How to Train Like an Olympian
TIME's senior sports correspondent Sean Gregory tries his hand at several Olympic sports while learning from Olympians.
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00:00As the 2024 Paris Olympics officially begin on July 26th more than 10,000
00:07athletes will be representing over 200 countries in 32 different sports.
00:13They've trained for years to earn a spot on one of the most prestigious stages in the world.
00:18I'm Sean Gregory, Senior Sports Correspondent at Time and I've been
00:25lucky enough to learn from some of the actual Olympians over the years.
00:29Fair warning, these training sessions haven't always looked pretty.
00:42First up, I was fortunate enough to shoot around with the all-time scoring king
00:47LeBron James before the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the late Hall of Famer Kobe
00:53Bryant who won gold for the US in Beijing and London.
00:56So we're gonna get down and...
00:58I'm a little bit sure a few hoops, let me see what you got.
01:00All right, let's go.
01:01All right.
01:01I gotta step up now.
01:03You see him shaking? You catch him shaking? He's shaking his boots.
01:16Stretch.
01:16Really?
01:17Stretch.
01:17Because you know, some people, you grow up, you know...
01:19Stretch.
01:21You better stretch.
01:22If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
01:24Uh-oh.
01:24Excuse me.
01:27Come here.
01:28See, that's talking trash.
01:30That's talking trash.
01:32No, give me that hand.
01:33Give me that hand.
01:34Give me that hand.
01:36Oh.
01:37Hook shot.
01:38Oh.
01:40Oh, don't reach.
01:40Don't reach.
01:41Don't reach.
01:42Oh, excuse me.
01:46Two more, real quick.
01:47Two more.
01:49Get physical, brother.
01:50Yeah, get physical.
01:52Oh.
01:55Oh.
01:57All right.
01:59Kobe, thanks a lot, man.
02:01Really appreciate it.
02:01You're very welcome, man.
02:02Thanks a lot for the lesson.
02:02Hope that helps you out a little bit.
02:03Hope so, too.
02:04Thanks.
02:04My man.
02:08Around the same time, I met Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic
02:13to see how I'd fare against the future all-time leader
02:16in men's Grand Slam titles.
02:18Get to the net.
02:20Get to the net.
02:20Short ball.
02:21Short ball.
02:23Oh, here comes the lob.
02:24Here comes the lob.
02:25Oh, a smash winner.
02:29He got it all in one point.
02:31In 10 seconds, he got it all.
02:32Last thing, let me try to return a serve.
02:34Are you ready?
02:35Yep.
02:36125 down the middle.
02:44Around 103 second serve.
02:46Yeah, do 130.
02:47Hardest one, 130.
02:48Here.
02:49Oh, my god.
02:50My shoulder is going to fall apart.
02:55Ah.
02:56Yeah.
02:56Get it.
02:57Point, point, point.
03:00Yeah.
03:00Drop shot.
03:01Drop shot.
03:02Drop shot.
03:04Oh.
03:06This guy is fast.
03:07Next was the time I asked former Olympic soccer player Chris Albright
03:12what he thinks every soccer fan should know about the world's most
03:15popular sport.
03:17Why don't you show us the three kind of kicks you talked about,
03:20and maybe I'll try to stop you.
03:21Great.
03:23The first is just go for power.
03:24You hope you put enough pace on it to get it by him.
03:27Second option, they pick their spot.
03:29They know going up where they're going to play it.
03:31OK, so I'm going to go to my right and high.
03:34And they're basically saying to the goalie, let's see who the better man is.
03:38The third option is you can use deception to get the goalie leaning
03:41one way or the other.
03:42And then at the last second, you try to place it in the other side.
03:47That's shameful.
03:49In 2012, I jumped into the deep end of the pool
03:53to try out synchronized swimming, now known in the Olympics
03:56as artistic swimming.
03:58What we do is when we break it down, we'll use counts instead of music
04:02so that each count is perfectly synchronized.
04:05And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
04:091, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
04:14What are they, how do I do?
