Jody Avergan

It's hard to overstate how much the whole retiring on your own terms thing is really critical. Carly got to do that, and it has helped her transition. She's also got a healthy mindset, as you've learned. But for other athletes, as you're probably noticing, for me, it can be much more abrupt. If injury forces you to grapple with what comes next before you're really ready to, it can feel more like a void, not a transition.

Kun ajattelen voimasta, josta jätetään loppuun joukkueiden lopuksi, ajattelen usein, että voin vain lisätä tämän jälkeen jotain muuta järjestelmää, jotain muuta atletista. Joukkue on kaikki, mitä tiedän. Minun täytyy löytää jotain, jotta voin jatkaa joukkueen. Mutta ehkä yksi vastaus on mennä uudelleen koko ajan. Käytä tämän järjestelmän ja ympäristön rakkaus uudelleen uudelleen. Jotain kuten ruokaa.

When Dawn's long jump career ended, it was brutal. She didn't get to end on her own terms. She tore her ACL, she tried to recover, she tried to keep competing, but she just couldn't get back to the same level. I decided if I did not make that Olympic team, then I would have to find something else that I really love to do. It was time to stop.

Mitä se oli, kun olit laseroitunut atletiikkaan, ja sitten alkoit vaihtamaan näkökulmaa hieman? Oli niin, että ajattelin, että olen elämässä. Mitä voin tehdä? Koska olin syntynyt myöhemmin atletiikka-järjestelmäni. Myöhemmin atletiikka-järjestelmänsä syntyminen. Dawnin koko maailma ja identiteetti olivat muuttuneet. Mutta kun hän olisi syntynyt seuraavaksi, hän tietäisi myös, mitä pitäisi tehdä seuraavaksi. Ja nopeasti. Koska hän olisi myös loppunut pääasiassa.

Dawn found that what she learned in her athletic career really helped her in the kitchen. She had to problem solve, react on the fly, bounce back from a mistake. There are parallels between being a chef and an athlete. There's a lot of technique. Plus, being a chef is really physical. Kitchens are hot. You're always on your feet.

Dawn was building her new career, but like Carly Lloyd, she couldn't completely shake that competitive spirit. And like Carly Lloyd, she turned to reality TV. After years of applying, Dawn ended up on Top Chef.

It's when I challenge myself to be the best I possibly can be, unlike any other place. On the show, Dawn was known for being fiercely passionate and competitive and sometimes setting the bar a little too high for herself. Which Top Chef fans will remember meant that she didn't always get the plates out on time. She'd make this complex, amazing dish and then just not have enough time left to get the sauce on the plate for that one judge. She competed on the show the way she competed in the Olympics. Going for it.

And she did. She made it all the way to the finals. To me, this all seems like what Serena called evolution. Always pushing for more. A new record. A new personal best. And if he can get on a reality TV show, I guess that helps too. And now, after Top Chef, Dawn is still setting the bar high. Really high. For this next concept, I would love to win the James Beard Award. And I want to...

En ole ylpeä, jos olisin Michellin-spektrumissa. En voi sanoa, että se ei ole minun tavoitteeni, mutta se olisi kiva. Viimeisen vuoden aikana, kun hän on puolustettu longjumpiin, Don on minua yksi, joka on lopulta yrittänyt tämän asian, jonka olen käsitellyt. Tiedän, että se on hienoa, että hän ei edelleen tunne, että hän on loppunut longjumpiin. Hän on pysynyt. Hän on pysynyt.

One more lesson from Dawn. I asked her if when she first retired, she'd consider doing what some athletes do. If you can't compete at the highest level, you compete at a different level. In her case, that would mean the master's circuit. Long jump, but, you know, for old timers. That was not for her. I mean, there would have to be that complete transference into something else, because I...

If Carly's advice can be summed up as, enjoy the process, take it one day at a time, then Don's is, you might have to try something totally new, and it might take time to be okay. Evolution isn't an immediate thing.

But here's where I'm still stuck. As wonderful as these perspectives are, the fact is, when you end one chapter and you move on to another, sorry, let me rephrase, when you evolve from one chapter to another, you're still losing something you loved, right? As you continue to get older, you still have to say goodbye to more and more.

Ja se vielä jotenkin saa minua itkeästi. Ja kaverit, minä puhun täältä enemmän kuin vain sportista. Se on koko ajan. En usko, että olen kehittynyt niin, että Karli ja Don ovat. Päivän jälkeen saan työntekijöiden auton käsittämisessä näiden todella rauhoittuvien tunteiden käsittelyssä koko ajan.

Right off the bat, let me play you something that blew my mind. This is a piece of insight that changed how I think about getting older.

Tämä on Tracy Gendron. Hän on gerontologi ja Virginia Center on Agingin johtaja. Hän haittaa sitä, miten yhteiskuntamme puhutaan agingista. Kaikki se, että olet vain niin vanha kuin tunnet, tai että näytät hyvältä aikasi, sellaista asiaa. Kerron sinulle, että minun henkilökohtaisesti on itse asiassa peräkohdalla jokaisessa. Se on yksi suurimmista agingista puhutusta, joka on olemassa.

I laid out my story to Dr. Gendron about how I devoted my 20s and 30s to Ultimate and now I'm hitting my 40s and I can't play the same way anymore. How I feel washed up and I'm facing the void and a lot of it just really bums me out. You know, the kind of stuff you lay on someone when you meet them for the first time.

Turns out, as we were doing the interview, I kept being reminded about something that I do now that I didn't do 10 years ago. Parenting. Sorry, one second. Oh shoot, my daughter now has come in with an iPad. Oh boy, one second. No, you gotta have the headphones on, remember? My five-year-old daughter kept interrupting our interview. And yeah, she's wonderful. I love her to death. And yeah, children, they keep us young, yadda yadda yadda. But a child can't heal my hamstring or make me dunk again.

Mutta minä sanon, että tämä idea, että ongelma ja kasvu ongelmassa toisistaan, se on todella tärkeä. Ja sitten me emme ole niin kiinnostuneet ja, no, kasvu on vain kaikki niitä kasvuja, joita minulla on ollut.

I appreciate that answer, and I think I've been asking myself some of those questions, and certainly I think I've grown in some ways, and I don't want to just be the super driven myopic, probably not best friend and boyfriend that I was in my 20s, but I will say...

To be a little grumpy in response to your very nuanced point. All of the things you've said, which is, okay, yes, you're losing something, but look at all the other things you've gained. That still at some level to me strikes me as...