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I can't believe where life has taken me.
Lauren Gibbs -
Unfortunately, our sport has a weight limit, so every season, I have to lose weight. You just get tired of not eating the way you want to eat, so in the off-season, I'll binge and gain a few pounds and then have to lose them back.
Lauren Gibbs
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I never get sick - not a cold, not a cough or sore throat. Everyone around me can be hacking up a lung, and I'm fine.
Lauren Gibbs -
I played volleyball for Brown University and loved playing there. I played all four years and was captain my senior year. Second team all-Ivy, academic all-Ivy. I really loved it. When I was graduated, I figured that was it.
Lauren Gibbs -
I love all food. All of it. I wish I could be a professional eater.
Lauren Gibbs -
You have to find what you're really passionate about, throw yourself into it, and focus on those small wins.
Lauren Gibbs -
For the first time in long time, I can say I love what I do. I can't say that every day is easy or fun, but there are few greater thrills in life than hurling yourself down an iced-over water slide in a carbon fiber bathtub.
Lauren Gibbs -
When you start your bobsled career at 30, a time when most are settling down into their 'real careers' and many are getting married, you can imagine the barrage of questions and the look of, 'You're doing what?' that you receive.
Lauren Gibbs
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I think the biggest thing to being an elite-level bobsledder is grit. You have to really want it. It's a very blue-collar sport. We do a lot of the work ourselves; we sand the runners, we wash the sled, we help maintain the sled. Obviously, we have a sled mechanic that travels with us, but a lot of the work we do ourselves.
Lauren Gibbs -
It is amazing how many thoughts can race through your head in a minute.
Lauren Gibbs -
I actually found CrossFit on a run from my house in Orange County. I moved around with it for a while, which is the best part about it. I love it, but it was something I did because I enjoyed the camaraderie aspect of it, not so much the competing side of it.
Lauren Gibbs -
I'd always loved sports, and the Olympics were something I thought about often as a kid, but those dreams felt like a lifetime ago.
Lauren Gibbs -
I think that was the scariest part about bobsled, is when you just don't know what's happening, you don't know where you are on the track, you don't know when it's going to be over, and you don't know what it's supposed to feel like.
Lauren Gibbs -
I'm a volleyball player, so I like Lycra and Spandex.
Lauren Gibbs
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Every day, I put on a suit, and I felt like I was playing dress-up in my mum's closet. It just wasn't right.
Lauren Gibbs -
I've always loved public speaking, and that's something I definitely will pursue after the Olympics.
Lauren Gibbs -
CrossFit really helped me with mental toughness, which I really appreciate. It also gave me this network of people cheering me on, which is incredible.
Lauren Gibbs -
I grew up thinking that corporate America was my destination. Then I got there, and I was making the money I wanted to make, but I just wasn't happy.
Lauren Gibbs -
Sometimes I can't sleep at night because I'm so excited to work on sprinting the next day, because I'm such a bad sprinter.
Lauren Gibbs -
I travel quite a bit for both bobsled and leisure.
Lauren Gibbs
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Bobsled is the first time I decided, win, lose, or draw, I was all-in for all four years. I figured if I was going to step away from a very lucrative career, I owed it to myself and my family to see this through to the very end.
Lauren Gibbs -
It is funny, the things you miss about a more conventional lifestyle. I miss seemingly mundane tasks, like cleaning the kitchen, moving my furniture around to achieve just the right look, and checking the mailbox. I miss making my bed in the morning before work.
Lauren Gibbs -
I am used to being places where I don't speak the language. What I am not used to is being in a part of a country where few people speak my language. Call it ignorance, arrogance, or what have you, but most places I have visited, I was lucky enough to be able to get by with English.
Lauren Gibbs -
A combine is a series of athletic tasks that help a coaching staff measure an athlete's ability to be competitive in a sport. A bobsled combine requires a sprint, broad jump, two-handed shot toss, and a back squat and power clean.
Lauren Gibbs