January 30, 2024 • 40 mins
Natasha Hastings has two Olympic medals on her resume as well as a number of NCAA and US titles. The sprinter became known as the 400M Diva while competing on the elite track and field squad at the University of South Carolina, where she also met Michelle. Natasha takes The Spin Chicks on a journey from her early days as a sprinter to her experiences in the professional ranks and with the U.S. Olympic team. Her story touches on the challenges, triumphs, and dedication required to reach the pinnacle of success in the highly competitive world of track and field. Off the track, Natasha continues her work as an Under Armour Ambassador. She has established herself as a role model for aspiring athletes, inspiring them not only through her achievements but also through her dedication, resilience, and commitment to excellence both on and off the track.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:09):
Hey Michelle, Hey Erica, HappyNew Year, Happy New Year, and
welcome to another episode of The spinChecks twenty twenty four. It's it's gonna
be our year. I'm telling youwe made it this far. I mean
we made it just f our podcastis a year old. At least solutally,
we're not on any top listening lists. But you know what, all
(00:31):
we can do nowhere to go butup. Maybe we need to do some
paid social Wait, you're gonna haveto tutor me on that, but listen,
it's been amazing. What a year. You know, we launched.
It was pretty much like Jack,our wonderful producer, shout out to Jack.
I think he said, girls getup to the diving board. I
(00:53):
think he just pushed us off.Us off. Well, he made us
do a lot of practice before wewere allowed to be pushed off the dive.
Nick kept asking me, My husbandkept saying, are you guys ever
going to record a real one?Like, yeah, I think so,
But Jack wants is to practice.We recorded a lot of real ones,
I know, but practice sometimes youjust got to get out there and do
(01:15):
it. And like you said,so many people have podcasts, why not
us? And I've been thrilled withjust some of the reaction. We've got
connections we've made with old friends butalso new people that we may not know
as well. But we've got sometopics that kind of relate to our sports
and pop culture theme that we're tryingto talk about here. So it's been
(01:36):
fun. Yeah, yeah, it'sbeen fun. So let's talk a little
bit about do you have a doyou do resolutions? Affirmations are? I
think I've read recently like eighty percentof the people are done with their resolution
by the third week of May.I mean, I'm sorry, the third
week of January. Where are youin that team resolution, team affirmation?
(01:57):
Where are you our team nothing?Just no, I'm probably team nothing.
I probably try to be consistent andhit resets and do different things. I
mean, look, January has alwaysbeen that month where like if you go
to a traditional gym, like everybody'sthere and it's all crowded and you're all
stressed out, like oh okay,and then you kind of settle in.
So I think for me, January, even though I don't go to a
traditional gym, you know, it'sjust a time to reset. And with
(02:22):
being in sports, you know,the seasons shift. But now, I
mean, you know, you stillhave like the national championship in January,
and there's a lot of things,so we still have football, yeah,
and then basketball comes quick and yeah, I mean it's and it's kind of
sports. You know. It usedto be when when volleyball was done in
(02:43):
November December, after the national championshipand you didn't really play again until August.
Well, now kids play beach andnow they also when teams train almost
year round and so they play otherschools in the spring. They don't count
towards their record, but they playin the tournaments and stuff, and that
wasn't the way it was. Andit's the same with a lot of sports.
(03:05):
Baseball plays falls games against other teams. Basketball, now those scrimmages they
used to have just practice against yourteam college basketball men's and women's and then
it was close practices and you couldn'ttalk about them. And now in the
last few years, at least thelast year or two, they've come up
with these fundraisers for different things,and so the game that would normally be
(03:31):
a closed scrimmage is in an openscrimmage. Like I think Illinois, I
can't remember who they played men's basketballKansas and Bill self went back to Illinois
and that was a fundraiser for Hawaiiand so it's kind of cool. Well,
I think definitely the seasons tend toblend together, definitely a little bit
(03:53):
more so there's not that hard like, oh, football's over now, this,
now, this, but January.I mean, I think the main
focus once you get through finishing justthe football, if you're still lucky enough
to be in it, just thefocus is on basketball. And there's you
know, some other sports that arecompeting track. Yes, so said they're
getting ready for baseball, softball.Then we got National Girls and Woman in
(04:15):
Sports Day February first Wednesday, Socan't forget that. That's like very important
holiday for me. So today inthis podcast, we're going to talk with
Natasha Hastings and I know she's beenon our list for a long time.
She is a former Gamecock. Ithink she's called the four hundred meter Diva
(04:39):
and that comes from the Gamecock Divas, and she is a two time gold
medalist. She won a gold intwo thousand and eight with the four x
four for the US and in twentysixteen and also win the four by four
and just to clarify to for thelisteners, because I'm also learning as I
go to But Michelle worked with anelite college track team in South Carolina,
(05:04):
and so she knows so many studentathletes and work very closely with them,
so to now kind of reconnect withthem in different times in the next chapter
of their lives. Like outside,a lot of them want to compete professionally,
but now they're doing other things andI really have enjoyed and so you
guys, you're going to be hearingI mean, we're going to be talking
(05:24):
to a lot of game Cock divas, but each one has their own story
and their life after college athletics,and I think they are all pretty wonderful.
So I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, she's really really an
amazing talent on the track and areally really interesting person off the track as
well. So I'm really excited foryou to meet Natasha. All right,
(05:46):
let's do it well, Erica.You know, we're always excited when we
have a Gamecock on, but nowwe've got a game Cock diva, So
welcome Natasha to the Spin Chicks.We're really excited to have you and jump
in and start talking about your career. I'm excited to be here to be
(06:08):
announced as a Gamecock Diva. Okay, looking forward to it. Yeah,
we've talked to don Ellerby, whowas probably the OG of the game Cock
Divas and she was a thrower.Now we're going to be talking with Natasha,
who is a sprinter and really excitedabout this conversation. So we're just
going to jump in because we've gota lot to cover with you. Because
(06:30):
you've got quite a career as acollegiate and professional runner. So what led
you to become to run track?What got you onto the podium? So
the start of it, I meanboth of my parents were in track,
my parents. I'm the first generationAmerican, so both of my parents came
(06:53):
to the States on athletic scholarships.The bit of their stories they met in
college on the track team. Butno, I just have memories of my
dad was a coach at their almamata, so I used to like go
to practice with him. They hadlike pictures of themselves running all over the
(07:14):
house. And my mom used totake me to a track meet that is
still being held called the Kogate Women'sGames that anyone could sign up for,
Like you don't have to be apart of a team. But one year,
which happened to be nineteen ninety six, my club coach, who would
have then coached me all the waythrough high school, discovered me. Which
(07:35):
there's also a funny story to that, but anyway, that's really how I
got into it, and it justkind of took off from there. All
right, now you have to tellus we got to know. So my
mom ran track. My mom rantrack in London, where she was born.
(07:57):
She lived there up until she wasthirteen, and then she moved back
to my grandparents' place of origin,which is Trinidad, and finished there before
moving to the States. So shetook me to this meet, the Koviate
Women's Games, and I ran,and I was a hot mess. I
used to go to a Catholic school. I ran, My bore my gym
(08:18):
uniform which was these big, uglyred shorts and a white polo shirt.
Anyway, a friend brings me andmy mom over to Sean London, who
would turn out to be my coach. And immediately my coach recognized my mom
from Trinidad, and then he lookeddown at me and he was like,
(08:39):
oh my god, I saw yourunning, and I said, she reminds
me of Joe Anne Gardner back tohome, and that was the story.
