Doing it Your Way, with Olivia Reeves | Episode 63

00:00:02 Olivia Reeves

No, but that's what I thought. I thought people.

00:00:04 Olivia Reeves

At this level.

00:00:05 Olivia Reeves

Were like tracking their food every day and then I would need training 9 sessions a week and it would be like absolutely exhausting and it is sometimes, but I've found a way that it works for me and it's just not I think what I expected when I looked up to these lifters.

00:00:25 Kristi Wagner

Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream. They want to turn into a reality.

00:00:35 Kristi Wagner

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years. My name is Christy Wagner and this week is a super fun episode of the podcast we have.

00:00:47 Kristi Wagner

Best Olivia Reeves so Olivia will be competing at the Paris Olympics in weightlifting. Olivia's awesome. She is a true rising star, so she competes in the 71 kilogram weight category. And most recently, she won the gold medal at both the 2024 IWF World Cup in Thailand.

00:01:07 Kristi Wagner

And the 2023 Pan Am Championships in 2023, she also won the bronze medal at the World Championships, and she's poised to have an awesome showing in Paris. But more than that, it was just so fun to chat with her and get to know her.

00:01:22 Kristi Wagner

Hear her background? How she got into the sport and I was just really impressed by her ability to know herself and her body and do things that work for her rather than being influenced by what those around her are doing. It was really great to hear the differences between weight lifting and rowing. They're kind of a lot, but I'm just excited for all of you to hear from Olivia.

00:01:43 Kristi Wagner

She's fun, but also a fierce competitor, and it was really a great conversation.

00:01:50 Kristi Wagner

But before we get into that, here is an update on what is currently going on in my training, so we are still in Princeton, NJ, training another couple of weeks before we head over to Europe for our pre camp before the Olympics. Everything is definitely getting a little bit more real. We are starting to do.

00:02:12 Kristi Wagner

You know a little bit more like press and media there have just been more people at.

00:02:16 Kristi Wagner

This we've started getting some information about the gear and stuff, but also practice is just starting to get a little bit more intense, which is really exciting and practice have been going well. Last week it was a very warm in Princeton, so I am excited this week is already a little bit cooler.

00:02:36 Kristi Wagner

It's wild that like in the 70s and 80s, is considered cool, but it was really hot last week. We are really fortunate to have.

00:02:45 Kristi Wagner

A lot of barbecues and like host family events the next couple of weeks, we had one at old host families of Sophia's this weekend. They made us pizza and it was really, really good. Honestly, they made so much amazing food. It was awesome. And just like a really nice chill Saturday evening this week we have.

00:03:07 Kristi Wagner

Pnra, where we were on Princeton, they're hosting a BBQ for us, which is really nice. They do it every year and it's super fun and just relax and chill. And then we also have another host family BBQ. So I'm here for the backyard barbecues. Honestly, I think we get to go swimming at one of them. I'm, I'm excited for that.

00:03:24 Kristi Wagner

So just sort of rowing, recovering, fueling, rowing again, we're urging or lifting. I think it's gonna be a little windy a few days this week, which is excellent preparation for the Olympics, you know, doing everything we can to make our sessions as good as they can possibly be. And, you know, trying to have a little bit of fun in the process and.

00:03:44 Kristi Wagner

You know, just doing all the things we ought to do in the US before we go to Europe, for me, that always includes like buying things on Amazon that I'm not really sure that I need. But in my mind, I really need them. I have bought so many books because I'm, like, nervous.

00:03:59 Kristi Wagner

About all of the bus rides we're going to do at the.

00:04:03 Kristi Wagner

But I'm also now a little bit nervous about how many books I'm going to need to bring to Europe with me. I might need like an.

00:04:08 Kristi Wagner

Extra.

00:04:08 Kristi Wagner

Bag just for the books and maybe I should leave them places. Leave them for the next person to find. I've been watching every night. It's very exciting. We had swimming trials and diving trials. Now we have track and field and then gymnastics. So I've been watching.

00:04:23 Kristi Wagner

All of that my complaint to NBC would be, could you please make it earlier? Like, why is it on so late at night? I understand that track and field is happening on the West Coast.

00:04:33 Kristi Wagner

But it's just kind of wild, like it's so late at night. I assume it's for a prime time viewership, but you know, a lot of people work from home now, and you can stream everything on your computer, so they should just make it earlier. If I was in charge, that's what I would do. I like literally think more people would watch if it wasn't on at 10:00 PM but.

00:04:53 Kristi Wagner

That's just me.

00:04:55 Kristi Wagner

Now it is time for my conversation.

00:04:59 Kristi Wagner

With 2024, Paris Olympian Olivia Reeves.

00:05:11 Kristi Wagner

And here we go. Olivia, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I'm super excited.

00:05:16

Of course.

00:05:17 Kristi Wagner

I am excited to learn a lot, so yeah, I thought we could start by maybe just sharing how you got into weight lifting.

00:05:27 Olivia Reeves

So my parents owned a cross with Jim and through that Olympic weightlifting.

00:05:32 Olivia Reeves

Is a part.

00:05:32 Olivia Reeves

Of CrossFit. Just like functional fitness, gymnastics is what CrossFit kind of limbo.

00:05:37 Olivia Reeves

Please.

00:05:38 Olivia Reeves

So through that I wanted to get better at CrossFit. So I started Olympic weightlifting to supplement that. Turns out I just like it way more. I didn't enjoy running aspect or cardio at all, and that's not a part of weight lifting. So I just kind of stuck with it. Went to a couple local competitions leading into a national competition. Then I went to a training camp at the Olympic Training Center.

