good vibes inthat.
In that regard, nice, nice.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So you wound up at king.
So what?
Let's say whoop, whoop.
Let's talk about that for aminute.
What, what?
Obviously they were one of theones that contacted you, right?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
What was the draw?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Like why I ended up going there.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
What drew you to them ?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, it's funny because, well, I didn't want to
go there.
It was like last.
And so once I realized thatfirst program I wanted to go to
didn't want me, I went down tooklahoma city, which they were
the number one women's wrestlingprogram at the time, and I'm
like, all right, boom, this iswhere I'm going, like I'm going
(24:52):
here, they're the best, I'm thebest, we're gonna be the best
together yay, yeah yeah, closethe storybook.
Um, my parents were like I thinkyou should go on this visit and
I was like bro, no, like youknow, I'm a senior in high
school, I just want to hang out.
So we end up going.
I think my mom actually, kindof low-key, bribed me by being
(25:14):
like, oh, because we drove fromIndiana to Tennessee, she's like
we'll just stop at all theoutlet malls on the way.
I'm like I'm in.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
So she's a shopper, everybody she's a shopper.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
So we did a lot of shopping and, you know, did the
whole thing.
And then I went to King for myvisit and it wasn't even
necessarily the wrestling,although that was great, and
Jason Mormon, the coach at thetime, he was fantastic as well,
really cool, really steady,really.
(25:47):
It was the girls and they justtook me and we went to like
intramurals there was anintramural basketball game or
something whatever.
They were a part of anintramural team and I just
watched and cheered with thegirls and like hung out.
We went to Sonic afterwards andgot food and I was like I could
see myself doing, like it wasthe outside of wrestling life
and I was like I could seemyself being a person here and
(26:10):
like making friends here,whereas like every other program
I went to, I was like you'regoing to wrestle and we have
this weight room and we're goingto work out all the time and
I'm like whoa, I'm more thanthat yeah, right, well, that was
the, that was the big thingthat that we looked at too, as
far as and just knowing andhaving the, the people around us
(26:30):
that we know.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
There are a lot of things they told us like you
know basically exactly what yousaid.
You, you have to be comfortablewith your environment.
You have to be comfortable whenyou're not wrestling, when
you're not in the wrestling room.
You have to like the stuffaround you people, environment.
So it totally makes sense andit's kind of funny how you
probably stumbled upon thatyourself, right?
I mean, a lot of people don'trealize that they're on the
(26:55):
track of.
You know, like I want to go toIowa or I'm going to go.
I'm going to go to iowa or I'mgonna go, I'm number one, I'm
gonna go here.
You know that kind of thing.
So, and it's all right, there'snothing wrong with that.
But in the grand scheme ofthings, how comfortable are you
there, you know, are you onlycomfortable in the wrestling
room?
And then when you go to walkdown to jimmy john's, you're
like I don't want to be here,you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
It's funny.
I wrote out a spreadsheet ofand prioritizing like what was
most important to me, but it wasall to do with wrestling.
So I was like training partners, this, like all of these, and
you're right, I wasn't evenaware of it until I stepped in
and experienced it and I waslike, wow, that was so much fun
(27:35):
and they also have good trainingpartners and a good coach and
we, you know.
And then that made other thingsmore doable too, like okay, do
we have the best wrestling room?
I don't know, but I don't care,because these things are so
much better and I realizethey're more important to me yep
, I think it's.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It's really big, especially for kids now, that if
you're listening to this likeit's all encompassing, like you
have to, you have to be able tolive life.
Imagine you got thrown out ofschool and you can't go home and
you're stuck in that town.
Would you stay there?
exactly you know, and that'skind of the way we painted it
out to Liam and you know, thethe same thing with him, like he
loved.
Every visit, you know, I waslike, oh, this is so cool, it's
(28:13):
so cool.
But it was the one that waslike this feels different, this
feels better.
You know, like you're thereit's totally Correct.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
So what year did you graduate in high school?
2011.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yes, 11.
So let's jump to 2013.
You were you.
You represented the UnitedStates.
You were in Kazan, Russia.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, and, yeah, you wound up winning a medal, right?
No, so yeah, what's that?
I did not win a medal at that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
That was a university worlds game yes summer universe
, iod or something.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah, yes, basically what you 23s are today, but I am
a nice seasoned wrestler.
So back in the day, way back inmy time, they did not have U23
worlds, they had universityworlds.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So that's what it was called.
Okay, so, with that being said,when was your first overseas
experience?
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Was that it no, oh my gosh, I was fooled.
I I actually my first overseastrip.
So I actually had gone to a PanAm a junior Pan Ams, which was
in Nicaragua, but obviously notoverseas.
And then my first overseas tripwas to Pattaya, Thailand, for
(29:37):
junior worlds in 2011.
So this stage for myinternational trips.
I'm like Thailand.
What an experience.
We're on the beach, we'reriding elephants, we're like
eating the best fruit known toman.
It was great.
Color me surprised when my buttends up in Krasnoyarsk, russia,
(29:57):
three years later negative 40degrees.
I'm like like wait, these aretrips.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I thought we were going to thailand yeah, right,
so that must have been theuregan you went to then, huh
yeah, yeah, which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Oh no, I actually on that.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I love that tournament, love that yeah, well
, you've killed it every timeyou've been there, I'm pretty
sure.
So, yeah, gold and silver.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Gold and silver.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
So that's the other thing.
So a lot of I mean we can talkabout college and things like
that and things are just soweird.
I think in your guys's time incollege right, it wasn't, it was
emerging Things are coming upbut you guys didn't have the
exposure Right.
So that's where.
So that's where that's where alot.
And obviously you guys stillwrestle freestyle in college and
(30:45):
you know most high schools do.
We don't hear wia doesn't havefreestyle because wouldn't have
the referees to do it, thingslike that.
I still feel like it's a bummerfor the girls.
But either way it's a step up,we'll take it we'll take it and
yeah, right, exactly.
So your meteoric riseessentially comes after college
here.
So are you yourself puttingyourself into different training
(31:08):
uh schedules and things likethat?
Once you got through college,you kind of experienced that I
guess, higher level type thingwhere you now understanding that
there is a, a training regimenthat needs to go on cycles.
You know they call it um.
Were you, if were you, figuringthat out once you got overseas,
or were you figuring that outin college already?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
no, college was a mess.
Uh, I uh honestly even like, soI was done with school in 2015.
I went home, thought I couldtrain at home in indiana.
That wasn't gonna work, um, sothat's when I moved out to the
olympic training center summerof 2015.
(31:47):
Wow, uh, you know, it's stilljust kind of a lost puppy.
Like wrestling wasn't like mine, yet like I was doing it
because I was decent at it andyou know, I was traveling the
world and that was it.
Like it was fun, but there wasnothing but like like my drive
(32:11):
of like I want to win an olympicgold medal.
It was just I was kind of therelike sure, uh, it happened
until 2017, when I haddislocated my and so I had
already made by this.
Yes, yes so it just really afterI dislocated my elbow.
That was when I kind of reallystarted understanding and buying
(32:34):
into all of this and justfocusing on that well, yeah,
because you can tell, because2017 was a silver.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Then after that, it's gold, gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold.
And then there's the.
You got 20, was that Pan AmGames 2019?
Gold.
You had a couple of bronze inBelgrade, but it just seemed
like you were just like.
You just said you were startingto put things together right.
Were you already being coachedby terry?
(33:03):
Was he in the program by then?
Speaker 3 (33:05):
yeah, yeah, terry was my coach.
Yeah, starting in 2015 terrysteiner.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
for the people that are new to this, um, I had his
brother on a couple times.
Yeah, I know, I know they're.
They're both awesome, don't youknow?
Those are those guys I idolizedwhen watching them in college.
That was my era.
So, knowing that he was incharge of the girls program, I
was like this is going to getgood and it's only gotten better
(33:30):
.
Right, it's only gotten better.
So, with your A big thing thatwe talk about here, because
we've had a shoot from VisionQuest, frank Jasper yeah, we've
had him on a couple of times.
He's got a master's in Chinesenutrition, right.
So we really started to dialLiam in a little bit more at
(33:50):
nutrition.
Man, did I notice a differencein him?
Right?
Were there little things likethat that you're starting to put
together that you really I mean, obviously you didn't really
pay attention to much, but youkind of knew it was there Were
those the little things you werestarting to kind of change and
you noticed a?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
progression.
You're good, you're good.
I got 50%.
We're good, you're good.
Thanks, brandon.
I'm sharing a chart Sorry,everyone watching.
I'm sharing a charger with mystrength and conditioning coach
who is doing a remote strengthand conditioning program.
He's at two percent, so we'regood.
I have one percent, so nowwe're rocking and rolling we're
good.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
We're good.
So was that?
Were you starting to findlittle pieces that you weren't
able to, you didn't really payattention to before, that you
noticed were starting to giveyou a little more success or
feeling a little bit betterabout yourself as far as
competition and and training?
Where did you notice thosechanges starting to come in?
Was that once you got out theOlympic Training Center, or was
that you went somewhere else?
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Nope, I moved to the training center in 2015.
I've been here ever since.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Man, you are a resident.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I was a resident, lived here on complex for four
years in the dorms and, in 2018,house just three miles away.
So this is home, yeah.
But even when I first moved outhere, it took some time, like I
said, so probably around 2017,I had made the decision.
(35:13):
You know, nutrition was a bigthing for me, so I used to
wrestle 55 kilos and then I justkept coming down so 55, 53 and
then 50 eventually, and so, yeah, I had to buy into nutrition a
lot.
I had to study that and I, youknow, I remember having this
thought of like okay, I see thepeople around me, I see my own
(35:36):
experience.
Nobody is cutting weight reallythat well.
Like this is so dumb.
Like I learned from them, I'mdoing this.
We.
Nobody is cutting weight reallythat well Like we're.
This is so dumb.
Like I learned from them, I'mdoing this.
We're all cutting weight dumb.
When I had enough likeawareness to like realize that I
was like whoa, that's somethingI can exploit.
Like, if I get good at this,90% of my opponents are not good
at this Like that's anadvantage and it's a big one
(36:04):
because it kind of is this uh,foundation for the rest of those
things you know my technique,my strength, all of that so
recovery?
Yep, totally.
So I'm like, wow, what a bighole, what a big blind spot and
really wrestling that really,really take advantage of.
