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I'm your host Aja McCord. In this podcast, we introduce you to powerful women who are changing the game in and outside of their field of play. These are women's stories, women who happen to be doing things that many of us can only dream of, but the lessons and inspiration they share is universal.
Welcome to this episode of The Powerful, where we are getting to know some of the amazing women competing for Team USA this summer. Today, we are talking to a woman who won her very first world title at the age of fifteen years old. It was the first of six four of which she won consecutively before going on to become the first member of US Sailing to qualify for Paris, where she's going to make some history as she competes in a brand new Olympic sport, kiteboarding. Welcome
Danielle Morose to the Powerful Podcast. I am so thrilled to have you here.
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited, and I can imagine that the excitement is just getting more and more as we get closer to the games themselves. But I want to talk about what you just did first, because I have a feeling this whole Olympian thing kind of just became real because you were in New York City for the Team USA media summit, and I do believe you got to do some pretty cool things there. Can you bring us up to speed on what it was like being there with the rest of TUSA.
Yes, Oh my gosh, it was just such a cool experience. And I think anytime you're in that kind of environment where you're like seeing all the other athletes and you're like doing all the media with them, and everyone's like asking you about the Olympics and how you're feeling. It's just like it's so i get like a little bit overstimulated because I'm just like, oh my god, this is all like happening and it's so cool and it's so exciting.
But it's like it makes you feel it's like so unique and special too, and I if it's just it's a good reminder to just be grateful for like what's happening. And yeah, it was just a it was a really
cool couple of days. And I started off I was there on the day of like one hundred Days to Paris, and so we started off the day with we went to the Empire State Building with a few other athletes, which was super cool, and we actually got to like flip a switch and it like switched on the lights to the Empire State Building and it made them red, white and blue, which was really cool to like support Team USA and celebrate you know, one hundred days to Paris,
which was really cool. And it was just like that you can like feel the energy and the vibe like everyone is just buzzing and so excited, and it's like it's just so exciting to be there and to be a.
Part of it.
And then the yeah, we got to go up to the to the top of the Empire State Building, which was super cool. See the whole city, see all the views, and when you look it up online, the Empire State Building has one hundred and two floors or like levels, but there's a secret one hundred third floor that is reserved only for I think it's like celebrities, dignitaries, and olympians.
So we got to go up to that one hundred third floor and be like, I think it's the highest point you can be in the West Hemisphere, like without like being clipped into the building or being like harnessed in, which is like wild. So that was like, we don't have a fear of bites, right, We're good, I oh, marginal Yeah, Okay. Some people were looking over like, oh
my god, this is like this is a lot. Yeah, but it was just like it was so cool and it's just one of those things where it's like it just makes you feel so special and like unique, like being part of that team and being like an Olympian. So yeah, so it was just so cool. And you also just get to meet so many cool athletes along the way and share share stories with each other and you always find that like you can just relate on so many levels. And then yeah, so that was kind
of like the morning part, which was really cool. And then the rest of the day was just doing a bunch of different media interviews and shoots and.
Yeah, and like talking to press and all the things.
So yeah, it was it was a very long day, but it's one of those days where I was like, oh my god, like the this is all just so cool and I can't believe it for real.
So was there an Olympian that you met that you got starstruck by at all? Or do Olympians not get startruck with each other?
No, definitely.
I So i'd like kind of passed, like I've seen Jessica Long in passing a little bit, Like I think she was in la at the NBC Universal Studios shoot on like the same day or like yeah, or maybe slightly different day, but I like overlapped with her at some point, so i'd like seen her in passing, but
I never actually met her. But this time I got to like spend a lot of the day with her actually, and that was just like so cool and she was so nice and just like you just like meet these people and they're just such incredible human beings and you realize, like you look at them and they're these like really bad ass athletes, but then you talk to them, it feels like you're just like talking to another person. It's like it's easy to forget that they're just like people
just like me. So yeah, so it was just super cool.
That's awesome. So I want to get into what you are going to be doing in Paris, because, like I mentioned, your sport a brand new one to the Olympics, and this Olympics is obviously also really special because it is the first time in Olympic history that there is an equal amount of representation and participation between men and women. And so walk me through. Describe your sport to somebody who maybe just has no idea what it is.
Yeah, So my discipline is called Formula Kite and it's one of the ten Olympics sailing classes that is at the Olympics, and it's racing. So it's just like sailing and that we're going around, we're like doing laps around buoys out on the water and whoever crossed the finish
line first wins. And in like kite surfing specifically, we're on a board that's like pretty similar to a surfboard and then it has a hydrofoil on it, and the hydrofoil is what allows to like fly a couple feet over the water, and it's actually what makes us the fastest summer Olympic sport, which is really cool. So we're going around the course. We'll be going at speeds like twenty five miles per hour upwind or against the wind, and then downwind or with the wind, we're going like
forty to forty five miles per hour. So it's super fast, and it's really tight, close racing, a lot of like action in the corners, and.
It's just it's super exciting to watch.
And we're flying around getting like completely wind powered by a large kite that is attached to us.
So yeah, so that's kind of how kiting is.
We compete for five days, so it's a pretty long competition. We do like three five races a day for the first four days, and then after that the top ten go into the like metal series on the final day and that's all like how the metals play out.
So yeah, so I've heard you before describe your sport as playing chess while running a marior. But I'm gonna be honest with you, Chess and marathon are not sports that I view as high risk typically because that's just like right, like it's not that it's not hard, but it's that they're not as high What you just described to me feels more of like we're trying to race a race car that I'm actually holding on to the back of while competing against like ten other women in the water at the same time.
