Taylor Fletcher Interview
A great chat today for you to enjoy as we talk more about the legendary sport that is Nordic Combined by speaking with three time American Olympian Taylor Fletcher about his extraordinary career! We find out how Taylor was pretty much born with skis on his feet and how early his Olympic dreams started. We also learn about the groundbreaking performance by Team USA in Nordic Combined in Vancouver and how it was to be part of that success. Added to this we learn just how difficult some of the last few years have been for him in the sport and how he has overcome that to strive him towards success as he approaches his fourth Olympics. It's an incredible chat that you simply can't miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you again today for an athlete interview. As we get closer and closer to Beijing. Nordic Combined for you today. I mentioned yesterday about an exciting chat we have with an Olympian, our first ever Olympian when it comes to Nordic Combined. Three-time Olympian too, if you don't mind, and world championship bronze medallist, Taylor Fletcher from the US. This is a great chat. Taylor's very, very honest and open about challenges that he has in the sport, challenges the sport has in general in the US, and a real kind of roller coaster of a career that he has had through his three Olympics. And it's fascinating to hear him tell his story from the extreme highs that US Nordic skiing had back in Vancouver in 2010, right through to some pretty deep lows and sort of where we're at right now in the sport in the US leading up into Beijing. So this is a compelling chat. You're gonna get a lot from this. And a potential t-shirt line coming out of this too, which I think we should all keep an eye on. Because it is definitely a t-shirt that I will be wearing during Beijing if it happens. Here is our chat with three time US Olympic Nordic Combined Athlete, Taylor Fletcher.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nordic Combined, to me, is the greatest winter sport that exists, and today we're gonna speak more about it today with our very first Olympic Nordic Combined athlete, competing in three Olympics in Vancouver, Sochi and Pyeongchang. He's a world championship bronze medallist and on track to go to his fourth Olympics in Beijing, which of course is just around the corner. It's a pleasure to welcome to Off The Podium today, Taylor Fletcher. Taylor, first of all, mate, pleasure to have you on Off The Podium. Welcome to the show.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
BEN WATERWORTH: I am so excited to always talk about Nordic Combined. You and I were having a bit of a chat off air, just about my love of the sport. As I said, it's the greatest winter sport. I mean, can we just try and make this the biggest sport in the world? I'm sick of soccer being the biggest sport in the world. It should be Nordic Combined, right?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I agree. I mean, I think it is probably one of the toughest sports in the world. So, you know, anything we can do to get it up to the levels of, you know, pro soccer, pro football in the US. I think, you know, we should do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm learning a lot about Steamboat Springs, that this seems to be basically the hotbed for Nordic Combined in the US. And it seems like everybody who comes from this town basically is a Winter Olympian. I mean, you're from there as well. What is it about Steamboat Springs that just breeds Winter Olympians?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Well, first, one of my former teammates said something that I think is very, very true with Nordic Combined and the Olympics in Steamboat. And that was, there are more kids that go to the Winter Sports Club and dream about winning an Olympic gold medal than there are about hitting a home run in the ninth inning of the World Series or throwing that game-winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. You know, I think it's that community, really, truly and honestly, it's been ingrained in the history and the lifestyle of so many Olympians and athletes that come through Steamboat, that it's, you know, you grow up, you go to the Winter Sports Club and you go to training every single day after school. And in the summer, you're training every single day. And it's, you know, one of those community stakeholders that really holds the town together and it produces amazing athletes.
BEN WATERWORTH: And for yourself, I mean, that kind of how you grew up, isn't it, in terms of just basically almost being born with skis on your feet, I believe you got started in the sport about four years old. I mean, was this sort of like a destiny kind of going back to what you're just saying, living in a town like this, that it's kind of was always going to be this way, that you would be involved in some form of winter sport?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I mean, I got to credit my brother a little bit on that. My brother Brian was a three-time Olympian, or two-time Olympian, and really, he's the one that pushed me to be an athlete. You hear it time in and time out that the younger brother always wants to be the older brother. There's been performance data on this. There's been studies that the younger one's gonna seem to pick it up quicker. And obviously, I didn't know anything about that when I was young, but all I knew is I wanted to challenge my brother. I wanted to do everything that he did, and it drove me into the sport. I actually started in hockey. Found out really quickly, hockey wasn't something that I'm any good at. I couldn't hockey stop. And so then went straight in, in order to combine that winner. And found really pretty quickly that I had some sort of endurance for a young kid. And I had that minimal fear that every young kid has, and it made that perfect combination to really allow me to excel in the sport and have as much fun as possible.
BEN WATERWORTH: So when you go into the sport, is it a case of straight away going, I want to do Nordic combined? Or is it a case of, I'm going to start in the cross country and then see how I go with the jumping. I'm going to start in the jumping and see how I go in the cross country. Like, is it a common thing to purely say Nordic combined rather than starting in one and then deciding to combine the two?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, a little bit of both. I would say in the Stemos Springs Winter Sports Club, we had cross country and we had Nordic combined. Cross country obviously is just the cross country athletes. They always did their thing. Nordic combined was everybody started out as Nordic combined. And then as they got on, they had the option to either do just cross country, to do ski jumping or to stay with Nordic combined. And there was never a thought or a idea of going any other direction. From that very first year, I was hooked. It was a drug in a sense that my mum had to pull me away from the hills to get me to come home.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, geez, that's incredible. Because it seems to be a sport, and I'm a big fan of modern men tathalon for the summer Olympics. So I like these sports where obviously you're combining different sports. Because as kids, what are we doing? We're playing 50 different sports. You're saying you're playing hockey. I'm sure you're playing other sports too. You're getting your footing in different sports to see what you're end up being good at. So it seems to be perfect for kids, because again, you are combining two sports together, and if you love them both equally, combine them, boom, you've got yourself a perfect sport.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I mean, Norik and Ban wasn't the only sport that I did, but what I found really, really well was, and pretty quickly was the fact that Norik and Ban was making me good at whatever sport that I wanted to play. I played high school soccer, and I had the endurance that no one really on the team had because I was an endurance athlete. I had the quick twitch fibres from the ski jumping that allowed me to move quickly in any direction. We've talked for years and years about how specialisation in sport causes the early burnout into fatigue and injury. And with Norik combined, you can do literally anything and enjoy it. And you're helping your body kind of progress and grow up and be able to handle whatever.
