As a professional athlete, a lot of travel is involved when representing your country. Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, Team USA is here to talk about everything travel, from their dream destinations to their weirdest airport habits.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Suni Lee, and I do gymnastics.
00:02Hey, what's up? This is b-boy Victor, and I'm competing in breaking.
00:05Shot putter for Team USA.
00:06I'm a sailor for the United States.
00:08Diver for Team USA.
00:09Team USA track and field.
00:10And this is how I travel.
00:11Here's how I travel.
00:12Here's how I travel.
00:13This is how I travel.
00:14This is how we travel!
00:20The coolest place I've ever traveled for my sport has to be Tokyo, Japan.
00:24Japan.
00:24Probably Japan.
00:25Japan has, like, been one of my favorite spots to visit.
00:28Love the country, I love the culture.
00:30Super clean, the people are so friendly, and they also love volleyball, which is another plus.
00:34The coolest place I've ever traveled for my sport has to be Australia.
00:37Sydney, Australia.
00:39Auckland, New Zealand.
00:40Switzerland.
00:41Italy.
00:41Kazakhstan.
00:42Monaco.
00:43Portugal.
00:43France.
00:44Kenya.
00:44Rio de Janeiro.
00:45Seoul, South Korea.
00:47Hong Kong.
00:47Or Prague.
00:48Or Vienna.
00:49Just a lot of cool cities that we get to go to.
00:52In 2015, we raced the world rowing championships in Aguelette, France.
00:56Beautiful lake.
00:57It's one of the clearest lakes in Europe, apparently.
00:59Haven't been to them all, but so they say.
01:01Kind of a snow globe, almost, of mountains that surround you at the start line.
01:05Locals who were, you know, at the beach or just checking around would carry water bottles out into the lake
01:11and fill the water bottle up just to drink from.
01:14Never been anywhere else like that.
01:19An item I never travel without are definitely a good set of headphones.
01:22Headphones.
01:23Headphones, I legit have them in my pocket right now.
01:25Noise-canceling headphones.
01:26A box of earplugs, usually used for, like, shooting to protect your hearing.
01:30But my coach snores like you wouldn't believe.
01:33Just some street clothes.
01:34You know, we do so much rowing and training, but in the evenings we do get to go walk around, see some restaurants,
01:40or just, if we're in Europe, enjoy some cobbled little side streets.
01:43And it's fun to just have your favorite outfit so you can feel like a normal girl enjoying an evening.
01:47My lucky sports bra.
01:49I have a small scarab that I got my first time in Egypt competing,
01:52and it now lives in my backpack, and I refuse to travel without it.
01:55I'm actually tasked with carrying around our teamwork rock.
01:58It literally has magical powers.
01:59It's, yeah, it's good.
02:00My elementary school wristband, for good luck.
02:05I never travel without my sketchbook, so when I'm on a plane or before a race, I always have to be sketching.
02:12My stuffed animal leopard named Simba.
02:14Has to be all the snacks I bring with me.
02:16As much food as I will need for the entire trip, anywhere I go.
02:20I love to bring beef jerky with me everywhere I go.
02:23For me, it's always really strange because I have to bring my hoop.
02:26And my hoop is really large, and so I usually try to have it as a carry-on.
02:29People ask me if it's a bicycle tire or a trampoline.
02:32I've gotten asked if it's a satellite dish before, which, sure.
02:38My strangest airport habit is probably that I, like, need to make sure that the gate that I'm going to exists.
02:44Exists.
02:45Exists, and then I'm going to go grab food.
02:47Like, my gate's going to move.
02:48Like, the gate is going to get up and walk away.
02:50You'll probably find a lot of rowers stretching.
02:52The sport itself requires a lot of mobility.
02:55You'll find me and Pigeon on the floor of the gate carpet.
02:58Not that strange for me, but I skate to the airport all the time.
03:00I don't know if it's my strangest, but I think my worst airport habit is that I have, like, so many bags.
03:07I came here with five bags.
03:08It's ridiculous.
03:10When I check in and we get to a gate, I'll find a seat that has, like, an outlet.
03:15And if my outlet works, I'll go down and see how many outlets work until they don't work.
03:19I'm a nervous flyer.
03:20I gotta get to the airport early.
03:22I like to time it perfectly so I'm not waiting in the airport at all.
03:25The minute I get to an airport, I'm immediately sleepy, so I can just, like, ball up in any way and fall asleep.
03:31And one time, it was during Christmastime, I missed my flight.
03:34I woke up and the plane was gone.
03:37So, strange and not handy.
03:43I really want to go to Thailand and Dubai.
03:47Bali.
03:48Portugal.
03:49Greece.
03:49Japan.
03:50Denmark.
03:50Colombia.
03:51Thailand.
03:51Croatia with some friends.
03:53Nice, yeah, we'll just be going South of France.
03:54Back to Hawaii.
03:55When the Olympics are over, I want to be on a beach somewhere.
04:01Maybe somewhere tropical.
04:02Cocktail with an umbrella in the glass.
04:06Maybe get a little tan going.
04:07Toes in the sand.
04:08As long as it's good water.
04:09Maybe the Exumas, maybe the Bahamas, maybe Turks and Caicos.
04:13I don't want to travel too far.
04:14I'd love to go back and eat more food and drink more coffee in Italy when the Olympics are over.
04:18Mexico City so I can eat all the things.
04:20Thailand for vacation.
04:22I want to be there for about two months, learn some Muay Thai.
04:25Kind of want to come back to New York and actually just chill and enjoy it for a second.
04:28I really like Lord of the Rings and it would be really, really cool to go to New Zealand.
04:34I am actually going on my honeymoon directly after the Olympics to Greece.
04:38Probably out to Wyoming to do some hiking.
04:40I was just watching The Bachelor season, like an older season, and they went to St. Lucia or something in the Caribbean, which has mountains and stuff.
04:50All natural things. I want to be out in nature and see some of the natural parks.
04:53French Alps, some of the Italian Alps, and see as much of that part of Europe by bike as my legs will let me.
05:00Still kayaking, but just on more natural rivers, maybe somewhere in South America would be really cool.
05:05The vacation I want to take after the Paralympics are over is straight to my bed.
05:14I'm a window seat person so I can sleep.
05:16Team window seat.
05:17Definitely a window.
05:18Definitely a window seat girl.
05:20I'm an aisle seat guy.
05:21Aisle seat person.
05:22Aisle seat every time.
05:23I'm super aisle seat.
05:25Always the window.
05:25Long hauls, I prefer the aisle seat because I like to be able to get up and like stretch out a little bit.
05:31Shorter flights, I prefer the aisle so I can get up and get out.
05:34Aisle because I have to pee a lot and I don't like making people get up.
05:38I get nervous when people ask to use the restroom.
05:40I get a little grumpy.
05:41It's ugly, like let me just sleep.
05:42I'm either. I can do middle aisle or window.
05:45Never the middle.
05:46I'll take a window or aisle. I'm not picky.
05:49But preferably business class.
05:53How do I handle jet lag?
05:55Not well.
05:56I don't.
05:59I do try to like meal time a little bit to make sure my body is like relatively prepared.
06:03And then I usually just end up falling asleep and ruining my entire plan.
06:07Sleeping.
06:08I sleep all the time.
06:08So jet lag is legit my life.
06:10I think I take three naps throughout the day.
06:13Take some melatonin.
06:14Take a melatonin, clock out.
06:16Take some melatonin, listen to ASMR.
06:18I sleep a lot.
06:19I sleep and I've seen him out once I get to my destination.
06:21Grind right through it.
06:23It's pretty terrible.
06:23But if you succumb to how terrible it is, you can usually just stay up for a few more hours.
06:28Hydration, nutrition, sleep, and sun.
06:31Lots of coffee.
06:32I think jet lag is a mindset.
06:34I don't even know what jet lag is anymore.
06:35We're all over the place.
06:36I don't even know what time's on and half the time.
06:38I don't even know if my body even really feels jet lag anymore.
06:41I think I just pretty much just almost instantly adjust.
06:44I am in charge of my jet lag.
06:45The jet lag does not control me.
06:47The trick to dealing with jet lag is to get on the time destination of where you're going before you travel.
06:53We will actually start adjusting our sleep schedule before we travel to Europe.
06:57So if we can wake up an hour earlier, an hour earlier.
06:59In the Tokyo games, I was actually sleeping on Tokyo time a few days prior.
07:08What are my world clocks?
07:09What world clocks?
07:10Wait, what is this one?
07:11What's Cupertino?
07:12Cupertino, I guess that's a...
07:14Cupertino, New York, LA, Paris, Tokyo, Adelaide.
07:18Petaluma, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Amsterdam.
07:21This is all of them.
07:22Houston, Tokyo, Barcelona, New York.
07:25Hawaii because, you know, you just never know if you're ever going to travel to Hawaii.
07:28Vancouver, never been there.
07:29I didn't even know you could save world clocks.
07:32I have zero.
07:33Baku because I was planning on qualifying, but I didn't.
07:40Iceland. A girl I dated lives in Iceland, so.
07:45I have so many.
07:46New York, Anchorage, London, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Austin, Stockholm,
07:50Tokyo, Berlin, Abu Dhabi, Cape Town, Paris, Columbus,
07:54Barcelona, Auckland, Phoenix, Singapore, and Osaka.
07:57I don't delete anything.
07:58I have no world clocks.
07:59I have seven different alarms we can look at.
08:02Paris.
08:03Paris.
08:04Paris at the very end.
08:05Champs-Élysées.
08:09It's a big thing in cycling.
08:10This time around, I'm really excited to go to Paris to be a part of history.
08:13See it with all the Olympic excitement.
08:15Especially with fencing being a very historical sport there.
08:19I'm looking forward to competing in the Grand Palace in Paris in front of all my friends, family, and fans.
08:24Probably the architecture.
08:25Walking around the neighborhoods with no plans and just seeing where the streets take me to.
08:29Walking around the Louvre at night.
08:31Rounding the corner the first time and seeing the Eiffel Tower.
08:33Roland Garros and the Eiffel Tower.
08:36The Eiffel Tower with my family.
08:37I'm excited for my mom to see the Eiffel Tower.
08:39Paris was actually my very first international trip I ever went on and competed when I was 14.
08:44And I went with my late mother.
08:45So I've got photos at all the tourist attractions and stuff.
08:49So I'm really looking forward to hopefully enjoying those things with some of my other family and getting some photos as well.
08:55You could pop into any little cafe and the food is amazing.
08:58The best is the food.
08:59The bakeries are awesome.
09:01There's a bakery on every corner.
09:03I love like pastries, cakes, anything baked.
09:07Anyone can find their place in Paris.
09:113x3 Basketball takes us all over the world, but we can't wait for you guys to watch us in Paris.
09:16See you all in Paris.
09:18Oui, oui.
09:19See you guys in Paris.
09:20We'll see you in Paris.
09:21Thanks, guys.
09:21Looking forward to seeing you in Paris.
09:23See you guys in Paris.
09:24See you in Paris.
09:25Thanks for having me.