The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Almost Famous OG: A Fierce Five Update with Jordyn Wieber

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

It's been over a decade since Jordyn Wieber and the Fierce Five became a household name, but what's their relationship like today? She addresses this and so much more, including her panic attack on "Special Forces" and what led to the difficult decision she made to leave the show for good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club?

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And that could be fatal. Cars get hot, fast, and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car. A message from Nitsa and the Ad Council. This is the Almost Famous Podcast with IHRRadio. Hey, everybody. This is Trista, and you're listening to the Almost Famous OG podcast, where Bob and I, who unfortunately can't be here today,

and if he can, it'll be a surprise and a very welcome one. Anyway, I wanted to intro our guest today without Bob in the hopes that he can come that he can join us but I'm so excited to welcome Jordan Weaver to the podcast. She is one of my fellow recruits on season three

of Special Forces, World's Toughest Test. And she of course is one of the Fierce Five from the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. She is a champion

really truly by all meanings of the word, like she was an individual champion in gymnastics prior to winning the gold medal in London with her Fierce Five, and she retired from competitive gymnastics in 2015, transition to coaching, where she coaches the University of Arkansas,

and I know that is such a sense of pride for her in talking to her and asking her about what she's doing now. I just remember her being so proud that this is what she's doing. And you can tell that she now has this family with the University of Arkansas girls and probably boys in their world of gymnastics. And I just love her. She is amazing. She's so down to earth, so sweet, so kind. And we definitely bonded.

We were connected, linked up on the beach during. surf torture and and I don't even know if that's what it technically is called but to me it's surf torture it was the buds training on the beach we were linked together and I just along with all of my other recruits just love Jordan so much so I'm so excited to welcome her to the podcast today okay everybody I'm so excited Jordan's here with me today and I'm just so excited to chat about our time together on special forces and then time, you know, outside of the show and normal life. So welcome to the podcast, Jordan. For having me. It's so good to see you again. You too. I love that we get to see each other

live. Okay. So first things first, you, you shocked all of us at the table at the reunion by telling us that you were pregnant. How is it going? Good. It's so funny because I was pretty like early on still but I'm like for some reason I just feel inclined to tell all these people that I'm pregnant right now because you know it was one of those things like we only had a few days together but I felt like we all just like weirdly bonded by doing hard things together so I just felt like telling everyone and I'm glad I did it was really fun and I'm feeling good I'm 19 weeks now so everything has been smooth sailing so far amazing I mean I couldn't not start with that because I'm just so happy so happy for you um okay so special forces how were you

asked and what was your first thought when they asked you yeah so they reached out to my agent and my agent presented the opportunity to me um and at first i was like oh holy crap i don't i don't know i kind of went back and forth a few times but i i had watched the first couple seasons because season one Nosti Leukin was on it who was also an Olympic gymnast and I know her and I remember watching it because she was on it and just thinking to myself, okay, if there's ever like a reality show that I would do, like I just love the meaning behind this one and kind of like the whole the whole vibe of it. So, um, so I just contemplated it for a couple weeks and ended up saying yes. And like the filming was short enough like for my own job at home. Um, and it just was perfect timing. And I thought like,

you know what? We got to keep challenging ourselves in life and putting ourselves, you know, in different places out of our comfort zone. So that's really why I said yes. And it was definitely an interesting experience. I'm sure you feel the same way. Interesting. Yes. I just actually got to chat with Rudy and Billy. And I have to say, I wish, you know how they do the psychologist, the psychologist they have a show psychologist for everyone listening and they check in with you like you do a whole kind of like an exam with them prior to the show and then after the show we get the chance to talk to the psychologist and then she follows up with you I think a couple times after that and it's it's very nice to talk to the psychologist obviously she's a professional

or he you know either or um but talking to Billy and Rudy I really felt like it was it was like it gave me a little bit of closure and i wish for all everybody the recruits on the show that everyone could get that and actually like see them smiling and like you know like laughing together we were laughing and you know just putting that human touch on it um it was very interesting um an interesting show and i love that you had watched it prior and were actually like, you know, saying that this is the one reality show that probably you would sign up for. And then, of course, things happened on the show being that it's in water. Did you ever have anxiety or issues with water prior to doing the show? No, not really. I think, but, you know,

after reflecting on it, it's like I just have never really done anything in the water. Like, I've never been challenged to do anything other than like swimming in the pool with my friends. And, you know, like, I was the kid when I was little that jumped at plugging my nose. Like, I just, I was never really like super strong in the water, but I never really had issues. Like, I could swim. And I think, you know, that first night, what we did in the beehive, like, really did something to my brain and kind of like ignited this fear element. And it wasn't really like, I don't, I'm not actually scared of the water. It was like a physiological response that I was having like in my body, you know, on every water challenge after that.

