Speaker 1: I'm Sam Edis and I'm Amy Nelson. Welcome to What's
Speaker 1: Her Story? With Sam and Amy. This is a show
Speaker 1: about the world's most remarkable women, their professional and personal journeys. Together,
Speaker 1: we'll hear from gold medalists, best selling authors, and leaders
Speaker 1: of the world's most iconic brands. Listen every Thursday, or
Speaker 1: join the conversation anytime on Instagram at What's Her Story Podcast.
Speaker 1: Na Dennis is an American dymnast. She was a member
Speaker 1: of the USA national team from and the Junior all
Speaker 1: Around in Bault silver medalist. She was a member of
Speaker 1: the u c l A women's gymnastics team, where her
Speaker 1: famous floor routines went viral on the Internet, amassing millions
Speaker 1: of yews. Where does your story begin? I'm from Columbus, Ohio,
Speaker 1: born and raised till about fourteen years old, and then
Speaker 1: I moved to Chicago when I was fifteen, mostly for
Speaker 1: gymnastics to get better training to pursue my Olympic career.
Speaker 1: Um I was training for the toy Olympics. Unfortunately, I
Speaker 1: tore my achilles just before the Olympics, just three months before.
Speaker 1: Felt devastated. I was so mad, you know, depressed, a
Speaker 1: little bit didn't want to continue the sport, but I
Speaker 1: had at that time already committed to U c l
Speaker 1: A verbally, so I was like, you know, I was
Speaker 1: feeling conflicted, but I did always know that I wanted
Speaker 1: to compete at U c l A, be a part
Speaker 1: of a team, being part of a sisterhood, also go
Speaker 1: to school. Um. When I was training for the Olympics,
Speaker 1: I was homeschooled as well, so dedicating all my time
Speaker 1: to gymnastics. And you know, I was also kind of
Speaker 1: an only child till I was ten years old, so
Speaker 1: it was really like a lonely journey. So I couldn't
Speaker 1: wait to get to US. So I played competitive tennis
Speaker 1: growing up, and I think that I always thought gymnasts
Speaker 1: and tennis players had something strong and common. Like swimmers.
Speaker 1: There's just so few individual sports that require that much rigor,
Speaker 1: and it is really lonely. How was your life when
Speaker 1: you were trained before you got to college, I mean,
Speaker 1: what was what was your daily life like in your
Speaker 1: schedule gons, I was training forty hours a week gymnastics,
Speaker 1: and then I was homeschooled, so you know, it's coming
Speaker 1: home from practice, eight hour practice and then just working
Speaker 1: on school on the computer. Sometimes I would do extra
Speaker 1: workouts outside of the workouts I was already doing. Um,
Speaker 1: not my choice, but so yeah, I was like working
Speaker 1: out with football coaches. I was working out in sweatsuits
Speaker 1: and just weighing in, doing a lot of extreme things
Speaker 1: that kind of led to body image issues, like waiting.
Speaker 1: I was waiting in probably every other day, and you know,
Speaker 1: people are like, well, we don't see a change or not,
Speaker 1: you know, I well, I just waited in a day ago.
