Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're rewatching that Kat Macario chip goal from Monday's US women's national team win over Italy.

Over and over and over, so cheeky.

It's Wednesday, December third, and on Today show, we'll be skipping the need to know and getting you right to producer Alex's conversation with speed skater Britney Bow in New York City back in October as part of the Team USA summit ahead of the upcoming Milan Courtina Winter Olympics.

They talked about her goals as she aims to qualify for a fourth Games, the weight of wanting a gold medal, and what she's learned from girlfriend Hillary Knight about wanting to leave the next generation better off and stick around for a special bonus.

Because Alex snuck in a chat with the aforementioned girlfriend, none other than hockey legend and Team USA captain Hillary Knight to get her take on how the couple plans to navigate an Olympics scheduling challenge, and as Britney's prepping for the upcoming Olympics, I want to remind you of one of the breakout stories of the twenty twenty two Games, an unselfish gesture from Brittany that helped a teammate and childhood friend get to the Olympics and eventually win goal So in twenty twenty two, at the US Olympic Trials in Milwaukee, world number one in the five hundred meters, Aaron Jackson slipped in her race, finishing third and out of qualifying.

Britney, who qualified not just in the five hundred meters but also the thousand meters and fifteen hundred meter races, gave up her spot in the five hundred to allow Jackson to go to Beijing, where she ended up winning the race, becoming the first black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport.

It was just such an incredible story.

We'll link to a video in the show notes if you want to refresh your memory.

Will there be another similar magical story leading up to this year's Games that's yet to be seen, But Brittany's been creating plenty of magic on the ice.

Since Alex spoke to her, she has been very busy, and not just with that guest bartending Stint on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live that we mentioned on a previous episode.

On November eleventh, she announced that this will be her sixteenth and final Olympic skating season.

Then she took bronze with her teammates in the team pursuit at the first event of the World Cup circuit on her home ice in Salt Lake City, and they set a national record along the way.

She also placed fifth in the thousand meter and sixth in the fifteen hundred in Salt Lake.

Then in the second World Cup stop in Calgary, she grabbed the bronze in the fifteen hundred meter and while they fell just short of the podium, her team pursuit team rebroke the national record.

Next up World Cup three in the Netherlands this weekend.

All right, let's get to Alex Britney and Hillary skates and pucks and geyshit.

This is going to be good.

Joining us now.

Hailing from Ocalla, Florida, she is a three time Olympian, two time Olympic medalist in the sport of speed skating, and current world record holder in the one thousand meter distance.

She carried the flag for Team USA at the opening ceremony of the twenty twenty two Baitjing Games.

She grew up playing basketball in inline skating as a Division one point guard at Florida Atlantic University.

She even contemplated hooping professionally after graduating from college, but then she saw speed skating at the Olympics and decided to take her inline skills to the ice.

She tells it like it is in Hot Lapse, Cold Take, the social media series she co hosts with teammate Aaron Jackson.

It's Brittany bo.

Thanks, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having me.

We are here celebrating the one hundred days out to Milan Courtina.

This will be hopefully your fourth Games, having been to three already.

Though I'm curious how your process and approach to each Olympics has changed over time.

It's changed dramatically.

As an Olympic athlete, we kind of live our life in four year cycles, and each each Olympic.

Games has been really unique.

In this time, knowing it's my last go around, it's been a unique quad and as we approach the Olympic Games, I've almost you know, I'm in a place where I'm able to reflect, but still in the moment, so just enjoy these last few rounds around the track and just kind of able to reflect and being grateful that I've been able to have such a long, successful career and finishing it out in Milan with my family and friends and fans in the stands will be really special.

Knowing that it's your last.

Was that a decision?

Was it a realization?

Did it come to you slowly?

Kind of walk me through that process.

I think it came pretty organically.

After the Beijing Olympics.

I thought I had one more quad in me, and you know, I'm the old lady out there on the ice now, but it's pretty cool to be able to remain competitive at thirty seven years old.

I'm racing, you know, against girls that are twenty one years old, so it's definitely gotten more difficult, but it's so empowering to be able to continue pushing myself to the limit and beyond and continuing to find myself on those World Cup podiums.

So, you know, I'd be kidding myself if I didn't say I was going for an Olympic gold medal in Milan, but I realized that it it's so much bigger than that, and really really grateful and enjoying this final part of my journey in speed skating.

For a lot of athletes who have success kind of away from the Olympic stage at World Cups, at World Championships to then make that gold medal happen at the Olympics.

For some it kind of happens, and for others it's like for Olympics on, we're still searching for it.

And I'm curious how your perspective on chasing that gold has has changed over time.

I mean it can be debilitating at times.

You know, I've had a successful career and have accomplished almost every single thing I've set out to, you know, six world titles, four world records, Olympic medalist, but there's still that Olympic gold medal that ultimately continuing to be in pursuit of.