Yeah, So I mean I like to make that marathon and chess comparison because not only are you like pushing super hard physically and like trying to go really fast around around the race course, and you're just like pushing super hard and trying to go as fast as you can, but you're also like you need to be looking around and like seeing where your competitors are, and you're kind of playing this chess game of like the strategy and tactics because what might be like I'll say, like the
shortest way around the course might not be the fast and so you have to be paying attention to like changing conditions, Like if there's more wind on one side of the course than the other, then that's gonna make you faster. You have to be paying to paying attention to like current because that'll make you go faster on.
One side or another.
Or you have a lot of like these tactical moves that you'll do if you're like coming up to one mark then figuring out like how to make that play of like passing someone around you. So there's a lot of these, Like there's literally this chess game going on. So not only are you like pushing super hard and on the edge and going super fast, but you're also like you need to be looking around and like making really strategic, highly tactical decisions at a really fast rate.
So yeah, so it's intense.
So we'll add we'll add marathon, but like with turbo boosters on your shoes, yeah, because the wind is like also you're propelling, like you're going against mother nature as well, which is just there's so many fascinating aspects of your sport that we ca get into. But before we get into that, I want to talk about just how you got into this sport growing up in the Bay area give us an idea of how common it is to become sort of involved in the sailing, kiteboarding, kite surfing world.
Yeah, so I always have to start with my parents because they're the ones that got me into the sport.
And they both are originally from former.
Czechoslovakia and they actually escaped the regime in the early eighties and came to America. My dad literally escaped the Eastern Block by cross country skiing across the mountains into Austria and then getting asylum to the US. So they're like, they came from really tough times and they came they had to completely leave their lives and they chose to, you know, escape to America, to the land of opportunity
and to be able to experience freedom. And funny enough, they met while learning to windsurf in the Berkeley Marina in the San Francisco Bay, So they met learning to windsurf. So then when I was born, I grew up around windsurfing.
Eventually my dad switched over to kiting in like two thousand and five, two thousand and six, so when I was like four or five years old, and then eventually once I was kind of big enough and old enough to learn like a water sport, I really wanted to learn to kite, and so my parents were always super supportive.
And I was doing a ton of other sports growing up and was super competitive, and they were really supportive always in no matter what sport I wanted to try or activity I wanted to do, Like they drove me to all my swim practices and to tennis and to dance and tell everything, and so then when I wanted to learn to kite, they got me lessons and they got me the equipment at the beginning, and as soon as I got the opportunity to try competing and kiting,
me always being the girl that wanted to beat all
the boys, I jumped on it. And there was a really strong community of kaite racers in the San Francisco Bay area at the time, and I remember when I was just learning to race, the current world champions were both from San Francisco, and so it was so cool because I could go out racing over the summer and be on the same start line as the current world champions and be racing around the course with them, and I think especially being able to see like Erica Heineken,
it was this sibling duo was Johnny and Erica Heineken, And for me, especially being able to see Erica like go out there and just like shred and beat the boys, that was so inspiring for me, and I remember I wanted to be just like that, and being able to actually see that was so huge, and especially like being in a male dominated sport and also being one of the youngest where I was competing as mostly men that were twice my age at that point, So I actually, like,
I was just so inspired. I just wanted to push hard and go fast on the water, and I was so hooked on the racing, and so I started racing when I was like thirteen or so, and then soon enough I realized I was like pretty decent at it, and it was beating a lot of the boys. I was getting pretty good. And then yeah, won my first world championship at fifteen.
Yeah, because I believe you earn't the nickname Erica two point zero in those early years. Yeah, right, So walk me through how you mentioned being in a male dominated sport and you were racing against a lot of the men in the San Francisco Bay area at the like wopping age of twelve, thirteen fourteen. Right, So how did having just that one female mentor impact your journey in this sport?
I mean, honestly, like if I didn't have anyone to look up to, I think things would have been very, very different. And I think I was very intrinsically and just like naturally motivated, and I was very driven. So I do think I could have like kind of gotten to where I got to. I don't think it would
have happened nearly as quickly as it did. Yeah, And it just like even for me now, I do feel like I'm in a position where I want those like that next generation of young girls to be able to see me and go like, oh, I can do that too. And I think I was also I was in a very like lucky situation in a way because even though
I was racing against mostly men, everyone was always so supportive. Actually, I think in kiting it's pretty unique because even just to like get out on the water, like you need someone to launch your kite and land your kite, and like you need that kind of sense of community, and I think that is like more so in kiting than almost any other sport because you're like you're all going out on the water and you kind of look out for each other and you make sure everyone gets back
in and there's a real sense of like community there. So when I was going out there, you know, twelve thirteen years old, all the guys were like really supportive and they were like really cheering me on, and they were like, oh, like we need to beat Danielle. But like but they were motivating me and they were helping me. And I think when I was at that age, I didn't really realize the significance of that because I was just like, yeah, like, oh, should I tell dead, Like
I was just like having a grand old time. But now as I've gotten older, I'm just like, oh my god, it is like that's not a normal thing really, And I think I do think times are changing and it is becoming more and more normal now, but that that was like not totally normal at the time. And so it makes me, Yeah, it makes me like really reflective of that in a way that I was really lucky to be in such a supportive community.
And and even.
