Gearing up: How three young standout athletes prepare to compete
Video credit: Ayesha Shakya
Athletes from Seychelles, Peru and the U.S. on their sport, their biggest wins and game day rituals.
“My pregame ritual starts the night before. I clean my room — like thoroughly,“ said Tyasha “Ty” Harris. The recent University of South Carolina graduate and WNBA rookie is serious about her pregame routine. She isn’t alone.
Athletes often keep unique rituals like these to help them relax and mentally prepare to compete. Felicity Passon, a swimmer from the Seychelles, is one of only two athletes representing her country in the next Olympics. Before a meet, she keeps to a strict schedule, always preparing the same way and making sure to put her lucky racing suit in her gym bag. Daniella Rosas, a Peruvian surfer famed for tackling one of the world’s toughest waves at age 13, will also attend the Olympics in Tokyo. Ahead of a surfing competition, she listens to reggaeton.
As Ty, Felicity and Daniella prepare to compete at the highest levels of their sports, we spoke with them about their training, their successes and what they love most about their sport.
FELICITY PASSON, 21, OLYMPIC SWIMMER, SEYCHELLES
How she started swimming...
I got started when I was really young. Both my parents really encouraged water safety, so I was in the pool from just a few months old. I got into swimming when I was about 12 or 13, that’s when I really started to compete and train quite seriously and it just took off from there. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been doing this seriously for seven or eight years now. But it’s been fun.
On what her training schedule looks like...
Typically, I train 10 times a week. I’ll swim every afternoon and four mornings: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Then, I’ll do about two to three gym sessions a week. That will change depending on where we are at during our season. I’ll do early mornings and late afternoons.
On life as a student-athlete at Southern Methodist University…
It’s definitely not easy trying to manage studying when you’re so exhausted, especially during finals week and still having to train. Swimming and how tough of a sport it is, it keeps me going, like: “Yeah I can do this.” I am double majoring in psychology and nutrition. Psychology is just so interesting to me because you learn how the mind works, what makes us do certain things and why we do things differently than others. Especially in sports, psychology is such a big thing. The physical stuff is important — we train, train, train — but at the end of the day it all comes down to how mentally prepared you are and that’s so cool.
On her prematch ritual...
I follow [a routine] to the T because I am so superstitious. If I miss one thing, my whole day is going to be messed up. Typically I wake up early around 6 a.m., have a good breakfast, then head to the pool for dryland warmups. I tend to get in exactly an hour and a half before my race. After warmup, I like to chill and calm down, ground myself. Otherwise my nerves will start getting to me. Then after that I’ll change into my racing suit, which is a lot of work for swimmers. We wear really tight, compressed suits that are supposed to make us all hydrodynamic. If one of my parents is there or a friend I go back and sit with them and talk casually because that's my way of calming myself down. Then we usually head to the cold room, where we report before our race.
On qualifying for the Olympics at the South Africa Swimming Grand Prix 2020...
It felt amazing. It was something I’d been working on for so long. It was actually quite funny because the competition [where] I actually qualified, that was my last competition of this year before the pandemic. I really wasn’t expecting anything from this competition other than gaining some race practice. But somehow, I guess not being nervous at all, not having expectations, I managed to make the time that I did. It was amazing. I don’t know how to describe it. I was so emotional. I was so happy. Then, when I called my parents crying, I just thought about all the hard work I had put in, all the sacrifices I've made, my parents had made. It wasn’t just about me at that moment. Everything came together. It made everything I’ve ever done worth it.
What she’s most looking forward to about the Olympics...
I’m so excited to be able to wear that tracksuit or have my flag on my shirt at the biggest competition any athlete can aim to participate in. I can already imagine, it’s going to be amazing. Especially for me, I come from such a small country. We’re a population of [approximately] 95,000 people. That’s like so much smaller than most U.S. or anywhere else around the world. Just being able to make it to the Olympic Games, coming from such a small island, for me…just makes it so much better. I’m looking forward to meeting so many new people, athletes. It’s just going to be amazing, to be around so many people who are so well-accomplished. It’s going to mean so much to me.
Hope for the future of the sport...
In the Seychelles, I really hope that there is definitely more inclusion on the island in swimming. Swimming is not a big sport here, despite the fact that we’re surrounded by water. I do hope that more people become aware of it, which leads to potentially future Olympic swimmers. Young girls to represent our country. It’s a huge accolade. I hope it reaches more people from all walks of life, no matter where in the island you come from or what kind of family, I just hope that young girls feel encouraged, empowered to step into the sport without fear or doubt because whatever aspect they come from wouldn’t stop that. I hope that I'm inspiring young athletes to push themselves and enjoy the sport.
(Courtesy of Daniella Rosas)
DANIELLA ROSAS, 18, OLYMPIC SURFER, PERU
On surfing her first big wave Pico Alto at 13, becoming the youngest ever to do so…
It’s one of the biggest waves of the world so I was super nervous. I was so scared and nervous. Like I don’t know if I’m going to fall or if I’m going to die in that moment. But then, without thinking, I carved the wave and when I followed the wave, I saw all the older people like, “Go Daniella, go!” I thought, “Oh my gosh” and stepped up on my surfboard. My surfboard was going so fast! I looked back and saw the biggest wave coming for me. It was pretty good. That feeling is amazing, but I’m not going to do it again. I did because I needed it. I needed to be the first one, the better one. I wanted to teach all the girls who saw me that I can do it, so they can do it too.
On what her training schedule looks like...