00:06:01 Olivia Reeves

And after that I was just kind of sold that this is.

00:06:04 Olivia Reeves

Now my sport.

00:06:06 Kristi Wagner

Wow, that's awesome. So your parents own across which gym are they also like?

00:06:11 Kristi Wagner

Do they do Olympic weightlifting at all or are they more CrossFit specific?

00:06:15 Olivia Reeves

They yeah, they owned the gym till about 2019, so they were big into, we watched the CrossFit Games and all of that, but they never really got into Olympic weightlifting specifically. It's really just me and my sister who do Olympic weightlifting. Specifically. My younger sister is.

00:06:31 Olivia Reeves

More of a.

00:06:33 Olivia Reeves

I have two and her sisters, so one of them is a lifter and the other one is more like a track and field, soccer, baseball, basketball athlete.

00:06:42 Kristi Wagner

Yeah. I was gonna ask. Did you do any other like, those sports growing up?

00:06:47 Olivia Reeves

I mean, through my middle school, I did soccer, I did basketball, I did track and field and cross country. Kind of before my pre CrossFit era at 12 years old. So I tried a little bit. I don't think I was really good at any of them. I remember one time and the somebody told me this years later, who was on the team, it was Charlotte.

00:07:07 Olivia Reeves

They told me that they would get together beforehand on the basketball team, be like alright this time, get the ball to Olivia so Olivia can score a goal or a.

00:07:16 Olivia Reeves

A basket in basketball. I didn't know that until years later. I didn't realize how. Like I'm not very good at it.

00:07:23 Kristi Wagner

Those seem like good teammates, though.

00:07:25 Olivia Reeves

Sure.

00:07:26 Kristi Wagner

That's OK. Rowers are like, notoriously bad at.

00:07:31 Kristi Wagner

Hand eye coordination sports. So I I was on like the D soccer team growing up. So I I understand the struggle.

00:07:39 Kristi Wagner

That still seems like I I guess I don't really know, but that still seems like a little bit young to be getting into, like CrossFit, you know, weight lifting, that kind of thing. Like, were there a lot of other kids your age doing it?

00:07:52 Olivia Reeves

There's a couple. So because my mom owned the gym, she had a CrossFit kids and a CrossFit teens class that we would participate.

00:08:00 Olivia Reeves

So essentially, like I grew up in a gym, I grew up around that environment instead of watching football games on the weekend, we watched like CrossFit competitions. It's just kind of what we did. And there were a couple kids from my school because their parents have known my parents and they go to the gym. So I mean, it was just like another sport, any other kid would do. For me. It was just CrossFit because my mom.

00:08:20 Olivia Reeves

Ran it and I wanted to.

00:08:23 Olivia Reeves

I wanted to be better at it, so I don't think it was ever weird. It was just kind of like what I was doing.

00:08:30 Kristi Wagner

Yeah. No, that's awesome. I just have to imagine that like technique is super, super important, right? Especially when you're like, younger, so that you don't get injured.

00:08:39 Kristi Wagner

Did you feel like you had, like an advantage in that being around it from such a young age?

00:08:45 Olivia Reeves

No, maybe yes. I think just being able to understand what like a workout means and how to the maturity of being able to have the attention span for class. I think just developing.

00:08:59 Olivia Reeves

As a young athlete was important, I think I mean technique is a big deal. But for the CrossFit side of it, you're not lifting a lot of weight. You're not doing super heavy. All you're trying to do is put your body in positions that will help you later on and translate to your sport. Whatever sport that is. So it's not like.

00:09:20 Olivia Reeves

I would say I was doing anything super dangerous. It was pretty watered down version of CrossFit, but I think it helped with my background to get into Olympic weightlifting because when I talked to Steve, my coach, who's been my coach since the beginning.

00:09:34 Olivia Reeves

And I walked into his gym and I was like, I can do CrossFit. Like, I know what Olympic whipping is. I can do it. I didn't say it to his face, but he I just, like, thought I didn't need his help until I realized that if this is going to be my sport, I need to be receptive to.

00:09:50 Olivia Reeves

Technique changes criticism, but I just thought I just thought I had it. I did not.

00:09:57 Kristi Wagner

When you first got into Olympic weightlifting, were you just like ohh, I really want to be competitive in this immediately. Like, did you feel like the competitive aspect of it picked up really quickly or did you just enjoy doing it and then that kind of came later?

00:10:13 Olivia Reeves

I just enjoyed doing it. I think even still I enjoy the sport, I enjoy where it has taken me and regardless if it had gone to this level or not, I think I would still be lifting because I I like being strong and I like the way the sport has progressed and developed me as an athlete and a person.

00:10:30 Kristi Wagner

I think that's like the background you need right to. Then take it really forms. If you don't enjoy what you're doing like you can put in, put in the time that's needed. That being said, like at what point did you kind of start to see big aspirations within the sport?

00:10:36 Olivia Reeves

Yeah.

00:10:48 Olivia Reeves

Yeah. See, I've been doing it for 8 going on 9 years weightlifting specifically, and it probably wasn't until 2022 when they started the qualifying process for the Olympics that I realized that.

00:11:03 Olivia Reeves

I'm now competing with people who I looked up to in the sport, who are trying to make this next Olympics, who have already gone to one, and now I'm kind of in it with them and I'm instead of looking up to them, I'm looking at them. I'm on these teams.