Now as I've like dabbled in a little bit of sailing and been more exposed to like some of those more traditional kind of yeah, that like more traditional culture of like how sailing can be. It's it's very different and it's and sailing is still very much so a boys club, but I do see it like changing now. So it's been Yeah, just like being able to see a woman doing what I wanted to do was pivotal.
So you talk about having that one female mentor, and now you are looking to become that for the next generation of women in the sailing disciplines classes, sailing classes, yeah, kiteboarding in particular. But with that, I imagine comes a lot of pressure because you're not just carrying your own hopes and dreams, maybe that of your parents, who I know didn't push you, but are probably super stoked that
you're following in their footsteps to some extent. And now you're talking about as you come into Paris you are the first but hopefully sort of opening the floodgates for the next and you're only in your early twenties. How have you balanced the physical requirements of your sport along with all of this pressure, either spoken or felt or just sort of around as you've gone through this qualification process.
Honestly, I like.
I just anytime I'm like at the beach, and I'm I'm getting ready to go training and anytime there's some like young kids around that are getting into kiding, like it just it makes me so happy and it makes me just so excited to see that next generation getting
excited about the sport that I love so much. So I think for me, it's just being able to share my sport and the thing that I'm like so passionate about and the thing that I love so much with the rest of the world, and especially now with the Olympics, like it's really just growing so much and with such
a big audience. Like there are so few sports I think that give you that same like appreciation for nature and connection to nature and like being out in the elements, and also the responsibility of maintaining equipment and being super self dependent and like just being able to manage all
of these things. I think, like sailing is such a unique sport and not only does it teach you like all of these kind of you know, like self growth things, but it teaches you so much about the world and like physics, and like I've just learned so much doing it.
I don't I almost like don't feel that much pressure in that sense because I'm just like excited to see my sport getting shared, and I definitely feel like pressure in other ways, And I think that there's a lot of pressure more from the side of like I think in recent years, American sailing has really been in decline, and just recently in Tokyo, we were surpassed by Great Britain that became like the most successful sailing nation, and we were a sailing powerhouse like in the eighties and
nineties and early two thousands, and now that's kind of faded out. So if anything, I'm feeling a lot more pressure from kind of like being that next generation that hopefully brings back some of that power into the country in the sport of sailing.
So yeah, but there's a lot.
Well because in Tokyo, right, the best US sailing finish was ninth, and so you would be, as all of you are going for gold, the first US sailor to win a gold since like two thousand and eight, I think, which was when kiting was not even an Olympic sport, right, And so the next sort of thing I want to dive into is for you. You started this actually probably really in the womb, because your mother was out there on the water in the San Francisco Bay while she
was pregnant with you, which is absolutely unreal. And I want to talk about your mom in a little bit. But one of the things that I find so fascinating is, obviously it's so exciting to have a new sport in the Olympics, but you've been doing this for longer than this sport was in the option of becoming in the Olympics, because you'd already had a few world titles under your belt by the time in twenty twenty one the IOC
approved kiteboarding for the twenty twenty four Games. How have you had to adjust your approach to the sport once it became an Olympic option.
Yeah, really cool to have been like in the sport and involved in the sport for so long and kind of since the beginning. Like I started foiling like as soon as everyone else started foiling, and that's kind of when I was starting to race. So I think I came in at like such a good time and it's been so cool to see so much of that development over the years. And even though the decision came like later in twenty twenty one, we kind of knew, like by the end of twenty eighteen that we were pretty
certain it was gonna happen. And yeah, by then I'd won three world championships.
I was like finishing up.
I think I was, let's see twenty eighteen, I was starting my senior year of high school and.
Had three world titles before you finished high school. It's fine.
Yeah, it was definitely on my radar, I think. And I'd always dreamed of being a professional athlete, and I grew up watching the Olympics, so it was Olympic says, something I've always dreamed about. So it was really surreal, like kind of in those early years where like the rumors were the rumors were going around already, like as early as twenty sixteen, there was chat about like even going in for twenty twenty, and then that didn't end
up happening. But then pretty much by twenty eighteen, we were like, Okay, we're pretty sure, like it's happening, and I was just like, yeah, let's do it. Like I've been that's a dream. But I think the biggest thing was just like how much more professional it became, and just seeing how much like resources the different countries and
federations put into their teams and building up squads. I think it's tough in sailing because like for so many reasons, but one because it's such a I mean, it's an expensive sport, but it's also like it requires a lot of traveling and it requires you to be alone a lot. And it's also only one athlete or team per country can go, So even if you have a training like a domestic training group, only one of you can go in the end, and I think that makes it really tough.
So those countries that have more resources are able to pay their athletes better so that they can keep training as a group all the way up until the Olympics, whereas in the US, you know, the funding is tough. Like I'm not going to sugarcoat it, like it's really tough.
And so seeing over the years, like it was tough kind of seeing how good my results were and to see like all these other countries just getting so much more support and resources and me feeling like really alone in a way, and me feeling really like how am I even supposed to compete against this? Like how do
I compete against these resources? And so that part was definitely tough, and it was weird because over the years, like I won literally everything for six years, and at the end of that, I could really I could feel everyone catching up, and I was like, okay, like I know it's gonna happen, and I'm already accepting that. I know people are going to catch up, like it's only
a matter of time. But that actually it made it really hard to figure out, like because I was so far ahead in some ways and I was so much faster, it kind of made it hard to like figure out what to even work on and how to improve. And of course there's always like you can always improve like whatever you're doing, but it was hard to figure out how to manage my time as best as possible and
how to be most efficient with that. And it's lonely at the top, and I definitely felt a little bit like distance from a lot of the fleet because you know, I was literally just winning everything, and over the years I thought a bit distant from you know, people that I thought were my friends. So yeah, so it's been really interesting to go through that phase change of just like being another sport to like being an Olympic sport. But I've learned so much and never in my wildest dreams.
