Athletic Pursuit and The Aftermath with Olympian Gold Medalist Norman Bellingham | Episode 35

*This Transcript is Autogenerated*

Norman Bellingham  0:01  
I almost don't want to talk to you until it's over. You need to enjoy this and take as much old guys like me talking about what you should know or what you should know. No,

Kristi Wagner  0:11  
I think it's really cool.

Norman Bellingham  0:12  
I think this is your journey. You got a better handle on that. And enjoy it sure as hell not about my journey. You're in the hunt. How cool is that?

Kristi Wagner  0:21  
Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream they want to turn into a reality. Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years. This week on the podcast I have a super fun and special episode. I'm sharing a conversation I had with an Olympic champion from the 1980 Olympics in the two man kayak, flatwater kayaking, Norman Bellingham, so Norman actually lives in Saratoga with his wife. And so I got to speak with him in person in the Brightside Studio A few weeks ago before I left town on my training trip. And I was honestly fangirling so hard and trying to keep it cool, because Mormon is the real deal. And he's just awesome. And it was really fun. But he actually started in whitewater kayaking, and then switched to flat water kayaking, and he competed on three Olympic teams, and actually went to row at Harvard, which is a totally different sport, rowing and kayaking in between his second and third Olympic teams. So he's just a super impressive guy. And it was so cool to speak to him being where I am in my own athletic journey and getting to ask how he achieved the success he had and just hear about his life and his own career. So it was really awesome experience speaking with him and learning from him, and I feel lucky that the conversation was recorded. Not only because that means everyone listening gets to hear it, but also because I can listen to it again, whenever I want. I hope everyone really enjoys it. But before we get into that, here's an update on what's currently going on in my training. So I actually, on Sunday, left Gainesville, Georgia where I was for two weeks with my Orion teammates, and drove about eight hours to Sarasota, Florida. So I just started another two week block where I'll be training in Sarasota. So it was pretty easy drive getting up here, down here, Florida's down. And it's actually been super windy in Sarasota, since I've been here. So we arrived yesterday, which was Monday, and today's Tuesday, and we did get out on the water today. So that's exciting. And it's great to be here. There's a bunch of different people here. And I'm happy to be training with a new group. But I miss my old group also. So you know, just different, but it is it is nice to I guess mentally, it was like a nice two weeks in Georgia. And no, I could accomplish that. And then now we have these two weeks in Sarasota and next week is kind of an erg testing week. I mean, we'll still be rowing. But there are some ERG tests that we'll be doing. So just kind of trying to keep the train rolling and having good workouts to build, you know, some on the water confidence, but also some on the ERG confidence. I'm actually staying with my mom's cousin in Sarasota, and they have two dogs, which is very exciting. It's really the dream if you asked me. So I've been getting to spend a lot of quality dog time the wolf like, they're so cute, they'll lay together and snuggle, or they'll snuggle with me if I want them to, but they just cuddle with each other. And it's so cute. So it's also been really fun that I get to stay with my mom's cousin Barbie and her husband, Todd, because it's, you know, sort of like a host family, but also like family family. So it's just a comfortable scenario. And I'm happy that I can feel, you know, as at home here as possible. Other things to highlight. I just got my like whoop year and review, which everyone should have a whoop. And actually a home plug. You can get a whoop and get your first month free with my code, which I'm like 99% Sure is Christie number one. But apparently I spent over 900 hours exercising this year, which seems like a lot. But I don't actually know. But I wasn't the top 1% of whoop users in my strain. But I guess that makes sense. Because I am like an elite athlete. So exciting. I love my whoop, whoop doesn't even sponsor the podcast, but I love my oops so much. So I'm a big fan. Yeah, so that's really all that's going on. I'm in Florida. Now. I'm a Florida woman for the next couple of weeks. And then it'll be Christmas and then I'll be a Florida woman again. So If anyone has any Sarasota recommendations, let me know. But now it's time for my conversation with Norman. So I really hope everyone likes it and have a great time listening. The norm I'm so excited to have you on the podcast and to meet you in person. It's very exciting. I thought that obviously you've had like, such a successful and like full athletic career, which we will 100% get to. But I think just to give some like, context to who you are, and like your background, if you can just share with me and with everyone listening, like a little bit about growing up and how you got involved in sports in the first place. Both like kayaking, and I guess just sports maybe?

