July 15, 2024 • 31 mins
Rebecca Lowe is one of the world’s leading soccer sportscasters, having spent over 20 years covering the sport on both sides of the Atlantic for outlets including the BBC, ESPN, and currently at NBC, now in her sixth consecutive NBC Olympics Daytime Host assignment. In the run up to Paris, Rebecca joins us with an insider’s take on not one but many different athletes’ roads to the Olympics. Rebecca gives us a sneak peek of what’s to come at this year’s games. We’ll get up to speed on fresh faces to look out for like 16-year-old gymnast Hezly Rivera and hurdler Masai Russell, the triumphant return of Sha’Carri Richardson, Simone Biles’ unexpected rival, and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey Bam, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side, we're counting down to the Olympics.
We have a special guest, NBC correspondent Rebecca Low. She'll
be covering the Olympics in Paris this month, and she's
here to share insider tips on who to watch and
what to expect. It's Monday, July fifteenth. I'm Danielle Robe and.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Happy Monday, y'all, Happy Monday.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I had such a fun, sunshine filled weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
It was hot in la.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am so not ready for summer to end. I'm
trying to stay in the moment. Just go to the beach,
go in the pool. Summer is just the best. I
love it, Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I took a hike with Julisa this weekend and we
went early and we almost burned up here.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I will tell you that. Yes, and it's getting hotter
by the year. But for now, we are looking forward
to a great week and we're kicking things off with
on my Mind Monday. This is our opportunity to share
the stories that motivate us, inspire curiosity, and provide a
fresh perspective to our week. So you guys already know
(01:20):
I love this UK publication, Stylist magazine because they always
have such great think pieces. And I recently came across
an article that's all about building a growth mindset. Danielle,
do you abide by this term? Like, what does that
term make you think of when you hear growth mindset?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah? For sure.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think I learned about this like five or six
years ago from reading a book. I remember when Reese
Witherspoon came on here for our first episode. She told
us about the moment that her life changed, and she
said she started doing inner work and reading every book
she could find. And I had such a similar moment
in my twenties, and that's when I came across a
(02:00):
growth mindset, which is basically the belief that you can
grow and improve and that hard work and dedication and
repetition and consistency over time can get you to where
you want to go.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think we both definitely have a growth mindset, and
it's something that I also discovered a few years ago
through reading a book that was all about the power
of having a positive mindset manifestation, if you want to
call it that.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
So that's what this article is all about.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Growth mindset is just the idea that talent can be
developed through consistency and learning. And then, to take it
a step further, by having a growth mindset, you're more
likely to believe that you can achieve what you want,
which in turn makes you more motivated, focused, and ultimately
more likely to succeed and get where you want to go.
And then on the flip side, the opposite of a
growth mindset is a fixed mindset, this idea that talent
(02:59):
is innate and static, or even worse, believing that you're
destined to fail, which of course is just going to
stifle innovation and opportunity. And I think it's really helpful
to think about this framework not just as an individual,
but also as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
For any of our bright.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Side besties who have employees out there, if you create
a growth mindset environment for your employees, they're more than
thirty percent likely or to feel a strong sense of
loyalty to your company, to your mission. That's according to
the Harvard Business Review.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
If anybody out there is curious about this topic. There's
a book called The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
I love this book.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Oh it's it's short, it's a quick read. It's so
freaking good.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
He gives you like things that you can actually do
to practice this. So do you think there's any ways
that we can practice having a growth mindset?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I think a key ingredient here is taking inspiration from others.
I can remember a conversation that I had with one
of my best friends that really unlocked a growth mindset
for me. I had been in a job that I
didn't like for many years and wanted to make a
move and go out on my own. And my friend
said to me, Simone, you are stuck in an employee
(04:10):
mindset and you need to break out of that and
have a self employed mindset. So I think just having
people around you who can give you those little nudges
and reminders that is so key.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I love that, Simone.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There's also like this quote, you can't be what you
can't see, and I think that's part of it. Like
if you surround yourself with people who are thinking differently
than you, it's so contagious and the best way. And
I think also to add, there's an element here of curiosity,
and it's just getting curious about your life, getting curious
(04:45):
about your relationships, about yourself. I think it all starts
with just with asking yourself some questions.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
And one more thing that the piece identified that I
thought was really interesting is the importance of learning to
accept failure as a necessary part of growth the best.
So working to reframe failure as essential to having a
growth mindset. So instead of looking at failure as a
reason to give up, looking at it as part of
the process and just a necessary step to getting what
(05:15):
you want. I've always found that failures offers such huge
learnings for me.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I interviewed an entrepreneur one time named Encore Jane, and
he actually doesn't even use the word failure. He uses
the word pivot because for entrepreneurs, and I think this
is a mindset more so than just for entrepreneurs, but
there is no failure because whatever happens leads you into
the next thing. So on that note, we are talking
about athletes today who have this growth mindset. You can't
(05:44):
not have it when you are an Olympic athlete learning
to accept failure or pivots and not letting fear hold
you back is at the core of these Olympic athletes.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, Sin, today's guest is actually going to be on
the ground in Paris covering the Olympics this summer, so
she might have an idea of the kind of mindset
you need to take home the gold for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Rebecca Lowe is an NBC daytime host and the host
of NBC Sports Premier League coverage. She'll be attending and
covering the Olympics for the sixth time this year.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
I mean, true Olympic royalty.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
What I think is so amazing about the Olympics is,
you know, it's not just about these spectacular athletic feats.
We all love watching those moments in real time, but
it's also the personal stories. I mean, the sacrifices that
these athletes have to make, that their families have to make,
to overcome so much to get to where they are.
I mean, we see them perform, but there's so much
(06:39):
that goes on behind the scenes that we'll never get
to see.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And Rebecca Lowe is going to be those eyes and
ears on the ground because you know, she's been following
some of these athletes from the very beginning of their careers.
She's interviewed these women over time, and she's watched them
when the cameras are not turned on, so she has
a really unique vantage point. She can talk triumphs, comebacks,
(07:03):
and the emerging athletes, the ones that we got to watch.
And best of all, she's offering this real human perspective
on all of the powerhouse female athletes that we'll be
rooting for.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
We are going to take a quick break and when
we come back, we're talking Shikerrie Richardson, Simone Biles, the
women's soccer team, and the brightest new athletes competing this
summer that you need to know about.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Welcome back to the bright Side.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
We have Rebecca Low with us today to kick off
our road to the Olympics coverage.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's right, Rebecca lo Is, an NBC daytime host who'll
be covering the games from Paris.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Rebecca, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Simone Danielle, thank you so much for having me. This
is going to be fun.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Rebecca.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You are essentially Olympics Royalty at this point, because this
will be year six time attending and covering the games
is the excitement still the same each time. Are you
jaded or do you just walk into that environment like
with the enthusiasm of a little kid still, Oh.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
My goodness, not Jaded's mown at all. I kind of
go through waves of different emotions in the build up
to the Olympics. I do soccer, that's my regular job,
and I finished that season in May, so whenever it's
a summer Olympics, I have sort of two months leading
up and in some ways it feels forever a way,
and then of course it comes up so quickly. But
in that two months I go through all sorts of
(08:34):
different emotions. Often it's nerves, because every new challenge, even
though I've done Olympics before, is still a new challenge.
