Taking Big Swings, with Rudy Winkler | Episode 68
While Kristi’s away at the Olympics, we kick off this episode with a conversation between producer Christine O’Donnell and world rowing commentator Colleen Saville about Kristi’s races in Paris.
Then we dive into her interview with Rudy Winkler, American track and field athlete who competes in the hammer throw and weight throw. Rudy is the current American Record Holder in the hammer toss with a distance of 82.71m. He has finished in the top 8 at his last 4 World Championship and Olympic finals, and is a 3x Olympian who is on Team USA in Paris with Kristi right now.
Rudy shares with Kristi how this niche sport was perfect for a self-described “big kid,” what makes this sport a 98% mental game, and how avoiding superstition and embracing anxiety has helped him achieve his goals. Plus, Rudy gives us a hint of how you can tell if he’s happy with his throw or not. They also speak candidly on their complicating feelings about dedicating so much of their lives to sport, and how they find balance (or not) with other priorities.
Follow Rudy’s Olympic journey on Instagram
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00:00:04 Christine O'Donnell
Hello and welcome to the other three years. I'm Christine O'Donnell. You have seen me a few times. I am a producer. I'm often behind the scenes and joining me here is Colleen Seville. She is a commentator for World rowing.
00:00:21 Christine O'Donnell
And we both know, Christy.
00:00:24 Christine O'Donnell
So seeing she will not be doing an update this week, we wanted to come in here and talk a little bit about how she's been performing. Thank you so much for being here.
00:00:35 Colleen Saville
Colleen. Yeah. My pleasure. Hi, everyone. And yeah, what a thrill to be here. I really appreciate it. Thanks.
00:00:42 Christine O'Donnell
For having me, can you tell me a little bit about how you know?
00:00:45 Christine O'Donnell
I mean, we've had you on the show, but what is your?
00:00:47 Colleen Saville
Relationship. My relationship to Christy. Oh, gosh. Well, first and foremost, I just want to call out if you hear my three month old in the background. So he's he's jumping into the conversation here and there. You might pick up a little bit of of his talking on the audio.
00:01:03 Colleen Saville
But my relationship to Christy, Gosh, I wish I got to spend more time with her than I do, but it's it's been a real thrill following her trajectory over the past handful of years. Christie, of course, Rose, as we all know, at Orion, the elite Olympic feeder program in upstate New York in Saratoga Springs, I have the.
00:01:22 Colleen Saville
Opportunity to to commentate on many of her races as part of of World rowing.
00:01:27 Colleen Saville
And and so I'm a massive fan. That's my my relationship to Christie, you know, Putnam market, if you know it saratogian ANS Cal. Have a sandwich named after Christy. And so my relationship to Putnam market is that I always order the the Christy Wagner sandwich but no, I'm a massive fan.
00:01:35
Hi.
00:01:47 Colleen Saville
And and really have have been enjoying following along in her Olympic journey.
00:01:53 Christine O'Donnell
I would be remiss to not share that Colleen and I rode together in high school and when I say rode together like I was rowing and she was yelling at me.
00:02:05 Colleen Saville
Fairpoint fairpoint.
00:02:08 Christine O'Donnell
It's like we're just all back together here in the rowing world, kind of like living vicariously through Christie's podcast and her races at the Olympics. And we are recording this Tuesday afternoon.
00:02:12
Yes.
00:02:23 Christine O'Donnell
July 30th the podcast will be coming out on Friday morning, so it will be August 2nd. At this point we have watched her semifinal, which happened today.
00:02:34 Christine O'Donnell
And by the time you are listening to this, she will have competed in the Grand final. But we're not going to have those results for you in the podcast. Still, we wanted to share a little bit of our thoughts about what we do know where she is so far.
00:02:48 Colleen Saville
Yeah, I mean, what an amazing, amazing race that we were able to see.
00:02:54 Colleen Saville
Christy compete in earlier today in the the semifinals. You you know what? It's the Olympics. So this is implicit. You know what a stacked field, of course, but especially in that particular race that, that, that they were in and the folks that they were alongside.
00:03:12 Colleen Saville
Romania, the two time high baby, the two time defending world and Olympic champions in this boat class. They went off the line Christine at 53 strokes per minute. And what's incredible about the Romanians in particular is that those two women in the double actually doubled up to race in the 8th as well.
00:03:32 Colleen Saville
Which is kind of unheard of at the Olympic level, so the Romanians are having a really, really good Olympic.
00:03:39 Colleen Saville
Showing they crushed the women's eight heat, they went out really impressively. And so, you know, for folks, of course, that that saw Christie's race. You'll have seen the Romanians somewhere around 500 to go or even fewer, I think 400 or so surge, you know, to to the line to cross first. So absolutely incredible.
00:04:00 Colleen Saville
The dominant performance from them, Great Britain, great performance Australia early on as as well.
00:04:09 Colleen Saville
Unfortunately for the Aussies, as we saw, it was heartbreak, so they lost that last qualifying spot to Norway by 2/10 of a second. With the Americans, you know, Christie coming in in 5th overall, So what a spectacular race, a real thrill to watch and really excited. I think to hear from from Christie.
00:04:28 Colleen Saville
When you know she.
00:04:29 Christine O'Donnell
Gets back like just to recap for the listeners.
00:04:34 Christine O'Donnell
So what happened today is Christie did not make the a grand final. She will be moving forward to the B Grand Final, which means she's fallen outside of the final. That would get a first, second or third place medal, which we know Christie really.
00:04:52 Christine O'Donnell
Was pushing for.
00:04:53 Christine O'Donnell
And you know, because you've been listening.
00:04:55 Colleen Saville
With her? Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Christine. So the, the A level final contest for positions overall one through 6. So it's the metals.
00:05:04 Colleen Saville
And then the B level final will contest for position 7 through 12. So by default, as you said, if you're in that that B level final, then you're you're off the podium. And so as mentioned, like an absolutely incredible race, amazing, amazing speed in that race and and really proud of of Christy and Sophia, of course.
00:05:25 Colleen Saville
And and so she said to to us rowing when they had a chance to catch up. She said. I think that we'll be ready to race on Thursday. Right now, this feels pretty devastating and nothing that we did in training predicted that.
00:05:39 Colleen Saville
This was what should.
00:05:40 Colleen Saville
Happen. I wish there was an explanation because that would make sense. In my mind. We've both done a lot to get here and this was not the result that we wanted, but it's OK to not achieve your goal sometimes and be upset about it, which is honest and.
00:05:53 Colleen Saville
True.
00:05:55 Christine O'Donnell
It's OK to not achieve our goal sometimes and be upset about it. Yeah, yeah.
00:05:59
Yes.
00:06:01 Colleen Saville
Yes.
00:06:03 Colleen Saville
Especially at that level where, Christine, you said something really interesting before we started.
00:06:08 Christine O'Donnell
I yeah. So I was talking to another.
00:06:14 Christine O'Donnell
Coach who works with Olympians and elite athletes about what do you do when you expect more of yourself than you achieve at the Olympics? And like you're on the world stage, you already have so many eyeballs on you. And not only do you have your own expectations, you have an entire countries.
00:06:34 Christine O'Donnell
Expectations on you and.
00:06:36
And.
00:06:37 Christine O'Donnell
And so I mean, of course, there's a lot of pressure there and I think that Christie has done an amazing job when it comes to just like staying focused on what she's had to stay focused on. But my, my I was just like, what do you do when, like, you don't necessarily hit your expectations or you fall short of the expectations you set for yourself?
00:06:59 Christine O'Donnell
And Janice had shared with me. She was saying.
00:07:04 Christine O'Donnell
That.
00:07:05 Christine O'Donnell
Who you are and what happens at The Olympian level is not just that one day it's the three to four years.
00:07:15 Christine O'Donnell
Of discipline and dedication and mindset, and will all of that stuff is hugely a part of the person that you have become and it will trickle down into every aspect of your life. And it is incredibly powerful. That does not mean that you can't be upset.
