Hey, how's it going? And if you tell me you're fine,
I'm gonna assume you mean, like, the acronym.
Freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional.
Have you heard of the term life quake?
Well, in this podcast, we talk about life quakes,
those unpredictable seismic shifts that, in time, lead to
profound growth and empowerment. You can expect heartfelt stories
throughout the season that reveal the joy and the
discomfort of unexpected change. And I think you're going to like
it here. My name is Shawn,
and this is something shifted. Today's story belongs to Vicky.
For me, the dream was always to compete at the Olympics.
And I got really close twice before. But life happens.
I just felt like it's now or never and didn't want to have a
great one day. That's next.
I lead a demanding lifestyle and I'm very guilty of wanting more for less,
especially when it comes to food. I want to feel like I'm eating
restaurant food, but I don't want to leave my house and I really don't
want to organize a babysitter. I want to try new flavors,
but I also don't want to spend money on ingredients that I
might never use again. And let's be honest, I don't want to
eat the same thing over and over, but I really don't have time to
think about what we're going to eat for dinner every night.
You know what I mean? Well,
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For most. Becoming a parent is a seismic shift,
a life quake that transforms everything we thought we knew
about ourselves. It's a journey that challenges
us to reevaluate our priorities and make some tough decisions,
like how to balance our own dreams with the responsibilities
of raising our children. On one hand, we want to pursue
our passions and achieve personal goals not just for ourselves,
but also to inspire our kids. On the other hand,
there's the question of sacrifice. How much should we give up to
ensure that our kids have every opportunity to thrive?
And then there's our health and well-being.
How do we carve out the time for self-care without compromising
those precious moments spent nurturing our children's world?
Ultimately, we find ourselves grappling with
two powerful questions. Am I giving enough and am I enough?
When I was pregnant with Adrian, I just wanted to soak it in and
I had no idea what type of mother I would be.
Um, I'm my mom's only child, and she was with me.
You know, she was also a very ambitious woman,
and she did really well in a career. And she worked up until I was born.
And the day I was born, she was like, this is it. Like, so she.
Until today, she's like that type of mom that's like fully invested
and really owns that role, which obviously I have a lot of
respect for and I'm thankful for. So when I was pregnant with Adrian,
I really had no idea what type of mom I would be.
And for me, there is no right or wrong.
Being a full time mom doesn't make you a better mom than being
a working mom, so I didn't know what I was going to be.
I remember grappling with similar questions in the weeks
before Zoey was born. How will I be as a dad, you know?
Who will I be as a dad? But unlike Vicky,
I was asking those questions from the comfort of my couch.
I just continued working and training while I was pregnant
for as long as my body allowed. Still did a triathlon at three weeks,
I beat you. That's. Vicky's husband was. My big girl.
Vicky's being modest about her goals. Although beating your partner in a
triathlon while you are pregnant will give you lifelong bragging rights.
She has many goals up her sleeves. I think I just love training and
it makes me feel better. And it's so good for my mind.
And you know, because I trained a lot before I was pregnant.
The general rule is listen to your body, but you can continue training.
So I maybe took that a little bit too far, to be honest.
But, um, it wasn't it wasn't intentional.
It was just because I was not even because I loved it.
Vicky started competing in triathlons.
That's a combination of swimming, cycling and running.
When she was 15 years old. After she matriculated,
she moved to Australia to train under an Olympic coach, Stephen Moss.
Since then, she's raced in more than 40 countries and competed worldwide.
Oh, and she completed an LLB law degree.
So yeah, Vicky has always had goals. I've been like that since a child.
Like I've I've always had this mindset that I don't think I'm
born to be average. I want to be the best version of
myself. And I hope to inspire through my
coaching and so others to also be that.
Also, in this chapter of my life, I wanted to be the best athlete
and mom that I could be, and that was for me to go to the Olympics
and be the best I can on the day. Vicky and I go way, way back.
I've known Vicky since her pre-teens, when she was part of the swimming
club that I coached for, and I've seen with my own two
eyes how committed Vicky is to achieving her goals.
I mean, I was a very sporty kid and, you know,
like quite talented at provincial colours in nine different sport.
So sport was always my thing and I think naturally then for me the
dream was always to compete in at the Olympics and I got really close
twice before. Uh, but things happen. Life happens, injuries, surgeries,
health, water, various things. Now this gets me every time the
various things. But and honestly, it's what
fascinates me about Vicky's story. When I was 15, 16 years old, I wanted
to compete at the Olympic Games too. But despite training up to six
days a week, sometimes for four hours or more a day,
I just didn't get stronger or faster. So it's quite possible that my
mind wasn't convinced that my body could get me to the games on time,
and various things got in my way. In all honesty,
the various things is a bit of an excuse that I still use when I
don't give my goals a serious shot. But at the age of 33, when Vicky gave
birth to her son Adrian, something shifted and things got very real.
When he was born, took a little bit. Well, not long.
About two weeks to figure out, like what did I want?
And, um, I soon realised for me to be the best mum for him,
I need time away from him and I need to do things for myself.
Um, and that's where I sat down with him and I was like, listen,
Olympics is just over two years to go. And he was like, cool.
But then we're all in. You have to have your support system.
You have to have people on the people closest to you on board.
Um, that will go like, flat out. You give 100%.
And if I don't make it, then no regrets.
And so, with the birth of her son, Vicky's internal Olympic flame
was reignited. When he was born. I was like, well, um,
it's something that I've always wanted to achieve. It's two years.
Two years ago, I just felt like it's now or never, and I know what
didn't want to have a great one day. And I wanted to also set a good
example for him. Vicky is the founder of a triathlon
squad in Stellenbosch, also known as the Stellenbosch Triathlon Squad.
She's the head coach and works closely with the team of coaches
and triathletes, coaching them to be their best.
So while Vicky had been training and racing locally because she
loves being part of the sport, she hadn't raced internationally
for years. Seven years to be exact. Now, most high performance
athletes will tell you that preparation for big sports
events start long in advance, and two years is not enough time
to get you ready for the Olympics. But remember,
Vicki decided that various things will not hold her back anymore.
Yeah, so I'm a little bit African. So it says that if people tell
me like don't do something, I'll be like, oh, well.
You need a particular kind of haircut height to make it as a
South African athlete. Most South African triathletes,
like Vicky, need to earn a living off the track and out of the pool,
but then still carve out time to go and train.
Unlike professional athletes in, let's say, the USA,
where it's commonplace for athletes to be supported through endorsement
deals and speaking engagements, effectively allowing the athlete
to forget about their finances and focus on training their
bodies and their minds. I've got great sponsors,
but yeah, with South Africa, just like we're not in a position
to support our athletes like that. So that in that sense, it makes it
a little bit harder because I had to work around my business, um,
and be an elite athlete and be a mom. I just plan my days basically to
the minute and being super intentional with everything you do.
So after Adrien was born, I was more focused than ever
before because I knew, like in this hour and a half or whatever
it is that I'm going to swim now, like I need to make it count so
I can't be messing around, I can't be chatting.
I need to execute the session. Every session that I do has a goal
and need to be executed correctly. I wouldn't waste any time.
So whatever I did, I did it intentionally.
Whether it's training or being with my family, spending time with Adrian.
And that really for me is like key. And he is also really good with it.
But you can be with your kid the whole day and spend no quality
time with him because you're on your phone or you're preoccupied
or you stressed, or you can have an hour with him or and have like
quality time and really bond. With laser point focus,
Vicki made every minute count. In order to qualify for the 2024
Paris Olympics. Vicky had to rack up points by
competing on the international circuit.
And since Vicky had taken several years off competing on said circuit,
she had some major catching up to do. And even after she scored enough
international circuit points, Sascoc, that's the South African
Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee still has the final
say in terms of which athletes will participate in the games.
So Vicky committed to all of this training and all of this competing,
all of the travel without any guarantee that she'll even get
to go to the Olympics. Even if she scored enough points,
she would have to wait for the official Olympic team announcement.
Mental imagery is big in sport. I think we all know that,
and I personally use it from about a year out of the Olympics.
I was talking as if I'm going to Olympic Games,
talking as if I'm going to. You know when I say chimps when
African champs achieve my goals. So I believe in like speaking
things into life also. Yeah, obviously there's a little
bit of mind games I guess with the other athletes.
Um, you like, you step into another version of yourself so you can
be like super nice and quiet and whatever, um, reserved as a person,
just a normal person. And then when you like,
step into the athlete version of yourself, the racing version,
then you need to step into, you know, being more confident,
acting differently. It's it's like a,
it's a other persona. That mindset is is crucial. Yeah.
I think we limit ourselves a lot. So if you can like think it and stay
and believe it and step into it, then it just becomes more real.
It was early in 2024 and Vicky's mental focus just had to stay strong.
Sacrificing time with her family and no guarantee that she'd be
selected for the South African team. She just kept her head down and
kept training. By now she was checking off
selection requirements as if there were items on a grocery list.
Points for winning a race check. Sascoc finally announced the South
African Olympic squad a month before the games were due to start.
Not only did Vicky make the cut, but she would be the only woman from
Africa to compete in the triathlon event at the 2024 Olympic Games.
She was going to Paris to compete but there was still work to be done.
Just remember to give this show a five star rating on Apple
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You know what to do. So where were we? Oh, yes.
Vicky had less than a month to go before she competed at the
Paris Olympic Games. While most of her peers had made
their way to Europe already a chance to acclimatise and train
in more appropriate conditions. Vicky was in Cape Town doing
laps in miserable June weather. It was called Cape Town Winter.
It was so few athletes that flew from South Africa because everyone was
already in Europe training there, so I felt very sorry for myself.
Um, but yeah, I couldn't do that, obviously because of my family
and so forth. Ah yes. The choices we need to make as
parents, right? When you have a two year old at home,
you can't just stop being a mum. Jet off to Europe and focus
solely on your dream. For the two years leading up to the
Olympics, since Adrian was born, every step towards Vicky's dream
was weighed against her commitment as a mother.
No, mom, guilt is a real thing. Um, I think, yo,
it was very difficult. It was actually easier for me
when Adrian was really small. So the first time I left him,
I think it was 4 or 5 months old, and I did African Champs in Morocco.
And I was so emotional, was so hard for me because, yeah, I was like,
still breastfeeding and it's so small, like this little thing.
And I just told you, like, I don't know if I can do this.
Like, my heart's not going to make it.
And, um, yo, you came with on that one just because I don't think I
would have coped on my own. As hard as these choices are for us
parents, sometimes we forget how resilient our little people can be.
I realised then it was hard for me, but he was fine, you know,
because he was with Granny and Grandad, thankfully.
And obviously then he was four months old and now we had two
more years of this. So as he got older it progressively,
um, got like towards the end, it got tougher for me because he knew
I was leaving so he would see an airplane and be like, Mama Tata.
And if I start packing my bags, he would know.
So then the mom guilt like really started.
But I think there's where you need like your support structure with the
people that made the decision with you to like, keep you accountable.
Because there was a few times I wanted to give up and then he was
like, no, like, you're not giving up. Like you'll be fine.
You do this for him. And we like, just support you and
like remind you how far you've come and like, why are you doing
it and the example you're setting. So, um, yeah,
I think it's just knowing you, setting a good example to him.
And for Vicky, a good example meant keeping her head down and
controlling the controllables. So I just trained, I knew what I had
to do, I just didn't think about it. Um, you know, when it's raining
or riding in the rain or swimming in the cold water, we had load
shedding and would eat issues. I just got it done and I was
super consistent training three times a day.
Vicki boarded a plane destined for France on the 20th of July 2024.
All the visualising she had done for months was materializing in
front of her. She was finally on her way to compete
in the women's individual triathlon scheduled for Wednesday 31st July.
In this event, Vicky would need to complete a 1.5km swim, a 40 kilometer
cycle and a ten kilometer run. Now, if you followed any of the
buildup to the Olympic Games in 2024, you might remember the controversy
around the Seine River being a little. How do you say leap?
Obviously you visualize different situations, but to be honest,
I think that specific race was very unique because we couldn't
have warm up days in the swim because of the water quality.
So I think South Africans handled the uncertainty well
because we used to it. So the first time I swam in the
Seine River was, um, on race day. Okay, let me catch you up.
If you missed the controversy, heavy rainfall at any time could
have caused levels of e-coli and other bacteria in the same river
to rise, and there was obviously very little the city could do to
stop it from raining. This Saint River was to be the stage
for the opening ceremony of the games and all open water events
at the Paris Olympics, including the men's and women's triathlon,
should too much rainfall. That backup plan for the ten
kilometres swimming event was to have it as a rowing or canoeing venue,
right? Just move the location. But there was no backup venue
for the triathlons. Instead, the plan was to cancel
the swim leg and turn the triathlon into a Du athlon.
Up until race day, nobody was certain what would happen.
It was in the early hours of 31st July that test results showed the
bacterial account in the Saint River was at an acceptable level,
and so the triathlon would go ahead. But because more rain could fall
and change the E.coli levels at any point, the men and women
would swim back to back. This is not a scenario that many
athletes would have visualized. So that was strange.
And it was in conditions that very few athletes are used to.
It's extremely strong current. Um, yeah.
Which is just not normal for a triathlon swim or for the open
water swims. So as much as I visualized,
I couldn't really visualize that, like I just tried to stay present.
It's 60 girls that need to get past a buoy.
And, um, it's Olympic, so it is aggressive.
Um, I've got some photos that they took from the top. Um, yo.
And it's like everyone's over each other.
Like I got dunked under a buoy. Got out on the other side.
I'd swim back there, position people on the water
with extra cameras to try and penalize people who intentionally
dunk you or too aggressive, but it's very hard to say this
person intentionally did this. It's dark here,
like in a river on the sea. Um, so yeah, it was very aggressive,
but I knew it beforehand. Like, I knew this is going to be
a fight. So, um. And that was just the beginning.
There's nothing quite like being dunked in a dirty river in front
of 300,000 spectators. As you're fighting for a dream
that you've worked so hard for over the past two years and
dreamt of your entire life. But the swim is just one part of
the race. There's still a 40 kilometer
cycle and a ten kilometer run. Except Vicky's bike transition didn't
go the way she planned either. So when I got to my bike,
I don't know what happened. So my bike was on the floor and
so I had no idea. Like, did another athlete
accidentally bump my bike? Did did it somehow fall out of
the the rack? Far from perfect transition.
I have no idea how that happened. I mean, I definitely wrecked my
bike correctly. I've done it a million times.
When it comes to high level competition.
The seconds it takes to change gears for each event matters.
It's very easy to lose focus when things are out of place, and Vicky
had to keep her wits about her and adhere to the rules and keep pushing.
A lot of girls fell on the bike because there was a lot of
corners on the on the route, and it rained that morning,
so the route was very wet. So there was quite a few crashes
which made it interesting dynamic. So yeah, I just wanted to stay
safe on the bike. So I went like a little bit more
conservatively through the corners and so forth.
So happy to have stayed on my bike. I just knew I just had to soak it
in and yeah, all the support and the course and just, um, you know,
just soaking in like being part of the biggest sporting event in
the world is, was was great. Top athletes astonish me.
Their mental sharpness and constant awareness. Managing emotions.
Dealing with disappointment, frustration and the unexpected
while cycling at breakneck speeds. Just one more leg to go at the
biggest sporting event in the world. I had a good transition and then run,
so I ran the fastest in our group. But by that time, you know,
I wasn't where I wanted to be away. Yeah, I mean it's yeah, it's a race,
so anything can happen. It's the Olympics.
Um, because I knew I wasn't running for, like, a medal or anything.
I ran hot, but I definitely soaked it in and just also tried
to enjoy the whole experience. As I crossed the finish line,
I realised like so many girls were crying and emotional and so
much buildup for this one day. And on this one day,
anything can happen. Like you can crash on the bike,
you could have a terrible swim like I did and you can cramp on the run,
whatever. So I just realised then that,
you know, I didn't have the day that I wanted, but I'm still
like super proud of the journey. And at the end of this journey,
Vicki got to run into the arms of the people who were there for
her every step of the way. There were so many South Africans,
which was amazing, so many African flags.
And then I spotted a big crowd. They were like 25 people and I
thought it was them. But what was cool about the Olympics
as you cross the finish line, there's like this company that
phones your family. So then I could on a massive screen
like chat to all of them, even though they're like just like 500m from me.
As Vicky crossed the finish line at the 2024 Olympic Games,
she immediately snapped out of her athlete persona and straight
back into being Mama Bear. Seeing her family on that big
screen during her post-race call, there was only one thing on her mind.
The first thing I said, I was like, put a hat on for Adrian because
it's like it's like 40 degrees outside and he's like, he's got
so much hair and it's so hot and it's such a long day in the sun.
And my husband and I don't like sunblock, and I.
And I like what I like sunblock on his face.
So my mother mother instincts immediately kicked in.
Because ultimately, all the early morning runs, the winter workouts,
the international travel and even that dirty river water swim,
all of it was just for Adrian. You and I am debated for about two
seconds with our son should come to Paris or not, and I won that one.
And I'm so happy that he was there because he was the reason
and your he loved it. They. I think a mom's happy if you
know your child's happy. But it's very special for me to
see how he loves sport now. So he is obsessed with bikes as
little boys probably. Oh, and then when he rides,
he rides his bike until a point, and then he goes and puts it down
and puts it, takes his helmet off and he goes, now I'm gonna run.
And then he starts running and I'm like, where are you running to.
So he's got this triathlon mindset already, which is super cute.
And you know, he just loves outdoors and being active.
Um, so it's it's nice to see. Yeah. I would just want for him to,
to reach his potential in whatever that is and be happy in the process.
Vicky. Berta is most certainly one to watch
on the track and in the water, and can be found on social media
as Vicky Tamara Adrian has a mum that has shown him how with the
right people in your corner, you can do hard things and
continues to encourage him to believe in possibility.
If he speaks about me, he goes mama, swim Fitzroy.
It's very cute. I chase my goals. Um, hopefully that's an example
for him. Um, that's what he sees. Thank you for listening to this
episode of Something Shifted. You can find me on Instagram at Sean
Lewis and join my mailing list 321 shift, which gives you three things
for your mind, two things for your body and one thing for your soul.
Plus a few little fun surprises along the way every second Sunday.
Oh, and don't forget to use my code Hash shift 50 at checkout
when you place your first order on Ucas and you'll get 50% off.
I'd love it if you left this show a five star review and
followed something shifted on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You can also leave a comment, which I might very well read in
the next episode. Don't forget to share this
episode with your friends or family right now.
Oh, and all the links to the things that I've mentioned are
in the show notes. Thanks as always to my executive
producer, Rhonda Lewis, and to you, of course,
for believing in possibility. My name is Shawn and this is
something shifted. I'll see you in two weeks. Bye.