This coming Olympics, I'm going to be co hosting the
Daytime Show with Craig Melvin from The Today Show, which
will be so fun. But we've never worked together before,
so we're sort of trying to create a chemistry, you know,
over the phone and trying to get to know each other.
(08:56):
And then as I get closer. It was funny because
yesterday morning I said to my husband, Oh, I'm so
excited now, and I think it's partly as well to
do with preparation. I don't know if you, ladies feel
the same, But until I feel prepared for something, I mean,
with the Olympics, you can never be fully prepared because
there are a million stories and a million things you
need to know. But I have done enough work this
summer and I've had enough meetings with the production team
(09:16):
to sort of feel like, you know what, I've got
a handle on this. I think we're ready to go.
And then it's Paris, ladies, It's Paris. I mean, hello,
how exciting is that in itself? So no little kids vibes.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
For sure, Rebecca.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So much of what you do is not just the
knowledge that you accumulate in the research that you have
to do on the front end, but it's the language
that you use in the moment to describe what you're seeing.
And something that we talk about on our show often
is the double standards that are so pervasive in media
today when it comes to how female athletes are portrayed
(09:51):
versus male athletes. How are you mindful about how women
are covered at the Games.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
That's a really good point. I suppose, having spent my
entire career in a male dominated environment, which is soccer
and television, both of which, by the way, are male dominated.
Soccer and television. I am quite aware of that whole conversation.
I think one of the things that I'm always really
(10:20):
conscious of is I often think, and we have been
told at NBC, and it's been reiterated to us time
and time again, it feels to me like women are
seen as girls. When there's a young female, an eighteen
year old, fully grown adult, but she's a female, it's
often casually spoken about as being a young girl. And
(10:41):
I don't think you would say the same thing for
a man who's eighteen year old. They would never be
called a young boy. And I think that's just this
sort of very bizz It's not even bizarre because we
all know where it's come from. It's come from thousands
and thousands of years, but it's ingrained slight disbelief that
female males could do what males could do. And so
(11:04):
I'm probably one of the biggest champions you'll find of
females at the Olympic Games. And I think I do
that as best I can. When I think about my
own life and my own career, how I want to
be perceived by the men in soccer and by the
men in television. That's why I think these women want
to be perceived which is pretty much the same as
the men virtually. So I tried to treat them as
(11:26):
I would if it was a man. And I think
that maybe is the biggest compliment I can pay.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Do you feel like you've had to go out of
your way to fight for credibility as a woman in
these male dominated media circles?
Speaker 5 (11:38):
So I mean, how long have you got? I mean
it has been since the day I started age twenty
one in England. And you know, I'd be at a
press conference and I'd ask a question and fifty men
would turn and look, who on earth is Who's that?
And so when I look at a lot of these women,
I sort of can see what they've also had to battle,
because sometimes talent isn't enough. You have to have grit
(12:01):
and you have to have character in order to sort
of elbow people out the way. And it's a horrible
thing to say, but you sometimes have to do that
to be strong in a man environment. And I don't
mean albow other women out of the way, I mean
elbow the men out of the way. To get yourself
to the front. I feel like I definitely had to
fight that, and maybe there's a parallel there with some
of these athletes who have had so much to fight
(12:22):
over so many years, so many of them, with all
the stories that we hear, you know, every year. So yeah,
it's been certainly been a ride for twenty odd years
of this career, that's for certain.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So I can still relate to that because when I
was a local news reporter, I was showing up to
a press conference and one of the camera ops from
another station called me kiddo in passing oh oh, and
I was like, don't go, kid.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Back to what we just said about girls, right.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Yeah, infantalizing me.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I'm not sure they would have called a man of
your age kiddo, and I got called in my sweetheart,
I got called all of those kind of yes, that terminology. Yeah,
But isn't it crazy that people look at women as
though that in some spaces, still in twenty twenty four,
as though there's sort of another species, Not that they
are populating half of the planet, but they are sort
of like when these men used to look round at
(13:13):
me and be like, what on earth are you doing?
I'll be I'm not an alien. I'm just literally just
half of the planet over here. It's still quite depressing.
I have to say that we are even having this
conversation twenty twenty four, it's not enough progress. We're still
fighting this fight all the time.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I actually wanted to ask you about twenty twenty four.
Have you felt a shift in the industry. Do you
feel like people give you more respect over that, like
since the me Too movement?
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Since twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, when.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
I moved from England to America, that was a big shift,
just because the way that soccer has dealt with in
England is very archaic. To be honest, it certainly was
when I was there. I think it's got a bit better.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
But so I felt not like how we see it
on Ted Lasso.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
Now, I know, I know, no, my goodness, if I
could tell you the stories of the first ten years
of my career. But then as soon as I landed
in the States, and I think this is down a
lot to the fact that you guys have so many
frontline sports, whereas we just pretty much just have softwer
that's what everyone cares about. In the manner of that
with basketball, NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS. They're all on the NetWorld,
(14:21):
so there are actually lots of opportunities for women to appear.
And when I came here in twenty thirteen, I was like, Wow,
there's so many women on television. I can't put in
all these sports. I can't believe that. I mean, in
my opinion, there are still not enough hosts. They tend
to be more sideline reporters, which I've done and that
is the hardest job in broadcasting, without a doubt. But
from the outside looking in, I feel like there need
to be more hosts and good positions. But it's definitely shifted.