That's that was my coach up untilI graduated high school. And that's your
mom, my mom, true story. I didn't make any of that up,
but yeah, wow, Well,so so you've just since your has
(09:05):
just been in your DNA to beto be a runner. Can you tell
us a little bit about like themajor differences between running in college and running
as a professional. Well, runningin college, I had the likes of
Michelle Young, I was getting readyto you know, and the staff that
(09:28):
just took care of everything. AndI know we're going to talk about it
a little bit later, but that'sone of the things that I talk about
mostly working with kids now, thatlike everything is kind of laid out for
you, and then it's almost likeyou turn pro and you have to grow
up really quickly because you go frombeing a kid to being the CEO of
(09:50):
your business. Basically, you know, even though you have a coach,
it's your career. You're in chargeof your career. You're in charge of
how you perform. So it's nothingthat I don't think anyone could truly be
prepared for you know, you preparedin the sense that obviously you've done some
(10:11):
amazing things collegiately to then move onto the professional level. But the actual
business of being a professional athlete,I mean you again, you just kind
of end up in charge of thingsthat no one told you that you would
be in charge of, from payingyour coach, paying your massage therapists,
scheduling your massage therapists, finding youryour doctors, and all of the things
(10:35):
all on your own. So,yeah, you become the CEO of your
business overnight. Yeah. When wetalked to Alan Johnson, he told us
about how when he first started runningprofessionally, he would go someplace like in
Europe and people would look warmed upand stuff when they got to the track
and be like, hey, man, where'd you warm up? He's like,
go, it's warm up track aroundthe you know, around the way.
(10:56):
I guess you didn't. I guessyou don't know that. And you
know, nobody, you know,nobody wanted to tell them that kind of
stuff right out of the gate.It just kind of had to figure it
out. So you have some ofthose things too, where you'd go and
be like, how's everybody else lookso ready, I was just running out
there, you know. Yeah,yeah, I mean, and track is
like it's an individual sport for starters. I can say the landscape has changed
(11:20):
quite a bit, but I cameup in the era like people used to
ask me, like, so there'srumors that the four hundred girls don't really
get along, and I would justkind of smile and just be like,
I don't know what you're talking about. But there was a little bit of
truth to that. Not that Idon't want to say that we didn't get
along, but there were certainly rivalries, and you know, there's always like
(11:41):
you're trying to keep secrets because youdon't want to, you know, give
your competitor an edge. So Iwould say it was a lot less friendly
back in like the early mid twothousands than I would say they are now.
So yeah, I had some ofthat hazing maybe that Alan experienced as
well. Yeah, so I cantell you a little story when we were
(12:05):
at I think it was the twothousand and two at Texas, No,
maybe it wasn't even Texas Duke.It was at Duke, And you talk
about the four hundred meter girls maybenot getting along, there was some controversy
about the four by four. Idon't know if you if you knew this
story, but there was some controversyabout the four by four and they thought
(12:28):
somebody bumped somebody in Texas and SouthCarolina were always back of you remember this.
I don't think you were on thatteam. Well, I was still
in high school, but I remember. So the girls, the coaches go
in to the into the the protesttent and have to go watch video to
find out did somebody actually bump somebody? We won the relay, and I
(12:50):
think maybe Texas was second or something, and I know it was Texas,
and I know the specific girl,but I'm not going to call any names.
I'm not going to call any namethere because our girls. But so
they go in and so the sidTodd truly is really good friend of mine.
At Texas, all the sids alwayshung out together, and they the
coaches were all gone and it wasjust the sid and I stand in there
(13:11):
talking and all of a sudden,the two girls were kind of the two
groups the relays were sitting not realclose to each other, but close enough,
you know, probably ten fifteen feet. They start yelling at each other
and start really getting into it likethey're going to fight, and I'm like,
get your girls, Todd, andhe's like, you go get your
girls. And we both had to, like because nobody was there except for
(13:35):
the two of us, just hangingout waiting to find out, you know,
what's going to happen. And youknow, we're like, you guys,
got quiet down and you know,had to pull our girls away,
and they pulled their girl and youknow, we South Carolina and Texas at
that time, we didn't never reallyget into it with LSU, but South
Texas, Oh yeah, we hada big rivalry. Yeah, that kind
of came along into my class aswell. But I can assure you all
(14:01):
of the ladies mentioned we now allget along. We're now all great.
But yes, things got very tense. Yeah, yeah, when you're talking
about all the tents, like Ithink from an average fan like me,
not necessarily being behind the scenes,I mean, can you tell me a
little bit about some of the joyslike you have quite I mean, you're
(14:22):
a champion through and through, socan you tell us maybe about that that
moment when you crossed the finish lineand just being a champion and kind of
what that felt like in the midstof you know, all these other things
that you're dealing with as being astudent athlete. I wish I could tell
you more. I say that becauseI think part of being a champion and
(14:48):
training to the level that we trained, or the level of expectation that we
had for ourselves, that I reallywish. Let me speak for myself,
I really wish that I would havetaken the time to celebrate more than I
I think. I mean, Iknew that like, Okay, my junior
(15:09):
year was the best year of mycollegiate run where you know, I was
undefeated. I won both indoor andoutdoor national set the collegiate records, and
I remember my mom was the onewho actually came and told me, like
coach Fry said, you have togo, like there's nothing else left for
you to do here, You've gotto go pro, right. But I
(15:33):
don't remember celebrating any of those things. I remember like, this is what
I've got to do. I'm workingreally hard to accomplish these things. Anything
less wasn't a thought, Like youknow when you hear athletes talk about like
being completely bought in and like there'sif if you're even thinking about a plan
(15:56):
B means that you're not like boughtinto what the man is and what the
goal is. Like I was trulythat athlete. So you know, it
was halfway through my professional career thatI kind of had an awakening where I
was like, wait a minute,this isn't this isn't right, and now
something that I hope to change forothers. But I mean again, I
(16:17):
got halfway through my career and Istill to this day couldn't tell you how
many medals I have. I knowhow many Olympic medals I have, but
the rest of them I don't knowbecause it was always just like, Okay,
this is the standard, this iswhat I have to do. I
did my job onto the next nextyear. I got to make sure I'm
on the team. I got tomake sure I still have my contract.
So I wish I had a betteranswer for that, because I do realize
(16:38):
how unfortunate that is, but it'smy truth. Well, when you talk
about the Olympic medals, then justamazing to have won, but then more
than one, I mean, isthat the moment when you can you tell
us more about that? Were youeven at that time when you were on
that podium, was it ever,just a feeling of I did this,
(17:00):
achieve this, and just reveling inthat a little bit. Yeah so the
first time, no, the secondtime yes, so the first time and
a bit of both of them.Again hard to put into words, right
because I started running track and orI joined a team in nineteen ninety six.
Nineteen ninety six was also the yearthat the Olympics were here in Atlanta,
(17:23):
So that was like my introduction toGail devers Ato Bolden, Michael Johnson
JJK, like, oh, thisis a thing that I could go to
the Olympics and like like that's wherethat all started for me, right,
So to get to the Olympics andlike live your dream. No, I
can't put that into words. Thebest description that I can give you is
(17:51):
going out into Beijing, which Beijingwas sold out like their production. I
remember being in Beijing at the openingStone ceremony and knowing the next games we're
going to be in London, wheremy mom is from. She hasn't been
back since she left, Like sothe dream of like taking my mom to
London. But I remember standing theresaying like how is London gonna top this?
(18:14):
Like the Olympics in Beijing. Theirshowmanship was just a walk in the
opening ceremonies I did. How coolwas I mean? That was spring of
fire and the guy running around likeit was just beyond right. So it's
time for me to go run.And my good friend Karen Clement, he
(18:37):
walks by and he says to me, he says, Natasha, whatever you
do, just don't look into thestings. So what do I do when
I go out into the stadium?Yeah, I mean, how could you
not? Right? But I meanagain, it was truly a dream come
true, but also bittersweet, bittersweet in that like, yes, I
(19:03):
won my first gold medal, butalso like it was on a relay.