BEN WATERWORTH: And also with the mental side of the ski jumping thing too, I can imagine growing up, it helps you mentally in life as well. I mean, do you find that kind of has a knock on effect that you can use the mental skills you're building up in that side of things in everyday life?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I mean, one of the hardest things you have when you're a young kid is letting go of that bar and climbing some of the towers that we jump off, you know, Lake Placid, New York. I mean, I remember my first jumps off that I was terrified, but once you let go of the bar, it's like you've done it a hundred times. You know, there's a lot of things that people, there's one thing that a lot of people don't understand is how I'm afraid of heights.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: You know, you put me on top of a tall building and I get that uncomfortable feeling looking straight down. But I climb out on that bar and I like, fly through the air and it's like zero fear whatsoever. And yeah, I mean, every time you progress up to a new hill, you have to kind of overcome that fear pretty quickly because there's no turning back once you let go. And if you start to hesitate, that's when things can go wrong. And so you have to tackle it with full energy and full confidence. And usually, you come away, you're like, that wasn't bad at all. Let me do it again, and again, and again. And it's just a great feeling.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's incredible to think that you're afraid of heights. That's sort of like, you say that, that's not the sport you would kind of think that that would be the case. I mean, what's the tallest jump that in the world that you kind of go to, still when you're like, oh shit, like the, just get me down, let me jump already.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Pyeongchang was pretty high, Lake Placid's pretty high, Oberstdorf, Germany, but a lot of those places, you walk up stairs on the inside, you're taking an elevator up. What really kind of was the hardest was the fact that Lake Placid, you had to walk up the in run on metal great stairs. And every step, unless you're looking straight up into the sky, you're looking straight down into the ground below. And as you go up, it gets further and further away. And you're watching snow and ice fall from the stairs, and it takes a couple of seconds for it to hit the ground. And you're like, hmm, wow. Hopefully these stairs are built well. You know, and then you kind of just get up there a little bit closer. And you know, it's something that I've always, you know, found very interesting. You know, if I'm on top of a building and I look straight down, yes. There's, I mean, there's not many people that get that gut wrenching feeling in their stomach, but you know, if I'm in the centre of the building and it's, you know, on the top of a skyscraper, it's not too bad. It's just that pure vertical, like, holy hell, I am so high up right now that, you know, causes a little bit of anxiety, I would say.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're not doing the glass sort of experience if you go to Chicago at like the Willis Tower or something like that. You're seeking clear of that.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I've done that. Trust me. So a couple of years ago, we were in Austria and we had this sweet little trip plan where we did, do you know what Via Ferrata is or Kledersteg?
BEN WATERWORTH: I do not know.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: So it's where there's a cable bolted onto the side of the mountain and it's anchored in. And then you're wearing a harness with kind of some carabiners on top of attached to rope. And so you anchor yourself in with these carabiners, you come to an anchor point, you take one off, put it on the other side of the anchor, you take the other off, put it on the other side. Very popular over there, they're all over. Well, we were going up to a hut, a mountain cabin, and this was the route. And I was sweating. I was like, this fucking sucks. 15, 20 minutes in, you trust your gear, you learn to say, hey, I can't turn back, I gotta just keep going. And so you overcome it. Does that mean that next time I go on top of a tall mountain and look over the edge, I'm not gonna feel sick to my stomach? No, probably gonna still have it. But there's a process and a habit that you get into that allows you to accomplish a task or a fear. And I think that's the unique part about the human body, for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%. It's kind of like you hear about certain people who are, say, afraid of public speaking, yet their job is to speak in front of large crowds. But they still say, I've got a fear of it, but it's kind of that overcome. And I also love hearing, particularly say from Olympic athletes who talk about the nerves aspects, that they get so nervous before a competition. They're lined up on a starting line or they're about to perform whatever it is. And they're shitting themselves, but somehow they've turned that into a fact of, I actually use that to my benefit. And that if they weren't nervous, they're more worried going into a competition rather than, okay, I'm nervous. They sort of almost get used to it and use it to their advantage.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I would agree 100% with that. I mean, I've been fortunate to work with a bunch of sports psychologists. Any Olympic athlete that doesn't work with one, I think is pretty stupid. They provide such a good advantage, but I brought that up to him, and he was like, why are you worried about that? That's just your body telling you you're getting ready to perform, and you know you can do it. So use that for confidence, use that for performance, and let it carry you. And ever since I've realised that, I've definitely benefited from it. But you know, it's part of the game, it is.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of growing up sort of in the sport you mentioned playing other sports, was the Olympics something that you always looked at as a goal, or is that something that sort of came to you more as you progressed further in Nordic combined?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: A little bit of both, but you know, to be honest, it came pretty damn early. You know, I can remember dreaming of the Olympics as early as... 98? 96? One of my former coaches, Dave Jarrett, you know, that's... And this goes back to one of the first questions is, how do I get started? Is that our national team used to be based in Steam. And so you had the likes of, you know, Todd Law, Dave Jarrett, all the big Olympic athletes for Nordic combined training in Steamboat. And, you know, DJ Dave gave me a pair of goggles, you know, before the 98 Olympics. And, you know, that's something that just sticks with you as a young kid. And you want to be just like him. You want to be just like the others. And, you know, so right away, pretty damn early, it was like, I want to go to the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: And in terms of that progression, then, obviously, you ultimately make it to Vancouver, which we'll talk about in a sec. But sort of as you were progressing through the ranks, was there opportunity to earlier? I mean, like, was Turin something that was a possibility? Or was the age kind of just something that as a 16 year old, you may be not able to go to an Olympics of that age?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: There's a lot. I mean, I was not in the running for Turin by any means. You know, a lot of it has to do with the status of the team. Back in 2006, there were 10 guys, 8 to 10 guys that were fighting for an Olympic spot on the national team. So the chances of a 16-year-old making it to the national team and on to the Olympics is pretty slim. But one of my good friends, Anders Johnson, who's a former ski jumper, he did it. So, you know, it is possible, but I never thought I had a chance at making the 2016. And there was always a slim chance of making the 2010 team. I never really thought that was even a possibility.
