Speaker 1: Hey Bam, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side, we're counting down to the Olympics.
Speaker 2: We have a special guest, NBC correspondent Rebecca Low. She'll
Speaker 2: be covering the Olympics in Paris this month, and she's
Speaker 2: here to share insider tips on who to watch and
Speaker 2: what to expect. It's Monday, July fifteenth. I'm Danielle Robe and.
Speaker 3: I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 3: Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
Speaker 3: share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, y'all, Happy Monday.
Speaker 2: I had such a fun, sunshine filled weekend.
Speaker 1: It was hot in la.
Speaker 3: I am so not ready for summer to end. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to stay in the moment. Just go to the beach,
Speaker 3: go in the pool. Summer is just the best. I
Speaker 3: love it, Simone.
Speaker 2: I took a hike with Julisa this weekend and we
Speaker 2: went early and we almost burned up here.
Speaker 3: I will tell you that. Yes, and it's getting hotter
Speaker 3: by the year. But for now, we are looking forward
Speaker 3: to a great week and we're kicking things off with
Speaker 3: on my Mind Monday. This is our opportunity to share
Speaker 3: the stories that motivate us, inspire curiosity, and provide a
Speaker 3: fresh perspective to our week. So you guys already know
Speaker 3: I love this UK publication, Stylist magazine because they always
Speaker 3: have such great think pieces. And I recently came across
Speaker 3: an article that's all about building a growth mindset. Danielle,
Speaker 3: do you abide by this term? Like, what does that
Speaker 3: term make you think of when you hear growth mindset?
Speaker 1: Yeah? For sure.
Speaker 2: I think I learned about this like five or six
Speaker 2: years ago from reading a book. I remember when Reese
Speaker 2: Witherspoon came on here for our first episode. She told
Speaker 2: us about the moment that her life changed, and she
Speaker 2: said she started doing inner work and reading every book
Speaker 2: she could find. And I had such a similar moment
Speaker 2: in my twenties, and that's when I came across a
Speaker 2: growth mindset, which is basically the belief that you can
Speaker 2: grow and improve and that hard work and dedication and
Speaker 2: repetition and consistency over time can get you to where
Speaker 2: you want to go.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: I think we both definitely have a growth mindset, and
Speaker 3: it's something that I also discovered a few years ago
Speaker 3: through reading a book that was all about the power
Speaker 3: of having a positive mindset manifestation, if you want to
Speaker 3: call it that.
Speaker 4: So that's what this article is all about.
Speaker 3: Growth mindset is just the idea that talent can be
Speaker 3: developed through consistency and learning. And then, to take it
Speaker 3: a step further, by having a growth mindset, you're more
Speaker 3: likely to believe that you can achieve what you want,
Speaker 3: which in turn makes you more motivated, focused, and ultimately
Speaker 3: more likely to succeed and get where you want to go.
Speaker 3: And then on the flip side, the opposite of a
Speaker 3: growth mindset is a fixed mindset, this idea that talent
Speaker 3: is innate and static, or even worse, believing that you're
Speaker 3: destined to fail, which of course is just going to
Speaker 3: stifle innovation and opportunity. And I think it's really helpful
Speaker 3: to think about this framework not just as an individual,
Speaker 3: but also as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4: For any of our bright.
Speaker 3: Side besties who have employees out there, if you create
Speaker 3: a growth mindset environment for your employees, they're more than
Speaker 3: thirty percent likely or to feel a strong sense of
Speaker 3: loyalty to your company, to your mission. That's according to
Speaker 3: the Harvard Business Review.
Speaker 2: If anybody out there is curious about this topic. There's
Speaker 2: a book called The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.
Speaker 4: I love this book.
Speaker 2: Oh it's it's short, it's a quick read. It's so
Speaker 2: freaking good.
Speaker 4: It's so good.
Speaker 2: He gives you like things that you can actually do
Speaker 2: to practice this. So do you think there's any ways
Speaker 2: that we can practice having a growth mindset?
Speaker 3: I think a key ingredient here is taking inspiration from others.
Speaker 3: I can remember a conversation that I had with one
Speaker 3: of my best friends that really unlocked a growth mindset
Speaker 3: for me. I had been in a job that I
Speaker 3: didn't like for many years and wanted to make a
Speaker 3: move and go out on my own. And my friend
Speaker 3: said to me, Simone, you are stuck in an employee
Speaker 3: mindset and you need to break out of that and
Speaker 3: have a self employed mindset. So I think just having
Speaker 3: people around you who can give you those little nudges
Speaker 3: and reminders that is so key.