Could I have imagined I'd be where I am today, So I'd.
Always hoped for it, but I I don't know, I dreaming about it, but I'm just like, wow, these are so epic and so yeah, it's been really an incredible experience.
Well, and I think you touched on something that is so relatable, right, especially for people who are really career oriented and driven in sort of that way where you talked about it's lonely at the top, but it's also really lonely when you're the one blazing the trail, because that's what you're doing, right, Like, you're not just the best in your sport, you are one of the first in your sport to you are the first in your sport to be competing as an Olympian, and you're doing
all of this at the ages of like eighteen to twenty three, when a lot of your peers are in college and figuring out what they want to do with their lives. How have you gotten through that personally? Like what have you had to do to combat that loneliness and sort of lean on the peace in your circle? What have you had to do?
Yeah, I think it's I mean, it's just taken a lot of time.
And I've always been.
A pretty like self reflective and introspective person, and so I feel like I'm pretty good at like picking up on how I'm feeling, and I'm pretty like self aware of how certain things will affect me. And I've gotten like more and more conscious of that over time. So even things like the last few years, I've spent like six months of the year in Europe, and I would
only spend two weeks at home the entire year. So I think the most important part has just been like making myself feel more at home as I'm traveling or wherever I am training or racing, and so doing even small things like I have my close circle of friends, and I'm very particular about who I let into that circle, and until you like can really prove yourself to me, like I'm just not going to let you into that circle because I give out really good energy and if
you're not giving out that same energy to me, like I'm gonna put up my my barricade, you know. And so I've gotten really particular about like who I choose to spend my time with, and I have my really close circle of like friends and mentors, and like my team of my coach and my equipment technician and my sports psych and my nutrition is like it takes a village, and I have like that tight group of people that I work with and.
That I lean on. But you can get pulled in a lot of.
Different directions on the way, but there's always like just some small things you can do. Now, even like I used to always kind of stay by myself because I'm an only child and I was kind of used to like being pretty independent growing up. So I used to just stay by myself because I liked having my space and I liked, I don't know, just having my quiet mornings by myself and yeah, just like doing my own thing.
But after like kind of years of doing that, I was like, I don't know, sometimes I would have not a great regatta, not a great day of racing. I just come home and like be in the silence with my thoughts, and I'd be like.
I like, there's nothing scarier than after a bad day being alone with your thoughts. That's like that and that is.
Yeah, And that was the thing I actually was horrible at, like disconnecting. I was like constantly working and constantly like being switched on and I think that's like good in some ways, Like I think that can take you really far, but once you get to a certain point, you need to be able to disconnect. So I found that like
being by myself wasn't helping me disconnect. So now I always try to stay like with a couple people and we like take turns cooking, and we try to like watch movies and we play Mario Kart and like you know, we we have our ways to disconnect. But yeah, it's it's tough, but I think you kind of learn over time what works for you. And that's thing, like you just what works for someone else might not work for you, so you kind of have to figure out what works
for you. And it also like it changes over time. Like for many years, like I was super happy saying by myself and that was fine, and then eventually I got to point I was like, I don't know if I don't know if I like this. It's just like you kind of learn to be aware of those things and you learn what works for you well.
And I think it's it's something that you were forced to learn, right, because I think when you are at the top, I need I know for me, I do a lot of traveling for work, and I absolutely love it. And also I've had to go through that same process of like, Okay, what fills me up when my support system isn't necessarily right there, or when I've had a bad day in the office and I have to go back to a quiet hotel room, Like what do I
need to do to disconnect? And I think the interesting thing about sort of what you do for a living, and certainly what I do as an escape is getting out in nature, right is like that to me is always the most grounding thing to come back to. Is like I don't care if it's a walk, I don't care if it's staring at a tree. Ideally it's taking some sort of dip in a body of water, right, Like I'm big fan of polar plunges, big fan of waterfalls and the ocean and like rivers and whatever that is.
And so I think that's a big part of I don't know, I don't even want to say, like growing up, but it feels like is as you find your place in this world, you also have to find your place within the world you create, if that makes sense. So I feel like that's sort of what you're describing and something that, like I said, even those of us who are not going to become the first woman to kypeboard in the Olympics, like, that's something that we all have
to figure out. And it's cool that you've figured it
out sort of as you've approached this. And one of the things that I was so grateful for just as I was learning your story is how willing you are to be vulnerable about the hard parts of your story, because I think there's so many exciting things right, Like you are an Olympian, right, and like you are going to be a favorite for the gold medal this summer, and also you're kind of the CEO of a really big business, which is yourself and fundraising and trying to
make sure that you have everything necessary to succeed at your sport. And it sounds like as you were getting ready for Paris, all of that pressure, all of that sort of weight came to a head right before you were actually trying to kind of officially qualify for Paris. So walk me through what happened before Worlds last year and how you managed to navigate it.