Norman Bellingham  5:46  
Sure. I grew up for the first 12 years or so 14 years of my life, mostly overseas. My father was in the Foreign Service. And so we were in Asia, but when we were in Asia, my father in Nepal, got a navy surplus raft sent over so we did some of the very first whitewater rafting in Nepal that got me hooked on that sport of Whitewater. I wanted to be a mountaineer growing up. Yeah, heroes like Edmund Hillary and people like that. We came back to the States to the DC area. And I went to summer camp where there was some whitewater canoeing going on, actually, I found a summer camp that had and two of the sons of the owners of the camp had national level experience in Whitewater slalom won won a bronze medal at the 9072 games, and he was a hero to all of us, Jamie McEwen. So at that stage, I wanted to be an Olympic athlete. So it really kicked in around when I was 12 years old. And I wanted to be like, Jamie, I think we all did. He was a good looking guy. We're incredibly humble. He had gone to Yale where he was a captain of the wrestling team. And he married Sandra Boynton, who we just thought was a beautiful blonde, but she was far more successful than him. Boy and Hallmark cards. And if you're if you are familiar with like hippo birthday to you. Oh, yeah. So she's done those. And she's been remarkably successful. And she's incredibly creative. So the pair of them together were really quite a couple. And we thought this was a path that's worth following. So by the age of 14, I was introduced to the the US slalom coach, a fella by the name of Bill Endicott, who had been a rower at Harvard. And he had wrote under Harry Parker, and he was training the US whitewater slalom team to become very successful, they were suddenly taking on the east Europeans and the Austrians and the Germans, and his sport where the Americans hadn't really done that. Well. Prior to that period. There had been a group at Dartmouth that had unwell, but little before, but now all of a sudden, they were vying for world titles. And I saw these people paddling at a level that was incredible. It's beautiful. It's like ballet on the water. And I wanted to be part of it. And this fellow Endicott said, you know, it was good enough at age 1415. To train with them. It was a small group. And that became my sport. And by the time I was 17, I was on the national team. And I did well enough. But that sport was not in the Olympics anymore. It was been on the 72 program and was taken off, and didn't get back on until the 92 program. So in the interim years, there was a sport of flatwater sprint. So it started the Berlin games, and you race ever, of course, back then a 500 meters or 1000 meters. Now they have 200 meters as well. But you have singles, doubles, and fours. So it's somewhat analogous to rolling these the same course as rowers. And it was a sport in which east Europeans were dominating. And the West wasn't that good. But I shifted sports, I guess, January, February of 1984. And it just clicked for some reason. It's a pretty significant shift from a slalom boat to a sprint. Yeah. But the ad for trials were in April, and I managed to make the team. So back then it was a full team that was sent. So I made the team as a youngster and stroke the four and we had a poor race. We were good enough, I think in a boycott depleted field to come maybe six or seven. But we didn't even make the semifinals. So that was pretty devastating. And I didn't want to give the sport away. And I didn't want to go to college yet. So I just said to myself, I'm going to train full time because I'm not a good enough athlete, nor am I smart enough to do both at a high level. So I'm gonna take four or five years off and train for the 88 games. And long story short, I ended up going down to New Zealand, they were the first Western nation to really challenge the Eastern Europeans. And they let me train with them. And they taught me how to strategize races. They taught me how to train they taught me technique. They were they were remarkably welcoming. And I progressed pretty quickly with them. And so by 1986, I was six than the singles that world's 87 I was four But I was winning some internationals that that