00:07:35 Christine O'Donnell
But I think that it's important to know that it's not just this one day that completely defines you, and I think it's just that pressure that sometimes makes it feel like it is. But to me, like, as her producer, I am massively proud of her and inspired by her and I love.
00:07:54 Christine O'Donnell
Her and I love that quote. She's always been honest and open and authentic and sharing her self in this show and.
00:08:06 Christine O'Donnell
I'm glad that I've got to be a part of.
00:08:08 Christine O'Donnell
Part of her journey.
00:08:11 Colleen Saville
Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Yeah, and. And. And for those who maybe haven't seen the race, you can.
00:08:17 Colleen Saville
Watch it on Peacock.
00:08:19 Colleen Saville
On demand and it's it's. Yeah, it was a a fantastic race that they put together. So looking forward to to seeing them race on Thursday and tomorrow is a very exciting day because the first Olympic rowing medals.
00:08:32 Colleen Saville
Will be awarded in wads I believe.
00:08:37 Colleen Saville
So really looking forward to to starting to hear those national anthems.
00:08:44 Colleen Saville
Yeah, today short, but certainly like critical day of of of racing for the singles and double s in.
00:08:53 Christine O'Donnell
Particular and there were some really great performances by the rowing team and other aspects like the the Men's 8 totally crush.
00:09:03 Christine O'Donnell
There was it, their semi or their heat.
00:09:06 Colleen Saville
Today I think it was their heat and now they go directly to the final I think cause it's a smaller field of however many entries something like 8, so they're directly in the eighth final.
00:09:14 Christine O'Donnell
Yeah. And I think Kara Kohler.
00:09:18 Christine O'Donnell
Singles I'm. I mean, I know she won her heat.
00:09:21 Christine O'Donnell
I'm not sure.
00:09:23 Colleen Saville
Yes, she advanced as well her placement. I'm trying to remember. I mean, that's such a deep field. The the singles always are. But I do know that she went. She like, she'll she'll advance and she had.
00:09:37 Colleen Saville
A a a good race overall.
00:09:39 Christine O'Donnell
Awesome. And do you know about Molly? Molly's been on the show.
00:09:46 Colleen Saville
Oh yeah, of course. Gosh, you know, another super competitive field that like taking a look at the results from the, let's see, I believe they still have the semi semi finals at this point. They've raced the heats and.
00:10:02 Colleen Saville
The US was able to to skip the repechage, so Molly Redford and Michelle Sexer, like veterans of the sport. I think this is like their 5th Olympic Games. Folks can keep me honest, but they finished second in their heat behind Romania. That was July 28th, so a couple days ago and then well ahead of the rest of the field.
00:10:22 Colleen Saville
I think it was Peru, Japan.
00:10:26 Colleen Saville
And it was the top two semifinal AB. So they're doing very well. That's certainly what we we would expect and in their semi-final AB, which is tomorrow, they go up against Canada and Great Britain and New Zealand, Poland and Argentina. So it'll be a fantastic race and it's top three, Christine.
00:10:47 Colleen Saville
Of the 8 finals, so that's the last chance, last round to get into that medals round, but they're they're moving quite well.
00:10:53 Christine O'Donnell
I was just looking at us rowing, which is like my app for all things like Olympics these days and I was just looking at.
00:10:59 Kristi Wagner
Yeah.
00:11:04 Christine O'Donnell
What? What the, what else we could share? Perhaps that the the bench double advanced to the A finals. The women's four advance to the A finals and it looks like the US rowing team is hanging out with the USA Rugby team right now. Which?
00:11:13 Colleen Saville
The women's war.
00:11:25 Christine O'Donnell
It's a pretty cool behind the scene content from US rowing so.
00:11:26
Awesome.
00:11:31 Colleen Saville
Making I love love. Love that that's awesome.
00:11:33 Christine O'Donnell
I I mean that's.
00:11:34 Christine O'Donnell
A huge part of it, like just being there with like in the Olympic Village with the athletes, has to be so much fun.
00:11:42 Colleen Saville
Oh yeah, yeah, 100%. I think some other notable things, you know, not surprisingly, the temperatures are rising. So certainly like keeping cool and, you know, staying hydrated and all of that will be top of mind for these athletes. But I think it is getting quite, quite sunny and and hot out there. And I'm really, I mean there's I'm excited. There's so much to look forward to.
00:12:04 Colleen Saville
Excited for all of the events to come, excited for the singles you mentioned Carrie Kohler? Of course. For the US, who's doing well and the men's singles as well to see if all these idler from Germany, he's been like a class act in that event for a handful of years, if he takes.
00:12:19 Colleen Saville
From his first gold Olympic medal and then the eights are such a spectacle. They're so fun.
00:12:26 Christine O'Donnell
I mean I.
00:12:28 Colleen Saville
Man's.
00:12:28 Christine O'Donnell
Nuns. It's like bring me back. They bring me back. So.
00:12:35 Colleen Saville
I know, I know. Yeah, just so excited.
00:12:36 Christine O'Donnell
The speed of the 8 is exciting.
00:12:39 Colleen Saville
Yes, yes. So lots. Yeah, lot. Lots to look forward to. And as you said, we'll have more information. The world will have more information by the time this airs.
00:12:51 Colleen Saville
So far so good. Metals metals kick off tomorrow. That's exciting.
00:12:54 Christine O'Donnell
In this episode of the other three years, Christie is interviewing Rudy Winkler, who is also from the Capital Region of New York State, and they talked about just a number of things in this episode, including if he has any superstitions.
00:13:13 Christine O'Donnell
Which I always think is interesting, and Rudy is competing for their Team USA in the men's hammer throw event. And if you are a Matilda fan, you are probably imagining the Trunchbull right now and I'm there with you. So without further ado.
00:13:33 Christine O'Donnell
Lips tossed to their interview with Christy and Rudy and Colleen, thank you so much for being here.
00:13:41 Colleen Saville
Yeah, what a pleasure. Huge. Congratulations to to everyone competing and really looking forward to seeing all the all the good racing to come. Congrats to Christy and Sophia. Take care.
00:13:58 Rudy Winkler
And if you end up watching me throw at the Olympics, you'll know when I have a good throw or not, based on how my I usually say like.
00:14:06 Rudy Winkler
I yell like an ah, and then I say come.
00:14:08 Rudy Winkler
On.
00:14:09 Rudy Winkler
But depending on the tone of the come on will be depending on how good the throw was. So if it's like oh, come on then you know it's a bad throw. Or if it's like a come on you know it.
00:14:19 Rudy Winkler
Was a A.
00:14:20 Rudy Winkler
Good throw I.
00:14:21 Rudy Winkler
Don't even really realize I do it until I watch the videos after.
00:14:29 Kristi Wagner
Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream. They want to turn into a reality.
00:14:39 Kristi Wagner
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years podcast. My name is Christy Wagner, and this week I have a super fun Olympic episode for you guys. Which makes sense because it's during the Olympics. When this is coming out.
00:14:55 Kristi Wagner
This week I have three time Olympian and upstate New York native Rudy Winkler. Rudy's a hammer thrower for Team USA, and he's competing right now at his third Olympics in Paris, really qualified for his first Olympics and he was still in college at Cornell and has been at the top of the throwing game since then. Rudy and I had an awesome conversation.
00:15:16 Kristi Wagner
Talking about how he got into hammer, what those early days were like, and we also talked a lot about balancing sport and life for him and the mental challenges of his sport and how he's worked to overcome some of those challenges. It was a really great conversation. I found I had a lot in common with Rudy, so it was fun to connect and share our story.
00:15:34 Kristi Wagner
Is.
00:15:35 Kristi Wagner
I'm recording this intro a little early since I'm also competing at the Olympics right now. Well, when this comes out, I'll actually have finished competing, but because of that, I don't really have an update on training except to say I'm super excited to race really hard and just grateful for the support from all of you. And don't worry, I'll be back with a recap of how everything went.
00:15:56 Kristi Wagner
So without further ado, it's time for my conversation with three time Olympian Rudy Winkler.