Yeah, So I have to start like a little bit further back because I think things already started brewing kind of like the winter twenty twenty two twenty three, and I'd had I had a really like a pretty solid twenty twenty two season, Like I was really happy with my mindset and how I'd learned over the year, and I'd won my sixth World Championship, and I was really stoked,
like with how the year went. And even though I didn't like win everything that year and it wasn't exactly like the years before, I was so proud of how even though I'd gotten beat a few times, and even though I wasn't like quite where I wanted to be, over the summer, I kept fighting and I like really came back at the end of the year.
For the World Championships. It was like such a great.
Year and I was super happy with it.
Took some time off at the end of the.
Year, and then kind of when I got back to training over the winter, I think I got back to training.
Like in November of twenty two, right, Yeah, yeah, did.
Take that much time.
We had our World in middle of October in twenty twenty two, and I got back to training in November. But I do know things just like felt a bit weird. And I was training a little bit in Florida. I was like in Miami and in Clearwater a little bit in like December and January, and I felt really tired all the time, and I really wasn't enjoying the training that much, and I was really starting to like force myself to go on the water.
And I was like, that's a bit weird, but it's okay, Like I just.
Need to push through a little bit more like through the winter and I'll be fine. And then I did a training camp in February and March in Mexico in Lovontana, like one of my favorite places, and there things definitely started feeling pretty bad, but I just like shoved it down, like fully shoved it down, fully ignored it, and I was like I'm fine, Like I'm fine, yeah, and.
We know that's a really healthy way of dealing with all of our emotions. It's perfect, it's good, this is going well.
It's fine, everything's fine.
But I was not excited about my training. I didn't want to go on the water, and it started feeling really weird because I was like, this is what I need to be doing right now, Like I'm trying to qualify for the Olympics. This is what I should be doing and what I need to be doing. And even I remember doing sessions with my sports psychologists and the language that I had started using was so different from
the year before. And kept saying like, oh, I need to do this, like I need to go on the water to do this and this and this, and I was like trying to check all these boxes rather than being like, Oh, I want to go work on this or I want to actually like try to get better at this. And so I started I think I started seeing kind of these like flashing warning signs, but I just completely ignored them, like ignoring the check engine light on your car, like I forgot about it, I shoved
it down, I ignored it. Then the kind of spring racing season came around and I had like a bit of a shocker, like the first event, like finished off the podium for my first time ever in my career, felt really really tired for that first like block I had in the spring in Europe, and then kind of as we moved into the summer and as we moved into like training in Marseille at the Olympic venue and getting ready for our Olympic test event, which was like
the first kind of big event for my like domestic selection trials. I started feeling like really really horrible, and
I remember like I didn't want to go training. The only thing that was getting me out of bed and like out on the water was just knowing that, like my coach was there to help me, and I had training partners there, and I kept trying to find these like external sources of motivation, and I kept thinking like, oh, if I have like these really good training partners, I'm gonna want to go.
On the water.
Or once I'm training like at the Olympic venue, then I'm gonna want to go on the water. But things just kept forcing myself to go on the water when I like deep down really didn't want to. I kind of like survived the test event, and I remember I was just like grinding myself so hard because I was like, hmm, I was like so horrible to myself in a way, and I would like, it's funny how you'll say things to yourself and you're just like I would never say this to another person, Like how can I say.
That to myself?
And I realize this now, but at the time, I was just like, yeah, like I'm tough, Like I'm being tough on myself.
That's what you're supposed to do.
As an athlete, Like you're tough and invincible, and like that's what you have to portray. And so I was just like, yeah, we just have to keep grinding, and like I should feel a little bit burnt out right now,
because like I need to qualify for the Olympics. So I kept like justifying it in that way, just kept like shoving it down and on and down, and then eventually, like I finished third at the Olympic test event, which was what I needed to do to qualify or at least get the like country selection, and then the second part was actually qualifying the country at the World Championships, which were like a month later.
So I remember like taking a.
Breath after the testament and like, okay, we've checked one box, Like now I just have to do this one last thing and.
Then I can take a break.
Then I remember getting to So we had our twenty twenty three World Championships in the Hague in the Netherlands, and I remember getting there and I like did not want to go on the water at all, And I remember there was like a really bad storm system the first days I got there, and I think for like the first four or five days, we couldn't even go on the water because it was raining all the time and super stormy and like it was really just like sketchy conditions.
I remember being like.
Oh, thank god, I don't have to go on the water, Like, thank god the weather is bad and I don't have to go training or anything.
That felt so horrible to say, because I was like, I love the sport, Why do I feel like this?
Like why is this happening to me?
And then eventually I had like a few training sessions and I remember showing up to the beach and it was taking like everything in me not to cry before going on the water, and like while putting my wet sued on, I was almost like shaking because I just like I felt so horrible and so awful, and I was like, this isn't normal, This is not how I should feel.
I should love doing this. Why am I not loving it?
And then eventually things just like exploded, and I think like two or three days before we started racing out the World Championship, I just like I couldn't hold it in anymore on the beach, and I was like about to start changing and putting my wet suit on, and I called my coach who was already on the water like ready for our training session, and I was like.
Chris, like I don't think I should go training.
Today, Like I just fully lost it, and I was like I just I can't do it, and so and then I just kind of like took those few days off. I didn't show up to the beach for those three days, and I was like, I need to get out of here, like be away from the beach and away from all the people and all the chaos. And for me, like all I needed to do for that World was.
Just to I needed a top eight basically, and I was like that's very manageable.
I know I can do that.
