A Lady And A Champion with Sanya Richards-Ross

With the Olympics right around the corner. I think it's a huge flex for me to have the Olympian of all Olympians sitting in my house, and she just so happens to be an original.

But y'all listen, this is such a thrill for me to be here with you. And the Olympics are in Paris in less than twenty Baby can wait, they're taking ton U pole.

Baby Wait, here's me and she. Hey, I'm Kadan and I'm and we're the Ellis's.

You may know us from posting funny videos with our voice and reading.

Each other publicly as a form of therpy. Wait. I'll make you need derby most days. Wow. Oh, and one more important thing to mention. We're married, Yes, sir, we are.

We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of Li's most taboo topics.

Things most folks don't want to talk about.

The lens of lenieal married couple. Dead ass is a term that we say every day. So when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one hundred the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We about to take Bilotov to our whole new level.

Dead ass starts right now, All right, story time. So girl, I'm gonna tell you about the time when my track career began and ended in the same day. Not the same day, the same day, this the same day. And I'm gonna tell you what people, you know what I'm saying. So I was approaching a milestone birthday. I had our first son, Jackson. Jackson was roughly about two years old,

So I mean I think based on just legacy and all that he's done for Jamaica, I have to put Bob as number one, of course, but my like hardcore number two is Bear's Hammond Hands.

Don't like nobody compare?

Oh my goodness.

I mean when you talk about music that transcends time and generation, because Barris for those of you who don't know Baris is probably like our grandparents' generation. Would you say, or mom and dad? Maybe in between?

Maybe in between mom and dad and dad? Yeah, I feel like I feel like that's my dad's vibe. Mom, Yeah, Mom and dad. Man.

And let me tell you the way I can sing a barage tone. You have a favorite I have?

I could sing anyone if you call up when I sing it with you?

All right, right, so ready I'm gonna start it off. O. Oh what a night, What a night? What a night? O God, what a night? I feel good when you're wrapped up in my arms dance in to a reggae song, feel good good high five girl. Yes, Uncle Bris, Yes, you know. I hope you made him before. I was supposed to go one year and it was in New York actually, but I had to be down here for work and I missed it. God, I was literally going to be backstage with him and I was so upset.

I went to Barras's time the show one time, and I was like, oh my god, this is everything.

Everything.

My mom was there, all of our family was in. It was just because I don't know about you. Growing up, it was like when we would clean the house and stuff, and you know, every Sunday it was the whole The whole.

Album was on.

You know, the whole albums brings back such good, so.

Many good vibes. My parents haveing basement parties or bashmans as we call them, and as the party wind down or wind up, it was Uncle Barrass. So shout out to Barras having and shout out to you for knowing all the lyrics. Of course, all right, y'all. Let's take a break really quick, and then we're gonna come back

Yes, I love that.

No, absolutely, Does it ever blow your mind when people introduce you in spaces like this and they list off your accolades? Do you ever get tired of that?

I wouldn't say tired of it.

It's just it's so funny because now I feel like I've been living my life in like different silos, in different stages. Yes, And it's like sometimes I forget all of the stuff that I've done because for me, although obviously winning the Olympic gold was a lifelong dream come true, it still feels like just the foundation of what I'm going to go on to do in my life. You know. It's just like the starting point for me. So it's

But I mean and to think that track and field and you becoming an Olympic athlete and winning medals, I mean that was your springboard for all of the greatness to come. So I applaud you. I give you your flowers here as they sit here today and the sky is literally the limit. And I feel like that's one thing that we share as Jamaicans or being of Jamaican descent, is something as a young age, as a child, our

And I also do want to acknowledge what you said in the beginning too, you know that Devaal came out and I just want to also give you your flowers too because I am such a big fan of you and your family. I think that what you guys stand for, it really just shines right through everything that you guys do. And you know the world needs that. You know, we need to see black, healthy love. We need to see beautiful strong men boys, and you guys just have that

From morning from morning and finally together. I appreciate that. Thank you so much much.

You're doing so keep going, But yeah, you know, like you know track and field is the most popular sport in Jamaica. So when I was growing up, track was always all around me.

Were you born in Jamaica? I was you were what part? No I was? Oh, I was actually born in New York, But you.

Can't tell me that, baby, No, I can't tell you know.

I was born on the rock. So yeah, no, I was born in Jamaica.

