August 16, 2025 • 15 mins
Kiwi cyclist Sammie Maxwell has had a breakout 2025 season, and she's opened up about her results.
She's proud of her recent races, especially her UCI Mountain Bike World Cup win.
She joined Piney to discuss further.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks, edb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Elite, Key we Munt and Biker. Sammy Maxwell currently leads
the UCI World Cup rankings in the Cross Country Olympic
Women's Elite following her win in the last event in Andorra.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's been Maxwell her very very best. Samarah Maxwell text
for win in Para and Sala and Dora.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
What a performance, brilliant performance from Sammy Maxwell who joins us.
Now it's been a month since that, Sammy. An incredible
victory really in that event in Andorra, given the fact
that you had two crashes during that race and a puncture,
so getting up to win. Where does that result rank
among your race victories given the circumstances it came in.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Yeah, I was on another recent interview and I was saying,
that's probably one of the proudest races I've done, not
because necessaria the result or you know, the glory. I
guess that everyone has kind of made it out to be,
but because of well, two reasons really. The first one
was when I won in Brazil at the start of
the season, I said I want to be sustainable, like
(01:19):
that's my goal. I want to be winning at the
end of the season, so to sort of win in
April and then again and sip August.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Kind of around. Then it's kind of really.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Important for me just to prove to myself and to
others that I'm doing it in a way that's really
sustainable my body can keep performing. So yeah, that was
really important for me. And then the second reason was
just because it was such a shit show out there,
and I honestly had a moment where I was like,
I could I could pack a wally right now, like
(01:53):
I could throw my toys out of the cot or
just kind of keep pushing, and I just the throwing
attention just didn't even like occur to me, and I
was like, well, it's that's not going to help me
get to the finish line. Like I can either race
and keep crashing but enjoy it, or I can race
and not enjoy it and then just get to the
(02:13):
finish line sad.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
I was like, well, what I want to do that?
So yeah, I was pretty happy.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
With the mentality of myself and my composure. I've come
a long way from under twenty threes, and so yeah,
that was cool to see.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, you certainly have. I mean, how much has the
way you deal with setbacks changed in the last couple
of years.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, so much.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
I think a lot of as to do with just
general confidence and my ability.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
I've read a few like.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Books on like mental resilience and stuff like that, and
it's like a really cool saying that always has stuck
with me, And it's like, confidence doesn't come from standing
in the mirror telling yourself positive affirmations. Confidence comes from
getting out there and actually having irresputable evidence.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
That you can do something right.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
So it's kind of it's not fair to expect under
nineteen and junior writers from New Zealand to go and
have genuine confidence themselves because they haven't been able to
race over in Europe. So I think for me, it
took a while to learn that I'm I'm going to
be a bit chaotic and it's going to take a
few years for me to gain genuine confidence.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
But I kind of just took it slowly and just
accepted that.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
And now I'm been racing overseas for a few years,
I can have that genuine confidence. But but yeah, I
think it's been super important just to helping me keep
composed I mean last year, my first Elite race, I
literally crashed in the first corner and took out my teammate.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
So we've cover we raceince then.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Absolutely, it's all all on the up from that. You're leading,
you're leading the series by four hundred and forty five points,
but that's all relative of course to how many points
are available in each event. So exactly it feels like
it's four hundred and forty five points a comfortable lead
or not.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
You're not really oh not really no, because each round
you can win three hundred and thirty points.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Right, So all it takes.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
And it's mountain biking, right, Like you have Matthew Vanderpelt,
one of the best cyclists in the world, coming to
a mountain bike race and not finishing. So if I
go to a weekend and I get and I don't finish,
I get a mechanical or I crash out, there's three
hundred and thirty points.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
That I lose to the winner, do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
So it's definitely not comfortable by any means. But yeah,
it's still a long season. We're still halfway through. I
was just realized we've done six races and we have
five left, so it's a long season.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
So there's a long way to go still.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And so you're currently coming towards the end. I think
of a six week break between events and understand you've
spent time in an altitude camp in the Pyrenees. So
what did that consist of and how beneficial has it been.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Well, I'm still up at altitude. So we came up
last week and it's been really tough.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Actually, so it's my first altitude camp and anyone that's
done altitude knows the biggest, biggest concern and threat is
to cook yourself basically, and the way I like to
train is very, very aggressive.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I like to push my body, and it's been.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Something I can my body could cope with when I
was at low altitude, when recovery was better, but coming
up to high altitude after a week.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
We we're really lucky the team.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
We have medical data I guess supplied and monitoring us
every night while we sleep.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
We have like hydration tests and oxygen saturation tests.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
And cardiac measures and every day to measure our recovery.
