Green Light with Chris Long - Ep. 33 - USA Olympian Vashti Cunningham on 2020 Olympics, Macon and Chris together again but not together.

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

1:26 - Open. 2:23 - Macon and Chris Catch Up. 14:34 - Favorite 33s. 27:11 - Chris and Macon choose their dream basketball university. 41:35 - Chris and Macon choose their dream football university. 51:42 - Macon on Chris' Outkast Bracket. 52:22- Vashti on 2020 Olympics. 59:58 - Vashti on Training with her Dad, Randall Cunningham. 1:15:24- Vashti on Photography, Ruths Chris, Game of Thrones, and Fashion. About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more. Nothing is off limits at Chalk - hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Greenlight Pod, episode 33, or we'll have make call in and, uh, Maken for this episode 33 and I will select our number 33 jersey number. Uh, I'm pretty sure somebody's going to do Ewing. Could it be me? I don't know. Uh, and then, uh, we're also going to pretend like we are on top of the world. We're 18 years old. And we have fielded, uh, a ton of scholarship offers in basketball and football.

We'll tell you our top five schools respectively. Of course, not including Virginia and why. And then I've got Vashti-Kunningham calling in. She's the number one female high jumper in the U.S. was getting ready for the Olympics. Obviously, the postponement has changed everything. But I'll hear from her about how this has disrupted her process and how excited she is for next year's games

and then how the athletes are coping in general. We'll do some fun off-the-track stuff as well. it'll be really great talking to Vashti Cunningham, who's an Olympian, never had an Olympian on the pod. Episode 33, if you're counting Greenlight proper. Green light proper, I guess I would consider at this point would be me and my co-host, Making Gunner. And yes, Macon is going to join today for a bit. We are not meeting up or anything like that. We are respecting the process. We are socially distancing, as I hope that y'all are going to have my boy. a call in and hit the bat phone, which I'm getting pretty good at now, just this kind of makeshift DIY podcast setup I've got at home. I know the audio might not always be great, so I apologize,

but the content must go on. Social distancing is not social isolation. We want to do our part in bringing you banging content as much as we can. So without further ado, let's get my boy making gunner on the pod and welcoming to greenlight pod 33 somebody who should be and one day will be again sitting here right next to me doing a pod in our routine my co-host making gunner making how are we doing hi chris doing great i'm sorry not to be next to you today uh but we're being safe and better safe than sorry, weird times. Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, listen, not the worst vocation in a time like this.

I just had my hands in the dirt putting in a real estate sign coming soon. Still trying to push product out here. But with showings down, Chris, it's nice to have a fallback career like podcasting. And one you're paid handsomely for. Yes, yes indeed. It's such a strange reality we're living in where we have no idea the next time things will resemble normal. But as you have essentially said, we are quite lucky to have hoons where we can isolate and we're lucky to have problems like worrying about gaining a couple LB. because there's food in the fridge and I am gaining some LBs. I'm bulking. Well, we had men's lunch via Zoom last Friday and I believe the most frequently asked question was

do you weigh 150 pounds? That's crazy. You know what it was? I shaved my face by accident about a week ago and it makes me look really skinny and young. I don't have a scale at the house so unfortunately for the duration of the quarantine period I'm not going to be able to able to gain weight, at least right in front of my face, not going to be able to see the progress. But I know I'm bulking. You know, I've been doing at least 100 pushups a day, okay? And my calorie, my caloric intake is way up. I spend more time staring into the fridge than I ever have in my life, and that's saying something. What is your routine? What time are you waking up? My alarm goes off at about 745 on most days.

I work late, and by work, I mean read and scribble shit on a piece of paper until 1 a.m. And then I probably sleep until 7.45, 8, pop down, eat a big bowl of grape nuts with some blueberries in there. Almond milk. It's the little things right now. And I also think grape nuts get a bad rap. And another thing about almond milk that I realized in this period is that I am totally good drinking almond milk. out of the glass. That's wild. I've spoken about my smoothie before on this podcast, which contains almond milk every single morning. And yet, I think if you put it in a glass for me, I would be weirded out, which makes very little sense. Try it. Eat like a cookie or something.

You know how people do with milk and cookies. Just replace it with the almond milk. I stopped drinking milk many moons ago. And almond milk late at night, if you're, you're looking for a snack and then you need to quench your thirst, but you want some substance to it. almond milk is just fine with me. I want to sell that as something I've learned during social distancing. Yeah, so I look forward to my bowl of grape nuts. I'm eating everything in sight.

I'm gaining weight. Yeah, so we'll hop on the scale when we get out of here. What do you think you weigh right now, May? I would say 175. You think you could get to 190 by June 10th? No, just because of my OCD. My brain wouldn't let me do it. And I need to get 8,000 steps in a day where I'm not quite right.

It's a mess in my brain. Also, can we talk about your elbows? I actually saw you riding a bicycle. By happenstance, I was walking with the kids getting them a little bit of air. and I saw a bicyclist ride by and I recognized them and I flagged you down or it went the other way around maybe. And I said, hey, that's my co-host from Greenlight Pod, making Gunner. And you, of course, engaged in conversation with me about 20 yards away. That's what's safe.

We're yelling at each other. And you're leaning on the handles of your bike. Your elbow just your elbow twists in a really weird way. It's not a flattering shot of me. me. I kind of look like Elizabeth Warren. I've decided. It's no offense to the senator. But I'm not an older woman. I look like one in this photo. Do you look like one in this photo or other photos or just this photo? Just that photo. Okay, well I'm going to cut the head off. Okay, that'd be great. So it was a nice ride. Bike riding in general.

general, my elbows, I'll just bypass that. I saw the photo, I agree with you. Yeah, the elbow, it's a weird double-jointed type thing. It hurts me to look at. Perhaps it's why I haven't been able to ever add muscle onto my arms. Maybe I'm dealing with some sort of defect. It's possible. But I think if you set your mind to it, you could be 190 by the time we get out of this thing. I think we should set some fitness goals here. Maybe we'll get to it next week. Well, in health and not, I'm staying committed to bike riding. It is a life hack. I'm happier afterwards.

It's nuts how much ground you can cover quickly. You hear the birds chirping. You get to go fast. You get to break a rule every now and then on the road. There are not many cars on the road, which is nice. Love bike riding. What could get me to 190, Chris, is dessert. I've been on dessert every night, dude.

It's been bad. Every night. I've been on a lot of ice cream. New York super fudge chunk, chunky monkey, mint chocolate cookie of all but in the house. The rule I've imposed on myself is three sittings for a pint. And I know you've talked about it. At times, you're a one sitting guy for a pint. It's the second sitting that's crucial.

The second needs to be the smallest amount you consume. Your first pass is a nice, hefty dessert. That second one can easily turn into the bottom of the pint in a hurry. If you go small there, you can turn that into three nights. One pint, three nights, you're feeling pretty good. I also have cookies in the house. There was a loaf of banana bread at some point. And Crater Joe's, I'll Be Damned, makes a fine ice cream sandwich.

where the sandwich are chocolate chip cookies, and they're somehow good after being frozen for God knows how long. No, those generally tend to be good. Do you have a favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor? Yeah, I would have to say Chunky Monkey, but I don't know if I'm going to admit this. All right, I will. There are too many walnuts,

and so Chunky Monkey, for those unaware, is the banana-flavored ice cream with the fudge chunks in there. I might have recently, and I'm not proud of it, into a cup spit out the walnuts. Well, I'm a firm believer that walnuts should not be included in an ice cream ingredient. And I'm going through a real tough time here. We have had a number of birthdays over the last month. Myself included a few days ago turned 35. This is the closest thing you'll get to me talking about my birthday.

My wife turned 34, which I know I'm not supposed to do. but she's generally around my age. I know she looks much younger like I robbed the cradle, but we were the same year at the University of Virginia. You know, we had that day. We had my birthday. We had my mom's birthday. And my mom likes the princess cake, the marzipam, marzipam,

which is your jam, is it not? My favorite cake, yes. It might be, it's rising every year on my cake power rankings. I've got key lime pie as a pie, as a cake pie, very high. Princess cake is getting up there. I don't know if this is overkill, but now when I have cake, I just put ice cream on it. So anytime there's cake, I just throw ice cream on it. Cake without ice cream is almost like what's the point at this point.