I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and I stayed there till I was twelve. My family, my grade when I was twelve, and so growing up, I remember the country literally shutting down when the Olympics were on, like people did not go to work, like it was all about Olympics.

Right, And so I was like, man, I want that. You know.

It's so funny because I didn't think I was somebody who like was like center of attention kind of girl. But I've always been that way. So I was like you were watching me and cheering for me like that, you know. And so I started when I was seven. I went out, you know, we had like a fun day at school to race and do all that stuff. And I be all the boys and you know, like the track coach was like you're doing the track team, and.

Literally my track career started at seven.

Wow.

I always tell people, Kadin, I'm so grateful. I think I got the best of both worlds because being in Jamaica at that young age where they really nurture track and field athletes like I was. I was being coached by the coach who was coaching the national team when I was seven. Imagine like all that he that he poured into me. I learned so much about discipline, Like people were like, oh my god, you're running looks so poetic.

I learned about form.

Like all that stuff at a very very age.

Yeah. Then my grade to the States and had access to all these resources here, So it was just like the perfect storm. And I'm so grateful that my parents, you know, made the moves when they did, because it benefited me so well so much.

Right, it was something you had to kind of develop a love for, you feel like you just kind of fell into it. And I loved it immediately. Yeah, I loved it immediately.

I loved It's funny because as I got older, I realized I didn't love the training as much as I loved like winning, right, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, Like I loved competing, I loved like in Jamaica, chrack and field was like football, so like Friday night love.

Yeah.

So we would have meets when I was seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

I'll never forget in the National Stadium and it'd be like tens of thousands of people in the stands. Like our school would practice, you know, our school would practice like their chance and it'll be like son, yeah, champion.

Yeah so.

You know all yeah, the whole and then my whole family would fly from the States to come and watch.

It was a thing. It brought the families. Oh it was. Yeah, it was a big thing. Is still to this day, Oh yeah, yeah, still the same. I figure. I feel like track and field is the biggest out over soccer is catching up.

And you would always say track and field and soccer were the two biggest sports. I think that obviously with you saying bolts and shelley and stuff completely has gone like there's no competition for sure, track and field is the biggest and the most supportive. But yeah, man, I mean it's a big deal, and it's so good because when you're that age, it's so good to have something like that to be able to latch onto, right because

And so I'm just discipline, pres hard work FROMDERI, teamwork, all those things which we were joking about earlier on when you walked in that when our kids start running track,

Yeah, definitely. It was my senior year high school.

So my junior year, I had been competing doing very well and I had my first like major injury. I'd pulled like my hamstring on my quadma sole. I didn't compete as well as I normally did in the like you know, nationals and stuff. After high school stuff. I remember being very disappointed and I was in the car with my dad. It was a summer before my senior year, and he's like, darling, do you want to be great? And I was like, of course, Like who doesn't want to be great?

You know?

But I realized in that moment, like he was helping me understand that greatness didn't just happen because you were talented, like you had to be intentional. He really wanted to be great, and so I remember taking that challenge to heart and we started doing a thousand sit ups every day. I started watching film, I started eating well, I started resting, and the results were like immediate. You know. I wrote

Yeah, my mom and dad did that.

They told that line so perfectly because my dad was always like, YEA, go a bit the best metal world since I was nine.

He's like, world, be tough. So he was speaking life to you.

And until I believe it in my believe for myself in a minute, I believe that he was all right, what we're doing.

You know, he was right there to meet me where I was at.

So, yeah, it's funny you say that because we actually realizing that with our oldest now, so our oldest is thirteen, how old is your oldest son? Six? Six? Okay, so we have a little wayte to that mean a year out from starting when mom day at seven if you wanted to run track, right, But we even see it with our son now, like like you said, it's a difference between wanting to be great but actually training and

Oh yeah, like I knew I would make a vision board every year, and on my vision board i'd have the Olympic gold medals or World Championship goal medals. I'd put time goals on my vision board.

I think.

I think as an athlete, you have to know what you want. I think that you can't just like hope that it arbitrarily will happen for you. I think, and especially in a sport that's decided by tens of thousands of seconds or you know, half a second, and all those things get to be so precise, ridiculous. So yeah, I was always you know, the American record was on my board, Olympic gold medals were on my board, all those things, you know.

Because we're seeing numbers, oh yeah all the time.

