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0:02

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0:03

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0:06

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0:44

Hello friends, and welcome to the

0:46

Powerful Podcast. I'm your Host Aja

0:48

McCord. In this podcast, we introduce

0:50

you to powerful women who are changing the

0:53

game in and outside of their field

0:55

of play. These are women's stories,

0:57

women who happen to be doing things that many

0:59

of us us can only dream of, but the lessons

1:02

and inspiration they share is universal.

1:05

Hey friends, welcome back to the Powerful Podcast.

1:07

I'm your host aj McCord. I am so

1:09

excited to introduce you to our next powerful

1:12

woman. This is somebody who competes in a

1:14

sport that is near and dear to my own

1:16

heart. And she has been one

1:18

of those sort of teenage finals that we've been

1:20

watching for years and years. She's already

1:22

made her Olympic debut in Tokyo, but

1:24

this summer in Paris, she is going

1:27

to make history as the first woman in

1:29

her sport to compete in not one,

1:31

not two, but three events. We're

1:33

talking women's canoe, women's kayak,

1:36

and a brand new sport debuting in

1:38

Paris in twenty twenty four, Women's

1:40

kayak Cross. So Emmie leap Forard, thank

1:42

you so much for being on the podcast with us.

1:45

Thank you so much.

1:45

Aj.

1:46

I'm so excited to talk with you today.

1:47

It's gonna be so fun. So I talked about your

1:49

sport being near and dear to my own heart, and

1:52

that's because I was a white water rafting guide

1:54

in college and so I rafted

1:56

on the Arkansas River Brown's Canyon

1:58

in Colorado, and so watching

2:00

you do kayaking, canoeing

2:03

in this white water and it's just been so cool

2:06

to see how you have literally taken to it

2:08

like a fish to water.

2:09

Tell us how you got into this sword.

2:12

Yeah, so I've been in this sport literally

2:14

my entire life. My parents actually met

2:17

as raft guides, which is kind

2:19

of crazy, and so I

2:21

always grew up like right by the river.

2:23

My parents took me kayaking for the first time

2:25

when I was maybe

2:28

like, I don't know, five months old or something.

2:30

Oh, they used to take me down little rivers

2:32

on their lap. And then as

2:34

I got older, I begged for my own kayak

2:36

and they got me a neon pink kayak

2:39

and a sparkly paddle. And I think that was half

2:41

the reason that I loved it, which I was

2:43

really little, because I just I loved the color. And

2:46

then yeah, as I grew up, I

2:48

just really found a love for it. I just loved

2:51

being in the water, being on the river, and

2:53

would do just kind of anything that could get me closer

2:56

to that.

2:57

And you grew up in North Carolina right

3:00

the rivers that you were.

3:00

Close to, Yes, ma'am.

3:02

So I grew up ten minutes from the Nanehala

3:04

River and that's a great place for

3:07

you know, rafting. Learning how to kayak gets

3:09

like class two three for most of the river,

3:11

and so it's an amazing place to learn.

3:14

Yeah, okay, so how do you go

3:16

from because your sports are pretty new. I

3:18

mean the women's canoe debuted in Tokyo,

3:21

right, and then kayak crosses debuting

3:23

this year in Paris.

3:25

I have a ton of friends who are whitewater

3:27

rafting guides.

3:28

We still go back almost every summer

3:30

to Beauta Vista in Colorado and get a chance

3:32

to get on the river again. But even

3:35

me, as somebody who was in the sport and

3:37

thoroughly enjoyed it was very competitive,

3:40

didn't really understand that there was an opportunity

3:43

to compete in the Olympics. Like, at what point

3:45

did that switch for you of going,

3:47

oh, this is really fun and I want to do what every chance

3:50

I can to wait a minute,

3:52

Actually this could this could be a career. I could

3:54

make something out of this.

3:56

It actually switched for me when I was pretty

3:58

young.

3:59

My dad as a coach for the UF national

4:01

team before I was born, so I

4:03

kind of always had someone in my corner telling

4:06

me, hey, like, if you want to go to the Olympics in this

4:08

like, you're gonna have to work hard, but you can make it

4:10

happen. And I remember being eight

4:12

years old, we had an Olympic Day celebration

4:15

at the Nana Hilla Outdoor Center and

4:17

I was watching on the TV someone

4:20

that I knew personally competing in

4:22

the Olympics, and I remember like talking to my

4:24

dad and being like, oh my god,

4:26

I want to do that so badly. How do I

4:28

make this happen? And I

4:31

think that that's when I decided that I

4:33

wanted to go to the Olympics in the sport. But

4:36

I didn't really think it was going to happen so.

4:38

Early for me.

4:39

Actually, it was kind of a surprise getting

4:41

to your to Tokyo because I qualified

4:43

after just one season on the senior circuit

4:45

because you have to be fifteen in order to

4:48

race, and so I did wait until

4:50

my fifteenth birthday and then it all

4:52

kind of happened in.

4:52

Such a blur. But I

4:55

yeah, crazy experience.

4:57

What do you remember about that whirlwind

4:59

of a time qualifying for your first

5:01

Olympics at sixteen?

5:04

Oh gosh, it's hard to say.