I wasn't competing individually. I onlyran in the preliminary round. I felt
like I was cheated out of thefinal round. But also a moment where
like I remember sitting in the standswatching the Usain Bolte hundred meter final and
just looking at like everyone around megoing crazy, and just sitting there like
(19:26):
thinking like oh my gosh, likethis is amazing, Like how did I
get here? How am I livingthis right? How am I a part
of this history? But that's reallyall I remember. I didn't do any
sight seeing. I stayed in theOlympic village, was super focused on competing,
(19:47):
didn't attend to any other events.I did the opening ceremony, didn't
do the closing ceremony, like mymemories are very limited. Missed the twenty
twelve Olympics by one spot. Sowhen I got to Rio, I was
thirty years old, unsure if like, is this going to be my last
one? Grizzled in the individual eventas well, and I was more cognizant
(20:12):
of like, you have to makememories. Heier, you have to,
you know, spend time with yourteammates, go sightseeing, go to other
events. So there are two verydifferent experiences because of where I was in
my life, like twenty to thirty, and then of course, you know,
being able to compete in the individualand the relay. But it was
(20:37):
it's literally like living your dream,like and who gets to say that.
So let's talk a little bit aboutthe differences between running individually and running on
a relay, because I know alot about tracks, so I could I
know that, but Erica doesn't,and I'm sure a lot of our listeners.
So what's the difference between, youknow, especially We'll look at twenty
sixteen where you ran as an individualwell and ran on the relay. How
(21:03):
difficult is that or is it justI'm used to running relays because I did
this in college, So this isjust what we do. Yeah, I
think for one thousand percent certain SouthCarolina set me up for greatness with relays,
Like we just coach coach. Youknow, Don ran the four by
four. Everybody that is a gamecop runs the four by four, whether
(21:26):
you're a thrower jumper, he didn'tcare. Everybody's going to do it at
least once. I think the uniquething, pardon me, the unique thing
about the four hundred also goes backto what we were talking about before,
where we spend the whole season beingcompetitors, right, we're even competing to
(21:48):
make that relay team. And thenonce you make the relay team, you
now have to come together and forgetall of that and the teammates challenging.
So what are the relay camps?Like, you go to relay camps,
right, what is and talk aboutthat that? I think that's something Eric
and I have talked about that we'rereally excited to hear about the relay camps
(22:11):
because you're right. You know,you've got these two Texas and South Carolina
and then you go to a campand now you're like, oh, I'm
handing the stick to that girl,So what is that like? The same?
And you know, Team USA.I like to give Team USA props
like we are the number one teamin the world. They do everything to
(22:34):
lay the red carpet out to setus up for a greatness. So you
know, where other countries have timethroughout the season to run their relays all
season long, they're not as deepas US, so you really can't predict
who is going to be on therelay as well. So Team USA typically
(22:56):
about two weeks before the championships,whether it's the Olympics or the World Championships,
will go out to maybe not thecity where the games are being held,
but somewhere close enough in the timezone for us to get adjusted to
the time, but also to practicethose relay handoffs four by one and four
(23:17):
by four. Other athletes are allowedto come as well, for you know,
to get adjusted to the time,but it's mandatory for the relays.
And it's interesting because you know,it's you've got the stress of the individual
athletes that are preparing for their individualevents, right, and then you also
(23:37):
have the athletes who are there specificallyfor the relay that the individual athletes kind
of know, like my spot onthe relay, I get preference choice,
like I'm for sure on the relay, But if you're just a relay alternate,
you're also there kind of competing forthat spot, right, And so
there's a lot of competing different issueshappening all at once. Also throw in
(24:04):
coaches politics, it can get alittle agents agents, agents, agents,
I'll just keep saying agents every oncein a while for you. Yeah,
it can get a little spicy,dicey all the things. But I mean,
all things considered, I don't thinkthat we have the the run and
(24:26):
the history and the records that wehave by chance. Like you know,
again we are the number one team. You could sometimes throw any four out
there and you know, we knowor we have a pretty strong chance of
coming home with gold. But itcan get kind of interesting. Well how
(24:51):
did you get the nickname four hundredmeta Diva? So freshman year, Michelle
asked me, first of all,we were going to pen relays. Look
at Michelle's like, oh my heye, when did she they remember things like
Michelle asked me, and I'm like, what did I ask you? God
knows what I asked you. Sowe were going to pen relays. I
(25:15):
am originally from New York City,so I went to pen relays all four
years of my high school. Iwant to say there was like a maybe
a twelve year stretch that I didnot miss pen relays. But so Michelle
would always ask different athletes, youknow, where applicable or appropriate to do
certain media interviews. So Michelle askedme to do this interview. So the
(25:40):
journalist, you know, she didher thing. She asked me questions and
then the final question was why didyou choose South Carolina? And I said,
well, you know, Coach Fryhas a rich history of coaching quarter
milers. I am a quarter miler, of course, but you know,
also I don't know something about thegirls, like they were just divas.
So we get to Philly and thestory runs. The headline on the front
(26:03):
of the paper is the game CockDiva's returned to Penn Relays Coach Fry.
Coach Fry took that and ran withit. We had pink outfits made up
that year with the Gamecock divas writtenon it. And funny story going back
to the Texas South Carolina rivalry Texasone nc's that year and we came second
(26:26):
by like one or two points,and so they were just kind of looking
at us like y'all didn't even winand y'all got these outfits on and but
whatever. So that's where game CockDivas came from. And then four hundred
Diva came out of that, andso the diva is so, you know,
Coach Fry kind of wanted to kindof go on the divas a little
(26:48):
bit. So I don't know ifit was your your years or is a
little bit before that, he decidedthat on Championship Day, the Saturday of
NCAA outdoors, that our girls wouldwear ever every single person would wear.
The men didn't do this, butthe girls did a different outfit, like
we we would have a uniform thatwas different from what we've been wearing all
(27:08):
year long. And they, youknow, first teams were like what.
But then people started to copy SouthCarolina of course, and start to do
the same thing and have their likeChampionship Tiger red, you know, type
of thing. We'd have our gameCock thing. So I wonder you started
that like two thousand and two orthree. Yeah, the national championship,
and we won the national championship.Yep. Yeah, So it was fun.
(27:33):
It was really fun, and itwas really fun because it was fun
to see the other teams be like, who do they think they are?
Right, you're just Marc as yourcoach didn't think to get you a cute
outfit. Well, resally now withuniforms are such a big part now.
I think they've just evolved in allsports. So I think that's really cool.
You guys were doing that back then, just making that part of the
(27:53):
whole process. Very cool, verycool. Well, I think during your
career also, you worked with underArmour. I think Michelle was telling me
you did some were brand ambassador andyou did some pretty cool things with them.
Could you tell us a little bitabout that? And Yeah, so
(28:15):
I'm actually still with under Armour.I'm obviously no longer an athlete, but
I worked with them as a consultantfor their human performance team. But I've
been with them since twenty twelve.I like to say they're the only company
that I've been with And I meanit's I think everything happens the way that
(28:37):
it's supposed to happen, but itwas the part of the story that I
like to tell is that first ofall, two women signed me to the
company, one woman who was themain woman at the time. Both of
them are no longer with the company, but it was a black woman named
Adrian Laughton. She met me atthe airport in Atlanta to have a meeting,
(28:59):
like they wanted to make sure thatI was a fit for the company.
But also the thing that let meknow like this is the place that
I want to be was she saidto me, we're looking for the female
athletes that we can put to standnext to Tom Brady, not behind the
male athletes, but we're looking toposition our women next to we. Were
(29:22):
you the commercials with Tom Brady?I didn't do a commercial with Tom Brady.
