Julia Nichols and Michelle Farrell

00:04 Hi, my name is Michelle do Sara farell. I'm 51 years old. Today is Sunday, November 3rd 2019. We're here in Colorado Springs and I'm here with Julia Nichols and she is my friend and colleague.

00:20 I am a gymnast I competed in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, and we as a team won a silver medal.

00:33 Hi, my name is Julia Nichols. I am 41 years old. Today's date is Sunday, November 3rd 2019. I'm in Colorado Springs with Michelle do Surfer Ferrell and she is my friend and colleague. I am a rower I competed in the London Olympics 2012 and

01:01 I was in the lightweight double and we came in 11th, and it was kind of disappointing but there are lots of other good experiences throughout my International career.

01:13 Okay, so I Michelle I wanted to ask you who was your biggest fan and supporter throughout your

01:20 Competitive career

01:23 Cash, I had an amazing support system with my family and so my parents were there through every step of the way both introducing into the sport as well as being there to handle the the multitude of tasks that needs an athlete has so I was young competing in the games. I was fifteen and so, you know being a little less self-sufficient in terms of I couldn't drive at that point and you know being a young High School student. I relate a lot of my parents and family for that support and they were there every step of the way and had just a great network of support through and Sons uncles and cousins my sister as well. So I think they were really critical and key to helping me realize my my dreams and my goals so

02:18 Did you tell me more about all the different disciplines that you may be competed in in gymnastics? Like did you specialize and focus or was it more more broad now? We are back in the 80s and gymnastics in a previous era like the 1984 games has had to be really jack-of-all-trades. We had to be all around athlete. So we had to compete on vault uneven bars floor exercise and balance beam. And so that was part of the requirement for the competition format that we had and the you know requirement to not only make the team but to compete in the games was such nowadays, you can be more of a specialist in a an event or discipline. But yeah, I was ever had favorites and not favorites floor exercise was definitely my favorite Vault was absolute my least favorite my

03:18 I guess my body type and style of gymnastics is much more suited to kind of that dance element and not as much in that powerful quick and explosive element that the sport required on say bald. So so yeah. So what did you do other sports before finding rowing? So in high school? I was actually a runner and I was okay at running I would do more of the long distance events mile to mile cross-country set an alarm if it was about. Just being willing to do the duration of the event. So I'll say like my talent is more around persistence and things that I didn't quite have the runner's physique and I didn't think you know, I could go really far and that's part I really

04:17 I still run all the time. But so when I went to college I decided I wanted to try rowing as I walked onto the team when I went to college. So I'm either before finding railing or while you were running that you had that aha moment that this Olympic thing was going to be something that you would set a goal for or that you realize was going to be a possibility. I mean, I think it's something that was kind of in the back of my mind. I thought it would be really cool to be able to see that but I felt like I was always just working really hard to hold my own amongst all my teammates and that was never I fell it was always just on the verge of being in the boat or making the poet and I was I was dead person around campus, but then of The Boathouse I was too small person competing with all my teammates in college that were much taller than me and had more history in the sport.

05:17 Yeah, I know when we talked with when I talk with other alumni too high for me. It was sitting and watching Nadia komenich. So it happened for me and really young age. But I find like with athletes that you have you getting into that zone and you realize like oh gosh, there's this Olympic thing. That's really cool and that you either have it as a dreamer said visible, but then it's that process. I think that's for me. What I have most memories of is the process certainly the moment that I had that goal said, but knowing what those things were like the perseverance in the like the fortitude to stick with that plan see it through and I think at least in my experience in talking with other alumni, that's a fairly common trait. I think amongst amongst Olympians and paralympians that

06:14 When the going gets tough It's that kind of willingness to stick through it and see it through. Yeah, it doesn't really happen by accident. It's that there's kind of that long-term like that would be really nice and I know there's a lot of things between here and there so I'm going to focus on the the near end goals and what I can control and where I can make an impact on a daily basis without long-term objective in mind and then

06:55 Paint a picture or maybe expand on like when you realize that if you were going to be going to the Olympics happen when you were so young and life without what's so super gymnast the trajectory of of when you have maybe that realization that it could happens when it happens can be very short. So for me, it was the dream and a goal that I had said as an eight-year-old watching Nadia in 1976 and I have vivid memories of how are living room looked and what we sat down to eat for dinner that evening. We had fixed it and then brought it into our living area to watch because you know back then you it was sit down and watch Primetime not on your iPad or your iPhone and so became a family event and watching Nadia's for her first Perfect 10 for me. He was at moment of

