Hey there, you're listening to an extra special episode of Healthy Ish, your podcast from Body and Soul. I am Felicity Harley. Yes, this week we're celebrating our superstar Olympians. We've got some really big names for you, and to kick it off is perhaps one of the biggest. Arianne Tiitmas, already an Olympic medalist of course, joins me on this episode.
Now keep in mind we recorded these before she flew to Paris, actually before she even made the team, and I asked her to share how she gets her mindset ready to go for the biggest event of her life. Make sure you're listening to extra Healthyish as well, where she discusses how she stays true to herself with all the pressure that surrounds her. You can grab that wherever you get podcasts. Arianne, welcome to Healthy Ish and Well. Congratulations on representing US and champion US at the Olympics.
Thanks for listening. It's such an honor for me. I feel representing Australia at the Olympics is definitely the pinnacle of most sports and to be able to do that and not just be at the Games, but hopefully be fighting for some gold medals is really exciting. What does it.
Feel like to represent a country? I mean it's I mean for me, it's just it must feel extraordinary. I mean, is it a pressure, is it an excitement or how does that feel for you?
Well, I remember the first time I represented Australia and it's this incredible sense of pride. I think wearing our colors and knowing that you've been selected with the task as being one of the best representatives to do a job in the pool is really special. But it kind of it sounds bizarre, but everything's relative in your life. And when I was twelve years old, national age was the biggest thing for me, whereas now going to an
Olympic Games is relatively my goal. But you know what I'm striving for in my life right now, So it's really bizarre. I think when you're living in this world, you don't really realize how incredible these opportunities are. I think once I finished me and look back on it, I'll realize how special this moment in my life is. But I just think the most incredible sense of pride is what I feel at represent our country.
Yeah, it's interesting you say that because I have heard a lot of athletes say that you're just kind of focusing on the next thing, and for you that's a goal, whereas you know, the rest of us are like, oh my god, that's an amazing goal, and you're just like, well, it's just the next one in a list of you know, well, I'm not being so blase about it, but just tick it off, tick it.
Off, yeah, yeah, box ticking.
Yes, yes, I mean that's not to undervalue it, of course, but yeah, I appreciate where you're coming from. What is what does the training look like when you're going into Olympics? I mean, what do you you know, a week or two beforehand, what are you doing in the pool?
A week or two beforehand? Is really the point where physically you can't really do anything to make yourself perform better or anything to make yourself perform worse. I think in the pool at that point, it's really about sharpening your toolboxes such more so fine tuning little things. We do what's called tapering, so your workload drastically drops from what you've been maintaining for such a long period of time. So it's really about getting the body ready to go.
But I think the one thing that can really make or break your performance can be your mindset in those final two weeks. I think that you can be prepared physically the best that you possibly can. You can do a truckload of work for months and years out from a games with every aspect done perfectly or as close
to perfect as possible. But if you really haven't got your mind switched on or in the right mindset to compete, it can really undo everything, which is crazy to think about, but power of the mind is incredible and I think definitely after competing at you know, the highest level in sport for many years now, it definitely comes down to that in the in the final, in the final moments.
So how do you get your mindset in check? Like, what what do you do? I mean, you've had experience, I suppose, thankfully you've been to one before and come home with metals. So how do you go into into Paris?
Well, for me, I think you have to have that utmost confidence and belief in yourself to be able to perform, and for me personally, the only way to do that is to know that I've done everything I possibly can in the pool, to stand behind the block with a sense of pride, knowing that I've turned over every stone. I think if I second guess myself, you can't really stand behind the block knowing that you've done everything you can.
And so there's so many aspects that go into training that people don't realize the amount of staff around you that play different roles. In swimming, there's actually a lot of data analysis involved. Stroke efficiency skills, stroke count, breathing patterns, underwater dives, turns skills. There are all aspects of your training that you have to try and nail on top
of the grueling, thirty five hour a week training. So you really want to try and know that you've done all of that to the best of your ability and then have the mental capacity to stand behind the block and go, I've done everything I get can and if these girls beat me, then they deserve to win. And that's the way that I like to feel going into an Olympete games.
That's really interesting. So you have data about basically every single mini skill movement in your race that you can look at analyze. I mean, does someone come to you with all this and say, okay to tweak you around that way or do your turn this way or yep?
Pretty much I've worked with a couple of sports scientists and their job is performance analysis, and they analyze every race I do. Nick, who I work with, has been my performance scientist since I was fifteen, So I don't know how many races of mine is analyzed. But you look at turn times, dive times, power to weaight ratio, stroke efficiency, stroke count, velocity, all these things, because the tiniest little, you know, tweak can be the difference between
a gold or a silver. And at this point or at this level in assuming it's really those small things that make a big difference.
Yeah, they do, don't they. I mean, that's that's phenomenal. I mean that we're this far. I didn't actually appreciate that. All that goes into to what you deliver on the day. What do you do the morning before the race.
I try to be as relaxed as possible. I try to be just me and not think about the task at hand. I really set an alarm. I try to be quite awake before I race, so wake at least three or four hours up before I'm due to race, and just to have a normal breakfast, maybe some porridge with fruit, think about some certain points in the race, that I want to try and really nail, but being as relaxed as possible and really know that at the end of the day, I'm doing something I love and
it's really just swimming, That's all it is. And I've just got to go out there and swim. And if anyone's prepared to do it, it's me. If I was to get you to get up on the block and Olympic Games, it'd be much harder than for me to do it. So I really just try to think about that in stage relaxed as possible, and try and take everything out of the situation and not think about what
I'm actually doing. Just really think about swimming up and down the pool and try and remember why I started swimming, and in those big moments, it's really just about bringing yourself back to earth as much as you can.
And by the way, never see me on the blocks up there, and you just said one thing that I just want to pick up. Having fun. I think so much is lost in sport. I mean I see it with my own sons who made the state AFL team the South Wales recently, and we just have to keep reminding him it's also about having fun and coming back to why you are doing what you're doing.
Yeah, exactly. I started swimming because I loved it and I still love it. I love the social aspect it brings. I love what it feels like to push yourself every day, and I love the feeling of racing and being and a competitor. And that's why we do it really, so you have to really enjoy those big moments as much as you can.
Well, all the best and yeah, well go go a Wasie, thanks for joining us, unhealthy.
Thanks for liicity. Wow.
Takes a lot of self belief to well not only be on the Australian swim team, but to swim an Olympics, especially again. Yeah again. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chat. Oh I'll tell you what I get a kick out of in olyps You might have noticed. I hope you do too listening to the inter If you did, If you enjoy this, jump on rate and review. Of course, subscribe to this podcast, Share this interview, this EPP with a friend, go on, share the love, the assie, love
the healthy, ish, love anything else. Head to body andsoul dot com dot you and check out our special Olympics hub. Follow us on socials grow backprint edition, which is out your local Sunday paper and until tomorrow, go wuzzy and stay extra healthy ish