Hey, fam, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side, Olympic hurdler and sprinter Queen Harrison Clay. She's here to talk about this summer's Paris Olympics, her dedication to empowering female athletes, and how hosting on Airbnb enables her to do it all. It's Thursday, June sixth I'm Danielle Robe.
And I'm Simone Boyce, and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, Simone.
We both want to be athletes. I know we're going to be following the Olympics. They're only one month away, and there's been so much anticipation and so many high profile returns like Simone Biles. There's also been some devastating losses like Gabby Douglass having to pull out due to an ankle injury. I feel like I need a countdown on my whiteboard in my kitchen.
Road to the Olympics. I can already hear the theme song in my head. I'm so ready for it.
Give it to me.
As we get closer to the kickoff in Paris, Danielle, we are going to talk a lot about the roads of the Olympics right here on the bright Side, and I'm really excited because we're going to be bringing the best and the brightest voices on to tell us who we should be paying attention to, what goes into being an Olympian, and also the feeling of what it's like to be in the stands. I have never actually attended an Olympics. It has eluded me, and I've got to do it one day.
It's such a bucket list moment. Also, I feel like you and I we've talked about being patriotic. It feels like such an ultimate American moment to go be at the Olympics. It's super exciting.
I would for sure wear a cape of some sort if I went like it would be a flag, probably either the American flag or the Rings flag, but there would be a cape involved for sure.
Well, we are joined by someone who's actually in the mists of training for the Olympic trials. Queen Harrison Clay made history in two thousand and eight when she became the youngest member of the US track and field team to compete in the Summer Olympics in Beijing. And beyond the track, Queen is also just so fly like. She has amazing style, wears cool lipstick, cool clothes, and she's also really passionate about empowering female athletes and helping them
succeed on and off the field. She's actually doing something about it too, through a social organization that she co founded called the Athletic Girls Club for girls age thirteen to seventeen and eighteen to twenty three. She's just empowering female athletes across the board.
I mean, we know sports are integral and shaping our future leaders. We've talked a lot on the bright side about that pipeline from the field to the c suite, But there's new research out that underscores the positive impact on mental health. So it turns out that girls who participate in sports can have lower rates of depression and anxiety.
And this is so interesting, Danielle. Girls who play sports report one point five times higher levels of meaning and purpose compared to those who never played.
I feel that in my own life playing I don't know if I necessarily play sports, but I work out and having a strong body gives me a strong mind, and vice versa, like one feeds the other. So every time we have an athlete on our show, she affirms what you and I both know to be true. One After the Break, the Fast and the fabulous Queen Harrison Clay is here and we're talking about her Olympic journey, the moment that almost kept her from making the Olympics
last time, and the power of her community. We'll be right back. This segment is in partnership with Airbnb. We're back with Olympic hurdler, sprinter, entrepreneur and mom, Queen Harrison Clay.
And that's not all. She's also in the Airbnb host club too. Queen, Welcome to the bright Side.
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to hopefully become a bright Side bestie.
Oh my god, you're ready, one girl, girl, you ain't got to do that thing. You're already there.
Okay, Okay, what's up. I'm here.
Your name is Queen, You're in. We're good, And I'm excited because Simone is hosting for Airbnb. You're hosting for Airbnb one day. I aspire to be a host. But I'm fascinated by your origin story. I read that you first started running track as a way to make friends. At what point did it become a parent that you could really do this at an elite level.
Yeah, I definitely started with making friends. I mean, I come from a huge family. I'm one of twenty three children that my dad has. Fun fact, so my friends were always just my family. That's what my parents told me, like, your your family is your friends. And then we moved from upstate New York down to Richmond, Virginia, and I didn't know anyone. I was going to middle school and everyone was kind of clicked up from elementary school or in local neighborhoods. And I was like, well, what's the
biggest team or organization that I could jump on? And I saw the track team and it was co ed, you know, so that was actually added on this because well, so you know, me young pre teen girl joined the track team and I kind of just took to it immediately. I had a running past in the past, but to be in an organized sport that was my first time.
