Katie Boulter, Tully Kearney MBE & Janice Cayman! 💬 | Full International Women's Day Conversation

by three fantastic guests to chat all about their really exciting careers have three brothers I missed all three weddings so did you yeah the last one was all right because we won Champions League that day I was able to go to the world championships in 2019 and win three golds in all three of my races I managed to have my whole family there watching and and that was something that I kind of dreamt of as a little kid I grew up at that Tennis Club you asked me as well how long do you think you're still playing I'm like I don't know so for me I've always thought that you have to be able to see it to be it hello and welcome to Our Round Table my name is f wheen and I'm going to be your host today I'm joined by three fantastic guests to chat all about their really exciting careers so next to me here is ky Bolter current British number one for tennis and tly KY Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in Paris sing and Janice Cayman two-time Champions League winner and over a 100 caps for Bel you so thank you for joining me today girls thanks for having us I think we'll just get started um with you guys being obviously Elite in your sport was it always the dream um and when did it feel like the dream was going to become a reality for you I'll open it to the floor so every wants to jump in first I mean for me it was when I had time away from the sport I think that's when I realized that I absolutely love this Sport and I want to continue playing and be a part of it so when I was 17 or 18 years old I had one year where I was sick and uh I came back from that and uh I was ready to go and more energized and I've I've kept it and not left it since fantastic um yeah for me as a little girl playing football didn't really see a future because there was nothing on TV about women's football um and I always played with the boys so no idea and then I think just gradually when you grow up and you go from one team to another team that's always a step High I think that's just how it grew for me and you to so for me swimming was the only sport that was actually physically able to do um I couldn't do things like running and playing football like my brother could um and when I got in the pool I just felt completely free it was the only sport I didn't feel disabled like I was treated like everyone else and I could get on with it without help so really like my love for it just became there and it became like my coper mechanism um with like if I was struggling with my disability I'd go in the portal and it would all like Melt Away um um and at that point I didn't think about becoming a par Olympian I didn't even realize that I could be classified um until a few years later and then it wasn't really until I was like 17 18 that I realized that you know potentially I could go to the paralympic games do any of you kind of draw a similarity from that because being a football like I know I do in terms of it being kind of like my getaway and any stresses that were going on externally it kind of really did help with that did you do you feel that with the sports that you do I think so I think it's a way to also get away a little bit from daily life and it's just your passion and you just love the game so much and I think that for me was really an outlet to also be my my true self maybe yeah it's really calming feel like I go out and just get into my own little world and enjoy myself and I always have a smile on my face so that's when I know I'm having fun yeah I think that you know that's fantastic and I think for me I would always say that if I saying to people make sure when you do it you try and enjoy it as much as you can that's the main it's the main reason you start doing what you do I think at the end of the day and but was there ever a moment where you thought you know the reality it might not happen for me this dream you know I'll start with you tly yeah um for me I got so close to my dream uh 2015 was fulltime world champion came away with six medals from the world championships in Glasgow gb's highest medal earner like all eyes were on me all the pressure was on me and unfortunately an injury triggered a massive progression in M Estonia which meant I had to withdraw from Rio so like I just felt like my whole world fell apart and at that point like I never thought I'd be able to swim again let alone actually make my dream of becoming a parently and come true that must have been so tough yeah I think that was going from like training 32 hours a week from to nothing just come back from that as well it's very impressive 100% And still going today so still going strong um and then if we talk about a little bit so personally Janice I'll start with you what is it like to to represent your country obviously on the biggest stage and you know so successful over a 100 caps for Belgium yeah I think it's just a big honor for me personally because like I said before when I was a little girl I was just playing with my brothers and my friends um and I would have never thought that I could represent my country and making it twice to the Euros World Cup is still a little bit far away from us yeah still the dream Olympics as well but hard to reach when yeah you're up against big European nations as well but no I think it's just every time I go out with Belgium I just have so much fun and always happy to put on the Jersey and in club football you've obviously won the Champions League twice as I said in in the intro I mean how