So I was like, okay, I just have to like get through this and qualify and get it done. It was horrible even now I get emotional thinking about because I was just like, oh my god, what a tough time.
Like it was so brutal.
So yeah, yeah, but then thankfully, like after the World, I could take a really big break and like I did the job.
I got fifth. Then like didn't win the World TV tips for the first time ever.
That was like something to think about, and there was like all this stuff going on, but I was like, hey.
I got the job done.
Now I can like step away for a little bit and I can like focus on other types of training, focus on my mental health, focus on nutrition, and go to the gym and like just get away from the water for a little bit.
So pretty much between like.
Since the World Championships and January, I like didn't kite at all, and then I came back in January and I was like buzzing, like I was so excited. So yeah, so that was like crazy crazy twenty twenty three.
Yeah, And it's I can imagine the pressure right where it's not just like, oh I should want to do this. I should. I've loved this sport for so long, but it's like it's not just another year. It's an Olympic qualifying year for the first time. And so to have all those emotions, I cannot imagine how overwhelming that must
have felt. And I'm so proud of you for figuring out what you needed to do, even in those small ways, right because I think again, like, no matter the job you're talking about, I think everybody experiences burnout, and it's something that we as a society are just sort of
learning to talk about, much less how to address. And you figured out in the moments, in those tiny ones, right, like what you were and weren't able to do, Like I cannot do this training session, so I can't not do the whole thing, but like I know, I cannot do this training session, and I'm going to take that tiny breath and it's like getting just like a little bit of air before I can finally get a deep
breath when this is over. So it's like you managed to cope in the moment and then find the space afterwards. Because I think the other thing, right is like when you're feeling all that pressure, it's so easy to forget how terrible it was in the moment, right, Like I'm sure after worlds and after you qualified, you're like, okay, but I did it, so like maybe I don't actually need to address this, Like maybe that check engine light
isn't actually at the point yet. So it's like you justify everything that you went through, but you manage to get through it, and then you manage to take the time to address the root of the issue. And I think it's so crazy hearing everything that you went through and then talking to you now because you're radiant, like you're so excited for Paris and for this journey and excited to represent your sport and get on the water. But it took that low, that extreme rock bottom for you to get there.
It feels like, yeah, it really did. And I remember like it had turned into months of like I would wake up in the morning and the first thing I would think is like I don't want to be here.
I don't want to go on the water today.
I don't want to put my wet suit on, like the first thing in the morning, like without even like being stimulated by anything.
And so I'm like.
Really proud of myself now because to go from that last year to how I am now, where like I am so excited about my training right now, Like I can't wait to go training tomorrow and I can't wait to race, Like we start racing in a couple of days,
Like I can't wait to start racing. And it's not even just the thought of like competition and the thought of all the buzz that's happening, but it's actually like I think I just remembered why I started in the first place, and like why I love doing this, And it's because I've always loved like learning, and I loved feeling that sense of improvement, and I was always very rewarded by improving, and I loved like the grind and like working super hard and feeling like you're getting that
zero point zero one percent better and it's those like incremental gains. I love that feeling of improving and it's crazy. I've been doing this for over ten years now to still be learning and improving every single day is like, like.
That's so cool, Like I'm very excited about that.
So I think my priorities have changed a lot in a way. And I was so results oriented last year in a sense, and I was so like tense about some of these things, and now I'm like, Okay.
I just want to focus on getting a little bit better every single day because I.
Know that's what's gonna make me really happy at the end of it. And it's also like sailing is one of those sports where there are so many uncontrollable variables. I think it's like the sport with the most uncontrollable variables, like next to like downhill skiing, like ski racing, there's so much that's out of your control, so focusing on the results isn't going to lead you down a good path because there's just like so much that can happen
in that side of your control. So if you can just like focus on kind of the facts and the information that you have and yeah, just like figuring out how to get a little bit better, then that's like seems to be.
Working for me a little bit more.
I mean, girl, if you're at the point where you're excited to put on a wet suit, you're good because as a surfer, I can tell you it is like my least Yeah, that is my least favorite thing about surfing when the waves are good in California in the winter is like, shoot, I have to put on my stupid wetsuit and then I have to take it off and it's the worst. So if you're at the whatever you were excited about, what suit exactly, you've done it.
Yeah.
So no, I feel like I'm in a really good spot now and like it's interesting too because now we've had like a couple of regattas already for this year, like we had our European Championships in March, and then we just had the Palma Regatta, which is another big regatta,
and I was eighth out of the Europeans. But I don't think I've ever been so happy to like not even win, or like I think I was more happy about like how I sailed that week than I was, like, you know, all those six years of winning everything, because I just like gotten so much better just in that one week. And it's like, yeah, for me to feel like this is like a really really positive thing, and it just like makes me feel really good going into the Olympics this year.
And that's all you can ask for, you know, is like you've done the work and now you get to reap the benefits of going and representing Team USA at the Olympics. And I am so excited to watch your journey continue. I'm so grateful that you took the time to share with us a little bit of your journey so that we can root for you as a person and also as a member of Team USA. This summer.
We're going to move into our next section of the podcast, which I'm really excited about because, like you mentioned, here, we go the sports Bra, our media partner for the powerful and so one of the things that we're going to do this week at the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, is there's going to be a signature Daniella drink and it can be a cocktail or a mocktail. But I want to know what is your go to like after a hard day on the water, a fun day on
the water. What is the beverage that you reach for to just sort of be in your happy place.