Speaker 1: You know, like it's going to be the same where
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. I was on pretty extreme
Speaker 1: diets early on, and just like, yeah, dieting what that
Speaker 1: can lead to, and just different things, eating disorders, um,
Speaker 1: compoty image issues. That was kind of my life before college,
Speaker 1: not necessarily knowing that and not really realizing that that's
Speaker 1: what I was going through until I was kind of
Speaker 1: out of it. How did you go from probably just
Speaker 1: taking gymnastics lessons to being a competitive gymnastic How old
Speaker 1: were you? How did that shift? Top it? Yeah? It
Speaker 1: was pretty drastic. Actually, Um, I just love gymnastics. I
Speaker 1: love the feeling of flying and I feel really free
Speaker 1: and I just love I have really good air awareness
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm just floating, you know, I
Speaker 1: have a good time. And I started gymnastics when I
Speaker 1: was four, and when I was about ten years old
Speaker 1: is when my coaches were like, she's way too good,
Speaker 1: like she needs to go to the Olympics. And at
Speaker 1: this time, I'm like, what's the Olympics. I've never even
Speaker 1: heard of that before, like what you know, So it
Speaker 1: was really about ten years old and my coaches were
Speaker 1: just like everybody saw like a whole bunch of potential
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, I don't know, like I'm just
Speaker 1: having a good time. And then honestly, that's when it
Speaker 1: kind of just started to get worse from there because
Speaker 1: it was like that pressure got added on. The intensity
Speaker 1: just went up like ten notches times ten. What's your
Speaker 1: family a part of the pressure, Yeah, most so so
Speaker 1: they but they weren't before they saw the talent, right,
Speaker 1: so it was like the talent was recognized and they
Speaker 1: got on board. Um, was it your mom or your dad?
Speaker 1: It was a good mix and what was that like,
Speaker 1: how did you what was your relationship with them like,
Speaker 1: and how is that? Evaul? Goodness, It's been a journey
Speaker 1: for sure. We didn't get along for a while, not
Speaker 1: in necessarily too dramatic like you know, but um, I
Speaker 1: definitely started to resent them over the years because of
Speaker 1: how they were making me feel, because of the things
Speaker 1: that they were making me do, all this extra extreme
Speaker 1: like telling me making me feel like I wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough and not getting getting enough. We're proud of you
Speaker 1: or not getting enough. You know, I see your effort
Speaker 1: even just like I see your effort, like I would
Speaker 1: have appreciated that too, But I know that they just
Speaker 1: really wanted the best for me. They wanted to push
Speaker 1: me to just get to that next step, get to
Speaker 1: that goal. But yeah, sometimes it can get a little
Speaker 1: extreme and a little bit too far. And it was
Speaker 1: so rocky time, a rough patch, just feeling disconnected and
Speaker 1: it's still a journey with my parents. I feel like
Speaker 1: I we had some conversations over the last couple of
Speaker 1: years about just our journey and like how I opened
Speaker 1: up to them and told them how they were making
Speaker 1: me feel. And you know, they didn't know. They didn't
Speaker 1: know a lot of the things that I was telling them,
Speaker 1: they didn't even know. Um, so they're like, well, we're sorry,
Speaker 1: like we didn't know. Now it's a cry. Come to
Speaker 1: Jesus meeting and we're just all crying and everything. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we both kind of realized like we all
Speaker 1: didn't know what we were doing, and I had to
Speaker 1: learn to kind of give some grace because they were
Speaker 1: just wanted the best, even though I'm like, how can
Speaker 1: you you know? Like, how can you not know? Like
Speaker 1: how you were making me feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: you could see it. But you know, everything happens for
Speaker 1: a reason, I believe, and I do feel like it
Speaker 1: made me stronger and kind of built and shape me
Speaker 1: into the woman that I am today. And you know
Speaker 1: how to move forward what I'm not gonna do exactly.
Speaker 1: You learned the So you know, you had this devastating
Speaker 1: injury right before the Olympics, but you upheld your commitment
Speaker 1: to u c l A and to be a part
Speaker 1: of the team. Did you find the joy again in gymnastics?
Speaker 1: Did you love it again? Yes? I so glad I
Speaker 1: picked myself up and got to U c l A.
Speaker 1: Because that was my transformational years, my transition years. I
Speaker 1: really became a woman and I learned so much about myself.
Speaker 1: I started to heal, I started to shed layers, UM
Speaker 1: just learned so much about me that I didn't even
Speaker 1: know that My coach, Miss val she Um, was a
Speaker 1: head coach for U c l A Gymnastics for many years.
Speaker 1: Amazing woman. She's like a second mom to me, and
Speaker 1: she just really valued my well being over my talent
Speaker 1: as a gymnast. And before coming to u c l A,
Speaker 1: I felt like that's all I was was a gymnast.
