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Olympian Lucy Davis on Ambition and Burnout

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 17: Lucy Davis of United States rides Barron during the Jumping Team Round 2 during Day 12 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Equestrian Centre on August 17, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Lucy Davis is a show jumping competitor who, as part of the US Show Jumping Team, took home silver at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about the dedication required to compete at the highest level and how she overcame her own post-Olympics burnout.

I know this is a dumb question, but how do you get a rookie horse to jump over its first obstacle? And what does training look like from there?

You just kind of point and shoot. I mean, they’re natural. They’re literally bred to be jumpers like thoroughbreds are bred for speed and lightness. Jumpers are also bred for lightness, but more so in terms of agility. And then each breed has their sort of build, and they start jumping when they’re four or five and then you just continue to refine all of the technical aspects. As a rider, your goal is to be able to go forwards, backwards, left and right, in an instant. So you just have to keep refining what we call a horse’s rideability. Each jump on a course is set in a specific way, so your ability to adjust and to communicate with the horse is paramount. And that comes over years of working with them.

What, in your mind, separates the elite riders from the merely good? Is it preparation, relationship with the horse, ability to adapt?

I think all of the above. What’s beautiful about our sport, and what may be puzzling to outside audiences, is that you have a pretty diverse set of top riders. It’s men and women. At the Olympics, I was the only person on the podium in their twenties. The majority were in their thirties and forties, and some in their fifties. So there’s no kind of body type or age or anything that determines your prime. It’s definitely about experience and the bond between specific horses. And I think what separates the really good riders from the kind of Olympic riders is the mental aspect. You basically have two minutes where you can’t make a mistake. You make a mistake, you have a rail, you’re done, you’re out. But even then, you have to keep fighting to not have more rails because every one counts. But that ability to hyper-focus needs to be refined over time. Some people have more of a natural feel with the horses, and if those people work hard and also have the mental game, they are usually elite.

When did you realize that horses were going to be a big part of your life? 

Before I could walk. My mom would take me to the barn and put me on a horse, and I guess when she would try to make me leave the barn, I would start screaming. So I was definitely a crazy little pony girl from the beginning. It’s all I wanted to do. I tried to convince her to do homeschool and just grind, but thankfully she didn’t let me do that.

What do you think has specifically allowed you to be so successful at such a young age? 

I think I grew up a little bit differently than a lot of young riders, at least in the US. Being in California, we have our own sort of rogue circuit. And I was always a tenacious child competitor. My mom used to have this thing that she made up called the sportsmanship award, and if at the end of the weekend, I was a good sport, she would get me like a pair of cool socks or something else that was pretty random and insignificant. But it was enough where I was like, Oh, I want those socks. I have to be nice even if I don’t win. But I was definitely pretty competitive. And then, I had a series of “right place at the right time” moments, where I got to work with one of the best trainers in the world, Markus Beerbaum. Starting at age 17, I had a wonderful mentorship there. And I got lucky with Barron [Davis’ horse at the 2016 Olympics], who basically took me from being competitive with good horses to having a horse that could actually do the things that I dreamed of doing. That kind of kicked everything into gear for me.

The stars definitely have to align, but there’s a certain point where it’s like everybody has goals. And everybody has setbacks on the way to those goals. I think I just tried to keep a really open mind about those setbacks and get creative about them and use them not as setbacks but as different avenues to get to where I wanted. A lot of people get really hung up on the pressure, but I’m kind of good at hermitting and closing that off. There was a lot of sweat and blood and tears behind the scenes, but that’s another one of those things where every athlete has to make sacrifices. I commuted weekly from Stanford to compete. In the summer, I was living in the middle of nowhere, Germany, biking to the barn in the rain every day. All those moments compiled into something.

What surprised you the most about your experience in Rio?

