Maria Kalikas

Last year was a big year for me. I celebrated 10 years since winning 1st place at the 100% Raw Powerlifting World Championship and I made my comeback as an athlete after 10 years competing in a new sport.

My journey started when I watched my first Olympic games and implanted a dream in my heart. When we see people win, we don't always stop to question what that journey was like.

What I never could have anticipated happening are the health challenges I'd have to take on following my win. Several months after the World Championship I struggled with neurological symptoms that led to very rapid neurological decline and other symptoms of environmental toxin exposure. This nearly killed me. For the 10 years following my win, I struggled severely to make it through every day. For the first 4 years I battled depression in pursuit of graduating from college and becoming a software engineer. I worked myself nearly to death as a software engineer and that led to severe burnout. All of that led me to learning how to heal because I couldn't live that way. After almost 8 years of a healing journey, I finally was able to fully return to training consistently last year. Over the last year, I've gradually increased my training volume and am so happy to have finally built back stronger from having chronic fatigue syndrome. That's why now when I show up to figure skating every day, that fire in me has been reignited. I am not done yet. This comeback is personal.

My heart isn't ready to give up on reaching my potential. Competition to me now means something totally different than it did 10 years ago. Now, I am in competition with proving to myself that I can do what I know in my heart that I can do. It's showing up when I don't feel like it . It's having the discipline to do the same thing every single day without losing enthusiasm. One thing I learned in my journey is to never give up. Don't quit. Don't make excuses. Be consistent. Fall in love with repetition. And learn the valuable skill of coaching yourself up. You can't rely on other people to validate you or motivate you. Nobody can do this for you. Fight for your dream every day.

October 1st concluded the last LA event. Heading to Irvine today, I made some important reflections from the event. One of them was the fact that our existence is highly unlikely. I had a huge moment of gratitude and meaning fill my heart thinking about how much this stage of my journey means to me. It's like this was the fight I went through my entire life to arrive at and all of this time I never would have imagined this was going to be it. Even when I started skating at 5 years old and it was my favorite thing in the world, my mind was set on other goals that I never thought about taking on this dream until my experience in Ultra this past year.

mentioned the probability of us all being alive in this galaxy and in these moments. I reflected on this today with my journey and was in tears. It literally was impossible for this to happen. And yet it did. saying there is a PLAN. I literally was not supposed to have this life. I was born in Athens, Greece to an alcoholic and a mother who carried me to full term knowing I would be given up for adoption immediately upon being born. And then two Greek immigrants who became American citizens adopted me and brought me to America. To this day, this dream wouldn't be possible in Greece. They don't have an ice arena! All these years I was a gymnast. I thought that was the thing and I thought I'd join the Navy or Marine Corps and become a fighter pilot, but then I was diagnosed with a disqualifying medical condition. Every battle I was handed, I fought back for victory. Even when it was so hard I had no idea how or when it would get better after having debilitating chronic illness and depression. I made it through it. I have every hard thing I went through to thank.

You don't become anything worthwhile with ease. So take command of your story and start stacking up decisions aligned with your best you to rewrite the ending.

2 days out ⛸️

I put on my competition dress today and I felt like a different person. Today was my first time skating without my rib compression wrap since my injury in February and the first time I ran my programs without much tailbone pain. Today's practice was the best practice I've ever had. Even when my body felt like I couldn't do an element, I still got into the right position and did it successfully. I nailed my best spins that I've ever done. Ever. On my way to practice, I felt a bit of nerves. I was sweating. I did box breathing and 2x breathing where I doubled the length of my exhale. What helps me the most is connecting to my mission.

Right before stepping on the ice, I pray for my safety and I visualize what success means to me. I tell myself a statement of today will be a winning practice if (fill in the blank). That statement gives me clarity and when I get lost in the flow of practice, I bring myself back to that and focus on making it a good practice. Once I get on the ice, I say several identity statements that are filled with purpose. I remind myself that I do this to be a role model for young girls so that they know that their dreams matter. Right before getting into position to run my programs, I connect with giving the best performance of my life for those in Heaven watching over me, specifically my Yiayia Vasilo. I tell myself that I'm going to give it my all for her and have the performance that'll make her proud. At this point, I'm about to start my program and I'm about to start crying. That feeling gets me at my prime to go.

All of this is important for my competitive edge and my competition mindset. What is part of your competition routine for success? What do you tell yourself when you need to perform on your A game? What are the things you need to remind yourself so you can carry through?