In the middle of a pandemic, what's another scoop of vanilla bean going to do to me? I'm doing cookies. I've got, you know, I got those little, you talked about a pint. They actually make these little cup size. I don't know if that's an actual unit of, it is a unit of measurement, and I don't know if I'm stumbling into actually giving you the right unit, but it's about the size of half a solo cup. And that thing, you know, I had one serving of Cherry Garcia the other night.

That's a great way to control my cravings. And that's what I think I'm going to do from here on out. So, yeah, I mean, the dessert thing has been rough. I am absolutely eating my feelings. And it's unfortunate. I read a good tweet the other day, which was, hey, idiots who are kicking yourselves for gaining five pounds, you're literally surviving a pandemic right now. Have the extra cookie.

And no one, no one's going to see you. This is the time to try any of the weird things you want to try from a haircut perspective. I mean, now, presumably it's all going to be at home. But this is the time to try, you know, jailhouse style, home tattoos, dye your hair, the way you want to dye your hair. Piercings, the whole nine. Just try whatever you wanted to try from a physical appearance standpoint. And by June 10th, I'm sure you can rectify the situation if it doesn't look right to you.

So there's a bright side. Wife, Kate, if I make this. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She gave me a straight edge technical barber term on my sideburns and the back of my head last night. So I'm a little more squared off, don't have a rat tail anymore. That's probably about as bold as I'm going to go, which is. is not bold at all, but it is getting a little nutty. I haven't had long hair since, I don't know.

Yeah, well, it's going to be interesting for you because you're very particular about that. The one time I let Meg cut my hair, my lovely wife, this was many years ago. It's been about a decade, and I had a shorter buzz cut at that point, and I asked her to line up the back of my head, and she was extremely intimidated by the prospect of drawing a straight line in the middle of my neck with a zero guard, which I told her is not that hard. As some of you guys listening, no, it's not that hard in actuality.

I felt her go straight up the back of my neck with the first stroke of the razor, and I knew we had a problem. And then I knew we had even more of a problem when she laughed and breathed in all my hair. They came off the back of my neck. So I will not let my lovely wife, Meg, cut my hair ever again, and we'll see what happens with my hairdo as the pandemic goes on.

So episode 33, we are going to hit our favorite 33, and there was a lot to choose from here. Okay, like of all the numbers we've done so far, 33 stacks up about as good as any when it comes to iconic athletes wearing the number. We've got, let me see, go down this list of 30. three's. There were so many. I mean, there's Larry Bird, right? I could do a whole pod on Larry Bird. There's Shaq. There's, well, Shaq in Phoenix. Karim, Scottie Pippen, Peanut Tillman, Alfonso Soriano, which I know you're not doing as a Red Sox fan. And there's Patrick Ewing as well. I'm going to let you go first. Okay.

my number 33 my favorite number 33 the 33 i have selected for episode 33 is larry bird larry bird was born december 7th 1956 in west baden springs indiana of course he played high school ball and french lick six foot nine 220 number six overall pick in the 79 NBA draft three times MVP three-time world champion. I am going to read to you for a second. I did not know this. Bird received a scali to play college ball for Indiana in 1974. After less than a month on campus, he dropped out of school, finding the adjustment between a small hometown and a large student population of Bloomington to be overwhelming. He returned to French lick, worked municipal jobs for a year before enrolling at Indiana State in Terre Haute in 1975.

Successful three-year career helped the Sycamores reach the NCAA tournament, including a 33-0 year in which they played the 79 championship game against Michigan State and Magic Johnson. Bird in Indiana State lost that game 7564. Bird scored 19, but only made seven of 21 shots. that started a rivalry between Bird and Magic Johnson that lasted throughout their professional careers. Guy averaged 22 and 14, 14 boards in 1981 for the Celtics, and then 28, 11, and 6, and 84.

Those were two of his three MVP years. Coach of the year in 98 with the Pacers, people forget. 98, they pushed the Bulls to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals. But yeah, if you just say, Larry Bird, great face. I mean, an all-time face. Well, I mean, we missed out on, I think most of us came into the NBA as fans in the galley if we're, you know, the early to mid-90s. I'd say the magic number for somebody who's was about 34, 35. Not to go too far left here. You mentioned terror, how do you say that?

Tara Hote. Dude, I think that's one of the most driven by exit signs on. 64 or 40, as people call it, in the Midwest because I used to drive from St. Louis to to Virginia. I'm pretty sure I've seen that sign a bunch. I don't think anybody knows how to pronounce it. Maybe just you. Yeah, yeah. Terra Hote. It's 46 degrees right now in Terre Haute, 68% humidity. I can't say that I've ever been there, but I have, I've done that drive. I've, I drove to Omaha, Nebraska once upon a time from Seaville, stopped in St. Louis halfway there. Yeah, you're right. Seeing a lot of Terre Haute.

I also, it's probably... No, it's actually near I-70 making. I'm an idiot. But yeah, I mean, cityscape, not as bad as I thought. I don't think much of Indiana, no offense to anybody in Indiana. I don't know if there's a lot good...

A lot worthwhile going on in Indiana. Brazil, Indiana, just to the east of Terre Haute. Indiana is one of those states that just started. They ran out of... And it's not even that populous estate, so they just... It's really bad. They ran out of city names.

They just said, fuck it. We're going to name one city, Brazil, one city Santa Claus. Up the creativity, Indiana. There's a Paris, Indiana. Twitter's logo is named Larry in honor of Larry Bird. Really? Yeah. My picture of Larry Bird was that late 70s Sports Illustrated cover.

He's in his light blue Indiana State uniform with two cheerleaders in front of them, giving the shush sign. with the title college basketball secret weapon, the explosive Larry Bird. I recommend Googling that SI cover. It's an all-timer. So I have in Indiana, and I heard everything you just said.

I also love the Sycamores get up. Very strong. I mean, Indiana, they named one of their most notorious cities, Gary. I mean, they just ran out of fucking names. names. Gary. They get a city named called Kokomo. They just, they seem to have Warsaw, Goshen. They took that from Virginia. I mean, I'm sure all states do this, but Indiana seems to be especially trifling when it comes to stealing municipality names. And why do I, and by the way, I should say, while we're on this, any of our listeners in Indiana, it's nothing personal. I think deep down, you know that your state is

relatively desolate. Now, I do want to mention, though, as I look at Indiana, Indiana attractions, number 11 is the RV Hall of Fame Museum. So if you're in the state of Indiana, which is a tall state, not a wide state, so you could be close, you could be far, I don't know, check that one out. Is there anything else on The Birdman? No, sir. I have a quick shout out to my favorite player as a little kid. His name was Chris Williams, called him the Big Smooth. He is no longer with With us. He was unfortunate. God rest his soul, dude.

He was awesome. Awesome. Died in 2017. But, yeah, I was played for those Pete Gillen teams at UVA, the Rookie of the Year. He shared a birthday from Alabama. And you wore number 33. So shout out Big Smooth.

Also want to shout out Adam Hall while we're at it. From Texas. One of the greatest leapers in University of Virginia basketball history. Badiye will tell you a thing or two about that. Oh, he would. Carlos Boozer once stared me down because I called him ugly. I was sitting like where the players at Duke would exit to go to the locker room. And I was, of course, a kid at this point.

And man, this dude, he's not much older than me, but he looked a lot older than me at that point. And he gave me the hardest mean mug. Also, and I've told this story before, Carlos and I shared an elevator when I was with the Rams. We were in Arizona getting ready to play the Cardinals. And of course, at this point of the season, it was deep into the fall. In fact, I think it was winter at this point. We were wrapping up another two and 14 doozy. We are on the elevator, and a number of us are joking.

It is the day before game. It's a two-day trip. It's a West Coast trip. And Carlos walks on the elevator. Of course, he hits his button, and we head down to, he must have. been presumably playing the sons at the Ritz Carlton there they're staying. We're getting off the elevator, and he has heard walking around the corner saying, I don't know what those motherfuckers are laughing about.

Don't they play for the Rams? They're like the worst team in history. So Boozer and I are like Highlander type nemesies. Larry's mine. Let's hear yours. I've got Patrick Ewing. I had to go with a Nick. I had to go with one of my favorite players growing up.

Somebody I just met at the UVA top 100 camp that happened here in Charlestville, the nicest dude. Absolutely enormous. And again, we could do a whole pot on Larry Bird, and I teetered on doing Larry Bird. The trash talk is legendary, but I wanted to do a New York Nick. Also, my first day on the earth, Villanova took down Georgetown. So my parents, obviously, Villanova kids, and we're in the hospital and they're watching that fable upset. You know, he almost went to UNC. He went to Chapel Hill, saw a clan rally happen, and decided to head up to Georgetown.

