Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey Bessies.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side were joined by the former
Speaker 2: fastest woman in the world, Olympic champion and coach, Marion Jones.
Speaker 2: At the height of her career, she was caught up
Speaker 2: in a performance enhancing drug scandal that ended up with
Speaker 2: her serving time in jail. Well, now she's back and
Speaker 2: she is sharing the lessons she's learned from failure and
Speaker 2: also how she's rebuilding her life.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, February fourth. I'm Simone Boyce.
Speaker 3: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 3: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Okay, Danielle, I am just sitting here thinking about baby
Speaker 2: Simone and how her mind would be blown to know
Speaker 2: that Marian Jones is coming on her show today. I mean,
Speaker 2: I have such vivid memories watching her as a kid.
Speaker 2: She was the breakout star of the two thousand Olympics
Speaker 2: in Sydney.
Speaker 3: She was such a powerhouse and at her Olympic debut
Speaker 3: in two thousand, she earned five medals. At the time,
Speaker 3: she was known as the fastest woman on the planet
Speaker 3: and she really was on top of the world. But
Speaker 3: her story took an interesting turn A few years later.
Speaker 3: Marian became the subject of an FBI investigation into performance
Speaker 3: enhancing drugs, and ultimately Marian admitted that during the investigation
Speaker 3: she lied to federal investigators about never having taken performance
Speaker 3: enhancing drugs. So four years after that she was sentenced
Speaker 3: to six months in prison. There are a lot of
Speaker 3: layers to Marian's story, and I think it's fair to
Speaker 3: say that some of them still remain up for debate.
Speaker 3: So having her on the show is a really interesting
Speaker 3: opportunity to ask her all about it.
Speaker 2: I think it takes so much courage to go through
Speaker 2: something like that so publicly, especially at such a young age,
Speaker 2: and then come back around and be willing to talk
Speaker 2: about it, definitely, And what's clear throughout all of it
Speaker 2: is that she is someone who has had to take
Speaker 2: ownership over those mistakes and learn how to move forward
Speaker 2: and forgive herself and listen, we have all all been
Speaker 2: there in some way before.
Speaker 3: She's been out of the spotlight for some time, and
Speaker 3: she's making her rounds in interviews opening up, So let's
Speaker 3: bring her in and hear Marion's story in her own words.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the right Side, Marion. Yay, Thank you Simone,
Speaker 1: Thank you Danielle for having.
Speaker 3: Me welcome, Welcome, So explain this to me. Fastest woman
Speaker 3: on the planet. That's quite a title at one.
Speaker 4: Point, you know, I, I mean, I never really subscribed
Speaker 4: to that title, Danielle, because I'm always I always have
Speaker 4: the belief that there's somebody who has like hasn't been
Speaker 4: discovered in like the remote region of South America, who
Speaker 4: lives in the Amazon jungle or somewhere in Africa, and
Speaker 4: they just never had opportunity, and they.
Speaker 1: Most likely were the fastest in the world.
Speaker 4: But in regards to like my season to shine, I
Speaker 4: was definitely one of the fastest.
Speaker 1: So it was a fun time. But it really does
Speaker 1: seem like a whole other life ago. You know, our job.
Speaker 3: In our job, we get to interview people who have
Speaker 3: really interesting titles often and I hear things like.
Speaker 1: Richest person in North America or.
Speaker 3: Highest IQ in Greenland. It's rare that I get something
Speaker 3: that's like in the plan on the planet, like fastest
Speaker 3: women on the planet is a wild title. But you've
Speaker 3: recently stepped back into the public eye to tell your
Speaker 3: story after what feels like a long time away. What
Speaker 3: is this phase about What in your life makes it
Speaker 3: feel like this is the right time to start talking.
Speaker 4: As you all know, being constantly being in the spotlight
Speaker 4: can become very heavy, especially if you find that that
Speaker 4: spotlight can become a distraction to family and to friends
Speaker 4: and really to your life journey and growth.
Speaker 1: And I applaud anybody.
Speaker 4: Who you know has made the decision to be in
Speaker 4: the spotlight and then made the decision to step away.
Speaker 4: It's a very courageous move, you're saying. More and more,
Speaker 4: Actually athletes do that.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You saw Simone Biles do that.
Speaker 4: And not to say that it was for my positive
Speaker 4: mental health journey, but in essence it is. I made
Speaker 4: the decision to raise a family, and I wanted the
Speaker 4: focus to be on them and not me having to juggle,
Speaker 4: you know, answering questions or being part of a media
Speaker 4: system that can be intrusive and obtrusive and all that.
Speaker 4: And so it was about a decade I just made
Speaker 4: the decision that I wanted to be mom.
Speaker 1: I wanted to.
Speaker 4: Create my own space, not based off of something that
Speaker 4: I had done or not done, but really see what
Speaker 4: I can do in my community.
Speaker 1: But last year, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I but my kids are older too, you know,
Speaker 4: out of the house now, like just have my fifteen
Speaker 4: year old daughter here, and I was just in a
Speaker 4: space where I felt that people needed to hear a
Speaker 4: story of I could come back story Like, there's so
Speaker 4: much negativity in the media and so many things that
Speaker 4: when you listen or see like this brings you down.
Speaker 4: And I just generally felt that my story could could
Speaker 4: resonate with a lot of people. The story is, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, once there are poor decisions made made for
Speaker 4: you or you make them yourself, Like that doesn't have
Speaker 4: to be the end of your story. That it could
Speaker 4: be a catalyst for bigger and better things. And people
Speaker 4: are like, how much bigger and better could it be
Speaker 4: than winning gold medals or being considered the fastest women
Speaker 4: in the world.
Speaker 1: But when you get older.
Speaker 4: And you realize that, like, your true test of character
Speaker 4: is the impact that you make.
Speaker 1: On people's day to day lives.
Speaker 4: When you get old enough and you're like, man, like
Speaker 4: I helped somebody move from one dark space like out
Speaker 4: of that and like that is so fulfilling, And that
Speaker 4: is what I thought that my story could do and
Speaker 4: it has so that that is an in a nutshell,
Speaker 4: that's kind of why I decided to, you know, share
Speaker 4: my story more.
Speaker 2: I feel like we are getting closer to the heart
Speaker 2: of your story, Marion, but I do think we have
Speaker 2: to take a moment to properly set up the stakes.
Speaker 2: So take us back to the year two thousand, Marion.
Speaker 2: You were on top of the world, five Olympic medals,
Speaker 2: Nike Deals, Wheaties boxes, and the cover of Vogue. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is like, this has got to be the stuff
Speaker 2: you dream of as an aspiring athlete. What was the
Speaker 2: moment when you realized you made it as a professional athlete.
Speaker 4: When I made my first Olympic team at the age
Speaker 4: of fifteen years old, that's probably the first time that
Speaker 4: I knew like, okay, like I got some talent going on,
Speaker 4: you know, genetically, I've been blessed and gifted, but I
Speaker 4: have pretty unique work ethic.
Speaker 1: What makes it unique.
Speaker 4: I'm originally from the Los Angeles area and at nine,
Speaker 4: the nineteen eighty four Olympics came to LA and that
Speaker 4: was my first exposure.
Speaker 1: To the Olympic experience, and I knew that summer.
Speaker 4: I wrote on my chalkboard all that that I was
Speaker 4: going to be an Olympic champion, and from the age
Speaker 4: of nine, that.
Speaker 1: Was my world That was my that was my goal,
Speaker 1: that was my priority.
Speaker 4: My mom says, you know, the only way that you
Speaker 4: can compete in sports is if you get good grades.
Speaker 1: Check, go to.
Speaker 4: Practice, be diligent, check check check, work harder than anybody else.
Speaker 3: Check.
Speaker 4: And that narrative kind of just continued with me. Right, like,
Speaker 4: I never was distracted with you know, social pressures or
Speaker 4: any of that. You know, at that point, I knew
Speaker 4: that I wanted to be a star.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: You couple the pursuit of stardom with an incredible work ethic.
Speaker 4: For example, I remember when I would train at the
Speaker 4: highest of heights, Simone. I would when I would travel
Speaker 4: to my training site, I would flip down my rearview mirror,
Speaker 4: my mirror in my vehicle, and I would ask myself
Speaker 4: prior to every session, will anybody train harder than you.
Speaker 1: Today in the world, Marion? And I would close it.
Speaker 4: I would go work out to three four hours, come back,
Speaker 4: flip it down, and just me, I'd ask myself, Okay, honestly,
Speaker 4: one on one, is there anybody you think in the
Speaker 4: world that trained harder or better or smarter than you?
Speaker 4: And I could say probably in a decade span, there
Speaker 4: might have been a I got handful, maybe less than.
Speaker 1: Five times that I said to myself, you know what.
Speaker 4: I probably would have been beaten today for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: Wait, this is such a fascinating look into your inner dialogue,
Speaker 2: your inner monologue.
Speaker 1: Into my crazy.
Speaker 2: Hey, if I think it takes a little bit crazy,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're trying to go somewhere, you need
Speaker 2: to have a little bit of crazy.
Speaker 1: Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 2: I actually wanted to go back to something that you
Speaker 2: said earlier. You said that the spotlight felt heavy, like
Speaker 2: you really looking back and acknowledge that what was the
Speaker 2: heaviest part of being the fastest woman on the planet
Speaker 2: at that time, of enjoying the limelight, Well.
Speaker 4: The heaviest part is I mean, this is all in retrospects, right, right,
Speaker 4: And I'm almost fifty This year, I will be fifty
Speaker 4: years old, and that's.
Speaker 1: Crazy even to say that.
Speaker 4: But the idea that in that season of my life,
Speaker 4: I surrounded myself with people who were what I call
Speaker 4: yes people and entertainers and celebrities, and the lights can
Speaker 4: understand when you achieve a certain level of success, like
Speaker 4: everybody wants to be your friend.
Speaker 1: Right, for whatever reason, you can take the.
Speaker 4: Care of them, right, It's it's just a thing that
Speaker 4: people gravitate towards. And because of my age at that time,
Speaker 4: I was young. I was in my early twenties. You
Speaker 4: like the idea of somebody saying, ah, Danielle Simon, y'all
Speaker 4: are like, y'all are.
Speaker 1: Awesome, y'all are rocking it.
Speaker 4: You're achieving success like this, that and the other, and
Speaker 4: you start to only want that around you, people who
Speaker 4: are going to say yes to whatever you want, and
Speaker 4: you start distancing yourself from the people in your life
Speaker 4: that will give it to you straight sometimes even when
Speaker 4: you're a success.
Speaker 1: And so for me, that was.
Speaker 4: The hardest part getting caught in what I call that
Speaker 4: wave of stardom, meaning it took me out in the
Speaker 4: ocean and I was surrounded the ocean for me were
Speaker 4: yes people.
Speaker 1: And I made the decision, like I'm.
Speaker 4: Not blaming anybody else, right, I guess if there's anything
Speaker 4: it was naivety, right, Like I was just young and
Speaker 4: got caught and thought for a while that I only
Speaker 4: wanted to be around people who are going to tell
Speaker 4: me how great I was. And at the shore were
Speaker 4: the people my family, right, my childhood friends, the people
Speaker 4: who I should have stayed close to but would have said,
Speaker 4: you know what, Mariyan like, hmm, probably look twice at
Speaker 4: that relationship or that business decision or this, that and
Speaker 4: the other. But I didn't, and because of that, poor
Speaker 4: choices were made. Consequences all of that, And yeah, people say,
Speaker 4: if you could do things differently, Mary, and what would
Speaker 4: it be, And I'd certainly say, hey, I would make
Speaker 4: sure that I'll enjoy the ocean, right, but I won't
Speaker 4: get too far away where I can't swim my way
Speaker 4: back to shore whenever I want or need to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got to take a short break, but don't
Speaker 2: go anywhere. We'll be right back with Marion Jones. And
Speaker 2: we're back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. I
Speaker 2: think everyone who's you know, watched you perform, who's followed
Speaker 2: your career, they know that you have gained and won,
Speaker 2: but not everyone knows how much you lost. So in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, you were interviewed by federal agents.
Speaker 1: What happened next?
Speaker 4: Well, in two thousand and three, to take people back
Speaker 4: to that time, especially people that are younger and don't
Speaker 4: remember or know what happened, there was a lot of
Speaker 4: talk investigations about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs and
Speaker 4: who was giving that to them, who was supplying that
Speaker 4: to them, and the.
Speaker 1: Whole cover up.
Speaker 4: And when I was invited to speak to federal investigators
Speaker 4: in three I accepted that invitation based off of the
Speaker 4: knowledge that, hey, I'm here to answer whatever questions you
Speaker 4: might have. I don't have any personal knowledge of it,
Speaker 4: but hey, maybe we can talk, right, you don't You
Speaker 4: don't really turn down an interview request by federal investigators
Speaker 4: f L. And so we went there and my attorneys
Speaker 4: were with me, and you know, they're like, hey, Marion,
Speaker 4: you know anything with us that you want to share
Speaker 4: that you're nervous for?
Speaker 1: And I said no. And prior to the meeting.
Speaker 4: And most many people don't know, Simon and Daniel is
Speaker 4: prior to the meeting, I signed what's.
Speaker 1: Called a clean for a Day letter.
Speaker 4: It's a very popular letter in that prior to meeting
Speaker 4: with federal investigators, if you sign this in essence says
Speaker 4: that no matter what you share with them, if you
Speaker 4: tell the truth to them, they won't pursue you in
Speaker 4: any prosecution. Right, So, and it's like protecting you. And
Speaker 4: because I had nothing to hide. I signed the letter
Speaker 4: with my attorneys giving me information, making sure I have
Speaker 4: all of the information.
Speaker 1: Cool sign the letters.
Speaker 4: So we go into the interview and I'm being asked
Speaker 4: questions about if I knew this, if I knew about
Speaker 4: this supplement, and I'm like, no, I don't you know.
Speaker 4: I have a relationship with a certain company and they
Speaker 4: supply my supplements, and I've been tested probably the most
Speaker 4: tested athlete in the world in terms of if I'm
Speaker 4: taking performance enhancing drugs, and never ever did anything come
Speaker 4: up as positive. And finally they took something out of
Speaker 4: their bag. It was in a little zip lacked bag
Speaker 4: and they kind of pushed it across the table, and.
Speaker 1: Immediately when they did that, I recognized it.
Speaker 4: I recognized that it had been something that I had
Speaker 4: been given for a good amount of time prior to
Speaker 4: the Games and was told that it was something else.
Speaker 4: And in the span of forty five seconds, I realized
Speaker 4: that what I had been reading about in the news
Speaker 4: right was this particular supplement or performance enhancing drug and
Speaker 4: I had taken it, had been given it and taken
Speaker 4: it and told that it was something else. So I
Speaker 4: made the decision in that split moment, Okay, if I
Speaker 4: tell them that I know what this is and that
Speaker 4: indeed I had taken it.
Speaker 1: In that I felt that.
Speaker 4: If I was told them the truth, everything that I
Speaker 4: had worked for, everything that I dreamed of, all the
Speaker 4: successes that I had would be gone. So I made
Speaker 4: the decision in that split moment to lie to them
Speaker 4: and tell them, hey, don't know what it is, never
Speaker 4: seen it, never taken it. Fast forward, however, many years
Speaker 4: the weights of that lie, although like they never pursued
Speaker 4: me or anything, the weight of that lie became heavy.
Speaker 1: And at that point I had kids.
Speaker 4: I had my two boys by that point, and I'm,
Speaker 4: you know, trying to do the right thing as a parent,
Speaker 4: tell them like, hey, you know, son, once you make
Speaker 4: a poor decision, what are you supposed to do? And
Speaker 4: they're little boys at this point. Sure, you tell them, hey,
Speaker 4: we're all going to make mistakes, and when you make
Speaker 4: a mistake, you come and tell mammy, right, and there
Speaker 4: probably will be a consequence, but it's better if you
Speaker 4: tell me sooner rather than later, right, And That's was
Speaker 4: what I was feeling, right like, I'm telling my boys this,
Speaker 4: but I'm not this And I knew that if I
Speaker 4: decided to, you know, come clean and tell the truth,
Speaker 4: that there would be severe consequences, and there were, but
Speaker 4: I could never have guessed how severe they were my issue.
Speaker 4: People think, you know what she she went to prison
Speaker 4: and I was sentenced to six months incarceration. I spent
Speaker 4: forty nine days in solitary confinement. I didn't go to
Speaker 4: prison because I took performance enhancing drugs. I went to
Speaker 4: prison because I lied to federal investigators and that that
Speaker 4: was my that was my crime.
Speaker 1: Were you shocked by your sentence? Ah?
Speaker 4: Like understatement of the century right like there I was.
Speaker 4: Certainly this was the president and the judge even in
Speaker 4: sharing the sentence with us and with me, saying, hey,
Speaker 4: you will be the example. You will be the example.
Speaker 4: Even going into that particular court day, it was highly
Speaker 4: recommended from the court that I'd be sentenced to probation
Speaker 4: and you know, community service and doing things with young
Speaker 4: athletes about you know, good choices and all those type
Speaker 4: of things.
Speaker 1: So we walked in there.
Speaker 4: Really really thinking that that's what's going to be my sentence,
Speaker 4: knowing that the other sentence was out there. It's always
Speaker 4: out there, but that would not be a reality and
Speaker 4: two and a half three hours later into the sentencing,
Speaker 4: I had to look to my lefts and ask my
Speaker 4: attorneys like, wait, hold on, is this what I think
Speaker 4: it is?
Speaker 1: And it was.
Speaker 4: And there's been a lot of time for me to
Speaker 4: sit and say like like.
Speaker 1: Why why why me? Woe is me? Woe is me?
Speaker 1: That really hasn't gotten me anywhere. There was a moment's.
Speaker 4: There when I was in prison that I allowed myself
Speaker 4: to go to that dark place like man.
Speaker 1: Man, you you've lost it all? Like where do you
Speaker 1: go from here?
Speaker 4: And there were really a few moments where I was
Speaker 4: I sat there saying like this is a mess.
Speaker 1: I don't know what else I can do. But then
Speaker 1: I snapped out of it and people ask well, like
Speaker 1: how do you do that? Like that is the key,
Speaker 1: Like that is what I want to share with people.
Speaker 4: And the way that I did that is that you
Speaker 4: know what, it was one poor choice. It was one
Speaker 4: poor choice and it does not define who I am,
Speaker 4: Like I have so much respect for my incredible mother
Speaker 4: who raised my brother and I as a single parent.
Speaker 1: She came to this.
Speaker 4: Country at a very young age to create a better
Speaker 4: life for herself and her family, and I says I
Speaker 4: Am not going to step out of this facility thinking
Speaker 4: that I'm not worthy of anything good. And how do
Speaker 4: I do that? I fight, I reframe, I make a plan.
Speaker 4: What's my next steps? What are my strengths? And there
Speaker 4: are a lot more than just being the fastest woman
Speaker 4: in the world, thankfully, and I have ways to connect
Speaker 4: with people.
Speaker 1: I have gifts that had nothing to do with sport.
Speaker 1: How do I start to tap into all of those?
Speaker 1: And that's what I started to do step by step.
Speaker 2: Marion.
Speaker 3: I know that Simon and I are both so curious
Speaker 3: about the now, but I do want to go back
Speaker 3: for a moment to when you were sentenced, because the
Speaker 3: public was really shocked and they were kind of aggressive
Speaker 3: about you using these drugs. But the athletic world is
Speaker 3: different than the public sphere. How normalized were these in
Speaker 3: the athlete world.
Speaker 4: The answer to that is, like I would know, my
Speaker 4: bubble was small during that time. There was a lot
Speaker 4: of tainting of supplements, so most professional athletes hired companies
Speaker 4: to create our supplements.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I can remember that in the news, certain athletes going
Speaker 4: to the gncs of the world and getting their supplements
Speaker 4: and they're being tainted with things that potentially could be
Speaker 4: performance enhancing. Well, when you are an elite professional athlete
Speaker 4: and you're getting paid a lot of money, you can't
Speaker 4: afford that to happen.
Speaker 1: So you hire a company.
Speaker 4: You hire companies to make sure that what you are taking,
Speaker 4: which is natural, you are asking a lot of your body.
Speaker 4: You need supplements, you need things to make sure that
Speaker 4: you can recover.
Speaker 1: It's just the way that it is. And you bring
Speaker 1: in outside people to fulfill all those roles.
Speaker 4: You have a coach to make sure that you're programming
Speaker 4: and you're working out in a certain way. You have
Speaker 4: a psychologist to make sure that your mindset is prepared
Speaker 4: for What about.
Speaker 1: You have all these people whom you.
Speaker 4: Hire, who are you're in your corner, and whom you
Speaker 4: rely on to make certain decisions for you. Even more
Speaker 4: so when you're nineteen and twenty and twenty one years
Speaker 4: old and you're just out of college. I ask people
Speaker 4: a lot of times who are very who were very aggressive,
Speaker 4: and they're coming at me and why do you do
Speaker 4: this and why.
Speaker 1: Do you do that? And I say, just pause a second,
Speaker 1: what were you doing at eighteen years old?
Speaker 4: At nineteen years old, were you are on the cover
Speaker 4: of Vogue was every every time you stepped out of
Speaker 4: the house doing this, Like, were the cameras on you? Right?
Speaker 1: And if they were, what kind of dirt before social media?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: What kind of dirt would you be comfortable with the
Speaker 1: world knowing? Like right now, right? And a lot of
Speaker 1: people will say, oh, all right, right.
Speaker 3: Right, it's time for another short break. We'll be right
Speaker 3: back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. And we're
Speaker 3: back with Marion Jones. Maryan, how do you respond to
Speaker 3: skepticism around your claim that you didn't know you were
Speaker 3: taking performance enhancing drugs?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, for a while there, I claimed, well, hey,
Speaker 4: I mean it's your word versus mine. And my claim
Speaker 4: is that I was the most tested athlete in the world.
Speaker 4: And if you followed the trajectory of my career from
Speaker 4: like eleven years old old running you know, age group
Speaker 4: track there in Los Angeles, you'll see the natural progression. Right,
Speaker 4: So you're not going to see me running times when
Speaker 4: I'm fifteen compared to twenty five, and there's like no
Speaker 4: if you followed my career and most track historians have,
Speaker 4: they can say, okay, right, like this is a natural progression.
Speaker 4: She didn't like just pop on the scene and win
Speaker 4: these gold medals. This was a many, many year journey.
Speaker 4: And then Danielle, you get to a point where like, like,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to argue that point anymore. Right, Like
Speaker 4: I've said what I've said, I have paid my consequences, right,
Speaker 4: Apologies have been made, Tears have been shed, money has
Speaker 4: been lost, consequences were steep, and I'm done with it.
Speaker 1: Like this is where I'm at now.
Speaker 4: I don't have any problem sharing and giving context, like
Speaker 4: we've done with what happened.
Speaker 3: You forgot prison time, you did the day in that
Speaker 3: as they say, I did.
Speaker 4: The time plus right, like the forty nine days in solitary.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, now, at some point, I've moved on.
Speaker 4: And that is why you see a certain level of
Speaker 4: success where I'm at now, you don't have to keep
Speaker 4: shedding tears.
Speaker 1: I've been there. I did that. Poor decisions were made,
Speaker 1: consequences were had.
Speaker 4: Now how can I help people like not have to
Speaker 4: go through certain things that I did?
Speaker 1: Like that is where I'm at.
Speaker 3: I think in reflecting on that chapter of your life
Speaker 3: when you faced this immense public scrutiny, you were twenty
Speaker 3: five in the year two thousand, right, Yeah, you were
Speaker 3: incredibly young. What did you learn about yourself and the
Speaker 3: pressures that we all face to present this certain version
Speaker 3: of ourselves to the world. What can you say in
Speaker 3: hindsight about that.
Speaker 4: That the earlier on that you are comfortable and able
Speaker 4: to step into your own authenticity, like the health you
Speaker 4: will become and the healthier meaning you will be able
Speaker 4: to make better decisions business career decisions, relationship decisions.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on young athletes.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of pressure on how much money you
Speaker 4: can make for yourself and for other people. You know,
Speaker 4: an athlete has such a short window of fame, such
Speaker 4: a short window in essence to make what money you
Speaker 4: can retire off of, which is a span really, if
Speaker 4: I'm being generous, five years, So the pressure is even
Speaker 4: more intense, more intense, And I suppose, you know, if
Speaker 4: what lesson has been learned from that whole situation is
Speaker 4: really just be true to yourself. You know, you don't
Speaker 4: have to say yes to every interview, you don't have
Speaker 4: to say yes to every opportunity. Find what fits your personality,
Speaker 4: what do you want to do right? Like find out.
Speaker 4: I tell young athletes, now find what you're passionate about,
Speaker 4: like while you're in the height of your fame, because
Speaker 4: I've found that running again fast from here to there.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 4: I mean it might inspire some young athletes, but on
Speaker 4: the grand scheme of things, it's not going to really
Speaker 4: make some young mother in Bolivia's life like that much
Speaker 4: better and stronger. What is it that you can use
Speaker 4: your name, your likeness, your image, your words to really
Speaker 4: change the trajectory of this world.
Speaker 1: You have such a short window. Take advantage of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that's universal, regardless of what industry
Speaker 3: you're in. We all like to think that things last forever,
Speaker 3: but you have to be able to recognize the moment
Speaker 3: you're in and make the most of it.
Speaker 1: I really see that.
Speaker 2: So, having gone through all of this, I feel like
Speaker 2: you are one of the best people to ask about regret.
Speaker 2: I'm curious what your philosophy is on regret and whether
Speaker 2: it's evolved in light of your journey.
Speaker 1: It certainly has evolved.
Speaker 4: It evolves because of maturity and growth and what you
Speaker 4: learn about the world and like myself, and it's a
Speaker 4: sticky road when you start talking about regrets because if
Speaker 4: I could go back and make certain changes in decisions
Speaker 4: that I made. Sure, do I regret making a quick
Speaker 4: decision that would affect my family and parts of my future. Sure,
Speaker 4: But honestly, y'all, I find so much joy satisfaction knowing
Speaker 4: that people's lives are truly transformed. People are inspired and
Speaker 4: motivated to do things differently and better because of my journey.
Speaker 4: I mean to break it down, like my kids would say,
Speaker 4: I'm good, like like I want when my kids tell
Speaker 4: me that, I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, can you give me more more than You're good?
Speaker 4: But really, I mean, y'all know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 4: like I'm good.
Speaker 1: In terms of regret, there's really not right.
Speaker 4: I think once you have owned up to something and
Speaker 4: you've done everything imaginable to try and rectify the situation,
Speaker 4: make it better, you gotta be done. You got to
Speaker 4: move on, right, And I have raid, and it's not
Speaker 4: it's not for me to help people also move on.
Speaker 1: If that makes any sense, Like I moved on.
Speaker 4: If people are unwilling to move on about a certain topic,
Speaker 4: like like sorry, but I'm.
Speaker 1: Good, I think that's fair.
Speaker 2: When I was younger, I used to think, like live
Speaker 2: no regrets, but I think there's like a gray area there,
Speaker 2: and I'm starting to rethink my relationship with regret and
Speaker 2: my philosophy with regret. I listened to this podcast that
Speaker 2: Oprah hosted with an author who wrote a book about regret,
Speaker 2: and I just thought it was really interesting to think
Speaker 2: about the ways in which regrets can shape us and
Speaker 2: can move us forward. You know, I think there's room
Speaker 2: for a healthy relationship with it. But it sounds like
Speaker 2: you've moved past that and you're in a really good space.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I am simonar And it takes time, right, and
Speaker 4: it takes maturity, and it takes lifeing as they say, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Your life has been a story of these incredible highs
Speaker 3: and challenging lows, and I think through it all, you've
Speaker 3: really had to rebuild some of that trust with yourself,
Speaker 3: with loved ones, with the public. For anybody who is
Speaker 3: struggling to come back from their own set back, what
Speaker 3: is your advice to them or to us?
Speaker 4: The first piece of advice would be to give yourself
Speaker 4: some type of grace, right. I think life has a
Speaker 4: way of knocking you down, So that's the first thing.
Speaker 4: Give yourself some breathing room, and then from there start
Speaker 4: making a running tallly of all of the wonderful things
Speaker 4: about yourself, like what are your strengths, what do you
Speaker 4: possess inside of you that is innate, that is good,
Speaker 4: that is brilliant, that is genius, and what that's doing,
Speaker 4: Danielle Simone, It is empowering you, not based off of
Speaker 4: what anybody says or does about you, but this.
Speaker 1: Is you building yourself up. And so from there then
Speaker 1: you start moving forward.
Speaker 4: I like to say I said it already, like you
Speaker 4: start reframing, not just like in my sense like what
Speaker 4: the media said about you or what media said about me,
Speaker 4: or or what type of person I was or athlete
Speaker 4: or whatever, but this is based off of what I know.
Speaker 4: I am great at, what I am good at, what
Speaker 4: I feel good about. And that's when you start building
Speaker 4: and building and building into what you've created is something
Speaker 4: that is very unique to you, not based off of
Speaker 4: anybody like patting.
Speaker 1: You on the back or needing or want anything from you.
Speaker 4: This is you, right and you can begin to really
Speaker 4: really flourish beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a perfect place to end. Fam yayah, Mary,
Speaker 1: and thank.
Speaker 2: You so much for talking with us on the bright Side.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, Simone, Danielle. I wish you all all the best.
Speaker 3: Well too, Thank you so much. Marion Jones is a
Speaker 3: five time Olympic medalist and performance coach for entrepreneurs and
Speaker 3: young professionals.
Speaker 2: That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, It's Wellness Wednesday. Substance
Speaker 2: abuse expert doctor Rachel Saiko Adams joins us to unpack
Speaker 2: the Surgeon General's advisory about the link between alcohol consumption
Speaker 2: and cancer. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side
Speaker 2: and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine
Speaker 2: on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh,
Speaker 2: and feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and
Speaker 2: at danielle Robe.
Speaker 3: Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.