I think that's so cool.
You know.
I just had a friend tell me that I should join a run club to meet men. So now you have confirmed her suspicions. I'm going to do it. But we've talked a lot about how opportunities for female athletes have changed drastically in recent years, and you were training and discovering the sport in the early two thousands. What kind of road map existed for you at that time.
Oh my, it's so different, different terrain. I mean, there still are uphill battles. But when I started, it was very much your track athlete. There was no distinction between male or female. And I think there were good parts about that because people were kind of treated equally on
in the sport at that time. But then it also didn't take into account the nuances that come along as being a female athlete, as being a woman, a young woman, and how our body develops differently, so that one size all approach that we kind of got boxed into when I was younger. It's good to see it now, to see female athletes and women in general just shining as women, not just as an athlete, like honing in on what makes us different and celebrating that. It's dope to see.
In twenty twenty four, Queen, you qualified for the Beijing Olympics in two thousand and eight when you were just a sophomore at Virginia Tech. As someone who failed at literally every sport, I don't know what that feels like. So I'm hoping to live vicariously through you through this question. What do you remember about getting that call or getting that news.
Yeah, So when we'd qualify for the Olympic Games, there's like a host and a series of event. So I was in my collegiate season. We had the NCAA National Championships. I'll never forget this. My coach put me in an event I usually didn't do, which was the four x one relay.
I'm on third leg, I'm running for my team, and I ended up pulling.
My quad muscle, which is like detrimental to sprinting because it's huge muscle that you need.
So I didn't get to finish that.
National championships and Olympic trials were about two and a half three weeks away, so any thought I had of making the team kind of started to diminish because I hurt myself and Team USA is a very competitive team to make. But thankfully I had a great team around me that rallied. We did so much physical therapy and treatment and all that type of stuff, and even just mentally training to say, look, if you can be well enough and healthy enough to step out on the line,
the sky is the limit. And I literally ran on faith, like I look back at that race, and I think about it. I was out in laying eight, which is like not a you know, like not the best.
Lane to be in.
I was the last person qualified into the final Olympic trials. Even on the last straightaway a girl fell over the hurdle rolled.
Into my lane.
I had to jump over her, and somehow I still was able to get second place and make the Olympic team as this nineteen year old. And so I think that was a testament if I didn't know before then that I belong here. I have the mental fortitude and the physical attributes to be an Olympian integrate. That solidified it. I still get chills thinking about it and looking at that race.
I do too.
We often hear about athletes having this really intense mind body connection, and an athlete like Simone Biles has talked about how you know, before certain events she had either a good gut feeling or a bad gut feeling about what was about to happen. So that day, when you were qualifying for the Olympics, what was your mental state?
Like what I do remember was like the freedom. There was something about getting injured two weeks prior, nobody looking at me to make the team. There wasn't that added pressure from the public. I was a long shot by their eyes. So I think being able to just go in there authentically, like run my best race without those additional pressures, my mind was free because whatever the outcome was,
I was proud. Yeah, and I was even prouder to make the team, obviously, but I was just proud to have withstood all the things that happened that season to still stand on that line and represent myself, my family, and my university.
That it was a freedom that allowed me to make that team.
Queen, you mentioned mental fortitude, and you know, I've read a few books about sports psychology because I think so much of it is applicable to our daily lives. One of my favorites is How Champions Think by doctor Bob Rotella, and in sports he talks about this moment of psyching yourself up. But it doesn't just happen right before the race. It happens in the weeks leading up to the race. And now you're leading up to the Olympic qualifiers for
the Paris Games. How are you psyching yourself up and preparing for that make or break race?
Yeah, I think everyone's adopted it now when they're like the lulu is the Salulu I swear like athletes. We've been doing that for ages where it doesn't matter like how you're seated going into a race, and that means you could be coming in as the twelfth fastest or the second fastest. When you come to that field of play or that line in your mind, you've told yourself you're better than everyone else in that race because the
race is against you versu yourself. And so as I get ready for the Olympic Trials, get ready for the Paris Games, every day is about chipping off at being better than I was yesterday, a week before, even an hour before. And I think once you with age, with maturity, comes that self confidence that if I can beat myself yesterday, why can't I beat anyone else in the world. And that can go into so many different industries, not just an athlete.