I did one with Steph Curry andJamie Foxx, but not Tom.
How was that? Okay, wegotta have some scoops on that. What
was that? Like? Did youever meet Tom Brady? No? I
don't think I met Tom. Ididn't mean to. But I've met Phelps,
I've met Linday Vaughn. I've metsome pretty cool I mean, even
(29:48):
though Spurrier of course was a coachhere. I actually met him at an
Undergarmar event as opposed to hear atschool. But yeah, they've definitely connected
me to some like really cool peoplethat are part of the brand as well.
Yeah, and what was that commercialfilming? Like, like with Stuff,
I mean, gosh, Stuff andJamie Fox come on? Well,
sorry big so I didn't actually filmwith Steph, but we did the launch
(30:15):
party because it was like a coupleof commercials that launched together, so like
we did. We've done a coupleof events together. He's super humble,
his wife is so so sweet,their kids are beautiful. But yeah,
and Jamie Fox is a comedian,that is for sure. He is a
comedian. So yeah, I meancertainly a memorable experience. I want to
(30:38):
say that was maybe twenty twelve,twenty thirteen that we did that commercial.
Yeah, yeah, I remember walkinginto a Dick Sporting Goods and seeing you
on posters and stuff, and youknow, you used to seeing them on
TV, but you don't expect towalk into a Dick Sporting Goods and see
Natasha like all over the under armourads huge, like all over the place.
So I'm like, yeah, itwas very cool. So I want
(31:00):
to go back to the relays fora second, because you won your gold
medals eight years apart, and youand Alison Felix were the only two.
And Alison Felix is the most decoratedtrack athlete female athlete. What was it
like to run with her? Andyou're also competing with her and then we
looked at her at the last Olympicsjump into the final to get that final
(31:22):
thing? So yeah, what's itlike to compete with somebody like that?
The funny thing is, I didn'tknow that we were the only remaining two
until you said that. Sid alwaysbut the back end those two, like
we were just there to do ourjob. I think you know, Alison
and I have I would say aunique relationship in that, like she was
(31:49):
never a part of that, likethe four hundred women don't get along.
Alison and I actually trained together fora year. Kind of goes under the
radars times. I trained with BobbyKersey for a year. I don't have
a bad thing to say about Allison. Alison is great people, She is
(32:13):
a goat. I actually have areally funny story here. We're gonna need
to hear it. We need tohear. We like when you say really
funny story, Eric, and arelike ear's perked. Yes, not the
Olympics. And I don't know howfunny it is, but it's just like
I just I consider myself to bea realist, right like, and by
that I mean like I'm a dogwhen I get on the line, like
(32:36):
I'm there to win. I don'tcare who you are. But also when
the race is over, like Ican respect who you are with all the
things, right. And so itwas actually the World Championships in Beijing the
year prior to twenty fifteen. Weactually played second in the four by four
to Jamaica, which you know,USA not winning a relay like there there's
(32:59):
you know, well we are onthe podium. No, no, no,
we want gold. But so Soniawas first leg, I was second
leg, Alison ran third leg,and then Francina was an anchor leg.
I know when I handed the stickoff to Alison, right, I was
(33:19):
just hanging on for dear life.We were not the best relay team at
that time, right, we werenot the best team USA. And Alison
took that stick and ran off andwithout even knowing what time she ran when
she gave that stick off. Ithere was a picture of us where I
(33:44):
have my arms around her and I'mlaughing and she's just looking kind of looking
like Tash shut up. Where Isaid to her, I was like,
you are literally the effing goat,because that picture is a snapshot of me
telling her in that moment, realizingthat like we got this silver metal because
of you, and no shade toevery everybody on the relay. We all
(34:07):
did our things right. It justthat just wasn't our day to be gold
medalists. But the way that sheran her leg, even me standing there
watching, I was just like,she's an ef and goat, like and
I tried not to curse on platformsand stuff, you know, but in
that moment I had to tell herlike, yeah, so and you guys
(34:30):
have both come back and run afterhaving babies, so you guys have that
synergy as well. Yeah, AndI think probably and I don't say this
as like, you know, wewe call each other all the time,
but I do think that there's somethingand I can say this, you know,
even my relationship with Sonya, Ido think that there's something that happens
(34:52):
when women have kids that, likeour relationships just changed because there's just another
level that we relate to one anotheron and and just respect each other for
sure. And I think like trainingto come back after having a kid,
training through a pregnancy, like there'sjust a different like nobody else understands.
(35:15):
So so yeah, So, justlooking back on your career, both college
and professionally, what what would yousay has been the most rewarding part most
rewarding? Ah, help you,but I feel in our conversation, but
(35:44):
you've almost speared off what I thoughtyou might say, or what I thought
might be the experience of someone who'shad yours experiences. So I would,
I would, I would have tosay probably the two gold medals are probably
the most rewarding. But I alsoreally, really, really I think I
(36:08):
think the two gold medals were themost rewarding in the sense of like living
out my dream that's the pinnacle ofmy sport. But I think also like
having fun and like feeling like apart of a team, like my my
(36:30):
junior year here at Carolina, likeI'm a I will always bleed garn it.
So there's just something about that experienceas well that, like I mean,
I just as I get ready tosay this, I feel like the
rest of my life set me upfor the Olympics too, But I just
(36:51):
also feel like there was something aboutbeing here at Carolina that prepared me for
that next level that I can't notmention that awesome awesome. Well, I
think this is a part of ourepisode before we wrap. We've got like
some we call it the spin cycle. We just do some quick yes or
(37:12):
no either or questions. So justsay the first yeah, yeah, and
I think I'll start it off andthen we'll just go back and forth,
have some fun with it, allright, Salty or sweet? Salty?
Online shopping or in person shopping inperson? Miss your flight or lose your
(37:35):
luggage. I guess those are reallylike both of them are not great options,
but if you had to choose,I lose my luggage, loud neighbors
are nosy neighbors. Loud neighbors,all right? And the last one,
(37:55):
what's for dinner? That's the firstthing you can ask a mom. Michelle
and I still talk about this inour daily life too, like what's regering
leftovers? I neat idea? Yeah, we always look for ideas from people,
like, oh, we hadn't thoughtabout that one let's make that one
(38:15):
next. Well, this has beenawesome to catch up with you, and
bonus round. We're going to jumpinto a second part with you because we've
talked a lot about your career hereand that's been great. But we want
to talk to you about chapter twoof Natasha Hastings, which is really exciting.
(38:36):
We want to talk to you aboutwhat you're doing now and how you
got there. So we appreciate yousticking around with us for a little bit
more time, and we're going toreally get into your brain, but try
to keep it really fun still too. Well, Michelle, I really enjoyed
talking to Natasha. You know,sometimes when we talked before about talking to
(38:59):
elite student athletes and their experiences,I think you might have in your mind
what that experience might be and allthis. You know, the hard work,
but then you know the reward,and there was Her interview was a
little unexpected, like some of thethings she told us, Frankly, I
did not expect, and so itwas it was very interesting to hear it,
and I really enjoyed just kind ofunderstanding a little bit of what her
(39:21):
life was like during that time whenshe was competing and also professional yeah.
I mean it's like like people say, you never know what somebody's going through,
and it sounds like at times shewent through some tough times on the
track, but she really excelled andI loved hearing her stories about the four
by fours and I just found itreally as a trackie. I really enjoyed
(39:43):
that. So we've enjoyed her somuch that we're going to come back with
a part two on Natasha where she'sgoing to talk to us about Natasha two
point zero and what she's doing withher career. It's really pretty fascinating,
so I'm excited to talk to her. Absolutely absolute. She went back to
school and she found, like shesaid, she didn't want to be known
(40:04):
just as a runner, and sheput the passion that she had for her
sport into her next chapter and it'sit's going to be amazing. So we
definitely had to make it a parttwo. So thank you for listening.