Good call. Yeah, that was a solid choice. What might have been, though, that would have been pretty interesting there. I mean, because he was the guy, I mean, he took Georgetown to New Heights. and they played in, what, three national championships, obviously winning the year before they lost to Villanova. In the first national championship he played in, he got called for five goal tendings in the first half.

Evidently, it was on purpose to make his presence felt. He was that type of rarity in college basketball. Then, of course, there was the envelope scandal with the draft, you know, in 85 or 86 or whatever it was. I guess they had just switched the way that they carried out the seating for picks. I think they used to do a coin flip to see we get the first two picks. Now they were doing an envelope thing, and there's this whole sports conspiracy thing on it. You can read up on it.

If you're older like me, you've probably read about it before. I can't really, I can't summarize it sufficiently, so just go read about it. Interesting fact about Patrick Ewing, we all know about his career. And as a long-suffering Knicks fan, I'm not going to go. into details on some of the close calls. He had an internship with Bob Dole in the 80s. Also made an uncredited cameo in Exorcist 3, which I was surprised to learn has like a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

And then finally, I thought this was an interesting one. He said that he would donate a kidney. I think it was to Alonzo Morning. And he didn't end up having to, I think his cousin. Because Morning had a, yeah, he had kidney to. disease. Yeah, I remember that. And Pat had had all but gone to, I think this was about 1999, 2000, because this is, this is, did this effectively end Alonzo Morning's career? I'm trying to remember. But Pat was all but at the doctors getting a test to see if he was a match and he wasn't as good a match as Zoe's cousin. But that's the type of guy he seems to be. And now, of course, he's the coach of the Georgetown Hoyas. How's he doing up there, make?

Not so good. They had some decent, they had a good start this year and ended up finishing about 500. It's funny, I can't hear Patrick Ewing's voice. Maybe you can because you've spoken to the man. Dude, he's got a voice that you can't recall. Yeah. He's borderline voiceless. I don't know.

I see them, when I close my eyes, I see them in the low post, just leaning into a smaller individual. And then like spinning and then missing a layup in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference against the Indiana Pacers. That was a big one. I heard you say New York, Nick, you haven't yet said Seattle Supersonic or Orlando. Yeah, that's the thing we talked about last week. the end of the road for Ewing was of course, well, not of course. I mean, if you're a listener to the Greenlight Pod, you know that Ewing finished his career in some pretty obscure places.

You almost couldn't pick any more obscure landing spots for him as of non-traditional basketball powerhouses. Like you've got one Canadian team essentially that's disbanded since. And then a team in Orlando that wears. pinstripes and was in the finals with Dwight Howard and nobody remembers it. So pretty odd landing places for Patrick Ewing. And those are our 33s. So we were going to do something today since we're on colleges where we go through a recruiting

style conclusion here on the pod. We're going to take ourselves back in time. Imagine that we're 18, 19 years old. Maybe I'm 20 because I'm a non-qualifier and I got held back. Macon's probably right on time. We're going to pick five hoop schools and five football schools. And we're going to put our virtual hats on the table. And we're going to see which one fits us best at this juncture for each of our individual skill sets and our personalities.

Do you want to do hoops first or do you want to do football first? It doesn't matter to me. Hoop sounds good. I will say every school was available to us and we've come up with our final five. I'm going to try to guess yours. Okay, as you think on it, what made this pop into my mind was our guy who committed to Rutgers in the past week, apparently the real deal, who committed via Twitter as one does, and said that he was 120% committed. And I would just love to get into his brain.

I mean, he probably considered saying he was 100% committed and was like, nah, It's more than that, but everybody does 110%. And really, the first time I've ever seen, I think it's an unprecedented level of commitment to go to 120%. The passion in that guy, the fire in that guy's belly, he's off the charts. I don't know what to say. 120% commitment to Rutgers of all play. Like, you have a grotesque amount of commitment. I don't know what to say.

I'm going to guess a few of your destinations here. If I get three out of five and you've got to be honest, you've got to gain 14 pounds and become 190. Okay. I'd like to have my full ceremony where I sort of talk with my coaches and family around me and the five hats. So why don't you just guess? Okay, that's good. Let's say Michigan Wolverines. Let's say UCLA men's basketball.

Let's say Indiana Hoosiers. Let's say Kansas Jayhawks. I think there's another big 10 school in here. I'm going to go with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Those are my guesses again for what you might be, where you might be leaning. Right. I'm going to ruin the suspense and not lie. You have gotten three.

Hoo! You got to, yeah. Instead of eating myself silly, I'm going to try to put on the muscle, Chris. As you know, I have a weight bench in the basement. And I'm going to try to emerge, just swole. as the kids say. But I'm now on the hook. I'm trying to get to 190.

Yeah, because I guess Michigan, Kansas, Indiana. Okay. Without further ado, I want to shout out two schools in the same city that did not make my cut. One is Villanova. That just barely missed the cut. And the other is the University of Pennsylvania. Now, this is a little hack to get people to stop and say, wow, that guy must be really smart. is to put an Ivy League school in with your group.

I haven't done it with my final five, but a guy you and I know named Malcolm Brogden was pretty much down to Virginia and Harvard. That'll make people take notice. So love the palestra where UPenn plays Nova, great history. But my final five, in no particular order, I'm not revealing my commitment yet. It's the University of Canada,

Kansas, the University of Michigan, the University of Oregon, the University of North Carolina, and Indiana University. So I'm a touch bummed out, Chris, because you nailed me, three for three. I went three for three and then guessed the three that I got right. Yeah, yep, that's pretty impressive. And I guess I'm a predictable cat. Those five having common. What those five have in common are that they are college towns. Lawrence, Ann Arbor, Eugene, Chapel Hill, Bloomington. That was a criteria for me. Kansas, the Jayhawk logo, I'm putting on my Twitter at it, and it pops, and people think you're a real deal prospect. By the way, I'm going to be a 6-4, now 190 point guard. Michigan, I like the school, Fab Five, Juan's back, Oregon, Nike,

Love the climate, believe it or not, like gray and rainy. UNC, uni's elite can be the big man on campus. People care about hoops in Chapel Hill. Indiana, shout out. Meredith, my stepmother, witnessed the 76 title in Bloomington, Candy Stripes. Assembly Hall, pretty cool. So, Chris, I had decided on my pick,

I would have it in bold here on the piece of paper. I'm going to change it. You're changing it from Michigan and Indiana. I am changing it from Oregon. All day long, I was committed to Oregon, and this feels really weird, but I am going to take my talents to the University of North Carolina. Jeez. And play for Roy Williams and those guys. The school, I was taught to dislike, let's say, growing up, more than any other, more than the Hokies.

The Hokies were irrelevant when we were growing up. Carolina, man, I'm going to wear those unies. I'm going to play for Roy Williams. Nice guy. A lot of prestige, a lot of tradition with that school. The atmosphere could use some work in the Dean Dome. But with my services, we're going to have a rocking team and bring some dubs back to Chapel Hill.

And it feels strange. Yeah, it's really weird. It's really weird. It's really weird. Well, I didn't see that coming. I'll go with my five. You want to guess any of my five? If you get three here of my five college basketball teams, I won't shower for three days on my honor.

And I get five guesses. Yeah, you get five guesses. You got to get three of them, though. I have no idea your approach. I'm going to guess USC, Michigan State, Villanova, Kansas, and my final guess will be Arizona. Hmm. You were close to getting two. J. Wright and Villanova, obviously.

the cream of the crop as far as a coaching and location pairing for me. Jay Wright, friend of the program. Actually, really, really nice guy. Also, you got Philly in there. I could be, you know, I saw what they did with Dante DiVincenzo. They can do that with a white guy. They can do, I mean, I, yeah, we'll see. I got in trouble that night because I tweeted something effective,

like Dante DiVincenzo's giving a bunch of young white basketball players, and a bunch of white, angry basketball dads tweeted at me like they never heard a fucking joke anymore. Or like their kid is on Twitter at midnight after the national championship game. Just relax, bro. So Jay writes in the mix. Tennessee, you know, I've always wanted to spend time in Knoxville. I can pull my boat up that a booster bought me and pregame before those football games like

you always see in the pictures. I like Tennessee's vibe, you know? Rick Barnes seems like a good guy. Yeah, got a big John Grisham feel to him. Yes, really good coach. Four different schools of the Final Four. He just signed a big deal there. He's going to be there for a bit.