Um, how many people came to equestrian? [Laughs.] It was awesome, because we’re obviously not as mainstream as other sports, but actually within Brazil, there’s a huge part of Brazilian culture, and particularly within the military, that’s into equestrian. The facility itself was out on the edge of a military base in Rio, so we had all of these families and people that have grown up riding or have done it through military training come out. The crowds were awesome. But so was the whole experience. I always tell people that, I feel like anything you dream about or talk about for four years, once it happens is always kind of a letdown. And this was the only time in my life when the experience totally lived up to and surpassed expectations. There was definitely some fear beforehand that that wouldn’t be the case. Because I’ve been obsessed with going to the Olympics since I was six years old. So there was some panic, like, what if it’s not cool? But there’s this energy everywhere that comes from having so many athletes be in the same boat. There’s a camaraderie, and everybody is so in the zone. It’s inspiring.

You’ve talked elsewhere about experiencing burnout after the games. What was that like? 

Yeah, I had a full on crisis. Like I said, the Olympics had been my dream since I was six years old. They were always my goal. Everything I did was somehow dictated by that. Every morning before class I went to the barn to ride. Every morning I was in Germany I biked to the barn in the rain, even though I could get a ride, because I told myself if I take any shortcuts, I’m not going to get to where I need to go. There were so many small things like that where you beat yourself up. And you never think about what happens after you reach your goal. After the Olympics, I took a month off to celebrate, and then I went straight back to work. I was in Holland. It was November and starting to get cold. I was living in another small town with no family or friends outside of the people I rode with. And it was kind of, well, okay, I reached my goal. So what am I working towards now?

I’m a very goal oriented person, and at that time I just didn’t have a direction. It was the first time I had thoughts about other things I could be doing with my life, especially seeing what other friends were doing after school. And then all my stuff got stolen, which led to everything just hitting all at once. I had a full blown kind of meltdown, which led me to come back to the States. It was a very dark sort of year, honestly, but ultimately, it was one of those things where I thought good, I had that meltdown, I got over it. And as I started competing again I realized that I still had the motivation to ride. I realized that I actually love doing what I’m doing and I desperately want to go to Tokyo. I want to keep building the Pony App and continue to design my life around horses because at the end of the day I can’t give that up. And now we’re here.

Do you think those were realizations you could have come to without the meltdown, or was that a prerequisite for some of these larger insights? 

Oh no, that was definitely a prerequisite. I mean… we don’t have a season. Equestrian is all year round. It’s every weekend in non-coronavirus times. You’re kind of constantly hustling to build new mounts to get to their peak, and then you’re bringing up the other ones. You’re building a kind of portfolio, basically, and it’s sort of nonstop, and you’re traveling around, until one day you wake up and you’ve been, you know, running the rat race.

I think that pause allowed me to appreciate why I got into it in the first place, and why I was going to continue to do it for the time being. It let me focus on, okay, maybe other than Tokyo, I don’t have my next big, life’s-mission goal. But that’s okay. When I was in college, I was so hyper-focused and goal driven, and just kind of irrationally obsessed with making the Olympics. They were like the rings in the Lord of the Rings. They had this power over me where everything I did was focused on that goal. Now there’s this sort of mourning and admiring of my past self, as well as just accepting that I have different and other priorities. I still want some of the same things, like to go to the Olympics, but I know I can go about it differently and not let it consume me.

What does a typical day of training look like now and how will that change as we approach the 2021 Olympics?

Now I ride about five horses a day, right in the morning. And then usually in the afternoon or evening I do some kind of supplement training. Biking, running, various exercises that are riding related. Leading up to the Olympics, it’ll be a lot more preparation for competitions and trials, which involves a lot more jumping and our version of scrimmaging, where you’re doing practice rounds to simulate competition.

Do you think, generally speaking, athletes experience less doubt regarding their life trajectory or that they’re simply better trained to persevere through doubt? 

I’d like to think the latter. What’s nice about this sort of training program, the competition schedule and the goal setting is that you impose a structure on your life that just permeates into other areas, so that when things go wrong, you have a structure and an idea of where you want to go. It’s a lot easier to deal with those setbacks as exciting challenges, rather than thinking like, Oh my God, this is a sign, or some kind of horrible diversion.

At this point in your career, how do you measure improvement? 

Mmm, that’s a hard one. I think with horses we’re lucky because each new horse brings sort of a new adventure and a new challenge. So if I’m working with a younger horse and introducing them into the top level, and they go and have a clear round and I place sixth, I’ll be ecstatic. Whereas if I did the same competition with Barron, that result would be a letdown. I think setting horse-specific tasks allows you to be happy with small wins, because the number of clear rounds, and the number of wins for even the number one rider in the world, is much lower than the number of times you hit a rail or don’t win. So if you’re just focused on winning all the time, you’re really setting yourself up for unhappiness.

Pro Women’s Lacrosse League Debuts at WLL Championship Series

A promotional graphic for the WLL Championship Series.
The WLL played its first-ever pro games at this week's Lexus Championship Series. (ESPN)

The brand-new professional Women's Lacrosse League (WLL) made its official debut this week just outside of Washington, DC, where its first-ever game saw the New York Charging take down the Maryland Charm 14-13 in the WLL Championship Series.

After the inaugural Tuesday result, the action continued on Wednesday, when the California Palms opened their WLL account by getting the better of the Boston Guard in a tight 16-15 matchup.

Founded and run by the Premier Lacrosse League, the WLL fosters top-level competition as the sport gears up for its 2028 Olympic return.

The four-team WLL Championship Series follows an Olympic-style "sixes" format. Unlike traditional lacrosse, which uses a larger pitch and 10 athletes per team, sixes employs a condensed field with six players per side.

In the Championship Series, teams are first competing in three round-robin games to determine semifinal seedings. The tournament will culminate with the knockout semifinal and final rounds on Sunday and Monday, respectively.

Team USA lacrosse star Charlotte North gestures during a 2022 World Championship game.
Team USA star Charlotte North competes for the WLL's Boston Guard. (Ryan Hunt/Getty Images)

WLL looks to level up lacrosse ahead of 2028 Olympics

Despite the competition's quick turnaround, the WLL represents a growing professionalization movement in women's lacrosse — with all involved betting big on the sport's Olympic success in LA.

When lacrosse steps back onto the Olympic stage in 2028, it will have been 80 years since its last 1948 outing — and even then, it was merely a demonstration event. The last time the sport earned medals was in 1908.

Furthermore, the sport's entire Olympic history rests in the men's game — 2028 will see women take the Olympic lacrosse pitch for the first time ever.

"We are honored to be a part of the WLL, and we couldn't be more excited to bring this game to the fans in new ways than ever before," said Boston Guard star Charlotte North in a league statement.

"We firmly believe that this is the beginning of what will be a monumental movement in the game of professional women's lacrosse, and for female athletes around the globe.... It's our time."

Former Northwestern lacrosse star Izzy Scane shoots the ball during an NCAA game.
Izzy Scane, the NCAA DI lacrosse career scoring leader, plays for the New York Charging. (Greg Fiume/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

How to watch the WLL Championship Series

The tournament's round-robin play continues with the Maryland Charm facing off against the Boston guard at 9 PM ET on Thursday, before the California Palms contend with the New York Charging at 6 PM ET on Friday.

All WLL Championship Series games will stream live on ESPN+, with Sunday's and Monday's knockout rounds airing live on ESPN2.

Indiana Fever Rev Roster Ahead of 2025 WNBA Season

Fever forward Katie Lou Samuelson dribbles the ball during a 2024 WNBA game.
Indiana is buying out Katie Lou Samuelson's contract as the Fever reconfigures their roster. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

The Indiana Fever continued upending their roster this week, with the WNBA franchise announcing the departures of both forward Katie Lou Samuelson and guard Erica Wheeler.