(14:44):
So when I moved here, it shifted in my career,
and then since the Me Too movement, there's definitely been
a shift. I definitely feel more empowered. I think women
feel more empowered. There's still a way to go, because
there was a pushback against that for a while, and
you know, as there always is, but that has been
and super helpful, certainly in my industry.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, I felt it too. I even felt it.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I was doing local news in Chicago at the time
of the movement, and I felt the shift in the
newsroom from the executive. So it's not perfect, like you said,
but I'm so grateful to all the women that pushed
for it and fought for it, because I really do
feel a shift. So you're a fly on the wall
as a broadcaster at the Olympics, Like you're seeing these
(15:25):
behind the scenes moments. You're seeing athletes after they get
off the floor of the gymnasium, out of the pool,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
What are you seeing that we don't get to see
on TV.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Ooh, you know what, It's funny because I get to
see them as real humans. All athletes and it's the
same with all celebrities have a front and when the
camera goes on or when they're in in race mode,
they have that front. When I'm doing so, I tend
to get to interact with them the most when I
aim to be them. So I'll be in the studio
and I will see the official from Team USA come
(15:59):
through the or behind them will be whichever athlete or
athletes I'm going to get to interview five minutes later,
and they all have to get the earpiece in, and
they have to get a worcrophoned up, and they have
to get a little bit of makeup on and while
they're doing that, I sort of read their body language,
and then when you compare that to the way they
are on screen, it's so interesting because the one thing
(16:20):
I've seen most and they are just so normal and
they're humble and they're shy, and they're not used to
all of this attention, And especially the athletes that break
out at an Olympic Games and haven't been used to,
you know, Simone Biles, Katie Ladecki. They're different, and they've
done a million interviews, they know what's what. But you
get somebody come in who's got a medal and an
Olympic Games that never thought they would and no one
(16:41):
really has heard of them, and you see their innocence
maybe or sort of just kind of wide eyed. I
just love how like their mom might come on and
just sit in the corner and I see them hugging
their mom offter the interview and then they want a
selfie on the set, and it's just they like you
and me. They're just radio humans who happen to be
unbelievable a sport, but unbelievable a sport that has this
(17:03):
sort of slight purity about it. I think I think
the Olympics and all the different sports within the Olympics
is just so pure. It's why we love it. It
isn't tainted, certainly isn't yet by all the money and
all the glamor. It's just seems to be so real.
And that's what I love about seeing them clopse off.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, it's so endearing to hear that. I really really
really love that.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
All Right, we've got to take a quick break, but
we'll be back shortly with Rebecca Lowe.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Okay, I kind of want you to give us a
little bit of a cheat sheet because Simona, I don't
know if you feel this way, but when I watch
any sport, let alone the Olympics, like, I love being
in a room with people and they're like, oh, who's that?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Who's that? And I'm like, I know who that is.
I heard them talked about on a podcast.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So can you give us the rundown of who we
should be looking out for so that all of our
besties listening can be the person in the room that's
like of them.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
I love it, Yes, Okay, So I think all the
best season in the room will have heard of the
lives of Simone Biles and would have heard well, do
you think they would have heard of the lives of
Shirkerri Richardson because she's a big deal now, yeah, finitely yeah.
I mean she's doozo. I mean she's she's done a
huge Boil article. So if you're in Vogue, then you've
made it in life. But I think if you're sitting
there and you're watching the gymnastics and the five women
(18:21):
who are on teen USA, all four of those five
are returning having been in Tokyo except one. So the
one that is new and making her Olympic debut as
a sixteen year old, she only just turned sixteen. I mean,
it is quite ridiculous. Her name is Hesley Rivera and
she is a little pocket rocket. Anyone I think who
is in their teen years, you just if you're of
(18:43):
any age like me, with a child like me, I
just want to just mother them. I'm just so, I
think I'm more excited about seeing a teenager do well
than anything else because you feel that kind of motherly
feeling about Imagine if that was my kid, you know, So,
Hesley Rivera, I want you to definitely look out for
in terms of there's a lady that I think you
(19:04):
guys should know. And her name is Messiah Russell. This
is definitely one for the party when you're like, oh, Messiah, yeah,
I know what about her?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Sure. So it's the one hundred meter hurdles and she
won it at Olympic Trials and she got a personal
best and she made a trials record and he was
filled up in Portland, Oregon. When she turned pro, there
was a lot of criticism, which I find very massar
again about her maybe not being as good now that
she turned pro. When she did the interview, she was
she was pretty fierce, Like all you people who came
(19:33):
for me, look at what I just did. No one
loves kind of sticking it to people more, do they?
Athletes love doing that. These people who didn't believe in me,
this coach, you never believed in me, and then they
go and prove them wrong. Nothing better than that kind
of story. So Massih Russell.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
There's a sports psychology behind that for sure.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Definitely keeping on the track and field topic, I know
that you've interviewed Shaki Richardson in the past, and she's
making her return to track and field events this year
at the Olympics after the marijuana related suspension ahead of Tokyo.
How do you think she's evolved since that incident and
how do you think the narrative around her has changed.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I love her, I have to say I haven't been
as excited about a female athlete in a while. Her story,
if anyone who doesn't know, is quite something. Grow up
in Texas and has a difficult family background, but at
the same time has an incredibly tight family around her.
And I think the one thing simone to answer your
question first of all, is that to use her own quote.
(20:32):
She doesn't say I'm back. She says I'm not back,
I'm better, And I think that tells you everything you
need to know. She doesn't want to keep harping back
to what happened before Tokyo. I don't know her. I'm English,
but I was for Team USA and for her devastated
when that news came out, having watched her at Chrials
and seen the talent that we have available to us
at teen USA, she couldn't go. It was awful. But
(20:54):
she doesn't talk a lot about that. She talks a
lot about the twenty four to seven nature of track
and fields and being a sprinter. And I don't know
about you. But before I worked Olympic Games, I used
to wonder how sprinter's trained. How do you train to
be a ten second runner, which is essentially what she is.
And I think she talks a lot in some of
(21:15):
the interviews she's given recently about obviously strength training and
the different elements of the ten second race. There are
about five or six different parts to a one hundred
meter rais and yet it happens in ten seconds. There's
the blocks, there's coming out of the blocks. When do
you put your head up, When do you change your shoulders?
When do you lend lean forward to try and win it?
And they're all those things. Somehow they train them. And
(21:35):
she talks about not only those moments of training, but
of nutrition, the constant nutrition twenty four hours a day,
the constant hydration, the massages, the physical therapy, then in
the gym, And I think that what her message is
by doing these interviews and explaining how her life is
or or track is, she's saying that is the past.
Yes it was her, but that was a mistake and
(21:56):
that was in the past. And also the reason she
gave for the failed drugs test with a THHC was
because she was just dealing with a lot emotionally, and
that is I think something we have to give grace
for so three years on here we are her and
her nails are going to be amazing in Paris, and
she is elite. Elite.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I think that's so evident in the support that she's
garnered from fans. Okay, before we move on to your domain,
which is soccer, really quickly, Simone Biles, she is going
to be in Paris. She's someone who continues to push
the boundaries of what is possible in gymnastics. What are
you expecting from her this time around? Are you hearing
(22:37):
any murmurs or rumors about what she's got planned her
headspace going into the Games this year?
