Swimmer Rebecca Soni Shares Golden Memories

Oh, hey guys, just hanging out here at the pool, which is actually fitting cuz this golden girl knows a thing or two about making a splash. I'm here with Golden Girl, Rebecca Soni. Congratulations! We had Ethan Adrienne here and Dana Volmer, we talked to in New York. This is my first time actually seeing a medal, any Olympic medal, let alone a gold medal in person. Can I hold it and see it?

Yes, go ahead.

And it is heavy. I heard these bad boys were heavy. This is like the ultimate woman's bling. Yeah. Do you plan on sporting this as a fashion accessory this fall?

Um, I like to actually carry it in my purse. I don't like to wear it around. And what I didn't know was that the it's actually inscribed on the bottom. Yeah. Yeah, so it shows your event on there and then your sport, swimming, obviously. And then the event that you won it in.

Okay, so tell me the truth, how many times have you watched the replay back of winning that setting, you know, a world record in the 200 breast. And how many times have you actually watched it?

I've actually only watched it twice. About twice.

Really? I would watch it like 200 times for me. I'd be bragging. I'd be sending it out to everybody.

Yeah, I kind of did the same thing from 2008 where I kind of will only go back and look at it when I needed some extra inspiration and motivation. So.

When you talk about the sound, what does it sound like when you're competing? Do you hear the crowd? Is it quiet? Is it a combination? Is it your heart pounding? Like what is it?

When you're about to start, all you hear is your heart pounding. You don't really hear the crowd, but I'm lucky with my stroke, breaststroke. We're coming out of the water with every breath. So I can hear the crowd the whole way and I can actually sometimes hear the announcer, you know, obviously every few words. So I'll be coming up like Rebecca.

This is crazy. That is such a great I heard you say that you didn't turn around for a second because you you wanted to break that 220 time. You wanted to be the first woman to do it. And you like took a moment before you looked. Did you have a sense?

I did, I was nervous. Um, you know, I actually didn't think I did it because the girls around me had gone so much faster than the previous night before. And they had dropped, I don't know, one or two seconds each, so I didn't know that at the time. You know, obviously, I hadn't looked at the board yet, but I just said, okay, I know I won. I'm super happy, but like I'm staring at the touchpad on the wall. And I'm like, I just The crowd is loud, so that's a good sign. And I'm just so scared to turn around and look because, you know, sometimes we only get the chance to race in this shape every four years. Yeah. So, it's not like I could come back in a month and do it again.

Right. We all want you to though. We want the Olympics to just keep going and going. So we always have something to watch and live vicariously through you. Over your shoulder, there's a screen and we have some pictures and we would love you to just sort of like take us through either what was going on or your thoughts on them.

I know. That's such a great photo. It's so artistic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was told about two weeks before that we were doing a photo shoot about how to blow bubble rings. And they're hard to do. So for about two weeks, every day after practice, I would spend 15, 20 minutes blowing bubble rings because you have to practice. You have to get good at it. Finally, we did the shoot and they just had this awesome setup with cameras and all that and I just had to go underwater. I used weight bags to keep me down. Um, and just blew bubble after bubble for like an hour. So this is closing ceremonies. Um, Dana who you guys said you talked to. And then the girls that won silver, the April and Jen, who won silver in beach volleyball. So we had just met them there. We just wanted to talk to them and I know they're SC grads, so I went to SC also. Um, and just snapped a quick picture. Oh, this is my favorite picture. So this is this is my family and a couple friends that came to watch. Um, and the picture of me on the wall is from 2008 and diving in. So the streamline. And then um they just saw it on the wall and they're like, oh, that's, you know, I didn't get to see them at all until I was done swimming. So Wow. This was my picture with them. And my favorite is my dad here in the corner. He doesn't know how to streamline. So he's going like this instead of the right way. So it doesn't run in the family that swimming jean, I guess. Not that far. This is the medley relay. So we just finished our very last race of the Olympics. And uh this was as soon as Allison Schmidt had touched the wall. She's not in the picture because she's still in the water. We just it's a moment of number one, we just won a gold medal for team USA. Um, we did it together and we're all such good friends and uh we're done with the Olympics.

You're done competing at this point too. Yeah, so. I really want to put on this medal. However, I think I have to earn the right to put it on. Yeah. So we love to play games here. We thought we would have a little mini Olympics and have you be the judge. Okay. Sound good?

Sounds awesome.

All right. Let's do it. My finger is in compete for this bad boy. The right to put it on. Not stealing, but put it on. Welcome to Young Hollywood's first official Mini Olympic Games. Officiating and judging today is Olympic gold medalist, Rebecca Soni. I'm sucking up to the judge. Sucking up. She's amazing. My competitor, second day here at Young Hollywood and he's already in front of the camera, editor Roberto. And we will be competing against each other. May the best swimmer win. For the honor of wearing my medal. Yes. Let's start with your best swimming dance. Do you look as ridiculous as as I do?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Go. I'm on review of the breaststroke. Oh yeah. Here we go. Looking around, seeing if I'm winning. Oh, I'm winning. Oh, I'm winning. Oh, got a little under. Little underwater shot. All right, who won the first round? I'm going to give that one to Nikki.

Round two. Two of three. Um, let's do your best um pre-race stretching. So swimmers get ready. Stretch away. Okay, there's the whistle. Step up to the block. Take your mark. And go.

You know, I'm sorry, Roberto, I got to give it to Nikki again for the for throwing in the facial expressions. Those are good.

Okay, last one. Okay, last one. I'm willing to go winner take all on this one. Forget the first two. Winner take all on this one. Okay. What's it going to be? It is going to be breath holding. Oh no, I'm out of breath. I'm already out of breath. I'll give you guys a second. You got to plug your nose. No cheating. No cheating. Five, four, three, two, one. Oh, intimidation factor. Oh no. No. Yes. Thank you. There you go.

Like to thank all the little people. My trainers, Young Hollywood. Um, you know, I really trained hard for this event. Um, my my competition, she really put up a good fight, but in the end, the true champion won. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you for coming in. Congratulations on all your success.

My pleasure.