The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E1: Tracy Hits the Bullseye
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In Mississippi, Yazoo Clay keeps secrets. 7,000 bodies out there or more. A forgotten asylum cemetery. It was my family's mystery. Shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell, and this is Under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The legendary escapologist Harry Houdini was obsessed with the afterlife. I see a little boy. He is in a happy place. Join me, Tim Harford, for a Cautionary Tales trilogy on the world's most famous magician and his campaign to ban mediums, a mission that would cost him friends and leave him fearing for his life. They're going to kill me. Listen to Cautionary Tales on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm ready to fight. Oh, this is fighting words. Okay, I'll put the hammer back. Hi, I'm George M. Johnson, a best-selling author with the second most banned book in America. Now more than ever, we need to use our voices to fight back. Part of the power of Black queer creativity is the fact that we got us, you know? We are the greatest culture makers in world history. Listen to Fighting Words on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, listener, I just wanted to give you a heads up that this episode contains some mentions of violence and abuse and a very brief mention of suicidal ideation. But it's also full of hope and joy. And it's a testament to the power of finding your passion. Plus, there's a baby. So do skip if you need. And if not, I hope you love this chat as much as I did.

I'm just looking at the target with this little dot on it. And it's 50 meters away. I'm so in this headspace that I'm not paying attention to what's going on around me. It's almost like tunnel vision. Tracy Otto is at the shooting line of an archery range, holding a bow and arrow. We're getting ready to shoot the 72 arrows for qualification. The venue's beautiful. It's just kind of out in this field in the middle of the Czech Republic.

The weather was great. It was a little hot, but luckily I had the tent, so I had a little bit of shade that was blocking me. Her wheelchair is carefully planted at just the right angle. On either side of her are the other competitors. They're so close that they could almost bump elbows. It's 2023, and this is Tracy's first international archery competition. And so she's feeling a little nervous. My first shot, I kid you not, my first shot,

I let the arrow go and all of a sudden I hear this loud and everyone turns and looks at me and I realized I hit not the target, but the number above the target, like that tells you which target number you have. And it was so loud and everyone just stared at me. It was incredibly embarrassing. But Tracy isn't going to let that false start throw her off.

Her boyfriend Ricky passes her another arrow and she reloads. She takes aim again. The arrow soars over the field and this time Tracy hits her target. It's such a rush and it feels so good. It's almost a very addicting feeling because you're like, oh, I have to do it again. I want to do it again. I have to have that feeling again. So she does it again and again and again.

In that moment when you realize that you've hit the bullseye and everything has just kind of come to fruition and your goal of what you're trying to do, everything feels right in the world. Everything feels in harmony, like between you and your equipment, everything just kind of all encompassing works together.

Tracy Otto was born to be an athlete. She's not just a wicked shot. She's also one of the most determined people that I've ever met. And she's had to be. To say that the universe has thrown a hell of a lot of crap at Tracy would be a massive understatement. That passion for archery you can hear in Tracy's voice helped her reclaim her life after a violent attack. And it took her to the very top of competitive sport.

Now she's blazing a trail to inspire people all over the world. And it's almost enough to make me want to pick up a bow and arrow myself. I'm Anna Sinfield, and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcast, this is The Girlfriend Spotlight, where we tell stories of women winning. Today, Tracy hits the bullseye. I got you, I got you.

In January 2018, Tracy is in her early 20s and she's living in Chicago. She's just got out of a relationship and is definitely not in a hurry to meet someone. But when a new bar opens up nearby, Tracy's friend can't resist pointing out one of the bartenders. She's like, oh, look at that guy. He's super cute because she was single too.

I wasn't super interested. I was like, yeah, he's cute, I guess, like whatever. Just kind of let it brush by. A couple of weeks later, Tracy and her friend are back at the same spot and they see the bartender again. He was running back and forth doing his thing and we were just sitting at the bar. And I just remember him passing notes back and forth to me.

Just trying to get to know me a little bit, but he was so busy he couldn't sit down and talk. Like a real school tactic. Yeah, it kind of made me think of like middle school or something. Yeah. And he asked for my number. I gave it to him. So he's passing the notes, got his number, and then things just kind of went from there. Frank, the bartender, doesn't want to take things slow with Tracy. In fact, he's a bit full on. He was kind of love bombing me.