Speaker 1: I love that, Simone.
Speaker 2: There's also like this quote, you can't be what you
Speaker 2: can't see, and I think that's part of it. Like
Speaker 2: if you surround yourself with people who are thinking differently
Speaker 2: than you, it's so contagious and the best way. And
Speaker 2: I think also to add, there's an element here of curiosity,
Speaker 2: and it's just getting curious about your life, getting curious
Speaker 2: about your relationships, about yourself. I think it all starts
Speaker 2: with just with asking yourself some questions.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3: And one more thing that the piece identified that I
Speaker 3: thought was really interesting is the importance of learning to
Speaker 3: accept failure as a necessary part of growth the best.
Speaker 3: So working to reframe failure as essential to having a
Speaker 3: growth mindset. So instead of looking at failure as a
Speaker 3: reason to give up, looking at it as part of
Speaker 3: the process and just a necessary step to getting what
Speaker 3: you want. I've always found that failures offers such huge
Speaker 3: learnings for me.
Speaker 2: I interviewed an entrepreneur one time named Encore Jane, and
Speaker 2: he actually doesn't even use the word failure. He uses
Speaker 2: the word pivot because for entrepreneurs, and I think this
Speaker 2: is a mindset more so than just for entrepreneurs, but
Speaker 2: there is no failure because whatever happens leads you into
Speaker 2: the next thing. So on that note, we are talking
Speaker 2: about athletes today who have this growth mindset. You can't
Speaker 2: not have it when you are an Olympic athlete learning
Speaker 2: to accept failure or pivots and not letting fear hold
Speaker 2: you back is at the core of these Olympic athletes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Sin, today's guest is actually going to be on
Speaker 3: the ground in Paris covering the Olympics this summer, so
Speaker 3: she might have an idea of the kind of mindset
Speaker 3: you need to take home the gold for sure.
Speaker 2: Rebecca Lowe is an NBC daytime host and the host
Speaker 2: of NBC Sports Premier League coverage. She'll be attending and
Speaker 2: covering the Olympics for the sixth time this year.
Speaker 4: I mean, true Olympic royalty.
Speaker 3: What I think is so amazing about the Olympics is,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not just about these spectacular athletic feats.
Speaker 3: We all love watching those moments in real time, but
Speaker 3: it's also the personal stories. I mean, the sacrifices that
Speaker 3: these athletes have to make, that their families have to make,
Speaker 3: to overcome so much to get to where they are.
Speaker 3: I mean, we see them perform, but there's so much
Speaker 3: that goes on behind the scenes that we'll never get
Speaker 3: to see.
Speaker 2: And Rebecca Lowe is going to be those eyes and
Speaker 2: ears on the ground because you know, she's been following
Speaker 2: some of these athletes from the very beginning of their careers.
Speaker 2: She's interviewed these women over time, and she's watched them
Speaker 2: when the cameras are not turned on, so she has
Speaker 2: a really unique vantage point. She can talk triumphs, comebacks,
Speaker 2: and the emerging athletes, the ones that we got to watch.
Speaker 2: And best of all, she's offering this real human perspective
Speaker 2: on all of the powerhouse female athletes that we'll be
Speaker 2: rooting for.
Speaker 4: I can't wait.
Speaker 3: We are going to take a quick break and when
Speaker 3: we come back, we're talking Shikerrie Richardson, Simone Biles, the
Speaker 3: women's soccer team, and the brightest new athletes competing this
Speaker 3: summer that you need to know about.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the bright Side.
Speaker 2: We have Rebecca Low with us today to kick off
Speaker 2: our road to the Olympics coverage.
Speaker 3: That's right, Rebecca lo Is, an NBC daytime host who'll
Speaker 3: be covering the games from Paris.
Speaker 4: Rebecca, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5: Simone Danielle, thank you so much for having me. This
Speaker 5: is going to be fun.
Speaker 4: Rebecca.
Speaker 3: You are essentially Olympics Royalty at this point, because this
Speaker 3: will be year six time attending and covering the games
Speaker 3: is the excitement still the same each time. Are you
Speaker 3: jaded or do you just walk into that environment like
Speaker 3: with the enthusiasm of a little kid still, Oh.
Speaker 5: My goodness, not Jaded's mown at all. I kind of
Speaker 5: go through waves of different emotions in the build up
Speaker 5: to the Olympics. I do soccer, that's my regular job,
Speaker 5: and I finished that season in May, so whenever it's
Speaker 5: a summer Olympics, I have sort of two months leading
Speaker 5: up and in some ways it feels forever a way,
Speaker 5: and then of course it comes up so quickly. But
Speaker 5: in that two months I go through all sorts of
Speaker 5: different emotions. Often it's nerves, because every new challenge, even
Speaker 5: though I've done Olympics before, is still a new challenge.