that time and become one of the top 500 meter guys. And during this time we had another top kayaker, he's better than me, Greg Barton, who's somewhat legendary in our sport, Greg was my roommate at the 84 games. And we were always pretty much put together as roommates. But Greg really didn't want to race with anybody else. He was a top singles guy. And we had some clashes, because all sudden, I was coming up now as a singles guy. And eventually, so we should probably try it doubles. And when we got in first, it didn't really work. And then it really clicked. Anyway, 88, Greg won the singles in the 1000 meters, then we both won the double 1000. So that's where the gold medal was. And then I had to sort out after that, that school, and it was accepted at Brown. But then my coach who had gone to Harvard found out that I was going to brown and contacted me and contacted Harry and sorted out that maybe I should go to Harvard. And I was excited to do that. And so I ended up at Harvard. And it was wonderful to roll for Harry. I studied economics. And as the 92 games approached, I really wanted to go race single. So that was been my big event. And so I decided to take a year off and I trained for the 92 games and everything was going great. I was pretty much undefeated going into those those games, but it had a it was a photo finish. There was five of us and I was fourth. That's why it works out sometimes but the fellow that I had set up a training group in Newport Beach and the fellow that I trained with in his training program I wrote won the gold medal. It fell from Finland, Miko cola mine and so in a roundabout way, it was similar to what happened to me four years prior, because when we went to Golden the doubles, the New Zealanders came second. So that was, in some respects. pretty gratifying. Yeah. Then I had to sort out what to do in my undergraduate work, wrote a thesis on financial incentives is related to athletic performance. My thesis advisor has gone on since to win the Nobel Prize. Wow, he was really junior professor. I always I feel like I should mention that because I'm kind of excited for him. He was pretty tough on me and made me do fairly fairly advanced level mathematics because he was an econometrician. But it got me excited about how I could write papers and do work that would contribute to the improvement of institutions. And the the committee offered me an opportunity to work for them. And he said, you can just keep doing what you're doing and write up a job description. So I did that for a couple years. And we had some other programs that I think were pretty successful as we lead into the 96 Games in Atlanta, created some programs. So some other people that really targeted increasing the medal count for the US through adding additional support to athletes, coaches, and national governing bodies. And then I was told that I had a good mind for private equity. And I didn't even know what that was. So I start asking around and talk to one of the individuals who was very accomplished in the field, Phil bending Warren Hellman out in San Francisco. And after a long series of compliments, I finally realized he's not going to hire me. And there must be reasons, I ended up applying to Harvard Business School. And I was fortunate enough to get in. And after graduating, I wanted to get back into sports. But I thought the place to get into sports that had the most significant relationship to where money was being made was in television, I was offered a job at Turner Broadcasting work in their sports strategy area. I did that for a year. And I was thinking about moving into sports after having that experience. But then they offered for me to stay and I expanded my my purview at Turner by moving into technology, and then other areas. And I'm running the strategic planning group for about four or five years. And then I left that to go work at the US Olympic Committee. So I did that for four or five years or so. And in the meantime, I've had two daughters. I've been I've gotten married, and my wife has family in Saratoga Springs, and so that once my girls left to go, they're both in college. We moved here, and we love it and Saratoga Springs. So that's my story.