00:11:16 Olivia Reeves

Them and it was at that point that I started realizing that, yeah, I'm trying for the Olympics, but like, maybe it's actually a possibility. Like, I'm not just trying. It's it's pretty real.

00:11:27 Kristi Wagner

Yeah.

00:11:28 Kristi Wagner

I saw, you know, online that you had a lot of success in the like juniors circuit. Did you feel like that competing in juniors and then like competing in seniors was a pretty natural transition or do you feel like there was a big change making that switch?

00:11:48 Olivia Reeves

For me, I don't think so. So weightlifting is split into age categories as long as weight classes. Youth is 17 and under, junior is 20 and under and then senior is 35 and under until you get into like Masters. I was making senior teams as a junior which is.

00:12:05 Olivia Reeves

Not very common. It's happened to a couple of people, so I didn't find the transition. It was really seamless for me, like as I was aging out of a junior my last year. You know, I was also making senior teams.

00:12:16 Olivia Reeves

For other people, it's not that seamless. It takes a couple years to actually develop that strength and to actually play with the big dogs in a way.

00:12:25 Olivia Reeves

I think it helped being competitive and at the international level at such a young age, I think helped into my senior years and just being comfortable on a stage really helped. But other than that.

00:12:36 Kristi Wagner

Yeah, because I have to imagine that the competitions are like somewhat similar.

00:12:43 Olivia Reeves

Yeah, I mean, I don't know, the rowing competition looks like, do you know how the weightlifting competition looks like?

00:12:48 Kristi Wagner

Only from, like the things I've watched of yours online.

00:12:54 Kristi Wagner

But like in rowing, weather plays like a massive effect on what we're doing, you know?

00:13:00 Kristi Wagner

But I assume that that doesn't happen in in weightlifting.

00:13:03 Olivia Reeves

Indoor sports. Yeah. So malting every competition is the exact same format. You have 3 snatches. That's the wide grip from the ground overhead. And you have three clean and jerks. That's the more narrow grip to the front rack. And then overhead. So you get 3 attempts at each. You get a minute to do each attempt. So if your clock.

00:13:23 Olivia Reeves

Comes out and you don't make the lifts and it's a.

00:13:24 Olivia Reeves

The lift.

00:13:25 Olivia Reeves

You can medal in the ******, the clean and jerk in the total, which is your.

00:13:29 Olivia Reeves

****** plus clean.

00:13:30 Olivia Reeves

And jerk. So out of weightlifting competition, you weigh in two hours before you go to introductions, and then you start warming up and the bar on the platform, the weight only increases. So as you want to take an attempt, you can they have a system and you write it down and then you'll take the attempt as the.

00:13:47 Olivia Reeves

R keeps.

00:13:48 Olivia Reeves

Going and it it happened, it's going to be the same in the Olympics as it was at our seven qualifiers. It's it's all very standard. Do you enjoy that? I do because it's very predictable but it's predictable because I know what I can expect. But it's also a bit of a strategy because you can.

00:14:08 Olivia Reeves

They're counting attempts. You can't warm up too fast or too slow, because if you're then you're not ready for your weight. That's on the competition platform, so it takes a lot in the back room that people don't see because the cameras on the on the platform in the front, but.

00:14:24 Olivia Reeves

I like it. I I love.

00:14:26 Olivia Reeves

Competing. That's my favorite.

00:14:28 Kristi Wagner

What do you love about it?

00:14:30 Olivia Reeves

I like that it's almost like a performance in a way, and you just get to show off like you're training and I just have so much fun being on the platform because when it's when it's a good day. I'm having a lot of fun. And I mean, because if it's a bad day, that changes things.

00:14:49 Olivia Reeves

But yeah.

00:14:51 Kristi Wagner

And So what was the qualification process like you just mentioned 7 qualification?

00:14:56 Olivia Reeves

Yeah, so weightlifting had an Olympic trials back in 2016, but because of a bunch of drug testing issues, they've changed the system for the 2021 Olympics and the 2024 Olympics. And they'll probably change it again.

00:15:12 Olivia Reeves

So instead of having athletes compete just one time to make a team, they had seven qualifiers, of which two were mandatory. So the other five you had just had to pick three. The reason they had us compete so often was that so everybody was subject to drug testing more often in competition, so they could potentially catch those positives. Just say that they're testing more athletes.

00:15:32 Olivia Reeves

More often, instead of one time at an Olympic trials, because not every country has a USADA, so sometimes the only times these athletes are being testing is.

00:15:42 Olivia Reeves

At a competition I did, all seven didn't have to do all seven when I did because that increases your odds every time. If you wanna have a good day or do a total well, you've got 7 opportunities. I took those opportunities. If you're probably an older athlete, you're not gonna do that. You'll probably train through a couple of competitions. I'm on the younger side. I went ahead and did all 7.

00:16:03 Kristi Wagner

I assume the US also has to qualify like for the spots at the Olympics. So was that within this same?

00:16:11 Olivia Reeves

Yes. So for Olympic weightlifting, a full team is three men and three women.

00:16:18 Olivia Reeves

Of the five weight classes, there's only a top ten are going in each weight class, so the US not only has to have an athlete in the top ten, but the US had an athlete in the top ten in five weight category.

00:16:30 Olivia Reeves

So they can't take all five, they have to take three women Max. And we had a girl in the top 10 for like, each weight class. And so they have to take.

00:16:37 Olivia Reeves

Who's ever closer?

