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Nancy Lieberman: You guys ready?
You are going to hear the most Secretive stuff that you ever
wanted to know about Syracuse.
Okay.
So I am going to brag on her.
Because in 2002, she won the Gold Medal in Salt Lake.
Sarah Hughes: Yeah, Salt Lake City.
Nancy Lieberman: I was at home watching on TV and
I was like, how can she not fall on ice?
Because when I get on ice I am like --
Sarah Hughes: And I was just thinking,
please don't let me fall.
Don't let me fall.
So we were wondering the same thing.
Nancy Lieberman: I don't believe that for a minute.
She was impeccable.
I mean, think about what it is like to be an athlete or to be
just normally walking.
And here she is doing all of these beautiful routines and
there is, it is precision, it is athleticism, it is speed,
it is power.
And then you then you wear those tight little numbers.
How do you get in them?
(laughter)
Sarah Hughes: That is a different question.
Why don't we talk about you a little bit.
So your really, you have paved the way for all of this
to happen.
And you are really one of the -- you are the reason why we are
here today.
People like you.
People who are great athletes and then became activists for
wanting to have other girls and the next generation have more
opportunities and more things that they could be able to do to
join in school like you had.
And things you didn't have but have more.
Nancy Lieberman: The greatest thing that you could ever have in life,
which as you start to get older and you know,
you have kind of laid the groundwork,
is when a young person actually appreciates what you did.
I say this kind of tongue in cheek.
But it, I didn't realize it.
You know, we were both young when we were Olympians.
I am still the youngest Olympic basketball player,
male or female for the United States when we won the Silver.
I was a senior in high school.
You were 16 when you won the Olympic Gold.
Sarah Hughes: I was, I was a junior in high school.
And you know what?
I learned a lot from skating.
And when I go around now, I speak to a, well,
I go to a lot of rinks to practice because I travel a lot.
And all of the young kids want to know like,
do you think I will be able to make it to the Olympics?
Like what do I need to do to make it to the Olympics?
And what I tell them is you don't have to worry about
the Olympics.
If you love what you do, if you are having fun,
you will make it there.
But skating and sports in general aren't about making it
to the Olympics.
Or you know it is great if you can play in the WNBA or
something like that, but you learn all of these
lessons every single day when you go to practice.
It is everyday.
It is not just the end goal.
It is the journey.
Which I am sure the Girl Scouts teaches you a lot about,
is that correct?
Yeah.
Nancy Lieberman: You know, everybody has their own story.
Each of you have your own story that is very uniquely
personal to you.
So I look back on my time, I am from New York City.
I grew up.
I was a poor kid from a one parent family growing
up in New York.
And I used to take the A train by myself from Far Rockaway 50
minutes and change the trains in Manhattan and go to Harlem.
So can you imagine being like this white girl like at
13 years old strolling into Rucker Park and these guys
are kind of looking at me, like what are you doing here?
And I kind of talked this time at the time.
Like, how you doing?
But I had to pay $2,000 when I started working for ESPN,
so you could actually understand me.
So now I am articulate and I talk like this.
But to be able to go into a place that is uncomfortable,
there was a man that changed my life.
I don't have a story of a woman that changed my life.
I was watching TV one day.
And I was, everybody called me a tomboy and you never make
anything of yourself and why, why are you playing in
the schoolyard?
And why are you hanging out with black kids and this and that?
And then I heard this guy on TV one day.
And he says, I am the champion of the world.
I beat Joe Frasier, I can beat George Foreman like I beat Sonny
Liston back in 1964.
I am too pretty not to be the champion of the world.
I am the greatest of all times.
Who is that?
Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali is my hero.
He is my vision and I just cannot believe I get
to utter these words.
He has been my life long friend.
And what Muhammad Ali taught me at a young age,
was to fear nobody and respect everybody.
And he said, Nancy, go through life remembering this, "Me, We."
If you are a better me, you are going to be a better we.
And I will -- before I turn this little part over to Sarah.
I want you to remember these words,
because I have it in my wallet.
I have had it since I was little.
I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow.
If I fail, if I succeed, at least I will live as I believe.
No matter what they take from me,
they can't take away my dignity.
Because the greatest love of all is happening inside of me.
You must love you first.
If you don't love you, why should I love you?
That is what makes her a champion.
Because she worked on her.
That is what helped make me a champion.
Is to work on me.
