Photo: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty
Brittany Bowe knows anything can happen as she prepares to hopefully compete at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, next month.
The speed skater realized the importance of her physical andmental healthafter suffering a concussion whiletrainingin the summer of 2016 for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
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The injury caused theOlympic hopefulto put mindfulness at the forefront of her training regimen.
“I wasn’t sure if I was even going to be able to skate at all,” Bowe explained in the interview. “So I went into Pyeongchang with a very different mindset — a mindset of just gratitude and thankfulness to be able to have the opportunity to do what I love to do and to be able to compete again.”
In addition to her physical training, the athlete also began to see a hypnotherapist who helped her envision the experience of competition.
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“To be able to narrow in and feel, see, smell, taste all of the things that I will experience on race day has been a pretty cool shift in my preparation,” she revealed.
Bowe is expected to make her third straight Olympic team at the team trials in Milwaukee, and compete in 1000m and 1500m races.
The Florida native hopes to learn from her experiences at past Olympics, she told Team USA.
After breaking her first world record during the 2013-2014 season, Bowe struggled at the Sochi games and placed eighth in the 1000m, 13th in the 500m, 14th in the 1500m and sixth in the team pursuit.
“I felt really confident and I expected to come home with a medal, and I fell far short of that,” Bowe told Team USA. “And that was one of the most disappointing moments of my athletic career.”
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“That’s been my dream for as long as I can remember, and that’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle that I’m trying to put together,” Bowe explained. “There are no words that can describe how that would make me feel, but every single day that’s what I’m striving for.”
To learn more about all the Olympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning February 3 on NBC.
source: people.com
