Focus on What You Can Control with Sophia Luwis
World Championship rowing medalist and Athlete of the Year Sophia Luwis talks to Kristi about working through severe injuries while rowing, the nomadic life rowing can bring, and focusing on what you can control. Sophia reminds us to not see setbacks as anything catastrophic, but to focus on the day to day to stay focused.
Tune in for motivation through tough times, and how to keep moving forward with positivity and intent.
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This Transcript is Autogenerated:
Sophia Luwis 0:01
especially when I was going through the accident, like the most you can do right now is the most you can do right now. And that's good when I was really, really injured concussion, lungs, broken ribs, all the stuff I couldn't do. So she was like, fine the most you can do right now and do the most you can do right now. And that's good
Kristi Wagner 0:20
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 podcast. This week my guest is the 2023 US rowing Female Athlete of the Year and fellow World Champs bronze medalist, Sophia Lewis, Sophia, like literally all of the Team USA lightweight. Women's rowers is a total badass. She graduated from college in 2020, and then skyrocketed her way on to the national team and only two years making her first team last summer in 2022. Unfortunately, Sophia and another of her boat mates last summer were in a pretty bad car accident shortly before they were scheduled to travel to the World Champs and so instead of racing in her first international race, she was recovering in a hospital last summer. Sophia spent this year coming back from the accident and did a super impressive job. Over this summer she raised and finished in the medals at two World Cups, and then topped it all off with her bronze medal in the lightweight women's single at the World Champs. Then she was voted the US rowing Athlete of the Year, which is voted on by the rest of the national team. And I personally think one of the highest honors you can get. And it was so deserved. Like she had such an incredible year. And I think everyone's just so impressed by her and so proud of her. So I had a really great time chatting with Sophia, we know, we talked about how she got into rowing her first experience with injuries and how she's balanced like having such a nomadic life and moving around a lot. We did talk about the accident, and then getting back into shape this year, and how it's still something that she has to deal with all the time. So it was a really fun conversation. And I think, you know, her story is so inspirational. And she's so inspirational and the way that she just kind of deals with adversity and pushes through things like no matter what is something that we can all learn from. So it's really, I think, a great conversation a great episode. So I hope you all really enjoy it. But before we get into that, here's an update on what's currently going on in my training. So this past week, in Saratoga, we hosted the head of the fish Regatta, which it's my job to run. So I had a super busy work week, but also a pretty good training week, last week had some really good workouts during the week feeling definitely a lot more like myself in training and just really excited to be training which is really nice. And then kind of capped it off with my own race at the head of the fish. And I went pretty quick, which I was really happy about. And the weather, at least Saturday morning for the Open singles was like really, really nice. So we got to capitalize on that. And it was fun. But the whole weekend was like great. It did rain on Sunday, truly all day, I felt pretty bad Sunday's like the high school day. So I felt bad for the high school coaches and athletes but so many of them like did such a great job dealing with the conditions dealing with mud and rain and wind and everything and still like you know, going out and putting together really great performances, it's definitely a bit of a load off my chest to be done with all of my fall racing, the busiest season of my fall for like work. And now I can just really focus on training, which is really exciting to me like it's going to be hard and tough but I think it'll be really good. Also, I'm not going to race any more this fall a lot of my teammates are going to the fall speed order and a few weeks down in Princeton, but I'm not going to go to that I just really want to focus on just training and getting in the meters and getting in the miles and being tired all the time. So going to bed is really easy. And then you know kind of in the new year get back into getting ready for races. So yeah, it's this week's been good so far. Yesterday was Halloween, which was exciting. Nobody dressed up at practice, which was sad. I really thought that some of my younger teammates would, you know, take one for the team and wear a cool outfit, but they didn't. But some of the SRA masters rowers did dress up, which was super fun. They were like, amazing, amazing costumes. Someone was a doughnut. I loved it. She's awesome. It was great. Like her face was like surrounded by a doughnut. It's great. So yeah, that's kind of What's going on now? It's November. And it snowed in Saratoga today. So as soon as Halloween was over it snowed. But now it is time for my conversation with Sophia Lewis. I'm super excited to have Sophia Lewis on the podcast this week. Sophia, thanks for coming on. Yeah.
Sophia Luwis 5:17
Thanks for having me.
Kristi Wagner 5:18
So obviously, you've had like a pretty incredible last couple of years. But I thought that it would be fun to start by just talking about kind of how you got into rowing. I did. Did you start? Did you grow in high school?
Sophia Luwis 5:33
I didn't do like, row for any length of time in high school. I did one summer camp for a week at Thompson Boat Club, because my dad really wanted me to, and I kid you not. I finished the week, maybe it was only like four days. And I was like, this is the stupidest sport in the world. All you do is go back and forth on a seat. Why would anybody want to do this? Unbeknownst to me, my dad was trying to get me into it so that I could get a scholarship for college because one of his friends told him he was like, yeah, there's scholarships for women's rowing. And he was like, ah, that's what she'll do. He didn't tell me that. But yeah, no, I did not row in high school.