07:48 Well, she just did The Impossible what could be possible for someone like me who you know would love to do that as well. And so the

07:59 So it was a goal set of the young age and it was sort of that progression to get to that point and I was always a kid that was kind of middle-of-the-pack kind of coming up through that development days, but the one I had about 12 and maybe 13 was when that color that dream seemed tangible and it was really almost an 18-month time span of when I wasn't really on anybody's radar to then being the third-ranked athlete in the country and making the team and certainly see that even today a lot of gymnast because of the young age that athlete speak and you know hit their Prime is very young. And so that progression can happen very very quickly. So while the the goal was out there for many years the reality of it happened in a very short time frame. So was that the same for you or I say is probably very different for me.

08:59 Was the oldest person on the women's rowing team in 2012 or on the women or men's the US team and that was at 8:34. So I'm in for a lot of other countries that wouldn't have been the case. I would have been kind of middle-of-the-pack age range, but we tend to have younger athletes in the us because we have the college system and it feeds international team system. That was like a very long development process. So I started rowing in 1996. So for me at Tech how many years is that 16 years to get you?

09:48 We had you tried for like 2008 and 2004 was an alternate in 2008. And so so I rode open weight in college and then went light weight afterwards. I was competing up people more the same size as me when I went to International competition. So that also meant I needed to switch disciplines to sculling from sweep rowing since we promise when you have one or like each athlete has won or and they pivot at either to the port or starboard side and then telling you have one more in each hand and it's a much more symmetrical motion. So I felt like first I needed to learn this entirely different discipline. And then press the only Olympic event has lightweight double so you have to start building your way through and then be in the top partnership in the country in the Olympic year. So is every year I was going to trial some more championships and then hopefully World Champ

10:48 Chips and then competing in Olympic trials in the Olympic years, but everything has to come together with the right partner at the right time to be able to make the Olympic team. So how was it being an alternate in 2008? And how did that affect you moving into 12? It was really hard. I went to World Championships in the lightweight single that you're so I and my brother had gotten married just before that. So I'd flown from the East Coast out to the West Coast for his wedding. And then I flew to Austria for World Championships. I came in fourth by just a hair there which was really disappointing. I mean, it was great to be like competing at that level, but it hadn't been my goal all year and then to just miss the podium. There was pretty disappointing and then I went from there straight to the Beijing Olympics for Otis and Alternet.

11:48 But they had limited number of credentials. So I wasn't uncredentialed alternate side of his mentally prepared to be kind of a second class citizen on the team. But instead I was even another tear down. So it was just a very mentally challenging place to be a motivator for you for 12. I think I actually had to kind of put that aside and like not remember what that disappointment could be like to you know, cuz otherwise I might be too protected into guarded of myself to be able to go back and return back. So I kind of had a actually went to grad school. I start grad school immediately after that and I thought I was stepping away from the sport and I'm kind of slowly roped me back in so I thought I was you know, maybe done competing in that point.

12:41 Are you on your way back yet? So I was in grad school and I was just wanting to work out to feel normal again. And so I was going down to The Boathouse and I was like, this is my sport. I know how to do this. This just feels natural. So I had my single there and I would just go in row and then it started to be a I was running everyday again, and then I was starting to do harder training sessions in pieces, but it was actually because World Championships were late in 2010. They were New Zealand so and I didn't really have much do that summer. So allowed me to really train all summer and I was like I should go to trials and you know, see see how I'm doing. So since I went to trials in the lightweight single after World Championships in 2010 and one trials and then went and computed a World Championships that you're so I

13:41 Can you have a set of at this pivot point where if I was going to go back and make another Olympic push I needed to decide then and have hepaco then so it was it was a big decision cuz I have to take a leave of absence from grad school and I was talking to my fellow classmates and grad school and they were like the Olympics are so far away and like trials are in 18 months. Like I need to start preparing now if I'm going to do it.

14:12 I didn't have a partner. I didn't have a boat. I didn't have a training facility. So it's what I needed to make all those things come back together, but I thought it was worth pursuing. Yeah. I had a I had a my kind of I don't know if it's because it bump in the road happened after the games in 84, so

14:37 The computer 94 on a silver medal as a team and they're about six months after a lot of my teammates have retired. So being young athlete and then having the retirement of some of our veterans on the team. I kind of looked at that next year is an opportunity to you. No have a chance to try to improve and and have a little more putting in the sport and they had a bad elbow injury. So I took a bad fall. I hurt my elbow pretty badly had to have some surgeries and that was bad. But what happened was because I had had to

15:18 Rest and recover I grew about 3in. So when I competed in 84, I was about 5 foot half an inch. I had a growth spurt. So for me, it was not only coming back from injury, but then also having to readjust to a new body and you know center of gravity doing a sport that is very much a part of no being, you know, finely-tuned in that and so I continue to compete kind of threw the rest of that quadrennium, but I had a decision to make whether or not I wanted to go for another games and I opted not to because I think that the growth and I was able to come back and get back into the sport at a competitive level make a national team again, but for me, it was my decision, you know, I had that decision point of knowing probably my time had come and so I finished competing when I graduated high school in 87 and then

16:18 New Dante to college after that. So took me a little different like having a kind of a you know.

16:27 Dealing with that challenge, but then for me getting the signals that it was time to move on in and start experiencing the rest of my life and in ways to get ready for Life After gymnastics. So did you stay engaged with sport after that? Did you I did I did so I became an athlete representative right after competing. So it's part of the board of directors for either. You know, what a national governing body or the US Olympic Committee 20% of that board of directors has been organizing group has to be made up of athlete. So I served in that role I coached but I have kept engage with with sport including be now being involved with the Alumni Association as you are with i m in Colorado you are in Northern California, so we probably more than other athletes have a you know,

17:27 And more consistent connection with with alumni, so

17:33 Do you do still work out all the time? I mean you seem like you're a very active person. So did you ever continue to do any other sports like competitively recreationally in college her after I didn't so I certainly college for me was a new beginning in many ways. I had just retired from gymnastics, but then also was kind of making that big transition that kids do at that age and but it was it was tough. It was gymnastics as a sport is amazing and you know as a Jimmy Steve gets to do this amazing skills and and you know experience this amazing sport, but it's not a lifelong sport. It's not a sport that you can kind of continue to do. I know some who do continue to do it as a wrecking, you know in a recreational sense, but safety is certainly an issue and so that I didn't have any other skill set to know what other types of activity or sport to do. So

18:33 I thought that to be a little hard in terms of transitioning to what does life look like after gymnastics to stay fit and active and so when I got to college I did do like 5 5 K's in 10 K's and took that up but it was really by happenstance. It wasn't it was just kind of like I better do something so I might as well do this run marathons, you know, and and did that for for some time as well. But yeah, I do still try to keep on a good schedule for fitness and exercise that just helps me to feel better and function and I have a health and wellness background as well. So I think it's important to continue that it's not only for myself but it's a good example for my kids and and for others that you know,

19:23 It's just part of the kind of my fabric is to stay fit and keep my body as much shape as I can. What did you study in school? So I did my undergrad nutrition dietetics become a registered dietitian. And then I did a master's degrees in exercise science.

19:42 So it was your graduation so undergrad I did chemical engineering and then in grad school. I went back into the mechanical engineering and for my Master's in for my PhD.

19:54 Yeah.

19:58 I had a hard question for Julia and so you said that you enjoyed running and then wanting to college and then just kind of like walk into the rowing team, but I want to tell what kind of like when did you first decide? Okay, I think this is going to be maybe to describe would like walking into it was like being maybe one of the older people in so in college, I was seeing I was a freshman in college. So all the walk there was a group of walk on to that point and we were most of us were just College freshmen like right out of high school age. Probably like 18 1819. So there is actually a really big pool of people. I remember thinking like, okay, we're doing this fall race. They say there's only going to be for both of us and others 8 athletes in a boat like okay, like odds are I'm probably going to be like competing at that race.

20:58 In SOS early on it was like, okay. Can I be in one of the top for novice walk on boats? So it's kind of really start inching into those calls and I call Setting but coming with the running background. I have a lot of bass Fitness on this Earth me pretty while competing with everyone else, but I'm nervous about starting something new.