Speaker 5: This coming Olympics, I'm going to be co hosting the
Speaker 5: Daytime Show with Craig Melvin from The Today Show, which
Speaker 5: will be so fun. But we've never worked together before,
Speaker 5: so we're sort of trying to create a chemistry, you know,
Speaker 5: over the phone and trying to get to know each other.
Speaker 5: And then as I get closer. It was funny because
Speaker 5: yesterday morning I said to my husband, Oh, I'm so
Speaker 5: excited now, and I think it's partly as well to
Speaker 5: do with preparation. I don't know if you, ladies feel
Speaker 5: the same, But until I feel prepared for something, I mean,
Speaker 5: with the Olympics, you can never be fully prepared because
Speaker 5: there are a million stories and a million things you
Speaker 5: need to know. But I have done enough work this
Speaker 5: summer and I've had enough meetings with the production team
Speaker 5: to sort of feel like, you know what, I've got
Speaker 5: a handle on this. I think we're ready to go.
Speaker 5: And then it's Paris, ladies, It's Paris. I mean, hello,
Speaker 5: how exciting is that in itself? So no little kids vibes.
Speaker 4: For sure, Rebecca.
Speaker 3: So much of what you do is not just the
Speaker 3: knowledge that you accumulate in the research that you have
Speaker 3: to do on the front end, but it's the language
Speaker 3: that you use in the moment to describe what you're seeing.
Speaker 3: And something that we talk about on our show often
Speaker 3: is the double standards that are so pervasive in media
Speaker 3: today when it comes to how female athletes are portrayed
Speaker 3: versus male athletes. How are you mindful about how women
Speaker 3: are covered at the Games.
Speaker 5: That's a really good point. I suppose, having spent my
Speaker 5: entire career in a male dominated environment, which is soccer
Speaker 5: and television, both of which, by the way, are male dominated.
Speaker 5: Soccer and television. I am quite aware of that whole conversation.
Speaker 5: I think one of the things that I'm always really
Speaker 5: conscious of is I often think, and we have been
Speaker 5: told at NBC, and it's been reiterated to us time
Speaker 5: and time again, it feels to me like women are
Speaker 5: seen as girls. When there's a young female, an eighteen
Speaker 5: year old, fully grown adult, but she's a female, it's
Speaker 5: often casually spoken about as being a young girl. And
Speaker 5: I don't think you would say the same thing for
Speaker 5: a man who's eighteen year old. They would never be
Speaker 5: called a young boy. And I think that's just this
Speaker 5: sort of very bizz It's not even bizarre because we
Speaker 5: all know where it's come from. It's come from thousands
Speaker 5: and thousands of years, but it's ingrained slight disbelief that
Speaker 5: female males could do what males could do. And so
Speaker 5: I'm probably one of the biggest champions you'll find of
Speaker 5: females at the Olympic Games. And I think I do
Speaker 5: that as best I can. When I think about my
Speaker 5: own life and my own career, how I want to
Speaker 5: be perceived by the men in soccer and by the
Speaker 5: men in television. That's why I think these women want
Speaker 5: to be perceived which is pretty much the same as
Speaker 5: the men virtually. So I tried to treat them as
Speaker 5: I would if it was a man. And I think
Speaker 5: that maybe is the biggest compliment I can pay.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like you've had to go out of
Speaker 3: your way to fight for credibility as a woman in
Speaker 3: these male dominated media circles?
Speaker 5: So I mean, how long have you got? I mean
Speaker 5: it has been since the day I started age twenty
Speaker 5: one in England. And you know, I'd be at a
Speaker 5: press conference and I'd ask a question and fifty men
Speaker 5: would turn and look, who on earth is Who's that?
Speaker 5: And so when I look at a lot of these women,
Speaker 5: I sort of can see what they've also had to battle,
Speaker 5: because sometimes talent isn't enough. You have to have grit
Speaker 5: and you have to have character in order to sort
Speaker 5: of elbow people out the way. And it's a horrible
Speaker 5: thing to say, but you sometimes have to do that
Speaker 5: to be strong in a man environment. And I don't
Speaker 5: mean albow other women out of the way, I mean
Speaker 5: elbow the men out of the way. To get yourself
Speaker 5: to the front. I feel like I definitely had to
Speaker 5: fight that, and maybe there's a parallel there with some
Speaker 5: of these athletes who have had so much to fight
Speaker 5: over so many years, so many of them, with all
Speaker 5: the stories that we hear, you know, every year. So yeah,
Speaker 5: it's been certainly been a ride for twenty odd years
Speaker 5: of this career, that's for certain.