Speaker 5 (22:43):
From what I hear on her head's face, she's better
than she's ever been. She attributes that to therapy every Thursday,
every single Thursday, since what happened when she got the
twisties in Tokyo and that just blew up everyone's world,
obviously mainly hers. She has found the therapy which she
sees who she sees every Thursday, and that therapist she's
(23:03):
going to continue to see during the Games. She's even
managed to work it out that on a Thursday, she's
not competing, so she's going to get to spend her
day doing therapy and that's her self care day, which
I think is crucial. You were talking Danielle about the
me too movement, and I think that similarly with mental health,
she broke real boundaries she did in Tokyo sman bars
with what happened to her, and it's a different world
(23:25):
now she can talk openly about having a self care
day and having a therapy day, whereas ten years ago.
Can you imagine if a top gym is was like
having a self care day, everybody would have been like,
oh please, she's obviously woo women, a bit hippieike and crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Well, even when she did say that she didn't feel
comfortable performing that day, she got so much heat, so
much backlash from a lot of men too, who were
discrediting her in her accomplishments, just because she was self
aware and in her body.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
And if you speak and hear from lots of other gymnasts,
that's actually very common. It's just not talked about that much,
and so I think it was so new to so
many people, and as we know, lack of knowledge on
something can often lead to ignorance, and I think that's
what happened in that situation. But in terms of when
she's out there performing in parasite, expect nothing less than
plenty of gold medals. She does have an opponent or arrival.
(24:15):
I should say now that she didn't really have to
deal with Rebecca and I think you pronounced her last
name Andragi. She's from Brazil. She was there eight years
ago in Rio, but she wasn't anywhere near the standard.
She's now really good and she has come on leaps
and bounds, and Rebecca and Rogi is going to be
a big rival to Simone Biles. But you know what
(24:36):
I think with her mental strength now, Simone Biles, it's
just going to take her up. It's just going to
raise the levels. She's not been challenged. Let's be honest.
It's never good if you're an athlete and there's no
one and you're basically she's always said it. Her opponents
is herself. She's basically trying to compete against herself, and
she's always said that because there's everyone else is about
thirteen points behind. I mean, she's so ahead of everyone.
(24:57):
So maybe Androgi can lights a little fire under her,
plus the mental strength that she's filled up over the
last couple of years, and I think we're going to
see her back to her best without a doubt.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I'm like, God, what, that's a great point.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I mean, one of my favorite docs is the Larry
Bird Magic Johnson documentary, and they both say that they
wouldn't have been as great of athletes individually had they
not been rivals with one another.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
So, Daniel, can you imagine how good she is when
she doesn't play a rival. So that's why I think
this might take it to a whole other level. If
there is even another level that Simone Biles can reach.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yes, okay, we have to talk soccer.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I have such a girl crush on the US women's
soccer team.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I always have.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
They're just the coolest individually and as a team, they're
just so freaking cool. Alex Morgan huge girl crush of mine.
There's a lot of talk that she's not joining the team.
Can you give us a little bit of the backstory
what's happening here?
Speaker 5 (25:58):
So Alex Morgand has been in the face of US
women's national team soccer for as long as I can remember.
I remember working at the twenty eleven Women's World Cup
for ESPN, which was what thirteen years ago, and she
was established then. So for anyone new to this, we're
talking decades of Alex Morgan and not only tenure appearances,
but leadership and of course goals, right, goals, goals, goals.
(26:20):
That's how she's made her name, that's how she's mamed
her millions. She is all about the goals and she's
won everything. She's won at all. She just turned thirty five.
And the situation is that at the last World Cup
in twenty twenty three last year, they didn't do very well.
It was a bit of a collapse and a bit
of a shock that the rest of the world had
caught up with the US women's national team in terms
(26:41):
of ability. Without a doubt that has happened, and the
US similarly, funnily enough to Simone Biles, because the US
for so long has just been out Now business is easy,
We're just the best of the world by far, and
suddenly arous is caught up and so it's given them
a bit of a shock and they have to regroup.
So they've gone and they've got the best women's coach
and best female coach with that out in England, the
(27:01):
home of football, of course. And her name is Emma
Hayes and she is fantastic. She's won everything at domestic level.
She's not done international yet, but domestically with Chelsea and
other clubs, she's won everything. So she has come in
to take over and she said a couple of friendlies
and then she had to make the Olympic roster announcement
and there was no Alex Morgan named in the squad.
(27:22):
So this is a huge shot. But you know, I
think you have to look at it from the other
side as well. Emma Hayes is coming in to try
and take this team in a new direction. They have
to the Alex Morgan's, the Megan Rapinos, the Abby one
Bucks of the last twenty years have their place, and
my goodness do they have their plays on and off
the field, by the way, let's not forget. But they've
(27:43):
got to go forward with some youth. So Emma Hayes
has the plan. She has the plan and you know
she's got some incredible strikers. Mallory Swanson who was injured
for the last World Cup. Remember that name, Sophia Smith.
If anyone's listening, who's news to soccer and women's soccer.
Sophia Smith is amazing and so she has youngsters in
the position of Alex Morgan to go to the Olympics
(28:03):
knowing that she has top level replacements. It's always sad
when an elite athlete is starting to say goodbye in
their career and you don't get many more elite than
Alex Morgan. But I'm afraid it's It's life, right, ladies,
It's life.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay, we probably have the most serious question that we've
saved for the and Rebecca, Okay, I want to make
sure we end on a high note. So I just
I want you to be honest. Okay, you're from England.
Now you're living in the US.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Are you team USA or are you Team UK?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Danielle, It's it's a big problem for me. I gotta
be honest with you. It is a major issue. Not
only am I living here, I'm also an American citizen,
my child was born here, my husband certificate family, I
have two passports. So I okay, am I can I
(29:00):
be both? I mean, is it possible to be both?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, I'll give you that, except for answer this. Okay,
the US women's soccer team is playing the UK women's
soccer team. What jersey are you wearing. You're not broadcasting,
you're not live on air.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Who's jersey?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
It's Team Great Britain. Yeah, I got any of it.
If I'm not broadcasting, I'm not on NBC's payroll. In
that very second, then I got a root for my
ladies from back Hope, just like I'm routing for England
every time they played the men's team at the World
carpet of the Euros. I think it's hard, you know,
I think it's hard for me to root against them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Every other thing is USA hometown loyalty. I respect it
so much.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
I've lived in LA for ten years and I will
never root for the Lakers. I will always be a
Bulls fan, and I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Okay, listen here on the bright side, we're all about
celebrating women in our multitudes. So I give you full
permission to embrace both of your loves.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Thank you, Simone, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I'm gonna make you choose Rebecca. You are so awesome.
