Savage Mentality: Masai Russell 24 year old Olympic Gold Medalist 100M Hurdles, winning mindset, being the underdog in Paris, Kentucky Wildcats, Track and Field competition, Real stories of Olympic Village and growing up as a young black woman

"No one had me making the Olympic team, no one definitely had me winning, and in that moment I felt I proved myself right and I proved everyone else wrong." Masai Russell On this episode of the Pivot Podcast in partnership with Fanatics, we sit down with Olympic gold medalist Masai Russell, who shocked the world when she took home the gold in the 100m hurdles at just 24 years old after finishing third in the Olympic qualifiers. Masai opens up to Ryan, Fred, and Channing about her journey, sharing how she pushed through the toughest mental and physical moments when quitting felt like her only option. Masai shares the mindset shift that helped her overcome the haters and self-doubt, and ultimately prove herself right- even when no one else had her making the Olympic team, let alone winning Gold in Paris. The Kentucky Wildcat star is the NCAA record holder in the event, Masai has been incredibly dedicated to track and field since she was eight years old. Her passion for the sport runs deep, and she explains to the guys why her motivation has nothing to do with the money or the fame, but doing what she loves and letting the rest fall into place. The conversation is full of fun and genuine moments, giving us a glimpse into a young black woman with determination, discipline and reveals her future goals, from breaking world records to continuing to grow as an athlete and role model. But as sweet and well spoken as Masai is, don't let the cheery spirit fool you, Masai makes it clear, when it comes to competing, being a savage is all she knows. Humbled by the opportunities and success in her young life, Masai is grounded by her family roots and uses her life experiences to offer insight into the future of sports, college NIL deals, promoting a personal brand using TikTok- where she shows off a more playful, personal side of herself to her 744K followers as a way of connecting with fans off the track, and feels the platform is beneficial for up-and-coming athletes in the space. She also reveals the most famous person in her Instagram, fills in Channing on what the Olympic Village is really like and the "anti-sex beds" as well as other stories that will lead you to wanting to hear more and more. Masai ultimately wants to be the athlete role model she didn't always have growing up, and prove to the world that with hard work and the right mindset, anything is possible. Tap in to today's episode for an inside look at the next generation of Olympic athletes- if they're anything like Masai the USA is in good hands! Thank you SoFi for sponsoring the video! Go to https://www.sofigamechangers.com to enter for a chance to win. Our friends at SoFi are giving away $100k to public high school sports teams around the country. If you got a team who could use an assist, enter for a chance to win! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:09Speaker 01

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• 0:30Speaker 02

  Oh, metal. Hey, y'all. How are you?

• 0:32Channing Crowder?

  Hey, cuz she look tall on TV.

• 0:34Speaker 02

  That's what everyone be saying. Hell, you get over them hurdles.

• 0:38Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, you look tall on TV. Hey, Chan.

• 0:41Speaker 02

  That's what everyone be saying.

• 0:42Fred Taylor?

  Wait, wait, wait. Let's see the metal.

• 0:43Speaker 02

  It's in a plastic bag. My jeweler gave it to me, but I brought the metal for y'all so y'all can see.

• 0:48Channing Crowder?

  You gotta show the people that.

• 0:50Speaker 02

  Look at that.

• 0:50Channing Crowder?

  That's nice, dude.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, don't drop it.

• 0:53Channing Crowder?

  Can I bite it?

• 0:53Speaker 02

  Don't drop it. You can bite it. A lot of people's hands been on it, though.

• 0:57Fred Taylor?

  Oh, you wanna bite it?

• 0:58Channing Crowder?

  Don't worry. My mouth done been worse places than this. Let me see, Chan. Let me see, Chan.

• 1:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, put it on.

• 1:03Channing Crowder?

  Yo.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  Isn't it heavy?

• 1:06Channing Crowder?

  That joke a heavy. You might do a front flip.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  A man can get the multiple. Like, you know, people who can have it on.

• 1:12Fred Taylor?

  Hey, Chan. You needed that when you raised Quincy at the Fanatic Fashion.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  I know.

• 1:16Fred Taylor?

  That was the only way you was gonna get a gold.

• 1:18Speaker 02

  I see you got blown out. I see you got blown out.

• 1:21Channing Crowder?

  I used to run the 110s in high school.

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Was it looking like it?

• 1:24Channing Crowder?

  Three, one, two, three, four, eight. And you got that back. I was looking at your back leg. You got a good back leg that you can do.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, that trail leg. That trail leg.

• 1:54Ryan Clark?

  Well, Masai Russell, welcome to The Pivot.

• 1:56Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 1:57Ryan Clark?

  We are extremely excited about this. It's Channing Crowder, Fred Taylor, I'm Ryan Clark. It's The Pivot, a part of Fanatics. Thank you Pivot fam for pivoting with us. So normally, I split the room by Super Bowls. Today, we're just gonna split it by champion, right? You're a champion, right? You were the best at what you do in the entire world. I mean, Noah says football, if you just win a Super Bowl, it's not the best in the world, but we gonna just consider that I was when it happened, right? I remember though, I'm just playing. I remember the night before the Super Bowl. And understanding it's like the biggest sporting event in my world. Tell me about your sleepless night before the gold medal race.

• 2:38Speaker 06

  Trying to bring myself back to that because, you know, it was the first time I've experienced anything like that. The first time I was at the Olympics was the first time y'all seen me on the stage. So for me, I have an Oura ring and it tracks my sleep, but it was dead that night, but it felt like I got no sleep at all. And so I don't know how much sleep I actually got, because you know when you don't get no REM sleep, it feels like you didn't sleep at all. So for me, I don't know how much sleep I got and I was just trying to close my eyes and just take a nap. And I just was like, only thing I could think of is the race. The race of like me winning and what was gonna play out. It was definitely a sleepless night. And then even after the race, I got an hour and a half of sleep. I was like, come on, man.

• 3:22Speaker 06

  I already slept the night before.

• 3:24Ryan Clark?

  You know how track athletes talk about like the rest of their life? You know, if you don't get any REM sleep, you're actually not sleeping.

• 3:30Speaker 06

  No, I just started getting into it.

• 3:32Ryan Clark?

  Hey, you are in a dream state. And the dream state is when your muscles recuperate.

• 3:37Speaker 06

  No, but I told myself when I woke up that morning, I was like, I, excuse my language, I'll be damned if I competed at the Olympics and I let me not get some sleep the day of my race affect my performance, pretty much. I'm like, I done trained my whole entire life for this moment and I'm not gonna allow anything at this moment in time to deter me from this goal. And that's just, that was my mindset.

• 3:59Ryan Clark?

  But she also takes her Ollie gummies 30 minutes before. I looked at your Instagram.

• 4:04Speaker 06

  I'm like, oh, what you know about that?

• 4:07Channing Crowder?

  Like you saying hours and hours. 12 hours of thinking about 12 seconds.

• 4:13Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 4:14Channing Crowder?

  You saying you're thinking about a race. It's 12 seconds. What are you thinking about 12 seconds for 12 hours?

• 4:19Speaker 06

  Shoot, nothing. I'm blanked out. Are you talking about during my race?

• 4:24Channing Crowder?

  I'm talking about like the lead up.

• 4:25Speaker 06

  Oh, the lead up? I'm just thinking about...

• 4:27Channing Crowder?

  You can't sleep, but it's 12 seconds.

• 4:28Speaker 06

  Yeah, no, see, it's crazy because the 12 seconds is so detrimental because, you know, for my event, you hit a hurdle, you clip your toenail, you drag your foot the wrong way. Like, it's just the margin of error is so much smaller. So, yeah, that 12 seconds can make or break how the rest of your life can play out. So that's what I'm thinking in my head. And like I said, for me, the only thing I was thinking about or only thing that I can see and visualize was me coming through that line first. Like, I just couldn't think about nothing else. And I'm glad that that was a visualization that was happening because, you know, I ended up pertaining it.

• 5:03Fred Taylor?

  How long have you been chasing chicken dripped off in that sauce, though?

• 5:08Speaker 06

  Yo, y'all are funny. You got that from my last post?

• 5:11Fred Taylor?

  Boss man.

• 5:12Speaker 06

  That was just my caption on my last post.

• 5:14Fred Taylor?

  I know. We gotta do our research somehow.

• 5:16Speaker 06

  I don't know. I feel like I've been chasing chicken. I won't even say I'm chasing it. I'm just doing what's meant for me and the things that have been meant for me have come to fruition. So, I won't say I'm chasing nothing. That was just a good caption for that post.

• 5:31Fred Taylor?

  That was a great caption, which I guess going back to that moment, you know, what RC and Channing were mentioning and on the way to Olympic gold. What's sort of in your, in your whole routine, right? Getting you to that point, like before we go and play games, we have our, back in the day when we played, we had big headphones. Y'all got Beats by Pro's and Apple iPro's and all that. What's your, like, your routine just to get you in that safe space so you can go out there and dominate? Like, what's on your playlist before, like, during your warmups and getting ready for an event?

• 6:07Speaker 06

  So, initially, before I get to the track, I'm journaling. I'm just kind of meditating. Getting into a calm like state, calm mind and just really being at ease. I never really got into that until really this year because this was a very tough season for me. I don't know if y'all know that, but this is a very tough year for me. So, you know, I just tried to keep my routine as consistent as possible. And then I feel like the thing that helped me the most was just listening to motivational talks from Les Brown. I don't know what it is, what is in his voice, the things that he just says, just it just gives it to me. And then by the time I start competing, I just turn on, you know, whatever was on my playlist.

• 6:48Speaker 06

  It doesn't really matter at that point because I've already like set the foundation for how the day is going to go. Just through, you know, my motivational hearings and, you know, my journaling, the things that I see myself doing for the day, the goals that I see for myself that day and just the positive affirmations. And just, like I said, it's just that foundation. It just sets the day up. So by the time I get to the track, it's like, I'm ready.

• 7:12Fred Taylor?

  Expound on the tough season. Like, why was it so, so tough?

• 7:15Speaker 06

  Yeah, it was super tough because, one, I started off being unsponsored. When I came out of college, I had a contract, but, you know, I didn't take the contract and it was a lot of, it was a lot that went on. It was a lot of things being said that wasn't true and true things that weren't being said. So it was just a lot going on, on that end. So I ended up walking away from a contract that I had, just taking a chance on myself. And it ended up, you know, delaying my signing process. And I thought that it was going to be a much quicker process. And then by the time I started my season, I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to be sponsored by the time, you know, this next season starts, which is the season that I'm in. And, you know, I ended up not having that sponsor.

• 7:57Speaker 06

  So I just feel like I attached myself to this sponsorship that I didn't get. So now it's just like, all right, you know, no one really cares if I show up or not. Like, why am I here? Why am I coming? Like, who am I showing up for? And that's why I give so much credit and thanks to my boyfriend because at that time, I was just mentally checked out. Practice was harder than ever. Like, I know y'all sport is mental, our sport is mental. So if you're not in the right headspace, it's just hard to show up every day. So for me, he was just pretty much telling me, you know, a check, a contract does not make you run fast. It doesn't allow you to do the things that you want to do. It doesn't make you run fast or slow. So if you're going to determine if money makes you run fast or not, then you should just quit now.

• 8:41Speaker 06

  And, you know, I had to take a step back talking to a very logical man. You know, me being a woman and my emotions, I was just going crazy. But yeah, it was super hard. And then coming into the start of the season, I was, like I said, I wasn't sponsored, so I just kind of cared so much about how others perceived me. Because I am big on social media. I do have a following. People are asking me, oh, like, why didn't you sign? I heard that you were signing. I heard that, you know, you were going with this partner and then it didn't happen. So, you know, I'm stepping to the line, thinking about what everyone, everyone else is thinking of me, rather than just focusing on my ten hurdles. And then another thing, I had like a hurdle hitting problem.

• 9:23Speaker 06

  And then I just started to overcomplicate it. I started to overcomplicate my drills, my steps, like everything. I was just overthinking the whole thing and track is so mental. So if you're not aligned with the mind, body, spirit, you're going to be able to tell. So I fell in my first outdoor meet. I went to China. I came fourth and sixth place in my first two Diamond Leagues. And then, I mean, which wasn't terrible, but I mean, I still wasn't running the times that I had run in college. And throughout this point, becoming a professional, as you guys know, is a transitional period. I was competing without my coach. I was traveling the world. And I was just like trying to figure it out, trying to coach myself, you know, trying to do as best as I can.

• 10:05Speaker 06

  And then I had ran like 1288 at a meet in L.A. Like, I was like, alright, what's going on? Because my personal best at the time was 1236. So I ran 1288, 1280. I came last place at the Prefontaine Classic. And then I had a little spark, because I'm the type of person, I just didn't give up. I just keep pushing and kept having faith. I ran 1260 and I was the season best and I was happy. And then I like, you know, took a step back. I got my mind right for Olympic trials. Ended up winning it, breaking the Olympic trials meet record. Came to the Olympics, won it.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:44Speaker 06

  Did my big one and I mean, now the rest is history.

• 10:47Speaker 02

  Love it.

• 10:48Channing Crowder?

  But why? Cause I'm, I'm old. You were a puppy. I could be your damn daddy, to be honest. But we were looking and I saw you, you cried at the qualifying. Because you were like, the same thing. My season's been so hard.

• 11:01Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 11:02Channing Crowder?

  And people were saying this about me. People were saying that about me. I signed my deal and they say now I'm trash. And that was your words. Why in the fuck do you care what them people that couldn't run a 18?

• 11:13Speaker 06

  No, absolutely.

• 11:14Channing Crowder?

  Care about somebody that's mad about a 12 A? Why do you care so much?

• 11:18Speaker 06

  I feel like it's easier said than done. Because I don't want to say that like, of course I cared. But I feel like I was more emotional about everything just coming to fruition that I seen in my dreams. And then I think that the comments that people were saying entered into my subconscious mind and I internalized it to like, basically show y'all like, oh, this is what y'all think about me now I'm gonna show y'all, you know, throw y'all words back in y'all face, pretty much.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:46Speaker 06

  And I mean, I do read comments and I'm not used to the negative comments, but now that I've become more known in the sport and more famous on social media, it's always gonna be some people that's, you know, just talking, talking they talk. It's like, ah, like please. But it is, I shouldn't care, but I'm learning to not more and more every day. I'm gonna say that.

• 12:06Channing Crowder?

  Send them a picture of this.

• 12:08Speaker 06

  No, for real. Literally.

• 12:11Ryan Clark?

  I do think that, I do think that's part of it. We work with somebody very often that doesn't, that as close to anyone who can truly not care what people think of them, he is that person, right? I think the, what the people close to him say matters, but I don't believe he truly cares about outside perception. But also, when you are in the public eye, the perception of you and what people think of you is sometimes the reality, right? If people do believe you to be great. You can become that because you start to internalize that part of it. But it also allows you to ride the ebbs and flows of what they think. Right? If I'm gonna, if I'm gonna rise by the applause, I'm also gonna fall by the booze.

• 12:55Speaker 06

  Right.

• 12:56Ryan Clark?

  Right? And then I do believe you gotta try to manage that, especially in your generation that grew up with things we didn't. Like, we didn't have Twitter and Instagram. And so, it actually was no way to become like, sort of famous and popular without success.

• 13:10Speaker 06

  Right.

• 13:11Ryan Clark?

  Right? And this generation is different. But you're talking about the outside things. I know you write goals. I've actually seen what the goals were.

• 13:18Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 13:19Ryan Clark?

  That they were 60-meter indoors and they were these certain championships. And not only were you not sponsored at one point, you mentioned the Prefontaine Diamond League. You weren't achieving certain goals that you had set for yourself that were tangible goals. How did you continue to believe that that gold medal, right? That breaking Gail Devers' meet record in the trials? How did you continue to believe that that was possible?

• 13:44Speaker 06

  For me, I'm just a relentless person. And I'm the type of person, I'm gonna live what I preach. I feel like it's always easy to say, you know, never give up when it's hard. Never do this when it's hard. And I always said, like, my parents gave me a pretty good life. I never had to really want for nothing. You know, growing up a little bit, just a little bit. But my mom, she's now a doctor. So, we didn't have to stay in that too, too long, which a lot of people don't, which a lot of people don't know. But for me, I've always said, like, you know, I've never really went through much. Like, I've never really went through much. And I feel like, you know, when you start saying things like that, God be like, alright, I'm gonna show you. So, you know, I didn't think that this year, I was faced with the hardest trials ever.

• 14:27Speaker 06

  And like I said, I have to practice what I preach. It's easy to say it, but when you in it, you gotta be the example. And I just told myself, you know, on the other side of this, it's gonna be something. Like, I don't know what it is, I'm just not gonna stop. I'm not gonna stop. And I feel like that's what... Just built the savage in me because I feel like I was already a dog. But like, I feel like now there's truly nothing that I can't accomplish because I passed my test. This test that was meant for me at this moment in time. And I was, I wanted to quit. Like, I'm not gonna lie, it was hard, but I, I just knew there, there was gonna be something on the other side of this that I was gonna be proud of. When I hit the hurdle in Budapest last year, I literally said that. That's the thing I love about myself the most.

• 15:10Speaker 06

  Like, when I hit the hurdle, didn't make it to, um, the final. I was just like, you know, I don't know what's gonna come from this that I'm gonna be proud of. You know, I work hard. You know, we can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. I was just saying all these different things when I just had a, a season ending performance. And I'm just so impressed with my grit, how I continue to show up. I didn't know what the outcome was gonna be, but I just let that ego just die of where I expected myself to be and what everyone expected from me and just allow my body to do. And let, truly, like, I feel like, I can't explain it because I just feel like it's just of God. Like, I just really let go and let God. Like, when I ran the first round, I PR'd, I ran 1235 from running.

• 15:55Speaker 06

  12, 7, my last race leading up to trials. 1235, 1236, 1225. No one had me making the Olympic team. No one definitely had me winning. And in that moment, I just felt like I proved myself right and I proved everyone else wrong.

• 16:13Ryan Clark?

  What old people did you grow up around? Cause like, you know, I'm, I'm old, right? I was...

• 16:19Speaker 06

  Well, you look good.

• 16:20Ryan Clark?

  Thank you, I appreciate you, my girl. Black don't crack, girl. You know what I'm saying? You know that, hey, you know that black don't crack, girl? Yo! But honestly, though, and, and I say that, I say that jokingly, but there's a poise and a maturity, right? To the way you see trials that you don't often see in young people, right? It's the, it's the OGs you talk to, or as they call them, the aunties, right? The unks and aunties who have been through things and who have seen these hardships. And they may not have been able to deal with them. When they first faced them, right? But it's that second time around, that third time around where they have an understanding of themselves. You said you didn't go through a ton, right? And you, you know, you said your mom and, you know, your parents gave you a certain life.

• 17:05Ryan Clark?

  So how, when these things hit you for the first time, were you able to be settled? You know, at the Prefontaine and at the Diamond League and say, okay, look, there's something better for me on the other side of this.

• 17:17Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 17:17Ryan Clark?

  I have to continue to stay in who I am in order to get to it though.

• 17:20Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think that it's just the way that my mindset is just kind of structured because, I mean, to say that I've never been through anything is just like, of course, everyone goes through everything. Or things, whatever, you know, that may be to you because in high school I had a very tough time, my mother was sick, my whole team didn't like me, they was mad that I was wearing my USA gear at practice, like, you know, the little things like that. But this was definitely the most life-changing moment where like, I just outdid myself in a way that I couldn't even imagine. And I think, like I said, for me, it's just a mindset thing. I think the way that I look at the trials, like the trials and tribulations, it's just all about how you handle them.

• 18:03Speaker 06

  And I ended up reading The Power of the Subconscious Mind. And I feel like that book just truly changed my mind, changed my thoughts, changed the way I spoke over situations, the way that I looked at just life as a whole. And the subconscious mind is just so powerful and a lot of people don't understand that a lot of, a lot of the things that enter into their life, they've already spoken over themselves. So for me, I just try to speak positive. Like even if I want to say something negative, I just, I don't even say it. If I don't want to be at practice, I'm not going to say it because now it's going to make the workout 10 times harder. So for me, I think it's just a mindset thing. Yeah, and that's exactly what I live by and I will forever live by it.

• 18:44Ryan Clark?

  I love that.

• 18:45Speaker 06

  I mean, my dad, he, he's just like, everything that you said that you were going to do, you've done it. And it literally brings him to tears every single time.

• 18:51Ryan Clark?

  I love that.

• 18:52Channing Crowder?

  How did the pressure, how did the anxiety, how did the sleepless nights, how did it build up? Because I guarantee, like, I don't know much about your high school career, but I sho, for sure know you was wearing them girls' ass out. And then in college, you get there, you would say even in high school, they was mad about the USA stuff. They was mad about it, but like, the pressure built up and then now, you know, RC asked about it the night before the Olympics. Like, as the pressure built, how did you deal with it? And how much pressure, anxiety, mental stress was that build up to? Okay, I'm racing these little girls.

• 19:25Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 19:25Channing Crowder?

  Okay, I'm racing these teenagers.

• 19:27Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 19:27Channing Crowder?

  Okay, I'm racing a motherfucker from Russia that's been doing this 10 years. Like, how was that progression of just? Why you say Russia? And nobody runs from Russia?

• 19:39Speaker 06

  I think that they do, but they just aren't allowed to, to show, um, like their country. They're not allowed to like, actually promote their country. Because I think they got in trouble for like.

• 19:48Channing Crowder?

  Okay, well, Belgium.

• 19:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, let's say that. Let's say that.

• 19:53Channing Crowder?

  He was a waffle baller.

• 19:54Speaker 06

  Let's say that, but.

• 19:55Channing Crowder?

  But as that, yeah, as the, as your, your fame grows, your career grows, but.

• 20:01Speaker 06

  I mean, this year, like I said, the professional piece is just, it's just, it's just a big transition. You're going from running against, you know, girls in college. Everyone's talented in college, especially coming out of the SEC.

• 20:14Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 20:14Speaker 06

  It's highly competitive. But when you lining up against Olympic champ, these are different people. Olympic champ, world champ, world record holder. And then it's like, you know you had the talent, but it's like, you haven't reached the level that they've reached. So just in the back of your mind, it's like, ah, they low key got a little bit of a more experience, more edge type of thing. I think that everything that I went through from last year, from 2023, my last college season, just gave me the foundation that I needed for this year. I broke two collegiate records, but I did not become an NCAA champion in either indoor or outdoor

• 20:54Speaker 06

  because of my mental, because I allowed the pressure to become bigger than what I was doing. And I just wasn't within my mind, body, spirit alignment. And I think that, like I said, I feel like God just shows you tests. Well, he puts you through it and he gonna keep putting you through it until you pass it. So for me, I feel like I, I failed two tests last year at NCAA's indoor, NCAA outdoor. But I passed it this year at Olympic trials and at the Olympics. Because I could always get the job done, but I could never get it done when it counted most. And that's what a lot of people were saying, you know, the haters. All like Masai just be getting too nervous when she can pee, she hits hurdles, she does this, she does that.

• 21:39Speaker 06

  Like, you know, no one can say nothing now.

• 21:44Speaker 06

  To say the least, I mean.

• 21:45Fred Taylor?

  Nah, for sure. Masai, I want to ask you, why you like your oatmeal so watery?

• 21:49Speaker 06

  Who like, I said that?

• 21:51Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, you said that.

• 21:52Speaker 06

  Where did I say that? On a YouTube video or something?

• 21:55Fred Taylor?

  You like your oatmeal that watery?

• 21:57Speaker 06

  Oh, you talk, I know what video you're talking about. See, it's specific oatmeal. The one at the house, it has to be watery because if you warm it up for too long, it just be too stiff. And it just be thick around the bowl. So it's like, alright, I gotta make another, another batch.

• 22:10Fred Taylor?

  Are you a really good cook?

• 22:11Speaker 06

  A really good cook is crazy, but I can cook. I say I'm a good cook, but a really good, that's a stretch.

• 22:18Channing Crowder?

  Listen, Freddie, she, she, she making microwave oatmeal. She can't really cook.

• 22:22Speaker 06

  No one makes it on a stove.

• 22:24Channing Crowder?

  Microwave oatmeal?

• 22:25Fred Taylor?

  Oatmeal actually looked pretty decent. They were just like watery.

• 22:28Channing Crowder?

  In the microwave?

• 22:29Fred Taylor?

  She poured like three cups of water to one cup of, they were wet.

• 22:33Speaker 06

  No, it was just, um, it was like, what was it, three, three fourths or something?

• 22:38Fred Taylor?

  No, but seriously, you, you, in that same, I think in that same video, you, um, you said, welcome to Lexington, Kentucky, home of the world-class athletes. And we played at other SEC schools and we've never heard anyone ever in life say that, but. It's hurdle you though. Yeah, yeah, no, but to your defense, yourself, Sydney McLaurin, and when you get into the other sprints, Abby Steiner, that university has developed some amazing women in, in track and field. Uh, how does it make you feel to, to have gone to Paris, the Olympics and to bring back gold? And go to look back and see when you first stepped foot on campus, the grind, the sacrifice, the commitment? Everything it took to, to, to get through it.

• 23:22Fred Taylor?

  And now you're an Olympic champion. You're right there in the same conversation with Sidney, a world record holder, and all those other women who put that same work and effort in. How does it make you feel to represent not only the U.S., but yourself and the University of Kentucky?

• 23:38Speaker 06

  It just means the world, especially because Kentucky is hurdle U. And the fact that I'm still holding the standard up and the other women who did those great things with a different coach at University of Kentucky. And now that the coach that I'm with is still holding that standard up, it just speaks to University of Kentucky, it just speaks to the standard. And I mean, it's just such a blessing and an honor to know how far I've come, not even from when I stepped foot on campus, but from when I started running track when I was eight years old. And honestly and truthfully, I'm still new, new to the hurdles. I ran the 100 hurdles four times before coming to college. So the fact that I, you know, took my time and in five years,

• 24:21Speaker 06

  became the collegiate record holder in the 100 hurdles, it just speaks to my work ethic, my grind, the person that I am at the core. And like I said, it's just such a blessing and an honor that I can represent myself in such an amazing way, that I can be an example to those younger than me. Like now that I'm, I'm friends with the women that I used to look up to, Sonya Richards, Dawn Harper, like these are legends. And now that they know who I am and they're like, girl, like calling me on the phone. I'm like, it's just showing me that I've done the right things. And I mean, I can only appreciate and thank my parents because, you know, at a certain age, your parents are the ones that direct your steps.

• 25:03Speaker 06

  And then at a certain point, you know, you gotta let your kids' wings fly. And, you know, my dad putting me into Bullis, the high school that Quincy Wilson goes to. He doing his thing. Like I didn't want to go to school an hour away from my friends and my... Area, my predominantly black area that I came from. But you know, it's what I had to do to be here now. And it's just really crazy to just look back at all the sacrifices that were made from when I was a young girl. That's why I feel like my parents just cry.

• 25:37Fred Taylor?

  So speak to that because we have a lot of young people that watches this show. And we like to use our guests, right? To help create or inspire and empower those young kids that are watching. Your start getting into track, you mentioned your parents, like the evolution of Messiah, getting into track, were you opposed to it? Did they just put you in it? Like, how did it all start?

• 26:00Speaker 06

  Yeah, so I never was opposed to it. I started off doing gymnastics and I have three brothers and they were just kind of out there doing it to get faster for basketball and football. And I was like, this looks a little more fun than gymnastics. Because the gymnastics I was in at the time was moving a little too slow. And I don't think I have a slow attention span. I think I have a, you know, I'm kind of all over the place. So for me, I was just like, you know, that looks more appealing and intriguing. So I want to, you know, do that. And then I went to the track, never looked back. And track is the only sport that I've competed in competitively since I was eight years old. And I haven't gotten burnt out yet. I don't think it'll be anytime soon because I know that there's so much more for me to

• 26:45Speaker 06

  accomplish. And yeah, I mean, I feel like the journey's just beginning. That's what I said after I won the gold.

• 26:51Ryan Clark?

  Were you like Antoinette? There was this girl that I went to Elm Grove Elementary with. And her name was Antoinette. And Antoinette was the fastest person in third grade, right? And so all the boys, we used to basically just try to gang up on her and see which one of us could beat her. And I'm be honest, ain't none of us ever beat Antoinette. So when you were younger and you realized you were fast, right? Because we all realized it at some point. I actually never became fast, but he was. He ran 4.2 in the 40. Yeah, so he could really run. But when you were growing up, what was your competitive edge like, right? Like, once you realized, okay, this is something I wanted to do. How did you take, okay, this is fun. I really enjoy doing this. My brothers have done it.

• 27:36Ryan Clark?

  To be, no, like, this is what I want to do for my lifetime. This is what my passion is. This is what I want my career to be. When did that take place for you?

• 27:46Speaker 06

  I don't think it was ever a moment in time where I was like, you know, this is what I want to be my career. I just kind of seen what I, I just feel like I, I visualized what I wanted to be. And then I guess I just kind of worked for it consciously or subconsciously. Because there were times where I did want to quit in college. And I'm like, I think I'm ready to give this up. But I always said, like, I wanted to become a professional athlete. I want to be a professional hurdler or track athlete, whether if it was hurdles or flat track, whatever it was. And I was just like, I'm not really that good at anything else. So I feel like this has to work.

• 28:22Ryan Clark?

  We had this conversation recently.

• 28:23Speaker 06

  Yeah, I'm like, I feel like this has to work. I mean, I feel like I'm good at other things now that I've discovered it. But, you know, at that moment in my life where I'm like, all right, is this something that I could potentially see myself doing? I'm like, this has to work because this is where I see myself being the most successful. And for me, I think that going to the high school that I went to was highly competitive. We broke national records there. Like I said, Quincy Wilson's killing it out there. And I think that that kind of set the standard for like, what college kind of looked like. And then when I got to college, you know, my coach is always like, you know, it's about 99.9% of y'all that will go on and get a regular job. And then there's going to be the 1%. And I always knew that I was that 1%.

• 29:05Speaker 06

  Even when it didn't look like it, I just always had a feeling. And I always knew that I was different, like amongst everybody else.

• 29:13Ryan Clark?

  I want to give a shout out to today's sponsor, SoFi, the all-in-one finance app. Bro, we all came up in youth sports. And we realized how that could really put a strain on families, trying to get you to and from games, trying to get equipment. That's why SoFi has teamed up with starting quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers, Justin Herbert, to give kids the opportunity to be involved in youth sports.

• 29:35Fred Taylor?

  RC, man, I, I, I know from personal experience, man, how, you know, these type movements can help change a young person's life, especially in youth sports. I remember the days my grandmother had to put together $50 just to give me a chance to go and try out. I think that was the best $50 investment ever. But I wish. This initiative was around then. And I'm sure it'll help many, many other aspiring athletes and families that can't typically handle the cost. This is gonna put them in position to see the next generation of great players.

• 30:09Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, absolutely. And that's why SoFi and Justin Herbert are so big in this with the Game Changers Challenge to give kids like ourselves when we were young and other athletes that play now and today an opportunity to do so.

• 30:20Channing Crowder?

  And I love what Justin Herbert do. Y'all know I love when these young dudes, these new and upcomers are giving back. The SoFi Generational Wealth Fund, they are giving 100K to high schools that need help, like you saying. I don't know what I was gonna do if I ain't play ball, but I wish I had this when I was coming up. 50,000 to one school, 10,000 to five schools, and they're trying to help out these young kids that wanna live the dream that we live.

• 30:45Ryan Clark?

  And listen, if you're a part of a team that could use an assist, head to sofi gamechangers.com and submit a short video to tell us what makes your team so special.

• 30:55Fred Taylor?

  And don't forget to tell us about the work you put in, why your team is so special, and what you're trying to accomplish this year. But you only got from now until October the 7th to submit all of those things. You gotta submit a video, and don't forget to tell us why. SoFi gamechangers.com, they gonna hook you up.

• 31:12Channing Crowder?

  Tell the pivot sent you over there. Good luck, everybody. We got y'all.

• 31:16Ryan Clark?

  The Kentucky thing, he went, they both went to Florida. I went to LSU, so we agree with you about the SEC. And I was listening to you say you really, you know, you didn't go through things, and obviously you said it, but we understand what you meant, those major things until you got a little older. But getting to Kentucky was kind of a winding road for you. Explain a little bit how it went, A&M, Tennessee, then Kentucky, and then when that decision happened, how did you feel about it?

• 31:45Speaker 06

  Initially, I was verbally committed to Texas A&M. And then the head coach ended up pulling my scholarship because he didn't believe that I was gonna be eligible to compete. Because my grades weren't bad, let's just put that out there. Grades were not bad, but I went to Bullis, and that is a college preparatory school. So I was getting like As, Bs, and Cs when I first entered. And for any of those younger kids out there, those Cs are gonna like lower your like weighted grade when it matters most. So just try to get As and Bs in, you know, your earlier stages. Because coming from, I went to Riverdale Baptist and coming from a public school, you know, the curriculum was completely different than a college preparatory school in Potomac, Maryland.

• 32:31Speaker 06

  And I did struggle a little bit when I first got there. It was definitely an adjusting period in my life, you know, being from Prince George's County, then going to Potomac, Maryland. It's an hour drive, I'm barely sleeping, I'm waking up at 5:25 every morning to catch the bus. And then I'm working a full shift in high school. Like, I'm staying after for practice, and then I'm getting on the bus an hour back. So it was just a very long day, and I wasn't used to that. So I wasn't getting no Ds or nothing, but definitely As, Bs, and Cs at first. And in my last two years, I kinda got it together. But to say the least, he didn't believe that, you know, I could be eligible. And I mean, we just throwing it out there, I got SEC All Academic Honor Roll every four years at Kentucky.

• 33:13Speaker 06

  And then I was going to, jumping back to the, you know, college story. I ended up committing to University of Tennessee. And then the coach who recruited me was like, alright, I'm leaving, you coming with me? And I'm like, I guess, let's go. So then he went to Kentucky, and I just followed him, I didn't take a visit. I didn't know how the dorms looked. It ended up being the best school out of all the schools I've visited. It ended up being the best team, like the team camaraderie, everything about it. Everything was just like that at-home feeling that everyone says you're supposed to get when you're going to visit. And I got that at Kentucky once I signed and I was there. I was looking at the dorms on YouTube. And like I said, I mean, I have so much faith, and I just feel like it was just of God. The fact that-

• 33:57Ryan Clark?

  Stuff's so ordered.

• 33:57Speaker 06

  It was just so ordered. It was just, I was supposed to go here, then here, and then I ended up here. It wasn't even in my top five. I took five visits to all SEC schools. Neither was Kentucky, like Kentucky wasn't even in- The rear view, nothing. Like, I wasn't paying attention to Kentucky. Ended up going to Kentucky. I'm still there five, six years later. And I mean, it just has spoke for itself, truly. It's crazy.

• 34:22Channing Crowder?

  Talking about the order, talking about your goals. Like, every time we talk to track people, the NFL, you know it's millions of dollars.

• 34:29Speaker 06

  Right.

• 34:29Channing Crowder?

  Like, you see contracts on TV.

• 34:31Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:32Channing Crowder?

  And for you to say, like, when you looked at it, like, I'm gonna, this is my path. Was the path to win this? Because I don't think, I couldn't look at track as I'm about to set myself up for life.

• 34:43Speaker 06

  Right.

• 34:44Channing Crowder?

  And I know, I know you made a bunch of money NIL. Like, you know, we're gonna talk about that and all that stuff. But it's just, I want to be the fastest woman to get over these hurdles.

• 34:52Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 34:52Channing Crowder?

  Like, like, to say that your path is weird for me because my thing was all about money. I'm about to make some money to get these millions off these people. What was the, what was the thought of my path as track?

• 35:04Speaker 06

  I think if you're doing track in the field, you have to love it because it hurts very bad. And like you said, we not make, it's not at the gate. We not making thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy million dollars, probably ever. But, um, I mean, I hope, I hope that I could change the game. But, uh, yeah, I think that for track, you just have to love it. You have to, the monetary value can't be attached to it just because, I mean, it's not a high-paying sport. It's not a highly-watched sport like a football or basketball. So I think you just have to really, really love it. And that's what I told anybody that comes into college. I'm like, you better love it, especially as a professional. You better love it because it's gonna be your full-time job.

• 35:48Speaker 06

  And I don't know, I just, in my mind, I think the goal was just to be good. I don't, and I feel like, in my mind, this is me. Never chase the money. The money's always gonna come if you're doing what you love. That's just me. And there has never, by the grace of God, since 2021, I have not asked my parents for a dime, a nickel, or a quarter. I've been supporting myself. I got a new car. I'm about to buy a house. And I'm a track athlete, although I do have, you know, my NIL and stuff. Um, and that's what, that's what, like, that's what kickstarted, you know, everything. But I never got into social media initially for what it could do for me. I just love to post. And then the money came with it. So for me, my motto is, you know.

• 36:33Speaker 06

  At the end of the day, never chase money. Money will come to you if you're doing what you love.

• 36:37Channing Crowder?

  And you said, I read you said, you praised your mom in a number of interviews about her. I don't want to say advising you, not checking you about the money, advising you. Your mom is a damn doctor, like, she's a very intelligent woman. But you had to have, we all, we all fucked off and we got a check. She got that Benz, I know that.

• 36:55Speaker 06

  I got that after three years.

• 36:57Channing Crowder?

  I seen, I seen a Benz, I seen it in front of a Rolls Royce.

• 37:01Speaker 06

  I ain't get the Rolls Royce, my mama got that.

• 37:04Channing Crowder?

  Oh, she did, I seen some.

• 37:05Speaker 06

  It wasn't mine, it wasn't mine though, it wasn't mine. It was Renny, but you know, we had to get it for the pictures. It wasn't mine, it wasn't mine, but the Benz is mine.

• 37:13Channing Crowder?

  Okay.

• 37:14Speaker 06

  Ain't nobody get a G-Wagon.

• 37:15Channing Crowder?

  I seen that jewelry.

• 37:16Speaker 06

  So just stay down for that.

• 37:17Channing Crowder?

  I know how much that Gucci wa, that Gucci ring cost because of my wife.

• 37:20Speaker 06

  This is an Olympic ring.

• 37:22Channing Crowder?

  That ain't the Gucci, okay, nevermind, don't get that Gucci ring, that bitch high.

• 37:25Speaker 06

  Oh, wait, you still me?

• 37:27Channing Crowder?

  He wears six rings.

• 37:28Speaker 06

  I got a Cartier.

• 37:31Fred Taylor?

  This is the uncle that you don't.

• 37:32Speaker 06

  I got a Cartier, okay.

• 37:34Fred Taylor?

  This is the uncle that you don't really want to hang around you? He gonna embarrass you? He gonna pull up with Jordans with no socks? That's how he gonna pull up?

• 37:43Channing Crowder?

  Hey, man, my ankle is nasty, I'm gonna heal.

• 37:47Channing Crowder?

  But how, how hard is it? You brought up NIL, just having money that young, and it seems as if you've done, you've done well with it.

• 37:55Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 37:55Channing Crowder?

  You talking about buying a house, I've heard you talk about buying real estate, like, you're trying to reinvest it and, and be there, but I would say with, because you were, you were on a college campus. So I look back, we had no NILs.

• 38:06Speaker 06

  Yeah, oh, I couldn't imagine.

• 38:08Channing Crowder?

  But I look back and think, when I was 19, 18 years old, if somebody gave me a half a million dollars, somebody gave me a million dollars, I'd have went crazy. You're doing well by it, but you know your teammates, you've seen people in the past. Is that NIL stuff scary for some people that don't have, your mother don't have this around, the, the, the system around them like you do?

• 38:27Speaker 06

  Absolutely, absolutely, and that's the thing, I feel like there's a difference in NIL. Like, you know, people aren't in, well, I guess they are now, but, you know, these schools are now offering millions of dollars to these athletes to come to the. The school, like that's a completely different ballgame. For me, I don't personally agree with that side of N I O. I agree with, okay, if a brand wants to work with you, if a, if a brand wants to sell your jersey, then you should have, you know, the opportunity to say yes or no to it. But like the offering, 150, or not even 150, because that's, that's too low. 800, 900, 1,000, I mean, a million to come to the school before you even touch the field

• 39:11Speaker 06

  or the court, like that, to me, that's crazy. That's crazy. And I, I am fearful for them because like I said, if it wasn't for my mom, I wouldn't have known about taxes, LLC, S corp, uh, everything, S, S, was it SEPI RA? All these different investments. I wouldn't have known anything. And at the time that N I O became a thing, it was just like, all right, here, you can make money. You can make money. There was no rules or there was no guidance. There was no courses or anything. It was just like, all right, you make money now. You know, as long as we approve the contract, you're good. Didn't say anything about the tax piece, about nothing. I'm like, shout out to my pa, not, not even just my mom,

• 39:54Speaker 06

  my parents, they're like, they're guiding me and they're helping me. I was like, no, you gotta, you know, take some of this out of sight for your taxes. I'm like, taxes? I've only heard about it, but I ain't think they had anything to do with me.

• 40:05Ryan Clark?

  The hell with FISA, who is FISA?

• 40:07Speaker 06

  For real. And they're like, no, she's like, no, they come knock on your door. If you don't pay, I'm like, bro, take the money. Take it, take it. I don't want no problems, especially now with the IRS.

• 40:15Ryan Clark?

  They gonna get there as sure as you are.

• 40:18Speaker 06

  Absolutely.

• 40:19Ryan Clark?

  We had Lele on the show before, before the Olympics. And I can be honest, I wasn't rooting against you. I was just rooting for you to get second, right? And so, you know, on, on this side, on this side, the, the races were coming on at weird times, right? So I, I believe I watched the final in the, in the car at Target. I was waiting for them to bring my bags out, right? And I watched it and I'm just going to be honest, regardless of what it is, like I've raised two brown girls, you know, 25 and 19. There's a sense of pride we feel, like we embrace you all, right? It's all a part of, of what we do and who we love. For you, you become Team USA, but it's an individual sport.

• 41:02Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 41:02Ryan Clark?

  You talked about the pre Fontaine and having a hurdle hitting issue. Did you get a opportunity to speak with her after the 100 meter final and talk to her? Because obviously you went gold.

• 41:16Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 41:16Ryan Clark?

  Did you get a chance to like talk to her after?

• 41:19Speaker 06

  No, I did not, unfortunately.

• 41:22Ryan Clark?

  You don't seem like happy about.

• 41:24Speaker 06

  Happy? No. You know, I mean, at the end of the day, like, yeah, like you said, we're Team USA, but we're all competitors and I understand what it's like to have a hurdle hitting problem. So, you know, I had to work through those things and I was not confiding in my competitors. Um, personally, just not me. And I would never look to my competitors for a word. I'll look to someone else outside of my event, but not someone in my event unless they're like a vet, like who's on their way out probably. And that's just me. That's just the competitiveness in me. But if we're actively battling it out every weekend, no. I mean, me and, um, I have to say like me and Nia Ali, she's 34, 35 years old, three kids,

• 42:09Speaker 06

  and she's still killing it. But she's shown me that mentorship from when I was in college. So now that we're both on the professional circuit, she's like one of the only people that do the same event as me that like I could confide in.

• 42:20Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 42:21Speaker 06

  Because, you know, she's been to the Olympics, she's been to the Worlds, she's been on the professional circuit for such a long time. So her experience is just through the roof. But if we're actively competing against each other, I'm not really.

• 42:35Ryan Clark?

  So you really are a dog then. Like you mentioned, like you mentioned it earlier.

• 42:38Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 42:39Ryan Clark?

  And I'm gonna be honest, right? You come in here, the edge is fire off top, right?

• 42:44Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 42:45Ryan Clark?

  Whole fit, put together.

• 42:47Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 42:47Ryan Clark?

  Great personality, all this charisma. And you was like, that's I'm a savage. And I was like, she ain't no savage. She cute.

• 42:54Speaker 06

  Aw, thank you.

• 42:55Ryan Clark?

  You a savage with baby hair? Yeah, she a savage with baby hair.

• 42:59Speaker 06

  What a thing, big race. What a thing, big race.

• 43:01Ryan Clark?

  Say, say, say. She listen to both. Before she got her.

• 43:04Speaker 06

  Oh, absolutely.

• 43:05Ryan Clark?

  A savage with baby hair. I see. She listen to Dito.

• 43:09Speaker 06

  You be surprised.

• 43:10Ryan Clark?

  Hey, and then she was like, I'm a dog. Okay, you're like 115 and that's. Maybe.

• 43:17Speaker 06

  How do you know?

• 43:19Ryan Clark?

  But for you, though, like, the other things you get to do, you know, like, there's a lot of people that are fast, right? But they can't captivate an audience.

• 43:29Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 43:29Ryan Clark?

  They can't get people to watch them make watery oatmeal.

• 43:33Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 43:34Ryan Clark?

  You know, how have you started to learn and understand how important it is to be a brand outside of what you can do on the track?

• 43:44Speaker 06

  Yeah, I don't think I really understood it until NIO, like, until, you know, the monetary piece came with the social media part. And I think once I started to get the right people in align with my brand and to hone down and understand what my brand entails, or what it is, or what I want to align myself with, I don't think I really had an idea of what that was. But once I started to understand it, I just started to just know how important it is to, of course, like, say the right things, look the right way. Because what you put out there, you're gonna get back. And at the end of the day, I just want to allow people to understand what I stand by, what I stand with, and who I truly am as a person,

• 44:29Speaker 06

  not just who I am on the internet. I just...

• 44:33Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 44:33Speaker 06

  What I promote and who I am, I want it to just be seamless and just natural when you see me online and when you see me in person.

• 44:42Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 44:42Speaker 06

  And, I don't know, I just think I've been blessed enough to just be appealing, I guess, to the public eye. I have never had a problem with gaining followers or getting people to, like, tune into what I'm doing, and that's just a blessing. I think that when, you know, it's something that you just are authen... you just authentically love to do, it's just natural. So, I'm still in the process of building my brand, I'm not gonna lie. You know, I'm still young, I'm still figuring it out. I just got a publicist and, you know, like, I'm still adding the different pieces to the puzzle. But I'm still working on that.

• 45:17Fred Taylor?

  Even in that process, like, at your age, like, we, we, we come in the game, and it's definitely in sports, like, we, we follow people and we, we have an extreme admiration for, you know, let's say Michael Jordan, or, or King James, LeBron, or D-Wade, or whomever. Is there any one person you noticed following, following you on social media? You was like, whoa, this is big?

• 45:43Speaker 06

  It's probably a couple that I actually can't think about right now. But dang, oh, I mean, uh, EZ Money Sniper. What's his name? Kevin Durant.

• 45:55Speaker 06

  Yeah, KD follows me.

• 45:56Channing Crowder?

  EZ Money Sniper.

• 45:57Speaker 06

  Yeah, I could like just visualize Instagram tag, but I couldn't think of his name. But yeah, you know, we're from the same area. So when he followed me back, I'm like, ah, he not gonna follow me back. Like, let me just see though. Let me see. And then he followed me back and then, I mean, I seen him at the Olympics and like he knew who I was. I was like, oh shoot, like, this is what's up. And I spoke to that earlier, talking about Zion Richards and these other amazing people who I watched growing up that now appreciate what I'm doing. It's just inspiring to me because it's like, alright, girl, you're doing something right, like, you know?

• 46:32Channing Crowder?

  You talk about seeing KD out there. The stories of this Olympic village.

• 46:38Channing Crowder?

  Is it as wild? Because I was in, I'm from Atlanta. I was there in 96 and all the stories came out about the Atlanta one. Is the, is the athlete doing, is it as wild as the stories we hear? Because there's not many people I know that have been in this damn dorm.

• 46:50Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think, I don't want to say the Americans have a different experience, but Team USA did set us up very nice. We got mattress toppers, we got air conditions in the room. Some teams were getting blasted out by the heat. Like bugs in the room because they trying to keep the door open. And they're sleeping on actual cardboard beds and a cardboard head, what is it? Um, what is it? The bed frame? Cardboard bed frame. So I feel like my perspective is a little different. But what I could speak to is how poor the food was. That was pretty terrible. But shouts out to Team USA once again.

• 47:31Speaker 06

  They had a high performance center for us where they had meals two times a day, lunch and dinner. And if it wasn't for that, just know, you said I was 115, I would have been 90, 95.

• 47:44Ryan Clark?

  And Masai, I just want you to know you are so sweet.

• 47:47Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 47:47Ryan Clark?

  Because that wasn't what he was talking about.

• 47:49Speaker 06

  What was you talking about?

• 47:50Channing Crowder?

  Because he.

• 47:51Ryan Clark?

  I thought it was some sex going on over there.

• 47:55Speaker 06

  I'm with.

• 47:57Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, when she answered you.

• 47:59Speaker 06

  I'm thinking he talking about just the Olympic Village experience.

• 48:02Ryan Clark?

  No, because when he said 1996, he was talking about Freaknik.

• 48:05Channing Crowder?

  Freaknik and all done.

• 48:07Speaker 06

  See, I wasn't lost in.

• 48:08Ryan Clark?

  She not even.

• 48:09Speaker 06

  Was it 1961?

• 48:12Speaker 06

  That's what my daddy was. That's what my daddy was.

• 48:14Ryan Clark?

  He said 96.

• 48:16Speaker 06

  I was about to say. I was about to say.

• 48:19Ryan Clark?

  You thought I was around with Jim Crow?

• 48:21Speaker 06

  1960 crazy because my mama in 1980. I ain't about to expose her, man.

• 48:26Channing Crowder?

  Listen, I was not there with colored only water fountains. Now, I know I'm old, I'm not that old.

• 48:33Speaker 06

  Well, let me speak back to that. Let me speak back to that.

• 48:35Ryan Clark?

  Would you hit both of them? Would you be wanting to treat it like a white man, the other half of you?

• 48:38Channing Crowder?

  That's what I'm saying, I'm half white.

• 48:40Speaker 06

  Let me speak back to that. I wasn't partaking in any of that. I don't know what was going on. I didn't see nothing, I didn't hear nothing. But they did give out condoms and, you know, things like that so people could be safe. But it is kind of wild. You're just like in a village with just everyone from around the world. It's like, yo, what's going on right now? Like, I've never experienced something like that. So, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. I heard it's true. That's why they made the anti-sex beds.

• 49:05Channing Crowder?

  Oh, in there, yeah.

• 49:05Ryan Clark?

  They make a, wait, they make a what?

• 49:06Speaker 06

  That's why the beds are cardboard because they're quote-unquote anti-sex beds. And it was like, someone was like, you think the best athletes in the world ain't... I mean, you could get the job done on anything if you wanted to.

• 49:19Channing Crowder?

  You, yes.

• 49:20Speaker 06

  But they were, they were... The motive behind the carpet beds was anti-sex beds.

• 49:25Ryan Clark?

  I never knew that.

• 49:26Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 49:26Ryan Clark?

  I thought it was just cheap.

• 49:27Speaker 06

  No, it's, they specified anti-sex beds. Yeah.

• 49:32Fred Taylor?

  You like to stand up, like, never mind. But, let's, let's fast forward, please. Please, fast forward. No, it's hard to segue.

• 49:43Ryan Clark?

  You just gotta go. You just gotta get it. You just gotta segue.

• 49:46Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, so throughout your journey. You've experienced peaks and valleys.

• 49:51Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 49:52Fred Taylor?

  You've been through a lot. You spoke about, you know, the struggles. We see the beautiful gold medal right there. It's not always that that's the highlight of the journey. Can you share with us the highlight throughout your journey? The highlight? Yeah, that one special moment. Like, if you can look back, the one, the most memorable thing throughout, throughout all of this. To even maybe have gotten you to the gold medal.

• 50:18Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 50:18Fred Taylor?

  Does anything stand out?

• 50:20Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think the highlight moment for me was honestly Olympic trials. And I say that because it was the race that just showed me what belief can do when you have belief in yourself. So I think that that just, that race just changed the game for me. Like I said, I proved myself right, but I proved everyone else wrong. And it was just like a mind-blowing experience. Like when I came, because mind you, that was the first time I've ever won, like, a national title. The only thing I've ever won, ever since I was a kid. I mean, I've won, like, you know, regular races. But when it came to, like, Nationals, AAU, USATF, I was always third or second, third or second, third or second. Came to college, third or second, third or second, third or second.

• 51:05Speaker 06

  I won SCC championships my last year indoor. And then I lost NC double A's indoor. I lost SCC's outdoor, but I was the collegiate record holder. And I lost NC double A's as a collegiate record holder. And at that moment, I was like, you know, none of those losses ever matter. Because I just won the first national title ever in my life. And it was at the US Championships. Hardest team to make. That was the fastest race in history. When you average out all the times, fastest race ever run in history. And it just showed me that, you know, you just keep waiting and something good gonna happen if you don't give up. And I think that that was just the life-changing moment

• 51:48Speaker 06

  because it just propelled me into attaining this goal right here in. It's still just a dream that doesn't feel real.

• 51:56Fred Taylor?

  The fastest race you mentioned, that race been the fastest race if you average down all of the times. What is it gonna take for you, your personal best is 12?

• 52:06Speaker 06

  25, yeah.

• 52:07Fred Taylor?

  25. To carve off another, what would that be?

• 52:11Ryan Clark?

  .14.

• 52:12Fred Taylor?

  .14 to break the 100 meter women's world record. What is it gonna take to get there?

• 52:20Speaker 06

  If I tell you, I might have to kill you. It's like, I'm like, I'm like.

• 52:23Fred Taylor?

  I mean, I'll die for it because I want you to get it.

• 52:26Speaker 06

  No, 100% I know that I will, and that's the thing. Like I said, everything I spoke has come to pass. So I know I'll be the world record holder at some point. I don't know when, I don't know where. Like I said in my interview after the Olympic trials. I mean, the world record before the 1212 was 1220. So the only thing I'm thinking in my head, I seen the 1225, I'm like, damn, this gotta be number three, number four all time. And at that point, it was number four, now I'm number five all time. And I'm the number two American ever. So, yeah, I'm just saying, if you watch that race, in the front half of my race, all I'm gonna say is it could be much better. And there's a lot more work to be done, there's a lot more strength to be, to be put on to myself. I'm, I'm still very small for like my event.

• 53:08Speaker 06

  And I'm only 24, I'm not even in my prime that they say. I'm 24, the prime for women is 27, 28, 29, 30, if you one of them, which I know I am. But, yeah, so I got a pretty high ceiling that I know at some day, sometime. Could be tomorrow, could be in two years, could be in my season opener, I don't know. But I know that I will break the world record one day.

• 53:36Ryan Clark?

  So that's obviously goals, like those are goals. Let's say Messiah Russell doesn't become the Olympic gold medal winner, right? What else would you love to do? And even now, that, not even said it, even now that you have that. What are some of your other goals? What are some of the other things that you want to do? And this could be whether it's just things in your community, whether it's other businesses and jobs you want. Like, tell me some of your other dreams and goals outside of track and field.

• 54:07Speaker 06

  Yeah, so I just, I mean, I feel like track and field will always be. The thing that's attached to who Masai Russell is.

• 54:14Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 54:15Speaker 06

  But I think that my goal and my passion and who I am as a person, I just want to give back to the youth. That's why I'm getting ready to start my foundation. I just want to give back to those who are at a disadvantage, who can't afford to come to the meets, who can't afford track spikes to be able to run fast. I think that that's just a goal, a dream, a passion. It's just to truly inspire and just be that example. And just showing anybody through any of the cards that you're dealt with, whatever, like you could be, you could have all the money in the world, I have nothing, and you could still end up where you want to get to. And I just want to be that source. And I don't know how that'll look, if it'll be like a public, like a speaking engagement kind of thing,

• 54:59Speaker 06

  or like just traveling across the country, just talking to people and talking to teams. And yeah, I mean, it's just, I just want to give back just because I feel like there was so much more that could have been done while I was coming up, and I didn't really have that example. Like, someone that was tangible to see, to touch, to feel. You know, those celebrities just seemed untouchable when they was doing their thing in the track world. And I just want to seem like a person that stays feet to earth and who can connect with those younger, older, and just help out where I can.

• 55:30Channing Crowder?

  I love that. And Masai, what? Oh, I only know how to ask this question too good.

• 55:34Speaker 06

  Yo, you make me laugh every time you about to say something.

• 55:39Channing Crowder?

  But what, what does? So you're 24. You said you ain't, your prime is 26, 27. So like, the next Olympics, I'm, I'm doing the math. That's what it'll be when you in your prime, you riding.

• 55:49Speaker 06

  Right, right.

• 55:50Channing Crowder?

  You break every record, you set every goal. What does the end of a track career look like? Because we retired from football and we knew, I can't chase these motherfuckers around no more. Like, gee, these motherfuckers strong and big. Like, what, for, for, for Masai Russell, like, what does it look like? We're like, yeah, I can't run with these motherfuckers no more.

• 56:09Speaker 06

  I think for me, I don't know, of course, when that day will come. I, I pray it's never soon. But for me, I feel like the day that I probably can't run like, well, I don't even know what the women's hurdles is going to progress to by the time I'm 28, 29. But at this point in my mind, just to say, just for now, if we're like 10 years ahead and we're still running around at the same times. If I can't get a 12, 4, On a, on a good to bad day, then I just need to wrap it up. Because like, you know, I don't even think in the next couple of years, 124 is gonna be doing anything, which is scary. But, I mean, if I'm not making finals and making teams and I don't have a sponsor that's helping me out

• 56:53Speaker 06

  to be able to travel and have the flexibility to do the things that I want, I think that that's when I'll respectfully hang it up. I think that my goal is to get three Olympic goals. So I mean, I already started with one. I said I'll close it out in 32. I'll be 32 years old. I don't know how the body gonna be holding up by then, but I think I got good genes. So, I said I'm gonna try to, try to go for three goals and then, you know, shut it down and start a family.

• 57:19Channing Crowder?

  So you gotta get that drag leg.

• 57:23Channing Crowder?

  I heard that hip snap right there.

• 57:25Speaker 06

  That's what I'm saying. That thing still in the stocking?

• 57:29Channing Crowder?

  Drag leg.

• 57:30Ryan Clark?

  So here's the, so when you talk about being a dog or being a savage, there's, there's a point in every champion's life where they go from being the hunter to the hunted. Right? It's the things you say, the, the things you do when you're the hunter, they're like cute. You know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, look at Messiah, look at her. But when you become the one, those things, it's like, oh wait, like this ain't cute no more. Right? Like she feels like she's the one. How do you think you're going to adjust to when like the people that get on the line, like they look at you and they like, I'm measuring myself today based on how I finish as it pertains to Messiah Russell?

• 58:16Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think that me competing after the Olympics kind of helped me for what next season would so happen to look like. I mean, I'm an athlete where I could take a loss, but I know like when it matters most, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do what I gotta do. And I could take a loss and that could just be the past. And I'm looking already towards the future, so it doesn't really matter. Because after the Olympics, I didn't win any Diamond League races. More because of the mental piece behind it. I was just like, all right, like, what am I out here for?

• 58:46Channing Crowder?

  Like I won the Olympics?

• 58:47Speaker 06

  Yeah, I just won the Olympics. Now it just feels like I'm back in the regular season. I mean, I still was running good, but I came second two times and I came third. But I told people, I'm like, I didn't win the race, the race right before I won the Olympics. And I won by 1/100th of a second, so. At the end of the day, regardless of what anyone says, I mean, like you said, I sent him a picture of it. Because at the end of the day, you know,

• 59:10Speaker 06

  it's like, you know, I understand that, like, I understand that I am the one to catch, to beat, whatever that is. But I think that I'm always going to go back to, to the Lord. Like, I, I don't think that he would have gave me that if I wasn't able to withstand what comes with it.

• 59:28Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 59:29Speaker 06

  I think I had to take all those losses to feel what it feels.

• 59:33Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 59:34Speaker 06

  To get that, but to also know how to handle that. And, I mean, I just feel like there's nothing that I can't do without, you know, enough time, enough focus. My dog mentality. I say when I get out on the track, I mean, it's two different people. Like, the person you're talking to right now is not the person you see when you compete. Like, it's a whole different demeanor. And, you know, she ain't want to play with it.

• 59:57Ryan Clark?

  I will say this, I, I watched it happen here, and you actually kind of scared me. Right, like, you, when, when we were just having a regular conversation, I was like, man, I love her. She is the nicest and personable and charismatic. Look at that smile. And then I ask you like a competitive question, and you, the eyes got low.

• 1:00:19Speaker 06

  Yeah, come on now.

• 1:00:20Ryan Clark?

  You couldn't see the little, you couldn't see the little jewel on the teeth? That forehead crinkled, dude. Yeah, I was like, what is...

• 1:00:26Speaker 06

  No, yeah.

• 1:00:26Fred Taylor?

  They say she hate losing at anything, cards, you know, everything across the board.

• 1:00:31Speaker 06

  Who said that?

• 1:00:32Fred Taylor?

  That's what they say. But no, I, I usually, we, we usually take a moment to ask our guests their biggest pivot. But we've heard a lot about your journey, the ups and downs, you know, the struggles that eventually led to this success in Olympic gold. I just want to take a moment, really, and just give a shout out and a big thank you to your mom, Dr. Sharon Russell, right? And your dad, Dr., I mean, Mr. Mark Van Russell.

• 1:00:58Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:00:58Fred Taylor?

  And just tell them, thank you. I think they did an amazing job of raising a beautiful, intelligent... Very competitive young lady.

• 1:01:08Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:01:09Fred Taylor?

  And congratulations to you all. Certainly well deserved. You've represented this country. I mean, the way you move, everything about you, we appreciate it. You know, make sure you continue to move that way and give back to everybody that's watching this and everybody you come across, man. So, big pivot salute, way to go.

• 1:01:29Speaker 02

  Thank you so much, that means so much.

• 1:01:31Ryan Clark?

  Thank you for pivoting with us, we appreciate you.

• 1:01:33Speaker 02

  I appreciate y'all.

• 1:01:33Ryan Clark?

  That was fun.

• 1:01:34Fred Taylor?

  Yep.

• 1:01:35Ryan Clark?

  That was, hey.

• 1:01:36Channing Crowder?

  So can I get a wristband for this Olympic village?

• 1:01:39Fred Taylor?

  I gotta, I gotta.

• 1:01:41Speaker 02

  Yo, this dude, this dude.

• 1:01:45Fred Taylor?

  Hold on, before you put that up, I gotta check it out.

• 1:01:48Ryan Clark?

  Your knees for sure ain't good enough to hump on them beds. Your knees.

• 1:01:52Speaker 02

  That thing is like this though.

• 1:01:53Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, your knees gonna give out.

• 1:01:54Fred Taylor?

  All I need, double cardboard. This is nice.

• 1:01:58Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh.

• 1:01:58Ryan Clark?

  When you answered it, I was like, that is, I already knew.

• 1:02:01Speaker 02

  That is funny because I had no idea.

• 1:02:04Ryan Clark?

  Nah, I ain't gonna.

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  Go ahead, touch it. Why is he not gonna touch it?

• 1:02:09Ryan Clark?

  Nah, you earned that. I just like looking at it, it's very big.

• 1:02:12Speaker 02

  You were all in there.

• 1:02:13Ryan Clark?

  Honestly though, congratulations, like that's it.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  Thank you, thank you.

• 1:02:16Ryan Clark?

  That's an amazing accomplishment and I do love like team sports. Cause like, let's say I have a bad play, he might make the tackle.

• 1:02:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:23Ryan Clark?

  Right, so that give us an opportunity to win. Like what you saying, you even talking about your race where you went 1225. Oh, I could be better on the front end.

• 1:02:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:32Ryan Clark?

  Another day, that could be a loss.

• 1:02:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:34Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean, like that's the stress I don't want.

• 1:02:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:37Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean, I remember when they tried to make me run track in high school, I said, "Look, I'm just gonna run the 400, cause that's a long time."

• 1:02:44Speaker 02

  400 is crazy.

• 1:02:44Ryan Clark?

  It's a lot that can happen around then to give me a chance to win.

• 1:02:48Channing Crowder?

  I ran the 1100.

• 1:02:49Ryan Clark?

  I ran the 1100.

• 1:02:50Channing Crowder?

  I don't know about the back leg.

• 1:02:51Speaker 02

  I didn't see you do that.

• 1:02:55Ryan Clark?

  Masai, Masai, what you do, you get on the line and the girl knock me though. You gonna feel, you gonna feel like you got her? Cause he knocked me bad.

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  How you used to be running?

• 1:03:05Fred Taylor?

  Man, that water's so raggedy. Your back pocket's so heavy.

• 1:03:08Speaker 02

  I mean, yo, you guys are so funny.

• 1:03:11Channing Crowder?

  What you said you ran, Jay? What you said you ran? What's it hurt though? No, what was your time?

• 1:03:15Fred Taylor?

  Fourteen.

• 1:03:16Channing Crowder?

  Ran like a fourteen-three or something like that.

• 1:03:18Speaker 02

  That's not damnable.

• 1:03:20Channing Crowder?

  No, county, I was...

• 1:03:21Fred Taylor?

  That's why you try to be so nice.

• 1:03:22Speaker 02

  That's high school, high school.

• 1:03:24Channing Crowder?

  I was number two in the county.

• 1:03:25Fred Taylor?

  I went ten-two.

• 1:03:26Channing Crowder?

  Then I went to the...

• 1:03:27Speaker 02

  So you was really fat.

• 1:03:29Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I had...

• 1:03:29Channing Crowder?

  How much you weighed when you went ten-two though?

• 1:03:31Fred Taylor?

  Two-twelve. I was still big.

• 1:03:32Channing Crowder?

  He was a big dude, you know what I'm saying?

• 1:03:34Speaker 02

  So you really could've ran for real if you wanted to.

• 1:03:36Fred Taylor?

  That was my only one cop regret. I didn't run indoors.