What Olympic Rower Molly Reckford Couldn’t Get on the Plane to Paris Without

The place that I’ve rowed that inspires me most in sport is definitely Lucerne, Switzerland. It is one of the most beautiful natural rowing courses on the planet, if not the most beautiful. It’s where I became an Olympian. It’s a really special place for me. When we crossed the finish line first… that moment is indescribable, of just thinking about how much work you put in, how long you’ve dreamt of it. I’ve been rowing since I was 14, and so at 27, 13 years later, to cross the finish line first at this storied beautiful lake and know you just earned your seat at the Olympics was the best feeling in the world.

But, I think my trip to Thailand was my favorite trip. In high school, I went to Thailand with my family and Thai elephants are a big cultural part of nature. And we were hiking in the mountains and I didn’t realize I had undiagnosed asthma at the time.

And there was one day where I just crushed the hike and my mom said, “Well, what were you thinking about?” And I said, “I was thinking about elephants.” And elephants are so big, they’re so heavy, but they can travel really long distances. And they just do it by taking their time, going one step at a time, not rushing. And I had just been thinking if an elephant can do it, I can do it. And so a power phrase for me is “channel your inner elephant.” My mom got me an evil eye elephant necklace, so I think that that trip to Thailand and that struggle to keep up with my family, realizing that thinking about elephants helped me and then being able to power through – that lesson and that inspiration is definitely part of my athletic journey.

As soon as we get to Paris, I’m in race mode. We’re racing in the first week of the games, so for that first week up until I’m done racing, it’s all focus, all the time. And then after that I am going to have about 11 days where I get to enjoy Paris. And so I have many dreams about spending days sitting in a cafe, people-watching, getting some French chocolate, and trying some French cheese. I have some friends who speak French and I’m lucky enough that some of my friends are coming out to watch and so I’m hoping to tour Paris with them.

I love lavender and it’s going to be during the lavender bloom, so I’m hoping to travel to the south of France and see one of the lavender festivals. I have never been to the catacombs. I went to Paris when I was about five and so to go back and to see all these cultural monuments and all these historical places. I love that they are bringing French culture and French history into the Games and having a lot of the venues under the Eiffel Tower or dressages at Versailles.

Being diligent about time zone shifting is really important as an athlete, and so I took a neuroscience sleep class in college. I joke that I am an Olympian because I’m a good sleeper. I’m so glad that we’re going to Italy for our pre-camp so that if something were to go wrong with the time shifting, we will have about three weeks in Italy to get fully adjusted to the time before we go to Paris. Only having a few days gets really scary because if you mess it up, your performance will show.