Hey there, I am Felicity Harley and you're listening to an extra special episode of Healthy Ish, your podcast from Body and Soul. Yes, this week we're celebrating our superstar Olympians. On this episode, we're joined by Tina Rahimi, our first Muslim female Olympic boxer, to chat about how she's handling the pressure of Paris. It is, after all, her first Olympics. Now keep in mind Tina popped into the studio a few months before she flew out to Paris. Oh, you know,
be inspired by this chat with her. If you do want more from Tina, make sure you're listening to extra Healthy Ish, where she shares how she finds courage to not give up and catch that where we get your podcasts. Tina, Welcome into Body and Soul.
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How are you good. I'm doing very well this morning. How are you?
Yeah, I'm good and you know what, congratulations well done on making it to Paris. How does it feel?
It's I get asked this all the time, and I think it's I think getting closer and closer it's really feeling. I think it's a bit nerve wracking. I would say it's exciting at the same time. But yeah, I guess I'm just feeling really excited.
I would say as an athlete, I mean, visualization is a big thing with a lot of athletes. Do you imagine yourself being in the middle of the podium.
I think that's what my mind is set to, Like I can see myself just standing at the on the podium and just winning a gold medal. I think it's just you've got to manifest it, like I believe if you truly believe it, And this is like what I've been doing with everything that I've achieved. I've got to make sure that I'm one hundred percent certain that I will get.
My goal and that i will achieve it.
And I think if you have that mindset then and you've worked hard for it, then what's impossible?
I would say, yeah, yeah, well it's absolutely possible. Is there one thing that you're most excited about when it comes to Paris?
I think it's just the whole process.
Like just even now two months out, I think just you know, being able to travel and have all these competitions and preparation leading to that is just all really exciting. I think I'm just looking forward to just finally being then having that real and raw emotion once I'm there, I think I'm just excited to be representing my country.
I would say, to be you know, in our green and gold and our new uniforms, it would just be I would just know that I'll have just a great feeling and I'll just be full of excitement.
So I'm looking forward to it. Well, we're also excited.
And the other thing I'm actually excited about is, you know, I've interviewed a lot of female athletes in my time as a journalist and back when I was editor Women's Health, but I've never interviewed a female Muslim boxer. You're going to be the first Australian one at the Olympics.
How does this sit with you? I think it sits really well. I think it's just this really.
Opens up new opportunities for a lot of women out there, not just Muslim women. I think it just it shows that we are us. Women are capable of anything, and we can have our own beliefs, stress how we want to and you know, at the end of the date, it's not going to perform, it's not going to affect our performance, So why can't we just you know, showcase our skills and not really worry about what we believe
in or how we dress. I think I don't look like a typical Australian and I don't mind that, and I think it just I think it really opens up more opportunities for women and I'm glad to showcase that I have. I feel included and I'm you know, inclusive in a sport.
Yeah yeah, well, well thank you for kind of flying that flag as well. What does your training look like in the lead up to Paris?
Yeah, so, I, like I was telling you before, we're literally going to be home. I'm going to be home for I think two weeks now it's two and a half months out and I'll only be home for two weeks period. So we're going away and we're going to compete and then in Netherlands. Once we're back, I'm straight to Brisbane. Straight from Brisbane to Germany where we have our final preparation and then there we are in Paris getting ready to prepare and fight.
What does your prep look like like?
What do you talk us through exactly what you do the training in the gym versus do you have mock matches or what goes on.
Yeah, so a lot of time when we travel and we do these international camps, we have like a lot of competitive sparring that are exactly like fights. You have
the referee in there. And then our training is pretty much well, when we're with our national coach, it's two to three times a day, so you know, you've got your strength, you're running, and then you've got your boxing and partner work, and then on other days you'll have your your competition sparring and then like now we're going overseas and I've got an actual proper fight as well.
So that's all.
Prepil until the Olympics, which is fantastic, and that's something that we need to know what we're what level at and to you know, tune everything that we need to, yeah, to finally step in the ring.