And by the end of the first week they go, Sammy,
you've like unadapted from altitude. Put You've put so much
stress on your body that your oxygen saturation is actually
like lower than when you arrived, and I was like,
oh wos, So I had to take a day off
(05:56):
and my body's starting to come right again. So it's
been pretty tough, but I think it's it's a good
It'll be good because I have some good support me
and some good people that know what they're doing. So
I think we've still got two weeks up here, so
I should should hopefully reap some rewards from that.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So ideally, what happens at the end of it? What
are the rewards of doing it?
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Essentially, basically you get more hemoglobin in your blood and
then you go back down altitude and the air just
feels like you're breathing soup, like it's just so much
oxygen and your body is just yeah, love and life
a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
More love it. So you said five more events? Is
that four more World Cups Cup events and the World
Champs or is the World Champs separate again?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Mate, you've done your research. I'm I'm pressed.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So the World Champs is part of the sorry, the
World Champs is part of the whole thing? Or is
that separate again? To win it.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
It's just that, Yeah, that's just the way the athletes think. Really,
you have your World Cup and then you've got your
one World Champs, so you've got five races.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Brilliant, so you could win the series after four more
World Cup events all going well, you could you could
win this man, that would be so cool. And I
understand your parents are coming to watch you compete now.
Is this going to be the first time they've seen
you compete outside of New Zealand?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
I think even these days, we were lucky this year
Nationals wasn't all to do, so they came and watched.
But normally Nationals and Oshi's are in christ Church or
Queenstown or whatever, and they don't even they can't even
like come watch me race for that just with work
and travel and commitment. And I'm a big girl now
so I don't need them to help carry my bags
for the airport. So yeah, they have probably seen me
(07:39):
race honestly twice every two years, so it's kind of
funny and cool to be able to have them come
watch me race. But I'm just mostly excited to be
able to share Marzine, my European base with them, take
them up to the lake and show them around the town,
and just like, what my life is like over here?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Really excited?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
What is your life like over there outside of all
of the training and competing that you do.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Yeah, it's not It's funny.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
I always thought been an athlete be like so chill,
what you ride your bike for a few hours a
day and then what you just get a message. But
now that I'm here, it's so heictic. Like I guess,
I like to put a lot on my plate with
studying as well. I do like French courses online at
the moment. But yeah, a lot of time goes into training, recovery,
(08:30):
preparing for your training, just managing like levels, doing lots
of like monitoring. I do a lot of like journaling
and stuff which helps with my head. But yeah, I'm
pretty pretty pretty happy in the sense that I'm getting
out of stage now where I can just go out
(08:50):
for like four or five hours and I just design
like a really nice slope through the French Alps or
the Pyrenees, and I'm just so happy. You know. You'd
come back at like three o'clock in the afternoon and.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Have some lunch and then have some more food.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I actually think we probably spend half our day eating
athletes honestly.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, but it's hard, right, It's hard, man, I mean
you know physically mentally, this is challenging. It ain't just
to ride through the through the mountains and a nice
three o'clock last.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
It's hard, right, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, I guess the I
think as an athlete, for us, the hardest thing is like, well,
for me anyway, the thing I struggle most with is
like the uncertainty.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Of how I'm going to perform every day.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Imagine like every day you go to work and you
have like someone saying you have to do forty papers today,
or like you have and like every day we are
like measuring ourselves our progress. Every day we have a
standard we have to reach, and then we have a
standard that we have expected ourselves that we have to reach.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
So like, especially on days where you have intervals, it's
like a race day every day.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
So yeah, I think that's just the biggest thing is
like that, that uncertainty of that will you achieve your
goal today? It's quite tiring in some aspects. But the
more I do it, Yeah, the more I do it,
the more I'm learning. That there is variability and it
sometimes well there's always a reason why you can't hit
your numbers or why you can't execute a training, and
that just means you have to rest a bit more.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
And yeah, maybe.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
You would have liked to been able to do a
good session, but there is a way to fix it, right,
You've just got to not be silly and put your
head in the sand and keep pushing.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
You've got to listen to your body and take a
bit of a break.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But yeah, so mean, you've been really open about your
eating disorder and its effect on your performances, and you
talked about sustainability at the start of our chat, and
I've heard you talk about wanting to perform over a
sustained period and being able to do that. Can you
tell us about the support you've received and the strategies
you've employed to do that.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yeah. Sure, I work with the NZET eating Disorder CONNICS.