Speaker 3: So I can still relate to that because when I
Speaker 3: was a local news reporter, I was showing up to
Speaker 3: a press conference and one of the camera ops from
Speaker 3: another station called me kiddo in passing oh oh, and
Speaker 3: I was like, don't go, kid.
Speaker 5: Back to what we just said about girls, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, infantalizing me.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure they would have called a man of
Speaker 5: your age kiddo, and I got called in my sweetheart,
Speaker 5: I got called all of those kind of yes, that terminology. Yeah,
Speaker 5: But isn't it crazy that people look at women as
Speaker 5: though that in some spaces, still in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 5: as though there's sort of another species, Not that they
Speaker 5: are populating half of the planet, but they are sort
Speaker 5: of like when these men used to look round at
Speaker 5: me and be like, what on earth are you doing?
Speaker 5: I'll be I'm not an alien. I'm just literally just
Speaker 5: half of the planet over here. It's still quite depressing.
Speaker 5: I have to say that we are even having this
Speaker 5: conversation twenty twenty four, it's not enough progress. We're still
Speaker 5: fighting this fight all the time.
Speaker 2: I actually wanted to ask you about twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Have you felt a shift in the industry. Do you
Speaker 2: feel like people give you more respect over that, like
Speaker 2: since the me Too movement?
Speaker 1: Since twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, when.
Speaker 5: I moved from England to America, that was a big shift,
Speaker 5: just because the way that soccer has dealt with in
Speaker 5: England is very archaic. To be honest, it certainly was
Speaker 5: when I was there. I think it's got a bit better.
Speaker 1: But so I felt not like how we see it
Speaker 1: on Ted Lasso.
Speaker 5: Now, I know, I know, no, my goodness, if I
Speaker 5: could tell you the stories of the first ten years
Speaker 5: of my career. But then as soon as I landed
Speaker 5: in the States, and I think this is down a
Speaker 5: lot to the fact that you guys have so many
Speaker 5: frontline sports, whereas we just pretty much just have softwer
Speaker 5: that's what everyone cares about. In the manner of that
Speaker 5: with basketball, NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS. They're all on the NetWorld,
Speaker 5: so there are actually lots of opportunities for women to appear.
Speaker 5: And when I came here in twenty thirteen, I was like, Wow,
Speaker 5: there's so many women on television. I can't put in
Speaker 5: all these sports. I can't believe that. I mean, in
Speaker 5: my opinion, there are still not enough hosts. They tend
Speaker 5: to be more sideline reporters, which I've done and that
Speaker 5: is the hardest job in broadcasting, without a doubt. But
Speaker 5: from the outside looking in, I feel like there need
Speaker 5: to be more hosts and good positions. But it's definitely shifted.
Speaker 5: So when I moved here, it shifted in my career,
Speaker 5: and then since the Me Too movement, there's definitely been
Speaker 5: a shift. I definitely feel more empowered. I think women
Speaker 5: feel more empowered. There's still a way to go, because
Speaker 5: there was a pushback against that for a while, and
Speaker 5: you know, as there always is, but that has been
Speaker 5: and super helpful, certainly in my industry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I felt it too. I even felt it.
Speaker 2: I was doing local news in Chicago at the time
Speaker 2: of the movement, and I felt the shift in the
Speaker 2: newsroom from the executive. So it's not perfect, like you said,
Speaker 2: but I'm so grateful to all the women that pushed
Speaker 2: for it and fought for it, because I really do
Speaker 2: feel a shift. So you're a fly on the wall
Speaker 2: as a broadcaster at the Olympics, Like you're seeing these
Speaker 2: behind the scenes moments. You're seeing athletes after they get
Speaker 2: off the floor of the gymnasium, out of the pool,
Speaker 2: et cetera.
Speaker 1: What are you seeing that we don't get to see
Speaker 1: on TV.
Speaker 5: Ooh, you know what, It's funny because I get to
Speaker 5: see them as real humans. All athletes and it's the
Speaker 5: same with all celebrities have a front and when the
Speaker 5: camera goes on or when they're in in race mode,
Speaker 5: they have that front. When I'm doing so, I tend
Speaker 5: to get to interact with them the most when I
Speaker 5: aim to be them. So I'll be in the studio
Speaker 5: and I will see the official from Team USA come
Speaker 5: through the or behind them will be whichever athlete or
Speaker 5: athletes I'm going to get to interview five minutes later,
Speaker 5: and they all have to get the earpiece in, and
Speaker 5: they have to get a worcrophoned up, and they have
Speaker 5: to get a little bit of makeup on and while
Speaker 5: they're doing that, I sort of read their body language,
Speaker 5: and then when you compare that to the way they
Speaker 5: are on screen, it's so interesting because the one thing
Speaker 5: I've seen most and they are just so normal and
Speaker 5: they're humble and they're shy, and they're not used to
Speaker 5: all of this attention, And especially the athletes that break
Speaker 5: out at an Olympic Games and haven't been used to,
Speaker 5: you know, Simone Biles, Katie Ladecki. They're different, and they've
Speaker 5: done a million interviews, they know what's what. But you
Speaker 5: get somebody come in who's got a medal and an
Speaker 5: Olympic Games that never thought they would and no one
Speaker 5: really has heard of them, and you see their innocence
Speaker 5: maybe or sort of just kind of wide eyed. I
Speaker 5: just love how like their mom might come on and
Speaker 5: just sit in the corner and I see them hugging
Speaker 5: their mom offter the interview and then they want a
Speaker 5: selfie on the set, and it's just they like you
Speaker 5: and me. They're just radio humans who happen to be
Speaker 5: unbelievable a sport, but unbelievable a sport that has this
Speaker 5: sort of slight purity about it. I think I think
Speaker 5: the Olympics and all the different sports within the Olympics
Speaker 5: is just so pure. It's why we love it. It
Speaker 5: isn't tainted, certainly isn't yet by all the money and
Speaker 5: all the glamor. It's just seems to be so real.
Speaker 5: And that's what I love about seeing them clopse off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so endearing to hear that. I really really
Speaker 1: really love that.
Speaker 3: All Right, we've got to take a quick break, but
Speaker 3: we'll be back shortly with Rebecca Lowe.
Speaker 2: Okay, I kind of want you to give us a
Speaker 2: little bit of a cheat sheet because Simona, I don't
Speaker 2: know if you feel this way, but when I watch
Speaker 2: any sport, let alone the Olympics, like, I love being
Speaker 2: in a room with people and they're like, oh, who's that?
Speaker 1: Who's that? And I'm like, I know who that is.
Speaker 1: I heard them talked about on a podcast.
Speaker 2: So can you give us the rundown of who we
Speaker 2: should be looking out for so that all of our
Speaker 2: besties listening can be the person in the room that's
Speaker 2: like of them.
Speaker 5: I love it, Yes, Okay, So I think all the
Speaker 5: best season in the room will have heard of the
Speaker 5: lives of Simone Biles and would have heard well, do
Speaker 5: you think they would have heard of the lives of
Speaker 5: Shirkerri Richardson because she's a big deal now, yeah, finitely yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean she's doozo. I mean she's she's done a
Speaker 5: huge Boil article. So if you're in Vogue, then you've
Speaker 5: made it in life. But I think if you're sitting
Speaker 5: there and you're watching the gymnastics and the five women
Speaker 5: who are on teen USA, all four of those five
Speaker 5: are returning having been in Tokyo except one. So the
Speaker 5: one that is new and making her Olympic debut as
Speaker 5: a sixteen year old, she only just turned sixteen. I mean,
Speaker 5: it is quite ridiculous. Her name is Hesley Rivera and
Speaker 5: she is a little pocket rocket. Anyone I think who
Speaker 5: is in their teen years, you just if you're of
Speaker 5: any age like me, with a child like me, I
Speaker 5: just want to just mother them. I'm just so, I
Speaker 5: think I'm more excited about seeing a teenager do well
Speaker 5: than anything else because you feel that kind of motherly
Speaker 5: feeling about Imagine if that was my kid, you know, So,
Speaker 5: Hesley Rivera, I want you to definitely look out for
Speaker 5: in terms of there's a lady that I think you
Speaker 5: guys should know. And her name is Messiah Russell. This
Speaker 5: is definitely one for the party when you're like, oh, Messiah, yeah,
Speaker 5: I know what about her?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Sure. So it's the one hundred meter hurdles and she
Speaker 5: won it at Olympic Trials and she got a personal
Speaker 5: best and she made a trials record and he was
Speaker 5: filled up in Portland, Oregon. When she turned pro, there
Speaker 5: was a lot of criticism, which I find very massar
Speaker 5: again about her maybe not being as good now that
Speaker 5: she turned pro. When she did the interview, she was
Speaker 5: she was pretty fierce, Like all you people who came
Speaker 5: for me, look at what I just did. No one
Speaker 5: loves kind of sticking it to people more, do they?
Speaker 5: Athletes love doing that. These people who didn't believe in me,
Speaker 5: this coach, you never believed in me, and then they
Speaker 5: go and prove them wrong. Nothing better than that kind
Speaker 5: of story. So Massih Russell.
Speaker 1: There's a sports psychology behind that for sure.
Speaker 3: Definitely keeping on the track and field topic, I know
Speaker 3: that you've interviewed Shaki Richardson in the past, and she's
Speaker 3: making her return to track and field events this year
Speaker 3: at the Olympics after the marijuana related suspension ahead of Tokyo.
Speaker 3: How do you think she's evolved since that incident and
Speaker 3: how do you think the narrative around her has changed.
Speaker 5: I love her, I have to say I haven't been
Speaker 5: as excited about a female athlete in a while. Her story,
Speaker 5: if anyone who doesn't know, is quite something. Grow up
Speaker 5: in Texas and has a difficult family background, but at
Speaker 5: the same time has an incredibly tight family around her.
Speaker 5: And I think the one thing simone to answer your
Speaker 5: question first of all, is that to use her own quote.
Speaker 5: She doesn't say I'm back. She says I'm not back,
Speaker 5: I'm better, And I think that tells you everything you
Speaker 5: need to know. She doesn't want to keep harping back
Speaker 5: to what happened before Tokyo. I don't know her. I'm English,
Speaker 5: but I was for Team USA and for her devastated
Speaker 5: when that news came out, having watched her at Chrials
Speaker 5: and seen the talent that we have available to us
Speaker 5: at teen USA, she couldn't go. It was awful. But
Speaker 5: she doesn't talk a lot about that. She talks a
Speaker 5: lot about the twenty four to seven nature of track
Speaker 5: and fields and being a sprinter. And I don't know
Speaker 5: about you. But before I worked Olympic Games, I used
Speaker 5: to wonder how sprinter's trained. How do you train to
Speaker 5: be a ten second runner, which is essentially what she is.
Speaker 5: And I think she talks a lot in some of
Speaker 5: the interviews she's given recently about obviously strength training and
Speaker 5: the different elements of the ten second race. There are
Speaker 5: about five or six different parts to a one hundred
Speaker 5: meter rais and yet it happens in ten seconds. There's
Speaker 5: the blocks, there's coming out of the blocks. When do
Speaker 5: you put your head up, When do you change your shoulders?
Speaker 5: When do you lend lean forward to try and win it?
Speaker 5: And they're all those things. Somehow they train them. And
Speaker 5: she talks about not only those moments of training, but
Speaker 5: of nutrition, the constant nutrition twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 5: the constant hydration, the massages, the physical therapy, then in
Speaker 5: the gym, And I think that what her message is
Speaker 5: by doing these interviews and explaining how her life is
Speaker 5: or or track is, she's saying that is the past.
Speaker 5: Yes it was her, but that was a mistake and
Speaker 5: that was in the past. And also the reason she
Speaker 5: gave for the failed drugs test with a THHC was
Speaker 5: because she was just dealing with a lot emotionally, and
Speaker 5: that is I think something we have to give grace
Speaker 5: for so three years on here we are her and
Speaker 5: her nails are going to be amazing in Paris, and
Speaker 5: she is elite. Elite.
Speaker 3: I think that's so evident in the support that she's
Speaker 3: garnered from fans. Okay, before we move on to your domain,
Speaker 3: which is soccer, really quickly, Simone Biles, she is going
Speaker 3: to be in Paris. She's someone who continues to push
Speaker 3: the boundaries of what is possible in gymnastics. What are
Speaker 3: you expecting from her this time around? Are you hearing
Speaker 3: any murmurs or rumors about what she's got planned her
Speaker 3: headspace going into the Games this year?
Speaker 5: From what I hear on her head's face, she's better
Speaker 5: than she's ever been. She attributes that to therapy every Thursday,
Speaker 5: every single Thursday, since what happened when she got the
Speaker 5: twisties in Tokyo and that just blew up everyone's world,
Speaker 5: obviously mainly hers. She has found the therapy which she
Speaker 5: sees who she sees every Thursday, and that therapist she's
Speaker 5: going to continue to see during the Games. She's even
Speaker 5: managed to work it out that on a Thursday, she's
Speaker 5: not competing, so she's going to get to spend her
Speaker 5: day doing therapy and that's her self care day, which
Speaker 5: I think is crucial. You were talking Danielle about the
Speaker 5: me too movement, and I think that similarly with mental health,
Speaker 5: she broke real boundaries she did in Tokyo sman bars
Speaker 5: with what happened to her, and it's a different world
Speaker 5: now she can talk openly about having a self care
Speaker 5: day and having a therapy day, whereas ten years ago.