Do you get nervous going to those preparation fights, Like where's your head space at? I mean, it's not the big event, but is there still nerves?
And yeah, I think for me now, like before, there used to be a lot of pressure. I think I used to put a lot of pressure on myself stepping into the ring and I used to say, oh, I need to win this fight and if I didn't win, I would cry and I think it's just a normal reaction. But I think now I tell myself, you know, you this is not the major event, like you need to take out everything that you need out of this fight. Like my goal is to go in there make sure
that I win. And that's what I you know, I don't slack off or anything in competition, but I just like to sort of ease myself and don't have that because when you have that pressure you want it, you overperform and then you don't do well.
That's what I That's how I felt in the past. I just try too hard, I would say.
So I like to just sort of, you know, take it as an experience and say like this is like another sparring session. Yeah, you know where you're relax and I usually do really well with my spas, So I don't like to get to my head too much.
And yeah, what about.
At the actual event, I mean, what's your mindset? Light? Because there is pressure, there's the whole of Australia watching. How are you gonna approach that in terms of mindset? Well, not to put any pressure on you. Yeah, yeah, no, that's fine.
I think, Well, the most pressure that I had was at the Commonwealth Games. I think I was nervous one week before the fight, before I even knew who I was fighting, Like I was so so nervous, like I would wake up and have butterflies in my stomach. I would, and it was just like I knew I had so much support from home, and I knew so many people, yeah, t you know, you better win us a metal like I know, like yeah ye, or like you'll have so many people messaging me like oh, you're an inspiration. I
really hope that you win. And then I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm doing this to, you know, just prove for myself what I'm capable of. But then I have so much pressure of people expecting me to win or wanting me to win and really encouraging me as well. So I think it just becomes really really hard, and I think I think I'm just going to ride the wave. I think you'll just see how we go. Like recently I haven't been as nervous, but I think,
come on to steal Olympics. It's going to be on Channel nine and there's gonna be all eyes on me. So I think it's just going to be a lot of pressure, but I'm going to give it my all.
And yeah, the cop Games was like a prep run in some ways, wasn't it. So you have been there, you know kind of what you know eighty percent of what it might be like.
I think it's just going to be one hundred that Kom Games times one hundred. Yeah, but yeah, I think it's just going to be I think it's going to be exciting.
Yeah.
Now on your Instagram, there's a great quote from Mike Tyson the temptation for greatness is the biggest drug in the world. What does greatness look like to you?
I think I love this quote past, Yeah, I absolutely love it. I think I've actually wrote this on one of my posts after I qualified for the Olympics. I think it was and it was just me being more hungry and hungry to achieve more more greatness. I think it's just it definitely is like a drug. Like the more you achieve, the more you want to keep achieving, the more that you want to prove to yourself that anything is possible and you're capable of doing more than
what you said you're going to do. So I think like for me qualifying, I never thought that that would be something that would be possible, Like, come on, I'm an Olympian, Like people would dream and die to go to the Olympics, and I've achieved that, and it's like, okay, what's next now, Like okay, I want to I want a gold medal now. And it's just like it's like a drug. Like you're like, when am I going to
be satisfied? And I think a lot of athletes struggle with that, so it's like a constant battle and you're like, okay, I when do I stop? Like I just want to keep getting better and better and better, and it's just like a drugs drug, like give me success.
Well, we wish you all the success in Paris, and thank you for stopping by.
And I'm healthy, thank you, thanks for having me.
What does greatness look like to you? Well, I hope you are inspired by Tina and all the other athletes will be flying the flag for us in Paris. Anyway, I hope you did enjoy this chat. Jump on and tell us if you did or not. We welcome more feedback. You can rate and review it of course, our subscribe to this podcast, share this app with a friend. We do have a special Paris hub on the Body and Soul website to celebrate the Olympics. Jump on there and
take a look around. You can follow us on social media or grow a print edition which is out in your local Sunday paper. And until tomorrow, go Aussie and stay healthy.