04:16And then what we're going to do is we're all going to go underwater
04:19and hold your feet.
04:20OK.
04:21So you can use your hands to kind of simulate yourself,
04:23but your feet are going to be in our hands.
04:25All of your hands?
04:26All of them.
04:27Yes.
04:27And then what are you going to do to me?
04:29And we're going to push you.
04:30Go here, this.
04:31Ready, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
04:331, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
04:36There we go.
04:37Watch Jordan.
04:38You can throw your arms up if you want.
04:40All right, cool.
04:41One on standing, right?
04:42Yeah.
04:42OK.
04:43OK, let's go.
04:50Woo!
04:55I should have flipped.
05:02Ah, the perils of this job.
05:03In 2012, I donned a fencing suit,
05:06got hooked up to electronic scoring gear,
05:09and tried dueling with Olympic fencer Tim Morehouse.
05:12Mine.
05:14No cover.
05:16Good.
05:16Ready?
05:17Match.
05:19So you're attacking now.
05:20So she has to stop you.
05:21So she blocked me.
05:22Now she's attacking.
05:23I'm sweating.
05:24My heart's beating.
05:25It's like 100 degrees in this suit.
05:27Is that part of the workout of it?
05:29I mean, just talk to me.
05:29Yeah, I mean, fencing is a really difficult workout.
05:31When you're fencing, between every point,
05:33your heart rate's between 180 and 195.
05:35So it's similar to a sprinter.
05:37OK, now you lunge, and your leg came on.
05:40So you scored the point.
05:41Yes!
05:42Excellent.
05:43Wow.
05:44For your first fencing point.
05:45Sport climbing will be returning to the Olympics
05:48this year for the second time.
05:50Watch, but don't judge me here when
05:51I tried climbing for the first time
05:54with former Olympic athlete, Kaira Condie.
05:56It wasn't easy.
05:58All right, let's try this.
05:59Now, you do this in eight seconds, you said?
06:00Eight seconds, yeah.
06:01So go ahead and put your foot on, yeah.
06:03OK, so now you can go.
06:05Maybe you use the good part of those arms.
06:13Oh, nice.
06:15I'm not getting eight seconds.
06:17So this is bouldering.
06:18This is my favorite discipline.
06:20All right, here we go.
06:21Stand up high.
06:22There you go.
06:23Nice.
06:24You got this.
06:25And then put both hands on the one that you're on right now.
06:28There you go.
06:29And then get that handle.
06:30Woo-hoo!
06:31Woo-hoo!
06:32That was so fun.
06:33So close.
06:39The 2024 Paris Olympics will be unlike any other
06:43with the addition of a new Olympic sport,
06:45breaking, commonly known as break dancing.
06:48Most recently, I not only got to learn some moves
06:51from Olympic breaker Sunny Choi,
06:53I got to show her some of my own ridiculous ones as well.
06:56So what we'll do is we'll step across one,
06:59and then we'll step across, and then we'll step to the side.
07:03Sorry.
07:04No, actually, we can step back.
07:05So we'll step back, and then we'll step back.
07:07Oh, OK.
07:08And then come back to the middle.
07:09Yeah.
07:10OK.
07:11So this is called a 2,000.
07:12Usually, I can do this cold.
07:14Oh, let's see.
07:18So that's like a basic power move.
07:20Can I show you the move I did when I was in second grade?
07:24Yeah.
07:25My talent show?
07:26Yes, please.
07:27All right.
07:28I think I can still do it.
07:29This is called the spider, as I remember it.
07:31And check this out.
07:32See if you'll see this in Paris.
07:34I went across the stage and went like that.
07:37Oh, yeah.
07:42That's what I did, the spider.
07:44So I'm here first.
07:45You can use that in Paris if you'd like.
07:47Oh, thank you.
07:48I appreciate it.
07:49Yeah, I'll add it to my roll.
07:522024 will be the ninth time I've been to an Olympic Games as a journalist.
07:57And I can say with confidence, this reporter won't make it as an athlete.