Oh my gosh, that's so hard. Okay, it depends on where I am.
Pretemdb we're in a warm spot, okay.
So like right now, I'm in France, and I mean I love rose, So okay, you're like, I always go for the rose. But then if I'm like in Mexico or if I'm in California, I love hard kombucha.
It's like my focus.
I love the Flying Embers hard kombucha.
That's like one of my favorite things ever.
And then in Spain, I love a white sangria.
I don't really like red wine.
I prefer like white wine or rose, and white sangria is just like unreal.
I love it.
So I have a lot of options, but you can what you guys want to do.
There we go. So now we're gonna move into our rapid fire questions. So answer these with your just sort of immediate reactions. Okay, okay, coffee or tea coffee, favorite ice cream flavor?
Cookies and cream.
Oh, such a good one. Go to meal after a training session if.
I can, like a Chipotle burta ble.
I loved Paula.
Yes, with the queso.
I usually have no queso, but I'll have like regular cheese, but not the sauce.
She's a health queen. We're a professional happening over here. And okay, so got it. I'll eat the casa for you, don't you?
Friend?
Okay?
Are you?
Are you an early birder in Idol? Uh?
Definitely an early bird.
I love waking up early and I go to bed at eight pm.
Okay, I love it. I feel like that's a more productive way to do life. But I unfortunately find myself awake a lot of times at like eleven night, and I'm like, what am I doing? I don't even have anything to do.
I just love being in bed at eight and like just like reading my book, like I'm such a grandma.
I'm the most boring twenty three year old ever.
What is one of the favorite books that you've read in the last few years.
Oh, okay, So I love Sarah J. Mass an author that's written. She has three series. It's Thrown of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City, and so I literally just like reread them over and over. And I especially like Throne of Glass because there's a really like badass female main character.
Girl. I literally just finished re listening to that book, the final one. I oh, my gosh. And the funny thing is, like I am not somebody who loves fantasy as a genre, and either a friend of mine was like, you have to read this series primarily because of all the female badasses who take the lead throughout the entire like eight million page series. By the way, this thing is like, these are the longest books I've ever read, and yet I cannot put them down. I cannot do.
My gosh, it's so good. I literally so I'm not even kidding.
I will read Throne of Glass like before going out racing, because like I will be reading it on my iPad on the beach, like before I go out on the water.
And the reason is.
I try to channel my inner Solena Sardapian.
Like, yeah, on the race book. If you weren't a kiteboarder, what would be the sport that you would want to compete in?
Oh, so I would to be a downhill alpine ski racer because I just love going fast, so I would want to yeah, go fast.
Okay, fair enough. What is the favorite place your sport has taken you?
That's so hard, I mean just so many places.
I'm gonna go with with love and Tata, Mexico. Okay, that's like one of my favorite places. But I have so many, But that's like, that's a good one.
What is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?
The best piece of advice is probably that there's always gonna be like ups and downs and in like those low moments that are really tough for hard or like when you're having yeah, like whether it's a bad moment
or a bad day or whatever it might be. I think it's important to remember that it's taking you one step closer to a really good day, and you need to have those bad days or those tough moments in order to have the really good moments or really good days, and it's just taking you like one step closer to whatever your definition of successes. So rather than seeing it as like a negative like bad day, you just have to think it's like one step closer to success or to a really good day.
Ooh, I love that perspective. Okay, what is the wildest because this is something you kind of glazed over and I let it slide because, like I understand, it's not a big deal for you. But as somebody who's tried foiling right without the kite, one of the things that you just sort of glossed over is that this little wing underneath the water that you are on when you are doing the foiling part of your sport, right, is if you fall on that, you're falling on a blade.
And I have tried foiling and I cannot do it, partially because I'm terrified to fall. Like I was a gymnast, I know how to fall like that is like it goes hand to hand, right, But I cannot fall off of a foil because it terrifies me because if I fall wrong, I'm going to like decapitate myself or something on this freaking blade that is moving underneath the water with me. So as somebody who's apparently not thinking about that,
every single time they get on a foil. I want to ask you, what is the wildest mishap you have ever had while doing your sport?
Hmmm.
I'm trying to think what's my what's the best one.
Because we definitely have multiple.
Yeah, I've had a few good ones. I think the craziest one was so one time I was in I was training at home in San Francisco, and I was out on the water kind of by myself, just like, you know, just having a fun little session. This was pretty early on, I think, and I was still kind of learning to like tack and jobs, so I was still kind of learning to do my transitions and maneuvers.
And I was right outside the Golden Gate Bridge. I do a tac and I somehow like something doesn't go right, and basically my board like flies up in the air
and it does like a flip over my lines. So like my kite is in the air, my board is like over my lines, and I remember, like I'm staring up at the board that's like about to come crashing down on me because it's like it slides down the lines and I try to like duck my face out of the way to not get to catch me, and I basically the trailing edge of the mass, which is like the sharpest part of the foil, it like hits me in the nose. So I had a massive slice
in my nose. And I'm like right outside the Golden Gate bridge, so I need to like come back in. So I'm like feeling my nose and I'm like, my god, damn it, like I like I got cut or something.
So then I like head in, and of course.
My mom is on the beach and she like catches my kite and she's like, oh my god, we have to go to the emergency room. I actually only had to get three stitches, and you could barely see a.
Scar on my nose anymore.
But yeah, So that's like when I'm like good ones.
