Sixty minutes per game.
Seven games to win gold.
Endless hours training, preparing, grinding. Becoming hardened and prepared to
play for my country, my family, my friends, my teammates and for me.
Years of my life working toward the ultimate goal, Olympic Gold Medalist.
Nine minutes and thirty seconds into the 2022 campaign and all of the hard work
dashed due to injury.
All of the planning and hard work wiped out because of a freak play that sidelined
me for the remainder of the 2022 Olympic campaign.
I faced a similar question time and again following my time in Beijing: “What did you learn from this experience?” What did I learn in the face of adversity – that nothing is guaranteed. That even the best preparation can be disrupted due to outside forces uncontrollable to me and you. It also taught me that it was time to focus on my recovery and aim to come back stronger, faster and healthier.
After Beijing I returned home and immediately went in to surgery with an incredible Minnesota based medical staff. The staff was incredibly supportive of my choice to stay in Beijing during the rest of the Olympic games to support my team mates – I will never regret that decision to remain and am thankful that my body allowed me the ability to stay and remain supportive of my team mates. The medical staff encouraged me to immediately get back in to training, focus on physical therapy (PT) and believe that my body will work with me to heal, if I allow it.
Like any injury and letdown, a part of the struggle is to ask why it happened to me. I am hopeful that my resilience and ability to overcome will inspire athletes of all ages to understand that taking control of your training, your body, your ability are incredibly important but that there are still things we cannot fully control. During my recovery I learned that first hand having struggled with the first few weeks of recovery. Whether it was the memory of The Games – or that first game against Finland, the pain of the injury or the medicine I was required to take to avoid infection, I felt off. I didn’t feel like the Brianna my friends, family and teammates know to be fun-loving, easy going and passionate. I began doing some research and learned a bit more about myself and my body during recovery. The amount of energy my body needed to fully recover was at an all-time high and I felt depleted physically and emotionally. It was not until I was introduced to Rootine that I was able to find a solution.
The team at Rootine has been incredibly supportive throughout my recovery. I have learned a great deal about my body chemistry and the body’s need for high quality nutrients to sustain the energy needed for recovery. Couple the energy needed with the fact that antibiotics have a tendency to harm our gut health, incorporating Rootine in to my recovery process proved to be invaluable!
Whether you are a high-performing professional athlete, aspiring to be one or a
weekend warrior in your favorite sport, nutrition and proper balance are the building blocks to success. Even in injury, understanding my body while still in Beijing was important to not further injure myself. Rootine provides an easy solution to a well- rounded biochemical foundation to build upon during training leading in to competition.
Another question regularly asked of me following my injury – “is there a silver
lining”? The answer – yes, of course. I get to work harder and am more determined than ever to succeed and lead by example. With Rootine’s impact on my recovery, that will happen sooner than later!
