Speaker 1: Hey, folks, an American woman sets a teen USA record
Speaker 1: in Paris. They give her her medal, and then they
Speaker 1: give her an invoice for five hundred and sixty five dollars.
Speaker 1: Welcome to this special episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. Now,
Speaker 1: I think I described that correctly. The voice was not
Speaker 1: for the metal, but for something else that Haley Badden
Speaker 1: did in the race.
Speaker 2: Yes, apparently she went mistakenly through a lane that was
Speaker 2: dedicated for taking on food or drink or having some
Speaker 2: sort of mechanical issue. So the judges reviewed the footage
Speaker 2: and saw that even though she went down the lane,
Speaker 2: she didn't eat anything and she didn't fix anything, so
Speaker 2: she was fine.
Speaker 3: So the thank goodness, she wasn't disqualified.
Speaker 1: She went and I didn't really we were learning so
Speaker 1: much about rules of a lot of these sports, and
Speaker 1: in this mountain racing, mountain bike racing, the race that
Speaker 1: she was in, Yes, you could be disqualified for some
Speaker 1: like that. So we've been talking about dramas and points
Speaker 1: and scoring and protests. It was happening in mountain bike
Speaker 1: and even though it didn't get as much attention, it
Speaker 1: was going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know what we should ask the young
Speaker 2: woman who actually won the silver medal, Haley Batten, twenty
Speaker 2: five years old, and congratulations Haley.
Speaker 3: You're coming to us from Spain.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, I'm in Gerona, Spain right now, preparing for
Speaker 4: World Championships.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, help us understand this? You preparing for You
Speaker 1: should have been preparing for the Olympics the past four years.
Speaker 1: Now you're preparing for something else already. Is this just
Speaker 1: the schedule for you? I guess world class mountain bikers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, it's crazy how you invest so many
Speaker 4: years in preparation for one day, one hour and a half.
Speaker 5: But yeah, no, pretty quickly.
Speaker 4: We still have a whole World Cup calendar and World
Speaker 4: Championships events coming up, so yeah, it's you know, we
Speaker 4: race for our factory teams as well and for you know,
Speaker 4: our nations you know at THEIST championship events. So yeah,
Speaker 4: the racing must go on for sure.
Speaker 3: I mean, it sounds like you're having fun while you're
Speaker 3: doing it.
Speaker 2: Tell me, can you tell us how you celebrated your
Speaker 2: silver metal victory and really, you know, breaking that barrier
Speaker 2: that TJ just mentioned you this was the highest ever
Speaker 2: finished for an American in this particular sport, so what
Speaker 2: an incredible feed not just a metal but a record.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 4: It's kind of crazy when you put it that way,
Speaker 4: for sure. I I mean, everything's been a whirlwind for
Speaker 4: the past week. I'd say, you know, you start the race,
Speaker 4: there's so much focus and preparation, you know, mental and
Speaker 4: physical to get to that start line and then to
Speaker 4: execute the day with you know, all the excitement, energy, so.
Speaker 5: Much going on in the race.
Speaker 4: And then you finish and pretty quickly, you know, I
Speaker 4: had awards ceremony, anti doping, you rushed off to media.
Speaker 4: You're running all over the place and it's hard to
Speaker 4: even process you know what happened when you cross the
Speaker 4: finish line.
Speaker 5: But you know, it was really cool to go to
Speaker 5: the Team USA house.
Speaker 4: I have in my family, my coach, all these people involved,
Speaker 4: and you know, the excitement around the Olympics for Team
Speaker 4: USA is huge, right, It's not just an athlete stream,
Speaker 4: but it's really a childhood dream. So there's a lot
Speaker 4: of energy and Team USA does it better than else
Speaker 4: anybody else. I really believe, like it was really really
Speaker 4: cool to be part of that.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, congratulations, you are a part of that. You
Speaker 1: add it to that metal count. So congratulations, And we
Speaker 1: were asking because it's funny, we're waiting on Haley to
Speaker 1: come back and get a Heroes welcome. You're not going
Speaker 1: to be home with that silver medal for a while,
Speaker 1: because you can on vacation. You went to Paris and
Speaker 1: now you're there. When will you actually set foot back
Speaker 1: in the US.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so probably like the first week of September actually,
Speaker 4: So I've got a home there wins month, Yeah, to
Speaker 4: prepare for World Championships in Andorra, and then right after
Speaker 4: that race, I have a couple of days to pack
Speaker 4: up my bags. I've been based here in Girona between
Speaker 4: all the races, and yeah, then I go back to
Speaker 4: Santa Cruz, California to be back with my family, which
Speaker 4: will be really nice.