21:24 Yeah, I mean you can just call it was a big transition and you know big transition in life. But yeah, I think there's always some apprehension of starting something new going to grad school was very nervous. Didn't wasn't quite sure I would fit in or that I was switching majors and I had an eight-year gap between undergrad and grad school. So I'm kind of getting the cobwebs off my brain and trying to get back into the engineering mode and be employable and Engineering again. So is that was really scary they going to do something new and different and had to have to re-establish yourself in a whole different fields again.

22:12 Turn on questions. I like to ask each other from the questions was so what would you consider your biggest accomplishment? Well in terms of sport, I mean making the Olympic team with huge but actually in 2011. So another woman and I am I running partner in 2011 and 2012 Kristen hedstrom. She and I decided to try and read the double together and see what we could do with it. We were probably considered the underdog partnership at that point. I'm going into our national selection Regatta and we'd only been running together for a few weeks at that point. But we won the national selection Regatta which meant we could go and compete at the World Cups and potentially walk in our spot for World Championships that you're so kind of after much deliberation and debate we decided to go over and

23:13 Plan on competing at all three World Cups. It's a three race series and that happened in Europe and if we placed I believe it was is either top 40 sex like we would lock in our spot so

23:31 We flew over we didn't have a boat. We had the director of Austrian rowing offered to pick us up at the airport. We surprised him by having or boxes that was trying to ask are sorry. But he found us a place to stay and a boat to use and that was through one of the rowing boat manufacturers Hudson is in Canada and they were really supportive of us too. And so they were able to find us this boat that we could borrow from the Austrian team. And so one of their ass played spread over some bikes for us to use we could ride our boats are bikes sorry back and forth between where we are staying in the boat house. So we kind of Cobble together this whole like 7 weeks longer can trap where we managed to place third at the first World Cup. We won the second world cup and where 3rd at the Third World Cup and

24:31 So we ended up winning the overall points trophy for the World Cup and it was the first time a u.s. Boat and any boat class has done that like to this day. So we won the first and only for all world, So that was kind of this huge accomplishment for a Cinemas this Whirlwind trap and kind of on the support of all these other countries and states that this was training center the German singles color help us move equipment around so we are we are very lucky that we had such a supportive International Community and then we went on to compete at World Championships that year or replaced forth. So again on the cusp of not quit making the podium there, but that meant we had qualified the boat for the country for the 2012 Olympics.

25:25 Sure. You're probably within sport. I think it was coming back after that elbow injury because everything like up to making the team the Olympic team went pretty much as planned. I had an injury the year before which could have derailed that but you know took time off recovered got back actually injury was a bit of a blessing in disguise because allowed me to work on some weaknesses that I had on uneven bars. It was a foot injury, so it allowed me to to make up for some deficiencies. I had on uneven bars. So so while making the team kind of went in sequences, when would expect the elbow injury and coming back from that was was very tough especially dealing with the

26:13 The growth in the height, you know increase in a sport that you know, you know makes it difficult for those who might be taller and that much of a growth spurt in that short amount of time did present a great challenge. So I think that is one of my bigger accomplishments within the sport.

26:32 I think the only sport being a mother of two girls. One of my daughter is my older daughter Abby. She's 20. She was born with spina bifida. And so I

26:46 Going from a life that was very focused on Elite Sport. And at that time I was coaching working with very talented young women in a sport that Demands a lot physically, you know, Abby was born with a physical disability spina bifida is a defect in the spinal cord. So while she can do a little bit of walking she uses a wheelchair most of the time

27:10 And I think that she's now a junior at University of Illinois playing wheelchair basketball, and I think that

27:20 I think certainly my timings for the skill set that I learned as an athlete in the perseverance determination, you know setting goals working through difficulties were absolutely kind of a a platform for me to have that skill set to know.