BEN WATERWORTH: So in terms of when you do and you realise, holy shit, this dream's come true. Holy shit, I'm going to the Olympics. I mean, do you remember that moment when you were officially going?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, this one comes up a lot. So we'll take a step back. I got named to the national team in 2009. So, God, a long time ago. And when you get named to the national team, it means you're doing something right. The coaches have noticed you. You've done well in international competition. You're one of the best juniors in the nation. So you know you're on the right progression. That doesn't mean once you get on the national team that you can stop it. And you just go through the motions. You still have to put all the sacrifices, all the hard work, everything in to get to where you want to get to. And so I knew the goals ahead of me, where I wanted to go. But that first year, I had no plans on making the Olympic team. I just wanted to do as well as I possibly could. And so I set a lot of micro goals. I had my big goals, but then there was all the ones that kind of lead up to those big goals. And one of those was just to ski the whole winter in Europe. And obviously, I failed that by going to Vancouver. But I had to hit every single goal. And as I got closer and closer, I scored World Cup points. And then they took me to the next competition. It didn't set in until they told me that, hey, you're on the Vancouver team. You're going to fly back to the US with us for a training camp and then go to the Olympics. I was shocked. The hardest part was the fact that there were two guys for the last spot, myself and my brother. And so I remember sending a message to my other teammates. I was going from Cheneuve, France to Hinnerzarten, Germany for a competition. And I remember telling my teammates, whatever happens, I cannot room with Brian. You know, any brother is going to be pissed when their brother makes a team and they don't. They ignored all those requests. And of course, Brian found out in Germany that he wasn't going on to the Olympic team. And in Europe, pretty much everywhere but the US, you sleep in the same room on pretty much the same bed. And that was one of the most awkward nights I've ever had, knowing that he is extremely pissed and I'm above the moon, just ecstatic that I'm going to the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's an incredible story. And I can imagine in that phone call back home to the parents, must be an awkward one. So, hey, mum, dad, I'm going to the Olympics. But yeah, about Brian, he's kind of not. So, happy for one, commiserations for the other.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Exactly. I mean, obviously, we have a very unique family where both of us were able to go at some point and have great success in the sport. And, you know, the parents, my mum, you know, she paid so many bills to get us to where we are. My dad, he was instrumental in getting us on skis. So, you know, we had that support, and that's what's amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just get back to Vancouver, just fast-sporting quickly then to Sochi when you are both on the team. I mean, does that make it a little bit more special knowing that you were in that moment where you had to kind of curtail emotions? But at this point, you can be a little bit more excitable because you're going to your second Olympics, and now he's going to his first, so you can be there together.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I mean, the Olympics are huge. But, you know, in all honesty, you get that same sense of kind of importance from world championships. And so we both made the 2011 world championship team. We both made the 2013 world championship team, where we had success. So that accumulation to Sochi in 2014 was like, cool, you're going to the Olympics, but it wasn't like I had to teach him anything, you know? He was already ready. So it was just, we were able to enjoy the moment. And, you know, we went out there as a team and fought our hardest to, you know, try to come away with those elusive medals. But, you know, it's just, it's, to be able to go with your brother is fucking cool. I mean, it's a dream come true.
BEN WATERWORTH: Speaking of dreams come true, that first Olympic appearance, you know, are you able to, do you soak in sort of everything that is about an Olympics? You're soaking up village life, things like opening ceremony, kind of everything it means to be an Olympian, or was that something that you kind of took more note of at your second or your third Olympics?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, I mean, so the Vancouver team was Billy DeMong, Johnny Splane, Todd Laudwig, Brett Camerata and myself. Brett Camerata was jumping amazing. He had essentially trained for that 5K event. I was struggling on jumping, but was skiing fast. You know, there was always an opportunity that I was going to compete, but in those first competitions, I knew I wasn't going to ski. So I was actually the only one from my team that went to the opening ceremonies in Vancouver because that first competition was so close after the opening ceremonies. So I took everything in. You know, I was there at the ceremonies for like seven, eight hours, got back to the village in Whistler at, you know, two o'clock in the morning. And, you know, it's tough. It's really tough on the body to, you know, do that. But having that experience of what the Olympics is like, I think, is unbelievable and something that I'll cherish forever. I still get the goose bumps knowing that, you know, in 100 days from now, I might be walking through the stadium for my fourth Olympic opening ceremonies. And, you know, I can't get more excited about that than anything else.
BEN WATERWORTH: Speaking of excited, I mean, obviously Vancouver was such a breakthrough for Nordic combined in the US. No medals ever in the history of the sport. You come away with four. What is it like being a part of that sort of whole environment around the team? Because I can imagine that, that just went absolutely gangbusters for the sport in the US once you guys returned home.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I mean, it was it was insane. That was a process that was coming from a long time ago. You know, that's you got to you got to talk with Billy DeMong or Johnny about that whole process. But things started to go in the right direction in 2003. Johnny Blaine won first ever World Championship medal for Nordic combined 2007. Billy DeMong won a silver medal in Sapporo at World Championships 2009. Todd Lauterich won two golds, and Billy DeMong won his first World Championship gold. So that process was developing, our team was getting better and better and better. Then you get the home Olympics. It is Vancouver, it is Canada, but as far as an Olympics go, you can't get any closer to home. We had done training camps throughout the years up there as soon as the facilities were built. So we were comfortable. Same time zone for the most part, no huge changes like the last couple. And so all we had to do was go to perform. And those guys were on it. You know, it was the simplest thing for me to go to training every day, knowing that we have one of the best teams in the world training on the same hills with me every single day. And so it wasn't, you know, trying to prove myself. It was, I just got to do my damn training. You know, our training plans work. Our team is good, just trust the process and it's going to come. And sure enough, it came for everybody. I mean, four medals, you know, World Cup podiums that year from a lot of guys, you know, that's success. And, you know, we've worked our asses off to get to that point for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of yourself at those games, obviously with the team silver, four people on that team, you're that fifth. I mean, was there any chance that you were going to take that spot instead of Brett? And if not, like, how is that mood? I mean, obviously you're happy for your teammates, but is there some part of you which is kind of like, oh, like, I could have been on that team, I could have come away with a medal?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, there was. A couple of times that year I had beat Brett, but he was just so strong on jumping that I knew when it came to the team event that there was a very slim chance I was going to compete, but there was always an opportunity. The one thing with our sport, and I go back and forth on this, but the law of averages. You can't expect to come out there and have a ski jump that's five times better than what you've been jumping at for most of the winter. But on the other end, you can't go out on the cross-country side and expect to race a minute faster. The funny thing is, you can have a ski jump that is five times better out of the blue. And it can happen at any time, as long as you get those fundamentals down, your positioning, your takeoff, your flight, your landing. You can all of a sudden jump a minute closer to the front and not even realise it. So I was kind of trying to find a way to make those jumps happen, but it was difficult. I won't lie, the pressure of the Olympics definitely got to me a little bit. I was 19 years old. So it was unique, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Yes, I would have loved to have a chance in that team event, but at the same time, maybe if I was on that team, we wouldn't have won an Olympic medal. But the fact that I made it was cool, but that's never been my goal is just to make the Olympics, is to come away with a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just in terms of what Vancouver did for the sport, we had Nicholas Machinsky on recently, and he mentioned that part of what sort of got him into it was getting to meet the medallists, touch the medals. That really inspired him. Just what did it do for the sport? Was it growth straight away, more attention? I've seen photos of the guys meeting Obama, and Joe Biden, clearly getting some of this media attention, getting to meet the president, things like that. Was this the biggest thing to ever happen to Nordic combined in the US?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, it was a culmination of a lot of events, and the fact that we finally won a medal, we as in our team, meant that we're a big part of the history of the sport. And when you're a young kid and you want to win an Olympic medal, seeing the athletes that have, especially when you live, breathe Nordic combined, you get so inspired. And I remember I've got photos with my coaches when they were athletes. Even my oldest, they go into the Olympics, you see these guys as idols, and you want to meet them, you want to be like them. And I can't say that not a single one of my older teammates that have been with me in the years past, I didn't envy in some fashion.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's fascinating. I remember the first athlete we ever had on the show, Nathaniel Ma from Nordic Combined, he was talking about that weird swings and roundabouts that an Olympics can have for a sport which maybe doesn't get the attention some of the other ones do. The fact that in order to get the funding, you need to have success, but in order to have success, you need to have the funding, and often a lot of that comes from medals at world championships and Olympics and things like that. Does that then help the sport in the preceding years as well, just in terms of that attention brings more funding, you're able to attract more younger athletes into the sport and keep that momentum going that Vancouver would have brought?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, when you talk about the Olympics and success at the Olympics, the impacts that it has on the development of athletes in future generations is huge. That's one aspect. The second aspect is obviously the funding. Here in the US, I'm going to say many, Nathaniel Ma is a little bit different because they've already kind of been removed from the huge funding rounds. But the way our structure works is you have US Olympic Committee. There are Olympic governing body. Then below that is the national governing body, which is US Ski and Snowboarding. And the Olympic, the USOC, now it's the USOPC, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, they give money to the NGB to support those national teams that are under that national governing body. So you have skiing and you have snowboarding. They fund those teams. So then the national team has money allocated for obviously World Cup, the second level, which is Continental Cup, and then they also have money for development. And so bringing juniors on to camps. I remember going on one of my first camps with the national team in 2007 to Norway, and that was funded by the US. Ski Team. So it plays a huge point in any athlete's career, because the better that you're doing on the national team and then on the Olympic stage in World Championships, means there's going to be more funding coming into the sport. And I'll be brutally honest, it's kind of a shitty process, and we're working hard to fix that, because you need those funds to develop athletes. Yes, every athlete has to do their training, but there's certain resources that come from those funding that are huge, you know, pivotal parts of an athlete's journey. You know, the equipment, the travel that help an athlete succeed. And so, you know, the more success we can have on the Olympic and World Championship level, the more promise there is for future generations down the road.