5:06

I guess I just remember being really

5:08

excited and just kind of being like, oh.

5:10

Well, I guess I'll see where this goes, because

5:13

you.

5:13

Know, I went into that season just having no

5:15

idea how I was going to do compared to

5:18

all the older girls, you know, people that I'd been watching

5:20

since I was eight years old, and

5:24

I just had a lot of fun with it. I think that it

5:27

was a completely different world for me. You know, there

5:29

was a lot of other things to focus on instead

5:31

of just kayaking. You know, there

5:34

was being drug tested,

5:36

and there was you know, all of the travel and

5:38

making sure that you had enough time to train before

5:40

the race, and then just learning how to

5:42

deal with the stress that came around it.

5:44

So it was just so much happening at once.

5:46

But I've always loved, you know, kind

5:48

of being in a fast paced, changing

5:50

environment, so I really loved it actually.

5:53

Okay, so speaking of fast paced changing environments,

5:55

for people who don't have a great understanding

5:58

of kayak cross

6:00

or kayaking, can you give us a little

6:03

bit of a breakdown of your sport and

6:05

each of the disciplines that you're going to be competing

6:07

in this summer.

6:08

Yeah, So kayaking canoe, i'd

6:10

say, are the most traditional disciplines. They've

6:12

been around for pretty much as long

6:14

as the sport has been around, and that's

6:17

your typical around

6:19

twenty to twenty four gate course it's

6:22

down a section of river with some rapids, and

6:25

there are six upstreams and then the rest are

6:27

downstreams, and you have to get

6:29

through the obstacle course as fast as

6:31

you can without any penalty. So if

6:33

you touch a gate, you get a two second penalty, and

6:36

if you miss a gate, you get a fifty second penalty. So

6:39

it's all about like being precise but making

6:41

those like split second decisions to get there.

6:44

And then kayak cross is a much more

6:46

new sport. I started

6:48

racing it back in twenty nineteen

6:50

and it really caught on kind of around that time.

6:52

But it's actually four people

6:55

going down the course at once, and

6:57

you're in plastic boats instead of

7:00

carbon boats because you're actually supposed

7:02

to like hit each other. So you drop

7:04

in off this ramp and then everyone

7:07

just kind of battles it out. There's

7:09

only around like six or seven gates, and

7:12

you're allowed to touch them, you're allowed to move them out of

7:14

the way with your paddle, and you have

7:16

to be one of the first two people to cross to go into

7:18

the next round because it's like, uh

7:21

eighth final, quarterfinal, semifinal type of situation.

7:25

But yeah, it's crazy because you just have

7:27

to make so many decisions and you

7:30

don't know where anyone's going to go, what's gonna happen.

7:32

A lot of people kind of describe it as bumper curs

7:34

on the water because you were just trying

7:37

to bump the other girls out of.

7:38

The way, which is actually.

7:40

Like, I don't know, it's

7:42

crazy because everyone that you're trying

7:44

to like knock out is also your friends, so it

7:47

kind of you just have to like turn off that mindset for

7:49

a minute. But I'd say like the

7:51

biggest difference is in canoe

7:53

and kayak you have a plan, you

7:56

have a visualization, you know exactly how

7:58

it's going to go, like in an ideal world, and

8:00

in kayak cross you have no idea what's going to

8:02

happen. You have plenty a's and b's and c's

8:04

and d's, and you have all of these kind of connecting

8:07

decisions that you'd make, but really

8:09

no one knows to happen.

8:11

Oh my gosh. So like kayak cross for

8:13

people who maybe watch the Winter Games a little bit more,

8:15

snowboard cross has been around a little longer,

8:18

so that's a similar thing. It's like snowboard

8:21

cross, but in the water with kayaks

8:23

as opposed to on boards on a mountain.

8:26

Yeah, exactly.

8:27

And I know that I grew up watching that sport,

8:29

and so it's pretty exciting to be able to be

8:32

a part of it in you know, my sport,

8:34

in our own way. And I think it's just great

8:36

for people to watch. You know, it's so exciting because you

8:38

don't know what's going to happen until the very

8:40

pH.

8:41

Okay, So I want to I want to take people inside

8:44

what it is like to learn to navigate

8:47

a river, because again,

8:49

like I remember my first summer on

8:51

the water. It was terrible. I

8:54

was crying all the time because

8:56

I would flip my boat, I would get

8:58

wrapped on a rock. I mean, Eddie, I got wrapped

9:01

on this rock so hard

9:03

when I was rafting, which like for those

9:05

who don't know, like basically, there's a rock

9:08

in the middle of the river, you're supposed to go around it, right,

9:10

like pretty obvious. No, no, no, I couldn't

9:12

steer this thing around that to save my life.

9:14

Oh my god, wrapped like so

9:17

hard.

9:18

It took five or six people to pull

9:20

my boat off of this rock. And I'm

9:22

standing on top of it sobbing

9:24

because this is like my third day of training, and

9:27

so I'm like, I'm the worst guide.

9:28

I'm never gonna do this sport.

9:30

I'm never gonna be like, who's gonna trust me to take them

9:32

down the river after this chaos? So, learning

9:34

a sport on a living, breathing,

9:37

moving body of water, what

9:40

was that like for? Like, please tell me I'm not alone?