And then training too, it's like, you know you're doing especially for the four hundred hallelujah. You know, like it's literally like a game of numbers. You know, you got to come through in twenty three five, the the next turn has to be twelve five and in thirteen five and that's forty eight seconds, right, So it's like, you know,

If you did, you ever have a time where you were just kind of discouraged, like, man, like it's going to take me this many years to train. The Olympics only come around every four years, Like is it really worth it? Because I when I watched the Olympics. I think about someone who has trained for four years, they get to the track and there may be a fluke, accident or something that happens, and it's like, that was my chance, and I trained four years for this. Did

So I actually am that person. I had that story. So in two thousand and eight, I was favored to win gold. I was undefeated that season. Talking about pressure now, yes, I was well number one. And the only race I lost of two thousand and eight was the Olympic final, the only race of twenty races I competed in. I beat every single person that field nineteen other times except for for the Olympic finals. And on the night I lost, I literally thought I thought I was gonna die.

I was.

I literally wanted to just die, because when you cross the finish line, you know immediately that you got to wait four more years for the opportunity again. And most athletes only make it to one Olympics. So this was my second. So the chance of me going to my third, you know, it's very slim. And so I was overwhelmingly broken after that, and it's so crazy because I'll never forget. So at the time, in two thousand and eight, there was no Twitter at Instagram, no social media.

So people the good old good days, the good old days. Yeah, I know.

So people had to email you if they wanted to communicate with you, right, so you had your website and like you know, and I remember I was on the stands and I had cried so much because so when when I walked to the back, Kadeen said, like most Olympics, they don't like carve your name on the medal or anything that you just get the medal.

And I never forget.

I walked it back and the gentlemen we were in Beijing, he says, what happened? We had your name on gold medal and I just like I had finally pulled it together, sir, and it was not the right time. Right before I walk out, he said, So I started bawling again. Right,

You are no. No, no, I really am that chick. No for sure. I check the numbers, the number so it's you know.

So then it's about the mental game, like who can stay present in the moment and execute their race strategy?

Right.

I didn't even think of a sports psychologist, like someone like a therapy session, but specific for an athlete after I didn't even know that that was like an actual thing.

Yeah, and I wish, and honestly, our women like Simone bows In, you know, recent years have actually brought more attention to it, which I think has been very helpful because in my day it wasn't talked about.

Yeah, you know what I mean, and I really wish.

I think I would have been even more dominant had I had.

I mean, mental health in general has now become a thing that we're openly discussing.

But it hasn't been in the past.

It wasn't and so you know, you just push through even though you're dealing all these things. So anyway, so to a very long answer to your question, it took me a lot to overcome that loss. And I remember standing on the start line in twenty twelve, and you know, my sports psychologist told me, he's like, something's going to happen that's gonna knock you off your block, but you're going to put your hand on your stomach, You're going to breathe into your hand, and you're gonna remember all

Was the defending Olympic champion.

She's the one that one in two thousand and eight.

And she's British, so she was.

She literally lived like five minutes from the stadium and usually when the race starts, I usually get the loudest roar, right hello, Well.

They not on that day.

Okay, they said Christina Rugu and literally it was deafening wow.

And I was like, oh, where is she from. She's from Great gat Wait, she's.

From London, from London, and the Olympics were in London, so you know what I mean, home court of course, and she's the final.

So excited. So I was like, oh my god.

So like I had to get back in my eyear.

That was the moment. This is what told me about.

So you see me put my hand on my stomach, bringing too the thing and I was like, not on today, honey, not on today. I refused to lose to I waited four years for that year, and it felt like I ran. Yeah, it was really beautiful and so yeah, I suddenly had my highs and lows. And I think with anything big that you attempt to do in life, it's par for the course. You know, success is not a rocket ship like it is going to have it's and Valley's going to have his highs and lows, and so yeah.

I certainly experienced that.

But man, when I got to finally sound top of that podium for the individual four.

Hundred, yeah, oh my goodness, I love that for you. I'm thinking about sports currently and what it's looking like for athletes in general, but specifically when it comes to track and field and being a woman in the sport. How have you seen a shift in that? With nil deals?

It's a really good question and it's one that I actually my god daughter, one of my best friends, Breshn Jackson, has a god daughter. Her name is Shanty Jackson and has a daughter, and she's my goddaughter.

Yes, and she's going to be a superstar in the sport. She is phenomenal, a phenomenal athlete.

And so when you started to talk about that, I just, you know, I think of her like, what would I tell Shaunty as she navigates this very new space because.