27:40 Razor is a strong independent young woman who has her own goals now, so she competes in wheelchair basketball. She is inspired by our paralympic athletes and she lives with them, you know a surrounding her at University of Illinois. And so we have the honor of attending on this past Friday night November 1st the induction for the 2019 Hall of Fame class for the Olympic and paralympic committee. And dr. Tim Nugent was inducted and he is the kind of the grandfather of paralympic sport in the US. So it was really cool to sit there and see what dr. Nugent has done and the Legacy he's built for paralympic sport but even more so it was a personal

28:30 It was personal for me because now my daughter is is getting to have that dream of competing the sport that she loves based on what dr. Nugent set up and I feel like

28:46 For me, I'm very proud. My husband I are very proud that she herself has worked hard and and that we live in this kind of world of the Olympic and paralympic Sport movement to see her now have goals to getting a college education and and be out there and be her own person. So for both of our daughters we

29:10 For both of our daughters. We feel like it's really important to kind of set that example, so

29:38 I get it all the way now.

29:43 So I'd love to hear about how did you first involve paralympic Sport with a V or like when did you realize that that would be kind of this wonderful thing for her?

30:00 Sweet

30:01 So we also worked at that point when I

30:06 When I was pregnant with where we found out when I was pregnant that she had spina bifida so course I was coaching gymnastics at the time and we were already involved in the Olympic and paralympic Sport movement. So we knew what opportunities route they're not 20 years ago. There were fewer than there are now but I think when Abby was about she must have been about four 5 and we live here in the Colorado Springs area and we heard about a program that they were doing on a Saturday afternoon. Come try sled hockey. So sled hockey is the the paralympic version of hockey where athletes sit in sleds that are made kind of specific to their their needs and then you sit basically in a sled which sits on skates or blades and then you Propel yourself with like short and hockey sticks that have pics on the bottom. And so and I remember my husband I'm being so excited about like this was going

31:06 Her first for experience and we were going to get exposure to this great kind of like paralympic sport ecosystem. So course living in Colorado Springs. This event was happening in Arvada, which is probably a 90-minute drive, but we were ready. We are like pack the car we get everything set. We drive up to Arvada. They get her fitted in a sled that will work for

31:28 She's on the ice for about five minutes because she had seen somebody bringing a big like basket full of snacks and all she could think about was getting those snack. We were so excited anticipation of us getting to see her experience a sport for the first time was so like in our minds.

31:50 She was still a five-year-old who wanted to know it was a little bit of a check of like okay, you don't like yes. This paralympic sport thing is great and wonderful, but a five year old still wants her snack. So it was it's a funny experience that we we still laugh about today. But you know, she got the opportunity to try different sports coming up through, you know, her her childhood and she tried skiing. She's a very good mono skier. She's done some wheelchair track but we just we know our job was to expose her to Opportunities. And so throughout her adolescence and through high school years. She got to try lost a different sports but basketball wheelchair basketball is the one that's really kind of near and dear to our hearts. So she got the amazing opportunity to be involved in wheelchair basketball 3 University of Illinois, and she's she's living that dream now, so it was just our job as parents to give her that opportunity to let her try things but

32:47 We just as parents with both of our girls felt it you know that we wanted them to do sport but it was their choosing which sport to do and that we would just you know support your choice was so

33:07 Can you tell me a little bit about just like where you grew up and how you got involved with sport gymnastics in the first place?

33:17 Yeah, so I was born in born in Long Beach racing Garden Grove. But where I was raised in Garden Grove is very near Los Alamitos and it was the home of Cathy Rigby so Kathy but you know having seen naughty and 76 but then also being a fan and and starting the sport at that point sorely-needed Cathy. Rigby was also local to our area and so what started as just you know, when our day one day a week for my mom who wanted to find something for her five-year-old that had a lot of energy to burn those kind of how I got my start was just doing local gymnastics classes and then as I started to work my way through the system and you know, you're spending more days at the gym and more hours each day. That was where I kind of, you know. My my start

34:16 And for gymnastics, I think.

34:22 I'm 72 and 76 there were those local gym opportunities.

34:29 There were you do gymnastics.

34:33 At my time when I started with a sport that was very open to the girls cuz it's you know, the sports a lot of girls do whether they're doing gymnastics or dance or cheer. So I felt that there were a lot of opportunities to do gymnastics. That's interesting cuz I talked to some of my contemporary to two different sports and whether they did, you know soccer or other sports that have an element with males playing the sport. It was interesting. It's been interesting to hear what you know that the Chinese word is easy to find her that it was, you know for people of my age and in their 50s, there were a few more barriers so

35:18 What about you? Did you ever experience a door and then I grew up with maybe more old-fashioned parents wear and maybe this is just my parents being very busy and occupied but it was mostly around all my brother's for it. So whichever it is great to have an older brother who you know can put you through your Paces, but I grew up thinking I was pretty bad at sports because I wasn't as good as my older brother. So it was only when I started actually competing against other people the same age and gender that I realized I call him not to look at it this way. So kind of that was maybe the initial first Challenge and then even in college seemed like the women's team has a bit of an afterthought to the men's team. So actually one of my college coach Dave O'Neill came on.