Oh my gosh, and like you're doing this in San Francisco, which the waters in San Francisco are like notorious for being ones you don't want to be in because of all of the wildlife that is right around there, right, And so as a again as a surfer, like I don't want to be in the water outside of San Francisco because the men in gray suits are underneath the water pretty much at all times, and that's something that you have to navigate when you fall, especially there is
like you're not just falling and like, oh man, the water's cold, bummer, like you have to also avoid you know, these creatures.
Yeah, I know, I like.
Don't think about it that much anymore. And I've had a couple like long swims in too, like when the wind has died and I've been like I've been swimming in it, and I was definitely thinking about it, but it's like, I don't know, I don't think about it so much anymore. I also crash less now, which is good.
That's good. Always nice to crash less. And if you are not an ocean person, I don't know, do you do you actually call them sharks or do you also refer to them as like the men in gray suits?
Yeah?
Okay, yeah, so in surfing we don't, and surfing it's typically like we do wildlife. There's like I don't know if there's a weird like uh, superstition or something around it, but I'm always I'm always looking for dolphins and then I'm calling yeah, and then I'm like the men in gray suits or like the locals who aren't off who aren't always friendly. Like that's how I refer to to sharks, because I actually sharks are like one of my favorite animals.
I find them fascinating. I think they're so interesting, and I think they get a terrible wrap. And also I have so much restruct for them. I like them so much that I'd actually never like to come in contact with them without intentionally doing so, you know, like I don't like, I don't want to fall off my board and then and then see see one of the locals. That's like not the way I'd like to do it,
so exactly I support that, Thank you, Thank you. So the last question, which is not rapid fire, I'm gonna have to change the name of the section for our episode. But your mom is somebody that I think, just from reading about her a little bit, she is such an
amazing woman. You mentioned that she and your dad both left left the regime and what was in Czechoslovakia met as in the Bay at San Francisco, and she was out there with you while she was pregnant with you for a few months in a competition that, if I read it correctly, like only half of the participants completed the course because the conditions were so gnarly, and she did it while she was pregnant with you, What is the biggest thing from your mom that you want to
carry on in your life and maybe in the generations behind you of moroses.
Yeah, I think. I mean both of my parents were just always super hard working. And I mean for them to have left their lives and come to foreign country that like where they didn't speak the language and have to start completely new lives like that takes a lot of guts and like.
A lot of work.
And so I think they also raised me that way that like, no matter what I wanted to do, as long as I worked hard and I worked hard in school, then like that was like that was how you do things, like you work hard and so but I think they also like they never pushed me into anything, and they also wanted to make sure I was like really having fun and enjoying whatever.
I was doing. So I think that I mean even now, like she my mom will.
Always text me before I'm going out racing.
Is like go kick ass and have fun, you know. So She's like, go.
Fast and have fun, and and the thing it's like, yeah, like you know, work hard and and just have fun while you're doing it. So I think that's the thing I want to bring forward, is like I want myself and also like you know, whatever comes after me, to just work hard and have fun while.
I'm while I'm doing it.
I love that. I think that is the two things, right, is like work hard and also make sure you're having fun while you're working hard. It's the balance of life.
Yeah, And then the.
Last question I have for you. Obviously, this is the Powerful Podcast, and we're all about featuring powerful women who embody what it means to be powerful while also owning their femininity, their grace, their unique strength, all of these things. So what does it mean to you to be powerful?
Oh? So good.
I think it means really just embracing who you are and embracing all of yourself.
And that can.
Be really hard, and I definitely I think it's so hard, especially now, like with social media and just with with everything like that you have to go through, especially in your adolescence and when you're a teenager, Like it's so hard to like learn to accept all of yourself. And so I think, like to be really powerful is like learning to accept everything that you are and embracing all of yourself and and putting that out to the world because I think I love I think people love seeing
other people in like their most authentic selves. So to me, it's like being the most true version of yourself.
And when do you feel the most powerful? I mean, I.
Don't know, I feel it like I definitely, of course I feel powerful, like when I'm out on the water and when I'm racing, and there's like there are so few things that will like give me that same feeling of like of what it's like to be flying across
the water and racing and just doing my sport. But then I also feel it like other times in small moments, like even just being like cooking dinner with my friends and like having having a really nice dinner, and like knowing that I can be myself around these people and that my friends are gonna accept all of me no matter what and like and just and they like support me and doing that they want to they want what's best for me, and they want to see me succeed.
Like that also makes me feel really powerful into it. And to be able to offer like that same sentiment to someone else and to my own friends, I think that's a really unique like feeling to share. So mm hmmm, I love that because I think we can be powerful in multiple ways. And for you, it can be flying forty five miles an hour across the ocean, or it can be cooking dinner and being in a space and creating a space where people can be their authentic selves.
And I think that's that's exactly why I started this pod, like that's what I want, That's what I hope people feel from you, because it's certainly what I have felt throughout this last hour of getting to know.
You a little bit better. I cannot wait to root you on in Paris this summer and also even beyond. And so follow Daniella on Life of Daniella right is your Instagram, and then also Danielleburas dot com is where I have loved reading your blogs and keeping up with your journey, and so that's where you guys can follow her. And I am just so grateful for your time. I'm so grateful for your vulnerability. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much. It was so nice,
it was so great to have you. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Powerful Podcast. We will see you next time. This is a reminder to check us out every Tuesday, all summer long, everywhere you get your podcasts, And if you really enjoy this and don't want to miss an episode, be sure to hit that subscribe it