Justin Best: Inspiration & Secrets of Rowing Pt. 1
Olympic Rower Justin Best takes us on an inspiring journey from a Hollywood movie that ignited his passion for rowing to expert advice on increasing speed in the sport. Join us as he delves into the world of rowing races and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the intriguing tradition of pin trading at the Olympics.
This episode of The Other 3 Years is PART 1 of 2 of Kristi Wagner’s interview with Justin Best. Be here for all the knowledge, inspiration, and laughs!
Check out Justin on Instagram - justin_besttt
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Get live updates on Kristi's Instagram!
This Transcript is Autogenerated:
Justin Best 0:01
At that point, I'm like, Yeah, I'm gonna go for the Olympics. I don't care. What's what's in my way. It may take four years, it might take six years may take eight years. I am gonna go for it.
Kristi Wagner 0:11
Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an olympic size dream, they want to turn into a reality. Hi, and welcome to the other three years podcast. This week on the podcast, I interview my 2023 National Team teammate Justin best. Justin is a six time national team member between the junior youth 23 Sr, and Olympic teams. And He most recently won a silver medal in the men's for the World Champs this summer, and is now back training to try to make his second Olympic team and hopefully race in Paris this summer. So Justin and I had a great conversation, but it was a little long. And that's a great thing for all of you because it means that we get to split my interview with Justin into two episodes. So in this week's episode, it will be part one of my conversation with Justin. And we talked about how he got into rowing. And honestly, it's a pretty fun story, including the movie, The Social Network. And that kind of got us on the topic of rowing movies. So then we discussed the upcoming Boys in the Boat movie that's premiering on Christmas, Justin and I also talked about how he worked his way onto the junior and youth 23 teams and his experience racing at the Olympics. So it's a super fun conversation. And I really hope that you all enjoy it. But before we get into the conversation with Justin, here is an update on what is currently going on in my training. I am in Saratoga. And it is officially head of the Charles week, which is very exciting head of the Charles like I've been alluding to the past few weeks, and the podcast is like rowing Christmas in the US like It's a festival of rowing. It's super fun. It's obviously in Boston, or in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this upcoming weekend. And I'm racing in the Women's Championship single on Saturday, and then the Women's Championship eight on Sunday. So I'm really excited to be racing twice, that's going to be super fun. The single is going to be a barn burner because like I've been saying there's a $10,000 cash prize for first place in the women's and men's championship singles. So yeah, everyone's gonna come out guns blazing, which they do anyways. So it's definitely like a bit interesting because this was also the first full week back at training for all of the national team athletes that competed at the 2023 World Champs. So definitely a bit of a quick turnaround. But, you know, I've always liked to challenge and I think that it's just really awesome. And it's, you know, great moments come from great moments. And I feel so lucky to be able to line up out of startline with so many really accomplished athletes from the US from other countries. And just go out and give it my all try my hardest and you know, see what happens. And that's true for everyone. Like we're all just gonna go out and, and give our best. And it's so awesome that like, we all get to bring the best out of one another. And I just think that's so cool. So I'm really excited. I don't feel nervous. I'm sure I will feel a little bit nervous, but it's not like I lose $10,000 If I don't win that would definitely make me nervous. I don't have $10,000 to lose. But yeah, I think it's gonna be really awesome and just pumped, it's gonna be really fun. This week was kind of a crazy week, this past week, a lot of training, bit of bit of traveling and, and just working and stuff. So getting back into the rhythm of things. And this upcoming week, I'm going to be in Saratoga the first half of the week and then going up to Boston for the second half of the week just to get some rows on the course and you know, enjoy the energy that is had of the Charles it's so fun. You get to see all your friends. Everyone's so excited to be there. My college coaches hated head of the Charles they would like do this whole little bit before we would go of like, pretending to be us seeing our friends from high school like but it's funny because it's true. But it's so fun. I don't know. I love seeing friends and it's it just as cool. Michelle and I are well many of the national team athletes are signing autographs all weekend, either at the 776 10 or at the US rowing tent. Michelle and I are signing Sunday at 11am at the 776 tents, so if you would like to come and get your something signed by me and Michelle, then come at 11am. And that's going to be fun. I have yet to sign up for an autograph signing for anything us throwing, this is the first time I've ever done it. Because I don't know, it's not really my vibe, but my dad