So how do you find that self confidence on days when you're not feeling confident or when you need to push through those near misses as an athlete.
Looking for like outside motivation, especially now I'm a mother, you know, going into motherhood, she just turned to this may but now there's like this additional external factor that motivates me to shine my brightest as the brightest star that I can be. It used to be me, It used to be the accolades, and those things are still important, but now family, especially this young girl, impressionable who I want to be her greatest version of herself. I would
be remiss not to be my best version. So when it's hard and it's hot, or you know, I have a ding here and bang the knee here, I just can regroup and think not just for myself, but for little Queen Cary, that's my baby.
I'm so glad you brought her up because I want to know what training looks like for the Paris Olympic Games. Now that you're a mom, it's got to be different.
Oh, it is.
Very different in great ways and in really challenging ways. I would say maybe within the past two months it just felt very all consuming. It was like never an off switch because when I go into training and I'm at the track, I'm fully focused on that. And in the past, when I leave the track, I would be able to decompress fully.
I can put my feet up on the.
Couch, getting the ice back whatever, and focus totally on me, but now it switches from track queen to mommy queen, in which case it leaves less space for me to just have that same type of recovery.
But I've gotten the gist of it.
It just kind of has taken some time to learn how to be selfish and not think of it as a bad way. I mean, I would have never gotten to the place that I am if I wasn't selfish throughout my career and my life, because I have to be for these hundreds of a second that I'm trying to get to win or to go to the Olympic Games and get a gold medal. So doing that when your mother seems kind of taboo because they say no, selfish is bad, selfless good. But you have to have that balance, and I've learned it.
So I love that you just said I am selfish because we are taught as women to be selfless. You said it, What does being selfish look like like? Give me specifics if you can.
Yeah, it's about prioritizing my time and my recovery. It goes without saying that your baby or your child is always going to be at the forefront of your mind. But initially it would be I'd get done with training and I'm like rushing home, like, no, there's no stops. I mean, I'm like, the only place you need to go is a grocery store or something for her. And now it's like, Okay, do I need to go get in the cold tub? Do I need to go to
the chiropractor? These are things I need to do for my body to perform at its best, and so I've taken that time even if it's like, oh, you want to go get your hair done, which is something I used to love to do, because just as much as Fast as part of my brand, so is fabulous. So I'm like that brings me joy, and it makes training better and it makes my life better. And so tapping back into those things that bring me joy makes training that much that much better.
I am. I love that you said fast and fabulous because one of my favorite athletes growing up was flow Jo, and I feel like she made fast and fabulous possible. So I love that you're carrying the torch. But you have a new title that you're adding to your resume. You're the co founder of Athletic Girls Club, which is a new membership based social organization dedicated to empowering female athletes. Why is this club so needed?
Oh?
My's beyond needed.
I think it literally just about what I wish I had when I was younger, you know, like you mentioned flow Jo, I remember seeing playbacks and replays of her and how she came to the line. It felt like her authentic self. And so with Athletic Girls Club, I'm here, I'm a living testament to bringing your authentic self to the line.
And I know the root of that is.
The confidence and the self awareness that I got through sport. So that's our common thread of all the girls in the Athletic Girls Club. We are all connected through our love of sport because we're active or we're active female athletes. But we know only less than one percent goes on to be a professional athlete.
So it's like, how do they pivot?
How do we provide resources and a network that if they want to host their own podcast, we have a network within the Athletic Girls Club that they can tap into and do an internship.
It's really that just.
Paying it forward that I've done at a unofficial capacity most of my career to now make it a thriving membership club that I'm really excited about.
I'm excited for you as you create the version of community that you want to see in the world. You talked about how isolating it can be as an elite athlete, and this word community, it feels like it gets thrown around a lot these days, and sometimes it feels really hollow, and I don't know that it carries a lot of meaning. So I'm curious what does community mean to you.