BEN WATERWORTH: And on that too, you mentioned sort of that journey to Vancouver kind of began back in 2003. I mean, that's obviously a year removed from Salt Lake. Now, Salt Lake's obviously potentially a chance to host in 2030 or 2034. How much is it a boost then for winter programs in the country when all of a sudden you're hosting an Olympics? Because we saw that in Australia in the lead up to Sydney that a lot of funding goes into our athletes. We're going to see it again in the lead up to Brisbane in 2032 that people are going to inject this money so we've got a good home Olympics. Is that would be a similar boost that if Salt Lake does get it in 2030, for example, that all of a sudden, hey, we've found some extra money. Here you go.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, no, I mean, it's amazing what the Olympics does. You know, I think the Olympic Committee has gotten a lot of flak over the years of how expensive the Olympics have gotten. But take, for instance, Salt Lake 2002. Every single venue is in operation. Speed skating, O'Wall is in operation. Even the hockey rink is in operation. The ski jumps, daily operations, bobsled daily, the freestyle. So it created a legacy. And honestly, without the support that they've received from the Olympics, Park City wouldn't be the town that it is. Even the possible Olympics that were going to happen in Denver, affected Steamboat in a positive way for the development of the programs there. So we have the Park City Ski and Snowboard Foundation here in Park City that has thrived off of the funds from the Olympics that were directly involved with ski jumping, Nordic mining, cross country, that have given a legacy to younger athletes two generations after the Olympics. Hell, I mean, Nicholas Malisynski was barely even born. I don't know, actually, barely even born in 2002. And I remember going to those Olympics, watching the Nordic combine, watching the ski jumping. I've got a bib from that Olympics. I've got a bib from the test event for that Olympics. I mean, it's a legacy that gets enshrined and passed on to generations and generations.
BEN WATERWORTH: And even weird things like, I would probably admit that I may never have heard of Salt Lake City if it wasn't for the Olympics. And on one of my trips to the States, I went to Salt Lake City, loved the city, and I was with a friend, and I'm basically like, take me to where all the Olympics were. I want to see everything. You know, Rycicle Stadium, take me out to the ski. I went and watched a jazz game and was more excited for the fact that's where Stephen Bradbury won Australia's first Olympic gold medal rather than watching the basketball. I was geeking out on things like that. And I remember staying with somebody, and he had worked in some capacity at the aerial skiing, and he had this photo album, and he was just showing me the memories and everything along those lines that it was still living with people at that point 15 or so years afterwards. It's that legacy that I love hearing from that. And even like you mentioned, Lake Placid is obviously still a very big training place for a lot of winter sports in the US, right? And that's what, 40 years removed. So it obviously, the US is very good at maintaining the legacies of these Olympic cities and venues to kind of help moving forward with the athletes from the sports.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: And to that point, I mean, Billy DeMong, born 1980, a month after the Olympics. He's an Olympic champion, and the sport of North combined grew up 20 minutes away from those hills. So it's incredible what it does, and to see an Olympics be as effective as Salt Lake was, is a good model for future Olympics to try to replicate. How do we keep this going? Since Sochi, I haven't been back to those venues, and there's been very little competition held at those venues. So the fact that we've had a yearly competition in Park City, whether it's second level or not, is impressive. And they have a thriving club here. They have a thriving club in Steamboat, and they've got a growing club in Lake Placid. So we have those Olympic hubs that produce athletes, and we're able to keep that going as we go forward.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mentioned before World Championships 2013, the success, bronze medal, you get at the World Champs, particularly, as you said, with your brother as well. Does that rate as the highlight of your career coming away with a World Championship bronze medal?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, so far. I mean, I look back on that day, that year was special. I got my first World Cup podium in Seyfeld, Austria. We had our first World Cup team podium in Schönau, Germany, and then our first World Championship team podium in Val de Lafayette, Italy. I was skiing really well that year. And so I remember getting my podium a couple of weeks before World Championships started, saying, and one of the media channels was like, does this make you an underdog for World Championships? I said, this is my first podium. But we have a team that is capable of producing good results. And if anything, we've shown it over the years that we show up to these events ready. And so to be able to come away with a medal was a dream come true. And to be able to do it with my brother was, you know, a bigger dream. But to do it the way that we did it is even better.
BEN WATERWORTH: Give us a taste for those who maybe aren't familiar with kind of how it happened. How did it all play out?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: So a friend of ours started a temporary tattoo company called Stash Tats. And it's a team event. Team events are for your country. They're a huge, you know, team bonding experience. So we showed up, our entire team, staff, wax techs, coaches, you know, personnel and athletes. All wearing these American flag temporary tattoos. What are you going to say to a person that shows up to one of the biggest competitions of the year with a temporary tattoo all over their face? It's going to distract you. And, you know, we showed up and it threw a lot of people off. Wow, it was everyone's like, Oh, my God, those are so cool. I can't stop looking at it. We wore them. We wore the hell out of those all day long. The jumping around, the skiing around and on the podium.