It is very different.

And I will say this, like, there are a lot of pros to athletes being able to make money off of their image and likeness, right because I could tell you I can talk about this all day because obviously on the Olympic level, I think that there needs to

It's going to take us some time to see, right. So for those of you who don't know what an anil deal, it's name, image and likenss. So you're seeing

Yeah, yeah, it's a huge benefit if you have the right people around you. And you know, because because the whole thing is, and from my own experience is the only place I can speak from, is that sport was so much fun for me and it was this place of retreat and solace until the pressures and the money and all that stuff place started to be a part of it, you know, because now you're making choices based on those things as opposed to sport just being something fun,

And now they're the boss and all these things.

And especially what I think is really challenging is a lot of young people who are great athletes are first time millionaires. They don't have people in their circle who know how to.

Deal with in that. Yeah. Right, So now you give a kid who you know.

Is from a situation where you know they may be whatever the circumstances are, and now they got a million dollars or five hundred.

Dollars, and it's like, you know, everybody has their hands out exactly. Everyone's now the expert on what you should do with your money. The same thing goes for the NFL athlete, for example, than the draft. Yes, you know, you get that signing bonus for however many millions of dollars, and then you leave them to their own devices exactly, you know.

So I think that I think the better way to do it would be, yes, to give athletes what they are doing based on all that they bring, but maybe put it in a fund or something where they can't touch it until they're older, because I think that it, unfortunately will have an impact on their performance because life changes. Like when you have money. We all know, more money more problems than the real thing. And I just feel like young people should be allowed to be young people.

Financial advisors, people who are paid track of these things, teaching about investments and things like that. Remember for success exactly. I remember when my husband was playing in the NFL, they used to have courses like you could come in exactly and they would kind of teach you how to, you know, invest your money and the things to do with it and make it really wise. So that made sense then, And I think that's a really good, good

I mean, throughout my journey, I've had a lot of you know, challenges, whether it was like you said, maybe you know, whether it was a brand deal or I always had this vision of like wanting to be the face of the sport, and like I remember my first Olympics, I had like eight contract deals, Like wow, do different sponsors, BMWBP all this stuff? And yes, I do feel like sometimes those things distracted me from just the pure training

Oh wow.

Literally the day before I got on the plane, I had an abortion.

Wow.

And so my husband and I had been we were I think just engaged. We have been together for about five years prior to two thousand and eight, we weren't married yet. He had just been off to the NFL for about two seasons. And you know, at the time, it was crazy because we also had this like notion as female athletes that oh, when you're training, when you

Am, right, which is actually kind of contrary because at your fittest and your most healthy, it's probably the best time. Yeah, think about it.

Yeah, yeah, anyway, so you know it was it was a really challenging time for me, Kadeen, because as a Christian woman, as someone who desired to start a family at some point, and someone who always really saw life as very black and white. For the very first time in my life, I felt like I was in this area of gray, and I did not know what to do. You know. I was like, all my life, I've dreamt of being an Olympian, and here I am now going on the precipice of winning my first Olympic gold medal.

Was what I thought.

I'm faced with this very hard life decision, you know, and so I decided to have the abortion.

I didn't tell.

My only person that knew was my mom, my sister in Ross.

My dad didn't know, my coaches, didn't know nobody now, and so I travel over to Beijing and I'm still working and mind you supposed to be fourteen days, do nothing, do nothing, yea working out, I'm doing every I'm literally like, oh wow, yeah yeah, because I don't want my coaches to not w anybody to know them.

Wow.

And you know, I reflect on that time and I and I just sometimes I just weep for that girl, you know, because it was just it was so hard on me because I the night before the Olympic final, I couldn't sleep because I didn't feel like I was.

Worthy of winning the Olympic gold.

You know.

I just I felt like when I had the abortion, I left a little bit of my soul on the table.

Right, It's like playing like was this worth it?

Yes, I never thought I would be in that situation. And then it was just just a lot of things. So outside of already the emotional toll it takes on you to compete at that level. I was in like an emotional and spiritual warfare, you know, for myself internally.

So then I talk about the mental exactly in that it takes not just to run the race, but then now to deal with this extra exactly you know, situation that must have been quite a time for you to get by.

Yeah, it was really really hard, and so I remember. But the thing is, and I think at the end of all of you know, any kind of these stories, there's always you know, if you allow it, you know, there are these incredible moments. And so after I lost in Beijing, I remember getting on a bus to go find my family.

