Winning at the World Cup 2! | Episode 59

00:00:04 Kristi 

The commentator Sarah Cooke, who I don't know, said that I was smiling. I would just like her and everybody to know that I was not smiling, I was grimacing and my, like, pain face kind of looks like a smile. It's because somebody a really long time ago told me that if you smile, it hurts less. So I like started trying that. 

00:00:24 Kristi 

And then it just kind of became what happened. So when I'm like in a world of hurt. 

00:00:28 Kristi 

Like grip my teeth and it's like, so it's not a smile. Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream. They want to turn into a reality. 

00:00:42 Kristi 

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years podcast. My name is Christy Wagner and this is my podcast. This week you get to listen to me give a recap of the Second World Cup that just wrapped up in Lucerne. 

00:01:00 Kristi 

Starland, where Sophia and I actually won the women's double, which is super exciting. It was really fun, really awesome to win that seems. 

00:01:12 Kristi 

Wild but exciting. The whole U.S. team had such a great performance so many boats medaled, a lot of boats medaled. The men's Four also won. A few boats were second and some boats were third as well. So honestly like a really good regatta for the team and I know. 

00:01:32 Kristi 

Some of the boats and some of my teammates didn't have the races that they wanted to have, which rowing is such an interesting sport and like being on a team is so interesting because it is just this interesting roller coaster of sometimes you're doing well, but other people aren't and like balancing that and sometimes other people are doing really well and you're not doing as well. 

00:01:54 Kristi 

Is just a really interesting kind of experience and finishing at the top is just as likely as not, you know, so I think. 

00:02:04 Kristi 

That it's always a good reminder and good perspective to have people experiencing like a broad range of emotions from their final performance. And really this, you know, was a good check in and a good trip, but it's really not the end goal. We are all much more focused on the Olympics and. 

00:02:25 Kristi 

On performing there, so this was definitely a good check in and a good. 

00:02:29 Kristi 

Good to see. You know what we're doing wrong as well as what we're doing, right? I think everyone will just kind of do like after actions reports when we all kind of get back together then you know heads down as we start our last push towards the Olympics. So this week is kind of a like reset week. 

00:02:49 Kristi 

And then next week, we'll start a build in Princeton and really most of the US team will be there then in the beginning of July, we'll fly to Italy for two weeks. 

00:02:59 Kristi 

And then have about a week in Paris before racing starts. It's so insane that we're in the final build, but it's also really exciting and there's no time like the present. We really gotta get all the all of our workouts in and, you know, do everything that we want to be doing as well as we can possibly be doing it. 

00:03:20 Kristi 

So yeah, I just thought that I would use this episode as a little check in and to answer some questions that people had about the World Cup race. 

00:03:28 Kristi 

Oh, also. Oh my gosh. And I forgot to mention that before the World Cup was the final Olympic qualification regatta and. 

00:03:38 Kristi 

I think 4 US boats qualified for the Olympics, so four more boats qualified the Men's 8, the women's quad, the men's double and the men's single. So super super exciting. Two of the boats unfortunately did not qualify, which is, you know, really tough. And I think everyone's been in situations like that. 

00:03:59 Kristi 

You know where you come short of a goal and don't do what you wanted to do, and that's just. 

00:04:04 Kristi 

Really, really tough, but I hope that all of those guys feel like, you know, still proud of themselves and and still proud that they tried because I think it can be, like, really scary to give all of yourself to something and come up short. But I think that's what it takes to accomplish goals like this. 

00:04:24 Kristi 

And. 

00:04:26 Kristi 

Yeah. I mean, I feel really bad for them just because it's it really stinks to be like going through that and it's just not a fun feeling. But they're all like great people. And you know, I just, I hope that they, you know, keep their heads high and and come back. But everyone else like so many votes qualified, which is really, really exciting. And a lot of really great racing. 

00:04:47 Kristi 

And I'm just like, really happy for everyone. 

00:04:50 Kristi 

Really happy for the team. So now we have a much bigger contingent that's going to go to Paris, a lot of excitement the past couple of weeks. But yeah, I thought that it would just be fun to answer some questions that people had about World Cup too. You can definitely go watch all of the racing on worldrowing.com. They do a great job. 

00:05:11 Kristi 

Having, like all of the races available to watch afterwards, so if you want to watch our race or you want to watch any of the races, I would definitely go check that out. 

00:05:21 Kristi 

My first question that I got was about switching our seats in the boat. So yes, Sophia and I had been rowing for the past two seasons with her in the stroke seat and me and the bow seat for this World Cup we raced with me in the stroke seat and Sophia in the bow seat really was not a dramatic thing. Couple months ago, we just kind of switched. 

00:05:42 Kristi 

Ground, which I think it's pretty normal in, double s to switch around the lineup for even just practice. So we've done that before, but we switched it around. And yes, he kind of liked what he was seeing. So we've just kind of kept it, but it's definitely made us both grow. I think I have new responsibilities and she has new responsibilities. So I think it's been like a good learning experience. 