BEN WATERWORTH: Are you let's do that the Olympics? I know the Olympics are very restricted with certain things that you can and cannot show. So could you show up to Beijing? Well, that worked for us like a decade ago. Come on time to bring back the tats.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, I mean, yeah, you could do it at the Olympics. I know people have done face paint and stuff like that. So I imagine that would slide. You know, I'm kind of the opinion that that was that team's thing. You know, that that's something that was special with the guys that were in Val Lafayette in 2013. And, you know, to have another team try to replicate that would be cool. But I don't think it would be as special as what we did it as.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is interesting, that psychological element, because going back to your point where you've got somebody interviewing you going like, you feel this makes you underdogs, like, I can imagine things like that help because you've got that confidence. You've got that you're saying, like, I want to go to an Olympics, but I want to win a medal. Like, it's that confidence and self-assurity that you've got for yourself. I mean, is this a case that people in the sport are too busy looking at Germany and Austria or Norway, that they just never really kind of look at Team USA as somebody who can do this? And that helps because it's sort of like, well, we're as good as these guys and we can do this. So let's just show what US Nordic is capable of in these events.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, you know, that's been a struggle that I've been guilty of. Everyone's been guilty of, you know, those top teams, Norway, Austria, Germany, they have the money that we don't have. Hell, I mean, Austria at one point in my career had as much money dedicated towards just equipment as we did for our entire organisation. So when you're looking at it, it's a little bit of a David Goliath kind of mentality, but you're like, holy shit, these guys are good. They show up in Audis, they, you know, have new suits every weekend. You know, they have 15 staff members. It's, you know, a rolling circus in some sense. But the thing is, is you trying to emulate them, it's not going to work. Yes, you can look at a video of Yarrow Magnus Reaver, who's the best ski jumper on our circuit, and find those key points in a ski jump that you're like, okay, that's what he does really well, and try to bring that into your fold and try to really, you know, make it work for you. But if I'm trying to ski like some other person, it's not gonna work. You're your best athlete. You know what works best for you. And so it's incredibly important that you trust your process of what you're doing by your team for success.
BEN WATERWORTH: That reminds me of, and this is such a-
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Otherwise you're down a rabbit hole.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's such an Australian thing that I'm gonna say here from a country that's not really a winter sports nation, but that reminds me of that moment in Cool Runnings when they're so busy copying the Swiss style, and they've got that speech. It's like, we shouldn't be going out there copying any of us' style. We've got our own style. And then they bring the Jamaican flair to it. That legitimately kind of now makes that sense now, right?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: It's exactly like that. I mean, hell, I can't, you know, we've had European coaches, we've had Norwegian coaches, German, Austrian, and the most success that we've ever had was with Americans.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: That's the style. We live in the US, and so trying to go into a different culture and kind of naturalise with us, ourselves with, you know, to say that the country of Slovenia or Austria, you know, is going to throw things off. Do I mean that during the time of COVID to spend the entire year in Austria wasn't a good idea? No, it was a fantastic idea, and I had a blast. But, you know, you have to do things that work for you and the way your team operates. And what we've done in the US has shown great success. So why change it? It's not broken. Yes, we've struggled, but, you know, in reality, it's just we need to tweak a few things, and it's going to be right back on. And these last two years have gotten so much better as a team with this structure that we have that we can't change it. We got to keep going and trusting this process.
BEN WATERWORTH: I definitely want to touch on that in the lead up to sort of where we're tracking for Beijing, but just quickly, Sochi, Pyeongchang, you know, how do you reflect sort of back on those? I mean, do you kind of look at them differently, like was 2014 going into it as a world championship, bronze medallist, a different mood to say going into Pyeongchang when it was a little bit farther removed? I mean, kind of how do you reflect on your subsequent two Olympic appearances?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Change. What I just said, we changed. We got rid of a jump coach that had brought tons of success going into 2014, hired a German and it ruined everything. Sochi was a disaster. The whole year was a disaster for me. So I was really disappointed going into the following years. I kind of felt like I was in, to say it frankly, a shithole. I was struggling with competition on the jumping side. Wasn't racing as well as I wanted to. I did somehow manage to get some really good results on World Cup, a third place in 2015 in Sapporo. So, you know, it's very tough. Personally, I went through a lot. My brother and I had a pretty rough time. You know, going into 2018, I knew I was going to lose my father. I was distracted. I had a girlfriend that I thought I was going to marry. You know, I was getting pulled in different directions. Did I think I was giving everything to the sport? Absolutely. Was I? Probably not. But in reality, I was pissed off. You know, we had such high expectations going into 2016, 2017, 2018, and we fell short of pretty much all of them. And as a veteran athlete looking back on those, it pisses me off because we could have been much, much better. We had a young, hungry team that was talented, and we failed to perform like we could have. That being said, I mean, we... Well, in 2014, after the Olympics, we lost all of our funding from US. Ski and Snowboarding. And so we went essentially from an $800,000 to a million-dollar budget to $40,000 to support Brian and I. And you can't do anything with that. So we became part-time fundraisers, part-time athletes. You know, I had to find a job. It was brutal. And even though I was fully supported, and I was on the A-Team back then, you know, it was clear something wasn't right. And I honestly, I think we worked 10 times harder than any other country out there for results that, to me, were nothing close to what I was capable of. And that's brutal to think about, you know, the success that we've had to where we were and what we've had to build to have that success is tough.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's insane to think that, going back to Vancouver and how groundbreaking that was, that four years, five years later, that you're kind of at those depths. I mean, as an athlete, talking to all the personal struggles and everything, how do you maintain that passion to want to keep going in the sport?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Thank you for. Because it's not, I mean, when you're a top level athlete, and that doubt creeps into your mind, you start to think about the past. And when that started to set into me, I asked myself, why am I still doing this sport? You know, what have you done with your life? And what, you know, what do you enjoy about it? And for me, it's going back as far as being six, seven years old, and my mum having to come down to Howlison and get out of a car, walk around the resort, trying to find me because I was having so much fun, you know, cross country skiing on Howlison Hill, freezing my ass off on a daily basis, to her, you know, having to pull me by my ear, essentially to get me into the car so she can take me home to feed me dinner. That's what keeps me in the sport. And that's what's keeping me in the sport up until this point is I fucking love Nordic combined. And it's a passion of mine. I've got to travel the world pretty much for free for the last 15 years. And you can't replace that. Yes, do I wish I would have gone to college and gotten a college degree at a younger age and gone to high school parties? Yeah, it would have been fun, but it's not fulfilling. What I've been able to do in my sport is extremely fulfilling, extremely gratifying. And I wouldn't replace a single minute of those struggles, those struggles for anything else. It's absolutely amazing, the life that I've lived. And I wanna be able to take what I've done, pass that on to future generations so that they have that same opportunity to dream of winning an Olympic medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've just found then too to add to what you're just saying, a great merchandising opportunity for you, Taylor. I wanna see the t-shirts that say, I fucking love Nordic Combined. There's your inlet into some Nordic Combined merchandise to sell people to the spot, because they would sell well. I'd wear one of those t-shirts every single day.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, no, I'll get right on that, because I think it's so true. We have, let me see, hold on one sec.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, we like some props on this show. I'm excited.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: So this came out in 2013.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice, yep. Okay, our audio listeners, it's a bald eagle that says the words America on it right now. It's a standardised American shirt.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: You have a Nordic Combined on the side.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's beautiful.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: You can barely see it now. Let me get it in there.