So there's doctor Roge, and then I have a nutritionist,
a new nutralist actually at the moment, and a psychologist Hink,
and I work with Hink probably every two weeks.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Oh no, yeah, every two weeks at the moment.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Just kind of chickens it's really hard to do full
anorexia therapy while I'm overseas, but we have been employing
some basic like I said, some basic journaling, doing lots
of like mindfulness and stuff has been really helpful with
my emotions. But yeah, a big important part of me
(11:37):
is just monitoring my health at the moment, Like you say,
sustainability is super important.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
And actually coming up here to altitude, it's been quite
interesting and challenging kind of, I.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Guess some of those aspects, like you have to take
it a bit easier on those first few days because
your body's working harder, and that's shown kind of how
my my eating disorder.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Would use sports as a way to earn food or
something like that.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
So coming up here has been super interesting and showing
different ways which my my eating disorder presents itself. But yeah,
I've been seeking therapy for two years now and I
think it's the best choice I've made. I honestly don't
think I would be where I was right now if
I hadn't started therapy, And for sure, it's a long process,
(12:22):
but I'm I know it's the right thing to do,
do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
And does success on the bike necessarily a quite to
success off the bike in that regard.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
No, no way, not at all.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
No, I've found the last yeah around and Dora and
the last few weeks have actually been really tough, like
mentally with my eating disorder, and I think it's quite
interesting to come to terms with the fact that on
the start line and after the races, I can be
like super positive, super happy, and then an hour later
(12:57):
I'm like in my bedroom freaking out because I have
like some sort of food in front of it. That's scary.
And it's been quite hard like functioning quite a lot
of quartersole and stuff like that, right, food sething I
can't avoid. And I think a lot of that do
with just the last few years taking my kid out
of the sand and accept that there is a problem
and that comes with having to do some work to
(13:19):
fix the problem.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
So there's it's been quite challenging.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
But yeah, just because I'm successful on the bike doesn't
always I mean I'm successful off.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
The bike, but the other way around definitely correlates.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
So if I'm successful off the bike, it's when I'm
most successful on the bike, for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Incredible insight just to finish Olympic debut last year in Paris.
Of course, I know this is a long term but
do you have your eyes on LA twenty twenty eight
or no?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Oh yeah, man, yeah, every the cycling world basically it's
quite interesting. It doesn't seem like it from the outside,
I guess, but the cycling world revolves around four year
Olympic cycles, so you know, you'll have lots of people
signing teams until the next Olympic cycle, or sponsors will
signed until the next Olympic cycle.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
So the reason we're up here at altitude this year
is because we're doing, like I was saying, all the
medical tests so we can really accurately see how our
body adapts to altitude, so we know how to employ
it when it comes to twenty twenty eight. We give
ourselves all the data this.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Year, we try with it next year, and then we
nail it in twenty twenty eight. And there's lots of
things planned for this year and next year that are
all dedicated to being the best, strongest Sammy when it
comes to twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well, it's been a great twenty twenty five for you,
so far more to come, I'm sure. And then onwards
throughout the rest of the cycle. Sammy, It's been such
a delight to chat. Yeah, thanks for being so generous
with your time. I really appreciate you taking the taking.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
The callis thanks mate.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Thank you, Sammy. Sammy Maxwell there pretty special human being,
elite key we mountain biker. She has the lead currently
in the UCI World Cup rankings in the cross Country
Olympic Women's Elite and always so authentic, always so open,
Always such a pleasure to chat to Sammy Maxwell.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, Listen live
to news talks at b Weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks, edb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Elite, Key we Munt and Biker. Sammy Maxwell currently leads
the UCI World Cup rankings in the Cross Country Olympic
Women's Elite following her win in the last event in Andorra.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's been Maxwell her very very best. Samarah Maxwell text
for win in Para and Sala and Dora.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
What a performance, brilliant performance from Sammy Maxwell who joins us.
Now it's been a month since that, Sammy. An incredible
victory really in that event in Andorra, given the fact
that you had two crashes during that race and a puncture,
so getting up to win. Where does that result rank
among your race victories given the circumstances it came in.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Yeah, I was on another recent interview and I was saying,
that's probably one of the proudest races I've done, not
because necessaria the result or you know, the glory. I
guess that everyone has kind of made it out to be,
but because of well, two reasons really. The first one
was when I won in Brazil at the start of
the season, I said I want to be sustainable, like
(01:19):
that's my goal. I want to be winning at the
end of the season, so to sort of win in
April and then again and sip August.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Kind of around. Then it's kind of really.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Important for me just to prove to myself and to
others that I'm doing it in a way that's really
sustainable my body can keep performing. So yeah, that was
really important for me. And then the second reason was
just because it was such a shit show out there,
and I honestly had a moment where I was like,
I could I could pack a wally right now, like
(01:53):
I could throw my toys out of the cot or
just kind of keep pushing, and I just the throwing
attention just didn't even like occur to me, and I
was like, well, it's that's not going to help me
get to the finish line. Like I can either race
and keep crashing but enjoy it, or I can race
and not enjoy it and then just get to the
(02:13):
finish line sad.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
I was like, well, what I want to do that?
So yeah, I was pretty happy.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
With the mentality of myself and my composure. I've come
a long way from under twenty threes, and so yeah,
that was cool to see.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, you certainly have. I mean, how much has the
way you deal with setbacks changed in the last couple
of years.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, so much.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
I think a lot of as to do with just
general confidence and my ability.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
I've read a few like.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Books on like mental resilience and stuff like that, and
it's like a really cool saying that always has stuck
with me, And it's like, confidence doesn't come from standing
in the mirror telling yourself positive affirmations. Confidence comes from
getting out there and actually having irresputable evidence.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
That you can do something right.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
So it's kind of it's not fair to expect under
nineteen and junior writers from New Zealand to go and
have genuine confidence themselves because they haven't been able to
race over in Europe. So I think for me, it
took a while to learn that I'm I'm going to
be a bit chaotic and it's going to take a
few years for me to gain genuine confidence.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
But I kind of just took it slowly and just
accepted that.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
And now I'm been racing overseas for a few years,
I can have that genuine confidence. But but yeah, I
think it's been super important just to helping me keep
composed I mean last year, my first Elite race, I
literally crashed in the first corner and took out my teammate.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
So we've cover we raceince then.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Absolutely, it's all all on the up from that. You're leading,
you're leading the series by four hundred and forty five points,
but that's all relative of course to how many points
are available in each event. So exactly it feels like
it's four hundred and forty five points a comfortable lead
or not.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
You're not really oh not really no, because each round
you can win three hundred and thirty points.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Right, So all it takes.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
And it's mountain biking, right, Like you have Matthew Vanderpelt,
one of the best cyclists in the world, coming to
a mountain bike race and not finishing. So if I
go to a weekend and I get and I don't finish,
I get a mechanical or I crash out, there's three
hundred and thirty points.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
That I lose to the winner, do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
So it's definitely not comfortable by any means. But yeah,
it's still a long season. We're still halfway through. I
was just realized we've done six races and we have
five left, so it's a long season.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
So there's a long way to go still.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And so you're currently coming towards the end. I think
of a six week break between events and understand you've
spent time in an altitude camp in the Pyrenees. So
what did that consist of and how beneficial has it been.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Well, I'm still up at altitude. So we came up
last week and it's been really tough.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Actually, so it's my first altitude camp and anyone that's
done altitude knows the biggest, biggest concern and threat is
to cook yourself basically, and the way I like to
train is very, very aggressive.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I like to push my body, and it's been.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Something I can my body could cope with when I
was at low altitude, when recovery was better, but coming
up to high altitude after a week.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
We we're really lucky the team.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
We have medical data I guess supplied and monitoring us
every night while we sleep.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
We have like hydration tests and oxygen saturation tests.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
And cardiac measures and every day to measure our recovery.