Kristi Wagner  13:55  
That was awesome. No, that was so good. That was awesome. I have questions. I feel like, it's really cool. When you were younger, and you were making decisions of I'm gonna go for this, you know, I want to try to make the Olympics, I'm gonna go for this, I'm gonna do this. Obviously. Now it was a little while ago, and you made certain decisions that led you down the path you went down. But when you were deciding to not go to college for a few years, or to go to New Zealand to train or any sort of those decisions that sort of, I'd say like significantly altered your path. How do you feel like you made those decisions? Were you just Yes, this is what I'm going to do or do you feel like you went back and forth on things? Did you have like advisors? Did you talk to your family?

Norman Bellingham  14:49  
I had my coach this fellow Bill Endicott. I talked to him a lot. And I suppose he was the one that helped put framework around striving for goals. And I was is really caught up in the idea of becoming a world champion. When whitewater slalom was taken out of the Olympic program, I no longer thought of necessarily going the Olympic Games, I just wanted to be one of the best in the world. And I thought I was training around these men and women that were World Champs, I wanted to be one of them, I thought they were really cool. And I thought that's a good way to spend your life. When I was 15 1617, I said this is worthwhile. And looking at other people that were supposedly adults, I thought that these people that were doing sport had a better life. And it was a better decision that they had made to do that. And there's that old adage, you can spend your youth trying to attain wealth, and you'll just spend your wealth trying to retain your youth. And so tap into it. Now you can, it seemed pretty obvious to me that I wasn't going to get this time back that I was advancing really quickly. And one of the things I did see was that many people when they hit collegiate age, they were going to these good schools and their movement up the ranks slowed dramatically. And I was looking at the top Europeans, the Austrians there was a Brett, some of these guys I looked at, and my coach was doing case study. So I really studied these people, they weren't going to college. And in East Germany, they really wish they were stopping their studies, you know, in their traditional area, besides moving into vocational areas, at age 1516. And so I didn't see myself as a better athlete and these people, that's that would be the only way that I could go to a good school because I wanted to go to a good school and continue to make the right level of moving up the sport and when so I made the Islam team when I was 17. And I remember how the older guys looked at me, I was a potential standard bearer for a future generation, if that makes any sense. So when so in the older guys look at you that way you realize this is not something that most people get, I'm really, really lucky and fast. And for whatever reason, maybe it's the right genetics or physio type, or I just have the right coach and I'm in the right environment, whatever it is, I should take advantage of this because I'm very unlikely to have this sort of experience elsewhere. If I go to college, maybe I'll be an accountant. And it's just doesn't seem to be equal to this. And I can do that later on. Yeah, maybe I'll speak for five years behind the curve. But that's okay. You just have one shot through this. And the cool stuff requires taking risks. And so I don't know if I intentionally did it, but I kind of did is I looked back, I would put myself in positions where I didn't have any other options. And so my back was up against the wall. So my parents were very upset with me when they found out I mean, this is you have to remember, this isn't now the 80s. But I didn't take my SATs or anything. And I didn't apply to any colleges. And they found out that I was now graduating high school and I had no plans nor any intentions of going to college with my older brother and MIT they were I mean, appalled is one way to put it upset, probably upset with themselves for not being on top of me. But it was kind of intentional. Yeah, I didn't want to eat, you know, because I probably could have gone to university of Maryland or something. And that would have been fine. And when I switched sports, I realized, okay, I have a chance to make the Olympic team in the sport of sprint. And if I do make the Olympic team, and there's more money in that, so I can keep doing the sports stuff. And it's pretty cool. And those flatwater guys are pretty cool. Also, they're not just the white was not just the way or the song goes. They seem like people that were worth emulating to me as a young guy. And maybe it's just because they were really strong and good looking guys, or some I don't know what it was, but they seemed like they were living lies. Were were pretty interesting. Yeah. So again, I moved up pretty quickly. And I think some people would say it was because I just had some natural talent and so forth. I do think there's a lot of it having to do with. I didn't have any other alternatives. Yeah. So there's a lot of fear driving my work ethic, I think I came to the training environment, a lot more geared up with a lot more intensity in preparation than most people. And it was because I didn't have any other options. And I was really aware of the fact that I could go back to work in construction. I didn't see a lot of hope for me elsewhere. Yeah. And this Olympic world. I also did know that if I could make an Olympic team, it would open up a lot of other doors. Yeah, I mean, for legitimate or reasons that were maybe less than legitimate in terms of having it be a stamp of the value of the worst I can bring to an environment but I was going to take it either which way in some respects society what I thought was pretty brutal and how it dealt with me after high school made me work construction. Yeah, so I just thought that's the way it worked. And as I reflect back upon it, I do think that there is something to be said for putting yourself in a position where you don't have any other options other than to succeed. Yeah,

Kristi Wagner  19:52  
no, I mean, I totally agree because I think that like right now my Type A Rain wants to have a plan for the day after the Olympics, like, I have a desire to know that I could go varied into some job or go to school or whatever, like have something else lined up, right, because that makes it less scary. But in actuality to like perform as I would like to perform, and to put everything in like there needs to be, there is no the next day. And that's sort of like the same thing your back's up against the wall, because then you have no choice but to, you know,