9:42

And having some like really embarrassing learning

9:44

on the river stories?

9:45

Oh girl, you are not alone at all. If it

9:47

makes me feel any better. I

9:49

flipped and got like kind of stuck on an optacle

9:51

during the Tokyo Olympics, like during

9:53

the Olympic run, so

9:56

like, I definitely feel

9:58

you there. I think that I'm I mean, I think that such

10:00

a big part of learning a sport is failing

10:03

at it sometimes and having those embarrassing

10:05

moments, because that's when you learn. You

10:07

know, you probably won't make that thing mistake again.

10:10

I hopefully won't.

10:12

Yeah, you will not manifest that

10:14

right now?

10:14

Yeah yeah, yeah,

10:17

yeah.

10:17

I still every time I go down the river, I

10:19

like know where that rock is. And the funny

10:22

thing is when I was learning, the water

10:24

was so low that year, which is why

10:26

there were so many rocks available to hit in

10:28

the river, and trust me, I hit almost all of them.

10:31

But like, I haven't seen that rock since

10:33

my.

10:33

First summer, which was like ten years ago, because

10:36

it doesn't it's covered by water

10:38

now, but I know exactly where the river

10:41

that is. And So you grew

10:43

up as the daughter of two people who are

10:45

probably self replaying river rats, loved

10:47

learning on the water, loved being on the

10:49

water growing up. What

10:51

was your childhood like that you were you

10:54

know, you were so part of this community that your parents

10:56

were a part of. And yet you know you're also

10:59

going through middle school in high school and sort

11:01

of developing your own life and your

11:03

own friends circle. Like what

11:06

was that childhood like for you?

11:08

I think, honestly, looking back

11:10

at it, it just feels really normal to me. You know,

11:12

I've been a part of the river community for

11:15

so long that I just I can't imagine my life

11:17

without it. So it's really hard for me to like think

11:19

back to like what parts

11:21

about my growing up did it changed?

11:22

Because I just I wouldn't be meet without.

11:24

It, isn't it all of how once you get on the river,

11:26

it really does become a

11:28

part. Like I can go anywhere in the world

11:30

and I'm fascinated by a river, and

11:32

your sport has taken you to many

11:35

rivers around the entire world. Some of

11:37

them, I'm sure high desert, jungle,

11:40

rainforest, probably really cold rivers.

11:42

Like, what are some of the most extreme

11:44

rivers that you've found yourself in

11:46

in your life?

11:49

Well, I guess growing up I did pretty

11:51

much.

11:51

All the time just flallom, which

11:54

I love. And the whole kind of point

11:56

of that is to do harder

11:59

moves on zeer rivers, so

12:01

you're not doing the biggest rapids, You're not you

12:03

know, traveling to the most remote places in the world.

12:06

It's really about like building your skills up, being

12:08

really like technical. And

12:12

I also do a kind of kayaking

12:14

like creaking, river running, whatever you want to

12:16

call it. And I didn't really start doing

12:18

that that much until maybe two

12:20

or three years ago, and I

12:22

learned on the Green River in North Carolina,

12:25

and that was really scary for me. I'd

12:28

say, that's the first time that I've really been like

12:31

scared on a river. And I think,

12:33

really, I think

12:35

just because I like I was exposed to it from such a

12:37

young age, and you know a lot of times people

12:39

ask me like, oh, like surely you're

12:41

like so scared as you're going down, like so much can

12:43

happen, And for sure, I think it's

12:46

the scariest sport. But I think that a cool part about

12:48

solomn is that you don't have to be

12:50

and like it's okay to be scared, and

12:52

it's okay to kind of like feel that and feel

12:54

all that emotion. But I think it's a really healthy

12:57

way to kind of like move through it. And then

12:59

from to learn, like while creaking,

13:02

to do that in a completely different way was

13:05

I don't know. I think that was probably one of the biggest

13:08

hurdles that I've had to get over, was actually,

13:11

you know, learning how to be scared

13:13

and then you know, find that confidence

13:16

still. And I had some really great friends that

13:18

kind of like taught me how to do that, and I'm so thankful

13:20

for it. But I definitely think

13:22

a river can be, yeah, a scary place.

13:25

I've definitely cried my fair share in Eddie's

13:27

above Rapids, Blow Rapids.

13:29

I'm just like a very emotional paddler.

13:31

You know, but all the same, So

13:35

tell people for people who don't know what creaking

13:38

is, because what we're gonna see you do in Paris

13:40

Is, You're gonna compete on a closed course,

13:42

right, so like you know everything that's happening

13:45

in the water, what you can see, what you.

13:47

Cannot underneath you, Right, that's the point of

13:49

like a course.

13:50

But when you are creaking, when you're

13:52

doing something like that, what does

13:54

that entail for people who maybe

13:57

don't understand what it looks like to

13:59

go floor a new place.

14:01

Yeah, So slalom typically

14:03

happens on an artificial course, So

14:06

there's literally a conveyor belt that takes you up

14:08

to the top, which is amazing because I hate

14:10

carrying my boat. I think it's the worst singing world.