00:16:04 Kristi Wagner
All right, Rudy, I'm super excited to have you on the podcast and to ask you a lot of questions.
00:16:10 Rudy Winkler
Thank you for having me excited for this.
00:16:13 Kristi Wagner
To start out, I'm very curious how you got into hammer. Throw it. Do you just call it hammer throwing ham?
00:16:21 Kristi Wagner
What would you say?
00:16:22 Rudy Winkler
That's a good question. How do you like what? What do I, how?
00:16:24 Rudy Winkler
Do I colloquially like?
00:16:27 Rudy Winkler
I guess I say like I throw the hammer or.
00:16:28 Rudy Winkler
My hammer thrower. OK, yeah.
00:16:31 Kristi Wagner
Throw the hammer. How did you get into that? I mean, I do a bit of a niche sport, but I've got to assume it's like a little bit more niche. So I'm super interested in how how that all got started for you.
00:16:44 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, I think I started.
00:16:47 Rudy Winkler
I think the year was like either 4th grade or 5th grade. I was doing baseball at the time, but I hated it.
00:16:55 Rudy Winkler
And my parents wanted me to do some sort of sport, and my town had a like peewee track club called the April Park Rd. Runners. So I started doing that. They kind of thought I would run. I was always like a really big kid, so they wanted me to lose a little weight maybe and run and get into it that way. But I ended up finding the shop.
00:17:15 Rudy Winkler
But.
00:17:17 Rudy Winkler
And kind of gravitated towards the field events in general anyway, and your size is kind of celebrated in the shot, so.
00:17:25 Rudy Winkler
I think I.
00:17:26 Rudy Winkler
Fell into place and felt welcome. More welcome there from the start and was also just a big kid, so it was really good at it.
00:17:33 Rudy Winkler
So started with the shot and then I kind of started throwing the discus, which are a little bit more popular. People tend to know those.
00:17:39 Rudy Winkler
2.
00:17:40 Rudy Winkler
Throwing events.
00:17:42 Rudy Winkler
And then in middle school, just kind of met some coaches and athletes who had been doing the hammer and the indoor version of it is called the weight. It's similar technique, but it's only like a foot and a half long and it's in high school. It's £25 for professionals, it's 35 lbs, whereas the the Hammers.
00:18:02 Rudy Winkler
Like 3 feet long, and for professionals is 16 lbs high schoolers. It's 12 lbs, so it's it's smaller, heavier it doesn't.
00:18:08 Rudy Winkler
Was far uh. My high school competed in that, so I got a chance to kind of try that there. And then the coaches I met through that kind of pushed me towards trying the hammer and.
00:18:20 Rudy Winkler
Like with the shot and the disk, I was kind of good at it just because of my size and.
00:18:25 Rudy Winkler
I really enjoyed doing it and then.
00:18:29 Rudy Winkler
Kind of just threw meets, met coaches met this guy, Patty McGrath, who was an Irish Olympian in the event and he started coaching.
00:18:37 Rudy Winkler
May.
00:18:38 Rudy Winkler
And then it became my primary event and I ended up doing it through college and I still compete in it professionally. So it kind of happened organically through just being involved with track and field in general. And I think every thrower.
00:18:53 Rudy Winkler
Eventually tries hammer. At some point I just got to try it a little bit earlier than some and stuck with it. The longest of like my friends in the sport that I know.
00:19:03 Kristi Wagner
And so when you were younger and you were first doing like track and field, did you do any of the track events as well?
00:19:12 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, I did. I did the, which is really funny. You asked cause I did at the start.
00:19:18 Rudy Winkler
I tried doing the mile for some reason for my practices and and the the track club would make you do a running event and a field event that was like how to split up the practices.
00:19:29 Rudy Winkler
So I would kind of just, I would do the mile so that I could just like jog you know on my own pace until I got to go throw. But I did. I think I competed it in a few times. I tried to do the sprints, but I just I always thought I was fast and then I met the kids who actually sprinted and and they just whipped me. So I I stopped doing that.
00:19:51 Rudy Winkler
And then I did a little high jump for a little bit, which was also kind of funny because I was like this really big kid.
00:19:54 Kristi Wagner
Ohh.
00:19:57 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, it was pretty funny. My first couple of meats I was running, I would run the mile, go do the high jump and then I would run over and do the shop. But.
00:20:03 Rudy Winkler
It was like such a weird mix of events, but it was fun.
00:20:07 Kristi Wagner
No, that's super fun. The only time I did track and field was in middle school, but we had to do both track and field events and.
00:20:18 Kristi Wagner
They also were like you should do the shot put and I was comically bad at it. I'm also pretty well, I'm very tall, but especially when I was younger, I had, like, absolutely no upper body strength. And I think that the, like our our gym teacher was the coach. And I think he was just like shocked.
00:20:27 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:20:38 Kristi Wagner
And how bad I was. And so he tried to pretend it wasn't quite so bad. And then I came in last place and every meet like I think they should have been like, oh, you should do something else. But he was like, there's no one else to do the shot put or whatever. So.
00:20:46 Rudy Winkler
Ohh man.
00:20:52 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, it was pretty. He probably thought you had.
00:20:55 Rudy Winkler
Long levers can move it out there.
00:20:56 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, yeah, but instead it was just like, really bad. But it was fun. Like, I mean, I I thought track and field was super fun. And I loved how it practiced. You got to do so many different things. Like, I feel like that was the most fun part of it.
00:21:11 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, I think that's the thing about track is there's something for everybody, obviously. I mean, there's the endurance distance stuff. There's the speed stuff. There's the jumps, there's the throws. I mean, like, if you can't find an event that you fit into a track.
00:21:24 Rudy Winkler
Then I don't know, maybe you're just not into sports because there's plenty to do. And that's kind of the beauty of it. And especially as I've grown up through it, you meet so many interesting people from so many different backgrounds who are really good at this, like niche. One event. I find those people super interesting.
00:21:45 Kristi Wagner
Yeah.
00:21:46 Kristi Wagner
So at what point during your time throwing the hammer at first was it just like, ohh, this is a really cool thing. I like doing it. Maybe I could do it in like college? Or did you sort of have national team Olympic aspirations like right from the get go? When did that seed start to be planted?
00:22:08 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, track is one of those things I'm sure you have a similar feeling with growing where it's your sport is the Olympics like there isn't really like a professional league for us to compete in. There is kind of, but for the hammer specifically, there really is not many professional opportunities.
00:22:28 Rudy Winkler
And so from the start, that's like, you know, the dream is to make an Olympic team or to make a world championship team.
00:22:34 Rudy Winkler
But you kind of justice. Do it for fun at the start. And because I started so young, much younger than most people. So most people start to hammer when they're in college, they'll do shot and disc in high school, and then when they're in college, they'll get to try the hammer because it's more contested than it's it's pretty rare that a high schooler, it's. It's less rare.
00:22:54 Rudy Winkler
Now, but when I was in high school and then before my time.
00:22:58 Rudy Winkler
You pretty much would only throw the hammer if you had a coach that would push you to do it, or if you grew up in Rhode Island, which is the only state that had actual like sanctioned high school events with the.
00:23:10 Rudy Winkler
Yammer.
00:23:11 Rudy Winkler
So I started a lot younger than a lot of people, a lot of.
00:23:14 Rudy Winkler
People because of that.
00:23:16 Rudy Winkler
I got to do some youth and junior events my sophomore year. I.
00:23:24 Rudy Winkler
Qualified for Youth World Championships, which was this trip to Leo, France, which was really cool. I mean, it was a world championship. It was structured the same way as like a professional World Championships and you got like the Team USA kit and all that stuff. It was really like an awesome experience and it kind of let me dip my toes into that world and understand what.
00:23:45 Rudy Winkler
There could be to like strive for goals later on and that was really cool.
00:23:51 Rudy Winkler
You had to win nationals to make that team.
00:23:54 Rudy Winkler
So probably a little bit before that when I was training for that, I was kind of like, oh, this is like something I could potentially do and it became part of my identity really early on probably.