amazing is that oh yeah that was a big dream because you always hear about Champions League in the men's but it actually progress a lot in a women's game now as well and the visibility is great and yeah stadium is packed and it's just yeah great memories to to have those two medals and you can draw on that as well Katy can't you yeah we said it before eight singles titles four doubles titles I don't know if you if you knew that yourself but I mean again a fantastic achievement I mean how you know how impressed are you that you've got to this level already yeah I mean for me it's uh it's the epitome of sport it's where I want to be the top of the game and um I had one one title which meant probably everything to me which was my hometown I got a title in Nottingham and uh I managed to have my whole family there watching and and that was something that I kind of dreamt of as a little kid I grew up at that tennis club and um I managed to achieve it it's definitely not a champions league but it was a it was a huge moment for me and uh yeah just to go out and and be there in front of everyone it it meant a lot and you spoke about 2023 being like a bit of a a breakout year for yourself obviously got to the third round in Wimbledon second time yeah yeah of doing so you know how do you see that progressing into 2024 that to build on such a big year yeah I think for me the the past few years have been AIT about consistency see the way you get your ranking out is playing every week and I haven't been able to do that through injuries for quite a few years so um to me it's pushing on from the third rounds now I I really believe I can get to the back end of slams and uh the games there I've had some some great wins to start the year and uh that's that's my main goal going into this year is hopefully at wimon which is the most important one it's the most important one it definitely is the most important uh so yeah on the grass is uh is the one for me fantastic I think for you Tully as well I've seen a lot of off the pitch accolades in terms of awards BBC sports Personality as well getting to the final three of that I mean how amazing is that as a you know as an achievement in your career yeah it was it was amazing I think as well like Paris sport isn't that well recognized so it meant a lot for me anyway but the fact that it was highlighting a par Olympic sport just meant even more yeah for sure I mean it's a great achievement I think there was a there was another one I saw which you you haven't really said too much about 2019 Pride a sport award as well why did you get an award for that um so that was for all the things I've been through so my progression my condition um being able to come back from that after a gap and then make it back to the top so I now compete in a new classification for my current level of impairment and I was able to go to the world championships in 2019 and win three golds in all three of my races so that was why I got clap without the icon you guys no that's unbelievable and the process of obviously getting to where you guys have got to now and obviously all three of you who's a you know source of inspiration for you I'll start with you Kae understand your mother represented Britain as well as a youngster she played tennis she did yeah she was one of my biggest Idols my mom and my grandpa the the two most important people in my life aside from my boyfriend I won't talk about him but those two were the ones that brought me up and uh gave me everything and you know I I have everyone have them I have to thank them for everything so yeah they're the ones you jealous yeah I would say my parents as well because at the time I didn't really know any women's players I only had like men players I really like the Brazilian one Romario but I think it was my parents because they really grew through the process with me and they supported me everywhere and my three brothers as well so with that with that support I think sometimes people would look in and a lot lot of us would say the same wouldn't we Sports people oh yeah our family supports us but I think can we delve a little bit deeper into into what that support is I know for me personally you know I had my brother-in-law who kind of he helped me a lot but he didn't put too much pressure on me I think was a was a real key in that so you know taking me to training all that type of thing fantastic but I didn't ever feel Under Pressure I don't know if there's any kind of specifics you can delve into into you know who supported you family wise or anything really so my mom was actually a national level swimmer when she was younger she was national champion at breastroke um but she actually didn't want myself and my brother to become swimmers because she knew how much she had to give up and she didn't want us to have to do that so when my brother showed an interest she let him join a club and when I showed an interest she let us join a club but she never wanted us to get out far um so my mom's the one person that constantly would ask me you know like she's like you can give up like do you want to give up like you don't look like you happy today do you want to retire and I'm like no Mom like my mom's the one person that's like being a single parent she was the one that had to take us to training every single day and sacrifice her social life um but yeah she was the one person that was constantly questioning whether I should be doing it and I think that's I know I've had a lot of friends that their parents have been the opposite and have been quite