As definitely thrown around a lot. I think community to me is more. It's not just the word or us grouping together physically. It's about we have this common thread and I want you to be the best version of yourself. You want me to be the best version of myself. So how do we pool our resources, our mind, our strengths so that everybody in our community can be the
best version of ourselves. I mean, a rising tide lifts all ships, and so what we hope and look for Athletic Girls Club and this network that create to do is to rise all of our girls. I mean these are girls that are thirteen to seventeen and then eighteen to twenty four. You know, this is a really distinct group of young girls and women that we know if polished correctly and given the space and the freedom to
express themselves in whatever way that looks. They're going to be the change makers of the world, and we just want to be a small part of helping them get there.
How has your community shown up for you? Oh?
I mean now, they help me with babysitting, So that's a huge part of community because.
I need that mental space.
But they also rally behind me through my wins, my losses, my injuries, my triumphs. I've had a strong team of coaches, family and friends that have uplifted me and held me to say, you as you are today is the perfect version of you. It doesn't matter what your time was at that race, which is hard to hear as an athlete because we're very tuned into our athletic performance.
Dick our worth.
As you are, Queen, you are perfect as this Now. How can I help you achieve something else? Or how can I help you appreciate the achievements you've had thus far? That part is more difficult for me, but my community's helping me work through that too.
We're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back with Queen Harrison Clay.
And we're back with olympian and entrepreneur Queen Harrison Clay. When you're a highly driven person, that can be difficult. You know, Queen, we've talked a lot about what you've given to the sport, but how about what sports gives to you to girls? Why is it important to encourage girls to stay in sports?
Sport it literally helps throughout your entire life. I can say that boldly and proudly because I know so many many women that competed in sports, maybe in high school or college.
They're not doing it anymore, and they always talk about the foundations and the fundamentals that they learned in sports, how it helped them throughout their career. I mean, I'm talking about c suite level position women that are in these amazing companies, and they always dial back and say, yeah, I did growing or water polo, or I learned how to work within a team at a young age and
that helped me get to where I am today. So I say, sport obviously for the physical benefits and the health benefits, but that team camaraderie, the confidence and self awareness that you have within yourself and your body. It's very difficult to find those spaces, especially as a young woman and a girl growing up. So when you're in that sporting realm and it's like your input directly affects the output. I mean, what better way to showcase how hard work can help you and the rest of your life.
In sports?
You're a mentor to women, to athletes. I love that you wear bold lipstick to sort of encourage women to show up boldly as themselves. Simona and I get to interview so many athletes on this show, and it seems like there's this point in time where it feels really difficult to find yourself outside of sport because it's so all consuming, it requires so much dedication. You so clearly have done that, like you have Queen the athlete and Queen the human being. What do you attribute that to?
Maturity and the confidence that you get with going through things and learning along the way?
Young Queen Beijing two thousand and eight.
Queen Oh no, she would not be doing all this stuff because there's you kind of hit it on the head. There's this myth in sports of if you're to be great, it has to be all consuming. It's an amazing film to be on that top of the podium. I won't say it's not. However, it's fleeting right. You're on the top of the podium, and then you got to work
extra hard to get back to the top. So when all your eggs are in the one basket and you're not able to even enjoy life the fruits of your labor, I feel like you you may have a shorter career as well, because what fun is it to like keep hammering for the same exact goal. You're not going to graduations or birthday parties. I mean, I'm telling you this is what we are taught at a young age. Being an elite athlete means all that other stuff can come later.
And unfortunately, sometimes later happens and you look back and you're like, wow, I really missed out on some opportunities or some things that I wish I would have done. So now you know me in this stage in life, I know there's you know, there's duality. There's Queen the athlete, and I am very much an elite athlete. I'm still doing my thing. I got Athletic Girls Club because I want to inspire the next generation of change makers and women in this world that have a foundation in sport.
I can do all those things and I will, and I'll keep being an advocate that you don't just have to be one dimensional.
