1May2008
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized.
When I started wrestling 12 years ago I never would have imagined how much I was going to learn nor realize the person I would become. I have learned so much and it wasn’t just wrestling, it involved life and the world we live in. I have been able to experience the ups and downs to this sport, but I always seem to come out with a better outlook on life.
At 17 when I made my first World Team I was in my own little world, being the youngest on the team I was very quiet and shy. Not knowing what to expect I just went with the flow. Even though I was the young one on the team I got along with all the girls. From then on I learned to be more of an outgoing person because that is how I was going to make friends and find ways to get things done for myself. Ever since then I have made tons of friends all over the U.S. and the world.
Traveling all over the world has made me open my eyes to many different things as well. I think that the first time traveling overseas was a bit scary for me, but the best time ever. You get to explore a different cultures, which is much more then just learning about it in school. It forced me to try new foods which can be scary but at least I can say I tried something new, and don’t worry, in most countries you can somehow find a McDonald’s.
The biggest thing I have learned from my travels is to appreciated all that I have! Going to these other countries I realize that not everybody has what we have. It’s the little things we get to do everyday that some will never get to do in a lifetime! I have learned to not take for granted what I have, and what I love and am able to do everyday which is wrestle.
As an athlete, with sports come injuries. Some big and some small. I have stumbled across some injuries over the years (it’s going to happen, it’s a contact sport). I have had four surgeries, both knees (one was done twice) and my shoulder. The hardest thing for me is not being able to wrestle. Sitting on the sidelines watching everybody else enjoy the sport when you are not able to kind of hurts you. During this time I have learned to focus on things that I can do off the mat to make me a better wrestler such as, lifting weights to make me stronger, watching video on myself and my competitors so I can see what is going on in matches, and conditioning which is easier said then done. Being off he mat for me during surgery has made me work on mental toughness. I have had to work on being strong off the mat so I could be strong when I got back to the mats.
The biggest thing I have had to learn when being off the mat is patience. Your body takes time to heal and sometimes you have no control over it. You should make good judgements as far as not forcing your body to come back faster then it should. You might end up getting hurt more or re-injury the same thing. Just let your body heal!
The most important thing I want to mention is for the young girls out there to not get discouraged! I know there are girls out there that have to overcome many obstacles. I like some of you had to wrestle on a guys team in High School. Trust me, it was not the easiest thing to do, and I could have quit real easy, but I would have missed out and all the good times I have had! I know it can be hard and there will be days you want to be done with everything, the one thing I would stress is STAY STRONG! Being able to deal with adversity is what is going to make you different then everyone else. IT’S OK TO BE DIFFERENT. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Women’s wrestling has come a long way just in the 12 years that I have been in it. I hope to see a continuing success in years to come. I wish everyone the best of luck and hope you can find just as much fun if not more, through your experiences with wrestling. Remember, don’t give up and strive for what you believe in!
1May2008
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Getting hurt is an inherent part of wrestling. No one gets through a season on the mat without getting banged up, bruised, sore, exhausted, pulled too far, or jammed too hard. It takes a certain amount of mental and physical toughness to deal with pain during training. Unfortunately, injury is also a part of the sport for many wrestlers. Injuries may permanently leave their mark on a body, take a wrestler off of the mat, or end a wrestling career. It takes a different kind of toughness and perseverance to work through an injury.
When something’s giving you trouble during practice, you must determine if it’s an injury or something that’s hurt. If you’re injured, your job is to heal and to follow the plans set out by trainers and doctors. If you’re hurt, you’ve got to find a way to deal with it so that it does not hinder your wrestling. We’ve all had those days where it seemed like everything hurt, and it feels like you can barely move. There are days when the whole team is going to feel that way, and if pain, soreness, or discomfort gets in the way of practices, we’d never make any progress in our sport. We’ve all had those partners who whine and complain, take forever to get up after each takedown, and stop for recovery breaks every other minute during practice. Don’t be that wrestler. If you’re hurt, but it’s not something that is going to take you off of the mat, then no matter how badly it burns, it does no good to let it slow you down in practice. A coach may have told you to never let your opponent know when you’re tired. The same goes for soreness and hurts. If there is something you can’t turn or pull in certain areas, let your partner know. Other than that, no one should ever be able to tell if something is hurting on you. Talk about it, stretch it, ice it, or massage it after practice. You can’t fix something that hurts during practice, so there’s nothing you can do about it but deal with it and stop it from taking away from your practice.
On the other hand, if you are injured, your job changes from working through practices to working off the mat to heal your injury as quickly and thoroughly as possible so you can get back to the mats. I’ve had two shoulder surgeries myself, and I’ve seen many other wrestlers go through major rehabilitation programs over the years. I know how painful, time-consuming, and mentally draining rehab can be. There are a few things I may have to offer for you to keep in mind as you deal with an injury. First I want to make it clear to young wrestlers that, unless you plan to quit wrestling because of your injury, then rehab is in no way time off from your training. Wrestlers have to be as dedicated to rehab as they are to wrestling practices, and still have to find ways to train with intensity even when they can’t be on the mats. There are always alternate workouts you can do on the side of the mat, on the bikes, or in the weight room to keep yourself in shape and in something close to wrestling condition.
Although having to spend time off of the mat may make you appreciate every moment of a wrestling practice, it may present bigger mental and emotional challenges than you’ve ever faced on the mat in practice. It’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind everyone else every moment you can’t be on the mat, but you can’t let yourself think that way for too long. It’s going to be hard, and it does not mean that you are weak because you have a hard time dealing with being off of the mat. Your job isn’t less challenging or intense or as important to your wrestling when you’re off the mat, it is only different. You have to stay focused on the things you can do to stay conditioned and to keep making progress in your rehab, not the things you can’t do or wish you could be doing on the mat. It won’t do you any good to get bogged down in the negatives. Instead, you can still train at full speed in a new direction that involves rehab.
Sometimes it will be really hard to be in the room watching practices when you can’t take part in them. Again, it’s all about what you choose to focus on during that time. You may feel better about being off of the mat if you challenge yourself on something every day off of the mat. You can work on quickness, strength, watching video, or endurance. When you’re on the sidelines during practice, you have a unique opportunity to learn technique from a more objective viewpoint. You can still watch coaches teach technique, and you can visualize in your mind exactly how it would feel for you to do the move yourself. I actually did a gut wrench better when I came back after my first surgery because I had spent four months doing the move in my head, and imagining exactly how it would feel to do it right, rather than feeling over and over again how it felt to do it wrong like I had done so many times on the mat. When you watch practices, you also have the chance to see how other people do moves a little differently than you. One little thing you see may be the key to a move that you’ve been missing and never seen before. You can also let everyone else learn things the hard way. You can see which motions or reactions cause trouble for other wrestlers. You can learn what not to do and changes to make in your own wrestling by watching your teammates make the mistakes. Usually in training, you get two points of view for each move you learn-your coach’s and your own. When you have to watch practice, you can see each move done dozens of different ways by your teammates. It’s a blessing in disguise to be off of the mat because you’d probably never get to see as wide a picture of each move if you weren’t forced to see it from the sidelines.
Another thought process that is not good to dwell in is the one that focuses on the negatives of other wrestlers. If you are really itching to be able to wrestle, but you can’t, it is hard to see other people slacking off or goofing around during practice. It’s easy to think, ‘how can they slack off when I’d love to be able to work twice as hard, but I can’t.’ Don’t go there, it doesn’t get you far. Shift your focus back to the things you need to work on. Visualize yourself as someone’s opponent whenever they go live, and imagine what moves you’d do according to how you see them move in practice. If it’s hard to stop thinking about the slackers, then start to cheer for your teammates who are working hard.
Finally, there will be days as rehab drags on and on that you just don’t want to do it at all. You don’t want to do the same old exercises, you don’t want to go to the training room, you don’t want to go watch practice, and you don’t want to see anyone. This is a mental game you never have to face when you’re wrestling on the mats, but it’s not too different from having to deal with those days when your body hurts and you don’t feel like practicing or going hard. Just like on the mat, you have to find a way to get your job done, and to tell your body and mind that you can do it. Remind yourself that each thing you endure during rehab gets you one step closer to the mat again. When you get back on the mat, keep your goals for each day small at first. Don’t feel like you have to make up for months of training in one practice. Your job in rehab isn’t over just as soon as you start to wrestle again. Your job isn’t to fix everything about your wrestling just because you’ve had a million things in your mind that you wanted to be able to do on the mat over the months. Your job is to make sure you stay strong where you were injured, to get your body back into wrestling condition, and to slowly get back your timing for all of your moves. Don’t think of it as a step back if your timing is off or if your moves don’t feel good at first. They will be a little rusty when you get back, but your body will remember what it feels like to wrestle quicker than it seems at first.
Wrestlers have to train their minds to deal with the daily grind. We have to deal with soreness and stiffness, burning and bruises, and jammed and pulled joints. And this is every day! Sometimes, wrestlers also have to face injury and rehabilitation. Injury presents a whole new set of challenges. Injured wrestlers have to deal with the pain and fatigue of rehab, while also dealing with the mental and emotional stress of being off the mats. Wrestlers in rehab have to dig deeper to find a way to stay positive and to keep focusing on the things that help them get closer to their goals. If wrestling causes injuries, it also develops qualities like mental toughness and tenacity that help wrestlers get through rehab.
1May2008
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized.
One of the most important tools that I use to ensure that I have a good tournament is to have the right music. Some would say hard work and preparation is the key. Nonsense. Ipod is where it’s at!
Having your ipod equipped with the right songs is vital to having a good tournament. It doesn’t have to be an ipod, any mp3 player will do. But I’ve found that the ipod is the easiest to use.
So now that you have your mp3 player of choice, you now face another important decision: what to put on it. Personally, the first couple of tracks I have on my playlist are speeches. For my pre-warm up while I’m lacing up my shoes, I like to start off with the “peace with inches” speech by Al Pacino from the movie Any Given Sunday.
From there I like to move on to the closing speech from the movie Boondock Saints. As I move in the more active part of my warm up, I like to switch things up to music. I usually start with a little Kelly Clarkson Behind These Hazel Eyes and Beyonce’s Upgrade You song. I usually wrestle in my warm up and this is once of only twice where I actually remove the ipod. The only other time is of course when it’s time to compete.
Anyways, when I’m done with the wrestling portion of my warm up, it’s time for something a little more aggressive. For this I usually pick a couple tracks from the talented artist Eminem. I start off with Lose Yourself and from there listen to a couple more tracks from the “8 Mile” soundtrack. Right before my matches I bring out the big guns. The ultimate pump up songs my top ten are:
10. You can hate me now (nas)
9. paralyzer (Finger Eleven)
8. Tear it up (drumlie soundtrack)
7. Whatever (Randi Miller)
6. Fighter (Christine Aguliera)
5. Eye of a tiger (Rocky)
4. Motivation (T.I)
3. Stronger (Kanye West)
2. ASAP
1. Heart of a champion (Nelly)
1May2008
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The big thing in my life is wrestling. It is my focus. It is my main source of achievement and satisfaction. I’ve had dreams of the Olympics since I was a child, as many children do. It was not until I became involved in the sport of wrestling that it was ever more than just an entertaining thought.
This sport requires a lot of time, and sacrifice if your goal is to be the best. What I like best is the fight. It’s just me and my opponent on a circular mat. A space that I own for the six minutes that we grapple. It’s about movement and control. Controlling hand ties, head position, the center of the mat. Moving my opponent to set them up for a shot or throw. If I maintain control, and execute my moves I more often than not win.
Going head to head, struggling to the point of exhaustion, then willing my body to keep working despite how run down it may feel. Enduring, fighting to the end no matter what the score is. Win or lose, I am still a champion. Because champions fight, push past pain, and doubts. Losing more often than winning, teaches you lessons. We often learn from pain, and failure more than elation, and success. However, despite the opportunity to learn, I prefer to win. Facing the audience with my hand raised by the referee for those brief moments makes all the time and sacrifice worth while.
My dreams of becoming an Olympian are and have been becoming so much more than just dreams. It’s more than just an idea or entertaining thought. It is a true possibility. I want Olympic Gold in 2008. When I really want something, and focus on it I get it. Reading it now the word ‘want’ doesn’t describe how I feel. It’s a desire, I yearn for it. Currently, I am ranked third in the Nation. I need to surpass the top two women in my weight class, then move on to the World.
These thoughts used to scare, and even overwhelm me. At times they still do. However as I become more experienced, and successful, I become more confident and sure that it is possible, and that not only can, but that I will achieve what I so desire. For now I can only imagine what I will feel when that medal is placed around my neck.
When I can feel the ribbon brush my neck, and the weight of the gold pull on it and rest on my chest. And that will have to do, for now.
This is My Big Thing.
1May2008
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized.
Wrestling is often referred to as the world’s oldest and greatest sport, to which I could not agree more. The lessons that I have learned and the experiences I was fortunate enough to gain through wrestling are numerous. The sport has shaped me into the person I am today and, without a doubt, has made me a better person.
When I think about wrestling, words like hard work, determination, teamwork, persistence, toughness, and strength come to mind. These characteristics were imbedded in me from the very beginning of my wrestling career, and it became very clear to me that I could not be successful without these traits. While these things are an integral part of a successful wrestler, they are also crucial in the game of life.
Finishing a double leg on the mat and completing a difficult assignment in the classroom both take determination and persistence. Staying calm under pressure during a big match when your team depends on you requires the same mental toughness and confidence that is required to take control of your emotions when interviewing for your dream job. Learning how to work well with others to achieve a common goal is essential both on the mat and in the “real world.” Without these characteristics imbedded in me through my years as a wrestler, I would not be as successful as I am today in my life outside wrestling.
Wrestling has given me so many positive experiences both on and off the mat and for that I am truly grateful. It has taught me to be humble in victory and how to gain from my defeats. I have gained many life long friends through the sport and have made many valuable business connections. I have had the opportunity to travel all across the United States and around the world sharing my passion for the sport with other athletes just like myself. It is amazing to me that no matter where I go and how the scenery of the land changes, there is always wrestling to unite me with athletes from other cities, states or countries. I may not even be able to understand what they are saying, but the language of wrestling is always the same.
This short letter does not do justice to wrestling for everything that it has done for me. I can only hope to spread this passion to others. It is something that has to be experienced. Only then can you truly appreciate the world’s oldest and greatest sport the way that I do.
28February2008
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Over the past few years, I have begun to discover myself. I have asked myself who I am now, what kind of person I want to be, and what it takes to become that person. I began to examine what makes me who I am today and where my beliefs come from.
I immediately recognize that my core beliefs come from being raised in a loving home by two wonderful parents and three older siblings. What I discovered next was that most of the lessons I have learned in my lifetime come from my experiences with wrestling. I learned what it means to be a hard worker, a team player, and a leader, how to set goals and reach them, how to pick myself up and try again, how to interact with people form all walks of life, how to believe in myself, and how to trust others.
One aspect of life that I have really begun to focus on is how to be a professional. To me a professional is someone who can perform their job to the best of their ability even when they don’t feel like it.
I love wrestling. I love everything about it, and most days it’s easy for me to get ready for practice after practice. However, every once in a while, my body hurts and I get a bit tired. But I know that my job is wrestling, and whether I feel like it or not, I need to be a professional and do my job to the best of my ability no matter what else is going on in my life.
In order for me to become the professional that I want to be, I needed to recognize that what I do everyday is something that I believe in and cherish. Once I made that decision, being a professional became an easy task.
Being a female wrestler is not a nine to five job, it’s a twenty-four hour a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year job. We are new comers on the scene and there is always someone watching and judging women as wrestlers. We need to always keep in mind that whether we like it or not, everything we do represents women wrestlers all over the world.
I am proud to be involved in the wrestling community that I respect so much. For that reason, I take my job very seriously and represent it in a professional way everyday. I am thankful for all the lessons I have learned in life, but what I have experienced in the wrestling room has without a doubt made me a better person and will carry through to the rest of my life.
I know that I will continue to evolve with new experiences and new challenges, but knowing what I want in life and making sure I am professional about how I represent myself and female wrestlers will only make my decisions easier and help me become the person I want to be.
Wrestling is a continuous journey, and I look forward to what it will teach me next.
28February2008
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Wrestling is a sport of individuals. The success of each wrestler ultimately lies in his or her own hands. Everyone has opportunities in the sport to be someone important individually; opportunities to rise to the top. Wrestling is also a team sport because no one can rise to the top without good partners, good teammates, and a good sense of team. Everyone also has opportunities to be someone important to teammates, and to the team.
Ten years ago during my freshman year of high school, I went to my first pre-season conditioning wrestling practice. I didn’t know what to expect from the practice other than pain. Practice was early in the morning before school, so I chose a healthy breakfast of Cheerios and orange juice (a tidbit of information that will become important later in the story). When I got to practice, I saw some of the most cut up guys I had ever seen in my life, some guys who desperately needed conditioning if they ever hoped to make it through the season, and a few rare guys like Nate Foster.
Nate was going into his senior year in high school a long-limbed, lanky middle weight with lots of enthusiasm and few wrestling titles. In fact, he hadn’t yet broken into the varsity lineup. Nate was an artist, a creative fun loving guy that everyone liked having on the team even though he never raked in many team points. I fondly remember spending more than one Saturday finding ways to pass the time with Nate and a few other guys when we’d lost two matches, sending us to the sideline for the rest of the day. But I don’t want to jump too far ahead of myself–back to conditioning, that weeding out process that determined those who would have what it took to wrestle with the team for the season.
We didn’t have a lot of time before school, so Coach cut to the chase. He put us through sprints, push-ups, sprints, sit-ups, sprints, buddy carries, sprints, sprints, and more sprints. Do you remember the Cheerios and OJ? Well, during the final set of “max and relax” sprinting and jogging, I threw them up. I lost all of breakfast, and probably some of the last night’s dinner along with it. When Coach told us sprints were over, I was incapable of mustering anything more than relief that it was behind me. Then he told us to run the cross country course. There was no way! I couldn’t imagine making it down to the locker room, much less through a trek in the woods. Either way, we all took off: Nate up with the front of the pack at a quick jog, and me back with the slugs at an I-might-as-well-just-get-on-all-fours-and-drag-myself pace. Then even the slugs left me behind. I was left alone to watch each blade of grass as it slowly passed beneath my trudging feet of lead. I quickly began to wonder with each step if I would be able to put my foot in front of the other even a few inches.
After an eternity of debate among my mind, heart, feet, and the grass, I looked up and saw Nate Foster jogging back in my direction. At first I wondered if there was a U-turn at one end of the course, or if something had happened up ahead. Then I realized that Nate was coming back to run with me. My initial reaction was embarrassment that anyone else would witness my pathetic pace. Then I realized it was much better to have someone else there to go through the challenge with me. I told Nate that I didn’t think I could finish the whole course. He simply said, “You can.” Anything else that we may have said, I can’t recall from the mush that my mind had become. Nate probably could have turned around and jogged backward the rest of the way and still kept up with me, but he refused to leave or to let me stop. I needed him to be there to help me just to finish the course. Neither of us could have known that our run was the beginning of a wrestling career that could take me around the world, but Nate knew he could help me get my feet underneath me that very first day. Nate didn’t know me at all before that year, and had no external incentive to help me like that. Maybe he understood and empathized with what it felt like to be struggling at the back of the pack, or maybe it was something else. We never did talk about the reason he came back to run with me, but I will never forget that simple and powerful act that meant so much to the teammate that struggled the most just to keep up. Nate never was a wrestling star, but he made a far bigger impact on me than the captain of the team could have at that time. Every wrestler has the opportunity to be someone important to his or her teammates. No matter where you stand in the order on your team when it comes to skill, experience, strength or success, look for the openings to be someone important.
28February2008
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A thank you from Patricia Miranda
I was standing on the Olympic podium waving to the crowd but my mind was still reliving the moment when my golden hopes disappeared during my semi-final match. Then everything changed. The music began playing and my flag was being raised - behind the Ukrainian and Japanese flag – but my flag, the American flag, was being raised nonetheless. The crowd was no longer a sea of people; I saw my family, my teammates, and my coach, beaming with pride. My bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens afforded me the privilege of having the American flag represented in the first ever Olympic awards ceremony for the sport of women’s wrestling. Waving back at me from the crowd, I saw the influences, sacrifices, and love that had constructed that moment in my life.
My father told me that he could not help crying as the American flag was being raised for me. It was overwhelming for him to see his daughter represent the United States, a country that was completely foreign to him not too long ago. My mother and father were student leaders during the revolutions against the military government in Brazil. In 1970, they were forced to leave their homeland and were accepted into Canada where they finished their schooling. My parents moved to California a year before I was born, making me the first born American in our family. In 1985, the Brazilian government granted reprieve for all the political activists that had left in the 60s and 70s. My parents longed to return to their homeland but they thought long and hard about what leaving would mean for their four children. They decided to stay in their new life, knowing that America would never really feel like home to them, but that it could be “home” for their children and that our lives would be better because of it.
When I look at my father, I see his sacrifice. My mother passed away in 1989, and he is far away from a familiar culture and family that would have helped heal him. Following my finals match that secured my spot on the Olympic team, my father hugged me tight and said, “You are even greater than your mother was” and I responded, “If I am, then it is because I am a part of both of you.” He shook has head and hugged me some more. My father feared that his family would not be accepted in America. He feared being away from the support of extended family and the culture that he was raised with. And now, his daughter was on the Olympic podium, receiving a medal for the United States. This moment says a lot about America, that everyone is given a chance to rise up and make a place for themselves. And, it says a lot about my dad, that he had the courage and selflessness to help make it happen. I was born in the crossroads of two cultures. In order to symbolize the union of the two, my father asked me to place a Brazilian pin on my Olympic awards outfit… and I did.
My father has been a pivotal character throughout my trials as an athlete and as a person. I remember how much he fought my involvement in wrestling, fearing that it would take me away from my studies. I recall that night we finally compromised that I could wrestle as long as I maintained a 4.0 average. I loved to learn, be in it the wrestling room or the classroom, so the deal was just perfect for me. My father then proceeded as an observer, watching from a distance as I struggled to gain acceptance in my sport and to excel academically. The fact is that I loved the balance between academics and athletics; “Work hard, smile lots” became a motto for my life that I carried with me from high school into college and beyond.
In Athens, I got to help introduce the sport of women’s wrestling to the world. My message about gender equality was not that every girl should wrestle, but that every girl can. My message about my country was that everyone should have the chance to live the American dream—that the pursuit of happiness is for everyone, new and old Americans alike. I came away from Athens a better person for having been in the Games. I know that I can commit fully to a pursuit. I know that I can operate under pressure and trust myself to focus on what I control to achieve an end. I know that I will perform in a way that I am proud of, fighting at every moment. I know that I can be accountable for what I do and what I don’t do, giving me a sensation that this is really my life and I am going to feel every bit of it. And now, with the loving help and vision of my husband and coach, Levi Weikel-Magden, I will have one more go round at creating a final expression in competitive sport that makes us proud. I am a very lucky girl.
The lessons I will have learned in my years wrestling were not accumulated just so I could wrestle better. These lessons are learned by individuals so that we can all be better people and make the world better because of it. I am who I am and I am where I am today because of the family, friends, and country, that helped make my journey possible.
P.S. Preserve our great country of opportunity by making your voice heard in 2008. Please get informed and vote.
28February2008
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As an athlete, you never know what your timeline will be or how long you will be in sports. The goal of being a champion is one that must be one you strive for each and everyday.
In September 2006, I was at the top of my wrestling game. I was a 2 x World Bronze Medalist and a multiple time National Champion. I had my sights set on the 2007 World Championships where I was ready to earn my world title. I had no idea that an injury I had originally incurred in January of 2004 was going to finally give out. I went in early September for shoulder surgery. It was a huge blow for me but to be honest, one that I saw on the horizon. I not only neglected my shoulder and consistently put it in positions that were less than wonderful. I was in a good mental state to deal with this surgery, mainly because it was my first. I was pushing my rehab and doing everything that I could to get back on the mat.
In January of 2007, after a few weeks back on the mat from my shoulder surgery, I hurt my knee. Well, hurt in my mind, is an understatement. I had to have surgery to fix a torn ACL and a severely damaged LCL and meniscus. I have never had any knee problems before and this injury came out of nowhere. The devastation and hurt that I felt ran deep. I knew that this injury would take me out of Nationals, World Team Trials and in effect, the World Championships.
Through daily rehab, training and the help and support I got from those close around me, I was able to come back and compete again. It took 6 months for my eventual return on the mat. Since my return I have vowed to treat each day like it’s my last. There will not be anything but my best in any practice or competition. Since then I have gone on to place at least 2nd in all the tournaments I have competed in.
The mindset that athletes have to have to be successful at times is tested. To be complacent with where you are, to think that you have no more growing to do, to simply go through the motions, is not what is going to get you to the top. I am sad to say that for a bit, I was that athlete. In being forced away from something that I love I was able to return with renewed vigor and excitement. I enjoy every time I don the USA singlet and represent my country.
I look forward to every practice, every day of hard work, every day of personal and athletic growth. I am thankful for every moment that I am able to do what I love. I am very thankful that I was able to have the opportunity to come back and compete at all. I want to be the athlete that chooses when her time is done, chooses when she is ready to move on and is able to do so with a heart filled of pride.
I hope that all of you get the opportunity to wear the USA singlet and represent our country. It fills an athlete with an insurmountable amount of pride. I look forward to cheering on the girl that takes my place after I have left my shoes on the mat.