Daniela Moroz exclusive: The six-time sailing world champion on staving burnout in the face of exhaustion

She kicked off her season in the spring of that year training in Mexico, before heading to Switzerland and then the Trofea Sofia Regatta in Palma, Spain to race. She would then be faced with the French Olympic Week and the regattas that came along with that, before the Olympic Test Event at the Paris 2024 sailing venue in Marseille, France.

The constant travel began to catch up to her and at the regatta in Spain, she missed the podium to come in fourth for the first time in her kiting career.

“I started racing internationally back in 2015 and had won nearly every regatta I had competed in until now. To not even make it on the podium was unthinkable. It was a tough pill to swallow,” she wrote on her blog.

It was only a matter of weeks before the Olympic Test Event in Marseille, where she would have to turn around and dig for another world class performance if she wanted to secure a spot to the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

“Honestly, I was feeling pretty tired and fatigued from such a long block in France. Although I had settled into a good routine, just being there and surviving in the summer heat was draining,” she wrote.

But, she was excited to begin racing again and pulled off a third place finish – something she said was disappointed by, but happy to have attained her goal of securing an Olympic quota.

The qualification just wasn’t quite enough to stave off the burnout that was seemingly inevitable with the amount of work being put in.

“Despite this nagging feeling of lacking motivation, I kept pushing and kept grinding…I thought I was just pushing myself in a good way – after all, I feel like I’ve always been told that if I work harder and put more hours in than my competitors, then I’ll automatically come out with better results, right? This couldn’t be more inaccurate.”

Then, the burnout hit, and it hit hard.

Moroz felt lost in her sport and began talking to sport psychologists before making the decision to take a break in August of 2023 – something that was much needed to completely shift her mindset and fall in love with her sport, once again.

She returned to the water in January of the Olympic year.

“Going into this year, I’m just buzzing about all of my training and I can’t wait for my next training session. And I’m so excited to race again. It’s crazy, after ten years of doing this sport, I’m still learning something every single day, and I’m still improving and getting better every day. And I feel so rewarded by that,” she told Olympics.com in April.