Norman Bellingham  20:31  
know how to do it. It's hard to tell some people that because they may take it the wrong way which is. So there is a point at which you now need to think completely, or your backs up against the wall in a different way. Yeah, and the larger picture was society. But as you're approaching your athletic dream, I remember hearing something about Paul McCartney talking about why they did the Beatles did so well said when we were in Hamburg, and we had no other options, we had to thinking it through all the time how to make better songs. He said, essentially, his back was up against the wall. Don't think of the Beatles that way not to compare myself in any way. But the idea, I think that's a common thing for all of us is that if you put if you're in that sort of situation, by hook or crook, you'll figure it out. Because essentially, you're trying to survive.

Kristi Wagner  21:17  
How do you feel like the wins and losses affected you? Or how you kind of worked your way through that? Obviously, it's amazing to have won the Olympic gold medal, and then you go, you know, then you go to Harvard, and you're rowing, and then you decide to go back to the Olympics, and, you know, to come forth. And I think that the perspective that you gave of a, you know, the team that I trained with, and you're the guys that I trained with, like ended up winning, and that you played a part in that I totally agree. But I'm sure in the moment, it didn't feel that way. Right? Like that's, that's something you probably gain perspective over time, is

Norman Bellingham  22:00  
I'm really hesitant to tell you this, because you're in the middle of it, right. So yeah, after coming forth, and two events in the in the two games and losing out on the single spot in 88. There was a devastating things for me devastating. And I remember, specifically, you have those scarring moments where you can remember, almost each second sitting in the tent after the fourth place in singles with a towel over my head, I couldn't believe I'd come forth, just sobbing. I was just like, this is like my dream was not accomplished. Just like it's almost cruel. Fourth place. Yeah. But upon reflection, yes, you realize that I really am hesitant to tell you, this doesn't matter. And you know this, I just don't want you to think about it. So up to them. I used to think that it's a philosophy that has to stick with you until that moment, they'll tell a day or two after you cross the finish line. That is the most important thing in the entire world. The truth is afterwards, it doesn't matter at all, because it was your character. If you did that, everything you could do to reach reach your maximum potential. Then you have developed great depth to your character. And to who you who you are, you know who you are listening to people talk about these journeys to find out who you are, well, you just went on one hell of a journey to find out who you are. And nobody really can tell you who you are the way you know who you are. That's pretty powerful that sticks with you your entire life. Yeah. Yeah, that process that got you to where you are, so that you're in the hunt. You're in the hunt. Now, Chris, God, I think it's one of the most exciting things in the world where you are right now, you can look forward to the 2024 games, and you're in the hunt for the title. That's really exciting. And to me, as I reflect back upon it think I'm most proud of is in the singles in 1992, I was favored to win. And so paddling around with the other eight boys in the final. To try not to look at each other, you don't look at it and kind of do glances. And you know, you're got 10 minutes to the Start eight minutes to the start, you see the clock winding down. And you know how it ends up as how it ends up. And the fact that it was a photo fish with five of us is just figures. And I can give all kinds of excuses as to why it didn't happen. But I didn't blow off a good race. And my friend won. And I believe I was friends with all the other guys in the race. We all respect one another. So to me the journey was almost awkward at that point. I remember pinching myself at that stage and go wow, this is this really worked out. Yeah, that was what my dream was that. I think I my dream should have been a little extended probably another few more minutes, too. So I think I'd probably thought through up to the start line more than I did through the course of the finish. So I didn't have a perfect race. Yeah. So

Kristi Wagner  24:53  
it is it is kind of crazy. Like when I was in high school. I don't know. I would think it When I'd get nervous Oh, well, it's not like I'm racing at the Olympics. Like I would think that all the time High School in college, and even elite rowing, and then we're literally driving to the Olympic final. And I just had this moment of like, Oh, no. Yeah, now it's happening. But an Oh, no, but also a oh my god. Yeah, like, because you're right, you still feel like the person that you have always been and, you know, whatever, either in a positive or negative way. And I think that was a really cool experience for me, and has been cool to reflect on. Really, I mean, not anybody, obviously, their genetics and things have to work out in your favor and all this stuff. But I always thought that people that like won the Olympic gold medals were just special people, like on a different pedestal, you know, when I was younger? And it's not, that's not really true.