Um, and that was kind of whatinitiated that, and, again,
great people around me and Ijust started learning, studying,
(36:25):
relying on and getting help bypeople and slowly taking the
time to understand nutrition andbringing my weight down, and
that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So that's a big spot for me Before you got, because
we obviously we all know that'sa big spot for me.
Before you got, because weobviously we all know that the
olympics is is huge.
But before you got to theolympics, right, what was to to
that?
Between 2017, 2024, before theolympics, what was your most um,
I would say memorable and meantthe most to you up until the
olympics?
What win and what?
(36:58):
What I guess tournament meantthe most to you that you want to
walk away with?
I don't care if it's a bronzemedal, because I mean, third,
you still gotta come back right.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
So that's, that's a big deal still yes, I would say
like the 2021 olympics bronzemedal would be probably the most
like ridiculous win because Ihad lost so heartbreakingly in
the Olympic semifinals.
Coming back for that one butthere's so many in that period.
(37:28):
You know, 2018, making thatworld team was really big for me
.
I had made a world team in 2016, but I don't know why it just
felt like I still not boughtinto wrestling in the way that I
started to buy in in 2018.
So 2018 felt like that start,Like I had injured my elbow in
(37:51):
2017 and I was kind of just likesecond on the ladder, you know
good, but nobody was really likeexpecting anything from me.
And by the middle of 2018, Iwas ranked number one in the
world, so there was like suchthat seven month span Like it
was so insane, it was meteoric.
It felt like in my, my mind andbrain and somewhere I never
(38:13):
thought I was ever gonna be, andso I think that 2018 world team
win was like oh my god, we'redoing it, like this is actually
I want this and I'm actuallydoing it in a way that I'm proud
of, and it kind of really justset the stage for you know all
the way through 24.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Well, that's, that's.
The thing is like I mean, eveneven when you're talking about
injury and, like you said, youweren't, you didn't, the sport
wasn't yours, it wasn't yourthing quite yet, but even at
that statement, like looking atwhat you did and and just so,
the mind boggles when you hearsomeone number one who wins the
olympics, right, and then theytell you that you just still
hadn't bought in yet to to whatthat, this, what the sport meant
(38:53):
to you, and you're just gotdone saying you're number one in
the world.
So it's kind of crazy, it's alevel, there's levels to this
stuff.
And that's the other thing thatpeople don't kind of you know,
they don't understand, rightlike you guys.
You guys put it in the parentsof kids that are like 10, 12
years old.
You don't even know what thehalf yet.
And you don't wanna, right, youdon't need to.
You let them have fun, exactly.
(39:15):
But just, but just, knowing thatyou came from, I'm just gonna
try this out and this, you knowthat and the other thing.
And I'm just, I really likethis college, I'm gonna try this
out and see what happens.
You still haven't bought intoit.
Then you sit there, like I said, I'm sitting here looking at
your metal count and it's likeholy shit, like you hadn't
bought in yet and this is whatyou were still doing.
Like that's crazy.
So how, how is it like for?
(39:37):
Like you get nervous before allmatches, is it?
Is it something like that foryou, or is it?
You had this kind of thing nowwhere you it's all kind of, I
guess, part of it, right, youdon't feel like it's nervousness
, it's just part of it.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Um, kind of in a way, but I, yeah, like I said, I'm a
really fragile person, so I'm,uh, absolutely nervous.
It was more about not judgingmyself for being nervous and
like allowing thoseuncomfortable emotions to be
present because you're doingsomething that's nerve-wracking,
it is stressful, you know, and,instead of spending so much
(40:13):
energy pretending it doesn'texist or trying not to feel them
, being open to feeling whateverthe heck decides to come up and
still being able to takeeffective actions in the
presence of those emotions andthat was what 2018 through 2024
was a lesson of and I failed,you know, so many times.
Um so, but yes, I am beforeevery single one of my matches
(40:39):
before 2024 olympics.
The day before, I sat on thefloor of my hotel room and wept,
I mean cried like one of those,like, like one of those guys.
Oh man, turned to my boyfriendand I'm like, I'm scared.
I'm so scared.
Sure.
Sure, and he was just there.
You know there's nothing to say, but I just say the picture of
(40:59):
like I again, I think peoplethink of elite athletes, Olympic
athletes, as these confident, Ifeel no bad emotion kind of
person and not true.
Like everyone is so nervous,Like you can't even move
Sometimes you're so nervous andit's really about dealing in
being with those emotions versuslike pushing them away.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Did you have to go and talk Like do you ever sports
psychologist?
Have you ever had to use thatdive into that world?
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah, three sports psychologists.
Like I said, very fragile.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
But that's and that's fine, though, because I think
recognizing that there's abarrier and then knocking the
barrier down is part of theprocess, right?
I mean that's especially whenit comes to a confidence level,
because, again, this game isvery mental, not just physical.
It's very mental, like you said, every and because everybody's
made differently up here exactly, and everybody can handle
(41:54):
pressure the same.
So, with that being said, thethe psychology side of it, where
what was that?
Was there ever a point becauseI asked you this when you're
younger, even in this, right now, when you got 2017, 2018
through 2024 was there a pointwhere you're like I'm, I gotta
stop, I'm done, this is too muchyes, oh my gosh, I uh.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
So actually, 2022 was a really horrible year for me
and I was after 2022.
Um then, I had walked away witha bronze medal, I uh at worlds,
but yes, yes, I mean, there aremoments.
Seriously, I had already madethe Olympic team in 2024.
I'm a big writer.
I journal every single day ofmy life.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
And oh, nice Okay.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Of writing.
So you know, it's fun to lookback on my experience leading in
, but I had already made theOlympic team and I was writing
about like Sarah, you don't evenhave to go to the Olympics if
you don't want to Like.
There's still those thoughts oflike if you don't want to do
this, if you really don't wantto do this, you don't have to.
Because I was writing thatbecause there was thoughts in my
(42:57):
head being like don't do it,don't go, it's too scary, it's
too much or it's.
You know, I don't want to gothrough this.
I don't want to wake up, I don'twant to bear my heart and soul
on that mat one more time andget my heart broken again, like
they're all the way.
You know we're talking twomonths out from the Olympics, so
(43:18):
that's a constant thing, um,and you know, again relying on
people close to me and also justrealizing that your mind offers
up a ton of crazy emotions andthoughts.
It's seeking for certainty.
I wasn't going to havecertainty until the Olympics, so
you know who knew what my brainwas going to throw at me in
those months leading up, yearsleading up?
Um, you know, thoughts are justthoughts.
(43:38):
They're not.
It doesn't mean anything, it'snot concrete, it's not prophecy
fulfilling, it's just a thought.
And if I could let it pass onby and still do what I knew was
important to me, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I think athletes get the it's the, the phrase you
just brought up the prophecyfulfilling.
I think athletes live that alittle too much, right.
Like I think I thought, andit's fine if it works.
But I think we live it a littletoo much.
When it comes down to the pointof, like, where am I supposed
to go with this?
Like there's when you askyourself a question of how much
longer can I do it.
It's not even so much aprophecy thing, it's just it's
(44:16):
almost like a self-reliance,Like I'm relying on myself to be
able to get myself through thiswith myself, right.
Like it's just kind of a crazycircle And're going to jump on
the 2024 Olympics here quick.
When you're training again, youhad good coaches, good support
system, things like that.
(44:36):
When you got down to brasstacks and you get into the gym,
wherever you're competing at atthe competition, is there a
switch for you?
Is there a switch that doesturn off at some point, where
it's like the, the sound is notthere.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
All you see is the person in front of you and it's
like kind of goes by, becauseliam just told me the other day
like he doesn't remember most ofhis matches when he wrestles I
remember my matches, but there'sdefinitely I'm a much better uh
competitor than I like Icompete better than I train, in
my opinion, and so really for meand my support staff, coaching
(45:14):
staff everyone knew this aboutme Like we just got to get her
to the competition and we'll beokay, and so a lot of it.
As soon as I got on that planeto leave for a competition, it
was like like a weight hadfallen off me.
I was light, I was happy, I wasexcited.
Everyone was like Whoa, thisgirl is weeping on the floor Now
(45:35):
with that said.
Like I said, I cried the daybefore the Olympics those waves,
but for the most part I feelexponentially better Like the
week of a competition versuslike a month out from a
competition.
I am miserable and sufferable.
I I want to quit.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
I want to.
I want to reach out to you amonth before you compete again.
I won't respond.
Let's see where you're at andbe like hey, just checking in,
we want to go through this withdon't you don't want to talk to
me?
we got, um, we get to a pointnow where we're at the olympics,
(46:14):
the 2024 olympics what justgetting there right, right, that
that's a big deal, you know.
But you've been in, you made anolympic team before.
All things like that with theolympics and and the weight and
just the dreams that a kid has,right, just to just thinking of
it as a kid, like I'm gonna goto the olympics one day and I'm
gonna you see all the podiumpictures and things like that.
(46:34):
But you wind up there, right,and you, like you said, you're,
you're losing your mind, kind ofthing it.
But once, once you're there andyou're inside and you're
smelling the whatever it is thatthey had over there in Paris.
I don't know, who knows whatthey're cooking.
What was that life like, livingin that?
Because you're already nervousright Now.
(46:54):
You're kind of.
You still have competitors thatare USA competitors.
It's not like you're alone oranything like that, but you're
kind of alone, right.
I mean, you're sitting there inbed on those cardboard ass beds
that they had for you guys.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
No, so exactly they were cardboard beds, which they
were hard.
You know it was a crazy, sowe're lucky.
So we were actually in thevillage for about maybe like
four days when we first gotthere and that's with everybody,
all the sports, all the teams.
(47:27):
It's very chaotic, but I wasreally kind of letting myself
experience it.
I didn't get to experience itat Tokyo because of COVID.
We were at the end of theOlympics, so we still had a lot
of time.
So I was just like, can you bepresent with this day and just
(47:48):
enjoy it?
And you know it was hard.
I remember we were all atpractice.
It was us and men's freestyleteam and everyone's just messing
around like having a good time,and I was not having it.
Like I just start crying, I'mlike we need to train.
And actually Kyle Dake, I likecrying to him.
He's like a good friend of mineand he's like we need to train.
And actually Kyle Dake, I likecrying to him.
He's like a good friend of mineand he's like okay, fine, We'll
(48:10):
put you through this likestance and motion workout.
This poor man is like trying toput me through something
serious.
He's, of course, cool as acucumber, Everyone's cool as a
cucumber.