00:24:04 Rudy Winkler
7th 8th grade couple of years in I was just really into it and really passionate about it. I just kind of fully engulfed myself in the sport and it always just was something that I wanted to do and didn't really question. And after that youth team it was like OK, well, now let's go for the junior team next year and then I started looking at colleges.
00:24:25 Rudy Winkler
In.
00:24:26 Rudy Winkler
Never really questioned like. Oh, should I be doing this? Should I be doing something else? It was always just. Oh, I'm a hammer thrower now, and I'm just going to put myself in a position to be able to do this, which is kind of funny because I feel like I've gotten into.
00:24:40 Rudy Winkler
I've kind of gone away from that in recent years where now I feel like I'm a real adult and I have other hobbies and interests and things that I would like to be doing and sometimes throwing hammer gets in the way of doing those.
00:24:52 Rudy Winkler
Things.
00:24:53 Rudy Winkler
But I mean, we can get into that separately, but.
00:24:56 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, that was a really, really long winded answer to basically say it's probably like 8th 9th grade. I was like this is really something that I enjoy doing and I think I'm just going to keep doing it.
00:25:08 Kristi Wagner
Yeah.
00:25:09 Kristi Wagner
I think it's really interesting and I'm not sure exactly what's true for hammer, but like in a sport like rowing, especially for women, you peak in your early 30s like physiologically, but to have a life where.
00:25:28 Kristi Wagner
Where you can be like still in the sport and still enjoying the sport and have like a full rounded life that's allowing you to still be doing a sport especially that's not a super professional sport like. I mean I'm not a professional athlete. You know we we're not paid to do a sport. So I think it's like.
00:25:48 Kristi Wagner
Really interesting, sort of how you create that balance and I feel like that you must have found at least like some of that balance in your life to be, you know, just qualified for your third Olympic team and you know still improving like so how do you think that?
00:26:05 Kristi Wagner
You've morphed your life into a sense that it can support you as you get older, but still support support. If that. I don't, I don't think I worded that question that well, but.
00:26:17 Kristi Wagner
I think I think you understand.
00:26:17 Rudy Winkler
No, I know, I know exactly what you mean though.
00:26:20 Rudy Winkler
Like I said.
00:26:21 Rudy Winkler
Before I, it was always just something I don't know. When you're when you're younger, especially high school, middle school age, you just do whatever is the most fun in that moment. You don't really think twice about like the future. At least I didn't. I never was a big planner.
00:26:34 Rudy Winkler
I always struggled with those questions where they'd be like in 10 years. Where do you see?
00:26:39 Rudy Winkler
Yourself.
00:26:40 Rudy Winkler
As an adult and I just was always like, I'm just trying to get through the rest of the week. So that was good for me in some ways. And then it also gave me a lot of challenges, I think.
00:26:55 Rudy Winkler
In ways it made me kind of take school more seriously. So like beginning of high school, I kind of realized like, oh, I could go to school and do this.
00:27:04 Rudy Winkler
I didn't really take middle school that seriously. My parents never were, like very pushy with, like, trying to get really good grades. So I was like a solid CB minus student through middle school and then got the high school and was like, oh, I could do this thing. I could throw hammer in college. But I also need to have decent grades in order to.
00:27:24 Rudy Winkler
Get into the colleges that I'd be interested in.
00:27:27 Rudy Winkler
So now I started taking school more seriously because of it, which is really interesting.
00:27:31 Rudy Winkler
But it's funny coming from a lens of like I want to do well in school because I want.
00:27:36 Rudy Winkler
To do this.
00:27:37 Rudy Winkler
Sport versus like I want to do well in school because I care about these things and I'm interested.
00:27:42 Rudy Winkler
On them.
00:27:43 Rudy Winkler
That thread kind of followed through like later in high school and into college, and that definitely was doing the things I was interested in. I was more of like a STEM student and engineering student through high school, so I wanted to do that in college, but I never really had, like, a career in mind. I never really had, like, any specific.
00:28:04 Rudy Winkler
Life goals outside of track and field that I considered when I was making those decisions, I just kind of was like, oh, this is interesting. I'm going to focus in it so that I can and it so it enables me to do this sport.
00:28:15
Yeah.
00:28:16 Rudy Winkler
I think part of that.
00:28:17 Rudy Winkler
Was.
00:28:17 Rudy Winkler
Like I wanted to do engineering. So I'm from upstate New York, and I went to Cornell for school, and they have, like, a state school program. So the tuition is a lot cheaper for certain schools because it's considered a SUNY school, considered a state school. So I did that. I went to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
00:28:38 Rudy Winkler
Program and information science and my plan was to switch to the engineering school once I had like a year or two and got some requirements out of the way. But I got there and I was like, this stuff is like kind of easy and interesting and maybe eventually I'd be able to get a job in like programming or something so that I can support my.
00:28:55 Rudy Winkler
My track and field habit making decisions like that at the time was pretty interesting because it wasn't something that I necessarily was super passionate about and it has put me in a position now where.
00:29:09 Rudy Winkler
I enjoy doing those things and I still work. I have a part time job. I work in cybersecurity, and I find this stuff interesting, but I wouldn't consider it a passion and I'm kind of going through a phase now where I'm looking back at the things I've done and looking forward at the future and having to ask myself like.
00:29:25 Rudy Winkler
Is this a career I want to be doing? Like when I'm done throwing, what do I see myself doing as a professional career and I still don't really know.
00:29:34 Rudy Winkler
Which is interesting that like being a hammer thrower, has become such a big part of my identity that I've kind of struggled to find those other aspects of my life. You know, I don't know if you face that, but yeah, it's also tough. You spend so much time doing this thing. And as you know, it's like it becomes such a big part of you and your life. The idea of not doing it.
00:29:53 Rudy Winkler
Is like scary in the sense of like.
00:29:57 Rudy Winkler
Am I gonna find something else that I feel this passionate about and make be able to make a career out of it and do it for the rest of my life because sport is unfortunately temporary, you can only do it for so long.
00:30:07 Rudy Winkler
And luckily, like rowing, like you said, you pee kind of in your early 30s. Throwing is very similar. I mean, the world record was thrown. I think he was 36. Most of the competitors I compete with overseas, they're all in their mid to late 30s other than a you know handful of them. So it's something you can do for a really long time. But I just don't know if I have the energy to.
00:30:27 Rudy Winkler
Do it that long.
00:30:30 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, it's funny. You set up your whole life to do these things, and then you kind of neglect the other things that you most other people were doing. But yeah, you find them slowly, I guess. But I'm curious to hear what your experience actually is with that now and how, like, how much longer you going to do it and if you have other ideas of what you're going to do after.
00:30:47 Kristi Wagner
Yeah. I mean, I think it's also like I heard somewhere from someone that you can't actually give 100% to more than one thing. So like in life like whatever that is that you're giving 100%.
00:31:03 Kristi Wagner
To whether it's school or sports or like later in life, your family or you know, whatever you're taking things from other areas of life and not giving 100% there and that like gave me a little bit of comfort I guess in the sense that hopefully like.
00:31:24 Kristi Wagner
When I do retire from growing and like I've worked part time, my entire athletic career or full time, yeah. But I agree it's like.
00:31:34 Kristi Wagner
Like I don't know. Like who I am without this and.
00:31:41 Kristi Wagner
It is scary because you're like, OK, but I also did. I just miss, like, a decade of my life when I could have been.
00:31:48 Kristi Wagner
Career developing, you know, towards whatever my passion or whatever would be like.
00:31:55 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:31:56 Kristi Wagner
But I think the other thing that's I don't know if it's helpful or hurtful is that I think that there's plenty of people who've been working that whole time and still feel that.
00:32:03 Kristi Wagner
Way so yeah.
00:32:05 Kristi Wagner
It is a challenge.
00:32:07 Rudy Winkler
No, I agree. I think I talk with all my friends who have, like, regular corporate jobs and they all have, like they all look what I'm doing. They're like, oh, it's so cool that you get to compete still and still are doing the sport that you, like, grew up doing and are finding success in it. And then meanwhile, I'm looking at them like, I'm very jealous of your normal lives and your normal.