Please follow, like, subscribe.We are at the Spin Chicks. T
H E S P I N ch I c K S. Make sure
(40:24):
you spell it properly, yes,properly. Leave us a comment. We'd
love to hear from you. Butthank you for listening and tune into the
next episode. Thank you
Hey Michelle, Hey Erica, HappyNew Year, Happy New Year, and
welcome to another episode of The spinChecks twenty twenty four. It's it's gonna
be our year. I'm telling youwe made it this far. I mean
we made it just f our podcastis a year old. At least solutally,
we're not on any top listening lists. But you know what, all
(00:31):
we can do nowhere to go butup. Maybe we need to do some
paid social Wait, you're gonna haveto tutor me on that, but listen,
it's been amazing. What a year. You know, we launched.
It was pretty much like Jack,our wonderful producer, shout out to Jack.
I think he said, girls getup to the diving board. I
(00:53):
think he just pushed us off.Us off. Well, he made us
do a lot of practice before wewere allowed to be pushed off the dive.
Nick kept asking me, My husbandkept saying, are you guys ever
going to record a real one?Like, yeah, I think so,
But Jack wants is to practice.We recorded a lot of real ones,
I know, but practice sometimes youjust got to get out there and do
(01:15):
it. And like you said,so many people have podcasts, why not
us? And I've been thrilled withjust some of the reaction. We've got
connections we've made with old friends butalso new people that we may not know
as well. But we've got sometopics that kind of relate to our sports
and pop culture theme that we're tryingto talk about here. So it's been
(01:36):
fun. Yeah, yeah, it'sbeen fun. So let's talk a little
bit about do you have a doyou do resolutions? Affirmations are? I
think I've read recently like eighty percentof the people are done with their resolution
by the third week of May.I mean, I'm sorry, the third
week of January. Where are youin that team resolution, team affirmation?
(01:57):
Where are you our team nothing?Just no, I'm probably team nothing.
I probably try to be consistent andhit resets and do different things. I
mean, look, January has alwaysbeen that month where like if you go
to a traditional gym, like everybody'sthere and it's all crowded and you're all
stressed out, like oh okay,and then you kind of settle in.
So I think for me, January, even though I don't go to a
traditional gym, you know, it'sjust a time to reset. And with
(02:22):
being in sports, you know,the seasons shift. But now, I
mean, you know, you stillhave like the national championship in January,
and there's a lot of things,so we still have football, yeah,
and then basketball comes quick and yeah, I mean it's and it's kind of
sports. You know. It usedto be when when volleyball was done in
(02:43):
November December, after the national championshipand you didn't really play again until August.
Well, now kids play beach andnow they also when teams train almost
year round and so they play otherschools in the spring. They don't count
towards their record, but they playin the tournaments and stuff, and that
wasn't the way it was. Andit's the same with a lot of sports.
(03:05):
Baseball plays falls games against other teams. Basketball, now those scrimmages they
used to have just practice against yourteam college basketball men's and women's and then
it was close practices and you couldn'ttalk about them. And now in the
last few years, at least thelast year or two, they've come up
with these fundraisers for different things,and so the game that would normally be
(03:31):
a closed scrimmage is in an openscrimmage. Like I think Illinois, I
can't remember who they played men's basketballKansas and Bill self went back to Illinois
and that was a fundraiser for Hawaiiand so it's kind of cool. Well,
I think definitely the seasons tend toblend together, definitely a little bit
(03:53):
more so there's not that hard like, oh, football's over now, this,
now, this, but January.I mean, I think the main
focus once you get through finishing justthe football, if you're still lucky enough
to be in it, just thefocus is on basketball. And there's you
know, some other sports that arecompeting track. Yes, so said they're
getting ready for baseball, softball.Then we got National Girls and Woman in
(04:15):
Sports Day February first Wednesday, Socan't forget that. That's like very important
holiday for me. So today inthis podcast, we're going to talk with
Natasha Hastings and I know she's beenon our list for a long time.
She is a former Gamecock. Ithink she's called the four hundred meter Diva
(04:39):
and that comes from the Gamecock Divas, and she is a two time gold
medalist. She won a gold intwo thousand and eight with the four x
four for the US and in twentysixteen and also win the four by four
and just to clarify to for thelisteners, because I'm also learning as I
go to But Michelle worked with anelite college track team in South Carolina,
(05:04):
and so she knows so many studentathletes and work very closely with them,
so to now kind of reconnect withthem in different times in the next chapter
of their lives. Like outside,a lot of them want to compete professionally,
but now they're doing other things andI really have enjoyed and so you
guys, you're going to be hearingI mean, we're going to be talking
(05:24):
to a lot of game Cock divas, but each one has their own story
and their life after college athletics,and I think they are all pretty wonderful.
So I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, she's really really an
amazing talent on the track and areally really interesting person off the track as
well. So I'm really excited foryou to meet Natasha. All right,
(05:46):
let's do it well, Erica.You know, we're always excited when we
have a Gamecock on, but nowwe've got a game Cock diva, So
welcome Natasha to the Spin Chicks.We're really excited to have you and jump
in and start talking about your career. I'm excited to be here to be
(06:08):
announced as a Gamecock Diva. Okay, looking forward to it. Yeah,
we've talked to don Ellerby, whowas probably the OG of the game Cock
Divas and she was a thrower.Now we're going to be talking with Natasha,
who is a sprinter and really excitedabout this conversation. So we're just
going to jump in because we've gota lot to cover with you. Because
(06:30):
you've got quite a career as acollegiate and professional runner. So what led
you to become to run track?What got you onto the podium? So
the start of it, I meanboth of my parents were in track,
my parents. I'm the first generationAmerican, so both of my parents came
(06:53):
to the States on athletic scholarships.The bit of their stories they met in
college on the track team. Butno, I just have memories of my
dad was a coach at their almamata, so I used to like go
to practice with him. They hadlike pictures of themselves running all over the
(07:14):
house. And my mom used totake me to a track meet that is
still being held called the Kogate Women'sGames that anyone could sign up for,
Like you don't have to be apart of a team. But one year,
which happened to be nineteen ninety six, my club coach, who would
have then coached me all the waythrough high school, discovered me. Which
(07:35):
there's also a funny story to that, but anyway, that's really how I
got into it, and it justkind of took off from there. All
right, now you have to tellus we got to know. So my
mom ran track. My mom rantrack in London, where she was born.
(07:57):
She lived there up until she wasthirteen, and then she moved back
to my grandparents' place of origin,which is Trinidad, and finished there before
moving to the States. So shetook me to this meet, the Koviate
Women's Games, and I ran,and I was a hot mess. I
used to go to a Catholic school. I ran, My bore my gym
(08:18):
uniform which was these big, uglyred shorts and a white polo shirt.
Anyway, a friend brings me andmy mom over to Sean London, who
would turn out to be my coach. And immediately my coach recognized my mom
from Trinidad, and then he lookeddown at me and he was like,
(08:39):
oh my god, I saw yourunning, and I said, she reminds
me of Joe Anne Gardner back tohome, and that was the story.
