Kat Driscoll is in that elite company that only a number one ranked gymnast can be in. It’s rarefied air that is reached by a very small percentage of competitors. The eleven time European and seven time World champion still has her eyes set on more dominance, as I learned when we spoke a few weeks ago.
I wondered what other things motivate and inspire an Olympian outside of their innate competitive spirit. As I have gradually come to know Kat Driscoll, I was excited to learn that we share a lot of the same musical tastes and both use music to fuel our real life passions.
For her, it’s the soundtrack of her daily routine of work-outs and exercises. From warm ups to cool downs, Driscoll has incorporated her playlist into her practice regiment.
There is one common bond, however, that takes both to another level and that’s the music of Harry Styles. We spoke at length about both her career and Styles.
I asked her what her future plans are in terms of competing. Driscoll tells me, “The plan was to go to Tokyo this year and then retire. That didn’t happen. The plan still for me is that, I’ve always said that I’ll do it as long as I wake up in the morning and have got motivation and drive to want to go and test myself, in the way that we do. The moment I wake up and don’t have that feeling anymore would be the time to walk away. In an ideal world, you walk away on your own terms. It’s not quite as easy to do all of the training that is required. So the plan would still be, next year, to retire after the games.”
She’ll definitely have a fan here in the United States cheering her on. I will be watching those games and rooting for Driscoll and pulling for her to go out on top.
As she is training and preparing for those games, she’ll no doubt be on a healthy diet of Harry Styles. She shared with me her current warm up playlist and events leading up to the moment the songs start to play. Driscoll says, “It goes, walk into the gym. Speakers go on and I’m charge of the music when we train! There’s something about a live performance-version of a song to the Spotify version. So my warm up is all YouTube videos that I have in a playlist.”
Driscoll continues and breaks the song list down for us. She says, “I start with the “Brit Awards” – Fallen as I’m getting to the gym and getting all of my stuff sorted. Then it progresses from that and I go to – Still The One. Then we go into – Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around. Then we go to – Big Yellow Taxi to – The Chain. Then to – Sledgehammer to Juice. Then we go to – Medicine, then to – Anna.”
How’s that for an impressive list? But here’s the thing. When we start getting in deeper to her favorite Harry Styles songs she has two very important distinctions. The song Fine Line is her absolute favorite but her most played song on her Spotify playlist is – Kiwi. I can certainly get behind both of those choices. Although, if you follow me at all, you know that Golden is my everything. Most played and favorite song.
In addition, Kat gives a great explanation why her favorite (Fine Line) isn’t her most played. She explains, “I feel like you have to be in good emotional control in order to listen to that song.” :laughs:
AGREE.
You can hear my entire conversation with Kat Driscoll that also includes her plans, post retirement and her top five favorite Harry Styles original songs, by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts.
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