Speaker 1: I was like, I am old. Am I insane? You know?
Speaker 1: Am I gonna totally ruin myself? But my ration is this.
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, by the way, you are insane. That
Speaker 2: is insane, But all the rest of it, no, go ahead.
Speaker 1: My ration was, you know, I'm getting a knee replacement, right,
Speaker 1: so if I crash, oh jee and I blow my
Speaker 1: stuff out, who cares? You know, I'm just gonna get
Speaker 1: a new great.
Speaker 2: That it's Lindsay. That is not That is not healthy.
Speaker 2: That is not Oh I'm getting a new leg next
Speaker 2: week anyway, So oh my god, that's.
Speaker 1: How my brain works.
Speaker 3: So Hi, I'm Lindsay Vaughn, Olympic champion, philanthropists and entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everybody. Yeah that right. It is time for
Speaker 2: another episode of Off the Beat. This is your host,
Speaker 2: Brian Baumgartner. And guys, guys, we've peaked, truly, we have
Speaker 2: reached the top of the mountain. It is all downhill
Speaker 2: from here. Get it because my guest today is one
Speaker 2: of the greatest skiers of all time, my friend and yours,
Speaker 2: Lindsey Vaughn. She won a gold medal, she won two
Speaker 2: world championships, and unbelievable eighty two World Cup races. She's
Speaker 2: been on the slopes since before she could even walk,
Speaker 2: so it only makes sense that she wanted to basically
Speaker 2: dominate the entire sport by her mid twenties. Even since
Speaker 2: she retired in twenty nineteen because she said her body
Speaker 2: was broken, she is still breaking new records, like becoming
Speaker 2: the first woman to ski the Strife earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Lindsay is a trailblazer. I was so excited, blown away
Speaker 2: in fact, to get to talk to her. I know
Speaker 2: that you're going to be blown away too when you
Speaker 2: hear about her amazing life and career and by the way,
Speaker 2: all the awesome things that she's been doing lately. So
Speaker 2: strap in everybody here. She is Lindsay Vaughn.
Speaker 4: Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeakna Bubble
Speaker 4: and Squeaker. Cook get every moon lift over from the
Speaker 4: night before.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 1: What's up?
Speaker 2: Ryan, Lindsay? How are you?
Speaker 1: How good? Hurt you?
Speaker 2: I'm good? You know we've met before?
Speaker 1: Do you remember us meeting before we're at the Emmy?
Speaker 2: Oh god, well, we've probably met multiple times. That's always embarrassing.
Speaker 2: Don't remember I met you? It was at an event,
Speaker 2: a golf event in Monterey.
Speaker 1: Oh that's when I got my hole in one. That
Speaker 1: was a long time.
Speaker 2: Oh that's right. Ye, yeah, got that fact.
Speaker 1: I know. I retired after that. That was. It was
Speaker 1: one and done.
Speaker 2: You know, thanks so much for remembering me. I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess you had the whole on one. I guess
Speaker 2: you had the hole in one. That was.
Speaker 1: That was an open bar after that, so I don't know.
Speaker 2: Man, Well, yeah there was. How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm great? How are you?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm good. I'm I'm surviving the summer. I
Speaker 2: understand you've been busy doing some programming. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about that. But it's so nice to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Your career is well one amaze and too incomprehensible for me.
Speaker 2: I was a casual skier for a long time, and
Speaker 2: then I stopped. I felt like it was it was
Speaker 2: best for me to stop. I was shooting this television
Speaker 2: show for for a number of years. Now. I have
Speaker 2: a daughter who is eight and kind of obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I it's I think it's a good kids sport.
Speaker 1: I don't you know. I think it's probably good that
Speaker 1: you didn't continue. While you were doing that, you know,
Speaker 1: that show that may have been wildly popular, but it's
Speaker 1: so it's such a great family sport. So I condone
Speaker 1: that I really do.
Speaker 2: I know. Well, now I'm just trying to I'm trying
Speaker 2: to decide if I if I just leave it to
Speaker 2: really fun, helpful ski instructors, or if I actually if
Speaker 2: I actually get back involved. You know what, maybe I'll
Speaker 2: send her to you and then you can teach her
Speaker 2: to ski and.
Speaker 1: All right, well we'll try that. Maybe we'll do a
Speaker 1: two for one both of you, you and your daughter.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, yeah, I don't. I don't. Again, I need
Speaker 2: to think about that a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Wells to be negotiated.
Speaker 2: TVD, TVD. As they say in the biz, you've been
Speaker 2: skiing since basically when you could walk more is age
Speaker 2: two or like born on skis or whatever. Do you
Speaker 2: have a first memory or do you just is that
Speaker 2: as it goes as far as you back, as far
Speaker 2: as you remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I actually was in my dad was
Speaker 1: coaching while going to law school at night, and he
Speaker 1: actually had me in a backpack while he was coaching.
Speaker 5: So even before I was on skis, I was on
Speaker 5: a person that was right, But I remember, you know,
Speaker 5: I grew up in Minnesota, and man, it was so
Speaker 5: freaking cold there.
Speaker 1: So I remember vivid memories of being really cold, my
Speaker 1: dad bribing me with hot chocolate and donuts, and I
Speaker 1: remember him like worming up my hands with you know,
Speaker 1: blowing on my hand because they were so cold. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I too, two and a half. That's when I kind
Speaker 1: of when I started.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I spent a chunk of time in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: I was doing theater. I was from the south. The
Speaker 2: cold was something that I couldn't It was very difficult
Speaker 2: for me, which I mean, that's like the opposite of you.
Speaker 2: In fact, I telled a story that I had moved
Speaker 2: into town and was doing a show in downtown Minneapolis
Speaker 2: theater and I get done, maybe have a beer after
Speaker 2: the show. I don't really remember. But by the time
Speaker 2: I got to my car, this was early days of
Speaker 2: like the automatic like to you know, like opening your car.
Speaker 2: So I hit that and it doesn't unlock, and so
Speaker 2: then I sticked you could still put the key in,
Speaker 2: and I turned the lock and I get in the
Speaker 2: car and my door won't it won't latch because now
Speaker 2: I've moved the latch out of the way and it's
Speaker 2: too cold to go back. But your car doesn't warm
Speaker 2: up if it's not like moving. So I drive home.
Speaker 2: I drive home to uptown Sorry Minne Police Department with
Speaker 2: my door, holding my door with my elbow like cruxed
Speaker 2: in as I'm driving because I'm so I'm so cold.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, Minnesota is a was a tough place. That's
Speaker 1: why I don't live there anymore. I love Minnesota, and
Speaker 1: you know, I think I love the summers obviously more.
Speaker 1: But we didn't have snow days at school. We had
Speaker 1: day's row. It was too cold and we couldn't go
Speaker 1: to school. But actually my uncle managed the Orpheum and
Speaker 1: State theaters in Minneapolis as well, so you should have
Speaker 1: gone there.
Speaker 2: Great. Well, So now those were more touring theaters, so
Speaker 2: you know, I wasn't in Bye Bye Birdie the big musical.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the musicoger Field probably David Copperfield came through the Orpheum.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's someone who did that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't disagree you on stage, so okay, that
Speaker 1: makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So as a young child myself, last personal ski story,
Speaker 2: my father was well, eventually he was a doctor and
Speaker 2: he did his residency in Salt Lake City, and my parents,
Speaker 2: allegedly before I was born, were very big skiers, and
Speaker 2: my mom, when she was pregnant with me, skied broke
Speaker 2: her leg in several places. It's now an inch I
Speaker 2: think over an inch shorter than the other leg. And
Speaker 2: unlike you, they never skied again, literally never skied. Yeah,
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, we were not allowed to go.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's definitely that's a story I've heard many
Speaker 1: times in different variations. But you know, that's why I say,
Speaker 1: if you don't enjoy being on the mountain, if you're
Speaker 1: not confident in what you're doing, and then don't do it,
Speaker 1: because you know, if you're scared of it, it's probably
Speaker 1: best not to. But when you're a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: you're like Gumby. You could crash and you know, become
Speaker 1: a pretzel and you're totally fine. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: If you start young and you get confidence, I'd say
Speaker 1: go for it, but I don't. I'm not a big
Speaker 1: proponent of pushing adults into I always feel responsible for
Speaker 1: other people's injuries as well, So I'm sorry for your
Speaker 1: mother and feel sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, never went back, So I ended up you know,
Speaker 2: when I became a teenager or whatever, started going going
Speaker 2: with friends. Now, I know your mom didn't ski, is
Speaker 2: that right? What was your what was your whole family's
Speaker 2: relationship to skiing as you as you started out, it
Speaker 2: was all different.
Speaker 1: You know, my mom had a stroke when she had me,
Speaker 1: so she couldn't ski. She you know, her balance was
Speaker 1: altered because of the stroke. She just couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: And she tried several times, it just just didn't work.
Speaker 1: And then my siblings, we're all really good, but they
Speaker 1: just didn't want to be me. So there was that
Speaker 1: kind of awkward like resentment. You know, like my my brother,
Speaker 1: one of my brothers. There, it's me, my sister and
Speaker 1: the triplets, and one of the triplets was kind of
Speaker 1: the only other sibling that really love skiing. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we just enjoyed being on the mountain together.
Speaker 1: I think what brought us all together was really my
Speaker 1: grandparents and you know, all of our cousins and you know,
Speaker 1: my aunts and uncles. We would all get together and
Speaker 1: go skiing, and you know, we would have like, you know,
Speaker 1: a cabin and keystone and they would all drive down
Speaker 1: from Wisconsin and we would drive from Minnesota and it
Speaker 1: was just a really great family get together. But yeah,
Speaker 1: now that everyone's older, not very many people still skiing.
Speaker 1: My grandparents are no longer with us, so we just, yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of fizzled out. But I'm still holding down the
Speaker 1: fort for the for the skiing and the family.
Speaker 2: For you, when did it become an activity, something fun,
Speaker 2: even something that you were good at, to like, this
Speaker 2: is what I want to be. I want to be
Speaker 2: the best in the world at this. When did that
Speaker 2: come about?
Speaker 1: Well? I started racing when I was seven, and then
Speaker 1: I met Peekaboo Street, who you know at the time,
Speaker 1: she won the Olympics in Nagano in ninety eight, and
Speaker 1: she was the thing at the time. And I met
Speaker 1: her at a ski shop in Minnesota, and I got
Speaker 1: home and I said, Dad, I just want to be Peekaboo,
Speaker 1: And so it kind of changed my mindset. You know.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that I wasn't good before. I just had
Speaker 1: never thought about skiing in that way. So she'd made
Speaker 1: me think of it, as you know, I have a
Speaker 1: goal to look forward to, which is to be an Olympian.
Speaker 1: And then I got home and my dad and I
Speaker 1: made a ten year plan and I made the Olympics
Speaker 1: when I was seventeen in Salt Lake City, so it
Speaker 1: was It's pretty crazy to think about, you know, just
Speaker 1: meeting her and making the plan and actually getting there
Speaker 1: is obviously a lot of steps in between. But yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely when I met her, everything kind of changed.
Speaker 2: Did she just happen to be there or did you
Speaker 2: go to meet her?
Speaker 1: It was an autograph signing, I waited for like three
Speaker 1: hours a line.
Speaker 2: And then you met her. Yep, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's just you know, she was kind of larger
Speaker 1: than line. If she had this you know, amazing personality,
Speaker 1: very charismatic, and I still have you know, I'm probably
Speaker 1: too old for this, but I still have her poster
Speaker 1: that she signed for me framed in my room.
Speaker 2: It does something to me. I don't know, like the
Speaker 2: idea that you know now. I'm sure there's no shortage
Speaker 2: of signings that you're doing. Do you ever think about
Speaker 2: that when you're meeting either little girls or little boys
Speaker 2: at events or signings, that the profound impact that you
Speaker 2: could have on someone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I've always had that image of myself
Speaker 1: every time I meet a kid, I'm like, this could
Speaker 1: have been me, you know, and I put myself in
Speaker 1: their shoes and you know, actually, also when I got
Speaker 1: her autograph, there was another person there, woman that was
Speaker 1: signing autographs, and I ran into her the bathroom and
Speaker 1: I asked her for her autograph in the bathroom and
Speaker 1: she said no. And I was so young, you know,
Speaker 1: and you don't realize it means a bathroom, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it, don't want to take pictures in the bathroom,
Speaker 1: but it was pretty traumatizing to me. So I always
Speaker 1: have this image of how someone can really positively impact
Speaker 1: you and vice versa, how it can negatively affect you.
Speaker 1: And I always wanted to be like Peegloo was for me,
Speaker 1: and that's why I started my foundation, because you know,
Speaker 1: I want to inspire kids in whatever way I can
Speaker 1: to follow their dreams. And sometimes it just takes, you know,
Speaker 1: one person to open their eyes up to something different.
Speaker 1: You know, I could be something more than what I
Speaker 1: think I could be, and I hope I can give
Speaker 1: that to them because she, you know, she changed my
Speaker 1: life in a pretty impactful way.
Speaker 2: Are you still friends?
Speaker 1: Yeah? She lives like right down the road from me, ironically,
Speaker 1: And it was so funny because I actually directed and
Speaker 1: produced her documentary about two years ago. It's on Peacock
Speaker 1: and I honestly I could barely do the interview because
Speaker 1: I was so nervous. I felt like I was nine
Speaker 1: years old again. It was a pretty cool moment. But
Speaker 1: to be able to tell her story and to have
Speaker 1: her trust in that way was really special. So it
Speaker 1: was a very full circle moment. You never know what's
Speaker 1: going to happen and where people will end up. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of crazy how life works out that way. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I mean that is unbelievable that you meet her
Speaker 2: at a signing and then a few years later you
Speaker 2: end up producing her documentary. That's that's a.
Speaker 1: Couple of years.
Speaker 2: Just a couple of years. We're not going to count
Speaker 2: you and your dad. You devise a ten year plan. Eventually,
Speaker 2: I assume this is part of the plan. The whole
Speaker 2: family moves to Vail, Colorado, Uh, for you to join
Speaker 2: the ski club Vale? Is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It was a it was a big move. You know,
Speaker 1: my family and my siblings weren't really on board with
Speaker 1: it. It was hard, but yeah, I mean there was a
Speaker 1: reality that living in Minnesota could only get me so far,
Speaker 1: and I had to move to the mountains. And at
Speaker 1: first it was just me and my mom. We went
Speaker 1: for a few months just us, but obviously, like my
Speaker 1: grandparents and my dad, taking care of the other four
Speaker 1: kids was too hard, so we just decided to stick
Speaker 1: to stick, you know, together, and be a family and move.
Speaker 1: And but that was a you know, that's where I
Speaker 1: learned how to ski downhill? Wasn't bail.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was kind of asked that, and then I
Speaker 2: didn't because it felt like I was an idiot, and
Speaker 2: I probably still am. But in Minnesota there's still mountains.
Speaker 2: There's no ski mountains, right, No, No, they're not.
Speaker 1: No. I grew up at a place called Buck Hill
Speaker 1: and it's about two hundred and sixty vertical feet they
Speaker 1: actually have and I love it. It was an amazing
Speaker 1: place grew up and had an amazing coach who actually
Speaker 1: was my father's coach growing up. But they put landfill
Speaker 1: on the top of it to make it higher. So
Speaker 1: that should kind of give you an idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not that doesn't sound correct.
Speaker 1: No, So I mean it's a move to mountains, you know, I.
Speaker 2: Moved to actual mountain. Yeah, it was weird. I was
Speaker 2: trying to navigate that. I was like, I don't remember
Speaker 2: lots of lakes, but I don't remember a bunch of mountains.
Speaker 1: There lots of lots of lakes.
Speaker 2: So you go to Vail. Now your days are you?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: You are you going to school?
Speaker 1: Uh? Kind of? I mean, so what. I moved in
Speaker 1: when I was twelve, and they had a ski academy there,
Speaker 1: but I was too young. So for two years I
Speaker 1: did homeschool and I was kind of like, I read
Speaker 1: some books and you know, I took my dad's high
Speaker 1: school German book and I was trying to teach myself German.
Speaker 1: And then eventually it was obviously old enough to join
Speaker 1: the academy, but then I got kicked out of that
Speaker 1: because I didn't need the state requirements for attendance. So
Speaker 1: I ended up having to do like an online school.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a shit show, to be honest,
Speaker 1: but I made it work, you know. I I I
Speaker 1: was doing school work mostly in the summer because in
Speaker 1: the winter I was racing, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: studying online was actually was nice because I had just
Speaker 1: had a lot of flexibility. But again, I was basically
Speaker 1: teaching myself, so I blame myself if I'm not smart enough.
Speaker 2: Because you were teaching yourself. I don't know think that's
Speaker 2: how that works. Yeah, that was one of the fun
Speaker 2: facts I was given was that you speak fluent German. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it does that. What does bomb gardner mean?
Speaker 1: Bomb gart It means like tree gardener.
Speaker 2: There you go. I trust you. Then, as far as
Speaker 2: I'm concerned, that's what I've been told. Did that help
Speaker 2: you later on, like as you're starting to do international competitions.
Speaker 2: German has got to be a big language in this world, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the I mean it's the number one language
Speaker 1: because everyone basically, you know, skiing is made up of Austria, Germany,
Speaker 1: Switzerland and Italy and you know Sutrul, which is northern Italy.
Speaker 1: They all speak. All those countries speak German. And so
Speaker 1: also when I got to a point where I was
Speaker 1: doing interviews, I could do interviews in German and it
Speaker 1: helped a lot. You know, I felt like I connect
Speaker 1: more with the history of the sport. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be, you know, that person that made other people
Speaker 1: conform to me. I wanted to respect the history of
Speaker 1: the sport. And it's not really applicable to anything else
Speaker 1: in my life. Unfortunately, now that I'm retired, it's not like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm speaking German all the time, but trying
Speaker 1: to learn Spanish and it is just really hard. It's very,
Speaker 1: very different. So it's not helpful right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't speak German.
Speaker 1: Would you speak any other languages?
Speaker 2: French a little? I mean I took a lot of
Speaker 2: years of French perfect.
Speaker 1: You know what that means?
Speaker 2: Do you know what that means? Oh? Yeah. So I
Speaker 2: worked with a French director for a number of years
Speaker 2: and I traveled to Paris with him and I was like,
Speaker 2: they're just not nice. And he goes, well, you know,
Speaker 2: this is the phrase you need to say, jipaul from
Speaker 2: say come in vach espanol par de moi and that
Speaker 2: what is it? What is that? He goes, I speak
Speaker 2: French like a Spanish cow. Excuse me, a Spanish cow.
Speaker 2: And so that's what would happened. I would go into
Speaker 2: a store restaurant in France and I would be trying.
Speaker 2: Then I would say is and they would look at
Speaker 2: me and then they would laugh and they'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: what do you want? Yeah, they're total English speaking like
Speaker 2: now they're there. I'm one of the gang.
Speaker 1: That's a good that's a good line.
Speaker 2: I should take that, you cause she should learn the
Speaker 2: equivalent of that of Spanish. Yeah, I speak Spanish like.
Speaker 1: A American bull or something. I don't know. There's I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's some something I could say something. I'll figure
Speaker 1: that out. I'll get back to you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Please report back. Gravity Corps there at Ski
Speaker 2: Club Veil. This is an intensive program for young skiers.
Speaker 2: How did it help you in your car?
Speaker 1: I mean it gave me all of the downhill skills,
Speaker 1: like visualization, and you know, we did a lot of
Speaker 1: which isn't common now. We did a lot of terrain work.
Speaker 1: So I was doing jumps and like you know, doing
Speaker 1: super G and downhill when I was like really young.
Speaker 1: And now everyone's very nervous about kids doing downhill and
Speaker 1: flying through the air, so they make a wait until
Speaker 1: they're sixteen or seventeen years old. And twelve thirteen, I'm
Speaker 1: skiing super G so going like seventy miles an hour,
Speaker 1: which I really enjoyed. And also, you know, I just
Speaker 1: had a great group of people. I skied with girls
Speaker 1: and boys that were quite a bit older than me.
Speaker 1: So I was really good at shadowing people, just learning
Speaker 1: and following behind. And because I wasn't cool, I was young,
Speaker 1: and comparatively to them, I wasn't, you know, in their
Speaker 1: league yet, so I just kind of hung back. I
Speaker 1: learned from everyone, and eventually I beat them, and then
Speaker 1: the rest history. I guess.
Speaker 2: Do you think those limits should be put on?
Speaker 1: It's hard. I mean in all sports these days, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, individual coaching, and you hire
Speaker 1: like personal trainers when kids are like ten and you know,
Speaker 1: they're weightlifting and they're doing all these things, and like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, what the balance I think.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously, you need to be prepared for your
Speaker 1: sport so that you know you physically can handle what
Speaker 1: you're doing. But at what point is that too much?
Speaker 1: You know? I see a lot of kids between fourteen
Speaker 1: and sixteen that have already blown out their knees, and
Speaker 1: you know, is that because they're doing too much too young?
Speaker 1: Or from a skiing perspective, is it because they're not
Speaker 1: strong enough? Is it because you know, they're weightlifting too much?
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer to that, But just the
Speaker 1: way sports have evolved is pretty amazing because at this
Speaker 1: day and age, you have to be so good, so
Speaker 1: young to be competitive because everyone has just gotten everything's
Speaker 1: so individualized. It's it's very hard to be competitive. You
Speaker 1: really have to. Unfortunately, parents have to spend a lot
Speaker 1: of money in any sport to really get their kids
Speaker 1: to a competitive level, you know, to a very high
Speaker 1: professional level.
Speaker 2: Well, and I don't know if you're going to be
Speaker 2: willing to admit to this or whatever, but I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously it's it's true. So put humility aside for a second,
Speaker 2: like you're doing it and by your own admission, at
Speaker 2: this at this time, everybody else is older than you.
Speaker 2: But you have a specific gift. You have a specific
Speaker 2: skill that, for whatever reason is it enables you to
Speaker 2: keep up and eventually excel and overtake these But to me,
Speaker 2: the issue is, and this is what I'm curious about
Speaker 2: your perspective about. This is what I battle with when
Speaker 2: it comes to sports, is that we start making rules
Speaker 2: that maybe are really sound and good rules for the
Speaker 2: majority of kids, right like ninety nine percent of these
Speaker 2: kids are not ready, but we make these rules that
Speaker 2: potentially undermine people like you in your case. And so
Speaker 2: I guess My question really is just from your perspective,
Speaker 2: are these rules helpful, should they be enforced or do
Speaker 2: we just have to take things more on a case
Speaker 2: by case basis.
Speaker 1: I think rules are malleable. It kind of goes with
Speaker 1: everything that I do. It's good to have guardrails, it's
Speaker 1: good to have kind of parameters to kind of guide you.
Speaker 1: But there's always exceptions to the rule. For example, with
Speaker 1: my rehab, with all of my injuries from ninety nine
Speaker 1: point nine percent of people, you say, okay, you tore
Speaker 1: your ACL, it's going to be a nine month recovery, okay,
Speaker 1: but not everyone recovers the same. I recover quickly, I
Speaker 1: you know, dedicate my time to getting back, and it
Speaker 1: may take me six months. So I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there's just things shouldn't be set in stone. Nothing should
Speaker 1: ever be set in stone, and there's always going to
Speaker 1: be people that need to be at a certain level
Speaker 1: at a certain time in life. For example, I you know,
Speaker 1: when I was training in Veil at such a young
Speaker 1: age with older kids, I was actually allowed into the
Speaker 1: Junior Olympics when I was eleven and twelve with kids
Speaker 1: that are thirteen and fourteen, and eventually fourteen and fifteen,
Speaker 1: and I was beating them and I needed that competition.
Speaker 1: If if they hadn't have been the rules so that
Speaker 1: I could, you know, go to that next age group, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know where I would be, you know, but
Speaker 1: I don't think that should be obviously the standard. I
Speaker 1: think it's like bowling. You just put some guardrails on
Speaker 1: and sometimes you can. You know, people are good enough
Speaker 1: to where you can drop them. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I they like speed limits, you know, It's.
Speaker 2: Just it's malleable if you're a good enough driver. That's
Speaker 2: what I told the cop last week when I got
Speaker 2: pulled over. Now, sir, I promise you I'm way better
Speaker 2: driving good than anybody else. Yeah, you skied your first
Speaker 2: World Cup at age sixteen. Now you're you're sixteen years old.
Speaker 2: You've had this dream now seven eight years. My math
Speaker 2: is weak. Are you feeling like this is a big deal,
Speaker 2: like I'm making history? Or is it like let me
Speaker 2: just go win this thing? Like how are you feeling
Speaker 2: As a young sixteen year old, I.
Speaker 1: Felt a lot of pressure. Okay, you know I was
Speaker 1: the youngest. Yeah, I mean there was one other girl
Speaker 1: on the team and she was almost a year older
Speaker 1: than me, but you know, we were by far the youngest,
Speaker 1: and obviously the Salt Lake Olympics were the next year,
Speaker 1: and so my first season, it wasn't just you know,
Speaker 1: let's do the World Cups and see how you do.
Speaker 1: It's I have to qualify for the Olympics next year.
Speaker 1: I had to really establish myself on the team, and
Speaker 1: I struggled. You know, it was it was hard. I had.
Speaker 1: I had to get my legs underneath me and find
Speaker 1: my confidence within that new peer group. And once I
Speaker 1: got it, you know, I really figured everything out. When
Speaker 1: I was kind of eighteen nineteen, I started getting on
Speaker 1: the on the podium and I really felt like I belonged.
Speaker 1: But in the beginning, you know, I struggled to find
Speaker 1: my place and again, like being one of the youngest
Speaker 1: people on the tours can be alienating, and again I
Speaker 1: wasn't cool. I was like, homeschooling doesn't help much with
Speaker 1: social skills, just FYI. But I figured it out eventually,
Speaker 1: So it just took me maybe a little bit longer.
Speaker 2: You make that your first Olympics in two thousand and two,
Speaker 2: What did that feel like? That's that's a different thing, right,
Speaker 2: it was amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, holy moly. Yeah, and ironically, like I'm on
Speaker 1: the Olympic bid committee trying to get felt like back
Speaker 1: to Olympics in twenty thirty four, which would be amazing.
Speaker 1: But it was such a great gains. I mean it's hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, it's all downhill from there. You know,
Speaker 1: a home Olympics to start off is just incredible. And
Speaker 1: it was also an interesting time. You know, after nine
Speaker 1: to eleven, you know, everyone was on edge. The world
Speaker 1: was watching us, and we really needed to do well
Speaker 1: as a team for our country because you know, we
Speaker 1: needed that that morale. And I had the best results
Speaker 1: of the entire women's team, and because you know, all
Speaker 1: of the veterans who were supposed to get medals didn't,
Speaker 1: it was somehow a disappointment, and so my performance was
Speaker 1: looked at as a disappointment, even though I had the
Speaker 1: best result of the entire team, And so that was
Speaker 1: hard for me and I kind of I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: this is it. I'd established myself and I hadn't, you know,
Speaker 1: in their minds, I had a long ways to go,
Speaker 1: and and kind of wrapping my head around that was
Speaker 1: hard because you focus on something like anything in life,
Speaker 1: you have this one goal and you focus on it
Speaker 1: so hard and you work towards it, and then you
Speaker 1: get there and you realize, oh no, this is just
Speaker 1: the start, This isn't the end point. This is just
Speaker 1: the beginning. And so you know, I had to figure
Speaker 1: that out and find my way forward.
Speaker 2: But I got there this stretch of dominance. I I mean, look,
Speaker 2: I knew you were good. I didn't have your stats
Speaker 2: like memorized or whatever. You don't, Brian, I mean, I
Speaker 2: might now overall world champion in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, two thy ten and then again
Speaker 2: in twelve. Did you feel as though I can't lose?
Speaker 2: Like did you have that feeling they talk about like
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan right like in the zone or whatever. Is
Speaker 2: that how you felt on the mountain?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 1: I mean there was it was basically me against myself,
Speaker 1: and you know, I felt so confident and it was
Speaker 1: so light, you know, there wasn't I didn't feel a pressure.
Speaker 1: I felt such an ease and such a joy and
Speaker 1: it was such an amazing time, especially from twenty ten
Speaker 1: to twenty twelve was kind of really my prime. And
Speaker 1: I lost the overall title by three points, which was
Speaker 1: kind of there's some political bullshit that went along with it,
Speaker 1: but that era was pretty incredible, and I, I don't
Speaker 1: know I was when I watched Michael Jordan's documentary. I
Speaker 1: think it really struck a chord because you know, eventually
Speaker 1: you have to figure out ways to motivate yourself because
Speaker 1: you know, you keep winning and then I so it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, some one person didn't say hi
Speaker 1: to me, or you know, there's like I would find
Speaker 1: things to focus on so that it would drive me
Speaker 1: and so that we were I don't know that that
Speaker 1: kind of storyline with Michael really hit a chord with
Speaker 1: me as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this you're talking about twenty eleven with the
Speaker 2: three point it's so funny because I just talked about
Speaker 2: you winning four out of five years, and your brain
Speaker 2: immediately goes to the one year.
Speaker 1: Yeah didn't. That's so fascinating. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've noticed this, but I'm highly competitive.
Speaker 2: Yeah. See here's the thing. I think I'm highly competitive
Speaker 2: until I talk to someone like you, and then I'm like,
Speaker 2: all right, well, I mean there's highly competitive, and this
Speaker 2: the media portrayed this is like you had a bitter rivalry.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like that was all overplayed or again,
Speaker 2: were you looking for motivation during that time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was it was hard. You know,
Speaker 1: my best friend on the tour, who I spent every
Speaker 1: Christmas with, we were one and two. I mean, between
Speaker 1: the two of us, we run every single downhill for
Speaker 1: like a three year span, and so to be best
Speaker 1: friends with your number one competitor is a challenge, obviously,
Speaker 1: And there was some fishy things that went on at
Speaker 1: the end of the season where I lost by three
Speaker 1: points to her. There was a couple of races that
Speaker 1: were canceled that really shouldn't have been canceled, and and
Speaker 1: you know, I think that part of it is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why we had a hard time afterwards.
Speaker 1: You know, she really felt like she deserved it, and
Speaker 1: I felt like these races shouldn't have been canceled, and
Speaker 1: I didn't have a fair shake of getting the title.
Speaker 1: But you know, at the same time that ski racing,
Speaker 1: like I have to accept it and I don't hold
Speaker 1: anything against her, obviously, that's again that's the sport. But
Speaker 1: at the time I think it was hard kind of
Speaker 1: a riff and you know, then she got married and
Speaker 1: things separated a little bit more. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: For women especially, it's just it's hard to be friends
Speaker 1: with your number one competitor.
Speaker 2: In addition to winning all those World Cups, you win
Speaker 2: the downhill gold and the super g bronze at the
Speaker 2: twenty ten Vancouver Olympics. Talk to me about the moment
Speaker 2: that you win gold. There's the podium, there's the song,
Speaker 2: the national anthem. Like, is this as overwhelming in the
Speaker 2: moment for you as it would appear to be to me?
Speaker 2: Or are you? Is it like these are just all
Speaker 2: the years that I expect this to happen now?
Speaker 1: No, I mean that I still get very emotional every
Speaker 1: time I see that Olympic run. It was really the
Speaker 1: culmination of all of the years of my hard work,
Speaker 1: but also my families, you know, my family sacrifice moving
Speaker 1: to Colorado, and I mean we were not well off.
Speaker 1: We struggled a lot, and moving to Colorado was not,
Speaker 1: you know, an easy move for us. So I just
Speaker 1: felt so overwhelmed with emotion, happiness, but also a lot
Speaker 1: of relief. You know, there's so much building up to
Speaker 1: that point. My entire life had build up to that
Speaker 1: one moment and maybe think about it. It's two minutes.
Speaker 1: My Downhall run was two minutes long. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: how do you quantify your entire life's work in two minutes.
Speaker 1: So I'm very thankful for that moment. I wish that
Speaker 1: I could bottle it up and experience it, you know again,
Speaker 1: because it happened so fast, and I was so overwhelmed
Speaker 1: with emotion that I was trying the majority of that
Speaker 1: day and I had to race the next day, so
Speaker 1: I didn't even really get to enjoy it. I had
Speaker 1: to try to focus again for the next day. But
Speaker 1: it was such an incredible experience and I'm so thankful
Speaker 1: for it. And you know, my mom passed away a
Speaker 1: year ago, and when I watched the Olympic run, you
Speaker 1: see me in the finish and then it pans immediately
Speaker 1: to my mom and so that is just like for me,
Speaker 1: it's so emotional and it's so amazing that I had
Speaker 1: that experience with her and with my family.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. I'm glad you had that too. Thanks in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, you tear your acl so you can't compete.
Speaker 2: It's so chea. How tough is this for you to
Speaker 2: swallow at the time.
Speaker 1: Oh it's brutal. I mean, you know, watching all of
Speaker 1: my friends win medals and I'm sitting at home with
Speaker 1: you know, having just had surgery. You know, the Olympics
Speaker 1: are once every four years, and I think for this
Speaker 1: for the public, for spectators, it seems like it happens
Speaker 1: very quickly because you have a Summer Olympics every two
Speaker 1: years and then the Winter Olympics. But for us, it's
Speaker 1: like there's so much that goes on in between, and
Speaker 1: so much build up. And that was really, honestly, I'd
Speaker 1: say even more my prime than when I went into
Speaker 1: Vancouver because I had already won, I didn't have any pressure,
Speaker 1: you know, I would have been in such a great position,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it was a brutal experience. I wish I
Speaker 1: had been there, but you know, such as life. So
Speaker 1: I just hunger down and focused on the next Olympics,
Speaker 1: which we were in South Korea, which is my last Olympics.
Speaker 1: And by that point I had been pretty ravaged with injuries,
Speaker 1: so it was not like I was in my prime,
Speaker 1: but I was thankful to come away with another medal.
Speaker 1: So you take what you can get.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, yeah, you miss out on those Olympics.
Speaker 2: But the next few years, you match or your breaking
Speaker 2: multiple records. Most Super G's won all time downhill victories,
Speaker 2: World Cup. Are these are these wins and these records,
Speaker 2: are they driving you to keep going and do more?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Definitely. I mean I'm I'm you know, I'm a competitor,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was never afraid to say it.
Speaker 1: You know, I I need that next goal, you know,
Speaker 1: I want I wanted you know, I enjoy ski racing,
Speaker 1: but I also need, you know, something to drive me.
Speaker 1: And those records were something that drove me, especially when
Speaker 1: I was injured, you know, I I wanted to go fast,
Speaker 1: I wanted to win, I wanted to break records, and
Speaker 1: especially at the end, you know, trying to break sin
Speaker 1: Mark's record was something that really really helped push me
Speaker 1: because I was so close, but you know, ultimately it
Speaker 1: wasn't meant to be. But but yeah, I just I
Speaker 1: feel like there's no shame in saying I was driven
Speaker 1: by records.
Speaker 2: Yeah. What's what's your proudest race of all the races.
Speaker 1: Of all the wins, I don't know, I mean probably
Speaker 1: the Olympics, you know, winning the goal. I think just
Speaker 1: from an emotional perspective and looking at how much my
Speaker 1: family sacrifice. But if I'm thinking about what was the
Speaker 1: most difficult, I think it was coming back from two acls.
Speaker 1: I was out for almost two years and I won
Speaker 1: my second race back and I cried like a little baby.
Speaker 1: You know, it was just it was a It was
Speaker 1: a lot. It was a lot of hard work. You know,
Speaker 1: I had to learn how to walk again. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a it was from you know, bottom to
Speaker 1: the top. I was at freaking the bottom, like minus
Speaker 1: the bottom. I was in the basement. I was you know,
Speaker 1: it was a pretty gnarly comeback. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I was most proud outside of the Olympics with with
Speaker 1: that comeback race.
Speaker 2: As an elite athlete, you have to deal with well
Speaker 2: one being in like peak physical condition at all times,
Speaker 2: dealing with injuries, and then you add in to all
Speaker 2: of that skiing where a catastrophic accident can happen at
Speaker 2: any moment. How do you deal psychologically with that cycle
Speaker 2: of injury, healing, rehab, injury that's really unique to skiing.
Speaker 1: Well, honestly, I talk about this a lot now when
Speaker 1: I do public speaking. You know, I approach risk, you
Speaker 1: know when I'm in the starting gate, I've already I
Speaker 1: know what the risks are. You know, I know that
Speaker 1: I could crash, I could be paralyzed. Many people were
Speaker 1: when I was racing. But you can't think about that.
Speaker 1: You have to focus on, you know, being present, being
Speaker 1: in the moment, your the work that you've put in,
Speaker 1: trusting that preparation, and really letting go of that of
Speaker 1: that anxiety or fear, because if you think about what
Speaker 1: could happen, it will happen. So I think about literally
Speaker 1: only performing getting my best all the time, because if
Speaker 1: I'm nervous, if I'm thinking about what if anything negative
Speaker 1: that I'm thinking about, will most likely happen. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like, what's you know, what's the worst that
Speaker 1: can happen. I'm just going to go for it and
Speaker 1: we'll see, we'll see where it ends up. But if
Speaker 1: you think about, you know, the negative, and you don't
Speaker 1: ski your best, you're you've already lost before you've even started.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure this is the problem with my golf game.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: Thinking about hitting it into the bunker and you hit
Speaker 1: into the bunker of.
Speaker 2: Course, of course, yeah, I mean, it's not risking catastrophic
Speaker 2: injury necessarily, But but.
Speaker 1: The bunker is pretty catastrophic yet pond over.
Speaker 2: There is really large and is pretty close to where
Speaker 2: I want to hit it. You were known for putting
Speaker 2: your body on the line skiing courageously aggressively, and how
Speaker 2: did you deal with criticism that you got over the
Speaker 2: years to the type of skiing that you wanted to
Speaker 2: do and the fact that you were dealing with all
Speaker 2: of these injuries because of how courageous you were. Like,
Speaker 2: just talk to me a little bit about your relationship
Speaker 2: with the press at that time and having to having
Speaker 2: to deal with that in addition to everything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the press has been, uh an interesting part of
Speaker 1: my career. You know, I've always been very open and forthcoming.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't I don't really hold my cards
Speaker 1: close to my chest, and you know, I'm an open
Speaker 1: book and I do things kind of my way. You know.
Speaker 1: I was just different. I or makeup. I didn't. I
Speaker 1: don't follow trends. I just do what I think is best.
Speaker 1: And I think it was hard for me because when
Speaker 1: I started to get injured, Honestly, at that time, people
Speaker 1: were so negative on me because I was always winning
Speaker 1: and then I want and everyone's like, oh, we want
Speaker 1: you to come back. You know. It's like that that
Speaker 1: classic American story. We you know, we tear her down
Speaker 1: to build her back up again, and then everyone you
Speaker 1: know wanted me to see me and succeed, and then
Speaker 1: and then again. Kind of at the end, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: now she's getting injured too much and she's risking too much,
Speaker 1: that she's doing this to herself. And you know, I
Speaker 1: was known as this very dramatic person, which is pretty
Speaker 1: hilarious because I am the farthest thing from dramatic. I
Speaker 1: am a simple, like straightforward person. You know, I do
Speaker 1: what needs to be done. You know, if I've heard
Speaker 1: I come back, I don't like I you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not dramatic. And so I struggled a lot with
Speaker 1: the people's perception of me, and I still honestly do.
Speaker 1: It's it's a really hard thing to to accept because
Speaker 1: I just want to like scream at the Internet like
Speaker 1: that's not who I am. But that's just the way
Speaker 1: things are now with social media. Everyone has their opinion
Speaker 1: and and you know, I, yeah, I crashed a lot,
Speaker 1: but guess what downhill you're going eighty miles an hour
Speaker 1: should happen. You know, you put everything on the line,
Speaker 1: and sometimes, you know, you hit a bump and your
Speaker 1: ski goes the opposite way and before you know what,
Speaker 1: you're blown out your knee again. So you know, I
Speaker 1: just I try not to focus on the external distractions.
Speaker 1: I always try to focus on, Okay, who am I,
Speaker 1: what am I doing? Why is this important to me?
Speaker 1: Who is important to me? And the Internet is not
Speaker 1: important to me? So but it's still, you know, even
Speaker 1: though I say that, it's still a process. I mean
Speaker 1: never easy. I would say, you.
Speaker 2: Know, in football, in basketball, in baseball, at least for
Speaker 2: the men, you're given a ton of training about how
Speaker 2: to deal with the press. And you are in this sport,
Speaker 2: in golf, in you are in this sport that in
Speaker 2: the United States becomes really really big once a year,
Speaker 2: slash once every four years, and so you're dealing during
Speaker 2: those times with like intense media press. But my guess
Speaker 2: is you're not really given the training for it at
Speaker 2: least here, maybe in maybe in German, you know, in Germany,
Speaker 2: right like you can answer those questions, are you know,
Speaker 2: because they're more used to it or whatever. So I
Speaker 2: wonder one is that true, and two if you could
Speaker 2: have an impact toward young athletes today in your sport
Speaker 2: or potentially ones also that have a similar sort of
Speaker 2: media cycle. Is there any advice that you would give?
Speaker 2: Is there anything you wish you had done different?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I guess looking back you can always
Speaker 1: say I wish I would have done some things differently.
Speaker 1: But advice I always give is to be authentic. Be
Speaker 1: authentically yourself, don't listen to what anyone else says. I
Speaker 1: think we're all different and that difference makes us special.
Speaker 1: And you know, I didn't get media training. I didn't
Speaker 1: really think to a degree necessarily that I needed it
Speaker 1: because I was never hiding anything. I'm just explaining to
Speaker 1: the media what happened, what my experience is, you know,
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, how I'm feeling. I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: that that was a problem. And you know, in Europe
Speaker 1: and when I was doing interviews in German, it was
Speaker 1: pretty simple because there was very little drama. You know,
Speaker 1: they were talking more about how is your run, how
Speaker 1: do you physically feel? Instead of who are you dating?
Speaker 1: And that type of conversation was hard for me because
Speaker 1: it was not about sports. Anymore. It was going into
Speaker 1: a different realm that I pop called. Yeah, it's pop cult.
Speaker 1: It's it's just and it's hard. It's hard to manage
Speaker 1: that and every again, like everyone has their opinion, and
Speaker 1: you know, keeping that at an arms distance is hard.
Speaker 1: When everyone's constantly asking me about it. I can shut
Speaker 1: off social media, but when you're giving interviews and it's
Speaker 1: always the same question over and over again, it drives
Speaker 1: you nuts. So I would say, you know, just be yourself.
Speaker 1: Always be yourself, Always be authentic. And I always think,
Speaker 1: if I am not sure about an answer, just wait
Speaker 1: and I'll you know, think about the answer and I'll
Speaker 1: say it maybe later or do my own thing with it.
Speaker 1: But if you're unsure, never answered, because people always like
Speaker 1: to rope you into things, and if you're unsure, you're
Speaker 1: going to get yourself into trouble.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's funny because even with all the
Speaker 2: media training they get. I just had a conversation with
Speaker 2: Andrew Whitworth from the LA Rams after losing the first
Speaker 2: Super Bowl that he played with them. He gave a
Speaker 2: quote and the Jenna Basically the quote was, you know,
Speaker 2: how do you feel losing the Super Bowl? And the
Speaker 2: answer that was given was we're all going to die someday.
Speaker 2: And he said even as he was saying it, Now,
Speaker 2: what he explained to me was and he said, I'm
Speaker 2: sure he hasn't memorized like the twelve sentences that he
Speaker 2: said around that quote that actually made that not about
Speaker 2: losing the Super Bowl, right like not about But at
Speaker 2: the time he said, you know, as he said it,
Speaker 2: he knew, like.
Speaker 1: Well, that's that's going to be the head.
Speaker 2: That's that's what they're going to take.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean everything can be taken out
Speaker 1: of context. I I tried to not give them sound
Speaker 1: bites like that. You know, I think there's a way
Speaker 1: of being authentic and being yourself while also limiting that
Speaker 1: drama effect that people like to hone in on because
Speaker 1: they're always waiting for you to slip up or say
Speaker 1: one thing that they can use as a headline and
Speaker 1: click bait. And honestly, nowadays they'll just do it anyway.
Speaker 1: So it's at least if you don't say it, it may
Speaker 1: be a little bit better. But honestly, yeah, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: it cares, it doesn't matter. That is what it is.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: You retired in twenty nineteen after getting one final medal
Speaker 2: at the World Championships. How does that feel? Is there
Speaker 2: a relief? Is there sadness? Is there a regret? Is
Speaker 2: there a celebration? How does that feel?
Speaker 1: Kind of all the above? I mean, I think physically
Speaker 1: I was really relieved because I was in so much pain.
Speaker 1: You know, I was wearing two knee braces I had,
Speaker 1: was skiing with no lcl I a tibo plateau fracture.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I felt like I was
Speaker 1: being held together by duct tape at that point. So
Speaker 1: physically I was like, this is this is what's right,
Speaker 1: this is what needs to happen. But also emotionally, I know,
Speaker 1: I love skiing. I love pushing myself. I love fighting
Speaker 1: for a challenge. I love even the process, the gym,
Speaker 1: you know, the work that goes into it, and then
Speaker 1: obviously the racing and going fast. You know, all those
Speaker 1: things are things that I love dearly and I've done
Speaker 1: my whole life. So you know, going from something that's
Speaker 1: been there is like my rock since I was you know,
Speaker 1: two and a half years old, to waking up one
Speaker 1: day being retired and that's just gone. It was the
Speaker 1: process was more of mourning as if I something or
Speaker 1: someone had died, had it kind of had to go
Speaker 1: through all the phases. I definitely did some celebrating and
Speaker 1: then I try to take some time off and that
Speaker 1: lasted about two days and then I said, put me
Speaker 1: back to work. I need to I need to do stuff.
Speaker 1: This is too much time on my hands. And I've
Speaker 1: always felt, you know, it's been a few years now,
Speaker 1: but finding that new challenge that gets me excited and
Speaker 1: gets that kind of passion within me going like ski racing,
Speaker 1: that is really hard. That's why I'm always I'm so active.
Speaker 1: I'm in the gym, I'm always trying new sports, and
Speaker 1: I'm working hard. But I'm also finding that balance of
Speaker 1: traveling and doing adventures because I need that. It's something
Speaker 1: that I need for my soul. And people think that
Speaker 1: i'm you know, I'm seeking the spotlight, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm doing all these things to get attention, and which
Speaker 1: is just such bullshit. You know, I'm just I'm here
Speaker 1: living my life. I'm trying to do what feeds my
Speaker 1: soul and what makes me happy, and that's it. My
Speaker 1: only goal is to you know, lead a healthy life
Speaker 1: that I'm happy with. That I can have a positive
Speaker 1: impact on others and just feed my dogs. You know,
Speaker 1: I got to work hard to feed those guys. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of them there. You go.
Speaker 2: You you just alluded to it, but you use the
Speaker 2: phrase when you retired that your body quote broken beyond repair.
Speaker 2: After all of those years and all of those injuries.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, it's been almost four years
Speaker 2: or four years ish, how as your body resis, do
Speaker 2: you feel better now or do you feel like there
Speaker 2: are things that will never chante? No, you don't.
Speaker 1: I've had three surgery since I retired. One was three
Speaker 1: weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's I'm paying the price for pushing myself the way
Speaker 1: I did. But it's a price worth paying.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I don't have any regrets. I ski with my heart
Speaker 1: on my sleeve, and that's what I enjoy doing, so
Speaker 1: I don't I don't have any regrets. I'm really hoping
Speaker 1: that I have one more surgery left. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: when i'll do it. Maybe in the next six months
Speaker 1: or so. I hope that will be the last one
Speaker 1: that I'll need for a while. But it's mainly my
Speaker 1: right knee. That's just it's a constant struggle daily. But
Speaker 1: every athlete and every honestly every person you know, these
Speaker 1: you sacrifice something to succeed to get to where you
Speaker 1: want to go, to follow your dreams. You know, you
Speaker 1: can't have your cake and eat it too. So I
Speaker 1: don't regret anything. I just I do hope that the
Speaker 1: magic of medicine will fix me a little bit more
Speaker 1: than where I currently am.
Speaker 2: Well, look, you're understanding it a little bit. Most people
Speaker 2: to achieve their dreams don't have to sacrifice their entire
Speaker 2: body multiple surgeries. Well, let me ask you this, would
Speaker 2: would you ever be satisfied? Just like going and skiing
Speaker 2: a blue ski a blue have a cocktail at the
Speaker 2: fire pit.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's what's I do really love doing that.
Speaker 1: I like I have kind of like a ski in
Speaker 1: the blue. Yeah, you know, I don't ski moguls because
Speaker 1: that's just nonsense. That makes my knees hurt just looking
Speaker 1: at it. But I like just a nice groomer, just
Speaker 1: an easy groomer. I'm cruising, you know, we ski over
Speaker 1: to the chalet, I have you know, some hot Toddies
Speaker 1: or whatever, Lobos tequila, and then I'll you know, get
Speaker 1: back on the slopes and I'll ski with some friends
Speaker 1: and I'll go back to my car and I'll go home.
Speaker 1: And it's great. I love doing that. It's just it's simple,
Speaker 1: it's fun. It's you know. I started skiing with my family,
Speaker 1: you know, as family ski trips Keystone with my grandparents,
Speaker 1: and that's what it's all about, you know, just being
Speaker 1: out there with your family, enjoying nature. You no cell phones,
Speaker 1: you know, you're just out there enjoying the moment. And
Speaker 1: that's what I do now.
Speaker 2: I love that. I'm so glad for you about that.
Speaker 2: And that's the first time I've actually thought about it
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: For you.
Speaker 2: It could be like just going out, being able to
Speaker 2: hang out, enjoy being out. Truthfully, I'm really glad.
Speaker 1: Thanks. I mean, it's that's that's what it's all about,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, life is short. We have to
Speaker 1: enjoy it. If you know we're not enjoying it, then
Speaker 1: do something else that we enjoy.
Speaker 2: I do have to bring this up. You become the
Speaker 2: first woman to ski the street is the strife, and
Speaker 2: you did it at night, so you're not what this is.
Speaker 2: This is antithetical to what I thought you were. Well,
Speaker 2: I know, but I'm saying, like, I thought you were
Speaker 2: gonna tell me like f off about the blue, Like no,
Speaker 2: I've got to go, like I'm going to do Mount
Speaker 2: Baldy or something, or half Dome in Yosemite. They're gonna
Speaker 2: put They're gonna put snow on it for me, and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ski down the face of a clip. Why
Speaker 2: why'd you do it? What made you do it? What
Speaker 2: made you want to do it? And why'd you do it?
Speaker 1: I mean, I've always wanted to race against the men.
Speaker 1: It's something that I'm you know, I just it's kind
Speaker 1: of like Michelle Wee, you know, it's like the next level.
Speaker 1: I just want to get to the next level. How
Speaker 1: do I make my ski faster? So Red Bull's always
Speaker 1: known this, They've I've been They've been my sponsor for
Speaker 1: like twenty years. They call me up after Thanksgiving and
Speaker 1: they said, hey, do you want to ski to Strike
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, absolutely, let's do it. And they're
Speaker 1: like at night and I'm like, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how you're gonna do that, but sure, let's let's
Speaker 1: do it. And they're like, really, honestly, we thought you
Speaker 1: were going to say no, we didn't really have a
Speaker 1: tough plan.
Speaker 2: A plan.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they figured out a plan and it was
Speaker 1: I mean, I creb skiing in Minnesota, which actually I
Speaker 1: skied at night usually after school. We always ski at night,
Speaker 1: so I love skiing at night. But I mean I've
Speaker 1: never skeed a downhill at night, you know, to light
Speaker 1: up a whole downhill course, which they had to do
Speaker 1: it in sections because it was just impossible to do.
Speaker 1: But I mean it was pretty amazing. Again, I love
Speaker 1: pushing the limits. So but I hadn't skied. I hadn't
Speaker 1: skied one run of downhill since my very last downhill
Speaker 1: race in twenty nineteen. So I literally jumped in borrows
Speaker 1: from Ryan Cochran Siegel, who won the silver medal at
Speaker 1: the last Olympics. I borrowed a pair of his skis.
Speaker 1: I did a couple of practice runs, and then I
Speaker 1: did it, and I was, honestly, I was probably the
Speaker 1: most nervous I've ever been in my life. I don't
Speaker 1: really get nervous, but I was like, I am old,
Speaker 1: Am I insane? You know? Am I gonna totally ruin myself?
Speaker 2: But my ration is this, I mean, yes, by the way,
Speaker 2: you are insane. That is insane, but all the rest
Speaker 2: of it, no, go ahead.
Speaker 1: My ration was, you know I'm getting a knee replacement, right,
Speaker 1: so if I crash, oh jeez, and I my stuff out,
Speaker 1: who cares? You know, I'm just gonna get a new
Speaker 1: great is.
Speaker 2: That is not that is not healthy.
Speaker 1: That is not.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm getting a new leg next week anyway, So
Speaker 2: oh my god.
Speaker 1: That's how my brain works.
Speaker 2: So that well, it works. It works for you. It
Speaker 2: worked out, and now your name is there. You can't
Speaker 2: take that away from you, uh, fearless. In the business
Speaker 2: world here, how that's what we call a professional transition.
Speaker 1: You must have done this.
Speaker 2: Advising VC firms. You're working with company, you're making goggles,
Speaker 2: you're making ski clothing with head. Did you notice how
Speaker 2: I didn't try to say that, say it unique? Unique? Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're crushing it. What's the next thing? Business? What are
Speaker 2: you going?
Speaker 1: We were we have some really amazing products coming up
Speaker 1: with my production company called Opera Productions. And obviously the
Speaker 1: strike I get.
Speaker 2: It, opright, I get it.
Speaker 1: Not very many people I got it, get it. And
Speaker 1: then I'm like, I thought this was like, what's apress?
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, that's not it.
Speaker 2: It comes back to fra Boom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw. We have a lot of amazing products
Speaker 1: coming up with that. But obviously, you know, the strikes
Speaker 1: have slowed everything down. But this winter's coming up, so
Speaker 1: my my next ski line is launching. I'm actually launching
Speaker 1: Mend's this year, which I'm really excited about. I have
Speaker 1: my foundation, which we have our annual gala in a
Speaker 1: couple I'm really excited about that. What else I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm on the Olympic bid committee for the Solid Games
Speaker 1: that I said good luck and thank you. I'm on
Speaker 1: the Olympic Broadcast Systems Board. I'm doing some things. I'm
Speaker 1: out here hustling.
Speaker 2: You're doing a lot of things. If you need a
Speaker 2: skier for any of your projects for a prey.
Speaker 1: Hey I will.
Speaker 2: I actually probably don't.
Speaker 1: Don't give a call. I think it could be good.
Speaker 1: You could be in the bar on the mountain seeing You.
Speaker 2: Absolutely know that, friends, I got you.
Speaker 1: You'd crush it.
Speaker 2: You absolutely know that I could do that. Uh yeah.
Speaker 2: I do want to mention the Lenzy Vaughn Foundation providing
Speaker 2: camps and scholarships for girls to pursue all sorts of
Speaker 2: things athletics, academics, the arts, and you had some camps
Speaker 2: this summer I mentioned earlier Strong Girls Camps. Yep, was
Speaker 2: that successful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, honestly, you know, again
Speaker 1: it kind of was back to Peekaboo. But we have curriculums,
Speaker 1: so I try to give them skills to be able
Speaker 1: to be confident and have positive body image and all
Speaker 1: of these things that you know are just so difficult
Speaker 1: for kids these days, and try to inspire them so
Speaker 1: they can go out in the world and be strong,
Speaker 1: you know, empowered young women. But yeah, we actually just
Speaker 1: started using our own curriculum this year and I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about it, and we have a couple more camps
Speaker 1: coming up, so I'm just going to try to keep scaling,
Speaker 1: keep impacting as many kids as possible. And I think that's, honestly,
Speaker 1: such a big part of being an athlete is that
Speaker 1: responsibility of past paying it forward. And I've all, you know,
Speaker 1: because of Peekaboo and my parents obviously, I just have
Speaker 1: taken that responsibility to heart. So definitely something that's driven
Speaker 1: me the most since I've retired.
Speaker 2: That is admirable. Congratulations to you. You know, I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of yours. I wish you all continued great
Speaker 2: success with your production company, with the Lindsay Bond Foundation,
Speaker 2: and with all of your beasts, your VC making shark
Speaker 2: mogulan skills in the business world. Lendsy, I wish you
Speaker 2: nothing but the best. Thank you so much for coming
Speaker 2: and talking to me.
Speaker 1: Thanks Brandon, I appreciate it. Let's go golfing. I got
Speaker 1: a hole in one last time we were together, so
Speaker 1: maybe we'll make it.
Speaker 2: I mean, I must be good luck, I think, so
Speaker 2: let's get it. Let's get it done, all right.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Lendsy.
Speaker 2: I'm so stoked you came on. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It was great to see you again, even if you
Speaker 2: don't remember meeting me the first time. But I get it.
Speaker 2: You made a hole in one and that I'm sure
Speaker 2: caused you. No shortage of celebration between that, your hole
Speaker 2: in one, your foundation, your businesses, you being a damn delight.
Speaker 2: You simply cannot be stopped, it seems, so. My best
Speaker 2: of luck in everything that you have in the future. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: this podcast does have to be stopped right now because
Speaker 2: we're done. But don't worry, only until next week when
Speaker 2: we're going to be back with another guest who I
Speaker 2: am sure will captivate and delight you. So until then,
Speaker 2: Now long everyone, and have a really good week. Off
Speaker 2: the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 2: alongside our executive producer Linglee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Speaker 2: Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.
Speaker 2: Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern
Speaker 2: is Thomas Olsen. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed
Speaker 2: by the one and only Creed Braden