The Authority: Discussing Gwen Jorgensen, USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete

12/28/23 • 43 min

Hello and thank you, listeners. I hope you're enjoying the first season of Sideline Sessions. As we take a short break from publishing new episodes over the holidays, I wanted to share an episode from my other podcast, The Authority.

The Authority Podcast features weekly interviews with leading authors and new voices in the genres of education, leadership, and self-improvement. If you work in education or lead in another role, these episodes feature many valuable insights. Subscribe here: https://authoritypodcast.net/subscribe

In this episode, I spoke with Elizabeth and Nancy Jorgensen about their middle-grade and young adult biography, Gwen Jorgensen: USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete, which they wrote in collaboration with Gwen.

We discussed:

What makes a hero and why kids need heroes
Gwen’s “hero’s journey” from kid to accountant to gold medalist
How to reward focused effort while also encouraging well-rounded development
How Gwen’s early struggles prepared her for success as an adult
“There is power in what you tell yourself.”
Learn about your own potential: Practice Core Principles, Emphasize Recovery, Show Gratitude
Surrounding yourself with the right people

Purchase the book on Amazon or get a signed copy: https://www.booksco.com/signed-copy-gwen-jorgensen

Download a free educator guide: https://download.m-m-sports.com/extras/GwenJorgensen/Teacher_Guide.pdf

Follow the authors on Twitter: @LyzaJo and @NancyJorgensen

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net.

Are you a professional looking for insights to reach the next level, find a fulfilling new career, or achieve peak performance? You may be a candidate for performance coaching. Schedule an introductory chat here.

We discussed:

What makes a hero and why kids need heroes
Gwen’s “hero’s journey” from kid to accountant to gold medalist
How to reward focused effort while also encouraging well-rounded development
How Gwen’s early struggles prepared her for success as an adult
“There is power in what you tell yourself.”
Learn about your own potential: Practice Core Principles, Emphasize Recovery, Show Gratitude
Surrounding yourself with the right people

Purchase the book on Amazon or get a signed copy: https://www.booksco.com/signed-copy-gwen-jorgensen

Download a free educator guide: https://download.m-m-sports.com/extras/GwenJorgensen/Teacher_Guide.pdf

Follow the authors on Twitter: @LyzaJo and @NancyJorgensen

About the host

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net.

Previous Episode

undefined - Charlie Miller — Master Basketball Coach, McDonald’s All-American, Indiana University and Professional Player on Teaching Young Athletes to Find Their "Bright Spots"

Charlie Miller — Master Basketball Coach, McDonald’s All-American, Indiana University and Professional Player on Teaching Young Athletes to Find Their "Bright Spots"

In episode 3, I had a fantastic conversation with Charlie Miller, a master basketball coach, author, and owner of ATTACK Basketball Academy in the Dallas, Texas area.

In his playing career, Charlie was a McDonald’s All-American and Florida’s Gatorade Player of the Year at South Miami High School, played at Indiana University and in the Junior Olympics, and played professionally in Europe and the US.

As a coach, he began by training hundreds of players individually and on teams, founded ATTACK Basketball Academy in 2009, and has been a head coach with Breakthrough Basketball.

Our discussion covers a lot, including:

What Charlie learned from the coaches you played for and how he developed a process over outcomes approach
Coaching the whole player
Harnessing the power of the mind to enhance performance on the court.
How can coaches integrate mental toughness development, and lessons learned from personal coaching experiences to create tailored training strategies for young athletes?
Tailored strategies to bring out the best in young athletes.
“Find your bright spots.”
It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you have

Subscribe to Sideline Sessions to hear the rest of our fall-winter season. We’ll continue to bring you insights from diverse coaches across the sporting landscape. Subscribe here: https://sidelinesessions.transistor.fm/subscribe

About today’s guest

Charlie Miller is a master basketball coach, author, and owner of ATTACK Basketball Academy with almost 2 decades of experience working with players who desperately want to achieve their basketball goals but are frustrated by confidence-crushing roadblocks. By coaching the whole player (physically, intellectually, and emotionally), Charlie creates breakthrough experiences from the inside out, allowing his clients to accelerate the realization of their dreams and have fun in the process.

Charlie has taken the collection of his experiences over 30+ years as a player along with his gift for connection and created a simple system of coaching to reach any player. Since 2009, his business has helped tens of thousands of players achieve their next level of success both on and off the basketball court.

An internationally recognized expert basketball coach, Charlie has been a recurring host of Indiana Sports Beat Radio and has previously been featured on ESPN 30 for 30, the B1G Ten Network, the Sports Psychology podcast, Breakthrough Basketball podcast, and many others.

Learn more:

About the host

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net.

Next Episode

undefined - Samantha Arsenault Livingstone — Olympic Gold Medalist, Swim Coach, High-Performance Consultant, and Mental Health Advocate on Her Journey from World-Class Athlete to Whole Athlete Coach

Samantha Arsenault Livingstone — Olympic Gold Medalist, Swim Coach, High-Performance Consultant, and Mental Health Advocate on Her Journey from World-Class Athlete to Whole Athlete Coach

It’s episode 4 of Sideline Sessions and I’m honored to have my fourth great guest.

Samantha Arsenault Livingstone is an Olympic gold medalist swimmer, high-performance consultant, speaker and mental health activist. She also co-captained the 2005 National Champion University of Georgia swim team.

Samantha spent time as a high school science teacher and swim coach, and in 2016, she founded Livingstone High Performance (LHP) and the Whole Athlete Initiative (the WAI) in response to the mental health crisis impacting young people across the globe. LHP provides pillars of support to organizations, teams, and individuals to elevate mental health and improve performance - disrupting the old-school model of mental toughness as the path to high achievement.

We discussed Samantha’s positive and negative experiences with coaching beginning at a young age — including how it contributed to her complicated feelings toward the sport for many years after earning Olympic gold — as well as mental fitness for coaches and athletes, and much more:

When Samantha got interested in coaching
Her personal definition of what it means to be a coach
The challenges of coaching a sport at which she was a world-class athlete
The WHOLE Athlete Initiative and what motivated her to start it
The pillars of the Initiative and what they’re built around
Vulnerability in coaching

About today’s guest

Samantha Arsenault Livingstone is an Olympic gold medalist, high-performance consultant, speaker and mental health activist. At home in the classroom, Samantha spent six years teaching high school science and coaching swimming. After a near-death experience with her then 12-month-old daughter, Samantha knew it was time to pay forward all she'd learned about achievement, emotional agility, rising through hard things and finding fulfillment in the striving.

In 2016, Samantha founded Livingstone High Performance and the Whole Athlete Initiative (the WAI) in response to the mental health crisis impacting young people across the globe. LHP provides pillars of support to organizations, teams, and individuals to elevate mental health and improve performance - disrupting the old-school model of mental toughness as the path to high achievement. Samantha holds a master's in education and is a certified instructor of Mental Health First Aid and facilitator of Mindful Sports Performance Enhancement. She resides in Berkshire County, Massachusetts with her husband and four daughters.

Learn more about Samantha: