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 gruelling 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.