In our March issue, two-time Olympic medalist and Florida native Brittany Bowe discusses her remarkable career. This includes a formative tenure at Florida Atlantic University in Boca, where she has earned a spot in the school’s Hall of Fame as a basketball star prior to her full-time transition to speed skating. Here are some fascinating excerpts from our conversation that didn’t make it into the print edition.
Is there a skill set that overlaps from basketball to speed skating?
Just the basic fundamentals of what it takes to be a champion, I think—the dedication, the hard work, the resiliency. Playing four years of college basketball, it was a tough atmosphere, trying to juggle school and basketball, and the expectation on the court was nothing less than perfection. And falling short of that was simply unacceptable. And I was pushed to and beyond my limit day in and day out. And I think just being able to push myself past that comfort zone and be able to just be resilient in all different areas has really set me up for success in the speed skating world and whatever life brings to me post-speed skating.
Where do you get your drive from—your drive to succeed?
I think it’s just been instilled in me from such a young age. Both of my parents have that drive to be the best at whatever they’re doing. They’re both educators, so they were leaders in the classroom. They were both coaches, so they’re leaders on the court. And they were both leaders in our household. So I think just having them as my prime examples, they just led by example, and I just fell into their shoes as well.
What do you eat in the months or years leading up to the Olympic Games? Is there a certain diet you have to maintain?
We have a dietician who offers any sort of support or guidance we need. I think with all things in life, everybody finds what works for them. For me, I just eat a well-balanced diet. But if we’re looking at our training regimen, the six to eight hours a day, especially in the summer, where we’re doing a lot of endurance training, we’re burning 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day. So just to get that caloric intake back in your body is the most important thing. So I would be lying if I said I was the cleanest eater on the planet. I’ll indulge in a piece of pizza or a hamburger here and there. But for the most part, the older I get, the more seasoned I have been in sports. You get out what you put into your body. So I always try to make mindful choices.
You like to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” What do you mean by that?
That’s something my inline skating coach always preached to us from such a young age. You’re not going to get better if you’re just going through the motions mindlessly. And that’s with any part of our lives. You have to try to be perfect all the time, or have that goal. And of course it’s a double-edged sword, because perfection can be a really dangerous thing to play with. So I love that quote, but I also have the mindset that you are really intentional in trying to do everything to the best of your ability. Because if you have that high expectation day in and day out, it’s going to carry over into that most important time or event, when those race lights are on.
What was it like competing in the Olympics in Beijing, with COVID restrictions in place?
We weren’t allowed to have family and friends and fans in the stands. It was just the athletes. And I think it was a common theme among the athletes that, while it was so great for me to win my bronze medal in the 1,000-meter, and I was able to share that with my teammates, not being able to share that with my loved ones in the stands, not being able to look up and see them looking back at me, was a bit of an emptiness feeling. It made me realize, I’m not just doing this for myself, for that instant gratification, or that instant feeling of euphoria. I’m doing this because I love to do it, and I love to share it with those around me.
That must have been so surreal.
It was, and it threw a whole new element into your preparation, because yes, you were in control of how you were prepared physically and mentally, but this whole other component of staying healthy and not testing positive for COVID, because you could test positive for COVID and not be sick, and you’re automatically disqualified from any event leading into the Olympics. And then God forbid you test positive before Beijing, you’re not even allowed in the country. So to always have that cloud over your head of possible infection added an additional dynamic to the preparation, which was not pleasant.
If you have the skill and good fortune of winning, you’ve won for your country, but the adverse is that if you lose, it can feel like you let your country down, and that can be crushing from a mental health aspect. You speak to fellow athletes; how do you deal, and help them deal, with the reality of losing and how to not let it consume you?
It’s tough. And I think at the end of the day, we as athletes put more pressure on ourselves than our federations, than our families, our friends, our country. So at the end of the day, you have to reflect and think about who you’re letting down. You’re letting yourself down by these high expectations that you’ve set, but if you’re surrounded by people that have your best interest at heart, you’re not letting them down. Of course they’re going to be disappointed and sad, but they’re going to have those feelings because they know how much you want it for yourself. So to be able to just take a step back and look at the big picture … but then also for viewers looking in to realize how high that pressure is, and how important that mental health piece is, to bring a light on athletes as just humans. We’re not machines, as people may think.
I think that’s been brought to light a little bit more over the last few years. You look at Simone Biles in Tokyo, who had the case of the spinnies. And people couldn’t even believe that was happening. Or Mikaela Shiffrin in Beijing, a downhill skier, who goes into the Olympics as a favorite to win a medal in every event she skis, yet she falls in almost every event she skis. So those are two examples of two high-profile athletes who fell short of expectations and where there was clearly a mental component involved. So for the viewers looking in who think the life of an Olympic athlete is nothing but the glitz and glamour that the TV portrays, it’s oftentimes very far from that for a lot of us.
A lot of athletes retire early, as the body can only handle so much physically. Do you see retirement in your near future?
I’m definitely on the older end in terms of age in my sport. A lot of the up-and-coming ladies are fast. They’re strong. And they’re in their early to mid to late 20s. And once you start getting into those 30s, there’s only a handful of us left. But as long as I can remain competitive, as long as I feel a love and desire to compete and win, I’ll be shooting for the 2026 Olympic Games. Most likely it’ll be the end of my Olympic journey.
Do you have post-retirement plans?
Nothing is set in stone, but these past Olympic Games has given me a platform to start taking on some speaking engagements and some keynote speeches. I’ve worked with a world-renowned hypnotherapist for a number of years to get that mental edge on myself and my competitors, and he owns a great business out of Salt Lake City. I’ve been talking with him about finding myself going in that direction with the high-performance coaching, as well as having a platform to speak on all the topics I embody with myself. To find myself in a position where I can make a difference in people’s lives, especially at a high-performance level, is something that’s really interesting to me.
This Web Extra is from the March 2024 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