And the only thing I guess I'm afraid of is that I hear he does really tough practices. And my lungs get kind of dry when I have to run a lot indoor. and that won't be very agreeable for me. But Tennessee, since he's been there, and I think he came over from Texas like five years ago or something, like they've been scary looking at the bracket for Virginia fans twice, I believe. We've kind of sat there, I believe, amongst ourselves, and been like, yeah, that'd be a tough matchup.

Well, yes, especially the Who's end up winning it. Yeah, that's who we didn't want to see. And I forget who they lost to. Lost in an absolute barn burner. Lost in the Sweet 16. I think they blew a big lead. Oh, I should remember as I was present for the game. They lost to Purdue.

Yep, Purdue. We ended up playing and we were afraid to see Tennessee. It turned out we should have been afraid of Carson Edwards. I'm putting Michigan on here. Nice. Tradition. Joanne Howard. I'm not sure how I feel about living in Michigan. It's just a vibe thing with me.

I can tell where I am when I'm there. and I don't know that I've ever felt a great vibe in the state of Michigan, but maybe Ann Arbor is different. Maybe if you just come to Detroit all the time, you're only seeing, you're only looking out one window, and it's not the best view. He seems like he's probably one of the most likable coaches in the country, and I can be a tall European guy.

You know, they always have a beer fest-looking guy it feels like lately on their team, or maybe that's the same guy every year. Plenty of room for long-necked beer fest looking dudes in Ann Arbor. And cool uniforms. Nice campus. Saw some buildings covered in Ivy. Good education, right?

Best basketball conference last year. Michigan is going to be in the mix for me. And with two picks left, we've got two California schools that were vying for it for me. San Diego State, right? Join the likes of Tony Gwyn, Marshall Falk, Kauai Leonard, Leroy Glover. etc. You can get famous and successful. The campus looks like

it's like a Spanish mission if you Google it full of like presumably good looking people where you pretend to do school work. That's what I feel like San Diego State is. I think people forget San Diego State is in San Diego.

Why it doesn't recruit better? I have no idea. No idea. Good weather. If you're any good, you're almost Guaranteed a high seed and attorney this year they were but there's one problem there and that is the logo It's one of the worst logos in sports I will say I just want to I apologize when it was first released it was like oh Nice dope but that's back when we were drawing that weird s in our notebooks

Yeah, it's a stucy ass I don't hate it but I hear what you're saying Yeah, I don't I don't like the logo. I don't think they've ever had a good run as far as uniforms are concerned But they were better off back in the day. I'll just say that. I'm going up I-10 to where the uniforms are. Beautiful, UCLA. Don't need to know much else about it. It's the nice part of L.A.

It's powder blue and I can call it yellow. It just pops. Nick Cronin, you'd have some hard practices there too. Yeah, that's the one thing about it. So UCLA and UT are out for me. My pick is going to be West Virginia University. Wow. Now the draw here, party school, cool mascot, Bob Huggins.

I feel like I don't want to be disappointed. You know, like Bob Huggins in my head for years now has been this ridiculously cool guy. I know he's not great with the media. but I was reading about him and people seem to love him. You know, one coach said you don't go to drink with Bob Huggins, you go to laugh. And that sounds good to me.

Not that I'm going to be drinking with my coach, but I like it if my coach can throw a few back. He's died of a heart attack and came back to life. He's obviously a great coach, toughness, defense, 800 wins. I think he's had, he's averaged 23 wins a year or so. He's had about 20 draft picks, over 10 all-Americans, two final fours, a bunch of national coach the year. I mean, I would be a scrappy throwback point

guard with the T-shirt under my jersey. Now, I don't know that I love their uniforms so much. I think that the Mountaineers could do a lot more in both sports in that right. But I'm going to take my talents to to west virginia oh i'm pulling the hat out i took the hat off and i put on the villanova hat let's go let's go back to philly and let's win a title did you just pull the okie-dope yep i did the thing wow you really i here i am just staring at my computer um you really had me i was doing a deep dive on west virginia hoops yeah we don't have to do such a deep dive on uh by the way morgan town i'm sure is is a i don't know about Morgantown. I'll say this. It looks beautiful. I love rivers. I put rivers above

lakes above the ocean. There's a ton of rivers in West Virginia, a ton of rolling hills. Morgantown looks pretty. It's right on a river. Also, Huntington's beautiful. So West Virginia, college towns, gorgeous places, underrated, natural beauty, party school, that whole thing. So no disrespect to West Virginia, but Villanova, championship pedigree, Jay Wright, and Philly. Okay. I had already given you, there's a big old circle around West Virginia and everything over here. Okay, you're going to Villanova, I'm going to Carolina, perhaps we see each other down the road in another national title game. That's good stuff. Let's do football. You're up.

Okay, just guess where you think I'm going. I know where I'm going. Well, you're going to Michigan probably. I will now commence. A trio of SEC schools just missed the cut for me, those being LSU, Ole Miss, and Florida. they did not make my final five. My final five in no particular order. University of Colorado, Boulder, I hear great things. Another good college town,

Folsom Field. Sweet. Those unis are nice. That logo was awesome, even though it says CU, and it's the University of Colorado. University of Texas is also on the list. I'm going to be a 6-4.

I'm going to put on even more. I'm going to be like a 220 tight end for one of these schools. Texas, everything's bigger, especially football. Austin. You've been to Austin? I have. I went for a wedding.

I thought actually, and I'll say this, Austin seemed perfectly amazing, but people make it sound like it's Narnia. And it's a cool place, but... Okay, fair. That's fair. Next to Texas, I just put word question. mark as in the Longhorn logo should be on my on my Twitter edit third school is the

University of Georgia that's located in Athens Georgia between the hedges UGA great unies Kirby Smart winning a bunch of games there Tom Herman at Texas good coach hasn't really put it all together yet Colorado just hired Carl Darrell not as familiar with his work, but hey, new coach, maybe I can make an imprint. Fourth school is University of Wisconsin in Madison. Great social scene. I think they'd really like a 6-4-220 tight end from the middle of Virginia. Yeah, you were 6-4-220 at one point.

I was 6-4-2-10 at one point, and I did not carry it well. Carried it mostly in my face. Carried it like Lane Kiffin. Yes, indeed. And the fifth school is Stanford University out there in beautiful Palo Alto with Coach David Shaw, some nice, simple, classic unies, which is always part of my criteria. Without further ado, I am very excited to announce that I will be furthering my academic and football careers at the University of Georgia.

Cue the... Georgia fight song. Hard to beat. And I powered through my announcement while hearing... That's how excited I am to be going to UGA. We're going to win a bunch of games. I'm probably going to be kind of popular. You're going to have how many bones on your helmet?

Right. Probably. upwards of 30 and I'm going to wear those sweet unis and UGA good school, U and C, good school, if the athletic part doesn't work out for me here, basketball or football, I'm sure our large alumni base is going to

set me up with a cushy job out of school. And Athens, I mean, from what I hear, Athens is Narnia. So are you big on the sticker thing, the decal sticker, the pride sticker thing? If you remember the commercial from many years ago where they were giving Buckeyes out. I mean, that's so foreign to a Virginia fan. I don't remember us ever doing anything like that.

I don't know how we would execute it. I kind of like it. I kind of wish when I played that they had those. Well, you were good, so you'd have a lot. Yeah, I've never, I don't feel strongly one way or the other. I think with Virginia, it's simple. You get a saber and you can line those puppies up pretty easily. Yeah, it's kind of busy.

A bone is just, it's one. line with, you know, two ends where the joint would be. So let's get to football schools here for me. I had a hard time narrowing this down. There were people that were in the hunt. Dana Holgerson at Houston made me think about heading down to the age. You know, Florida was in the running. You got Dan Mullen back-to-back New Year's Day bowls, sore subject for us, maybe, but not for them. Terrific uniforms, parties. Not sure how I feel about the state of Florida though at this point and their reaction or lack thereof to the coronavirus might be the last straw. So just saw that puppy off, let it float off into the Atlantic Ocean and I will not be

attending the University of Florida. Also in the running was Old Miss, Lane Kiffin. You know, one time I visited the Raiders when I was a rookie and the Raiders in their facility, which was marvelous. It was a bunch of styrofoam cubicles and lights in the ceiling that looked like they were about to fall down. They brought me upstairs and I'm going to meet, and they're picking six at this point. And I'm going to meet the coaches and I run into Lane Kiffin in the hallway and the guy showing him around goes, Lane's Chris Long and he goes, hey Chris, how you doing? Nice to meet you. Looks good. We'll take him. Keeps walking. That's awesome.