00:16:38 Olivia Reeves

To the top of the weight class. Potential medalists because there's only 10 lifters per weight class. That's ten countries can't have two countries in the top 10. So not only do.

00:16:48 Olivia Reeves

You have to beat out.

00:16:49 Olivia Reeves

Other people in the world to be on the 10 list.

00:16:52 Olivia Reeves

You have to beat out other US lifters who are potentially trying to one up your spot because US is actually really good at weightlifting. We're the women's team, at least, is in the past couple of years since probably since I've been watching so 10 or so years we've really progressed and are sending full teens and we're expected to meddle.

00:17:12 Kristi Wagner

How do you feel about having those expectations on you?

00:17:17 Olivia Reeves

It's good and bad. Good. And it's helpful to be motivating. But also talking to Jordan de la Cruz, who is on the Olympic team for 20/24 and was on the 2020 Olympic team, she went to Tokyo and didn't have the best day. She was set to meddle and a lot of people and to no fault. We're just telling her that.

00:17:38 Olivia Reeves

It's going to be awesome. You'll have the best day. You're going to meddle like don't worry about like, you're you're just going to be great. And she was, but she just didn't have her best day and she bombed, which means she missed all of her cleaning jerks.

00:17:49 Olivia Reeves

Which is a tough.

00:17:51 Olivia Reeves

Day for anybody. Nobody wants to bomb.

00:17:53 Olivia Reeves

So listening to her and her talk about it and just realize that she's going for the experience of the Olympics, you're still an Olympian, no matter what happens on competition day. And you get to take that away regardless of a medal or not.

00:18:08 Olivia Reeves

I think it's good to keep that in check that it's it's possible it could happen, but it's not why I'm there. I'm still grateful to be there in a way.

00:18:20 Kristi Wagner

Yeah, totally. And what does it mean to you to be going to your first Olympics?

00:18:26 Olivia Reeves

I feel so excited, but I'm not really sure what I'm excited for. I haven't been to one and we'll talk about it. They're like you just can't. You can't explain it till you're there. And I'm like, well, alright, I guess I'll just.

00:18:41 Olivia Reeves

I'll just wait.

00:18:41 Olivia Reeves

Till I get there.

00:18:42 Olivia Reeves

But I'm pretty stoked.

00:18:44 Olivia Reeves

How would you describe it?

00:18:46 Kristi Wagner

I mean, I I only went to the Tokyo Olympics, which was very like COVID, you know?

00:18:52 Olivia Reeves

Yeah.

00:18:52 Kristi Wagner

But yeah, I mean I think it's just super cool that it's not just your sport, right? We all compete at World Cups or World Championships or whatever for our sport, which is also really, really cool. The Olympics. It's like the best people from every sport, from every country. And it's just such like a celebrity.

00:19:11 Kristi Wagner

Creation. So I think that just makes you feel the moment. And like the gravity of the moment. But I'm excited this time to be able to go to watch other sports after we're done competing. And I think actually get to talk to other people like because of COVID people were so nervous to, you know, for good reason, right to, like, talk to anyone.

00:19:31 Olivia Reeves

One. And that makes sense, yeah.

00:19:34 Kristi Wagner

Are you guys going to any sort of like pre camp or anything?

00:19:37 Olivia Reeves

Well, so we leave the states July 17th and we'll be there till August 11th. So opening closing ceremonies waiting doesn't even start till August 7th.

00:19:50 Olivia Reeves

So we'll be there a while just hanging out in the village, acclimating to the time difference, I think is their excuse for having us go over so early.

00:19:59 Olivia Reeves

We had a camp, went to Colorado Springs in May when they announced the Olympic team and in one week they're sending us to nationals is happening. I'll compete just for fun. And so a couple others. And so we'll get to hang out there and train. Yeah, our pre Olympic camp will be at the Olympics.

00:20:19 Olivia Reeves

Just for a while.

00:20:21 Kristi Wagner

And what does like a normal sort of week of training look like for you?

00:20:27 Olivia Reeves

So I train four times a week. I do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday leading up to competition. It'll go down to three times for about like 2 hours is pretty standard, pretty average. If you talk to other weight lifters, they train a little bit more. They do. It's not uncommon to hear.

00:20:47 Olivia Reeves

6 to 9 sessions a week, with sometimes double days doing a morning and afternoon, but everybody has a different style of training and it also depends on your coach and how they want to approach.

00:20:59 Olivia Reeves

That I've had the same coach throughout my years and we've trained three to four times for the past eight years fairly consistently. And because I train less often, I'm able to go heavy more often, which gives me more confidence in the bigger lifts and therefore I can be more prepared for competition.

00:21:19 Olivia Reeves

It's just a way that we found that that works with me. I've.

00:21:22 Olivia Reeves

Ride the double days is 6 to 9 sessions a week and if anything for me it's too much volume. It breaks me down really bad and then to ramp it back up back to competition. It's just not, it's not my style. So for me that's that's what it looks like.

00:21:40 Kristi Wagner

Like would you only go to sort of your competition level at a competition or would you ever do that during practice?

00:21:46 Olivia Reeves

Probably would save that for competition, but at the same time we go heavy and we'll try and hit PR's in training. So if it's a good day, we'll take advantage of that. It's not like it's a good day. We'll save this for competition sometimes, but most times it's if it's a good day, then go for it and but also, that's Steve's philosophy. It's not everybody else's.

00:22:07 Olivia Reeves

So it's a little different.

00:22:10 Kristi Wagner

You're in school, right? How does that like fit in with training and competing and stuff?

