Speaker 1: I didn't have a chance to meet you the other night,
Speaker 1: and I saw you walk into the event and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, gosh, I don't know many people here,
Speaker 1: but I'll go over and introduce myself. Wish you had.
Speaker 1: And I got stuck in a conversation. I saw you
Speaker 1: got second a conversation, and then as soon as I finished,
Speaker 1: I looked over. I was like, she's gone, durn it,
Speaker 1: dang it, we're talking about post Academy Awards parties. Did
Speaker 1: you have a great time? I did. It's definitely not
Speaker 1: my world, so I definitely just had to be super outgoing,
Speaker 1: and I like the challenge. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: who like is of that world, because the whole thing
Speaker 1: is just us as humanity, Like we're all pretending. I
Speaker 1: sure wish we've seen each other to say hello, because
Speaker 1: it really is. It's like that is just what that
Speaker 1: party is. Running into interesting people and having an excuse
Speaker 1: to have a conversation. That's how I look at it.
Speaker 1: I go up to people I would never go up to,
Speaker 1: and I'm always in workout clothes and snowboard clothes. It's
Speaker 1: nice to get dressed up. Hello, I'm Mini driver. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Questions Season two. I've always loved Cruce's questionnaire.
Speaker 1: It was originally a nineteenth century parlor game where players
Speaker 1: would ask each other thirty five questions aimed at revealing
Speaker 1: the other player's true nature. It's just the scientific method, really.
Speaker 1: In asking different people the same set of questions, you
Speaker 1: can make observations about which truths appeared to be universal.
Speaker 1: I love this discipline, and it made me wonder, what
Speaker 1: if these questions were just the jumping off point, what
Speaker 1: greater depths would be revealed if I asked these questions
Speaker 1: as conversation starters with thought leaders and trailblazers across all
Speaker 1: these different disciplines. So I adapted Prue's questionnaire and I
Speaker 1: wrote my own seven questions that I personally think a
Speaker 1: pertinent to a person's story. They are when and where
Speaker 1: were you happiest? What is the quality you like least
Speaker 1: about yourself? What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you?
Speaker 1: What question would you most like answered, What person, place,
Speaker 1: or experience has shaped you the most? What would be
Speaker 1: your last meal? And can you tell me something in
Speaker 1: your life that's grown out of a personal disaster? And
Speaker 1: I've gathered a group of really remarkable people, ones that
Speaker 1: I am honored and humbled to have had the chance
Speaker 1: to engage with. You may not hear their answers to
Speaker 1: all seven of these questions. We've whittled it down to
Speaker 1: which questions felt closest to their experience, or the most surprising,
Speaker 1: or created the most fertile ground to connect. My guest
Speaker 1: today on many questions is the extraordinary Olympian Lindsay Jacobellis.
Speaker 1: Lindsay is the most decorated female snowboard cross athlete of
Speaker 1: all time. She's dominated the sport for almost two decades
Speaker 1: as a five time World champion and ten times X
Speaker 1: Games champion. In two thousands six, she debuted at the
Speaker 1: Winter Olympics and she won the silver, but it would
Speaker 1: take sixteen years until she would finally and triumphantly win
Speaker 1: the gold medal for snowboard cross this year's Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1: So what relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you?
Speaker 1: This took me a bit, but I was thinking Goldie
Speaker 1: Han and Kurt Russell. I feel like they've been together
Speaker 1: for so long, and they've been working within the industry.
Speaker 1: They've worked together, and when I'm looking for someone that
Speaker 1: I want to spend the rest of my life with
Speaker 1: I want to be able to grow with that person,
Speaker 1: not just as an individual with that person, and I
Speaker 1: feel that they've done that. I'm also huge fans of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that's pretty awesome. Do you think that is
Speaker 1: then the kind of corner stone of your idea of
Speaker 1: love is being able to evolve with someone? Absolutely? I
Speaker 1: really want to always be improving myself, and you can
Speaker 1: easily look at me as an athlete. I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to get better faster. On course, I want that to
Speaker 1: translate over to me in my being learning about me
Speaker 1: and being the best version of myself and having somebody
Speaker 1: else find great qualities in myself as well as just
Speaker 1: learning where we can go together as a couple. Do
Speaker 1: you think it's longevity as well? I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if your parents are still married or if that
Speaker 1: was like reflected in your life, Like the idea of
Speaker 1: being together when you're young and like making that journey
Speaker 1: all the way through to hopefully old age. Is that
Speaker 1: something that you again, like that is important to you,
Speaker 1: that the idea that it could span a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of different realities. I think that isn't very important. And
Speaker 1: I do look at my parents as you know, starting
Speaker 1: point in that, because you grow so much in your
Speaker 1: twenties and your thirties and your forties, and so I
Speaker 1: would imagine it would be very challenging to be growing
Speaker 1: with people as they change. But my parents have now
Speaker 1: been together for I want to say, forty five years,
Speaker 1: so I've definitely seen their challenges, their setbacks, but their triumphs,
Speaker 1: and and you know how they still are with each other,
Speaker 1: and it's really nice to go back home and visit
Speaker 1: them and connect with the whole family. I like that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of grandmother into you. It's like that idea.
Speaker 1: And then you can see that reflected in Goldie Horn
Speaker 1: and Kurt Russell because I feel exactly the same way,
Speaker 1: except my parents weren't together, but I still want to
Speaker 1: be like Goldie Horn and Kurt Russell, which means they transcend,
Speaker 1: you know, any kind of division. I think they represent
Speaker 1: something really cool too. You're right in their movies as well,
Speaker 1: particularly Overboard right. That is my favorite one, actually mine too.
Speaker 1: I mean Goldie Horn in Anything but Yeah, she was
Speaker 1: amazing that one. My mom and I always quote that
Speaker 1: one whenever one of us is either in the kitchen
Speaker 1: or we just see that they're kind of like stuck
Speaker 1: in a rhythm or not paying attention. We'll just throw
Speaker 1: out a quote so then we immediately get a smile
Speaker 1: on each other's face. So she was extraordinarily funny, like
Speaker 1: her comedic timing from everything. There's a movie that she
Speaker 1: made called The Duchess in the Dirt Water Fox with
Speaker 1: George Siegel. That was my father's favorite film, and it's
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorite films. I strongly suggest
Speaker 1: that you give it a watch. Okay, can't wait. I'm
Speaker 1: constantly recommending it to people. It's really funny. It might
Speaker 1: just because my dad loved it that I love it,
Speaker 1: but it's not. It's because she's really funny. Where and
Speaker 1: when were you happiest? I would say it comes in
Speaker 1: this cycle. After a season of constantly being on the road.
Speaker 1: You're tired, you've been drained from competition and travel, you've
Speaker 1: been winning gold medals at the Olympics. It's the best
Speaker 1: to just finally come home and be in my hometown,
Speaker 1: but then go down to the beach, have my dog
Speaker 1: and just soak up the sun and reset. And I
Speaker 1: could do that for like a few weeks, and then
Speaker 1: it energizes me to get back into my training programs
Speaker 1: and gets me fired up again. Yeah, I think it's true.
Speaker 1: It's like after you've really pushed yourself home just is
Speaker 1: ten times sweet. Oh yeah, And how long do you
Speaker 1: get to do that full? Um? Well, it varies. And
Speaker 1: the last two years have definitely been very different with
Speaker 1: our travel schedule because our team was staying in tighter
Speaker 1: little travel bubbles, so we weren't really interacting with our
Speaker 1: entire team just in case somebody got sick. It would
Speaker 1: only shut down our little immediate bubble instead of taking
Speaker 1: down maybe the whole team and letting everyone not be
Speaker 1: able to compete. And it was just a little stressful
Speaker 1: to be traveling back and forth so often because it
Speaker 1: did increase your risk of exposure. So we would stay
Speaker 1: in Europe for longer cycles of time, even in between events,
Speaker 1: because then we could really hone ourselves in. So the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, I went six months without actually
Speaker 1: being back home in my place in California. If I
Speaker 1: had time, I'd go to my parents house on the
Speaker 1: East Coast, just because I hadn't seen them in such
Speaker 1: a long time, and I'd have a good way to
Speaker 1: isolate in their basement to make sure I wasn't bringing
Speaker 1: any germs back to them, and then I could integrate
Speaker 1: myself into the family right before I had to leave again.
Speaker 1: Do you think that because of what you do, because
Speaker 1: you compete at such a high level and there's clearly
Speaker 1: more stress than I think a regular human being could consider. Also,
Speaker 1: it's quite dangerous what you're doing. Do you think that
Speaker 1: the pressure ization that happiness is so much tied into
Speaker 1: all of that stuff being released, and that it's being
Speaker 1: released from the sort of high octane nature of what
Speaker 1: you do. I think you have a lot of that
Speaker 1: really dialed in what you said, because there is so
Speaker 1: much intensity, there is so much time and pressure and
Speaker 1: work that goes into it. Having that time to really
Speaker 1: relax and decompress, even if it's for a couple of days,
Speaker 1: really just helps mentally set everything back. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: can agree. Any time that you're on set and you're
Speaker 1: doing a string of hours or weeks to get something
Speaker 1: finalized to get home, you're just like, Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: I have to and you see the list of everything
Speaker 1: you have to do next week, and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll look at that tomorrow. I just need to shut down.
Speaker 1: And it's the same thing. It's your body and your
Speaker 1: mind are running on such a high level it's not
Speaker 1: sustainable for long periods of time. So you have to
Speaker 1: give yourself that. And that could translate over really to
Speaker 1: anything and anyone that's really focusing on something at a
Speaker 1: high intensity. It has to be released after some time.
Speaker 1: It makes me think about that being two different types
Speaker 1: of happiness, like that, the happiness that is to do
Speaker 1: with release and relaxation and recalibration, and happiness that is
Speaker 1: to do with excitement, adrenaline challenge. I mean, they obviously
Speaker 1: like augment the other, but I feel like I have
Speaker 1: two different types of happiness that exists in my life.
Speaker 1: And it was funny when you sent the questions. They
Speaker 1: seem like pretty simple questions, but you're like, when and
Speaker 1: where are you the happiest. I'm like, well, currently, right now,
Speaker 1: I'm finally home, and I'm feeling so happy that I'm home.
Speaker 1: I'm spring cleaning, ripping everything out of my closet I
Speaker 1: don't need. And then when I'm on the mountain, it
Speaker 1: could be a blue bird day or I'm getting powder runs,
Speaker 1: or I'm training, or I'm winning an event. There's so
Speaker 1: many different categories. But currently right now that I'm finally home,
Speaker 1: is a very very happy end zone that I'm in.
Speaker 1: Is it absolutely incredible being on that podium getting a
Speaker 1: gold medal? Is it as extraordinary as I imagine it is?
Speaker 1: Do you feel like a queen? You know, it's so
Speaker 1: weird because I always imagined what i'd feel like, and
Speaker 1: I imagined, oh, this is how I will act, and
Speaker 1: this is how I'll stand. And then I got up
Speaker 1: there and I rose. I was like, I'm blinking all
Speaker 1: the words. Um, you know, I know my national anthem,
Speaker 1: and I just literally just was in a state of shock.
Speaker 1: I've been on the podium multiple times. I heard nationally
Speaker 1: at the multiple times, and I felt like I just
Speaker 1: zoned out, and I was just I'll stare at the flag,
Speaker 1: I'll smile, but I think I was a statue for
Speaker 1: most of the time. And then I have goose bumps,
Speaker 1: and then you know, it was like that like Will Ferrell,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know what to do with my hands.
Speaker 1: It just I feel so awkward. And then I see
Speaker 1: everyone down at the bottom waving and then I'm like,
Speaker 1: snap out of it. I'm like, oh hi, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can wave to you, I can interact with you. It
Speaker 1: was such an interesting mix of emotions. Part of you
Speaker 1: can't believe that it's happening. Part of you has this
Speaker 1: excitement that you've been working for this for this many years.
Speaker 1: I just like some moments I started to like tear up,
Speaker 1: and then it shut down. It's like you get your
Speaker 1: composure back. So it's like my body didn't know how
Speaker 1: to process the emotions and it was trying to do
Speaker 1: it all at once, and then nothing happened. It is
Speaker 1: kind of an extraordinary thing, like the realization of a dream,
Speaker 1: like to be awake and present for that something that
Speaker 1: you've worked for your entire life. Like, it's a stunning,
Speaker 1: rarified experience, which is why I'm fascinated to us. And
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm glad. I'm glad that there is really
Speaker 1: actually only a human reaction, which is what do I
Speaker 1: do with my hands? Yeah? I was just you think
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my gosh, is my collar not folded? Right?
Speaker 1: Am I going to get in trouble? Is the where's
Speaker 1: the flag? Where am I? Looking? Like? There's so many
Speaker 1: things because it's orchestrated and you're walked out and they
Speaker 1: have so much coordination and everything. You're like, am I
Speaker 1: gonna walk the wrong way? I just follow this girl.
Speaker 1: I keep a good distance because it is TV. It's
Speaker 1: very orchestrated, and they wanted to look a certain way.
Speaker 1: So it's uniform every time when every metal is being done,
Speaker 1: because usually every day there's several metal ceremonies happening. And
Speaker 1: you know, they started like I know, seven to nine
Speaker 1: or something, and you're cute up and you're waiting in
Speaker 1: the green room and they put you on a bench
Speaker 1: and they're like, okay, you're next in line, so you'll
Speaker 1: sit on this bench and then you're gonna be going.
Speaker 1: It's so TV. It's like, don't let your everything that
Speaker 1: you've been working for your entire life get in the
Speaker 1: way of our schedule. Oh, it's a lot of hurry
Speaker 1: up and wait. Absolutely, they're like, get here at six.
Speaker 1: You don't go on till eight thirty. You're like, wait, what,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's so funny, this amazing moment in
Speaker 1: your life. And it's like, no, it's got to be
Speaker 1: on schedule, and no, it's nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: country that you're in. It's actually just to do with
Speaker 1: the way that television works, which is it thinks that
Speaker 1: it is the emperor of everything. Yes, absolutely, even the
Speaker 1: ceremonies afterwards in the interviews, you know, we went to
Speaker 1: a little green room and we were doing all of
Speaker 1: our post heap and race interviews on zoom, so we
Speaker 1: just went from one to the next to the next,
Speaker 1: and they're like, you have to be here for a
Speaker 1: couple of hours, but oh no, this interview only starts
Speaker 1: like in another fifteen minutes, so you have some time.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, okay. So it's a whole new world
Speaker 1: when you add the Olympic name, because that brings on
Speaker 1: a whole new level of media, right, which we never
Speaker 1: ever see only in every four year cycle. Wow, why
Speaker 1: you got four years to recover taking one year at
Speaker 1: a time. So what question which you most like onset? Well,
Speaker 1: we ever not have to rely on fossil fuels for
Speaker 1: energy being a snowboarder, and for the last plus years,
Speaker 1: I have seen our seasons become shorter, and certain years
Speaker 1: we still have really really great snow but then we
Speaker 1: just have several seasons back to back that we're not
Speaker 1: seeing the snow line. Saucepay is a place we always
Speaker 1: go in Switzerland for early season training in October, and
Speaker 1: I remember a lot of the times the glacier being
Speaker 1: able to come so much further down at same time
Speaker 1: of year, And every year it has gone up and
Speaker 1: up and up, and if you're looking at it from
Speaker 1: a year to year basis, you might not notice it.
Speaker 1: But since I started going there when I was seventeen,
Speaker 1: it is a drastic difference. So trying to see what
Speaker 1: I can do personally to reduce my carbon footprint being
Speaker 1: in the world we're in right now. But I remember,
Speaker 1: I remember when I was in high school and on
Speaker 1: the National Geographic cover they had the car are that
Speaker 1: was hydrogen fueled, and that was very very long time ago,
Speaker 1: and we still haven't really seen that come out yet
Speaker 1: where it's hydrogen and the biproduct is water. And I
Speaker 1: know that the science is there, and I just want
Speaker 1: to see that science become more readily available to the masses.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, clearly the
Speaker 1: electric car was available a lot sooner, yes, but still
Speaker 1: the price point is still very high on some of
Speaker 1: those vehicles. The price point but also like the lobbyists,
Speaker 1: like in the United States, Like, how do you ever
Speaker 1: get around special interest groups? It's like they don't live
Speaker 1: in the same world we live in, As if their
Speaker 1: children and grandchildren and children are somehow going to be
Speaker 1: immune to the money that they think they have to
Speaker 1: make now the power that they have to maintain, particularly
Speaker 1: in oil and gas, as if their children are not
Speaker 1: going to suffer as a result. It's really strange, this disconnect.
Speaker 1: The thing is, we know it's not irreversible. It's just
Speaker 1: enough people decide ding and enough people going well. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's tricky turning infrastructure around, but what's trickier like creating
Speaker 1: a new infrastructure and changing the way that you live
Speaker 1: your life or they're not being life at all. It's
Speaker 1: a hard balance and it's it's definitely been an uphill
Speaker 1: battle for sure. And you just try to think within
Speaker 1: your day to day life, you know, how can you
Speaker 1: reduce your energy consumption and your waste and you try
Speaker 1: to do the best you can. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: exactly it. You've got to hope that the corporations that
Speaker 1: are really the ones that are pumping the fossil fuels,
Speaker 1: we can do what we can do. We can eat
Speaker 1: less meat, we can take care of our footprint, maybe
Speaker 1: travel less. It's really hard, though, God, it must be
Speaker 1: extraordinary literally to have seen a glacier recede like that.
Speaker 1: You have watched that over the last twenty years. To
Speaker 1: see that happen, it must be shocking. And you see
Speaker 1: so many pictures earlier on, even way earlier on, of
Speaker 1: that town and where the glacier comes down to. So
Speaker 1: that's just one location that I've noticed it. So I
Speaker 1: would love of my children to be able to skiing,
Speaker 1: snowboard and to be able to have fun on the slopes,
Speaker 1: and not only have it for a couple of months
Speaker 1: of the year, but have those true winters. I hope
Speaker 1: that's still possible for me too. In your life, can
Speaker 1: you tell me about something that has grown out of
Speaker 1: a personal disaster. Well, my obvious one is from two
Speaker 1: thousand and six when I fell and I came up
Speaker 1: short and had to wait sixteen years to finally get
Speaker 1: my gold. But then I'd also say I believe it
Speaker 1: was in My family shared a house in Stratton with
Speaker 1: two other families, and it was our little weekend get
Speaker 1: away that my dad's two buddies from high school and
Speaker 1: now their kids, and we would all go up there
Speaker 1: and kind of just cram into this house Stratton as well.
Speaker 1: It's on a mountain, ya Stratton Mountain, Vermont. Yes, it
Speaker 1: was right at the bottom of the access road, and
Speaker 1: it was just this great time that all of the
Speaker 1: could come together and be with everyone's friends and then
Speaker 1: all of their kids. But that house burnt down. It
Speaker 1: was a chimney fire. Nobody was at the house at
Speaker 1: the time, which was really really good, but it was
Speaker 1: a house that was built in the sixties and the
Speaker 1: structure of the house was actually built into the chimney,
Speaker 1: which is obviously not to code nowadays, but it was
Speaker 1: actually what created the problem because it technically wasn't a
Speaker 1: chimney fire, but since there was exposed beams that kind
Speaker 1: of came up into the chimney area that it was
Speaker 1: still hot enough from having a fire there the night before,
Speaker 1: kind of just caught and we lost all of our
Speaker 1: you know, very first memories of skiing in snowboarding that
Speaker 1: we couldn't replace. Um. Stratton Mountain did have a great
Speaker 1: backlog of all the photos that we've ever purchased from them,
Speaker 1: and they gave them all to us. Because it's such
Speaker 1: a small community. They all felt horrible that that happened.
Speaker 1: So Stratton gave us all the photos we've ever taken
Speaker 1: that had on file. The local shops helped re outfit
Speaker 1: my brother and myself, and at that time we were
Speaker 1: waiting for the insurance money to come in. So my
Speaker 1: dad's like, you, look, we can't afford to buy our
Speaker 1: skis and our snowboards. You have to pick one, and
Speaker 1: I chose snowboarding, and in that moment, that next weekend,
Speaker 1: we're picking up all of our equipment that Mountain Riders
Speaker 1: gave us, and I won this little Friday night border
Speaker 1: cross race that was at the base of Stratton that
Speaker 1: they build every Friday, and it got me noticed by
Speaker 1: a coach in Kaglin at Stratton Mountain School and he
Speaker 1: was like, wow, you're really good. You should come race
Speaker 1: with us. This weekend we're doing like a g S
Speaker 1: race at the neighboring mountain Bromley, and I had won
Speaker 1: that race as well for my age group, and he's like,
Speaker 1: you're pretty good at this. You should consider going to
Speaker 1: Stratton Mountain School, which is an academy for skiers snowboarders
Speaker 1: and Nordic skiers to help them balance their academics and
Speaker 1: athletics while letting them pursue and see how far they
Speaker 1: could take their athletics. So it was a weird string
Speaker 1: of events that lined me up to being found by
Speaker 1: a coach to go to Stratton School and two thousand three,
Speaker 1: when I graduated high school, that's when border cross was
Speaker 1: put into the Olympics. So it's just crazy because it's
Speaker 1: always timing, and it's just with everything in life, how
Speaker 1: things come together, and it's just not a blueprint that
Speaker 1: you could just follow and that where you're going to
Speaker 1: end up, that's what you're going to have as a result.
Speaker 1: This was just such a crazy circumstance that was so
Speaker 1: hard on all three families that were involved. It was
Speaker 1: just very sad to lose so much and something great
Speaker 1: came out of it. You couldn't see it right then
Speaker 1: and there, but if you trace it back to that moment,
Speaker 1: what if I'd pick skiing. It's kind of crazy to
Speaker 1: look at it that way. Wow, that is an amazing story.
Speaker 1: I think it's absolutely brilliant and that is really the
Speaker 1: philosophy that I would stand by most which is purely observation,
Speaker 1: which is that ship not working out. Is stuff working out,
Speaker 1: It's just not on our timeline often and it's not
Speaker 1: how we thought it was going to look right, But
Speaker 1: what an amazing story and how great something so profound
Speaker 1: grew and you still had to fight for it. It's
Speaker 1: not like it was given, but the nascent point, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: What would be your last meal? I'd have to say,
Speaker 1: I love Mexican food, and I went a very very
Speaker 1: very long time living in Europe and not being able
Speaker 1: to have the traditional nection food or a California derivative
Speaker 1: of Mexican style food. Just there's this great place not
Speaker 1: too far from me, Santra's Tacos, and I've almost eaten
Speaker 1: there every meal since I've been home, because I'm just
Speaker 1: backlogging all the times I've missed it. It's it's so
Speaker 1: so delicious. Well, if you're ever in London, I can
Speaker 1: tell you I've found the place. It's called Tak Area,
Speaker 1: and having becoming obsessed and obviously eating a lot of
Speaker 1: Mexican food because I'm a California native now living here
Speaker 1: for twenty six years, that place proper stone ground, handmade
Speaker 1: tortias like amazing, amazing food when you're in London. Not
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of snow in London though, but
Speaker 1: you never know. You might be on your way through
Speaker 1: from somewhere. Yes, that, or I need to just make
Speaker 1: some side trips that don't involve snow that I'm not
Speaker 1: dragging two pounds of snow. War's equipments and just stuff,
Speaker 1: just a quick, little, tiny little wheel bag. Like how
Speaker 1: fast I can put through the airport with just my
Speaker 1: little carry on. So I'm just here for tacos. The
Speaker 1: amount just here for the dakas. Is it really specific
Speaker 1: like you're diet when you're training and racing. Is it
Speaker 1: really stringent so that you don't get to eat things
Speaker 1: that you necessarily love or do you get to eat
Speaker 1: pretty much whatever you want because you're burning so much.
Speaker 1: My sport isn't necessarily as strict as others. Maybe a
Speaker 1: Nordic skier or Nordic jumper, they have to be super
Speaker 1: picky and be waiting their stuff because they want to
Speaker 1: be as light as possible. My sport actually does help
Speaker 1: to have extra weight and going into Beijing, you know,
Speaker 1: in the last month or so, I definitely was trying
Speaker 1: to just consume as many calories as possible. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: have fun? Is that for now? What I'm trying to
Speaker 1: lean out? But it was so cold in Beijing, so
Speaker 1: you want to make sure you have enough energy that
Speaker 1: in storage that you can be burning to help keep
Speaker 1: you warm, but also that you're not depleting your muscles
Speaker 1: of the needed nutrients. So then your body starts feeding
Speaker 1: off of your muscles and breaking your muscles down to
Speaker 1: keep all systems running. Well. Kind of thing would you
Speaker 1: eat you wake up in the morning freezing cold? Would
Speaker 1: you eat sort of lunch for breakfast? What did that
Speaker 1: look like? Well, in Beijing specifically, i would go to
Speaker 1: the USA house that was right there, and I'd have
Speaker 1: some noodles just to get some great hard base, and
Speaker 1: then I'd go over to the dining hall with my
Speaker 1: little Chilulu packets keep with you, and I'd get a
Speaker 1: bunch of Frida eggs or scrambled eggs, just so then
Speaker 1: I'm getting back protein and coffee and some either a
Speaker 1: bagel or a croissant. I'm very much liking that your
Speaker 1: breakfast involves going to two separate restaurants. That sounds like
Speaker 1: my kind of breakfast breakfast one check, little travel breakfast
Speaker 1: to check, and then we'd have snacks up on the hill,
Speaker 1: just because it just helps keep your sugars elevated enough
Speaker 1: and you don't get into this lethargic state. And it
Speaker 1: also just helps keep you know, you're just awareness of
Speaker 1: if you're having that just like little hit a sugar,
Speaker 1: whether it's just like a sneaker's bar or a gel pack.
Speaker 1: It's just something to help you hyper focus because you
Speaker 1: don't want to be shutting down when you're trying to
Speaker 1: execute and go down a course. You only need to
Speaker 1: be focusing for a couple of minutes, but you want
Speaker 1: all of those minutes really really focused. And then afterwards,
Speaker 1: you know, after you workout, it's probably the most important
Speaker 1: to within thirty minutes to an hour getting some protein
Speaker 1: in your system, whether it is a protein shake or
Speaker 1: sitting down and having a meal. But then also then
Speaker 1: sleep is probably the most important, which sleeps the other food. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just it helps everything reboot, recharge. But I'm definitely not
Speaker 1: as strict as certain other sports. Other sports take for instance,
Speaker 1: bob sled, especially the women's bob sled. They have to
Speaker 1: weigh the sled then they have to weigh the two
Speaker 1: individuals and all of those together can't go over certain weight.
Speaker 1: So together those girls are trying to balance up, which
Speaker 1: I go insane. Yeah, me too. To come to be
Speaker 1: like up three pounds down down ten pounds like that
Speaker 1: seems like a nightmare to me. So I'm very happy
Speaker 1: that my sport hasn't had that involved. Yeah, yours has
Speaker 1: two restaurants for breakfast. I mean, I definitely I love you,
Speaker 1: Bob Sled love you, But yeah, teen snowboarding. In your life,
Speaker 1: what person, place, or experience has most altered it? I
Speaker 1: would say my brother is a big influence in how
Speaker 1: I became an athlete. My brother Ben is five years
Speaker 1: older than me. We grew up in Connecticut in a
Speaker 1: little town, Roxbury. We're basically in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 1: so if we're wanting to be playing outside, our mom
Speaker 1: and dad couldn't exactly always drive us to a friend's
Speaker 1: house or vice versa. So we had to learn how
Speaker 1: to interact and tolerate each other as brother and sister,
Speaker 1: and especially having a five year younger sister. I'm sure
Speaker 1: my brother had to put up with a lot, he
Speaker 1: had to have the patience. But you know, he was
Speaker 1: always pushing me to be fearless and to be aggressive
Speaker 1: and fast. I remember he was the one that taught
Speaker 1: me to ride my bike without the training wheels when
Speaker 1: my dad was at work and you know, my mom's
Speaker 1: inside cooking preparing food, and you know, he just let
Speaker 1: me off on the driveway and he's like, if you
Speaker 1: start going too fast, you can veer off onto the
Speaker 1: grass and tip over and you'll be fine. But I
Speaker 1: do remember that moment of him tak him off. I'm
Speaker 1: not even sure my parents knew that we were taking
Speaker 1: off the training wheels or if we were even allowed
Speaker 1: to do that, but he pushed me to do that.
Speaker 1: And he was assistant code for you know, my t
Speaker 1: ball and little league games, so he's always hitting ground
Speaker 1: balls and fly balls to help practice. And then that
Speaker 1: also translated into my snowboarding career. He was the first
Speaker 1: person in our family to try snowboarding, and naturally, when
Speaker 1: I saw how much fun my brother was having, I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I have to do this. My brother
Speaker 1: is doing this, I have to do this. And you know,
Speaker 1: he taught me how to turn and link my turns,
Speaker 1: and I was constantly always trying to chase him and
Speaker 1: catch him going down the hill because he was always
Speaker 1: the fastest on skis on snowboards, so he definitely instilled
Speaker 1: that you can always go faster if you ride with
Speaker 1: the guys, they're gonna make you the best and you
Speaker 1: push your own levels. Oh my god, he was the
Speaker 1: catalyst for all of that. That's amazing. God, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: That's so extraordinary when you think particularly a five year difference.
Speaker 1: So when he is seven, he was twelve, right when
Speaker 1: it would be super annoying to have a little seven
Speaker 1: year old running around after you, right when you're just
Speaker 1: starting to need to be cool, and then thirdeen in
Speaker 1: an eight year old, it's really amazing. That's like, it
Speaker 1: really feels like there's It's what makes me believe in
Speaker 1: like some sort of comic agreement that exists that kind
Speaker 1: of predates our lives, because you really can trace the
Speaker 1: catalyst of everything that you've gone on to do. Like
Speaker 1: to say he was the trailblazer. Yes, I can think
Speaker 1: of so many moments. We have the snow in the
Speaker 1: backyard and he's designing the sledding track and we're not
Speaker 1: just going to go casual sledding, and we're shaping and
Speaker 1: icing with you know, water and letting it set overnight,
Speaker 1: so then it's that much faster. Oh my god. He
Speaker 1: always brought it to the extreme, but that just seemed
Speaker 1: normal to me. I'm like, yeah, okay, like I'll help
Speaker 1: haul buckets of water her, we'll sprinkle it on, we'll
Speaker 1: let it set, we'll hit this tomorrow. And our mom's
Speaker 1: just like these were helmets. Oh my god. Was he
Speaker 1: there in Beijing when you got the gold medal? No, well,
Speaker 1: family really wasn't able to travel. You were allowed, of course,
Speaker 1: of course, because of course, but my cousin who's younger,
Speaker 1: who has a very similar dynamic with her older brother,
Speaker 1: so we share those like younger sibling vibes and energy
Speaker 1: and were very similar. She actually worked for NBC Connecticut
Speaker 1: and so she was there on a media pass, so
Speaker 1: she actually was at my EVENTU I didn't know she
Speaker 1: was actually going to be there because she was down
Speaker 1: in Beijing and we were up in the village. But
Speaker 1: she applied to go up there to report, but they
Speaker 1: didn't tell her until the morning of so I didn't know.
Speaker 1: And then when I came down and I finished and
Speaker 1: I looked and she was there. I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, so someone in my family did get to
Speaker 1: experience that firsthand with me. How lovely that you did
Speaker 1: have family there. Oh my god, your brother must have
Speaker 1: spend beside himself. And they have the opportunity for NBC
Speaker 1: to be putting cameras in our family's home to be
Speaker 1: watching them or have like a watch party. And my parents,
Speaker 1: I know, get so stressed watching me. They handle it
Speaker 1: very differently. My mom will be sitting on the phone
Speaker 1: with her sister giving her the play by play of
Speaker 1: my race, but she can't watch the race. And then
Speaker 1: my dad will be in a different room actually watching
Speaker 1: the race. Who's on the phone with my brother who's
Speaker 1: in Boston, who's watching the race, but they have a
Speaker 1: slight delay in time. They're like, what's happening, Like I
Speaker 1: can't tell you, Like, oh my gosh, it was really
Speaker 1: really cool. And then they have now a young niece
Speaker 1: and a nephew, my brother's kids. It's just so fun
Speaker 1: to be able to bring that world and that reality
Speaker 1: to them. And she's watching the replay of me race
Speaker 1: that next day, and there's the moment I turned and
Speaker 1: looked to the camera and just like wave to everyone.
Speaker 1: And she looks at my brother. She's like, wait, can
Speaker 1: she see us? It was the cutest thing ever. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, you're amazing. I mean, thank you. You're like
Speaker 1: the most decorated female snowboarder cross. I mean, it's ridiculous,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. It's funny because I'm sitting here. You're charming me.
Speaker 1: But I'm wiggling just looking at you. That so exciting.
Speaker 1: It's such a privilege. It's so amazing. I'm so thrilled
Speaker 1: about your life. I don't even know you. It's so cool,
Speaker 1: it's so great. I hope you enjoy every second of
Speaker 1: it's so bloody deserved. You've worked so hard. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. And I do hope we get to go
Speaker 1: for a serf. I love it. For more from Lindsay,
Speaker 1: you can read her new children's book, soci a True Story.
Speaker 1: The book tells the adorable true story of a straight
Speaker 1: puppy finding Lindsay at the two thousand and fourteen Olympic Games.
Speaker 1: The two became inseparable, and Lindsay adopted Sochi and brought
Speaker 1: him back to the United States. The book is self
Speaker 1: published and can be purchased on Amazon. Many questions is
Speaker 1: hosted and written by Me Mini Driver, Supervising producer Aaron Kaufman,
Speaker 1: Producer Morgan Lavoy, Research assistant Marissa Brown. Original music Sorry
Speaker 1: Baby by Mini Driver, Additional music by Aaron Kaufman. Executive
Speaker 1: produced by Me Minni Driver. Special thanks to Jim Nikolay,
Speaker 1: Will Pearson, Addison No Day, Lisa Castella and Annique Oppenheim
Speaker 1: at w kPr, de La Pescador, Kate Driver and Jason Weinberg,
Speaker 1: and for constantly solicited tech support, Henry Driver,