00:03
i think usf was the reason why i could
00:05
develop as an athlete because when i
00:08
came there in 2012
00:11
i really wasn't that good yet like i
00:13
wouldn't have had any support back in
00:15
germany and that's the place where i
00:17
could really develop and helen would
00:19
always tell me like one day you're gonna
00:21
be an olympian but i didn't really
00:22
believe it until like
00:24
2018 when i really made this
00:26
breakthrough without injuries and that's
00:29
also when i started racing the steeple
00:31
and there for the european championships
00:34
in berlin i ran the 929 that's when i
00:39
realized well
00:40
i just ran an olympic standard so that's
00:42
when i really started focusing on tokyo
00:45
and
00:46
being like a little bit more focused
00:48
less dreamy about it
00:50
i started the single chase at princeton
00:52
my freshman year
00:54
immediately loved it kind of became a
00:56
stippler from then
00:57
and graduated feeling like i had more in
01:00
me but i finished up all my track
01:02
eligibility so i went to
01:04
usf and competed in two cross country
01:06
seasons ended up having a new coach
01:09
who'd just come in be the head coach pat
01:10
mccrory luckily he was a stupid taste
01:14
specialist and got me back into good
01:16
shape and carried on training
01:18
with him and a lot of the usf group
01:20
after graduation
01:22
and made the world championships much to
01:25
my surprise and i think from that was
01:27
the moment really when i thought i could
01:29
make the olympics
01:32
i did set rio as a goal of mine but i
01:35
didn't feel like i was done there so
01:38
i wanted to keep improving and so it
01:40
really took a lot
01:42
of
01:43
focus and dedication on my end to really
01:47
get to where i wanted to be and
01:49
especially when they changed the
01:50
standard
01:52
by 15 and a half minutes i believe that
01:55
i can do it and i knew that it's now or
01:57
never i would regret if i didn't really
02:00
give it everything
02:04
[Music]
02:10
i was injured basically in the middle of
02:13
the season i had the hiccups with my
02:15
achilles so i couldn't race the german
02:17
championships i had to take three weeks
02:20
of running like mid-season and
02:23
watch everybody just race hitting the
02:25
standards and i just had to rely on this
02:27
world ranking and it was like a really
02:30
really stressful time because only one
02:32
hand i was like nursing the achilles and
02:34
on the other hand i was just like
02:36
constantly checking the world rankings
02:38
if i'll still be able to make it
02:42
i actually like was at the airport to
02:44
finally race another race and i got the
02:46
invitation i started like crying on my
02:49
gauge even though basically everybody
02:51
was telling me like four weeks before
02:53
like you're safe it's fine but i
02:56
still didn't really believe it and then
02:58
when it hit me like it was just such a
03:00
relief
03:02
i didn't really think that early in this
03:04
season when
03:05
you know i hadn't raced in a while and i
03:08
kept coming close to the olympic
03:09
standard and just not getting it and i
03:12
had all these doubts about how like you
03:14
know i hadn't progressed in these two
03:16
years that i've been committing myself
03:17
to the sport and then finally was able
03:20
to to crack that standard at the
03:22
portland track festival and then i think
03:24
once i got over that mental barrier
03:25
which was
03:26
a pretty big mental barrier for me i was
03:28
able to kind of let my physical business
03:31
do the work
03:32
i remember talking to my coach the night
03:35
before and he said
03:37
i mean yes your pr is 242 we both
03:40
believe that you can run
03:42
the standard but you really need to go
03:44
and run it was my first marathon in four
03:46
years
03:47
is coming in to finish
03:49
and she's gonna break the olympic
03:51
qualifier i mean i didn't really realize
03:53
i i qualified until i looked at my wife
03:59
besides making it my second olympics i
04:01
was like
04:02
man i just ran
04:04
229 almost under 228 and honestly like
04:08
if you ask me three years ago i wouldn't
04:10
believe i could run this time you know
04:12
not that i was not legit before but it
04:14
made me a little more legit you know
04:18
fantastic running for lizzie bird
04:20
automatic qualification for the tokyo
04:22
olympic games british title and 9.35
04:26
i think she had an awful lot left in the
04:28
tank i mean i know that there is what
04:30
about 11 seconds off the british record
04:33
i knew i had the fitness to
04:35
have a go at the uh the british record
04:38
924 at the time
04:40
and so
04:41
i
04:42
talked to my agent and coach and just
04:44
tried to figure out what kind of race i
04:45
could get into between
04:47
then and the olympics um and managed to
04:50
get into the monaco diamond league which
04:52
is i think one of the most prestigious
04:54
diamond leagues for distance events
04:55
which i don't really know at the time um
04:57
but i was pretty excited to get in we
05:00
were moving pretty fast
05:01
and just
05:02
yeah i think hung on for as long as i
05:04
could
05:05
uh managed to overtake a couple girls
05:08
for i think a seventh place
05:10
finish in in 1922 which was a new record
05:15
a national record for lizzie bird of
05:17
great britain in seventh place
05:24
when i arrived at the track before my
05:26
heat i was
05:28
probably
05:29
the most nervous or close to the most
05:31
nervous i've ever been
05:34
at the end we're just all really trying
05:36
to do our best and my number one goal
05:38
was like finish on empty to really give
05:41
it my all and
05:43
at a given day that's that's what i did
05:48
i still ran
05:50
10 minutes faster than i did in rio in
05:52
rio i ran 247
05:54
and i was 90th
05:57
and here i ran 237
05:59
i'm high and i came in 48th place
06:05
i wasn't quite satisfied with my race
06:08
and i know i can do better and but i
06:10
still finished like 17th in the world
06:12
and
06:13
so that was something that really like
06:15
fired me up and also
06:17
you know knowing that i have so much
06:20
room for improvement
06:22
i'm definitely fired up for paris
06:28
i think with the olympic final i knew
06:30
that i'd earned that spot and
06:32
so i could you know go in there and try
06:35
and be as competitive as i could
06:37
i could also just be
06:38
um proud and excited to be the first
06:42
british woman in a stupid chase final
06:45
after i ran 922 i thought like let's try
06:47
and get that 920 barrier but i didn't
06:49
know if it would come in the olympic
06:51
final my focus was on time my focus was
06:52
just on finishing as high as i could and
06:54
i managed to
06:56
yeah enough a few seconds off that
06:57
record
07:00
it just speaks for yourself that you
07:03
really
07:04
support your athletes on their long-term
07:06
goals like you don't want to burn them
07:08
out in the four or five years of college
07:10
but you really want them to like
07:12
achieve their life goals that go beyond
07:14
college and that's something i still
07:17
really appreciate that i got the chance
07:19
to really slowly develop and now still
07:22
have the chance to compete at the
07:23
highest
07:27
[Applause]
07:28
level you