I'm crying, so I will notforget that moment of just like
talk about good team, Likepeople around me.
(48:35):
They're like okay, well, youknow he helps me those stuff
like that, leaning on peoplelike that, and then, um, we left
for normandy after the firstfour days.
So, oh, that's right, and thatwas amazing, it was so great
right off the beach, it wasabsolutely, and that's where we
were training, where it was justthe wrestling usa wrestling
team and so, and then we cameback and I competed about three
days after we got back to parisand at that point we did not
(48:57):
stay at the village, we stayedin a hotel, um, so again, I was
not around my competitor much,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
So when you, when you talk about like the, the living
because again, I'm justthinking about you right as the,
as the mental side of it, andyou're already kind of, you're
breaking down a little bit, andthings like that I'd be nervous
too, like I was.
I was nervous when I made myfirst olympic development team
at like 13.
I thought I was gonna crap mypants like because I don't, I'm
not that good guys like I.
I don't understand why I'm here, you know.
(49:27):
So, yeah, I know, right,they're going to see me for who
I am.
This is terrible People aregoing to laugh at me.
Yeah, yeah, I thought I wasgoing to fail.
But you're in this foreign land, right You're?
You're surrounded by probablythe best thing, that areas
probably mcdonald's, because godknows what they bring in that
that olympic, uh, that olympiccenter.
(49:48):
But with the, you know, you gotthe guys that were kind of
helping you out, you got alittle bit of a workout.
You go into the first match.
How did you feel after thefirst match?
Did you feel after the firstmatch like the weight was gone,
kind of lifted from you a littlebit?
Speaker 3 (50:01):
I was free as a bird it was really it was amazing
feeling.
I was it.
I you know, especially becausethe first match, the first round
of my weight class was huge.
So, like the Japanese woman,yui Sasaki goes down in the
first round, she's never lost aninternational match ever.
And you know, won the Olympics,won all the world championships
(50:23):
in between, um the heavyfavorite, and so that happened
in the first round, yep.
So I had to maintain a sense ofcomposure while everything
around me was kind of like itturned up the intensity in the
tournament.
Some it was like, oh my god,now you really can't mess up.
You really can't mess upbecause now there's, you know,
look, this field has opened upin a way.
No one in your way, yeah,exactly.
(50:45):
And so there was a quote now,but I was in such a it's almost
dreamlike looking back.
I I was very present, I wasvery open to just enjoying the
experience.
I I remember not being able tofeel like sometimes you go into
a competition you're like, oh, Ifeel like I'm gonna win.
Or sometimes you're like I'mnervous I might lose, or it
(51:07):
doesn't dictate the outcomeusually, but like you have an
inkling of what you feel.
Like I could not see the end ofany of my wrestling matches
like I could just see myselfwrestling and that.
And it was like I had nofeeling, I had no desire of
winning, I had no scared likeafraidness of losing.
Like it was so much justpresent moment wrestling, that
(51:28):
like winning and losing feltlike such a faraway concept even
in the midst of all of thatwhich, looking back on it even
now, I'm like, how yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
So it's funny that you mentioned that, because I
was actually just going to askyou like, when you're middle of
these matches, are you?
Do you freak out in the middleof the match, like in your head?
Obviously you're not lookingover your coach like what are we
gonna do, but like in your head, where I do, did you have
moments?
But it sounds like you didn't.
It sounds like after that firstmatch things kind of went away
a little bit and you're a littlemore comfortable in your skin.
I mean, you'd already done somuch, right, like, but it was
(52:04):
the pinnacle.
It's the pinnacle.
It's this is what you guys havebeen striving to do forever,
since tiny kids, since whateveryou know.
So just kind of knowing andhearing you say that you know I,
after I got it, you know, intothat match, knew that after the,
the outcome, I just had tocompose myself and you seem like
you held together.
Now, when you won dude the, theexpressions on your face, like
(52:26):
watching you celebrate at theend, was classic.
It was awesome.
You're living in, like you justsaid, you're living in the
moment, right, you're doing whatyou wanted to do and you're
doing and you're happy doing it.
So when you got.
Tell me about the last, I don'tknow last few seconds or last
like 10 seconds of a match.
What were you starting to thinkalready?
(52:46):
Once you're looking at theclock, you're like I got this.
Like this is mine, like I gotthis you can't even touch me now
, right, like how, how did you,how did that roll out for you in
that last match?
Speaker 3 (52:57):
you know, it's really , it was really strange.
It was, uh, I could have sat inthat five set.
I remember I looked at theclock.
There was six seconds left andI was like, oh my god, I won,
like I just won the Olympics,and there was so much elation
and joy.
But there was like a weirdmelancholy to it that it was
like done and I was like no, no,don't be over.
(53:17):
Like this is so fun.
This is such an amazingadventure, this is such a just
insane experience in its tickingdown like six, I'm like stop,
stop.
Like, and I, I couldn't get outthere and that's seconds
forever and like you know, youknow, thankfully it actually did
feel like it kicked very slowlyby, but I it was such a strange
(53:41):
mixture of emotion because itwas pure I've reached this goal
that I've had most of my lifeand then there was also this
well, that means it's it's doneand like it's such a weird thing
about that other side.
So you know, of course, thebuzzer sounds, the sadness is
gone, you're like, yeah, but Iremember feeling that like weird
(54:05):
melancholy with it of like, oh,my god, I just don't anticipate
feeling any negative emotions,right, something like that.
But sure enough, of course,emotions will emotion.
Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah yeah, right, exactly, start running around
looking for like an exhibitionmatch.
Hey, anybody else want towrestle quick?
Yeah, I don't want this to bedone yet the hour-long match,
please.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
I'll live here forever that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
So and like I said, it was really fun being able to
watch you at that.
And don't get me wrong, likeeverybody has, you know
everybody's excited at the end,but like watching you, it just
felt like it was like I fuckingfinally did it.
This is it.
I love it you know, like justthe look on your face.
You're even the picture thatyou sent me.
I mean, everybody behind you isjust excited.
They're as excited as you wereand that all those feelings came
(54:52):
out and you get you.
You get, like, certain guysthat get interviews.
They get a little.
Maybe they get a little sappyat the end when they're
interviewed, kind of thing.
But like it was just kind offun being able to watch you
celebrate, because it felt likewe could feel that celebration
as well.
So that was awesome thanks,yeah, that no.
Speaker 3 (55:10):
It was truly one of the moments.
You're just like I.
I don't know how anybodycomposes themselves up there I
I've had so many people tell methey're like oh, it's so nice to
see you, like just completelyexpressing yourself.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
I'm like how someone composes themselves I have a
picture of me because I triedwrestling when I was like 32,
again 33, in an outsidetournament, and I think I still
got a medal, even though Ishouldn't have, because it was a
it was like a local, like youthkind of tournament thing and
they just let old guys sign upfor it, and I remember, sitting
on the I don't think I'd evergotten a medal as a youth right,
(55:44):
I sucked, I was terrible.
And then, yeah, right, right, Igot up on the podium for for
this old guys tournament kind ofthing.
I'm like I think I was excitedabout that.
I was like I got a fuckingmedal.
This is so cool.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
I love that.
You should be excited aboutthat.
Like just those things man likecelebrate, whatever it is.
Oh gosh, I'm such a fan ofover-celebrating.
Speaker 2 (56:09):
Right, right, right, exactly.
So I mean that was the bestthing, like I said, of watching
everything about.
I mean, obviously it was funwatching you win, but, like, at
the end it was just like she isliving in the moment, entirely
right there.
So cool, so cool.
So we've been going for aboutan hour.
A lot of times we go for allkinds of crazy amounts of times
we we rattled through, but wealso know that you're dealing
(56:29):
with a charger issue.
That's true so so we don't wantto.
We don't want anything dyingCause I tell you this much, I
had Sri on on a couple of times.
I actually had my computerunplugged for one of them and
just lost the whole episode andstart over, yeah, and had to
start over, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was crazy, but heunderstood, he was fine.
He's going to come back, but itwas a little different.
(56:50):
We don't want to have any dying, but I appreciate you taking
the time out and sitting andtalking with us, sarah, it's
been awesome.
Yeah, any time, actually,before we even leave.
Do you have any shout outs?
Speaker 3 (57:04):
Oh my God.
Well then we'll be on for anhour, but oh my gosh, shout out
Seriously, just to anybody who'ssupported and just cheered me
on along the way.
Seriously, I am so grateful forjust all the relationships I've
built in this sport, and thatincludes people that I haven't
even met, who have just like Ijust feel the love and it's a
cool thing and I'm just gratefulfor it all and it's a cool
(57:26):
thing and I'm just grateful forit all, so thanks for listening
to me Blab.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, and you gained my wife.
She said I think she's myfavorite guest.
Oh, yay, thank you, my wife haschimed in and giving you the
approval.
So that's even better.
Yeah, so what do you havecoming up next?
Anything coming up.
Are you training for anything?
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (57:50):
I'm not training right now, really, I mean you
know I said that as I also justcame to this interview after
practice, but uh, it doesn'tfeel like training yeah, it's
fine I'm lying, it's fun yeah Ihave to convince myself.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
No yeah, because you didn't leave your shoes in the
middle, or nothing.
So what do you?
Do you have plans of competing?
Speaker 3 (58:07):
next, I don't know.
I'm going to just kind of keepI am hungry, for I can't make
the decision to retire withouthaving had some other
perspective.
So I want to kind of I'm hungryfor some perspective here, and
I don't know if I'm going to getthat by continuously competing.
With that said, I don't, Imight come back to being I don't
(58:28):
know, but I do know I need someperspective and I need some
life lessons in a differentAvenue, and so I'm going to pump
the brakes on competing justfor a little bit, get some
clarity and go from there.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
A little clarity, okay.
Well, I'm going to talk to youfor just a second once we're
done here, but we're going tolet the folks go.
I appreciate everybody tuningin.
It's been Sarah Hildebrandt,man, olympic gold medalist.
This has been a greatconversation.
Thank you very much.
So anybody, if you haven't, gocheck her out on Instagram.
I believe you're on some othersocials too, but go check her
(59:03):
out, man.
I mean, she's got some prettydecent perspective when it comes
to just girls wrestling andathletics in general.
So check her out, sarah.
It's been awesome.
We are going to tell the folksthat.
We're going to tell the folksgoodbye, so peace.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Bye, thank you everyone.