00:06:03 Kristi 

For everyone to kind of grow into their new roles, but I don't know what we'll do in the future. Like, I think we're a fast combination and we're good combination. I don't know if it really matters what seat we're sitting in. 

00:06:16 Kristi 

I think we'll just try to do what makes the most sense at that, you know, point when we decide what we'll do for the Olympics. Ohh. My second question is I've got I got this a lot. The commentator Sarah Cook, who I don't know, said that I was smiling in the 3rd 500 or the 4th 500 or something. I would just like her. 

00:06:36 Kristi 

And everybody to know that I was not smiling, I was grimacing and my, like, pain face kind of looks like a smile. It's because somebody a really long time ago told me that if you smile, it hurts less. So I like started trying that and then it just kind of became what happened. So when I'm like, in a world of hurt, I like. 

00:06:54 Kristi 

Grip my teeth and it's like so it's not a smile I was. 

00:06:58 Kristi 

In. 

00:06:59 Kristi 

A significant amount of pain and was just trying as hard as I possibly could to make the boat go faster. The way that she said it was like we weren't trying and we were just like lackadaisically rowing, which is absolutely hilarious. 

00:07:14 Kristi 

I mean, I don't know how you could be in that point over race doing that, but I guess maybe that's a good thing. I'm not really sure. Thank you to everyone for thinking that. I was smiling. I was not. I was grandma saying. 

00:07:27 Kristi 

My next question is about managing attitudes and expectations. This is a good question. I think. First of all, everyone is really different. I think that everyone handles. 

00:07:40 Kristi 

Race, nerves and race week in a really different way, and I think that to be a good teammate. You really have to like, let people handle things whatever way they're going to handle them and not try to. 

00:07:52 Kristi 

You know. 

00:07:54 Kristi 

Be crazy about anything or really get frustrated or upset about the way that somebody else is handling something. I definitely get pretty nervous, especially for the first round of racing, especially like at a, you know, this was our first international race of the year like. 

00:08:11 Kristi 

It's been a whole year since we've raised these people just a lot of unknowns and there's been a lot of movement around in the women's double. So I was just like pretty nervous as the regatta goes on, I kind of get less nervous. It's a little bit weird. 

00:08:26 Kristi 

As far as expectations, I probably have the highest expectations of myself rather than what other people have, but I think more important than like expectations or being, you know, nervous or scared, you're going to let yourself or someone down like you just really have to focus on what's happening currently and. 

00:08:46 Kristi 

I think also you have to give credit and like kudos to your competitors. 

00:08:52 Kristi 

And if they go really fast but like you still had a really good race and you went really fast and they just went faster, like, that's gotta be OK, you know, because I don't think you wanna, like hope that the other people in the race mess up. You wanna hope that your best is better than their best. But you know, sometimes it's not like no one's going to win every race of their career. 

00:09:13 Kristi 

Never. That's never happened. That's not a reality. I think just being able to, like, handle the highs and lows and not let them get too high or too low, but just kind of trying to stay steady and control what you can control. If the expectations are high, like let that be a good thing, don't let that be scary. 

00:09:32 Kristi 

Oh my next question is a great question. It was very direct. Who is your favorite port side sweep rower over the age of 40? Magnus. Nikki is, I think the only person that falls into that credit category, but this I would say you were my favorite anyways and I hope that you listen to the podcast so that you hear this answer. The next question is about. 

00:09:52 Kristi 

Racing from behind, so it's kind of an interesting question and a lot of people have asked me about this over the years because we have not traditionally had the best first 500. 

00:10:01 Kristi 

I would I'd say that like more important than racing from behind is just racing internally and staying focused on your race plan and what you're doing rather than getting hyper focused on what everyone around you is doing. Yeah, it's like a little bit tough to race from behind, but I've also had like enough experience knowing that I can. 

00:10:21 Kristi 

Put myself in a position to go harder during the second one, OK? And I know Sophia definitely can do that. So, like, as a double, I feel really confident in our ability to, you know, just keep going kind of, no matter what's happened. And I think that just comes from staying internal and staying confident in your training and your prepare. 

00:10:38 Kristi 

Question. 

00:10:39 Kristi 

The next question is how did this World Cup compare to World Cup two last year? Well, this was a very different experience last year at World Cup two. Well, first of all, a lot later in the season and I raced. We raced in two events, the Women's Quad and the women's double, which was definitely a lot more than racing in one event. It was also a lot hotter. 

00:10:59 Kristi 

Last year we were racing later in the season and in Italy, but I'd say both years were good experiences, you know, good to like. Get some international experience in early in the season and then be able to go and work more at your at base and come back even better for the next one. 

00:11:17 Kristi 

The next question is you've mentioned people root for you on the way up. What happens now? This is an interesting question to me because I feel like I don't really understand like winning a World Cup was never my end all be all. So I I think the same thing happens now. I I hope that people continue to root for me. Well, if they want to. 

00:11:37 Kristi 

It's not required unless you're my parents. Maybe then it's required. Yeah, I mean, I don't think anything different happens now. Like Yoshi always says you know, you either be happy or sad for 24 hours and so. 

00:11:49 Kristi 

Those 24 hours have already passed. Now you know it's just back to training and we still want to improve on things like we did not have a perfect regatta. Still want to keep working and striving to get faster and fitter and better because you know, that's what. That's what you have to do. You just always have to keep improving because if you don't, other people will. So I don't think anything really different. 

00:12:10 Kristi 

Happens now, except now I can say that I want a World Cup. So that's exciting. 

00:12:15 Kristi 

Does the win at World Cup 2 give you any insight into how you might perform at the Olympics? I would say that we have had high expectations of ourselves, like from the beginning. I think that the win at World Cup 2 is is just a good, you know, reminder that we're doing the right things, but like I kind of just said. 

00:12:35 Kristi 

There's still things that we want to improve upon and still things that we want to keep working at, so. 

00:12:41 Kristi 

I don't think it's like, oh, yeah, this definitely guarantees anything that is 100% not true. It's just really good check in that we're on the right tracks and doing the right things and focusing on the right stuff. I also think that there's stuff that we want to do a little bit differently and a few changes. We want to make. So I think it lets us know that we can keep having. 

00:13:01 Kristi 

High goals of ourselves, but I'm. I don't even think if the result have been different we would have felt differently. There's also still like a lot of fire in my belly like it didn't really make me content or anything like that. I still have, you know, really high goals and really high aspirations and it just just want to keep working. 

00:13:17 Kristi 

What race did you feel you executed? The best? Is it helpful to have a heat and a semi before the final? I would say it's really helpful to have a heat in a semi before the final because you can practice different things especially in like a World Cup because you we don't really have that many races and just practicing racing. 

00:13:38 Kristi 

That's really, really helpful. 

00:13:39 Kristi 

Cool. 

00:13:40 Kristi 

So we definitely learned things in the heat and the semi that we then tweaked a little bit and got a little bit more right for the final. So I'd say the final was probably our most complete race learning from the heat and the semi on how to do that. 

00:13:56 Kristi 

Were you surprised by watching the race? I actually was pretty surprised. So they showed us the last 500 right after we had finished. When we were sitting waiting to get our metals and like World rowing filmed us watching it, I thought that we were pulling into the lead like a lot earlier than we actually did. So I thought that was kind of funny, but I guess it all worked out. 

00:14:16 Kristi 

So that's good. 

00:14:18 Kristi 

The next question is do you get pre race nerves? I kind of already talked about this, but I definitely do. I get nervous before racing, especially like earlier in the regatta. I think. Also just because there's so much like hype built around it and tapering, you're spending a lot of time just sort of waiting to get ready so. 

00:14:39 Kristi 

I definitely get nervous, but I think nerves just mean that you care. That's what I always remind myself. And if I get, like, really anxious and nervous, I just try to, you know, clear my mind and think about something else and just. 

00:14:54 Kristi 

Control what I can control and focus on whatever I'm doing. So if it's like the day before, maybe I can go for a walk or read my book or whatever. If it's the morning of when I'm warming up. Like I just say, OK, well, I'm just going to stretch right now, and then I'm just going to do my dynamic warm up and then I'm just going to do my erg warm up and like. 

00:15:14 Kristi 

Breaking it down, chunking it up like that like really helps. 

00:15:17 Kristi 

Yeah, World Cups are all so nice because the heats are like 5 minutes apart in the semis too, so there's less time to sit at the start line like sitting at the start line, especially for the finals. Or like earlier races at the world champs like, oh, you're just sitting there for so long and super nerve wracking. That's why the World Cup is nice because it happens a lot. 

00:15:37 Kristi 

Faster. 

00:15:39 Kristi 

The next question is, did you know how far the Chinese were up on you guys and was walking through other boats helpful during the race? So yes, in the race, the Chinese crew, which was in the lane next to us, jumped out to like a really big lead in the 1st 500. I did know they were pretty far up because I could feel their wash that we were rowing. 

00:16:01 Kristi 

And but I also just like was pretty confident we were going to be able to catch them. 

00:16:06 Kristi 

Those were all of my questions, but again, it was just really awesome to see the whole team racing and I'm really just proud of all of my teammates. I'm so proud of Sophia. Very exciting for her as well. To win a World Cup. So really happy for her. Really happy for all of my teammates that qualified through the final Olympic qualification. 

00:16:28 Kristi 

Gotta think we'll have some of them on the podcast in the near future. Just sort of enjoying this. 

00:16:33 Kristi 

Week and seeing some family and friends and stuff and then pretty excited to get right back to it next week. Hard training, we're going to get right back into a hole which honestly I'm kind of looking forward to in a weird way mostly because it's like the last build like this is the last time we're going to have to do some of these workouts and that just feels. 

00:16:56 Kristi 

Crazy, but exciting. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out and supports us and congratulated us. And it's just really awesome and exciting and. 

00:17:08 Kristi 

I definitely feel the community behind us and it has taken the help of a lot of people to get here and to continue because we are not done. There's a lot left to do and some goals we still have to accomplish. So thank you guys all so much. I'll see you next week. 

00:17:27 Kristi 

Bye. 

00:17:32 Kristi 

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.