“So, you must be really ramping up your training now that the Olympics are coming, right? You must be working hard these days?”

Throughout my career, I was asked this question frequently in the months leading up to an Olympic Games and came to expect it every four years. But the first time I heard it, I distinctly recall staring blankly back at the interested individual, blinking slowly, incomprehensibly. Ramping up my training? After a moment or two of peculiar silence, I found my words and replied awkwardly, “Uh, well, we train really hard all the time actually, so mostly just doing the same as usual.” This was met with an equal degree of incomprehension, a shrug and, “Uh, okay, well, good luck!” Continue reading →