Speaker 2 (59:23):
And it.
and we're live.
Like I told you, there's like30 seconds.
So this is very exciting and wehad an actually pretty exciting
time before we even jumped down.
Here we are joined with thegreat, great sarah hildebrand.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Thank you very much for joining us thank you for
having me, despite my almosttechnical difficulties, uh,
leading in my multipledifficulties, not just technical
, that was awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
That was awesome.
I I had, I had fun just goingthrough that.
So this is episode like number108 or something like that and.
But we've been away for alittle bit.
I've been doing so.
I, if you can't tell, I gotvirginia cavalier stuff on, so
I've been doing a littlecavalier coverage of of things
and and uh duels and everything.
But I've been waiting to to getsomeone, uh, as a guest on.
(01:19):
We've had some time in betweenhere, but we finally were able
to get in touch with you and getyou on.
So thank you, sarah, very muchfor taking the time out to do
this.
Greatly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Oh, of course, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I'm pumped you bet, so a lot of people listen.
This is the premise of the showis all about you.
It's not about I throw a littlein about you know, maybe
something I went through thatcan relate, kind of thing.
But we're talking about you,from the remembering of sports
to to now, to you running aroundfor chargers, to now this old
(01:51):
woman, oh man you call, you'recalling you're, you're calling
yourself an old woman and I'molder.
I know that.
So I'm like an ancient.
I'm an ancient man then.
So, so, okay, so let's, let'sstart out from the beginning
here.
So is it?
Is it Granger, indiana, thatyou're from?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Granger, Indiana, but I was actually born in Memphis,
Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh, okay, okay so.
So birth records brought you,brought you to Tennessee, but
then you guys wound up over inIndiana.
Was that before you rememberanything?
You guys wound up in Indiana,wound up over in indiana.
Was that before you rememberanything?
You guys wound up in indiana?
Or did you grow up in tennesseefor a?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
little bit.
Yeah, no, I was in memphis fora little bit, I can remember
that.
And then we moved to ronovirginia when I was in maybe
like first and second grade.
Oh okay, yeah, so I canremember, but I was not playing
sports at this.
Well, I was a dancer.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, yeah, that's a good start.
So dance, was that competitivedance or was it just?
You know, we wanted to get ourdaughter in something and have
her do something, kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It started as that and then it was getting
competitive and I loved it.
I danced for a long time,actually, once we moved to
Indiana, even I was dancing,still danced for a long time.
Actually, once we moved toindiana, even I was dancing
still so um I would say I dancedfor maybe about 10 years.
Okay, yeah, oh, my god, it wasthe best ballet, tap, jazz, the
whole thing was that okay?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
so we started out in dance and did you wind up?
Like you know how some kids are, we'll say, like a boy is like
football, soccer, baseball, thatkind of thing.
Were you doing dance?
Were you doing volleyball?
Were you other other sportsincluded with that in that time
frame?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
yeah, so pre-indiana time, I suppose, yeah, yeah,
mostly danced and then I triedplaying soccer.
But get this, okay, I was soafraid my the coach had to hold
my hand and run up and down thefield holding my hand.
My parents would pay me if Ijust touched the ball because I
(03:50):
would like run away from theball.
So I would get five dollars for, like, literally just touch it.
Like most kids got five dollarsfor scoring.
No, I got five dollars fortouching the ball wow and I
don't think I made any money, soso I enjoy.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I enjoy kids, like you.
So I I did have a kid, but whenI first started coaching,
deathly afraid of the ball, justdeathly afraid of it, right,
and no no one.
I don't know what happened tohim before he ever got to soccer
.
So I don't know if, like hisfriends, threw the ball at him
or something, yeah, right.
But he got to the point andthis is where coach, where I
really started to think I reallyenjoy coaching.
But I mean by the end of theseason I had it to where a ball
(04:31):
would go up in the air and hewould go for it, right.
So you're, you're like my guy,you're that, you're my kid, that
I would run after.
You're the girl.
I'd be like, hey, come here,I'm gonna show you something.
This sport's awesome.
Yeah, yes, so that's awesome.
Yeah, yes, so that's awesome.
So soccer was a part of it.
I love that.
What part of dance?
Do you think that helped you alot as far as some of the stuff
(04:53):
that you learned as a young girlgrowing up from dance taking
into wrestling?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of discipline required in
ballet dance in general.
There's a lot of disciplinerequired in ballet dance in
general.
And so from a very young age, Iwas used to a training dynamic
that was very serious and verydisciplined.
And I'm not saying that'snecessarily a good thing, Sure,
(05:20):
but I had exposure to it that Ithink, helped me later on down
the line.
I never had a problem beingserious and disciplined.
I needed to learn the playfulside of sport, and so maybe that
is from my ballerina roots,which is a very strict and
serious dynamic.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, yes, it is, yeah.
So you got you.
You were immersed I guessimmersed is the is the word into
structure, structure of sports,with the structure then and and
obviously you're kind ofdabbling in other little, you
know your parents putting you inother sports.
When did wrestling come intothe picture?
Is that pre-indiana still?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
no, yeah, wrestling didn't come in until I was in
seventh grade.
So in indiana, and at that Iwas just getting done with
dancing, um, I was playingsoccer and I was actually not
afraid of the ball anymore.
So I did all through highschool like soccer stuck with me
, um.
So I was playing soccer, I wasplaying tennis, I was swimming
(06:16):
which horrible swimmer, I wasthe worst swimmer.
Oh my god I was qualified every,every single meet and it was so
funny because it was like theylike announce it on like the
lane, so I would be likeswimming and I'd get so tired
that I'd start doggy paddlingand I just feel like
disqualification, lane four, andI'm like humiliating it's
(06:40):
humiliating, but I was like isit really lost if I'm like I'm
not drowning?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
so yeah, winner here, yeah what are you guys really
pointing out?
That I'm surviving?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I'm still floating, so I'm doing something, right,
that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So, so with with the entrance of wrestling, I guess
the the next question I, beforewe get into it too much, is
being that you're already inlike I like we said structured
sports things like that how were, how were your parents already
like?
I always ask everybody like,what was your support system
like?
What was, how were your parentslike?
Because, like with christinaand I I'm the sports guy,
(07:18):
christina's the educator side,right, she handles the schooling
, I handle the sports side.
I kind of drove li Liam a littlebit not I wouldn't say too hard
, when he was little.
We got I almost got to thatpoint, right, but but I was the,
I was the driving force behinddiscipline and doing this.
So you got to do it, you got tomake sure you're doing this
right.
But I also came from a side ofI played, you know, semi-pro
(07:41):
sports and it was.
It wasn't easy right away.
So I understood that there'scertain things you have to go
through while still slipping upas a parent, right, how was that
for you?
And what was that dynamic likefor you with with mom and dad
and things like that?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, so, um, my dad was a really talented athlete
growing up himself, so he alsohad experience through that.
Um, and then on top of that,that, my brothers were already
involved in wrestling.
So there were, they werefamiliar with wrestling and just
being a parent in the wrestlingworld already yeah familiar
with being a parent to a girlwrestler on an all boys team.
(08:16):
That was probably something new.
But they were so, um, you know,they, they never pushed me into
anything.
I had to ask them to go topractice every practice, like
they weren't like it's time togo to practice.
It's like every day.
I'd be like well, you tried meto practice, and so it always
had to come from me.
And then I did a lot of extratraining so I would wake up
(08:38):
early in the morning.
I had to be the one to godownstairs.
I had to wake my parents up IfI wanted to go wrestle on the
weekends at weekend tournaments.
They're like you need to ask usto go there.
So it was never them forcinganything, okay, something like I
would be like no, I'm notwrestling this weekend, it's my
choice.
And they would be like I'm notmad, but I'm disappointed and
(08:59):
I'm like, oh fine, I'll wrestlethis weekend.
So there was a little bit ofthat.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and so and that's kind of
the and I guess I never reallypointed it out too much before,
but I'm really starting to takenote and seeing that kids that
had high level athletic parents,right, like it was part of
their parents life already andmaybe their parents went through
the harshness of a parent beinglike you have to do this and
(09:25):
why didn't you win by this much,and stuff like that, where
parents and again, I slipped upa little bit as a parent, no
matter what, but I'm noticingthat all these you included all
the athletes that have highlevel athlete parents, have a
different perspective and werebrought up a little differently
through the sport, right,because of that struggle,
because of some of thatstructure, that maybe some kids
(09:47):
aren't shown properly, right,you know, like the parent that
is telling, telling.
So I, I'm always intrigued bythat, especially with the
support system, becausesometimes there's one that does
something and sometimes there'sone that's the opposite, right,
they were always on the samepage with that.
And that's.
That's awesome and obviously soI.
I I almost want to expound onthat because it gives that kid,
(10:07):
that athlete, a level of a wholedifferent perspective of just
competing in general right andthings in discipline and how,
how well you're practicing andare you paying attention?
It's those things Whereas aparent that is nowadays that is
(10:29):
as new to sports, like maybetheir kid is finally in sports,
where they're the ones that arelike why aren't you?
You know you only, you're onlydoing this much, you only won
like this and I.
It's just very interesting,especially now with the way that
sports are with kids, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
And then they start younger and younger and they
become single sport athletessooner.
And I've been like.
I feel like and this wasabsolutely the case with my
parents was always, you know, ithad to come from me and effort
was the biggest thing.
I never, ever felt pushed towin or succeed because of them,
it was always an intrinsic thingand the effort was what they
cared most about and I promiseyou that stayed consistent my
whole career.
So that was just like oh,they're kids, it's winning's not
(11:13):
important, like wrestling foran Olympic title, and it was
like oh, you know, it's notabout winning.
And that's why I was capable todo something of that magnitude,
because of the freedom thatthis isn't about winning.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yep, Yep.
So that even spells out evenmore going into wrestling then.
So when you started wrestlingyou mentioned you were on an all
boys team, things like that.
But when you started in middleschool, what was your first
impression when you startedwrestling?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
You know, I had no idea what to expect.
It was just something thatlooked fun and I was like I want
to try that.
I think I um by no fault ofanyone's.
No one just expected me to begood.
It was like you're a girl, youknow you're not don't get pinned
, and so the expectation was solow I could just kind of have
fun.
Um, you know you're not, don'tget pinned, and so the
(12:05):
expectation was so low, I couldjust kind of have fun.
