West Aurora High School alum reflects on making U.S. Olympic women's volleyball team
CHICAGO (CBS) — Lauren Carlini's Olympic dreams were dashed in 2020, but four years later, the West Aurora HIgh School alum is on the U.S. women's volleyball team competing in Paris.
Matt Zahn caught up with her before she left for France to go for the gold, and she described the moment she found out she was going to be part of the team going to Paris.
Carlini: It was, just there was no words for it. We actually find out via email, which is really unique. Instead of in person, you know. A lot of people get the meetings in person and say congratulations, or I'm sorry. But we get it via email. And so it comes in at 3 o'clock. You're trying to type the password in, shaking super hard, and I see my initials on there, and I was like, 'Oh, my God, like I did it, like, I'm gonna be an Olympian.'
Zahn: Obviously you missed out on the last Olympics. Does that make this even more special?
Carlini: It's been such a journey, and I'm just very happy that I had the chance to respond, right, and that I wasn't done after the first Olympics. It was going to be okay, no matter what. I'm going to quads, and whatever happens, like, I don't want to have any regrets at the end of the day. And so to now be again at the end of it, and say I did it, and all of that hard work, that determination, the sadness, the pain that came with missing the first one, it all got thrown into just the greatness that is this one, and making this Olympics, and now getting to experience it with my friends and family there as well. That's going to be like the most incredible part of it all.
Zahn: Did I see that you had like a picture when you were 6 years old? And kind of foreshadowed this? Do you remember making that?
Carlini: Yeah, I think all the kids nowadays call it manifesting. But it was I don't know, I'm a terrible drawer. That's literally the best I could still do nowadays. It's crazy, because that's my number, like my hair sales not the same. The hairstyle is a little off, younger Lauren. But just again manifesting that dream, and I think little things along the way like that, drawing the picture, saying out loud that I want to be an Olympian. I will be an Olympian. A lot of it's just sheer willpower at times.
Zahn: You mentioned manifesting earlier. Do you think about winning a gold medal for team U.S.A.?
Carlini: Yeah, I mean, we've done a lot of mental performance work over the last couple of months, especially and just envisioning what these moments are gonna feel like with the stands full. What is it gonna feel like when it's 13-13 in the fifth set and you're serving? We've gone through these scenarios, so that if and when we are in that position, it doesn't feel new to us. And I just, I hope we get to utilize all those things that we've been working on, because we've been working our butts off both on and off the court as a team."
The U.S. women's volleyball team begins pool play versus China on Monday. Carlini's boyfriend, Nick Hoag, is also in Paris, but not just to support her. He plays for the Canadian Men's Volleyball Team and is making his third appearance in the Olympics.