Norman Bellingham  26:02  
So, but it's good for young people to think that to give them impetus to have to work hard and work incredibly hard. So you don't want to destroy that. No, no, no, necessarily. But you as people get older yet. It's,

Kristi Wagner  26:16  
I mean, it takes a lot of hard work. But I think that it's important to know that you can choose to do the work

Norman Bellingham  26:24  
without a doubt. So it's interesting. Your idea, when you did realize this was the Olympic final year in, it worked out well for you. So you're able to push through the stress that that can bring the realization, we used to think that we would have to try to tell ourselves, this is just another race. So we'd be in the Olympics, you've been in semi finals, or the finals. And you're trying to tell yourself, this is just like a time trial, or this is just like a big race at Nottingham or something like that. I suspect that the way you're approaching it is better. Well,

Kristi Wagner  26:54  
it's interesting last year, and in 2022, we were at the World Championships, and we have a new high performance director, his name is Yossi and I was racing in the double. And it was right before the semi and he said something along the lines of You know, feeling ready to go. And I was like, yep, just like every day, you know, just another what you just said, Right? Just another day. And he like, stopped me. And was like, No, it's not just another day. Like, you have to finish in the, you know, in the semis, you have to get top three to make the final making the top final, or making the final is important. Like, oh, this is not another day. And we ended up having like a crazy race in the semi had to sprint from behind and made the final. But like, I also think I was an appropriate point of my athletic career to hear something like that, because it didn't really freak me out. It was more like, no, he's right. This is not just another day, I can't just go out there and think, like, I have to bring my A game, you know, not that I wasn't going to but I do think it was a good a good coach giving a good coaching moment.

Norman Bellingham  27:59  
We live sometimes. And I was in New Zealand, and training with these guys. And now that's the process of training and understanding of how you build up a base and you do the kind of they call lactic acid tolerance work. I don't know they call it now. But that's all common knowledge and all sports. But it was new back then. And knowing what to eat like we didn't know. What are you supposed to eat beforehand? It was the previous generation was into steak dinners and all that kind of stuff. And so the knowledge is being refined in sports psychology was a new piece of that equation that you guys haven't you haven't better started out than we did for sure. And the way you can tell that that's true, is a little embarrassing, because just because we'd like to think our generation had it together. But we would always invariably in a finals have somebody blow up. So if you're Greg Barton used to always say if you make the finals, you can be sure you'll at least be top eight, because somebody's going to blow up. And it's because somebody's going to try to perform better than a potential. And she'll be halfway through the race and all sudden lane four is going out the back door. And it's because he thought he's going to win, even though you know, he probably would have should have been happy with a fourth or fifth place. But he thought he's gonna win, did a flyer and couldn't hold it and realize that the 250 that Russia was pulling past him and he was done. He says screw it. I'm not you know, I have nothing in here. And he'd blow up and it happened all the time. And that doesn't happen anymore, that sort of thing. And it's because of the sports psychology, the planning for racing so forth is much more sophisticated.

Kristi Wagner  29:22  
Yeah, sometimes people still do that. Yeah,

Norman Bellingham  29:25  
I'm sure I mean, it's human nature to do that sort of thing. Yeah, I think you also you find yourself in a finals. And if you don't have the right sort of coaching support and others that can get help you get in your head and to deal with that. Then it is sort of human nature. So I'm gonna go for it. Because people always say that you go for it go for the gold. Well, you know, if you're lucky to make the finals and you know, phenomenal performance would be third or fourth. Maybe you shouldn't go for the gold. You should try to put down a really good race and be very happy coming in third or fourth. And you should celebrate that. Yeah. My mantra going into it was Just raise up your full potential and you should be, you'll do just fine. My dad was pretty high strung guy. So I was pretty keen to to go out.