You know, there was a littlebit of like I don't know how
people are going to react tothis, or you know, I was kind of
like prepped, like you knowpeople might be mean to you and
kind of like getting ready forsomething like that.
But I think mostly, basically,what had happened how I joined
the team was they didn't havesomeone small enough to fill the
(12:27):
65 pound weight class for 70,and I was like 65 pounds.
So I was like bro, I'll justyou know they were like, as long
as we don't have to give upforfeit, aka just don't get
pinned, yeah, oh, I can do that,like I can do that.
So of course I ended up winningmy first match.
Actually my first day ofpractice, I knocked a kid's
tooth out.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I'm like I love this that's awesome, that's great,
that's great.
So, with, with the, with, Iguess, the competing starting in
middle school, things like that, and obviously now we know the
dynamic with mom and dad.
What were, what were some ofthe?
Once you started, you liked itwere.
You kind of getting somefriends are like, oh, you should
(13:08):
try this tournament, you shoulddo this.
How can we're going to this onethis weekend and you tell your
parents, oh, can I go to that?
When did you really start kindof, I guess, spreading your
wings a little bit when it cameto wrestling?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
yeah, you know I was lucky enough like, uh, my school
program, it was just natural togo through that.
And then we had a club programattached to it, so everything
was kind of calendared out, youknow.
You could just kind of pick andchoose.
And then I got to be in high.
School is when I started beinglike, oh I want to go here, and
I had my group of friends, soit's like, you know, all the one
(13:40):
of the years like we're goingto Portage next weekend, so we
would do things like that.
That was when I kind of gotmore autonomy from that.
And I was such a multi-sportathlete all the way through high
school, even Like I was not asingle sport athlete until my
senior year that a lot of timesit was like I just had another
(14:01):
season, so like wrestling seasonhad an end, actually end
actually, and I would go then ortrack or whatever.
So that kind of came fromhaving to pick a lot of things
Always.
I just it was busy.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Sure, sure.
So with with that, with themiddle school, you know, middle
school wrestling is is what itis, Right, but Indiana is not a
slouch when it comes towrestling.
So it's not to say that everysingle town is a Perry, right.
It's kind of like Wisconsin,where you guys have like maybe
three or four schools that arereally good.
Then we have three or fourschools that are really good,
(14:34):
but none of us are nationallyranked right.
It's one of those things wherewe still had good competition,
it was a good level of wrestling, but then once you went outside
and did national stuff, you'relike holy crap, there's a whole
different level, right?
yeah, so we we took liam on hisfirst national tournament when
he was like nine.
When was your first like bigtournament?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
oh, I would say, well , I didn't even start wrestling
until I was 10 and then maybe 13or okay.
So, um, that was like my firstbig nationals.
Yeah, probably about 13 yearsold.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Where was that?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Banked man.
It took me a while to do wellat a national tournament.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I remember I did Iowa nationals I don't know what
they're called now.
We just were in Iowa, it was.
I think it's called now.
We just were in Iowa, it was.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I think it's Folk Style Nationals or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It was rough.
Oh my God, that was versus boys.
I lost very badly.
My first girls nationaltournament was USGWA.
It was actually.
Michigan.
It was in Michiganigan, yousaid yeah, okay, livonia,
(15:51):
michigan, I believe, and I alsolost very badly, yeah it doesn't
really matter, because you'reholding an olympic gold medal
now, so that loss I can'tcomplain right, right, um.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So when you guys because you mentioned too about
you know all boys and you knowsome people will be harsh,
things like that were.
Were you ever at tournamentswhere your parents saw people
acting just completely insanetowards their boy, having to
wrestle a girl, and they're likenope, we're out?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
you know, it was like a lot of like boys would just
like forfeit, like refuse towrestle me, so that would happen
.
A bunch of shit yeah, it's likeokay, well, nothing like yeah,
it was yeah, so that wouldhappen.
I don't think ever anything.
I mean that's probably a reallygreat question.
I've never asked them that theyexperienced, maybe in the
(16:45):
stands or anything, say thingsto me, but I think they were far
enough away that they didn'tsee or hear it and I wasn't
going to go tell them.
You know, maybe guys were meanto me on the mat or a little
rougher, you know what I meanLike, but they were never.
You know they're like she'swere never.
You know they're like she'stough.
(17:06):
We're good.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, we're good, we're good, all right so, uh, it
says here, as far as theinformation that I have, the
town you're granger, indiana.
But what high school did you goto?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Penn High School.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Penn, that's right, penn.
Okay.
So what was what was that like?
What was that like growing up?
How was that high schoolenvironment for you?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh, it was fantastic.
I mean, they're so supportive.
You know so many girls andwomen that I talked to and had
their experience in high schoolwas very brutal, like I feel,
even silly, even, you know,having something to say in that
department, because for the mostpart, everyone was so
supportive and, like those boyson my team that I wrestled with
(17:56):
are still, to this day, my bestfriend.
In fact, my drill partner fromseventh grade, all the way
through high school, came toParis this last summer to watch
and cheer me on, like that's howclose we still are so you know,
and it was like that reallyacross the board.
Um, now there were moments therewere people who were absolutely
jerks to me at that time, forsure, but few and far between,
(18:21):
and so that was just super cooland the whole, the whole
administration supported it.
You know, it wasn't just thewrestling team, it was the
school superintendent, like thewhole community came behind with
a few bad seeds in there thatwere easy to manage because
overwhelmingly supported rightthat and that's awesome, so
that's.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I guess that's never something we really touched on
before.
As far as with the, any athleteis just having that.
Not only do you have yourparents support, but having
school support all the waythrough and coaches and partners
and things like that, Because Imean you had you had made a
post too, because I know yourbrother is a Drew.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, so he's been.
He's been around with you for alittle while too as far as
practicing, helping, so you hada really good nucleus around you
as far as the the you know,parents and and friends and all
that.
So that's to me that alsospeaks volumes when it comes to
a high level athlete, right, you, you know your ups and downs.
Everybody wins, everybody loses, but it's always because I
(19:21):
think, we forget about how hardthe mental and such as
physically, but how hard themental side of the sport is
Right, and especially when youguys are starting to blaze a
path, you know, for other girlscoming up and doing the things
that you guys are doing at thetime that you didn't know you
were doing.
You're just trying to wrestle,right.
You're just trying to beat itRight, right, you guys are doing
your thing, but your thing wasexponentially larger than what
(19:44):
it really was.
Yeah, that's so true, knowingthat obviously you're coming up
and going through high schoolwrestling and things like that.
Did you ever have a momentwhere you're like I don't know
if I want to do this anymore?
I'm good on wrestling.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
My whole career every other week was probably like
what am I doing?
If you're going to bake a cakeor something, for sure, I mean,
wrestling is so hard, it is sohard and there's so many
elements to it and it's.
It takes a lot of courage and Inever identified as somebody
(20:20):
who is courageous.
I never identified as somebodywho was resilient or tough to
this day.
Even I'm like I feel very frail.
I'm a very emotional.
I never identified as somebodywho was resilient or tough to
this day.
Even I'm like I feel very frail.
I'm a very emotional.
I cry very easily and it'salways been the case.
And so when you put that nextto a picture of what you think
an Olympic gold medalist is,it's it's not me, like I.
I'm afraid of everything andI'm always crying and I'm sleepy
(20:44):
a lot.
I'm afraid of everything andI'm always crying and I'm sleepy
a lot.
Don't feel tough ever.
And so there's, of course, alot of moments where you doubt
that and so to that point ofjust like having this group of
people around you who supportyou and hold your hand through
that and just kind of just boostyou up in a way and remind you
(21:07):
like what you're trying to dohas nothing to do with winning,
it's just growing as a person,um, and I realized that when I
was in high school.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Of course, I didn't have that amount of wisdom yet,
but it was still between that,you know, and, and that was
helpful yeah, so going throughpen, and because this has always
been different for everyathlete, but it's always
especially different for thegirls, right?
What was you're going throughhigh school wrestling, and
(21:34):
obviously there's challenges,but you were doing other.
What other sports were?
Was it soccer in high school?
What else?
What other sports were youdoing?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Soccer in high school .
Yeah, I think it was justwrestling and soccer by high
school.
Maybe a little tennis here andthere.
I was hanging on that.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
You're, yeah you're.
You're already one of myfavorites for just hanging on to
soccer, that's fantastic soccerwas.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I still have dreams about playing soccer man, I tell
you what.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I didn't get to go.
My brother was sent over toeurope to play soccer for, um,
uh, usa soccer, whatever it wasat the time.
But my parents spent all themoney on him, right, like I
didn't get to go, because Iguarantee you, if I, yeah, if I
went over, I wasn't coming back.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
There's no way that's why they didn't have any money.
They're like we're not lettinghim go I would not be coming
back.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
So so that process that you wound up going through,
then you know wrestling doingand then you said you kind of
wound up doing, uh, wrestlingonly your senior year what was?
Were you getting calls fromcolleges, things like that?
I mean what?
What was that process like foryou?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
yeah, you know, there were so few schools at that
time which is just crazy tothink how we're at now.
But I was getting contacted byum a few coaches.
Funnily, the program I wantedto go to wasn't giving me a ton
of attention.
But I was like hell-bent, I'mlike we're going here.
But once I got there and Irealized they weren't like super
interested, I was like okay,maybe it is time to give it, but
(23:00):
which?
you know it all worked out inthe end and yeah, it was a lot
of that.
My parents were very um, youneed to take care of this type
of deal and it was.
I hated it, like even to thepoint when, like time to tell
the schools I wasn't gonna gothere.
I'm like they just like they'llfind out.
They're like you will call themand you'll thank them, you'll
(23:22):
tell them you're not going.
I'm like, oh my God, theconfrontation.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It's difficult, right ?
I mean, you guys are so young.
Yeah, you guys are young.
You haven't had to even call aboss and be like I can't make it
into work or anything, right?
No, Papa and mama, He'll bewe're like so when you made that
, when you made the first.
So there are a couple storiesthat we've heard where guys are
(23:47):
like, hey, I'm not going to gohere, kind of thing, and coach
is like fine, you know.
It's why you know, all of asudden, I think, did you have
coaches that were upset with youwhen you called them to tell
them no?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
no, everybody.
I mean.
You know they give you the hard, like you know, a little bit of
a hard time, but nothing, noteveryone was always so kind, and
even my career, I feel like Ijust had really great
relationships with all thecoaches that I had spoken with
and it was always good vibes inthat.
