Katie Taylor
Irish professional boxer; Olympic champion 2012
There are days when I wake up and don't want to move, but you must show up!
Cyclist, 1 January 2018 source ↗
There are days when I wake up and don't want to move, but you must show up!
You know, as Olympians, you set four years to build up to this moment. And then, after it's over, you're kind of lost in a way. You don't really know what to do. You don't know where to go. You don't know who to talk to. And a lot of us do suffer from depression.
You run, eat, sleep, walk around - that's how life is. You don't get complicated. The moment you get complicated it distracts your mind.
When I was in Beijing, London, and also in Rio I was still a kid really, I didn't feel pressure. Now I'm a 26 year old woman. Being a lot older I feel those expectations. And it's definitely hard on my shoulders, to the extent where in training I'm ok but in competitions I panic, and I do stupid things. Working with [my psychologist], at these Games one of the things I'm proud of is I didn't have any panics. I was so happy about that - I went out and raced and enjoyed it.
Jason Queally, a former teammate. He is older than me and was Olympic champion in Sydney. The way he mentored me, even though he knew I would be a rival, was amazing.
The London terror attack on 7/7 in 2005. I was in London the day before for the Olympic bid. When we won I thought, “I should stay over – it will be a great party tonight.” But I decided to go back to Manchester for training. Bombs went off on what would have been my route to the station.
A road track car, a Porsche GT3. I’ve done the 24-hour race in Le Mans, which was a dream come true.
Scotland’s rugby captain. My hero Gavin Hastings was captain when he came to our school for a training session when I was 10 or 11. I met him and was blown away.
The six Olympic gold medals, because at school I was never great at sport. When I look back on my career I think, how on Earth did that happen?
Max Levy, a German sprint cyclist who came second behind me a lot.
Simone Biles, Ellie Simmonds, Rafael Nadal, Michael Phelps, Katie Taylor, Eliud Kipchoge
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