Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - November 13, 2026


Riley Tejcek Makes History on The Amazing Race With Her Mom

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's Affair： Why Is His Wife Being Blamed？

Episode Stats


Length

58 minutes

Words per minute

197.68

Word count

11,525

Sentence count

718

Harmful content

Misogyny

36

sentences flagged

Toxicity

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

17

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:34 Let's play some trivia.
00:00:35 What do you get when you combine a Division I softball player with a Team USA bobsledder,
00:00:39 with a United States Marine Corps captain, with a reality TV star, with a brand new mom?
00:00:45 Hello, you get my guest today, Riley Taychuk. 1.00
00:00:48 She is the coolest woman on planet Earth.
00:00:51 I cannot wait for you guys to hear her story.
00:00:53 She has spent her whole entire life doing things that most people, most women, wouldn't 0.95
00:00:59 dare even attempt to do. 0.85
00:01:01 Like I said, she's represented Team USA. 0.99
00:01:03 She's raced down icy tracks at nearly 90 miles per hour. 0.99
00:01:06 She's served our country overseas, and she's competed alongside her own mom in the amazing
00:01:12 race.
00:01:13 Today, we're going to be talking about what it really means to be a strong woman, the
00:01:16 lessons learned through elite competition and military service, finding your identity
00:01:20 in Christ rather than any of your accomplishments, which she has a lot, and the incredible gift
00:01:26 of motherhood. Plus, I have like a million questions about the amazing race. So Riley
00:01:30 Taycheck, welcome to the show. I'm just over the moon, excited to chat with you. We were talking
00:01:36 prior to clicking record. And as I just alluded to, you're a new mom now. But you said you just
00:01:42 had to drop your little perfect, precious baby off at daycare for the first time. Tell me what
00:01:47 that's like. I haven't really had to do that because all of my family lives nearby. And so,
00:01:52 you know, when they say it takes a village, I have that village. So what's kind of the feelings and
00:01:57 the things that go through your mind when you have to drop your baby off with someone who you
00:02:01 probably don't know that well for the first time? I think this is something that a lot of working
00:02:07 women, almost all working women deal with to the most part, and let alone not only working women,
00:02:12 but especially military individuals. As a Marine, we are far away from family. My husband's from
00:02:18 England, just like yours, which is so awesome. So his family's literally in another country on
00:02:23 the opposite side of the world. And my family's located in Indiana while I'm stationed here in
00:02:27 San Diego. So that village doesn't really exist so much. And we knew that me being full-time as
00:02:35 a Marine, my husband working, we eventually would have to bring my son into daycare. Now,
00:02:39 do we think it would be at two months old? No, but the military is going to require some stuff
00:02:46 of me that had me shift things around. And that feeling is still one of the hardest things I've
00:02:51 ever done. I think as a mother, you have this natural instinct to just want to protect your
00:02:56 child and you love them so much. And you almost feel like I would do anything and trade off
00:03:02 anything to be with my child. And this mom guilt is so real. And I'm sure maybe you felt it to some
00:03:07 extent, even just like leaving your child, if you go to the gym, or you like go to give a talk or
00:03:14 something, right, you still feel like I should be with my son and or daughter and in your case,
00:03:19 and for me, dropping him off was almost feeling like I was putting him beneath other priorities
00:03:26 when I know that's not the case. So it takes a lot of grace for yourself, a lot of prayers,
00:03:31 and just making sure that the people that he's around is adequate for him, but also just trusting
00:03:37 the process that, you know, this is, this is a part of the journey and two working parents is
00:03:42 what I grew up with. And I think I turned out okay. So hopefully I can inspire him by all the
00:03:47 things that not only myself, but my husband are doing as well. You've dropped your baby off at
00:03:51 daycare. What's kind of the next thing for you? So I'm headed back to expeditionary warfare
00:03:57 school. So without getting too much into the weeds, I'm a captain, I'm an O3 and I'm up for
00:04:02 promotion on the board this upcoming spring summer in 2027, which is super exciting. But in order to
00:04:08 get promoted, you have to have professional military education done for your rank, which is
00:04:13 Expeditionary Warfare School. And it only meets so often. So I'm halfway through it. I have to
00:04:19 finish the second half of it, which happens to be starting next week, which means I came off
00:04:23 maternity leave early to be able to attend this course to get promoted and get selected in the
00:04:31 summer and spring. So it's hard. And the military, there's times where you just are subject to what
00:04:38 they have and you don't really get to pick and choose. And sometimes we see that in deployments
00:04:41 or duty stations. And this just happened to be the way the course was for school. So I made a
00:04:46 decision. I'm going to come off maternity leave early. I'm going to go to school for these six
00:04:50 weeks, but then I still get to use the rest of my maternity on the back end. So I will still get to 0.94
00:04:55 be with my son. I will still get to take full advantage. The military offers for both men and
00:05:01 women, 84 days of paid time off, which is great. So it's great because it's better than what it
00:05:08 used to be. So I'll still get some time after, but it made me put him into school and daycare
00:05:13 early, which is a little hard and unconventional as a two month baby, but I think it'll be all
00:05:19 worth it. And how are you feeling like physically? Because I mean, of course, just obviously
00:05:25 pregnancy is, I don't want to use the word traumatic, but like your body is kind of going
00:05:30 through like a trauma to a degree, like your organs are shifting and moving and your, your
00:05:35 joints are expanding and your pelvis is expanding. So there is a level of like, I mean, what I would
00:05:40 describe as like clinical grade trauma to it. So physically, how are you feeling? And what has it
00:05:45 been like for you as i mean of course a high level elite athlete to go through some of the body
00:05:50 changes that come along with pregnancy even you said like the postpartum hormones nursing like
00:05:57 i just i mean my own personal experience as someone who was always very bodily aware
00:06:02 i think in our sport you you i mean in sports in general you really have to be you have to know
00:06:07 where you're efficient where you're not so in that you become very bodily aware i had a really hard
00:06:11 time. It was the hardest part of pregnancy for me and postpartum of just the involuntary growing
00:06:17 and body changes. And so how are you coping with that? How are you doing? And how do you feel
00:06:21 physically? Let's back that up a little bit timeline wise. So I competed Olympic team trials
00:06:28 back in March of 2025. And I knew that I was going to give this last shot to try to make the Olympic
00:06:36 games in the sport of bobsled. I had been on the national team competing on world stages,
00:06:40 had won a gold medal just previously in January. And when I didn't make the games or didn't make
00:06:45 the team, I had the decision, do I want to continue on the season and hope that maybe
00:06:50 something happened and I would get a chance? Or do I want to take control back and do something
00:06:55 that I've always wanted to do, which is finally start my family at the age of 28, 29. And I made
00:07:01 the decision, you know what, I am going to take a step back from bobsled. I decided that I wanted
