Ep 66 | Meet Pensacola's Globally Ranked Triathlete

SPEAKER_02 0:00

My community of athletes, they're I consider them family. She has the best support. They're amazing. No. Um most of my teammates are my mentors in one way or another. And then being with people who are physically challenged has definitely helped my mental health.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah, just, you know, we've always tried to make sure that she's around people that look like her.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the title and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Some people just won't back down from a challenge. And then there are the people who've chased down the challenge. My next guest is one of those people. She was born in China and adopted by a Pensacola family at age two, her leg amputation surgery just a couple months later. Now a senior at Booker T. Washington High School, she has excelled beyond the realm of athlete into the stratosphere of globally ranked triathletes. She is third in the world in her triathlon level four class and at just 17 has traveled the world. Today, along with her mom, she's going to share her experience of the world, her goals, and her ambitions for the future. Focused finisher, athletic achiever, world-class competitor Emma Myers, and mom Leah Finneseth Myers. Welcome, welcome. Thank you. Hi. Thank you for having us. Yeah, I'm so happy to talk to you because this is so exciting and so fun. And Emma, I was looking up some stats on how many Americans have actually left the country. I don't know. Maybe you won't be surprised by this, but only 19% of Americans have traveled outside of the US. So maybe I'm a little biased because I love to travel and I love hearing about travel. But can we start there? I want to hear about the places that you've gone. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

So this year I have raced in Devonport, Australia, Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama, Japan, Sarasota, Florida, Montreal, Canada, Swansea, Wales, and Paris, France. That was all just this year.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Since March. Yeah. Since March. That's incredible. So how do you think your perception of the world would be different if you had just stayed in Florida to compete?

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Traveling internationally, I definitely get to see the world and I meet so many wonderful people and experiences different culturals, which one thing is I've realized things how things are different in America versus other countries and just the way their society is.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

When you say America's different from this country, do you remember kind of what stood out for you?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

The food, one.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

And then also, I don't know, just beliefs and the healthcare system is a big thing compared to the United States, so it's more affordable and more people have access. And so with prosthetic-wise, it's definitely cheaper, financially wise, and more and more people are able to have access to adaptive equipment such as prosthetics and wheelchairs, whereas the US it's difficult for people.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Or even get the referral to the people that you need. That can often be a barrier. My brother has herbal palsy and uses a wheelchair. And when he's traveled abroad, one of the things that he notices is how differently accessible, we'll just go ahead and say inaccessible, most of the rest of the world is as far as their roads, their streets, their curb cuts, etc.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Did any of that stand out to you? It actually did. There was one race that was in Japan and they had the hand cycles at a certain time because they could not ride on the road, whereas the upright bikes could.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

And with buildings, I mean, just other countries are so old. There's no nothing has been built since ADA times.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

So yeah, well, even the ADA is pretty young. You know. So yeah, that's that's a big eye-opener. I think another thing that changes when you travel and when you're an athlete is how you interpret those dopamine levels, right? The hit of when you win, the hit of when you rank, and then the hit of when you get off that airplane and boom, you're in another country. Do you think that traveling like you have and ranking athletically like you have has changed kind of your baseline of what you find exciting?

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Oh yeah, definitely for sure. The first thing I get excited about is being in a different country. I mean, how cool it is to say you're like in Japan, middle of May. Um, but also my successes are definitely bigger, and I definitely it doesn't happen as often as when I was younger, and it's definitely harder, but when I do achieve it, it's ten times better.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Yeah, I would that makes sense totally. Yeah. I I think Leah, everyone knows one helicopter parent, right? Or we know what they are. I don't get that vibe from you at all. It doesn't seem like your style, but how would you advise other parents to help equip their kids to excel even when it feels scary, like putting a teenager on an airplane to go to another country?

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Well, at this point I still have to travel with her. Luckily, unfortunately, there is safe sport now because of things that have happened in sports. So until she no problem. Until she's 18, I do have to travel with her still. But again, we're still trying to step back because she is almost 18 and she is gonna be doing all these things on her own and going to college and having to do all the paperwork to say you want to be in the race and then creating your resume after every race. And so it's a lot of my husband and I we teach, we show, and then we're like, try it, you know? If it doesn't work out, then you learn from it, and that's fine. And that's great that you tried it and you didn't do it the right the first time. And then we get to try again. It's like there's never a time where you don't get to try again, you know? So we don't worry so much about if something didn't work out the first time. So we kind of focus on that. But you know, every child is different. You know, we have two children and we do differently for each child. Emma has been super motivated from the very beginning, but it's more slowing her down. Sometimes she would be so rough on herselves and she'd want to do everything all at once. And so, I mean, sometimes we are kind of like, you need to slow down and we need to wait, and but sometimes we're just like, go try it and see what happens. So just finding that right balance.

