Competing in the Olympics or Paralympics is one of the biggest goals for many athletes and requires rigorous training. SELF asked Team USA how they find the motivation to wake up every day and train ahead of one of the biggest competitions of their career.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Motivation is not something that you find.
00:03 You got it or you don't.
00:05 We're here for a reason.
00:06 There's plenty of days where I just don't want to do it.
00:09 And on those days, I ask myself, "Well, do you really want to do it, though?"
00:14 And that answer is yes, so I go do it.
00:16 [music]
00:20 For me, a big motivator is obviously bringing home another gold,
00:24 and I try to just visualize that and remember that.
00:26 But really, I don't do this for myself and more do it for the people I love.
00:31 I want to make people proud.
00:32 And then, obviously, I want to think about the effect it's going to have on girls that look up to me
00:38 because that's one of my favorite things, getting messages from younger girls that are excited and inspired.
00:43 So I think I just try to think about if I do this and I can pull another gold out,
00:48 that's going to change the world in a way.
00:50 I find motivation by just wanting to be great and continuing to make sure that the women's game
00:57 and women's sports, we're constantly growing.
01:00 So that and also motivation from my kids, knowing that they're looking up to me
01:06 and I'm trying to be my best for them.
01:08 I don't really need motivation to do anything.
01:11 It's more of just I know that I have to do it, so I go and do it.
01:14 It's like me walking into work or me drinking water or me, I don't know, like doing laundry.
01:19 When I'm in the thick of training, my motivation comes from my husband
01:24 and it also comes from my goals that I've set for myself to where I want to be and who I want to be.
01:32 Motivation, it comes and goes like motivation does, unfortunately.
01:37 But once that motivation is high, I try to take it all, take advantage of it.
01:43 Full 100% effort.
01:45 My motivation has changed throughout the course of my career.
01:48 Early on in my Team USA career, my motivation came from winning a gold medal.
01:52 Now that me and my team has done that a couple of times, my motivation has shifted.
01:58 The impact I can have off the court is so much more important to me
02:01 than the impact I can have on it at this point.
02:03 My life and my world completely changed the day that I found wheelchair basketball
02:07 and I am working so hard to provide that experience to as many people with disabilities as possible.
02:15 We need to raise the awareness of adaptive sports.
02:18 We need to raise the impact adaptive sports can have on people with disabilities.
02:22 I find the motivation from my family.
02:24 Anytime I'm training, usually I'm away from them.
02:26 So just really trying to be intentional with the time that I'm taking away from my family
02:30 continues to help me get through it, especially in the thick of training.
02:34 So when I'm in thick training, my motivation is having really good rides
02:38 just because it inspires me to do even better.
02:41 And when I don't have the best ride, I look at what I've done great and what I've done not so great
02:46 and I bring those up to really positive moments in my ride.
02:50 I walked off the track in Tokyo in fifth place, one inch away from the bronze medal.
02:55 And it was one of the most devastating moments of my entire life to fail on the world stage,
02:59 to come so close to the podium in front of my family and friends
03:03 and millions of people watching around the world.
03:05 I was embarrassed. I was devastated. I was heartbroken.
03:08 So I set my screensaver as a photo that the medalists were taking that I was watching.
03:12 There's days I get up and I don't want to train.
03:14 There's days where there's obstacles, roadblocks, things aren't going well.
03:17 My body's feeling really tired.
03:19 I open up my phone. I see a photo of the medalists that beat me in Tokyo.
03:23 It reminds me to keep going.
03:26 I can't get complacent. I can never be content.
03:29 I use this screensaver, this photo, as a reminder that I can't let that happen again.
03:34 It's kind of cool to see how much my body can do and how hard I can push it.
03:38 If it were easy, everybody would do it.
03:40 And to me, I'm able to do this and it's so hard, but I'm so thankful I can do it.
03:44 A motivator is being the best I can be.
03:46 Honestly, it's just my family.
03:48 I got into archery because I wanted to provide for my family and that drive is still there.
03:53 I try to remember that feeling of when I'm really riding at my best.
03:58 I just have to get 1% better every day at what I do.
04:02 And that 1% comes from getting into those uncomfortable moments and then thriving in them.
04:07 So I know that when I'm in that deep depth and I don't want to be there anymore,
04:11 that's when I have to wake up.
04:14 Honestly, my motivation is just get it done.
04:17 The biggest thing is just to continue to tell myself, "You're almost done. Just finish it."
04:21 And then you don't have to worry about it right now.
04:23 I feel like I find motivation through all my teammates.
04:26 We have such an amazing group of gals that are training full-time together.
04:31 Everybody's working so hard and we're all trying to achieve the same goal.
04:35 So if I'm having a particularly bad day, I can leverage off of Abby's amazing thoughts
04:40 and be like, "Oh, I can celebrate her successes to get myself out of my little hole."
04:44 That's actually something I've been working on a lot is celebrating the small wins,
04:47 even if they're not mine, especially if I'm frustrated looking at someone else do something well.
04:51 And I'm like, "Awesome. That was cool."
04:53 I find motivation, one, just because I haven't accomplished what I want in my career so far.
04:58 So I think that's definitely one.
05:00 But my family, the people who have supported me growing up, I play for them.
05:04 I want to make them proud, and I think that's as much motivation as one can need.
05:08 This is where having teammates is really helpful because on those hard days,
05:12 it's really easy to look inward.
05:14 And having people like Ashley or other teammates who know you really well
05:18 and being able to go to them, even sometimes say like, "Hey, today's a rough one,"
05:23 and being able to acknowledge that and share it allows you to move past that
05:28 and allows that space for your teammate to help you.
05:32 I think about my why and the whys that my teammates have.
05:36 I think that that's really helpful, especially in stretches of bad times.
05:40 In moments, one of my whys is challenge.
05:43 Like, I love to be challenged. I play this game because it never stops challenging you.
05:48 Motivation comes with me just wanting to prove, or continues to prove,
05:53 that I can compete at a high level.
05:55 I want to continue to show the world the longevity of the Team USA wheelchair basketball program.
06:01 What I try to do is just maintain love for skateboarding.
06:04 Get out and skate with my friends, maybe take a day off training, go do something else.
06:08 But most of the time, I'm pretty happy.
06:10 I think my teammates definitely.
06:13 We've gotten to a point where it keeps me going and what makes me love the sport even more.
06:19 When I first started, I didn't make my first Paralympic Games in 2008,
06:24 and I was told I'm too small and it's unrealistic to be an athlete.
06:29 And I wanted to show young girls and young athletes that you don't have to have the perfect body type.
06:34 There's no such thing as being too small or too big or whatever it is.
06:37 It's just unique to yourself and finding your unique abilities.
06:41 Also, just being visible and being seen and helping young girls know that you can be successful in sport,
06:48 not just at your team sport in middle school and high school.
06:52 You can represent Team USA and you have value and worth here.
06:56 And to show what strength looks like and it looks like sweaty muscles,
07:02 and you can be beautiful and empowered.
07:04 And showing that and then showing what people with disabilities can do on the start line.
07:09 line.
07:09 (electronic music)