Thank you for this.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Thank you for sharing so many stats and stories. I
feel prepared to walk into an Olympic party and really
know my stuff.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Love it, love it. Maybe you also welcome, Thank you,
thank you, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Rebecca Lowe is an NBC daytime host who will be
covering the Olympic Games from Paris. She's the host of
NBC Sports Premier League coverage and this will be her
sixth time covering the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
That's it for today's show, y'all. Tomorrow, we are talking
to Joe Piazza. She's an author, journalist, and podcaster. Her
latest book is called The Sicilian Inheritance.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
on Instagram and.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Tiktok'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
That's r O B A. Y.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
See you tomorrow, folks.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Keep looking on the bright side.
Hey Bam, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side, we're counting down to the Olympics.
We have a special guest, NBC correspondent Rebecca Low. She'll
be covering the Olympics in Paris this month, and she's
here to share insider tips on who to watch and
what to expect. It's Monday, July fifteenth. I'm Danielle Robe and.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Happy Monday, y'all, Happy Monday.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I had such a fun, sunshine filled weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
It was hot in la.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am so not ready for summer to end. I'm
trying to stay in the moment. Just go to the beach,
go in the pool. Summer is just the best. I
love it, Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I took a hike with Julisa this weekend and we
went early and we almost burned up here.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I will tell you that. Yes, and it's getting hotter
by the year. But for now, we are looking forward
to a great week and we're kicking things off with
on my Mind Monday. This is our opportunity to share
the stories that motivate us, inspire curiosity, and provide a
fresh perspective to our week. So you guys already know
(01:20):
I love this UK publication, Stylist magazine because they always
have such great think pieces. And I recently came across
an article that's all about building a growth mindset. Danielle,
do you abide by this term? Like, what does that
term make you think of when you hear growth mindset?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah? For sure.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think I learned about this like five or six
years ago from reading a book. I remember when Reese
Witherspoon came on here for our first episode. She told
us about the moment that her life changed, and she
said she started doing inner work and reading every book
she could find. And I had such a similar moment
in my twenties, and that's when I came across a
(02:00):
growth mindset, which is basically the belief that you can
grow and improve and that hard work and dedication and
repetition and consistency over time can get you to where
you want to go.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think we both definitely have a growth mindset, and
it's something that I also discovered a few years ago
through reading a book that was all about the power
of having a positive mindset manifestation, if you want to
call it that.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
So that's what this article is all about.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Growth mindset is just the idea that talent can be
developed through consistency and learning. And then, to take it
a step further, by having a growth mindset, you're more
likely to believe that you can achieve what you want,
which in turn makes you more motivated, focused, and ultimately
more likely to succeed and get where you want to go.
And then on the flip side, the opposite of a
growth mindset is a fixed mindset, this idea that talent
(02:59):
is innate and static, or even worse, believing that you're
destined to fail, which of course is just going to
stifle innovation and opportunity. And I think it's really helpful
to think about this framework not just as an individual,
but also as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
For any of our bright.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Side besties who have employees out there, if you create
a growth mindset environment for your employees, they're more than
thirty percent likely or to feel a strong sense of
loyalty to your company, to your mission. That's according to
the Harvard Business Review.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
If anybody out there is curious about this topic. There's
a book called The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
I love this book.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Oh it's it's short, it's a quick read. It's so
freaking good.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
He gives you like things that you can actually do
to practice this. So do you think there's any ways
that we can practice having a growth mindset?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I think a key ingredient here is taking inspiration from others.
I can remember a conversation that I had with one
of my best friends that really unlocked a growth mindset
for me. I had been in a job that I
didn't like for many years and wanted to make a
move and go out on my own. And my friend
said to me, Simone, you are stuck in an employee
(04:10):
mindset and you need to break out of that and
have a self employed mindset. So I think just having
people around you who can give you those little nudges
and reminders that is so key.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I love that, Simone.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There's also like this quote, you can't be what you
can't see, and I think that's part of it. Like
if you surround yourself with people who are thinking differently
than you, it's so contagious and the best way. And
I think also to add, there's an element here of curiosity,
and it's just getting curious about your life, getting curious
(04:45):
about your relationships, about yourself. I think it all starts
with just with asking yourself some questions.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
And one more thing that the piece identified that I
thought was really interesting is the importance of learning to
accept failure as a necessary part of growth the best.
So working to reframe failure as essential to having a
growth mindset. So instead of looking at failure as a
reason to give up, looking at it as part of
the process and just a necessary step to getting what
(05:15):
you want. I've always found that failures offers such huge
learnings for me.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I interviewed an entrepreneur one time named Encore Jane, and
he actually doesn't even use the word failure. He uses
the word pivot because for entrepreneurs, and I think this
is a mindset more so than just for entrepreneurs, but
there is no failure because whatever happens leads you into
the next thing. So on that note, we are talking
about athletes today who have this growth mindset. You can't
(05:44):
not have it when you are an Olympic athlete learning
to accept failure or pivots and not letting fear hold
you back is at the core of these Olympic athletes.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, Sin, today's guest is actually going to be on
the ground in Paris covering the Olympics this summer, so
she might have an idea of the kind of mindset
you need to take home the gold for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Rebecca Lowe is an NBC daytime host and the host
of NBC Sports Premier League coverage. She'll be attending and
covering the Olympics for the sixth time this year.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
I mean, true Olympic royalty.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
What I think is so amazing about the Olympics is,
you know, it's not just about these spectacular athletic feats.
We all love watching those moments in real time, but
it's also the personal stories. I mean, the sacrifices that
these athletes have to make, that their families have to make,
to overcome so much to get to where they are.
I mean, we see them perform, but there's so much
(06:39):
that goes on behind the scenes that we'll never get
to see.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And Rebecca Lowe is going to be those eyes and
ears on the ground because you know, she's been following
some of these athletes from the very beginning of their careers.
She's interviewed these women over time, and she's watched them
when the cameras are not turned on, so she has
a really unique vantage point. She can talk triumphs, comebacks,
(07:03):
and the emerging athletes, the ones that we got to watch.
And best of all, she's offering this real human perspective
on all of the powerhouse female athletes that we'll be
rooting for.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
We are going to take a quick break and when
we come back, we're talking Shikerrie Richardson, Simone Biles, the
women's soccer team, and the brightest new athletes competing this
summer that you need to know about.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Welcome back to the bright Side.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
We have Rebecca Low with us today to kick off
our road to the Olympics coverage.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's right, Rebecca lo Is, an NBC daytime host who'll
be covering the games from Paris.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Rebecca, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Simone Danielle, thank you so much for having me. This
is going to be fun.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Rebecca.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You are essentially Olympics Royalty at this point, because this
will be year six time attending and covering the games
is the excitement still the same each time. Are you
jaded or do you just walk into that environment like
with the enthusiasm of a little kid still, Oh.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
My goodness, not Jaded's mown at all. I kind of
go through waves of different emotions in the build up
to the Olympics. I do soccer, that's my regular job,
and I finished that season in May, so whenever it's
a summer Olympics, I have sort of two months leading
up and in some ways it feels forever a way,
and then of course it comes up so quickly. But
in that two months I go through all sorts of
(08:34):
different emotions. Often it's nerves, because every new challenge, even
though I've done Olympics before, is still a new challenge.