00:32:29 Rudy Winkler
Jobs.
00:32:31 Rudy Winkler
It's like it's one of those like grass is always greener things and that's not the I'm making it sound like. I don't appreciate what I am doing. No, I love what I'm doing. I couldn't really picture myself doing anything else. Yeah, but yeah, it is funny. It's one of those things I think people don't really realize that at the end of the day, like, this is kind of.
00:32:38 Kristi Wagner
No, no, you're not.
00:32:48 Rudy Winkler
A job in a way where?
00:32:50 Rudy Winkler
At a certain point, when you do it as a, quote UN quote professional, when you're an Olympian.
00:32:51 Kristi Wagner
Yes.
00:32:55 Rudy Winkler
It very is like clock in clock out. You know, you get your workouts and you do what you're supposed to do.
00:33:01 Rudy Winkler
And like you know, you have fun doing it, but it it's not the same as when you were in high school or college when you first started and it was just like a chance for you to hang out with your friends and have a good time. Like, it's much more serious than that. And it feels much.
00:33:13 Rudy Winkler
More.
00:33:13 Kristi Wagner
Like a job than I think most people realize. No, I I totally agree with that. And it kind of segues pretty well into something else. I wanted to ask you about.
00:33:22 Kristi Wagner
Obviously like.
00:33:23 Kristi Wagner
The track and field team for the US is like a massive team like you were alluding to. There's so many different events that you can participate in. How much, if at all, like does it feel like a team and do you still feel that team aspect of the sport?
00:33:43 Kristi Wagner
Being like an individual athlete in such a big team sport.
00:33:47 Rudy Winkler
I would say no, not with the bigger teams like Olympics and Worlds. It is so individual and there's an aspect to it where it's.
00:33:56 Rudy Winkler
Like.
00:33:58 Rudy Winkler
A lot of these people who are on the team are my friends who I've competed with for so many years, so.
00:34:04 Rudy Winkler
I support them in that sense, but less so from a team perspective. I in college was really my first experience cause I mean, I started doing this really young. I I did baseball when I was really young, but I never really got the team.
00:34:19 Rudy Winkler
Aspect of sport through middle school and high school because I didn't participate in team sports when I got to college was when I first kind of experienced that.
00:34:30 Rudy Winkler
Team Dynamic, where you had to, you know your individual performance played into a much bigger picture.
00:34:38 Rudy Winkler
And I haven't had that with these like Team USA teams.
00:34:42 Rudy Winkler
There definitely is like more camaraderie in individual event groups like the throwers tend to stick together and support each other and cheer for each other. And you kind of, you know, spill over to other events here and there. But you do generally stick with those individual groups, which are much, much smaller. Like, there's 12 throwers on a.
00:35:02 Rudy Winkler
Olympic team versus however many there are for the whole team, 90, something like that. So super interesting question though I do kind of miss that from college. Definitely though.
00:35:12 Kristi Wagner
So like those, you'd probably room with like the other throwers and.
00:35:16 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Room with them. I mean, you end up training with them too. You spend most of your time with those people. You through your day-to-day. When you're at these types of meets and we see each other the most throughout the year, because we're always at the same event. So going into meets like this, you already are kind of friendly with not just like, Team USA athletes, but also all the athletes from.
00:35:36 Rudy Winkler
Other countries as well.
00:35:36 Kristi Wagner
Other countries, yeah.
00:35:38 Kristi Wagner
How does like the coaching work? Because if every athlete has their own coach, the they can't let everyone bring a coach, right or or can they?
00:35:49 Rudy Winkler
They do to an extent. I mean, wow, USA, a track and field has what's called the tier system. So if you're above a certain ranking or if you meet certain criteria for the previous season, you get certain amount of funding from the US OPC and you get put into some of their like high performance.
00:36:10 Rudy Winkler
Programs and part of that is they'll help fund your coach to go to either Olympics or World Championship.
00:36:16 Rudy Winkler
Tips. So yeah, everyone has their own individual coach. Some coaches will coach multiple athletes, but for the most part it's like a one to one, like every athlete has their individual coach and there is like a team coach. Like there's a team throws coach for every world or Olympic team, right? But they're more of like a logistical person to make sure you.
00:36:36 Rudy Winkler
Have schedules and get on the bus on time and and things like that. Yeah, it's super interesting. That is one of the things that I don't even really think about with other sports. It's like.
00:36:45 Rudy Winkler
Like I'm sure with the rowing team, you just have the the Team USA rowing coach, right.
00:36:52 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, it's. It is a little bit interesting. So we do have like boat coaches, but some share coaches. So there's probably like.
00:36:57
OK.
00:37:04 Kristi Wagner
6 to 8 coaches for like the whole team and there's like fifty of us, I think.
00:37:08
Hmm.
00:37:12 Rudy Winkler
Do you have your own individual coach when you're?
00:37:14 Kristi Wagner
Like so, we are like a non centralized system right now. So I row for a high performance team in Saratoga Springs. I have a coach there who's actually also one of the Olympic coaches, but he's not my boat coach.
00:37:32 Kristi Wagner
But then also like I wrote in a AA two person boat, this is our third year rowing together and we've been coached really by like the same people for a while. So it.
00:37:44 Kristi Wagner
It's not like all of a sudden you get like a brand new coach.
00:37:47 Rudy Winkler
M.
00:37:48 Kristi Wagner
Like growing is a kind of small sport, so it's not like there's tons of coaches even to like pick from because also just logistically like it's pretty hard for college coaches to like schedule wise come in and you know what I mean? So most of the coaches have been around for a while and even if they're not coaching you right now, maybe they've coached you in the past or.
00:37:53 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:38:01 Rudy Winkler
Totally.
00:38:09 Kristi Wagner
So.
00:38:09 Kristi Wagner
It's it's pretty familiar, I'd say.
00:38:13 Rudy Winkler
That's cool. Is there big differences? And I asked this because I think a big reason each athlete has their own coach and doesn't kind of fall under a coaching system, whether it be a coach at one coach coaching a bunch of people.
00:38:26 Rudy Winkler
There's like a lot of different schools of thought and like types of training and types of technique development in the throw.
00:38:33 Rudy Winkler
Those everyone kind of has, you know, their own needs as an athlete and you know, physical differences and mental differences. And you just like mesh very differently with different coaches. So that's kind of why everyone kind of has their own coach because it's either you met a high school coach who had a certain school of thought and that translated well to your college.
00:38:54 Rudy Winkler
Coach. And then you kind of stuck with your college coach after that. Or maybe like you moved on to his old coach, that kind of thing happens a lot. Is there big differences between coaches with rowing or is there, like generally like an accepted way to coach and everyone kind of fits within that?
00:39:11 Kristi Wagner
Yes, there is and it.
00:39:13 Kristi Wagner
More similar to what you're talking about, but I would say that in this quadrennial we so we have a new like head of the US Rowing national team for the squadron dial and he's.
00:39:28 Kristi Wagner
Much more like.
00:39:31 Kristi Wagner
I write the training program. All of the athletes participate in the training program. There are checkpoints. There are like we upload all of our workouts and such so that they know that we're doing the training program. They want us to be doing and like, that's the one of the criteria for like, like you were talking about those US OPC like.
00:39:51 Kristi Wagner
Tier A tier B tiers like that's one of the criteria for like us getting our funding and being invited to camps and all of those things.
00:39:57 Kristi Wagner
Things. So I think it's been actually hard for the coaches to like figure out how they can fall inside that system, but still do their own things sometimes.
00:40:10 Kristi Wagner
Like in college, 100% like coaches are pretty different. And it's funny because rowing seems so simple and like it should just always be the same. But there's definitely different schools of thought.
00:40:21 Rudy Winkler
Yeah. No, I mean you could say that about especially the Olympic sports, you look at any Olympic sports and you could think like ohh, how different it is between athlete to.
00:40:29 Rudy Winkler
But.
