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[Music]
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lith mic take it welcome to my podcast
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thank you very much for having me happy
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to be here it is great to have you here
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Liv mcer one of New Zealand's uh top
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female pole volters uh which is a sport
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that I'm just so intrigued by uh this by
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the way you jumped 4 M 71 yes that is
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your PB that's a personal best about
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equivalent to two double decker buses I
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think if you put that into
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perspective it's a crazy hype it's a
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crazy H and there's um I've watched so
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much video of you in the leadup to this
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podcast and there's so much there's so
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much going on with um with P voting and
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what you do I'm guessing you've done it
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so many times it's like a muscle memory
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thing like you know exactly what to do
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and you don't even have to think about
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it but could you um like talk us through
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a jump from like start to finish jump
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start to finish it's one of the most
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technical Sports uh so I think to break
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it down in layman's terms you start off
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with the run so the run is very
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rhythmical so you choose a certain uh
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step or runup most females will be on 16
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step I'm on 18 so one of the further
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ones away um so you have a run and you
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figure out your Rhythm for that and you
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have the pole completely upright and
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then you go into the plant phase so just
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before you go into the box um you plant
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your pole hit a really nice takeoff to
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get a good jump it all comes from the
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takeoff um get a good stretch on it go
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upside down go into what we call the
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invert so you get a really nice swing
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into the invert and then push off the
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top and that's the best feeling when
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you're going over the top which is just
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um that pop from the energy when when
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you get a really good Vault it just
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feels effortless and going over that bar
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is probably one of the best feelings
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that you could get so yeah cuz watching
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watching videos of you doing it you you
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know immediately if you've cleared it or
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not and you're um you're like sometimes
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applauding yourself on the way down to
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the mat yes yeah I think that's
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something that I do I like to is your
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signature move I don't even know that
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I'm doing it until I look back on videos
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but as I come down on the mat it's just
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that immediate Elation knowing that
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you've cleared one of those Heights no
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matter if it's the first opening height
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or one of the last ones it's such a good
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feeling so I think um whichever
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celebration comes you try not think
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about it to be honest yeah so what are
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you think because it looks like you're
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um you're pying yourself up or giving
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yourself a little pep talk before you
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start the run up then then what what are
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you thinking about or are you not
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thinking about anything you just
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completely in the moment I think you're
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very much in the moment you have about 5
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Seconds to complete this whole jump at
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the start I like to take a few breaths
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beforehand just know I'm in a good sort
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of calm space to actually think slightly
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about what I'm doing um and from there
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it's about two different cues where I'm
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just trying to figure out what in the
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jump do I need to be working on um you
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can't really be thinking about more than
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one or two things at once so you go
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through those cues and then hopefully
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execute it at the end of the jump but
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it's almost like tunnel vision a lot of
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the time I get off the mats and I don't
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really remember the whole jump but um
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when it all comes together there's so
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much video analysis we do for it as well
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so I think that muscle memory takes over
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over time and then whatever you need to
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focus on in the time is when it all
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comes together yeah do you do you have
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like a mentor or anything that you say
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to yourself before you start or any key
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words or key phrases or anything o uh
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there is one which is Comm and
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dangerous I like it yeah it's it's quite
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a good one I've had for a few years um
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someone told me about it I think that
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Karm is just staying really composed and
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then that dangerous is bringing out that
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determination and something that um is
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really sort of deep inside me that
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determination that grit something that
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um I carry through and I guess my
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Persona as a vter as well um so calm and
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dangerous and normally just the two
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things I need to be working on yeah yeah
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oh that's awesome tell you what we we'll
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go we'll go back to the yearly years
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we'll wind up back um we'll go back to
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the early years and then we'll get back
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to the pole vating stuff later cuz
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there's a lot to get into so you're born
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in Queensland you're an Australian I am
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I am an Australian I'm half half y when
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did you move to nzid uh so I was 5 years
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old right how come uh my dad got a job
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offer so it was either Sydney Oakland or
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Gold Coast and he didn't Sly want to
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bring us up on the Gold Coast um and my
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mom was actually born in ockland so sort
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of just decided to um move to Oakland
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and probably one of the best decisions
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we could have had I mean I I am a kiwi
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don't worry yeah there's not even a h of
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an Australian accent not even a h
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sometimes I get told there a tiny bit
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but I mean 5 years old it's how old are
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you now uh almost 24 2 yeah 23 24 okay
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um yes so you're born in born in
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Australia um when did you start
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gymnastics did you start stics when you
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were in Australia oh ever since I can
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remember about four years old yeah four
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years old as a little Jelly Bean gymnast
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um four four is Tiny it's tiny yeah I
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remember doing little rope climbs as a
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four-year-old um just climbing up them
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being this little excitable kid um
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probably got some sort of something in
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me that I just need to keep moving um
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and then moved to New Zealand and
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started gymnastics I guess competitively
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um sort of onwards from there but yeah I
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had Russian coaches growing up so it's a
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pretty full on environment from the age
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of like 5 10 years old did you want to
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do gymnastics or was it like a like a a
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pushy mom thing or oh no definitely not
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I I wanted to I think there was just so
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much energy in me it had to be put into
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some sort of outlet and my mom um found
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gymnastics and me and my brother started
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around the same time we had a little
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entry criteria to try to get into
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gymnastics and I think it was pull-ups
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and something on the rope and we
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absolutely smashed it so got into the
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little little kidy program and went from
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there but yeah it was an intense period
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of time to say yeah because you were um
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I think I read somewhere you were you
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were training like 20 hours a week at
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what age uh I think we started 20 plus
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hours at um 9 or 10 years old so it was
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that's unbelievable so weird to think
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that back then I was almost doing more
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hours um in gymnastics than I am now
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because that's just wild to me but it's
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a sport where you have such a short sort
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of career that you need to get all of it
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in at a young age I'm still not sure if
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I agree on that amount of training at a
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young age but it's it's a it's a lot
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it's a lot but you're you must have been
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um yeah I mean your parents must have
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been on board but I'm sure that they
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were only on board if you were on board
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like they must have seen you were loving
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it I guess oh yeah they S I absolutely
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loved it I was never pushed into
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anything I think a lot of my self-belief
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and sort of passion for my sport comes
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from my parents in terms of they didn't
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push me into it they just said do
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whatever it is that you want to do we'll
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support you through it um and so for me
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it was choosing gymnastics to the point
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where even in my later years of
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gymnastics my mom didn't actually want
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me to keep going cuz she saw how intense
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it was so that yeah that back in Drey
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maybe was a um blessing in disguise yeah
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so that's what end your ended your um
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gymnastics run you had a like a back
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thing so so what what sort of gymnastics
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were you doing I was doing artistic
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gymnastics so the Vault bar beam floor
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flipping running at stationary OB
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objects like I'm doing now how yeah I
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would have thought You' need like an
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upper body strength for that stuff which
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you wouldn't necessarily have as a kid
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yeah I think I developed it pretty quick
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doing 20 hours a week in the gym that'll
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do it doing about three rope climbs
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chin-ups for days a lot of ab work I was
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about 9 10 years old and I was just this
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shredded jacked little kid like oh my
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god really yeah I really was like a kid
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with abs I had like an eight pack at
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probably 10 years old oh my God that is
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that is terrifying yeah just the amount
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of training that we're doing um it was
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yeah it was a lot but I absolutely loved
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it it was it was my outlet yeah and and
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um what was the story with the back the
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uh the back injury was there like a
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specific incident or was it just wear
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and tear um
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so a lot sort of went into it we ended
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up getting some scans actually for a hip
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injury at the time and once we got the
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scans back they said uh we may as well
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do a full scan sort of on your back and
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see what's going on there cuz a lot of
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gymnasts get stress fractures um and
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when that came back they said that my um
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my L5 was connected to my sacrum um from
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birth which actually happens to
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apparently 20% of women but they don't
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do that amount of um spot to actually
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realize it or see it in a scan so we saw
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that and um the scan came back with
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three different stress fractures in my
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back so two on either side and then one
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um where that sort of sacralization
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actually broken off so yeah my back was
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pretty ruined um I tried to keep going I
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just didn't um didn't want to stop
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gymnastics it had become my full
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identity I couldn't imagine life without
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it even at that young age I was 14 um
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but I went to the doctor and they said
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that I'll never be able to do gymnastics
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ever again um which at that time I was
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like I literally don't know what else I
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can be doing um so that must have been
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devastating yeah it was devastating so I
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had to quit gymnastics unfortunately was
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um ripped away from the sport I I think
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it would have had to have taken
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something like that to actually get me
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away from it so it did um had a couple
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months off and decided what next like
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what is it that I want to be doing um
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and yeah what what was that period yeah
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can you remember like hearing the news
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oh yeah I remember it very very vividly
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I
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think I didn't know how bad this injury
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would be we went through all the scans
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and doctor's appointments and everything
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and it got to a point where if I was
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standing up for too long or sitting down
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for too long my back would get quite
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sore so we knew there was something
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going on there it was um not until I
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actually got into the doctor's office
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and he said that I would never do it
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again and I really struggled I I
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definitely remember being in denial for
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a while there I was like oh maybe I can
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just do the bars or that won't be as
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much stress on my back or maybe I'll
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just do beam something some sort of
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compromise yeah compromise like I have
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to stay in the sport um but it just
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wasn't going to work so that period of
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time ever since I can remember I've
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wanted to be an Olympian I've wanted to
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be a professional athlete so I talk a
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little bit of time um off to try to
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figure out what it is that I wanted to
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do and then got into pole voting but
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yeah I def remember those two three
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months was quite difficult yeah would
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you were you depressed I don't know if
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I'd go as far as to say depressed but
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very much lost um what a what's a lot of
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free time that you suddenly got on your
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schedule it was it was definitely lot
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lot of downtime yeah yeah everything was
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just attached to this identity of liby
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the gymnast like that's just who I was
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and so losing that I had to find who I
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was outside of that in such a tricky age
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like that 14 15y old um sort of period
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in time
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was yeah something that um I just sort
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of had to deal with but my brother had
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actually quit gymnastics a few years
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before me um he chose to quit and he
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went into weightlifting so I sort of
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followed a little bit yeah by the way
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we'll get into that later as well
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because um yeah insanely talented family
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yes he's an Olympian and and yeah a
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completely different sport as well which
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is so bizarre yeah exactly it's been
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amazing having him there for um
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throughout all of this so I think seeing
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him go into another Sport and then me
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seeing that it could be possible to go
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into some other sport I was told I could
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not do Javelin and I could not do fast
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bowling with my back um other than that
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I saw that as full free reain I knew I
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wanted to still go upside down and do
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something else but yeah I think that
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period of being lost and my mom just
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trying to help me through that saying
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maybe we do this or maybe we try another
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sport I was just like I don't know who I
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am without this like I don't know how to
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get through it um ended up going to the
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youth Olympics to watch my brother in
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weightlifting and um through there I was
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was able to actually see a little little
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bit of pole voting and um some other
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athletics events and I was like right
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let's get back on track let's see what
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it is that I can be doing I just had
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this full tunnel vision even after
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that yeah what was it in you that um saw
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Paul Ving thought I could do
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that like I can honestly say out of all
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the P Water I've ever watched I I know
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that I couldn't do it was it just
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youthful youthful brashness or
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confidence or I think there's a little
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bit of confidence in there um a little
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Brewing 14-year-old confident kid who to
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be fair a lot of the gymnastics skills
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that I was doing um were a lot scarier
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than Paul vaing um to a certain extent
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so I knew I wanted to be going upside
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down I knew I wanted to be doing
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something that would give me that same
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thrill I'm such an adrenaline junkie
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that I knew I wanted to find something
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similar um and then yeah so I um Jeremy
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M coach at the time he actually came
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into our school and did an exhibition on
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pole vaing and then my ex gymnastics
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teammate imagin haded before me and so
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many things just led me into pole Ving
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um little oh yeah so imagine who you're
00:13:05
talking about so these um like three the
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three top uh female P vs in New Zealand
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are yourself imim and Eliza yeah so so
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she got you into it um she we grew up
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doing gymnastics together for about 10
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years um so I was in her group towards
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the end and then she had started about 6
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months before that and I kind of saw her
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doing that and sort of like a few other
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people join pole vating um and thought I
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would may as well give it a go it seemed
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like a sport that was very similar to
00:13:36
gymnastics already had all of the
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foundations from gymnastics um and set
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you up for so many different sports and
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so it was a easyish transition so so how
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do you how do you start what's that
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what's that very first jump like oh the
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very first jump there it's very slow you
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don't just get into it straight away and
00:13:54
bend the pole you do a lot of what we
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call straight pole drills and to me it
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was so Bor Bor ing for like a little bit
00:14:00
of time coming from gymnastics into
00:14:03
learning something completely new um and
00:14:05
just doing tiny little drills I've never
00:14:07
been a fan of them but it's um actually
00:14:09
understanding what it takes to be a pole
00:14:11
vter you sort of run with a pole on the
00:14:13
ground rather than up in the air and
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then um you kind of go off onto your
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butt and then you go onto your back and
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then you eventually start going upside
00:14:20
down and over the poles um over the bars
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but it's a pretty slow process so it was
00:14:26
difficult for a while there and my back
00:14:27
still wasn't great so I remember my
00:14:29
first few competitions I actually had to
00:14:31
wear a um full back brace that went
00:14:33
around my whole stomach to protect my
00:14:36
back for the first few comps which yeah
00:14:38
was some teething pains to start with is
00:14:41
is the back all right now the back's
00:14:42
good now yeah yeah we're managing it um
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it's not the same issues it's actually
00:14:47
fused back together um where that
00:14:49
sacralization was so a little bit of
00:14:52
joint sort of discomfort there every now
00:14:54
and then but I've got yeah really good
00:14:56
team around me so we stay on top of it
00:14:58
yeah and you so your um your um
00:15:01
childhood goal of um going to the
00:15:03
Commonwealth Games you you did that you
00:15:04
went to the the games in 2018 did you go
00:15:06
to the last one I did yes oh so you've
00:15:08
been to two Comm games two Comm games so
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you finished 9th in 2018 yes um where
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where did you finish last one oh I
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finished fourth on countback so I got
00:15:18
the same height as second and third but
00:15:20
they got it on their first and second
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attempts where as I got on my third so
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that was that was tough to p i I won't
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lie I had um uh David N around for a um
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interview the other day for the podcast
00:15:32
and uh he he finished third at the
00:15:34
Olympics and he said to me no one wants
00:15:35
to finish third and I was like well
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actually the P that finishes fourth
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wouldn't mind yeah that's what I mean
00:15:40
that's what I mean I remember coming
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back to the um athlete Village and
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walking back in and someone there was
00:15:46
like oh man I'm so sorry like fourth
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that's the worst place you could get I
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was
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like like it hurts trust me this really
00:15:53
hurt but I could have know hi did I
00:15:55
could have got injured I could have you
00:15:58
know got a lot wor and forth but at the
00:16:00
end of the day I think there was an
00:16:01
amount of pressure going into that
00:16:02
competition um like I was a medal
00:16:04
Prospect and it was a lower height than
00:16:08
we would have thought to medal um but I
00:16:11
was actually quite sick leading into the
00:16:12
whole um Commonwealth Games which I
00:16:14
didn't haven't told many people about
00:16:16
but it's something that I was really
00:16:17
sort of struggling with leading into it
00:16:19
and um yeah sort of what were you what
00:16:21
were you sick with can you share yeah so
00:16:23
it was actually um we had World Champs
00:16:27
and Commonwealth Games in the same um
00:16:29
year so sort of back to back and I
00:16:32
delayed I got a really bad flu which
00:16:35
apparently wasn't Co it was some other
00:16:37
really weird flu that I had um so we had
00:16:39
to delay my flight going over by about a
00:16:42
week um by the time I got over to Worlds
00:16:45
um I was pretty much harving my whole
00:16:47
training I was not able to do a lot of
00:16:49
the running sessions uh I would do a
00:16:51
vault session and finish the Vault
00:16:53
session or get halfway through it and be
00:16:55
like almost shaking on the ground like
00:16:56
my body just wasn't ready to get into
00:16:59
full exercise after being really sick um
00:17:02
so I was leading into Commonwealth Games
00:17:03
having less than ideal preparation half
00:17:06
the training I would normally do I would
00:17:08
try to do a 400 met warm-up lap and I
00:17:10
would get about 200 m in and have to
00:17:12
walk back cuz I was just not in a good
00:17:14
way um so I put absolutely everything
00:17:18
into my world Champs campaign um made it
00:17:20
to the final there and then just didn't
00:17:22
really have much left for Commonwealth
00:17:24
Games which was really difficult um
00:17:26
seems like fourth is a pretty good
00:17:28
result given the circumstances then yeah
00:17:30
when you put everything into perspective
00:17:31
I think um it was for me as 45 which was
00:17:34
pretty low but I had just previously
00:17:36
done for me as 50 and yeah it wasn't it
00:17:39
wasn't my best result but given
00:17:40
everything I think it goes to show you
00:17:42
do need a semi decent building to a
00:17:45
championship to actually have Fitness
00:17:47
behind you let alone the mental Clarity
00:17:49
to actually get over those sort of
00:17:51
heights yeah 4 M 445 yes so just for
00:17:54
perspective again your your PB is 471
00:17:56
which is considerably higher like 20 26
00:17:58
26 CM higher yeah what for you would be
00:18:01
like an easy jump what's an easy jump
00:18:03
obviously 471 is getting right up there
00:18:05
that's a tough jump what's a what's a
00:18:06
what's a jump that you could you know
00:18:08
complete with your eyes shut oh probably
00:18:11
430 440 right um so that goes to show
00:18:14
what I normally enter competitions in it
00:18:16
which would be 4 m 40 4 M 45 would be an
00:18:19
easy um easy clearance but a lot of the
00:18:22
time it's not that easy it comes down to
00:18:23
what polls you're on if you're um too
00:18:26
close on takeoff where you put your
00:18:28
stands what you decide to actually enter
00:18:30
the competition at so you can be jumping
00:18:32
really well and still come out of
00:18:34
something with a bad height and vice
00:18:36
versa so yeah it's it's just so
00:18:39
technical that there is so much to the
00:18:41
sport so um yeah so you have your own
00:18:45
poles like your own special poles it's
00:18:47
not just like a a pile of poles and you
00:18:49
you grab one yeah no we've got our own
00:18:51
sort of set of poles granted they
00:18:53
actually make it to competitions L the
00:18:54
times they're very annoying to travel
00:18:57
with so oh I can imagine yeah cuz that
00:18:59
you can't like unscrew them or anything
00:19:00
it's just like one long stick and how
00:19:01
long are they so they're about 4 and 1
00:19:03
half M long and you have about 8 to 10
00:19:07
that you bring to a competition so
00:19:08
they're in a tube and why so many uh so
00:19:12
you work through them in the competition
00:19:14
so you'll start on um a sort of softer
00:19:17
pole and as you work through the
00:19:19
competition they get stiffer so same
00:19:21
length um you just work through the
00:19:24
range um as you have more adrenaline
00:19:26
maybe a faster run um um tailwind and
00:19:30
better takeoffs and so all that comes
00:19:32
together and you probably go through
00:19:33
about five polls per competition and
00:19:36
you're trying to get on the biggest pole
00:19:37
you possibly can because the higher um
00:19:40
the bigger the pole the higher you jump
00:19:42
essentially what are they worth oh um
00:19:46
probably $500 to $1,000 per poll but
00:19:50
then you've got shipping as well if you
00:19:52
need to get them over to New Zealand cuz
00:19:54
they're all being made over in America
00:19:56
or in the in Europe so
00:19:59
you you must spend um so many hours
00:20:01
waiting at the um the oversized baggage
00:20:03
area when you get off planes the amount
00:20:05
of hours I've spent in those oversiz and
00:20:07
asking them every single time this year
00:20:09
I think my longest was 3 hours after
00:20:12
getting off the plane which from here to
00:20:15
Europe you're looking at 30 40 hours and
00:20:18
then another 3 hours at the end trying
00:20:19
to just fingers cross that the polls
00:20:22
have made it um so yeah that's not the
00:20:24
fun part of travel at all yeah there's
00:20:26
um there's uh videos online of you um
00:20:29
doing jumps more than more than one
00:20:31
occasion actually where where the pole
00:20:32
snaps so you have your run up you plant
00:20:35
the pole in the in the box and then it
00:20:36
bends and snaps yeah um one of them I
00:20:40
mean you had you had so much momentum
00:20:41
from your run that you landed just on
00:20:43
the edge of the map but you came close
00:20:44
to landing on the on the track yeah what
00:20:48
are those how how many times has it
00:20:49
happened to you so I've snapped five
00:20:51
poles now yeah is that terrifying it is
00:20:55
um it really is so two of them were
00:20:57
quite bad where I fractured my hand um
00:21:00
one of them was in 2019 which was a
00:21:03
street Vault competition underneath the
00:21:05
Sky Tower and yeah went to takeoff and
00:21:08
overbent the pole um there must have
00:21:10
been a little scratch or a thing in it
00:21:12
cuz it's made out of carbon fiber so if
00:21:14
you get anything on that pole um a lot
00:21:16
of the time it can snap under the
00:21:17
pressure um snapped a pole there which I
00:21:20
had to get surgery on my hand um and try
00:21:22
to come back about two months 3 months
00:21:25
later for World University games so that
00:21:28
was a whole process in itself and then
00:21:31
2020 I got lucky and then 2021 a few
00:21:34
months before trying to qualify for the
00:21:36
Tokyo Olympics I snapped another poll
00:21:38
and broke my hand and was in a cast had
00:21:41
to get back from that yeah about eight
00:21:44
weeks later um and try I had three
00:21:47
opportunities to try qualify for the
00:21:48
Tokyo Olympics and yeah given the
00:21:51
buildup was wasn't the best so to say at
00:21:54
least and even the mental I guess stress
00:21:57
and pressure like it's almost it is a
00:22:00
traumatic experience when you snap a
00:22:01
pole um yeah I don't know how I don't
00:22:04
know how you get the confidence to to to
00:22:06
to go again after that the first few
00:22:09
jumps after that must be I don't know
00:22:12
yeah it's you slowly ease back into it
00:22:15
in that period of time where you have
00:22:17
not vaulting there's so much mental
00:22:19
skills work that we're doing so with my
00:22:20
psychologist we're just uh doing a lot
00:22:23
of visualization from months on end any
00:22:26
time I would close my eyes and try
00:22:27
visualize a pole vault the um pole would
00:22:29
just snap every time so you had to I had
00:22:32
to really train my brain um to see a
00:22:35
good jump so that when I actually get on
00:22:36
the runway I'm I don't have that fear um
00:22:39
and because i' had snapped five at that
00:22:41
point I had to then change different
00:22:43
types of poles so I went from carbon
00:22:45
fiber into fiberglass which are a lot
00:22:47
more sturdy and sort of better material
00:22:49
for my the way that I jump and I had
00:22:52
about 3 weeks to try change um onto a
00:22:55
different type of pole as well so it's
00:22:57
it's part is is this sort of um half of
00:23:00
the course for a pul vter or is five
00:23:01
quite a lot no five is a lot yeah yeah I
00:23:04
think most yeah I'd be up there um I
00:23:07
think Eliza's maybe snapped one or two
00:23:10
imagin has snapped one maybe two um yeah
00:23:15
five is definitely um yeah quite a few U
00:23:18
but now we're on these new polls should
00:23:20
be we good we're good now so um you
00:23:23
mentioned um your sports psychologist
00:23:24
how long have you been seeing a sport
00:23:26
pych uh I've been lucky to be in the
00:23:29
high performance system for seven years
00:23:31
now so started off with um with one
00:23:35
through that system was with him for
00:23:36
about 3 4 years and then transitioned to
00:23:39
a new one where he's mental skills coach
00:23:42
so yeah um I'm lucky enough to be able
00:23:45
to see him pretty much whenever I need
00:23:46
to and it's such an important part of
00:23:49
the sport um of everything in general
00:23:52
like I talk to him about life as well as
00:23:54
um pole vaing because they do intertwine
00:23:56
quite a lot um so yeah whenever I need
00:23:59
it and sort of on a needs basis you
00:24:01
don't want to be seeing him too often
00:24:02
but I'm definitely around competition
00:24:04
time it's honing down on what I need um
00:24:08
what are the different sort of cues um
00:24:11
mentally what is it going to be like
00:24:12
going from a training session with two
00:24:14
people to being in a stadium with 50,000
00:24:16
people um sort of clapping and cheering
00:24:19
and everything going on it's quite a
00:24:20
difference yeah yeah do do you find it
00:24:23
good though like do you do you do you um
00:24:25
like does a crowd amp you up yes yeah
00:24:28
absolutely better with the crowd I'd say
00:24:31
so yeah I'm not sure if the stats show
00:24:33
that but I yeah I am bit of a show off I
00:24:39
like I just like to feel that adrenaline
00:24:42
that adrenaline out um in a stadium when
00:24:44
you have like I said like 50,000 people
00:24:47
watching you it's the most incredible
00:24:49
feeling you get this Buzz you're at the
00:24:52
peak of the competition you've been
00:24:54
working towards the whole year um
00:24:56
everything is down to that moment and I
00:24:58
just love that sort of pressure that
00:25:01
enjoyment getting off the mat and having
00:25:02
the whole crowd cheering for you um and
00:25:05
just it's it's a different sort of
00:25:07
feeling and that's what I love about the
00:25:10
sport it's the actual adrenaline of pole
00:25:11
voting but then when you have the whole
00:25:13
crowd amongst it as well it's yeah yeah
00:25:15
you you seem um really resilient is
00:25:18
there something that's sort of inbuilt
00:25:20
in just how you are in your DNA or
00:25:22
something that you've had to work work
00:25:23
for um I think a bit of both yeah I
00:25:27
think seeing my brothers and my family
00:25:30
and that resilience and that peace how
00:25:33
we're able to get through tough times
00:25:34
and come back um with that real
00:25:36
self-belief and sort of optimism that we
00:25:38
will come out better for it I'm
00:25:41
definitely someone who believes in
00:25:42
everything happening for a reason
00:25:44
whether that's all coming down to you
00:25:46
know bigger purpose or something like
00:25:48
that but I think you can only make
00:25:50
something happen for a reason if you
00:25:52
come out of it and actually learn from
00:25:54
it so I think for me it's as I've gotten
00:25:56
older it's like right whatever
00:25:58
experience I have had how can I learn
00:26:00
from that and what are the different
00:26:01
things that I'm taking from it like
00:26:03
every single year there's something new
00:26:05
that pops up um and that resilience
00:26:08
piece does truly make me stronger um
00:26:11
like it does with everyone uh and just
00:26:14
putting a lot of perspective to it as
00:26:15
well so I think it's easy to get caught
00:26:18
in like poor me or catastrophize a lot
00:26:20
of situations which I maybe did a little
00:26:22
bit more when I was younger whereas now
00:26:24
it's um just finding out what it is that
00:26:27
I can take from it and actually enjoying
00:26:29
that and knowing that the whole worth
00:26:31
isn't connected to performances it's
00:26:34
about who you are as a person how you
00:26:35
bounce back from different situations um
00:26:38
because you choose to let things happen
00:26:40
for a reason yeah okay so um yeah
00:26:43
playing this into real terms then so
00:26:45
when you break your hand snap a pole and
00:26:47
break your hand what's the [ __ ]
00:26:49
reason for
00:26:51
that where is the Silver Lining in that
00:26:54
yeah I think weirdly enough looking back
00:26:57
on Tokyo uh I didn't make the Olympics
00:26:59
when I was trying to qualify for
00:27:02
it
00:27:04
it's yeah it was something where I
00:27:07
snapped the pole at one of the worst
00:27:09
times I was just coming into my Peak um
00:27:12
in that situation I think it showed me
00:27:15
one that I had to change my certain set
00:27:18
of poles where I was going to keep
00:27:19
getting hurt I was going to keep
00:27:20
possibly um snapping poles throughout my
00:27:22
career and two it just unfortunately and
00:27:26
this has been a really hard one to come
00:27:27
to terms with it just was wasn't my time
00:27:28
to go to those um Olympics I wasn't in
00:27:30
the right shape um I wasn't I felt like
00:27:34
I was doing everything I possibly could
00:27:36
but there's still so much more that I
00:27:38
had to learn and still so much more to
00:27:40
become the athlete to actually be worthy
00:27:41
to go to the Olympics it's not um you
00:27:44
know to being an Olympian is such a
00:27:46
prestigious thing and you need to be at
00:27:48
the top of your game and especially in
00:27:49
New Zealand with our top 16 philosophy
00:27:52
um you have to be worthy to be in top 16
00:27:55
whereas other countries they can be l in
00:27:57
on the top 30 to sort of criteria so
00:27:59
it's a lot harder for us um but yeah at
00:28:03
the end of the day it's um yeah one of
00:28:05
those things where you do just learn
00:28:07
from it I think that resilience piece
00:28:09
coming back from a hand injury changing
00:28:11
poles onto a different set um from there
00:28:13
was yeah learning new things um and are
00:28:17
you ready for the Olympics now 100% yeah
00:28:19
yeah yeah yeah it's it literally just
00:28:21
makes me Fizz thinking about it um cuz I
00:28:25
know that I'm in a place and I will be
00:28:27
in a place um where I will be worthy and
00:28:29
I will be ready to actually compete and
00:28:31
not just go to the Olympics but actually
00:28:33
be a competitor at the Olympics um
00:28:36
previously it would have been just to
00:28:37
try make the Olympics or to make a final
00:28:40
whereas now it's actually hoping to make
00:28:42
that final and be in that sort of I
00:28:45
don't know top eight top 12 sort of
00:28:46
category um and possibly even higher you
00:28:49
never know with paing well as um Eli
00:28:52
approved like once you once you get into
00:28:53
that sort of final anything can happen
00:28:55
right on the day yeah anything can
00:28:56
happen at all and so um you can have the
00:28:59
best of the best go out in no height you
00:29:01
can have um some Young Guns come through
00:29:03
and really make it work and I think when
00:29:05
there's not as much expectation on the
00:29:07
younger ones sometimes that's when they
00:29:08
Excel and that's possibly what Eliza did
00:29:11
and you just watching her compete at
00:29:14
those games she was absolutely just
00:29:15
enjoying it and loving it and making the
00:29:17
most of it so I think I want to go there
00:29:19
I want to enjoy the Olympics I want to
00:29:22
soak in that sort of experience but at
00:29:24
the end of the day I do still need to
00:29:25
qualify first yeah yeah do you so so
00:29:28
um Eliza's quite a bit older than your
00:29:30
way she yeah yeah so is she like a a
00:29:34
friend or sort of a mentor like how
00:29:36
would you how would you describe that
00:29:37
relationship she's been definitely a
00:29:40
mentor for me over the years probably
00:29:42
without even knowing it like there
00:29:44
hasn't been a direct let sit down and
00:29:45
talk about how this works you know but
00:29:49
my First Commonwealth Games in 2018
00:29:51
little youngest one on the team
00:29:53
18-year-old Livy um she to be able to be
00:29:57
out there they competing with her and
00:29:59
see the way that she composes herself
00:30:02
within a competition I was able to learn
00:30:04
a lot from um so a lot of those big
00:30:07
competitions she was there for and I was
00:30:09
able to really um see how she works and
00:30:12
then recently we've actually um in
00:30:14
Europe we're living together for two or
00:30:16
three months and again just outside of
00:30:18
training as well how she lives and um
00:30:21
what sort of practices you do outside of
00:30:23
it because it's not just about po
00:30:24
watering it's a nutrition It's a sleep
00:30:26
it's the day-to-day thing that actually
00:30:28
go into being a pole volder um that make
00:30:31
the biggest difference so yeah i'
00:30:32
definitely say probably a mentor and
00:30:35
teammate but we're quite different yeah
00:30:37
yeah in what way um just in terms of
00:30:40
personality types I think personality
00:30:42
types were quite different which is cool
00:30:43
to have um I mean us to and IM all three
00:30:46
different pole Vols each have different
00:30:48
skill sets so different skill sets um
00:30:52
different sort of outlooks but still
00:30:54
come together for the same reason and
00:30:57
we're all very competitive as well um
00:31:00
yeah I think that confidence pie and you
00:31:02
yeah your highest jump 471 you need to
00:31:04
jump a 473 to qualify for the Olympics
00:31:07
yes tantalizingly close so close can you
00:31:11
do it as is it is I mean I suppose it's
00:31:13
like sort of one percent as you're
00:31:14
talking about now but surely you can do
00:31:16
another couple of centimeters yeah or is
00:31:18
it not that easy um it's another couple
00:31:22
centimeters but it's consistency it's
00:31:24
all consistency consistency in the sport
00:31:27
so I've done 4 met 71 before which is in
00:31:30
March this year and now I need to do um
00:31:33
4 met 73 or show capability of top 16 so
00:31:37
that's maybe a 465 470 um but I would
00:31:41
love to just jump 473 and know that I'm
00:31:43
going to the Olympics like that jump
00:31:44
would be the ultimate um yeah so to get
00:31:49
the automatic would be the way to do it
00:31:51
and it is those little 1centers that's
00:31:53
becoming that true professional athlete
00:31:56
um both on and off the field field and
00:31:58
so it's prac practicing that daytoday um
00:32:01
having that confidence and that belief
00:32:03
but learning from last time not making
00:32:05
the Olympics I've learned that I can't
00:32:08
just be 100% thinking about the Olympics
00:32:10
like going into Tokyo it was the Big O
00:32:13
show all I could think about and I
00:32:15
forgot about the processes whereas now
00:32:17
it's like let's take it day by day step
00:32:19
by step know that I'm getting better
00:32:20
through my training and have full belief
00:32:22
in the system um and the people around
00:32:26
me that trust the coaching
00:32:28
um and then from their obviously the
00:32:30
outcome yeah I mean yeah how do you how
00:32:34
do you not let it become all
00:32:36
consuming yeah I feel like that's um
00:32:39
something you can tell yourself but
00:32:40
that's got to be easier said than done
00:32:41
right yeah again I think that comes with
00:32:43
experience from last time and you need
00:32:45
to get this balance between having that
00:32:48
dream and something I've looked forward
00:32:49
to my whole life and knowing that that
00:32:52
is the outcome to go to the Olympics and
00:32:54
to compete well at the Olympics but to
00:32:56
actually come back to the those
00:32:58
processes and literally just turn up to
00:33:00
Training Day in day out put all the work
00:33:02
in um without having that as a main
00:33:06
driver like that's always going to be in
00:33:08
the back of my head but if it's in the
00:33:09
front of my head then you forget about
00:33:11
the rest of it sometimes so I think yeah
00:33:15
literally going step by step enjoying
00:33:17
training enjoying it whereas before it
00:33:19
was not as enjoyable because you're only
00:33:22
thinking about one thing whereas now
00:33:24
it's becoming more enjoyable and turning
00:33:27
up to train
00:33:28
um becoming the best I can be because I
00:33:30
know if I'm being the best that I can be
00:33:32
day and day out then that will get me to
00:33:34
the Olympics it's not so much um yeah
00:33:38
just trying to get to the Olympics get
00:33:39
to the Olympics yeah funly enough you
00:33:41
where you train at the Millennium
00:33:43
Millennium Institute that's um actually
00:33:45
a saying on the W right yeah be the best
00:33:47
you can be yes it is and so you're
00:33:49
staring at that on the wall every day
00:33:51
yeah maybe that's why it's so ingrained
00:33:53
into me but at the end of the day it is
00:33:55
and that's actually one of my reasons
00:33:58
why I do what I do like there's two main
00:34:00
drivers one of them is the pure passion
00:34:03
and love for going upside down and for
00:34:05
pole Ving and pushing myself and the
00:34:07
second is to be the best I can be in
00:34:10
terms of I want to be able to get to my
00:34:12
the end of my career knowing that I
00:34:14
reached my potential and I know that my
00:34:16
potential could possibly get me a medal
00:34:18
at the Olympics and so it's that feeling
00:34:21
that leaving no stone unturned if I do
00:34:23
everything I can then I I can get there
00:34:27
and yeah maybe that comes back to that
00:34:29
self-belief and I know it's maybe not
00:34:30
talked about as much because we've got
00:34:32
this whole tall poppy syndrome in New
00:34:34
Zealand but oh yeah I was going to ask
00:34:35
you about that what what what's your
00:34:37
perspective and thoughts on
00:34:39
that um I'm not sure I
00:34:43
think it's one of those things where no
00:34:45
one's going to criticize you for doing
00:34:47
worse than them they're only going to
00:34:49
criticize you if they're doing better
00:34:51
and you can't let that stop you a lot of
00:34:54
the time people almost want this on
00:34:57
their shoulder they want um you know
00:35:00
like a little bit of that um I I proved
00:35:03
everyone wrong sort of mentality whereas
00:35:06
for me I've actually been really lucky
00:35:07
to have a lot of belief in my system and
00:35:09
a lot of people around me who support me
00:35:11
and actually Build Me Up um whereas yeah
00:35:15
a lot of the time in New Zealand it can
00:35:16
be a little bit of that um sort of like
00:35:19
humble side of it you can't talk as much
00:35:20
about the confidence it's like if you're
00:35:22
too confident or arrogant then maybe
00:35:25
that's um coming through but she loves
00:35:28
herself or she rates herself that sort
00:35:30
of thing I um yeah you know I look back
00:35:34
on on my life and I um I was always so
00:35:36
scared of do doing things you know for
00:35:38
failing really I was scared of failure
00:35:40
and as I've got older I've embraced it
00:35:42
more and more because um you know trying
00:35:44
stuff and failing is it's it's a
00:35:45
stepping stone to success yeah and it's
00:35:48
so important but um yeah a lot of that
00:35:49
fear of failure was probably just um
00:35:53
fear of embarrassment or you people that
00:35:55
didn't like me laughing at me and it's
00:35:57
like [ __ ] those people exactly you know
00:36:00
and I regret now letting letting that
00:36:02
sort of mentality hold me back yeah yeah
00:36:05
it's it's a tough one to deal with for
00:36:06
sure um one of my favorite quotes is
00:36:09
your desire for Success must be greater
00:36:11
than your fear of
00:36:13
failure and so I think learning over
00:36:16
time that if you're always scared of um
00:36:18
what other people think or scared of
00:36:21
failing whatever this definition of
00:36:23
failing is as well like if you're the
00:36:24
one going out there and putting
00:36:26
everything into it
00:36:28
than those on their couches who are
00:36:30
doing possibly you know not as much with
00:36:33
their lives they're trying to criticize
00:36:34
you because they haven't maybe lived up
00:36:36
to their dreams they're not doing all
00:36:38
the things um putting themselves out
00:36:40
there so I think yeah it's it's an
00:36:42
interesting one to deal with and I think
00:36:44
that
00:36:44
confidence all the time like in society
00:36:47
especially lately we're talking about
00:36:48
love yourself and like create this image
00:36:51
that you want to be and have that
00:36:53
confidence and then suddenly when you do
00:36:56
have that confidence or you do have this
00:36:57
self love people like oh they must they
00:36:59
just really love themselves and it's
00:37:01
like you can't you can't really win
00:37:04
either side so I think you'd rather win
00:37:07
or lose on the other side of putting
00:37:08
yourself out there and doing what you
00:37:10
want to do um and actually giving it a
00:37:12
go because you're you know you're going
00:37:13
to miss 100% of the shots you don't take
00:37:15
like it's absolutely AB actually an
00:37:19
extension on that one so the the NBA
00:37:21
they've got um like the the highest you
00:37:23
know Point score list and also like the
00:37:25
worst list like the the the shooters
00:37:27
that have missed the most shots and um
00:37:29
most of the names are the same on both
00:37:31
lists like like Kobe's on the worst list
00:37:34
um LeBron MJ and uh that's the point
00:37:37
like you take the shots and you're going
00:37:39
to miss a lot as well yeah yeah you've
00:37:41
got a really good attitude on that I
00:37:42
yeah I feel like um a lot of people
00:37:44
probably um a lot of new zealanders
00:37:46
probably find I don't know maybe your
00:37:49
your confidence or self assuredness like
00:37:51
intimidating I don't know yeah I think I
00:37:54
was told even even from a young age um
00:37:58
my friends didn't tell me this until
00:37:59
much later on but they were like yeah we
00:38:00
were actually really intimidated of you
00:38:02
it's because in PE class I'd be trying
00:38:04
to beat all the boys I'd be putting
00:38:06
absolutely everything into it I me you
00:38:09
know that 10-year-old who's got that
00:38:10
eight pack who's just like trying to
00:38:12
beat the boys and everything um but I
00:38:16
really try to embrace that like I grew
00:38:17
up with two older brothers I was always
00:38:18
trying to do what they were doing um and
00:38:20
I don't think there should be this huge
00:38:22
separation and it's getting a lot better
00:38:23
now where you know there's more females
00:38:25
in sport being powerful women and they
00:38:27
should be um so I think if you have that
00:38:30
confidence and that self-belief like
00:38:32
you're going places like that and again
00:38:35
it takes a long time to sort of
00:38:36
understand that and I think as you get
00:38:37
older and listen to a lot of other
00:38:39
people around me um that kind of just
00:38:42
happens you start giving less of a [ __ ]
00:38:44
as you get
00:38:45
older you you have to you have to the
00:38:48
sooner you get to that point the better
00:38:49
B your life's going to be yeah um yeah
00:38:52
you can't let other people's opinions um
00:38:55
whether it's real or whether it's just
00:38:56
in your own mind like stop you or hold
00:38:58
you back are you are you annoyingly
00:38:59
competitive with absolutely everything
00:39:01
you do like board
00:39:03
games one of those I one of those people
00:39:07
yeah yeah
00:39:09
unashamedly but is that a is that a
00:39:12
family thing I think it's a family thing
00:39:14
yeah yeah Monopoly with our family I
00:39:17
mean you get Cam pretty much flipping
00:39:18
the table
00:39:20
so it's like that's not how it works um
00:39:24
but yeah it's it's kind of possibly in
00:39:26
the DNA there a little bit as well but I
00:39:28
love it like it it makes life fun it
00:39:29
makes it enjoyable and I try not be too
00:39:32
serious about it like I don't get all
00:39:33
stroppy if I lose it's just I don't know
00:39:36
putting everything into what you do and
00:39:38
there are a lot of things I'm not good
00:39:39
at as well um growing up with gymnastics
00:39:42
there was Zero bull sport coordination
00:39:44
that went into it so I definitely had
00:39:46
to yeah unte a lot of the things um and
00:39:50
change that self talk yeah yeah yeah one
00:39:54
thing I found from doing this podcast
00:39:55
almost almost two years now is that the
00:39:57
the only the only cheat code there is
00:39:59
really is hard work that's all there is
00:40:01
to it um so yeah you you try and just
00:40:04
work hard at whatever it is you're doing
00:40:06
so when you when you're training you're
00:40:07
training hard when you're playing
00:40:08
Monopoly you're playing hard exactly
00:40:11
exactly it's that sort of balance and
00:40:13
yeah I was lucky enough to have my mom
00:40:15
sort of instill that self-belief in me
00:40:17
and my dad instill the hard work so I
00:40:19
got a good balance between the two but
00:40:20
yeah again like the more you put in the
00:40:22
more you get out and a lot of the
00:40:24
cliches are true for a reason as you
00:40:25
know like that hustle mentality
00:40:28
getes 100% speaking of your dad um yeah
00:40:32
on your Instagram there was a recent
00:40:34
post you put up uh I've got it here
00:40:37
striving to make that little girl proud
00:40:39
so much changes growing up perceptions
00:40:41
ideas outlooks as it should but one
00:40:44
thing That Remains the Same is that
00:40:45
little girl with a dream to be an
00:40:46
Olympia in Paris 2024 and then your dad
00:40:49
John mtag underneath little Liv is very
00:40:52
proud indeed and so is your dad love
00:40:54
Emoji how cool is that it's so cool like
00:40:57
his support has been incredible
00:40:59
throughout my whole journey he's there
00:41:00
through the ups and downs um that 471
00:41:03
jump he was there for on his birthday as
00:41:05
well which was cool um but yeah he's
00:41:08
been there and he
00:41:10
knows everything that we go through
00:41:12
especially with Cam as well so yeah very
00:41:15
yes so so who what siblings have you got
00:41:17
so there's your brother cam that's the
00:41:18
Olympian the way and is there another
00:41:21
brother there is another brother yes
00:41:22
Nathaniel um so he's what we say the
00:41:25
brains of the family um he's is he not
00:41:28
sporty not as sporty he's he loves his
00:41:31
board Sports and snowboarding surfing
00:41:33
everything like that but he's very
00:41:35
non-competitive he says I don't
00:41:37
understand how you go through that
00:41:38
preure situation like I I feel nervous
00:41:40
even watching you and I'm like yeah okay
00:41:42
we're definitely from
00:41:45
adopted we have made that joke a few
00:41:47
times although he says that to me and
00:41:50
vice versa yeah yeah um but yeah he's a
00:41:52
biomedical engineer and he works in 3D
00:41:54
printing so he's looking to start his
00:41:56
own 3D printing Association um we're
00:41:59
very proud of him in that way as well
00:42:00
but he's currently living in Canada oh
00:42:02
my God a family of
00:42:04
overachiever wow a family of just
00:42:07
working hard and yeah enjoying what we
00:42:10
do but I think that self-belief and
00:42:12
saying that we can do anything we wanted
00:42:14
to do is both a good thing but also we
00:42:16
it meant we were so hard on ourselves to
00:42:18
actually like try get what we feel like
00:42:20
we could do but yeah what is your um
00:42:22
what is your inner voice like are you
00:42:25
always sort of Are You Are yeah I mean
00:42:28
like outwardly you're very very
00:42:29
confident are you are you quite kind to
00:42:30
yourself or you just constantly like
00:42:32
whipping yourself oh it's changed over
00:42:34
the years as well um I used to say that
00:42:37
being hard on myself was both my biggest
00:42:40
strength and my biggest weakness because
00:42:42
when I was younger I would get so hard
00:42:44
on myself after a competition to the
00:42:46
point where I would some I remember one
00:42:48
time it would never happen again but I
00:42:50
our whole team went out for dinner
00:42:52
afterwards and I said I don't deserve
00:42:53
dinner like I didn't do well enough in
00:42:55
this competition which that's when I
00:42:57
realiz I need to do something about that
00:42:59
like that's not a good mentality to have
00:43:01
sustainable um it's not sustainable at
00:43:03
all so we're not healthy either it's not
00:43:05
healthy um and so I had to change that
00:43:09
quite a bit to the point where now I'm a
00:43:12
lot Kinder on myself in better ways like
00:43:14
I try attach something practical to it
00:43:16
like okay that wasn't a good competition
00:43:18
I didn't do ab and C how can I make
00:43:20
those um weaknesses better how can I
00:43:23
find those gaps where I can improve on
00:43:24
it and I mean it still hurts um um that
00:43:28
fourth place at fourth place at
00:43:30
Commonwealth Games was um was a tough
00:43:33
one to take and and I think coming away
00:43:37
from that and like having a few of those
00:43:39
misses I've I've had two fourth places
00:43:41
on countback now you realize it's not
00:43:43
the end of the world um and you kind of
00:43:46
change this perspective
00:43:48
into it's not life or death sport is not
00:43:51
life or death it's this amazing vehicle
00:43:53
where you're able to express every
00:43:54
single emotion and feeling out of it and
00:43:57
and I think that's incredible for what
00:43:58
it is um but your worth is not attached
00:44:01
to whatever outcome it is I think there
00:44:03
was a lot of pressure on me at a young
00:44:04
age and then when I underperformed a
00:44:07
couple times I realized it wasn't um the
00:44:10
worst thing in the world and I just had
00:44:12
to realize what it is I needed to do to
00:44:14
get better and then come back from that
00:44:17
each time so the sort of cycle of just
00:44:19
resilience and trying to quiet in that
00:44:22
um part in my head which is saying
00:44:24
you're not good enough or why didn't you
00:44:25
do this you should have been better a
00:44:27
lot of of um sort of talk rather than
00:44:32
just you know like what can you be doing
00:44:34
or there's no should like where's
00:44:36
where's this sort of selft talk coming
00:44:39
from and selft talk is a huge one I've
00:44:40
changed over the years so even now where
00:44:43
I say you know I'm just
00:44:45
not um you know
00:44:49
I'm I don't know some things in the past
00:44:51
where I might have said um I didn't
00:44:54
think that was a worldclass vulture at
00:44:55
the time it's like I'm not a world class
00:44:57
fter yet okay well I'm not um I'm not
00:45:01
Olympian yet or yeah a lot of those
00:45:03
things where changed the phrasing a
00:45:05
change of phrasing has been is that
00:45:06
something you got from the sports
00:45:07
psychologist is that like a trick yeah
00:45:10
yeah he reminds me of it every single
00:45:11
time um and our team meetings as well
00:45:13
I'm like okay um you know I'm just not
00:45:15
as strong with my upper body or I um
00:45:18
really need to work on this skill or
00:45:19
I've never been good at um my last step
00:45:22
in my takeoff and he's like well yeah
00:45:24
not yet or that's something that you can
00:45:27
be working on um rather than just having
00:45:29
this whole thing of I'm not this and
00:45:31
this happens all the time I think in
00:45:33
general where um people say I'm just not
00:45:36
a reader or I'm just not one of those
00:45:37
kind of people or I'm just not a um I'm
00:45:41
just not someone who exercises I'm not
00:45:42
an athlete it's like if you keep telling
00:45:44
yourself that you won't be if that's
00:45:46
something you actually want to do then
00:45:47
you change the perspective and say okay
00:45:49
well I'm not that sort of person yet or
00:45:52
this is something that I want to
00:45:53
actually um work on rather than just
00:45:56
becoming this like
00:45:57
mentality it's that open mindset you
00:45:59
need yeah yeah yeah I've been reading a
00:46:01
book about that called um I think it's
00:46:03
called mindset actually it talks about
00:46:04
the difference between like a growth
00:46:05
mindset and a fixed mindset and um yeah
00:46:09
every day is a chance to become that
00:46:11
person like you can get you can
00:46:13
literally go from being a non-reader to
00:46:14
being a reader yeah it's up to you I did
00:46:17
that I did that in the last year I went
00:46:19
from I was one of those kids who would
00:46:20
never read like you go to the library
00:46:22
and I'd get the guest book of world
00:46:23
records or something I'm like I'm not
00:46:24
reading a book like I'll read a magazine
00:46:26
Maybe but I'm going to watch movies um
00:46:29
and my mom always wanted me to be a
00:46:30
reader until probably the last two years
00:46:32
where I'm now reading like you know 20
00:46:35
plus books um and actually having that
00:46:37
want to learn more in like different
00:46:40
areas what sort of books do you read a
00:46:43
bit of both so um what have I done this
00:46:46
year the monk who stole his uh sold his
00:46:49
Ferrari really good one so a little bit
00:46:51
of the sort of philosophy side I'm
00:46:53
delving more into and really enjoying it
00:46:56
like B more life Outlook yeah Atomic
00:46:59
habits um oh how good is that yeah it's
00:47:01
a good one really good and just a lot of
00:47:03
those sort of I guess you would call
00:47:05
them self-help um but yeah I love those
00:47:08
books yeah what's your favorite one what
00:47:10
always reading them oh I probably have a
00:47:13
thing called um like like recency bias
00:47:16
so it tends to be the book you're
00:47:17
working on at the moment at the moment
00:47:18
it's um it's a book called um Relentless
00:47:20
it's about this from from this guy
00:47:22
called Tim Grover who was like the um
00:47:23
the mental skills coach for Michael
00:47:26
Jordan
00:47:27
Kobe Bryant Dwayne Dwayne Wade um and
00:47:30
it's just really really good and you
00:47:32
just realize that um those guys the
00:47:35
thing they had was just [ __ ] hard
00:47:36
work you know going to the gym three
00:47:39
times a day you know practicing before
00:47:42
anyone else and it's like you you
00:47:43
realize these people got to the top of
00:47:45
their games by being absolute [ __ ]
00:47:47
Savages yeah yeah there's a huge part of
00:47:50
that I think yeah just listening to
00:47:53
other people and other athletes like
00:47:55
that hard work is a massive part of it
00:47:57
um but there's yeah so much more that
00:47:59
goes on behind the scenes as well what
00:48:01
um what does yeah what does your week
00:48:02
look like cuz I'm guessing you're not
00:48:04
you're not Pole vating every day there
00:48:05
must be a lot of time in the gym and a
00:48:06
lot of other stuff yeah so usually it
00:48:08
would be pole vating only two times a
00:48:10
week because it's very load intensive um
00:48:13
both upstairs and on the body um and
00:48:17
then we're in the gym three times a week
00:48:19
and then running two times a week and
00:48:21
then um there's normally like a hybrid
00:48:24
gymnastics sort of session in there with
00:48:27
a little bit of weight body weight work
00:48:28
going upside down as well so when you do
00:48:31
the pole voting sessions like how many
00:48:32
how many jumps you do I've had heish K
00:48:35
here the high jumper and he similar sort
00:48:37
of routine with his week and he only
00:48:39
does like I think it's like half a dozen
00:48:41
jumps yeah we would do we work back in
00:48:44
different run-ups so we would start on
00:48:46
four step and make our way back to full
00:48:48
runup 16 18 um but roughly 20 to 25
00:48:53
jumps wow yeah which can be quite a lot
00:48:56
um that would be a bit session wow
00:48:57
that's yeah yeah and um for the running
00:49:00
sessions do you do you run with a pole
00:49:02
we do actually yeah so like a
00:49:05
Sprint po V is just sprinting with a
00:49:08
pole really for the first half of it
00:49:10
anyway I just can't imagine how awkward
00:49:13
it is especially when you start like
00:49:14
running with that big giant pole imagine
00:49:17
running with your hands on your head and
00:49:20
just down the street just running it it
00:49:22
feels so awkward and that's very similar
00:49:24
with a pole but because we need the the
00:49:26
faster you are the higher you'll jump as
00:49:28
well and the bigger pole you'll be on so
00:49:29
you need um to close that gap between
00:49:32
running with a pole and without a pole
00:49:33
and I've got it pretty close to this
00:49:35
point which is pretty wild to think that
00:49:37
me running with a pole versus without a
00:49:39
pole is like a very close
00:49:41
difference so if you and um Zoe Hobs had
00:49:45
a Sprint and you were both carrying
00:49:46
poles do you reckon you could uh take
00:49:48
her oh I would love to see that um I
00:49:54
with a pole with a pole I think possibly
00:49:57
possibly we could put her in some Flats
00:49:59
as well I'll go on spikes with the pole
00:50:00
she can go yeah yeah yeah yeah maybe
00:50:03
yeah um and how do you feel about your
00:50:05
body um yeah you mentioned you know
00:50:08
before um some concerns about your upper
00:50:10
body not being strong enough or whatever
00:50:11
and you've mentioned having like an
00:50:13
eight pack when you were te yeah what's
00:50:15
your body image like yeah I think it's
00:50:19
again changed quite a lot over the years
00:50:21
um as as a young athlete um sort of put
00:50:27
into the scene um on TV and Commonwealth
00:50:30
Games and everything at 18 years old it
00:50:32
was it was quite a lot of me um coming
00:50:33
out of the Commonwealth Games with this
00:50:35
sort of New Image as an athlete um and a
00:50:39
lot of people sort of seeing that and
00:50:41
possibly objectifying it at the age of
00:50:43
18 19 was quite a tough thing to go
00:50:45
through at such a young age um just cuz
00:50:49
yeah you're self yeah I suppose you're
00:50:50
sort of self-conscious in a way yeah
00:50:53
yeah even either way like
00:50:55
um even if people are saying good things
00:50:58
they're not good things if that Mak
00:51:00
sense like it's a lot oh like like
00:51:01
you're saying you're hot or whatever
00:51:03
yeah well yeah I mean um yeah I watched
00:51:06
some YouTube clips with you on and you
00:51:07
don't have to scroll very deep into the
00:51:09
comments to find uh yeah a lot of fey
00:51:11
icky things exactly and so I I struggled
00:51:14
with that at a young age I remember just
00:51:17
um sort of chilling and um someone at
00:51:19
the time came in and head chat me and
00:51:21
they're like hey like you've got a
00:51:22
million um views on it on YouTube and I
00:51:25
was like oh cool like off my pole voting
00:51:27
that's awesome I go on there and it's
00:51:28
just someone objectifying me on YouTube
00:51:31
and it was yeah very icky and makes yeah
00:51:35
makes me feel quite uncomfortable
00:51:36
especially from that young age and then
00:51:38
sort of as I got older it's um sort of
00:51:40
learning how to deal with that and going
00:51:42
from being a teenager into being an
00:51:44
early 20s athlete like that does change
00:51:47
and I think getting stronger more
00:51:50
powerful slightly bigger belt um I
00:51:53
struggled with that for a little bit
00:51:55
because it's not your typical female
00:51:57
body and being a strong sort of woman
00:52:00
and that has had to change the view and
00:52:03
the outlook on it over time and I really
00:52:05
hope that a lot of other you know girls
00:52:08
and women are able to feel confident in
00:52:10
their body being strong and like there's
00:52:12
all this thing of oh I don't want to go
00:52:13
to the gym because then I'll get big
00:52:14
muscles it's like I want to go to the
00:52:17
gym so I get big muscles like yeah it's
00:52:20
it's it's it's funny that it's like um
00:52:22
yeah an an ex-girlfriend of mine she's
00:52:24
like oh no I don't want to have any
00:52:25
protein shakes so you know it's like
00:52:27
come on you're not going to you're not
00:52:29
going to get muscles over also you're
00:52:30
not going to get like massive muscles
00:52:32
just from I don't know once in yeah if
00:52:36
only it was that easy yeah exactly and
00:52:39
this shift just sort of happened when I
00:52:42
was probably my heaviest when I jumped 4
00:52:44
M 71 um and seeing that and knowing that
00:52:49
I was strong and powerful and I started
00:52:52
to get some good quads on me and
00:52:54
actually become a powerful athlete
00:52:57
um I started eating and training to fuel
00:53:00
my body for my sport rather than for
00:53:03
looks and it's so easy and with social
00:53:06
media nowadays as well I think a lot of
00:53:09
um both men and women um guys and girls
00:53:13
can fall into this trap of not fueling
00:53:15
themselves properly and skipping
00:53:17
breakfast or skipping lunch and jokes
00:53:19
happening about all these sort of things
00:53:20
where it's so detrimental to their
00:53:23
health and I think they don't quite
00:53:25
understand it so for doing a little bit
00:53:27
um in the women and Sport Health space
00:53:30
where um we're talking more about
00:53:31
nutrition and how to be fueling yourself
00:53:34
properly and a lot of the research has
00:53:37
been done on men and hasn't really
00:53:39
looked into the effects on women and I
00:53:41
think that's where a space can kind of
00:53:44
change a little bit and we can see more
00:53:45
of that coming through now which is
00:53:47
awesome um but I just think in general
00:53:50
this whole self-love and Powerful
00:53:53
confident women um really need to be
00:53:56
learned learning how they can come into
00:53:57
their own and not being criticized for
00:54:00
that because I know with social media I
00:54:02
couldn't even imagine being um you know
00:54:05
14 15 16 17 now with the um I guess
00:54:10
influence that social media has um so
00:54:14
yeah it's it's a space I've sort of
00:54:17
dealt with on and off a little bit more
00:54:19
um and even talking to other athletes
00:54:21
and athletes at their top of the game
00:54:24
like medalists that I've talked to
00:54:25
before and they still go through these
00:54:26
sort of issues um and it's finding what
00:54:29
works for you and yeah training for
00:54:34
being thankful for your body it allows
00:54:35
you to do what you do yeah um rather
00:54:37
than criticizing it and again it's a lot
00:54:39
easier said than done but well thanks
00:54:42
for sharing that yeah that's cool yeah
00:54:44
you're very wise he very wise I don't
00:54:47
feel 23 honestly it's yeah why you feel
00:54:51
older I feel older I think I've been
00:54:53
around people that are a little bit
00:54:55
older than me and I had to grow up at
00:54:56
such a young age like I think 16 17 is
00:54:59
when I was sort of thrust into a little
00:55:00
bit of the Limelight analyzers um
00:55:02
footsteps because of what she did I sort
00:55:05
of had to yeah become this grownup at a
00:55:08
younger age and now I'm just like a
00:55:10
sponge I'm just taking so many things
00:55:12
from other people around me and I feel
00:55:13
so grateful I have those sort of role
00:55:16
models in my life to look up to and even
00:55:17
just going to the gym and seeing um like
00:55:20
Dame baller Adams and Dame Lisa and
00:55:24
everyone sort of there all these strong
00:55:25
powerful women um and men and just being
00:55:27
able to be like cool like I'm kicking it
00:55:29
with these guys I'm learning from them
00:55:31
and we've all got different stories um
00:55:34
yeah it's really awesome yeah do you
00:55:35
feel when you're around those guys like
00:55:37
Dame Dame Val Dame Lisa do you do you
00:55:39
feel like a peer or do are you like do
00:55:41
you feel like an imposter in the way
00:55:42
like oh my God they depends what
00:55:45
scenario I think sometimes so I'm lucky
00:55:48
enough to be a Toyota Ambassador and so
00:55:50
I sort of come on as the um younger
00:55:53
athlete um in that space to give them
00:55:56
that sort of edge whereas um we turn up
00:55:58
to these dinners where there's Valerie
00:56:01
and Lisa and I'm just and David dobin
00:56:04
and I'm just like how how am I in this
00:56:07
scenario right now it's insane but then
00:56:09
I go to the gym and I feel like I can so
00:56:11
easily talk to them and they've become
00:56:13
like really cool acquaintance
00:56:15
acquaintances for me at this point like
00:56:17
Valerie has taught me so much over the
00:56:18
years and literally if I had a problem
00:56:20
she would um yeah she would be there for
00:56:23
me to and she has literally got a piece
00:56:24
of paper and said look this is how we're
00:56:26
going to look at this issue like this is
00:56:28
what I had in my career um how can you
00:56:30
be taking that forward and same with
00:56:31
Lisa I've caught up um with her for
00:56:34
coffee and she's talked to me about her
00:56:36
journey so um genuinely just being that
00:56:39
open growth mindset to take in as much
00:56:41
as I can like it'd be silly not to in
00:56:43
the position I am oh my God what great
00:56:45
role models yeah it's so cool to hear
00:56:48
and Eliza like being right there as well
00:56:50
um so many people around me it's yeah
00:56:52
yeah that's neat I um it's it's been a
00:56:56
Big Year for you I'm not sure how much
00:56:58
you want to talk about this you can talk
00:56:59
about it in as much little detail as you
00:57:01
want but um uh Jeremy who was um your
00:57:05
coach and eliz's coach and imagin Coach
00:57:07
sort of the head of uh pting New Zealand
00:57:10
um he he he was banned from 10 years for
00:57:13
10 years for um serious
00:57:16
misconduct um yeah I mean it must have
00:57:19
been a big up behav for you like you
00:57:21
mentioned his name earlier like he he
00:57:23
came to your school and introduced you
00:57:25
to the sport so he been the only coach
00:57:27
you've ever known um yes must have been
00:57:29
a very unsettling year quite triggering
00:57:31
for you guys yeah it was a very intense
00:57:33
year um it all happened in a very short
00:57:37
amount of time so it was after we
00:57:39
finished the season um and came back
00:57:42
into it and was about to get ready for
00:57:45
our world Champs um and it all sort of
00:57:47
struck at once and a lot of things were
00:57:50
bringing were being brought up from
00:57:52
years ago um and yeah he's not perfect
00:57:56
but at the end of the day he built up
00:57:58
New Zealand pole vault for what it is I
00:58:00
think the media really drags him under
00:58:02
more than um more than he possibly
00:58:05
should have I think yeah it was a very
00:58:08
tough time for all of us to go through
00:58:09
not knowing whether he was going to come
00:58:11
over to well chance with us or not um
00:58:13
he's done so much for the sport he um
00:58:16
yeah he's been New Zealand P Vault for
00:58:19
10 plus years and mizes coaches along
00:58:22
with everyone else so I think that shift
00:58:25
was um something all of us in the whole
00:58:28
PV VA group no matter um those that were
00:58:30
affected the least or the most had to um
00:58:33
deal with what this may look like
00:58:34
afterwards so
00:58:37
um yeah it happened so close to me going
00:58:40
overseas where I was told you know very
00:58:43
shortly before going over that James um
00:58:45
one of our teammates at the time would
00:58:47
then be our coach for the next three
00:58:48
months which we hadn't he had never
00:58:51
coached me before he did such an amazing
00:58:53
job given the
00:58:54
circumstances um so all props to him for
00:58:57
that we were all just thrust into these
00:58:58
different roles without knowing but I
00:59:00
think um months of trying to push that
00:59:03
down and then getting back home and not
00:59:06
competing how I wanted to at Worlds it
00:59:08
was a lot to take in um but again when I
00:59:12
was even over in Europe I was listening
00:59:14
to so many other stories from other po
00:59:16
vter athletes and realizing they've all
00:59:18
gone through similar sort of experiences
00:59:21
in terms of one of them left their coach
00:59:23
a week before going over to um well
00:59:26
Champs another one moved her whole life
00:59:28
over to a certain state to then um leave
00:59:31
that coach cuz it didn't work out so
00:59:34
pole voting is very Niche you don't find
00:59:36
that many um many good coaches in in
00:59:39
pole voting that um yeah that available
00:59:44
really so um it was just finding out the
00:59:46
next steps from there and um yeah it was
00:59:50
a very tough year though to say the
00:59:52
least and unfortunately at World Champs
00:59:54
I didn't perform how I wanted to so that
00:59:56
didn't add on to it and the day after
00:59:57
World Championships it was right I don't
01:00:00
have a coach I don't know what we're
01:00:01
doing I don't know how this is going to
01:00:02
work um and had a little bit of a
01:00:05
meltdown the day after competition just
01:00:07
everything not properly processing which
01:00:10
you need to definitely put a um high
01:00:13
price on
01:00:14
up it's a lot um and the leadup to it
01:00:17
with there any sort of like like
01:00:18
murmurings or Rumblings or did it come
01:00:21
as sort of like a shock out of the blue
01:00:24
um more saw a shock out of the blue in
01:00:28
terms of what possibly could have come
01:00:31
from this like him possibly losing his
01:00:32
job yeah um I thought it'd be something
01:00:34
that they look into but I didn't know
01:00:36
the extent of um where we'd get to with
01:00:38
it so yeah um yeah it was yeah a lot
01:00:43
it's rough it's I'm like from an
01:00:44
athletes perspective it's a lot for lot
01:00:46
for you guys yeah yeah both um Eliza and
01:00:50
I um Jeremy was turning up to trainings
01:00:53
all the way through um and got to
01:00:56
commend him for that and still turning
01:00:58
up and um giving giving us everything
01:01:01
and um we just didn't know whether we
01:01:04
were going to have him um at World
01:01:05
Championships or not and to be fair
01:01:08
again we were supported very well um
01:01:10
through everyone in that space through
01:01:12
Athletics and dead our whole team as
01:01:14
well um it's not something easy to go
01:01:16
through on all parties so well it's I
01:01:19
think it's it's nice and even um you
01:01:21
courageous of you to to speak highly of
01:01:24
him um there's um you know Lance
01:01:26
Armstrong the cyclist you know the
01:01:28
disgrace cyclist he talks about um lean
01:01:30
people leaning in or leaning out when
01:01:33
the [ __ ] had the fan for him he said
01:01:34
there were very very few people that
01:01:35
leaned in most people and people that
01:01:37
you thought would lean in would actually
01:01:39
lean out yeah so it' be very easy for
01:01:40
you just to distance yourself completely
01:01:42
so the fact that you're you're you're
01:01:44
you're saying nice things about from
01:01:45
your experience obviously not that's not
01:01:47
everyone else's experience but that's
01:01:48
your personal experience I think that's
01:01:49
that's really um uh generous of you yeah
01:01:52
I think we all we all make mistakes we
01:01:56
all screw up sometimes and a lot of the
01:01:59
time they should be um persecuted for as
01:02:02
well um but we are human at the end of
01:02:04
the day and the experiences that I had
01:02:07
personally um yeah they weren't um the
01:02:11
same as other people so I think again
01:02:13
you can't take that Human Side away from
01:02:16
it and he did so much for the sport I
01:02:18
wouldn't be where I am today without him
01:02:20
um and I know a lot of people had
01:02:22
different experiences and that's fair
01:02:24
for them to put that forward and um the
01:02:27
result is what it is um but yeah at the
01:02:30
end of the day um yeah we just sort of
01:02:33
had to roll with the punches with that
01:02:34
one and yeah move on from it jeez it's
01:02:38
not um it's not a career for the faint
01:02:40
is it it's not it really isn't like
01:02:42
there's um there's um some extreme highs
01:02:45
like you know finishing fourth at the
01:02:47
Commonwealth Games or potentially going
01:02:48
to the Olympics but some very very deep
01:02:51
lies as well yeah and like I mentioned
01:02:54
before sport in general gives you all of
01:02:57
that it it provides everything for you
01:03:00
and that's why I love it and that's why
01:03:01
it's one of the hardest things to go
01:03:02
through at the time as well and a lot of
01:03:04
the public don't see what goes on behind
01:03:07
the scenes they see the medals the
01:03:09
accolades or they see the failures so to
01:03:12
say and they don't understand what goes
01:03:13
on behind it um but we are we're all
01:03:17
human like we're all um just like
01:03:19
everyone else we have our own life
01:03:21
struggles that we go through um but for
01:03:23
us we need to drop them at the door
01:03:25
before before we go into um our training
01:03:28
sessions and put everything into that
01:03:30
rather than um dwelling on it which can
01:03:32
be really difficult at times there are
01:03:34
few sessions that I've had to walk away
01:03:36
from because it's been um too much which
01:03:39
doesn't happen often but maybe should
01:03:42
happen more and we're seeing that with
01:03:44
the likes of Sone BS walking away from
01:03:45
the Olympics and um sort of controversy
01:03:48
around that and mental health being more
01:03:50
of a um I guess topic that's talked
01:03:53
about and so it should be because sport
01:03:56
pushes you to your absolute Max um both
01:03:58
mentally and physically yeah yeah yeah
01:04:00
yeah well yeah I mean there's yeah
01:04:04
there's so much to it isn't there yeah
01:04:06
like I suppose even if you have a bad
01:04:07
training session like you must go home
01:04:09
and just be questioning your ability or
01:04:12
just all sorts of things I can't imagine
01:04:13
what goes through your mind yeah it's
01:04:15
when you have both training and life not
01:04:19
going well that it becomes really
01:04:21
difficult um yeah you're always striving
01:04:25
to have both them going really well and
01:04:26
you can be at the peak which for me was
01:04:28
actually probably a month ago where
01:04:30
everything was going so well um you know
01:04:34
everything was going smoothly vating was
01:04:36
going really well making technical
01:04:38
changes that I hadn't made in years um
01:04:41
life was really good as well I was happy
01:04:43
um doing my own thing and um then I get
01:04:46
an injury and so injuries come into it
01:04:48
at the most randomst of times um and
01:04:52
again sometimes they happen for a reason
01:04:54
and we try it attach something to it
01:04:56
again um but yeah it's having that time
01:04:59
to actually process it I think that's
01:05:01
one of the most important things people
01:05:03
can just feel something move on and then
01:05:05
it always it's going to catch up to you
01:05:07
at some point so processing it within um
01:05:11
you know the time that you need to is so
01:05:13
important or else it's just going to
01:05:14
come back to bite you and we all process
01:05:16
in different ways yeah yeah so well I
01:05:18
guess po Ving is going to be um your
01:05:20
life for the and your career for the
01:05:21
foreseeable future but do you know
01:05:22
what's next you know what's after that
01:05:24
put any thought into that you you're
01:05:26
doing papers a you're doing a degree yes
01:05:27
I am so I I'm by the way I don't know
01:05:31
how you fit it all in it's a lot it is a
01:05:34
lot it can be um so I work for drug free
01:05:38
sport New Zealand as an educator so I've
01:05:40
definitely taken on more of a role in
01:05:42
the youth education space so I really
01:05:44
enjoy going to schools and teaching them
01:05:46
about values and morals and um steering
01:05:50
them away from doping or cheating and
01:05:52
just being in that space where um they
01:05:55
can be learning these things at a
01:05:56
younger age so that they don't need to
01:05:57
be playing catchup and they can be
01:05:59
really supported so I love talking to
01:06:00
the um young athletes and people there
01:06:04
so I've got that going for me and then
01:06:06
also um I'm going to my sixth year of
01:06:10
University studying a bachelor of
01:06:12
sportting exercise how many years should
01:06:14
it take three three well I mean yeah cut
01:06:18
yourself some slick yeah You' had other
01:06:20
[ __ ] going on yeah so I'm just tripping
01:06:23
away at that um but yeah hopefully I
01:06:26
will then finish that degree um and in
01:06:29
within the World of Sport there's so
01:06:31
much that we can be doing so I'm lucky
01:06:33
enough to not really feel like
01:06:36
I'm uh going to have too much trouble in
01:06:39
that space like I just have this belief
01:06:40
that I know through sport I'm going to
01:06:42
find something else that I can enjoy but
01:06:45
again I've talked to a lot of athletes
01:06:46
that have already retired and um there's
01:06:48
not much that can replicate it obviously
01:06:51
and so it's just finding something
01:06:53
afterwards I know I want to be working
01:06:54
with um youth athletes in some way and
01:06:57
having some support for them in that
01:06:58
space cuz there's such a high drop off
01:07:00
rate around those sort of teen high
01:07:02
school years where they just need more
01:07:04
support and they need to grow the sport
01:07:06
more so something in that space we'll
01:07:08
see yeah whatever you do I've got no
01:07:11
doubt that you're going to do well thank
01:07:13
you yeah um I've heard in an interview
01:07:15
you talk about um the three
01:07:17
PS yes passion persistence and pride
01:07:20
yeah you want to go into some detail
01:07:21
about them yes where where does this
01:07:23
come from by the way is this something
01:07:25
you up with yourself or yeah yeah um I
01:07:28
think it was for an interview or
01:07:29
something where they sort of just came
01:07:32
up and I know that passion is one of my
01:07:35
favorite values and something that I I
01:07:36
keep really true to me um passion and
01:07:38
everything that I do um whether that's
01:07:41
sport or outside of sport as well I just
01:07:43
love to have that optimism and passion
01:07:45
for what I do um persistence goes back
01:07:48
to that um I guess like determination as
01:07:51
well and having um that resilience piece
01:07:54
cuz I know that's a huge part of me and
01:07:56
something that I always have and then
01:07:58
Pride from all levels where whether it's
01:08:00
being out on the world stage wearing New
01:08:02
Zealand on my chest mcag it on my back
01:08:04
having that Pride wearing the New
01:08:05
Zealand Fern the silver Fern um and
01:08:08
trying to use all three of those values
01:08:10
to guide me through um we do a lot of
01:08:13
work with um my life advisor performance
01:08:16
life coach um through high performance
01:08:18
sport where we create the identity
01:08:20
outside of sport as well um which I'm
01:08:23
learning is yeah just as important if
01:08:25
not
01:08:26
more yeah what is that what is that
01:08:29
identity yeah
01:08:32
so it's about being a great human first
01:08:35
and a great athlete second I have this
01:08:37
fear as I've gotten older that um
01:08:40
there's a possibility I'll achieve
01:08:42
everything I want to but not feel all of
01:08:45
that excitement and Elation from it and
01:08:48
have this sort of down or feeling lost
01:08:50
afterwards I I don't want to get to
01:08:52
where I want to be and not have that
01:08:54
feeling and feel feel lost because of it
01:08:56
cuz I I know a lot of um athletes as
01:08:58
well their stories have sort of
01:08:59
mentioned a little bit around that I
01:09:01
want to get to the end knowing that I've
01:09:03
put everything I can into being a good a
01:09:06
good human and doing the absolute best
01:09:08
that I can um both on and off the field
01:09:10
because gold medal um doesn't mean that
01:09:13
much if you're you know not the person
01:09:15
that that's attached to it so like it's
01:09:19
like a gold Middle with a but yeah gold
01:09:21
midst but you're an [ __ ] yeah exactly
01:09:23
like no one that doesn't mean nearly as
01:09:26
much um and so again like I was
01:09:29
listening something to uh listening to a
01:09:32
podcast the other day jay shett and he
01:09:34
um talked about yeah um the difference
01:09:37
between passion and purpose and so
01:09:41
passion is what gets you up every
01:09:43
morning what you're excited about sort
01:09:44
of that fuel to the fire sort of thing
01:09:47
and purpose is how you can serve others
01:09:50
through your passion so I think there's
01:09:52
one where sport can sometimes feel quite
01:09:54
selfish but if you're able to have a
01:09:56
purpose to it and for me that's
01:09:58
hopefully inspiring a lot of other
01:09:59
people through what I do and also giving
01:10:02
back in the women's health space and
01:10:03
drug free support in New Zealand and
01:10:06
again getting older understanding how
01:10:08
much more important that is to attach to
01:10:10
it as well like cuz it it can feel quite
01:10:13
selfish but giving back is so important
01:10:15
and I think that's something that sort
01:10:17
of delving into a little bit more now um
01:10:19
which creates that identity outside of
01:10:21
it because um yeah if you have your
01:10:24
whole worth and everything on the line
01:10:26
to get this um gold medal or Olympic
01:10:28
medal um and you get there at the end
01:10:31
then what a lot of people fall fall to
01:10:33
pieces after that because they've
01:10:34
achieved what they wanted to and now
01:10:35
they don't know what to do with it I
01:10:37
want to be able to keep going
01:10:38
sustainably um in the sport whether I
01:10:40
get a gold medal or not just because I
01:10:42
enjoy it yeah and you have to enjoy the
01:10:45
process out I suppose that's that's
01:10:46
that's crucial because um there's no
01:10:48
guarantee of that gold medal mhm yeah
01:10:50
there's so much out of your control and
01:10:51
so it's focusing on what you can control
01:10:54
it's focusing on like I mentioned before
01:10:56
that process over outcome um the
01:10:57
training over the Olympics and it's
01:11:00
always going to be there the outcome is
01:11:01
always there it doesn't get taken away
01:11:04
um but yeah it's again just the cliches
01:11:09
run true it's about the journey and it's
01:11:11
not about the destination like you get
01:11:13
there when you're focusing so much on
01:11:14
the journey the destination comes
01:11:16
whether that's in sport whether that's
01:11:17
in life the whole notion of um you know
01:11:21
you always find that person when you're
01:11:22
not looking for it and it's just just
01:11:26
yeah focusing on you and um what it is
01:11:29
that makes you happy and then all the
01:11:30
good things come after that like it's
01:11:32
like Good Karma um and just having that
01:11:34
tunnel vision and what you want yeah
01:11:36
100% I notice you got some words on your
01:11:37
phone as well what's on your phone case
01:11:39
is that another quote um process over
01:11:41
outcome oh my
01:11:43
God yeah yes so you're constantly
01:11:46
reminding yourself of all this stuff yes
01:11:48
I am I am um I think I'm a very visual
01:11:51
person so whether it's on my phone case
01:11:53
process over outcome was my um I guess
01:11:56
Mantra you could say for this year when
01:11:57
I was over in Europe um leading into the
01:11:59
world Champs and also for the Olympics
01:12:02
and then recently I actually printed out
01:12:04
a little poster of Paris to put on my
01:12:06
bedside table so that every morning that
01:12:08
I wake up I can see Paris and know that
01:12:11
um that's what I'm working towards and
01:12:13
again that's outcome but then you got to
01:12:15
have that there as well um it's
01:12:17
something to look back on and um that
01:12:20
dream is there that's what fuels a lot
01:12:22
of why we do what we do as well as the
01:12:24
process do enjoying it yeah what about
01:12:26
your Nicholas I just noticed your
01:12:28
Nicholas that's um that's that is a
01:12:29
silver that is a silver fan what's the
01:12:31
story behind that um so I actually got
01:12:33
this from my mom and my brother um when
01:12:37
I got my New Zealand citizenship which
01:12:40
was the first time I actually competed
01:12:42
for New Zealand which was at a young age
01:12:44
I think I was 16 for the um Australian
01:12:48
Junior Championships and so I wear it
01:12:51
every single day um around my neck just
01:12:54
to bring me back to I guess those roots
01:12:56
and where I'm from and um wearing the
01:13:00
silver Fern now but then also when I'm
01:13:02
out on the world stage is like I guess
01:13:04
when you qualify for a World's team or
01:13:06
an Olympics you're competing for the
01:13:08
silver fan as well as the country so
01:13:10
yeah it's just something that I carry
01:13:11
with me um I'm I'm quite a Sentimental
01:13:14
person as well so yeah yeah yeah I am we
01:13:17
don't know about tattoos yet we'll get
01:13:19
there eventually um oh you got to get
01:13:21
the Olympic rings don't you is that
01:13:22
mandatory if you if you qualify for the
01:13:24
Olympics got a yeah yeah so my brother's
01:13:27
got his Olympic rings on his forearm um
01:13:31
and we were hoping to obviously both go
01:13:32
to Tokyo and get matching ones whatever
01:13:35
but um yeah the Olympic rings has has he
01:13:38
qualified for Paris yet no so um he's
01:13:43
not going to go for the Paris um
01:13:46
Olympics he's got the title of Olympian
01:13:49
he worked so hard for that um
01:13:51
weightlifting is a sport that um is very
01:13:54
unfortunate heavily tarnished by drugs
01:13:56
as well and so um he's going there he
01:13:59
would be going there to compete his best
01:14:00
and he did so well at the last ones that
01:14:02
I think um the amount of money it takes
01:14:05
to get there unfortunately weightlifting
01:14:06
doesn't have funding behind them um so
01:14:10
that's for me brought really good
01:14:13
perspective as well like we see so many
01:14:14
other sports that are given a lot more
01:14:16
money but then I'm able to see um other
01:14:19
athletes like my brother and um amongst
01:14:22
many others where they don't get any
01:14:24
funding as well so it's easy to be like
01:14:26
oh look what everyone else has got but
01:14:27
then it's like okay well look how much
01:14:29
we get compared to others as well so
01:14:32
yeah do you do you get like a like a
01:14:34
salary or a retainer or anything from
01:14:36
high performance sport what do you get
01:14:37
uh yeah so there is um what we call a
01:14:41
Taps so it's a tailored athlete tailored
01:14:43
athlete pathway system and so there are
01:14:46
different levels to it um so you get on
01:14:48
a certain level and there's yeah a
01:14:52
small very small amount
01:14:55
very grateful um but no through
01:14:58
Athletics New Zealand as well um so yeah
01:15:02
Athletics New Zealand are able to give
01:15:04
us campaign budget um cuz you you you
01:15:06
can't really have a job can you not
01:15:09
really drug free support is on sort of
01:15:11
contract where I'm able to um but yeah
01:15:13
that actually is I mean in terms of like
01:15:15
the work that's required to get to that
01:15:17
Olympic level the training that's
01:15:18
required and the rest and recovery after
01:15:20
that like there's just not time for you
01:15:22
to have employment there isn't there
01:15:24
really isn't I I know some athletes that
01:15:26
still do it and you see how much um
01:15:31
better they could be doing without it as
01:15:33
well and I mean some of them juggle it
01:15:35
so well and it's I commend them to that
01:15:37
um but at the end of the day if you're
01:15:39
being a full-time athlete that is sort
01:15:41
of um where you're going to be getting
01:15:43
those extra gains you going be putting
01:15:44
in those 1centers having more time
01:15:46
during the day to actually put it in so
01:15:48
yeah um means yeah not quite enough
01:15:50
space to have a proper I guess you'd say
01:15:53
9 to5 job fitting in training with with
01:15:55
that um which can make it a little bit
01:15:57
difficult even with the funding um it's
01:15:59
a space I'm trying to look into a little
01:16:01
bit more with um having some sponsors
01:16:03
and some backing around me um in the
01:16:05
next few years leading into Paris so
01:16:08
yeah yeah brilliant any sponsors that
01:16:10
you want to give a shout out to on the
01:16:11
podcast oh Toyota I know you're with
01:16:13
Toyota yes so I'm giving Toyota a shout
01:16:16
out in general because they've been with
01:16:17
me for almost 5 years now since I was 18
01:16:20
years old and they're incredible
01:16:22
absolutely love the team there and
01:16:24
they've supported my my whole journey um
01:16:26
I'm with Adidas as well I'm sort of like
01:16:29
a development level contract there um
01:16:32
but yeah my ultimate dream is to have
01:16:37
red bull as a sponsor and the reason for
01:16:39
that is they only pick the best of the
01:16:40
best athlete so I know that I need to
01:16:42
get the top of the top sort of um level
01:16:46
to be able to take that through but
01:16:48
manifesting this is manifesting right
01:16:50
this is manifesting I'm so much um
01:16:53
Alicia L our photog ER has taken so many
01:16:56
photos of me sipping red blls every
01:16:58
single competition I have a red bll and
01:17:00
we have pretty much a whole album of me
01:17:02
drinking red B like the day that I get
01:17:04
sponsored but no I think in general a
01:17:07
big thing for me is um having a two-way
01:17:10
sponsorship well maybe not sponsorship
01:17:12
but a two-way sort of thing where I'm
01:17:14
able to give the brand something and
01:17:15
then Vice like a collaborative effect
01:17:18
collaborative yeah and I think I need to
01:17:21
like know the people behind the brand
01:17:23
really well too like it's one thing
01:17:24
being sponsored by um a brand but not
01:17:27
really knowing everyone behind it and um
01:17:30
it comes back to they giving back side
01:17:32
of it like I want to be able to be part
01:17:34
of a team and a brand where um yeah we
01:17:37
could be working together really well
01:17:39
and supporting that and I'm able to you
01:17:41
know use their image on the world stage
01:17:43
and vice versa
01:17:45
so Red Bull must really look after their
01:17:47
athletes I've noticed um Hayden wild
01:17:49
whenever he finishes the triathlon
01:17:51
before he does any interviews he quickly
01:17:52
puts like a a a Red Bull hat on or a
01:17:55
headband and so it's like he's going the
01:17:57
extra mile for them so they must be
01:17:58
looking after him yeah yeah they would
01:18:00
be they I think head wear is their main
01:18:02
thing so yeah um just a couple of quick
01:18:05
things to finish on so we' we've
01:18:07
established that you're a very very
01:18:08
competitive person with everything you
01:18:09
do but I read something about you and
01:18:11
I'm calling [ __ ] on this um you were
01:18:14
playing darts once and you got three
01:18:16
bullseyes in a row no that's true that's
01:18:19
true no way y y so that was back in
01:18:25
I feel like there was almost around
01:18:27
lockdown time and I was playing darts so
01:18:32
much like I'm nowhere near as good as
01:18:34
them now like not like in a rowand a row
01:18:37
but in a in a round yeah
01:18:39
so yeah that one's that's pretty good
01:18:42
that could be um a spot for you to try
01:18:44
after pole vating very um very easy on
01:18:46
the back it would be easier on the back
01:18:49
I'm weirdly good at um your classic sort
01:18:51
of Pub style Sports so like starts not
01:18:56
as good like pool but and we have a pool
01:18:58
table at home my dad has taught me very
01:19:00
well and so I like to hustle the boys a
01:19:02
little bit there and be like oh like I'm
01:19:05
okay I'm not that good Bo boom and beat
01:19:07
them so amazing um and the the other
01:19:09
thing I I I think this might be the only
01:19:11
thing you and I have in common yes um
01:19:14
favorite karaoke song Oh karaoke song
01:19:18
are we think you have thunderstrike here
01:19:20
is that the one oh no well okay we we've
01:19:22
got nothing in common then which it was
01:19:24
All Star by Smash yes yes yeah yeah yeah
01:19:27
no that would be an interview years ago
01:19:30
no no that's a karaoke song Thunder
01:19:32
Struck is my pump up song is it but yeah
01:19:34
do you do you like pump up song that you
01:19:36
listen to before an event or every
01:19:38
single competition um I have to listen
01:19:40
to thunder struck and it's always the
01:19:42
last song I listen to before I get to
01:19:44
the track so itno any any of my
01:19:46
teammates are in the car with me I'm
01:19:47
like guys we have to turn it on now I'm
01:19:49
like how how far away are we from the
01:19:51
track we need to put thunder struck
01:19:53
on W that what a have you got like a
01:19:55
hype playlist or is it just the one song
01:19:57
I have the pump up playlist yeah so
01:20:00
that's my comp right what are some other
01:20:01
tracks on it oh um bleeded
01:20:06
out um by lincol Park we've got thunder
01:20:10
strke in there a little bit more aadea
01:20:12
um aadea oh the Australian coming out
01:20:15
now it
01:20:16
is um what else have we got I'm I'm
01:20:20
trying to sway it into more like fun
01:20:21
songs so it's like happy and upbeat
01:20:23
whereas when I was younger was like just
01:20:26
trying to be this real like intense um
01:20:29
sort of athlete but yeah with Lincoln
01:20:31
Park or what else we got in there um
01:20:34
you're going to go far kid that's a good
01:20:36
one
01:20:39
uh I don't remember I have to look it up
01:20:41
in my own time where does the um where
01:20:43
does the love of ACD is that from your
01:20:44
dad the love of ACDC seems weird that a
01:20:47
girl in her 20 is
01:20:49
into ACD I would never listen to it
01:20:52
outside of certain
01:20:55
circumstances but um I don't know I
01:20:58
think my brother was listening to it one
01:21:01
time and I just wanted to add it to my
01:21:03
playlist and then when I was a kid I
01:21:05
would listen to YouTube Montage
01:21:07
playlists um of you know those really
01:21:10
intense ones on YouTube where they're
01:21:11
talking about like motivation and um
01:21:14
yeah Lincoln Park was in that so I was
01:21:16
like I'm going to take that one and
01:21:17
there's some that just stick like I say
01:21:19
I'm quite sentimental so I like to keep
01:21:20
the same sort of routines yeah that's
01:21:24
cool hey will live MCT tager uh best of
01:21:26
luck for the what the year brings
01:21:29
hopefully Paris um yeah if you make it
01:21:32
to Paris would the so the goal would be
01:21:34
to like to make the finals when I make
01:21:37
it to Paris um oh you win sorry did I
01:21:40
say it oh no this is my self talk cuz
01:21:43
I'm hearing my sports like inside of me
01:21:45
going but yeah um uh sorry what was it
01:21:50
yeah yeah yeah the goal for the dream
01:21:52
for the year oh the dream for the year
01:21:54
um to be an Olympic finalist yeah yeah
01:21:56
I've written that one down many times
01:21:58
I'm big big believer in writing things
01:22:00
down and sort of manifesting them to
01:22:02
happen obviously with everything else as
01:22:04
well so um yeah to be an Olympic
01:22:06
finalist yeah well we'll eagerly um
01:22:09
watch your progress this year so 471 is
01:22:12
your current personal best we need a 473
01:22:15
yep 2 cm you can do this I've got it 2 C
01:22:19
we'll get there we'll get there maybe
01:22:21
listen to thunder struck twice yeah
01:22:23
maybe all right he thanks so much for
01:22:25
coming on the podcast awesome thank you
01:22:26
for having me I really enjoyed
01:22:28
[Music]
01:22:42
it
