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Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com. I'm Jane Pauley. You're listening to an extended interview from the latest edition of Sunday Morning. So let's start with the new congrats. They finally got it. It sounds like it's doing so well that it even surprises you a little bit. Yeah, it definitely surprises me how well it's doing. I mean, you know, when you have had pain for such a long period of time, you know, I think my expectations were low. I was hoping it would be better, you know, than it was. And it just has so far exceeded my expectations. I don't think about it.
I don't feel it. It's like it's brand new, which is incredible to me. So you've been thinking about getting a new replacement for a while, right? Or partial replacement for a few years. Yeah.
And I just did a lot of research. That's what took me so long to decide is that there's so many different types of replacements, partials, fulls. Do you keep your ACL?
Do you take your ACL away? You know, there's, there's a lot of options. There's also a lot of doctors.
There's also lots of robotics involved. You know, there's a lot, there's a lot to decide on, but I think I made the right choice. So what made you pull the trigger? Yeah. I just couldn't do the things I love to do anymore.
Yeah. It was really bad. And I kept getting surgeries to try to, you know, make life okay.
And it just, you know, after six months, it was back to where it was before. It wasn't worth it to continue to try to do these surgeries. So I, you know, it's like you get to the end of your rope and you got to, you got to make a decision. So I did. Sounds like though, you didn't do it to get back into skiing. You just did it to like, live your life.
Yeah. I definitely did it to just live my life. I mean, my, my goal was to play tennis and wake surf and, you know, do all the fun things that I wanted to do, you know, before it was hard to just honestly, walking was the hardest and going on a walk with my friend, seven year old, you know, aunt Lindsay could only go, you know, 10 minutes. And then I had to turn around and the seven year old wanted to keep going. And I had to explain that, you know, aunt Lindsay's in a lot of pain.
I can't, I can't keep going. So you know, it just was, it was time. It was time. How long had it been since you were able to like straighten your right leg?
A long time. I had developed pretty bad bone spurs. And so it was just, it was always blocking my range of motion. I couldn't straighten it all the way. I couldn't flex it all the way. And so I just stuck in this you know, like half state that ended up causing hip pain, back pain, neck pain.
It was just, you know, eventually it just goes up the chain. So it wasn't just my knee, unfortunately. It was kind of everything. So what was the recovery like? I mean, you've obviously, was it better than your other recovery?
Recovery was a lot easier than an ACL, for example. I mean, I've had so many surgeries that I can compare against, but yeah, it was, you know, because there was no ligament repair or meniscal repair. It's basically just your bone healing from the impact of hammering in a titanium piece and cutting off the top. But I mean, I had a, you know, I had a plate and 18 screws in my arm, and it's kind of a similar situation where there's nothing you can do. It's not going to break. You know, the titanium's there.
It's not going anywhere. So it was just a matter of, you know, getting the swelling down post-surgery and getting the range of motion back. And once I did that, you know, I was up and walking in like five days. Oh yeah, really? Yeah.
Wow. How soon did you, afterwards, did you wonder how far you could push it? It was pretty quickly after, because, you know, it actually turned so quickly that I was, I was so surprised at, you know, all the things that I could do almost immediately after surgery that I couldn't do before, that hurt me before, bothered me before. You know, I had no swelling.
I had no pain. And it just was such a drastic difference that I thought, well, if I can do all of these things that used to hurt me before, you know, where can I take this? You know, can I ski? What does that feel like? And my mind starts to wander and, you know. And here we are.
And here we are. What was that first run like that you took? I was smiling, you know, through the back of my helmet. You know, I had so much fun. And I, I really honestly couldn't believe it. I, I always kept waiting for the, you know, the pin to drop, that something was going to hurt it and reality would kick in and I'd go back to, you know, being less than I was before, but it never did. And when I took that first run, I was just so happy because I could do the thing that I love the most in the world without pain.
You know, it didn't hurt. I couldn't feel it. It was like brand new and I, it blew my mind. It sounds like it's almost so new that it felt completely different.
Like you're like, wait a minute. Now it's totally different. I, you know, everyone says, oh, well you're older, so it must be harder. I'm like, actually it's a lot easier.
I had to do so much to just, you know, get out of bed every morning, let alone when I was competing, you know, it was so much work and now I don't have to do all those things. I'm like a normal person. You're brand new now. I'm brand new.