Kristi Wagner 6:12
I was actually telling someone the other day, we like asked me how I got into rowing. And I was like, Oh, whatever. I just started it in eighth grade. And then I did in high school. But I remember very clearly the first day of like, my novice rowing team, they like sat us all down. And the coach was like, hey, so why do you guys want to row and this kid raised his hand and was like, I heard you could get recruited to college to row. I was a freshman in high school. And I was I remember sitting there being like, what, why would you be doing this sport to go, you know, I mean, funny how it all turned out. But yeah,
Sophia Luwis 6:46
yeah, yeah. That was not on my radar.
Kristi Wagner 6:49
Yeah. So then, when you got to William and Mary, right. Yeah. So when you got there, were you just like, oh, rowing.
Sophia Luwis 7:01
So I did cross country and like weightlifting in high school. I didn't compete in weightlifting. But I did it. All the seasons that I wasn't doing cross country, because I was too scared to do any other sport, because I don't like being bad at things. But I had really, really bad performance, anxiety and cross country. So once I finished in high school, I was like, Okay, I'm not doing any other competitions, I get way too anxious. I'm never going to compete like that, again, want to join some like marathon running clubs, something that's like, competing, but not really competing. So William, and Mary has this club fair at the first week of school during orientation stuff. And all the clubs just sit up tables, and you walk around and sign up for email lists. And somebody was they had a rowing table. And they're like, come join crew, no experience necessary. We get off campus. And it will even marry you're not allowed to have a car your freshman year. And the I was like, I want to get off campus. I've rode before I did a whole week I have experience to not have experience. But the idea of getting off campus was nice. So I signed up, forgot about it for the first like three weeks and then saw somebody on my dorm room Hall going to a practice one day I was like, Hey, we all come with you. I forgot that I signed up for that. So when I started doing it, I wasn't the worst at it. And as long as I'm not the worst, I'm like, okay, I can then become the best if not the worst. But really, it was just like I had some base level fitness from cross country and other people did it. So as soon as we got on the ergs, my times were faster. And then that was enticing, and it just kind of escalated from there.
Kristi Wagner 8:52
That's awesome. That's really funny though. I signed up for that. I just forgot to go.
Sophia Luwis 9:00
Well, I signed up for like crew team and cheese club. I was signing up for everything. So
Kristi Wagner 9:06
it seems like you're a competitive person and want to like, you know, be good at things and try hard. But I feel like there is a transition from just like that and doing something recreationally accusing it to cheese club. And then like yeah, trying to make like a u 23. Team or a senior team. Like when do you think that transition happened for you?
Sophia Luwis 9:27
It was the spring, mostly the spring of my freshman year, I think because I didn't know like what existed beyond club rowing. Like to me rowing was just a bunch of kids who didn't go to cheese club, went out to the boathouse and rode for like an hour or something. I didn't like it. I had to have known that there was an Olympic level but like what we were doing was so far removed. There was no pathway like I didn't know you 20 threes or anything existed. But this spring of my Freshman year, we did an early competition in the gym and I pulled a pretty good time for a freshman. And one of the assistant coaches on the team will Meeker had done other higher levels of rowing. And then him and my coach both saw my time and we're like, Hey, you should apply to summer camps, or summer development camps and keep rolling over the summer and try to get better. So I went on row 2k. And like typed in summer rowing camps. I didn't know the difference between a development camp and a selection camp. So I was like, what are all these things? I don't know. But University of Wisconsin was having a development camp. That summer. I applied got in. I thought they were going to do races in the summer, they did it. So I was in Wisconsin for like three weeks destroying my hands trying to roll a pair, like on the wrong side, where none of the toes worked. And it was just a disaster. But that's where I learned about like, oh, there's lightweight rowing, there's Openweight rowing, there's this thing called u 20. Threes, and if you have a fast enough urge for time, then you can apply to a selection camp. Now that development camp. So that was the first like, Oh, this is a step above club rowing. And then even next summer I did the Potomac sculling camp, because I didn't get into a u 23. Selection camp that summer, and then the following summer 2019, I did get into u 23. selection. And that's kind of how that went.
Kristi Wagner 11:40
I just always find it kind of amazing, like how quickly people are able to kind of make like that jump. And I feel like it is much more like the kind of person that you are, you know, I guess I feel like it maybe you don't agree, but it is like a kind of person thing. Instead of just like a rowing thing. You were just you just decided, oh, I want to be better at this. And it happens to be rowing. And so I'm gonna find a way yeah.
Sophia Luwis 12:12
Oh, for sure. Like I people in that sense. Definitely. People have asked me before, like, Oh, do you just love rowing? Like, do you want to just be on the water all the time, like, there are aspects of it that are unique to rowing, that I do really love. And that keep me coming back. But as a person, since I was a kid, I just had that like, want and desire to like, I want to really be good at something like really sink my teeth into something and just work on it and be good at but I had never actually been really great at something. And when I was in college, doing the ERG stuff on the team and like, as a novice was faster than all the varsity. That was like a spark. And I was like, oh, oh, okay, so I wasn't great at cross country. But I might be okay at this.
Kristi Wagner 13:05
When do you feel like you kind of made the decision that you wanted to keep rowing post college?