We are training six days [a week]. On Sundays we have a lockdown for everybody so no one can go out. I train two hours in the day, then in the afternoon two more — and that’s always, all six days. Then there’s three days where I train in my gym. We focus more on the core and the legs, we need so much to do that. Then the arms because we always paddle for the waves and paddle out for priority. But we are mostly focused on the leg because we are always standing and pushing the legs around for maneuvers.
(Courtesy of Daniella Rosas)
What she loves most about the water…
[In the water] I feel all the patience. It’s a place to just relax, like if you travel. I can’t describe what I feel like when I'm there, but it’s amazing. I really want everyone to feel this, other girls. I really, really need the water right now, that’s why I’m talking this way — salty water in all my hair and all my body. I need anxiety, nervousness and adrenaline right now. I know it’s a really difficult time for all the countries, so I am trying to relax.
On qualifying for the Olympics at the Pan American games…
The contest was so big. There was a lot of people cheering us on. That was the best moment of my life and for my career too. I really felt very comfortable with the waves, the conditions because I was with my crew, my people. I felt really great, I’ve never felt that before — that I am in balance with all my thoughts, all my feelings.
When I won, at that moment, I didn’t really feel it. But then it was like, “Oh my gosh, I won.” I started crying. I was happy. Then [thought] like, I could do it better. The first thing I did when I won was hug my mom because she has always been there, even the difficult, hard times. I didn’t [celebrate]. I was so tired. When I finished the competition, where you get the medal and everything, my body just turned off completely.
What she’s most looking forward to about the Olympics…
I think it's always an honor to represent my country. It’s amazing. To sing your anthem in another country, to grab your flag. It’s something really different from what I always do, that is, competing as an individual. It’s really different because we travel with the whole group, the Peruvian team. So I really like it. I really love to represent my country in these kinds of contests. It’s always an honor.
Her surfing role model…
I think Stephanie Gilmore. I love her. Like I LOVE her. She’s my everything. Like, I want to be like her. She's a seven-time world champ. She inspired me too much because she's like 30 years old and still is like one of the best in the world.
(Courtesy of the Dallas Wings)
TYASHA “TY” HARRIS, 21, WNBA BASKETBALL PLAYER, U.S.
Her favourite moment as a University of South Carolina student-athlete...
It will have to be winning a national championship my freshman year. People go four or five years and don’t get it once. It just so happened when I came in my freshman year, my first year, I won a national championship. That was fun because we made history then. That was their first national championship. After that, we had like this huge parade in the city and almost everybody came.
What she loves most about basketball...
I love just the competitive spirit of it all. I love competing in everything that I do — it could be boardgames, a video game, anything. And just like the family aspect of it, like how each team has camaraderie and everybody is a family. Basketball has brought me to meet so many new faces, new places. It’s let me go to school for four years.
On her support system…
I'm big on the family. I took so long to commit because I felt like the team that I had to go to had to be very family-oriented. I was a homebody for the longest, until I went to South Carolina which is about 10 hours away. So that was like my biggest move, to move there without my family. But I mean, they push me, they keep me going. Everyone asks me what's my why or why I do it. My motivation is my family.
What it felt like to be drafted to the Dallas Wings...
It was tough at first because one, we were in the period of everything shutting down. So the draft had to be virtual and not in New York City like we planned. I kind of had to find my outfit last minute because I ordered a couple outfits and COVID was having FedEx and UPS shipping all over the place. Luckily, my outfit came together and I was happy about that. But it was amazing. I had some of my family there, too. The way they did it was just virtual and I liked that. I mean, it was just a dream come true. I've had this dream since I was in like fourth grade. I would be super happy just to see that everything I put in, all the sacrifices that I made, has paid off.
The biggest lessons she’s learned as an athlete...
The biggest thing basketball taught me is don't take anything for granted, especially during this time with COVID-19 and how everything locked down. I didn't get to finish my season. I didn’t think I was taking things for granted [then] — like getting into the gym, seeing my teammates every day, being around them every single day. Sometimes you were like: “Okay, I want to go home, I want to escape.” Now that we don’t have that chance, where we couldn’t get back on the court together, we couldn't see each other. I miss them so much and I don't want to take anything for granted cause at any given moment it could get taken away from you.
On her college coach and mentor, former WNBA player Dawn Staley…
She's an amazing woman. She's probably the biggest part of why I went to South Carolina. Just from her as a player, she's very highly decorated. And she's just a player's coach. She’s not all about X’s and O’s and winning. But she cares for you personally. That's what I like most about her. The fact she’s real. What I saw in the [official] visit (a trip to a college campus by a prospective student-athlete paid for by the university), is what you got when you got there. Like sometimes people put on a front for you, so you can commit. But she was so real and genuine, I just felt love. The most things I learned about her was relationships as a point guard and just being you as a woman. She's an African American, powerful Black woman who is open-minded and strong and speaks when she wants to. She's always had our backs if we ever had anything that we wanted to speak on.
What she’s most looking forward to about the WNBA...
Just finally playing against my idols that I’ve grown up with. I think finally accomplishing my dream that I've had, my parents had. There is many times when we had conversations when I was little that was like: “Oh, what if you make it to the WNBA?” Now I’m finally in the WNBA and they get to watch me, so that's going to be fun! Just being a part of everything that they stand for. The WNBA pushes a lot for women’s basketball, women athletes and the union as a whole, they just very strong-minded about everything. I like everything that they stand for. I'm happy to be a part of that.
Read more