In that regard, nice, nice.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So you wound up at king.
So what?
Let's say whoop, whoop.
Let's talk about that for aminute.
What, what?
Obviously they were one of theones that contacted you, right?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
What was the draw?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Like why I ended up going there.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
What drew you to them ?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, it's funny because, well, I didn't want to
go there.
It was like last.
And so once I realized thatfirst program I wanted to go to
didn't want me, I went down tooklahoma city, which they were
the number one women's wrestlingprogram at the time, and I'm
like, all right, boom, this iswhere I'm going, like I'm going
(24:52):
here, they're the best, I'm thebest, we're gonna be the best
together yay, yeah yeah, closethe storybook.
Um, my parents were like I thinkyou should go on this visit and
I was like bro, no, like youknow, I'm a senior in high
school, I just want to hang out.
So we end up going.
I think my mom actually, kindof low-key, bribed me by being
(25:14):
like, oh, because we drove fromIndiana to Tennessee, she's like
we'll just stop at all theoutlet malls on the way.
I'm like I'm in.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
So she's a shopper, everybody she's a shopper.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
So we did a lot of shopping and, you know, did the
whole thing.
And then I went to King for myvisit and it wasn't even
necessarily the wrestling,although that was great, and
Jason Mormon, the coach at thetime, he was fantastic as well,
really cool, really steady,really.
(25:47):
It was the girls and they justtook me and we went to like
intramurals there was anintramural basketball game or
something whatever.
They were a part of anintramural team and I just
watched and cheered with thegirls and like hung out.
We went to Sonic afterwards andgot food and I was like I could
see myself doing, like it wasthe outside of wrestling life
and I was like I could seemyself being a person here and
(26:10):
like making friends here,whereas like every other program
I went to, I was like you'regoing to wrestle and we have
this weight room and we're goingto work out all the time and
I'm like whoa, I'm more thanthat yeah, right, well, that was
the, that was the big thingthat that we looked at too, as
far as and just knowing andhaving the, the people around us
(26:30):
that we know.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
There are a lot of things they told us like you
know basically exactly what yousaid.
You, you have to be comfortablewith your environment.
You have to be comfortable whenyou're not wrestling, when
you're not in the wrestling room.
You have to like the stuffaround you people, environment.
So it totally makes sense andit's kind of funny how you
probably stumbled upon thatyourself, right?
I mean, a lot of people don'trealize that they're on the
(26:55):
track of.
You know, like I want to go toIowa or I'm going to go.
I'm going to go to iowa or I'mgonna go, I'm number one, I'm
gonna go here.
You know that kind of thing.
So, and it's all right, there'snothing wrong with that.
But in the grand scheme ofthings, how comfortable are you
there, you know, are you onlycomfortable in the wrestling
room?
And then when you go to walkdown to jimmy john's, you're
like I don't want to be here,you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
It's funny.
I wrote out a spreadsheet ofand prioritizing like what was
most important to me, but it wasall to do with wrestling.
So I was like training partners, this, like all of these, and
you're right, I wasn't evenaware of it until I stepped in
and experienced it and I waslike, wow, that was so much fun
(27:35):
and they also have good trainingpartners and a good coach and
we, you know.
And then that made other thingsmore doable too, like okay, do
we have the best wrestling room?
I don't know, but I don't care,because these things are so
much better and I realizethey're more important to me yep
, I think it's.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It's really big, especially for kids now, that if
you're listening to this likeit's all encompassing, like you
have to, you have to be able tolive life.
Imagine you got thrown out ofschool and you can't go home and
you're stuck in that town.
Would you stay there?
exactly you know, and that'skind of the way we painted it
out to Liam and you know, thethe same thing with him, like he
loved.
Every visit, you know, I waslike, oh, this is so cool, it's
(28:13):
so cool.
But it was the one that waslike this feels different, this
feels better.
You know, like you're thereit's totally Correct.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
So what year did you graduate in high school?
2011.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yes, 11.
So let's jump to 2013.
You were you.
You represented the UnitedStates.
You were in Kazan, Russia.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, and, yeah, you wound up winning a medal, right?
No, so yeah, what's that?
I did not win a medal at that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
That was a university worlds game yes summer universe
, iod or something.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah, yes, basically what you 23s are today, but I am
a nice seasoned wrestler.
So back in the day, way back inmy time, they did not have U23
worlds, they had universityworlds.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So that's what it was called.
Okay, so, with that being said,when was your first overseas
experience?
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Was that it no, oh my gosh, I was fooled.
I I actually my first overseastrip.
So I actually had gone to a PanAm a junior Pan Ams, which was
in Nicaragua, but obviously notoverseas.
And then my first overseas tripwas to Pattaya, Thailand, for
(29:37):
junior worlds in 2011.
So this stage for myinternational trips.
I'm like Thailand.
What an experience.
We're on the beach, we'reriding elephants, we're like
eating the best fruit known toman.
It was great.
Color me surprised when my buttends up in Krasnoyarsk, russia,
(29:57):
three years later negative 40degrees.
I'm like like wait, these aretrips.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I thought we were going to thailand yeah, right,
so that must have been theuregan you went to then, huh
yeah, yeah, which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Oh no, I actually on that.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I love that tournament, love that yeah, well
, you've killed it every timeyou've been there, I'm pretty
sure.
So, yeah, gold and silver.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Gold and silver.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
So that's the other thing.
So a lot of I mean we can talkabout college and things like
that and things are just soweird.
I think in your guys's time incollege right, it wasn't, it was
emerging Things are coming upbut you guys didn't have the
exposure Right.
So that's where.
So that's where that's where alot.
And obviously you guys stillwrestle freestyle in college and
(30:45):
you know most high schools do.
We don't hear wia doesn't havefreestyle because wouldn't have
the referees to do it, thingslike that.
I still feel like it's a bummerfor the girls.
But either way it's a step up,we'll take it we'll take it and
yeah, right, exactly.
So your meteoric riseessentially comes after college
here.
So are you yourself puttingyourself into different training
(31:08):
uh schedules and things likethat?
Once you got through college,you kind of experienced that I
guess, higher level type thingwhere you now understanding that
there is a, a training regimenthat needs to go on cycles.
You know they call it um.
Were you, if were you, figuringthat out once you got overseas,
or were you figuring that outin college already?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
no, college was a mess.
Uh, I uh honestly even like, soI was done with school in 2015.
I went home, thought I couldtrain at home in indiana.
That wasn't gonna work, um, sothat's when I moved out to the
olympic training center summerof 2015.
(31:47):
Wow, uh, you know, it's stilljust kind of a lost puppy.
Like wrestling wasn't like mine, yet like I was doing it
because I was decent at it andyou know, I was traveling the
world and that was it.
Like it was fun, but there wasnothing but like like my drive
(32:11):
of like I want to win an olympicgold medal.
It was just I was kind of therelike sure, uh, it happened
until 2017, when I haddislocated my and so I had
already made by this.
Yes, yes so it just really afterI dislocated my elbow.
That was when I kind of reallystarted understanding and buying
(32:34):
into all of this and justfocusing on that well, yeah,
because you can tell, because2017 was a silver.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Then after that, it's gold, gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold.
And then there's the.
You got 20, was that Pan AmGames 2019?
Gold.
You had a couple of bronze inBelgrade, but it just seemed
like you were just like.
You just said you were startingto put things together right.
Were you already being coachedby terry?
(33:03):
Was he in the program by then?
Speaker 3 (33:05):
yeah, yeah, terry was my coach.
Yeah, starting in 2015 terrysteiner.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
for the people that are new to this, um, I had his
brother on a couple times.
Yeah, I know, I know they're.
They're both awesome, don't youknow?
Those are those guys I idolizedwhen watching them in college.
That was my era.
So, knowing that he was incharge of the girls program, I
was like this is going to getgood and it's only gotten better
(33:30):
.
Right, it's only gotten better.
So, with your A big thing thatwe talk about here, because
we've had a shoot from VisionQuest, frank Jasper yeah, we've
had him on a couple of times.
He's got a master's in Chinesenutrition, right.
So we really started to dialLiam in a little bit more at
(33:50):
nutrition.
Man, did I notice a differencein him?
Right?
Were there little things likethat that you're starting to put
together that you really I mean, obviously you didn't really
pay attention to much, but youkind of knew it was there Were
those the little things you werestarting to kind of change and
you noticed a?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
progression.
You're good, you're good.
I got 50%.
We're good, you're good.
Thanks, brandon.
I'm sharing a chart Sorry,everyone watching.
I'm sharing a charger with mystrength and conditioning coach
who is doing a remote strengthand conditioning program.
He's at two percent, so we'regood.
I have one percent, so nowwe're rocking and rolling we're
good.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
We're good.
So was that?
Were you starting to findlittle pieces that you weren't
able to, you didn't really payattention to before, that you
noticed were starting to giveyou a little more success or
feeling a little bit betterabout yourself as far as
competition and and training?
Where did you notice thosechanges starting to come in?
Was that once you got out theOlympic Training Center, or was
that you went somewhere else?
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Nope, I moved to the training center in 2015.
I've been here ever since.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Man, you are a resident.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I was a resident, lived here on complex for four
years in the dorms and, in 2018,house just three miles away.
So this is home, yeah.
But even when I first moved outhere, it took some time, like I
said, so probably around 2017,I had made the decision.
(35:13):
You know, nutrition was a bigthing for me, so I used to
wrestle 55 kilos and then I justkept coming down so 55, 53 and
then 50 eventually, and so, yeah, I had to buy into nutrition a
lot.
I had to study that and I, youknow, I remember having this
thought of like okay, I see thepeople around me, I see my own
(35:36):
experience.
Nobody is cutting weight reallythat well.
Like this is so dumb.
Like I learned from them, I'mdoing this.
We.
Nobody is cutting weight reallythat well Like we're.
This is so dumb.
Like I learned from them, I'mdoing this.
We're all cutting weight dumb.
When I had enough likeawareness to like realize that I
was like whoa, that's somethingI can exploit.
Like, if I get good at this,90% of my opponents are not good
at this Like that's anadvantage and it's a big one
(36:04):
because it kind of is this uh,foundation for the rest of those
things you know my technique,my strength, all of that so
recovery?
Yep, totally.
So I'm like, wow, what a bighole, what a big blind spot and
really wrestling that really,really take advantage of.