I'm titanium. So how long had it been since you've been on skiing? Were you skiing recreationally?
Yeah, of course. I love skiing. And that's always what's driven me is that I, I love being on the mountain. It was what my family always did together. It's what I did with my grandparents. You know, my grandparents, you know, were, had a big influence in my life. And I loved being with my family on the mountain.
So I definitely skied quite a bit when I was retired. And so it wasn't a, I mean, it's not the same. You can't compare free skiing, you know, with your dad to I'm going to go race downhill. It's a little different. It's a little different.
So when did, when did the idea of competing again start to percolate? I mean, I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself. So I decided that I would go to New Zealand and, and try and see how it felt. Just come off the grid.
Yeah, totally off the grid. No one knew. It was just my coaches, two coaches, and in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand. And, you know, I wanted to see how it felt. I didn't want to put any expectations or pressure on myself to do anything because I didn't need to do anything.
I just wanted to see if it would work. And so we made these steps. You know, I free skied. I started training in gates. You know, I just kind of kept checking all these boxes on a list of things to do.
And it felt great on every single step. So I wouldn't say I knew that I would be racing until October when I got to Europe and I did a second camp. Again, like managing my own expectations is probably the hardest thing for me in this whole journey.
But I just didn't want to jump too far ahead of myself. And I think that's what allowed me to slowly build into where I am now and be able to be racing. So what are your expectations?
That's a great question. I mean, I think my first few races were so good that I adjusted my expectations. And I expected a lot from myself. I think I know what I'm capable of.
And I know that ski racing hasn't changed that much in the last six years. I know what it takes to win. I'm not ready to win yet. I still need to get stronger. I still need to fix my equipment. You know, that's been one of the biggest challenges is that I didn't have a long preparation period like most racers have. And I hadn't raced in six years. So I have to figure out my equipment. The boots totally changed since I left racing.
The skis are pretty much the same, but it's like, you know, going from driving a regular car to jumping into Formula One. You can't just jump right in and expect that you know the car perfectly. You know, you have to make adjustments. So I have to make those adjustments. And once I do, I'm really optimistic about what I can achieve. Of course, you know, that's going to take a little bit of time, but I have a year.
So I think that's enough time. I mean, people are obviously there's been so many elite athletes like yourself who've competed into their 40s. The difference with you is they didn't take, you know, five and a half years off in between. Right.
So what you're doing really is in that sense, anyway, unprecedented. I don't think any of those people that any of those elite athletes also had a knee replacement. Right. I mean, yeah, there's and there's not many women that have done that either.
It's mostly men. They never Yeah, most of them didn't take a break from their careers. They just kept playing, you know, later in life. So it is a bit different.
And yeah, I don't know of any active professional athlete that's had a knee replacement. But yeah, I mean, I always like to push the envelope, I guess. So I'll be the guinea pig.
I'll try it out. You said that going into these world championships, you have a different perspective, you have some different goals, what's what's different this time around, you think? I mean, everything's different, really, I have been away from the sport for six years. And I think that just gives me a different perspective, because I never expected to come back. Yeah, you know, I knew always that my career was over. And I mourn the loss of my, you know, of something that I loved so much. And I built an amazing life, you know, I got my foundation and business and family and everything's, you know, great, but no one else has that perspective. You know, no one's else, no one else has stepped away from the sport and and been able to look at life from a broader, a bigger picture. Well, you were outside looking in.
Yeah, exactly. And I see, you know, how I've always known how lucky I was to be able to do what I loved, because I've been injured so many times. You know, when things are taken away from you that you love, you realize, oh, wow, I really do love that so much.
And and the passion for ski racing has never gone away. I just have found different things to challenge myself. So I just have a different perspective. And I don't need to do this.
I don't need to prove anything to anybody. I'm not doing it for any other reason other than I love ski racing. And Cortina is one of my favorite places in the world. So what I come back if it wasn't Cortina, I don't know if I would.
That's kind of been a, you know, something that when I retired, I was really sad about because Cortina is like a home race for me, you know, it'd be really special if I could compete there. So it's definitely been a carrot that's been dangling. So it all was kind of working out though, seems like so far. Yeah, so far. I mean, you know, I've always expected something to happen, you know, something to set me back or, you know, something to go wrong.