pushy but I was really lucky that mine was never like that and she protected me from a young age a lot of the kids that I grew up with retired really early because they were pushed too much and did too much training and I was really protected until I was 13 and went away to Borden school and that AG prong my career uh my grandpa used to pick me up from school pretty much every day when I was allowed to go and play tournaments or whatever it might be and he took me to one um I don't know where it was half an hour away and I remember playing one of the worst matches of my life and I came out the car I came out off the court and spoke to him and he just we both got in the car and he said to me he said should we just forget today and pretend like it never happened and literally from that moment we both knew that you know there is so many more important things in life to do than than to be on the tennis court and yeah we went home got my favorite Cherry Pancakes on the way home and yeah that was the moment I realized yeah I think that's it's a really important point and did you do did you do any other sports growing up or was it was it solely football for you uh I played some basketball I had to choose between basketball or football was that cuz you didn't grow as brutal what you that is Savage in the back of the picture that's true no um no I had to choose because it was like more the regional um competition as well and I couldn't do ball so I chose for football but I like to play tennis as well there we go have to play one time you got to teach me how teach each other I don't know how to do anything other than tennis so I'm swimming I'm not great at I feel like my legs are heavy I just I'm exactly the same you know come to you Kate is there anything that you found difficult I know we were talking about it before just how much you have to commit you don't really get much time off do you no I I think the our season's quite long it is uh pretty much the whole year you can play 52 weeks if you want to and I think you have to pick and choose and you need good people around you to help decide when you need time off when you want to play what you want to do um when's the right time to train but you know mentally you've got to take the time and and look after yourself as well I think that's that's very important to do and you know I work closely with a psychologist and I spent a lot of time with him and yeah you've just got to keep doing a little bit of everything you know I got to spend time with my friends as well I think that's important um but yeah there's a there's a lot of sacrifices that you you have to make and a lot of choices and from a young age as well I I feel like I chose them all towards tennis and um you know sometimes I I don't think there were the right choices but you live and learn and and you move on and I think by the end of it you know you start to realize what the right things are to do in your career yeah I mean missed a lot of family things I have three brothers I missed all three weddings so yeah the last one was all right because we won Champions League that day so he celebrated before the wedding already so no yeah I think it's it's sometimes tough as well with like friends that you have from a younger age when you were still in your country and then yeah I mean the real ones they stick so yeah just how strict do you have to be or do you feel like you in terms of not just time but you know like nutrition like your body all that type of thing because you know there's a lot that goes into being an athlete isn't there yeah I think when I was younger um I was super hyperfocused and everything was about swimming like it was my whole world um and as my condition progressed and I spent a couple of years out I realized that there is a lot more to life than just sport however it is obviously still important you're an athlete um so there are still sacrifices but I definitely don't make it as many sacrifices now as I did Growing Up can you give yourself the odd cheat meal it's a must it's a must she go to cheat me or let's uh let's find oh God okay I definitely should not be telling people this but after I won that title that I really wanted to win I had Nutella Pizza that was my dinner I know I not sure where it came from but it was unbelievable say that was my cheat my one cheat yeah fries I'm from Belgium so Belgian fries not waffles also also I'd be going for the waffles me what about you Tully uh I think it would depend what country I'm in and what's the so in in Tokyo it was quite funny because my race is finished after day two so in day three I was in the food home eatting pizza from chips and everyone was judging me because it was day three at the par olypic games but I was like I'm finished I can eat what I want we've said about family is there anyone El in terms of like let's say your team behind the team I know you've got teammates but in terms of you in an individual sport yeah who is it that keeps you going what is your team massive no I think you know I have a very small individual team everyone does and I I mean my literally my full team is my coach my fitness trainer and my Physio and I travel most of the time with with my coach a female coach as well which is something that I've not had before for for the for the past two years I had a female coach and before that I worked with a a guy who for like about 10 years and i' would say he was pretty much like family as well and you know when you're traveling a lot um you get very close to a person and you know them very well