Um, and that was kind of whatinitiated that, and, again,
great people around me and Ijust started learning, studying,
(36:25):
relying on and getting help bypeople and slowly taking the
time to understand nutrition andbringing my weight down, and
that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So that's a big spot for me Before you got, because
we obviously we all know that'sa big spot for me.
Before you got, because weobviously we all know that the
olympics is is huge.
But before you got to theolympics, right, what was to to
that?
Between 2017, 2024, before theolympics, what was your most um,
I would say memorable and meantthe most to you up until the
olympics?
What win and what?
(36:58):
What I guess tournament meantthe most to you that you want to
walk away with?
I don't care if it's a bronzemedal, because I mean, third,
you still gotta come back right.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
So that's, that's a big deal still yes, I would say
like the 2021 olympics bronzemedal would be probably the most
like ridiculous win because Ihad lost so heartbreakingly in
the Olympic semifinals.
Coming back for that one butthere's so many in that period.
(37:28):
You know, 2018, making thatworld team was really big for me
.
I had made a world team in 2016, but I don't know why it just
felt like I still not boughtinto wrestling in the way that I
started to buy in in 2018.
So 2018 felt like that start,Like I had injured my elbow in
(37:51):
2017 and I was kind of just likesecond on the ladder, you know
good, but nobody was really likeexpecting anything from me.
And by the middle of 2018, Iwas ranked number one in the
world, so there was like suchthat seven month span Like it
was so insane, it was meteoric.
It felt like in my, my mind andbrain and somewhere I never
(38:13):
thought I was ever gonna be, andso I think that 2018 world team
win was like oh my god, we'redoing it, like this is actually
I want this and I'm actuallydoing it in a way that I'm proud
of, and it kind of really justset the stage for you know all
the way through 24.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Well, that's, that's.
The thing is like I mean, eveneven when you're talking about
injury and, like you said, youweren't, you didn't, the sport
wasn't yours, it wasn't yourthing quite yet, but even at
that statement, like looking atwhat you did and and just so,
the mind boggles when you hearsomeone number one who wins the
olympics, right, and then theytell you that you just still
hadn't bought in yet to to whatthat, this, what the sport meant
(38:53):
to you, and you're just gotdone saying you're number one in
the world.
So it's kind of crazy, it's alevel, there's levels to this
stuff.
And that's the other thing thatpeople don't kind of you know,
they don't understand, rightlike you guys.
You guys put it in the parentsof kids that are like 10, 12
years old.
You don't even know what thehalf yet.
And you don't wanna, right, youdon't need to.
You let them have fun, exactly.
(39:15):
But just, but just, knowing thatyou came from, I'm just gonna
try this out and this, you knowthat and the other thing.
And I'm just, I really likethis college, I'm gonna try this
out and see what happens.
You still haven't bought intoit.
Then you sit there, like I said, I'm sitting here looking at
your metal count and it's likeholy shit, like you hadn't
bought in yet and this is whatyou were still doing.
Like that's crazy.
So how, how is it like for?
(39:37):
Like you get nervous before allmatches, is it?
Is it something like that foryou, or is it?
You had this kind of thing nowwhere you it's all kind of, I
guess, part of it, right, youdon't feel like it's nervousness
, it's just part of it.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Um, kind of in a way, but I, yeah, like I said, I'm a
really fragile person, so I'm,uh, absolutely nervous.
It was more about not judgingmyself for being nervous and
like allowing thoseuncomfortable emotions to be
present because you're doingsomething that's nerve-wracking,
it is stressful, you know, and,instead of spending so much
(40:13):
energy pretending it doesn'texist or trying not to feel them
, being open to feeling whateverthe heck decides to come up and
still being able to takeeffective actions in the
presence of those emotions andthat was what 2018 through 2024
was a lesson of and I failed,you know, so many times.
Um so, but yes, I am beforeevery single one of my matches
(40:39):
before 2024 olympics.
The day before, I sat on thefloor of my hotel room and wept,
I mean cried like one of those,like, like one of those guys.
Oh man, turned to my boyfriendand I'm like, I'm scared.
I'm so scared.
Sure.
Sure, and he was just there.
You know there's nothing to say, but I just say the picture of
(40:59):
like I again, I think peoplethink of elite athletes, Olympic
athletes, as these confident, Ifeel no bad emotion kind of
person and not true.
Like everyone is so nervous,Like you can't even move
Sometimes you're so nervous andit's really about dealing in
being with those emotions versuslike pushing them away.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Did you have to go and talk Like do you ever sports
psychologist?
Have you ever had to use thatdive into that world?
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah, three sports psychologists.
Like I said, very fragile.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
But that's and that's fine, though, because I think
recognizing that there's abarrier and then knocking the
barrier down is part of theprocess, right?
I mean that's especially whenit comes to a confidence level,
because, again, this game isvery mental, not just physical.
It's very mental, like you said, every and because everybody's
made differently up here exactly, and everybody can handle
(41:54):
pressure the same.
So, with that being said, thethe psychology side of it, where
what was that?
Was there ever a point becauseI asked you this when you're
younger, even in this, right now, when you got 2017, 2018
through 2024 was there a pointwhere you're like I'm, I gotta
stop, I'm done, this is too muchyes, oh my gosh, I uh.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
So actually, 2022 was a really horrible year for me
and I was after 2022.
Um then, I had walked away witha bronze medal, I uh at worlds,
but yes, yes, I mean, there aremoments.
Seriously, I had already madethe Olympic team in 2024.
I'm a big writer.
I journal every single day ofmy life.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
And oh, nice Okay.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Of writing.
So you know, it's fun to lookback on my experience leading in
, but I had already made theOlympic team and I was writing
about like Sarah, you don't evenhave to go to the Olympics if
you don't want to Like.
There's still those thoughts oflike if you don't want to do
this, if you really don't wantto do this, you don't have to.
Because I was writing thatbecause there was thoughts in my
(42:57):
head being like don't do it,don't go, it's too scary, it's
too much or it's.
You know, I don't want to gothrough this.
I don't want to wake up, I don'twant to bear my heart and soul
on that mat one more time andget my heart broken again, like
they're all the way.
You know we're talking twomonths out from the Olympics, so
(43:18):
that's a constant thing, um,and you know, again relying on
people close to me and also justrealizing that your mind offers
up a ton of crazy emotions andthoughts.
It's seeking for certainty.
I wasn't going to havecertainty until the Olympics, so
you know who knew what my brainwas going to throw at me in
those months leading up, yearsleading up?
Um, you know, thoughts are justthoughts.
(43:38):
They're not.
It doesn't mean anything, it'snot concrete, it's not prophecy
fulfilling, it's just a thought.
And if I could let it pass onby and still do what I knew was
important to me, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I think athletes get the it's the, the phrase you
just brought up the prophecyfulfilling.
I think athletes live that alittle too much, right.
Like I think I thought, andit's fine if it works.
But I think we live it a littletoo much.
When it comes down to the pointof, like, where am I supposed
to go with this?
Like there's when you askyourself a question of how much
longer can I do it.
It's not even so much aprophecy thing, it's just it's
(44:16):
almost like a self-reliance,Like I'm relying on myself to be
able to get myself through thiswith myself, right.
Like it's just kind of a crazycircle And're going to jump on
the 2024 Olympics here quick.
When you're training again, youhad good coaches, good support
system, things like that.
(44:36):
When you got down to brasstacks and you get into the gym,
wherever you're competing at atthe competition, is there a
switch for you?
Is there a switch that doesturn off at some point, where
it's like the, the sound is notthere.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
All you see is the person in front of you and it's
like kind of goes by, becauseliam just told me the other day
like he doesn't remember most ofhis matches when he wrestles I
remember my matches, but there'sdefinitely I'm a much better uh
competitor than I like Icompete better than I train, in
my opinion, and so really for meand my support staff, coaching
(45:14):
staff everyone knew this aboutme Like we just got to get her
to the competition and we'll beokay, and so a lot of it.
As soon as I got on that planeto leave for a competition, it
was like like a weight hadfallen off me.
I was light, I was happy, I wasexcited.
Everyone was like Whoa, thisgirl is weeping on the floor Now
(45:35):
with that said.
Like I said, I cried the daybefore the Olympics those waves,
but for the most part I feelexponentially better Like the
week of a competition versuslike a month out from a
competition.
I am miserable and sufferable.
I I want to quit.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
I want to.
I want to reach out to you amonth before you compete again.
I won't respond.
Let's see where you're at andbe like hey, just checking in,
we want to go through this withdon't you don't want to talk to
me?
we got, um, we get to a pointnow where we're at the olympics,
(46:14):
the 2024 olympics what justgetting there right, right, that
that's a big deal, you know.
But you've been in, you made anolympic team before.
All things like that with theolympics and and the weight and
just the dreams that a kid has,right, just to just thinking of
it as a kid, like I'm gonna goto the olympics one day and I'm
gonna you see all the podiumpictures and things like that.
(46:34):
But you wind up there, right,and you, like you said, you're,
you're losing your mind, kind ofthing it.
But once, once you're there andyou're inside and you're
smelling the whatever it is thatthey had over there in Paris.
I don't know, who knows whatthey're cooking.
What was that life like, livingin that?
Because you're already nervousright Now.
(46:54):
You're kind of.
You still have competitors thatare USA competitors.
It's not like you're alone oranything like that, but you're
kind of alone, right.
I mean, you're sitting there inbed on those cardboard ass beds
that they had for you guys.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
No, so exactly they were cardboard beds, which they
were hard.
You know it was a crazy, sowe're lucky.
So we were actually in thevillage for about maybe like
four days when we first gotthere and that's with everybody,
all the sports, all the teams.
(47:27):
It's very chaotic, but I wasreally kind of letting myself
experience it.
I didn't get to experience itat Tokyo because of COVID.
We were at the end of theOlympics, so we still had a lot
of time.
So I was just like, can you bepresent with this day and just
(47:48):
enjoy it?
And you know it was hard.
I remember we were all atpractice.
It was us and men's freestyleteam and everyone's just messing
around like having a good time,and I was not having it.
Like I just start crying, I'mlike we need to train.
And actually Kyle Dake, I likecrying to him.
He's like a good friend of mineand he's like we need to train.
And actually Kyle Dake, I likecrying to him.
He's like a good friend of mineand he's like okay, fine, We'll
(48:10):
put you through this likestance and motion workout.
This poor man is like trying toput me through something
serious.
He's, of course, cool as acucumber, Everyone's cool as a
cucumber.