00:07:05 to prioritize and start a family. So I was able to get pregnant around November of 2025. So I
00:07:11 came off being high level training for the Olympics to focusing some time on spending
00:07:18 time in the Marine Corps, did the amazing race and got pregnant straight away, which was such
00:07:23 a blessing. Such a great timeline. Yes, it was insane. So I go from like high level athlete,
00:07:29 top physical fitness test for the amazing race, deciding to get pregnant. And I didn't know I was
00:07:36 pregnant for eight, nine weeks. And I know people are like, what? How did that happen? It's because
00:07:41 I got off birth control. I thought I had a period, but what that was, was actually implementation.
00:07:46 So just a newsflash. I never knew this. Implementation can cause bleeding. I thought
00:07:50 it was my period. It was not. I competed in a high rocks. I was traveling to Italy. I was
00:07:56 traveling through like other parts doing speaking. And I'm like, gosh, I just feel exhausted. Like
00:08:00 what is wrong with me? End up signing up for a half marathon with my dad was like, something's
00:08:07 off in my training. One of my Marines jokingly was like, take a pregnancy test, ma'am. And I was
00:08:12 like, ha ha ha. Okay. Took a pregnancy test. Not even with my husband just being like, yeah, like
00:08:18 let me just try it. First time I've ever done a pregnancy test. And it was positive. Oh my gosh.
00:08:24 Like what? Honestly, it's kind of nice to not know for that long. Cause it made it go by faster.
00:08:28 Hopefully I did all next thing, you know, when I got my ultrasound, yeah, they were like,
00:08:33 it was over the stomach. You're almost out of first trimester. And I'm like, what?
00:08:37 So I didn't even realize that I was pregnant for some time. And I'll be honest with you. I didn't
00:08:43 really show at all. My, I was in regular camis, my regular uniform up until 20 weeks. I ran a,
00:08:49 I did run my half marathon at 20 weeks. So from a weight perspective, I was almost like frustrated
00:08:55 when people were like, oh, you're pregnant. And I was like, well, I do look kind of big, right?
00:08:59 And like waiting for that. But the hardest part was actually in the beginning, being told that I
00:09:05 wasn't putting enough weight on and being very aware mentally and feeling like I was a bad mom
00:09:10 and being told, oh, should you be doing this half marathon? Should you be training?
00:09:14 like the guilt and pressure I actually felt from society on the flip side of it, not looking
00:09:20 pregnant, not just eating whatever I want. Oh, you're not taking it easy. Like you're pushing
00:09:24 yourself. And I'm like, this is what I've done my whole life. And when I signed up and I committed
00:09:28 to something, my first half marathon, I'm going to do it. Now, did I take parameters and put my
00:09:33 child first? Absolutely. Like I didn't let myself get up to heart rate zone five. I ran majority of
00:09:39 And I walked when I felt like I was getting a little bit overworked or the massive hills.
00:09:46 But then towards the end of my pregnancy, and I'm sure like most of us, I gained 40 pounds
00:09:51 in totality, which was wild for me.
00:09:54 And to your point, as a bobsledder, but previously even as a softball player, we're very aware
00:09:59 of our body.
00:09:59 But in bobsled, you had to put on weight, but you wanted to put on weight cleanly.
00:10:04 And so this just felt like my stomach, just like growing, your clothes not fitting anymore,
00:10:07 not recognizing yourself.
00:10:09 but you knew you were pregnant. It's the postpartum that is the hardest when all of a
00:10:14 sudden you're not pregnant anymore. It's been over a year. You don't recognize your body
00:10:19 and I'll be super vulnerable. I had about a week, week and a half where I hated myself in the sense
00:10:26 of I was so mean to myself. You're fat. You can't fit into clothes. You don't look right. 1.00
00:10:32 You're not attractive. You're not sexy looking to your husband. What is this stomach gut you have? 0.59
00:10:36 And I went through an emergency C-section as well. So healing from with a massive scar and
00:10:42 cutting through seven layers and not even being able to fully sit up and crunch. It was really
00:10:49 difficult. And it still is a little bit. I'm so glad you mentioned that because
00:10:55 I don't think it's talked about enough across the board. First of all, in talking about pregnancy,
00:11:02 especially as a high level athlete there was nothing that made me more frustrated than when
00:11:08 people assumed that i don't know like i think the best way to put it is like i feel like when
00:11:14 you're doing amazing things while pregnant it's like looked down upon and i don't know i just
00:11:21 like i wanted to reinforce to people like i'm pregnant i'm not disabled like i can do things
00:11:26 i actually think you should be doing things like i think you should move your body you should
00:11:30 exercise you should do what you were doing um prior to conceiving at least how my doctor explained
00:11:36 it to me and again i'm no medical professional so seek doctor advice but my doctor said to me
00:11:40 you know anything you were doing prior running lifting they're like your body's used to it your
00:11:46 baby will be used to it you're good do it and so i do i think society has this super warped perception 0.60
00:11:51 on what women are actually physically capable of um while carrying a child um yeah postpartum
00:11:59 changes too and the the body changes um that's so real and i will say my husband he is a godsend
00:12:06 the best when i was struggling and you know very much had those same thoughts too of like i because
00:12:13 i don't know you expect to pop the baby out and immediately fit back in the jeans that you yes
00:12:16 prior to the baby it's like well the baby's not there why is you know why is there still this
00:12:21 pooch in my stomach but my husband would always tell me he's like riley like this is the most 0.85
00:12:25 attracted to you have ever been he was like this is to me like when you were at your sexiest i'm
00:12:30 like you're lying but he would tell me he's like no riley like this is the best version of you
00:12:35 so but nonetheless it doesn't make it easier um yeah it's just a body image thing i think people
00:12:40 need to hear that is we do struggle with that high level confident women struggle with that
00:12:45 and not because we're vain but you just don't recognize yourself and that was the hardest part
00:12:50 it's been over a year of changes of hormones of not recognizing yourself. So you almost have to
00:12:56 like mourn your old self, pre birth, pre child, to then come to your new self as a mom. And when
00:13:03 you're breastfeeding, which I still am, your body doesn't go as fast. But I will say you hit on a 1.00
00:13:08 huge point that I cannot like tell people enough is do what you can while being pregnant, because
00:13:13 now I'm already back to my pre birth weight. I'm already I've already lost those 40 pounds,
00:13:19 I feel like myself, my body composition, not so much, which makes sense, right?
00:13:23 Like I'm still breastfeeding and there's still some things that we're trying to work through,
00:13:26 but people are like, I can't believe how great you look.
00:13:29 You don't look like you just had a baby.
00:13:30 And I said, well, because while I had my baby, I constantly did what I could.
00:13:34 So it doesn't mean everyone needs to run a half marathon, lift weights, but you said
00:13:38 it best.
00:13:39 And my doctors are the same thing.
00:13:40 Do what you have been doing.
00:13:42 And I think it's easy to use pregnancy as an excuse.
00:13:44 I'm not saying don't take it easy and eat the ice cream and lay on the couch and sleep.
00:13:49 Please do that.
00:13:50 But don't like lose yourself completely of what you work so hard doing.
00:13:54 Because I also think part of the reason why I recovered so well from the C-section is
