I Have Cool Friends
84 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 306 ratingsThey say that you are the average of the friends and company you keep, so I want us to improve our average together. Think about it... the stronger we are as individuals, the more we can serve those around us. I Have Cool Friends is a podcast that sparks inspirational conversations with experts about business, wellness, and personal development. I’ll be interviewing friends that are experts in their field and I invite you to join in on the conversation.
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Episodes
S2 E016 Evan Heiter - 2019 NCAA Preview with Data & Drama
April 18, 2019 07:44 - 1 hour - 75.9 MBSam welcomes to the podcast former University of Michigan gymnast Evan Heiter. Evan was also Sam’s co-host for the USAG Webcast for multiple years and is a huge NCAA gymnastics super fan. In this episode, Sam and Evan break down team performances from Regionals and look ahead to both upcoming Semi-Finals. They identify the secret weapons, keys to victory and storylines to watch for each team. Finally, Sam and Evan give their predictions on which teams they believe will be the Four on the Flo...
S2 015 Tanya Chaplin - Don’t Call Them an Underdog
April 11, 2019 07:19 - 1 hour - 54.8 MBSam welcomes to the podcast Oregon State University women’s gymnastics head coach, Tanya Chaplin. Tanya’s experience in the gymnastics world is quite extensive. As an athlete competing at UCLA, she was a six-time All-American and a two-time PAC-10 Gymnast of the Year winner. She also competed in the 1983 World Championships in Budapest and competed in the 1984 Olympic trials. Over the course of her twenty-two year coaching career, she has earned PAC-12 Conference Coach of the Year five times...
S2 014 Norah Flatley & Margzetta Frazier - Ohh to be a Freshman at UCLA
April 04, 2019 07:15 - 59 minutes - 47.9 MBSam welcomes to the podcast not one but two cool friends, Norah Flatley and Margzetta Frazier. They are both former national team members, competing across the country and internationally for Team USA. Additionally, they are both freshmen at UCLA and are crushing it for the Bruins this season! In this episode, Norah and Margzetta talk about their shared experiences with Elite gymnastics, balancing academics and athletics, and their plans for the remainder of their collegiate careers. Full...
S2 013 Olivia Karas - Win the Day
March 28, 2019 11:43 - 49.4 MBSam welcomes Olivia Karas to the podcast. She is currently a senior at the University of Michigan where she contributed to their 2019 Big Ten Championship. Olivia was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2016 and she has scored a 9.925 or higher on every single event, so far, of her career. In this episode, Sam and Olivia talk all about the peaks and valleys of Olivia’s collegiate career, from a devastating Achilles injury to competing in the Flip for Chip memorial meet. They preview th...
S2 012 Ariana Berlin Rotstein & Danusia Francis - Celebrating the Legacy of Miss Val
March 21, 2019 09:36 - 1 hour - 67.1 MBIt was alumni weekend at UCLA and Sam has two very special guests on the podcast to celebrate. First, gymnast, dancer and film actor Ariana Berlin Rotstein joins the show to discuss the flash mob sendoff she and the other UCLA alumni gave to Miss Val at her last meet as Head Coach. Next, international gymnast, Danusia Francis shares her favorite memories of Miss Val and discusses her plans to compete and qualify for the 2020 Olympics. Both Ariana and Danusia talk about their experiences comp...
S2 011 McKenna Kelley - Redemption, Perfection, and the Possibility For More
March 14, 2019 07:05 - 1 hour - 61.6 MBSam welcomes McKenna Kelley to the podcast. McKenna is currently a senior at Louisiana State University (LSU) where she recently scored a perfect ten competing in her latest meet. In this episode, Sam and McKenna talk about McKenna’s collegiate gymnastics career, from overcoming a devastating Achilles injury to the possibility of competing in a fifth year. They discuss their thoughts on the new postseason format and their predictions for which teams with be the final Four on the Floor. Final...