So it was, it was interesting. And, you know, people are like, well, would you go back and do the sinking boat now? I'm like, probably not. I don't think so. I don't know. It's just, I don't really even know where the fear came from. It just, it just kind of was there during the filming. And it definitely, like, surprised me a lot.

but it was, it was like part mental, part physiological and hard to explain for sure. Yeah. Well, I feel like also the beehive is just really freaking stressful. And they didn't show a lot of it. So I feel like you don't truly get a sense of what happened during that task unless you were there. Of course, that's with everything in life, right? But, you know, we're setting the stage for people who are listening. it's this big like outdoor or above ground pool essentially like i think it's 10 feet deep

and they just tell you to jump in cue is in the middle on this pool noodle like yelling at everyone and splashing you in the face and you have giant guys like cam newton and golden tate who are not happy with the water and they're going under and they're like everyone's kicking and flailing and trying to tread water but we're all being told to get closer and closer and closer into toward the center toward cue meanwhile people are going under you're kicking people i think christie's boot fell off like it was chaos and they're splashing you in the face to make it seem like you know you're out in open water so it was really stressful um was there a moment that you reflect back on and think that's kind of when it started like did did cam grab onto you or

Nathan, obviously not Nathan, because he's an Olympic swimmer, but, you know, was there a moment where you were like, you remember exactly when you were like, holy crap, this is intense and I, my physiologically cannot handle it. Yeah. I mean, I remember like treading water at first, thinking, okay, like, just stay calm. Like, you know, a lot of people didn't even realize we had our boots on, which was probably the hardest part about that. Like, your boots filled up. Yeah. And then people are kind of grabbing on to you. you when they start panicking and then you do the same because like your your survival instinct just kicks in and and so initially when I felt like okay I'm starting to go under I swam to the side and then of course they're yelling at you to go back in the middle and so I was kind of I was trying really hard to go back out in the middle and at one point I did in like I remember starting to like not feel my arms like my arms went numb and then then I then I went under I feel like in the show I

heard someone say like she's going under and like i'm pretty sure that was me um and so i went i fully went under couldn't get up and i finally got my head out and i just reached my arm out and i think cam grabbed it and pulled because he was on the side he pulled me over to the side and so that was probably like the scariest moment was like i i am fully going to drown right now and i somehow got my head up and reached my arm out like someone better grab my arm or i'm going to drown right I just got chills. I just got chills. Because I can't imagine.

Like, I've had a panic attack before, but that was on solid ground, sitting on a couch, you know, like just being stressed out. So I can't even imagine having that panic attack because we ended up like next to each other on the side of the pool once I came to the side. And you could not breathe. Like you were in the midst of panicking, which, you know, just compounds because you're not breathing and then the DS is yelling at you and you see other people are going through this and you're like, I almost drown. So it's like probably just building up in

your head. How like when I was, I was trying to like help you and Kyla, I think we're on either side of me and she was having a really hard time too. And I'm like, just try to breathe. Just try to breathe. In those moments, are you the kind of person that is like, thank you for trying to help me through or you're like shut up trista i just i don't need to be dealing with you right now well i can tell you like after the fact like i'm so grateful for that because um we were just all trying to survive that together but like in the moment i don't even know if i knew what was going on around me like i just like the only thing i could think about was like just try to calm your breathing down and then try to get back in there because you know like the ds like they're yes they are it's it's television and

You know, they're putting on this, this show in a lot of ways. But like, they're scary and, you know, and they're saying get back out there. Like, I wanted to do that for because they were asking me to. And so I don't know if I knew what was going on around me a lot. I was just like, okay, just get your breath, like control your breath so you can go back out. But it was, it just got hard and harder each time. I felt like I was going in and out of the pool. So it was crazy.

It was crazy. Yeah, yeah, no. I feel like it, hindsight's 20. right yeah i i'm well i guess i was super grateful for like cam and golden for like holding my you know packs and carrying them for carrying it for me even the moment when we were at the bridge and i didn't remember this but i i think it was when we first um got there we had just finished running and you were like rubbing my back like it's okay you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna be okay i can't remember exactly what you said and i was like oh like we really truly were

I feel like our cast was, was really truly there for each other. Do you, do you feel that? I do. Yeah. And I just, I think, you know, having felt this being on other teams before, like, when it doesn't really matter how long you're, you've known somebody or you're with somebody, like when you do hard things together, it just bonds you in a different way. I think that was really true about our group.

And I really do feel like the mix of personalities was so great. everybody was so just awesome. And I feel like you just never know with people coming from different worlds and having different reasons for going on TV. So we just got so lucky with a good cast. And I think really everybody was in it together. Yeah. Agreed.

Okay. So I left prior to the submersion task, which was when you ended up leaving. Actually, I want to go back to the beach. So we're at the beach. We were linked up. And again, I was connected with you. Kyla was on were on either side of me and yeah it was it was like we were drowning ourselves essentially and I can't even imagine you know you went up and you and you spoke to Q and I think

he no maybe it wasn't Q maybe I think it was Foxy it was Foxy never mind it was Foxy yeah okay so funny funny story I'm sitting on the couch with my husband watching and Foxy says okay calm down and Ryan is a my husband's a firefighter and you know an EMT and he was like they tell you that if someone's panicking or you know having a really hard time the the thing that you don't say to them is calm down it might be different in the military okay it was just so funny he was like I don't know that that's going to get her to calm down but you know maybe it's just because it's him and you know we're going to listen to the ds right um i just thought that was that was kind of funny when he pointed that out um and and i give it up to you because you got past that

you got past your panic and you were again legit having a panic attack to where you were like like could not breathe so and when you're not able to breathe as an asthmatic it takes over everything you cannot think of anything else you know So I have to give it up to you on the beach for getting past that because it was really difficult even without having this like physiological reaction to the water. Right. Yeah. Okay. And then the next day you have the submersion activity. Take me through what you were feeling when you got there and you knew that that's what was going on up until you ended up leaving. Yeah. I mean having watched the first two seasons before, they did the submersion thing in both seasons so I kind of knew it was coming and like even

before going on the show I was like okay I don't even know how to open my eyes under the water like I need to learn how to do that I was like sticking my head in the bathtub at home like opening my eyes like just trying to do something to prepare you know it's like I'm an athlete and I want to train as much as possible but I had such a short window from when I agreed to do the show to when we laughed at like I just did what I could um anyway we that morning like we hold up to the like the whatever the marina i don't know what you'd call it but where we were going and i saw the crane and i was like this is the subversion one and like you know i think mentally i was prepared to do something like that but then having the two days before that i had had just you know

struggling with the water i think i was like i don't know this might be beyond my limit um and i really i watched everybody else do it before me and i remember going back and forth like literally 500 times like I'm going to do it. I'm just going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I don't think I can. I went back and forth, like fully deciding either way. And it really came down to I felt like my options were either leave and quit and have to deal with, you know, what that felt like for me or try it and probably panic again. And I was really scared of the panic. I don't know how else to explain it. Like I think for anyone who's had a panic attack before, like it's you almost fear the panic more than like the actual thing that you have to do um it's that's kind of where

i was and i just kind of thought to myself like maybe you know i don't think there's i don't think the water stuff is going to get any easier after that um no because i just i don't like quitting and i've always considered myself a really resilient person especially mentally um but i just didn't feel like it didn't feel right for me to to do it and to go under that into that boat and not be able to open my eyes and sinking, and I don't know, I just didn't feel right. So it was tough. It was really tough, but ended up just a sudden to leave. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious.

Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but. I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy?

That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Emanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psycho babble.

Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeart Radio app. search emergency intercom and listen now. Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcomber podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship?

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I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasts. Nathan, of course, is trying to give you a pep talk before you're going. Did he almost convince you? Were you close to him convincing you? Did that help at all? Yeah, I mean, he was just being so encouraging and, you know, coming from an Olympic swimmer.

Like, obviously, he knows a thing or two about the water. And so he was listening to what he was saying. And he just mostly was telling me, like, you know, you don't want to. look back and regret that you didn't try and you're you're not a quitter and um you know just kind of giving me some like tips but um and i really was encouraged by it like i said i went back and forth like a million times like for a while i was decided i'm going to do it i'm going to try and um and it was just hard even kela was trying to just encourage me and um because she had already done it at that point she had already gone in and and tried and um and so it was i just appreciate the two of them so much

especially Nathan, just trying to encourage me. But yeah, I don't know. It was a battle I was kind of dealing with within myself for sure. Yeah, that's a hard one. I don't know how I would have reacted. Part of me, you know, when I left that morning, when we woke up to the gunshots in the barrel or whatever, where you want to call it.

And after the night, I had the night before with the hypothermia and the mirror room interview and getting to talk to them and them telling me it's just, it's going to keep getting harder. It's going to keep getting harder. And they validated that they saw that I was 100% and then just thinking about how I felt like a burden with like people helping, you know, carry, whether it was carrying my pack or whatever. I just, I hate feeling like a burden. And so I had this piece come over me and was like, you know what?

You've gained so much out of this experience in just the short time that you were here. it's okay but coming home i feel like maybe it's a little bit of fomo and thinking i really truly wanted to make it to the end you know you you sign up for the show hoping that you're going to make it to the end um but i do i i do have to say i i have a little bit of regret that i didn't stay and just push through and get the opportunity to do this submersion or at least try and who knows the fighting. I mean, you know, you go back and forth and you're like, well, I could have broken my face. I could have drowned, you know, all of these things. But are you, do you have any regret? Like at night when you're thinking about it, a lot of times I'll just be laying in bed being

like, oh, I wish I would have stayed or just replaying it in my mind. How is your, how is your mind with how you left and are you feeling any regret? I mostly feel like confident in my decision for the most part. I mean, there's a small part of me that I watch, like, certain things they're doing now, like after I left, like, definitely not the fighting. I don't know if I could have done that. But, like, certain things I see them doing, I'm like, okay, I feel like I could have really done well at that. Or, you know, I wish I had stayed and pushed myself a little bit harder. And I do have thoughts like that. I'm sure I'll continue to feel that way, like watching the rest of the episodes. But at the end of the day, I think, like, looking back, I try not to regret it too

much because like it was an experience that I was having at that time. And that's what felt right at that time. I learned something from it. And, um, you know, I still don't feel passionate. I need to do anything in the water. Like, I just don't feel that way. Um, and I keep thinking like if it was anything but water, like I would have stayed and, and continued. Literally, I would do anything. Like, tell me to jump off that bridge. I'll do it. You know, tell me to do whatever. Anything physical, I'll do it. And now I'm like, if it didn't have. the water stuff, I would, I would have stayed, you know, like I would have done anything pretty much. So I do have a little bit, but like not with the water stuff, I would say.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Totally hear that. Would you do it again if they asked? The show just in general. Uh-huh. I don't know. If it didn't involve water. Yes. Yes. I need it. Yes. I totally would. And I, I've told my husband, too, because my husband was an Olympic gymnast as well in men's gymnastics. He would do so well on the show if it wasn't for like the run. His ankles are really bad. But like everything else, like he has like that mind for it. So I'd rather see him do it than me do it again.

Same. Same. I am totally the same. When they asked me to do it, I was like, aren't you sure you want my husband? He's really good at this stuff. Like he would thrive. He would love this. So I keep telling them, please have Ryan on the show.

next season please have rhina so i think they should do because christie has said the same thing i know so many people have said the same thing they should have a show with all of the um you know partners of the the people who have been on it previously right or like a couple's version although i don't know i don't know if i could have i feel like if my husband was there i probably would have just like you know, curled into a little ball with him being there and just, you know, left earlier,

you know. For sure. Yeah. Okay. So pivot to gymnastics. And now you are the coach of the University of Arkansas, right? Gymnastics team.

How has that been in comparing your Olympic career to being a coach? Yeah. it's very different like being a competitor yourself versus, you know, leading a group of people to do what you did. It's, it's completely different. And I joke all the time that like the things that worked for me as an athlete might work for one out of the 20 people on my team, you know. And so I've really, like, that's been my coaching journey is just understanding people and human behaviors and why people think and react and behave the way they do. And then, and then after that, motivating them to reach a common goal and getting a group of people to come together.

It's what I'm passionate about now. And I love it. Like, I love the sport of gymnastics, but even more than that, I just really love impacting the lives of my student athletes. Like, they're in that age range, 18 to 22. And college is one of the most transformative times in anyone's life. You just thought about yourself. You're away from your parents for the first time. So getting to be a mentor and a leader for them during those years is such a big passion of mine. So I love what I get to do every day. I love that. I love that. And now you'll get to be that for your own baby. Soon. Okay. So you faced a lot of highs and lows as a gymnast. What kept you motivated to keep going and push your body to these limits that I'm sure you had to push your body to? And your mind,

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, like, I did gymnastics from age four made at the Olympics when I was 17. So, you know, I was pretty young during those years. And I very much in my mind, like felt like an adult during that time because I was doing, I was basically working a full time, if not more, job to train in gymnastics, two a day practices on top of school and everything. And what kept me motivated was just having this big goal. Like, I wanted to. to be an Olympian. I wanted to compete for Team USA and that was always in the back of my mind. I knew I had what it took to get there. It was just a matter of taking it one day at a time and and taking the right steps to get there. So having that goal was what motivated me because there were a lot of hard days. There was a lot of injuries and a lot of things that were happening sort of behind the scenes, you know, in my life that, you know, a lot of people just didn't know about at the time. And what motivated me was like, I had that goal and I wanted it so bad and I was going to make it happen. And it's a lot of work to just, you know, quit easily. So that's what

kept me going on those hard days. And talk to us about the Fierce Five. Obviously, you came out with a gold medal and you all had to come together to get that done, right? But there had to be moments like, I mean, please, you know, it's hard to get a group of people together without having, like competition amongst yourselves and um you know different personalities um was there were there difficulties in dealing with the with the fierce five or did you all just you bonded instantaneously and you just made it work um and came together and you were instantaneous friends yeah like what was the behind the scenes like yeah i mean it's interesting because we all lived in different parts of the country and I was from Michigan. Allie was from Boston. McHale's from California. So we all lived

in different places. We had our different coaches. And then once a month for years and years and years, we'd come together for these training camps. And so we would spend these five days together at these training camps where, you know, similar to what I was talking about in special forces, like you're doing really hard things together and going experiences. Like that just connects and bonds you in a different way than a lot of people ever experience in their life. And so then when the Olympics came around, we went to a training camp after we made the team. We went to a training camp for about 10 days.

And then we went to London. So we weren't used to being with each other every single day in training. We all trained separately and then came together for these competitions. And then when we were in London, you know, I mean, we were all just, it's interesting in gymnastics because in the team competition you have to be teammates and then it could be the very next day where you're competing in say the all around or an event final where like your teammate is your competitor and for us like i mean the u.s is the most dominant when it comes to gymnastics typically so your biggest competitors are the other american girls but we never had any of any drama we never had any competitiveness to the point where we were caddy with each other like we were 16, 17 years old, we just, we were just girls, you know? And we were, we were competitive and tough. But at the end of the day, like we were, we were friends and teammates and we just wanted each other to succeed. And I think that's what helped us go out and win that gold medal as a group,

because it really, it took every single one of us to make that happen. I love that. I love it. Are you in touch with them still? Yeah. So actually, one of my teammates, Kyla, she is my assistant coach here at Arkansas. So she's two opposite me. And we work together every day, which is amazing. And then Allie, Raisman, we see her quite frequently. I mean, now she's doing some commentating for NCAA gymnastics. So like a couple weeks ago, she was commentating one of the meets we were competing in, which is fun because it feels like, you know, our worlds are colliding again. And then, you know, Michaela, like I don't see her often, but I got to see her last year when Kyla got married she came to her weddings we had a little mini reunion and so every now

and then we get to see each other we still haven't gotten like all five of us together in the same room I think since the Olympics so we need to make that happen at some point for sure how is it watching the Olympics now like what did you do this year when they or I guess this past summer it was on this past summer yeah right right yeah so what did you do when you watch did you have like a big watch party or do you get together with um your gymnast at arkansas or how do you watch i think it'd probably be so fun to like cheer on the next the next generation yeah i mean i know i mentioned this but my husband was an olympian as well um in the rio olympics and then i have kaila here she's one of my best friends so we all watch it together and it's just it's it's it's fun now to just be a fan you know

obviously when you're in it you're in it and then the one olympics right after you compete you have this really weird feeling when you're watching it like should I have retired like should I kept going like I really want to be there and then the further you get out the more you're like this is amazing I can't even believe I did this at one point and you just get to be a fan and that's really like the phase that I'm in now which is so fun so I love I love watching the Olympics and you know team USA is always so dominant especially in gymnastics so it makes it really really fun to watch really exciting and such a sense of pride right that you get to be part of that family. I can only imagine.

My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now hold up, isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate.

Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. It's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Humanzor.

And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom. And listen now. Hola, it's Honey German. And my podcast, Grazis's Come Again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment

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dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash, because at the end of the day, you know, I'm me. But the whole pretending and coat, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new season of Grasas has come again,

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listen to Brown Ambition on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's the most important lesson that you learned during your time on Team USA? And did you utilize that when you went to special forces? Yeah, I mean, I feel like everything about who I am now is somehow related. to gymnastics because it just was it was my whole life growing up and I learned so many life lessons. I mean, hard work and discipline and confidence. Like I gained all of those things through gymnastics. I think the biggest thing is how to be resilient. And I always say like

having the ability to flex my resilience muscle. Like, you know, we have all these muscles in our body and, you know, the more you work out a muscle and break it down, it, continues to rebuild and it's stronger than it was before. And I feel like we all have that resilience muscle inside of us. And the more things we go through, we have that opportunity to flex that muscle gets stronger and stronger. And so I feel like my resilience muscle got broken down a lot through gymnastics and it got really strong through gymnastics. So I feel like resilience is, you know, one of the biggest things I gained from the sport in general. Definitely felt like I tried to take that into special forces.

It was very different than gymnastics. You know, a lot more like condensed physicality, some, you know, some different elements like water and things like that. But I definitely felt like, you know, each day we had to keep going. And just it was like endless how many challenges we'd have to do that day and the amount of physical stuff and those backpacks. So I definitely feel like I had to bring that into special forces. Yeah.

I mean, you have to have some sense of resilience to get. in there um if if if you as as the ds call it um in interviews they've done afterwards are there for the right reasons essentially you know if you came to actually be a part of it and try to get as much out of it as you can um i feel like i'm very much a perfectionist and i i assume you are too being an Olympic gymnast you have to try to attain that all those tens you know perfect scores constantly um what's your most valuable piece of advice for people who are have that little perfectionist bone in them and how to overcome you know difficulties like special forces or like your panic attacks or um or even just having didn't you have a broken leg when you were competing at the Olympics

yeah i mean i mean um so how did what's your most valuable piece of advice for for for those people who want to be perfect, who have that pressure to be perfect and getting through that or getting through hard times. Yeah. I mean, it resonates a lot because I have a team of

19 student athletes that just want to be perfect all the time and I tell them constantly like perfection does not exist. Like you might be able to score 10 in gymnastics but you know, as a coach I can watch a routine that scores a 10 and you can find imperfections in it. It's really just about the illusion of perfection,

right, in gymnastics. And so perfection is not a thing as much as we want it. And so I try to, I try to get them to focus on a couple things. First thing is, like, as an athlete or even as a human being, if you can just focus on getting 1% better at whatever it is that you're doing, be 1% better at it than you were yesterday. And then the next day, you focus on getting 1% better from there, you're going to experience such massive growth, and even in a short period of time, but it's not going to seem so overwhelming and you don't have to have it all figured out one day. So, you know, you can kind of guess what that looks like in the gym, but even as a person, if you have a goal, get one percent plus that goal each day. That helps them a lot. And then the other

thing I really stress and my huge advice for people in general is like, make sure that you know what your definition of success is, you know, whatever it is that you're striving to do in life, whether it be athletics or, you know, some other career field that you're in, like, or parenting even, like, what does success look like in that area for you? And then make sure that when you finish your day and you lay your head down to go to sleep, you evaluate yourself based on your definition of success, not on perfection, not on somebody who's the very best at that thing. you know, you're evaluating yourself based on what is going to make me feel successful at the end of the day. And, you know, for me, like, success is not necessarily whether or not I achieved a goal.

It's about did I give it 100% of what I had to give? Did I give it my all and be the best I could possibly be? That is the feeling of success that I get at the end of the day. And as long as I'm refocusing on that constantly, like, that really helps me. So for perfectionists, like perfection is not attainable. It's more like what does success feel like to you? And a lot of times it's not actually being perfect. It's just different than that.

So that would be my advice. That's amazing advice. I love the 1% just try to be 1% better. That is. Oh, so good, Jordan. So good. Okay, where do you keep your gold medal? Right now it's in a safe in my house.

nowhere exciting no more exciting for sure i i'm not like the type of person i keep it on display i don't pull out very often it's it's just in a box in a safe after the olympics did you just wear it around even to go to the bathroom or what i can't imagine that i would actually take it off like i would just leave it on all the time well okay they're they're shockingly heavy like that's the thing that we were like whoa these things are like they kind of hurt after when you wear for a long time. But when we were in London, after we won the team gold, we all, like, slept with it under our pillows. I thought that was kind of cute. That is so cute. I'm going to come and steal it. I'm not sure. But, yeah, we definitely, like, I mean, at first,

we were carrying it around to appearances and traveling with it and everything. And then after a while, you're like, okay, I can just put it in its box. And take it out every now. I love that. That is so cute. Okay, so on Special Forces, I was really moved by the mirror room interviews. And I feel like that's part of what I wanted to get to was the mirror room just so you have that connection with the DS.

Your mirror room was, I don't know if it was hard for you to watch, but it is just hearing about people's truth, truths and who they are at the core, what they struggle with, the things that have been in the press, all those kind of things. You, you shared about how you were part of the, the biggest sexual abuse case in sport, in history of sport, which that alone is just, just massive. Of course, regardless, you know, you went through this really, really difficult time. I am interested to know if you're okay sharing how the response has been from sharing that on special forces.

Yeah. Well, you know, it's a story that I have been passionate about telling, like even before special forces. You know, like going through that experience, I wasn't really, I didn't talk about it for a long, long time until the case really came to light. and accountability was starting to happen. And I sort of had this overwhelming feeling of like responsibility and feeling like I needed to tell my story and speak out because I was becoming more and more aware of just how many people in this world have had similar experiences. You know, maybe not in the exact same way with a doctor at the scale that, you know, the public scale that we experienced it. but, you know, whether it be a family member or a close friend or a stranger or on college campuses, like sexual abuse and sexual assault is so much more common than a lot of people

realize. And so I felt passionate that I needed to speak out and tell my story, not just for the future of gymnastics and the gymnasts that are going to come after me, but for every survivor or even someone that might be going through it currently and afraid to speak up or hold their abuser accountable. Like there's so many people like that in the world that I've realized it's just way more common than we think. So I had felt passionate about telling that story and, you know, it came up in the mirror room of the DS as really just part of, you know, one of the reasons why I retired from

gymnastics and kind of took, you know, turn that chapter in my life. But it's never easy to talk about, but I do feel like, hey, even if there's one person who is a victim of sexual abuse, who watches it and goes, okay, this gives me the permission to feel okay to talk to somebody about it. Like, it's worth it for me to do that, um, especially on TV, you know? Mm-hmm. Have you felt the love? Like, whether it's DM or has anyone come up to you and told you face to face that you, um, impacted their lives by sharing that story? Yeah. I mean, I actually, just the other day, I got like a really interesting email. Um, it was from, a retired military veteran and um he he basically you know i i don't know the exact remember the

exact word to use but he basically said like i'm so proud of you like thank you for showing your strength um you know through special forces and like you know heard it from other people but to hear from a um a military veteran like that just made me feel like okay like you know at least i gave it my all and you know it was people saw that that my strength on that show show. So that was really encouraging. And then, you know, some people, um, just messages here and there, people saying like, thank you for sharing your story and, um, you know, things like that. But, you know, that's not, it's not the reason I do it. It's really just, I don't want, I don't want people to give me recognition. I really want people to feel, um, like they can be strong through

hearing my experience and, you know, hopefully speak out about their own someday if that's part of their journey and they need to. Of course. Of course. I think talking about it just proves to everyone that we are all human and we're all in this together and you're not alone. You know, there's power in feeling like you're not alone. So good for you for talking about it. I'm sure that's not easy. Okay.

Speaking of not easy, pregnancy. How has it been so far? you had any speed bumps? Like, I was, I was sick for, gosh, four months. So that was no fun. Has it been an easy pregnancy so far? I think it's been pretty easy. So I want to say easy, but it hasn't been terrible.

And I've heard, I've heard people that I've had, you know, morning sickness and things like that. I've been very lucky not to experience that. So, you know, I think the biggest thing. And I think only women can relate to this, really. it's like the way your body just changes like you know you're getting you know you're pregnant you know you're growing a child but you know your body is changing in a lot of ways and that's just hard and interesting um but i'm trying to embrace it as much as i can and um you know we we told our team like

a few weeks ago and posted a video on social media they were just so excited for us so it's just been really fun and trying to enjoy it and embrace every part of the process for sure yes i loved that video that was so cute how he ripped open didn't he rip open his shirt and most did we had one at arkansas mom and arkansas dad and we unzipped our jackets and so cute i loved that that was adorable um do you know if you're having a girl or a boy or are you going to find out um and we know it's a girl okay now here's the not that it i guess if you were having a boy it would be the same question because your husband was an Olympic gymnast. Would you let them go into gymnastics?

Will you hope that they go into gymnastics so that you can coach them? Because they have, hello, some pretty good jeans. I don't know. I don't have that feeling of like I hope they do, but I definitely would let them if they wanted to. I mean, I didn't do any other sports growing up besides gymnastics. So I kind of want, I kind of want her to try things and like try soccer, or try swimming maybe that would be good um you know just see what she loves because like i specialized so

early like i didn't do anything else um if you throw a ball at me i i like freak out and so um yeah i just you know i did really love gymnastics and gained so much from the sport you know i don't have any regrets like specializing in doing that as seriously as i did um i just you know like my parents did with me, I just want them to love it and be passionate about it and really enjoy it every day. Of course. That's of course what just what we want. As parents, you just want your kids to be happy. That's all. I mean, that's what it comes down to. So, you know, people have asked me all the time, would you let your kids go on the bachelor or bachelorette? Obviously, it's very different than being an Olympic gymnast. But, you know, I'm like, well, wouldn't I be a

hypocrite if I said no you can't go on the show where I met your dad and it's the whole reason that you exist you know so um yeah when you get down to it you're like well I was a gymnast all of my life so maybe um my child should do it too you know you just never know you just never know and yeah hopefully um you just want them to be healthy and happy Right. That's what we want. Yes. So you're due, oh gosh, I can't do the math.

Are you doing this January, June? Yeah. Yay. I'm just so excited to hear how it happens and watch your delivery story. Because, of course, we all, you know, follow each other or most of us follow each other on social media now. So I just, I love being able to follow. this. It's just such a, such a light, you know, I, anybody who's pregnant, it's just such, such a light. And I'll never forget you telling us at that table. It was, I was like,

oh my gosh, what? She's telling all of us. I feel so, so honored, you know? Like, I've had so many people ask me, like, well, were you pregnant when you went on special forces? I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like, they filmed things way far in advance. No, I wasn't pregnant. No, way far in advance. That was. a long time ago. Were you guys trying to get pregnant when we were, like, before you left for special forces? No, not until, like, the fall.

We started trying and, you know. Okay. Yeah, we're very lucky that it happened quickly. And, you know, we're always planning around our gymnastics schedule because we compete, our team competes January through April. She's like, okay, we can't have a baby in any of those months. We have to, like, time it as well as we can, God forbid. So we nailed the timing.

you nailed the timing perfectionism out of spest um Jordan thank you so much for coming on the almost famous OG podcast my co-host couldn't be here today because he's busy traveling but um I know he says hi he's been watching the show we've we've been recapping every Thursday morning so um it's been really fun for him to kind of live vicariously through me so I pass along my Hello's from Bob and say thank you from both of us. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. You're having me. I appreciate it.

Of course. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. And actually, if you want to follow Jordan on Instagram, tell us your Instagram handle. Yes. Jordan underscore Weber is my Instagram. Perfection. Let's start with a quick puzzle.

The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land? Jeopardy-truthers believe in... I guess they would be Kenspiracy theorists. That's right. To give you the answers and you still blew it. The Puzzler. Listen on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor.

And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psycho babble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life.

This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wished for a change but weren't sure how to make it? Maybe you felt stuck in a job, a place, or even a relationship. I'm Emily Tish Sussman, and on She Pivots, I dive into the inspiring pivots of women who have taken big leaps in their lives and careers. I'm Gretchen Wittmer, Jody Sweetie. Monica Patton. Elaine Welteroff.

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