I didn't want to go to the village, and everybody be like, oh, what happened?

Yeah, And so I get on this bus to go be my family and I get lost, and so I jump off the bus because I'm literally like heading the wrong direction. And I'm bawling because I'm like, oh my god, I'm physically lost. I feel spiritually lost, I'm emotionally lost. And when I tell you, I felt the loving arms of God wrap his arms around me in Beijing, China, on the side of the road.

It was like I just heard him say, You're forgiven. You're forgiven.

You know what.

It made me realize that God's love is just is first of all, it's so enduring, it's so patient, it's so everything.

It's so kind.

And God doesn't treat us and love us the way we love each other.

Like God didn't want to punish me, no judging it. Yeah, you know.

And so in reality, when I and I didn't want to run the four by four because I was so broken, I went back on the track. We actually got to stick behind for the first time ever. When I competed for Team USA, and I remember, you know, passing the Russian in the final fifty meters of the race, and it just felt like the story of God's love, you know what I mean. It's like he has us, like he's going to see us through to victory, you know,

And you don't have me emotional too, because I share a similar story, you know, with Deval and I when we were younger. I spoke about it in our book as well too, where it's like you're forced to make this decision where it's like you're with somebody who you love, you do see so much. Yeah, and then you have a moment where you're just like man, I know that,

Yeah, I mean, you know the good thing for us.

And I always tell people this, I don't think I could have been married to anybody else because the fact that he was an elite athlete and he understood the sacrifice and the commitment to sport made our relationship so special, you know. And what was great was that our seasons were at different times of the year, and so he would come and support me, I'd come and support him. The first couple, I would say, the first ten fifteen years of our relationship was like incredible.

You know.

Where the challenge just came into our marriage was after sports, you know, like when the first thing was having a child.

Didn't nobody didn't nobody want.

Us, Nobody told you nothing. But you know what it is too. I've realized just hearing from from NFL wives, specifically those who have had husbands retire and they're home all the time. It's like a disruption of the lay of the land. You were getting in the way, go find something to do, find somewhere to go. Or there's also that transitionary period of now I'm retired from athleticism, what's the next thing. Fortunately for Deval, he knew that for him, football was just a means to an end.

I think a little bit of both. So we both like both retired.

So Ross had probably retired about two three years prior to us having a child, and I had just retired. So I retired in twenty sixteen, baby in twenty seventeen.

And so you don't waste any time.

No, No, it was great.

You knew you're ready.

Yeah, And I think it was just a lot of things changing at the same time. So we both retired, right, we and like you said, now we're living together full time, which we hadn't done like the whole our whole marriage.

We were like, I'm a new rope from you know.

It's like we were just kind of like, you know, obviously we spent a lot of time together, but because of our careers, I felt like we we appreciated the time together so much because we knew, oh, next weekrobably gone for three weeks.

You know. So now like this long distance relationship situation when you have time to miss each other and when you get together it's like so.

Good exactly yeah, I been there, yeah, and it was like perfect.

Yeah.

Then so so we have all these life changes. Who were both retired, we're living in the same house together. And then our son was tough, like when she was born. He was like very clingy kid, like very needy kid, need a lot from us. I nursed him for three years, wow, exclusively.

You know.

And I think that I had expectations of myself, expectations of him and vice versa. That you know, one of the things that has made our marriage so successful was how well we communicated. And I think we really struggled after baby, because when you're trying to communicate stuff about parenting, the only thing the person hears is you're not being a good dad, You're not being a good mom. And it was never that my husband is the best dad.

And at that time too, when you're a new mom, you don't even know half the time what you want you to exactly a lot of times just you trying to figure out the ebbs and flows of what you're feeling. Your hormones are on a thousand, they're up and down. So I can totally relate to that moment. But it's great that you guys are able to I just find your way through that.

It took us a couple of years and then we got on like track. And that's how come we waited sometimes to have another one because I didn't want to risk it, Like I felt like our marriage, like my marriage is the most important thing to me. Yes, outside of my relationship with God, it's my It's my marriage and my children the most important things to me. And so as much as loud as a noise got from the outside, you should have another one.

No, we gonna make sure everything is perfect.