I'm crying, so I will notforget that moment of just like
talk about good team, Likepeople around me.
(48:35):
They're like okay, well, youknow he helps me those stuff
like that, leaning on peoplelike that, and then, um, we left
for normandy after the firstfour days.
So, oh, that's right, and thatwas amazing, it was so great
right off the beach, it wasabsolutely, and that's where we
were training, where it was justthe wrestling usa wrestling
team and so, and then we cameback and I competed about three
days after we got back to parisand at that point we did not
(48:57):
stay at the village, we stayedin a hotel, um, so again, I was
not around my competitor much,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
So when you, when you talk about like the, the living
because again, I'm justthinking about you right as the,
as the mental side of it, andyou're already kind of, you're
breaking down a little bit, andthings like that I'd be nervous
too, like I was.
I was nervous when I made myfirst olympic development team
at like 13.
I thought I was gonna crap mypants like because I don't, I'm
not that good guys like I.
I don't understand why I'm here, you know.
(49:27):
So, yeah, I know, right,they're going to see me for who
I am.
This is terrible People aregoing to laugh at me.
Yeah, yeah, I thought I wasgoing to fail.
But you're in this foreign land, right You're?
You're surrounded by probablythe best thing, that areas
probably mcdonald's, because godknows what they bring in that
that olympic, uh, that olympiccenter.
(49:48):
But with the, you know, you gotthe guys that were kind of
helping you out, you got alittle bit of a workout.
You go into the first match.
How did you feel after thefirst match?
Did you feel after the firstmatch like the weight was gone,
kind of lifted from you a littlebit?
Speaker 3 (50:01):
I was free as a bird it was really it was amazing
feeling.
I was it.
I you know, especially becausethe first match, the first round
of my weight class was huge.
So, like the Japanese woman,yui Sasaki goes down in the
first round, she's never lost aninternational match ever.
And you know, won the Olympics,won all the world championships
(50:23):
in between, um the heavyfavorite, and so that happened
in the first round, yep.
So I had to maintain a sense ofcomposure while everything
around me was kind of like itturned up the intensity in the
tournament.
Some it was like, oh my god,now you really can't mess up.
You really can't mess upbecause now there's, you know,
look, this field has opened upin a way.
No one in your way, yeah,exactly.
(50:45):
And so there was a quote now,but I was in such a it's almost
dreamlike looking back.
I I was very present, I wasvery open to just enjoying the
experience.
I I remember not being able tofeel like sometimes you go into
a competition you're like, oh, Ifeel like I'm gonna win.
Or sometimes you're like I'mnervous I might lose, or it
(51:07):
doesn't dictate the outcomeusually, but like you have an
inkling of what you feel.
Like I could not see the end ofany of my wrestling matches
like I could just see myselfwrestling and that.
And it was like I had nofeeling, I had no desire of
winning, I had no scared likeafraidness of losing.
Like it was so much justpresent moment wrestling, that
(51:28):
like winning and losing feltlike such a faraway concept even
in the midst of all of thatwhich, looking back on it even
now, I'm like, how yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
So it's funny that you mentioned that, because I
was actually just going to askyou like, when you're middle of
these matches, are you?
Do you freak out in the middleof the match, like in your head?
Obviously you're not lookingover your coach like what are we
gonna do, but like in your head, where I do, did you have
moments?
But it sounds like you didn't.
It sounds like after that firstmatch things kind of went away
a little bit and you're a littlemore comfortable in your skin.
I mean, you'd already done somuch, right, like, but it was
(52:04):
the pinnacle.
It's the pinnacle.
It's this is what you guys havebeen striving to do forever,
since tiny kids, since whateveryou know.
So just kind of knowing andhearing you say that you know I,
after I got it, you know, intothat match, knew that after the,
the outcome, I just had tocompose myself and you seem like
you held together.
Now, when you won dude the, theexpressions on your face, like
(52:26):
watching you celebrate at theend, was classic.
It was awesome.
You're living in, like you justsaid, you're living in the
moment, right, you're doing whatyou wanted to do and you're
doing and you're happy doing it.
So when you got.
Tell me about the last, I don'tknow last few seconds or last
like 10 seconds of a match.
What were you starting to thinkalready?
(52:46):
Once you're looking at theclock, you're like I got this.
Like this is mine, like I gotthis you can't even touch me now
, right, like how, how did you,how did that roll out for you in
that last match?
Speaker 3 (52:57):
you know, it's really , it was really strange.
It was, uh, I could have sat inthat five set.
I remember I looked at theclock.
There was six seconds left andI was like, oh my god, I won,
like I just won the Olympics,and there was so much elation
and joy.
But there was like a weirdmelancholy to it that it was
like done and I was like no, no,don't be over.
(53:17):
Like this is so fun.
This is such an amazingadventure, this is such a just
insane experience in its tickingdown like six, I'm like stop,
stop.
Like, and I, I couldn't get outthere and that's seconds
forever and like you know, youknow, thankfully it actually did
feel like it kicked very slowlyby, but I it was such a strange
(53:41):
mixture of emotion because itwas pure I've reached this goal
that I've had most of my lifeand then there was also this
well, that means it's it's doneand like it's such a weird thing
about that other side.
So you know, of course, thebuzzer sounds, the sadness is
gone, you're like, yeah, but Iremember feeling that like weird
(54:05):
melancholy with it of like, oh,my god, I just don't anticipate
feeling any negative emotions,right, something like that.
But sure enough, of course,emotions will emotion.
Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah yeah, right, exactly, start running around
looking for like an exhibitionmatch.
Hey, anybody else want towrestle quick?
Yeah, I don't want this to bedone yet the hour-long match,
please.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
I'll live here forever that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
So and like I said, it was really fun being able to
watch you at that.
And don't get me wrong, likeeverybody has, you know
everybody's excited at the end,but like watching you, it just
felt like it was like I fuckingfinally did it.
This is it.
I love it you know, like justthe look on your face.
You're even the picture thatyou sent me.
I mean, everybody behind you isjust excited.
They're as excited as you wereand that all those feelings came
(54:52):
out and you get you.
You get, like, certain guysthat get interviews.
They get a little.
Maybe they get a little sappyat the end when they're
interviewed, kind of thing.
But like it was just kind offun being able to watch you
celebrate, because it felt likewe could feel that celebration
as well.
So that was awesome thanks,yeah, that no.
Speaker 3 (55:10):
It was truly one of the moments.
You're just like I.
I don't know how anybodycomposes themselves up there I
I've had so many people tell methey're like oh, it's so nice to
see you, like just completelyexpressing yourself.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
I'm like how someone composes themselves I have a
picture of me because I triedwrestling when I was like 32,
again 33, in an outsidetournament, and I think I still
got a medal, even though Ishouldn't have, because it was a
it was like a local, like youthkind of tournament thing and
they just let old guys sign upfor it, and I remember, sitting
on the I don't think I'd evergotten a medal as a youth right,
(55:44):
I sucked, I was terrible.
And then, yeah, right, right, Igot up on the podium for for
this old guys tournament kind ofthing.
I'm like I think I was excitedabout that.
I was like I got a fuckingmedal.
This is so cool.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
I love that.
You should be excited aboutthat.
Like just those things man likecelebrate, whatever it is.
Oh gosh, I'm such a fan ofover-celebrating.
Speaker 2 (56:09):
Right, right, right, exactly.
So I mean that was the bestthing, like I said, of watching
everything about.
I mean, obviously it was funwatching you win, but, like, at
the end it was just like she isliving in the moment, entirely
right there.
So cool, so cool.
So we've been going for aboutan hour.
A lot of times we go for allkinds of crazy amounts of times
we we rattled through, but wealso know that you're dealing
(56:29):
with a charger issue.
That's true so so we don't wantto.
We don't want anything dyingCause I tell you this much, I
had Sri on on a couple of times.
I actually had my computerunplugged for one of them and
just lost the whole episode andstart over, yeah, and had to
start over, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was crazy, but heunderstood, he was fine.
He's going to come back, but itwas a little different.
(56:50):
We don't want to have any dying, but I appreciate you taking
the time out and sitting andtalking with us, sarah, it's
been awesome.
Yeah, any time, actually,before we even leave.
Do you have any shout outs?
Speaker 3 (57:04):
Oh my God.
Well then we'll be on for anhour, but oh my gosh, shout out
Seriously, just to anybody who'ssupported and just cheered me
on along the way.
Seriously, I am so grateful forjust all the relationships I've
built in this sport, and thatincludes people that I haven't
even met, who have just like Ijust feel the love and it's a
cool thing and I'm just gratefulfor it all and it's a cool
(57:26):
thing and I'm just grateful forit all, so thanks for listening
to me Blab.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, and you gained my wife.
She said I think she's myfavorite guest.
Oh, yay, thank you, my wife haschimed in and giving you the
approval.
So that's even better.
Yeah, so what do you havecoming up next?
Anything coming up.
Are you training for anything?
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (57:50):
I'm not training right now, really, I mean you
know I said that as I also justcame to this interview after
practice, but uh, it doesn'tfeel like training yeah, it's
fine I'm lying, it's fun yeah Ihave to convince myself.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
No yeah, because you didn't leave your shoes in the
middle, or nothing.
So what do you?
Do you have plans of competing?
Speaker 3 (58:07):
next, I don't know.
I'm going to just kind of keepI am hungry, for I can't make
the decision to retire withouthaving had some other
perspective.
So I want to kind of I'm hungryfor some perspective here, and
I don't know if I'm going to getthat by continuously competing.
With that said, I don't, Imight come back to being I don't
(58:28):
know, but I do know I need someperspective and I need some
life lessons in a differentAvenue, and so I'm going to pump
the brakes on competing justfor a little bit, get some
clarity and go from there.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
A little clarity, okay.
Well, I'm going to talk to youfor just a second once we're
done here, but we're going tolet the folks go.
I appreciate everybody tuningin.
It's been Sarah Hildebrandt,man, olympic gold medalist.
This has been a greatconversation.
Thank you very much.
So anybody, if you haven't, gocheck her out on Instagram.
I believe you're on some othersocials too, but go check her
(59:03):
out, man.
I mean, she's got some prettydecent perspective when it comes
to just girls wrestling andathletics in general.
So check her out, sarah.
It's been awesome.
We are going to tell the folksthat.
We're going to tell the folksgoodbye, so peace.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Bye, thank you everyone.
Speaker 2 (59:23):
And it.
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