An Olympian's Guide to Unlocking Potential (with Alena Olsen)

What does it take to step into the unknown, embrace opportunity and discover what you're truly capable of? → Just say, “yes.”

In this episode of The Potentialist Podcast, Dr. Lee Koles sits down with Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Alena Olsen to explore the mindset, habits and decisions that helped her reach the highest level of competition. While Alena's story unfolds on the rugby field, her lessons apply to anyone looking to unlock greatness.

Together, they discuss the importance of saying yes to new opportunities, building confidence through evidence of past success and staying grounded in your values when the pressure is on. Alena also shares practical leadership strategies for helping teams stay connected and focused, along with why cultivating purpose beyond work or sport is essential for long-term resilience.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why stepping outside your comfort zone is often the first step toward uncovering hidden potential

• How to create a personal archive of wins to strengthen confidence during challenging moments

• A simple leadership practice that helps teams stay present and engaged

• How to translate values into specific behaviors that guide everyday decisions

• Why a well-rounded life supports sustained performance and fulfillment

Whether you're leading a team, navigating change or working toward a personal goal, this conversation offers practical insights for turning potential into action.

Listen in and discover how small decisions, consistent effort and a willingness to embrace opportunity can open doors you never imagined.

Transcript

Dr. Lee Koles: Tap into the power of possibility with the Potentialist podcast. I'm Dr. Lee Koles. Whether you're chasing a dream, leading a team, or simply looking for fulfillment, you just found your one-stop shop. Each episode is packed with science-backed strategy, practical tools, and the inspiration you need to achieve remarkable things. The world wants what you have, and your next step starts now. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Potentialist podcast. I'm your host Dr. Lee Koles. I'm an industrial organizational psychologist, Gallup Clifton strength coach, and certified life coach. And I am so excited to be here with you today because your potential is my passion. You're listening to this podcast because you want to unlock your potential and achieve remarkable things.

Today's guest is someone who knows what it means to rise to the occasion, not just in sport, but in leadership, purpose, and impact. Okay, friends. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have an Olympian on today's podcast. Everyone, I am so excited to introduce you to Alena Olsen. Alena is a Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist in rugby sevens, marking the first ever medal for rugby sevens in the United States. Since joining the USA women's team, she's competed in over 30 World Series tournaments, two Pan-American games, and a World Cup, serving as captain and player representative along the way. But what truly sets Alena apart is the way she channels her platform for something bigger. She is the founder of Going for Green, a sustainability initiative that's mobilized athletes across the globe to take climate action. She's also a recipient of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes for Good Award and the Green Sports Alliance Next Generation Leader Award. So, in this conversation, we're going to talk about what drives greatness from mindset and leadership to purpose and resilience. Oh my gosh, Alena, welcome to the podcast.

Alena Olsen: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Dr. Lee Koles: I am so excited to have you here. Now, you’re my first Olympian on this podcast... I want you to take us back to the early days. So, tell me, what drew you to rugby and when did you realize that it had the... potential to be more than just a sport for you?

Alena Olsen: Yeah, I really love this question because rugby in the United States is not super popular... compared to maybe some other countries. Um, so our pathway to the sport is very different... I had played soccer and volleyball growing up. I love team sports. I love being active. I guess when I went to university, I felt like it was time to do something different and try something new. I feel like that was a big goal that I was trying to achieve when going to school was just try new things. And I had a couple cousins that played rugby. They're like, "Give it a shot. I think that you'd really like it." And I fell in love immediately.

There's really two aspects of rugby that made me fall in love. The first one was the ability to use your body and be strong and be powerful and have those aspects of you be really valued in a place. And then there was also this amazing sense of community that rugby brought. There's a lot of support and encouragement from the people around you. I didn't really know what I was getting into at the time, but I was really lucky that the men's coach at my university was a USA scout. He kind of took me under his wing and was like, "You can play at the national team level. Here are the steps you need to take to get there, and I will help you if this is what you want to do".

Dr. Lee Koles: Was that on your radar at all, playing on a national level?

Alena Olsen: Absolutely not. And it's so funny because I mean now the younger generation... they have played rugby longer... they've gone through the youth pathways. But my generation that's kind of exiting rugby all just was like, "Yeah, I guess I'll try playing rugby." And then all of a sudden, boom, somebody says, "You're really good at this. We're going to like have the national team scouts start looking at you..." So, I think for a lot of people it was a surprise.

Dr. Lee Koles: What was it that made you realize I want to just try something new?

Alena Olsen: Um, I knew that it was something that had interested me and... if there's an opportunity that is put in front of me, I just like to say yes. So, they're like maybe give rugby a shot. Yes, why not? I'm just going to try. I can try anything one time.

Dr. Lee Koles: I love that. Say yes and I can try anything one time. And that's what you did. You stepped out of your comfort zone, did something you had never done before, said yes, and next thing you know, you are looking at playing on a national level. Okay. So, I want you to go back to that time when you look back. What was the moment when you saw your potential differently? when it shifted from oh this is something that I love to do to this is something that I am capable of excelling at on the world stage?

Alena Olsen: That is a really good question and it's a very difficult question right cuz I think that there's a lot of moments that lead up to that... 2 years before the Olympics is when you're starting to say we want a gold medal... And even when it is, there's just that question that's like can we do that? For me personally, it was a big up and down journey into figuring out what kind of player I was. My beginning was very insecure, very rocky. I was getting kind of these contracts where I wasn't getting paid. It was really short. They were trial periods... somebody is gauging you and gauging your value to the organization... based on what they think your potential is.

Dr. Lee Koles: ...In fact, you said it's up and down. You said you felt the insecurities. It was rocky. So many people think that if they face those insecurities, that rockiness or that doubt that those are signs to pull back from your dreams... What kept you moving forward?

Alena Olsen: Yeah, like you said, I had people in my corner that were like, "You can do this..." But I also had coaches that were like, "Uh, I don't really think this is going to work for you. I don't see you in this team..." And you know I spent a lot of years at least three straight years really trying to fight that perception of people that had the decision-making power.

Dr. Lee Koles: Okay. So here's the key word is fight... What was that that was keeping you in the fight?

Alena Olsen: One thing was just like I loved playing rugby... For everybody that's there, I think there's like a little, you know, we have an obsession... That's a big driving force, especially when you feel like you're falling short. You want to keep pushing. You want to keep proving to yourself that you can make it. But even after the fact that I felt like I was proving myself, there were still a lot of hard days. And I think the first thing is the people around me... Especially in the early days, I was creating playlists of all my best moments. So even when my coaches were like, "Uh, you're not doing this..." I could look back at this film playlist of all my best moments and be like, "Oh my gosh, look at this thing that I did that I wasn't able to do 6 months ago..." and so to be able to look at that progress and the process of becoming a better player was something that held me in.

Dr. Lee Koles: I love this... You created a playlist of your best moments. I love that you did that... was it in your head or did you write it down or how did you do that?

Alena Olsen: I mean, we're lucky because we have a film app. So, all of our trainings are filmed... So I had, you know, every day, maybe not every day, but at least once a week, you know, I'd have something and be like, "Oh, this was so cool. Cut it, put it over here." And so then when I'm feeling like I didn't have a good day... I can watch and I can be like, "Okay, I know what I'm doing." But also, it's this visual cue of watching yourself do something. And I feel like that's also strong in being able to recreate it the next day or the next practice.

Dr. Lee Koles: Wow. So this is a literal playlist that you could actually watch, listen to. Okay, so Alena, for those of us or those listeners out there who aren't in a sport but want to take this advice and create a playlist of their own, a mental playlist, how do you recommend they do that?

Alena Olsen: I think that it can be as easy as journal entries or even like a Google Drive folder where if you're taking a screenshot because you just got this like email that really brightened your day that was maybe like an acceptance email or you accomplished something. Or it could just be like this was the best part of my day... these things that you're constantly achieving on a daily basis but maybe you forget about in a longer scheme.

Dr. Lee Koles: I think that's a great idea. I have this little book... that says one great thing that happened today... so many of us have this log of the things we don't do well of our misses that replay so often in our heads. So how powerful is it to have a list of positive things that you did really well that you go back and look at and see yourself excelling?

Alena Olsen: Yeah, it's so easy to forget that you have done and can do these things... to be reminded of all the things that you've already improved on or accomplished.

Dr. Lee Koles: Yeah. Okay. So, as a leader, what mental and emotional strategies help you and your team perform under pressure?

Alena Olsen: I think one of the things that was important in leadership is really doing small check-ins with people just one-on-one. How are we doing? What's the temperature check? How are we feeling today? ...so you can kind of gauge where everybody's at... we do a lot about like trying to signal to each other, are you here? in the present moment right now or are you somewhere else? You can try to get their attention, but if you just get their eyes and give a thumbs up, you're kind of just like, are you here with me right now? And I think that's one of the things that leadership brought in was just this kind of grounding moment that we're all here in the same moment together.

Dr. Lee Koles: With so many distractions and stressors, how can you make yourself be present?

Alena Olsen: We do a lot of sports psychology work and that is based around trying to stay in the present moment... Some of our practices are putting actions to our values. So we have a set of values: courage, love, resilience, work ethic, selflessness. Half of our mindfulness practice is trying to notice what thoughts and emotions and feelings are appearing. The other half are based around action and how those actions align with our five values. We might spend time figuring out what are actions that would align with selflessness... courage... resilience?

Dr. Lee Koles: I like what you've done there... tying what actions represent those values. What does it look like in the real world?

Alena Olsen: Yeah, this was kind of the first time where I was learning how your values are guides to how you make decisions and how you act in your life... bringing yourself into the present, actually setting aside some time for yourself.

Dr. Lee Koles: ...I achieved something historic... and then so often athletes describe this period of rediscovering themselves beyond their sport. I wanted you to just touch on like how you actually found a purpose outside of rugby and what led you to your environmental initiatives?

Alena Olsen: ...In 2020 when the pandemic hit, that's when we had a lot of time to think and we had more time to, I guess, explore other things... and that's when I started kind of getting more involved in sustainability. But I had found a group. They're called Ecoathletes. And they were like, "Well, you can do both. They don't have to be separate." And they were like, "You can bring climate action to sports." And I was like, "Oh, that's brilliant..." it gave me something to really like pull myself out of and give me fulfillment and give me a purpose... when rugby wasn't giving me that. And I think it's just a really good perspective to not dig yourself into a hole about your whole world depending on sports.

Dr. Lee Koles: Alena, one of the many things I love about your story is that you demonstrate that unlocking potential just isn't just this one-time event. It's a choice that you make again and again... If you could leave our friends with one takeaway from this discussion, what would that be?

Alena Olsen: I love open doors because you never know what's behind them, but there's always something.

Dr. Lee Koles: I love that. I love open doors and really this life is full of open doors. It's incredible. Maybe an infinite number of open doors. Yes. So, I always want my friends to become friends. So, Alena, how can people connect with you, find out more about you and and what you're doing?

Alena Olsen: Yeah, I'm so happy to talk to anybody about anything. So, you can find me on LinkedIn or you can find me on Instagram. My tag is miscellaneous... It's m i s c _ a l l e n o u s.

Dr. Lee Koles: Oh, that is a unique spell. I love it. Alena, thank you so much and thank you everyone for joining us on the Potentialist podcast... Until next time, remember, the world wants what you have, and your next step starts now.