they're literally like family members and you know I've really enjoyed having having her alongside me during this time so yeah have you both had female and male coaches both yeah how how does that work or any difference there are differences but I think sometimes the female coaches are more strict than the male coach yeah yeah it's maybe also because they were old players so they expect expectations are standard to appear a little bit yeah but I mean it makes everybody better so I never had a female coach um I now have a female snc coach um but in terms of swim coaches when I was in the National Center of Manchester for a few years there was a female coach but my coach was um male and I worked with him for almost eight years so we had a really good relationship but know all my swim coach always been male for it takes say eight years though you you're building this relationship it takes time that's you know that's a really important part um let's touch on so you mentioned your injuries before I just want to touch on kind of any challenges you faced in your career I think personally for me I had a knee injury that set me out 22 months so nearly 2 years and I think there's a time it's like what you were discussing before about feeling like you never you know never going to return what kind of setbacks have you had to overcome in terms of your sport and in your Des spinal injury I did um and chronic fatigue a long time ago a long time ago um so how you know how did you overcome that and still be able to keep at the top of your game yeah I think the biggest one for me is people around you I think those are the people that push me day in day out and uh yeah I had um I had a back stress fracture when I was playing for my country and I put everything on the line including my body and I chose to do that and unfortunately it didn't quite work out and did you know you had that no so at the time I knew I was in a lot of pain but I I didn't know how much I didn't know until I obviously got the MRI afterwards and our ties are based over two days and I put myself in the first day and uh I lost that match having had match points against a much higher ranked opponent but I wanted to come out the next day and prove that you know I could win this tie fors and then I pushed myself and I came out and I did eventually win the tie for them but it cost me a lot it cost me you know close to a year two years three years um of coming back to the same level which I hadn't felt like you know I'd reached for a long time so and and that was also when I was at a career high ranking as well that wasn't kind of in the midst of everything else it was at my Peak and um I've managed to come back and surpass that now so it's easy for me to sit here and say everything's great but you know it was it was tough it was it wasn't easy but do you think given the opportunity again you'd put your body through that again 100% yeah it's crazy isn't it we all I assume we'd all say similar okay interesting so I think one of the it's part of my ISS is that having um a condition like generalized Estonia um stress and but push yourself too hard can trigger um it's get a lot worse being in that environment and being under so much pressure um caused a massive trigger my progressions so like if I could do it again I definitely wouldn't have been in that situation like racing through multiple shoulder injuries getting multiple stero injections like up to 10 a year which is you shouldn't even have that in your lifetime um has meant that I now have chronic shoulder issues that um obviously being a wheelchair user I need my arms and I can't actually train in the pool very much anymore so I have to get all my fitness done um through other means um which has been really hard for me to deal like I'm a swimmer but I can't swim very much um because of because of what I've put my shoulder through that it's never going to be the same it's never going to be able to cope with the pressures of my sport um so obviously like if I had to do it again I definitely would change that it's a tough lesson to learn isn't it when you I think when you're like 18 you think you're Invincible you're like oh it's fine I'll would just race through it and you don't actually realize the damage that you're causing to your body that is [Music] irreversible sure I'm quite lucky it's okay it's okay it's okay not to a great thing no no that's okay yeah no no big injury so how if you felt okay this is I'll POS it to you then if you did feel niggles or you know if you felt something would you feel comfortable enough to say so or would you feel like now you've got a certain pressure on you that you have to for we don't want to say anything I think I would now more than in the past I think cuz when you're younger I feel like you just want to play and it doesn't matter what does yeah what it causes afterwards so but I think now I would I would think more and where do those pressures come from do you think do you think it's a coach coach yours was your coach yeah especially I don't know it's same in your sport but we're seen as a number and an opportunity to for them to keep their jobs like they want medals at any cost um and it's definitely gotten better over the years but pre Rio they didn't care about our well-being they just cared about the medals that's very bad for me it' be myself putting pressure just pressure on myself yeah I think just wanting to achieve something that I hadn't done yet or wanted to reach my potential and that's yeah that's ultimately my main pressure I think and does your psychologist help with that then trying to yeah no he's been take that pressure off a bit he's been really helpful for me I think I I wouldn't be in the place I am right now if uh if it wasn't for him and and credit to everyone around me as well the team that I have are incredible um they really helped me day in day out and now we're looking at the change in landscape of women's sports a little bit there's more eyes on especially in football now it seems to be growing at a at a crazy rate how are you dealing with that and how are you managing that pressure from outside is it is it a good thing is it a bad thing I think for the moment it's a good thing because it means that people are there and they come to the games and it gives extra pressure but also a boost to just perform well and yeah keep going every day because you you think oh in the weekend there's people coming to the game this is going to make people's day to come to our game for little kids or something and yeah that's just extra motivation that's how I see it what advice would you give to let's say younger tennis players wanting to come up in the game um but also you know ones at kind of an elite level who are trying to push themselves trying to reach their goals what advice would you give to both of those different types I think uh someone said to me when I was younger that Excellence is perseverance in Disguise and it's something I've brought through my whole entire career things don't just happen overnight you know it takes time and every day you got to turn up and and work as hard as you possibly can but that's the most important thing but the second most important thing is to to have a smile on your face that is always my number one goal no matter what I'm doing enjoy what you're doing because you get the best out of yourself doing more yeah what about you tly yeah I think enjoyment is a big thing we see so many athletes that just look miserable and I'm like why are you still doing it like if if you don't enjoy it then it's obviously not the right fit for you um and maybe it's time to find the sport or move on um but yeah I think my biggest life lesson is obviously like you need to work hard and push yourself if you want to get to where you want to be but there is a limit your body has a limit and don't push past it if you feel that something isn't right don't just do it because a coaches told you to do like speak up for yourself I mean both great not Goods of advice I think what I was going to ask you Jan then was has there been any point in your career where you've thought not it's not going to happen but actually I want to do something different or is it always been has football always been the drive yeah always always always yeah because even now like I'm 35 and you asked me as well how long do you think you still play and I'm like I don't know just going to keep going yeah it just depends on if I still enjoy it as much as I do now and then physically as well what I can still handle but I just like it so much like we have two off days coming now and also great feeling to have off days but then you're also very happy again to be on the pitch so I think when that's still present then it's time to keep on keep going yeah do you see yourselves as role models to people and to young girls coming up a little bit a little bit Yeah I think because in Belgium we didn't have um a lot of female role models for women's football um I remember one player but then the younger players now they don't remember her because there was no really like TV games so didn't get a lot of attention but I think now our national team games are also on TV so so you see that the little girls and boys recognize some of our players so I think that's very positive because the amount of um yeah young girls playing football in Belgium is just Rising so happy to be part of kind of group of pioneers to to put women's football on the map in Belgium do you think that makes a difference having the The increased televis the increased commercial these type of things happening where we can shine a positive light on the sport that you're do without a doubt I think it makes a huge difference you know I I want to see as many little girls and guys pick up a tennis record as much as possible and you know one way you're going to do that is through the TV and you know we we all watch it when we were young we all saw someone playing a sport and wanted to be a part of it and um it's definitely a huge way to be able to do it but it's important we keep prioritizing it would you say being a role model has had an impact on how you how you live your life as such and how you behave in and around in and outter sport definitely um so for me when I got back into the sport I realized there's not many people with distonia um in sports and Paris Sports um there are a lot more now but back in 2016 there wasn't and there's not a lot of people with Progressive conditions that have a significant progression and come back into sport most and retire at that point so for me I've always thought that you have to be able to see it to be it um and I just thought of how many young kids out there with severe disabilities with s py distonia Sparkle injury is will be looking at the TV and not seeing someone that looks like them I mean Paris sport has come a long way but we don't showcase are more severe um severely impaired athletes with severe disabilities it's always the people with less severe impairments because um I was told once it looks more aesthetically pleasing on camera unto the public um so like we're not included in events like the Commonwealth Games for example there is a way forward and I think over the last few years since since having um bilateral shoulder surgery in 2018 had 12 six months out the pool and I think like anyone like if I can't um do sport I go a little bit crazy like I rely on being out to exercise to keep myself um in a good place mentally so a friend from University introduced me to a sport called frame running which is it's a three- wheeled frame a bit like a trike and there's a chest plate and there's a seat like um a bike saddle that takes all your body weight but there's no pedals so it was made for people with severe cerebal poy that can't walk and it enables them to run um so started doing that and that's my main source of Fitness now um and over the years I've been able to fund raise for a couple of kids to get their own frames um and there was a boy back in my mom's Hometown Birmingham that didn't have a walking frame because the NHS physio said that you had to learn to sit before he could walk and he was six like he's severely disabled if he can't sit by six he's never going to learn um like he's too impaired to be able to sit independently um and I didn't think that was right so I was able to borrow a frame get him on a frame Runner and he was doing laps so I knew straight away that kind of opened my mind up to how many other little boys that are out there and girls that have got the ability to walk and run but aren't given the right equipment so that's really opened my eyes and kind of turned my eyes a little bit away from swimming and more into Athletics um and I'm actually setting up a frame running club in lb um the frames are arriving next week um and we're trying to set up a taste today for March which is also Cal poy Awareness Month um so it has really kind of shifted my focus into trying to get kids with severe I abilities into sport I think that's amazing I mean applaud that I think that's no I think that's unbelievable actually it was it was going to be um my next point I was going to say how peely impressed I am with with all three of you I know you've all done a little bit of work off the pitch or out of the pool off the court um I was going to touch on the frame running but I mean you've done it there so that's fantastic can you talk to me a little about the volunteering you did over Co for auk yeah uh obviously I'm very close to my to my grandparents and I wanted to try and give back in some way and I I he recently my my grandpa recently lost his wife and obviously I wanted to try and help those that don't have many people around them and and can be a little bit lonely especially around the Christmas time as well so I used to basically call up um a lovely old lady uh and just have a chat with her and just talk to her and keep her company as much as possible and you know and and she got so excited just to hear about my life and things that I do and I think she started to live through the things that I do and I think that was giving me a lot of joy and um yeah just a small way to give back to the elderly that obviously don't have that many people they can talk to for sure and you jnis I know you're ambassador of plan International for Belgium is that right exactly so they started also with national team because they were it was a partnership ship and uh right before Co hit uh teammate and I we went with a little crew to Bena in Africa because it actually is to protect girls from um child marriages and to kind of get out of the traditional way of um yeah just you're a woman so you're just going to have kids and you're going to take care of the family and now their Outlet is football and so um we went to visit uh one of the schools and you just see the yeah the so much fun that they have and then you also see the tradition dads that actually have a mind shift and say why can my girl not play football why does she have to be married when she's 13 so it's really maybe just a small thing but you can really see a difference and I also have a plan child that I support every month and oh wow it's just cool to occasionally get like mail from her yeah you just get like an update how she's doing like what you are doing for her and her family so it's yeah it makes them help to go to school and everything so it's something that I really enjoyed getting to know through football as well so yeah see not just Elite female athlete but given B honestly I think it's fantastic so I commend every one of you on that um why is it so important to do what it is that you do off the field I know I know you've done it and you've told me what you've done but why why do you do what you do because you could just go and carry on in your sport retire and carry on just gives me a sense of achievement and um giving back I think is so important um you know we can get lost in sport a little bit sometimes and to be able to give something back to to people that really need it um it makes you feel good and uh I try and do it as much as I can when I have time I don't have all the time in the world which is why we need women like this to to continue doing um everything for everyone else so it is very nice to see other people become happy um because you've done something um so okay let's talk off Pitch spare time tolly can you share with me a protein brownie recipe I've heard you're a great a baker um yeah when I have time not very often anymore but often when you're aside from swimming you like baking what else do you like to do outside of your spare time um so