00:13:59 because I had a strong core, because I was working out and because I like allowed myself
00:14:04 to be in a good space before it without planning, obviously, on having a C-section.
00:14:09 Yes, yes, yes to all of this.
00:14:11 um even let's say you know anyone who's listening to this prior to conception i would recommend
00:14:17 getting in the best shape of your life now maintaining it to the best of your ability
00:14:20 because i similar to you had the best pregnancy i had i also didn't find out till later either
00:14:26 because i've always had kind of irregular periods i didn't think anything about it um so so similar
00:14:31 had none of the nausea none of none of that stuff best pregnancy best delivery best postpartum
00:14:36 kind of little bounce back still struggles of course naturally it comes with it but
00:14:40 highly highly recommend i think a large part of that is just the fitness level
00:14:43 um what do you make of the conversation that i've seen online um i think it's kind of pertaining i
00:14:50 imagine at least um in conjunction with like the whole cornell thing but we're seeing moms
00:14:56 boy moms who are finding out you know they're having like a little gender reveal they get the
00:15:02 blood test or they're told at the anatomy scan it's a boy and they're getting abortions because 0.97
00:15:07 they don't want to be a boy mom because they don't want to birth someone's rapist. 0.70
00:15:11 I mean, as a boy mom yourself, that's like, that's a crazy thing. 0.71
00:15:17 Like, first of all, as a Christian woman, just hearing abortion just hurts my heart,
00:15:22 hurts my soul.
00:15:23 My mom was adopted.
00:15:25 My mom was birthed by a 16 year old.
00:15:28 If she would have, you know, aborted, she wouldn't have been born.
00:15:30 So there's a lot of personal emotions and ties to abortion first and foremost.
00:15:35 but I also think that's an excuse for society because as a boy mom with everything with the
00:15:39 Cornell broke my heart but it broke my heart because I opened my eyes and realized we constantly 0.94
00:15:45 have had this conversation as women watch what you wear don't drink too much always travel in 0.97
00:15:50 groups but I'm like where has the education been for the men and as a boy mom I take this so
00:15:57 seriously and saying it is my job to raise a man of character of integrity that can go against 0.72
00:16:04 the population that says, we're going to do this and be the one of the 99 that says, no,
00:16:09 this is wrong. This is not what we're going to do. Here's how I respect my women. And I think
00:16:13 a lot of that is on the parents. Obviously, the father has a massive role in growing that
00:16:18 son into a man, but the mother to say, here's the expectation and treatment of women. 0.98
00:16:23 If anything, I think it's a greater calling on us moms. It's a greater level of responsibility 0.84
00:16:28 that we get to write that narrative. I think it's an easy out to say, oh, I don't want to
00:16:33 be a boy mom because I don't want to deal with that. I just, I don't like excuses. I don't want
00:16:37 an easy out for anything. I want to have and grow and raise a son that can set the level of
00:16:43 expectation and elevate those men that are around him. And that's, that's my plan as we continue to
00:16:49 grow miles into a boy and to a man. I love that so much. I hope every single parent,
00:16:55 every single boy mom hears that. That's really cool. Your parents must, I mean, of course,
00:17:01 they did a really good job raising you. Are there certain things that you want to kind of
00:17:06 mimic or implement from your parents and how they raise you? Maybe some traditions you
00:17:11 you guys had as a family, you know, mental lessons they taught you. Are there things
00:17:16 that you want to implement from what your parents taught you as a child to how you're raising Miles?
00:17:22 Absolutely. My dad was a professional athlete. He was a professional baseball player.
00:17:26 my mom grew up with absolutely nothing like i said adopted was from kentucky and made herself 1.00
00:17:32 into this extremely successful businesswoman and just absolute boss lady that i look up to more 0.99
00:17:37 than anything and i look back on my childhood and people ask my parents my younger sister's a lawyer
00:17:42 too so they're like what did you how what did you do with your children and my sister and i are so
00:17:47 different but very high level of achieving and putting ourselves out there and i think from a
00:17:52 very early age, my parents taught us this concept of no participation trophies.
00:17:58 And they shot it to a straight. And they said, you know what, you either play well,
00:18:02 and you succeeded, or you didn't and you lost and there's no excuse for it. You either study for the
00:18:07 exam, and you did your best and you you did well, or you decided to watch TV and stay out with your
00:18:13 friends and you did bad. And that's on you. There's no excuses. There's no ifs, ands, or buts.
00:18:16 And if we didn't do well, so my dad playing baseball, me playing softball didn't shy away
00:18:22 from that conversation. No, buddy, you had a bad day. It doesn't mean you are a bad person.
00:18:27 It doesn't mean that you are a bad softball player. You just had a bad day. It wasn't your
00:18:31 best today. And so just that realization of failure very early on and being super vulnerable,
00:18:38 but strict with truth, I think really played a big difference in how my sister and I were raised
00:18:46 on how we saw the world in life, because we knew how to fail. And when you know how to fail,
00:18:51 you can put yourself out there and take a couple hits when life gets hard and when you're on your
00:18:54 own. And then secondly, I would say another thing that I noticed that my parents did
00:18:58 is had two working parents. And I'm not trying to knock on stay-at-home moms because I wish I
00:19:05 could be a stay-at-home mom, honestly. But my parents showed me that my parents were equals
00:19:10 in partnership, that your mom and your dad, they both work. We both decide to bring something to
00:19:15 the table. It's not one versus the other. We engage in conversations. We make decisions
00:19:20 as a pair and a couple, and they prioritize academics over athletics. And if I wasn't able
00:19:27 to achieve academic success, then there was no athletics to it. And it wasn't flipped.
00:19:32 My parents wanted nothing more than for me to get a scholarship and play softball, which I did,
00:19:36 praise the Lord. But they also told me, it's more important to be smart and it's more important to
00:19:42 be educated and be a woman that can stand in a room and hold your own. And I do believe that
00:19:46 being a female in such male-dominated cultures of the military, of sport, et cetera, allowed me to
00:19:54 feel that confidence because of how I was raised in that capacity. So I will definitely be taking
00:19:58 that with me. I think there's some things, obviously, like, why do my parents do this?
00:20:03 Why do they do that? And I'm learning, oh, because no parent ever has it figured out.
00:20:07 It's one of the hardest things, parenting. But I think they did such a great job. And
00:20:12 I can't wait, hopefully for them also to instill some of those values into my son as grandparents
00:20:16 too. Okay. I know I'm like 26, but I want your parents to adopt me. It sounds so cool.
00:20:22 I have great parents too, but it's, I don't know. It's just, I don't know that, that type of tough
00:20:28 love that you're describing. Um, it is love of course. Um, but they tell you the truth because
00:20:35 they love you so much. They're hard on you because they love you so much and they want
00:20:39 the best for you um i feel like in today's world it's hard to parent well because there's so much
00:20:45 i don't know like a constant connectivity there's immediate access to anything you could possibly
00:20:51 want on your phone there's chad gpt like there's just things that make or i guess the intention is
00:20:55 to make things easier and i think with that you lose out on some of those those aspects of i mean
00:21:01 just some of the skill sets that your parents instilled in you so that's that's really cool
00:21:06 You talk about softball. One of the things that I was wondering that I wasn't able to really find
00:21:11 in researching you, going from softball to bobsledding, like what? That sounds like the
00:21:19 most random athletic transition imaginable. So how did that happen? And did you feel like there
00:21:24 were skill sets that you learned in softball that made you a good bobsledder? So Cool Runnings was
00:21:30 a Disney movie from the 1990s. That was with the Jamaican bobsled team. Maybe that's ringing some
00:21:35 bells. It is. It is. Yes. Yeah. I don't remember. Yeah. So it's a, it's a bobsled movie. It's the
00:21:42 only movie of bobsled. So some people know it. Some people don't, but it's like, um, to make
00:21:45 go, we got a bobsled team. And so people are like, okay, like sunk a kiss a lucky egg. So I
00:21:50 know it's coming back a little bit, but I remember watching that movie and that was my only small
00:21:54 connection to bobsled. I knew nothing else about it. So I didn't grow up bobsledding. So people
00:21:59 assume that all the time they're like, you're from Indiana. Oh my gosh. I'm like, no, nothing
00:22:02 to do with it. I was softball through and through from my father. Bobsleigh didn't come about until
00:22:07 college. So college, I go to George Washington University and I realized that we weren't a
00:22:15 massive softball school. We actually were losing until my senior year when we tied our winning for
00:22:21 the national or for our conference championship. But we had one Jersey retired, one really famous
00:22:27 alumni, which was Alana Myers-Taylor. And Alana Myers-Taylor was not retired famous for softball.
00:22:34 She was famous for going from softball to bobsledding and being the most winning Black
00:22:38 athlete in Team USA history. She actually just won a gold medal this past Olympics. 0.99
00:22:43 So she was the GW alumni softball player. So flash forward, it's my junior year and I was
00:22:51 captain of the team. And Alana had just won a silver medal in Pyeongchang. And her, her husband
00:22:57 and her teammate came to GW because they were getting an award. And we had a special time with
00:23:02 her, just a softball team. And I got to present her a signed softball on an autograph. There's
00:23:07 basically nothing, but I got to give it to her, which was super cool. And I'm sitting and I'm
00:23:12 listening to her talk. And at this time, I already dedicated my life to the Marine Corps. I already
00:23:16 knew since 2016, I went to officer candidate school. As soon as I graduated, I was going to
00:23:21 commission and become an officer in the Marine Corps, which was a massive job. But I'm listening
00:23:25 to her talk about bobsledding. And I'm just like on the edge of my seat, hearing about the rush,
00:23:30 the adrenaline, the freezing cold temperatures, honestly, the injuries, the crashes, just
00:23:35 everything. I'm just listening. And my heart is just like pounding. And I hit a teammate next to
00:23:40 me. And I said, in another life, I would be a bobsledder, but I, you know, I already have a
00:23:46 pass set to me for the Marine Corps. Well, the Lord was listening and planted that little seed
00:23:51 right there. Now, nothing came of it until much later. I commissioned to the Marine Corps. I went
00:23:57 to the basic school. I went to logistics school. I'm stationed in San Diego in 2020 and it's COVID
00:24:04 and the world is shutting down. And for me, I kept praying. I was like, I just finished college
00:24:09 athletics. I was told as a woman, you know, there wasn't really much opportunity post-college
00:24:13 athletics for women's sports, but I didn't think that I was finished yet. And I was looking for
00:24:18 ways to keep competing. And I saw that Bob said was having a tryout. And that's when that seed
00:24:24 planted. I literally just like courage shot through my body. I picked up the phone. I called
00:24:29 the coach and was like, Hey, my name's Riley. I'm a Marine. You have no idea who I am, but you will,
00:24:36 I'm going to submit a video, and I want to see if I have what it takes to become a bobsled
00:24:39 athlete for Team USA. I know Alana. I don't know if I'm any good at this, but I'm going to put
00:24:44 myself out there. The vulnerability, almost like what could have turned into embarrassment,
00:24:49 which it did to some capacity, saying, I'm going to start a new sport at the age of 22 and see
00:24:53 what happens. And the Lord just opened door after door after door. That should have never been open,
00:24:58 to be honest, where I ended up making a national team. I competed in two world championships in
00:25:04 Germany and Switzerland. I represented my country in the world stage at one time was ranked in the
00:25:09 top 15 and ended up competing at Olympic team trials for the chance to be the first female
00:25:14 Marine of the Olympics. Didn't happen, but I was the first female Marine to compete in winter world 0.61
00:25:19 championships and do something that has never been done before. And a total God thing, total
00:25:24 vulnerability, putting yourself out there, being bold and courageous and end up being one of the
00:25:29 greatest thing that's ever happened to me. That is so crazy. I can't even imagine making that
00:25:36 phone call, especially probably not knowing a ton about the sport. What does training for
00:25:42 bobsledding look like? Because you can't do it everywhere. Well, maybe you can. I don't know.
00:25:47 What does training look like? How fast are you going down these icy tracks? It's kind of scary,
00:25:54 right there there's terrifying fear when you're going that fast um so so what is this kind of
00:26:00 like most of us are knowledge you know it kind of begins and ends with just what we see at the
00:26:05 olympics and that's where i want to impact so much more and teach you about the sport because
00:26:09 it's absolutely insane to your point we go 90 to 100 miles an hour five g-forces minimally so it
00:26:15 is a rush but it is terrifying and when i say terrifying i mean we have football players nfl
00:26:19 football players that come out and they're like i'm never doing that again and that's the difference
00:26:24 It's huge men. Yeah. And other athletes too, that are like, oh, heck no. Like that, that ain't it.
00:26:30 That that's not for me. It is, it is a contact sport and you are getting beat to you're getting
00:26:37 beat. I mean, you could have that thing and you are just bruised all over. You black out,
00:26:41 you come back to neck injuries, brain injuries, all the above. And Oh, by the way, you're normally
00:26:46 losing money because the sport is so expensive and you have nothing. But to answer your question
00:26:50 about training. What's interesting about bobsled is because it's a winter sport through and through,
00:26:55 you only are able to really train for the sport as you're competing in the winter. So unlike me,
00:27:00 a softball player and you as a swimmer, you can go to any pool or any field and play all the time.
00:27:05 You don't get that ability for bobsled. So during your summer months, which are normally
00:27:10 April to September, you can train anywhere. So we are constantly working on short sprints,
00:27:17 um, Olympic lifting movements, like short, quick, uh, weighted resistance. So a lot of plyometrics
00:27:23 and it's about short movements, explosiveness. So you have a 400 pound sled that you need to
00:27:30 move from standing nothing and 30 to 40 meters accelerate and get it moving and going. And then
00:27:38 from there is where the skill comes. So I was a pilot. So I'm navigating and I'm driving this.
00:27:42 I only got to practice my skill those other six months, October to March, when there was
00:27:47 ice located in our two tracks, which are in New York or Utah, or all around the world
00:27:53 to Canada and over into Europe and Asia.
00:27:56 So it's very hard to get good at this sport from an aspect of driving and doing it because
00:28:02 you just don't have the resources.
00:28:04 What you can control is being explosive, fast, and honestly, growing a pair to be ready mentally
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00:29:51 of course there's been national conversation about men in women's sports and the unfairness behind it
00:29:59 um what about bobsledding like are there i would imagine right there are very specific differences
00:30:04 when you know physically biologically physiologically between men and women in the
00:30:09 sport like do you feel like there are specific obstacles that you all as women have to you know
00:30:15 overcome things that you've encountered as a female bobsledder specifically yes and that's
00:30:21 what's really interesting about the sport bobsledding what most people don't know and i
00:30:25 try to like educate the population on this women were only able to compete since 2002 olympic games
00:30:31 in salt lake city that's like not that long ago no that's not that long ago at all that's just
00:30:37 like 25 ish years women were the first able to even compete in the sport this was been around
00:30:42 forever the sport was founded in europe it was founded by men what's really interesting about
00:30:46 the sport of bobsled when you look at the difference between men and women is the two
00:30:50 person bobsled. So it's either called two woman or two man. We use the exact same sled, the exact
00:30:56 same equipment. The only difference is the weight distribution from the rules that you're allowed
00:31:02 to have, right? Women, you have obviously much less because we're smaller compared to the men 1.00
00:31:07 of how much you can weigh. That's like legal for race, but we use the same equipment. Now, 1.00
00:31:12 the difference though, is men have four men. Women aren't able to compete or don't have that level 0.98
00:31:18 category. And so for the longest time, women only had two women and men had two man, four man. 0.85
00:31:25 And for the longest time, women are talking like, hey, how is this fair? How do they have two 0.96
00:31:29 chances to medal at the Olympic Games, bring way more people with you? Because if you have a crew
00:31:33 of four, there's five total people because you get an alternate where we're still only fighting
00:31:38 for two with one alternate as three. So they have a five to three ratio constantly per sled over
00:31:43 Olympic Games. Well, the Olympic Committee came back and instead of allowing or introducing women
00:31:48 into four women, they created a monobob, which is just one person. So now do we have an equal level 0.97
00:31:55 of opportunity? Yes. Is it fair in numbers of people that get to represent? No. So it's very
00:32:02 interesting. And when you ask some individuals, well, why did you allow women to have a four 0.94
00:32:07 woman category? The answers vary. Some of them because, hey, we want smaller nations to compete.
00:32:13 which I will say that is true. When you only need a team of one, it's very easy to
00:32:17 bring in some smaller countries and say, hey, you only need one athlete to represent your
00:32:22 NGB to compete. 100% true. But some of the other conversation revolves around, well,
00:32:27 it's not as safe for women. This is a male-dominated sport, right? And so you're just
00:32:34 kind of like, well, hold on. Both Kaylee and Alana, two individuals who have represented
00:32:38 Team USA as pilots, have driven four-woman bobsleds, actually have driven a sled with
00:32:43 three men behind them and have shown that they can do it and they're capable of doing it.
00:32:47 So where I hope and where I can hope this conversation only continues to go is that
00:32:51 women are capable. And as long as that conversation isn't because, oh, we're scared that they're going 1.00
00:32:55 to get hurt or we don't think that there's enough people. Well, in my opinion, open it up and watch
00:33:01 the people flood to it. If you present the opportunities for four women, I'm sure people 1.00
00:33:05 will go out of their way to find ways to make that happen because women want opportunities to
00:33:10 compete. So that's the one thing in our sport that I think is lacking is hurting. The other
00:33:15 thing is oftentimes men get the better slots of competition. So we compete on the same exact same
00:33:23 tracks, but the men sometimes, especially for world championships, will have like the better
00:33:27 time when fans and individuals can come to see, even though sometimes the women have more
00:33:32 competitive, there's more competition, like closer individuals with like different start times are 0.99
00:33:39 able to do more of the wow, awesome things of like time and beating records and such. But
00:33:45 overall, men and women, we train together. We have the same coaches. We have the same
00:33:48 equipment on the same tracks doing basically the exact same thing, which is what's great for the
00:33:53 sport. Yeah, that's crazy. Honestly, I mean, it's so frustrating when we have these conversations
00:34:01 about men and women's sports, which is obviously, of course, a problem and like it needs to be
00:34:05 dress but it's taking up i don't know like air time for for real issues like this too you know
00:34:13 which is why the whole thing is ridiculous it's it's frustrating we have to spend any resources
00:34:17 any capacity any effort talking about it when women's sports face other issues like this one
00:34:23 when it comes to expanding opportunities for women um yeah that's that's crazy but it's we 0.71
00:34:30 see the same thing in the the um wmba especially last season any game where caitlin clark was
00:34:36 playing like the viewership was triple of the nba even yeah but even still um in terms of resources 1.00
00:34:42 and and the things provided and um amenities and that kind of thing the women were gypped it seems 0.80
00:34:48 so yeah it's um definitely a conversation that needs to continue and hopefully we can get the
00:34:55 right eyes on it. I want to switch to speaking a little bit about your military experience.
00:35:02 You went to Iraq, didn't you? I did. I did. What was that like? I mean, again, I feel like my,
00:35:10 I honestly, I, in my family, I would say the only military members I had were like great,
00:35:17 great grandpas, you know? And so I don't have too many military members in my, my close circle.
00:35:22 And so, again, my knowledge of war is just kind of like the movies that I see.
00:35:28 So what was it like overseas?
00:35:31 And I think especially, again, I don't want to like, you know, pigeonhole you into like, what was it like as a woman?
00:35:36 But I do think there's something unique there in several of your experiences that you've lived, like being a woman in a pretty male dominated field.
00:35:43 What was it like in Iraq?
00:35:46 So from May of 2024 to November of 2024, I was in Baghdad, Iraq.
00:35:51 And it was the best experience, but most eye-opening experience I've ever had in my life.
00:35:57 And I think knowing that a deployment was up in the air, I wanted nothing more than to deploy.
00:36:04 I think it's very similar to sports.
00:36:06 I didn't sign up for the military.
00:36:08 I didn't join the military to be a bench player, to sit behind the scenes, right?
00:36:12 At the, on the bench safe.
00:36:14 I wanted to go in and I wanted to do my job.
00:36:17 I wanted to practice and execute in real time.
00:36:20 And I will say that about deployments is everything that you do, especially overseas, has real world implications.
00:36:28 And we train as a military, especially the Marine Corps.
00:36:30 We put so much emphasis into training just as an athlete you do in sports.
00:36:33 But you want to show up and you want to play.
00:36:36 And so that's what this was able to do.
00:36:38 I fought for this deployment.
00:36:39 This is not something that came to me.
00:36:41 I actually volunteered for it.
00:36:43 I put myself out there.
