February 15, 2019

Olympian Spotlight: Karine Thomas (CAN)

February 15, 2019/ Mariya Koroleva

Karine Thomas (CAN) tells us about the challenges she faced in her synchro career, her two Olympic experiences, and what she has been doing after retirement.

Karine and I competed against each other at several competitions, including the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games and the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Karine started doing synchro in Canada at the age of 10 and by the time she was 13 years old she had already moved away from home to better her synchro career. At 16 she was a part of the Canadian Junior National Team and immediately after competing at her first international competition (2006 Junior World Championships) she was recruited to be on the senior roster and competed on the elite level until her retirement in 2017.

January 31, 2019

On Confidence and How to Cultivate It

January 31, 2019/ Mariya Koroleva

Confidence is one of the traits that is most commonly associated with great athletes. Top performers like Michael Phelps appear to be so sure of themselves and seemingly don’t care what other people think, but how do they get there? How do you “become” confident? It’s definitely not something you can just turn on and off, but rather a state of being and carrying yourself. I have a few thoughts on this that I’d like to share.

January 18, 2019

Dealing with the Pre-Competition Jitters

January 18, 2019/ Mariya Koroleva

As an athlete, you know that pre-competition nerves can make or break your performance. I feel like there are very few athletes who don’t get nervous before they compete, and once you learn how to control your emotions you can use those pre-competition jitters to your advantage instead of psyching yourself to ensure an optimal performance.

November 30, 2018

Competing for the Red, White and Blue with a Dual Citizenship

November 30, 2018/ Mariya Koroleva

Being a citizen of two countries is not all that uncommon nowadays, but competing in the Olympics with a dual citizenship is still an anomaly. For me, answering the question “where are you from?” was always puzzling because I consider two places my home - the city I was born and raised in (Yaroslavl, Russia) and the city I live in (Walnut Creek, CA). Although I’ve lived in the States for many years, I still have a strong allegiance to my home country of Russia, so my experience competing for the Red, White and Blue was definitely a unique one.