How many years between two seven years? Six years? See and Jackson and Cairo's five years because I think it was a similar thing to Another similarity is that we two were struggling like those we had a honeymoon baby, so we got married, got pregnant, honeymoon and right into parenting and this eff are being together for eight years. So we had different Yeah, it's so different because we had our routine, like we knew who we were.

It was like a tornado, like are we me and Ross were perfect and boom.

Like a out of nowhere, out of nowhere. And I will always say those five those first five years of our marriage were the most difficult because we were transitioning. And that's why it took five years to have another baby between Somebody else can understand how that relate to that because we were like, you know. Another thing was like, oh you had one kid, like it's been three years, it's been four years, it's been five years, and I'm like, do we really want to throw another child into the mix?

Yeah, So you know, I am in a space in my life right now where I, like you said, it's my priorities our family. So you know, everything that I want to do has to feel like it fits my family. It is the best thing for my family, not going to disrupt our peace, so our joy and our happiness. And so you know, we are focused on like the pajama line which we launched, which I was telling you all about, which makes me so happy because the pajama line feels like the perfect reflection of where my husband

Yes, we are intimate, Yes, yeah, on each other exactly. Yeah.

You know, the idea of family entrepreneurship, creativity, you know, and the whole idea of our pajamas is that we want to elevate moments and make them lasting memories, you know, And so I love to coordinate my family. That's like our thing, and so to be able to provide that for others, like even we were at the trials and we were gifting it to the Team USA because we have our team and say.

Collaboration fire, thank you sidebar.

Yes, And one of the one of the guys had just made the team and his wife and kid they were processing with him, and I said.

Oh my god, do you guys want to do a picture?

And what I tell you, like I almost got was in tears because it's like now he's forever commemorated that moment with.

The people who helped him get there.

You know, as an Olympian, we know it's not us, it's everyone else who's making sacrifices pouring into us that helps us to be great. But we're the only ones that stand on the podium, you know, we're the ones that are that get to be out there. So for me, Coordinates is so much more than just a pajama line. It's like literally bringing families together, you know, supporting each other, like being in community, and like you.

Know, like it's multi generational too, because you get grandma and grandpa, some we.

Got the dogs. Everybody's included.

I love that. I love that you mentioned family and not disrupting that. Some would beg to differ that your appearance on Housewives is the anti of that. How's that experience been for.

You so and they would be right. But you know, so this is what I say about that.

Okay, I feel like, for so long as an athlete, and I might get emotional, I feel like, so long as an athlete, you know, it's like you have all these goals and you put check marks on your board and you're just like like, you.

Know, like I'm gonna do I'm gonna do it.

And so for me, when Housewives came as an opportunity, it felt like that, like, oh, another box I get to check, you know. And as as much as I went in with the best of intentions getting and I was like, Oh, we're going to show black love, We're gonna do all these things, I realized after two years that that space is not conducive to that. And so what I learned from that experience is that Sonya the athlete, all the things I learned, everything is not going to

Athlete no more, know what I mean.

And so I still counted all joy because for me, I feel like every experience in life teaches you something, and so it was a great experience. I learned a lot about myself. You know, I found my tribe inside the housewife tribe. You know, a lot of people who love on me and support me and never knew who I was, and they loved my family.

So it was great.

But to be honest, it was a really difficult space to be in because I realized now that I am, I love people. It's very hard for me to fight with people and to do all that stuff right.

It is warranted because listen when needed, Okay.

Right, I just I can't.

I can't just do it just because because and relationships matter to me. I love people, and so it was a really hard space to navigate.

As much as I tried to bring all of my.

All of the goodness, I understand because when they came knocking at my door it was the same thing. I was like, I don't know if I can exist in that space authentically at least, because that's a huge thing for Yeah, and that's the huge thing I think for us.

So Yes, I've held the American record for the four hundred for eighteen years, Yes, which is mind blowing for sure.

Yeah.

I didn't think when I broke it at eighteen years ago that was staying the test of time. I thought I was on break it again, to be honest, right because it was so.

Early in my career. That's a competitor, and you two always want until.

I one up yourself break it like ten times after before I retired. But but it's just been a joy to have it. I do think that it is going to get broken very soon. My homeland makes it twenty years, so Sydney, just give me, give me.

Two more years. So you're already putting out there this.

Yeah Sydney, Yeah, Sidney, Sidney.

The last race is so funny because my colleagues, so, Okay, here's the real deal.

This is this give this is dead ass, this is transparent.