00:36:44 I did not deploy with a unit.
00:36:47 I went as an individual augment.
00:36:48 So I went by myself.
00:36:50 So I was with a joint task force. So I was under an army command with alongside NATO. And in my unit, I reported to an army general, I had a Canadian, I had a Royal Marine, and we were had Norwegian and French counterparts in my office of five.
00:37:10 So it was completely international, eye-opening to be one of the only Marines.
00:37:15 I was the only female Marine that was there.
00:37:18 And one of the only females, one of few females that was there in Iraq.
00:37:23 And what I can tell you is I felt it straight away.
00:37:27 Obviously, I'm bubbly.
00:37:29 I have a big personality.
00:37:31 When I was there, it's not like I'm wearing makeup.
00:37:33 I'm wearing the same uniform as everybody else.
00:37:34 But you are noticed more in the Middle East because women don't serve in their military.
00:37:42 And as a woman in the Middle East, you are still married to a man that has multiple wives.
00:37:48 You are still seeing arranged marriages, right?
00:37:51 So there's still very big difference in cultural, societal norms there.
00:37:56 And so what was very interesting for me is I was in a beautiful position where I was
00:38:01 working side by side with the Iraqis.
00:38:03 and I was working side by side with very high ranking Iraqi men. And what was interesting
00:38:09 is at first people, I think we're nervous about it of like, we've never had a woman in this role 0.73
00:38:15 before, you know, she's interacted, caused it with Iraqis. How is this going to go? 0.99
00:38:19 And it actually was a massive benefit because in their culture, they don't yell and scream as women. 1.00
00:38:24 They offer you tea. They're very respectful, at least in that standpoint. So I got along
00:38:30 extremely well with all of them. Because when I walked into the room, they were calm,
00:38:34 we could have real honest conversation. And I think that actually became a massive asset
00:38:39 compared to what people were nervous about. Now, did I have to be cautious of what I wore
00:38:46 and my language and make sure I had someone with me at all times? Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:51 There were certain things where I had to be a little bit more aware of. But I actually think
00:38:55 being a woman was a massive advantage for me being in the Middle East and being able to have
00:39:00 honest, real conversations, but also, I guess, lower the threat level when talking with people
00:39:05 that could potentially be in high intense situations. I was over there when missiles
00:39:10 were being shot between Israel and Iran. There's bunker drills, all that stuff. It was very real,
00:39:17 but I will tell people I never had to pull my weapon. I had a weapon on me 24 seven,
00:39:23 but I was able to keep my pistol on me, never had to fire it by any means. It was intimidating
00:39:28 being somewhere else and unsafe, but I was never scared. The best thing that I realized is we have
00:39:36 a world full of individuals that want to serve their specific country, that want safe and get
00:39:43 rid of terrorism. And every single individual I've talked to from other countries, we shared
00:39:48 that commonality of love for country and for peace and for safety. And that was eye-opening.
00:39:55 Yeah. You know, it really is kind of like a unifying global experience, love for country,
00:40:01 which again is why there's like almost a level of frustration. It's one of the amazing things
00:40:04 about America is our first amendment rights and things that you don't like, you can protest.
00:40:09 That's what makes here so great. But I will say there's a level of frustration as someone who did
00:40:14 not serve but recognizes the freedoms that we have and those who did fight for them um when you
00:40:19 see people here who i mean have no problem burning the american flag um who who openly declare that
00:40:27 they they think our country is oppressive and this kind of thing um when you understand i think
00:40:32 you know when you can remove yourself especially from online and you've been there you've been
00:40:36 boots on the ground you have that that worldly experience um i think it is a unifying thing
00:40:42 to love your country, um, and to want your country to be prosperous and successful and free.
00:40:49 Um, that's, that's cool that you get to see that. How do you feel like the morale is right now
00:40:54 within the military? I don't know if that's something you would even feel comfortable
00:40:58 answering, but, um, I know that following, I don't know what the latest is, but I am pretty
00:41:03 sure following president Trump's inauguration. Um, there was like, you know, a rise in recruitment
00:41:09 and, and every branch was increasing. So how do you feel like the morale is now with, you know,
00:41:16 things being kind of the way that they are? So I'm in recruiting now, which is what's really
00:41:20 awesome is I get to use my story and go out and recruit individuals to become officers in the
00:41:25 Marine Corps. That is my job right now, which is great. And I will say, you know, we saw a ton of
00:41:33 people join the military post 9-11. Makes sense, right? It was an extremely emotional event. But
00:41:39 now we're recruiting individuals that weren't even born when 9-11 happened. And that's tricky
00:41:44 and challenging because from their perspective growing up, we've been at war for so long that
00:41:50 they don't really fully understand or have that personal connection or have experienced it. Now,
00:41:55 I was only four years old, but I still remember things that happened straight on that played a
00:42:00 role and why I wanted to serve is because I saw all these things changing around me and I loved
00:42:05 the patriotism and the community of people coming together. And I wanted to fight for that.
00:42:10 So what's interesting now is it's just a new generation of people. Like you said a little
00:42:14 bit earlier, we have individuals that are raised differently, aren't really as exposed to any
00:42:21 traumatic event, praise God, that has happened to our country, but are like, well, why would I serve?
00:42:27 or we're seeing more people that aren't even eligible to serve ADHD, depression,
00:42:32 not even being able to hit physical standards. I mean, as the Marine Corps, we have not lowered
00:42:37 ours. So as some of us get more obese and bigger, which is happening, unfortunately, in America,
00:42:43 our population that we can even have is shrinking. What I will say is I've been in the Marine Corps
00:42:47 active duty for seven and a half years. I started in over 11 years ago when I decided to go to
00:42:54 officer candidate school for the Marine Corps. What I have constantly seen, and this is my
00:42:58 personal experience, is the Marines are the most dedicated, motivated individuals, no matter what,
00:43:04 the climb, the place, and we are ready. And the way I've seen us train and get after it and prepare,
00:43:09 you have Marines that will beg to go on deployment. They're like, please send me,
00:43:12 please, I want to go. This is why I joined. I want to go and make a difference and serve my
00:43:18 country no matter what it takes. And I think morale, regardless of who is in office, is pretty
00:43:24 interesting because I've been through multiple election cycles and different presidents.
00:43:29 It almost doesn't change as much as I thought it would because we just are ready. And it's like,
00:43:34 send me when we need to go. And I really appreciate that about the military and the
00:43:38 Marine Corps. What I will say from a recruiting aspect is it is getting more and more challenging,
00:43:43 but not because there's a lack of interest, but because there's a lack of eligible people in our
00:43:49 current population. And I think that is only going to continue to be a problem personally.