is very proud of me for doing it. So I think it'll be fun. And I am happy to do it with Michelle, because I can just be like, No, she's the superstar. Have her sign your stuff. Yeah. And then I mean, obviously, like, we're gonna hit it hard this week, we don't want to, you know, this is still an important week of training. And, of course, the head of the Charles is so fun. And it's really awesome to have stuff like this on the calendar so that we can celebrate this amazing sport that we do. But at the end of the day, like the Olympics is the goal. And we're just getting back into training. So I believe there will be some tough workouts on the schedule this week. And, you know, we'll have to we'll have to get through some stuff before we can even get to the weekend. But I think it's all it's all good. Personally, I'm like feeling so much better physically. Like, I'm getting back into it. I can feel my body like transitioning back into training mode. It's like, Yeah, let's do these hard workouts. Let's do all this volume. Yesterday, Saturdays, I tend to like front load the day so that I can have Saturday afternoon, just chill. And I was riding my bike. So we like do our Saturday morning race practice. Then I do my cardio, then I do my little lift, and I'm riding my bike home. And I'm like, I'm dying. I can't even ride this bike back to my house. I'm like, Oh, this four miles are never gonna end like woof, but I made it. And today is Sunday. So we just got to do a nice long bike ride this morning. And yeah, feel good. Had some cleaning and some laundry and stuff ready for another great week? Yeah. So next week, we'll have lots of updates from the crazy out of the Charles week. But just feeling feeling excited about the process right now. And motivated to just keep working and keep controlling. You know, what I can control and doing what I can do to keep making myself the best version of myself possible. And yeah, so now it's time for my interview with Justin best. So hope you all enjoy it. I have just invest on the podcast this week. And Justin, I'm so excited to talk to you. I'm pumped to be on Thank you for having me, Christy. Yeah, of course. I thought we could just start. I did read your US rowing bio in preparation of today's of today's recording. Yeah, yes. Yes. And and your Wikipedia page. Oh, impressive. So. And it mentioned on your US rowing bio that you started rowing because your parents watched the social network. So I feel like there's got to be a pretty good story there. Yeah,
Justin Best 8:10
so I like many other people were was bouncing around between sports in order to get into rowing. So like, I played football in middle school, I got a pretty bad concussion one time. So for whatever reason, I was like the second smallest kid or starting like offense, and I was alignment. So like, my quarterback, my running back or like, taller than me, you know, as little seventh grader. But I go around the corner, and I was going for a block and a kid that I wasn't anticipating was right there helmet to helmet. And I remember like it happening. And then I don't really remember being back in the huddle, but I like came to and the next play and I was like, what was that people were like, Oh yeah, you were kind of slow to get to the huddle or whatever. And sure enough, like the next few weeks were just debilitating, like, I bright lights hurt. I had headaches. I was like, I never want to feel like this ever again. And so I left my football career. But I was an active kid and I wanted to you know, go explore other sports. I joined like cross country did like lacrosse. I played rugby, which I know is concussion but it's it's slightly less. I don't want to say like explosive, but at the same time, like the pace of play is slightly different than football where like sudden pops are a little less frequent. But at one point, I was going into my freshman year of high school and the social network starring Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins. It came out on on demand and my parents were watching it over the summer, just like on our cable package, and they're like it was pretty good movie, but they noticed that our behavior had like a six foot five wide shoulder frame. They're like, Oh, he's got a big upper body. Justin has a big upper body like you know, they were doing crew let's look into it. And so they Google you know rowing camps and like learn to row and we found one that was being hosted in Newport Delaware. So I think within like a week or two, I was signed up for learn to row camp, just generic week long camp like this is what a NOR is what the boathouse is. And I go down there. And after day one, I was like, Okay, this is actually pretty cool. day two, day three, it just kept getting more and more excited about it, I was down in a new spot meeting new people on a body of water I've never been on, it was on the Christina River, which, you know, is kind of this river that runs through northern Delaware. Lots of winding curves. And I thought it was just as cool thing that I could be outside, I could be on a body of water, and get to travel to a different spot than kind of like the local bubble that I was like, in at that point. And I haven't looked back since and like, I jumped into the car on the last day. And I'm like, Ma, I want to sign up for the fall session. Let's go, let's go. I want to go for it. So that's kind of the story with that.
Kristi Wagner 10:58
I really wonder like, how I'm sure you're not the only one. Right that like started growing because of that movie.
Justin Best 11:06
Yeah, I would love to hear someone else's story. I feel like the movie didn't portray that we could lost twins in the best light, you know, like, they kind of are like all the villains. But it's a story, you know, the it's just entertaining, you know? But but at the same time, I'm, I'm genuinely curious if there's someone else out there that, you know, saw that and was like, hey, like I could I know that body of water or like I've seen head of the Charles or I've seen Henley? Like, I want to give it a go because I saw it on. And I don't know this kind of a off the topic, but bringing up like the Boys in the Boat.
Kristi Wagner 11:42
No, that's what I was just gonna say, okay, all right. The boys, it's like a great interlude to Boys in the Boat. Because people are saying it's gonna, like change the sport of rowing. So I hope Yeah,
Justin Best 11:53
it brings some visualization to, you know, the hard work and the effort that that those men embarked on. And, you know, leading up to World War Two, I think like, that's the stage that it was set on. And then just kind of like, the Great Depression, everything about it is like this perfect story. So I think George Clooney will have his work cut out for him. But I think that he's got enough of a pulse on the on the sport that he could tell a really good story. I know, is in 2018, when I was on the u 23. Team, he was already kind of in the works, like, potentially directing it. And so he had already, like, contacted Washington rowing, Mike Callahan, who was just a historian of the sport, specifically around Washington rowing. And there's just so many interesting things that was going on in the background, because there's a couple of different angles, I guess you could have told that story from, right like the build up to defeat the Nazis or the the crew collectively and each of their backgrounds how they got to that point, or what kind of the book did was like through the lens of Joe Rance? You know, that's such a classic American overcoming tale. So it'll be interesting to see kind of where they ended up with that, but there's a lot of like, good stuff. And I hope that there's more kids that are similar, or parents that were similar to mine, where they see that they're like, hey, you know, let's sign our kid up for a learn to row and at worst, they just spend a few days and they get to experience something new and in a new setting.
Kristi Wagner 13:30
I'm also very curious what the movie is going to be like, I liked the book. Yeah, I very interested.
Justin Best 13:38
So I am excited for it, too. And it's a shame. So I had the Charles is coming up. And so I guess there was a pre screening of it. I'm not going to be in Boston, this this fall. I did
Kristi Wagner 13:50
talk to somebody who has seen it. And he says that it was very good. So yeah, all right. I mean, that was just one person's opinion. So then obviously, you rode in high school to get back to your narrative. You were on some junior teams, right? And so maybe you just talk a little bit about like, what high school rowing was like kind of getting beginning into sort of like the US rowing system, even though obviously the junior and you 23 teams are pretty different and kind of like recruiting how it's sort of all encompassing, could probably talk for a long time about this whole thing, but just kind of like how you found yourself, sort of junior rowing, going to Drexel, you 23 team, what that whole process was like for you,
Justin Best 14:34
I guess, kind of like with the high school just connecting to the back end of the learning to rope. I initially picked it up and I thought it was great, but I did more of like a recreational program. So it was I think, like four days a week instead of like, you know, six days a week, which is a standard high school program. And we would just, you know, show up row and like I was like, I want to do academics and release after school before it takes have a full rowing schedule. And it wasn't really until kind of my sophomore year, I started kind of seeing this as, as more like, I want to be competitive rather than Oh, this is just something that I want to do and I enjoy doing, because I think those things can go hand in hand. And up until like my sophomore year, I only really saw the one side of it. But when I was a sophomore, there was a guy on our team who made the junior national team for so at that point, it was called junior national team instead of the united team, national team. I think he went to Plovdiv was where and he came back, he had all this cool, like, international kid, and like, he had all these insights and like, knew all these kids from all around the country. And I was like, okay, that's like, pretty cool. Now, at that point, I was extremely far off of where you need to be to be on the uniting team, so much so and he likes to remind me of it. When I was a sophomore, we went to an indoor rowing competition in the winter. And I was in the same event as Amon Glavine. And he beat me by like, 20 seconds to K heard, he likes to bring that up, you know, he was like, I beat you, I beat you. So I was off the pace. But I kind of like I went to one of the ID camps, and I saw, it was it was up on the school, like with St. Joe's prep. And again, kind of this eye opening experience similar to what I had when I initially started the sport. You go to a new place, you see a big new boathouse and have boats that you're not necessarily used to, you have a bunch of kids from all over the region that come together, and they're all wearing different gear. And I was like, this is pretty overwhelming, but at the same time was very cool. And you all set up an urban you do a toolkit test, and I did horrible, of course, because that was my first one, like, under pressure, but that's where I kind of got the bug for all right, I kinda wanna go for the Unite team team. It was cool and exciting and something to kind of like push myself for even beyond just like that. The domestic high school like regardless fortunately, got went through a growth spurt. Sophomore year grew probably like five inches, I think, and was able to bring my earth down a little bit more got more competitive. I did a couple of summer camps between sophomore in junior year. And then junior year, I kinda was like, I junior team, let's go fully committed, and did all my high school racing and was able to get an invite to the high performance camp. And through that camp, I went to the canamex Regatta, which was up in Nova Scotia and Canada, Mexico and United States had a bunch of great experience with that. And I was like, Okay, now I want to go for the United National Team, following year. So my senior year, I was fortunate enough to be selected for the eighth. And we went down to Rio de Janeiro, where the obviously the Olympics being held because we were the guinea pigs for the test event. That was a blast. We ended up taking a silver medal, but it was awesome, just like for the first time for like the real international race outside of just like the like Canada and Mexico. Hearing Coxon talking in other languages was just so cool. I could see myself doing this for years to come. You know, if I get good enough in college, potentially go for the 23 national team. Obviously, while that was kind of happening with the united team team, I was being recruited to different colleges. And I was in a pretty unique situation where Drexel offered me a scholarship to row specifically, that's not a very common thing. And men's heavyweight rowing, obviously very common in NC to a for women's teams, but there's only a couple of different programs throughout the country that offer scholarship for men's teams. And I saw that and I was like, alright, you know, it's a team that's kind of an up and coming. It's relatively local to where I where I live at the time. So it wasn't that I didn't have to take a six hour flight to get to it. So I was like, Yeah, let's let's lock it in and go support the dragons up on the school and came off of the junior national team and was a freshman at Drexel, and had a good group of guys and really enjoyed my time there. And I met my lifelong friends doing college rowing, because it's just some about college rowing where you're like, you're doing the 6am practices together, but you live together, you can go to the dining halls together, like I'm sure you have a bunch of friends from college that you're just gonna stay friends with for the rest of your life, just because of that shared experience. And that's something that was slightly different than high school that I felt and I enjoyed a lot more like a lot more intimate, a lot more like consistent contact, whereas like in high school, you show up to your practice, but you could be rolling with someone who's in a completely different course schedule than you. But in college, you have your dorms, you have the dining halls, a lot of people were in the same business school so you'd see them around and like Obviously, on the weekends, you get to have a little fun, you know, celebrate on a Saturday night. So that's it, it was a great experience. And if anyone is on the fence about rowing in college, I would say absolutely do it. It's truly a great experience. And you don't even need to go beyond college. Like you can just go you, you have a good time, you can push yourself as far as you want to take it. And then hopefully you have a bunch of teammates that you are comfortable with that push you as well. Throughout college, I had the intentions on rolling for the Utah three national team. My freshman year wasn't nearly as fast enough as you need to be my sophomore year of college, I did a summer camp at Vesper, I get a bunch of questions from you know, kids like, hey, like, how do I get faster, and then my number one is, in between summers, find a program and just get into a boat, get maybe one to two scheduled races, like just so that you don't have this drop off as you get picked up again for the fall season. And I think like some of the best small boat skills that I've ever developed, were through summer programs, I totally would recommend there's a lot of great ones throughout the country. It's a race that summer nationals. I don't know if you've raised Canadian handily. Many
Kristi Wagner 21:15
times. Okay, Canadian. I'm like super fun, especially
Justin Best 21:18
in college. Yeah, exactly. You're like, I have a race next morning. But also that what is it, that Tilted Kilt is open? Yeah. That's, that's where you learn to balance, social and rowing. And I think it's a great regard, I would highly endorse going to it if you have the opportunity. My junior year of college, tried out for the U 23. National Team was fortunate enough to get an invite to Seattle, where this election camp was being held, right on Washington's campus. And again, that was kind of another like, oh, my gosh, this this train is rolling momentum is building. You know, I was fortunate enough to make the eighth. We traveled to CERN, Switzerland that summer to race in the Third World Cup. And we were racing against the senior teams. You know, the German a literally went and won the world championship later that year, that was a pretty eye opening experience. Because all of a sudden, this massive like mountain that looked insurmountable before, like the bridge between me and those, those athletes became that much closer. We ended up making the a final we got fourth and a final, it would have a great momentum going into our like little camp building up to 23 worlds. And then we went to two or three worlds and 2018 Positive. And we said a world's best time and one of gold medal. And at that point, I'm like, Yeah, I'm gonna go for the Olympics. Like, I don't care. What's what's in my way, like I it may take, you know, four years, it might take six years may take eight years. I am gonna go for it. Absolutely. After college, so had another year of you 23. So I kind of rearranged my schedule for Drexel to graduate a little earlier. So did you 20 threes in 2019 Again, and that was in Florida, it was really cool to represent United States In the United States. I think there's something extra special about that. And then I graduated in December of 2019 and moved to Oakland in January of 2020. I know that was just a whole lot but that was kind of no knowledge. And
Kristi Wagner 23:24
no I think it was good. And I feel like what really resonated to me was you weren't whatever smaller than you are now high school sophomore thinking, Okay, I want to go to the Olympics, you were like, Alright, here's a reasonable goal that I can like set for myself. Maybe I'm not there yet, but I can take steps to achieve it. And it's just kind of like climbing a ladder which I think is something that a lot of people don't realize is that like all of us that maybe are now on the senior national team had to take all of those steps and it seemed scary at the time to take you know, the canamex step or the whatever step but like you have to take you have to climb the ladder to get to the top you can't just shoot up you know, I think it's good and I think it's good for people to hear like no I didn't just suddenly said oh you 23 World Record like I did all of these things.
Justin Best 24:22
It is certainly that slow burn slow build like all into mentalities and sayings. And one of the ones that sticks with me is the man on top of the mountain didn't fall there. Like he wasn't just dropping the sky like he had to go through the steps to build and build and build and there are very few athletes in our sport that are just pick it up day one and are absolutely incredible, right like I can think of like for all on the men's side like Ali's idler hop into a boat and like he's genetically insane. But that's he's like the 90 and like it was point 00 1% of athletes. Yeah, for myself, I think my first 2k was like when I started was like an 810 or an 805 to 815. So in that range, very not anything. If the coach came by and looked at a bunch of crops, the kids, it'd be like, okay, whatever, like he's, he's just gonna have fun, but it is very much that slow burn, it's that process. It's that understanding that like, the big goals, in order to get there need to have more reasonable goals. And so whether that is okay, I'm going to row this summer at the local high performance club, or I'm going to try and drop my scores or like work on my small vote technique, like all of those things that keep adding up and keep adding up. And then yeah, you eventually do, hopefully see some success. What I love for people to take away is like, it is not linear, it has very much ups and downs of injuries and and you get sidetracked and you get sick, and then sometimes you're not motivated. And then, you know, sometimes you have a lot of motivation. And then like not trying to overdo it, when you have that and things of that nature. It's like you learn you build and I'm still learning and building, not nearly where I would like to be. But I think that's a good thing too. Because it's always the carrot at the end of the end of the stick. So I'm glad you like personally can relate to that too. Because your your story is not like junior national team gold medalist to Yale, NCAA champion to World Champion. It's like that's, that is an unrealistic timeline for pretty much everyone in the sport.
Kristi Wagner 26:31
And it is actually really funny because when I was racing at like Olympic trials in 2021, I guess one of the announcers was like, overnight sensation, Christy Wagner and my club coach was like, yeah, it takes 10 years to be an overnight sensation. Are you kidding me? You really think that anyone would just like come from nowhere like it? Yeah. You know? No,
Justin Best 26:53
it's like you clearly weren't there for the long 20k boroughs, where I was hanging my couch or lower, like when I was like, just mentally down on myself and couldn't break a PR. Like, yeah, announcers out there for that. They can just be like, Oh, six minute race? Yeah, an overnight sensation. Christy Wagner?
Kristi Wagner 27:12
No. Yeah, yeah. So that's what we like to say now it takes 10 years to be an overnight, so
Justin Best 27:19
I have this great. Well,
Kristi Wagner 27:21
I feel like another thing that's pretty cool is I feel like there's a pretty big group of guys that are still training that have been kind of in the same like age group circuit. You 19 You 23 Yeah, like, Yeah, we don't really have that quite the same. On the women. I mean, obviously, there are women that Yeah,
Justin Best 27:41
but it's not like a huge concentration. Yeah, yeah. How
Kristi Wagner 27:45
has that been? Like, it's, it's been?
Justin Best 27:48
It's been great, to be honest. And I think it's very easy to look at immediate results and be like, Oh, it's succeeding, oh, it's failing. So, in my opinion, building these long processes to hopefully see results at the highest level in my straightforward this summer, all four of us did the junior national team, we did you 20 threes, we were all at the Oakland Training Center at one point, but we all went to the Olympics at one point. So we didn't have like lightning in a bottle immediate success when we were seeing yours. But we all had that international traveling from from the united team. We all had that experience, whether it was positive or negative, that you 20 threes, I think like having that is something that not only do you get to have the experience and the racing and like, Okay, this is what it is like to travel, which I think is slightly under estimated, like you have to know how to be a good athlete and maintain and like the people who get across the pond, and then their back gives out like, you can see who's been the senior. Oh, I need to do this on the plane, like just small stuff like that, like, are finding what works for them as an athlete, the people who have that experience, like you can tell, but aside from just that, it's also like we've come up through the system together. Like I wrote with gradient 2018 Grady kind of aged out, I wrote with Liam and 2019 in that kind of like summer group. Net was slightly older than us. But he did through the same system. He did the 20 threes and like had the same coaches at united team. And obviously, we all rode together at at Oakland Training Center. And that kind of bleeds over into the eight, the men's eight and in the men's pair as well as like much of those guys. Were you 23 Junior net like united team, not saying that, like it's absolutely necessary, but it's also good to just have that you can track the athletes throughout the system. And ideally, it all works out in Paris and you know, you can say okay, here's the result, but I think we're on a good step. And I know for the women's teams, it's very similar in like you gotten by yourselves up until that point, you're meddling in very competitive fields, you kind of like, take a look back now and be like, Okay, so maybe it wasn't all bad, because I feel like especially after Tokyo and you probably experienced this to everyone was like, Oh, we have to completely get rid of the system. Whoa, whoa, like, for me personally, I feel like there was a lot of positives. And there are some differences that need to be changed. Obviously, you can't just look at that and be like, no change is necessary. But I think like, the United teen system, the u 23. system, having those two, like that's core structure is absolutely critical to continuing the development in the long term.