This coming Olympics, I'm going to be co hosting the
Daytime Show with Craig Melvin from The Today Show, which
will be so fun. But we've never worked together before,
so we're sort of trying to create a chemistry, you know,
over the phone and trying to get to know each other.
(08:56):
And then as I get closer. It was funny because
yesterday morning I said to my husband, Oh, I'm so
excited now, and I think it's partly as well to
do with preparation. I don't know if you, ladies feel
the same, But until I feel prepared for something, I mean,
with the Olympics, you can never be fully prepared because
there are a million stories and a million things you
need to know. But I have done enough work this
summer and I've had enough meetings with the production team
(09:16):
to sort of feel like, you know what, I've got
a handle on this. I think we're ready to go.
And then it's Paris, ladies, It's Paris. I mean, hello,
how exciting is that in itself? So no little kids vibes.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
For sure, Rebecca.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So much of what you do is not just the
knowledge that you accumulate in the research that you have
to do on the front end, but it's the language
that you use in the moment to describe what you're seeing.
And something that we talk about on our show often
is the double standards that are so pervasive in media
today when it comes to how female athletes are portrayed
(09:51):
versus male athletes. How are you mindful about how women
are covered at the Games.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
That's a really good point. I suppose, having spent my
entire career in a male dominated environment, which is soccer
and television, both of which, by the way, are male dominated.
Soccer and television. I am quite aware of that whole conversation.
I think one of the things that I'm always really
(10:20):
conscious of is I often think, and we have been
told at NBC, and it's been reiterated to us time
and time again, it feels to me like women are
seen as girls. When there's a young female, an eighteen
year old, fully grown adult, but she's a female, it's
often casually spoken about as being a young girl. And
(10:41):
I don't think you would say the same thing for
a man who's eighteen year old. They would never be
called a young boy. And I think that's just this
sort of very bizz It's not even bizarre because we
all know where it's come from. It's come from thousands
and thousands of years, but it's ingrained slight disbelief that
female males could do what males could do. And so
(11:04):
I'm probably one of the biggest champions you'll find of
females at the Olympic Games. And I think I do
that as best I can. When I think about my
own life and my own career, how I want to
be perceived by the men in soccer and by the
men in television. That's why I think these women want
to be perceived which is pretty much the same as
the men virtually. So I tried to treat them as
(11:26):
I would if it was a man. And I think
that maybe is the biggest compliment I can pay.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Do you feel like you've had to go out of
your way to fight for credibility as a woman in
these male dominated media circles?
Speaker 5 (11:38):
So I mean, how long have you got? I mean
it has been since the day I started age twenty
one in England. And you know, I'd be at a
press conference and I'd ask a question and fifty men
would turn and look, who on earth is Who's that?
And so when I look at a lot of these women,
I sort of can see what they've also had to battle,
because sometimes talent isn't enough. You have to have grit
(12:01):
and you have to have character in order to sort
of elbow people out the way. And it's a horrible
thing to say, but you sometimes have to do that
to be strong in a man environment. And I don't
mean albow other women out of the way, I mean
elbow the men out of the way. To get yourself
to the front. I feel like I definitely had to
fight that, and maybe there's a parallel there with some
of these athletes who have had so much to fight
(12:22):
over so many years, so many of them, with all
the stories that we hear, you know, every year. So yeah,
it's been certainly been a ride for twenty odd years
of this career, that's for certain.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So I can still relate to that because when I
was a local news reporter, I was showing up to
a press conference and one of the camera ops from
another station called me kiddo in passing oh oh, and
I was like, don't go, kid.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Back to what we just said about girls, right.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Yeah, infantalizing me.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I'm not sure they would have called a man of
your age kiddo, and I got called in my sweetheart,
I got called all of those kind of yes, that terminology. Yeah,
But isn't it crazy that people look at women as
though that in some spaces, still in twenty twenty four,
as though there's sort of another species, Not that they
are populating half of the planet, but they are sort
of like when these men used to look round at
(13:13):
me and be like, what on earth are you doing?
I'll be I'm not an alien. I'm just literally just
half of the planet over here. It's still quite depressing.
I have to say that we are even having this
conversation twenty twenty four, it's not enough progress. We're still
fighting this fight all the time.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I actually wanted to ask you about twenty twenty four.
Have you felt a shift in the industry. Do you
feel like people give you more respect over that, like
since the me Too movement?
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Since twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, when.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
I moved from England to America, that was a big shift,
just because the way that soccer has dealt with in
England is very archaic. To be honest, it certainly was
when I was there. I think it's got a bit better.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
But so I felt not like how we see it
on Ted Lasso.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
Now, I know, I know, no, my goodness, if I
could tell you the stories of the first ten years
of my career. But then as soon as I landed
in the States, and I think this is down a
lot to the fact that you guys have so many
frontline sports, whereas we just pretty much just have softwer
that's what everyone cares about. In the manner of that
with basketball, NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS. They're all on the NetWorld,
(14:21):
so there are actually lots of opportunities for women to appear.
And when I came here in twenty thirteen, I was like, Wow,
there's so many women on television. I can't put in
all these sports. I can't believe that. I mean, in
my opinion, there are still not enough hosts. They tend
to be more sideline reporters, which I've done and that
is the hardest job in broadcasting, without a doubt. But
from the outside looking in, I feel like there need
to be more hosts and good positions. But it's definitely shifted.
