Katie O'Donnell turned a colossal failure into a great success.
There was a time when O'Donnell was field hockey's teenage phenom, an exceptionally talented kid who made her first appearance on the U.S. national team at just 16. But she faltered during the 2008 Olympic Trials, was cut from the team and watched the Games from home.
It might have been the best thing that could have happened.
O'Donnell recommitted herself to the sport, doubled down on her training and started an amazing streak of accomplishments that led to a pair of national championships at the University of Maryland and twice being named the nation's top player. Two years ago, during her senior year in college, O'Donnell was named the Women's Sports Foundation's Sportswoman of the Year, joining past winners like tennis players Serena and Venus Williams and soccer's Mia Hamm.
The successes continue to mount. Earlier this year, O'Donnell led the U.S. team to a stunning upset over top-ranked Argentina to win the Pan American Games, clinching an Olympic berth and making the Americans one of the teams to watch during the 2012 Summer Games.
We sat down with O'Donnell to talk about dealing with disappointment, playing hacky sack and kicking ass with Navy SEALs.
Wired: Field hockey is having something of a fashion moment, given Princess Kate's history with the sport.
O'Donnell: I’m so excited for these games because I think it’s gonna take field hockey a few steps higher. I think people are actually going to watch because Kate Middleton is so popular. Even the pictures of her on the turf with the team has made field hockey more popular. People who don’t know anything about field hockey ask, “Oh, have you seen pictures of Kate Middleton?” And I’m like, “Yep. That’s pretty cool.”
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Kobe Was Hoop Dreaming Saying His Team Beats Dream TeamWired: What's your training regimen like?
O'Donnell: Monday, we have a practice and a lift. Tuesday, we’ll have two practices. Wednesday we have off. Thursday we have a practice and a lift. The lift is everything from squats to bench press. Friday we’ll have a practice in the morning. And we run Monday through Saturday, so we’ll do long runs of 90 minutes, we’ll do sprints, what have you. We’re running six days a week on top of practice.
Wired: What’s the weirdest thing you do in training, the that makes people say, “What? Really?”
O'Donnell: Train with Navy SEALs.
Wired: What? Really?
O'Donnell: Yeah. We've trained with the Navy Seals four times now. It’s very, very difficult, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Wired: I can imagine. What did they have you doing?
O'Donnell: We've done what we call log PT, which is probably the worst thing. It’s a log that weighs a ton and you have eight people doing things like picking it up, carrying it 100 meters or 400 meters. You’re in so much pain that you're on the verge of tears and you have to push through it with your teammates. You can’t give up. There’s no giving up, you just have to fight through with your teammates helping you. That's the biggest lesson of working with the SEALs: You’re not gonna win a gold medal in a team sport by yourself.
Wired: What do you do to prepare mentally before going on to the field?
O'Donnell: I’m a player that plays best when I’m not thinking, so for me I’m playing hacky sack. There’s a group of six of us that play hacky sack before games. It's just keeping your mind off of what you’re about to do. I step onto the field with a clean mind. No thinking.
Wired: Leading up to Beijing you said you got ahead of yourself in your thought process and it took you out of your normal game. What's changed since then?
O'Donnell: I’ve done a complete 180 since the preparation for Beijing. Preparing for Beijing, I was constantly thinking. I was constantly worried about making mistakes or possible outcomes and this and that. This time I’ve really looked at my past and said, "You know, this time it’s no regrets. If you make a mistake, you make up for it in the next play by showing you’ve forgotten about it." It's no longer "one and done" mentally.
Wired: How so?
O'Donnell: My favorite thing on the field is taking the ball away from a defender, so if I lose the ball, I get to turn around and do my favorite thing. That’s a big help if something goes wrong — I can go to my thing, and my thing is pressing and playing defense on the defenders. It's about going back to what you're comfortable with, what you know you're good at. That’s something I didn’t do in the past.
Wired: Was this an epiphany you had alone, or did you work with a sports psychologist or talk to a coach?
O'Donnell: This was all on my own. When you look back at your past and you’re upset about not making a team, there's some self-reflection. "I want to be there. What can I do next time to get myself there?"
Wired: What's the attitude of the team? Has there been a change since beating Argentina? Do you guys have swagger now?
O'Donnell: Yeah, a little bit. You know, we went into our first game after Pan Am with a little too much swagger and we got beat pretty bad. [laughs] But it’s still a bit of a swagger, ‘cause we beat number one, but we’re still level-headed.
Wired: You're not the underdogs anymore. Are there any teams in particular you feel are gonna be troublesome in London?
O'Donnell: Yeah, we’re, we just recently playing New Zealand and Australia and we haven’t had the best outcomes against them, but you know, we’re kind or figuring out the system we’re gonna play against them. I think they’re gonna come in with a little more swagger than us, but I think we’ll hopefully knock it down.
Wired: How do you think your standing, your reception in the international hockey community?
O'Donnell: People actually like want to play us now. They want to see the system we’re playing, how it was that we beat Argentina to qualify. They're just shocked almost at what we’ve done. It’s almost, “How did you do that?” It's something they want to figure out so they’ve been asking us to play us. It’s pretty nice to know you know, you’re not just nobody anymore.