Speaker 2: So nice, the silver medal can can finally come home
Speaker 2: back to the United States.
Speaker 5: It's heavy too, right, It's not easy to lug around.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's heavy, but it's it's worth the wait.
Speaker 2: Right, What was it like for you to have that
Speaker 2: moment of glory realizing you won silver? But then how
Speaker 2: quickly were you slapped with this fine and and how
Speaker 2: are you feeling about that? Were you concerned it could
Speaker 2: be an even harsher penalty. Give us a sense of
Speaker 2: what that moment was like for you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh my gosh, no, you're bringing it back for sure.
Speaker 4: I mean you cross the finish line, there's all this
Speaker 4: energy like I did it, you know, like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5: And then you're pretty quickly, you know, you finish, people
Speaker 5: are yelling at you, like to go through.
Speaker 4: Media and to get in line. You know, all these
Speaker 4: people are asking questions. So you know, first I get
Speaker 4: the media questions of oh, how is the race, like
Speaker 4: how do you feel? And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: I'm going down the line and somebody's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: you know you did this thing and the look that,
Speaker 4: and I'm like just saying, like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 4: You know, I was honestly in shock. I had no
Speaker 4: idea what was going on, and and they're like, you know,
Speaker 4: I mean a lot of it is you know, it
Speaker 4: is media. You know, they're getting excited about something, and
Speaker 4: they're definitely you know, building it up a bit. They
Speaker 4: you know, they told me people would protest, but I've
Speaker 4: talked to both Jenny and Puck, so nobody actually wanted
Speaker 4: to protest. So yeah, it was definitely a lot of
Speaker 4: slap in the face for sure after the race, and
Speaker 4: you're just like kind of shocked about like one, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm never an athlete to try and ever take a shortcut,
Speaker 4: you know, to win a race. You know, that's not
Speaker 4: who I am. That's not what I want to do.
Speaker 4: So to feel you know, one questioning, oh gosh, did
Speaker 4: I do something wrong? You know, but to still hold
Speaker 4: your head high was definitely a bit tricky. But no,
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, you know, these things
Speaker 4: happen mound bike racing. I don't This isn't my first
Speaker 4: mound bike race. I've been racing since I was like
Speaker 4: nine years old. So we do a lot of World
Speaker 4: Cup races, we have eighty year and these yeah, the
Speaker 4: rules are there.
Speaker 5: And it happens. You know, this happens a lot in racing.
Speaker 4: And the feed zone's always been like a tricky area,
Speaker 4: you know, and when you're in the heat of the race,
Speaker 4: and I think they announced that rule, you know, in
Speaker 4: the days leading up, but when you're racing, you know,
Speaker 4: you just you're in the moment you're going, you're getting
Speaker 4: from point A to point B, and no, I respect
Speaker 4: the rule and you know, I am you know, if
Speaker 4: they need to find me for it, for doing something
Speaker 4: just to keep you know, the racing, you know, in
Speaker 4: the order that it needs to be.
Speaker 5: I'll respect that and I'll take it for sure.
Speaker 1: But can you tell during the race though I think
Speaker 1: this happened on the next to last lap. You can
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong on that. But it happened.
Speaker 1: But when it happened, did you in the moment think
Speaker 1: that there was a questionable thing you had done or
Speaker 1: a rule you had broken?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: No, Like I said, I finished the race and I
Speaker 4: had no idea what they were talking about. I was like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, did I in the last lap not
Speaker 4: take a bottle or something like that? Like I said,
Speaker 4: the feed zones are They're the same way at every
Speaker 4: World's Cup. It's like this. You know, one lane is
Speaker 4: to the left, one lane to the right, and so yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean it was just I was just getting to
Speaker 4: the finish line as fast as I could.
Speaker 1: That's weird to think that that that they said there
Speaker 1: was an issue. You couldn't think of anywhere in the
Speaker 1: race where it might have even been a question. You
Speaker 1: didn't even think back to that. That's amazing that, Yeah, And.
Speaker 2: The wild thing is if you had grabbed a power
Speaker 2: bar or something like that, it wouldn't have been an issue, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if I had, if somebody had thrown something at me,
Speaker 4: it probably wouldn't have been an issue. You know. It's
Speaker 4: like a physio but like, yeah, like my physio had
Speaker 4: already gone to the finish line to give me a
Speaker 4: bottle at the finish line, so yeah, crazy, wow, Wow,
Speaker 4: it's not a mistake, right, like it is and I
Speaker 4: own that. You know, when you're in the heat of
Speaker 4: the race and you're focus on one thing, and if
Speaker 4: you know, if you you know, we take bottles every lap,
Speaker 4: but not every lap, you know, you take a bottle,
Speaker 4: you take a drink, you don't, you know, I had.
Speaker 4: I got a flat tire as well, so I had
Speaker 4: to come through. They changed my wheel and I kept going.
Speaker 4: So there's a lot going on racing and go through
Speaker 4: the feed zone twice a lap. Sometimes you take a bottle,
Speaker 4: sometimes you don't, and if you don't, you need to
Speaker 4: go around when you're with a group of people. And
Speaker 4: so I think, you know, in my head, when you're
Speaker 4: the point of the rule, right, which I absolutely respect,
Speaker 4: is when you're in a bunch race. Exciting racing, right,
Speaker 4: there's a lot happening. You need to make sure that
Speaker 4: when riders are going through the feed zone, they don't
Speaker 4: get it that they only take bottles and they don't
Speaker 4: advance in the race because of that. So when it
Speaker 4: comes to the last lap, you know when there's no
Speaker 4: nobody's drinking anymore, right, you're not taking feeds in the
Speaker 4: last lap. It's yeah, I guess you know. It just
Speaker 4: spaced my mind that I needed to grab something because
Speaker 4: we never do in the last lap.
Speaker 3: So wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: And to give people who are listening and an idea
Speaker 2: of what it is to race a mountain bike race.
Speaker 2: In the Olympics, they're twisting gravel paths, I've learned, a
Speaker 2: technical rock garden, a challenging climb. This is just under
Speaker 2: twenty miles, is that correct?
Speaker 5: Oh? Oh gosh.
Speaker 4: I don't actually know how what the total amount of
Speaker 4: mile inches, but the course is for four k yeah,
Speaker 4: and we did about I think we did eight laps
Speaker 4: of the course or maybe seven seven to eight laps.
Speaker 5: I'd have to go back to check.
Speaker 2: With Yeah, seven seven two point four mile laps, that's
Speaker 2: what I got online. But I'm talking about the expert here,
Speaker 2: but I was just trying to imagine what that is like,
Speaker 2: just to have to go through and anticipate all of
Speaker 2: that terrain.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's I mean it's really intense, right, Like the
Speaker 4: start line is also a mass start, so you race
Speaker 4: for an hour and a half and you start in
Speaker 4: the start line. At the Olympics it's only thirty eight
Speaker 4: riders I think, but at World's Cups, you know, it
Speaker 4: can be over one hundred. So you're starting lined up
Speaker 4: next to each other, eight people to a row. And
Speaker 4: in the Olympics, I was second row, right and you
Speaker 4: the We have a light panel, so it goes from
Speaker 4: from red to green, so similar like Formula one. When
Speaker 4: it turns green, you have a small pedal like this
Speaker 4: big and you have to clip your pedal on perfectly
Speaker 4: and from then you you go. And it's basically I mean,
Speaker 4: it's endurance racing, but it's also really intense. We're basically
Speaker 4: going maximal effort for an hour and a half. So
Speaker 4: there's it's really unique to train for because it's not
Speaker 4: a sprint, you know, but it's also not quite endurance pace,
Speaker 4: so you have to be the full package of fitness
Speaker 4: being able to do like high power but also sustain
Speaker 4: your effort.
Speaker 1: Haley, we're learning so much about a lot of Olympic sports,
Speaker 1: from canoeing, the skateboarding to a lot of stuff, and
Speaker 1: this is one as well. But can you explain the
Speaker 1: folks this part, how it's possible you can have a
Speaker 1: busted wheel on your bike but still end up just
Speaker 1: to have to stop and get it repaired, but still
Speaker 1: end up with a silver metal. How did this all
Speaker 1: go down?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, for sure. So I mean, like you said,
Speaker 4: our courses are pretty intense. There's steep climes, there's gravel corners,
Speaker 4: you know, but there's also these big rock gardens. So
Speaker 4: you have to be physically fit, but you also have
Speaker 4: to be very skilled and to set up your equipment
Speaker 4: right for the demands of that course. So we're always changing,
Speaker 4: you know, we're choosing our tires, we're setting up our suspension,
Speaker 4: we're choosing the type of bike that will race, dependent
Speaker 4: on you know, how big these features are and what
Speaker 4: the demands of the course are. So I had just
Speaker 4: I had a bad start off the line. I was
Speaker 4: in maybe twelfth position or so, and in this course,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean, this is very in their nitty gritty,
Speaker 4: But it depends on, you know, when you want to
Speaker 4: be forward, how you pace your race based on how
Speaker 4: soon the track becomes you know, goes from dirt road
Speaker 4: double track to single track where it's only single file
Speaker 4: and you can't pass people. So there's a lot of
Speaker 4: different elements that you're always thinking about. But I had
Speaker 4: just caught up to the chase group, which was about
Speaker 4: four to five riders really battling. First had kind of
Speaker 4: taken off, and second and third weren't far off, and
Speaker 4: I was racing with them for a while, and then
Speaker 4: I just dropped them on one of the climb and
Speaker 4: I was catching the bronze metal position at the time,
Speaker 4: and I, you know, I went over the limit a
Speaker 4: little bit. That's also a thing in mountain biking. You
Speaker 4: have to balance, you know, how hard you go up
Speaker 4: a climb, because if you do, you know, too much
Speaker 4: effort and you're a little bit tired. As you go
Speaker 4: into these rock gardens, maybe you won't choose the right
Speaker 4: line and you might make a mistake or you might crash.
Speaker 4: I didn't quite do that, but I went a little
Speaker 4: too fast on the downhill and I hit this rock
Speaker 4: super hard with my tire. I broke the wheel and
Speaker 4: I flatted, and I was lucky because I was relatively
Speaker 4: close to the feed zone. I still had to go over,
Speaker 4: you know, a couple other rock sections, but I was lucky.
Speaker 4: My mechanic saw me a switch back ahead and he
Speaker 4: could tell the way I was riding. He's like, oh,
Speaker 4: my gosh, I think she has a flat tire. And
Speaker 4: I was as I was going around one of the
Speaker 4: drops that I obviously couldn't ride with my flat tire.
Speaker 4: The two riders, Jenny Ridsbed's who ended up up getting bronze,
Speaker 4: and then my teammate from Specialized in from Austria. They
Speaker 4: both went by and Jenny actually told my feeds and
Speaker 4: my mechanic that I had a flat tire, so he
Speaker 4: was ready for me, and so when I came in,
Speaker 4: maybe I was in like sixth position or seventh position.
Speaker 4: By then he did the fastest wheel chain ever, like
Speaker 4: maybe record. I think they're just the energy and the
Speaker 4: excitement and everything.
Speaker 1: You know what, Haley, I'm curious how fast can I
Speaker 1: change a tire?
Speaker 4: I mean they're changing the full wheel right, so they
Speaker 4: remove the rear wheel, they shift it into the right gear,
Speaker 4: They remove the rear wheel, they pop a new wheel
Speaker 4: and with the tire after right my pressure that I need,
Speaker 4: and then I go and they and they try to
Speaker 4: get into the right gear too, because if it's in
Speaker 4: too big of a gear and I can't pedal right
Speaker 4: right right away, it needs to be the right gear
Speaker 4: so I can actually pedal out the right cadence and
Speaker 4: the right power right when I take off. But he
Speaker 4: did it, I think in less than twenty seconds, which is.
Speaker 3: In twenty seconds. That is crazy.
Speaker 2: So what's going through your mind now? Are you thinking
Speaker 2: my Olympic metal hopes are shattered? Are you thinking this
Speaker 2: is doable? I can go Like what's going through your
Speaker 2: head when you have a flat tire and a broken wheel?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: All of that went through my head when I first
Speaker 4: broke my you know, when I hit my wheel on
Speaker 4: the rock and I was like, oh, that didn't sound good.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a chance that that's a flat, you know,
Speaker 4: And then I could feel it going flat.
Speaker 5: When I was right, I was like, how could you lose?
Speaker 4: Like I finally moved in the metal positions, right, I'm
Speaker 4: finally battling for the metals, and I was like, how
Speaker 4: could you lose this opportunity, you know, And I'd already
Speaker 4: had a bad start, so I was, you know what
Speaker 4: what you know, this is the second time, and now
Speaker 4: you're like, how do you mess it up? You know?
Speaker 4: But you really have to switch your mentality from those
Speaker 4: thoughts and clear that's away as quickly as possible and
Speaker 4: just focus on the moment. And I will say, like
Speaker 4: after he fixed my flat, it was like I had
Speaker 4: this new energy in me, Like I went to a
Speaker 4: place that I don't think I've ever been before. I
Speaker 4: was just so I knew I was physically fit, and
Speaker 4: it was like I had nothing to lose, right, Like
Speaker 4: now I had I have nothing, or maybe I can
Speaker 4: get a medal. So I just I had no pacing
Speaker 4: to worry about. I had know I could take every
Speaker 4: risk I wanted, right. I just needed to go as
Speaker 4: hard as I could to catch you. And it was
Speaker 4: like my like I really I felt no pain. It
Speaker 4: was crazy, like I could just go so deep and
Speaker 4: I could push so hard because I wanted it so bad,
Speaker 4: and it was like all the adrenaline in my body,
Speaker 4: you know, was helping me race at my fastest. So
Speaker 4: it was crazy how quickly I caught back up into
Speaker 4: the metal positions, and then one of the riders crashed.
Speaker 4: Another rider also flatted, So yeah, it became like full
Speaker 4: sprint all the way to the finish, you know, and
Speaker 4: like now you're hearing there's so much excitement. You're you
Speaker 4: also like not just all this, but the mechanicals, the equipment.
Speaker 4: You're fueling every lap. You have to get your fueling
Speaker 4: right for how much you need to fuel for the
Speaker 4: duration of an hour and a half. And there's a
Speaker 4: lot going on in these races, right, It's not just like, oh,
Speaker 4: I went through the feed zone like sorry, guys. It's like, no, really,
Speaker 4: I was racing for a silver medal I and I'm
Speaker 4: in the moment. Everything's a blurb, right, You're just getting
Speaker 4: there to the finish line as fast as you can,
Speaker 4: and so yeah.
Speaker 5: Mistakes happen. There's a lot going on and mountain bike racing.
Speaker 1: It's so cool they hear this because this is part
Speaker 1: of what Robot and I've enjoyed in watching, because when
Speaker 1: you get a commentator on who can explain things to
Speaker 1: you because they've done it, and they're explaining technical things
Speaker 1: that maybe we didn't notice. And here I thought you
Speaker 1: were riding a bike. I thought you were just peddling
Speaker 1: and making some lefts and rights. It's so cool to
Speaker 1: hear you explain it the way you have at a
Speaker 1: bad start, went too fast down a hill and busted
Speaker 1: at tire and food zone. If you put together a
Speaker 1: good race, you might win.
Speaker 2: Right when you say you fuel, Hayley, I'm always curious
Speaker 2: because we've were nowhere near being Olympians, but we have
Speaker 2: run a few marathons and fueling's always like the issue.
Speaker 2: I never know we're training for one, right now, what do.
Speaker 5: You especially for a marathon?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: But what do you eat or drink while you're biking
Speaker 2: to have your optimum performance?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So, I mean carbohydrates are key and obviously this goes
Speaker 4: before the race start, right you're doing this for weeks,
Speaker 4: leading in every day for years. Maybe you know before, during,
Speaker 4: and after, but the key in a race in long
Speaker 4: train or you know, any training from like two to
Speaker 4: four hours. What you guys are doing a marathon that's
Speaker 4: long fueling is like in my mind, when it comes
Speaker 4: to endurance racing, that's win or lose, Like it's a
Speaker 4: game of fueling. It's not a game of fitness. It's
Speaker 4: a game of fueling. I you know, when I'm doing
Speaker 4: training rides, I'm shooting from anywhere from ninety to one
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty rams of carbohydrates.
Speaker 5: That's carbohydrates.
Speaker 4: That's not calories, right, that's looking at your your bar
Speaker 4: and looking just at carbs and being like, I need
Speaker 4: to have ninety to one hundred and twenty grams every hour.
Speaker 5: That's a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do you ever?
Speaker 2: But like here's me, I'm asking for my own personal
Speaker 2: I'm just so curious. Do you ever get ill by
Speaker 2: consuming all that? Do you ever feel like do you
Speaker 2: are these like the little power gummy thingies or the
Speaker 2: the gels?
Speaker 3: Like what is it you're putting in?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean that's such a good question because this
Speaker 4: takes years to figure out, especially for a marathon race, right,
Speaker 4: Like you need to figure out what sits, what works
Speaker 4: for you, how you're gonna maybe even preload a bit
Speaker 4: before the race, you know?
Speaker 5: And what's that saying fuel early? Fuel?
Speaker 4: Often like you always need to just like every twenty
Speaker 4: minutes be fueling. But no, it's it's years of figuring out, Okay,
Speaker 4: what works for me?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: Do I use a high you know? High carbohydrate drink mix.
Speaker 4: Does I have a next you know, enough electrolytes and
Speaker 4: salt for my sweat rate? You know, we do sweat
Speaker 4: rate testing for heat, like how hot is it going
Speaker 4: to be?
Speaker 5: You know? And then you.
Speaker 4: Also, yeah, maybe it's choos, maybe it's gels, maybe it's bars,
Speaker 4: and you know sometimes when I go on a four hour, right,
Speaker 4: it's a whole mix of all of those things, and
Speaker 4: then making sure all those things are compatible, Like you
Speaker 4: don't want to awful because you mix, yeah, too many brands, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Because if you have stomach issues, it's not it's not
Speaker 3: going to end well. It's not going to end well
Speaker 3: for you. I'm still I'm literally training for my sixth
Speaker 3: moth and I still haven't figured it out.
Speaker 1: Hailey. If you can tell she has stomach issues and
Speaker 1: she is a she is a dry heaver. So that's what.
Speaker 3: I want to know. How you figured it out years
Speaker 3: of trial and error.
Speaker 5: That makes sense for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But in a marathon, I mean you must just
Speaker 4: have to eat one what you like and also just
Speaker 4: drinking enough I can imagine and feeling they're.
Speaker 3: Not drinking too much because it can be This is
Speaker 3: like stuff I can't.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm curious how many calories? How much do you burn?
Speaker 1: How many calories can you burn in one race?
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, do you want me to.
Speaker 3: Check of chefs?
Speaker 4: I would love I could tell you, like a in
Speaker 4: a ride, In just a ride, I mean, it's pretty
Speaker 4: easy to go to twenty five hundred calory, you know,
Speaker 4: kj's or something. Yeah, so today I could tell you today,
Speaker 4: just like a two out two forty ride, I burned
Speaker 4: fifteen hundred kJ. So that's not crazy, that's not a
Speaker 4: crazy day. But in a race, I mean for sure
Speaker 4: fifteen hundred for.
Speaker 3: Sure, maybe more.
Speaker 2: And you know what, you came back from a very
Speaker 2: serious injury just last year, back in June of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, you suffered a concussion in a training crash
Speaker 2: in Austria. Coming back from something like that physically is
Speaker 2: one thing, but also mentally correct What did you have
Speaker 2: to do to I mean, the idea of crashing at
Speaker 2: the rates of speed you're going at on the kind
Speaker 2: of terrain you're writing in is frightening, to say the
Speaker 2: least mentally. How did you get past that and through it?
Speaker 5: Yeah? For sure? That was my hardest injury so far.
Speaker 4: You know, I've I've had cuts and bruises, you know,
Speaker 4: and bad crashes that are scary, but for sure concussion
Speaker 4: one hundred percent was the scariest one so far. And
Speaker 4: I think it's because it really affects your perception of reality,
Speaker 4: you know, like puts you in this like fog right
Speaker 4: or what I call like a fish bowl where you
Speaker 4: just aren't experiencing life with the clarity and joy. That
Speaker 4: is what's so great, you know about just like just
Speaker 4: daily life, you know. And that injury was really hard
Speaker 4: to because it took me a lot longer than I
Speaker 4: expected to recover. It was I think like five weeks
Speaker 4: before I could really get back to fully training again.
Speaker 4: And that was because I that when I crash, it
Speaker 4: was actually between two races, so I had done a
Speaker 4: race the day before, and then I was on training
Speaker 4: on the course to finalize some of my lines on
Speaker 4: some of the technical sections and I crashed and it
Speaker 4: wasn't even a bad crash. I didn't think I had
Speaker 4: a concussion actually, so I got up, I kept riding.
Speaker 4: I was totally fine, and I actually decided to race
Speaker 4: the next day.
Speaker 5: And that was the number one mistake.
Speaker 4: So as I've learned, like since then, is a concussion
Speaker 4: can those symptoms can develop within twenty four to forty
Speaker 4: eight hours later. And so because I played with that
Speaker 4: really crucial recovery window, you know, my blood pressure went up,
Speaker 4: my heart rate, your you know, I was having caffeine,
Speaker 4: all these things that were fully suboptimal for what I
Speaker 4: needed to do to help my brain recost, and that
Speaker 4: really affected my recovery timeline. So it took a lot
Speaker 4: longer than it needed to and it made my symptoms
Speaker 4: a lot worse. And yeah, it took me a lot
Speaker 4: longer to recover. So that was really hard, and I
Speaker 4: had a lot of amazing people supporting me and helping
Speaker 4: guide me to the right things to do, because as
Speaker 4: an athlete, it's really easy to try and get right
Speaker 4: back on the bike or you know, get back to training.
Speaker 5: Or push through, push through, push through.
Speaker 4: And I think the lessons that that injury taught me
Speaker 4: went way beyond just injury recover but has helped me
Speaker 4: a lot as an athlete since then, of learning the
Speaker 4: difference between working harder and working smarter, and being able
Speaker 4: to listen to my body and how I feel, and
Speaker 4: also just appreciating my sport even more and what I
Speaker 4: do and why I love it, because an injury like
Speaker 4: that makes you really reflect on why the heck do
Speaker 4: I do this crazy thing?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 5: Do I want to keep doing it?
Speaker 4: And just like gratitude for life and the sport that
Speaker 4: I do and how lucky I am to pursue it
Speaker 4: at a high level. So yeah, I learned a lot
Speaker 4: during that time and it was really hard.
Speaker 1: Oh well, it's good to see you. You're back, and
Speaker 1: obviously it was certainly think it's worth it, But can
Speaker 1: you tell me, because you Olympics, your your race just happened.
Speaker 1: You got out of there and you're on to the
Speaker 1: next thing. But did you get the full Olympic experience.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious about our Olympic village if you got
Speaker 1: to even hang out with a lot of other athletes.
Speaker 1: I know you all were doing your race and kind
Speaker 1: of a different spot than everybody else was in, and
Speaker 1: so just what was the experience.
Speaker 4: Like, Yeah, yeah, it was really cool because I was
Speaker 4: in Tokyo as well, and that was just not quite
Speaker 4: the same. You know, my family couldn't be there and
Speaker 4: the fans, you know, and this year, yeah, we arrived
Speaker 4: in the in the village with my teammates and we
Speaker 4: did the whole USA team processing, right, So you're getting
Speaker 4: these bags of clothes and trying everything on and getting
Speaker 4: fitted and having the support from these amazing brands, and
Speaker 4: you know, you go to the meal hall and there's
Speaker 4: so many athletes, right, it's like the dream, right an
Speaker 4: that you're walking around it. Everybody's spit and and you know,
Speaker 4: the best at what they do and just so cool,
Speaker 4: right or they're you know, you've seen them on TV,
Speaker 4: and so that whole environment's just amazing, right, And yeah,
Speaker 4: pretty quickly we went and we locked into to our
Speaker 4: venue in Ellencourt, which was not inside the village, but
Speaker 4: honestly it was okay with me.
Speaker 5: I didn't need to sleep.
Speaker 4: On the cardboard beds every night and of the village mood.
Speaker 4: So we we locked into performance for sure, and that's
Speaker 4: also the best part of what we do. And my
Speaker 4: family was there, and then after the race, I yeah,
Speaker 4: I got to go to the Team USA house.
Speaker 5: I did this whole media tour.
Speaker 4: I did the the the Metal ceremony that that front
Speaker 4: that Paris did, which was incredible because I got to
Speaker 4: share it with the Olympic gold medalist who was from
Speaker 4: France in our event, so that was really special.
Speaker 5: And then yeah, I went out with my teammates and
Speaker 5: we saw.
Speaker 4: The beach volleyball event the next night under the Eiffel Tower,
Speaker 4: so that was super cool, and just checking out Paris,
Speaker 4: and then I went on vacation in Portugal with my
Speaker 4: family pretty quickly after. So I definitely got the experience
Speaker 4: that I'm super grateful for, and the medal was definitely
Speaker 4: the highlight for sure.
Speaker 2: It sounds like like probably the most amazing two weeks
Speaker 2: ever in your entire life.
Speaker 3: What you just described trip, that's amazing. I wanted to
Speaker 3: give a shout out to Arkansas. DJ is from Arkansas in.
Speaker 2: Fact, yeah, and we were just funny enough in Ventonville
Speaker 2: not that long ago and saw all the cyclists and
Speaker 2: wasn't putting two and two together that it's the home
Speaker 2: of the National mountain Bike team of USA cycling.
Speaker 5: Correct, Yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 4: They've supported us so much and as you saw, like
Speaker 4: the infrastructure there for cycling is next level. And I
Speaker 4: really believe that, like when a community invests in making
Speaker 4: a city like walkable and rideable and cycling friendly, like
Speaker 4: that is what every state needs, right kids can like
Speaker 4: bike to school and bike to bike to work. I
Speaker 4: think that's like the baseline of how biking is and
Speaker 4: it's obviously translating there and to to some more world's
Speaker 4: class trials and training facilities as well.
Speaker 1: So who can claim you? Who should claim you? Because
Speaker 1: everybody wants to claim you. Santa Cruz wants to claim you.
Speaker 1: Could you live there? Park City wants to claim you
Speaker 1: because you brought up there. Now Arkansas wants to claim you.
Speaker 1: Could you could train there? So which is it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, obviously you know, Park City is where
Speaker 4: I grew up, so it has a special place in
Speaker 4: my heart. But I think what's so cool about what
Speaker 4: I do is that I I mean, like, like I said,
Speaker 4: I'm in Girona part time of the year, and then
Speaker 4: I'm going to this crazy place and then this, and
Speaker 4: then I'm back in Santa Cruz. But then pretty quickly
Speaker 4: I go off to the East Coast to do more races.
Speaker 4: So I travel the world and I travel the really
Speaker 4: cool places and they've all made me the athlete that
Speaker 4: I am today. So home for me isn't a lot
Speaker 4: of really special places. So I feel really lucky to
Speaker 4: have the support of those communities as well. It's what
Speaker 4: makes it so special.
Speaker 1: Well, Haley, finally here, have you paid the fine?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we paid the fine as fast as we could.
Speaker 4: I do all agory about that.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't tie to the metal. It's not like
Speaker 1: they say we're going to withhold your metal until we
Speaker 1: get your money, right.
Speaker 4: No, No, it really like there was no way that
Speaker 4: the race dynamic would change based on that. It's really that,
Speaker 4: you know, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done that,
Speaker 4: and to make sure those rules are followed to make
Speaker 4: the racing go. Like you know, there's a lot going on,
Speaker 4: like what we talked about racing, there's a lot of people,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of feeds, mechanicals. We need to make
Speaker 4: sure those feed zones don't have people just riding through
Speaker 4: them for fun or or you know, doing something that
Speaker 4: doesn't keep the keep the racing you know, running smoothly.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you know, I'll take the fine if that's
Speaker 4: what we need to keep our sport you know, running well.
Speaker 5: And yeah, next time I won't do it. That's pretty sure.
Speaker 3: Like, hey, how do you pay it? Electronically? Write of
Speaker 3: a personal check?
Speaker 5: Usa cycling did it for me. Honestly, I just want.
Speaker 1: To make sure you didn't have to come out of
Speaker 1: that money.
Speaker 2: And I know you're obviously there and you're you're still
Speaker 2: cycling and so races, but do you have are you
Speaker 2: already starting to think about twenty twenty eight?
Speaker 3: La?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: For sure?
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean I think as athletes, the planning happens many
Speaker 4: years in advance, and for I think just the energy
Speaker 4: of seeing like Pauline, you know, win her own country.
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, you can have this one, but
Speaker 4: the night and then you know, the next one's mine.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean me and my coach are like, okay,
Speaker 4: like like I visualized winning this race, you know, I
Speaker 4: wanted to be an Olympic champion, silver medal. I feel
Speaker 4: like in a hundred ways I won that race in
Speaker 4: my mind, you know, Like and for me, I won
Speaker 4: the silver medal right, Like the way I race everything
Speaker 4: like was so amazing. But I also didn't have a
Speaker 4: great start. I flatted right, I missed.
Speaker 5: The feed zone.
Speaker 4: These are things like for me, these are all controllables
Speaker 4: of becoming excellent. And so every you know, after every
Speaker 4: race that I sit down and I write like, how
Speaker 4: can I be better? And I think you know that
Speaker 4: preparation starts, you know, when you're motivated and you care
Speaker 4: the most, And that's like right after the Olympic Games, right,
Speaker 4: So for sure, I'm using this to motivate me and
Speaker 4: my preparation moving forward.
Speaker 1: She got to do LA. I mean, can you imagine
Speaker 1: LA is so close to her home of Santa Cruz
Speaker 1: and her home of Park City.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3: Going for gold in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 5: That's amazing, exactly right.
Speaker 2: That's congratulations, Haley, And thank you so much for taking
Speaker 2: some time out of your very very busy life right
Speaker 2: now to talk with us. Just so inspiring and we're
Speaker 2: so proud of you. Congratulations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks so much for the good questions. It was
Speaker 4: good to talk through everything.
Speaker 1: No, thank you for the education. And you know what
Speaker 1: I meant to say this earlier. It's cool to see
Speaker 1: somebody as passionate about their sport as you are. You
Speaker 1: light up when you start talking about it, not talking
Speaker 1: about the silver metal necessarily, just talking about the sport itself.
Speaker 1: You clearly enjoy it and the technical parts of it.
Speaker 1: I know you noticed it earlier. She was bouncing off
Speaker 1: the seat when she started talking.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful to see that passion.
Speaker 5: Oh that's nice.
Speaker 3: So do you guys bike or what we run? My
Speaker 3: city bike?
Speaker 2: That's about I get to a bicycle. But yes, we've
Speaker 2: we've been running. But it's I'm just I'm always in
Speaker 2: awe of people who can do those types of endurance
Speaker 2: things that just take every single bit of of your
Speaker 2: energy and your effort and your mental the mental challenges
Speaker 2: that come along with endurance types of athletics is just
Speaker 2: remarkable to me.
Speaker 5: We know it from the running for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we're just loud of you and thirty minutes right,
Speaker 2: you're inspiring. I know so many, so many young folks
Speaker 2: out there who think if she can do what, I
Speaker 2: can do it. So thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, and good luck in your marathon. I
Speaker 5: hope you got thank you. Yeah,