Kristi Wagner 30:38
Totally. And I feel like, you have to I agree, like you have to develop and there's no way to sort of fake experiences and like fake, you know, yeah, experiences and gaming. Like, I don't know, there's no way to embrace an Olympic final unless you've raced it in the Olympic final like, it's just not it's not going to happen. Like there is no other situation that that you're in the same stress, like, and I used to tell like I used to literally in my brain think like, well, it's not like I'm racing in the Olympic final like, that's how I would calm myself down. And no thought when
Justin Best 31:19
you're sitting on the starting line, it's like, oh, wait, we are literally literally became reality.
Kristi Wagner 31:25
Yeah, like literally it wasn't at the start line. I think it was like on the bus like driving to the Yeah. Oh, no. Like, oh, gosh,
Justin Best 31:36
we already seen the Olympic final. Yeah, yeah, I remember sitting on the start line. It's like quiet and like the there's like those like rollers and sort of like laughing like, oh, boy like this is happening like this is this is it like where we're going and I got like Hamish bond by immediately to the right of me. I'm like, Oh, my God. What? All right, let's do this.
Kristi Wagner 32:00
So congratulations on going to the Olympics. It is a great accomplishment. You as well. Thank you, sir. We
Justin Best 32:08
first met I think, well, actually Hawaii leading up to that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah.
Kristi Wagner 32:12
And I do actually think that we could all celebrate each other more. I feel like sometimes when you're always like hanging out with Olympians, and people that are meddling at Worlds and like, whatever, it just starts to become like, okay, good job. But it's like, yeah, no, that's actually very cool. And I think
Justin Best 32:31
yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah. Like we do, through through the efforts. And everyone, like we kind of were just talking about, like, through the hard work, like we did accomplish at least something up to that point. That's like, pretty worth like, celebrating over.
Kristi Wagner 32:48
Yeah. So what was it like? Kind of like what it mean to you to make the Olympics and then kind of coming off of that, like, Did you immediately know I want to go into another cycle? Or did you take some time to like, think about it,
Justin Best 33:04
I was so caught, like crossing the finish line, I'm like, I got to do it again. Because we were we were 1.0 seconds, zero 1.07 seconds out of a metal. I was fortunate I was at the Olympic games when I was 23. So I was like, I still have years to kind of give and develop. So I knew that from the start. And then I think like, overall, I thought it was just this unbelievable human experience to go to the Olympic Games, because it's this special place where everyone is there from around the world to do what they are excellent at, and what they are truly masters of their respective sport. I don't think that's replicated anywhere. I don't see like a trading a trade convention with like, data scientists from truly every single like representative country, that's something extremely unique. And then walking around the village, hearing all the different languages is pretty surreal. You know, you're going by someone's speaking Mandarin, and then Portuguese. And then, you know, you have countries that are at odds with each other politically, but they are all they're coexisting, and kind of like lift the veil, like, Hey, we are all just people fundamentally, and like, there's a whole lot of extra stuff that is, in my opinion, relatively eliminated in the game, like around the games in the village and I'm excited to kind of, you know, hopefully go through the process again and be able to go to Paris and kind of see a non COVID version of it because obviously, everyone was very conscious of not touching it because there's COVID in the village, but I still feel like I got like a taste of it. And I'm like, very excited to kind of see what else there is in the Paris village. You know, meeting people for all i try to there's these pins at the Olympics. I don't know if you've spoken about them on your podcast already, but I think
Kristi Wagner 35:03
a few other people have sort of alluded to them. I was really bad at pin trading. So you could definitely discuss it a little bit. Each country
Justin Best 35:11
has a couple of different pins. And they're very much just putting them on your clothes. I had them on like a lanyard, and you go up to different people from it's really doesn't matter where and you just say, hey, I want to trade a pin. And you just have that, like, small connection with that person. And I go up to Nope, I guess he approached me. He was the Uzbekistan boxing coach. And he comes up to me, and super friendly guy asked me to trade a pin. And I don't know if you've seen borer at but like Sacha Baron Cohen. I was always under the impression that he was doing a bit with the accent of the news. Becky's he sounded exactly like him. Like, like, Would you like to treat it like this? I'm not going to try to do that. Because like, obviously, I probably would butcher it. But that's exactly what he sounded like. And so I'm sitting there as an American just like thinking my own little like American thoughts. Like, is he making fun of like, he was Becca, Stan people. That's just like, how he spoke English. And I was like, Yeah, I'll try to pin with you. And so it was Becca, Stan boxing pin. It was just such a cool experience. And I was trying not to laugh because I'm like, like, see messing with it. See, Think that like, but no, that's just how they spoke. And I'm like, That's awesome. I don't think many people have an interaction similar to that. If you're out and about.