And by the end of the first week they go, Sammy,
you've like unadapted from altitude. Put You've put so much
stress on your body that your oxygen saturation is actually
like lower than when you arrived, and I was like,
oh wos, So I had to take a day off
(05:56):
and my body's starting to come right again. So it's
been pretty tough, but I think it's it's a good
It'll be good because I have some good support me
and some good people that know what they're doing. So
I think we've still got two weeks up here, so
I should should hopefully reap some rewards from that.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So ideally, what happens at the end of it? What
are the rewards of doing it?
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Essentially, basically you get more hemoglobin in your blood and
then you go back down altitude and the air just
feels like you're breathing soup, like it's just so much
oxygen and your body is just yeah, love and life
a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
More love it. So you said five more events? Is
that four more World Cups Cup events and the World
Champs or is the World Champs separate again?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Mate, you've done your research. I'm I'm pressed.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So the World Champs is part of the sorry, the
World Champs is part of the whole thing? Or is
that separate again? To win it.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
It's just that, Yeah, that's just the way the athletes think. Really,
you have your World Cup and then you've got your
one World Champs, so you've got five races.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Brilliant, so you could win the series after four more
World Cup events all going well, you could you could
win this man, that would be so cool. And I
understand your parents are coming to watch you compete now.
Is this going to be the first time they've seen
you compete outside of New Zealand?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
I think even these days, we were lucky this year
Nationals wasn't all to do, so they came and watched.
But normally Nationals and Oshi's are in christ Church or
Queenstown or whatever, and they don't even they can't even
like come watch me race for that just with work
and travel and commitment. And I'm a big girl now
so I don't need them to help carry my bags
for the airport. So yeah, they have probably seen me
(07:39):
race honestly twice every two years, so it's kind of
funny and cool to be able to have them come
watch me race. But I'm just mostly excited to be
able to share Marzine, my European base with them, take
them up to the lake and show them around the town,
and just like, what my life is like over here?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Really excited?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
What is your life like over there outside of all
of the training and competing that you do.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Yeah, it's not It's funny.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
I always thought been an athlete be like so chill,
what you ride your bike for a few hours a
day and then what you just get a message. But
now that I'm here, it's so heictic. Like I guess,
I like to put a lot on my plate with
studying as well. I do like French courses online at
the moment. But yeah, a lot of time goes into training, recovery,
(08:30):
preparing for your training, just managing like levels, doing lots
of like monitoring. I do a lot of like journaling
and stuff which helps with my head. But yeah, I'm
pretty pretty pretty happy in the sense that I'm getting
out of stage now where I can just go out
(08:50):
for like four or five hours and I just design
like a really nice slope through the French Alps or
the Pyrenees, and I'm just so happy. You know. You'd
come back at like three o'clock in the afternoon and.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Have some lunch and then have some more food.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I actually think we probably spend half our day eating
athletes honestly.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, but it's hard, right, It's hard, man, I mean
you know physically mentally, this is challenging. It ain't just
to ride through the through the mountains and a nice
three o'clock last.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
It's hard, right, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, I guess the I
think as an athlete, for us, the hardest thing is like, well,
for me anyway, the thing I struggle most with is
like the uncertainty.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Of how I'm going to perform every day.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Imagine like every day you go to work and you
have like someone saying you have to do forty papers today,
or like you have and like every day we are
like measuring ourselves our progress. Every day we have a
standard we have to reach, and then we have a
standard that we have expected ourselves that we have to reach.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
So like, especially on days where you have intervals, it's
like a race day every day.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
So yeah, I think that's just the biggest thing is
like that, that uncertainty of that will you achieve your
goal today? It's quite tiring in some aspects. But the
more I do it, Yeah, the more I do it,
the more I'm learning. That there is variability and it
sometimes well there's always a reason why you can't hit
your numbers or why you can't execute a training, and
that just means you have to rest a bit more.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
And yeah, maybe.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
You would have liked to been able to do a
good session, but there is a way to fix it, right,
You've just got to not be silly and put your
head in the sand and keep pushing.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
You've got to listen to your body and take a
bit of a break.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But yeah, so mean, you've been really open about your
eating disorder and its effect on your performances, and you
talked about sustainability at the start of our chat, and
I've heard you talk about wanting to perform over a
sustained period and being able to do that. Can you
tell us about the support you've received and the strategies
you've employed to do that.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yeah. Sure, I work with the NZET eating Disorder CONNICS.