That's that was my coach up untilI graduated high school. And that's your
mom, my mom, true story. I didn't make any of that up,
but yeah, wow, Well,so so you've just since your has
(09:05):
just been in your DNA to beto be a runner. Can you tell
us a little bit about like themajor differences between running in college and running
as a professional. Well, runningin college, I had the likes of
Michelle Young, I was getting readyto you know, and the staff that
(09:28):
just took care of everything. AndI know we're going to talk about it
a little bit later, but that'sone of the things that I talk about
mostly working with kids now, thatlike everything is kind of laid out for
you, and then it's almost likeyou turn pro and you have to grow
up really quickly because you go frombeing a kid to being the CEO of
(09:50):
your business. Basically, you know, even though you have a coach,
it's your career. You're in chargeof your career. You're in charge of
how you perform. So it's nothingthat I don't think anyone could truly be
prepared for you know, you preparedin the sense that obviously you've done some
(10:11):
amazing things collegiately to then move onto the professional level. But the actual
business of being a professional athlete,I mean you again, you just kind
of end up in charge of thingsthat no one told you that you would
be in charge of, from payingyour coach, paying your massage therapists,
scheduling your massage therapists, finding youryour doctors, and all of the things
(10:35):
all on your own. So,yeah, you become the CEO of your
business overnight. Yeah. When wetalked to Alan Johnson, he told us
about how when he first started runningprofessionally, he would go someplace like in
Europe and people would look warmed upand stuff when they got to the track
and be like, hey, man, where'd you warm up? He's like,
go, it's warm up track aroundthe you know, around the way.
(10:56):
I guess you didn't. I guessyou don't know that. And you
know, nobody, you know,nobody wanted to tell them that kind of
stuff right out of the gate.It just kind of had to figure it
out. So you have some ofthose things too, where you'd go and
be like, how's everybody else lookso ready, I was just running out
there, you know. Yeah,yeah, I mean, and track is
like it's an individual sport for starters. I can say the landscape has changed
(11:20):
quite a bit, but I cameup in the era like people used to
ask me, like, so there'srumors that the four hundred girls don't really
get along, and I would justkind of smile and just be like,
I don't know what you're talking about. But there was a little bit of
truth to that. Not that Idon't want to say that we didn't get
along, but there were certainly rivalries, and you know, there's always like
(11:41):
you're trying to keep secrets because youdon't want to, you know, give
your competitor an edge. So Iwould say it was a lot less friendly
back in like the early mid twothousands than I would say they are now.
So yeah, I had some ofthat hazing maybe that Alan experienced as
well. Yeah, so I cantell you a little story when we were
(12:05):
at I think it was the twothousand and two at Texas, No,
maybe it wasn't even Texas Duke.It was at Duke, And you talk
about the four hundred meter girls maybenot getting along, there was some controversy
about the four by four. Idon't know if you if you knew this
story, but there was some controversyabout the four by four and they thought
(12:28):
somebody bumped somebody in Texas and SouthCarolina were always back of you remember this.
I don't think you were on thatteam. Well, I was still
in high school, but I remember. So the girls, the coaches go
in to the into the the protesttent and have to go watch video to
find out did somebody actually bump somebody? We won the relay, and I
(12:50):
think maybe Texas was second or something, and I know it was Texas,
and I know the specific girl,but I'm not going to call any names.
I'm not going to call any namethere because our girls. But so
they go in and so the sidTodd truly is really good friend of mine.
At Texas, all the sids alwayshung out together, and they the
coaches were all gone and it wasjust the sid and I stand in there
(13:11):
talking and all of a sudden,the two girls were kind of the two
groups the relays were sitting not realclose to each other, but close enough,
you know, probably ten fifteen feet. They start yelling at each other
and start really getting into it likethey're going to fight, and I'm like,
get your girls, Todd, andhe's like, you go get your
girls. And we both had to, like because nobody was there except for
(13:35):
the two of us, just hangingout waiting to find out, you know,
what's going to happen. And youknow, we're like, you guys,
got quiet down and you know,had to pull our girls away,
and they pulled their girl and youknow, we South Carolina and Texas at
that time, we didn't never reallyget into it with LSU, but South
Texas, Oh yeah, we hada big rivalry. Yeah, that kind
of came along into my class aswell. But I can assure you all
(14:01):
of the ladies mentioned we now allget along. We're now all great.
But yes, things got very tense. Yeah, yeah, when you're talking
about all the tents, like Ithink from an average fan like me,
not necessarily being behind the scenes,I mean, can you tell me a
little bit about some of the joyslike you have quite I mean, you're
(14:22):
a champion through and through, socan you tell us maybe about that that
moment when you crossed the finish lineand just being a champion and kind of
what that felt like in the midstof you know, all these other things
that you're dealing with as being astudent athlete. I wish I could tell
you more. I say that becauseI think part of being a champion and
(14:48):
training to the level that we trained, or the level of expectation that we
had for ourselves, that I reallywish. Let me speak for myself,
I really wish that I would havetaken the time to celebrate more than I
I think. I mean, Iknew that like, Okay, my junior
(15:09):
year was the best year of mycollegiate run where you know, I was
undefeated. I won both indoor andoutdoor national set the collegiate records, and
I remember my mom was the onewho actually came and told me, like
coach Fry said, you have togo, like there's nothing else left for
you to do here, You've gotto go pro, right. But I
(15:33):
don't remember celebrating any of those things. I remember like, this is what
I've got to do. I'm workingreally hard to accomplish these things. Anything
less wasn't a thought, Like youknow when you hear athletes talk about like
being completely bought in and like there'sif if you're even thinking about a plan
(15:56):
B means that you're not like boughtinto what the man is and what the
goal is. Like I was trulythat athlete. So you know, it
was halfway through my professional career thatI kind of had an awakening where I
was like, wait a minute,this isn't this isn't right, and now
something that I hope to change forothers. But I mean again, I
(16:17):
got halfway through my career and Istill to this day couldn't tell you how
many medals I have. I knowhow many Olympic medals I have, but
the rest of them I don't knowbecause it was always just like, Okay,
this is the standard, this iswhat I have to do. I
did my job onto the next nextyear. I got to make sure I'm
on the team. I got tomake sure I still have my contract.
So I wish I had a betteranswer for that, because I do realize
(16:38):
how unfortunate that is, but it'smy truth. Well, when you talk
about the Olympic medals, then justamazing to have won, but then more
than one, I mean, isthat the moment when you can you tell
us more about that? Were youeven at that time when you were on
that podium, was it ever,just a feeling of I did this,
(17:00):
achieve this, and just reveling inthat a little bit. Yeah so the
first time, no, the secondtime yes, so the first time and
a bit of both of them.Again hard to put into words, right
because I started running track and orI joined a team in nineteen ninety six.
Nineteen ninety six was also the yearthat the Olympics were here in Atlanta,
(17:23):
So that was like my introduction toGail devers Ato Bolden, Michael Johnson
JJK, like, oh, thisis a thing that I could go to
the Olympics and like like that's wherethat all started for me, right,
So to get to the Olympics andlike live your dream. No, I
can't put that into words. Thebest description that I can give you is
(17:51):
going out into Beijing, which Beijingwas sold out like their production. I
remember being in Beijing at the openingStone ceremony and knowing the next games we're
going to be in London, wheremy mom is from. She hasn't been
back since she left, Like sothe dream of like taking my mom to
London. But I remember standing theresaying like how is London gonna top this?
(18:14):
Like the Olympics in Beijing. Theirshowmanship was just a walk in the
opening ceremonies I did. How coolwas I mean? That was spring of
fire and the guy running around likeit was just beyond right. So it's
time for me to go run.And my good friend Karen Clement, he
(18:37):
walks by and he says to me, he says, Natasha, whatever you
do, just don't look into thestings. So what do I do when
I go out into the stadium?Yeah, I mean, how could you
not? Right? But I meanagain, it was truly a dream come
true, but also bittersweet, bittersweet in that like, yes, I
(19:03):
won my first gold medal, butalso like it was on a relay.
I wasn't competing individually. I onlyran in the preliminary round. I felt
like I was cheated out of thefinal round. But also a moment where
like I remember sitting in the standswatching the Usain Bolte hundred meter final and
just looking at like everyone around megoing crazy, and just sitting there like
(19:26):
thinking like oh my gosh, likethis is amazing, Like how did I
get here? How am I livingthis right? How am I a part
of this history? But that's reallyall I remember. I didn't do any
sight seeing. I stayed in theOlympic village, was super focused on competing,
(19:47):
didn't attend to any other events.I did the opening ceremony, didn't
do the closing ceremony, like mymemories are very limited. Missed the twenty
twelve Olympics by one spot. Sowhen I got to Rio, I was
thirty years old, unsure if like, is this going to be my last
one? Grizzled in the individual eventas well, and I was more cognizant
(20:12):
of like, you have to makememories. Heier, you have to,
you know, spend time with yourteammates, go sightseeing, go to other
events. So there are two verydifferent experiences because of where I was in
my life, like twenty to thirty, and then of course, you know,
being able to compete in the individualand the relay. But it was
(20:37):
it's literally like living your dream,like and who gets to say that.
So let's talk a little bit aboutthe differences between running individually and running on
a relay, because I know alot about tracks, so I could I
know that, but Erica doesn't,and I'm sure a lot of our listeners.
So what's the difference between, youknow, especially We'll look at twenty
sixteen where you ran as an individualwell and ran on the relay. How
(21:03):
difficult is that or is it justI'm used to running relays because I did
this in college, So this isjust what we do. Yeah, I
think for one thousand percent certain SouthCarolina set me up for greatness with relays,
Like we just coach coach. Youknow, Don ran the four by
four. Everybody that is a gamecop runs the four by four, whether
(21:26):
you're a thrower jumper, he didn'tcare. Everybody's going to do it at
least once. I think the uniquething, pardon me, the unique thing
about the four hundred also goes backto what we were talking about before,
where we spend the whole season beingcompetitors, right, we're even competing to
(21:48):
make that relay team. And thenonce you make the relay team, you
now have to come together and forgetall of that and the teammates challenging.
So what are the relay camps?Like, you go to relay camps,
right, what is and talk aboutthat that? I think that's something Eric
and I have talked about that we'rereally excited to hear about the relay camps
(22:11):
because you're right. You know,you've got these two Texas and South Carolina
and then you go to a campand now you're like, oh, I'm
handing the stick to that girl,So what is that like? The same?
And you know, Team USA.I like to give Team USA props
like we are the number one teamin the world. They do everything to
(22:34):
lay the red carpet out to setus up for a greatness. So you
know, where other countries have timethroughout the season to run their relays all
season long, they're not as deepas US, so you really can't predict
who is going to be on therelay as well. So Team USA typically
(22:56):
about two weeks before the championships,whether it's the Olympics or the World Championships,
will go out to maybe not thecity where the games are being held,
but somewhere close enough in the timezone for us to get adjusted to
the time, but also to practicethose relay handoffs four by one and four
(23:17):
by four. Other athletes are allowedto come as well, for you know,
to get adjusted to the time,but it's mandatory for the relays.
And it's interesting because you know,it's you've got the stress of the individual
athletes that are preparing for their individualevents, right, and then you also
(23:37):
have the athletes who are there specificallyfor the relay that the individual athletes kind
of know, like my spot onthe relay, I get preference choice,
like I'm for sure on the relay, But if you're just a relay alternate,
you're also there kind of competing forthat spot, right, And so
there's a lot of competing different issueshappening all at once. Also throw in
(24:04):
coaches politics, it can get alittle agents agents, agents, agents,
I'll just keep saying agents every oncein a while for you. Yeah,
it can get a little spicy,dicey all the things. But I mean,
all things considered, I don't thinkthat we have the the run and
(24:26):
the history and the records that wehave by chance. Like you know,
again we are the number one team. You could sometimes throw any four out
there and you know, we knowor we have a pretty strong chance of
coming home with gold. But itcan get kind of interesting. Well how
(24:51):
did you get the nickname four hundredmeta Diva? So freshman year, Michelle
asked me, first of all,we were going to pen relays. Look
at Michelle's like, oh my heye, when did she they remember things like
Michelle asked me, and I'm like, what did I ask you? God
knows what I asked you. Sowe were going to pen relays. I
(25:15):
am originally from New York City,so I went to pen relays all four
years of my high school. Iwant to say there was like a maybe
a twelve year stretch that I didnot miss pen relays. But so Michelle
would always ask different athletes, youknow, where applicable or appropriate to do
certain media interviews. So Michelle askedme to do this interview. So the
(25:40):
journalist, you know, she didher thing. She asked me questions and
then the final question was why didyou choose South Carolina? And I said,
well, you know, Coach Fryhas a rich history of coaching quarter
milers. I am a quarter miler, of course, but you know,
also I don't know something about thegirls, like they were just divas.
So we get to Philly and thestory runs. The headline on the front
(26:03):
of the paper is the game CockDiva's returned to Penn Relays Coach Fry.
Coach Fry took that and ran withit. We had pink outfits made up
that year with the Gamecock divas writtenon it. And funny story going back
to the Texas South Carolina rivalry Texasone nc's that year and we came second
(26:26):
by like one or two points,and so they were just kind of looking
at us like y'all didn't even winand y'all got these outfits on and but
whatever. So that's where game CockDivas came from. And then four hundred
Diva came out of that, andso the diva is so, you know,
Coach Fry kind of wanted to kindof go on the divas a little
(26:48):
bit. So I don't know ifit was your your years or is a
little bit before that, he decidedthat on Championship Day, the Saturday of
NCAA outdoors, that our girls wouldwear ever every single person would wear.
The men didn't do this, butthe girls did a different outfit, like
we we would have a uniform thatwas different from what we've been wearing all
(27:08):
year long. And they, youknow, first teams were like what.
But then people started to copy SouthCarolina of course, and start to do
the same thing and have their likeChampionship Tiger red, you know, type
of thing. We'd have our gameCock thing. So I wonder you started
that like two thousand and two orthree. Yeah, the national championship,
and we won the national championship.Yep. Yeah, So it was fun.
(27:33):
It was really fun, and itwas really fun because it was fun
to see the other teams be like, who do they think they are?
Right, you're just Marc as yourcoach didn't think to get you a cute
outfit. Well, resally now withuniforms are such a big part now.
I think they've just evolved in allsports. So I think that's really cool.
You guys were doing that back then, just making that part of the
(27:53):
whole process. Very cool, verycool. Well, I think during your
career also, you worked with underArmour. I think Michelle was telling me
you did some were brand ambassador andyou did some pretty cool things with them.
Could you tell us a little bitabout that? And Yeah, so
(28:15):
I'm actually still with under Armour.I'm obviously no longer an athlete, but
I worked with them as a consultantfor their human performance team. But I've
been with them since twenty twelve.I like to say they're the only company
that I've been with And I meanit's I think everything happens the way that
(28:37):
it's supposed to happen, but itwas the part of the story that I
like to tell is that first ofall, two women signed me to the
company, one woman who was themain woman at the time. Both of
them are no longer with the company, but it was a black woman named
Adrian Laughton. She met me atthe airport in Atlanta to have a meeting,
(28:59):
like they wanted to make sure thatI was a fit for the company.
But also the thing that let meknow like this is the place that
I want to be was she saidto me, we're looking for the female
athletes that we can put to standnext to Tom Brady, not behind the
male athletes, but we're looking toposition our women next to we. Were
(29:22):
you the commercials with Tom Brady?I didn't do a commercial with Tom Brady.
I did one with Steph Curry andJamie Foxx, but not Tom.
How was that? Okay, wegotta have some scoops on that. What
was that? Like? Did youever meet Tom Brady? No? I
don't think I met Tom. Ididn't mean to. But I've met Phelps,
I've met Linday Vaughn. I've metsome pretty cool I mean, even
(29:48):
though Spurrier of course was a coachhere. I actually met him at an
Undergarmar event as opposed to hear atschool. But yeah, they've definitely connected
me to some like really cool peoplethat are part of the brand as well.