Speaker 1: I identified as a gymnast. I didn't know what else
Speaker 1: was there was to me, and she was the first
Speaker 1: one to kind of help me see like there's so
Speaker 1: much to You're a star, Like you're a star. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Like like you know, So she
Speaker 1: really just opened those doors for me. And you know,
Speaker 1: you have to do the work. You have to want
Speaker 1: to do the work to heal and get better and
Speaker 1: just kind of shift your mindset and think positively because
Speaker 1: I do feel like I had a negative mindset growing up.
Speaker 1: Just that was my environment, you know, just all kind
Speaker 1: of negative, bottled up tense energy just kind of within
Speaker 1: and Um, I just started to become free at u
Speaker 1: c l A. So upon graduation, what did it feel
Speaker 1: like to enter this new adulthood chapter of your life?
Speaker 1: Stepping into adulthood has been a huge transition. Um feels
Speaker 1: like something's getting thrown at you left and right. Every day.
Speaker 1: Life is just lifing. Lately, life has just been lifing,
Speaker 1: and I'm honestly enjoying it. I'm enjoying the new things
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to do. Like I've spent so much
Speaker 1: time in gymnastics, so it's great to just explore all
Speaker 1: the other interests that I've had when since I was
Speaker 1: a kid but just didn't get to try out and
Speaker 1: just dedicate any time too. But honestly, the hardest thing
Speaker 1: I would say is taxes and learning about taxes because
Speaker 1: I'm like, like they didn't teach me this in school.
Speaker 1: I'm not ready. So what is your relationship to money? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't get to speak to a lot
Speaker 1: of twenty three year old today is and like, how
Speaker 1: do you think about money? Well, Um, I personally don't.
Speaker 1: Well I think money rules the world, makes the world around,
Speaker 1: and I wish it was love that made the world
Speaker 1: go around. Um, I just like money because I needed
Speaker 1: to survive and needed to live and you know, get
Speaker 1: basic needs for myself. But you know, money isn't everything
Speaker 1: to me. I really am looking for passion. I look
Speaker 1: for fulfillment. I look for love and positive things, inspirational
Speaker 1: things and things like what's her story? And Maker's conference
Speaker 1: and yeah, and how do you spend your days nowadays?
Speaker 1: So it's been hard, honestly, because I'm such so used
Speaker 1: to like a regimented schedule like eight am, two five
Speaker 1: literally in nine to five, but in gymnastics. So it's
Speaker 1: been really hard because I don't have anybody telling me
Speaker 1: what to do, and like I'm active, I want to
Speaker 1: be active. I want to be fit. I want to
Speaker 1: be tight tighten right in the gym, you know, keeping
Speaker 1: it together and um. So it was hard to try
Speaker 1: to find that motivation for a while. But eventually I
Speaker 1: found my groove and I figured out honestly what what
Speaker 1: it was was like I was putting so much pressure
Speaker 1: on myself, like I when I think of working out
Speaker 1: and when I think of just being fit, you know,
Speaker 1: it comes with like all the things that I'm used
Speaker 1: to eight hours a day, forty hours a week and
Speaker 1: just all that intensity and learning to find growth in
Speaker 1: exercise and different types of exercise like in yoga and
Speaker 1: um StairMaster pilates, just doing a whole bunch of different
Speaker 1: things that I've never done. Like I'm just used to
Speaker 1: gymnastics workout, which is a whole bunch of stuff that
Speaker 1: it's like all full body working out. It's just weird.
Speaker 1: It's a lot different things. But um, now I get
Speaker 1: to explore other types of working out, other forms of
Speaker 1: exercise that bring that makes me feel good and I
Speaker 1: feel like I got I got better and I felt
Speaker 1: like I got one percent better even if it wasn't huge,
Speaker 1: Like I had to just take that pressure kind of
Speaker 1: off of myself. Um, it was a long time. It's
Speaker 1: had a long time, but now I find a I
Speaker 1: got a groove. I work out multiple times the league,
Speaker 1: but on my own terms, and I don't have the pressure.