But so far, you know, everything has really gone well, I, I've taken some tumbles. And, you know, I'm in one piece, I still have work to do, I need to get stronger, I really didn't have much time, because I didn't know if I was going to race. So I didn't even have really a trainer, I didn't really have a program. I didn't have a physical therapist, you know, all these things that, you know, I kind of need to have I didn't have in place. So I just need time. And that's why you were so surprised by it, because you thought this was going to be the case, obviously. Well, I mean, I had plans, I mean, I have things that, you know, I had to cancel a lot of things for my work for business, because I had this whole year scheduled out. And now, you know, I can't do any of those things. And I think it's a pretty easy call to say, you know, hey, I'm, I'm racing World Cup now, I can't go to the board meeting anymore.
Everything, everyone's pretty understanding about it. But But still, you know, I, I definitely made plans with no expectation of, of being in the starting gate this year. You always said that you'd be really skied without fear, and you didn't think about consequences too much. Do you still have that? Yeah, I have that sense of no fear.
No, I don't. It's just, I think that's one thing that I actually really love about skiing is that there, there is a risk, you know, and you have to be focused, and you, you have to be ready. And you have to really, you have to take those risks, and you can't be afraid. And it's such, it's so similar to just life in general, you know, you have to keep moving, you, you have to push yourself, and you have to be out of your comfort zone, you'll never make progress to progress unless you you push yourself.
And sometimes I push myself past the limit, you know, and that's, that's caused problems for me, it's caused me to crash a few times. But I think those types of risks are worth taking, you know, I wouldn't have done as well as I have in my career, had I not taken those risks. So I could be afraid.
But then I would never get anywhere in life. And the risks are still worth it? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's the same risk that I'm taking now as it was when I was racing before. You know, it's not really any different.
I'm, yeah, I'm a little bit older. But there's plenty of men who've done it in my age. So I just see no reason why I can as well. And you never had, so I don't know whether you call it PTSD or where you call it, but after your crashes, you just, you would just get up and ski again, pretty much however, depending on whatever the recuperation period was that never, no crash never stuck in your head. No, because, I mean, I crashed so many times, you just fall and you get back up. And, you know, the longer you take to get back up, the harder it becomes. If you just, you just got to do it, you know, the next day is a new day.
Does their past is not dictate your future. So I learned from my mistakes. I watch my videos, I always watch my crashes. You know, I learn and then I erase and I move forward. And, you know, that's just how I approach my life.
And I've never, I've never thought about crashing when I'm in the starting gate, because when you're racing downhill, if you're thinking about crashing, then you probably shouldn't be there because downhill is a very dangerous sport. Yeah. You've talked about it being like a mental game versus a physical game. Does it feel like it's more mental now?
No, I think right now it's very physical. You know, I just need to be stronger. You know, I just haven't had the time to be as strong as I can be or I should be. Mentally, and that's one thing that I'm really happy about is where I am mentally. You know, when I'm in the starting gate, I'm at least in the world championships, you know, it feels like second nature to me.
And I executed the game plan that I wanted to. I mean, I'd been the result that I wanted, but at the same time, you know, what it's going to take for me to, to do well at the Olympics is, it has, it's going to come down a lot to how I can manage the pressure and expectation that others put on me, not that I put on myself. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I'm, I've always been someone that's put a lot of expectation on myself, a lot more than anyone else ever has, but I'm in a bit of a different situation now. I don't expect anything of myself. You know, I'm, I'm enjoying every second that I'm racing and, you know, on the road and on the mountain. But I know already from the season, from the world championships and everything that people expect a lot and they hope a lot. And I think the hope that I can do something special is a different type of, of pressure that I didn't really anticipate and something that I'm going to have to manage. What do you think as you come in with all this experience, so much more than any of your teammates have, how is that, how is that an edge or is it an edge, I guess, just the wisdom of your years of skiing?
I think my knowledge is one of the most important skills that I have that I can use for my, to my advantage. It's kind of like Tom Brady being a quarterback and he knows all the plays and, and he doesn't have to think about it. It's just second nature to him. You know, racing in the Olympics is second nature to me. It's, it'll be my fifth Olympics. So, you know, I know how it goes. I'm not going to be surprised by anything. I know what it takes to win.
I've done it before. And not many people are in that position, you know, and that experience is huge, you know, I, and I will try to use that to the best of my ability to give me an edge because I will be at a disadvantage. I am 40. And at that time next year, I will be 41. I'm racing against kids that are 22.