00:43:53 I want to turn this into the Amazing Race stuff. I have like a million questions here. First of all, how in the world did you and your mom end up doing this? Whose idea was this? And for those who don't understand the show, tell us about it. What's the objective here?
00:44:11 Okay. Yeah. So we'll just do a quick run out of the show. And if you do not watch it,
00:44:15 please watch it, especially this season. Okay. Obviously I'm biased, but it's been going on for
00:44:19 25 years, 39 seasons. So the concept of the show is in totality, you're going to have teams of two,
00:44:26 anywhere from 10, 12, 13 teams to start, and you're going to circumnavigate the world.
00:44:31 And you're going to go from country to country to country, and you're going to have a variety
00:44:35 of challenges that you have to overcome that day. And each country or each day is considered a leg,
00:44:42 a leg of the race. And you go from country A to country B. And once you get there, you have no
00:44:48 phone, you have no maps. All you have is what you have on your backpack and your partner. And you
00:44:54 have to navigate this race course, which is going to involve challenges that are physical, mental,
00:44:59 luck. And you are dealing with all of the travel hacks and oopsies that come along with that and
00:45:09 navigating other countries. So my mom and I have loved the show forever. It was always really
00:45:13 paired with Survivor. So Survivor and Amazing Race, they've been on roughly around the same
00:45:18 time. And so I grew up watching the show with my family because it was our way to see other parts
00:45:24 of the world. It's incredible and learn culture and stuff. So my mom and I actually, after I was
00:45:31 done with my deployment, I was able to take a couple of days and I went to Dubai. I called my
00:45:36 mom. I said, mom, would you be willing to come to Dubai with me for three days? And she's like,
00:45:41 absolutely flies out to Dubai. And I'm sitting with her. We're riding camels. And I'm like,
00:45:48 you know, I'm about to get married to my husband. I want to start a family, but I've always wanted
00:45:53 to go on the amazing race with you, mom. And we had applied one time previously, never heard back.
00:45:57 I said, I think it's time we just try once more. And I submitted it. And I remember I heard back
00:46:04 right when I got back from deployment, as I'm competing in Whistler, Canada, I get a response
00:46:10 from the casting producer saying, Hey, we saw your application. We're interested in talking to you
00:46:14 more. And I screamed. It was the best thing that's ever happened to me. The casting process took
00:46:20 months and months and months, interview after interview, round after round.
00:46:24 And the principle, the concept of it was in 25 years, 39 seasons, there had never been a mother
00:46:30 and daughter to win the race, let alone a leg ever. And that just blew my mind. And oftentimes
00:46:38 what stunk was like the mother daughters were like some of the weakest teams. And it drove me nuts. 0.89
00:46:44 And I'm like, I want to flip the narrative. It's about time. It's 2026. And I said, mom,
00:46:48 we're going to do this. We're going to train hard. We're going to put ourselves out there.
00:46:51 We're strong Christian women. We're going to play a game of integrity and we're going to freaking
00:46:55 get after it and do the best we can. And luckily CBS decided to pick us and you can find us airing
00:47:01 every Wednesday on your TV on the amazing race. Well, and y'all did make history. Um, I just
00:47:08 watched episode three. You guys were the first mother daughter duo, mother daughter team to win
00:47:14 a leg yeah like talk about this how have you not i think about me and my family which me my mom my
00:47:22 grandma my sisters we're like this like even this morning we all go work out together we all go get
00:47:27 coffee together we all go walk together we do everything together at all times i am certainly 0.97
00:47:33 confident i would kill my mom like she would get left in morocco or something so like and i would 0.99
00:47:38 be happy about it. So how I know, cause right now, of course, obviously the, the filming has 0.97
00:47:45 concluded. I know there are things, of course you can't spoil. You guys are, you're still early in
00:47:49 the season, right? Yeah. Um, filming is done. Can people, well, I should say, how did you not kill
00:47:56 your mom? Um, can people expect a little bit of that without spoiling anything? Yeah. I will tell
00:48:02 you this. My mom and I did not get along super well when I was growing up. And a lot of that was
00:48:07 because my dad was a baseball player. I was a softball player. I was with him 24-7. And he was
00:48:12 my coach, my idol, my hero, all of the above. And my mom and I, I think it's two alpha women. We
00:48:19 just clashed. And I think everyone in middle school and high school was mean to their mom
00:48:21 to some capacity. I've apologized so many times, especially being a mom now. I was like, mom,
00:48:26 you wiped my bum. You were up all night for me. And I was mean to you. And I'm so sorry. I'm sassy.
00:48:31 But to your point, we all just kind of, as women, just like, we'll staph at our mom sometimes.
00:48:36 So my mom and I, knowing that, decided to have like a safe word, which was grace.
00:48:41 And we're like, Riley, if either of us says grace, like we just need to take a pause and
00:48:46 like give each other respect and some literally grace and space in this moment.
00:48:51 Grace has not been used yet, but it is coming.
00:48:54 I'm so not spoiling it away, but you will, we had to use the word grace.
00:48:58 You, if you haven't watched episode four, Morocco and the sprint, I did get a little
00:49:04 sippy with her what you don't see what they cut out and filming is she had just splashed me with
00:49:08 pipe and hot water and the dye challenge and it was like boiling my skin and i'm like mom we're
00:49:14 not communicating like you're not communicating with me and that was the first time on air i was
00:49:19 like oh sorry about that and you know as a mom they just take it and they just like love you
00:49:27 through it so my mom and i decided though as two alpha women she's like riley you are team captain 1.00
00:49:32 and kind of giving the traditional roles over to me, 1.00
00:49:35 like you get to make the decisions.
00:49:36 This was your idea to go on the amazing race.
00:49:39 You make the call and I'm going to follow,
00:49:40 which if you know my mother
00:49:42 is one of the hardest things for her ever to do. 0.99
00:49:44 Did she do it 100% of the time?
00:49:47 No, but I saw the effort in her
00:49:48 trying to relinquish some control to give to me to say,
00:49:51 hey, I trust you.
00:49:52 What do you think is best?
00:49:53 Let's make decisions together and move as a team.
00:49:56 We did win a leg of the race.
00:49:59 Thus far, that's what you have seen.
00:50:00 it was incredible making history. I hate that it took that long for it to happen.
00:50:05 But I really, that's 25 years. That's crazy. I'm so glad it has. And now I hope that that is now
00:50:13 a normal and it's now a thing that mother and daughters realize how strong that they are and
00:50:18 that they can hang with literally anybody. Was there, obviously again, now knowing this
00:50:23 like retrospectively, but from our eyes, was there like an intimidation factor when you have
00:50:29 father son or like brothers or two men who are. Yes. Yes. And I will tell you, we are confident,
00:50:38 right? I mean, I'm a Marine personal athlete. My mom, I had her on a physical fitness training
00:50:42 program. I mean, my mom looks great, but she's the oldest woman competing. She's the second oldest 1.00
00:50:47 or third oldest on the cast. She's 56 competing at this 57. She turned 57. And what you don't
00:50:54 realize is when you take a 57 year old woman, I don't care who you are and you are competing
00:50:58 against 20 year old men and you're talking about strength and you're talking about endurance and
00:51:04 you're talking about carrying a pack and running and surviving and sleep deprivation, your body's
00:51:09 going to respond better as a 20 year old male than it will a 57 year old woman. I don't care what 0.68
00:51:13 anyone says. So my mom and I knew that there was lack of a better word, a disadvantage that we had
00:51:20 going into it. So how are we going to use everything else that we had to the best level of our
00:51:25 advantage to be able to hang and beat some of these teams. And you'll see it on the show. There's
00:51:29 Connor and Garrett who are in their 20s that are young men. Yeah, they're physical specimens. And
00:51:35 when you saw in the camel challenge in Morocco, episode three, mom was moving that massive tire, 0.90
00:51:41 a tire that one of the 20 year old women couldn't do, had to stop and let go. By the way, my mom did 0.95
00:51:46 it so proud of her, but they lapped us or not lapped us. They were behind us and we left at
00:51:51 the same time. So they caught up with us in that challenge. But we still hung with the best of
00:51:55 them. It's just physically, we couldn't move at the same pace as them. So we knew that that was
00:52:01 going to be a little bit of an issue. So we wanted to make up for it elsewhere. And so what you'll
00:52:05 continue to see is my mom and I created the Boss Lady Alliance. That was my idea with my mom to 0.97
00:52:11 say, let's bring strong women in. Because not only has there never been a mother-daughter win, 0.93
00:52:15 there's only been three seasons where a female-female team has ever won. And it's been 0.99
00:52:20 almost like 10 years since a female female team has won. So we wanted to like recognize strong 0.52
00:52:26 women, pull them together and be like, let's do this as much as we can support one another and
00:52:31 uplift each other. So you'll see a little bit of the boss of the alliance that socially we wanted 1.00
00:52:35 to come into play. You'll see my mom continuously without giving too much away, blow my mind and
00:52:41 what she was able to do physically, mentally, and put herself through. And I just couldn't be more
00:52:45 proud of her i hope she gets her flowers from not only me but other people because truly she is an
00:52:52 inspiration for moms everywhere including myself for what she was able to do on this race yeah
00:52:56 she's the inspiration for me yeah that is um yeah that that's amazing at any age but like you said
00:53:03 to be like a new grandma now yes um doing that is is remarkable um well just like god bless you
00:53:12 and your whole family. One more thing, actually, I'll ask you because I asked you this prior to
00:53:17 recording. I said, you know, how do you have time and the strength for everything that you do?
00:53:22 And your answer was very simple. And you just said, the Lord. Can you talk about just like
00:53:27 your faith and how it keeps, I don't know, you grounded with what is real and what is true and
00:53:35 what is good? I would imagine that's a large part of, yeah, just kind of like the calmness.
00:53:41 I imagine in a lot of the chaos that is your life, just being so busy and doing so much.
00:53:47 Talk about your faith and what it means to you.
00:53:49 I like to say I operate in the chaos and I love it.
00:53:52 I love to be busy.
00:53:53 I want to continue achieving.
00:53:54 I have so many other things that I want to do in this world.
00:53:56 I'm 29 and I got a list that I want to keep going.
00:53:59 But what centers me, why I feel like I'm afraid, but I'm not fearful is because of the Lord.
00:54:05 Now, I didn't grow up with this deep faith from the beginning.
00:54:08 I grew up Catholic, stepped away from the Catholicism, tried to figure out who I was
00:54:14 as a college athlete, fell into fellowship of Christian athletes, dedicated my life to
00:54:18 Christ throughout college, had some really rough things happen to me.
00:54:22 So I just say that in the sense of just because you're a Christian and you love the Lord
00:54:25 doesn't mean that all of a sudden it's rainbows and butterflies and everything's great.
00:54:28 If anything, I've had more trials, more tribulations, more hard times that I've had to face.
00:54:33 But one thing that has remained constant is the Lord.
00:54:36 He's never left me.
00:54:37 He's never forsaken me, even though I've been mad at him.
00:54:39 I've sometimes separated myself from him just to come back.
00:54:43 But what I've realized is I have a greater purpose on this world.
00:54:46 The Lord has given me a gift to be able to have athleticism, to be able to be bold and
00:54:52 to share this testimony in a platform.
00:54:55 And the reason why he gave this to me is to scream his name from the rooftops and let
00:54:59 people know, well, what's your secret?
00:55:00 How are you able to do all these things?
00:55:02 With the answer just being the Lord.
00:55:04 The Lord has blessed me and opened more opportunities than not.
00:55:06 I continue to put myself out there because in Joshua 1.9 and so many times throughout
00:55:10 the Bible, it talks about being bold and courageous, not having a spirit of fear.
00:55:14 So when you're bold and you're courageous and you know that the Lord's got you no matter
00:55:17 what, you walk a little bit differently into rooms because you know if I'm meant to be
00:55:20 there and Lord, if it's from you, you will make it happen.
00:55:23 And he has done that time and time again.
00:55:25 And what I can just say is we're living in a society where people struggle with a lot
00:55:31 of different emotions and feelings and needing to rely on truth.
00:55:36 and what is truth, and what is my purpose and background and motivation. And as people are
00:55:40 seeking these things, I don't blame you for trying to maybe look in some places such as friends,
00:55:47 such as social media, such as alcohol, music, whatever your idol, your thing is. But I would
00:55:52 really encourage you to open up your Bible, to attend church with a friend, to give Jesus a try,
00:55:58 because when I did, and I allowed my eyes to open, and I allowed my heart to be soft,
00:56:03 to accepting potentially Jesus in my life, it's been the greatest blessing that I've ever had.
00:56:10 And I look back on it and everything that I have is from the Lord, is through the Lord. And I want
00:56:14 to continue to dedicate my life and everything that I have through Him. I am not perfect. I fall
00:56:19 short more times than not, but I am centered with a shalom peace, a peace that surpasses all
00:56:25 understanding when times are hard and I'm in trials and I don't know how I'm going to get
00:56:30 through things such as postpartum and not making the Olympics and all the things, I know that the
00:56:35 Lord has plans for me. And I know that he has purpose in my life. And I'm able to cling on to
00:56:40 that when things don't go the way I want them to. And that's been the biggest blessing and
00:56:44 path that I will continue to follow for the rest of my life.
00:56:48 Amen. Amen. And he really does. He rewards faithfulness. So you talk about, you know,
00:56:53 these blessings and doors being opened and more opportunities, even amidst all of, again,
00:56:59 maybe hardships or things you thought weren't going to work out or, or things that would
00:57:03 probably be less than ideal, um, through that, I think, you know, into the tunnel, there are
00:57:09 blessings, blessings abundantly. Um, so God bless you and thank you for your service. Congratulations
00:57:14 on being a new mom. I can't wait to keep watching the amazing race. Um, you guys, your whole family,
00:57:19 you guys are just the coolest. And so thank you for coming on. I'm like, just, I'm fangirling
00:57:25 over you. So this has been a blessing. Thank you, Riley.
00:57:29 there's always more to the conversation so don't stop here subscribe to the channel so you don't
00:57:42 miss what's coming next and click right here for another episode of the riley gain show
00:57:46 thanks for watching and i'll see you guys soon so your decaf oat milk extra but not piping hot
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