You must be confident whether it is being an astronaut,
being Secretary Of State, being the President of the
United States.
You have to in any situation, you must be confident and you
must believe in you.
And that I know to be true.
Because I am -- I was the youngest basketball player ever.
The oldest at 39 in the WNBA and then the oldest at
50 in the WNBA.
Okay.
I mean, that is love.
She said love.
I love this game.
You love what you do.
And you will be anything you want to be.
Sarah Hughes: I don't even know what to,
how to add to that.
I mean, this is, that is what it is all about.
It is about respecting yourself.
It is about respecting others.
It is about being true to yourself.
And it is about finding something you love.
And, you know, I really, I love to skate.
I started to skate when I was about three.
There was a rink nearby our house.
That is how I first got involved,
because I was a 4th child.
There are six kids in my family.
Which for our town was a lot.
And so my mom just kept having kids.
And I had two older brothers and they played hockey.
And I knew that hockey wasn't for me,
because I didn't like to get hit.
And I didn't want to hit anybody else.
I needed a sport that wasn't contact.
And so when I would go to the rink and my brothers would put
on all of their equipment and get on the ice,
I saw some other kids figure skating.
And I said that is something that I want to do.
And that is something I can do.
So I tried it a few times and I loved it.
So I, every time they went to the rink I wouldn't just sit
there, I can now go on the ice with them.
So my mom would line us all up, and from oldest to youngest.
And since I was the youngest, I would -- she would put my
skates on last, because there is a whole thing of you give,
you have to put the equipment on my brothers.
It would take her so long to do my brothers.
So by the time I was five, I learned how to do my
skates myself.
And so she said that is the first time that I knew you were
really serious about it, because you wouldn't even wait
for me to finish putting on your brother's equipment.
No one else in my family had really skated that seriously.
So I, and my parents didn't know that much about it.
But I liked to do it and they really supported it.
And it is kind of when I went to school, no one else skated.
It was kind of I think that what makes it a little different from
a team sport, that I always was a little bit of an outlier.
That it was always something different and I always felt that
I was a little different than everyone else because sometimes
I would even go to school in my skating clothes when
I was younger.
Because, you know, I didn't have time to change,
and because there were three kids that were older than me
that my mom was taking care of.
We would forget to put stuff in the bag before,
the night before.
And after I won, I realized you know what?
It wasn't so bad spending my whole life being different,
because now everybody is, they watch me on TV.
And I had accomplished a great thing by being the number one
skater in the world.
And suddenly, all of the kids at school,
who I had felt so different from and questioned maybe I shouldn't
keep skating or maybe I should do what everybody else is doing,
suddenly they respected it and they thought it was so great.
Because I think that they finally understood it and they
understood what I was doing.
So that was kind of, it took my whole life up until that point
to see that because everything changed so much,
but it reinforced the notion of what you were talking about
before, where you were saying, you know,
you believe in yourself.
Respect yourself.
And that is what I was doing.
And I always felt a little bit you know what?
I, I feel so different.
I don't really feel like everyone else.
And it made me a little more shy.
I wasn't always, I wasn't the first one to speak up in school.
I was the last one to tell anyone that I was skating or
that I was going to a competition,
because I was a little bit embarrassed by it.
Because it's a weird thing to do.
Who puts on stockings and then you put on a little spandex
dress and you go out and try not to fall on slippery ice.
We're on a blade that is less than a quarter inch thick and we
are trying to do triple jumps and land on one foot.
And it is not, it is not normal.
It is not something that everyone else was doing
at the time.
Nancy Lieberman: So think about this.
There is success everywhere.
You at your age, you have to master the things that
take no talent.
So think about that.
It doesn't take talent to be smart.
It takes energy and effort.
Like if we had a foot race right now, and I ran faster than you,
that doesn't mean you are not fast.
It means I have a max and you have a max.
If you are smarter than me, it doesn't mean I am stupid.
It means you have a max and I have a max.
So we all have that in life.
So we are talking initially about having that inner
self confidence.
But what we have right here, right now, this is a team.
Because like each one, teach one.
Each one, teach one.
And that is mentorship when you pass it down.
Because I, I have, I had a friend growing up.
I have had a lot of friends growing up.
And one of these guys that I met when I was young,
which is really kind of cool, their names were the Jacksons.
Like whoo-hoo.
And what I learned from these guys is that not only love and
kindness and taking judgment, but staying genuine to
who you are.
But you saw the discipline of, of what they did.
And the kindness.
And the one thing that I remember them always saying is,
you know, you come in equal.
And you leave equal.
So this is not morbid.
But that little hash mark, right?
And a legacy is not what you did.
That is your legacy.
A legacy is what you leave behind for other people.
So that I hope that part of my legacy has been able to effect
Sarah, even though we have not been around each other.
And we are different athletes and different sports and
different ages.
There is love and kindness and respect.
Even though like there is a difference in ages right now,
we are now a team for the rest of your life.
You will have us.
Whether it is Twitter or Facebook or email.
If you ever have a question, we will be your "Go To" girls.
We are your glue.
And just to be able to know that and then one day you are going
to take somebody under your wing.
And you are going to do the same thing.
And you are going to go, remember that old lady?
That was at in Washington.
She said, but that is, "each one, teach one."
See, I get excited to be around you know young super stars.
Because we get to bond like she doesn't know.
I grew up in Far Rockaway.
She grew up in Manhasset.
Great Neck.
My family is from Great Neck.
My, my whole father's side of the family all grew up
in Great Neck.
So I mean, I know that area you know all, all too well.
But, you guys, I can tell you this.
I can promise you this.
You can be anything and do anything that you want to do if
you believe in you.
You must.
It is not an option.
Confidence comes from repetition.
When you do something over and over and over and over and over
again, you become successful.
She didn't just get out there and skate one time.
I didn't just play basketball one time.
It is, we committed our lives to this.
I don't get, I didn't get up and you know play basketball at five
in the morning or four in the morning.
These guys have to get up and find rink time,
am I wrong or right?
Sarah Hughes: And it is cold.
Nancy Lieberman: Four or five in the morning.
Sarah Hughes: It is very, very cold.
It is cold out there.
For practice we don't wear these little dresses.
Do you --
Nancy Lieberman: I want to see pictures.
I don't believe it.
Sarah Hughes: How old are you?
You are 17.
Are you all of you 17?
14.
Nancy Lieberman: I am 13.
We are friends.
Sarah Hughes: So when I won ten years ago,
you were only three years old.
You were seven, so you might have watched it.
Speaker: Yes, I remember it.
Sarah Hughes: You remember it.
So when I was and probably what you saw in the bio that you said
that you had read, was that I was 4th place after the
1st program.
We have to skate two programs at the Olympics.
And to make the Olympic team, that we took three women from
this country.
And I just made the third spot.
So I made the team by the skin of my teeth.
Then going into the -- I was 4th after the 1st program.
Which is great, 4th of every skater in the whole world is
pretty good, right?
Well, it is not as good as you might think.
Because it is right on the edge of being good,
but not being able to win.
Nobody in the history of our sport has ever gone from fourth
place to winning.
No one before me.
So I knew and, you know, my whole skating career I felt like
people were saying, you can't do it.
You won't do it.
You can't win.
You can't win just because of the way things were.
Because it is a judged sport.
And there is usually someone who skates better.
And even if you do skate better, maybe they will be ahead in the
program before you and the judges will like their
music better.
Or something like this.
So I just said, you know what?
I am not going to listen to what anybody says.
And my whole life people are telling me, you can't do it.
You can't do it.
You can't do it.
And I knew I could do it.
I knew my whole life, before I ever made the team,
I knew I can do it.
I can do it.
And you know what?
I went out and I won and it turned out,
I ended up winning the whole competition.
The first person ever to go from 4th place to 1st,
and it was because I knew I could do it.
And I didn't listen to everyone who said you can't do it.
And I thought, you know what?
That is a really great lesson I am going to take through for the
rest of my life.
I never told anyone that you know what?
You are wrong.
I can do it.
Because I knew it myself.
I knew I can do it.
And afterwards, I felt so good because I felt suddenly I didn't
have to tell anyone that I could do it.
I showed everyone, you know what?
I can do it.
Nancy Lieberman: See, I just love listening to those stories.
Because you are, you are going to have, first of all,
people have the right to tell you what you can be.
They don't have the right to tell you what you can't be.
Cannot be.
If you are around somebody that is telling you what you cannot
be, boom, make your inner circle a little bit tighter.
You know, sometimes you get, you know more out of less.
You don't have to have like a hundred people around you.
You just have to have the people around you that care,
that support you, and that believe in you.
Because I will tell you this, no matter what you do and you
represent you know the Girl Scouts and Girls,
Inc., and I have worked with both,
we probably have worked with both organizations.
That word, that brand, that means excellence.
There is a reputation.
Like I tell my son TJ who is 17 everyday when
he leaves the house.
I go, "TJ, I love you.
Protect the family name.
Don't do anything stupid, because it is going to be
in the newspapers."
And it is going to say, TJ Kline,
son of basketball Hall of Famer, Nancy Lieberman.
I said, don't drag me into your mess.
And everyday he laughs at me, but I say, "TJ,
protect the family name."
You are wearing these shirts.
Protect the name.
You are wearing these vests.
You have earned the right to.
Protect the family name.
You are skating for the United States of America.
I am playing for the United States.
Protect the family name.
Don't do anything stupid because we are not in control
of our reputations.
But you are always in control of your character.
It is yours and you own it.
So it doesn't matter what anybody says,
they can't take away your character.
And that means you have skin in the game.
And that is the most -- I am you know when I was coaching in
Detroit, the one person in a really weird way that I wanted
to meet and I have met everybody from, you know,
Presidents to Jacksons to Warren Buck, everybody.
I wanted to meet Eminem.
Because I dug this guy.
Because I wish I could rap and tell you how I feel.
♪♪ Can I get a little help here?
No.
But you know he says in one of his songs.
I am who I say I am.
You guys know which one I am talking about?
I am who I say I am.
You don't get the right and privilege to tell me who you
think I am.
I can do anything.
She can do anything.
She can win as many medals.
She can come from 4th to go 1st.
In 1974, my First USA team, I was just told recently.
I was at the Basketball Hall of Fame with Robin Roberts and Pat
Summitt, women's basketball last weekend.
But I am the only player in history who has played,
been Pat Summitt's teammate, played against her in college.
And played for her on the USA team.
So people don't even remember Pat Summitt played.
I mean, I was 15 years old when she was, you know, 19.
And so can you imagine like at, you know, from 15 to 19?
That is like eternity.
I am like, grandmom.
She was like I am 19.
I am like, oh, I am sorry.
But you know to be able to learn from these people who had an
effect on my life and to see their greatness,
I knew Dorothy Hamill, for many, many years one of the great
great skaters.
And Peggy Fleming.
Sarah Hughes: Yeah.
And Peggy was very involved in getting Title IX passed.
She was some, one of the original women who stood there,
who went and campaigned on Capitol Hill.
So, you know, I come from the -- after I won,
I was welcomed into this small sisterhood of women who
had won before me.
And Peggy was one of them.
And suddenly I felt, you know, as probably you feel as part of
the Girl Scouts or Girls, Inc.
Suddenly I represented a brand greater than myself.
I wasn't just representing myself and my name.
It was women's figure skating.
And I felt, you know what?
I don't want to do anything to, now that I have been accepted
into their group and their friends,
I want them to also respect me and my character and that is not
going to be just what I say.
It is going to be what I do.
I think that is a big thing for young girls growing up.
It is not just what you say.
It is what you do.
It is the choices you make.
Nancy Lieberman: To add to that and the fact that I worked
for ESPN for 28 years doing basketball and they really
taught us how to communicate and ask questions.
And you can elicit the response that you want.
Like we work on really using positive trigger words.
So we are building, we have the right as mentors to build you
up, to encourage you, to, to let you think you can be anything
you want to be.
So I am coaching men right now.
I work for the Dallas Mavericks and I was hired three years ago
to be the first woman to ever coach a men's NBA level teach.
So I could have went, okay, they are big.
They are not going to listen to me.
But because we have spent our lifetime, go ahead --
Sarah Hughes: But your son is 17 and 6'8".
Nancy Lieberman: My son is 17.
Sarah Hughes: Oh, my gosh.
So these guys though then it didn't even phase you.
She has a 17 year old son who is 6'8".
Nancy Lieberman: Who sits there in the house,
and goes pumpkin, breakfast.
I said I am not pumpkin.
Okay.
I am your mother.
Well, how do you want your eggs?
Sarah Hughes: So what happened the first
time you went to the Mavericks?
Nancy Lieberman: Okay.
Here I am.
I was doing the Today Show and Amy on the Today Show, the host,
is, says on TV, she goes well, Nancy,
how are you going to be able to coach guys?
How are they going to be able to listen to you?
I said, Amy, we have been telling guys what to do our
whole life.
It is going to be normal.
If they want to get to the NBA, they are going,
I have to earn their respect, but they better earn my
respect too.
So you have to set the tone immediately.
You can be firm, but you can be fair.
I am funny, I believe I am funny, by nature.
I think humor.
Don't you want to be around people who are fun and like
everybody here, Let me see your teeth.
If you don't have teeth, no judgment, really.
But see, a smile, doesn't it make you feel good to smile?
Don't you, I mean, don't you like want to be like around
people that make you smile?
And it doesn't cost anything.
I mean, it doesn't matter if we are rich or poor, Olympians.
We just want, there is enough people we are around everyday,
right, that we actually don't like,
but we have to around them.
And go you are my best friend, don't call me.
Right?
Call me.
Maybe.
Never.
(laugther) But that's part of life.
Everything you do in life, if you work hard like Sarah said
and you're dedicated and you have a good spirit about you and
you serve people -- Muhammad Ali says service to others is
the rent you pay for your time here on earth.
Sarah Hughes: Oh, I like that.
Nancy Lieberman: Service to others.
What can I do for you?
I don't want anything in return.
How can I help you today?
Something random like hold a door for somebody,
or pick up trash or go, you're beautiful, you are so pretty.
I mean, something kind has such an effect on other people.
Sarah Hughes: You know, I have nieces and my seven year
old nieces, I've noticed that if one kid is not being nice to
another kid, if the other kid says something very nice about
something else or something positive,
the bullying kid doesn't always know where to go.
They get confused.
They get lost because suddenly the other kid is not afraid.
And the other kid is not going to talk badly about another kid.
Always say nice things about other people.
That's what I've found.
And if you start at a young age, they then learn
this pattern too.
You notice that?
Nancy Lieberman: She's absolutely right.
See, bullies are insecure.
I'm going back to my basketball camp tonight.
We have a thing, it's called action/reaction.
If I go like that, does that make you uncomfortable?
Sarah Hughes: Yes.
Nancy Liebrman: Okay, I have the basketball and I go umph.
And most people react.
So I am the action and she was the --
Participant: Reaction.
Nancy Lieberman: We want them to react to us.
So in life, if there's a bully or you sense this or you're
aware of your surroundings, a bully, you know,
they fuel on that negative.
And if you go, you are really -- how are you today,
how was class?
Sarah just said it.
They don't know what to do.
Sarah Hughes: Yeah.
And then they'll stop bothering you too.
I've found they'll go try to figure out something else to do.
Nancy Lieberman: Could you guys do us a favor?
Could you just take the mic and go around and tell us two great
things about you, two things that you really like about you.
Sarah Hughes: Oh, I like this.
Nancy Lieberman: Okay.
And then you can just throw one thing you really like about
me in there.
Sarah Hughes: Or if you want, after we do this,
they should all be able to ask a question.
Two great things.
Nancy Lieberman: That you like about yourself.
Participant: (inaudible)
Nancy Lieberman: No, two.
Participant: I like my creativity and the way I can
communicate with other people.
Nancy Lieberman: That's great.
Participant: I love meeting new people.
And I love my personality.
Participant: I like helping others.
And I like how I can make other people laugh.
Nancy Lieberman: What was the first one?
Participant: I like helping others.
Sarah Hughes: Helping others?
Participant: I think I'm a good leader.
And I'm really passionate about all the things I do.
Participant: I think that I'm funny.
And I like to teach.
Participant: My artistic availability and personality.
Participant: (low audio)
Nancy leaner match: Don't make me come after you!
I'll throw hands.
Participant: (low audio).
And I also like playing golf.
Sarah Hughes: You know, golf is now Olympic sport, 2016.
Participant: It is?
Sarah Hughes: It is!
Rio's going to be the first one.
So there you go!
And you can play in the LPGA Tour.
Participant: What's so physical about golf?
Sarah Hughes: Golf is hard.
I've learned a lot about golf.
You know what, you need to focus for a very long period of time.
And it also requires a lot of strategy and math because the
angles of the hills.
They change where they put the holes.
Participant: I think I'm very motivated and passionate
-- (low audio)
Sarah Hughes: I need one more.
Participant: Oh, I thought that was two.
I'm motivated --
Sarah Hughes: Oh, motivated.
Okay, there we go.
Participant: I like the effort I put into things.
I like the way I -- opportunities -- (low audio).