Sophia Luwis 13:14
Well, my senior year was the great year of 2020. So we were on our spring break training trip in Florida. When we got the email that said, school is canceled, don't come back to campus like go anywhere else. We don't know if the world's ending. I hadn't thought too much past. Like the spring of my senior year. I've thought like maybe I'll because I did a lot of strength training at a CrossFit gym. I was like maybe I'll get a CrossFit certification and coach or just, I barely started the job application process for post college and then everything shut down and nobody was hiring. Nobody was doing anything. So Mark Grinberg, up at Riverside emailed me one day and was like, Hey, are you still interested in growing post college? I thought that I probably was going to be done after I'd like race it dad vales race to Acuras because those are really big races to me at the time. I was like, I'm gonna get gold at both of those and then I'm gonna hang up my oars then I'm going to be done. But Mark emailed me I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. Sure. Yeah, I'll go to I'll I want to keep rolling. And he was like, if you want to come to Boston, there's a lot of COVID restrictions. We can't put your boat in the boathouse. You can't even launch from Riverside. We you can't be a min member yet. We don't know about anything. But if you want to come, we'll coach you and I was like, Okay, I'll go. I moved up there. And again, it was COVID World Championships had been canceled, like nothing was happening. So it was more of a nobody knows what's happening yet. Next. I I don't know what I'm doing. But I can keep rowing. So I'll do that. And then like, along the way, it became like, Okay, I'll try for a national team. Okay, I'll keep doing this.
Kristi Wagner 15:11
I feel like, it's really hard when, you know, like, you're saying, Okay, I'm gonna race at these races. And, you know, these are my goals, but that it just like, doesn't happen that way. You're like, okay, I guess I'll just, I don't know. I'll just keep going. But yeah, COVID was definitely, I don't think people like understood because I feel like I talked to people like it's an outdoor sport. And you guys row singles. Like, why? Like, it should just be easy. It's like, No, we were not allowed to like, while the docks were closed, and yeah, you know, you weren't allowed to do all these things. You were in Boston for like, I don't know, a year, maybe?
Sophia Luwis 15:53
No, actually not even a couple. Yeah, no, just a couple months, because I. So I moved there on August 2, and was training with Riverside. And, like, funny, because the same thing just happened two weeks ago. Now, the theory is, at least at that point was I had been trading at a club. And I had a trainer down there, Matt midnight at CrossFit 1607, who he was doing a lot of my conditioning, so he's doing more volume than like average club rower like outside on the outside of team practices. I was doing volume on an erg and lifting, but it's not the same amount of volume as you do on a high performance team. And I probably did not give enough credence to that and increase that volume too much. Plus, it's the Charles lots of turns. So all that to say is I got a my first of many rib strain injuries and wasn't rowing for a while doing a lot of cross training. But Kara still wicky had just come up to Boston to do some doubles matrices, because this was right before the Olympic trials to shoes up in Boston, and she got sick, or she wasn't feeling well or something. And I was injured. And then as she was coming out of her sickness, and as I was just getting back on the water mark was like, Hey, why don't you guys jump in a double together because you're both kind of not 100% Just see how it goes. And then went all right. And so that was like Karen I first linking up. And he invited me to come down to Florida. I went down with Cara in December for a week and then was still with Riverside when we went down to Sarasota start training for the Olympic trial. January. So I was living with the Jillian ZIF and Helen, Sam and Diego and Sarasota for January, February, and then raced at the Olympic trial, I raced the open single in the Olympic trial for 2021. I did do well, but I didn't get cut from the time trial. And that's my claim to fame is in the open single I think I came like 14, like
Kristi Wagner 18:09
yeah, that's pretty good. Because I was still that was still the four lane progression. So it's hard to make it out of the time. The four lane progression was tough cut. So
Sophia Luwis 18:18
yeah. Just telling us when people ask them like, yeah, I raced in the open way to Olympic trial. Yeah. Oh, no. I had no delusions that I would be anywhere other than the bottom. But still, I was like, Oh my gosh, I am racing. All the big girls. Wow.
Kristi Wagner 18:36
I feel like that is a good eye opener for I mean, the whole point of the podcast is kind of like look into what it's like actually like to be training and it is so hard to keep track of all of the different years and all the different places and teams and things that we're doing. So I so
Sophia Luwis 18:55
all over the place. Like since I moved out of my parents place to go to college. So that was what that was like 2016 I've moved 12 or 13 times. Some of them were like for today. Some of them were like three weeks. I don't think I counted any of the ones that it was less than a week. But yeah. moved a lot left in my car for a little while. Oh my God, it was fine. There was no running water though. That was not so great. But anyways, yeah, you move a lot got stable.
Kristi Wagner 19:33
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely like a very nomadic life. Do you feel like now you've found a bit more of like a sustainable kind of like Home Base situation? Because now you've been like in this with the same team for a little while.
Sophia Luwis 19:50
Actually, Shawn is the coach I've had for the longest for the longest rowing coach, the mat. Midnight, the strength coach I've had I've been with him for like, six years. But as far as rowing coaches go, I had a different rowing coach every year that I rode, but I've been with Shawn since the spring of 2021. Because right after that Olympic trial, I met up with the pennisi group at canal 54. And then when he left Penn AC to go to white March, I followed him. So definitely being Pennsylvania. And having shot as my coach has been the most stable. Like I've been for a while, and the host family that we have now, the Audrey and I live with the same host family, it feels the most stable. I know, like, I could be here for x amount of more months versus before it was like, I didn't sign any leases. I haven't signed the lease in years, because I might have to go to Florida and I don't want to pay rent there and here.