SPEAKER_03 7:23

So for other parents, how how do you think that they can have that right balance? Maybe they don't have the the same outlook on, hey, everything will work out. Maybe they are operating at a more tightly wound baseline.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

You know, I I think again with having an education background as a teacher, and we've learned about, you know, the process of things and mindsets and you know, and just even if you look at the scientific process, like you you ask a question, you try it, and you fail, and you learn from that. And so you just it's I don't know, it just have to just remind myself that it's okay if she makes a mistake. And we're here to support her, and if she needs help, we're here to help. And I would like her to be a happy functioning adult to be able to do these things on her own. So watching her fail a couple of times comes with it. But also, you know, I'm not just sitting back. Anyone who knows me as a mom, I'm not gonna just be like, whatever. If something's needs to get done, something's gonna get done. But it's okay if it doesn't happen the first time.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Yeah. Well, you said something about letting her fail. And have you ever had a failure moment and maybe you didn't learn from it in the beginning, but later you reflected on it and you learned something from it. It's so hard in the moment to go, wow, I'm so grateful for this failure.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I love this learning moment. But um, there are definitely times where I refle I reflect back on a lot of erases, things that I can improve on, not things that I could do differently, since most of the mistakes or things that have happened have happened and they have affected my next race positively, or and I can learn from it. So I never say, Wish that didn't happen. I just move on and continue forward.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

That's a really good perspective by itself, because it sounds like from how you worded that just now, you don't even see it as failure. You're like, hmm, that's interesting data. I will take that into the next race.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

There's definitely been times where I've had my moments. At World Championships, I didn't extra light by accident. Things were just crazy. My mind was stressed out, and I really wasn't thinking. I didn't have the time to process that I made it to the world championships, and then traveling wise, my flight got delayed. And so I had to wait 24 hours for the next one. So it was very close call and just cut in. I didn't even know I was gonna make it uh to the race itself. So with the stress and everything, I did an extra lap and I was definitely very angry at myself for making a mistake that big. And I've learned that mistakes happen all the time. Anyone can make any mistake, and people m make mistakes by counting or equipment-wise, whatever it is. So I've definitely learned to just move past it. It's in the past, and the only thing I can do is accept it and move forward.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah. And you have that process of you she literally, after something happens, she writes about it. She processes it, she writes about it. Yeah. Everything.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

No, that's after and before and and after. So before I'm doing a race or I have something big, I reflect on it, my emotions. So I tend to get stressed out before races, just racing wise and then having to miss a certain amount of school or whatever it is. So I f I just let it all out on paper. Definitely helps my process. And then after the race or something, I write back in it, and I can reflect and see what I wrote before, what was worrying me. And I mean, looking back at it just looks silly. But at that time. So is it like a brain dump or is it more like a journal entry? It's a bit of both. There's times where I just go on and on about a race, or not about a race specifically, but just something that's been on my mind. And then there's other times where I'm just journaling as if somebody's reading my diary with no clue what has happened, and I'm just telling the story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

On this day, 2023, the year of our Lord on planet Earth, I ran this race. Guess what? Guess what? So, but you go back and read it. I think that's so different than how most people brain dump or journal. They don't usually go back and read it. So you go back and then you use that information for your next race. For the most part, yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Read it. Also, as well as memories, just recalling memories. Uh, there's been some times where I've had really good things that happened and I just want to recall it and that's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

So, with being around like triathletes, I think it's interesting, right? Because it's kind of from an outsider looking in. So please correct me if I'm wrong. But it looks in some ways like a non-team sport, like it's you, right? But in a way, you also have this community of other like-minded athletes that you're around. Has that helped with your process of overcoming, you know, the sting of failure or helping your confidence? What has that community of athletes meant to you?

SPEAKER_02 12:35

My community of athletes, they're I consider them family. She has the best support. They're amazing. No, um, most of my teammates are my mentors in one way or another. And then being with people who are physically challenged has definitely helped my mental health.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, just you know, we've always tried to make sure that she's around people that look like her. She is a Chinese girl that's an amputee. And my husband and I are big basic white people. So we've always been like, she needs to be around people that are Asian, she needs to be around people that have disabilities, she needs to be around people just that she can connect with people. And then jumping ahead, she's doing a fundraiser coming up for an organization called Challenge Athletes Foundation. They're this fabulous organization. Every October, they bring in kids from all over the country with disabilities, and they teach them how to surf and they teach them how to swim and they teach them how to run and they teach them how to play wheelchair tennis and rock climbing. And it's just the whole weekend. And it's this huge fundraiser. They have people ride their bike from San Francisco to San Diego. Yeah, the million-dollar challenge. It's called the Million Dollar Challenge. They try to raise a million dollar worth it and they always exceed that. And then they do a triathlon at the end of the weekend. And they and Emma's because she's part of the junior development team for the United States triathlon, they've had camps. She's done camps that go with it. And Challenge Athlete is actually a sponsor of the development team for USA triathlon. She's doing the Empire State Building Ront. So she's going to be part of that to raise money for Challenge Athletes Foundation.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

