The Golden Girl: Anastasija Zolotic

18-year-old Anastasija Zolotic is the first American woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics. A few months ago, she sat down with our team to share her story. She told us she wants to win gold four times, and has proven she is capable of doing so.

How did you get involved in taekwondo?

I got involved in my sport because my dad used to do taekwondo when he was younger, and he never really got to pursue it as much as he wanted to. He decided that when he had kids, he would pursue it through us. My sister and I were put in an after school program, we'd go after school, they’d pick us up, we’d kick a bag, and then we'd go home. One day, I was watching this girl train, and nobody was allowed in the room to watch her, but I was really rebellious. I would sneak through a room and sit there and watch her for an hour or so until I’d get kicked out. I ended up being invited to team training when I was probably eight years old and that’s when I started competing. I started training with the competition team and training on weekends, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. People would ask me what if I wanted to hang out on the weekends and I’d tell them, “I can't, I’m training.” So I think I kind of just started with my dad and then drawn to it myself as well.

How did you know this was something you wanted to pursue?

So I had just qualified for the Youth Olympic Games, and I had just won my Junior World Championship title, and I think that's when I decided I might want to continue with this. A few months before that, my sister quit taekwondo, and it had kind of been me and my sister’s thing. We would go around and compete, and we would kick and be training partners for each other, and when she quit, I kind of lost my drive. I told my dad that I didn't want to do this anymore. I wanted to do something else. And he was like, “Alright, just one more event.” And then I went to Worlds, which is pretty big for junior level, and I won and I thought: “Alright, I'm gonna stick to this and see where it goes.” I had just met Gareth Brown, one of the British coaches that now works for Team USA, but I spoke to him and genuinely had no idea who he was at first. But they talked to me about moving to Colorado to train, at the moment I said I was down and willing to move, but I had no idea what I was talking about, and then like two weeks later I get this email that suggested I fly down so we can like talk and I told my mom, “Woah, I didn’t sign up for this.”

But I think that's when I realized this is what I want to do - I want to move to Colorado and train at the (Olympic) Training Center and compete internationally. I want to say like, three years ago, around 2018, and have been in the training center for almost two years now.

How do you feel like moving to the training center has changed the way you approach taekwondo?

At first, it was just a small group of people because they're kind of just bringing in athletes, and it was a brand new program at the Olympic Training Center for full-time resident athletes. I think it has definitely changed my perspective. I train there full-time now. I have access to the OTC and have people helping me with injuries, and it just kind of changed the way I think. It’s not just that I train and go and fight. I try and I have a schedule. If I knew that when I was younger that I would be here, I probably would have taken it a little more seriously, from the food I put in my body and the way I take care of myself and recover. Moving to Colorado definitely opened my eyes to what an athlete should act like and how an athlete should treat their body.

What has your sport meant to you?

I think that without Taekwondo, I wouldn’t know who I am. I've always had this drive for sports, but without taekwondo, it feels like a part of me is missing. If I was doing something like volleyball, I would still have a drive to fight, and I remember watching that girl kick that bag in the private training room and I was like, “I want to do that.” It's definitely influenced the person I am as well and how I behave and think. It has also opened my eyes a lot more to being aware of who is around me and like what people can become.

What is a moment that has defined you as an athlete or a person?

So I actually thought about this for a while, and I think back to my first Grand Prix in Rome, when I was the youngest athlete to medal in the history of taekwondo. Before my first fight, my coach was like, “I don't want you to expect to medal. You're just 16-17 years old, and the girls you are fighting have been doing this for 20 years and are way more experienced. But I want you to make a name for yourself. If you're gonna lose, you're gonna lose fighting.” I think that's when I was motivated to metal just because I wanted to put my name out there, and that's exactly what I did. So I think that's when my career really started.

What advice would you give a younger version of yourself?

I would probably tell her to just stay focused. I've had times where I didn't want to go to training, because I wanted to go to the beach with my sister or a friend. And there were times when I would lose a little event and I'd be so upset and wonder why. And it was generally because I went to the beach instead of train. And it wasn’t that I didn’t have a passion for training, it’s just like you're young and you don’t really know what you’re doing when you're at that age. But I had people around me, like my parents and my coach, who would remind me, for example, if it was about school, they’d tell me to focus on school and schoolwork and get that done and then have fun. And when I was trying to train, the message was to train because you have a competition, and then you can have fun. And I like viewing it that way because it just keeps me focused, especially now that I'm older. When I have a goal set in front of me, my mindset is to do that and then there are fun times to be had. So I think it’s about thinking ahead, instead of just looking in front of you and making decisions here and there.

