Episode #49: Lindsay Crouse, Journalist for the NY Times

05/17/20 • 54 min

In this episode, we dig into the story behind the stories as Shanna and Kara interview NY Times journalist Lindsay Crouse. In 2019, Lindsay helped break two of the biggest stories of the year, one with Alysia Montano and Allyson Felix on maternity rights for athletes and the other with Mary Cain on her abuse while training with Alberto Salazar at the Nike Oregon Project. Both stories drove critical conversations and paved the path for change in the areas of #dreammaternity and #fixgirlssports. Interestingly, breaking these stories is not Lindsay's main job at the NY Times, and at least one of these stories took nearly 6 years to tell.

In this episode, Shanna and Kara dig into Lindsay's circuitous journey to live her dream in working for the NY Times, while pursuing a parallel dream to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon. Lindsay talks about her childhood aspirations to attend Harvard even though no one from her town in Rhode Island ever had. She discusses her early running career and how she ultimately earned a spot at Harvard to both run and study for her future in journalism.

The path to the NY Times was far from straightforward, however, as Lindsay moved to New York City and had several other jobs before landing her NY Times opportunity. Even then, she had to rely on her own entrepreneurial spirit and instincts to find and tell these important stories, including an initial off-the-record conversation in 2014 with Shanna and Kara on her treatment by Nike during pregnancy.

Finally, Lindsay shares the painstaking and thoughtful work required to verify facts, confirm information from sources, frame the conversation, and ultimately to tell the stories in a way that will resonate with readers in order to provoke much-needed conversations. The work isn't easy, but Lindsay does it well and with integrity. We can't thank her enough for simply giving athletes a platform to tell the truth and to use their voices to drive change in our sport.

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Episode #48: Ben Rosario, Coach of Team NAZ Elite

Ben Rosario is the founder and head coach of Team NAZ Elite sponsored by Hoka, but he has done it all in our sport. He's competed in 2 Olympic Marathon Trials, finished 2nd in the US Marathon Championships, owned a running store in St. Louis, directed meets and events, and coached athletes of all levels. He, of course, coaches 4 of our prior guests from this year including Scott Fauble, Stephanie Bruce, Kellyn Taylor, and Olympic Trials Champion Aliphine Tuliamuk.

Having seen the sport of running from all sides, Ben brings a sharp and unique perspective to a host of important topics from how you innovate in marketing as a team to how you create a better culture for clean sport globally. Kara and Chris lead this episode starting with Ben on his beginnings and early inspirations in the sport. We talk about how and why he became a coach, how he developed the strong team dynamic at NAZ Elite, and of course, what it was like to cheer on his athletes to incredible finishes at the US Marathon Trials including Aliphine's victory.

Then, we turn to his perspective on clean sport from his time as an athlete to what he believes needs to be done to truly make a difference in the fight against doping in our sport. Finally, we cover his team's approach to the current pandemic and what they are doing to stay ready for the delayed Olympics next year, including some fun ways that fans can engage in their journey.

Ben is making big waves in our sport through Team NAZ Elite. He is direct and to the point about how to make our sport cleaner and more inspiring for all levels of athletes, and we are proud to help elevate his voice.

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Episode #50: Floyd Landis, Banned Tour de France Champion and Cycling Whistleblower

It is easy to villify those who have made bad decisions. When someone is willing to tell the whole truth, show remorse, and help build a better future, however, then we believe their story should be told to perhaps prevent others from making the same choices. With that in mind, we bring you this interview with cycling whistleblower Floyd Landis.

Born and raised in the Mennonite community in southeastern Pennsylvania, Floyd started his career in cycling as a mountain biker. He had quick success there winning a junior national championship before switching to the roads where he turned pro in 1999.

After racing for the Mercury Cycling Team, he was noticed by one Lance Armstrong and joined the US Postal Service Team in 2002, where he served as a domestique for 3 of Lance's seven tour victories. It was also on the US Postal Team that he began experimenting with PEDs for the first time under the guidance of Dr. Michele Ferrari.

In 2005, Floyd joined Team Phonak and would become its team leader after teammate Tyler Hamilton was banned for a positive test at the 2004 Olympics. That led to a top 10 finish in the 2005 tour and the outright victory in 2006. 4 days later, Floyd had his own doping positive for synthetic testosterone which began a 4 year period of denial as he fought the allegations and subsequent suspension.

Finally in 2010, Floyd confessed and came clean about his own actions in what became one of the primary links in the chain to expose the truth about Lance Armstrong.

In this interview, Kara and Shanna question Floyd about it all with a primary focus on understanding what he thought and felt at every stage of his now-infamous journey into the dark side of the sport of cycling. He details the long process behind his own decision to cheat including the openness with which PEDs were discussed by insiders in the sport and what he felt when he put on that first testosterone patch.

He tells us what he was thinking on the top of the Tour de France podium and the anguish associated with the 4 year journey after that before he told the truth in 2010. Floyd also responds to one specific quote about him that airs in the ESPN 30 for 30 on Lance Armstrong to be released in two parts with part 1 on May 24th and part 2 on May 31st.

Plus, you hear why he ultimately told the truth and whether or not he is sorry for what he did. We want to thank Floyd for his openness and honesty. We believe sharing the truth behind his story matters, even though he chose the other path. His truth can make a difference for the future of clean sport.