36:18 Our junior year was his first year at UC Berkeley, but the Cal program. He actually made an effort to kind of separate us and have us for our own identities. We weren't like the little sister to the men's team anymore. We were more of our own team in our own identity. And that was actually I thought it really a really great move and you know, you can definitely support each other and happy the two teams support each other, but it at that time. I think it was really important for us to going for Maroon identity and he's really kind of

36:52 Not always be looking to our male counterparts for how we should be approaching things and taking the lead but really, you know, figuring out what her own like team aspirations were.

37:05 So, what are you?

37:08 Because we both work with a lot of alumni.

37:13 Do you think that?

37:17 In your work with the Alumni Association we had this experience here with the reunions in the museum. What do you hope to sort of take away from this weekend to kind of help better our ability to serve alumni? Well, I just packed a whole box of gear to bring back to my chapter for our holiday dinner. So kind of material wise hopefully some some keepsakes for our membership, but I think just

37:49 Letting remembers know that there is this camaraderie here with people that maybe you've never met before maybe computer to a different sport from you maybe in a different decade than you but there's

38:02 Something in common, like something we all have in common here and something we share in this community of people that we can reach out to and who you know are willing to talk to each other willing to spend time with each other but we've we've been talking just to the other chapter presidents in California being like what how do we get the word out to each other that we can come to each other's events and still does not work with each other. So this is kind of like the assembly except for not doing work. It's just all time to interact with each other and I definitely feel like I'm leaving with a sense of what great potential there is to continue to build that camaraderie that feeling of everybody belonging to Teen USA. But then to continue to share like these great stories and backgrounds of athletes to inspire others. So with the work that I'm doing this Museum, I think it's I think it's exciting.

39:02 To see the potential of how we can best share stories of Olympic and paralympic athletes to inspire others. So

39:12 Can I ask one follow-up question about the view each other what the since you both work so closely with the Olympic community and what the Olympic Community kind of how the community have supported Depot throughout your Sports careers and maybe

39:37 Like

39:39 If you could maybe say a moment about when the Olympic sports Community has like really not like surprise her what it has taught you about community at large ship. That was the 7th Sense. Yeah. Yeah, I think you know, I've been around the Olympic movement for a long time. I guess it's coming up on about 35 years now. I think I can speak to my personal team my 1984 gymnastics team that I feel like what we've learned from one. Another is that were will always be there for one another no matter what and we've now had some time tomorrow Olympic Games experience death for all of us to experience life to have the great wonderful celebrations. But also some of the difficulties that we experience with the Slauson and another thing to send what we found now is that when that happens we all pull together very quickly no matter what is going on and what you have going on in your

40:39 We tend to kind of stop everything to support one another and I think that you do for us as a very tight-knit group. I've seen that but I think there is that sense of community amongst all athletes that we both share this really, like we have that one common experience of having gone through the process of making a team and convenient the games and that it's really special and unique and that we have that that's I think the tie that binds a lot of people together and that just getting from this weekend, you know, every you still at energy and that momentum from a weekend like this to know like this is your place. These are your people and this is your belongings spot. So

41:21 I thought I would talk a little bit about just how the like rolling Community has supported me throughout kind of my time developing as an athlete and maybe a kind of not in the expected kind of mentoring ways because these are Olympians and their people that I didn't really realize were Olympians at the time. So it was just like community members that I could we need it about house to go and row out of her a place to stay they stepped up and said like well, I have a room here for like if you're coming to town like, you know, you know, you have a place to stay or so there was that level of community support and later. I realized when I was like wow, this is amazing. So I think I kept having those kind of surprised moments like even throw my life or maybe I didn't realize someone was in The Olympian and I think I'm going to be in the Paralympics probably don't

42:21 Let the world around them know as much as maybe they should of how special they are and what these special qualities they have are and kind of what that means to the world around them.