Kristi Wagner 20:55
Yeah, no, I think that it's like hard to explain to people, like I have an apartment that I will live in for three to four months out of the year. But like, you do sometimes go, quote unquote, home for like, certain periods of time. So you need a place to live. You know, it's, it's hard to explain. So I feel like it's pretty impressive. Like how quickly you kind of came from being like a club, you know, athlete and maybe not having that much exposure to like elite rowing or you know, whatever. This whole kind of world lightweight rowing, that kind of thing to like, making the national team like making the team and 2022 After graduating from college and 2020 has pretty quick turnaround. It's
Sophia Luwis 21:46
quick, but like, I'm sure you probably feel this the same way. In rowing moreso than other sports. It's not the most uncommon to hear that like the one that I always think of as Amanda Elmore, who started rowing at a club at Purdue. Or my first one of my first rowing coaches was a Coxon at Purdue. She started her freshman year, and then five years later was stroking the women's aid at the Olympics. And so in my head, I'm like he did in five years. So if you're doing anything longer than five years, you're taking your time. Which is not true. But in my head, I was like, of course, it's possible. Of course, I didn't do much else other than rowing. Like, I'm not one of these people who was trying to become a doctor. Well, I was really props to you guys, props. I got a master's degree, but it was part time and it was online. So it's super flexible.
Kristi Wagner 22:42
I mean, it definitely is impressive. I mean, everyone's journey is different. But I think it takes people different amounts of time. But making I mean, first of all, I feel like you guys, if I am not a lightweight rower, obviously, which to be completely honest, I find it very impressive, just like rowing in general. But I know that because the double is the only Olympic boat class, so much of the other boat classes, like is really left up to kind of athlete and like high performance club coach decisions. And I feel like that can be really tough. Or from the outside, it seems like it can be tough, because there's not like sort of a clear cut path into maybe what like, the priority is or, you know, having different people in different places doing different things. And there's not like a common, you know, pathway, maybe. But it seemed like in 2022, at least, like, you guys had a very clear vision of what you were doing and like and like put you know what I mean? So could you share kind of how that came to be and like, what that process was like, like for you guys, maybe that's why the
Sophia Luwis 24:01
timeline was able to be shorter is because we don't have all these different options of potential seats. Like we, I can't sit in an open way aid and open wait for an open weight, quad and all these things. So your options are so limited. And to be fair, the pool of athletes is very limited. Like there aren't 50 lightweight women in the country vying for a seat. It's kind of a game of attrition. For as far as a quad goes, we, Sean, myself and my teammates at the time, the beginning of that year very clearly, we're like we should try to put together a quad because they are a lightweight quad is really hard to put together, usually thrown together last minute and then they do really poorly overseas because it's like as soon as they've picked the devil in the single then whoever's left is like, let's try to make a quad and then it's not great. So we went into that year knowing that the goal was the quad and then At Michela Molly, we're probably gonna do the double. So we were contacting different, lightweight women throughout the year being like, hey, come try this quad and after speed order, we asked a bunch of them to hang around for an extra day and jumping in jumping seats and switch that up. So it was very much the goal the whole time. And so, you know, made the decision of what we were going to do pretty easy when you say like, Hey, we're not going that boat boat, we're not going that boat. We're just trying to get four people to commit to this one thing. And try to do something that the US doesn't typically do, and actually put effort into this quad. And so that's why we raced overseas at women's Henley and Holland Becker, because we wanted to show up to World Championships, not as a thrown together quad, but as some thing that we had actually put time and effort into,
Kristi Wagner 25:52
like, it's one thing to have a plan. But it's like another thing for it to be like, Yeah, this plan was successful, like, do you feel like going to those races and like spending more time in that boat like was helpful for your personal kind of athlete development.
Sophia Luwis 26:11
Those of us who have been in the quad that I still talk to now, like we all say, like it was a huge learning experience, like we didn't, a lot of stuff went wrong overseas with equipment. We had some crashes and stuff like that, but just the whole process of traveling overseas for competition, like, into having to deal with the equipment, malfunctions, and steering malfunctions, like, taught us a lot. And then even learning how like getting both feel in doubles, versus quads and singles, like there would be days, we'd switch between all three boat classes in a day. And that, the impact of that on how I can feel a boat is huge. Like, I don't think you can put a number to it, because I talk to athletes now. And they're like, I don't know what, like, boat feel is a really talk about it. And we do all these drills. And it's like, personally, I feel things best and learn things best when I have them. Like in contrast, so how something felt in a double with one person versus how something felt in a quad within other people. That's how I actually learned like, this movement does this thing to this boat, and it will produce this result. And I don't think I would have learned that without it. I think at a couple of things not happened, I think we would have had a okay time at World Championships in that quad. In the lineup we were dealing with, prior to the accident that we are in there was an injury in the boat. And that might maybe was going to change the lineup. But everything that happened in that season informed or helped me as an athlete develop for sure, like, the negative things, the positive things, all of them, I don't think I am the person or the athlete that I am today without having to go through that whole process. Now. Was it successful? I mean, it wasn't successful to the goal that we started out with to get four women together to race. A fast quad at World Championships. No, we weren't successful in that goal. But were we successful in developing athletes for the next Olympic cycle, which was another goal? I think so.