First, the team agreed to a contract buyout with Samuelson on Monday. The 27-year-old was on track to enter the final season of her two-year contract with the Fever, on a guaranteed $180,250 salary for 2025.

Indiana reportedly acquiesced to a $106,419 buyout — allowing the franchise just enough leftover funds to sign one additional veteran to a minimum contract. At the same time, that buyout ensures that Samuelson — who will officially become a free agent next week after the requisite five days on the wire — will be made whole even if she inks a minimum contract elsewhere.

Then on Wednesday, the Fever cleared up more space on their roster as free agent Wheeler opted to join Seattle.

Indiana Fever players DeWanna Bonner, Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull, and Caitlin Clark attend an NBA game.
DeWanna Bonner, Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull, and Caitlin Clark are central to the 2025 Fever roster. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

Fever aims for the ultimate WNBA prize with refreshed roster

Indiana as been cleaning house this offseason, from sending their 2022 No. 2 draft pick NaLyssa Smith to the Dallas Wings two weeks ago to this week's departures.

Exits aren't the only changes to the Fever's lineup, however. In the last few weeks, the team has successfully re-signed guard Kelsey Mitchell and traded for guard Sophie Cunningham while also stocking up on top veteran talent in free agents DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard, and Sydney Colson.

The moves are part of Indiana's plan to make a major playoff push in 2025, revamping their roster to build off their 2024 playoff appearance — the team's first since 2016.

With a pair of WNBA Rookies of the Year in Caitlin Clark (2024) and Aliyah Boston (2023) forming the team's young core, the Fever are building a tested veteran shield primed for the challenge of a deep postseason run — which can sometimes spell growing pains both on and off the court as fans and players alike grow accustomed to the rejiggered lineup.

That said, Clark is focusing on the fun part of smoothing out the Fever's new-look roster, saying "I think it will be a lot of fun to get in the gym and be with my teammates and just start putting the pieces together and see what works or what doesn't... I think that's what's super exciting."

"The next few years are gonna be amazing for this franchise and will continue to be for hopefully 10-plus years," she continued.

"Hopefully we win a few championships. They’re investing to help us be really good."

UCLA Faces USC in Big Ten Title Race Headliner

USC's JuJu Watkins lines up a free throw during a Big Ten basketball game.
Juju Watkins and the Trojans will play No. 1 UCLA twice in their final five regular season games. (John Fisher/Getty Images)

With less than three weeks left in NCAA basketball regular-season play, the final games will determine the winner of the Big Ten — a title that's increasingly likely to land in Los Angeles.

Already sitting atop their conference compatriots by at least two wins, No. 1 UCLA and No. 6 USC will meet for the first of two season clashes on Thursday, before closing out NCAA play against each other on March 1st.

The crosstown rivals are vying for a first-ever Big Ten regular-season title after joining the historically Midwest conference in 2024.

The games will feature two of the sport's biggest stars, as USC sophomore JuJu Watkins and UCLA junior Lauren Betts square off for the first time since their 2024 Pac-12 Tournament semifinal, when the eventual champion Trojans needed two overtime periods to outlast the Bruins.

This season, however, UCLA has an slight advantage over the Trojans. While the Bruins remain the only unbeaten Division I team left standing, USC has two defeats on their 2024/25 record, including a lone conference loss to unranked Iowa in early February.

That said, a Thursday home win would pull the Trojans even with UCLA at 11-1 on the Big Ten table, setting up a photo finish with the coveted No. 1 seed in March's conference tournament on the line.

"[UCLA is] a team that clearly has it clicking right now," USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb told ESPN. "We know there'll be a lot of pride on the line."

UCLA's Lauren Betts slaps her teammates hands as she enters the court for a Big Ten basketball game.
UCLA's Lauren Betts was named to both major NCAA Player of the Year Award lists. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

NCAA National Player of the Year race heats up

Watkins and Betts aren't just making moves on the court this week. Both stars also made the John R. Wooden Award's 20-player late midseason watch list, which spotlights the athletes on track to vie for this season's overall best college basketball player honor.