00:40:30 Rudy Winkler
Doesn't surprise me at all, even though it's like it looks like you guys are all doing the same thing. It's it's just like who you are as a person, and it is just gonna work better with certain styles of coaching over others, you know.
00:40:32 Kristi Wagner
Yeah.
00:40:43 Kristi Wagner
Yeah.
00:40:44 Kristi Wagner
How much of what you do do you consider like a mental game, and has that been something that you've worked on over the years?
00:40:55 Rudy Winkler
I mean, at this point in my career that's like 98%.
00:41:00 Rudy Winkler
Of what it is.
00:41:01 Rudy Winkler
I have the physical strength. I have a coach who?
00:41:06 Rudy Winkler
We're very in tune with, like the technical side of it. I guess part of the mental side of it is I kind of grouped together with technique. Technique is just like a.
00:41:16 Rudy Winkler
General term that we all all the throwers kind of use to describe like the specific movements we do, because like a regular person looking at what we do it you'll see it's like, oh, that's all the same type of movement. But then you realize how many little details and intricacies there are between people and just how they think and approach the sport. I think now at this point.
00:41:36 Rudy Winkler
In my career, I talked to other athletes who maybe have had a similarly long career.
00:41:43 Rudy Winkler
And their perception of what the throw feels or looks like is totally different than how I perceive it, right?
00:41:51 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, the mental part of it is big. I have a sports psych. This guy, doctor Nick molinaro.
00:41:57 Rudy Winkler
He.
00:41:58 Rudy Winkler
Used to do mostly golf coaching. I think he also does like race car mental coaching now too. Race, race, car driver, mental coaching now which is super interesting.
00:42:09 Rudy Winkler
But yeah, that's a that's a big part of it for me in my I call it my best season this season, I threw my personal best in the American record. I was working really, really hard on, like mental skills was doing. Lots of meditations, was doing lots of like visualizations and things that would kind of prep me for performances.
00:42:29 Rudy Winkler
And definitely paid off that year.
00:42:33 Rudy Winkler
I've always struggled at the like elite like Olympic World Championship level and I think this kind of goes back to the idea of like it's such a big.
00:42:42 Rudy Winkler
Part.
00:42:42 Rudy Winkler
Of my identity when I get to those big competitions, I want to do well to like prove to myself that all everything I'm doing is is worth it, you know?
00:42:52 Rudy Winkler
You want to be able to walk away with a medal and be like cool all those years I spent doing that sport feel like they were worth something when that's really not what the sports about like getting a medal has no impact on who you are as a person and like the journey that got you there is really what is the most important part, regardless of what the outcome is.
00:43:12 Rudy Winkler
And it's those things that like, I try to remind myself of.
00:43:15 Rudy Winkler
But it's hard, as you know. As an athlete, I'm sure you understand.
00:43:18 Rudy Winkler
How?
00:43:18 Rudy Winkler
That like gets very difficult to deal with as an athlete. So it's funny like those those types of emotional battles definitely affect my training and my mental well-being the most, and with a highly technical event, any sort of like stress or.
00:43:35 Rudy Winkler
Feeling of self doubt definitely gets in the way. So super, super mental, which is frustrating and very cool at the same time because you end up learning a lot about yourself in the process of doing this.
00:43:47 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, I can only imagine. I feel like also just the fact that you have like all of the turns.
00:43:56 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:43:57 Kristi Wagner
Do you watch what other people are doing, or are you just like trying to like zone it out? Like if someone else has a good throw, do you find that like motivational like, I just, I don't know. I'm so interested.
00:44:11 Rudy Winkler
It's tough. I mean, I try not to watch people throw just because, like, I'll notice things in their throw and like, subconsciously I start thinking about my own throw and it.
00:44:21 Rudy Winkler
Just doesn't. I usually just don't want.
00:44:23 Rudy Winkler
But yeah, I mean, if people have big results, that definitely has gotten to me in the past, even the trials this past weekend, it was the best trials like the top 12 had all thrown further than any other trials like it it it was.
00:44:37 Rudy Winkler
Just through and through wonderful meat.
00:44:41 Rudy Winkler
Whereas like years past like, I opened up with a throw like 7550 something.
00:44:46 Rudy Winkler
In years past, that would have been top three. I would have made. The team wouldn't have been that big of a deal. But after the first round of throws, I was already down to like 5th or 6th place. So I was like, OK well.
00:44:57 Rudy Winkler
I can't just have like an easy throw. I have to actually like go out and compete. And it was the first time I had to do that all season. So like, I definitely had a lot of nerves and a lot of adrenaline, which is one of those things that really affects the way you execute technique.
00:45:10 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, it's tough. I mean, everyone develops their own skills when they do these types of things. It's really just like finding your space and staying in your process as best you can. Despite all these like crazy stimulus around you.
00:45:24 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, I can, like only imagine. I don't know. I think the thing I like about rowing is that it's like one and done and like also our coaches can't interact with us when we're well, we have rounds, but like they can't interact with us when we're out on the water and we're racing. And so like, you just have the whole race to sort of like.
00:45:44 Kristi Wagner
If you didn't have a great start like you have time to fix it before you get to the finish line then like I don't know, I just like that for those like 2000 meters, I have like that whole time to just do my thing and it's it like you don't have time to think really in.
00:45:57 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:46:00 Kristi Wagner
There of course. Then you have plenty of time to overthink before the next race, of course, yeah.
00:46:06
Yeah.
00:46:08 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, you have nothing but time to think and the throwing events especially, but the field events.
00:46:12 Rudy Winkler
Are.
00:46:12 Rudy Winkler
Very with the track are are like that. It's like you have one attempt. That attempt takes less than a minute, right? I mean, the actual time.
00:46:20 Rudy Winkler
In the circle for me, where I'm like, actually actively throwing, it's like 6 seconds.
00:46:26 Rudy Winkler
But you're at the meat for an hour, right? So it's all that time in between. You're just sitting there and stewing and whatever.
00:46:32 Rudy Winkler
You know, mental space you're in at that moment. There's your approach to individual throws, but then there's your approach to the overall competition. And those are both equally important, especially at a high level. It's like how you throw is just as important as, like how you manage yourself during the meet. And if you go in, you don't have that confidence or you.
00:46:51 Rudy Winkler
Don't have like.
00:46:53 Rudy Winkler
You know you don't have those specific feelings that you typically look for in a good throw. They can get to your head and it can. It can lead you down a path where you're just getting very nervous and stress.
00:47:03 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, it's tough, but I think through that I've learned a lot of really cool skills, like mental skills, just about like high performance. And those skills that I feel like I've been able to apply to. Like I, I work a day job as well in high pressure situations. And like, you know, having to get a presentation or something.
00:47:23 Rudy Winkler
Prepared or you have to like present something to people. Do like public speaking.
00:47:23
MHM.
00:47:29 Rudy Winkler
The skills that I've learned having to deal with those challenges have definitely applied in a lot of other places of my.
00:47:34 Rudy Winkler
Life, which is really cool.
00:47:36 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:47:39 Kristi Wagner
How excited are you? Did you think you would make 3 Olympic teams like you obviously made your first team when you were in college? Like if you were to go back there, do you think?
00:47:50 Kristi Wagner
You could tell that person like.
00:47:53 Kristi Wagner
You're gonna make two more teams, you know? And I don't know if you're gonna keep going after this. Like, that's pretty incredible. Like, how do you feel about that? We haven't even gone to Paris yet.
00:48:04 Rudy Winkler
I know it is crazy, I mean.
00:48:07 Rudy Winkler
2016 was weird because I, like you said, I was in college.
00:48:11 Rudy Winkler
And at the beginning of that year, I didn't think I was going like there wasn't. It wasn't on my radar at all. I knew I was good enough to make it to the trials because I qualified for national championship the year prior.
00:48:24 Rudy Winkler
But it really wasn't on my radar that I'd be in the running to to go to the.
00:48:28 Rudy Winkler
Olympics.
00:48:29 Rudy Winkler
And then at our conference championship, I had a really big PR at the time. It was the best mark in.
00:48:35 Rudy Winkler
The.
00:48:36 Rudy Winkler
US and that was like the moment where I was like, holy crap, I really could go to the trials and not just compete, but, like, have a chance at getting.
00:48:44 Rudy Winkler
Getting top three and maybe make the Olympic team.
00:48:48 Rudy Winkler
And then a bunch of weird stuff happened. I kept training through the summer and, like, threw out a couple of meats that ended up not counting as like real meats, and I threw really far at them and they would have been Olympic qualifying marks.
00:49:03 Rudy Winkler
But because of that, a bunch of people thought that I was like cheating, or like throwing light hammers, or that's an unfortunate thing with our sport is like.
00:49:11 Rudy Winkler
There is, or used to be a lot of cheating like that, where people would go to like weird dodgy meets and throw light hammers, or they would just kind of make up marks so they could qualify for the Olympics.
00:49:24 Rudy Winkler
So it wasn't surprising that people thought that way. But going into the trials I had like something to prove. I was like, I have to prove that I'm not a cheater. So it was less about qualifying for the Olympics and more about, just like proving to myself and proving to other people that I could do it.
00:49:40 Rudy Winkler
And I did. I ended up winning the trials and made the team. And that all just kind of like happened and like, was the whole blur. And I wasn't prepared for the Olympics at all.
00:49:48 Rudy Winkler
And then 20/21 it was like my best season ever leading into the championships and the trials like going into it. I was at a level where I just knew I was going to qualify. It was just a matter of how far I was going to throw at the trials.
00:50:06 Rudy Winkler
But then was kind of burnt out after that. Trials was a like a really emotional experience for me. And then it just had I had a really hard time regrouping after that. And by the time I got to the Tokyo, I mean, I was, I was in good shape. But like, mentally, I was just, like, super burned out physically. I was pretty burnt.
00:50:24 Rudy Winkler
Out and I just didn't have the the meat that I was expecting to. So this time around, I'm definitely excited. It's been kind of a strange season where I've had some like weird nagging injury things, but I'm in good health now and I made the team on a day that, like, wasn't particularly my best.
00:50:41 Rudy Winkler
And going into Paris, I'm just excited, I think to.
00:50:46 Rudy Winkler
Have another chance to compete this year and have a chance to, like show myself how much progress I've made in the past year, but also.
00:50:54 Rudy Winkler
I feel like through doing all this and through all this mental work that we've already talked about, I've kind of gotten like a little bit more.
00:51:03 Rudy Winkler
I almost call it like spiritual in a way where like, I just feel a little bit more connected to like.
00:51:05
M.
00:51:10 Rudy Winkler
Myself in the world and I'm excited to just be there with like friends and enjoy that experience from that lens versus from like a lens in 2021 and 2016 where I was just like.
00:51:20 Rudy Winkler
Very stressed and being so focused that I kind of got lost in that process.
00:51:27 Rudy Winkler
I'm excited to go be with friends, be with family and to just like, take the experience in for what it is and just like have a chance at competing rather than trying to go for some specific goal there.
00:51:40 Rudy Winkler
It's super exciting. It's and to say I'm a three time Olympian is crazy. I mean, very few people get to say that and makes me really proud to be able to, like, represent those.
00:51:51 Rudy Winkler
Friends and family and communities that have helped me get here in that way. I'm sure you're excited as well to to get out there and compete.
00:51:57
Yeah.
00:51:58 Kristi Wagner
Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it's super neat and I think it's.
00:52:02 Kristi Wagner
Like.
00:52:04 Kristi Wagner
It's so interesting, right? Like what you were saying about, you know, you were. You compete at trials and then all of a sudden you just, like, go to the Olympics. And I think it's it's important to reflect on the accomplishment that that is like making a team, even if it's not your first team. Like, it's still a really big accomplishment. So I I think that's awesome.
00:52:11 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:52:24 Kristi Wagner
That you're giving yourself the the deserved pat on the back because I feel like I see a lot of people, especially that are like pretty accomplished in sport that are just like ohh yeah going to my third Olympics going to my 4th Olympic like it's casual and you're like that is not a casual thing.
00:52:42 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, when you make your third team, though, it is funny because it's like, you know what to expect. You've been there before. You're like, kind of a veteran when it comes to those events, it becomes less special in a weird way, but also more special in a different way. So I I find it funny. I find this with a lot of track athletes.
00:53:02 Rudy Winkler
Where?
00:53:03 Rudy Winkler
It's like the forever moving goal post to where it's you just had accomplished something and it's like, OK, what's the next thing like? What's the next goal? And at a certain point in your career, you're not going to like, it's impossible to keep hitting those goals, right? You can't just keep getting better forever. There's a certain point where you'll kind of plateau. You'll hit your peak and you're not going to hit some goal that you set forward.
00:53:26 Rudy Winkler
And because of that, most athletes that I've met, not just in track but like Olympic athletes I've met.
00:53:33 Rudy Winkler
Have almost a feeling of like.
00:53:37 Rudy Winkler
Regret or resentment towards their last few years in the sport, feeling like they had more to give and they just couldn't do it for whatever reason.
00:53:45 Rudy Winkler
And noticing that I just like, don't want to leave the sport like that. So I want to make sure I'm going into it and I don't know how many years I have left, but I'm definitely closer to the end.
00:53:54 Rudy Winkler
Of my career.
00:53:54 Rudy Winkler
Than I am to start of my career and I just want to make sure that.
00:53:59 Rudy Winkler
Through these last few years that I'm going into it with a perspective that's like enjoy this for what it is and you know, appreciate the people around you and support the people around you and just try to be in the moment as much as possible and take it in for what it is and have a good time rather than viewing it as something that's just a means to an end.
00:54:20 Rudy Winkler
And have it be something that I regret not appreciating when I'm older, you know?
00:54:25 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, definitely. I think that is excellent advice.
00:54:29 Kristi Wagner
I think this is my last question, but do you have any like superstitions or things that you do like when you're competing that are always the same?
00:54:39 Rudy Winkler
I really don't. It's a really lame answer. I know people who wear like the same socks or like the same headband every single time they compete.
00:54:50 Rudy Winkler
I think one of the things I've worked on with my sports psych is getting away from those like superstition things.
00:54:55 Rudy Winkler
Cause.
00:54:56 Kristi Wagner
Yeah.
00:54:57 Rudy Winkler
I used to. It was less superstitions but more like I have to feel or like feel a certain way or do a certain thing before the me in order to know that I'm ready when you kind of need to just be ready whenever.
00:55:02
Hmm.
00:55:09 Rudy Winkler
That being said, like I'm a very like anxious person.
00:55:14 Rudy Winkler
And part of my routine is just like knowing that I'm going to be super nervous and anxious, and I've tried to turn that into like a a trigger to know I'm ready versus being like something that I just worked like turns into, like, a negative worry. You know what I mean?
00:55:29 Kristi Wagner
MHM.
00:55:30 Rudy Winkler
But yeah, no, I really don't have any like.
00:55:33 Rudy Winkler
You know, I have to have a soda, a certain number of hours before or wear certain socks or things.
00:55:38 Rudy Winkler
Like that, do you?
00:55:40 Kristi Wagner
I am a little bit of a superstitious person like I have a lucky sports bra, but I also understand and have gotten the same sports like advice from my sports psych about yeah and I and I do think it's true. Like you, you have to perform no matter what, no matter how you're feeling, no matter what. You know, whatever recovery tests.
00:56:00 Kristi Wagner
Say, like you gotta be good in any condition. I guess I also just meant.
00:56:04 Kristi Wagner
Like.
00:56:05 Kristi Wagner
I mean, obviously you probably throw the same way, but I was wondering if like it's like tennis, where like people have ticks or whatever that they'll do like as part of their throwing routine.
00:56:18 Rudy Winkler
That is a little different and I do have. I definitely have nervous ticks. I I wear, there's a couple. Well, one, when I yell and if you end up watching me throw at the Olympics, you'll know when I have a good throw or not based on how my. I usually say like I yell like an ah. And then I say come on.