Kristi Wagner 28:24
Obviously, you can't control like getting into the x. So I feel like to say it's unsuccessful, because of that isn't really fair to the process is more like I think that like especially development athletes, you have to spend a lot of time and energy sort of seeing, like how to make yourself ready for an international experience. Like maybe without even having that international experience. And yeah, I think that you guys, like did a good job doing that. Or it seemed like from the outside you guys did a good job doing that. But
Sophia Luwis 29:02
we tried. We try Yeah.
Kristi Wagner 29:07
But yeah, I mean, obviously the accident was like horrible and I don't want to make you like get super into it. But I think just I'm sort of curious, like, what was your headspace? Kind of? Obviously not right away, but kind of in the like, weeks months were you like, I 100% want to get back into rowing? Like I want to get back on the water. I still have these big goals or was it sort of those things pushed out of your mind and then when it came to a time where you could sort of row again you were like, Okay, I still want to keep doing this.
Sophia Luwis 29:49
So the accident happened on September 3 And I didn't have like conscious thought or like wasn't making memories like forming memories until September 10. So like, apparently I was talking to people, I kept telling all the nurses like, you can't give me pain meds I'm getting drug tested. You can't give me drugs like, and they were trying to get me to eat food. I was like, I can't eat food, I have to make weight for the quad. So like, yeah, I was not present. Somehow I remember that the Queen died, I woke up on the 10th. Knowing that the Queen had died. How? I don't know, because I didn't remember anything else. When people have asked me this. Before, there's there wasn't any like, amidst all of the pain meds that I did eventually let people give me I was very confused. I didn't know what really was real and not but I never had the thought of like, okay, I'm done rowing. And even when I was having more conscious thoughts, still on a lot of payments, it wasn't Am I or am I not going to get back to rowing? It's just do I have enough time to get back for the competitions that matter? So there was no like, defining moment or decision where I was sitting in the hospital room like I will do it. It was just like, okay, so how long does all this take? Like, what what do we have to do is anything like really, really broken? It's just sort of day by day, waiting for it to happen. And then even when I was doing it now, later, there were lots of times where I'm like, why am I continuing to do this, especially when we are down in Florida, trying to get ready for full speed order, which I saw the first week that I strung together like a full week of training without having to do all these modifications. It wasn't a fast week of training. It was just I can do sessions, fluidly. I found that I had COVID Put me down again, I was like so in the accident, I had a collapsed lung, but their hydro pneumothorax. So my lungs were really crappy, coming back and then throw COVID On top of that. I was like, I can't breathe. And every day I was like, why am I doing this? But I guess I'll take 10 more strokes. Okay, I guess I'll take 10 more strokes. Okay. And then that was me getting ready for full speed order was like 100 more meters just do 100 more meters.
Kristi Wagner 32:28
I feel like rowing practices like hard enough, just as it is. So it's, I can't imagine. But were you like, Alright, I want to get back and be competitive. I just, I just want to get back and be racing like, like, if you had told if you could go back and tell yourself then like, Oh, you're gonna medal at a World Cup and World Championship and be like the athlete of the year? Like would? And would you have been like, yeah, that's what my goal is. I'm trying to do that. Or would you have been like, that's a joke. Do you know what I mean? i
Sophia Luwis 33:01
Yeah, yeah. Um, I probably would have said it. That's a joke. Because again, nothing felt good. A lot of times, you know, we go into two K's and we're like, oh, yeah, this is gonna hurt but like, I'm gonna race and I'm gonna do this. I was just like, just row 2000 meters, what ever the results are, you will have rode 2000 meters just take as many strokes as it takes. Yeah, no, the whole I wasn't setting a goal for myself, I was like, I'm going to make it back to make World Championships, I'm going to do this, it was, okay, make it to full speed order to race, like, get back to enough fitness that you can show up to a race course. And the results will be what they'll be. And then when that happened, it was okay, get in enough shape and go travel overseas, and the results will be what they will be. I as an athlete tend to hate saying like putting absolutes on it, like I will get a gold medal. That doesn't really work for me. Maybe it's a cop out, I don't know. But I'm much more of the like, set controllable goals for myself. Like, if I do everything that I can do, then this than the goal I set for myself is absolutely possible, like race A to K hitting all of the technique points, like trying to empty the tank like that's my goal for this race or beat this person because I know it's actually an attainable goal versus saying like, I'm gonna get a gold medal because you never know like, you don't know what's going to happen on race day. You don't know the fastest person in the world could show up and you hope you're the fastest person but maybe you catch a crab whatever. So I don't tend to set the big big goals like even with this Olympic cycle saying like, I don't like the I will make the Olympic team it's I will get as fast as I can possibly get. And I will train as fast as as much as I possibly can, as hard as I can, with as much dedication as I can. And the results will be what they will be. And I hope that they are a certain way, but I can't control that.