00:22:17 Olivia Reeves

So far I've been able to balance it. I've been a full time student the entire time through middle school, high school, and now college. I have 18 credit hours left, so I plan to graduate this December. I plan to take a full semester after the Olympics, so.

00:22:32 Olivia Reeves

So we'll we'll see how that goes, but that is my plan at the moment. I'm a student and an athlete. I'm not a student athlete through the university. So as long as I like, talk to my professors about where I'm going, I'm have a competition here. I'm going to be gone for the week. They're usually pretty good about it and.

00:22:51 Olivia Reeves

That's like that's.

00:22:52 Olivia Reeves

The support I get from them, which is nice, but I've never really had any issues and they're they're pretty flexible working with me through that.

00:23:00 Kristi Wagner

That's awesome. And you, major in exercise science, right?

00:23:05 Olivia Reeves

It was exercise science. Now it's sociology. I've changed my major four or five times. So.

00:23:13 Olivia Reeves

It's hard to keep up for me too, yeah.

00:23:15 Kristi Wagner

That's OK. I changed my major many times in college.

00:23:18 Kristi Wagner

Sociology, though that's really interesting.

00:23:21 Olivia Reeves

Yeah, I wanted to. I picked up exercise science and before that it was like nutrition and before that was kinesiology and then so it's been in that exercise realm. And I think I chose it mainly because it just aligned with weightlifting. And as I just continued schooling, I was like, I don't see myself being a strength coach.

00:23:41 Olivia Reeves

That's really what an exercise science degree means. And then, unless you like, want to go get a PhD and do something anyways. So I wanted to find something else that wasn't really weightlifting related.

00:23:51 Olivia Reeves

So that whenever my career ends, I have another feel that I can connect and it ties a little bit, but it's not. I don't want to stay in the weightlifting community forever.

00:24:03 Kristi Wagner

I think that's good and very healthy.

00:24:06 Olivia Reeves

Yes, it took a took a while for that to to sink in.

00:24:10 Kristi Wagner

Speaking of, are you planning on just like continuing to compete Post Olympics or gonna take a little bit of time off?

00:24:17 Olivia Reeves

I think if anything, priorities will just change instead of lifting being the number one priority and building my school schedule and any schedule around lifting, I think maybe I build my schedule around school starting.

00:24:31 Olivia Reeves

In the fall.

00:24:32 Olivia Reeves

To get that done. And yeah, I think my priorities will just change for a semester and I'll still continue to train when I can. I enjoy lifting that's.

00:24:42 Olivia Reeves

How I workout and keep myself healthy, so I think I'll stay probably about three times a week. But if I need to miss a day for school or something like I'm not going to be too pressed about that.

00:24:54 Olivia Reeves

I think my next competition goal would probably be there's a World Championships in December. So right now with my total, I'm qualified and I'm on the team. So I think I'll probably accept that unless something changes and that'll be my competition after the Olympics, we'll see.

00:25:11 Kristi Wagner

Do you have a favorite of the two lifts that you?

00:25:15 Olivia Reeves

I prefer to train the ****** like to do the ****** and training I like, but I like clean and jerks in competition because on clean jerk is the heavier lift. You can do more weight there, so in competition it just feels lighter. It doesn't feel as as it does in training, so I prefer those in competition, but I just like.

00:25:35 Olivia Reeves

Snatches. They're just.

00:25:37 Olivia Reeves

They're easy. Not they're not easy. But they're just so much faster and they're lighter.

00:25:43 Kristi Wagner

This might be a stupid question, but in training do you do like other lifts or do you only train for?

00:25:51 Olivia Reeves

Yeah, I do. Other lifts like other strength conditioning workouts you would do the back squat front squat. Also do variations of like a power ****** with an overhead squat or a power clean like we'll change it up quite a bit. Usually in my workouts there'll be at least a version of the ******, a version of the.

00:26:12 Olivia Reeves

Jerk and some sort.

00:26:12 Olivia Reeves

Of squat workout.

00:26:14 Olivia Reeves

Sometimes the order changes of what we do just really depends on what we're working with and kind of what point and how far away we are from a competition determines how hard a workout's gonna be on the day-to-day.

00:26:26 Olivia Reeves

Oh, yeah. I mean, I'll do shoulder press. I'll do some adls. I don't do anything too crazy for accessory movements. Pretty, pretty standard. Yeah.

00:26:35 Kristi Wagner

Yeah. How how important is like prehab or like PT or any of those things, do you do, do you do that kind of stuff?

00:26:43 Olivia Reeves

I do a little bit. I do hot yoga every week.

00:26:49 Olivia Reeves

Just as a fun way to just move in a different way, weight lifting is really repetitive. You're doing the same movement. I imagine rowing is too. You're just over and over and over again. So overuse injuries are very common over here too. So trying to move in a different way, work on my mobility just to do something else that's not lifting related, not having that impact.

00:27:12 Olivia Reeves

I think helps for me.

00:27:14 Olivia Reeves

In addition to cupping or acupuncture, just as a recovery and preventative measure, I don't have any injuries at the moment that I'm dealing with. I've been relatively injury free for my career. I think that helps that I don't train so often. My body can recover and I have days to rest.

00:27:31 Olivia Reeves

So just as a preventative and recovery. Acupuncture. Cupping. Massage.

00:27:36 Kristi Wagner

Those are good things. I was just talking about how I think I should do hot yoga more. That's hilarious.