I'm thinking of myself, I don't know if I love this or not. You know, I had Herm Edwards sitting in the bathroom, as I've shared before, during combine meetings. I had Lane not seeming to do a lot of legwork on the personnel. So, listen, Lane could be gone relatively quickly in Oxford. That's why I'm probably not going to head there. So that leaves us with five here. LSU,

Cocho, front running. I love my experience at the Natty. There hasn't been a group of fans that when I meet them at a bar, I enjoy more than LSU fans. I just, I love, I love New Orleans. That's where I've been, you know,

exposed to them. I know that it's like an hour from Baton Rouge. It's different, but that's kind of clouding my judgment. But I'm not sure I'm going to see the field. I don't know. Texas was also on my list.

Tom Herman, he's a Mensa member. Did you know that? Very bright guy. Is Texas back? Question mark is what I have written down. You've got Ellinger coming back. They beat Utah in the Alma Bowl.

I completely misread that game. Great uniforms. Great uniforms. You got Austin, which we presume is a positive. But I am worried that Tom gets a job soon somewhere. He seems like he's the type of guy that's going to have the pros calling, if you know what I mean. Arizona State's in the running. Pack 12 is weak, especially down there.

Herm Edwards, who again sat in the bathroom during my draft meeting. We can maybe figure things out and talk that over. Georgia was on the list. You said ACC's not out. I'd like to add UNC to that list on football. Mac Brown's fun. The Howl Kid is really good. Chapel Hill is a nice place, save for the Klan rally in the 80s that drove Patrick Ewing out of town.

Right. I'm also anti that. We are. We've had some issues here as well. But I'm going to go with West Virginia. Oh, is he doing it again? Listen, I used to watch them sing John Denver together after games and get jealous. I would legitimately get jealous. I would get so, like my blood would boil, I was so jealous. The fucking guy in the raccoon hat, the musket, I'm in. Morgan Towns a party school. I said that. uniforms can go back and forth. Dana's gone. That's the biggest minus. They get this new guy named Neil Brown. I don't know anything about him. Let's get him fired.

Let's get him fired. I commit to West Virginia. I get involved in a scandal that I can overcome. Neil Brown gets fired. And Mike Gundy leaves Oklahoma State somehow and comes to West Virginia. It would be just, this is in a fantasy world how I would want it to go. if there were no Virginia Cavaliers in the picture for me, I would have loved to have played at West Virginia.

Owen Schmidt, who I played against a bunch, he's like a legend there, used to speak very highly of his experience in Morgantown, and I would love to put on that raccoon hat and commit to the West Virginia Mountaineers. Okay, no okey-doke this time? Nope, that's really where I'm going. Okay, I want to go back to something you said earlier.

I really like what they're doing with the football U.S. I think this is a great decision on the uny front. I like that number font, like how they mix up the colors. And people, low-key, love this Neil Brown fellow. They do. A million games at Troy. And might make you a better point. Okay, well, maybe we don't have to get them fired,

and maybe I don't have to take money from a booster or something to get Mike Gundy up in the building. I'm looking at the unies. I know you've said that you like them. The best combo for me, I mean, the grays aren't bad. The all yellow are nice at night. I'm just not crazy about them and I think you can do better. Fair?

Crazy about them and I think you can do better. Fair? I kind of am crazy about them. You're crazy about them. I don't know what to say. Yeah. Especially when they're symmetrical, when the hat matches the pant. The only thing I don't like about West Virginia is they're playing on a turf surface.

Yeah. Texas was close. Texas was very close. I had my hand on the Texas hat, but I'm not going to do it. I meant to tell you that I recognize one song by name in your outcast bracket, and yet I voted on every single one. Is that Hayah? Did you, is that the song even? It wasn't indeed Hayy. Fuck, well, that was not a labor. It was a labor of love, but it wasn't, it was not a joy. And actually, the final has been suspended due to COVID. Because the two songs in the championship, I mean, it's just I can't, I can't put my name on this.

But you be, you be well, and we'll get together maybe for a Zoom meeting or something. That sounds great. I look forward to it. Take care of yourself. Okay, you take care, Mike. Good to hear the voice of my trusty co-host, Making Gunner. Let's get Vashti on the line. Vashti, Cunningham again, if you miss the open or forgot. She is the top female high jumper in the United States. She was getting ready for Tokyo.

Everything's changed now. What does that mean? How our athletes coping. And then we'll get into some off the track stuff, some fun stuff. You know, what's she watching nowadays. I want to talk to her about a couple of her hobbies, including photography, her passion for Ruth Chris, Steakhouse. And what's it like having her dad be her coach?

Of course, her dad is Randall Cunningham, and I know a thing or two about having a dad that played in the league as an athlete. So we'll have a lot to talk about without further ado, Bastai Cunningham. Joining me now on the Greenlight Pod. This is a pleasure. I've never had an Olympian on the pod. So I'm feeling athletically outmatched in a big way. The best female high jumper in the United States and hopefully the world next summer, Vastai Cunningham might have an opportunity to prove that. How are you doing Vash Ty?

Hi, Chris. Thank you so much for having me. It's really a pleasure. Pleasure's all mine. The news came down, what? It's been almost two weeks now since the news of the Olympic postponement happened. Yeah, it's been about two weeks since I found out through email from USATS and since they kind of released it publicly. And it's kind of been a weird two weeks. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, like, do you, at that moment, did you expect that to happen? I feel like probably, I mean, I remember as a sports fan, somebody who's doing podcasts and whatnot, and a former athlete, I'm thinking to myself, like, as I'm watching the ACC tournament, you know, I'm a Virginia fan. I went to the University of Virginia, so I'm watching Virginia play, and I'm watching all these basketball teams get geared up to go. And I'm thinking to myself, like, how are these guys and girls mentally getting ready to go through with this and they're watching the news, they know the way this pandemic's going. How early did you realize that postponement of the Olympics was a real possibility? I realized, well, it was kind of a thought that crossed my mind when I first read about, you know,

the coronavirus going around in China. It was something that crossed my mind early, like, hmm, I wonder how long this is going to last and if it's going to interfere with the Olympics being in Tokyo. but I kind of didn't really entertain the thought that much and didn't really, you know, see this going this way and see this being, you know, such a rapid growing disease. So I feel like earlier I knew that it was a possibility, but I started settling in more as cases, you know, started growing more in the U.S. and more in Spain and all these other places. and country started getting on lockdown. I was like, okay, yeah, this could seriously, you know, this could seriously postpone the Olympics. Was there a point where you were like,

hey, we got to get on with postponing this thing? Because I think the Olympics were, they lagged behind a little bit. And I can understand why. But there were leagues canceling. I mean, the NBA postponed their season. And who knows if it's even going to happen or finish. And, you know, the March Madness.

And it was like a domino effect. It felt like one league did it and then the smaller league did it. But there was the Olympics, this big giant machine was trying to hold out hope that you might be able to do it. And I get it. But was there a sentiment among athletes and your friends and that maybe it was high time to get it over with? And they were lagging behind a little bit. Yeah, there was some athletes, you know, some of my friends who were who I kind of saw leaning more in the direction of wanting it to get post-past. due to the health issues.

And then there were athletes like myself who, you know, I'm not really leaning one way or towards another. I am for the safety of the athlete, but also if the show goes on, the show goes on. So it was not something that I was really, you know, wanting to get postponed or something more of just waiting and seeing. One of the most bizarre scenes that I could have imagined would be the greatest athletes in the world.

competing in Tokyo without fans. Was that something I entered into your consciousness that maybe you'd be competing in an empty arena and how much like, if you hypothetically had to jump 6'5 or whatever to forgive me if I don't know, you might be jumping seven feet by now. I don't know much about high jump. Would you be able to jump 6'5 in an empty arena?

Actually, that thought was never something that weighed heavy on my mind. You know, if the fans would be able to be there or not, but, you know, thinking about it after you just kind of, you know, painting a picture in my head with your description of what it would be like, I can imagine it would be kind of hard for some people. Some people really, really use the crowd's energy to go out there and compete. And I'm not really one of those people. I'm more of a focused person, one who's in my own head, talking to myself, you know, just checking things off my own list.

But I think that with the level of athletes that would be in the Olympics, you know, the fans not being there doesn't take away the athlete's ability and the work that they've put in. So I think that athletes would still be able to go out and compete, you know, just as good. Or, you know, you don't know, maybe better if there weren't. Yeah, maybe. If you miss the boat at a young age and, you know, a one-year postponement can totally derail your career in certain events. Like, have you talked to peers of yours who are Olympians that this is a big deal to them because of where they fall in an age range? It's not as big a deal in track and field.

I know you're young anyways. But have you talked to anybody who's like, this could wreck their chances because they're a year old? older to compete next year? Yeah. I haven't talked to anybody personally, but I've seen some of the athletes post on Instagram. Some of them were coming back from pregnancies, some of them coming back from, you know, retiring from track and then deciding to come back to the Olympics.

Some of them coming back from switching sports or from injuries. So there's a lot of athletes who, yes, were really, really dependent on this year and had their mindset on this year and it kind of does affect them postponing it to the next year. But then there's athletes that it really, athletes that it benefits like Will Clay, who's the triple jumper. He's, you know, trying to get healthy for the rest of his season. My brother hurt his leg and he's training for the Olympics. And this kind of gives him more time to, you know, build his confidence and get back into the rhythm of things. Okay, he's older. How old is he? he is 24 24 okay so and and you know while while we're talking about your family uh you you and my

you and my dad played ball um so i can certainly i'm sure you've gotten every question under the son about your pops what's the what's the most annoying question people ask you about your dad or you know like growing up the daughter of randall cunningham because i get the howie long thing all the time And there's certain ways you can ask a question that might irritate me. Do you ever get bothered by that stuff? Is it not as big a deal with you because you don't play the same sport? I think it differs between me and my brother because he was a football player and he's also my dad's son versus me being his daughter, a girl, you know, playing volleyball, basketball, doing track and wanting to play football. I think it differs.

I wasn't really bothered by it because, you know, I am his little girl. I'm not really like, in a sense, trying to become, you know, better than him or like him at a certain thing, like sons try to become better than their fathers. So I feel like it differed with me. Yeah, they do. And us being a family of three boys. I mean, like, you know, it's just I'd be 10, 11 years deep in my career and still getting questions about my pops. I'm like, you know, I think when you're an athlete's son or an athlete's daughter, there's definitely probably added pressure. I don't know, you know, you mentioned your brother playing football and that sort of thing.

Do you think that the pressure has improved your journey or has it weighed you down at times? Has it been just a non-issue, as you kind of just alluded to as far as the line of questioning? I think the pressure has kind of got me to where I am in a sense. Me and my dad are very, I'm very similar to my dad. And, you know, just his mental, the way he thinks about things, mentally breaks things down his focus, you know, his drive. Me and him are very similar in those ways. And I feel like everything that he learned, he's transferred to me from a young age.

So it kind of leaves no room for those. those type of things. Yeah, and he's coaching you, right, on a regular basis. He's been coaching. How long has he been your coach? And what does that entail right now with the postponement? Like, where were you? Where were y'all in this process? And how much is this, like, derail it? Do you just reset the calendar? So we, he's been coaching me in high jump since I was in about third grade. And this kind of does sew things off. you know, not really having a season anymore, especially this season, you know, just Olympic gear being something that athletes work for not just the year previous, but the two

years ahead, you know, we're just doing everything we can to have our marks look good enough and be consistent enough to make it to that place. So we are still training right now. We're still training like we have meets right now. I don't know how long my dad, had plans on training us like that. As it seems, there's no meets coming up. So I guess I'm going to just have to wait and see what he has planned for me. That's kind of, you can be at the dinner table and you can be having a conversation with your coach.

I've been there. You know, like with my post was my high school coach. You know, it was like, it's nice because you do, you know, you know each other. You know your dad better and he knows himself and vice versa. I'm sure I'm the same way with my part. my pops. But like sometimes enough is enough. Like we've seen each other and you mentioned you've been working together since third grade. You guys are like Brady and Belichick. I mean, but I just, there were times where I was like, okay, man, we need some space. Do you guys,

do you guys ever need a little bit of space? Oh, most definitely. We've had run into that problem. probably when I first signed Pro, we ran into those problems of meeting space from each other, like, very often for like a year or two. And I just decided I needed to move out. So I just moved into an apartment the year after I signed professional. And then from there, I bought a house. So I've been living in my own house now for a year. And I feel like that separation was exactly what I needed, just the time to be able to be able. to have my own space and, you know, take care of my own things, have my own, just my own

everything. And I heard a story, he was going to get you a car if you jumped six four. Did I, did I hear that right? And then he, and then he pulled the offer back and made you jump an inch higher? Yes. So I actually, so yeah, so our deal was if I jump six four, I can get a G-wagon. And I really, really wanted a G-wagon so bad. So I went and I jumped six four.

And then he, I don't think he understood how bad I wanted it because I did that right after he made me the deal. And he then changed the deal to know it was, it was six, five, it was the high school record or whatever it was at that time. And I went and I jumped at the meat right after that. And I was like, okay, I'm ready for my car now. And then he tried to get me like a really old, like maybe two thousand, 14 G-wagon and was trying to No! He was like, it's going to have all these problems and these problems.

And I was like, okay, well, how about I just get like the same car as you, like a newer version? So I ended up getting out of Mercedes at 550. Oh, my God, that's slick. That was almost really slick of your pops. And how high, how many inches did you gain just with that G-wagon as the carrot? Oh, I think I jumped like two inches over my PR. Yeah.

That's amazing. What color G-Wagon did you want? I wanted a white one, eggshell. Eggshell. You got the exact. It's like Benjamin Moore paint colors. You can't just say white when it's a G-wagon. This isn't like a, this isn't like a, it's not a Hyundai.

You know, like Hyundai's they say it's a white car, it's a black car. you know but they're pulling out the benjamin morse style um classification my thing on the g wagon i love the g wagon i've always flirted with getting one it's just a little short for me and you're tall that wasn't an issue for you guys and it's kind of one of those things like i just want that car so bad i think that's what happens to most people with the g wagon it's the coolest looking car nobody sits in it you know and and and then you know you test driving you're like I'm like, yeah, it's kind of boxy. I mean, for a six-figure purchase, and, you know, my head's kind of hitting the ceiling when I go over a speed bump. You do a lot, I would say, off the field if you were a football player. What would I say out of the arena for an Olympian?

You do a lot out of the arena. You were part of the Nike Black History campaign this year and what probably feels like three years ago, but it was a couple months ago. Yeah. What was that like? What did that mean to you? I was really, really honored to be asked to be a part of that because that's something, the Black History Month campaign is something that I've kind of like kept up with since I was in middle school, the new shoe drops. And it's just like, it was just really cool, you know, when I was out there, we shot it in London. It was just really cool being able to express my thoughts and my opinions and how I feel about things.

After, you know, just seeing the athletes before me growing up doing this, it was just really, really, really a big moment. Is there, are there athletes do you look up to from like an activism standpoint as you talk about taking on something as big as being a part of that campaign? I really stand, I look up to Colin Kaepernick in that aspect, partly because there's so many people against him and he's not, you know, standing against anybody. He's just standing for something that he believes in his heart and that he knows is right. And just the fact that he continues to, you know, push his own beliefs and his, what he feels.

I just really respect that about him, you know, even though it's caused him to lose things and cause people to turn on him and look at him a certain way, I just admire the way that he's, you know, stay true to what he believes. And if anything, his platform has grown. I mean, even in the absence of being able to take the field. And I, you know, I played Colin for a number of years and I think very highly of Colin. You know, but I see that he's continuing to do good work. And, you know, hopefully the silver lining there is you could deny him employment.

But you can't deny him his voice and his voice is growing, if anything. So you're in Vegas, you're training. It must be really hard to even train right now because, like, I think about as an athlete, not only do you have to have access to a facility, you know, things like bodywork. You probably can't get that the same way you're accustomed to. massage therapy, acupuncture, if you're into that. I couldn't imagine having to be my best right now, hit the curveball, you know, with this postponement, and then, you know, try to access the things I'm used to accessing.

What are the biggest impediments to training right now in the midst of the pandemic and social distancing? So actually, my dad built a training facility for my brother and my sisters and I, and for his club team. So we have a training facility right across from his church, and we still go there and train. It's about three of us, and we still get to do, you know, all of the normal stuff. I know that there's athletes who do not have, you know,

that luxury of a facility that's open, but it is a very big blessing that has kept me in shape. No doubt about it. I'm sure there's times where you feel burnout and there's times where you feel stressed out. And then adding this whole thing to the whole equation, you seem pretty well adjusted to it. But is sports psychology something that you access? Do you talk to a lot of Olympians who use it regularly? And then like right now, how important is that sort of outlet?

I don't really talk to a lot of sports psychologists. I love our team sports doctors. though. Our team sports psychologists at USATF are just really, really awesome people, but kind of just lean on God and, you know, trust that he's going to have everything working out for me. And that's where a lot of my mental strength comes from is my spirituality. Well, you talk about spirituality. How hard it is, how hard is it right now? I mean, you know, without opportunities to go and worship and be in church. Yeah.

Is that, you know, is that kind of rocked your world a little bit? Are you able to get what you need at home? I'm able to get what I need at home. My dad has switched our church services to online, so he still goes and preaches in the sanctuary in the pulpit, and they just broadcast it online for everybody so we can watch it live and I actually watched this morning at 9.30. Zoom. He has also service Wednesday.

So I'm able to. to listen to God's Word Sunday and Wednesday. Zoom is saving the day, man. Whoever owns Zoom, whoever's making money off of Zoom is going to come out of this thing a lot richer.

I've also been... I actually haven't even tried Zoom yet. My dad has our church stream on the church's website. Okay, okay. Yeah, I mean, like, I've been taking advantage of Zoom catching up with my buddies who I haven't

seen in a month now. It feels like it's an eternity. You know, I live in the town I grew up in. So five, six of my high school buddies, their kids, we usually all get together on the weekend, drink a couple beers, hang out. It's crazy not seeing your friends. And, you know, there's house party. That's an app you can use. Zoom. Obviously, FaceTime is on up and up.

I'm a big facetimer anyways, though. Like, I'm that annoying friend that will FaceTime you out of the blue. Oh, good. There we go. I'm the friend who's straightway face times instead of text. I'm like, I need to tell you something right now, FaceTime. I don't know what you know. I just call you.

And I need you to see my face when I tell you because, you know, like I'm telephobic. Like, I can't deal with phone calls, but I will call my friends and FaceTime them for a three-minute conversation. So I feel good about the fact that you're on Team FaceTime. That's great. That is the same thing with me. I am telephobic as well. That's good. Yeah, dude, like the phone will ring and some people listen.

get it. Yeah, some people that are listening to this pod are probably like, oh, that's what's happening. You're screening my calls. I'm like, yes, I'm screening your calls. Some people are like, yeah, and I'm not like a huge text or either. Like, sometimes I'll just, I'll see the text and I'll think about it all day. And then I'll see it the next week like, oh, I never responded. Dude, okay. All right. So you got your phone right now. How many unread text messages do you have? You know what? Actually, I just went and deleted all of my unread text messages. just last night and it was probably like 30 of them. Oh, 30. Come on. That's minor league stuff. You're supposed to have hundreds. I got hundreds. I leave people. I am like, I'm a little OCD. So I have to have like everything organized. I have to have, I only keep the messages from the people that I talk to on the daily. And if it's not one of

those people, it has to get deleted. Oh, okay. Well, see, I have a different acronym that that governs my behavior, it's ADHD. So I generally, kind of like what you did, I'll look at a text, and if I look at it in my brain, it means I read it and responded, and then I move on. And then it never actually gets responded to. So I apologize to me, my friends that feel like I'm screening their calls. One of my biggest pep peeves, though, is when people are like,

text you, and then you answer, and then they call. Yes, I hate that, too. or I hate when like it's a text like you send something. So I know this is going to sound bad. And I hate when people respond, thank you. Like if I just send you something, you don't have to say thank you. Like a happy birthday, you can just read it. You don't have to respond to my happy birthday.

That's amazing. Dude, you hate the phone so much. You hate when people say thank you. This is great. This is amazing. This is awesome. I mean, I feel so much better about myself. you actually might be worse with the phone than me.

All right. Well, so non-sports stuff, because all anybody probably asked you about is the Olympics and jumping high and being an elite athlete. I want to talk about some of the other stuff you're into. Okay, so not only are you one of the youngest, best athletes in the country period, but you're into photography. Did I read that correctly? That's a hobby. Yes, that is a really big passion. line. Okay, so like, what kind of camera do you have? And it's, when you answer this question,

keep in mind, it's not going to mean anything to me because I don't know what the hell kind of camera. I don't, I, do they still make cannons? Yeah, I know. There's so many canons. My canon, you're, it's a seven, it's a Canon 7d Mark 2. I think it might be a 3 actually. Okay. Canon 7D mark 3. Oh, oh yeah, I got to get this. I need this thing used. Yeah, I can't. Yeah. So what do you, so like what do you like to shoot?

You know, and can you shoot everything you like to shoot in Vegas? Or if you could travel, where would you want to go to shoot? I like to shoot fashion photography, but I'm very, like, very particular. I like to shoot my photography in nature. So I go to the mountains a lot out here to the desert, but if I could go anywhere, it would probably be like a National Park Yellowstone or, you know, one of those. You should check out Glacier. I go up to Montana every summer and we're about an hour from Glacier Park. It's the most beautiful place you could imagine.

The one thing, and I love Vegas, but there's not a lot of trees out there. There's not. There are palm trees and they're fake. And there's other stuff too. but they're just... Exactly. Exactly. So if you like nature, I mean, I figure the desert gets kind of old if you're going to be shooting photography.

It does. How long does it take to get good at that? So I've been doing it since I was in like seventh grade. That was when I took my first photography class in middle school and I had a digital camera. But in my opinion, I just thought my pictures look better than everybody else is in the class. And I was like, hmm, I don't really. really listen to what the teacher's saying. I kind of just shoot what I like to. So maybe it's not really about learning to do it. Maybe it's just exploring what I like and making that image clear to

other people and crisp. So I don't think that, I don't know. I don't know if it takes a long time to get good or if you just, you know, can draw people in with what you see. Listen to you, you sound like an artist. This is crazy. All right. So, so, yeah. Yeah, that's a great concept. And that sounds good to me because I'm a really slow learner. So what you see is what you get. Maybe I'll go get one of these cameras and try my luck. You also have another passion here that I share with you, and that's Ruth Chris.

I read that you have a tradition with Ruth Chris before events. What is that? So before every meet, me and my dad go to Ruth Chris two days before I jump. And I don't know why we started doing this. And I don't even remember when, which is the sad part. I remember our first time going, but I don't remember why we went. And it is something that I look forward to every meet. And I was just talking to one of my teammates the other day, my training partner,

who goes with us. And I was like, do you think that Ruth Chris, like, does takeout? Should we order it and try to go buy it? Or what? Should we make something at home? If you could have a Ruth Chris meal right now brought to your door, what is it? Ruth Chris Caesar salad is the best Caesar salad ever. So that would be my first start.

Then I would get a petite filet, butterflied, well done, with fire-roasted corn. Their sweet potatoes are so good. Yes, they are. Regular mashed potatoes. See, I need the... I need the lobster mac and cheese I need the lobster mac and cheese

I'm not a big cheese person Oh okay well yeah because you're an athlete still Okay like when you get old like me You just eat whatever So lobster mac and cheese for me I like the Brussels sprouts And then if You know a plate of calamari right now would be

See I'm on a seafood kit I don't know what that is Yeah, so two days before, I mean, like, when we'd be on the road, if I ate a big meal, Ruth, Chris, because you know that's the first thing we do when we touch down in the city, we'd go find a steakhouse. If I ate too much, I would feel kind of sluggish maybe the next day. You don't feel sluggish two days later. So that's the point of us going two days. So I guess that it takes us about a day or something to break down beef. And again, again, it's. gives us, I think my dad, my dad has this whole theory in his head that he, of why we go. And I think he gives us extra fuel, something, something of extra fuel, but it breaks it down in time to jump. I think, I think, uh, his theory might revolve around the fact that he really likes Ruth,

Chris. That's my work. Me too. He loves it more than anybody I know. Um, so game of Thrones, that's another thing I saw that's a passion of yours, or that's what people are writing about you. Is that true or false? And if it's true, is it still true after that last season? Okay, I really

love this show. It's amazing. And I've watched every single episode in detail closely. And after the last episode, I'm still a fan of the show, but I just am very disappointed. It was very disappointing for somebody who, for everybody who's watched every single long episode and waited for every season, it's very disappointing. Who was supposed to sit on the throne for you?

I mean, I knew John Snow was going to be the one. I just knew it. So lame. So lame. I like John Snow. I really like John Snow, but I wanted, I wanted Aria to be on the throne. so did I Aria was one of my favorites There were just certain characters that They were just so chalky Like you knew that John Snow is a one seat Like I want some upsets

Like whether it would be Aria Yeah we could have said that From the beginning that John Snow was going to win Even when he died Exactly You were like he's coming back I mean they botched They botched that last season

And I had to write a They got lazy I had to write for SI. I had to write an episode recap. And by the end, it was hard. I mean, you think it's hard to write about, like, politics or something in this country right now. It's really hard to write about Game of Thrones. I bet.

And I'm just, like, for the amount of effort and time and money and everything put into this show, that's how you guys are going to end it. They rushed it. They rushed it. I wanted to see one of my favorite characters. would be brawn i thought brawn was a dark horse to maybe sit on the throne yeah he was just he just didn't really care much uh but yeah i mean it was it was it was surreal like the last episode was like it was almost it was almost um a parody it was it was satire i didn't i like i was i was i found myself laughing you know and uh it was very typical like i knew they were not when it came

to the last two episodes, I'm like, I know they're not going to end it the way they should because everything is getting crammed in and nothing is getting explained thoroughly what's happening. It's just getting skinned through. Too many loose

ends with the plot. How about another accolade you got here? Most stylish young Olympian W Magazine. When was that? You got an award. I didn't know I got an award, but that makes me really happy to hear that. Yeah, so, so, so this is in your bio that you're the most stylish young Olympian.

You like fashion. I think it was W magazine that gave you that title. Wow. Which means you, which means you're busy getting, now, listen, if this is bad info, don't be mad at me. But you, so you got that award, you're big into fashion. Is there like a celebrity whose style you like the most that you would like emulate? I like a lot. Well, actually, no.

There's no celebrity that I like a lot because I don't really like anybody that I don't know a lot. So there's people, I don't know. There's nobody that I really look up to and I look at them dressed and I'm like, oh, I'm going to try to do something like that. I like a lot of fashion designers and the stuff that they come out with. I think it's beautiful. I love Virgil, but I'm not wearing off white every single day because it's very, very expensive. Off white is crazy expensive.

Some of the younger cool kids in my, like, listen, when I got in the league, like, dudes were wearing LRG. So LRG was affordable in college. It was certainly affordable in the league. And now to see, like, you know, in my 10th, 11th year in the league, there'd be young guys walking in with these off white shirts. That are like $100 for it. t-shirt, $300 for a t-shirt.

If you're lucky 100, I'm like, yo, what kind of materials are they making this stuff out? If I come across a t-shirt and I see it's 100, I'm like, oh, I'm like, get this. This is just. Not too bad. Yeah, I'm like, this is easy. Is there, okay, so like, give me some trends because, you know, the fashion world is probably on hold right now, too, but like going into 2020, what were the trends, the fashion trends that you anticipated seeing?

The fashion trends that I anticipated seeing, hmm, I don't know what trends I anticipated seeing because I was just seeing so many different fashion shows within the fashion week before all of this happened. There was a fashion week and I was seeing so many different things. But some things that I was really planning on getting into this year was cowboy boots. And partly because my little sister, who's like seven where it's cowboy boots with everything, And I was like, hmm, let me try to do that. I'm really, I really just like boots with like very chill outfits, boots with sweats, boots with jeans, boots with everything.

Like, I'm the person who will look like I just got a bed and put boots on with it, like some dark minds. So, so if you had to describe your style, what is it? In the moment. In the moment. That is a, golly, that's a good answer. I might use that. But my style is undeniably in the moment because it's whatever I grab from the top of my drawer. Is there a big fashion pet peeve like for girls?

Like what's a big no-no that you see like a look or an article and you're like, that does not work? What about for guys? For girls, to me like sneakers, okay, there's a lot of girls who can wear sneakers and there's a lot of girls who try to force wearing sneakers. and it's very obvious when girls don't wear sneakers try to, you know, try something new or something that they've seen. And that's like one of my biggest pet peeves is like when people try something that they don't, not something that they're not usually going to do, but something that they know they don't really like. They only like it because other people do it. That's a huge pet peeve of mine.

And with guys, a big pet peeve of mine is like, this is going to step on some people's toes. But this is my personal opinion. I do not like when guys, you know, wear when they get dressed up and they wear the tight button-ups, buttoned up not all the way up the chest with the flooding colored dress pants and the fedora in the dress shoes. I hate that so much. That's, like, not cute to me. Well, you heard it here first. You heard it here.

I'm being honest. Well, good things you just have to step up on my. Because that is not, that's not my arsenal. It's not my arsenal. What's a pair of women's, what's a women's shoe, shoe company that you actually like, like sneakers? What, what are some sneakers that girls can actually pull off? And is it low top or high top? Like what, because I don't like high tops on girls so much. And I agree with you. Yeah. I think that a lot of girls try to force it. And you can tell not, not every girl can wear sneakers. No, like I, like, I'm into like big, clunky type of shoes. because I'm very tall and I'm very skinny. So it kind of is a look to me. But then it kind of kills me when I see smaller girls wearing big clonky shoes. Because I'm like, I don't get it. It just kind of confuses me a little bit.

Yeah, it's not, it's not. It's more like it comes off a little manly. It comes off a little strong, like, not very stylish, just like, I want to, I want to do this because it looked cool to me on somebody else. You got to play to your strengths. Yeah, yeah. My wife is big. My wife is not a big sneaker person. And she, listen, when Christmas and birthdays come around, I know I just get on the

Golden Goose site. She loves a golden goose low tops. Is there another brand or is there a brand for guys listening out there that they can get their wives or girlfriends some stylish kicks? Yeah. So for girls, okay, so there's some dress, some like, girl's shoes. I really love Jeffrey Campbell because they have a lot of exotic type of shoes, big platforms. You know, something for somebody who wants to like pop or have a little bit

loud color or something in their outfit, Jeffrey Campbell is like an outfit put together shoe or, you know, website. You can wear the most basic outfit and wear a pair of these shoes and look like, you know, you know what you're doing. So that's a girl website that I really like. And also, girls, you can wear anything at Nike. Nike is like so versatile. There's so many different styles and shapes, wide, skinny, tall, sure. There's a lot of different variety at Nike, too. I agree.

That's all good. And I'm going to look on the Jeffrey Campbell site. I don't have a birthday or Christmas coming up for a while. So I'm in the clear. My wife, March 26th. So I just cleared that hurdle. I don't have to shop for a while. but I'll take this advice to the heart.

Thank you so much. I know we covered a lot, and I hope everybody staying safe out there and that training can resume when it's safe and when it's time and kick some butt next year if I don't talk to you. Thank you. I appreciate it so much.

Really good conversation. I had a fun time talking. Likewise, likewise. Hey, and tell your pops. My dad said hi. That was the request, so. I will. I'll talk to you soon.

All right. Thanks so much for listening to the pod. As always, that was Vashti Cunningham. And we had Megan Gunner on earlier. Great hearing his voice. It's good to catch up with a friend anytime you can right now. Again, this is social distancing, but it's not isolation. That's what you hear people say all the time.

And I am taking heed. I am annoying the shit out of my friends, FaceTiming them. and I am delivering content every day. So thank you to those of you who are listening and continue to listen. You really motivate me to put stuff out because I do know that people are sitting around a lot of the time right now with nothing to do, but ruminate on how fucked up everything is out in the world. And I just appreciate it. So thanks for listening.

Thank you for continuing to listen. We will have a bunch of interviews coming out, the rest of the rest of the time. the week two three interviews at least so you know this is kind of a rolling schedule thing for me when I'm left to my own devices and I sit around and I don't have somebody in my face every day pushing me to schedule stuff things kind of get scheduled when they get scheduled I'm trying to catch people when they can call in so I don't want to I don't want to tease the week too far out but I will say there will be a couple more interviews so just pop open your Apple podcast or Spotify in the morning and you might just have something to listen to.

I know there's a lot to listen to. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can't thank you enough. And I hope everybody's staying safe, staying home and spending time with their families and listening to podcasts. Y'all take it easy.