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  • 4 days ago
Kate O'Brien is a Canadian Olympic Cyclist who will be competing in this years game. Cycling has taught Kate that one can not reach their full potential without facing fear head on.
Transcript
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,
00:31you have to overcome fear.
00:34Use 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.
00:52Kind 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,
01:04so 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?
01:17Do I move on?
01:18Do I move on?
01:21At the same time, Cycling Canada had a Talent ID camp,
01:24and I did it,
01:26and it turns out that I was okay at it.
01:29This 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 he gets on that bike,
01:35that hardcore, big, bad athlete comes out.
01:50Changing my entire life as I knew it from bobsleigh to track cycling was really scary.
01:56Especially after not getting to go to the Sochi games and putting so much effort into that,
02:02I didn't know if I could do it again and I didn't know if I could do it in a
02:05new sport that to me is even scarier.
02:13Cycling is perceived uniquely, more 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, you might be bloodied,
02:26your clothes may be practically ripped off, but you're expected to get back on the bike with nary a complaint.
02:30The risk of death is so high, the risk of injury is so high,
02:34and yet we're expected to just go about our business with, you know,
02:37a small crash hat and a little bit of lycra between us and the road at 80k an hour.
02:45If you look even beyond the physical nature of 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, is to try to face ambiguity and uncertainty
03:04without letting it dictate my path. That's the challenge.
03:13I think if you let fear win, you're not really living your life, you're living a life of regrets,
03:22not knowing if you're even truly being who you're supposed to be.
03:29But I refused to give up, and I refused to let that dictate what I was going to do
03:35and how I was going to live my life, and because of that I get to go to Rio.
03:41So yeah, I was really excited to wear my일�nar Muller at home.
03:41I know.
03:45There we go.
03:46How easily can we get to people.
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