Nancy Lieberman: So can we do a fun little drill,
just for concentration?
I'm going to have my hand here.
So when my right hand crosses my left hand, can you clap?
Okay.
Ready?
Everybody.
So when it crosses, what do you do?
(clap) That was weak.
Okay.
One more time.
Ready?
(clap) Okay.
Ready?
(clap) (clap) So now I'm going to do this again.
You ready?
(clap) What happened?
Ladies?
(laughter) What happened?
Okay, ready?
(clap) (clap) (clap) Okay.
I'm going to do it again now.
Ready?
(clap) So you got to concentrate.
Ready?
(clap) (clap) Here I go again.
(clap) (Laughter)
Participant: This is so hard.
Nancy Lieberman: Again, like with teams,
we try to make everyday a little bit fun,
especially with my guys.
Like these are NBA guys.
I had five millionaires on my team.
And I was like, Why did I buy lunch?
These guys had a lot of money.
Some of them were trying to get to the NBA.
Some of them were first round.
But at the core, they're all really good people.
We're trying to build them up each and every day.
So we have some guys who are trying to make it.
We have some guys who were first and second round draft picks.
Some are free agents.
And then some are those millionaires who already
signed their contracts.
So it's a hodgepodge of people.
So we have this thing with the Texas Legends which was the Mavs
D-League team.
And we became the first D-League or NBA team, expansion team,
first-year team, to ever make the playoffs.
So you know, chick coaching, chick can win.
You know how that goes, coming from fourth to first.
Okay.
So we had a thing that everyday, because I had big tough guys.
So we would go like this, even if you were mad at me,
and we would hand hug, just a little thumb.
Because we didn't want people to think, You know,
what are you guys hugging all the time?
So we would go -- So you could be so mad at me.
But if I walked up to you and I was like, you know,
you didn't blah, blah, blah, blah.
And nobody knew.
So we were going to have more touches, physical touches,
than any team because we were going to be there in good and
bad with each other.
There's going to be great days.
There's going to be tough days that you slip on the ice or
school or what not.
The other thing is that we would speak it.
You're going to say it.
You're going to hear it.
You're going to be it.
And I'm going to give you an example and you're
going to laugh.
Pat was my coach in 1977 on the U.S.A. Team.
Holly Warlick, the woman who now just took over at the University
of Tennessee, she's now the head coach because Pat just retired.
She is all country and I am all city slicker from New York.
So we're walking to eat one day.
And I'm going to morph into how I really talk.
And I'm like this, I'm like, yo, like, Holly, man,
look at that car over there.
And she says, that's nice.
You know, she's like country.
That's nice, Nancy.
I'm like, yeah, like people in my neighborhood,
we steal stuff like that.
That's pretty, uh-huh.
She's like, what?
I go, nothing, just kidding.
And she goes, what kind of a car is it?
I said, I don't know, let me take a look.
So I went over and I looked at this convertible,
this chocolate brown gorgeous car.
And I go, it says Mergades, it says Mergades Benz.
She goes, it's a Mergades?
I go, oh yeah, I'm going to have me two or three of them.
And she goes, you're poor.
I said, why you have to tell me I'm poor,
you're supposed to be telling me I'm going to be successful.
So we had this conversation.
We go in, we see Pat.
She's in the lunch area.
And I go, Pat, I saw a Mergades Benz out there.
And she looked at me like, are you that dumb,
it's a Mercedes Benz.
And I was like, it's not a Mergades?
And she goes, no.
I'm like, all right, well, I'm going to have one anyway.
And she goes, whatever.
I found a picture of a Mercedes my freshmen year at Old Dominion
in a magazine.
And I taped it to my mirror.
And everyday I would brush my teeth and I would be like,
I'm going to have me one of them.
And that's an expensive car.
When I turned pro, the first car was a Mercedes Benz because it's
like I had seen it.
It was like I had believed it.
And then I was it.
And not that life should be about material.
But you know, if you want to be a doctor or if you want to be an
astronaut or if you want to be an Olympian,
you got to believe it.
You got to see it.
You got to say it.
And you got to be it.
And during the season, we were, every huddle, Legends, playoffs.
Every time we were in a group setting, it was
Legends, playoffs.
We had said playoffs so many times that when we made it to
the playoffs, everybody was like oh my gosh, how did they do it?
We expected it.
Sarah said 20 minutes ago about mindset.