BEN WATERWORTH: The only country that could birth a team this tough. Ah, yes. Awesome. Love it.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: This shirt's probably, you know, we're going on 10 years old now. Somehow it survived the thousands of washes that I've had on it, but it's true. It's really, really true in the fact that the US. Norwood Combine is a fucking tough team and puts their heart and soul into the sport because the chances of us getting rich from Norwood Combine are practically zero. Can we sustain a healthy living situation? Yes, but we're not gonna be the Michael Phelps that makes millions of dollars because the sport's just not there yet in this country. It comes every four years where it gets popular if you have those results, but we do this sport because of the passion, the joy, the fun that we have. And I've gotten into it with teammates. They're like, oh, so success isn't about victories. Success is fucking having a good time and loving what you're doing, feeling accomplished. And for me, it's all about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: It comes to that level where you're saying about, it comes around every four years. I mean, I could imagine that Bill's an Olympic champion, but I don't imagine he walks down the street in a big city in the US and is getting recognised. You're like, oh my God, your Olympic champion, Piel Dumont, it's maybe in certain parts of the country. But I mean, that's kind of that level, I guess that sport has that recognition. Like he's not Michael, he's not Lindsey Vonn. Like he's not getting that recognition that some athletes would.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, and you know, honestly, I think we like that. You know, the fact that we can live lives and we're not in the spotlight. I mean, there was that documentary, The Weight of Gold with Michael Phelps and Apollo, Anton Ohno and all those Olympic champions. The pressure that's put on you when you're a high level athlete in the spotlight of the American Olympics is huge. We've just seen it with Simone Biles. I mean, it's insane to think, you know, that can happen. Whereas, you know, for us, we're able to go out and train on a daily basis. And people know who we are, but they're not, you know, brushing us for autographs. They're not trying to take our photos. You know, we can live a life that is peaceful. I love it. You know, I mean, I don't think half my neighbours know that I'm an Olympic athlete. You know, I've gotten to know a lot of my neighbours that, you know, they ask, oh, what do you do? I'm on the national team for skiing. Oh, have you been to the Olympics? Yeah. But that's the fault of the US is, you know, I could talk for hours about this, but people think, oh, you're an Olympian, you're a millionaire. Hell, I don't think I've made more than a base salary my entire career. The most I ever made was like $30,000 in a year on prize money and sponsorships and working a job where, you know, some of those Olympians, they come home with God knows how much money. And yet, you know, I would say our life and what we've done is amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%. I mean, that's one of the best things I always like talking about in this show is with our guests, it is that level of you're an Olympian, you're rich, you know, like straight away, you've kind of you equate it to that. You're you're playing like, you know, in the NBA or something like that, where you're on these big, big salaries. But as we're obviously talking about, like a lot of the time, you just you're fundraising to a point, you're working jobs still. And like it's sort of it's weird for some people to fathom that in this big day and age of professional sports, where rarely do you see athletes working jobs as well as competing, that there are still people out there who are having to do that for the love of their sport.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I mean, I started having a job the very first year that I moved to Park City so I could support rent, buy groceries, pay for gas. I've had a job ever since I was 12 years old, in some sense, mowing lawns, working in restaurants, working at a sports store and steamboat. I've had to make ends meet because my family wasn't loaded. My mum paid for my brother and I to go through the Winter Sports Club, which can be $30,000 a year, at least. So a lot of us grow up with the sense that, hey, if I'm going to make it, we've got to bust our ass to financially afford, even though we're a cheap sport compared to Alpine. But in the same sense, we're going to learn to appreciate the work that we put in to be able to, you know, when we have those results, to enjoy them. And, you know, say, hey, I've done something incredibly special. I'm going to cherish this moment for a long time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Speaking of cherishing that moment, obviously, we're very close to Beijing. Time of recording this, as we said, 100 days out. How are you tracking right now? Kind of what's the process between now and Beijing to get you to a fourth Olympics? And how are you feeling ahead of that possibility?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: So I want to take another step back. You know, we talked about the process going into Pyeongchang. Those years sucked. They were great in one sense. I had a beautiful girlfriend that I loved, but they were terrible as my father was dying. My stepfather got into a bike crash, was almost killed and nearly paralysed. And then shortly after that, that girl, you know, stepped out of my life. So I was in turmoil. So, you know, I looked at what I was doing and said, I need to make it change. And I got a job, I was a sports performance trainer at my current job at Athletic Republic. We train the youth athletes. And I looked at what I was doing in the sport and said, I need to have fun. I need to enjoy what I'm doing. The results will come, but you need to find that enjoyment first. And I started to find that, you know. I lost my father in September of 2018. And I was able to, you know, ski that year in memory of him, have fun doing it. So that would have been the winner of 2018, 2019. And then I was gonna retire. And I sat down and was like, I'm having way too much fun. I gotta keep doing this. And four years down the road, I'm still here. And, you know, I've made some pretty big changes in the last couple of years, you know, especially as this pandemic hit. My role as a trainer changed into marketing and sales with the same company. So I work 40 hours a week. I have, you know, a career that's starting to actually go in the direction that I really wanted to. And I'm going through the right motions and trusting this plan, trusting what my coaches have to say, and taking each day by day and building that into each week. And, you know, we're counting backwards from the Olympics to where we are now. And I would say we're in the right direction. I mean, this team that we have now is so much better than it was two, three years ago. You know, we've got Ben Loomis and Jasper Good, who are not only, you know, some of the older athletes on the team, you know, they're still young compared to me, but they're the part of the National Guard. They took kind of a jump to find that freedom and that support to be able to do this. And they're having huge success now in the training, and they're actually making these gains that, you know, back in 2010, when we got on the team, were almost automatic. And we've had to work our asses off to get to them. But, you know, if I look at any team, okay, we're not having those World Cup wins and podiums like we used to. But the progress that we're having is some of the best I've seen in a long time. Yes, there's athletes that make insane strides year after year, but not a single one of those teams went from a million dollars plus in a budget to, you know, $40,000. So I think you're going to see some good success from USA Nordic this winter, and you're going to see quite a bit of, you know, fun hand by our team. You know, we have such a good commodity with our teammates and our organisation that it's hard to beat.