Yeah, and what was that commercialfilming? Like, like with Stuff,
I mean, gosh, Stuff andJamie Fox come on? Well,
sorry big so I didn't actually filmwith Steph, but we did the launch
(30:15):
party because it was like a coupleof commercials that launched together, so like
we did. We've done a coupleof events together. He's super humble,
his wife is so so sweet,their kids are beautiful. But yeah,
and Jamie Fox is a comedian,that is for sure. He is a
comedian. So yeah, I meancertainly a memorable experience. I want to
(30:38):
say that was maybe twenty twelve,twenty thirteen that we did that commercial.
Yeah, yeah, I remember walkinginto a Dick Sporting Goods and seeing you
on posters and stuff, and youknow, you used to seeing them on
TV, but you don't expect towalk into a Dick Sporting Goods and see
Natasha like all over the under armourads huge, like all over the place.
So I'm like, yeah, itwas very cool. So I want
(31:00):
to go back to the relays fora second, because you won your gold
medals eight years apart, and youand Alison Felix were the only two.
And Alison Felix is the most decoratedtrack athlete female athlete. What was it
like to run with her? Andyou're also competing with her and then we
looked at her at the last Olympicsjump into the final to get that final
(31:22):
thing? So yeah, what's itlike to compete with somebody like that?
The funny thing is, I didn'tknow that we were the only remaining two
until you said that. Sid alwaysbut the back end those two, like
we were just there to do ourjob. I think you know, Alison
and I have I would say aunique relationship in that, like she was
(31:49):
never a part of that, likethe four hundred women don't get along.
Alison and I actually trained together fora year. Kind of goes under the
radars times. I trained with BobbyKersey for a year. I don't have
a bad thing to say about Allison. Alison is great people, She is
(32:13):
a goat. I actually have areally funny story here. We're gonna need
to hear it. We need tohear. We like when you say really
funny story, Eric, and arelike ear's perked. Yes, not the
Olympics. And I don't know howfunny it is, but it's just like
I just I consider myself to bea realist, right like, and by
that I mean like I'm a dogwhen I get on the line, like
(32:36):
I'm there to win. I don'tcare who you are. But also when
the race is over, like Ican respect who you are with all the
things, right. And so itwas actually the World Championships in Beijing the
year prior to twenty fifteen. Weactually played second in the four by four
to Jamaica, which you know,USA not winning a relay like there there's
(32:59):
you know, well we are onthe podium. No, no, no,
we want gold. But so Soniawas first leg, I was second
leg, Alison ran third leg,and then Francina was an anchor leg.
I know when I handed the stickoff to Alison, right, I was
(33:19):
just hanging on for dear life.We were not the best relay team at
that time, right, we werenot the best team USA. And Alison
took that stick and ran off andwithout even knowing what time she ran when
she gave that stick off. Ithere was a picture of us where I
(33:44):
have my arms around her and I'mlaughing and she's just looking kind of looking
like Tash shut up. Where Isaid to her, I was like,
you are literally the effing goat,because that picture is a snapshot of me
telling her in that moment, realizingthat like we got this silver metal because
of you, and no shade toevery everybody on the relay. We all
(34:07):
did our things right. It justthat just wasn't our day to be gold
medalists. But the way that sheran her leg, even me standing there
watching, I was just like,she's an ef and goat, like and
I tried not to curse on platformsand stuff, you know, but in
that moment I had to tell herlike, yeah, so and you guys
(34:30):
have both come back and run afterhaving babies, so you guys have that
synergy as well. Yeah, AndI think probably and I don't say this
as like, you know, wewe call each other all the time,
but I do think that there's somethingand I can say this, you know,
even my relationship with Sonya, Ido think that there's something that happens
(34:52):
when women have kids that, likeour relationships just changed because there's just another
level that we relate to one anotheron and and just respect each other for
sure. And I think like trainingto come back after having a kid,
training through a pregnancy, like there'sjust a different like nobody else understands.
(35:15):
So so yeah, So, justlooking back on your career, both college
and professionally, what what would yousay has been the most rewarding part most
rewarding? Ah, help you,but I feel in our conversation, but
(35:44):
you've almost speared off what I thoughtyou might say, or what I thought
might be the experience of someone who'shad yours experiences. So I would,
I would, I would have tosay probably the two gold medals are probably
the most rewarding. But I alsoreally, really, really I think I
(36:08):
think the two gold medals were themost rewarding in the sense of like living
out my dream that's the pinnacle ofmy sport. But I think also like
having fun and like feeling like apart of a team, like my my
(36:30):
junior year here at Carolina, likeI'm a I will always bleed garn it.
So there's just something about that experienceas well that, like I mean,
I just as I get ready tosay this, I feel like the
rest of my life set me upfor the Olympics too, But I just
(36:51):
also feel like there was something aboutbeing here at Carolina that prepared me for
that next level that I can't notmention that awesome awesome. Well, I
think this is a part of ourepisode before we wrap. We've got like
some we call it the spin cycle. We just do some quick yes or
(37:12):
no either or questions. So justsay the first yeah, yeah, and
I think I'll start it off andthen we'll just go back and forth,
have some fun with it, allright, Salty or sweet? Salty?
Online shopping or in person shopping inperson? Miss your flight or lose your
(37:35):
luggage. I guess those are reallylike both of them are not great options,
but if you had to choose,I lose my luggage, loud neighbors
are nosy neighbors. Loud neighbors,all right? And the last one,
(37:55):
what's for dinner? That's the firstthing you can ask a mom. Michelle
and I still talk about this inour daily life too, like what's regering
leftovers? I neat idea? Yeah, we always look for ideas from people,
like, oh, we hadn't thoughtabout that one let's make that one
(38:15):
next. Well, this has beenawesome to catch up with you, and
bonus round. We're going to jumpinto a second part with you because we've
talked a lot about your career hereand that's been great. But we want
to talk to you about chapter twoof Natasha Hastings, which is really exciting.
(38:36):
We want to talk to you aboutwhat you're doing now and how you
got there. So we appreciate yousticking around with us for a little bit
more time, and we're going toreally get into your brain, but try
to keep it really fun still too. Well, Michelle, I really enjoyed
talking to Natasha. You know,sometimes when we talked before about talking to
(38:59):
elite student athletes and their experiences,I think you might have in your mind
what that experience might be and allthis. You know, the hard work,
but then you know the reward,and there was Her interview was a
little unexpected, like some of thethings she told us, Frankly, I
did not expect, and so itwas it was very interesting to hear it,
and I really enjoyed just kind ofunderstanding a little bit of what her
(39:21):
life was like during that time whenshe was competing and also professional yeah.
I mean it's like like people say, you never know what somebody's going through,
and it sounds like at times shewent through some tough times on the
track, but she really excelled andI loved hearing her stories about the four
by fours and I just found itreally as a trackie. I really enjoyed
(39:43):
that. So we've enjoyed her somuch that we're going to come back with
a part two on Natasha where she'sgoing to talk to us about Natasha two
point zero and what she's doing withher career. It's really pretty fascinating,
so I'm excited to talk to her. Absolutely absolute. She went back to
school and she found, like shesaid, she didn't want to be known
(40:04):
just as a runner, and sheput the passion that she had for her
sport into her next chapter and it'sit's going to be amazing. So we
definitely had to make it a parttwo. So thank you for listening.
Please follow, like, subscribe.We are at the Spin Chicks. T
H E S P I N ch I c K S. Make sure
(40:24):
you spell it properly, yes,properly. Leave us a comment. We'd
love to hear from you. Butthank you for listening and tune into the
next episode. Thank you
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