00:27:42 Olivia Reeves

Yes, I love it. I love it. It's also great. Like a lot of people weight lifting for like weight cuts and stuff. They do sauna and I think that this is a good way to just get your heart rate up, sweat a little bit. It's just an hour. I can do anything. It's just an hour.

00:27:58 Kristi Wagner

That's awesome. Yeah. I don't want to get, like, too into the weight category. Stuff like we have weight categories in rowing as well. I am an open weight rower, so we can weigh whatever we want, but our lightweights have to weigh in also two hours before. And that's like a really big part of what they're doing, especially like the weigh in, like, you know, cutting or whatever. And then.

00:28:18 Kristi Wagner

Refueling. Is that a really big part of competition, or are you normally like closer to the weight that you need to be?

00:28:26 Olivia Reeves

For me, no. So I'm in the 71K weight class. I sit 7273 like because I'm competing at nationals next week, I've I'm weighing myself and tracking my food a little bit more. So like I was 72.5 this morning and having that is it's beneficial for me but not.

00:28:46 Olivia Reeves

I would not say it's the case for every athlete weighing in two hours before means you don't have a lot of time, as you know, to recover, replenish anything that you've lost. Try.

00:28:56 Olivia Reeves

And make that.

00:28:57 Olivia Reeves

So I usually try to wake up a little bit under 71. Usually my sessions it just so has been in the afternoon these past couple competitions, so I'll wake up and then eat a little something, check my weight again, I'm right on point and then go take the bus to lands and it's pretty got a routine down that I like.

00:29:16 Kristi Wagner

That's good. It hasn't been like kind of an an issue sort of sport wide.

00:29:21 Olivia Reeves

Yes, I would say for youth lifters, if youth lifters weigh in over their weight category, they're automatically moved up. They don't have the opportunity or the option to be like, oh, let me just go spit or sweat a little bit more. I think that is beneficial. I don't think really youth, their junior lifters should be cutting anyways, I think.

00:29:41 Olivia Reeves

At that level of the sport, you're there no matter what to enjoy it and have fun and putting pressure on athletes that young to make weight.

00:29:51 Olivia Reeves

Is not setting you up for success in this sport in longevity at all. So I think it's a little bit of an issue. I think we're getting a little bit better about it of just not sharing so much about behind the scenes cause. If people are sharing about their weight cut, then other lifters who look up to them are looking and like I have to weight cut.

00:30:11 Olivia Reeves

To be better, I in order to be stronger or more competitive, I need to weigh less, and that's not always the case.

00:30:18 Olivia Reeves

You can move up a weight class and get stronger. That's always an option. It's not. If you're maybe qualifying for the Olympics and you're at.

00:30:24 Olivia Reeves

That level, but.

00:30:26 Olivia Reeves

At a national level, or even youth and junior international like it's always an option to get stronger and allow yourself that opportunity to get to the next weight class and fill that out and be a healthier.

00:30:39 Olivia Reeves

Person.

00:30:39 Olivia Reeves

So I'm a big advocate for not really cutting.

00:30:44 Kristi Wagner

Ohh no totally, I totally agree and especially with like social media these days, I feel like people see things and they're like not getting the full story, but they kind of latch on to like a little bit of information and that just can make some really unhealthy habits.

00:31:00 Olivia Reeves

Definitely. So. People who do weight cut in the smaller weights are less, are more hesitant to share, which I think is fine. It's there, it's their system, it's their body, it's how they want to go about it. That's fine because people will take stuff, they'll run with it.

00:31:16 Kristi Wagner

What would you say like would be your advice, maybe for some younger athletes that have big ambitions, what are some of the things that have helped you over the years?

00:31:29 Olivia Reeves

Being patient with yourself and your body as you grow and develop to be an athlete, it took at least eight years for me to get this far and it takes people even longer and there's no rush.

00:31:43 Olivia Reeves

Really, if you enjoy the sport and you have a good coach and you have a good system support system, you can last longer than you think and be competitive internationally or nationally. I would say just be patient and give yourself some grace. It doesn't have to be so hard. Corral the time. It's not for me. I try. I try not to.

00:32:02 Olivia Reeves

Make it that way.

00:32:04 Kristi Wagner

I don't think you can like operate like up here all the time. You're.

00:32:08 Kristi Wagner

Just burnout.

00:32:09 Olivia Reeves

No, but that's what I thought. I thought people at this level were like tracking their food every day, and then I would be training 9 sessions a week and it would be like, absolutely exhausting. And it is sometimes, but I've found a way that it works for me, and it's just not, I think what I expected when I looked up to these lifters growing up.

00:32:30 Kristi Wagner

Those are kind of all the questions I had. I don't know if there's anything that I like didn't ask you about that, you know, kind of came to mind or.

00:32:38 Olivia Reeves

I don't know. Do you guys for rowing, like weight lifters, people always think, I guess, just female weighters that were like, aggressive or were mean because we because we lift weights and that's our sport. Are there any like misconceptions about rowers or anything that it's like, oh, you're a rower, you're XYZ.

00:32:58 Kristi Wagner

I think people think that we're just crazy because we like trained so much and people are always like ohh you must wake up at like 4:00 in the morning and I'm like.

00:33:08 Kristi Wagner

We don't do that, but it's also a very like East Coast, like Ivy League Sport. You know, just really old and traditional. And I do fit into some of those sort of stereotypes. So, but it's definitely not that way anymore. So I think some of those things are a little bit tough.