So it's a little, it's a little different, but I know that my skiing acumen and my knowledge of the course will help overcome whatever disadvantage I may have because of my age. Is there some good-natured ribbing? Oh yeah, for sure.
Yeah. Like what? There's one girl that calls me grandma, which I don't exactly appreciate, but there's definitely, you know, some jokes around the team that, you know, I raced in my first Olympics before one of the girls was born, you know, things like that. There's, there's a lot of timeframe references that I wish we didn't have to go through.
You know, like they don't know what the movie Dumb and Dumber, like, you know, there's some cultural references that, that my teammates don't always get. You always used to say, you'd be able to really like memory, look at a course and kind of memorize the line. Can you still do that?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Is it a photographic memory kind of? Yeah, I am very, very much a photographic memory. I can't remember the trails on mountains, but I can, I know exactly where they are and what it looks like and I can picture it very vividly, but yeah, and I've, it's like counting sheep. I visualize Cortina in my head when I go to sleep. Other than getting stronger, what do you think has to happen for you to get to Cortina? I have to figure out my equipment, you know, I have to dial it in and right now, you know, something's missing.
I can't quite figure out what it is. My skis are really fast. My equipment is really good, but it's not set up for me and I have to fine tune that. And I think ski racing is in that way, pretty complex. If you're really trying to optimize, it's just like, it's just like Formula One car, you know, to really optimize it, it takes time and it takes precision and it takes feel and different conditions.
You know, what works in the rain doesn't work, you know, in normal drive pavement, you know, things like that. So I have to, I need time, I need testing time and I will have that this spring and this summer. I'll travel to New Zealand and Chile and to Europe and I'll try to get that dialed in as best I can, but I know my skiing is there. I'm actually, I think I'm actually skiing better now than I was last few years of my career. Is that right? Really? Technically. So when you left in 2019, after winning the bronze with basically no knee whatsoever, like that was a pretty fairytale ending. So how do you, how do you top that? I think honestly, if I make it to the Olympics, that that'll be already a success.
Just getting there. No one else. I don't, I don't believe any female woman has raced in Olympics past like 34.
And I think that was me. It's either me or Michaela Dorfmeister, you know, I don't, there's no woman has pushed it that far. I think for a number of reasons, not that women can't do it, but because, you know, at a certain age, you know, I think there's a certain expectation that we should retire and, you know, have kids and be at home. And I think societal expectations are changing.
And I hope that this allows women to continue to follow their dreams no matter what their age and not give up on themselves and not let, you know, other people's expectations of them dictate where they want to go in life. And so I think just making it will be a success. I, of course, am a competitor. So I, of course, would like to do something special there.
But like I said, the fact that I'm even talking about going to Olympics right now is something I never thought I would ever do. So I'm already winning. We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview after this break. Yeah, sure thing. Hey, you sold that car yet? Yeah, sold it to Carvana. Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy. The guy who wanted to pay me in foreign currency, no interest over 36 months?
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Indeed.com slash listen. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. What were those first few days and weeks and months like in retirement? It was hard. You know, I had planned to take some time off and then about three days after I retired, I called my team and I was like, so when can you put me back to work?
I can't do this. I just, I need a challenge. You know, I'm someone that I always need to push myself. I always need to find something that's, that's activating my mind and my body and being able to, you know, focus on something intensely. That's, that's something that I need. And goals.
Yes, I need goals. And that's something that's hard in business. You know, you, you work hard to get, to make progress, but in business, you don't always know if you're making progress. In skiing, it's really simple.
You're either faster or you're slower. Your time tells you exactly did the work that I put in pay off or did it not pay off? And in life, it's not that simple. And I like the simplicity of knowing whether I'm succeeding or not succeeding. It's, that's something that I didn't really realize until I retired and I was searching for that.
And I think that's why I liked the gym so much because you work hard and you see the results. Measurable. Yeah. I liked being able to measure things. And there's very few things in life that are so clearly defined. That's interesting.
I never thought about it. Was there a, was there a grieving process sort of that you went through? The whole stages of... My analogy is that when I retired, you know, skiing was always my, my son and everything in my life revolved around it.
All the planets, they're all going the same direction. What time I woke up, what I ate, when I went to bed, how much business I did versus how much training I did, you know, it was all dictated around what's best for my skiing career. And then I woke up one day and my son is gone. And I have all these skill sets. I have all these things around me. I have amazing people and opportunities, but without the center, where does everything go? Where does everything fit in?