00:56:37 Rudy Winkler
1.
00:56:38 Rudy Winkler
But depending on the tone of the command will be dependent on how good the throw was. So if it's like oh, come on, then you know it's a bad throw, or if it's like a come on, you know it.
00:56:48 Rudy Winkler
Was a.
00:56:48 Rudy Winkler
A good throw. I don't even really realize I do it until I watch.
00:56:49 Kristi Wagner
Ohh.
00:56:51 Rudy Winkler
The.
00:56:51 Rudy Winkler
Videos after the other thing is I wear you have to wear glove when you throw the hammer protects your hand.
00:56:59 Rudy Winkler
And I wear this like sticky, like almost like pine tar on my other. I put on my other hand so that like adheres to the glove a little bit.
00:57:07 Rudy Winkler
And when I'm off to the side, like waiting for my throw, I'm just like, constantly putting that stuff in my hand and then just rubbing it off and then realizing that I need it for the throw. So then I put more of it on my hand and then I rub it off and then I put more. It's just like a constant cycle where I'm just sitting there and just doing it over and over and over again.
00:57:25 Rudy Winkler
It's like very clearly like a nervous tick that I don't realize I'm doing in the moment. Sometimes I'll catch myself and be like, stop. Just don't. You don't need to put it on right now. Just wait. But I think I like to do it.
00:57:35 Rudy Winkler
It like calms me down, like doing it.
00:57:36 Rudy Winkler
And over and over again.
00:57:38 Kristi Wagner
I understand. Yeah, I understand.
00:57:40 Rudy Winkler
You also you see like crazy pictures of like me during the throw of like my face. I try to keep my face really relaxed. But you'll see crazy pictures of like my cheeks getting looks like they're getting blown in the.
00:57:53 Rudy Winkler
Wind.
00:57:54 Rudy Winkler
And I'm sure you have your fair share of crazy sports pictures, but throwing pictures are particularly funny just because of the amount of force you.
00:58:00 Rudy Winkler
Generate in the in the throw.
00:58:02 Kristi Wagner
That's funny. No, that is exactly what I meant. Thank you. Thank you for indulging my kind of weird question.
00:58:07
Yeah.
00:58:08 Rudy Winkler
Of course.
00:58:09 Kristi Wagner
I always ask at the end if people have questions for me. You did ask me some questions already, so I don't know if you have any other ones. No worries. If not.
00:58:14 Rudy Winkler
I did.
00:58:19 Rudy Winkler
No, just like how you feeling, you feeling good for?
00:58:22 Rudy Winkler
For Paris.
00:58:25 Kristi Wagner
Yeah. I mean, yeah, I feel good, I feel like.
00:58:31 Kristi Wagner
You know, it's so funny like I think.
00:58:35 Kristi Wagner
The ideal scenario is that the Olympics is just like any other race.
00:58:40 Kristi Wagner
Or like any other day, you know, we train really hard all the time and I think it's like doing all of the right things so that you can be in that headspace when you get there of like, I'm ready and I'm chill and I'm all these things. So it's definitely weird, like, right now there's, you know, more hype and more excitement.
00:58:42
Of course.
00:59:00 Kristi Wagner
And the Olympic stuff? Yeah. It's funny. People keep being like, are you excited for all of the stuff, you know, the other Olympic stuff? I'm like, I'm actually just really excited to race. Like, I'm actually just really excited.
00:59:12 Kristi Wagner
For the actual competition and then I'm sure all the other stuff is going to be like, so fun and, you know, obviously in Tokyo we didn't get to do.
00:59:22 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:59:22 Kristi Wagner
Anything.
00:59:24 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
00:59:26 Rudy Winkler
That's good. I mean, that's how it should be so.
00:59:28 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, I don't know. How do you feel?
00:59:30 Rudy Winkler
I feel good. I feel similar. Like I said before, like I've had kind of a weird season. I really haven't had many times made chances to compete, so I am excited to just, like compete again and have another chance to throw far, but also.
00:59:44 Rudy Winkler
Part of that comes with some nervousness, where I'm like, how prepared am I going to be? But I can't really control that aspect of it. It's really just about, like you said, trying to make it feel.
00:59:54 Rudy Winkler
Just as normal of a day as possible, which can be really difficult. So if you are able to achieve that kind of thing, that's I think kind of special.
01:00:02 Rudy Winkler
But kind of like what we were talking about, trying to still appreciate the Olympics and being there and having it both be more than just another event, but also, you know, when you're competing having it, but just be another event, it's is ideal but very difficult.
01:00:18 Rudy Winkler
Though. But you're, I mean, you're going to do great. We're.
01:00:20 Rudy Winkler
Both going to do great regardless. So.
01:00:22 Kristi Wagner
Yeah, we're all gonna do so great.
01:00:24 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
01:00:27 Kristi Wagner
When do you compete?
01:00:28 Rudy Winkler
I compete pretty early the 2nd and the well early for track. The 2nd and the 4th is the final. So if I qualify for the finals on the second I can beat the 4th as well.
01:00:39 Rudy Winkler
But we only have two rounds. What's your first?
01:00:41 Kristi Wagner
Round. So rowing is all the first week, so we'll be done. I think August 1st is like the day my final would be. But yeah, we can hypothetically go and like watch everything the second week, which is pretty cool.
01:00:44 Rudy Winkler
OK.
01:00:55 Rudy Winkler
Nice. Are you going to stay till closing?
01:00:58 Kristi Wagner
Yep, Yep, very excited. So it'll be fun.
01:00:59 Rudy Winkler
Nice.
01:01:02 Kristi Wagner
I know. I'm like, what am I gonna do that whole week? Like I never have a week of nothing to do, but I'm sure it'll be the time will be filled.
01:01:11 Rudy Winkler
You'll be. Yeah, you'll be.
01:01:12 Rudy Winkler
Busy. Are you gonna do opening too, or is it too early for your? Or is it too close to the start of your comp?
01:01:18 Kristi Wagner
No, no. We compete like the next day, so we.
01:01:22 Rudy Winkler
Yeah.
01:01:23 Kristi Wagner
Do you guys go to the opening ceremonies?
01:01:25 Rudy Winkler
We can, but I did it in 2016, which was a lot of fun. But you.
01:01:30 Rudy Winkler
Stand for hours.
01:01:31 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, it's not a good thing to prepare.
01:01:32 Rudy Winkler
You to compete.
01:01:34 Rudy Winkler
So there's a week between, but you know, missing 2 days of training after that isn't really worth it, so not going to do it this time around, but I don't know if I'm going to stay all the way through to the closing, but if I'm not doing the opening, maybe I'll do the closing.
01:01:48 Rudy Winkler
Haven't finalized that yet, but we'll see.
01:01:51 Kristi Wagner
Well, thank you so much. I super appreciate you taking the time and this was super fun and I hope I get to come see you compete. That would be awesome.
01:02:00 Rudy Winkler
Yeah, same. I hope I see you out there. Best of luck with your training and everything leading into it. Thanks for having me on.
01:02:10 Kristi Wagner
Thanks for listening and thanks so much to Rudy for coming on and taking the time to chat with me so close to the Olympics. I really appreciate it and all of his honesty and vulnerability in our conversation. I can't wait to cheer Rudy on in Paris. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to some of his competition.
01:02:27 Kristi Wagner
So to leave you this week, I'm sharing a quote from this book I've been reading, which is called the Master, the long run and beautiful game of Roger Federer written by Christopher Clary, and he writes, are you at peace with yourself? Is your overall life plan more or less in a place which gives you the fundamental joy to be here in this moment? I just really like that for pre racing.
01:02:47 Kristi Wagner
Apps.
01:02:48 Kristi Wagner
So thanks for listening. Have a great week. See you next time. Bye.
01:02:59 Kristi Wagner
I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our ASK. Christy, anything segment head to our website, theotherthreeyears.com. Thank you for listening to this episode of the other three years podcast. Part of the bright sided network.