110: Stephanie Rice - Triple Olympic Gold Medallist

In episode 110 of The Physical Performance Show Brad Beer has a conversation with Stephanie Rice - Triple Olympic Gold Medallist.

Stephanie Rice took gold in three events, her only three events in Beijing, the 200m IM, the 400m IM and then was part of the Australian 4x 200m freestyle relay winning team. Not only did Stephanie win 3 gold medals across the one week of swimming but every time she took to the pool in Beijing she broke a world record. Leading into the Beijing Olympic Games at the Australian swimming trials, Stephanie had broken the world record in both the 400 and the 200m individual medley. However her American nemesis Katie Hoff had bettered the mark at the US Olympic Trials just before the Olympic Games.

During this episode Stephanie shares how she handled the pressure despite her coach’s instructions to not break the world record. We talk about how Stephanie managed to pull herself together after winning her first gold medal which was also incidentally Australia’s 400th Summer Olympic Games Gold Medal and the first Olympic Gold for the 2008 Australian Team. To recover from being unwell to then get ready for the 400 IM. We discuss why Stephanie knew that she wanted to be an Olympian from the age of 3 years, how Susie O’Neill inspired Stephanie. We talk about what it took leading into Beijing, 4 years of grind and hard work plus all the years before that and then the 4 magical days in Beijing. Why Stephanie was not interested in working with a sports psychologist, why getting up at 4:37am was the perfect time. And then we talk about the tough years following Beijing for Stephanie after she underwent shoulder surgery and leading into the London Olympic Games preparing for that with just half of the swimming volume she would have done. We talk about how Stephanie manage that and explore Stephanie’s life beyond the swimming pool and what the last 6 year journey has included. There’s so much in this interview and Stephanie Rice is an Australian sporting legend.

 

Listen in as we delve into the following:

• Mindset
• Discussing how important habits are.
• How Stephanie first got started in Swimming
• Coming from a sporty family
• Favourite Achievement
• Using a Sports Psychologist
• Setting the world record
• How Steph stays motivated
• Steph’s challenges during her career
• Steph’s struggle with injury and the three surgeries
• Racing against the men
• Performance Round
• Mantra
• Being in the zone
• Best Advice
• Magic Mentoring Program
• Physical Challenge – Have a meat free/vegan day once a week and exercise five days a week.
• Meeting Susie O’Neill

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