S2 010 Dana Duckworth - You Can’t Eat an Elephant in One Bite
March 07, 2019 16:23 - 1 hour - 74.8 MBSam welcomes head coach of the women’s gymnastics team at the University of Alabama, Dana Duckworth. Dana’s relationship with Alabama has spanned over two decades. She was a former student athlete and worked under Sarah Patterson as an assistant coach for the women’s gymnastics team for fifteen years. As an athlete, Dana earned five All-American accolades and won the individual SEC and NCAA national titles in balance beam in 1992 and 1993. She also aided the university in winning a National ...
S2 009 Kyla Ross - It's Juuuuust Gymnastics & a Little UCLA Magic
February 28, 2019 08:15 - 1 hour - 64.2 MBSam welcomes Kyla Ross, the first female gymnast ever to win Olympic, World, and NCAA Championship gold medals. Kyla is a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, 2014 World Championship gold medalist, and 2018 NCAA team champion. In addition, she is an eleven-time All-American, five-time World Championship medalist, and was the 2017 NCAA bars and beam champion. Kyla currently competes for the UCLA Bruins, and is widely considered one of the premier athletes in the sport of gymnastics. In this episode,...
S2 008 Courtney Kupets Carter - All-Around Greatness
February 21, 2019 15:58 - 1 hour - 61.5 MBSam welcomes 2004 Olympic silver medalist and individual bronze medalist on bars, Courtney Kupets Carter. In addition to her Olympic accolades, Courtney was a member of the 2003 gold medal-winning World Championship Team and a two-time Elite National Champion. She helped lead the University of Georgia to four National Championship titles from 2005 – 2009. Individually, she won eight SEC event championships, nine NCAA titles, and was a fifteen-time All-American. She is the only NCAA gymnast e...
S2 007 Trinity Thomas - More Than Meets the Eye
February 14, 2019 09:12 - 58 minutes - 47 MBSam welcomes four-time U.S. National Team member and collegiate gymnast, Trinity Thomas. Although just seventeen, Trinity is already a supremely accomplished gymnast, having been a member of the gold-medal winning team at the 2018 Pan-American Gymnastics Championships. There she also won an individual silver medal on bars and in the all-around. She is currently competing as a freshman at the University of Florida and ranks third overall in the all-around of NCAA women’s gymnastics. In this...
S2 006 Jessica Lopez - Be Present, Be Thankful, & Communicate
February 07, 2019 08:15 - 56 minutes - 45.7 MBSam welcomes decorated gymnast, Jessica López. Jessica is an international gymnast who has represented her home country of Venezuela in three separate Olympic Games from 2008 through 2016. In 2016, she qualified for the uneven bars final, becoming the very first Venezuelan gymnast to do so. She also placed sixth in the all-around final, her country’s best all-around finish ever. She competed collegiately at the University of Denver from 2006 – 2009, earning five All-American honors across th...
S2 005 Mykayla Skinner - Will She or Won't She...Go for 2020
January 31, 2019 08:15 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBSam welcomes her close friend, Mykayla Skinner. Mykayla competed for Team USA at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships, winning a team gold both years and a bronze medal on vault in 2014. She also won nine total medals at the USA Gymnastics National Championships during her senior career. Mykayla is currently a junior at the University of Utah, where she has already won two NCAA titles, one in floor and one in vault. Mykayla has had quite the career thus far and isn’t done yet! In this epi...
S2 004 Amelia Hundley & Lexie Priessman - The Inside scoop of Florida & LSU
January 24, 2019 11:24 - 1 hour - 71.4 MBSam welcomes to the podcast not one but two cool friends, Amelia Hundley and Lexie Priessman. Amelia has won a gold, silver and bronze at the 2015 Pan-American Games in Toronto, she also took home team gold medals competing for the United States at the 2012 Pacific Rim Championships and qualified for the 2016 Olympic trials. She is currently a stud competitor at the University of Florida and has scored above a 9.9 in every event this year. Lexie has been a national team member from 2010 to 2...
S2 003 Katelyn Ohashi - Using Gymnastics Experience and a VIRAL Platform to Change the World
January 17, 2019 08:15 - 1 hour - 54.1 MBSam welcomes to the podcast collegiate gymnast, Katelyn Ohashi. Katelyn’s gymnastics resume is as impressive as it is extensive. She was a four-time member of USA Gymnastics’ Junior National Team, the 2011 junior national champion and 2013 American Cup champion. Katelyn is also a six-time All-American at UCLA where she helped her team win the 2018 NCAA championship title last year. In that same national championship run, Katelyn was the co-champion on floor exercise. She recently scored a pe...
S2 002 - Maggie Nichols Shares Her NCAA Secrets
January 10, 2019 08:15 - 51 minutes - 41.8 MBWelcome back to Season 2 of the I Have Cool Friends podcast! Sam welcomes to the podcast collegiate gymnast, Maggie Nichols. Maggie is a junior at the University of Oklahoma and has already accomplished so much in her gymnastics career. Maggie won a gold medal with the American team and an individual bronze medal on floor exercise at the 2015 World Championships. Maggie has also earned five NCAA championship titles, including one team and four individual and she is the only gymnast in Oklaho...
S2 001 Bridget Sloan - Previewing the 2019 NCAA Gymnastics Season
January 03, 2019 08:15 - 1 hour - 73.1 MBWelcome to Season 2 of the I Have Cool Friends Podcast! 2018 was such a special year, as Sam details in the opening of this episode. The podcast has already surpassed 100,000 downloads spanning 100 different countries and is the number one podcast in the college and high school sports category! It recently broke into and top 100 in the overall general sports category, as well. Today, Sam welcomes back recurring guest, Bridget Sloan. Bridget was one of Sam’s former teammates from the 2008 Oly...
Bonus Episode 4 - Bridget Sloan - No Regrets
December 12, 2018 08:15 - 1 hour - 85.8 MBSam welcomes to the podcast close friend and former 2008 Olympic teammate, Bridget Sloan. Saving the best for last, Bridget is the final guest on Sam’s exclusive bonus series where she has interviewed all members of her 2008 Olympic team. Bridget’s gymnastics accomplishments include nine-time NCAA champion with the University of Florida, 2008 Olympic silver medalist, and 2009 World Champion in the all-around. Since retiring from gymnastics, Bridget has been an active member of the gymnastics...
Bonus Episode 3 - Nastia Liukin - The Year of New Beginnings
November 14, 2018 08:15 - 1 hour - 111 MBSam welcomes to the podcast close friend and former 2008 Olympic and 2007 World Championship teammate, Nastia Liukin. Nastia’s gymnastics accomplishments include the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, five-time Olympic medalist, the 2005 and 2007 world champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 world champion on uneven bars. She is also a four-time, all-around U.S. national champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. Since retiring from gymnastics, Nastia has continued to suppo...
Bonus Episode 2 - Chellsie Memmel - Transparency and the Future of USA Gymnastics
October 10, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 83.2 MBSam welcomes to the podcast close friend and former 2008 Olympic teammate, Chellsie Memmel. Chellsie’s gymnastics accomplishments include being the 2003 world champion on the uneven bars and the 2005 world all-around champion; just the third American woman in history to win that title. She has seven World Championship and Olympic medals and is tied with Shawn Johnson as the seventh most decorated US female gymnast. She is so skilled at gymnastics that she even has a floor exercise move named...
Bonus Episode 1 - Alicia Sacramone Quinn - Gymnasts Aren’t Like a Fine Wine
September 12, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBSam welcomes to the podcast former Olympic teammate and close friend, Alicia Sacramone Quinn. Alicia is a former American gymnast who is also the second-most decorated American gymnast in World Championship history, netting ten medals during her illustrious career. Since retiring from gymnastics, Alicia has gone on to start a family and welcomed her second daughter in July 2018. Alicia also collaborated with Sam to launch The Gympire, a fitness company with the mission of encouraging, motiva...