Speaker 1: Like if you don't feel like it's today, girl, it's okay.
Speaker 1: You know, tell yourself it's okay. So my days started
Speaker 1: with usually working out in the mornings, and I also
Speaker 1: I'm a new dog mom now at Cavalier King Charles.
Speaker 1: So you got the long group of years. Lady in
Speaker 1: the tramp, he's my bestie and you know, I love
Speaker 1: caring for him. He gets me outside too, you know,
Speaker 1: he got to be outside, So taken outside and I'm
Speaker 1: really focusing on dancing right now and kind of perfecting
Speaker 1: my dance craft. I've always loved to dance since I
Speaker 1: was a child, but like I said before, gymnastics took
Speaker 1: up that time. So now I'm trying to build my
Speaker 1: expertise in dancing. I just love performing in general. So
Speaker 1: even if I'm not that good, I'm gonna sell it.
Speaker 1: You know you're not, You're not gonna know what kind
Speaker 1: of dancing. Um, I'm focused on hip hop right now,
Speaker 1: but I just took a jazz plunk for the first
Speaker 1: time kind of a few weeks ago, and I love it.
Speaker 1: I think that's my style, honestly, I really do. I
Speaker 1: think it's really close to kind of gymnastics a little bit,
Speaker 1: and just in terms of sharp movements that I can
Speaker 1: relate to. So so where can you take that. I
Speaker 1: really would love to go on tour with an artist, anybody.
Speaker 1: I would love to new music videos, commercials. I've already
Speaker 1: done one commercial Old Navies coming out. I'm really excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just love to any any place that there's a
Speaker 1: stage and I could just get out there and move
Speaker 1: and just tell a story, whether it's you know, crunk
Speaker 1: or funnier, happy, whatever it is, upbeat or more contemporary
Speaker 1: even I love to just move and tell that story
Speaker 1: and now a quick break. You seem to also have
Speaker 1: a really important story to tell other younger girls who
Speaker 1: are coming up in elite sports. Do you do that?
Speaker 1: Do you talk to young women who are in middle
Speaker 1: school or in high school who are whether they're you know,
Speaker 1: in elite gymnastics or tennis or anything, you found a
Speaker 1: way to speak to those communities. I have before. I
Speaker 1: do a lot of gymnastics camps in the summer where
Speaker 1: I'm a coach or I'm a special guest, and they'll
Speaker 1: have me come and speak a lot of times. Um,
Speaker 1: I do speak, but a lot of girls. I find
Speaker 1: that at those gymnastics camps specifically, UM, the girls gain
Speaker 1: a lot more from me being a coach to them
Speaker 1: rather than me like you know, speaking in the building
Speaker 1: them my life story or whatever it is. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know, they just love that. And I love being
Speaker 1: able to help somebody achieve their goals get better in
Speaker 1: a little bit, in a little way, whether it's just
Speaker 1: like a little mental cue, like all you need is
Speaker 1: just think go big or something, you know, and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: my god, all all I did was to do what
Speaker 1: you told me to do. That I made it was amazing.
Speaker 1: That just brings me so much joy. I really love
Speaker 1: to to do that. Um inspired. But aside from kind
Speaker 1: of the gymnastics community, not necessarily tell us about the
Speaker 1: Olympic dream and did that die completely when you got injured? No, So, like,
Speaker 1: here's my thing. I have really like vivid dreams, you guys,
Speaker 1: like messages like come to me in my dreams. And
Speaker 1: I made about it myself that whenever I would have
Speaker 1: a dream that had a very specific message, like I
Speaker 1: was going to go for it. But even if I
Speaker 1: didn't make it like I was going to try. So
Speaker 1: after you know, COVID happened and Olympics got pushed back year,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm having all these dreams that
Speaker 1: I'm in the Olympics, you guys. And I was like, no,
Speaker 1: like I thought this was long and gone. I was like,
Speaker 1: I already went through that, Like I thought I did
Speaker 1: that already. Um So I did try to go for
Speaker 1: Unfortunately didn't work out, just because balancing college my senior
Speaker 1: year in college and trying to get back to those
Speaker 1: forty hour regiment was just a little bit too much.