Kristi Wagner 35:16
I mean, I think that it's you, we have to be able to like control what we can control. And like, yeah, of course you everyone wants to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Like, if you were to ask any person training, of course, that would be great. Like, what a weird answer. It would be if you were like, oh, no, I'd prefer silver. Like, no, you know, I think that, like, you have to be process oriented. Be like what you're saying I have to I have to be the best version of myself that I can be I have to, you know, do every day as good as I can be. I just can't be thinking about one day in July of every four years. Like that's the that you would never make it right. So. So
Sophia Luwis 36:08
even right now. So like I again, with with the accident, I was thought we had, you know, moved past that, you know, got my middles and stuff. But no, because I'm still very lopsided with the weakness on my left side, which means I overcompensate with my right in a couple of weeks ago, I injured myself, and it's turning out to be worse than I would like it to be. And so I'm actively trying to be that process oriented self because, you know, I wallow in I'm like, Havana just destroyed all my Olympic dreams, like, okay, hold on, girl, put a pin in that. Get yourself together. That, are we deciding if you make the Olympics today? No. Okay, what are we deciding today? How to get healthier and better so that you can get back to training? Okay? Do those things today. And if the timeline works out, and you can be as fit as you possibly can be in February, or in March or whatever, great, if not deal with that when it happens. But right now, you are just trying to do this one thing. So I don't always, I'm not always that clear about it, especially the last couple of weekends. But in my better moments, I can rise above my anxieties and be like, alright, just do the next best thing. Okay. Okay.
Kristi Wagner 37:35
Yeah, I mean, I think that's good, like life advice, like sort of controlling your controllables. And, like, I mean, it's all this stuff is so much easier, like said than done. And, you know, we're all high, we're high achieving people. So of course, when things aren't going the way that we want them to go, like, it's, it is stressful, you know, and this is what you're spending your life doing right now. And so if it's not going the way you want it to go, and it's your body isn't cooperating with you, like I think having a reaction to that is very normal, natural, and like make sense.
Sophia Luwis 38:11
It's mega, like, because a lot of the stuff that I'm dealing with now is like this time exactly. Last year, I was doing the same thing. So there's a lot of PTSD, flare ups, a lot of all these other things and like, I thought I was past this joke's on me, life doesn't get easier just because you're a year out and you got a couple of medals still get to deal with a lot of the same crap. So let's remember we've done this once before and bring out that toolbox dust some of them off and get to it. So it's really not fun. But yeah, it's that's life. That's frickin life. One thing after another,
Kristi Wagner 38:54
so can you just talk a little bit about like, kind of what meddling at Worlds and like being named Athlete of the Year, like kind of what accomplishing those goals like, meant to you means to you and I don't know, it's it is very impressive. Like, it's really cool because our Athlete of the Year Two is something that you know, are like the team votes on so I feel like that's yeah, that's like so cool. And yeah, I mean, it very deserved, like
Sophia Luwis 39:18
thanks. Yeah, I mean, the whole summer of racing I had so many moments of like, Is this real life this is being on Lake blood and like seeing that scenery was like this real than a World Cup to embrace a seeing those mountains and being with all like being with being on the same team with you Olympian like, with all these people around like, is this real? Like I was showing you a room with Kara cooler and I was like, Oh my gosh, hi. You just woke up. Hi, I'm like, Kara, if you listen to this, I'm not creepy. I promise. I wasn't staring at you when you sleep. I probably know it. I got all the meddling and the being on the team with all these athletes that I looked up to. And then having those same people vote for me on this was, it was a weird like, pinch me moment, it's kind of I was thinking about it and it was almost like this might be a bad metaphor, but like, if if you have siblings, if you have a good relationship with your siblings, you know, you're always beating up on each other all the time, like always giving each other crap. Always, always always. But you know, at the end of the day, you both, at least in my family, okay, we love each other, but we're not going to stay that because that's too emotional. You know. My mom's from the northeast, we're not overly emotional in our family. But somehow, in some vein, having the team vote for me for that Athlete of the Year felt somewhat like that, like, now that we're all beating up on each other. But you know, you we all admire, at least like, from my standpoint, I admire you guys all so much. I don't go up and tell you all the time like law, I'm not a huge fan. Although I did just say that the care of you. But to get that award felt somewhat like your siblings come up coming up to you and like on ironically saying, Hey, good job. It felt like an ironic, good job is maybe the best way to say it.
Kristi Wagner 41:19
I think that's good. And I actually think that, like, it's been really cool, since the team like spends more time together, because I feel like there has been just a lot more like team, team camaraderie and team like, appreciation of each other. And I think that's a great because it's like, yeah, it's really impressive what people are doing, we get to see how much like, we see firsthand how much hard work our teammates are putting in. And so being able to celebrate each other is just like, such a cool thing like, but about the like Athlete of the Year voting. And I was like, I kind of wish that you could write like, messages to people, like in that portal. Like, even if it was like you could write three messages or whatever to different people. And then they like emailed those to the, to the people that you wrote them to, because I just feel like that would be so cool. Like, then you got to kind of read what your teammates like. And yeah, it could be anonymous, or whatever if people wanted it to be, but I just feel like there's not enough time where we, like, get to celebrate one another. Yeah. And that's sad. Because if anyone knows how much we are putting into things like it is the other people training, you know, well, I definitely don't want to take like, so much of your time. But I feel like the theme of this episode is kind of like, trying not to see setbacks is like huge and seeing what you can do like day to day. And I think that that is something that probably a lot of people resonate with, like if you have any advice for just people like if things aren't going the way they want them to go. And like how they can kind of regain some of that like control and autonomy over their life and their story so that they can sort of rewrite the ship doesn't isn't like really what it is. But but maybe just regain that control.