What do you see the future holding for you, and what is your goal for Tokyo 2021?

So everybody's goal is to win, but I've told so many people that I feel like my drive to win is so much bigger than everybody else’s only because I'm coming in as this little 18-year-old. I've only been training full-time for less than two years, and I'm trying to build a name for myself and prove that I am the best. So my drive to get that gold medal or even just an outstanding performance I want people to know who I am in my sport. You talk to people and ask what sports they know, taekwondo will probably never be mentioned. Maybe karate, judo, or wrestling will. But I think my drive to win is to represent my sport, myself, and the US Olympic program we have.

How do you feel like you've seen taekwondo change as a sport since you've started competing?

Yeah, so as long as I can remember, it was always these little clubs and we'd go to a little scrimmages, and everybody was on their own path. But now I think USA taekwondo is becoming more united, and we're opening doors for a lot of athletes. For example, you can invite an 11-year-old to train with these 18- to 20-year-olds and maybe we can set something up for you to make you a better athlete and guide you. I don't remember American taekwondo ever being so united and people coming together, especially with the new coaches that they brought. I don’t think we've ever had international coaches come in and be a part of Team USA. We have a coach who just moved all the way from Manchester, UK, to come and train the six or seven athletes that we have now, and we’re expanding. But yeah, it's amazing the way taekwondo has become more united.

How do you feel like that team mentality has helped you progress as an athlete individually and as a team?

Taekwondo is an individual sport, but having a team that you see every day and train with helps me see myself grow, performance-wise and what I add to my game. Since we all train every day, we pick stuff up from each other. We're all kind of on this path together, we're all training full time, so I think it's kind of influenced me as an athlete looking up to them and seeing what they are doing to help myself. And I think that's why USA Taekwondo will grow and why you'll hear about Taekwondo more after these next few Olympic Games, because we're coming in hot.

You tore a few ligaments in your wrist a few months ago - tell us what your experience was like with that, how it happened, what your reaction was, and how you've been able to overcome it.

It happened at a tournament when I was in Sweden earlier this year. I got kicked, and I’m a pretty dramatic person, so I came back to my coach saying my wrist is broken, and he kept saying: “You’re fine.” And it really didn't even look that bad, like it wasn’t even swollen or bruising. So we just kind of went on to the day. And then I came back to my hotel room that night after I had just won, and I called my mom crying and saying, “Mom, my wrist is killing me,” and she said: “Oh it's just a bad hit, take some ibuprofen and it will be okay.”

So then we flew to Orlando for the US Open and then went to three more events and competed, but my wrist was just not getting better. But luckily, I have a great support team, and USA Taekwondo is all about their athletes so they hooked me up, got me an MRI, and noticed what was wrong. It was such an easy process, and I don't think I felt any pain at all during the surgery. But coming back again to training, I think that was the hardest part for me. I had a month where I was just kicking to get back into it. But like I said, the support system really helped, I had my coach checking up on me and helping me and the management pushing me because they knew I could pick myself back up. 

And I know I had like these two weeks right before Christmas break last year, and I was just so distraught because I was getting beat up. I had been training for like three months. My training had been really bad, and I felt out of shape. I remember coming home for Christmas, and my mom encouraged me to lift myself back up and that I would be fine. And after that break, I came back and was a totally different person. I had time to mentally rest and look back and realize every athlete is going to go through something like this, luckily it was just a risk for me. So I think it was taking a break, looking back at it, and getting myself mentally back into it. It took a nice month to get back to where I was before.

Where do you see yourself with Taekwondo in five to 10 years?

So I told everybody, and I don't know if people believe me or not, but when I was eight years old, I told them I was going to end up in the Olympics, and I eventually did. I want to do four Olympic cycles, not stop after LA in 2028 and just keep going. And I want four gold medals. So if I don't get it after Tokyo or LA, maybe I’ll keep going until I'm like forty years old and my body can't do it anymore. But I definitely see myself working towards those goals.