00:07Fear is kind of what drives me.
00:12It's always a bit scary to get on the track.
00:15Picture riding a bike with no brakes.
00:18You can't stop pedaling, your feet are strapped in
00:20with a bunch of people elbowing you.
00:26There are a lot of times where it's incredibly hard,
00:29but in order to meet your full potential you have to overcome fear.
00:33Use it to your advantage to keep driving yourself to be better.
00:38My name's Kate O'Brien and I'm an Olympic cyclist.
00:48Seven years ago I started doing bobsleigh.
00:51I kind of worked my way up the ranks in that sport
00:55and ended up going through the World Cup circuit,
00:58nearly being named to the Olympic team.
01:00I tore my hamstring just before the Sochi 2014 game,
01:03so I didn't end up going.
01:09After that I was kind of left in the position of
01:11what do I do with my life now?
01:13You know, do I keep going for another four years?
01:15Do I try something new? Do I move on?
01:21At the same time, Cycling Canada had a Talent ID camp
01:24and I did it and it turns out that I was okay at it.
01:29These first couple of efforts might be a little bit rough.
01:31One of the kindest, nicest people you're ever going to meet,
01:34but once she gets on that bike,
01:35that hardcore, big, bad athlete comes out.
01:51Changing my entire life as I knew it from bobsleigh to track cycling
01:54was really scary.
01:56Especially after not getting to go to the Sochi games
02:00and putting so much effort into that,
02:02I didn't know if I could do it again
02:03and I didn't know if I could do it in a new sport
02:06that to me is even scarier.
02:13Cycling is perceived uniquely,
02:16more so than any other sport in the world,
02:18in the sense that we have athletes that get killed every year.
02:21Cycling is one of those sports where you get knocked down,
02:24you might be bloodied,
02:25your clothes may be practically ripped off,
02:27but you're expected to get back on the bike with nary a complaint.
02:30The risk of death is so high,
02:32the risk of injury is so high,
02:34and yet we're expected to just go about our business
02:36with a small crash hat and a little bit of Lycra
02:38between us and the road at 80k an hour.
02:45If you look even beyond the physical nature
02:47of being on the track on this little bike,
02:50you look at fear of not winning a medal.
02:57Fear of the unknown is a huge thing for me,
03:00is to try to face ambiguity and uncertainty
03:04without letting it dictate my path.
03:07That's the challenge.
03:13I think if you let fear win,
03:16you're not really living your life,
03:19you're living a life of regrets,
03:22not knowing if you're even truly being
03:24who you're supposed to be.
03:29But I refused to give up,
03:33and I refused to let that dictate
03:34what I was going to do
03:35and how I was going to live my life,
03:38and because of that I get to go to Rio.
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