So build a good community. And oftentimes people with disabilities feel isolated since they don't see someone that looks like them or have experienced or in similar boats and experience what they have. So with being people who have disabilities, um, definitely helps your mental health. You realize you're not alone. And then you always have people that you can count on, and they're always with you.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

And they they understand what you've gone through. You can talk to your friends and they can say, Oh, yeah, I I know they can relate to you. Don't. But you can call up any of your mentors, your coaches, who are all people with disabilities that do triathlons, and they'll be like, Oh yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. This is what we do. And yeah, I'm like when even before races, you guys all talk about, oh, I'm having this issue with my prosthetic, and everybody's like, oh, I've had that too. This is what we've tried. And you know, liners and sleeves and how do you do your wetsuit with your prosthetic? And they just they just all get together and very long meals. And I'm just like, I'll sit here. And they're not. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

But don't but don't you find that you have also like a in a community that you gain from it too from other parents?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah. So during with her junior development team, I'm really close with the parents of that. When she travels, Emma's the youngest by at least five years. Yeah. And most of them are in their 30s. Whoa. Yeah. So they don't do it by age, they just do it by classification. What? I did not realize. As long as you reach the times. Yeah. As long as she meets the right times.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

So these are like your aunties and uncles, kind of, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

That's so special. Yeah. So like when we go to the that Challenge Athletics weekend, the other parents will come and us parents will hang out while the kids are all running around and we talk about yeah, insurance and how to travel with your kids. And honestly, her having a prosthetic is easy because she has many friends who use wheelchairs. And so they have their everyday wheelchair and they have two race wheelchairs. And, you know, airlines are notorious for being awful with wheelchairs. And people have lost wheelchairs on the way to a race. So that's not even talking about security.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

No. The pat down and the awkwardness and the age where they don't think she's a kid anymore.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

So they're like, I'm standing around. They're like, why are you standing here? I'm like, because that is my daughter. And they're like, you know, they get it becomes a thing.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

I could totally see that becoming a thing. But you keep talking about the development team. Is that when you is that a part of when you got to go to Paris?

SPEAKER_02 17:07

No, the Paris and the development team are due for two different things. So Paris race in France was the Paralympic test event. So they're testing out the course that they're planning on doing in 2024 for the Paralympics. The development team is ranging from, I think, 16. No. Yes, six racing year 16, maybe? No, because you had 14 to 25 years. 14 to 23. Yeah. 23. And we're all this team and we all compete trial. We do trial funds from and we live in different parts of the United States. But when it comes to racing, we're all one big family. I'm really close with majority of all my teammates and everybody who's on there. And so we just race tries, talk about school and our personal lives, just a bunch of teenagers hanging out doing races. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

Well, it was a very elite team that got to go to Paris, though. I think you're d you know, being very humble. But when I learned about the numbers of who got to go to Paris, and it was very special that it was only 80 people, right? Total, I want to say.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

And it'd be the top of the top. So for you to be able to go to Paris and test out the course, and then later you said you got to ride your bike around Paris. I mean, that is some core memories for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

No, I definitely had a blast there. Getting used to and familiar with the race course, being able to race on the course at race speed, and then being a tourist in France, downtown Paris, France. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Like her bike course went around the Eiffel Tower. Oh my gosh. Through the Shops d'Elysée and along the Seine. She was supposed to swim in the Seine.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

That is incredible. That's so cool. Okay. I want to switch gears a little bit to talk about your goals because you have a lot of them. And I love that. I want to talk about athletic goals, social goals, career goals. But let's start with athletic. So what's the ultimate for you athletically goal-wise?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

My ultimate goal is to make it to the Paralympics, hopefully in 2024 for triathlon. And then I'd also like to compete in collegiate triathlon. And what's the difference between those two things? Paratraathon, the distance is different. So in paratriathon, you do a 700, 750 swim, a 20K bike, which is 12.5 miles, and then a 5K run. Whereas collegiate, you're doing the Olympic distance. So it's double that. So 1500 swim, a 24-something bike, and a 10K run.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Wow, that's intense. Okay. I have to interrupt this goal sharing session with an athletic question. How do you recover from that? Because that is so much lactic acid through your body. That's so much muscle stuff. What would you have a routine?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

For sure. Um, after I do a race, I definitely take a day off and do absolutely nothing. It's mainly my traveling day. Once when I get home, I start going into workouts, just slowly easing into them.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Lots of stretching.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

But also, she's 17. So yeah, there's that.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

It doesn't take me long to gain back my energy. Well.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Want to ask her other teammates and they talk about it all the time. And they have a strict regimen of protocol leg compression things and everything. Emma's like, I'm ready to go. She needed a date. Well, like in Turkey, literally the what three hours after your race, we were hiking up the hill to the castle. Cleopatra's castle, that's where we were in Turkey. So it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

Well, that's good. I mean, and it's you're taking care of yourself now. And you've got these, you know, what I joked is your aunties and uncles to look up to. And so I think that's really neat because in, you know, high school level athleticism, everybody is just recovering easy breezy on accident, right? And so bad habits or no habits remain and then you get injured later. So I think that's really special that you're able to build this community of athletes that are more mature in order to see what do I need to do now in order to continue my athleticism at a high level when I'm also in my 30s, like these folks that are around me.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Yeah, and I have people say what to do, what not to do, and then share their experiences and things they've learned over the years.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Yeah, that's killer. Okay, so let's talk about your social goals, meaning like society. What impact do you want to leave on the people around you?

SPEAKER_02 21:34

I would say uh the impact I would want to leave is just live life. Honestly, I've been so fortunate to have so many opportunities and definitely take them all, learn from them if they don't go as well as you thought or wish they would have. And just wait, hope for the next one, learn from for the next one.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Yeah. And you're living it. And I love how you you have your process and you have your, you know, you were very open. About what that felt like, what the failures felt like. And so there's people that are younger than you that will go, oh wow, if she can do that, maybe they're not a triathlete, but maybe they're like struggling in math class.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

But in the learning that you can fail and it's okay to fail, and then in order and how to use your failure as something positive.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Yeah, I think leveraging that failure.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah, no, for sure. And then being able to understand that life is about balances and imbalances, perfecting and imperfections. So one thing I've learned about while racing and just maintaining and trying to balance everything is that things can get chaotic. And it's all right if things get chaotic, you'll learn from them and you'll definitely become stronger.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

I think balance was something that Leo, you said that you wanted to address and and maybe how you support your family with the with balance.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah. I guess that's one thing is there aren't very many people that are in Emma's position where she's still a high school student and traveling and training and then you know doing things like this that you've had the opportunity. And so she doesn't so we're tr still kind of maneuvering it, trying to figure that out. And just sometimes we're like, you're not gonna do a a workout today, because you know, you have this, you have to catch up on your homework. Or sometimes you're like, okay, we need to put a pause on this because you just need to go sleep. And trying to there's no way to be always balanced. There's no way to do every single thing and do everything well and still be a happy, capable person. I mean, that's just you know, you're gonna kill yourself. No, that's so nice. That's you just have to know that there's gonna be times where it's awful and I'm gonna feel overwhelmed. And then hopefully, like in the next few days after that, then you know, all of her homework is done that she missed while she was traveling. And then she can have like a day or two where she doesn't have to focus on that, where she can focus on getting ready for the next race, or you know, having conversations with her coaches and her mentors and figuring out what are next steps. Just because like even the other day we were there's other races coming up, and because this is the Paralympic window, it's different you figure out how what's what's important to race and what's not important to race, because there's races that she doesn't do that are out there that we choose not for her to do, and then there's ones that are like, no, she has to do these ones. So we were talking to multiple people just the other day, trying to figure out what was best for her, and that was a lot of time, and so it's just hopefully at the end of it all it's balanced out because right now it might not be.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Yeah. I think it's in seasons. Yeah. You have a great team around you, and I'm so excited for what the future is going to hold, but I'm excited for what you have right now, and I think that's really cool. Again, with the balance and the seasons, appreciating now and looking forward with excitement and joy. And I can just feel that from you. And so I'm so stoked for you. Thank you. So, my last question is about career-wise. What are your goals about how you see yourself professionally in the future?

SPEAKER_02 25:24

I would definitely in the future, I'd like to be an advocate for people with disabilities on mental health and physical health. So, talking about the benefits of having sports and being able to live an active lifestyle. Since most people with disabilities, it's not that they don't want to live an active lifestyle, it's that they are unable to live an active lifestyle. So getting access to being able to be active and speak on behalf of the para community. I love that. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

This was incredible. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share.