It's a mindset.
And it's your mind.
And you have to believe in that.
Sarah Hughes: You guys ever see the
movie Dinner for Schmucks?
Mind control.
And one of the characters had to explain to the other guys,
he might have mind control over you but you
have something better.
You have brain control.
It's all in how you think, right.
That was the whole end of the movie.
So that was the turning point when he said you know what,
my brain is just as good.
I can do it.
You have to believe in it.
Nancy Lieberman: You guys have questions?
Sarah Hughes: What was your favorite part of today?
Did you enjoy hearing everyone speak about their experiences of
sports and sports in general and how it's changed their lives?
Participant: (low audio)
Nancy Lieberman: What are you saying about us, our panel here?
Participant: (low audio)
Nancy Lieberman: no, no no!
I'm just messing with you.
Any questions?
Any questions?
Participant: You guys have given us a lot of good advice.
When you were like our age and younger,
like what did you think?
Sarah Hughes: I'm not that much older than you guys.
How did you think about your future?
But quite a bit, enough.
When I -- I knew that, when I was younger,
that boys played hockey and women were starting to
play hockey.
And my mom wanted me to play hockey because she said then I
could get a scholarship to college because women were just
starting to get scholarships if they joined sports.
But I knew that I was going to stay with figure skating because
that's what I liked.
It worked out for me.
But it wasn't until -- I didn't realize how I was born into such
a different era when I was named the -- The Woman's Sports
Foundation has this Sportswoman of the Year
Award that they give out.
They gave it to me.
And I was a junior in high school.
I was talking to my social studies teacher.
And she said, what are you doing tomorrow?
And I said I'm the Sportswoman of the Year from the Women's
Sports Foundation.
And she told me a story about how,
when she was in high school -- and I used to have tutoring at
least once a week because I was traveling lots with competitions
so I would miss class.
So I got to know her very well by this point.
She was very supportive of my competitions and skating.
And she said, you know, when I was in high school,
she said all I wanted to do was to be a runner.
So I joined the men's track team but I couldn't compete with them
and I wasn't really allowed to travel with them, she says,
but I could practice with them.
And all I wanted to do was be a part of it.
And she says, it wasn't until after I graduated that they had
changed the rules in school.
And I couldn't imagine how, when she went to school,
she didn't have any of these opportunities.
So for me, you know, I'm brought up that all
kids can play anything.
Like, who was it?
Laura was saying, oh, I didn't know men played basketball.
So I was about your age -- you're 17?
-- when she said this.
And I couldn't believe that she wanted to be a part of the track
team and she couldn't.
We can't go back to a world where women aren't given the
same opportunities.
If they want to do something, they should be able to.
So after that, when I was your age, I thought, you know what,
I want to be more involved in how the decisions are made by a
few people who are going to affect a lot of people.
I just finished writing a book actually about -- I'm the 7th
American Ladies Olympic Champion.
So there were six before me.
And when Nancy and I won, you watched me on TV.
And apparently, I think half of the country had watched me win.
And suddenly, my life had changed.
I went from being a kid who practiced and went to public
high school to being on the cover of the Wheaties box and on
the Campbell's soup can and meeting famous people and
sitting next to Céline Dion and watching Davis Matthews and U2
just practice right in front of me at the Grammys.
And I'm just doing the same thing I've done my whole life.
I went to a competition, I skated and I came back.
But suddenly, everything was different.
Suddenly I had a pass to go to all the things I watched on TV
and things that other kids in my school thought was very cool.
So what was different about the Olympics?
It's because the six Americans before me,
the six American figure skaters who won the Olympic gold had
changed the way we thought about the sport.
The first two aren't as known because the Olympics
weren't on TV.
But then it was Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill and Kristi
Yamaguchi and Tara Lipinski.
People don't have to know about skating to know at least one or
two of those names.
And it's because of them that when the figure skating was on
at the Olympics that those people just turned it on to see
who's going to be the next one, who will be the next Kristi
Yamaguchi or Dorothy Hamill?
Just wondering.
That's why.
They didn't have to follow every single competition just
to flick it on.
And I said, you know what, I'm going to write a book about
these six women before me so that -- it would make sense to
me to know why it was different when I won than when the first
woman won in 1956.
She didn't get to do all the cool things that I got to do.
The first woman was actually one of the most interesting and had
always been a role model of mine because right after she won the
Olympic silver in 1952, then she won gold four years later.
She went to Radcliffe which is now Harvard.
But they had a separate school for women.
Then she was won of five women at Harvard Medical School.
The class of 135 people, she was won of five women.
So this is the book I had just written.
It's a profile of them.
But you get to see how much society has changed and how much
sports have changed.
So going back to your original question,
what did I think when I was your age,
I just wanted to make sure that -- I knew that what I did would
have more meaning if I can make sure that more people
were given the same opportunities that I had.
Nancy Lieberman: I'm going to keep mine short because.
Sarah Hughes: Sorry.
Was that too long?
Nancy Lieberman: I'm going to have to catch a plane.
Sarah Hughes: I need to leave with you.
Nancy Lieberman: What she's saying is -- I like to think
about what other people did.
And as you get older, you get a little bit more introspective.
It's not always about you.
It's about, like I said, what you leave behind for others.
And I think it was Maya Angelo who says,
don't go through life with too mitts.
You have to throw something back.
So I take Sarah's book -- she's throwing something back.
She's revering the history of the game.
She's not just going, let me tell you how great I am.
She's saying, hey, thank you for, man,
for setting the plate for me because this gave me an
opportunity to do what I did.
So when you're an older athlete -- How old are you?
Sarah Hughes: I'm 27.
Nancy Lieberman: She's 27.
I'm 53.
For me to hear this from a younger athlete who's so
accomplished, it just does my heart, you know,
really -- it makes me happy to care so much about the history
of the sport.
Sarah Hughes: You know what was very important to me when I
was your age was that I knew that I could skate.
And I knew that it made me happy.
But I knew going forward -- I had seen enough that I knew that
I needed to be educated.
That was a big thing for me.
And the other people that I was around or in my place
weren't educated.
And I thought, you know what, in order to serve people and to
be able to throw something back, I need to be very disciplined
and hardworking.
You said you're motivate and you like school, right?
I knew I needed to continue on this path and not be distracted
if I wanted to be able to do something.
I write figure skating articles all the time or sports articles
or women's issues stuff.
And writing those is -- I can do those very quickly because I
went to college and I graduated.
And I learned how to do that there.
But writing a book is something that I only -- it's combining
all the things that I've learned,
the experiences that I went through.
I was able to learn how to think about it, articulate it,
and then write it myself because I knew somebody else was going
to be editing it and doing it.
But I didn't want someone else writing it.
And a lot of what you will see from public figures
or celebrities, other people have done.
And I knew I want to be able to express how I feel.
So when I was your age, I would say,
what can I do to be in control of myself, my message,
which goes back to everything that you said in the beginning.
Nancy Lieberman: So if it's okay if we close,
I was here two years ago at the White House.
And I met President Obama for the first time.
I had my son with me.
And the coolest thing is that we had never met but he looked at
me and he shook my hand and he was like yanking me over here,
because this basketball thing was a connection.
And it was a safe place for both of us.
But in fact, it was the day of the BP press conference.
Sarah Hughes: The oil spill.
Nancy Lieberman: And he was just being
hammered by the media.
And then there's all these, you know,
congressmen and people from the hill.
But our hand shake was safe.
It was an amazing experience.
And he came over.
And he says, come talk to me.
And he goes, I know you're coaching guys.
He goes, I know I'm black and I know I'm the President of the
United States.
But I have to make things normal.
He goes, you know you're a woman.
You know you're coaching men.
But you have to make it normal.
I don't care if you're Black, White, Blue, Christian, Jews,
Asian, we make things normal.
Is that our pact, before we leave today?
No excuses, no explanations.
Because if you're explaining your excuse,
you don't have accountability.
So whatever we do going forward, you can't say, well,
they wouldn't let me do it because I was black.
They wouldn't let me do it because I was a girl.
They didn't let me do it because I'm Jewish.
They wouldn't let me do it because -- we don't have
any excuses.
We do what we do, okay.
Like I tell my guys in the huddle, do what you do.
Don't listen to all those other voices that tell you what you
can't be because you're living what you can be.
Is that fair?
So let's put our hands here.
All right.
Coach, what do you got for us?
Sarah Hughes: I think respect yourself and respect others.
Nancy Lieberman: Fear no one, respect everyone.
On three.
Everybody, one, two, three.
Group: Fear nobody, respect everybody.
Whoo-hoo!
Nancy Lieberman: Can I get an amen!