013 - Recapping Season 1
August 29, 2018 07:15 - 22 minutes - 18.5 MBIn the Season 1 recap episode, Sam reflects on all of her “cool friends” and the lessons she learned while having them on as guests. Sam divulges the goal of her podcast, which is to educate and inspire while covering topics related to gymnastics. Sam travels quite a bit and she noticed that no matter where she went, people always asked her for advice, tips, training plans and strategies for gymnastics. This thirst for knowledge in the gymnastics world led her to start I Have Cool Friends,...
012 Shawn Johnson - The Journey to the Olympics, Our Friendship, and Our Lives Now
August 22, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 52.6 MBSam welcomes to the podcast former Olympic teammate and close friend, Shawn Johnson. Shawn is a former American gymnast who won a gold medal for the balance beam and silver in team, all-around, and floor exercise at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Since then, Shawn has written three books, launched a successful YouTube channel, spearheaded a health and fitness project (FYT) and won Dancing with the Stars! After suffering a torn ACL in a skiing accident, Shawn attempted a gymnastics come...
011 Amanda Borden - Confidence, the Olympics, and Being a Gym Mom
August 16, 2018 07:15 - 54 minutes - 43.8 MBAmanda Borden is a retired American gymnast, Olympian, coach, gym owner, and gym mom to three kids. After being coached by Mary Lee Tracy, Amanda was the captain of the gold medal winning team, the Magnificent Seven, in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, a team medalist at the World Championships, and a multiple-medalist at the 1995 Pan American games. She graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a degree in childhood education. Currently, Amanda and her husband, Brad Cochran...
010 Betty Okino - Redefining Success and the Future of Gymnastics
August 08, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 50.2 MBBetty Okino is a former American artistic gymnast and Olympic medalist who was born in Uganda to a Ugandan father and a Romanian mother. As a result, she is fluent in Romanian. Growing up, she trained with Márta and Béla Károlyi in Houston. She was part of the 1992 bronze-winning Olympic team, which was also the first ever team medal at the Olympic Games for USA Gymnastics. In addition, Betty won a silver medal with her team in the 1991 World Championships and a bronze medal on the balance b...
009 Jordyn Wieber - Achieving a Utopian Gymnastics World
August 01, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 49.7 MBJordyn Wieber is a former American artistic gymnast and was a member of the US Women’s Gymnastics Team, the Fierce Five. Some of her achievements include being a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, 2011 World Champion, three-time American Cup champion, and two-time US National All-around champion. At a young age, after her parents noticed she was a muscular child, they decided to enroll her in gymnastics and she has continued with the sport ever since. She currently works as a volunteer gymnastics...
008 Brandon Wynn - Fitness Begins with a Bulletproof Mindset
July 25, 2018 07:15 - 52 minutes - 42.6 MBBrandon Wynn is an artistic gymnast from New Jersey. He is a member of the US World and National Team and competed in gymnastics for The Ohio State University. At the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Brandon won a Bronze medal on Still Rings and is one of the two men in US history to win an individual medal in Still Rings. He even got to be on the cover of one of the world’s largest fitness magazines, Muscle and Fitness. Currently, Brandon mentors other gymnasts and athletes on ...
007 Laurie Hernandez - Human vs Perfect
July 18, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 52.6 MBLaurie Hernandez is a 2016 Olympic gold medalist who has also won an Olympic silver medal on beam, won season 23 of Dancing with the Stars, was featured on an episode of Stuck in the Middle, and is only 18 years old. At 16, Laurie became the youngest winner of Dancing with the Stars. She has also made appearances on Sesame Street, Celebrity Family Feud, and will be co-hosting American Ninja Warrior Junior. In addition, Laurie is a New York Times Best-Selling Author of her book, I Got This: T...