I want to talk to you more about being an airbnb host because I'm getting ready to become a host myself. How's that supplemental income feeling, girl?
Okay, because I'm talking about extra money. I think it's so unique for me, especially because when you're training sometimes you have to go here, here, here, you know, like right now we're in Atlanta. We're usually based in San Diego. So I would either just be paying mortgage for my house to sit there.
Right do it? Or it's like, let's offset those costs.
And I think sometimes people don't think about that as well when it comes to being an Airbnb host. Maybe you don't want to host and it's not about making a profit. It's like, let me offset the cost while I go to Europe on baking exactly, and it just feels good. Like you said, I'll keep that money in my pocket.
It's so easy, that's the best part about it. It's like you already have the house, you might as well let somebody else stay in it, make a little extra cash, exactly.
Well, tell me about what makes your space special, like what's what is it like? Like, what color is it? And also what's been your favorite part about hosting.
So our home.
First of all, it's called so cozy SoCal, right like, so if hopefully that sums up what are you getting. It's cozy like deep set couches where you can like fall asleep and my husband has many times. And then because it's about less than two miles from the beach, we have all this outdoor space and like livable outdoor space. So there's a table, there's a fire pit. We're gonna put some Olympic rings out there. We're like, are we too literal? I don't think, so let's put some Olympic rings in.
Well, your husband's an Olympian too, right, So.
Exactly we're an Olympic family. Lean into it the next step exactly.
But it's a lot of outdoor indoor Liverpool space. It's cozy, it's well equipped. I mean everything from coffee maker to cups, to sheets to can openers, whatever you need is in the house. All you got to do is get food and bring your body and have a great time.
Just get cozy.
So you're currently training to qualify for Paris. Have you already started looking at Airbnb's in Paris, yet just like a little browsing just for fun.
We have really my in laws, like my husband's family, They're like, they don't play. Can we find something big enough for all of us? So what we're hoping is like a couple of little apartments that are in the same building so that we're all within reach because we're just so close knit.
But you know, I've been looking in Paris, and then I've also been looking for.
After the games when it's vacation, Like, Okay, where are we going. I'm trying to go to Sardinia, Let's go to Italy, Let's go to all the places.
Since we're already in Europe.
You gotta get your bank, you gotta get your bang for your book when you go over there.
I'm gonna need to get your travel tips with your two year old because I have not brought my toddlers to Europe yet, but I really want to.
But I'm also scared.
You'll never There'll never be that age again.
Whatever fear you have lean into, like this is an experience.
Have you ever been on a plane with toddlers when they are screaming four hours and the whole.
Plane is looking at you. I have it.
I haven't experienced, I've seen it, and you know hindsight. I'm like, girl, you can't be judging, because no, you really never know.
But you know what it's like. Just have a little checklist.
You know your babies, you know what makes them excited and what they love to do.
Just triple it times for and let all those other rules go out the window.
Like screen time, girl, get it much as much as you get, as much snacks as you want.
Andy sugar, screen time, all the bad things. You get it all whenever we're traveling.
Because I'm just trying to watch a movie too.
I'm just trying to live in peace. I'm just trying to protect my piece. Okay, thanks that It'll be great. It will be Queen. This has been so much fun chatting with you. Thank you so much for bringing your light to our show and sharing your experience of being an airbnb host. I'm so excited now.
Thank you so much for having me and like, get to it. Come on, get that thing listed so I can come and stay at your house.
Because I think you got a pool, so list it so I can come.
It's true, yus, this has been so awesome.
Thank you, Queen, Thank you so much. A'll have a great one.
Queen Harrison Clay is an Olympic hurdler sprinter and the co founder of the Athletic Girls Club. We'll be cheering her on when she competes in the Olympic Trials later this month. This segment was in partnership with Airbnb. And that's it for today's episode. On tomorrow's show, it's Flirty Friday. Here at the bright Side, We're bringing you another edition of our dating and relationship segment, Catching Feelings, this time with flirt coach Ben Cameras.
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Simone Boye.
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro Ba.
Y see you tomorrow, folks.
Keep looking on the bright side.