Speaker 5: Can you imagine if a top gym is was like
Speaker 5: having a self care day, everybody would have been like,
Speaker 5: oh please, she's obviously woo women, a bit hippieike and crazy.
Speaker 3: Well, even when she did say that she didn't feel
Speaker 3: comfortable performing that day, she got so much heat, so
Speaker 3: much backlash from a lot of men too, who were
Speaker 3: discrediting her in her accomplishments, just because she was self
Speaker 3: aware and in her body.
Speaker 5: And if you speak and hear from lots of other gymnasts,
Speaker 5: that's actually very common. It's just not talked about that much,
Speaker 5: and so I think it was so new to so
Speaker 5: many people, and as we know, lack of knowledge on
Speaker 5: something can often lead to ignorance, and I think that's
Speaker 5: what happened in that situation. But in terms of when
Speaker 5: she's out there performing in parasite, expect nothing less than
Speaker 5: plenty of gold medals. She does have an opponent or arrival.
Speaker 5: I should say now that she didn't really have to
Speaker 5: deal with Rebecca and I think you pronounced her last
Speaker 5: name Andragi. She's from Brazil. She was there eight years
Speaker 5: ago in Rio, but she wasn't anywhere near the standard.
Speaker 5: She's now really good and she has come on leaps
Speaker 5: and bounds, and Rebecca and Rogi is going to be
Speaker 5: a big rival to Simone Biles. But you know what
Speaker 5: I think with her mental strength now, Simone Biles, it's
Speaker 5: just going to take her up. It's just going to
Speaker 5: raise the levels. She's not been challenged. Let's be honest.
Speaker 5: It's never good if you're an athlete and there's no
Speaker 5: one and you're basically she's always said it. Her opponents
Speaker 5: is herself. She's basically trying to compete against herself, and
Speaker 5: she's always said that because there's everyone else is about
Speaker 5: thirteen points behind. I mean, she's so ahead of everyone.
Speaker 5: So maybe Androgi can lights a little fire under her,
Speaker 5: plus the mental strength that she's filled up over the
Speaker 5: last couple of years, and I think we're going to
Speaker 5: see her back to her best without a doubt.
Speaker 1: I'm like, God, what, that's a great point.
Speaker 2: I mean, one of my favorite docs is the Larry
Speaker 2: Bird Magic Johnson documentary, and they both say that they
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been as great of athletes individually had they
Speaker 2: not been rivals with one another.
Speaker 5: So, Daniel, can you imagine how good she is when
Speaker 5: she doesn't play a rival. So that's why I think
Speaker 5: this might take it to a whole other level. If
Speaker 5: there is even another level that Simone Biles can reach.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, we have to talk soccer.
Speaker 2: I have such a girl crush on the US women's
Speaker 2: soccer team.
Speaker 1: I always have.
Speaker 2: They're just the coolest individually and as a team, they're
Speaker 2: just so freaking cool. Alex Morgan huge girl crush of mine.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk that she's not joining the team.
Speaker 2: Can you give us a little bit of the backstory
Speaker 2: what's happening here?
Speaker 5: So Alex Morgand has been in the face of US
Speaker 5: women's national team soccer for as long as I can remember.
Speaker 5: I remember working at the twenty eleven Women's World Cup
Speaker 5: for ESPN, which was what thirteen years ago, and she
Speaker 5: was established then. So for anyone new to this, we're
Speaker 5: talking decades of Alex Morgan and not only tenure appearances,
Speaker 5: but leadership and of course goals, right, goals, goals, goals.
Speaker 5: That's how she's made her name, that's how she's mamed
Speaker 5: her millions. She is all about the goals and she's
Speaker 5: won everything. She's won at all. She just turned thirty five.
Speaker 5: And the situation is that at the last World Cup
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty three last year, they didn't do very well.
Speaker 5: It was a bit of a collapse and a bit
Speaker 5: of a shock that the rest of the world had
Speaker 5: caught up with the US women's national team in terms
Speaker 5: of ability. Without a doubt that has happened, and the
Speaker 5: US similarly, funnily enough to Simone Biles, because the US
Speaker 5: for so long has just been out Now business is easy,
Speaker 5: We're just the best of the world by far, and
Speaker 5: suddenly arous is caught up and so it's given them
Speaker 5: a bit of a shock and they have to regroup.
Speaker 5: So they've gone and they've got the best women's coach
Speaker 5: and best female coach with that out in England, the
Speaker 5: home of football, of course. And her name is Emma
Speaker 5: Hayes and she is fantastic. She's won everything at domestic level.
Speaker 5: She's not done international yet, but domestically with Chelsea and
Speaker 5: other clubs, she's won everything. So she has come in
Speaker 5: to take over and she said a couple of friendlies
Speaker 5: and then she had to make the Olympic roster announcement
Speaker 5: and there was no Alex Morgan named in the squad.
Speaker 5: So this is a huge shot. But you know, I
Speaker 5: think you have to look at it from the other
Speaker 5: side as well. Emma Hayes is coming in to try
Speaker 5: and take this team in a new direction. They have
Speaker 5: to the Alex Morgan's, the Megan Rapinos, the Abby one
Speaker 5: Bucks of the last twenty years have their place, and
Speaker 5: my goodness do they have their plays on and off
Speaker 5: the field, by the way, let's not forget. But they've
Speaker 5: got to go forward with some youth. So Emma Hayes
Speaker 5: has the plan. She has the plan and you know
Speaker 5: she's got some incredible strikers. Mallory Swanson who was injured
Speaker 5: for the last World Cup. Remember that name, Sophia Smith.
Speaker 5: If anyone's listening, who's news to soccer and women's soccer.
Speaker 5: Sophia Smith is amazing and so she has youngsters in
Speaker 5: the position of Alex Morgan to go to the Olympics
Speaker 5: knowing that she has top level replacements. It's always sad
Speaker 5: when an elite athlete is starting to say goodbye in
Speaker 5: their career and you don't get many more elite than
Speaker 5: Alex Morgan. But I'm afraid it's It's life, right, ladies,
Speaker 5: It's life.
Speaker 2: Okay, we probably have the most serious question that we've
Speaker 2: saved for the and Rebecca, Okay, I want to make
Speaker 2: sure we end on a high note. So I just
Speaker 2: I want you to be honest. Okay, you're from England.
Speaker 2: Now you're living in the US.
Speaker 5: Correct.
Speaker 1: Are you team USA or are you Team UK?
Speaker 5: Danielle, It's it's a big problem for me. I gotta
Speaker 5: be honest with you. It is a major issue. Not
Speaker 5: only am I living here, I'm also an American citizen,
Speaker 5: my child was born here, my husband certificate family, I
Speaker 5: have two passports. So I okay, am I can I
Speaker 5: be both? I mean, is it possible to be both?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll give you that, except for answer this. Okay,
Speaker 2: the US women's soccer team is playing the UK women's
Speaker 2: soccer team. What jersey are you wearing. You're not broadcasting,
Speaker 2: you're not live on air.
Speaker 1: Who's jersey?
Speaker 5: It's Team Great Britain. Yeah, I got any of it.
Speaker 5: If I'm not broadcasting, I'm not on NBC's payroll. In
Speaker 5: that very second, then I got a root for my
Speaker 5: ladies from back Hope, just like I'm routing for England
Speaker 5: every time they played the men's team at the World
Speaker 5: carpet of the Euros. I think it's hard, you know,
Speaker 5: I think it's hard for me to root against them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Every other thing is USA hometown loyalty. I respect it
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 2: I've lived in LA for ten years and I will
Speaker 2: never root for the Lakers. I will always be a
Speaker 2: Bulls fan, and I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Okay, listen here on the bright side, we're all about
Speaker 3: celebrating women in our multitudes. So I give you full
Speaker 3: permission to embrace both of your loves.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Simone, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you choose Rebecca. You are so awesome.
Speaker 1: Thank you for this.
Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing so many stats and stories. I
Speaker 2: feel prepared to walk into an Olympic party and really
Speaker 2: know my stuff.
Speaker 5: Love it, love it. Maybe you also welcome, Thank you,
Speaker 5: thank you, enjoy.
Speaker 2: Rebecca Lowe is an NBC daytime host who will be
Speaker 2: covering the Olympic Games from Paris. She's the host of
Speaker 2: NBC Sports Premier League coverage and this will be her
Speaker 2: sixth time covering the Olympics.
Speaker 3: That's it for today's show, y'all. Tomorrow, we are talking
Speaker 3: to Joe Piazza. She's an author, journalist, and podcaster. Her
Speaker 3: latest book is called The Sicilian Inheritance.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
Speaker 3: on Instagram and.
Speaker 2: Tiktok'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: That's r O B A. Y.
Speaker 4: See you tomorrow, folks.
Speaker 3: Keep looking on the bright side.