The reality is is that I like when I see young people like a Sydney and she Cared, I see myself in them. So I know what it's like to want to like put records on your board, and so I feel like, yes, like that record has meant a lot to me. But records are meant to be broken, So I'm not sitting over here about.

To be heartbroken for do you think that you're on Sydney's vision board with that record? Record is definitely on the board, Sidney write in you know as a listener, let us know, yes, that records on the board.

And I mean the last race, I think she ran forty eight seventy five. My record is seventy so she was only five hundreds off the record.

That means literally the lean right, sure, for sure.

But I also think you know what it does is I and I are one of my colleagues. The other day, Kara Gaucha, who I love to death. She's an Olympian and world champion. She said to me, She's like sign and think about it. It's been eighteen years and no

Hord darling to that horror and sitting it as long as you can, Okay, whether it's eighteen years, twenty or beyond exactly, thank you. So to round things out, we normally do a moment of truth. And instead of the moment of truth on a day with K I want you to tell me something that you're dead ass about. Oh.

I mean, I think I probably said it, but I'm dead as about my family. They don't mess with my family, man, And that's a.

Good man, and that's a good man. I love that. I love that so much. Thank you, Thank you for for you you did. Yes, it's going to be pulling up here in like two minutes. I cannot wait. I am surprised.

I cannot so normally right, okay, And I can't believe that I came to the de Vows dead ass and and didn't bring y'all a pajama set because you guys.

You know what now that I hit him about it of coordinate, Yes.

You guys know, seriously, you guys are the epitome of what coordinates means. It's all about family. You guys take the dopest shots, like even like your pregnancy shot you had the blue and the belly was out in the gold and stuff like, yeah, you have inspiring the culture of it out there.

You started the maternity family. Yes you did.

You know you did for sure, Like when I was looking for inseration, like your picture was my little movie.

I love that. So it's on the way. I know we've been doing for a long time.

So it might not be on the episode, but but and bringing a whole set for your.

Family, my goodness, I love Yeah.

I hope you guys will love them.

And I know I can't wait to say some photos in it too, just because I mean, that's going to be the US team.

Yes, so the pajama of Choice, yes that is yes, So the pajama the Team USA collection means that we are the official pajama lounger parts of USA. So we have we're all of tam USA. So the track team has been totally outfitted. That's like, let me say what they said.

It was so funny.

So the athletes are coming in right and getting their tam Usa uniforms for the first time.

Right, it is the first time they're seeing the designs.

And then and then people was like where the pajamas at?

It was so funny, like they were adorable.

That's exciting. So you guys are going to be a love it. I love that for us. Thank you so much? Oh my god? And where can everybody find you? For those of them? I mean you have to be under a rock for the past however many years if you don't know who this is. But where can people find you if they want to follow and see what's next? What's going on?

Yeah, so you can follow me on social I am Sonya Richie ri I c hi Ross on all social platforms.

So you know what I didn't talk to you about.

I came back and talk to you about it.

I have a blog called mom Nation, okay, and we started the blog about five six years ago, and we focus on supporting black moms on their motherhood journey.

And so we do all I think I do. Follow you guys, I do we have to do. We have to be more intentional about making sure we connect on that level for sure.

So if you follow mom Nation, you get to see and be a part of our community. We have our Mammation Gives where we help homeless moms and we do a lot of It's like my heart when I became mom, I was like, I can't imagine what it's like for mothers who lack resources and support, and so I just want to keep doing my part to support moms. So follow nation, Yes, support nominations, graves, and then of course coordinate, said shot Cortness dot com.

All Right, I love that so much. Thanks y'all for joining us today. Such a treat just in time for the Olympics that are going to be in Paris. Girl, eat it chroissant for me. Yes, come to past, Come stay with me. Don't tell me what a good time. Because one thing that stay ready, baby, is that passport.

A day with period Paris wrote it it.

You can say, baby, stay tuned. There might be a part too this all right, all right, all right. And even though we did not get to listener letters today, we still have listener letters open and we're waiting for your emails. So if you want to be featured as a listener letter, be sure to email us at dead ass Advice at gmail dot com. That's d E. A. D A S S A, D V I c E at gmail dot com, and be sure to find us on Patreon to see exclusive dead Ass podcast video content.

Dead Ass is a production of iHeartMedia podcast Network and is produced by Donor, Pinya and Trible. Follow the podcast on social media at dead Ass the Podcast and never miss a Thing