BEN WATERWORTH: So we've got a sniff at looking at you guys to add to those four medals from Vancouver. Is that a realistic possibility that you can look at thinking that you could podium in Beijing?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I think it's very possible. I think it's... Is it an automatic by any means? No. But looking at myself, for instance, one of the strongest skiers on the circuit, if I have a good jump, I'm in that fight. Yes, there's a lot of things that need to happen. I need to fix some... The weight needs to be lighter. The in-run needs to be better. My power on the ski jump needs to be a little bit better. Those have gotten better through the year. I just got done with the training camp the last couple of weeks where it was some of the best jumps I've had in six years. So is it a likelihood that it's going to happen? No. But is there a good chance that we could come away with some pretty damn good results at the Olympics? Absolutely. And you have to have that belief in order to even come close. And I think our team has it. Anything is possible at the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%. Absolutely. That's why we love them. That's why we love them. We've got the show talking about them, right? We like to just discuss that. Taylor, we like to wrap up with a set of questions, sort of fun, get to know you sort of questions. Before I get to that, you and I were having a bit of a discussion off air in regards to the sport in my country of Australia. Hal Nadal competed in 1960. I only have a Nordic combined athlete, but you mentioned something to me which got me intrigued. You mentioned something about looking at trying to start something in Australia. You've looked at that. Like, give me an idea of what you were looking at and what can be done in a country like Australia, which obviously we don't have the ski jumping facilities, things like that that can maybe do to entice people to get into the sport of Nordic combined.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Well, I mean, we... So, we had Greg Poirier, was one of my coaches. He got approached about starting it. Is it Falls Creek?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, Falls Creek, yep.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: So, he went down there during your winter and built a little ski jump out of the snow and got kids to try it. And so, that's when Ben Sim came along and, you know, an Olympic cross country athlete and said, hey, let's give this a shot. And so, we, you know, we took him in and he trained daily with us here in Park City. We taught him how to ski jump. We got him on up to the K-90. And, you know, if he was going to make the Olympics, he was going to have to make some big steps. But, you know, we looked at this as an opportunity to kind of develop a sport in the country and help grow the sport. You know, we are a very small sport. In order for it to grow and become a mainstay sport, more countries need to be doing it. You know, we are very localised because, you know, you have 20 countries that do it, whereas, you know, hundreds of countries do cycling. You know, they play soccer, tennis, everything. So we looked at this as an opportunity to try to make a claim to the world as, hey, let's help develop this sport. And so other kids can have the same joy and experience that we've had. And, you know, I think it's only for the good to share this with the world, because yes, it's a hard sport, but it's a damn cool sport that allows you to do a lot of cool things and makes you one of the best athletes in the world. I'm going to say, you know, firsthand, that I think Nordic combined athletes are some of the most skilled athletes out of anybody. Mm-hmm. You know, you look at a lot of endurance athletes, they can't jump.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: You know, you look at, you know, other sports, they're limited to the skills that are involved in their sport. You know, everybody on our team is good at many, many sports, whether it's cycling or tennis or golf or, you know, whatever you name, they find this skill because we're able to do so much and we're not so singularly focused that we're able to actually, you know, build.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's just fascinating. As I said at the beginning, like I love these sports that combine sports that you don't necessarily equate. I mean, it's, you know, the decathlon, the heptathlon are great, but I mean, they're all track and field events, right? Whereas, you know, it's kind of a little bit different. Is there such an event? Because I used to always think growing up that Nordic Combine was actually ski jumping and biathlon so that you kind of almost had three sports. Is there a Nordic Combine that adds the shooting element from biathlon as well? Is that a thing?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, that's not a thing. That's a, I mean, everyone thinks Nordic Combine is ski jumping and or is biathlon skiing and shooting. But yeah, there's no, you know, triple Nordic Combine event. I think it would be cool. Jump, then race after five targets. I think that would be thrilling, but that's never, never, I don't know if I've ever heard that. So you might be onto something there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Maybe. Well, we sell on this show that, you know, to streamline Nordic Combine, let's have you guys ski. And then instead of like stopping and, oh, we'll do the ski jump later, like do it all in once. Like you go for your 10K, then as you get to the finish line, you've got to quickly strap on the ski jump, go down into the stadium.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I don't think you'd fly very far. I don't think you'd fly very far with cross-country skis on.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've got your ski jumping skis ready to go, though.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: And then I think if you tried to do the cross-country on jumping equipment, you'd look more like a person that puts their, what are they called, your flippers from like snorkelling, and you're trying to walk out into the water with them on. You know, it doesn't work. I think the way our sport is right now is the way it should be, but I'm all for getting more people into the sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%. And don't give up on Australia. Can I just say that? I mean, the way winter sports has grown in this country, I mean, 30 years ago, we'd never won a medal. And it was still just such, I mean, barely any coverage on TV. Now we go into every winter games with the expectations that we're going to win medals. And honestly, our media rips into our athletes. If we only win a bronze and a silver, it's like, well, come on. Like, that's an amazing achievement for Australia at a winter games. This is not to be frowned upon. So the growth of Nordic combined can happen in this country. So I think stick to it.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I mean, I think we should, you know, I don't know what's been done in the last couple of years, but I think it's worth kind of re-igniting that fuel, because I think there's opportunities there.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%, 100%. As I said, Taylor, we like to close off with some fun, get to know your questions. As always, these are based on a questionnaire that Team Canada gave their athletes ahead of Rio and Pyeongchang. Just some randomness to get to know you. And I'm going to start off by asking you what your favourite ever Olympic moment is.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Probably my first... I would say the fact that in Vancouver, I competed in ski jumping and Nordic combined. I think that's pretty cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: So you did both. You actually were in ski jumping as well. Is that common to a lot of Nordic combined athletes do that?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, it doesn't happen very often. And I don't think it will happen very much more. But I think that's up there, as well as the fact that both Billy DeMong and Todd Lottowich carried the USA flag into the stadiums in both the closing and the opening ceremonies, two Olympics in a row.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fantastic. That's good exposure right there, to kind of have that kind of going that fantastic. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Fly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fly. That would help. We're discovering that a lot with ski jumpers, and it would help you a lot kind of in that, you know, the ski jumping discipline, right?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Fly or... I'm going to say heel.
BEN WATERWORTH: Heel, yes. That would be very handy. You know, those injuries.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yes, I think there's a lot of that in the world right now, and I think that would be pretty damn cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. You might be the first person to ever answer that. That's a standard one that I think should be answered more. Your favourite sports movie is?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Cool Running is up there, but I'm going to say favourite TV show right now, sports TV show would be Ted Lasso. Yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm ashamed to admit I haven't quite watched yet, but I'm dying to watch it because I just hear nothing but good things about it.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Oh, it's incredible. I mean, talk about a good actor and a bunch of good actors, and then one of those scenarios where it's like, what the hell is going on? And it produces some great content.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it a weird aspect too where it can grow the sport of soccer in the US, like in a weird way, even though it's obviously done for entertainment?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I think it will. I mean, I think you go back to say there's no such bad thing as publicity. I think you see right away that I think this is going to help grow soccer in the US, but also around the world.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is, I mean, it's a legitimate thing when it comes to say the sport of ice hockey in Australia. I got into the sport because of the Mighty Ducks movies and our only Australian NHL player. He got into it as well because he loved the Mighty Ducks movies. I want to try this sport. So it is kind of is that flow on effect that it kind of I'm sure. And we talked a bit on this with our ski jumpers at Eddie the Eagle. You know, it's it's fictionalised version of real events. But like at the same time, it can help people get exposed to a sport, which they might not be familiar with.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Absolutely, I would agree 100 percent.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a Nordic combined movie like or a documentary or something like that?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, not really. Yeah, no, not that I know of. I mean, there's been some documentaries done on on Nordic combined because it's it's cool. But, you know, sadly, I can't name those. I'm not really sure about those.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we keep mentioning when it comes to ski jumping that in the James Bond movie, if your eyes only he ski jumps, but also that involves a ski chase. So technically you could say James Bond did Nordic combined in that movie.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: You could open up with the agony of defeat with the ski jumper crashing in the in run. Yeah, but yeah, that's I mean, there's not much on Nordic combined.
BEN WATERWORTH: We'll make it happen. Once our Australian program gets up and running and there'll be the movie version, you know, like the adversity that the Australians had to overcome to get into Nordic combined. And there was Taylor Fletcher helping them along the way. You'll be played by Hugh Jackman probably or something like that. Just goes into it that way. Get some royalties from that, hopefully. Your favourite pump up song is?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Enter Sandman by Metallica. I've always loved Metallica. I think that's a good one. But really any song, I mean, I listen to so much different types of music. I have a song right now that I've been listening to by this Italian composer, Ludo Veccio, who's naughty, called Experience. And the amount of stuff that I get done while listening to that song is insane. So really what's in the moment for me is the best pump up song. Yeah, there are certain ones out there that really resonate with me, but I would say I'm pretty universal. I can listen to anything.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great, great. I just want to listen to Metallica now. It's been a while since I've listened to Antisam Man, so great, great song. You kind of just answered this question. The most recent TV show that you binge watched is?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Ted Lasso.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ted Lasso, there you go.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: One week, and I got everything done.
BEN WATERWORTH: Your least favourite food? I always like this. Rather than your favourite food, your least favourite food?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Shrimp.
BEN WATERWORTH: Shrimp, ah, right, okay.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I hate it so much that I've developed an allergy to it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, okay, nice. Australia, shrimp on the barbie, just not into that?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Nope, no, I will not touch shrimp. My teammates give me crap for it, and I will not touch it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I guess that's the one benefit of being in Utah, right, and being from Colorado, that you're not going to bump into many shrimp places, because it's got to come a little bit far to get to you, right?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Correct, yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you weren't an athlete, what would you be?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Uh, probably not here. Um, that's a hard one, because athletics is all I've ever known, and, and, you know, it's been my entire life. But, uh, if I wasn't an athlete, I would be a very brilliant scholar, you know, goes through school, you know, does really well, goes to college, does really well. I think that's, you know, something that you need to strive for.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. I like that answer. Your favourite vacation spot is?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Um, I went to Costa Rica a while ago, as well as Hawaii. I'm going to say those two.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: The place that I wanted to go for a long time, would be either Thailand or Japan for alpine skiing in February.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. Well, I mean, Beijing, you're kind of close, so I don't know how the competition schedules work either side. So if you get a chance, it's just, it's just there. You can kind of make a little trip over there. People, what's a word that people usually describe you as? Competitive.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Competitive, but also extremely nice. You know, I challenge every aspect of my life to be better. And I think that rubs off on the people in both good ways and bad ways. I'm also the type of person that will try to help you in any way possible. And I think that can go both ways. People get annoyed of it. People love it and are thankful for it. But overall, I'd say easygoing as well, because I'm able to see everything from many viewpoints, which I think is important.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, back on that notion of saying, you wouldn't fit well in Australia with a shrimp on the barbie, the easygoing thing, you would fit very well in Australia. So that kind of balances that side of it.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I'll blend in. I don't have very much of an Australian accent. If I do try to talk in an Australian accent, it's probably British.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: So, I mean, I'll stick out, but I think I could have fun there.
BEN WATERWORTH: The saying is always, if you say the words, rise up lights, it sounds like you're saying razor blades in an Australian accent. So, if you ever want to just purely go for that Australian accent, rise up lights, you're saying razor blades in an Australian accent. So, use that at your next party, Taylor. Final one for you today. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Hamburgers and I would say gummy candies.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ooh, nice. Good one. I like that. Going to Europlot, you'd get the good gummy candies, right? Like that's where you want to go to Germany and get the proper ones in places like that.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: No, once I pick up a bag, I can't put it down. But yeah, actually, I'm gonna delete both of those, and I'm gonna say sleep.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, yes. Everyone needs it, right? We all need-
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Everyone needs it, but I get more sleep than most people. I think I can sleep anywhere, anytime, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, that would be- I'm jealous. Very, very jealous. Taylor, before we let you go, if people wanna follow your journey between now and Beijing, and kind of see what you're up to, social media, anywhere that people can sort of check you out?
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Yeah, I'm on pretty much every platform. Instagram at tfletchernordic, same on Twitter, I've got a Facebook athlete page, that's tfletch13. And that's about it. I mean, give me a follow. Would love to interact with anyone. It's something that I've loved doing and sharing my story. So hit me up. Don't be afraid to ask questions, so would love to chat.
BEN WATERWORTH: And let's get those t-shirts rolling. I fucking love Nordic Combined t-shirts. Coming soon, right? We want to see them.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: I might honestly get on that tomorrow, because I think it's great.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you hit me up. As soon as you got them, go, I'll be the first person to buy one. So you got your first customer already. Taylor, great pleasure to chat with you today, mate. Best of luck. We will keep an eye on how everything goes and bring home the medal in Beijing. We're saying it right now. It's back to the podium for US Nordic when it comes to the Olympics. We look forward to seeing it.
TAYLOR FLETCHER: Thank you. You guys have a good one.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks there to Taylor. Such an honest and open chat, really got a lot out of that. And as always, if you want to watch the video of that interview available on our YouTube channel, search for Off The Podium on YouTube, and you can watch that one there as well. And I am gonna wear the shit out of I fucking love Nordic Combined T-shirt if that happens. So I look forward to it, Taylor. I'll be wearing that every day during Beijing, basically, to drum up my support. Support for the sport, the support for the sport. There you go, that works. Got some more great athlete interviews coming your way as we get closer and closer to Beijing. The best way to stay in touch with all of these episodes. We're on social media, of course, all good podcast platforms. Search for Off The Podium. Mash that subscribe button and stay up to date. Send us a message. We'd love to hear what you're thinking of the show and what you're thinking of our guests and everything else in between. We always love hearing from you. We read every message and we always generally reply. So there you go if you wanna shoot us something through there. And yes, very excited for Beijing. We're getting so close right now. You're hearing us every single bloody day. You're gonna be really almost getting sick of our voices, which let's be honest is not really a bad thing. So stay tuned here to Off The Podium because you won't wanna miss a single beat as we get closer and closer to the Olympics. My name is Ben. Thanks again to Taylor. Special shout out as always to Jason Momoa. And also as always, remember, go left.
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