In this episode, Cody has a conversation with professional snowboarder and Olympian Rosie Mancari. Rosie began snowboarding at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska at 3-years-old. At 15, she was competing in local competitions, and at 17 she moved out of state to begin training full-time. At 21, she began racing for the U.S Ski and Snowboard Team. Her sport is boardercross, probably the closest discipline in snowboarding to a contact sport. Riders race down a course of banked turns, rollers, drops and jumps at high speeds. As you might imagine, the accidental, and also purposeful, shove or collision is not uncommon.
In 2018, Rosie tore both of her Achilles’ tendons during practice at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Three infections and eight surgeries later brings us to where she is now: daily rehab. If you’ve ever been badly injured, then you know that rehabbing an injury correctly takes patience. Otherwise you run the risk of injuring it again, and having to start the surgery-rehab process over. Rosie is all too familiar with this process. She’s been injured before and knows what it takes to get back on her board. She understands the importance of patience to physical and mental health, and that being happy always takes precedence over her athletic career.
Thanks to Elliott Condon for help with interview questions.