14:15

And it's pretty short. It

14:17

only takes like about a minute to paddle down,

14:19

so you can really memorize every

14:22

single part of it, every single rack, every

14:24

single rock, like everything you have down

14:26

in like river running and creek boating.

14:29

You don't have that because it's much longer

14:31

sections of river. You know, a lot of times it's a

14:33

three or four hour run. So even

14:35

if it's not like the biggest white water, it's still really

14:38

hard to orient yourself and to remember where

14:40

you are. For me, visualization is such

14:42

a big part of what I do. I like to be able to visualize

14:45

every single stroke that I'm going to take going down

14:48

and on like a long river.

14:49

I just can't do that.

14:50

I also just don't really have that good of memory.

14:54

So like growing up, trying to remember a solemn course

14:56

to a race was awful. I used to have to

14:58

draw these course maps because I would just go

15:00

to the wrong gates.

15:01

Oh my gosh. So it's so funny.

15:03

I was reading an article and like prep for this

15:05

interview, and one of them said, you can probably find

15:07

heavy drawing before her race

15:10

in the tent like warming up. Are you drawing the

15:12

course before your race?

15:14

Sometimes I am, yeah, you know,

15:16

if I'm having a really hard time remembering it, which

15:18

I think it's very fair.

15:20

Twenty eight gates for the lot, so what.

15:22

And it's like important for people to know. Like she says

15:24

downhill or like downriver and uperver,

15:27

that means that she literally has to go to

15:29

the side of the course, flip

15:31

her boat back up river, go up the

15:34

river, and then come back down through

15:36

the gate thing again. So like this is not an

15:38

easy Like it's not easy to just go up

15:40

a river. Like I challenge you to go out into any

15:42

creek and try it like, this is not easy. You have

15:45

to understand the water, you have to understand the eddies,

15:47

you have to understand what's going on. So I don't blame you.

15:49

I would want to detail, like put Ciri

15:51

in my ear. Okay, at this gate, turn right,

15:54

at this gate, turn left, like I want step

15:56

by step driving instructions.

15:58

No, literally, So

16:01

like the good thing is though, when there is a course,

16:03

you know it's it's numbered.

16:05

The green gates are down, the red gates are up, and

16:07

so it.

16:07

Does make it easier to know, like where

16:09

to go through the white water and everything when you have these

16:12

like gates like telling you where to go and and if

16:14

they are like pretty tricky, I wish that most rivers

16:16

had that.

16:16

I think it would helped me a lot.

16:18

You're like, actually on this like brand new creek

16:20

that I'm just trying for the first time, Can I have some markers

16:22

please?

16:23

And some Yeah, just a couple, just

16:25

like ten or eleven maybe on like

16:28

the big rapids, not that many, not that many.

16:30

Really, What is the biggest rapids

16:32

that you've run in your in

16:34

your creaking time.

16:37

Or favorite rapid?

16:39

Mmmm? The

16:42

biggest one that I've done was a waterfall

16:45

in Chile. It was just like thirty feet,

16:47

so kind of like a baby waterfall, but like

16:49

sorry standards, just.

16:51

Thirty feet lot man

16:54

is like three stories.

16:55

But it was amazing.

16:57

I'm really scared of heights, so that's

17:00

been tricky for me to kind of overcome. Also

17:03

with with kayak cross. You know, you

17:05

start on a ramp and that's really high.

17:07

So every time I'm up there, I'm like looking down and I'm

17:09

like, oh my god, am I going to really do that?

17:11

Even though I've done it hundreds of times. Surely

17:14

I'll get over it at some point. I don't know.

17:16

So how long is your boat typically,

17:20

because like your boat is still free falling,

17:22

like when you do the kayak cross, it's not like, oh

17:25

the boat kind of touches the water. No, there's like a good

17:27

second or so hang time when

17:29

from the moment the gate drops to you actually

17:31

getting to the water.

17:32

So you have that free falling experience at

17:34

the beginning.

17:35

Of like every kayak cross race,

17:37

which must be exciting for somebody with a

17:39

fear of hece.

17:40

Oh yeah, for sure.

17:41

You're you know, you're sitting up there at the top

17:43

and the starter always goes like ready go, But

17:46

you don't know when they're gonna say it. You know, they try

17:48

to keep it so that everyone has to have like a really

17:50

fast reaction.

17:51

Time, so you just have like not

17:53

you, maybe just me.

17:55

I have like so much like I

17:57

guess, like excitement and anxiety.

18:00

Do you like at the start because I'm like, just get me

18:02

like past this initial drop and then it

18:04

doesn't get any better once you drop, because then there's

18:06

three other girls next to you that you're like battling

18:09

around. But I would sew like

18:11

one hundred percent of the time, I would rather like the

18:13

battle than the drop.

18:15

Just get me.

18:18

So once you're hear the start, the rest of the race,

18:20

this is where you own.

18:21

We just have to get you through the start.

18:22

In Paris exactly exactly?

18:26

Do you mention how fast you have to be? And

18:28

one of the things that I was reading was this stroke

18:31

and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like

18:33

it's a move that you have sort of made

18:35

your signature, the hummingbird

18:37

stroke. Can you explain to me what this is

18:40

how either you developed it or became such

18:42

a such a massive part of your

18:45

tactics as a kayak and cane

18:47

expert.