006 Nicole Jontony - How Gymnasts Can Build a Healthy Relationship with Food
July 11, 2018 07:15 - 1 hour - 94.7 MBNicole Jontony was a former elite collegiate gymnast at Ohio State, has helped her team make it to the NCAA championships during her senior year, and is currently a sports dietitian at The Ohio State University. Recently, Nicole was selected as the 2018 Young Dietitian of the Year by the Ohio Academy of Nutrition Dietetics. She graduated from Ohio State in 2013 with a degree in Medical Dietetics and has dedicated herself to helping athletes develop healthier eating habits and learn more abou...
005 Dr. Alison Arnold - Fighting Fear
July 04, 2018 15:51 - 39 minutes - 31.7 MBAlison Arnold, also known as “Doc Ali” in the gymnastics world, has a more than interesting resume. She has a PhD in Psychology, is a former gymnast, and has been on trips to a monastery in Nepal, Peru, and Thailand, as well as in the jungle of the Amazon with a shaman. She has also been a mental toughness coach for USA Gymnastics since 1997. Doc Ali has worked with Olympic medalists, NCAA champions, and thousands of athletes to help achieve their dreams for the past 25 years. Using all she ...
004 Madison Kocian - Gold Medal Winning Olympian, Madison Kocian, Sets the Bar High for Gymnastics
June 27, 2018 07:43 - 57 minutes - 46.5 MBMadison Kocian’s reputation precedes her—her numerous accolades are just a representation of her hard-working, determined, and accomplished self. Some of her awards include winning the team gold medal with the “Final Five” and the uneven bars silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, becoming the 2015 world champion on bars, and being a member of the UCLA gymnastics team. Towards the end of the season, Madison came back from shoulder surgery and was still able to help her team win the NCAA cha...
003 Jill Hicks - The Ins and Outs of College Recruiting
June 20, 2018 07:12 - 49 minutes - 68.6 MBJill Hicks, known as the “College Recruiting Expert” tells us in this episode about her journey with college gymnastics as well as some advice for parents, coaches, and aspiring young gymnasts. Over time, the college recruiting process for gymnastics has drastically changed. Jill’s consulting company, Jill Hicks Consulting LLC, strives to market her support for college-bound gymnastics to choose what the best fit is for them. Jill reiterates that passion and love for the sport are key to bei...
002 Valorie Kondos-Field - Miss Val: An Unconventional Coach
June 13, 2018 12:04 - 1 hour - 82.6 MBSam has had some amazing people help her in her journey to becoming a top gymnast, but one of the most important has to be Valorie Kondos-Field, otherwise known as Miss Val. As coach at UCLA, she led them to win 7 national championships. Her book, Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance, will be available for purchase September 2018. In this episode, Sam and Val discuss how they met, Val’s unorthodox coaching style, and the Larry Nassar scandal. Full show notes: http://ihavecoolfriends.show/2
001 Mary Lee Tracy - How To Reach Your Athletic Peak
June 06, 2018 07:14 - 48 minutes - 33.1 MBIf you aspire to be fantastic gymnast like Samantha Peszek, you need an equally great coach. In this episode, Sam welcomes Mary Lee Tracy, a coach who has taught gymnastic legends such as Jaycie Phelps, Amanda Borden, and Amelia Hundley. Mary discusses confidence, what makes a great coach, and how to be a 24-hour athlete. Full show notes: http://ihavecoolfriends.show/1
Welcome to I Have Cool Friends
May 29, 2018 04:00 - 4 minutes - 5.26 MBSamantha Peszek is on a mission to connect athletes, coaches, and parents with the best resources the gymnastics world has to offer. Utilizing Samantha’s gymnastics network, (she really does have cool friends) guests will be experts in their field and shed a light on hot topics, tips for improvement, and inspiration. Listeners will have the opportunity to learn from some of the sport’s greats, participate in giveaways, and apply relevant tips to everyday life, in and out of the gym.