Sophia Luwis 43:19
Yeah. I will I what you said about everybody's going through something that definitely is true. And I remember thinking that when I was going to the start line at the last winner speed order, like I had a very public big thing. So everybody knew what I was coming to the start line with. But I remember sitting up there, and to sort of help myself down regulate right before racing, I was like, everybody's got stuff they're dealing with at the start line. Right now, the as soon as that buzzer goes off, the only thing that matters is the fact that you're all dealing with 2000 meters to eat through. So like that the accent or this person's mom dying or this person's like going to debt, whatever that goes out the window, eat 2000 meters and see who can eat it faster. But terms of advice, or what you can control. I talked to a CNPC that was basically sports psychologists person anyways. And she always says like, especially when I was going through the accent she was like the most you can do right now is the most you can do right now. And that's good. And so when I was really really injured concussion, lungs, broken ribs, all the stuff I couldn't do. So she was like, Fine, the most you can do right now and do the most you can do right now. And that's good. And just do that. And sometimes it was five minutes of walking. Sometimes it wasn't walking at all because I couldn't do that. But yeah focusing on what you can control just like any other race scenario, when you're super stressed and super anxious, he is like, She always tells me to take a deep breath. And then focus on what you can control and you don't have to do like, the crazy thing to offset whatever bad thing. It's just like do one thing right now and then do another thing later and then add them all up and it will be fun. You're more than just an injured rower or in you're more than just a really fast rower. You're a person trying to figure out life. Yeah, which is really hard.
Kristi Wagner 45:42
I think you're pretty good at figuring out life.
Sophia Luwis 45:46
I do a lot of stumbling a lot of like, what are we doing? Yeah, I don't know that nobody knows anything. We're all just here having a good. That's the advice. Really knows anything. Focus on what you control. Have a good time.
Kristi Wagner 46:03
No, I mean, I think that's good. I mean, I think that is really good advice. And I think that you should give yourself a little more bit more credit, because I think that, you know, you've, it has been it's very impressive, like what you've done the past year. And I think that training for rowing is like hard enough, and throwing in all the other stuff that has happened to you like it is it's just really I mean, it's it's impressive, you should be proud of yourself. But I know that there are more goals ahead. So it's so many. Yeah, I think it's hard for us to sometimes not to put my own thoughts on you. But I think it can be hard for like, really high level performing people to like, give themselves credit for things because it's just like, Okay, well, what's the next goal? What's the next thing? You know, like, it's not the end.
Sophia Luwis 46:56
Now, I'll take your time and pose a question you because I especially with like, the fact that I can't really row right now I'm thinking a lot about these bigger ideas and stuff, getting really introspective, but especially with the last year and all the accident and the metal and all the stuff. I feel like we as in like yourself, as somebody who's accomplished a lot, you know, going to the Olympics overcome what you've overcome in those things. It's like, I think you're right, it is good to stop and like acknowledge those things. And every now and then like, especially at if you're standing on top of the podium, or if you're at a big competition and taking a moment to be like, Wow, yeah, that's cool. I did do all those things. Okay, now to the next thing. Because like, I think of what at least my fear is, and I actually just listened to a TED talk about this action. I can't remember the name of it. But if you Google sports, Psych, I'm sure it'll come up this idea of like taking moments to Yes, acknowledge what you've done and what you've accomplished. At least for me, I can't spend too much time thinking about that, because I am worried it will. Like I'll lose my edge. If I spend too much time resting on those laurels. You know, like, yeah, cool, okay, I'm going to use that positive thought, as like competence to know like, okay, I can work through adversity. But I'm not going to spend time thinking about that beyond right now. Because there's a whole lot more adversity come and I need to focus on that. So like, take the little bit that you learned from the past and be like, Alright, cool. I'll revisit that when things get really crappy again, later for a little extra confidence boost. But for right now, this way,
Kristi Wagner 48:44
I personally think everyone is different. And I think that people are motivated by different things and confident in different ways and all of that stuff. But I do think that it is a balance to find. It's funny, like after the Olympics, I was talking to somebody that wrote well, so basically, they had, like, go to the White House weekend after the Olympics. And because of the postponement of the Olympics, they did it with the winter Olympians. And they had this whole like, Team USA, Washington, DC week, and, like, summer Olympians, winter Olympians, this whole thing. And it was during an NSR or a speed order, whatever.
Sophia Luwis 49:32
I remember that. Okay, yeah.