But going into the Olympic Games with you know that expectation, are just so concerned or overwhelmed with the outcome.

Like I said, can be debilitating and you know, can.

Really tighten you up, make the nerves even higher than they are at.

A neutral field, you know.

Rewinding a little bit, going into Sochi in twenty fourteen, metal contender and fall far far short of a metal which was one of the most disappointing moments of my athletic career.

And a real struggle for the team as a whole too.

Yeah, it was a you know, a very very disappointing competition for the US speed skating team.

Then you fast forward four years to twenty eighteen, and I'm coming off of what could have been a career ending concussion.

The whole year before the Games, I think I maybe rased one or two World Cups because I was trying to deal with post concussion center on panic attacks, anxiety attacks, vertigo.

So I was really just trying to get my head on my shoulders and leading into the seventeen eighteen season, you know, I was really just trying to be a normal person in society without having you know, these panic attacks.

And as we you know, get into the eighteen Games, the perspective change because I make the Olympic team, and instead of having this expectation of winning a medal, I am just grateful to have the opportunity to have my skates on and compete at the highest level.

And I win my first Olympic medal within the team pursuit, and you could say that was my best Olympic Games so far getting a third place, two fourth and a fifth.

I mean that was really successful games.

And then we fast forward again to Beijing and was able to come home with the Olympic bronze medal.

They're all so so different, but I've realized the higher the expectation that I put on myself, the more debilitating it can be when you get to that start line.

I have quite a few questions for you about your girlfriend, Hillary Knight, which we're going to get to, but hearing you discuss kind of the four year cycle and like going for gold, it makes me think about how until very recently in women's hockey it was a similar thing, like there were world championships, but it all came down to that gold medal game, which everyone knew was always going to be the US in Canada, and walking away with silver was like losing it all.

And I'm curious if you've seen any overlap with how your experiences with Hillary at the Games kind of come down to this moment, and if you've seen anything change now that she has the PWHL where it's a big competition that also means something.

The PWHL is obviously like a monumental accomplishment for the women on the professional side.

But I think if you asked any one of those girls, American or Canadian if they'd rather win the pw HL Championship or an Olympic gold medal, I think they'd probably go for the Olympic gold medal because there's just nothing means more than being able to represent your country because you're doing it for so many more people and it's so much bigger than just yourself.

So nothing compares to competing with the red, white and blue on you.

And beating Canada.

And I think they're slightly nicer to one another, at least off the ice.

Now, yeah, it seems to be that way, But I don't know, as you kind of contemplate this life after speed skating, I know there are a lot of athletes that struggle with the identity component of who am I if not a speed skater?

Who am I if not a hockey player?

And what are you doing to prepare for that moment in time where you won't be defined just by your sport.

It's something that has been discussed in some of my sports psych sessions because it's you know, I've kind of gone through as like, why do I put so much weight on the Olympic Games?

Why the things seem to not come together in that most important time?

And is it because my identity revolves around am I the Olympic champion or not?

And inside I know that's not true, but I would be lying if I said my identity isn't largely shaped by the accomplishments that I've had, because that has been my entire life.

So it's been an ongoing process.

And being able to kind of like unpack that has been freeing really over those last few years.

And I don't know what life will look like for me after sport, but sitting here today, I feel at peace and confident, knowing that I truly believe that something will come along that will spark a passion in my life.

Do you have any interest in staying involved in speed skating, whether on the coaching side or the administrative side.

I would love to be involved in speed skating in some capacity.

I am not interested in coaching.

I get this question a lot.

It's interesting because when I'm done skating, I don't want to be in the rink even longer than I it was as an athlete.

I mean, our coach puts in some serious hours.

And it's funny because usually, you know, a coach will talk about their best player, their most dedicated player, the first one in the gym, the last one to leave.

Well, our coach can't say that because he is the first one in the ring, the last one to leave.

And I'm just ready to do something different and have a little bit more time at home.

But my whole life has been revolved around high performance.

So I would love to be, you know, to remain a part of the sport.

Our sport's so small and with Salt Lake thirty four, I mean it seems a little while out, but it'll be here before we know it.

If I can have an impact and grow the development and also high performance of the sport, that would be awesome.

This characteristic of your coach, is it just him or speed skating coaches in general?

Our first one and last one out.

I mean all of our coaches are you know, the first ones in, last ones out.

But I don't think it matters any sport across the board.

The great coaches spend their entire you know, it's twenty four to seven thinking about how can they be a better coach and provide for their team and get the team ready, because you're not just worried about yourself, you're then worried about every single person on your team.

And that's a huge responsibility.

And hats off to all the coaches out there.

It's just crazy, the time and dedication and yeah, just utmost respect for sure.

We got to take a quick break when we come back more with Britney.

Vou So we're here at the Team USA media summit, and my understanding is you and Hillary had cross paths at previous media summits.

She's also here somewhere in the building, but it wasn't until the Olympics in twenty twenty two that you really kind of got to know each other.

Can you tell us the meet cute story?

Hillary slid into my DM, she did, and she is asking me something about like I can't remember something about like am I bringing like games to Beijing?

Or what are you guys doing in your spare tartsanity?

But yeah, we we got to exchange information and started chatting back and forth, and you know, I think we would both consider our first date walking around the Olympic village fully masked, so it was far from glamorous and then that date would lead to, hey, you want to grab food together, So you know, we got to sit by each other, but we had this plexiglass wall in between us, so again not glamorous, but it was super unique and almost a blessing and disguise.

You know, we didn't have family friends and there were no outside distractions, so we're kind of living in this bubble and we really just got to know one another, share stories, and that really built like a really cool foundation for our relationship.

Yeah, I think looking at the photos of those games, they don't really shout like super romantic.

COVID nineteen precautions.

Everywhere are from.

I mean, everybody was scared to death at getting COVID, had to do COVID tests every single morning, and it's like, please, just don't don't let it be me, because you know, you work your whole life, and you know God forbid a positive test ruin ruin that experience.

So everything other than glamorous, that's for sure.

Once you get into a sport, the things that are quirky suddenly don't seem quirky to you.

They're just normal.

But in dating a hockey player, are there anything?

Is there anything about this part where it's like, that's that's weird.

H Well, you know, I was low key really nervous that she would stink because hockey players, at least in our rink, and granted they are younger boys.

We in our four hundred meter oval.

We have two rinks in the middle of our over one's a short track rink and one's a hockey rink.

And every every time we would go around the south end corner, you just get a whiff of hockey players and I'm like, oh, she smells like that this is not going to work out, but pleasantly surprised does not stink like the boy hockey players.

When you first started telling that story, I was like, did you not google her resume?

Like I thought you meant stink, like you know, like.

Oh no, no, no, and it's anybody, Uh, that's anybody should know who Hillary Night is for.

Sure, for sure.

But the foul order I get that that actually reminds me of I was out in Salt Lake back in twenty twenty twenty seventeen covering short track trials and I remember seeing some speed skaters play pick up hockey.

Is that something you've ever done?

Yeah, we would play.

It's like our little version of bandy.

It's plastic sticks and a plastic ball.

But we would get out there on hockey skates, and honestly, I think it really helped a lot of our starts or our openers in our races.

The blades are a lot shorter, so your your pushes have to be shorter, and it really keeps everything compact.

So that's something that we've used over the years being on hockey skates to improve our starts.

I love that.

I think a lot of people maybe don't realize just how fast speed skating is, in part because the rink is so big, Like you kind of think like, oh, like they're on a hockey rink, but no, it's much bigger.

How do the speeds actually compare to like Hillary at our fastest on hockey skates versus you on your speed skates.

Well, me on hockey skates and Hillary on hockey skates, I'm still faster.

I don't know if she will admit that, but we have had a race before.

But in all seriousness, like in speed skating, in part, it's a lot faster because our blades are a lot longer, they're a lot flatter.

We have a longer surface to.

Build speed, so yeah, the speeds are definitely higher.

We're the ladies were load amid thirty miles per hour.

I'm not sure what the hockey girls clock.

They're they're really really fast though, but i'd i'd like to see Kendall coin Schofield out there some speed skates for at least one hundred meter opener to see how fast she could go.

That's good to know.

I did see a video of Hillary on speed skates, so I absolutely know that you are still very much the fastest one there.

But she was not bad.

She was only out there for ten or fifteen minutes, and she actually killed it.

She did really well.

Obviously she was nervous because the blades are really long.

I think she was afraid that she was going to cut her ankles every time.

She would cross over.

But you know, putting clap skates on for the first time could be pretty daunting.

But she like went forward, and I will say I was impressed.

I couldn't get her into a skin suit.

She was out there in like pants and an oversized pitty of course, but.

Not very aerodynamic.

Not aerodynamics, so maybe it was the attire that was keeping her.

Yeah.

So Hillary actually was on our podcast back in May, just days before the expand raft.

Our host Sarah even joked, quote, what if they just don't protect you and Hillary Knight lead Seattle to their first water cup?

End of quote, We'll watch out world because our host may be for Hudican.

Maybe this is what's gonna happen.

So you're now Seattle girly at least for your p WHL affiliation.

What happened to your your p WHL Boston jersey?

Though?

It is in the closet, Okay, and I'm still you know, what do I do with this stuff?

Like on one hand, it's like this is really cool because like this was the first, you know, the inaugural year and had some great success and you know, but that's that's professional sports.

What do I do?

Do I burn it?

Do I throw it away?

But for now it's it's still folded in the closet, waiting for that Seattle merch to drop.

Yeah, for sure you're going to get one of those og jerseys with like the letters just straight diagonally down the.

Definitely it should already be in the mail pre ordered that.

Seattle slightly closer to Utah, So good thing in your books or what was it like seeing that process unfold?

So officially a great.

Thing in my book.

So we've now made the drive to and from Boston a handful of times, and twelve hours to Seattle is a lot better than thirty five hours to Boston.

And we just made the trip to Seattle to drop her and bane her dog off, and that trip was a lot more pleasant than across the country, that's for sure.

I can imagine.

I can imagine as you've gotten to know Hillary and learned more about her labor fights, in particular, whether it's boycotting USA Hockey in twenty seventeen, fighting to create the PWHL.

It strikes me that speed skating is a very different sport right governed at the international level.

You're kind of at the mercy of what your national governing body is doing.

But I'm curious if you've learned anything from her about like labor and sport in general that could maybe be applied more broadly.

I mean, just her passion to leave the game better than she found it, to fight for equality, to just continued fighting for more, to leave these girls with, you know, something that can continue to be built on for years and years to come has been so inspiring.

Kind of having a front seat to what her and Kendall coin Schofield have done for the PWHL.

I mean, they have put in some.

Serious, serious hours trying to help build this league and it really really opened my eyes to someone that really cares about the sport and the betterment of women in the future.

I mean, you know, her and Kendall aren't going to be able to enjoy it for much much longer, but the fact that they continue to fight for what is right for the younger generations is inspiring.

Do you think there's anything from that that speed skidding could learn in terms of how that sport is run or what resources athletes have things like that.

Well, yeah, just like her involvement and trying to leave her sport better than she found it has kind of held me into how can I be more of a part of us speed skating?

And I'm now actually on the Board of Representatives as an elite athlete, so that's.

Kind of my step like, Okay, I need to I need to do more.

And you know, now being on the board and being surrounded by great people and learning how the organization is run and slowly like, Okay, what can we do better?

What can we do better?

So her movement in that has definitely propelled me to try to leave my sport better than I found it.

Love that looking ahead to Milan speed skating in hockey, same cluster schedules are not quite as straightforward, though.

Have you thought at all about what that might look like?

I'm not mistaken.

I think I saw that if.

The women make the gold medal game, that's the night before my fifteen hundred meter So I'm not super pumped about that.

My that's you know, tugging on my heart strings because I know what the right.

Thing to do is for myself.

At the competitive level, but oh man, I really want to be there in the stands to you know, be a fan and cheer.

So that's something I'm going to continue.

To grapple with.

I think it'll probably end up be me watching on TV as I have to prepare for my race.

But I'm really looking forward to watching everything that I can, but need to talk to them about that scheduling issue.

I know sometimes athletes get the Olympic schedule moved if they're competing in multiple events and they really need to factor couples into it as well.

You know, well, it's been so lovely chatting with you, Brittany.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Thanks for having me.

After sitting down with Brittany, Alex wanted Hillary's take on the Olympic scheduling challenge.

Does Hillary want her girlfriend in the stands for the gold medal game or does she want Brittany to get a good night's sleep ahead of her own race.

So Alex tracked down Hillary on the busy content capture stage at the tm USA summit to find out.

Take a listen.

The women's fifteen hundred meter is the day after the gold medal A really said the team, if you're thinking that far ahead yet, but you want her stands assuming everything goes as planned and you're caging, and are you kidding me?

You think it's good for her that if you in the stands instead of sleeping for the race.

I think she would love it.

Thank you Hill.

She said that she knows she probably should be in bed, but she'd want.

To be there.

He'll be there, Yeah, She'll definitely be there.

Thank you.

Sleep sleep, you gotta be there.

Great stuff from Alex.

So fun getting to hear from this handful of Olympic hopefuls ahead of the upcoming games in Italy.

And don't forget Good Game will be there.

We're so excited to bring you lots of pre Olympic coverage as the game's near, and then of course take you on the ground up the mountain and at rings Edge in Italy in February.

All right, we got to take another break when we come back.

Gay Sheep, Gay Wool, Gay Wool from Gay Sheep.

Welcome back to places.

We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game day too, So here's our good game play of the day.

Follow Brittany and Hillary on social media so you can keep tabs on their events, adventures and more as they work toward the games in February.

We'll put their socials in the show notes.

And we always love to hear from you, so hit us up on email Good Game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two o four fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe, Rate and review.

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Now it's your Turney, I'll rate and review.

Thanks for listening.

See you tomorrow.

Good game, Brittany, Good game.

Hillary.

You people who don't brush the mound of snow off the top of their cars, It's gonna slide off and end up on my windshield while driving at a high speed.

Don't final destination me Bro.

Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.

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Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are alex Azzie Grace Lynch, Taylor Williamson, and Lucy Jones.

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