Kristi Wagner  30:10  
I also can be quite high strung and I'm just curious, like, I think that a lot of things that make people very successful athletes, then I'm curious about the like transition into quote unquote, like the rest of your life. And if you feel like you used the same sort of motivations and like framework and guidance into jobs and careers and stuff like that, or if you felt like you needed to sort of mellow out a little bit. Well,

Norman Bellingham  30:38  
both you have fun, and you enjoy it. So you should enjoy where you are right now. And enjoy afterwards. And the fact that you've been part of this amazing group striving for higher standards within the sport is something that matters, I think, maybe it doesn't matter. But if it doesn't matter, nothing matters, you know, maybe into winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry doesn't really matter, you know, who knows what matters, I think what you're doing matters. So enjoy it, and appreciate the fact that you're in all this. And it's by virtue of what you've done the hard work. But transitioning, your character is now pretty well established and your work ethic, I think Broers are some of the most desirable workers that there are out there. And there's not It's not surprising that rowers do so well.

Kristi Wagner  31:25  
Thank you. Yeah. Cool. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about? You have any questions for me?

Norman Bellingham  31:32  
Oh, how do you feel? Are you excited?

Kristi Wagner  31:34  
I'm really excited. Um, I am. Yeah, I feel like it's very exciting to have a singular pursuit about something. And I feel very lucky that I've gotten to, you know, continue to, like, chase this dream and get to do it with other people. And it is like, about a metal and about that. But I think it's really cool to be trying to go the fastest that anyone has ever gone, like in this event, like, that's what we're trying to do be go faster than anyone has ever gone and be the best person in the world on a singular day. And that's just like, such a cool thing. Like incredible

Norman Bellingham  32:24  
bounds of what, yeah, human body is capable of doing what our species can do. Yeah. So

Kristi Wagner  32:32  
how cool is that? Yeah. And I think it's like, that's what's so cool to me. And, yes, it's cool to like, represent your country and all that stuff. But I think it's the other part of it is cooler to me. And the fact that I get to do that is just, and like that I get to push myself in the process. And yeah, so well,

Norman Bellingham  32:52  
you're part of the lore. Now you're part of the lore. That's exciting. And you while you're still in the middle of it, so there's still another chapter to be written? Yes,

Kristi Wagner  32:59  
yes. I think that's the other cool thing like to know that it's still happening. And, you know, who knows what's gonna happen, but like, I don't have all the control, but I do have a certain amount of control. And that just feels feels cool. Yeah. Thank you so much. No, it's so fun.

Norman Bellingham  33:16  
I was so excited to meet you. And it's great to meet you as well. I was I told my wife after you guys got your bronze medalist when she was hard to get the results. And you're right. So the the coverage it was, it was better, oddly enough, when we had just three TV channels that would never have thought that right.

Kristi Wagner  33:35  
That's it for this week's episode. I hope that everyone really liked listening to my conversation with Norman he's so cool. I really appreciated him coming in and sharing so much. I feel like I could have just listened to him talk and listen to his stories for way longer than I did. So I just am really grateful to him for coming on. And my quote of the week is again from this book that I'm reading, which is called gold in the water. And honestly, it's probably I'm probably gonna have quotes from it for a little while. It's taking me longer to read than normally books do but that's okay. So this quote is actually from the coach of this Olympic team, whose name was like your comms his last name was Joe comes. I don't know how you say it. J O ch. U IMS. And so he's basically speaking to like the his group of Olympic hopefuls. And he says, If you come here every single day between now and Olympic trials, if you make no excuses and allow no bad days, you will have done everything possible to make the Olympic team. That's our goal. If you begin this journey, but don't meet those requirements, you're someday going to be my age and you're going to be at a cocktail party. You'll be having a good time until you suddenly hear yourself telling people how good you could have been. Yeah, take those leaps. Try things you might not want to try. Okay, thanks for listening. See you next week. Bye.

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai