Team USA's Routines the Night Before the Olympics and Paralympics

SELF Magazine

For any athlete, stretching and sleep are vital to optimal performance the next day. SELF talks to Team USA about their routines the night before a competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:03 I'll do some stretching,

00:04 maybe I'll take a hot bath if necessary.

00:06 I'll use the jet boots,

00:07 I'll use the Theragun for a little bit.

00:09 But the number one thing for me

00:10 is making sure that I get sleep.

00:12 I can do all this recovery stuff,

00:13 but if I don't get 10 to 12 hours of sleep,

00:15 then I'm not optimizing my recovery completely.

00:18 And so I make sure that 48 hours before I compete,

00:21 I get 12 hours of sleep,

00:23 but I'm making sure that I am optimizing sleep 110%.

00:28 My day before game routine is a little complicated.

00:31 Obviously I eat dinner,

00:33 then I'll do my TheraBoots for like an hour.

00:37 I'll drink a cherry juice,

00:39 I'll drink like an extra glass of water,

00:41 sometimes have like a yoga

00:43 or like 444 breathing meditation thing.

00:47 I take my time, I set out my uniform,

00:50 I get my hydration, my pre foods that I'm gonna be eating,

00:55 and the mixes that I'm gonna be eating

00:57 for my warmup and pre warmup.

00:59 I get my makeup that I'm going,

01:00 that I know I'm gonna be wearing that next morning,

01:03 because that's a huge part of my process

01:06 to get ready the morning of the race.

01:08 So I just get preparing,

01:09 so that way I can just go to sleep,

01:11 that's ready, and focus on the visualization

01:14 of that perfect race course and me executing it.

01:17 - Any of my teammates will tell me like,

01:19 I'm one of the guys that is very loose.

01:21 I don't overly think about the game,

01:23 I don't overly think about like strategy or something.

01:25 At this point, we've put the work in,

01:27 we've done what we needed to do

01:28 to put ourselves in a position to be successful.

01:30 So the night before the game, to be honest,

01:31 like me and my teammates just like to chill,

01:33 just like to not think about the competition.

01:35 Either we're playing some video games

01:37 or we're playing cards or whatever we're doing.

01:39 That's just our time to be together.

01:41 We know that life is gonna be very highly pressured

01:45 in the next couple of hours,

01:47 but the time before the game is just about us being together

01:50 and us enjoying the time that we have together.

01:53 - So the night before is pretty chill.

01:55 The nerves might be kicking, might not,

01:57 depends on the meat, but dinner,

02:00 a little bit of Netflix and chill,

02:01 and you know, get ready for the next morning.

02:04 When I feel the nerves, I will probably be running around

02:08 and talking everyone's head off

02:10 because that's the only way to calm down my nerves.

02:13 - It's weird 'cause I'm not really ritualistic.

02:15 I just go with what I'm feeling like.

02:18 Sometimes I can binge and watch like eight episodes

02:20 of "The Office."

02:21 Sometimes I will play "The Sims" because I love "The Sims."

02:25 (laughs)

02:26 Sometimes I will just like talk to my niece

02:28 for a really long time.

02:30 Sometimes I talk to my mom.

02:31 It literally just depends on like my mood.

02:34 If I'm feeling like I wanna talk to somebody,

02:35 then I'll like reach out and talk to like people

02:37 that are close to me.

02:38 If not, I'm probably binge watching something

02:40 or watching a series or playing "The Sims"

02:42 or "Roblox" with my niece.

02:44 - I'm not great at sleeping at competitions.

02:46 I get really stressed out.

02:47 So I try to have like a nighttime routine of tea,

02:51 of talking with my best friend who's usually my roommate.

02:54 Just a good wind down reading before bed.

02:57 - So I have a specific roommate that I'm always with.

03:00 I do like an hour stretching routine thing

03:03 where first it's like you just stretch

03:06 and then I like roll out on a lacrosse ball,

03:09 the whole body,

03:09 and then I lay on like this back machine kind of thing

03:13 and then like massage gun my legs.

03:15 But then after all of that,

03:17 my teammate and I,

03:19 we like to like face each other and Landrell, the routine.

03:24 Landrell is like doing it with your hands

03:26 and we play the music

03:27 and sometimes we'll be able to look at each other

03:29 and sometimes we'll just like turn off the lights

03:31 and do it 'cause we'll like start laughing so hard.

03:34 - The biggest thing is getting a steak.

03:35 The nights before being a swimmer,

03:38 we got this crazy thing we do.

03:39 We shave our whole body.

03:40 It's less about the hair, more about the dead skin,

03:42 more about the increased proprioception of the water.

03:45 And then sleep.

03:46 Sleep is super important.

03:47 So ideally, you know, getting eight hours of sleep.

03:50 - Watching some anime.

03:52 If I have time after that is stretch a little bit,

03:55 ice off my injury and probably that's it.

03:59 - I like to do an everything shower, get a clean shave.

04:03 So my legs feel nice and smooth in my sheets

04:06 and in the pool the next day.

04:07 I also like to have some good snacks.

04:10 I'll have a little chocolate before bed.

04:11 Never giving up chocolate.

04:13 - Getting all my stuff ready the night before,

04:14 my competition equipment, clothing.

04:17 Most things are already at the competition venue

04:20 before the first day,

04:21 but I just get all my clothes ready to go in my backpack,

04:23 my prosthetics ready, and then I just go to sleep,

04:26 have a good night's sleep and get up in the morning.

04:28 - First off in rugby,

04:29 we have something called the jersey ceremony

04:30 where we come together.

04:31 A lot of times our family's invited and we get our jersey

04:32 and that's a big moment for us

04:34 because we like to say we're passing through our jersey.

04:35 So every time it's special to be able to wear

04:37 that USA jersey.

04:38 And then a lot of times if my family's there,

04:40 I'd love to go out to dinner with them and just enjoy them

04:42 'cause they're there to watch me.

04:43 And if not, I hang with my team

04:45 or I'll sometimes go out to dinner on my own,

04:47 but I don't have any strict schedule, I guess.

04:49 - 24 hours before I compete is really just trying

04:52 to almost meditate myself a little bit

04:55 in a way to calm anxiety, calm nerves,

04:57 just make sure my body and my mind

04:59 are all kind of in the same place and ready to compete.

05:02 Sort of taking time alone, honestly,

05:04 that's what I've always done.

05:05 I don't want to talk to you.

05:07 I don't want to talk to anyone before my races,

05:09 whether that's the night before or day up.

05:10 - I do have like a unintentional self-care routine

05:13 where I'm just like pretty chill the night before.

05:15 I try to get all the field hockey out of the way

05:17 as much as possible the day before.

05:19 I think we're starting to get better

05:20 at doing that as a team.

05:21 And then once we finish our last meeting,

05:23 it's just kind of downtime so that I don't get too stressed

05:26 and I can sleep well.

05:27 - I do try to do a little bit of mindfulness.

05:29 It's not always the night before,

05:30 sometimes it's before the game,

05:31 but if I'm feeling especially stressed,

05:33 I find it like a good way to just like settle down

05:35 and be calm.

05:36 - I'll pack my bag and get everything ready for the morning

05:39 because I'm not a morning person

05:40 and I forget things very easily.

05:42 So I'll go through my checklist,

05:43 make sure I have all my competition gear ready.

05:45 I'll just like throw on a movie, like a comfort movie,

05:48 like "Finding Nemo," a Disney movie, something like that.

05:50 Just try to take my mind off of competition

05:54 so that I can relax, hang out with my friends,

05:56 talk to my mom.

05:57 - I will usually have dinner.

05:59 That usually means I've just made weights.

06:00 I'm going to go hydrate as much as possible.

06:02 I will try to get to bed around like nine or 10 PM

06:06 because I need to get my rest in before I go fight.

06:08 - Eat around 7.30, take a shower,

06:11 get into the bedtime clothes,

06:13 make some sleepy tea and, you know,

06:15 kind of just sit on the couch, watch some TV, Netflix,

06:18 and then my compression boots.

06:20 That's a big one just for regen

06:22 and to get ready for the game the next day.

06:24 - Wearing out my robe, my suit, my towel, my caps,

06:27 my sandals, prioritizing getting a good night of sleep,

06:30 whatever that means,

06:31 like winding down doing something fun for me

06:34 and then getting in bed, reading a good book

06:37 and going to sleep.

06:38 - It's similar, just trying to relax

06:40 because there's a lot of adrenaline, a lot of thoughts.

06:43 So getting those out of the way in a sense,

06:45 having our team meeting, visualizing for the game,

06:48 and then taking a moment, lighting a candle,

06:51 which we bring on our trips.

06:53 And I'm actually pretty inconsistent

06:56 with my skincare at home,

06:57 but when I'm on the road, I'm really on it.

07:01 I think it's just having that routine

07:02 and, you know, being able to relax

07:05 and put on my little mask and go through that

07:08 helps me have a better night's sleep

07:10 and get into my book and kind of enjoy

07:13 that little down moment before the big day.

07:16 - I make sure to have all of my gear in one place,

07:21 have it all packed up,

07:21 try to wind down by dimming the lights

07:25 or putting them in more of a yellow warm lighting

07:28 so that it's not so harsh on my eyes

07:30 so that I can feel a little bit more tired.

07:33 I typically have some sort of tea or hot water

07:37 and to have some sort of nighttime routine

07:39 to let my body know it's time to settle down and go to bed,

07:43 put on nice pajamas,

07:45 make sure the room temperature is good to go,

07:47 and then crawl into bed.

07:49 - Doing some light stretching.

07:51 Sometimes I like to get a workout in,

07:54 especially if the game is in the morning.

07:56 Usually I like to work out the same day of the game,

07:59 but usually morning if the game's late in the evening.

08:01 - I like to make sure everything is set out.

08:04 My bags are packed, my uniform is laid out.

08:07 I have everything that I need.

08:09 That way I can actually sleep

08:11 without thinking of my packing list.

08:12 And then it's important that I try to read

08:15 or just kind of calm my mind before going to bed.

08:18 - The night before is always pretty mellow.

08:19 I mean, it's always, I try to get to bed pretty early.

08:21 I'm not a very good sleeper.

08:23 So I try to get in bed by like 8.39, which is very early,

08:26 but give myself some time to fall asleep.

08:28 And yeah, just try to battle that anticipation.

08:31 (upbeat music)

08:33 [Music]

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