Q&A JEN KISH
Q What drives you or motivates you to compete?
A I want to be that person to lead the new way for women in sport and in rugby. I just want to be the best athlete I can be, not only for me but for my teammates, as well.
Q What is your biggest strength as an athlete?
A I’m a very confident person and I believe that my teammates feed off of that. When I’m confident, I think that they’re confident, as well. And when we play with confidence, lots of spectacular things can happen. So that’s my biggest strength.
Q Who is your biggest inspiration or someone you look up to?
A My biggest inspiration has to be my dad. Not because he was an athlete himself, but because he was a single dad raising two children on his own and he worked a lot of jobs and he was never too proud to work a job. He went from being a mailman to being a trucker to pumping gas. You name it, he did whatever he had to do so I had opportunities in my life to be successful.
Q That sounds like a lot of sacrifice. When you’re an athlete, it’s all about sacrifice. Does that help you now?
A Yeah, my dad has been my inspiration, he’s been the reason why I continue to do sports. There are lots of times where I wanted to quit because it was hard and I didn’t think it was worth the pain, the gruel- ling hours, and missing all the opportunities outside of my sport, like weddings and birthdays and vacations. But he was always there reminding me why I do it. He knows me so well and he knows what drives me, and seeing all the sacrifices he made for me in return the only thing I can do is go make him proud on the biggest stage in the world and that’s going to be at the Olympics.
Q Will he be there?
A He will be there. He will. Right now he’s actually battling cancer, but if he has to drag that hospital with him, he will.