Sometimes I can't sleep at night because I'm so excited to work on sprinting the next day, because I'm such a bad sprinter.
I had a corporate job and wore a suit to work every day, and I just kind of felt like I wasn't living my authentic self or doing what I was passionate about.
I think the biggest thing to being an elite-level bobsledder is grit. You have to really want it. It's a very blue-collar sport. We do a lot of the work ourselves; we sand the runners, we wash the sled, we help maintain the sled. Obviously, we have a sled mechanic that travels with us, but a lot of the work we do ourselves.
It is amazing how many thoughts can race through your head in a minute.
If I look in the mirror, my body is absolutely perfect. I think not enough women feel that way.
Bobsled is the first time I decided, win, lose, or draw, I was all-in for all four years. I figured if I was going to step away from a very lucrative career, I owed it to myself and my family to see this through to the very end.
Every day, I put on a suit, and I felt like I was playing dress-up in my mum's closet. It just wasn't right.
I never get sick - not a cold, not a cough or sore throat. Everyone around me can be hacking up a lung, and I'm fine.
Once my pilot and I push and jump into the sled, I hold on for dear life in the back while she skillfully and hopefully quickly navigates the two of us down a mile of icy, often bumpy, sharp right and left turns. I then pull the brakes at the end.
I went to a good school, played sports; things came relatively easy for me. Whenever I would get faced with adversity, I would always go do something else.
It is funny, the things you miss about a more conventional lifestyle. I miss seemingly mundane tasks, like cleaning the kitchen, moving my furniture around to achieve just the right look, and checking the mailbox. I miss making my bed in the morning before work.
One of the most common misconceptions about Olympic sports is that they only happen at the Olympics.
More and more, I am realizing that life is too short to do crap that doesn't make you happy, and we only get one shot at it all.
A combine is a series of athletic tasks that help a coaching staff measure an athlete's ability to be competitive in a sport. A bobsled combine requires a sprint, broad jump, two-handed shot toss, and a back squat and power clean.
I am used to being places where I don't speak the language. What I am not used to is being in a part of a country where few people speak my language. Call it ignorance, arrogance, or what have you, but most places I have visited, I was lucky enough to be able to get by with English.
I travel quite a bit for both bobsled and leisure.
When you start your bobsled career at 30, a time when most are settling down into their 'real careers' and many are getting married, you can imagine the barrage of questions and the look of, 'You're doing what?' that you receive.
If your dream sounds like a real stretch and everyone around you is looking at you like you have completely lost it, it might just be exactly what you need.
I'd always loved sports, and the Olympics were something I thought about often as a kid, but those dreams felt like a lifetime ago.
I love when things don't go to plan.
