Speaker 1: My name is Jeffreys Z Carrion, and you're listening to
Speaker 1: four Courses with Jeffrey Zarrian from I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: four Courses. I'll be taking you along for the ride
Speaker 1: while I talk with the top talent of our time.
Speaker 1: In each conversation, I focus on four different areas from
Speaker 1: my guests life and career. And during those four courses,
Speaker 1: I'm going to dig deep and uncover new insights and
Speaker 1: inspirations that we can all use to fuel ourselves to
Speaker 1: push forward. My guest for this episode is a world
Speaker 1: class athlete an Olympian figure skater. He won the bronze
Speaker 1: medal in the two thousand eighteen Olympic Winner Games and
Speaker 1: was the first openly gay man to qualify for the U.
Speaker 1: S team. Since retiring from competitive skating, he's been on
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars and co host a comedy show
Speaker 1: with none other than Snooky. Without further delay, let's get
Speaker 1: into my conversation with Adam Rippon. Jeffrey. This is my
Speaker 1: honor and my pleasure. The only thing that I'm mad
Speaker 1: about is that I can't have a cigar with you.
Speaker 1: You like cigars, no, but I would. I would still
Speaker 1: have one with you. Are you kidding? For a first course,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask Adam about overcoming some serious challenges
Speaker 1: as a kid. He was born nearly deaf at birth,
Speaker 1: his appendix burst when he was just five, and he
Speaker 1: struggled with a severe respiratory condition. I wanted to know
Speaker 1: how in the world did he turn all that into
Speaker 1: an incredible skating career. So I had to ask you.
Speaker 1: I was reading about your mom and your upbringing, and
Speaker 1: I was, you know, I always think about like, I'm
Speaker 1: very much in a nutrition and health and obviously this
Speaker 1: we we talked food too on the show, but you know,
Speaker 1: you had some really serious challenges as as a kid
Speaker 1: growing up with your health, and then you got into
Speaker 1: the most why. I was just watching at two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight Olympics. I watched it a couple of times,
Speaker 1: and we'll come in on that later, but I was
Speaker 1: watching the physicality. I'm like, how in God's name did
Speaker 1: you go from how you started to be in such shape?
Speaker 1: You know, you're already thirty one, so there's not like
Speaker 1: I mean, at the point where you were skating. You
Speaker 1: were skating that could probably like you know, in your
Speaker 1: early teens, a late teens, and this how did that?
Speaker 1: How did you recover all those things? I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just amazing. Well, I think, um, when I was young,
Speaker 1: like when I was super young, I was always sick,
Speaker 1: and um, I was in and out of the hospital.
Speaker 1: I mean for a really young kid, it felt pretty often.
Speaker 1: So like I remember like missing chunks of preschool in
Speaker 1: kindergarten because I was in the hospital. But like a
Speaker 1: good Irish immigrant from Scranton, Pennsylvania, I was resilient. And
Speaker 1: I said no, I said, listen, those freeze dried potatoes
Speaker 1: I've been eating for the past five years. They are
Speaker 1: going to kind of get me through this. And they did.
Speaker 1: And I actually, by the time I was six, I
Speaker 1: was a body made of canned green beans and fish sticks.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what really got me through to
Speaker 1: where I am today. And is that why your mom,
Speaker 1: Kelly was was that because of all the travel you
Speaker 1: did to practice what was dining like, I mean, what
Speaker 1: what happened in the kitchen at your house? I mean,
Speaker 1: so Okay, by the time I was fifteen, I wasn't
Speaker 1: living at home anymore. I was living with like different
Speaker 1: families and stuff. So I mean, I think it's funny
Speaker 1: to think about like what dinners were like in the
Speaker 1: early nineties when I was like growing up, because you know,
Speaker 1: they we had like a lot of Hamburger helper and
Speaker 1: so many of the like iconic nineties dinners stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: one of six, I'm the oldest, so like they were
Speaker 1: always like young babies around when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: So my mom it was like truly like getting a
Speaker 1: cafeteria together when we would have dinner. And then when
Speaker 1: I started moving around, I lived with a lot of
Speaker 1: different families and got to kind of experience what their
Speaker 1: cuisine was like. And then I lived with my Russian
Speaker 1: coach for a while. Also I lived with her for
Speaker 1: a few years, and so then I was really having
Speaker 1: a lot of like different like Russian dishes that like
Speaker 1: now when I see them, I get that like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, those are my childhood dishes. So which ones
Speaker 1: which dishes? And stuffed cabbage, yeah, stuffed cabbage, the parogis
Speaker 1: and then all of these. A lot of soups and
Speaker 1: I think that like good, yes, and like every soup
Speaker 1: had like a grain or something in it and to
Speaker 1: make it heavier, and you could tell like this is
Speaker 1: like Soviet, like we need to make it all, they
Speaker 1: have the biggest punch, and so there's so many different
Speaker 1: like vegetable soups. There's one vegetable soup. I can't remember
Speaker 1: what it was. It was my favorite. So like that's
Speaker 1: a tragedy for me that I can't remember, but it's
Speaker 1: how I realized that beats are good because I would
Speaker 1: have borsh My mom was Polish and Russian, and I
Speaker 1: remember the soup shues to make, and she made beats soup.
Speaker 1: She made barley soup. And I also remember that they
Speaker 1: were just as good cold as they were hot, so
Speaker 1: if the thing ever cooled down, there was no problem.
Speaker 1: It would just so like it would fill you up.
Speaker 1: And I imagine when you were having practice that Elena
Speaker 1: would like, you need, you need my soup. You have
Speaker 1: practice four hours she would There was a time, and
Speaker 1: I think that you will appreciate this that I was
Speaker 1: making this effort that like Elena, my first big coach,
Speaker 1: she made this one soup. I can't remember what it was,
Speaker 1: but it was delicious, and I was watching very carefully
Speaker 1: how she did it, and I was like, when I
Speaker 1: go home, I'm going to make it for everyone. So
Speaker 1: I started boiling, like the vegetables and I was like
Speaker 1: making a stock and I just kind of came to
Speaker 1: this crossroads of like I couldn't remember if I was
Speaker 1: just supposed to boil the vegetables because like they just
Speaker 1: needed to get softer or like what I just I
Speaker 1: blinked and I well, you know, I'll say I cracked
Speaker 1: and I couldn't handle the pressure of making this soup
Speaker 1: because I took the vegetables and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: the vegetables, they were just supposed to be soft. So
Speaker 1: I took the whole stock and just dumped the whole
Speaker 1: stock out, which I think I needed it, because when
Speaker 1: I tasted the soup it was bad. I'll be honest.
Speaker 1: But you're hearing great shape now. So something worked, right?
Speaker 1: Something work? Yes, yea? So from from from TV dinners
Speaker 1: to Russian staples to what is your favorite right now?
Speaker 1: So you're like, what is your grab and go? What
Speaker 1: is your dinner? When you go out? Where do you go?
Speaker 1: I mean it's endless, right l A as greatest food? Yes,
Speaker 1: it does. I think here in l A like fish
Speaker 1: is so good, it's always so fresh. But like I
Speaker 1: think also like I never liked fish growing up, but
Speaker 1: you know when you eat fish, like from the Midwest,
Speaker 1: and it's just like it's it's basically fish sticks or
Speaker 1: it's like jerking. You're like, how is this? This is?
Speaker 1: This is really tough. And when you have really good
Speaker 1: fish for the first time, it's it's really good. So
Speaker 1: that's always my favorite thing to like. If I if
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, we don't know what to go or
Speaker 1: where to get food, always get fish. And I think
Speaker 1: wherever you live, you end up staying in like that
Speaker 1: pocket for like when you want to go out and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I used to live on the West Side, but
Speaker 1: now I live on the East side live. I live
Speaker 1: in Pasadena. Now, I obviously like I love Hilstone restaurants,
Speaker 1: so like I live right near Houston's. I can't I
Speaker 1: can't beat it. It's so good. I went the first
Speaker 1: time I ever went to Houston's. I went, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is like adult version of out Back Steakhouse. This
Speaker 1: is adult yes, because like he knows, out Back Steakhouse
Speaker 1: is the Scranton to Los Angeles. Wow, right, that is perfect.
Speaker 1: Get a pen right, I have one right here, right,
Speaker 1: I write in pencilone lay. We come from similar backgrounds.
Speaker 1: I think a little eater in life, obviously, But Scranton,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and Worcester, Massachusetts really sort of have the same,
Speaker 1: you know, vowelistic ring to them. Don't you think? I agree?
Speaker 1: And they think? I think they both give me the
Speaker 1: same visceral reaction. Yeah, so what is your reaction? Okay, well,
Speaker 1: I know that this isn't a visual medium, but when
Speaker 1: you said, yeah, I just want to paint a picture
Speaker 1: for the viewer that you're all of your teeth all
Speaker 1: perfectly white, We're gritting against each other, and I could
Speaker 1: hear it in my microphone and that's the same visceral
Speaker 1: reaction that I have, like ah, like an ouch ouch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Worster wester was you know, I guess it's good because right,
Speaker 1: I think it was so limiting, and I think baby
Speaker 1: Scranton was for you too. I don't know, but it
Speaker 1: was so limiting. It was limitless and kind of a
Speaker 1: funny way. Yeah, and was sure is because this is
Speaker 1: a cooking podcast. Is a great sauce to sauce. We
Speaker 1: don't even say Shire anymore, which is not Worcester sauce. No,
Speaker 1: we dropped it, and we collectively the cooking community that
Speaker 1: I'm a part of now. I mean it's so you're like, well,
Speaker 1: you have the Houston's thing, but the Houston is probably
Speaker 1: the Americana part of it. So that you have it's
Speaker 1: a Scranton in you to your Scranton l A, but
Speaker 1: Scranton with an asterisk, which is Houston over the Scranton. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: In our second course, I had to understand how Adam
Speaker 1: managed to become a world class figure skater as a
Speaker 1: kid growing up in a small town Scranton. He told
Speaker 1: me about the sacrifices that he, his mother, and his
Speaker 1: siblings all made and the personal growth that came as
Speaker 1: a result. So I was right. I was like, I
Speaker 1: was trying to imagine your mom cooking for you and
Speaker 1: driving you all those miles and hours with your other
Speaker 1: siblings to go to practice. Why may I ask that
Speaker 1: you take all the siblings? Was to set an example
Speaker 1: for the siblings in your in your determination and your
Speaker 1: your practice or was it because she had to Well,
Speaker 1: it's like not everyone all at once, so it would
Speaker 1: be like everything needed to be coordinated with everyone's schedule.
Speaker 1: So sometimes it would be like two of my siblings
Speaker 1: would come to this practice because they would need to
Speaker 1: do something right after or one or none. And when
Speaker 1: I was like training a lot when I was young
Speaker 1: and still at home and going between Scranton and Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: which is like a two hour drive. Like, yeah, so
Speaker 1: my mom had just had a baby, so she was
Speaker 1: bringing like my newborn brother and one of the younger
Speaker 1: siblings under that who wasn't old enough to be in school.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't everybody, but like there was a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was like three of us. So how
Speaker 1: do you that's so much work? It is so much
Speaker 1: where I mean went in retrospect when I like think
Speaker 1: back at it, what one I'm thirty one, and so
Speaker 1: my mom was like when she had me, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I could not imagine having two kids, Jeffrey, No, I'd
Speaker 1: be it'd be over for me. I had three and
Speaker 1: over fifty I had them. Wow. Yeah, okay, young gun, Wow,
Speaker 1: I said, it's just amazing. But I I know what
Speaker 1: it takes. And you know, obviously she was a coach,
Speaker 1: so she knew too. She knew like, all right, this
Speaker 1: is this is the game plan. Everybody, Just get out
Speaker 1: of the way. We need to figure this out. I've
Speaker 1: got it figured out. This is how you're going to
Speaker 1: be great because she noticed one sort of natural pivot
Speaker 1: or balanced that you must have had that she said,
Speaker 1: something's here. I think that. Like I was always like
Speaker 1: a smaller kid and so every and I did a
Speaker 1: little bit of everything, and I liked everything, but there
Speaker 1: was just always a point where I just completely lost
Speaker 1: interest in it. But I really liked skating. And I
Speaker 1: realized I really liked skating because I was taking tennis
Speaker 1: lessons at the same time, and our ten this coach
Speaker 1: was like, who's the best tennis player in the world?
Speaker 1: And I was like, you are, and he was like,
Speaker 1: know who really is? And I was like, I have
Speaker 1: no idea. And he said this thing where he was like,
Speaker 1: if you really love something, you'll learn all about it.
Speaker 1: You'll know everything, You'll know all the people who play it.
Speaker 1: And I remembered that and I was like, I have
Speaker 1: no clue who plays tennis. And then when I started skating,
Speaker 1: I wanted to know everything about it. And that's when
Speaker 1: it really clicked for me. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what my tennis coach said. He was right, when you
Speaker 1: love something, like, you'll be so entranced by it that
Speaker 1: you'll want to learn everything, and that's when I really
Speaker 1: knew that I loved skating, and um, you know, my
Speaker 1: mom was always like if there was something that we
Speaker 1: really liked, we had to show her and prove that
Speaker 1: we would do like whatever it took to make that happen.
Speaker 1: Like I remember to go to the rink in the morning,
Speaker 1: you know, my mom was like, everybody needs to get
Speaker 1: ready for school. I can't just take you. So I
Speaker 1: would wake everyone up at like four thirty in the morning. Um,
Speaker 1: but I would like panic them and be like, you're
Speaker 1: late for school, and like I would make everybody get
Speaker 1: up and like get them all dressed to make sure
Speaker 1: all their lunches were made, so that it would be
Speaker 1: like five o'clock five fifteen, and I'd wake my mom
Speaker 1: up and be like, can you take me to the rink?
Speaker 1: Everybody's already ready for school, and they were just like
Speaker 1: watching TV. Everybody's ready, but like can we go? So
Speaker 1: I would do like things like that all the time,
Speaker 1: just to make sure that there was no reason why
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to go to the rink. And
Speaker 1: then by the time I was like twelve or thirteen,
Speaker 1: I was taking the Greyhound bus because I needed to
Speaker 1: go to Philadelphia for the entire week instead of for
Speaker 1: just like a day or two when my mom would
Speaker 1: drive me, like on a Tuesday or Thursday, and so
Speaker 1: you know, my mom couldn't just leave everyone. So I
Speaker 1: would take the Greyhound bus in downtown Scranton and then
Speaker 1: I would take it all the way to Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: someone would pick me up where I would like walk
Speaker 1: to a rink and then um, I would like be
Speaker 1: with the family for the rest of the week. So
Speaker 1: it was just like if you wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: you needed to you know, be brave and like do
Speaker 1: these things. So yeah, it was always kind of instilled.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to make it work. Can you
Speaker 1: describe this sort of temperament you have to have to
Speaker 1: skate at that hour and so many hours in the
Speaker 1: stamina and the cold, and just describe sort of what
Speaker 1: it's like and how it's so easy just to say,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just just just too cold. I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this. It is. Listen, if I were
Speaker 1: to describe it, it sounds like something I would never
Speaker 1: want to do, because like you're you're tired. Like there
Speaker 1: were little tricks that I would do, like every morning
Speaker 1: where it was like somehow, like if you would go
Speaker 1: out to the rink and you'd have to skip for
Speaker 1: at least five minutes, and then you could get off
Speaker 1: of the ice and go back into the lobby where
Speaker 1: it was warm and just sit for five minutes. Somehow,
Speaker 1: when you got back out there, it didn't feel as
Speaker 1: cold cold, So that would be the first trick. Next
Speaker 1: trick would be, once I'm like halfway through, get off
Speaker 1: the ice and like run my hands into like hot water,
Speaker 1: then like put your gloves back on, go back out
Speaker 1: and you feel a little bit warmer. But it was horrible,
Speaker 1: Like it's horrible, but like at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you love it. It's something that's fun, it's enjoyable, but
Speaker 1: there's like a lot and when you're young, it's always
Speaker 1: in the morning because you have to go before school
Speaker 1: and after school. But when I started to become more
Speaker 1: serious and like a higher level, usually I would practice
Speaker 1: during the day. So it was I'll tell you, being
Speaker 1: tired and cold is the worst combination on planet Earth.
Speaker 1: It really is. And so when did you know? What
Speaker 1: was that moment that you said you knew that, like,
Speaker 1: I'm really good at this. I think there's there might
Speaker 1: be a little you know, they were like I called
Speaker 1: tragic moments, were like, all right, I didn't I missed that,
Speaker 1: but my miss was much better than most people's hit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that there were like little moments where I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I might be good at this. And I think it
Speaker 1: was like when I first started, I was like doing
Speaker 1: things that everybody else was kind of doing, only I
Speaker 1: had just started and I was like, oh, I I
Speaker 1: might be kind of good at this. And then I
Speaker 1: think I really didn't have like a moment of oh,
Speaker 1: I'm really good until maybe I was like maybe once
Speaker 1: when I was like fifteen, when I started to land
Speaker 1: some triple jumps, and then maybe when again when I
Speaker 1: was like eighteen, when I won a world junior title,
Speaker 1: and I think that's when I was like, Okay, wait,
Speaker 1: I might actually be able to like do this. And
Speaker 1: I think that's when everything started to feel a little
Speaker 1: bit more real rather than just like we were you
Speaker 1: try training with rough I at that time, your your coach.
Speaker 1: So from Philadelphia, there were a few years of like
Speaker 1: where I was in Toronto, and then I was in Detroit,
Speaker 1: and then I was with Rafael. The last six years
Speaker 1: of my career, so I wasn't with Rafael at this
Speaker 1: point yet, but you know Rafael, he kind of I
Speaker 1: started working with him at like a interesting time in
Speaker 1: my career because things weren't going great. And he is
Speaker 1: this like Armenian guy. He's very funny in he's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite people on the earth. But he always
Speaker 1: says like these skaters always come to me like it's
Speaker 1: the e er like emergency, they need help before before
Speaker 1: they die. And I'm like, yeah, that's how I came
Speaker 1: to you, like like e R level before I died. Well,
Speaker 1: who recommended him to you? It was a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: How do you get how do you get a coach?
Speaker 1: How do you just and you if you literally the
Speaker 1: craziest thing about skating, which is why I think sometimes
Speaker 1: the parents can be really intense and all of that.
Speaker 1: Well they have to be because it's like you're asking
Speaker 1: somebody who has no experience in a field to be
Speaker 1: an expert, and to not only be an expert, to
Speaker 1: like manage somebody's entire career, so like an emotion and
Speaker 1: emotions right, Oh yes, So if you wanted to like
Speaker 1: work with Raphael, you yourself, I could give you his
Speaker 1: phone number, and you could be like I want a
Speaker 1: lesson and he would see if he has time and
Speaker 1: just schedule you. It's like that. It's and sometimes it's
Speaker 1: like building the connections to other people to get that
Speaker 1: contact or like meeting them or doing a seminar or something.
Speaker 1: But it can be as like unceremonious, as like Hi,
Speaker 1: I found your number. Do you have to? But so
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all these practices and all this roadwork
Speaker 1: and changes in cold and sort of barbaric, you know, workouts.
Speaker 1: How do you have a social life? How did your
Speaker 1: social life sort of interacting and how did you sort
Speaker 1: of bring that to like and I watch you skate,
Speaker 1: and you're so expressive, and it looks like you've been
Speaker 1: around people your entire life all the time. Looks like
Speaker 1: you've done nothing but like socialized. But here you are
Speaker 1: a product of like hours in a cold rink completely alone,
Speaker 1: or on a bus or driving for six or eight
Speaker 1: hours a day. How does that happen? I think that
Speaker 1: it was like life experience because I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that was so helpful is that and something
Speaker 1: that is so isolating, I needed to put myself out
Speaker 1: there all the time. If you're on the bus and
Speaker 1: you fall asleep and you're on the gray Hund bus,
Speaker 1: you need to walk up to the driver and go
Speaker 1: like what stop are we at? Or like you have
Speaker 1: to get on the bus and hey, is that seat taken?
Speaker 1: Can I sit there with like all your bags on
Speaker 1: your seat? And or like there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: little things. And then like when I got older and
Speaker 1: I was living in California, I was, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to pay for all of my skating. They're really uncomfortable
Speaker 1: conversations that I needed to have with people I was
Speaker 1: working with, like, hey, do you mind if I pay
Speaker 1: this bill later? I will prove to you that like
Speaker 1: I'm worth my word and everything, like is there something
Speaker 1: we can do? Like can I work something out with
Speaker 1: you or something? So there are a lot of like
Speaker 1: really uncomfortable conversations, but I think that you grow a
Speaker 1: lot from those of being put in those really odd
Speaker 1: and sometimes really uncomfortable places that they really help you
Speaker 1: to like firmly stand on your own two feet of
Speaker 1: like Okay, I have to just like suck it up
Speaker 1: and do this right now. Yeah, And it's really it's
Speaker 1: a great life experience. I tell people like fail and
Speaker 1: go through chaos and confront chaos head on. Yes, And
Speaker 1: and somehow confronting reality gives you a mastery of reality. Right.
Speaker 1: You can't confront reality from sitting at home on your Instagram.
Speaker 1: You gotta ask you go out there and get and
Speaker 1: get pelted and figure out reality. And then you get
Speaker 1: really good at figuring out reality. And guess what, you
Speaker 1: get better at going through life and you don't be
Speaker 1: afraid anymore, and then guess what, it brings stuff to
Speaker 1: you from the universe. Totally, yes. I even think in
Speaker 1: sports were very often and commonly asked like, what's a
Speaker 1: defining moment in your career? And I have two of them,
Speaker 1: and the both of them are like times where I
Speaker 1: was the worst and I just skated so bad and
Speaker 1: I felt so embarrassed and so at my lowest in
Speaker 1: those moments, but like they were my career defining moments
Speaker 1: of like when I changed my perspective. I grew from them.
Speaker 1: And there was one where I was like sixteen and
Speaker 1: I did really badly at the nationals, and then the
Speaker 1: other really defining moment was like missing an Olympic team
Speaker 1: for the second time. Those two moments really changed my
Speaker 1: whole perspective of who I was, not immediately obviously, because
Speaker 1: like in the moment, I'm like this is terrible, But
Speaker 1: in hindsight, like I look back and I'm like, the
Speaker 1: reason I like am who I am today is because
Speaker 1: of those moments where I failed absolutely and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, watching his skate. I'm like, wow, every single
Speaker 1: people sixty thousand eyeballs and they're all looking for flaws.
Speaker 1: You're all waiting. No, that's all. It's like, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: out here, pick me, apart, destroy me. It's just I
Speaker 1: watch it. I'm like, oh my good lord, you must
Speaker 1: have such a constitution just says saying I'm going to
Speaker 1: lay it all that you doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: At some point, I think it's important to just think.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's okay, I just doesn't matter. It's tough.
Speaker 1: I think like there's I think the closest sport I
Speaker 1: can think. I think gymnastics is a bit like it,
Speaker 1: and I think golf is a lot like it, where
Speaker 1: it's like it's going to say that it's so much
Speaker 1: like golf, where it's like everybody is just watching you
Speaker 1: and you're doing this one thing. That takes less than
Speaker 1: half a second, and you have to be like smart
Speaker 1: enough to know what's going on and dumb enough to
Speaker 1: not care. And it's that perfect balance of being reckless
Speaker 1: and being brave. Yeah, no, you're getting chaos in order,
Speaker 1: but in a way that it seems that it's workable.
Speaker 1: And I think I don't think a lot of people
Speaker 1: understand the amount of time and hours that people have
Speaker 1: to work at getting good at their craft. And once
Speaker 1: you get good at getting good at your craft, it's
Speaker 1: it's it gets in you and you can't let it go.
Speaker 1: And I think that even if the craft is even,
Speaker 1: you're changing your craft and you're doing acting and doing
Speaker 1: all this other stuff now, but it's the same craft.
Speaker 1: You notice, what you're doing is the crafting of your
Speaker 1: crafting from the past. Well, it's all like, it's interesting
Speaker 1: how I feel everything from like my skating career and
Speaker 1: my like from being an athlete. Everything has translated, and
Speaker 1: it's taken me a while to figure out how it has,
Speaker 1: but everything's translated. So like when I do things that
Speaker 1: are like more in the comedy space, I think, like
Speaker 1: the being able to perform is so vital, and I
Speaker 1: think like the one thing about skating where it's like
Speaker 1: you you like start in your position and you just
Speaker 1: if you go and if you feel awful, like you'll
Speaker 1: be awful. But like if you're talking in front of people,
Speaker 1: I think that that can be a little bit more
Speaker 1: like living and breathing, where you can change course, you
Speaker 1: can change you know the way that things are going.
Speaker 1: You can kind of feel the energy around you and
Speaker 1: how people are responding to things. Like when you're skating,
Speaker 1: it's like you have what you have planned and you
Speaker 1: know it's just like sometimes you're just like the three
Speaker 1: violinists on the Titanic and you're just like, I guess
Speaker 1: this is how we're going down for our third course.
Speaker 1: I got to ask Adam about his amazing performance at
Speaker 1: the two thousand eighteen Olympics. I wanted to know how
Speaker 1: he managed to make figure skating looks so elegant and
Speaker 1: yet so powerful, and hear what it takes to compete
Speaker 1: at that elite level. I read your I read a
Speaker 1: lot about you, and then I went and I watched
Speaker 1: the eighteen performance and what I saw it. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: get colored when you read stuff, but I I wanted
Speaker 1: to just express this because I think it's really important
Speaker 1: for the story. First of all, Part one is that
Speaker 1: five or six minute performance you did was so choreographed,
Speaker 1: yet it looked so natural. And people don't realize that
Speaker 1: the hours that every single second has a different motion
Speaker 1: to it a and how you have to practice that
Speaker 1: and do it over and over again. It's almost that
Speaker 1: you must be so sick of that song hearing this
Speaker 1: so are you're never gonna listen to it again. It's
Speaker 1: like Frank. It's like Frank Sinatra singing My Way. He
Speaker 1: used to hate. He said he hated this song because
Speaker 1: he had to sing it, but everybody loved that song,
Speaker 1: so he had to keep singing it. That was number one.
Speaker 1: Number two was I was profoundly affected by how you
Speaker 1: got out of those turns without getting dizzy. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: how does he go from being dizzy to this graceful
Speaker 1: sort of other movement without like spinning in his brain?
Speaker 1: How does that happen? So, Jeffrey, let me teach you
Speaker 1: about this. So because I know that when I drink
Speaker 1: too much, the next time, spinning a different. Sometimes when
Speaker 1: you drink too much, you get less dizzy if you
Speaker 1: think about it, I do, for one so how does
Speaker 1: that happen? I I don't know. So the reason that
Speaker 1: a skater can spin so fast and then you like
Speaker 1: get out of it and they look not dizzy, You
Speaker 1: are dizzy. Like the speed at which somebody who has
Speaker 1: repeatedly this is true, repeatedly put their brain through the
Speaker 1: trauma of the spin. The brain can recover faster. And
Speaker 1: it's the same training that they put astronauts through. So
Speaker 1: it's like the g for us with the face like, yes,
Speaker 1: it is completely that. So like if you like there's
Speaker 1: a this training thing where like you know, you've seen
Speaker 1: it where they put the astronaut in the chair and
Speaker 1: they spin the chair around. Yes, if they do it
Speaker 1: with someone who isn't like trained, and there's like a
Speaker 1: camera right in front of them, the astronaut, their eyes
Speaker 1: will just go like back and forth like this, back
Speaker 1: and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and then
Speaker 1: they'll settle quickly. And if it's somebody who isn't trained
Speaker 1: and does is not used to that like trauma, their
Speaker 1: eyes like jet all over the place trying to find balance.
Speaker 1: But it's something try. Yes, the body naturally will learn
Speaker 1: how to find its balance faster, and that's how a
Speaker 1: skater can spin and they don't look dizzy. You are
Speaker 1: dizzy and you don't know, Yes, you don't know where
Speaker 1: you are, but you're balanced. And when you're when you
Speaker 1: can have you, you don't lose your balance, and that's
Speaker 1: the biggest thing. So it's like I if I would
Speaker 1: get out of something and it like looks really nice,
Speaker 1: about three seconds later, I'm not dizzy at all anymore. Wow,
Speaker 1: But I am immediately after Yes, wow, I mean, and
Speaker 1: now I'm noticing that with everything, Like now that you're
Speaker 1: going to say that, I'm noticing it. It's sort of
Speaker 1: the same thing when you're on a boat and you
Speaker 1: don't want to get seasick, and they said, never look
Speaker 1: at an object and try to try to stop it.
Speaker 1: You just gotta keep going with it. If you look
Speaker 1: at the horizon and try to stop the boat, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get seasick right away. Because we also don't we
Speaker 1: like in skating, we don't spot so a lot of like,
Speaker 1: which is basically like if you have have one focal
Speaker 1: point and you always like turn your head to find
Speaker 1: that because like we do so many rotations, So like
Speaker 1: a trick that I would always do is like you
Speaker 1: find something that's like stationary, which if you're spinning would
Speaker 1: be like maybe a hand in front of you or
Speaker 1: like your knee, so you don't focus on like everything
Speaker 1: being every day around you. Yes, and then like when
Speaker 1: you get out of it, you look for some really
Speaker 1: key thing that's also around you, like a sign on
Speaker 1: the dasherboards or like a specific like judge in the corner.
Speaker 1: But you do it so that you can adjust really
Speaker 1: quickly and you're never liked disorients it. So the third
Speaker 1: out of part three, out of the four things that
Speaker 1: I reckon, I saw was the physicality and the strength
Speaker 1: of your your legs, in your your core, which is
Speaker 1: everything now is core, right, It's a whole world talks
Speaker 1: about core. What did you do? Did you work out
Speaker 1: every day, did you do legs, did you lift weights?
Speaker 1: How did you keep that core and those and your
Speaker 1: legs so strong? So so much of the training is
Speaker 1: like on the ice um. That being said, like everything
Speaker 1: that we do is like one direction. So if we
Speaker 1: we land and we do all of these jumps and
Speaker 1: everything will like land on the right side. So like
Speaker 1: a typical skater, if like they were working with a therapist,
Speaker 1: their whole for me because like I would I was right.
Speaker 1: If you were like right handed or right side dominant,
Speaker 1: you'll jump one direction and left side vice versa. So
Speaker 1: I was right side dominant, so I would land on
Speaker 1: my right legs. So when I would work with a
Speaker 1: therapist who had never worked with me before, it would
Speaker 1: always be like, huh, this is interesting, where like the
Speaker 1: whole right side of my body is like over developed
Speaker 1: and more developed than the left. So a big important
Speaker 1: thing to do when we were off the ice would
Speaker 1: be too Yes, we would lift and do all of
Speaker 1: that stuff to like you know, gain you know, just
Speaker 1: more strength, but we would also do a lot of
Speaker 1: things that were just to do our best to equal
Speaker 1: out because when there is a big imbalance, you are
Speaker 1: more prone to injury, which is crazy because it's like
Speaker 1: our whole we spend our whole life as a skater
Speaker 1: over developing one side and so then you have to
Speaker 1: kind of go off the ice and try to find
Speaker 1: that balance. So it is it is interesting, like like
Speaker 1: in that respect that everything was. So you noticed that
Speaker 1: Rafael nidel Is left side of his arm is like this,
Speaker 1: He's like the Hulk and his other arm is like
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how does that happen? You know, and
Speaker 1: then you notice what happened. It's really obvious. Yes, And
Speaker 1: so another thing for like us is that like we're
Speaker 1: so like bottom heavy that like our legs are really developed,
Speaker 1: but we need to be so slight and so like
Speaker 1: as light as possible. That like our upper bodies are
Speaker 1: like dried out raisins and it looks like all the
Speaker 1: juice just went down. So you still need you still
Speaker 1: need this this structure to support. Basically you need the core,
Speaker 1: but like your upper body, like as a skater, when
Speaker 1: I was skating, it was like no chest, no arms.
Speaker 1: Arms do not help you. They're like directional. They can
Speaker 1: put it, they can put move your shoulders, they can
Speaker 1: like help you tilt and lean, but like arms strength
Speaker 1: doesn't serve you at all. So it's sort of like
Speaker 1: a ballerina. The digolottage is beautiful and it's like this,
Speaker 1: but it's really it's the waist down that is really
Speaker 1: controlling everything. Yes, because like we can use our arms
Speaker 1: to help us and move us and gain momentum. But
Speaker 1: like they're like an exercise that people would do, like
Speaker 1: on the ice would be like you would do things
Speaker 1: and you'd like cross your arms and not move them
Speaker 1: at all or not even use them, and you can
Speaker 1: still do elements. It's much harder because like that momentum
Speaker 1: is still helpful, but like they aren't. The biggest thing
Speaker 1: is like don't let them get in your way. So
Speaker 1: the last part of this is when I watched that
Speaker 1: was the first This is the last part that I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about what it was. The first thing
Speaker 1: that I noticed, and this is, I guess a reverse compliment.
Speaker 1: I didn't notice that technique it was flawless. I didn't
Speaker 1: notice the workout or the practice it was flaw with
Speaker 1: all this. What I noticed was the incredible symmetry with
Speaker 1: the music and the and the the dance. It was
Speaker 1: extraordinarily theatrical and dance like versus a skating. I didn't
Speaker 1: even I didn't notice she was skating until halfway in
Speaker 1: that when you started the twirl. So it was like
Speaker 1: I really saw this uh sort of entertainment, theat theatrical
Speaker 1: dance part of it, more than I've ever seen, and
Speaker 1: a lot of dancers, and it seems to me that
Speaker 1: it's something that you're doing right now, which seems very
Speaker 1: exciting to you. There's a sense of like this theatricality,
Speaker 1: this entertainment, this lifestyle, this sort of like really loving
Speaker 1: It's almost like you're you're dancing for us instead of
Speaker 1: skating for us. And that's what I noticed right off
Speaker 1: the bat. Does that make any sense? It makes total sense.
Speaker 1: I think, like I I as a competitor, I needed
Speaker 1: to figure out like what made me feel comfortable in
Speaker 1: like that space, and I am I'm really competitive, but
Speaker 1: like I needed to find which how that served me.
Speaker 1: So I would be really competitive if I knew that
Speaker 1: I could put on like the best performance. So I
Speaker 1: always focused on everything that like everything was like a show.
Speaker 1: It was all entertainment, and my main focus always had
Speaker 1: to be like I had to entertain everyone, which when
Speaker 1: the things that I do now has translated very well
Speaker 1: and it's helped me a lot and all of these
Speaker 1: other things, because like that's always my main focus of like,
Speaker 1: and when I was at home and practice, I would
Speaker 1: make sure that I was like performing full out every
Speaker 1: day so that like when I went to a competition,
Speaker 1: it was just normal. It was like the way that
Speaker 1: I had just done it. It wasn't like I needed
Speaker 1: to do anything special. And I think doing that every
Speaker 1: day is really exhausting, but it creates this muscle of
Speaker 1: being able to like be there when you need to
Speaker 1: be there and like turn it on right away and
Speaker 1: or or you know, be able to do things where
Speaker 1: it looks like it's full of emotion when really you're
Speaker 1: just like dead inside, which I am. I I hardly
Speaker 1: think that, but I I just thought it was such
Speaker 1: a reserved I was so wonderful you. I could tell
Speaker 1: you a holding back in a way that really made
Speaker 1: it so powerfully interesting. It was like, wow, this this
Speaker 1: is like he's on six, this is not even ten,
Speaker 1: but the dancing and the entertainment is like on twelve.
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, this is like real, like
Speaker 1: a real entertainer. And I don't mean that in any
Speaker 1: way other than like that is brilliant entertaining. And it
Speaker 1: was almost like the skating was secondary. It was almost
Speaker 1: like you're inhabiting two bodies. Well, that's very sweet of you,
Speaker 1: thank you, And but I do want to compliment you
Speaker 1: and say that that's a very great analyzation of the
Speaker 1: way that I truly felt like I would because like
Speaker 1: if I tried to go out of ten, it was
Speaker 1: too like I felt like I don't think anyone can.
Speaker 1: But like it was just being like present enough to
Speaker 1: be like at because Okay, when I would train at
Speaker 1: home and not everybody is like this, I would have
Speaker 1: to train at one percent. So that like if when
Speaker 1: I went to competition, for me to feel in control,
Speaker 1: I would compete at But if you're going a hundred
Speaker 1: every day, what your version of eight five is is
Speaker 1: so much higher than it would be if you were
Speaker 1: training at seventy every day. So I always needed to
Speaker 1: take it down a notch because I would get really
Speaker 1: into it or like overcompensate in different ways. So like
Speaker 1: when I was at home, it was like balls to
Speaker 1: the wall, but when I'd be in competition, it needed
Speaker 1: to just be a little bit more coy and a
Speaker 1: little bit more like in on myself of like okay,
Speaker 1: you've got it, like you this is it was. It
Speaker 1: becomes like a little bit more fun. It's also you
Speaker 1: know when you when you I guess are doing anything.
Speaker 1: When you run a restaurant and you walk into the restaurant,
Speaker 1: the lighting is great, the music is beautiful, the person
Speaker 1: at the desk is great, takes care of you, You
Speaker 1: get your drink for us. Everything's grown great, and the
Speaker 1: food is really good. It's not the best food you've
Speaker 1: ever had, but the whole experience is like I'm coming
Speaker 1: back here again, and it's like it's that it's like
Speaker 1: you can't be perfect at everything. It's just not possible
Speaker 1: and it's not human and real and people don't respond
Speaker 1: to it. Those people responded to your your the words.
Speaker 1: You know, it's sort almost there's almost cinematography, cinematography and
Speaker 1: in a and how you danced that was so captivating, right,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't that we're waiting for this big twill
Speaker 1: and will you make it? Will you make it? Will
Speaker 1: you fall? I wasn't thinking that. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is just fantastic to watch. It was like so it
Speaker 1: was so connected and it was like it made so
Speaker 1: much sense, and I was like, wow, I've noticed difference
Speaker 1: between other skaters who it's like hit hit this, hit two,
Speaker 1: hit six, hit five hits. It's rinse and repeat more music,
Speaker 1: bring it up, crescendo down, Hello, And that's what I'm
Speaker 1: used to because it's it's what's fed a lot of
Speaker 1: the the unequaistic sort of performance skating. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: we should get you on a judging panel. And it's
Speaker 1: a shame and mine at the Olympics because I really
Speaker 1: could have used some of this hype twelve and whatever
Speaker 1: the hell it has, there's a twelve. I would have
Speaker 1: put it up. And this guy's good. Everybody come over here,
Speaker 1: this guy is. Look at this guy. I would have
Speaker 1: loved that. I would have loved that, and I could
Speaker 1: have used that. But hindsight, everything, everything is going as
Speaker 1: it should be. The universe agreed right place for you
Speaker 1: right now. For our fourth and final core, I caught
Speaker 1: up with anim about life in l A with competitive
Speaker 1: skating officially in his rear view mirror, he seems to
Speaker 1: have traditioned well into life outside the rink, with a
Speaker 1: published memoir, to new TV shows, and a finished fiance.
Speaker 1: You're so busy, So tell me you're you're newly engaged,
Speaker 1: you have a show on MTV, you wrote a book.
Speaker 1: Is there anything you're not doing? Did I miss something? No,
Speaker 1: that's that's everything. Yeah, let us in on all this
Speaker 1: a little bit, just a little bit, you know, have
Speaker 1: to say a lot. Okay, I I'm engaged. My fiance
Speaker 1: he's so great, so funny. Like listen, one day when
Speaker 1: I come and I visit you in Florida because now
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it. You gotta come. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna come. You'll meet JP. You'll love JP. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I can already tell. So how do you pronounce his name?
Speaker 1: I was trying to pronounce what I decided, not making
Speaker 1: myself an idiot and just trying to say it. Let
Speaker 1: me go, I'm gonna try. Okay, please, yes, And I
Speaker 1: think you're going to be right. You're cee pekaala. That's
Speaker 1: very that's very close. So his like his it would
Speaker 1: just be like you see peca okay. So, so it's
Speaker 1: I was questioning because sometimes the U was silent or
Speaker 1: sharp in different countries. Yes, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and they put two us to say you see and
Speaker 1: this one they put two s s. So you see
Speaker 1: peca color ka ka kayala kayala. So what is this?
Speaker 1: Is it? J K? Is that his nickname? Come on? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just call him JP because that you see, it's
Speaker 1: like that's like if it were like an English name,
Speaker 1: it'd be like Mary Teresa, Like it's like it's a
Speaker 1: full name. First names. Okay. So let's go So Finland,
Speaker 1: and how are you are you in this l a together.
Speaker 1: So okay, this is so. We met when I was
Speaker 1: at a competition I think almost like five years ago
Speaker 1: at this point, and I was on Tinder, so I
Speaker 1: was obviously very focused on the competition at hand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so we were looking for Houston's to go to dinner.
Speaker 1: I needed to go to Houston's in Helsinki, which I
Speaker 1: still haven't been, yeah, exactly. And so we we matched,
Speaker 1: but we never met talked for months and then he
Speaker 1: came and he visited me. We hit it off, um
Speaker 1: really well, and so, uh, we were planning to get
Speaker 1: married last summer. We're also just like going to a courthouse,
Speaker 1: like I know that, Like I'm in this like room
Speaker 1: with like a mug shop behind me. But uh, we
Speaker 1: just wanted to just go to a courthouse. And then
Speaker 1: with the pandemic and everything, I didn't pan out. So
Speaker 1: we applied for k one visa for him because he's finished. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so that process usually takes about like nine to
Speaker 1: nine months to a year, but with everything, it's been
Speaker 1: about a year and a half. Um, so I've seen
Speaker 1: him twice in the last year and a half. It's
Speaker 1: been you know, it's been difficult at times, but like
Speaker 1: we've both really have stayed focused on like one, I
Speaker 1: think like knowing that like this will come to an
Speaker 1: end soon, and like there's a light at the end
Speaker 1: of the tunnel for our like him living far that
Speaker 1: like we've that's been really helpful. And like we've all
Speaker 1: we both like have really focused on like our own
Speaker 1: careers and things so that like when we're able to
Speaker 1: like live together, it'll be really nice. And we've put
Speaker 1: a lot of time into ourselves, which has been great.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and I guess the other big thing was that,
Speaker 1: like I have the show on MTV. It's called Messiness.
Speaker 1: I Try. I asked my producer. I'm like, okay, so
Speaker 1: what's what's tell me what it is? He said, well,
Speaker 1: it was like, right, show ridiculous And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what was that. I was like, come on, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let him tell me. Okay, So okay. So Messiness is
Speaker 1: a spinoff of Ridiculousness, which was a show where like
Speaker 1: they would play these clips and there's just kind of
Speaker 1: like a back and forth of the panelists. I think
Speaker 1: what makes Messiness a little bit different is that on
Speaker 1: the show, it's me Nicole Polizzi, who's famously known as
Speaker 1: Snooky is the host, Tori Spelling. And then there's a
Speaker 1: comedian his name is Teddy Ray, who is one of
Speaker 1: the funniest people I've ever met. Where do you film it?
Speaker 1: We film it here in Los Angeles at haven Hurst
Speaker 1: Studios and Van Eyes and uh so we we film
Speaker 1: it out there. And basically it's it's sort of it
Speaker 1: was started out as like the brainchild of ridiculousness, but
Speaker 1: because it's the four of us up there were like
Speaker 1: four complete idiots and we just go back and forth
Speaker 1: and we just like have tell really great stories and
Speaker 1: we like make each other laugh the whole time. So
Speaker 1: we have so much fun filming it. And um, we
Speaker 1: had our first ten episodes come out a little while ago.
Speaker 1: We'll have the next ten come out soon. But like
Speaker 1: we it's I've I've even enjoyed watching it, which like
Speaker 1: I don't sometimes sometimes sometimes I'm like I don't know
Speaker 1: if I can watch myself. But like sometimes I'll watch
Speaker 1: the show and I'll be like, it is actually fun.
Speaker 1: So that's my endorsement of my own show. It's actually fun.
Speaker 1: It's so the first season is it out? It's come out, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's half out. So it's twenty episodes, so like our
Speaker 1: our first tenor out in our second ten will be
Speaker 1: out in probably a month or two. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. Uh, And you're hosting there, you're a host
Speaker 1: with Snookie. Yes, she's our main host, she's our president basically,
Speaker 1: and we will do whatever she says, for better or worse,
Speaker 1: which I think sometimes it is worse. I mean, I
Speaker 1: you know, I remember Snooky from a long time ago,
Speaker 1: and everyone said that show is never gonna last, and
Speaker 1: look what happens, you know. Just I mean, I will
Speaker 1: say she's exactly who you think she is. And with that,
Speaker 1: I'll say she is one of the I'm dead serious.
Speaker 1: She's one of the most professional people I've ever worked
Speaker 1: with on time shows up to do like the job,
Speaker 1: she does it really well. She's fully present, she's so
Speaker 1: nice to everyone. I mean, it makes sense. Listen, if
Speaker 1: you can be like arrested on the beach as a
Speaker 1: twenty one year old girl and you can make a
Speaker 1: career out of it, like you've had to have done
Speaker 1: a few things like to like grow up and like
Speaker 1: really like do well for yourself. And she is, I
Speaker 1: dead serious, one of the most professional people ever ever
Speaker 1: worked with. Couldn't I could say enough good things about her.
Speaker 1: I call people like that conscious because they're very few
Speaker 1: people are actually conscious about life. They just not. And
Speaker 1: when they beat them, they like they they come down
Speaker 1: the street and they're like shining because they're like, this
Speaker 1: is a conscious person. I would like this person, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get along. So tell me about the book Beautiful
Speaker 1: on the Outside. So I wrote this book right after
Speaker 1: the Olympics, and I think I knew that I wanted
Speaker 1: to write it because it felt like the only way
Speaker 1: I was going to sit down and really process what
Speaker 1: had happened. Because the Olympics is like whiplash. It's something
Speaker 1: that you like wait your entire life for and then
Speaker 1: in the course of two weeks it happens. It's over,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, like you feel like
Speaker 1: that big, what have I've been doing for two years exactly?
Speaker 1: Like it's so crazy. So I um had this opportunity
Speaker 1: to write the book, and I was like, I have
Speaker 1: to do it because I think it will be like
Speaker 1: the only way I actually, like really think about everything
Speaker 1: that's happened in my whole career and life to this point.
Speaker 1: How was you gonna say until the next book exactly,
Speaker 1: because it's going to be a series of memoirs, has
Speaker 1: to be at thirty one. I think you route at
Speaker 1: twenty nine. I think get thirty one. There's at least
Speaker 1: two or three more books, at least at least, So
Speaker 1: you're sitting at home in l A and Pasadena. So
Speaker 1: how are you maintaining yours? I know, how you're maintaining
Speaker 1: your psychic health by making shows with Snooky, that's obvious.
Speaker 1: How are you maintaining your physically your physical being? How
Speaker 1: are you working on your body and your nutrition? And
Speaker 1: you cooking at home yourself or do you strictly go
Speaker 1: out or you do a balanced balance of that? Are you?
Speaker 1: Are you? You know what? How do you come up
Speaker 1: with a regiment that you started basically at thirty? I
Speaker 1: mean at thirty like people are just like in their
Speaker 1: normal life and it's it's it's you're like, stop doing
Speaker 1: one thing that was very specific, and now how do
Speaker 1: you continue while keeping your your your your head together?
Speaker 1: I mean physically. This is totally a great point because
Speaker 1: what I did was so specific to what I was
Speaker 1: doing at the time, So like, I mean, it was
Speaker 1: just like be really slight. What I ate was super limited,
Speaker 1: and I was working out all the time, and so
Speaker 1: from the time this is a little bit nuts to
Speaker 1: think about, but from what I weighed at the Olympics too,
Speaker 1: now I'm twenty pounds heavier, even though I'm still like
Speaker 1: you really might not be able to like see it
Speaker 1: on me. It's just how quickly, like not quite. I
Speaker 1: mean it took it was like three years, but I
Speaker 1: was like very light and then probably too thin at
Speaker 1: that at that for that for a normal yes, it's existent.
Speaker 1: I think, like to be really elite, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of crazy things that aren't very healthy that you
Speaker 1: end up that end up feeling like very normal to you.
Speaker 1: So like eating and things like that, Like really I
Speaker 1: needed to relearn it, and I'm still like relearning it
Speaker 1: and finding things that I like and trying things, and
Speaker 1: so it's been like kind of rediscovering what that is.
Speaker 1: And also like I did not work out for like
Speaker 1: two years, Like I could not go to the gym
Speaker 1: because it was like I didn't know how to just
Speaker 1: like go and just feel good about myself and the
Speaker 1: gym because it was like I couldn't go there and
Speaker 1: not feel like I was like training for the Olympics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so now you go, Now I go. And I think
Speaker 1: the best thing was was that like I worked with
Speaker 1: I've been really lucky because there there's this like little
Speaker 1: private gym at the rink that I used to train at.
Speaker 1: So I don't skate very often anymore, but I'll go
Speaker 1: down to the rink and work with like one of
Speaker 1: the trainers. And I think what's been so great is
Speaker 1: like I've never been able to do like upper body stuff.
Speaker 1: It's always been like lower lower legs. So it's like
Speaker 1: I've been learning a lot more about that and it's
Speaker 1: been I've I've I've learned to really love being in
Speaker 1: the gym, and I think getting back into it and
Speaker 1: like learning more about like the switching up my nutrition
Speaker 1: has like really been great. And I would say it
Speaker 1: only got into it, and like in this last year.
Speaker 1: This last year is probably the first time I feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have like my feet more on the ground. Because
Speaker 1: once you get into it and you get into the
Speaker 1: nutrition and then working it's like addictive. Then you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is fantastic, and then your brain
Speaker 1: sort of clears up and ways that it didn't before
Speaker 1: doing something you probably will never ever do. You might
Speaker 1: actually take up golf or something like that, because that
Speaker 1: might mirror the skating, but without that stress in that
Speaker 1: like you know, yeah, and spinning, the constant spinning, the trauma.
Speaker 1: That trauma is trauma. I think the biggest thing is
Speaker 1: just like I think, like from being an athlete to
Speaker 1: like working in entertainment, the biggest difference is that, like
Speaker 1: as an athlete, like if if you and myself were
Speaker 1: to sit down and you're like, Okay, we're going to
Speaker 1: get ready for the next Olympics, I could say okay,
Speaker 1: and I would let you know every event you were
Speaker 1: going to be doing, and I would let you know
Speaker 1: your whole entire schedule for the next four years. You
Speaker 1: would know everything. You'd be able to plan out every vacation,
Speaker 1: every day off and um. An entertainment, you can be
Speaker 1: doing nothing for four months and then you can be
Speaker 1: working every day for three weeks, and then after that
Speaker 1: three weeks, it's like more chunks of time. So it
Speaker 1: was like learning yes, and and learning how to like
Speaker 1: manage your time and learning how to like fill those
Speaker 1: spaces of like how am I because I'm still an athlete,
Speaker 1: like at heart, like how do how do I keep
Speaker 1: improving without knowing that those things are coming? So it
Speaker 1: was just like learning how to do that, which it's
Speaker 1: fun and I feel like now more prepared for when
Speaker 1: I do anything. Wow, what's an incredible story. Thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing with me. I mean, I we could go
Speaker 1: on and on, but that that's that's one book. You
Speaker 1: got at least three more books. I mean, I'll tell
Speaker 1: the publisher, I'll give you something too. I mean, these
Speaker 1: shows are incredible. I can't I can't wait to watch
Speaker 1: one of them. And I'm glad I learned that this one.
Speaker 1: Did I miss anything? And is there another show you're
Speaker 1: doing as well? Or is it just uh, it's the messiness,
Speaker 1: it's messiness. And then I I sold a scripted comedy
Speaker 1: to NBC that we're working on with them, and I
Speaker 1: wrote it with two other really fabulous like writers. It
Speaker 1: was it was really great. When I wrote the book,
Speaker 1: I really fell in love with like writing. I always
Speaker 1: have loved like being funny with everyone, but like, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what I was going to how to write
Speaker 1: a book. So I worked with a ghost writer at
Speaker 1: first because I was like, Okay, I'll talk with them
Speaker 1: and they'll help me write it. And then I basically
Speaker 1: I think it was it turned into like a course
Speaker 1: on how to write, where like they would help me
Speaker 1: like like set up how to build the story, and
Speaker 1: then I would go and I would like basically like
Speaker 1: rewrite everything and then send it back to them and
Speaker 1: they'd be like, change these few things. And it was like,
Speaker 1: honestly was like going to school and it was the
Speaker 1: best thing, and and it really helped me. So like
Speaker 1: when we wanted to write this show, I felt like
Speaker 1: very confident that I was able to like write and
Speaker 1: and be funny like in written word on paper. So
Speaker 1: like that it was. It was great. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I writing is a lot of fun too. I want
Speaker 1: to thank you so much. She was great, great talking
Speaker 1: to you. Have a wonderful day there in Pasadena. Thank you,
Speaker 1: and I'll come visit soon. Thank you Jeffrey so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for listening to Four Courses with Jeffreys
Speaker 1: Z Carrion, a production of I Heart Radio and Corner
Speaker 1: Table Entertainment. Four Courses is created by Jeffers Z Carrion,
Speaker 1: Margaret Secarrion, Jared Kelly, and Tara Helper, our executive producer
Speaker 1: is Christopher Hesiotis. Four Courses is produced by Jonathan Hawes Dressler.
Speaker 1: Our research is conducted by Jescelyn Shields. Our talent booking
Speaker 1: is by Pamela Bauer at Dogtown Talent. This episode was
Speaker 1: edited and written by Priya Mahadevan and mixed by Joe Tistle.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Katie Fellman and Adam Rippon for help
Speaker 1: as recording engineers. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.