I now actually have an assistant dog in training um he's just turned 11 months old I got him eight weeks so I spend most of my free time now training him so I went down the owner trained route because I was on a waiting list for a trained dog for seven and a half years and I got a little bit impatient and was like let's buy a puppy like what could go wrong how you finding that um the first few months I was like what have I done um but honestly like he's I really looked out he's an amazing dog like um picks up things really well comes like everywhere with me comes to training like everyone on campus loves him um really lucky that they'll look after him while I train um but yeah has it's a lot like it's at least 3 hours a day of like constantly training like two hours of walking in as well as like obious taking him around campus um but know I love it and I sew as well so I can make all of his like slip leads his bandanas like all his his collars like all his cute stuff so it's it's nice that I've also got something to to keep me occupied when I have got time that's not just like sport related as well yeah I think that's important because you're all people at the end of the day I know you do sport but you're people so it's really important you got something else at the side of things I mean know for me I was spending time with my little boy and obviously you know just going out and seeing friends going for coffees things like that um is there anything you that you both like to get stuck into and know you do bit saing is that right I mean not in Leicester muching going on in Lester at the minute is there but is that I have my surboard here you brought it that is so optimistic I was in the south of France I could surf a little bit there but yeah south of France Lester did they tell you where you going yeah it was a scam no yeah I like to do it but it's been a while because yeah it's been so crazy with football as well that the breaks are short um but I hope after football that I can just so why you can't say if what you're doing at the minute to keep busy let's say or to switch off because you need to switch off from Sports I would say Netflix Netflix it's a strong source of time good yeah it's true though because it helps with your recovery as well yeah true and then I think FaceTiming with with family and friends and yeah it's about it for the moment yeah I love it and then ktie you're and Avid Lester fan is that right so how many times you get to go watch them play I see that you take your grandpa as well yeah that's like our little kind of yearly tradition that we try and make it because he used to go as a little boy himself and uh he tried to change that tradition and have it with me as well and and that's like our little thing so yeah we try and go every year if we can have you been to the women yet no I haven't I haven't been invited yet though go next time you're invited you invited TI I would love to so a final question really um any motivational things that really get you pumped before you go out to perform could be a song could be yeah whatever you want to roll with music and caffeine music caffeine yeah they I too caffeine shot coffee gel caffeine gum oh yeah change up yeah do you yeah nice use a caffeine gum I think I've used actually to be fair on top of coffee it's probably too much what song oh I'm I'm very versatile oh okay anything with a beat anything quick beat yeah a real beat okay what about you music as well yeah in the locker room it's always on do you guys get hyped up like together and you all listen to the same song we now before we go out it's a Taylor Swift song which one is it cuz Shannon lost Taylor Swift so everyone else has to love Taylor Swift no it's actually it's actually cute but I forgot the name of it I thought you going to sing it for me then Jan if you see that I'm the one I don't know it's where you're all like I know which one but I'm not going to join High School Musical VI I really can't sing are we a fan of Travis Kelsey then oh yeah yeah okay good see I listen to my flying busted pre- rce oo that would be me I think yeah which one which one like all of that I haven't placed cuz we're in the core room for about 20 minutes so go yeah and then like on the walk out depending especially for finals if you're in the middle Lane it can be a while until you're cool out so yeah just listen to them all and then I use visualization as well cuz so one thing I used to struggle with was getting really stressed when I was younger and then I was I would tighten up and I was like too stiff to swim so but I'm quite lucky now that I'm a natural racer that I just get in the zone I think as long as I follow my routine like I'm just ready to race I mean you're definitely not natural you've got gold medals coming out of your Haven you but what what what it you're visualizing then is it the the start the end yeah just it's actually a previous race so it every kind of year I seem I sometimes update it but it's like a previous race where use like a really good experience and like what it felt like what it smelted like what I heard um and like feeling hit the on than winning medal that's really cool I tried that once I I really struggled with visualization but if you can do it it's meant to be really powerful isn't it yeah I like to do that but then your wife is quite loud in my ear apologies for she's like oh yeah you're doing your imagination of it's hard not to get distracted by other people around you yeah know I can see how lot would become with distraction we had in a change in room once in the end it used to be you say the team thing so the music would be on everyone would be up dancing and it be like that and then towards the back of the my career it seemed to change everyone had the headphones in yeah know that was bizarre it was like you go into a changing room and everyone would have the head their own it was like they were all in individual sports but in a team sport and obviously you being used to be in the one who's like yeah it was not not for me no it's definitely inlisted can join in I like it hear in the team because everybody sometimes we have the speaker in the bus as well before the game that's which makes it hard to visualize but it's cool because it means everybody's in it and you're not just doing I mean it depends if you need to be on your own but we don't have that in the locker room at all we just have the big speaker yeah oh and culture in a dressing room and obviously culture really I think within sport is quite important I think personally for me anyway you want a positive culture you want one that's kind of you know big not biging you up because you obviously need that but do have you found that that you perform better when the culture is more positive I've found well that um I know it's a bit controversial I guess in individual sports but um with the all the girls that I race against I'm actually very close to most of them like I've become friends and I really enjoy like having friends from different countries and like Lear at the cultures and um so I think we actually even though I'm racing against them we tend to Hype each other up sometimes in the core room I'm always there with my malt Loaf and they take the M out at me like every without fail every time I race I have a malt Loaf in the core room is that Superstition now you can't go without the brilliant and ktie I'm going to quote you on something you said about tennis oh God they say it's not too dramatic um you said the thing about tennis is that you're never satisfied that is true can you elaborate on that a little bit yeah I mean the goalpost always moves I think you start wanting to be ranked 500 then you aim for the big 100 and then you want to have single digits and you constantly keep moving to try and strive for more and no matter what you do whether it's being seeded in slams or being top 10 or being number one it it you're just not happy so when you reach it you're like what's next you know I I I want to get better and I want to get better as a person on and off the court um so yeah I think that's why I'm I'm never satisfied I've still got a lot to achieve in this Sport and uh yeah I think after my career I'll look back at what I've achieved I think that's great I think some people might look from the outside in and see that you've you've made it you've done this you've won this you've won XY Z but is that the same for for both of you that you're constantly trying to challenge yourself new goals what's what's next I suppose is the question yeah I think so because every season is new season and especially then when you go to a new club you kind of want to write history with that club as well so now in Leicester it would be we're still in the in the FA Cup so the dream is to go to Wembley then I would say for this season yeah and what about you so um leading up to Tokyo I work with a psychiatrist who works with a lot of um Elite athletes and he actually said that surprisingly after a games the people that struggle the most are the ones that have achieved all their goals so the people that have Come Away with goals um because they don't know what to do next and he said obviously you get the people that come in Forth but it's generally the people that have won everything and now they don't know what to do with their life um I think from like CU I was ready to retire after Tokyo but the biggest thing that kept me going was I wanted to experience planning for games not in a pandemic where you know there's activities to do in the village you're not trying to stay away from everyone like for me in the food Hall uh there were two floors I always went upstairs and I always wheeled like 10 minutes to the back of the food Hall so that I was wasn't near anyone cuz I didn't want to risk being like a close contact and being taken out the village um and I think the fact as well that I got a gold and then a silver like I wanted to redeem myself I didn't want to end on that silver like I wanted to end on the being the best that I could be but I think because I've had issues with classification and changes like I don't know where I'm going to end up this season I don't know if Paris is um a logistical goal yet um so I'm just you it's been a difficult year and with a head injury just kind of going through but hopefully I'll get the chance to go to Paris and redeem myself but I think if I do that will definitely be the end of my career and I think then I'll be happy and be like yeah that was enough and let's retire and move on that's good though you're obviously always challenging yourselves which I think is fantastic so I think that's everything from me thank you everybody thank you for joining me it's really insightful and really interesting for obviously everyone's going to have a lot of watch of this thank you for having us yeah thank you thank you everybody for joining me and these three fantastic athletes I hope you all take away some inspiring messages for international women's day I know I did it was it was very insightful to hear from them um and happy International women's day