18:48

Yeah, so when I was

18:50

younger. I was, you know, always try and compete

18:53

with the big girls. And my first year

18:55

on like the senior circuit, I was fifteen,

18:57

and I'd say the average age is like twenty

19:00

five or thirty. So everyone

19:02

was honestly just way

19:04

stronger than me. And

19:07

so you know, for every stroke that they did,

19:09

I had to take two strokes to go

19:12

as fast as them because I just didn't have that same pole

19:14

on the water. So to make up for it,

19:16

I just started paddling literally

19:18

as quickly as I could, so, like my

19:20

stroke rate looked completely out of control. You

19:23

know, there wasn't that much like blade pressure on every

19:25

stroke, but I like made up for it was

19:28

just like the sheer volume of strokes that I did, and

19:31

it was like a hummingbirds wings, you know, it was just going really

19:33

fast, not that much like pull on

19:35

everything, but just you know, getting

19:38

myself there. And as I've gotten older,

19:40

it's gotten a little bit more toned

19:42

down. You know, I've gotten a lot stronger, but

19:46

I'd say it's still one of my kind of signature things

19:48

is that my stroke looks very fast and it

19:50

looks really out of control, but you know, it gets me

19:52

there.

19:53

There's a method to the madness, you promise for

19:55

sure.

19:56

For sure.

19:56

I think it's kind of cool because a lot

19:59

of countries have their own signature style,

20:01

like like the French

20:03

paddlers are known for being very smooth on the water,

20:05

which means that you know, every throat

20:08

counts they're setting up, they're using the

20:10

water so well.

20:12

They just look like they're just I don't

20:14

know, they kind of look like they're just killing and then they

20:16

go. It's super fast. It's crazy.

20:19

But it's so interesting that every paddler has

20:22

developed their own technique, you know, some way or another.

20:25

Yeah, it's like it's a style preference, is

20:27

what happens.

20:28

Because there's so many ways to

20:30

sort of get you from point A to point B that it

20:32

makes sense that you have developed your own

20:34

style within this. The other

20:37

thing that I was reading about that I think is a

20:39

really cool thing to talk about as we come off of celebrating

20:41

Pride Month is just how you have

20:44

really come into your own as a

20:46

human being in the spotlight of

20:48

a sport, because that is what you are in

20:51

kayak and inn in canoe, and

20:53

so can you tell us a little bit about your

20:55

personal journey and how

20:57

you've sort of started sharing that with

21:00

the world.

21:01

Yeah, for sure.

21:04

Well, when I was younger, the first

21:06

person that I kind of like came out to is being

21:08

by was you know, very southern,

21:12

very traditional, and didn't

21:14

really accept it, and it kind of, I

21:17

don't know, it's really hard for me because I felt like, yeah,

21:20

my friend didn't accept like every part of who

21:22

I was, and like, I don't think

21:24

that being queer is like

21:27

anything different than normal, I guess,

21:30

so it felt really weird to me that someone would

21:32

kind of care because it

21:35

doesn't matter, Like, it doesn't affect my paddling at

21:37

all, it doesn't affect who I am as a person at all, and

21:40

so kind of, as I got older,

21:42

I just realized that honestly,

21:44

I shouldn't care what they think

21:46

because they don't affect

21:48

me. Well, I mean they they did, they were my friend, but

21:52

in general, yeah, and

21:54

I don't know, I just wanted to kind

21:56

of share my journey with that and

21:58

share that it's completely normal

22:01

that you can be literally whoever you want

22:03

and still be like a badass professional

22:06

athlete, and yeah, I don't know, I

22:08

hope that you know, anyone listening and

22:10

anyone who sees my story just is

22:13

not afraid to be themselves and not afraid to

22:16

just put it out there. And you know, I

22:19

feel like all of your friends to accept you for

22:22

exactly who you are. You shouldn't have to change any

22:24

part of yourself.

22:25

Yeah, I mean, and you're only twenty years

22:27

old, and so this is a journey you've

22:29

had to go on through your teen years, which is obviously

22:32

relatively common for a lot of people to have

22:34

to navigate this aspect of who

22:37

they are and figuring out their identity. What

22:39

do you think is the biggest lesson that

22:42

you learned in coming out and then

22:44

not just to your friends and family, but to the

22:46

world who's going to be rooting you on in Paris.

22:50

I don't know. I feel like.

22:52

Not to make it sound like more of like a small

22:55

deal than it was, but I'd say the biggest lesson

22:57

I've learned is it's not that deep,

22:59

Like you shouldn't ever care

23:01

what people are going to think about you

23:03

being your like true authentic self, like

23:06

whether that's coming out or whether that's

23:09

you know, dressing the way that you want to to

23:11

a sporting event or you know, maybe not looking

23:14

like the traditional like vision

23:16

of an athlete. I think that you

23:18

just need to accept yourself and as

23:20

soon as you do that, people are either gonna accept

23:23

you or not. And it doesn't matter as

23:25

long as you know, you're really happy and you have

23:28

that group of support around you.

23:30

It's so cool to see you live

23:32

your truth and then the joy that comes

23:34

from it, because it is radiating from you, like

23:36

it seems like you were just You're confident

23:38

in who you are, You're confident in your skills,

23:41

and it's you're ready to make some history

23:44

here in Paris. What has been what

23:46

has been the best part of this lead

23:48

up time to Paris? The qualification is

23:50

done, you know, you've got your ticket. What

23:53

is like the best part of your life

23:55

right in this moment?

23:57

Oh my gosh.

23:59

I feel like there's so many different things, but I'd

24:01

say that this year, in my

24:03

journey to Paris, I've just been appreciating

24:06

the small moments, like obviously

24:09

like the qualification and you know, the

24:11

eventual like walking in the ceremony and having

24:13

that Olympic start. They're huge moments that are

24:15

going to be with me for the rest of my life. But right

24:18

now I'm appreciating that I get to, you

24:20

know, have your crossant on my walk back from training

24:23

every day, and that I get to be in Paris with

24:25

some of my best friends who have been racing with since

24:27

I was like a child, and

24:30

you know, they qualified and I qualified

24:32

and now we all get to you know, be on the water together.

24:35

I don't know, there's just there's so many small little things,

24:38

but really that kind of just getting

24:40

to be with my friends through this and getting

24:42

to appreciate every moment leading up to it.

24:45

Yeah, it's like the joy of presence. It's

24:47

like you've which I think not to like

24:49

continue to bring it back to the river, but for me, that's

24:51

one of the things that I truly love

24:54

about being on the water is that it requires

24:57

every ounce of your presence.

24:59

You have to be prepared for the river.

25:01

You have to be paying attention to the river. And I know you

25:03

hike and surf and snowboard on your days off.

25:06

For me, surfing is the same thing where it's like

25:08

there's something about being on the water that

25:11

reminds you just how beautiful

25:14

being present is and not worrying

25:16

about what happened, not worry about what could happen,

25:18

but.

25:19

Just like soaking in the moment

25:22

I completely agree.

25:23

I feel like, for me, when I'm on the water,

25:26

like I'm really I'm not thinking of like anything

25:28

else that's going on outside my life. I'm just

25:30

thinking about, like literally

25:33

just the flow of the water and how I get to like

25:35

be there and use it. And I think

25:37

that, you know, I get that on artificial

25:39

rivers, and I get that on natural rivers, and it's

25:42

something that's so special to me when I get to go home,

25:44

is just to be on that river that I grew up

25:47

on.

25:49

Yeah, I just kind of appreciate the small

25:51

little.

25:51

Details because that's really what we figured

25:53

out life is primarily about. It's

25:55

just all those small little things put together, and

25:58

all those small things put together have led to you

26:00

having a chance to make some history in Paris.

26:03

I cannot wait to root you on. Okay,

26:05

so now we're going to move into our something to Sip

26:07

on. This is the segment brought to you by the Sports

26:09

Bra, the very first one sports bar in

26:12

the world, and they want to know, what

26:14

are you sipping on Itvy after a good day

26:16

on the river, what are you reaching

26:19

for to sort of celebrate that or

26:21

maybe put one of those embarrassing hitting a

26:23

rock days behind you.

26:27

I would probably go with I

26:30

don't think it has a name, so I'm like, lift out

26:32

the ingredient.

26:33

That what it is?

26:35

Okay, So like

26:37

passion fruit syrup, maybe like a scoop

26:39

of like fresh passion fruit.

26:41

The same with lightchi.

26:43

Just a little bit of that, a little bit of like

26:45

smashed up watermelon, red

26:47

bull and line. There we go, all

26:50

of that together, just like a fruity little mocktail.

26:53

So good, so refreshing, my favorite

26:55

thing.

26:56

Oh that sounds so good. Adding to the cart

26:58

right now, that's that's going to be. And then I'll

27:00

give you a little kick too.

27:01

Oh yeah, no, like as you said, you have to

27:03

try it, I will.

27:05

Okay.

27:05

Next up we have our powered up segments.

27:08

This is where we go rapid fire questions

27:10

and literally every podcast I say

27:12

this is rapid fire, and then we get distracted

27:14

and there's nothing rapid about it because we tell these funny

27:16

stories and it is what it is. But we're to

27:18

maintain that this is a rapid fire.

27:20

Okay, I love that for you.

27:22

Positivity exactly.

27:25

Okay.

27:25

Coffee or tea coffee?

27:27

Okay, how do you take your coffee?

27:30

I am definitely an ice lot take early which

27:32

I feel like being in Paris and training

27:34

in Paris, they're not big into ice lattes,

27:37

and I feel like I've kind of been like withdrawal.

27:38

Right now, our

27:42

thoughts are with you this challenging time.

27:44

It's a hard life. And then at

27:47

night always like vanilla chaie with

27:50

milk.

27:50

Ooh so good? Oh

27:54

no, for sure. What's your favorite ice cream

27:56

flavor?

27:57

Ooh, that's a tricky

27:59

one. I'm

28:02

more of like a frozen yogurt

28:04

girl than ice cream. So maybe just like

28:06

your like typical frozen yogurt, like slightly tart

28:09

with just like some raspberries on top. That would

28:11

be my way too.

28:13

I love it.

28:13

What is your go to meal before or after

28:16

kayaki or canoeing?

28:20

I really like to make this.

28:23

It's kind of like a sauce. It's tomatoes,

28:26

zucchini and

28:28

spinach with.

28:30

Some like lemon juice. I'm just a little bit of salt

28:32

and pepper and it's just so

28:34

good. You can put it on rice or pasta

28:37

or bread like anything. I make it way too

28:39

much.

28:40

That sounds so good. I'm gonna get that recipe

28:42

from me too. For you.

28:45

Somebody who is a night owl or an

28:47

early bird, Oh.

28:48

My gosh, such a night owl.

28:50

Really, I could stay up like as late as I want

28:52

and not get tired, But

28:54

I think, like as an athlete, you know, a lot of my workouts

28:56

are really early when I'm

28:58

like doing my winter training care so I have to get up at like five,

29:01

and that's just not my vibe at all.

29:03

Oh my gosh.

29:05

Definitely hard.

29:05

So this is why rapid fire it doesn't work,

29:07

because I forgot.

29:08

One of the things that we need to talk about is that after

29:10

you go off and make some history in the Olympics, you

29:13

also are on track to be pre med. So,

29:15

speaking of trying to like have to manage a

29:17

lot of things in practice, you've decided

29:19

that you're going to take pre med classes in

29:22

addition to training me to be a fund Olympian.

29:24

Yeah.

29:24

No, that was like a great decision on my part, right, Yeah,

29:27

I shouldn't like anyone else, but it wasn't also

29:30

confirmed, it's.

29:33

A really easy lesson.

29:34

It's a really easy track to take, Yeah

29:36

for sure.

29:37

No, you know, I barely think about it when

29:39

I'm studying. Yeah,

29:42

so I'm I've taken a

29:44

year off of NI just

29:47

to like focus on the Olympics. But right now, I

29:49

am doing my AMT, so

29:51

I'm hoping to get some experience on an ambulance

29:53

as soon as I'm back from the Olympics, which

29:56

actually super fun.

29:57

How did you get interested in the medical field.

30:01

I got interested really young.

30:03

So actually I was watching my dad

30:05

race when I was must have been

30:07

like five or six, and I

30:09

was like running along the river bank trying

30:12

to like follow him and cheer him on, and I just

30:14

like completely wiped out on a rock, like hit

30:16

my head.

30:19

And then this like paddler came up to me

30:22

and you know.

30:22

Was checking me out, making sure I didn't have a concussion or

30:24

anything, and I thought he was the coolest

30:26

person in the world. I called him the kayak doctor, and

30:30

I like, since

30:32

then, I've always been like, I want to be the kayak doctor.

30:35

Okay, that's how I first got interested

30:37

in it.

30:38

Okay, so we're gonna go out and win some medals,

30:41

and then when when we're done with

30:43

that, we're gonna go back and stay on the US national

30:45

team as a team Doctor's.

30:46

Yes, exactly. I think that's a great

30:48

idea. I love it.

30:50

I love it. I cannot wait. As somebody who has

30:52

had a lot of close friends, go through the medical

30:54

track.

30:55

Godspeed. I believe in you wholeheartedly.

30:58

Oh my gosh.

30:59

Yeah.

31:01

Okay, so back to our, back to our rapid fire.

31:04

If you weren't a an

31:06

Olympian in canoe or kayak, what

31:08

would you want to be an Olympian in?

31:10

So growing up, I always wanted to be an

31:12

Olympian in gymnastics. I

31:14

did gymnastics until I was like twelve or thirteen,

31:18

and I really had like choose between that or kayaking.

31:20

But like, honestly, I wasn't that great

31:23

at gymnastics. I'm not that coordinated, but I

31:25

really did love it. So I'd

31:27

say if younger me had to decide, it would

31:29

be gymnastics, and now it would probably be surfing

31:33

or like say, warning, just because they're like,

31:36

they're all such bad as athletes to do it and

31:38

they're all such cool people, and you know, I.

31:40

Would love to be I would love to be like that.

31:42

We have a few surfers on this podcast this summer,

31:45

so make sure you listen. Carissa was our first,

31:47

our first guest.

31:48

Oh my gosh.

31:48

No.

31:49

I ast her like a couple of weeks ago

31:51

at a media summit that I did. She was amazing,

31:54

huge fan.

31:55

Of Charisamore as a human being and as a surfer.

31:57

She's the best. Oh yeah, she's the best.

32:00

Okay, what is your dream vacation spot?

32:05

Are we talking places like kayak or places that

32:07

can't kayak?

32:08

Choose your own adventure, whatever you can do one

32:11

of each.

32:12

Okay.

32:13

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I think there are all places

32:15

like in kayak. So

32:18

I'm gonna go with New

32:21

Zealand. Okay, I've

32:24

been to North Island. I've never been to South Island so

32:27

much amake the kayaking, and then also Iceland.

32:29

I'm hoping to go next year to do some like

32:31

waterfalls and stuff that would

32:34

also just love to go as a tourist and

32:36

you know, rent a rough around.

32:38

Yeah, we could just watch the We don't always

32:41

been down the water.

32:41

You know, Like I love the idea if just like, once

32:44

I see them, I kind of want to do

32:46

them. I have like foe mo when I see a rapid you know,

32:49

I.

32:49

Do, I do.

32:50

I got a chance to go to New Zealand this year

32:52

at the beginning of the year and we kayakked.

32:56

Of course. Now I'm gonna blank on the name. I'll put it in the notes

32:58

of the podcast. But we got a chance to raft

33:00

the largest commercially raff and waterfall in

33:03

the world.

33:05

Yes, that was it. Yeah, there in

33:07

January, I ran that river. It was amazing.

33:09

Oh my gosh, we probably were running it at the same

33:11

time.

33:11

We didn't. Oh no, we had so much

33:14

fun. That river was so beautiful,

33:16

the water was so warm, and it

33:18

was so playful. It just

33:21

felt like one of the most It just felt

33:23

like one of the most sacred, playful, beautiful

33:25

rivers I think I've ever been on.

33:27

Oh my gosh.

33:28

Yeah, it's amazing to paddle. I have a lot of

33:30

friends that like grew up like

33:32

right around there. So so cool to finally get

33:34

to paddle it with them.

33:36

Yeah, but you do beautiful Oh yeah,

33:38

yeah, yeah of course.

33:39

Oh yeah, lovely. Again, it's

33:41

like thirty feet this thing is tall. It

33:43

was like it was tall in a raft, and a raft is

33:45

like two times bigger.

33:46

Oh my god, it's like so much

33:48

scarier in a raft.

33:49

I feel like I'm really scared of rafting

33:52

actually, because I I'm so used to being

33:54

like the only one in the boat and you know, controlling exactly

33:56

where it goes.

33:57

Yeah, it's hard to let go of that control a little

33:59

bit.

34:00

See, I don't like the control

34:02

that I give up in a kayak because my legs

34:04

are stuck Like, I don't like that

34:07

my legs are stuck inside something.

34:09

So like if I flip right, like.

34:11

I grew up in the ocean, I grew up swimming, like,

34:13

I want to know that I can

34:16

use my legs to get me out of whatever

34:18

situation I've gotten myself in. And so I

34:20

don't like the idea of the skirt and

34:22

my legs being scrunched up like that to

34:24

me feels like I've given too much control to

34:27

the boat itself.

34:29

I feel you. I think maybe you should never try

34:31

canoeing. Then how

34:34

is listening? Who doesn't know canoeing?

34:36

You're you're on your knees, fill with like

34:39

this bray skirt and everything, but you are like very

34:41

cramped in there.

34:41

You have to stub your leg then.

34:44

Yeah, m hm, okay,

34:46

well how about this. I will try kayaking

34:50

if you will try rafting with me. We will

34:52

choose a river and we will do we

34:55

will do a trade of sports.

34:56

I accept the terms.

34:58

Okay, great, I cannot wait. We have to go summer

35:00

epic though, maybe back to New Zealand, we'll see for sure.

35:02

No, that sounds nice to me. There's

35:04

so many there's just too many options.

35:06

Okay, twenty twenty five coming in New

35:09

World Tours every time.

35:11

Okay.

35:12

And then the last question, Ebbie, is what

35:14

does powerful mean to you?

35:18

I think powerful just means staying

35:21

really true to yourself and really

35:23

going after your goals.

35:25

I think it means not.

35:26

Being afraid to fail or

35:29

to you know, not get

35:31

exactly where you want to go, or not take the path

35:33

that you think you're going to take, but still doing

35:35

everything in your power, you know, having that drive

35:39

because I think that you know, as a professional

35:42

athlete, it's been kind

35:44

of a journey to recognize that I can

35:46

have really big goals and I cannot make them,

35:48

and I can still keep pushing and I can still be proud

35:50

of myself and the journeys I've been on.

35:52

Mmm.

35:53

I love that.

35:54

And that goes back to what we're talking about, which

35:56

is that it's all those small moments that really

35:59

make up the journey.

36:00

Those big moments that you're gonna have in Paris are

36:02

going to.

36:03

Be amazing, but all the small moments

36:05

make every single day worth it. Regardless

36:08

of the outcome.

36:09

Oh my gosh, for sure.

36:10

Yeah, Like every day I'm so excited to go

36:12

to training and see my friends and

36:14

be on the river and everything, and you

36:16

know, that's what drives me. It's not necessarily

36:19

those big moments are the big wins. It's just,

36:22

you know, the joy and kind of every day. And I

36:25

hope to kayak as long as I feel that, which

36:27

I think is going to be a really long time.

36:29

Well, I certainly hope we get to watch you kayak

36:31

for a really long time because it has been so fun

36:34

to get a chance to follow your journey the last few

36:36

years, and I cannot wait to root

36:38

you on in Paris this summer. Everie, thank

36:40

you so much for being here.

36:42

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.

36:44

I'm so excited to listen and hear all of the amazing

36:47

stories the other girls talk about.

36:49

Appreciate you. Thanks so much for joining us this week

36:51

on the Powerful podcast. To see you'll next weekend.

36:53

This is a reminder to check us out every

36:56

Tuesday all summer long everywhere

36:58

you get your podcasts, And if you really enjoy

37:00

this and don't want to miss an episode, be sure to hit

37:02

that subscribe button,