The Harsh Reality of Being a Team USA Athlete (Exclusive Interview)

Many athletes work their whole lives for a chance to compete in the Olympics. Thousands of hours go into training for an event that can last a few minutes. Some like Miachel Phelps find glory, while many more fall short of their dreams. Few know this journey better than Dave Durante. During his career, Dave put in the hard work and saw success and heartbreak at the highest level. He gives an incredible candid look into the process associated with the pursuit of greatness on the world stage. Dave is a multiple time USA gymnastics national champion and was part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Team as an alternate. He helped coach Stanford University to an NCAA Team Title in 2009. He is also the co-owner of Power Monkey Fitness and Power Monkey Camp. In this episode we learn how Dave handled the lowest point of his career, when he was not selected to compete in the 2008 Olympics. We explore the day to day of a Team USA athlete before and during the games, what Dave has learned about being an elite athlete from being a coach, and how the future is looking for olympic sports like men’s gymnastics (Spoiler, it isn’t promising). Dave's Links: https://www.powermonkeycamp.com/ https://www.powermonkeyfitness.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydieYe5b0T4 https://www.instagram.com/davedurante/ https://www.instagram.com/powermonkeyfitness/ Exponential Athlete Socials Support the Pod on Patreon: https://patreon.com/ExponentialAthlete Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/athletexpodcast Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/exponentialathlete/ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-exponential-athlete-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4XmCCYsVVOVmRavFYT5b1C Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-exponential-athlete/id1726985417 Website: https://exponentialathlete.co/ Affiliates: Track your health data with Whoop. Get 1 month free - join.whoop.com/exponentialathlete 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:00 Love of Gymnastics 00:05:26 Source of Motivation 00:08:48 The USA Gymnastics Journey 00:14:19 Dave's Olympic Experience 00:28:55 Getting Over Failures 00:37:43 Preparing for the Olympics 00:43:43 What is the life of an athlete like 00:50:17 Burning out 01:03:38 Transition to Coaching 01:15:35 Reflecting on his Approach 01:19:39 Lessons from other athletes 01:29:00 Powermonkey Fitness 01:38:34 Skill Develoment Progressions 01:53:42 The State of Men's Gymnastics