Speaker 1: But um, I do still do gymnastics all the time
Speaker 1: for events like this. You're commercials for jobs. Everybody loves that.
Speaker 1: I can flip, but I do love to do always
Speaker 1: just do gymnastics and that far away, you know, So
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just keeping it in the back pocket.
Speaker 1: Just OK. I love that. And it sounds like you
Speaker 1: have the healthiest relationship with gmnastics that you've ever had,
Speaker 1: so perhaps that's what's gonna get you to reach your
Speaker 1: Olympic dreams. Absolutely, I really do feel like I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready at that time. I do now realize it was
Speaker 1: a blessing in disguise. I wasn't really ready. I wasn't
Speaker 1: fully developed and mentally and physically even just to take
Speaker 1: on that whole world. I feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: I would have been just a head case. So I'm
Speaker 1: grateful for it. You mentioned before as part of this,
Speaker 1: you know of your training that there was a lot
Speaker 1: around weight, a lot around food. What's your relationship with
Speaker 1: food like today? It's tricky, It comes and go. It's
Speaker 1: like I don't know. I try not to think about
Speaker 1: it too much because I feel like once I do
Speaker 1: start thinking about it over and over or just like
Speaker 1: really deeply, which is I think deeply about a lot
Speaker 1: of things. Unfortunately, overthinker, I feel like it does kind
Speaker 1: of take me back to the past in that whole place. Um.
Speaker 1: So I try to just go one day at a time,
Speaker 1: just take it as it comes by trying not to
Speaker 1: overthink it. That's just where I'm at with it. How
Speaker 1: do you, Reckon Tyler, think about what happened in terms
Speaker 1: of gymnastics and the sexual abuse scandal. You weren't directly
Speaker 1: affected by that, where you Yeah, Oh, I'm sorry, I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize that. It's okay, I didn't mean I
Speaker 1: never told my story. Okay. What was your relationship to
Speaker 1: Nasser and the and the sexual abuse scandal? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, in the elite world, we had these camps
Speaker 1: every month that we were going to in Texas, the
Speaker 1: Curly Ranch. So he was at the Curly Ranch a
Speaker 1: lot out of times. But my experience with him came
Speaker 1: actually in twelve that the PNG Championships UM, which is
Speaker 1: a big meat for US. It's like kind of the
Speaker 1: qualifier to make the national team for USA and UM
Speaker 1: at the time, I was at Ohio and so we
Speaker 1: were kind of like an underdog Jim, and I really
Speaker 1: did feel like my coach at the time was just
Speaker 1: kind of doing any and everything to get on her
Speaker 1: goods onto Marta Karoly she was ahead of USA Gymnastics team. Say,
Speaker 1: I feel like she was trying to do anything to
Speaker 1: get on her good side and just make you know,
Speaker 1: make her look good, make me look good, just anything.
Speaker 1: So if Marta said go to Nasser, we were going
Speaker 1: to Nasser. And um, my first real injury was at
Speaker 1: that meet PNG Championships. I tore my hamstring, of course
Speaker 1: right and I had like a high hamstring dare, so
Speaker 1: you know, he was working on me on the table.
Speaker 1: It was pretty It was kind of in public too,
Speaker 1: so I was like looking around and my coach actually
Speaker 1: I felt like she saw it, but she didn't say anything,
Speaker 1: just kind of like looks away, looks on her phone.
Speaker 1: So then I was like, well, we're not saying anything,
Speaker 1: you know. So I've never said anything even like until
Speaker 1: just now, Like is the first time I've ever even
Speaker 1: said something. Because I feel like even when a lot
Speaker 1: of girls were coming out, I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people had a way worse than I did because
Speaker 1: it was just that one time, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm never you know, like, I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: my coach, We're never going back to him again, like
Speaker 1: ever again. And she's like why not? You know, she's
Speaker 1: getting mad at me. I'm like, I don't care, Like
Speaker 1: we're not doing it. So I never went back to him.
Speaker 1: I was at least able to have enough courage to
Speaker 1: tell her like, we can't go back to him. But
Speaker 1: I which is incredible, by the way, and the twelve
Speaker 1: and so did to have the fortitude at twelve to
Speaker 1: know that that's just not an acceptable way to be
Speaker 1: treated and to actually use your voice to stand up
Speaker 1: for yourself is so incredible. I mean, you are amazing.
Speaker 1: It's really incredible that you were able to do that. Thanks,
Speaker 1: and I'm so sorry that happened to you. Okay. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like the culture of us A Gymnastics is changing?
Speaker 1: I really, I really hope it does change. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's changing enough. Honestly, I would like
Speaker 1: to see like just drastic changes, but we have. We
Speaker 1: do have women leading the team now, which I really love. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Martha was a woman as well, but there
Speaker 1: was a lot of male coaches still involved, and I
Speaker 1: just would love to see a lot more women. But
Speaker 1: you know, we do need mail coaches for spotting and
Speaker 1: just like catch me if I you know, like a girl,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not catching you, you know, like, so
Speaker 1: you better find a man to catch it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I would like to see, I think, more change and
Speaker 1: just more people being proactive about the change. I feel
Speaker 1: like we like we all rally really hard for just
Speaker 1: like one moment and then it just kind of dies down.
Speaker 1: And I would just like to see consistency throughout. But
Speaker 1: you know, there's only so much we can do, and
Speaker 1: it's just I mean, I feel like the worst people
Speaker 1: are always at camps and schools because that's where the
Speaker 1: kids are, so that's where the predators are, and it's
Speaker 1: just so um. In your story, when I was twelve,
Speaker 1: I fired my tennis coach, and everyone was so horrified
Speaker 1: that I I would fire him because he was amazing that
Speaker 1: my parents didn't want to fire him, and I called him.
Speaker 1: They made me call him myself to fire him. But
Speaker 1: he turned out to be a huge pedophile and it
Speaker 1: was one of those things where no one, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that the tendency is not to expect the worser.
Speaker 1: It's to expect the best of someone who is an
Speaker 1: expertise in something, and it definitely overshadows a lot of
Speaker 1: other things. But I agree. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: talking to us. You are amazing, amazing, Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: That's your speed quick so we'll ask you some quickly.
Speaker 1: A fun party? Who leaves you star struck? Oh? I
Speaker 1: love that. We've never gotten that. It's such an obvious one.
Speaker 1: It's jaw dropping. She's amazing me. I'd love to one day. Right.
Speaker 1: What are you reading right now? My goodness, I'm reading.
Speaker 1: This book is actually called Mindset Um. I started it
Speaker 1: in college, but it's just basically learning how to have
Speaker 1: a growth mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset,
Speaker 1: which you know, I had a fixed mindset and I
Speaker 1: would like to think I have a growth mindset now
Speaker 1: and if not, I'm working towards having a growth mindset.
Speaker 1: Where would you like to go on vacation? Bora, bora? Ready,
Speaker 1: I'm ready now. Everybody likes to take I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Now. How would your friends describe you? Oh,
Speaker 1: my goodness, I think crazy, A look crazy funny like
Speaker 1: crazy in a good way, not like crazy crazy, but
Speaker 1: like crazy, like what are you doing crazy? Why are
Speaker 1: you doing over there? Like I don't know, um fun
Speaker 1: And definitely I would say I feel like they know
Speaker 1: that I have their backs and that I would do
Speaker 1: anything for them, and that they know that they can
Speaker 1: call me. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Guys, Sam, what
Speaker 1: even made you think to ask about Larry Nazer? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I just had this weird sense that she
Speaker 1: must it was like the age that she was a
Speaker 1: top gymnast. And there is something also about like I
Speaker 1: think as you know, like I had a coach as
Speaker 1: a pedophile, and I feel like there's some radar I
Speaker 1: have when someone's been through something. I just felt like
Speaker 1: there was more to her story. And she's such a
Speaker 1: remarkable woman, and there's also a part of her that's
Speaker 1: clearly very fragile, I want to say, or you know, vulnerable,
Speaker 1: And I was so impressed with her for sharing everything
Speaker 1: with us and even just the way she talked about it.
Speaker 1: She is truly remarkable. I mean, this is a woman
Speaker 1: who you know, was competing at this elite level that
Speaker 1: very few people in the world could ever understand. When
Speaker 1: she was eleven twelve, and to them layer on top
Speaker 1: of it at that age, when she was still a child,
Speaker 1: she was assaulted by a monster. Well, and that the
Speaker 1: crazy thing is that this is the first time she's
Speaker 1: ever shared this publicly, and it won't even make a
Speaker 1: difference in the case because the number of people to sheer,
Speaker 1: number of people that were impacted by that monster is
Speaker 1: so enormous that one more person doesn't impact the case.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that it also speaks to just
Speaker 1: how difficult is it to be part of an individual sport, right,
Speaker 1: She felt so pressured from so many directions at a
Speaker 1: young age, and I think there is something to that,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's tennis, whether it's swimming, whether it's gymnastics,
Speaker 1: ice skating, there is just nothing comparable to being the
Speaker 1: winner or the loser all on your own. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's a really articulate way of saying all of that.
Speaker 1: And I think you know one thing, although this can't
Speaker 1: impact NASA's criminal case, and he is a prison where
Speaker 1: he will stay and where he should be. Nia as
Speaker 1: a coach now and I think you know, she does coach,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think that's her full time profession,
Speaker 1: but she does some coaching, and I think there's something
Speaker 1: so powerful about her ability to use her voice, both
Speaker 1: as someone who in some ways survived being put into
Speaker 1: elite athletics as a child, because I think it is
Speaker 1: something that you know your psychologically being put in a
Speaker 1: place that few adults can handle, and so to be
Speaker 1: able to mentor young women and men in the same
Speaker 1: position as remarkable, and then also as a survivor to
Speaker 1: be able to share her story that matters very very
Speaker 1: much when we have young guests like this, you know,
Speaker 1: Nias is in her early twenties. I think we've had
Speaker 1: a couple of others, Tory Dunlap, we've had Victoria Garrick,
Speaker 1: and we have another one coming up. I feel like
Speaker 1: there's also so much left of her story. There's so
Speaker 1: much left to tell, and it will just be interesting
Speaker 1: to see where and how this unfolds. There's a discovery
Speaker 1: that you haven't gone through and a personal journey you
Speaker 1: haven't gone through when you're in her twenties, and that
Speaker 1: changes over time in your thirties forties. I think it
Speaker 1: really comes into fruition in terms of who you're going
Speaker 1: to be and who you're meant to be. So I
Speaker 1: think that there's so many chapters of Nia's story that
Speaker 1: have yet to be written. Thanks for listening to What's
Speaker 1: Her Story with Sam and Amy. We would appreciate it
Speaker 1: if you leave her review wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and of course, connect with us on social media at
Speaker 1: What's Her Story podcast. What's Her Story with Sam and
Speaker 1: Amy is powered by my company, The Riveter at the
Speaker 1: Riveter dot c O and Sam's company, park Place Payments
Speaker 1: at park place Payments dot com. Thanks to our producer
Speaker 1: Stacy Para and our male perspective Blue Burns