So there's doctor Roge, and then I have a nutritionist,
a new nutralist actually at the moment, and a psychologist Hink,
and I work with Hink probably every two weeks.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Oh no, yeah, every two weeks at the moment.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Just kind of chickens it's really hard to do full
anorexia therapy while I'm overseas, but we have been employing
some basic like I said, some basic journaling, doing lots
of like mindfulness and stuff has been really helpful with
my emotions. But yeah, a big important part of me
(11:37):
is just monitoring my health at the moment, Like you say,
sustainability is super important.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
And actually coming up here to altitude, it's been quite
interesting and challenging kind of, I.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Guess some of those aspects, like you have to take
it a bit easier on those first few days because
your body's working harder, and that's shown kind of how
my my eating disorder.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Would use sports as a way to earn food or
something like that.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
So coming up here has been super interesting and showing
different ways which my my eating disorder presents itself. But yeah,
I've been seeking therapy for two years now and I
think it's the best choice I've made. I honestly don't
think I would be where I was right now if
I hadn't started therapy, And for sure, it's a long process,
(12:22):
but I'm I know it's the right thing to do,
do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
And does success on the bike necessarily a quite to
success off the bike in that regard.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
No, no way, not at all.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
No, I've found the last yeah around and Dora and
the last few weeks have actually been really tough, like
mentally with my eating disorder, and I think it's quite
interesting to come to terms with the fact that on
the start line and after the races, I can be
like super positive, super happy, and then an hour later
(12:57):
I'm like in my bedroom freaking out because I have
like some sort of food in front of it. That's scary.
And it's been quite hard like functioning quite a lot
of quartersole and stuff like that, right, food sething I
can't avoid. And I think a lot of that do
with just the last few years taking my kid out
of the sand and accept that there is a problem
and that comes with having to do some work to
(13:19):
fix the problem.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
So there's it's been quite challenging.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
But yeah, just because I'm successful on the bike doesn't
always I mean I'm successful off.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
The bike, but the other way around definitely correlates.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
So if I'm successful off the bike, it's when I'm
most successful on the bike, for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Incredible insight just to finish Olympic debut last year in Paris.
Of course, I know this is a long term but
do you have your eyes on LA twenty twenty eight
or no?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Oh yeah, man, yeah, every the cycling world basically it's
quite interesting. It doesn't seem like it from the outside,
I guess, but the cycling world revolves around four year
Olympic cycles, so you know, you'll have lots of people
signing teams until the next Olympic cycle, or sponsors will
signed until the next Olympic cycle.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
So the reason we're up here at altitude this year
is because we're doing, like I was saying, all the
medical tests so we can really accurately see how our
body adapts to altitude, so we know how to employ
it when it comes to twenty twenty eight. We give
ourselves all the data this.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Year, we try with it next year, and then we
nail it in twenty twenty eight. And there's lots of
things planned for this year and next year that are
all dedicated to being the best, strongest Sammy when it
comes to twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well, it's been a great twenty twenty five for you,
so far more to come, I'm sure. And then onwards
throughout the rest of the cycle. Sammy, It's been such
a delight to chat. Yeah, thanks for being so generous
with your time. I really appreciate you taking the taking.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
The callis thanks mate.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Thank you, Sammy. Sammy Maxwell there pretty special human being,
elite key we mountain biker. She has the lead currently
in the UCI World Cup rankings in the cross Country
Olympic Women's Elite and always so authentic, always so open,
Always such a pleasure to chat to Sammy Maxwell.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, Listen live
to news talks at b Weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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