Along with the SoCal standouts, Tuesday's list included Notre Dame guards Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, Texas sophomore Madison Booker, LSU stars Aneesah Morrow and Flau'jae Johnson, and UConn senior Paige Bueckers, who became the award's first-ever freshman winner back in 2021.

Notably, a pair of true freshmen could follow in Bueckers' footsteps, with both fellow Husky Sarah Strong and Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes earning nods.

Though unlisted players remain eligible for the eventual 15-athlete ballot, these 20 represent the likeliest to follow in back-to-back Wooden winner Caitlin Clark's footsteps.

On the other hand, the Naismith Awards — the other leading NCAA honor — dropped its official positional shortlists last week, with 10 nominees in the running for each of the five awards. The 10-player lists will shrink to five finalists for each honor in March, and fans are currently eligible to vote on who makes that final cut.

Nearly all of the athletes on the Wooden Award's radar are also in the running for their respective Naismith honor.

Kentucky's Georgia Amoore dribbles the ball up the court during a game.
No. 8 Kentucky will look to bounce back against No. 3 Texas on Thursday night. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

How to watch Thursday's Top-10 NCAA basketball matchups

Players on both the Wooden and Naismith lists will feature in Thursday's top NCAA basketball matchups.

With Big Ten dominance on the line, Lauren Betts and No. 1 UCLA will visit JuJu Watkins and No. 6 USC at 10 PM ET, streaming exclusively on Peacock.

Meanwhile in the SEC, Madison Booker's No. 3 Texas squad will take on a No. 8 Kentucky team reeling from an upset loss to Ole Miss on Monday. Fellow Wooden watch list and Naismith nominee Georgia Amoore will try to lead the Wildcats past the Longhorns at 7 PM ET, with live coverage on ESPN2.

Nike Spotlights Global Women’s Soccer Stars in New United Pack Cleats

Nike United cleats pack promotional image showing headshots of women's soccer stars flanked by neon lights.
Nike tapped six international women's soccer stars for their latest cleats. (Nike Football)

Nike put global women's soccer stars in the spotlight last week, debuting their new Nike United Pack cleats collection.

For the first time ever, the apparel giant is bringing together six athletes to launch a series of performance cleats. The subsequent United Pack was developed collaboration with some of the sport's biggest international names.

The United Pack hit shelves last week with three styles of boots: Tiempo, Mercurial, and Phantom. Each boot is paired with two top international footballers, whose names are emblazoned on the heels of their cleats.

Of course, the United Pack collection is one part of a larger Nike initiative. In recent weeks, the brand has bet big on women's sports via everything from Super Bowl ads to signature shoes.

Three nike united pack women's soccer cleats hover against a purple background.
The purple and Volt United Pack lineup pairs players with updated Nike mainstays. (Nike Football)

Spain and USWNT get top Nike United Pack billing

Spain midfielder Patricia Guijarro and USWNT center back Naomi Girma are backing the Tiempos, while forwards Lauren James of England and Spain's 2023 World Cup champion Salma Paralluelo feature on the Mercurials. The Phantoms showcase USWNT attacker Sophia Wilson (née Smith) and her Portland Thorns teammate, Venezuela's Deyna Castellanos,.

The collection honors all six players by emblazoning their names onto the cleat's sock liner.

A purple and Volt colorway also links the line. As does the upper surface, which is designed to look like shattered glass in a nod to the "new generation of athletes breaking through to the next era in football."

"What I like the most about this boot is that it was created with six different players who come from different backgrounds and play for different teams, but we all came together to create something special that we can share with the world," said Wilson in a Nike's press release.

"Being a part of this boom and just making people respect women's sports is exciting," added Girma. "It's going to be even better for the next generation."

Where to buy Nike United Pack cleats

Fans can now purchase the Nike United Pack cleats online and at select retail locations.

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