00:33:28 Olivia Reeves

Well, I you told me that sometimes people ask you questions. So I did come up with a few.

00:33:33 Kristi Wagner

Awesome.

00:33:34 Olivia Reeves

I guess for those who aren't from who are from the weightlifting world, maybe watching this and are not from rowing. Do you want to talk about you and like what your compliments and like why you are a big deal?

00:33:47 Kristi Wagner

Ohh my gosh, I don't think I'm a big deal. Yeah, I mean I I row. I've rode since I was like 14.

00:33:58 Kristi Wagner

I guess similarly to you like at the beginning I just did it because I really enjoyed it. I thought it was super fun and it made me really happy. I really like being part of the team and everything kind of after high school and college where I did row I wanted to like pursue it, see if I could do it at the elite level. And it did take me a little while.

00:34:19 Kristi Wagner

And unfortunately I had some like injuries along the way. But yeah, now I've been on the team since like the Tokyo Olympics and super excited to go back to the Olympics and.

00:34:31 Kristi Wagner

Like you were saying, I think there's like big expectations and and pressure, but I think also like as athletes, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. So I think it's an interesting mix right of like extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and pressure and that kind of thing.

00:34:47 Olivia Reeves

So good answer.

00:34:50 Olivia Reeves

I also people like to ask like what my hobbies are just because they I mean like I do have some hobbies but weightlifting in school take out most of it and then my dog. So do people ever ask you your hobbies and if so, what do you say? Do you have like real hobbies outside of rowing?

00:35:06 Kristi Wagner

Oh.

00:35:09 Kristi Wagner

I'd say this podcast is my hobby. I I like riding my bike, which maybe is not really a hobby because it probably counts as training. I do like cooking like baking. I would say the podcast which has been super fun cause I've gotten to connect with like so many different people and I think it's been a really cool way to.

00:35:29 Kristi Wagner

Sort of share like my journey, but also get to talk to all these different people from growing but also like tons of different sports.

00:35:36 Kristi Wagner

So that's been a pretty good hobby, but I want to hear your hobbies. That's a good question. I should have asked that question.

00:35:43 Olivia Reeves

Well, I kind of hate that question cause and.

00:35:44 Olivia Reeves

I'm like well.

00:35:47 Olivia Reeves

I lift and then I go to school and then I hang out with my dog and we go on walks or we hike or do some sort of enrichment activity.

00:36:00 Olivia Reeves

My sister and I are roommates, so we'll hang out and do stuff together.

00:36:04 Olivia Reeves

I mean, you can consider hot yoga, a hobby. I do that fairly often. No, I definitely. I listened to a couple of your potty ask before I accepted and I was like, alright, I like, even though I'm not a rower and anything, but I'd still find things that I relate to as an athlete. So no, this is this is a cool hobby.

00:36:24 Kristi Wagner

Things. Yeah, it's been actually super cool because talking to people from, like, really different sports and people will say things. And I'm like, ohh yeah, I feel the same way. So I think that's also been like a super cool. I don't know if like personally validating is the right way to phrase it, but you're like, OK, like, I'm glad other people feel that way or.

00:36:44 Kristi Wagner

You know.

00:36:45 Olivia Reeves

Yeah, I'm on the right track.

00:36:47 Olivia Reeves

Next, so how do you prepare for competitions? Do you have any rituals or do you do like visual visualization techniques or anything? I mean, cause in weightlifting like you can visualize yourself making the lift walking up to the platform. The warm ups like that. That's usually how I think we utilize it mostly and any rich schools you have like pretty.

00:37:07 Kristi Wagner

Yeah, that's a good question. We do a lot of visualization. We'll do sort of like race walkthroughs on the water, just not at the full intensity, but also like especially right before all sort of just like go through it in my brain. Yeah, like how you want your race to play out.

00:37:23

MHM.

00:37:24 Kristi Wagner

I well, I eat a very specific breakfast, which I I eat like oatmeal on toast, which I think people think is weird. I do that every day, but I also do it on race day. Yeah, I don't know. I have, like, a lucky sports bra. So, you know, I'd I'd do that.

00:37:37

OK.

00:37:40 Kristi Wagner

It's funny, like at this point in my career, I think I've either had horrible performances when I've done everything that I like to do, quote UN quote. But I've also had really good performances when I've, like, messed up some of the things. So I do like to do things in a certain way, like listen to certain music or whatever. But you also have to remember like.

00:38:01 Kristi Wagner

Oh, even if these things don't go according to plan, it should still be OK.

00:38:05 Olivia Reeves

Yeah.

00:38:06 Kristi Wagner

Do you do anything?

00:38:09 Olivia Reeves

Yeah. So.

00:38:11 Olivia Reeves

Usually what I'll do is so like we have a singlet. You have to wear the singlet, but right now it's the trend to wear leggings under your singlet. So I'll wear. I already know what I'm going to wear to competition. Like that's packed in my bag in case like my checked bag gets lost or whatever. Like I am ready to walk off the plane and compete if needed.

00:38:30

It.

00:38:31 Olivia Reeves

But I have all that planned out. I it's my favorite socks and my favorite sports bra and my favorite scrunchy. So like even though it's not the same every time, just my current favorite at the moment is what I'm.

00:38:42 Olivia Reeves

There and then I'll braid my hair. I just do the same hairstyle every time because then it's like out of my face. I don't have to think about it. It's set. And so it also works out that it's a purple scrunchy that matches the sports bra, which will also match my nails and toes that will be painted the night before. Wake up in the morning, weigh in, check weight, and then I'll do my hair.

00:39:04 Olivia Reeves

My makeup that will all be done because I think for me it's a little psychology behind like if you look good, you feel good, you perform well plus like people take pictures and stuff. So I enjoy, I enjoy doing all of that and being in the right headspace.

00:39:17 Olivia Reeves

To be like now I get to compete like now I'm just. I'm so excited. I look amazing. Let's go compete. Those are like physical things. I do, I think.

00:39:27 Kristi Wagner

Yeah, I think it's true, though. Like you gotta feel confident. So whatever helps you get there.

00:39:33 Olivia Reeves

Exactly.

00:39:35 Olivia Reeves

Yeah, I actually read a book and and it was talking about things you can do just to like help your competition but not help but help you be prepared for competition and focusing on more of the process of of routine you can establish and it just makes it all go smoother if you can plan out time in your day for things you want.

00:39:55 Olivia Reeves

To have or to be done then works.

00:39:57

No.

00:39:59 Kristi Wagner

No, that's definitely true.

00:40:01 Kristi Wagner

Well, thank you so much. And they those were good questions. You could be a podcaster.

00:40:06 Olivia Reeves

Thanks.

00:40:08 Kristi Wagner

We'll be done competing, so hopefully I can come see you compete.

00:40:11 Kristi Wagner

Because you said you're the second week, right?

00:40:13 Olivia Reeves

Yeah. So I could meet August 9th at 7:30 PM in Paris. Like we already know. Date, time and session. I'll be there 71K8 category.

00:40:23 Olivia Reeves

When do you?

00:40:23 Olivia Reeves

Guys head there and when do you lift or lift? When do you convene?

00:40:29 Kristi Wagner

You don't want to see me lift all limbs and no strength.

00:40:30 Kristi Wagner

Umm.

00:40:35 Olivia Reeves

You're good.

00:40:37 Kristi Wagner

We're going to like a pre camp in Italy. We like always go to the same place, so we're leaving July 5th. I think then we go to Paris the week before and then rowing is the first week. And so then we're done and the whole second week we can just like stay and go to other things, which is pretty cool.

00:40:54 Olivia Reeves

So you guys just have like one race. Like we just have one competition that's.

00:40:59 Olivia Reeves

Yeah.

00:41:00 Kristi Wagner

Oh really?

00:41:01 Olivia Reeves

Yeah.

00:41:02 Kristi Wagner

Yeah. No. So we have, it would probably be like 3 races. We have heats and then you can progress right out of the heat into the semi final or if you don't qualify out of the heat to the semifinal, you go to what's called the repechage, which is a like French word for like last chance. So you could potentially have four races.

00:41:22 Kristi Wagner

Is.

00:41:23 Kristi Wagner

Probably 3. Knock on wood, whatever and then top three out of the two semis make the final a final and rowing is 6 boats. It's a little different like we're fielding a full team I row and like a two person boat and we each have two oars. There's thirteen countries racing in the women's double, but it's different. Like depending on the size.

00:41:44 Kristi Wagner

So so like the singles have by far the most I think they have like 30 entries or something and then the eights which are the biggest boats, they only have seven countries that race in that event because like the quotas and stuff.

00:41:56 Kristi Wagner

From the Olympic Committee, there's, like, less rowers. They're they're shrinking. The sport of rowing at the Olympics.

00:42:02 Olivia Reeves

They are also trying to shrink the sport of weightlifting. I think we have 120 athletes in weightlifting this year, but it was like 200 plus in Tokyo.

00:42:12 Olivia Reeves

Wow, yeah, weightlifting was actually almost not going to be in the 2028 Olympics. They were going to take it out because of our so many doping violations. They actually did it with wrestling a couple years back, they took wrestling out, told them to clean it up, and they did. And then now wrestling is back in.

00:42:28 Olivia Reeves

So that was possibility for weightlifting. However, we are in the 2020 Olympics were good. That's because the IWF had a lot of political corruption. It was.

00:42:37 Olivia Reeves

Not a good, not a good time, but we're safe for now.

00:42:41 Kristi Wagner

Thank you so much. This was so fun.

00:42:43 Olivia Reeves

Of course. Thank you so much for having.

00:42:45 Olivia Reeves

Me. This was cool.

00:42:46 Kristi Wagner

And good luck and nationals. And, you know, at the Olympics.

00:42:50 Olivia Reeves

Thank you you as well.

00:42:58 Kristi Wagner

Thanks for listening and thank you so much to Olivia for coming on. I can't wait to cheer her on in Paris to leave you all this week. I'm sharing a quote from Michael Phelps because I just watched him doing all the swimming trials and.

00:43:13 Kristi Wagner

I like this quote, so it's from his book. No limits the will to succeed.

00:43:18 Kristi Wagner

And he said if others were inclined to take Sundays off, well, that just meant we might be 1/7 better for five years, from 1998 to 2003. We did not believe in days off. I had one because of a snowstorm. Two more due to the removal of wisdom teeth. Christmas. See you at the pool. Thanksgiving. Cool birthdays, pool sponsor obligations.

00:43:39 Kristi Wagner

Work them around. Practice time. So I just thought that was pretty good. No days off, except when you need the days off and then take them. OK. Thanks for listening. Have a great week. See you next time. Bye.

00:44:01 Kristi Wagner

I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our ASK. Christy, anything segment head to our website, theotherthreeyears.com. Thank you for listening to this episode of the other three years podcast. Part of the bright sided network.