Kristi Wagner 36:32
I totally agree. I feel like it was so cool. But there were so many things that, you know, COVID made much more difficult. And like just inter I think everyone was so nervous because we had to test so often. And yeah, there obviously was COVID. So it definitely made it. And then as soon as we finished racing, we had to leave. Are you racing out of the Charles? I am. I'm racing in the single and we're racing and eight of all the scholars from the national team this summer and the champion on Sunday.
Justin Best 37:06
Oh, that's so fun. Yes, you're gonna beat the sweet. Is there a sweet?
Kristi Wagner 37:10
Oh, there are two we're sandwiched between the like women's aid from this summer. The Women's for the pair and the spare pair and an aid and we're so
Justin Best 37:22
that's so fun. I didn't know that was happening. You guys got this? Yeah, it goes scholars don't. Yeah, I'm excited to see that.
Kristi Wagner 37:32
Yeah, it's gonna be funny. Like, right now we're trying to decide if we should practice. Or if like, we should just go and
Justin Best 37:41
get one panel, but not the day before racing. Because that's always just like a wake nightmare. Like if you go to like CRI, like go the opposite direction of the course. I'd say yes. But if not do it blind. Because like if you get out there and it's bouncing, and you're just like, because there's boats out. You're not going to feel like you got anything productive done. But
Kristi Wagner 38:03
yeah, any eights advice for us hit it
Justin Best 38:05
hard at the front end, man, I get your Blaydon because like, by the time you try to like pick it up and be like, loosen. Like it's already gone. So get the blade and you know, just good.
Kristi Wagner 38:17
No, that's exciting. Yeah, thanks. It'll be fun. Oh, sounds gonna miss it. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully nobody catches a crab or anything.
Justin Best 38:27
Yeah, you guys are good. You have to worry about double the stuff that sweet would have to worry about. So like, it's literally 50% of what you have to
Kristi Wagner 38:37
do. I know we don't have well, and we don't have to steer. So like,
Justin Best 38:41
oh my gosh, no one's no one needs to do this. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi Wagner 38:45
No, it'll be fun. Cool. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time and I feel like you. But that's it for this week. And I really want to thank Justin so much for coming on the podcast, I learned so much speaking with him. And I really hope that all of you did, too. But be sure to tune in next week to hear part two of my conversation with him. And in that episode, Justin and I talk about how important it is for all of us to have, like passions and work outside of rowing. And he kind of shares how important it's been for him to have things outside of rowing, especially like as he's been living out in Oakland. We also talk about Justin's new foray into the world of memes on Instagram and what he's most looking forward to in the next year. Before I close the show, I just want to share my quote of the week so this is from Roald Dahl. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. So thanks for listening. Have a great week. Bye.
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 the other three years.com
Transcribed by https://otter.ai