(14:44):
So when I moved here, it shifted in my career,
and then since the Me Too movement, there's definitely been
a shift. I definitely feel more empowered. I think women
feel more empowered. There's still a way to go, because
there was a pushback against that for a while, and
you know, as there always is, but that has been
and super helpful, certainly in my industry.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, I felt it too. I even felt it.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I was doing local news in Chicago at the time
of the movement, and I felt the shift in the
newsroom from the executive. So it's not perfect, like you said,
but I'm so grateful to all the women that pushed
for it and fought for it, because I really do
feel a shift. So you're a fly on the wall
as a broadcaster at the Olympics, Like you're seeing these
(15:25):
behind the scenes moments. You're seeing athletes after they get
off the floor of the gymnasium, out of the pool,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
What are you seeing that we don't get to see
on TV.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Ooh, you know what, It's funny because I get to
see them as real humans. All athletes and it's the
same with all celebrities have a front and when the
camera goes on or when they're in in race mode,
they have that front. When I'm doing so, I tend
to get to interact with them the most when I
aim to be them. So I'll be in the studio
and I will see the official from Team USA come
(15:59):
through the or behind them will be whichever athlete or
athletes I'm going to get to interview five minutes later,
and they all have to get the earpiece in, and
they have to get a worcrophoned up, and they have
to get a little bit of makeup on and while
they're doing that, I sort of read their body language,
and then when you compare that to the way they
are on screen, it's so interesting because the one thing
(16:20):
I've seen most and they are just so normal and
they're humble and they're shy, and they're not used to
all of this attention, And especially the athletes that break
out at an Olympic Games and haven't been used to,
you know, Simone Biles, Katie Ladecki. They're different, and they've
done a million interviews, they know what's what. But you
get somebody come in who's got a medal and an
Olympic Games that never thought they would and no one
(16:41):
really has heard of them, and you see their innocence
maybe or sort of just kind of wide eyed. I
just love how like their mom might come on and
just sit in the corner and I see them hugging
their mom offter the interview and then they want a
selfie on the set, and it's just they like you
and me. They're just radio humans who happen to be
unbelievable a sport, but unbelievable a sport that has this
(17:03):
sort of slight purity about it. I think I think
the Olympics and all the different sports within the Olympics
is just so pure. It's why we love it. It
isn't tainted, certainly isn't yet by all the money and
all the glamor. It's just seems to be so real.
And that's what I love about seeing them clopse off.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, it's so endearing to hear that. I really really
really love that.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
All Right, we've got to take a quick break, but
we'll be back shortly with Rebecca Lowe.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Okay, I kind of want you to give us a
little bit of a cheat sheet because Simona, I don't
know if you feel this way, but when I watch
any sport, let alone the Olympics, like, I love being
in a room with people and they're like, oh, who's that?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Who's that? And I'm like, I know who that is.
I heard them talked about on a podcast.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So can you give us the rundown of who we
should be looking out for so that all of our
besties listening can be the person in the room that's
like of them.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
I love it, Yes, Okay, So I think all the
best season in the room will have heard of the
lives of Simone Biles and would have heard well, do
you think they would have heard of the lives of
Shirkerri Richardson because she's a big deal now, yeah, finitely yeah.
I mean she's doozo. I mean she's she's done a
huge Boil article. So if you're in Vogue, then you've
made it in life. But I think if you're sitting
there and you're watching the gymnastics and the five women
(18:21):
who are on teen USA, all four of those five
are returning having been in Tokyo except one. So the
one that is new and making her Olympic debut as
a sixteen year old, she only just turned sixteen. I mean,
it is quite ridiculous. Her name is Hesley Rivera and
she is a little pocket rocket. Anyone I think who
is in their teen years, you just if you're of
(18:43):
any age like me, with a child like me, I
just want to just mother them. I'm just so, I
think I'm more excited about seeing a teenager do well
than anything else because you feel that kind of motherly
feeling about Imagine if that was my kid, you know, So,
Hesley Rivera, I want you to definitely look out for
in terms of there's a lady that I think you
(19:04):
guys should know. And her name is Messiah Russell. This
is definitely one for the party when you're like, oh, Messiah, yeah,
I know what about her?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Sure. So it's the one hundred meter hurdles and she
won it at Olympic Trials and she got a personal
best and she made a trials record and he was
filled up in Portland, Oregon. When she turned pro, there
was a lot of criticism, which I find very massar
again about her maybe not being as good now that
she turned pro. When she did the interview, she was
she was pretty fierce, Like all you people who came
(19:33):
for me, look at what I just did. No one
loves kind of sticking it to people more, do they?
Athletes love doing that. These people who didn't believe in me,
this coach, you never believed in me, and then they
go and prove them wrong. Nothing better than that kind
of story. So Massih Russell.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
There's a sports psychology behind that for sure.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Definitely keeping on the track and field topic, I know
that you've interviewed Shaki Richardson in the past, and she's
making her return to track and field events this year
at the Olympics after the marijuana related suspension ahead of Tokyo.
How do you think she's evolved since that incident and
how do you think the narrative around her has changed.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I love her, I have to say I haven't been
as excited about a female athlete in a while. Her story,
if anyone who doesn't know, is quite something. Grow up
in Texas and has a difficult family background, but at
the same time has an incredibly tight family around her.
And I think the one thing simone to answer your
question first of all, is that to use her own quote.
(20:32):
She doesn't say I'm back. She says I'm not back,
I'm better, And I think that tells you everything you
need to know. She doesn't want to keep harping back
to what happened before Tokyo. I don't know her. I'm English,
but I was for Team USA and for her devastated
when that news came out, having watched her at Chrials
and seen the talent that we have available to us
at teen USA, she couldn't go. It was awful. But
(20:54):
she doesn't talk a lot about that. She talks a
lot about the twenty four to seven nature of track
and fields and being a sprinter. And I don't know
about you. But before I worked Olympic Games, I used
to wonder how sprinter's trained. How do you train to
be a ten second runner, which is essentially what she is.
And I think she talks a lot in some of
(21:15):
the interviews she's given recently about obviously strength training and
the different elements of the ten second race. There are
about five or six different parts to a one hundred
meter rais and yet it happens in ten seconds. There's
the blocks, there's coming out of the blocks. When do
you put your head up, When do you change your shoulders?
When do you lend lean forward to try and win it?
And they're all those things. Somehow they train them. And
(21:35):
she talks about not only those moments of training, but
of nutrition, the constant nutrition twenty four hours a day,
the constant hydration, the massages, the physical therapy, then in
the gym, And I think that what her message is
by doing these interviews and explaining how her life is
or or track is, she's saying that is the past.
Yes it was her, but that was a mistake and
(21:56):
that was in the past. And also the reason she
gave for the failed drugs test with a THHC was
because she was just dealing with a lot emotionally, and
that is I think something we have to give grace
for so three years on here we are her and
her nails are going to be amazing in Paris, and
she is elite. Elite.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I think that's so evident in the support that she's
garnered from fans. Okay, before we move on to your domain,
which is soccer, really quickly, Simone Biles, she is going
to be in Paris. She's someone who continues to push
the boundaries of what is possible in gymnastics. What are
you expecting from her this time around? Are you hearing
(22:37):
any murmurs or rumors about what she's got planned her
headspace going into the Games this year?
Speaker 5 (22:43):
From what I hear on her head's face, she's better
than she's ever been. She attributes that to therapy every Thursday,
every single Thursday, since what happened when she got the
twisties in Tokyo and that just blew up everyone's world,
obviously mainly hers. She has found the therapy which she
sees who she sees every Thursday, and that therapist she's
(23:03):
going to continue to see during the Games. She's even
managed to work it out that on a Thursday, she's
not competing, so she's going to get to spend her
day doing therapy and that's her self care day, which
I think is crucial. You were talking Danielle about the
me too movement, and I think that similarly with mental health,
she broke real boundaries she did in Tokyo sman bars
with what happened to her, and it's a different world
(23:25):
now she can talk openly about having a self care
day and having a therapy day, whereas ten years ago.
Can you imagine if a top gym is was like
having a self care day, everybody would have been like,
oh please, she's obviously woo women, a bit hippieike and crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Well, even when she did say that she didn't feel
comfortable performing that day, she got so much heat, so
much backlash from a lot of men too, who were
discrediting her in her accomplishments, just because she was self
aware and in her body.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
And if you speak and hear from lots of other gymnasts,
that's actually very common. It's just not talked about that much,
and so I think it was so new to so
many people, and as we know, lack of knowledge on
something can often lead to ignorance, and I think that's
what happened in that situation. But in terms of when
she's out there performing in parasite, expect nothing less than
plenty of gold medals. She does have an opponent or arrival.
(24:15):
I should say now that she didn't really have to
deal with Rebecca and I think you pronounced her last
name Andragi. She's from Brazil. She was there eight years
ago in Rio, but she wasn't anywhere near the standard.
She's now really good and she has come on leaps
and bounds, and Rebecca and Rogi is going to be
a big rival to Simone Biles. But you know what
(24:36):
I think with her mental strength now, Simone Biles, it's
just going to take her up. It's just going to
raise the levels. She's not been challenged. Let's be honest.
It's never good if you're an athlete and there's no
one and you're basically she's always said it. Her opponents
is herself. She's basically trying to compete against herself, and
she's always said that because there's everyone else is about
thirteen points behind. I mean, she's so ahead of everyone.
(24:57):
So maybe Androgi can lights a little fire under her,
plus the mental strength that she's filled up over the
last couple of years, and I think we're going to
see her back to her best without a doubt.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I'm like, God, what, that's a great point.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I mean, one of my favorite docs is the Larry
Bird Magic Johnson documentary, and they both say that they
wouldn't have been as great of athletes individually had they
not been rivals with one another.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
So, Daniel, can you imagine how good she is when
she doesn't play a rival. So that's why I think
this might take it to a whole other level. If
there is even another level that Simone Biles can reach.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yes, okay, we have to talk soccer.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I have such a girl crush on the US women's
soccer team.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I always have.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
They're just the coolest individually and as a team, they're
just so freaking cool. Alex Morgan huge girl crush of mine.
There's a lot of talk that she's not joining the team.
Can you give us a little bit of the backstory
what's happening here?
Speaker 5 (25:58):
So Alex Morgand has been in the face of US
women's national team soccer for as long as I can remember.
I remember working at the twenty eleven Women's World Cup
for ESPN, which was what thirteen years ago, and she
was established then. So for anyone new to this, we're
talking decades of Alex Morgan and not only tenure appearances,
but leadership and of course goals, right, goals, goals, goals.
(26:20):
That's how she's made her name, that's how she's mamed
her millions. She is all about the goals and she's
won everything. She's won at all. She just turned thirty five.
And the situation is that at the last World Cup
in twenty twenty three last year, they didn't do very well.
It was a bit of a collapse and a bit
of a shock that the rest of the world had
caught up with the US women's national team in terms
(26:41):
of ability. Without a doubt that has happened, and the
US similarly, funnily enough to Simone Biles, because the US
for so long has just been out Now business is easy,
We're just the best of the world by far, and
suddenly arous is caught up and so it's given them
a bit of a shock and they have to regroup.
So they've gone and they've got the best women's coach
and best female coach with that out in England, the
(27:01):
home of football, of course. And her name is Emma
Hayes and she is fantastic. She's won everything at domestic level.
She's not done international yet, but domestically with Chelsea and
other clubs, she's won everything. So she has come in
to take over and she said a couple of friendlies
and then she had to make the Olympic roster announcement
and there was no Alex Morgan named in the squad.
(27:22):
So this is a huge shot. But you know, I
think you have to look at it from the other
side as well. Emma Hayes is coming in to try
and take this team in a new direction. They have
to the Alex Morgan's, the Megan Rapinos, the Abby one
Bucks of the last twenty years have their place, and
my goodness do they have their plays on and off
the field, by the way, let's not forget. But they've
(27:43):
got to go forward with some youth. So Emma Hayes
has the plan. She has the plan and you know
she's got some incredible strikers. Mallory Swanson who was injured
for the last World Cup. Remember that name, Sophia Smith.
If anyone's listening, who's news to soccer and women's soccer.
Sophia Smith is amazing and so she has youngsters in
the position of Alex Morgan to go to the Olympics
(28:03):
knowing that she has top level replacements. It's always sad
when an elite athlete is starting to say goodbye in
their career and you don't get many more elite than
Alex Morgan. But I'm afraid it's It's life, right, ladies,
It's life.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay, we probably have the most serious question that we've
saved for the and Rebecca, Okay, I want to make
sure we end on a high note. So I just
I want you to be honest. Okay, you're from England.
Now you're living in the US.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Are you team USA or are you Team UK?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Danielle, It's it's a big problem for me. I gotta
be honest with you. It is a major issue. Not
only am I living here, I'm also an American citizen,
my child was born here, my husband certificate family, I
have two passports. So I okay, am I can I
(29:00):
be both? I mean, is it possible to be both?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, I'll give you that, except for answer this. Okay,
the US women's soccer team is playing the UK women's
soccer team. What jersey are you wearing. You're not broadcasting,
you're not live on air.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Who's jersey?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
It's Team Great Britain. Yeah, I got any of it.
If I'm not broadcasting, I'm not on NBC's payroll. In
that very second, then I got a root for my
ladies from back Hope, just like I'm routing for England
every time they played the men's team at the World
carpet of the Euros. I think it's hard, you know,
I think it's hard for me to root against them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Every other thing is USA hometown loyalty. I respect it
so much.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
I've lived in LA for ten years and I will
never root for the Lakers. I will always be a
Bulls fan, and I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Okay, listen here on the bright side, we're all about
celebrating women in our multitudes. So I give you full
permission to embrace both of your loves.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Thank you, Simone, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I'm gonna make you choose Rebecca. You are so awesome.
Thank you for this.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Thank you for sharing so many stats and stories. I
feel prepared to walk into an Olympic party and really
know my stuff.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Love it, love it. Maybe you also welcome, Thank you,
thank you, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Rebecca Lowe is an NBC daytime host who will be
covering the Olympic Games from Paris. She's the host of
NBC Sports Premier League coverage and this will be her
sixth time covering the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
That's it for today's show, y'all. Tomorrow, we are talking
to Joe Piazza. She's an author, journalist, and podcaster. Her
latest book is called The Sicilian Inheritance.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
on Instagram and.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Tiktok'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
That's r O B A. Y.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
See you tomorrow, folks.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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