And how do I manage my time? And what's my goal now? You know, it's, it was hard to kind of put all the pieces back together. It was just a huge void.
Yeah. It's just, it was just different. And I knew it was going to be different. I knew it was going to be hard, but it's one thing to talk about it. And it's not a thing to actually experience it. And I did get a lot of advice from a lot of people, but I mean, I got so many different answers and almost none of them were applicable.
So it was not helpful. You, um, you always talk about how confident you are as a skier, but like you just said, like off the slopes, you weren't always that confident about certain things, social interactions and all sorts of stuff. Cause now that's, that's what you were doing in retirement. I mean, I think I've always been, um, good on the business side, but on my personal side, you know, just believing in myself when I'm not ski racing. I think that was something that I always, that it was always a challenge for me, but I think once I recognized that I was able to learn and grow and, you know, by the time I retired, I think I was in a much better place than I was when I was experiencing that self doubt and the low self of steam. Um, I've definitely learned a lot about myself. I think retirement was an amazing, it was amazing for me because I just learned, I learned who I was without skiing. And now I think that plays into my, my different perspective because I don't need to ski.
I am Lindsay. I am not a skier. I'm a person that loves to ski. And that's a really big distinction for me and in my mind, in my heart. So, um, I'm proud of how far I've come and, you know, grown as a person and, and I still learn and grow every day. And that's something that I always strive to do, but, you know, I'm still not perfect. I still have work to do. Um, no one's perfect and, and, um, I just have to keep that all in perspective. You know, I think perspective is really important. I mean, there were a fair amount of criticisms about you coming back, but it sounds like to me anyway, it sounded like it was more coming from Europe than it was from here.
Oh yeah. It was almost a hundred percent Europe. Why is that?
I honestly, I can't give you an answer to that because it doesn't make sense to me. Um, you know, I, I was quite surprised by the negative press that was coming from Europe, especially because it was coming from former racers, but some of them haven't raced in 50 years. So, you know, you have to take that with a grain of salt, but that's true. Some haven't raced in 50 years.
Yeah. But, you know, it still doesn't take away the fact that they have a microphone and they're talking and it's amplified because it's interesting and negative. And, and people love negative headlines. So, um, it, and I was always asked about it, you know, it was not like it's a comment on Instagram, you know, I'm asked about it every single day. I knew that people were going to question whether I should be racing with a knee replacement because it's never been done. But what I didn't expect was people to criticize me as a person and why I'm doing it and that I can't handle life outside of ski racing. I don't think you can make that comment without knowing who I am. And none of those people know who I am.
And none of them even asked me why I'm doing it. So I just, I try not to let that affect me. I really try, but I think the last few weeks have just been hard to block out the noise because it's not a comment on Instagram. It is someone that I respect, um, and attacking me as a person.
And also I will say there's another racer that came back, Marcel Hirscher, who retired the same time as I did. He's a little bit younger than me. And he, he didn't get a 10th of the criticism that I got. And again, the criticism wasn't really about my knee.
It was about me as a person. And he didn't get that. And I thought that was a completely unfair, what I was getting, the way I was treated comparatively to him. And he acknowledges, I mean, everyone acknowledges and that's the crazy part is that people see that, but it doesn't change.
People still keep going with it. I mean, you write in your book about how it was that way sometimes with your injuries, that there were people who, you know, thought it was for just drama and everything else, but they didn't do that for the men. It was for you. It was really for the men. They would just talk about their injuries for what they were.
They were injuries. And for you, it was, it was about drama and about a distraction really. Yeah. Yeah.
I think there's a, there's definitely a double standard, at least in the skiing world. And it's always been like that with me. And I don't know, again, I don't really have an answer as to why that continues to be the storyline because I'm telling you what I'm experiencing. I've been injured. I come back, you know, I'm not dramatizing it.
I'm just telling you what I'm going through and what, what I'm doing. And I've never been someone that seeks out attention. You know, I am a professional.
There's cameras around me all the time. And I do my best to, you know, be a good example and to show kids that they can do what they set their mind to and show people that injuries don't define you. But there's always, no matter what I do, there's always someone saying something negative and that's life. That's also sports, you know, and I get that, but at some point, you know, it becomes a lot.
It's really not an easy thing to handle. And again, it's part of the job and I'm lucky to be in this position. So I'm not saying that something that, you know, I resent, but it's hard to always have your self-confidence when people constantly tear you down. And yet you sort of found a way to use those negative comments as fuel.
I mean, you got to use them for something. I mean, you know, it's like, I think whatever you can use to motivate you is good. I mean, I wish people didn't say the things they said about me, but at the same time, yeah, what I'm saying, the starting gate, I think of that. And that, that fuels me, you know, it drives me not in a way that I need to prove something to somebody, but it does help me get in the right mental state to be able to throw myself down a mountain at 85 miles an hour. You know, it's gotta be a little aggressive, you know, it's, it takes a little fire in the belly to, you know, to have that aggression.
And sometimes that helps me. What does your dad think about you coming back? Well, yeah, I mean, like I kind of, I really thought he would have a totally different reaction. I thought he would tell me that, you know, this is really dangerous and you shouldn't do this, but he was like, yeah, I kind of expected that you, you know, this is very, this is on trend for you. So I'm not surprised.
And I think it's awesome. Like he was very supportive and very much not what I had anticipated. So if I have my dad's approval, then I know that I'm doing okay. What do you think your mom would have thought? I think she'd have been really proud of me. I think my mom is someone that, you know, she always has persevered and she's had a lot, she had so many challenges in her life, mainly physical, you know, because of her stroke. And then she had ALS and she always had such a positive attitude. And I try to embody that in my life. You know, I take, take that perspective and that outlook. And I, I put that into my life and I think she would, she would be proud of me.
I know she would be. In retirement, I guess it was a, it was a blessing because you weren't flying all over the world racing. You could really help take care of her in that last year.
Yeah. I mean, I think, I don't know if I would have been able to even race at all if I, you know, if she had been going through that when I was racing, but it was, it was hard, you know, and it, I think ALS is one of the most destructive illnesses or diseases that I, that I know of not just for the person experiencing it, but also for the families. And I, you know, I was very naive about ALS in general. I, I did the ice bucket challenge and I had, I really had no idea what it was and it's incredibly painful and devastating. And it was really hard on our whole family. And I, you know, we all did the best we could and take turns and take care of her. Some more than others, but it was, man, it was hard. And I'm just so happy that she's not in pain anymore. Cause that was like, I don't wish that on anyone.
And for you, it must've been because you're used to being fixed, right? And you just can't fix ALS. My mom's had, you know, her stroke, you know, there's nothing you can do.
And, you know, the ALS, you know, I went to the best doctors in the world and there's nothing that I could do. There's, there was no, it's not like cancer where you have hope and you can, you can fight, you know, there was no, there's nothing she could do. And it's, that was hard for her mentally.
I think that was the hardest part. You know, she thought that she, she could beat the odds and she could be the one that would live 20 more years. And she lasted one. What do you think you got from her?
You think? I got her positivity, you know? You know, when she had ALS, she would always say, today is another great day. And every single day she said that.
And I say it to myself all the time too. And, you know, I got a lot of her, when she passed, I got a lot of her journals and her notebooks and things. And I, I read, you know, what she wrote and it helps me when I have bad days. And, you know, I just, again, I always try to embody that, that attitude that she had. Nothing would ever slow her down.
No matter how many things came at her in her life, she always had a smile and she always had this just positive attitude. So life could be a lot worse. I am so lucky to be where I am. I take no days for granted. Every opportunity I take, and this is an opportunity that I would be crazy not to take.
I know that's, that's how I think about it. You know, I'm lucky. I'm so lucky to be in this position. To get a second chance in a way? To do something that I love to do.
My mom would have loved, she would have given anything to play tennis, to play squash, to ride a bike, and she couldn't. And I have that opportunity and I'm going to take it and I'm going to use it and I'm going to make something positive out of it because I can. Something I've read in your book, which I just thought was very sweet, is you said your mom would would read a piece of scripture in the Bible and then she'd write your race results next to that scripture. Oh my gosh. Yeah. She always did that.
I have her, yeah, I have her Bible and I, she has a couple of other kind of like scripture type books and I, and when I was going through reading them, you know, I found, you know, the results and the days of my race. I didn't know that she did that. Yeah. It was very emotional. Yeah. It was special. You've been so open about talking about depression, how, how that must've been a tough period.
Yeah. I mean, it's still hard, you know, it's, I spontaneously combust still more than I would like. But it's, it's hard, you know, you realize that you're the one carrying the torch for your family, you know, you're, there's no one to call like my, you know, my dad and my siblings are there, but at the same time, there's, there's things that you want to call your mother about, you know, and I can't, and that's hard. And I haven't, you know, I still got her, her number in my phone. I still messaged her. Do you? You just call her and talk to her?
I send her a text message. Do you really? Yeah.
Yeah. That's so sweet. I'm so sorry to go through that. That's, that's awful.
So a happier thing. So how do you qualify for people that don't get it? Like, how do you qualify for the Olympics? It's based on your results. So yes, my results this year were good and I'll definitely be taken into consideration, but really it comes down to next season, December until middle of January, which will probably be, you know, 10, eight to 10 races. And those will dictate if I make the Olympics or not, but it's kind of an accumulative point system. So I have a lot of chances and it's not, thankfully, it's not like track and field where you have one shot and that's it. I don't know if I could do that.
What, Mark, do you think you've left on alpine skiing? Do you think about that much or? I don't really think about that much. I mean, I think... Not in terms of legacy, but like just how did you change the sport, you think? I mean, I, I just hope I changed people's perspective on what's possible in a lot of in a lot of areas, you know, from how you, like I wore makeup. No one else used to wear makeup.
I was made fun of for wearing it. Now everyone wears makeup, you know, small things like that, but it's, it's thinking about things in a different way. You know, skiing has always been a certain way and it's very, it's very straight and narrow and there's just so much more to life. You know, there's so much more self-expression. There's so many more possibilities and I just want people to think bigger, you know, and believe in themselves more and, and push the envelope more, you know? And I think, I think I've made an impact.
I don't know how big, but I think it's changed people's perspective and, and I just, I hope people push themselves to achieve more. That's sort of what the foundation is a lot about, especially for younger girls. My foundation is really about following your dreams and, and teaching kids about, about grit and how to overcome adversities. And we have a curriculum and we have a scholarship program for underserved girls, but our curriculum is really based in teaching kids, you know, how to reframe things. Something, someone says something negative to you and how do you reframe that into something positive, you know, kind of simple things, but building their self-confidence so that they can go out in the world and they can pursue their dreams in a confident way. And I, you know, I was lucky enough that I had parents that supported me and allowed me to, to dream in that way.
And I want to give those kids as much as I can to, to inspire them to be the best that they can be. You said that you were a work in progress. You still feel like you are. Still a work in progress. I will be until the day I die.
Yeah. I mean, you know, I, I always want to get better. I, you know, not just in skiing, but in my life, you know, I, I want to grow. I want to adventure. I want to travel the world. I, I want to learn.
I want to experience different cultures. I just want to be better. You know, I'm always a work in progress. No one's ever perfect.
No one ever knows everything. There's a lot in life that I would like to learn. So I'm just gonna keep trying my best every day. Do you see yourself as a, as a businesswoman now, largely? Yeah. I mean, I'm, you know, I kind of, I am, you know, that's, that was, that was my job until I, I went back to ski racing. Yeah. I, I do.
I mean, it's a different challenge in skiing. There's not as much at stake, you know, you're not in physical, like in harm's way physically, but it is a challenge and I enjoy it and I enjoy, I'm on the board of, of companies and other foundations and I'm on the executive board for the Salt Lake City Olympics for 2034. Like I'm, you know, I'm doing a lot of those things and a lot of them are very rewarding, but yeah, I'm, I'm a businesswoman. I'm, I've got, I've got a lot of things going on. You do have your fingers in a lot of things.
Yes, I do. Which is good. I just got to challenge myself, you know, keep pushing myself in different ways. Keep one upping yourself. I mean, it's hard to do, but I try.
It's hard to do. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up Hoop fans. I'm Ashley Nicole Moss, and I'm bringing you Triple Threat, your weekly courtside pass to the most interesting moments and conversations in the NBA. From clutch performances to the stories shaping the game on and off the court, Triple Threat has you covered with it all. Culture, drama, and social media buzz, we're locked in just like you're locked in. Watch weekly on CBS Sports Network at 1pm Eastern or on the CBS Sports YouTube channel, as we break it all down fast and fresh. This is Triple Threat, where basketball meets culture.