Kristi Wagner 49:35
Yeah. So like some people went to it, and I raced at the NSR. And I remember talking to somebody that went and they were like, I just feel like, it's really important to, like, celebrate, you know, our accomplishments and not just like, have your head down in what's next. I remember at the time being like Like, it kind of hit me. Like I was like, whoa, what do you talk? You know, like, because it's also at that point, it was like, Oh, it was like a year after we had gone to the Olympics, you know, like, it wasn't like, oh, we race at the Olympics two weeks ago. And now well, this is the off time and whatever it was significantly after. But I think that and you know, again, different strokes for different folks like, I want it to be racing at that NSR I, I am more than happy for people that wanted to go and had a great time at Team USA. But you know what I mean? Like, it's not a judgment thing. But I do think it was like a good sort of, like, lesson in, okay. Why are we even doing any of this, if we're not going to celebrate and appreciate certain things. I feel like, it can also be a little bit uncomfortable to sort of celebrate yourself, I'm sure. Maybe you feel the same way. Like, I sort of awkward, you know, when you come back from worlds with a metal I've now learned, like, lots of people want to talk to you about it. And I'm not like as rowers, we're not super like that. So it's, I'm sort of like, oh, yeah, thanks. And then I had to remind myself like, No, this is a goal that I accomplished. And I should be proud of myself. But you're right, because at the same time, I'm like, but I have more goals. And I want to I don't want to be like the highlight of my career. Was this pre Olympic year metal? You know, so it is I think it's a tricky balance. But I think that swinging too far, either way is a mistake. Yeah, yeah. I, as I'm sure many
Sophia Luwis 51:47
of our fellow athletes would be, tend to be a little extreme. I think that's probably why I'm so scared of like, spending too much time thinking about like, the last summer, especially when I'm, like, not able to practice right now. I'm like, if I if I do too much there, then I'm only going to think about that. And I won't think about the future. It's like, no, that's not quite true. But so how have you celebrated your winning the achievement of your goals recently?
Kristi Wagner 52:16
How are you taking your own advice?
Sophia Luwis 52:19
Maybe where are you? Well, the grocery store?
Kristi Wagner 52:21
No, but somebody was somebody doing what you do the roaming? I don't know, I put it somewhere. I don't know where it is. No, but I think that Well, I actually did take time off after Worlds this year, which I haven't done a very good job of in the past. But I think it was good, because I now feel really, like excited and like, happy to be training. It doesn't, it seems. It's tough, because it's like, on the one hand, I'm like, it seems so hard. I'm not sure I'm going to make it. But on the other hand, I'm like, It's really exciting. And this is an exciting year and all that stuff. So again, I think it has to be like a balance of the middle. But I think when you don't do as well at Worlds as you want to do, or at anything, it's like, like even this just happened to me. I didn't have the race at the head of the Charles I wanted to have. So I was like, I gotta train, you know, like, it's just so funny. But like, I don't we just there's nothing we can do about that, right? Like this just the way that we're built. And
Sophia Luwis 53:33
well, yeah, it's, it's not so much like, okay, don't have that mindset. Like, like, we're talking about the, like, acknowledging your accomplishments, but also pushing forward is like, don't not push forward. But as you said, find the balance, maybe consciously recognize that we tend to be extreme individuals. So when we do things, maybe be like, okay, am I being overly extreme? No. Okay, maybe also get a second opinion. Okay, then move forward. And that's yeah, to have a good group of people around you to to make sure you're not going nuts.
Kristi Wagner 54:11
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think you're gonna have another great year, but I am sorry that you're dealing with injuries and stuff from the accident. Still, that is really a bummer.
Sophia Luwis 54:26
Just when you think you're done, comes back up to say, hey, yes. Do you know but it's okay. It'll be I might not start the fall I wanted and I got started getting super excited to have a good fall. And I think that's what's crushing me so much is I'm like, yes, a fall where I'm not concussed and whatever. And then I'm like, Ah, but it will be fine. It's just not going to be on the original timeline that I thought it would be. To take my deep breaths.
Kristi Wagner 54:58
This life is anything but predictable. So that's for sure. Cool. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you sharing and I feel like you had some really great tidbits. So this week, we have an ask Christie anything from Luke Hoffman from Loyola Academy in Chicago. What did you do to get to the point where you are right now? Like, what steps do you have to take? And like college school eyes? And just like all that? Well, Luke, I'd say that I really just lived high school and college in the moment, I don't think that I had, of course, I thought, oh, it'd be super cool to go to the Olympics. I don't know who doesn't think that? Well, maybe people don't think that I thought that when I was younger, but I think when I was in high school, I just had goals. You know, for my high school team and the league we were in or, you know, making the junior national team or getting recruited to college like PR and on my ERG score by a split, you know, everything I think seemed pretty manageable, given the stage that I was in. And I think I just really enjoyed being part of my high school team and trying to advance each year like, Okay, this year, we finished in this place, how can we improve that for the next year. And then it was kind of the same in college, like I was part of a team. And so we really just focused on the team. And, you know, what could I do to help the team and make myself the best version of myself for my teammates, and for the eights or the fours that I was in and it wasn't a lot of like individual goals. I don't think that I started having a ton of individual goals and really like thinking about, you know, elite training until I was done with college. So I'd say that the best advice I have is to really like live the day that you're in, try to do you know, the best you can every day, and those days eventually stack up and then before you know it, you've like achieved the result that you wanted to achieve without it seeming like this insurmountable thing that's like really far off and scary in the future. That's it for this episode. I hope that everyone really enjoyed it. I really, I really enjoyed talking to Sophia and I just I'm really grateful to her for coming on and sharing her story because I know it has been a lot, you know, this past year for her and I just really appreciate her being so open and vulnerable to talk about it. And before I leave you my quote of the week, I want to share which I actually stole from my producer Christine, who shares these quotes on her Instagram that I think is like on this little quote thing in her house. And on Halloween. The quote was from the former president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, which shout out to my cousin whose name is also Ellen Johnson. But anyways, this Ellen Johnson said, if your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough. So thanks for listening and have a great week. Bye.
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai