Episode 528: My Thoughts on Lindsey Vonn's Crash and Having an Olympian Mindset

Are you watching the Winter Olympics right now? Because if you are, then you've probably witnessed real-time examples of resilience, and it forces a bigger question: do you really know how resilient you are until you're tested? In this Habits & Hustle episode, I am joined by one of my dearest, closest friends Shani to talk about resilience in its greatest form, the Winter Olympics, and to give a big shout out to Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn, who has been here on the podcast before. We get into what it takes to compete at 41 years old, tear your ACL ten days before competition day and still show up, and why that level of commitment is what separates high performers from everyone else. If you have something you want to accomplish or a standard you're ready to rise to, this conversation is your reminder that with the right mindset and real commitment, nothing can stop you. Tune in. What's Discussed (01:41) Lindsey Vonn's comeback story and competing at 41 (02:21) Tearing an ACL ten days before the Olympics and still choosing to compete (03:16) Freak accident mechanics vs preexisting injuries in high-risk performance (06:24) Are elite performers built different or shaped by relentless training (07:26) Age, longevity, and the shifting ceiling of Olympic careers (08:41) Modern recovery, training evolution, and extending athletic prime Thank you to our sponsors: Rho Nutrition: Try Rho Nutrition today and experience the difference of Liposomal Technology. Use code JEN20for 20% OFF everything at https://rhonutrition.com/discount/jen20. Prolon: Get 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit https://prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift. Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE40 for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Manna Vitality: Visit mannavitality.com and use code JENNIFER20 for 20% off your order Amp fit is the perfect balance of tech and training, designed for people who do it all and still want to feel strong doing it. Check it out at joinamp.com/jen Find more from Jen: Website: https://jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen http://instagram.com/therealjencohen Books: https://jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement

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

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hi guys, this is Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

• 0:07Jen Cohen?

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• 0:49Jen Cohen?

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• 1:32Jen Cohen?

  Welcome to Habits and Hustle. We're doing another solo episode. And today, we're joined by one of my dearest and most dearest, my dearest, one of my dearest, closest of friends. Her name is Shawnee. You may have seen her around because she used to do solos with me all the time, and she always plays the best foil. So.

• 1:55Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:55Jen Cohen?

  Thank you for being here. Today, I want to talk about a topic that I want to talk about resilience in its greatest form, and I'm going to tell you why, why I think this is I'm so passionate about this topic today. Did you watch the the Olympics over the weekend?

• 2:11Speaker 02

  I've been I've been catching bits and bobs, but I love the Winter Olympics. It's such a fun time.

• 2:16Jen Cohen?

  I have to just give a I have to talk about this. I got to give a shout out to Lindsey Vonn. She was on this podcast maybe a year or two ago.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  Was she?

• 2:23Jen Cohen?

  Yes, I love her.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  How cool is that?

• 2:25Jen Cohen?

  She's great. And I'm going to tell you why I wanted to really kind of like talk about resilience, because I have never in my life, in my life, I mean, people overuse the word badass and like all these like, you know, buzzwords. This girl, this woman is so inspirational and aspirational. What she accomplished and what she did on the weekend, I mean, it left my my jaw was literally open. She tore her ACL. For those of you who don't know, this girl tore her, she's 41 years old. Okay, she has like a titanium knee. Okay, that she got, I don't know how many years ago. I don't remember. Okay. And she was out for the count like she was already

• 3:07Jen Cohen?

  like old to be in the Olympics even five, six, seven years ago, eight years ago. She got herself back up, like up and running, so to speak. She won all these new championships or new whatever you win in skiing, what qualified for the Olympics at 41 years old.

• 3:25Speaker 02

  Okay. Crazy.

• 3:26Jen Cohen?

  10 days before she goes, she tore her ACL. Okay, so she's got one knee that's titanium and the other knee is a torn, she tore her ACL in practice 10 days before the Olympics, but 10 days before she goes out to do the Olympics at 41. Okay, she decides, you know, screw that, I'm still going. And she decided to still compete. So she then goes and competes like with this torn ACL. And it's unbelievable. And like 10 or 12 or 15 seconds into it,

• 4:05Jen Cohen?

  she has this terrible accident and like basically goes, you know, basically topples over herself twice and breaks her leg.

• 4:17Jen Cohen?

  And the accident that she had, yes.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  What? I was not following the full story.

• 4:22Jen Cohen?

  She broke her leg 10 seconds or 12 seconds or whatever it was into her competing for her final Olympics at 41 years old, after all the, all the things that she went through her whole career. She's had so many injuries, had so much stuff happen to her and still, still was such a, like a badass fighter and talk about resilience and got herself back up on the, like, competing for the Olympics and then breaks her leg 10 seconds into it. And this is the kicker.

• 5:00Speaker 02

  Oh, I thought you meant she got back up after breaking the leg and continued.

• 5:03Jen Cohen?

  No, no, no. She broke her leg and they had to like airlift her like out of the, out of the place. But this is what I find to be even more crazy is that she a decided to even compete when she had this, you know, torn ACL. But this is the part that's even more insane. Her injury, that, how she got the broken leg and how she like had that accident had nothing to do with her knee. She hit some, something on the way down. You know that flag? Was it the flag that she hit? The poles? The pole?

• 5:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, the poles.

• 5:36Jen Cohen?

  She hit, she hit the pole that made her topple over and over. So that's how she broke her, it wasn't because of the ACL injury.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  How crazy is that? That is just, honestly, that's such an insane story, but also such a badass story. I only followed the Trump comment part. Did you see that?

• 5:53Jen Cohen?

  No.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  Trump made a comment about her ACL and then all these.

• 5:57Jen Cohen?

  I didn't see that.

• 5:57Speaker 02

  All these other athletes started coming out in defense of her.

• 6:01Jen Cohen?

  No, what did he say?

• 6:02Speaker 02

  I don't know, something stupid on Truth Social.

• 6:04Jen Cohen?

  Oh, I have no idea what he said. I don't follow what he says. I, I was, I was more about the fact that she to me is such an inspiration to, like, not just to girls, young girls. I think to anybody and everybody. If you want to do something, if you have your mind on right, if you're, if you have, if you are like, if you have a mindset that you want to do something, if you're committed to, to a certain thing, nothing. Like nothing can stop you. Like, how do you even teach that level of resilience? That level of drive, grit? Like, I just think that she was, she's made differently. I think there's some people, this is my, I think that some people are just made differently than others.

• 6:48Jen Cohen?

  You know, like, when I heard stories, even from her, when she was sitting here, talking about her, her, like, her whole evolution of being like a champion, an Olympic champion, and her whole career. I mean, things that she says and things that she pushed through, I don't know, almost, I don't know anybody who would be able to like, go through that pain and that suffering.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, you do. You've had so many of them on your podcast.

• 7:13Jen Cohen?

  I'm telling you, she's in the top two. Okay, like, I'm talking, she's in the top two or three in terms of like, people that are inspirational.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, okay, yes, I agree with that, but I think that people, uh, don't know what kind of pain and suffering they can actually take, until they're put into insane circumstances.

• 7:28Jen Cohen?

  Okay, I agree with you.

• 7:29Speaker 02

  And you find a level of strength you didn't even know was possible.

• 7:32Jen Cohen?

  You're right. I do agree with that. I think that people can endure way more than they even give themselves credit for. I think you don't know what you don't know until you're in that situation.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:43Jen Cohen?

  I do agree, one thousand percent. So, yeah, that's true. And I have had a lot of people on who have been remarkable in terms of their, uh, their story, their resilience, and their inspiration, for sure. But I think, I think she, I think that she, right now, currently, what, what I saw on the weekend was just so remarkable. And I, like I said, like, I, they, I don't know many people, if you think about how, how hard it is to get into the Olympics on a good day, and then qualifying for, for the Olympics at, at the, at her age, and then having an injury and like, actually committing to still do it.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:22Jen Cohen?

  And then like getting, getting that horrible, you get into that horrible accident, only like 12 seconds into it, not even because of the injury that you had in the first place. It's so crazy. It was like a fluke that she hit the pole.

• 8:36Speaker 02

  I honestly, it's it's kind of surreal to me how different I feel like we view age now than we did way back when. I feel like the Olympics are gonna start seeing older and older people competing. Like if you look at gymnastics, you used to like retire at the age of 12. You know what I mean?

• 8:52Jen Cohen?

  That's so true.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  It's honestly kind of crazy how ageist gymnastics was. Like you could never do it past a certain age.

• 8:59Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 8:59Speaker 02

  And now I just feel like the doors are opening to things. Like people like Lindsay are showing the world that you can just, you can still carry on. Your world doesn't have to end just because you're kind of a quote unquote expired in some regard.

• 9:12Jen Cohen?

  Well, I think also the training systems have probably improved a lot.

• 9:15Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:16Jen Cohen?

  Like the technology.

• 9:17Speaker 02

  Longevity, health.

• 9:19Jen Cohen?

  Well, I think, not longevity, just a buzzword. I'm saying like the training.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  Why? People are living so much longer now.

• 9:25Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, but what I'm, my point to what I'm talking about training this way, I think that there's, there are mechanisms.

• 9:30Speaker 02

  Contrarian, we're saying the same thing.

• 9:32Jen Cohen?

  No, no, no, I'm saying the, the training mechanisms, the how to, how to perform at your peak. There's so many new technologies out there that probably can help you, uh, speed up.

• 9:43Speaker 02

  Expand the longevity of your athletic career.

• 9:47Jen Cohen?

  Yes, but that's not what I'm, I'm talking about right now. Not expanding that I'm talking about that can help you heal from an injury quicker is what I'm talking about.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, and also train better and train for longer periods to be able to sustain an actual athletic career. Like we used, you used to literally get so injured, you would have nothing to be able to do because the training was shit. They didn't have the same expertise. The recovery was shit. They didn't have the same expertise. And there's now, there's like a million things on either end of that spectrum to help with both of them.

• 10:14Jen Cohen?

  I'm also, maybe we know more about like the body, nutrition, the body mechanics, all these things. Anyway, I just thought that like, if you really want a story, or if you really want, uh, you know, something, a story, or something that can help really motivate you or kind of teach you about resilience, I really was just really touched and in awe shock about what I saw. So that's really all I wanted to add.

• 10:49Jen Cohen?

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• 12:36Speaker 02

  Wait, we have to end this off because you are Canadian, so I have a question for you.

• 12:40Jen Cohen?

  Yes.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  What is your favorite Winter Olympic sport? There is a right answer.

• 12:44Jen Cohen?

  I do like skiing.

• 12:46Speaker 02

  Oh, okay, fine.

• 12:47Jen Cohen?

  Um.

• 12:47Speaker 02

  That's fair.

• 12:48Jen Cohen?

  But what I always, you know, I'm going to tell you what I've always loved as a little girl, ice skating.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  Oh, I love ice skating. That's a great answer.

• 12:56Jen Cohen?

  I mean, like, I just think that.

• 12:57Speaker 02

  Aren't you a pretty good skater as well?

• 12:59Jen Cohen?

  No.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 13:00Jen Cohen?

  But I would say that I think that, no, I'm not. But I do think that I think, I don't know, I don't, I think every girl loves ice skating, right?

• 13:09Speaker 02

  It is just such a great, it's so visually entertaining and feminine and fun and.

• 13:14Jen Cohen?

  It's beautiful.

• 13:15Speaker 02

  It looks like you're just gliding.

• 13:17Jen Cohen?

  What is, what, what other ones do you like?

• 13:18Speaker 02

  Curling. Oh, my God, it's the best winter sport.

• 13:21Jen Cohen?

  Are you joking?

• 13:22Speaker 02

  Unbelievable. I know it's like all trendy right now and stuff, but when I was younger.

• 13:26Jen Cohen?

  Are you joking right now?

• 13:27Speaker 02

  Ten years old, sitting in Montreal in the freezing winter, watching the Olympics on my grandma's little TV. I would always watch the curling because I thought it was so funny and they'd be like, oh, oh, oh, like they're so crazy.

• 13:41Jen Cohen?

  I, I can't tell if you're joking or not.

• 13:43Speaker 02

  No, I'm not joking. It's such an entertaining.

• 13:44Jen Cohen?

  Curling.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  First of all, a lot of people watch curling. It's very trendy in the last few years. People are way more into curling now than they ever have been.

• 13:51Jen Cohen?

  Are you kidding me?

• 13:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've been waiting for this day. It's like almost going to become mainstream soon.

• 13:55Jen Cohen?

  Um, I don't know one person who watches curling.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  See, our algorithms are so different. Like, I know a lot of curling fans.

• 14:02Jen Cohen?

  I, I don't even know if you're joking or not. I don't know one person, and I'm Canadian, that watches curling. No, I don't know one human being.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  Fun curling is?

• 14:11Jen Cohen?

  People see curling on the TV and they keep on, they keep on, they keep on.

• 14:16Speaker 02

  It's a scroll stopper. People love curling.

• 14:19Jen Cohen?

  Nobody watches curling. In fact, that's like the biggest joke of them all. Like, people are like, what is this? Boring? It's like, it's like watching curling, like when they talk about how boring something is.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  No, no. Because maybe they're not looking at the right things.

• 14:31Jen Cohen?

  Watching paint dry.

• 14:32Speaker 02

  Maybe they're not looking at the right things. You should be watching the facial expressions. You should be looking at the mannerisms. You should be looking at the cheering, the noises coming out of these people. Maybe they're just not experiencing it right. It's so entertaining. Are you joking? Have you ever seen Olympic curling?

• 14:48Jen Cohen?

  Okay, anybody listening to this podcast?

• 14:50Speaker 02

  Absolutely no way.

• 14:51Jen Cohen?

  Tell me if who's crazy, me or her. I've never heard anybody watch curling. In fact, actually, you know what I'm going to have to do right now? I'm going to chat GPT this because this doesn't even make sense to me. Hold on.

• 15:03Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 15:03Jen Cohen?

  What is the least?

• 15:05Speaker 02

  Sweeping the ice.

• 15:06Jen Cohen?

  The least popular winter Olympic sport to watch?

• 15:12Speaker 02

  Guys, curling is so fun.

• 15:14Jen Cohen?

  Why, okay.

• 15:15Speaker 02

  Maybe you just need to open your eyes more. You know, a lot of people didn't have hot honey on their pizza until recent years, and yet now all of a sudden it's everywhere.

• 15:23Jen Cohen?

  Okay.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  Quinoa wasn't even in existence.

• 15:25Jen Cohen?

  I can't even find it. Hold on.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  Now it's all over the place.

• 15:29Jen Cohen?

  I saw answering the question.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Open your eyes.

• 15:31Jen Cohen?

  I'm gonna ask, is curling popular or not popular as something to be viewed in the Olympics?

• 15:39Jen Cohen?

  Okay, hold on, let me see.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  Yes, curling is a popular sport, says Google. So let's see what your AI says.

• 15:45Jen Cohen?

  Hold on.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Battle of the AIs, who's gonna get more validation?

• 15:50Jen Cohen?

  It says that during the Olympics, it's quasi-popular. Outside the Olympics, not popular at all.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  I said Olympic curling.

• 15:58Jen Cohen?

  Why curling works at the Olympic?

• 16:00Speaker 02

  I specify.

• 16:00Jen Cohen?

  There's a clear objective, low barrier to entry, strategy drama and personality show.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Drama, personality!

• 16:08Jen Cohen?

  You hear the athletes talk, yell and speak.

• 16:11Speaker 02

  Yes! No, you don't understand. It's like the novella of Olympic sports. It's so much fun to watch. It's like the K-drama.

• 16:19Jen Cohen?

  Why people think it's unpopular. It doesn't feel extreme or athletic to most people.

• 16:24Speaker 02

  It's very athletic.

• 16:25Jen Cohen?

  And the sweeping confuses people at first.

• 16:29Speaker 02

  Because they're just not smart enough to get the sport. But if you watch it for two seconds, you get some context.

• 16:33Jen Cohen?

  Okay, it says here, plain truth, curling is the most accidentally popular Olympic sport because people mock it, then sit down, then don't change the channel because they're too lazy.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  And then they fall in love with it because they're like, oh my god, what is this incredible thing?

• 16:53Speaker 03

  Can you imagine the injury? Like, what would the injuries be compared to other dangerous sports?

• 16:58Jen Cohen?

  Oh my god.

• 16:59Speaker 02

  Listen, there's some injuries. Okay, you ever watch Dodgeball with Ben Stiller?

• 17:02Jen Cohen?

  Yes, of course. I love that movie.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  Imagine that, but with curling. But that's actually what the sport is like. It's the best thing ever. You gotta watch it. I'm sorry, but you have to. And also, you're Canadian. It's kind of like weird that you don't.

• 17:16Jen Cohen?

  No, it's kind of weird that you do, actually. No, because I know a lot of Canadians and nobody watches curling.

• 17:23Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't like to shame people.

• 17:24Jen Cohen?

  And the fact that you're American and you watch it, okay. Listen, to each his own. Tomato, tomato. If you want to watch paint dry, go ahead. I mean, it's up to you.

• 17:32Speaker 02

  You know what I mean?

• 17:32Jen Cohen?

  I mean, do you watch, do you watch?

• 17:34Speaker 02

  Baseball? No. Horrible. Very boring.

• 17:37Jen Cohen?

  Okay, but curling isn't?

• 17:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:39Jen Cohen?

  Okay. Listen, this is what makes the world go round, okay? You have an opinion. I have an opinion. I'll, I'll continue watching ice skating and you can watch curling. How does that sound?

• 17:50Speaker 02

  I think that sounds really great and together we will definitely still watch Lindsay.

• 17:53Jen Cohen?

  Yes, exactly. All right, guys. Have a good one and join the book club if you haven't already. Bye-bye.