And like giving me all these little trinkets and these little things like from Walmart or little gifts or whatever. Afterward, we would go to IHOP with his mom, actually. And he knew somebody there, I guess. And he would write little love notes in the pancakes for me. And I'm like, this is it. This is what it's supposed to be. I thought at the time this was my person. We ended up moving to Florida in August of 2018.

That's very quick. Yeah. To be moving all the way away from family. Yeah, but there was part of me that was just ready to go do it. And I was like, okay, let's just go. Let's take a chance. Let's live life and see what happens. The two of them move into a rental house in Florida. Tracy dreams of being a doctor. She starts a pre-med course at the University of Tampa and joins the local gym.

At this point in her life, Tracy is able-bodied and a fitness fanatic. I was meeting so many new people, making my girlfriends, like, you know, building my little tribe. And he didn't like that very much, especially because I remember some of my friends that I was making telling me, I don't really like him. They never was like, oh, he's abusive or like he's this horrible person. But they're like, something's

a little bit off about him, I guess you could say, and I started to see it. Frank isn't the affectionate romantic she met in Chicago anymore. He's more withdrawn and always wanting to look at her phone.

Tracy is constantly having to pick up extra work shifts to cover their bills. And understandably, it starts to wear on her. I ended up having to drop out of University of Tampa because I was working so much. Like I was working almost 12 hour shifts and had no time for school. And I was in the car on the phone with him. And I said, I was screaming. I was like, I am 22, 23 years old and I'm not living my life.

And it's like, why aren't you taking some of this responsibility? Why aren't you helping? One day, a year after their move to Florida, something happens which makes it crystal clear to Tracy that Frank isn't the person she thought he was. We were fighting and he smashed my phone, I remember. And he was about to smash my laptop so that I couldn't get a hold of anybody. And he grabbed me and threw me across a room. He threw me so hard that...

that I landed really weird and like I got a bunch of bruises and it was just really bad. I ended up calling the police on him a few days later to make a statement because I'm like, my friends that were with me at the time, they were like, that's not normal. The police arrest Frank, but someone close to him convinces Tracy to drop the charges. She told me not to tell anybody that

that everything was fine, that it was just, you know, a moment in time, that we just had a bad fight, that he wasn't that person, I guess you could say. I actually, I picked him up from jail. Wow. Yeah. I was the first person that he saw when he came out of jail. And why did you do that? I don't know. I remember just feeling so guilty. Not guilty, but like,

Guilt's not the word. I don't even know how to explain it. But I just, I felt horrible that he went to jail because of me. Like, I felt like it was my fault that he was being violent and not able to control himself, I guess. After Frank's violent outburst, Tracy knows she needs to end things. I kicked him out. He gathered all of his stuff and left the house. Tracy is determined to build her life back up.

She works her shifts at the local golf club bar and tries to focus on herself. But then, when she least expects it, she meets someone new. It's another bar story, but this time I was the bartender. You've got to stop hanging out at bars. I know, what the heck? I just, I've got to stop doing that. But I'm at work and I'm bartending a celebration of life. And Ricky came in for the celebration of life because he knew the person that passed away.

And he tells me that as soon as he walked in the room, he's like, I'm going to marry that girl. That girl's mine. Smooth. Yeah, right. He comes to the bar and all night he keeps trying to go to me. I noticed like him ordering the same thing over and over again. He kept getting Miller Lite's.

But I had everything going on with Frank, and I wasn't in that headspace to necessarily open myself up to another relationship, just given everything that was going on. Later, we end up talking, and I hung out with him all night. And

We FaceTime all the time going from that day and we talk all day every day. Ricky makes Tracy smile and he's totally smitten. All day he keeps sending her country love songs. A little cheesy maybe, but sweet. It turns out that he lives in Chicago where Tracy grew up. So they arranged to have their first date there when she's home visiting family.

We went to a rooftop bar over the city and had a glass of wine and we saw someone get engaged. It was magical. When Tracy returns to Florida, Ricky comes too. They spend a couple of days hanging out at her place, doing all those typical new couple things. We go grocery shopping to grab some stuff. We're going to have a little date night at my house. He's going to cook me dinner because Ricky's a really good cook.

have, you know, a bottle of wine, have a super cute night. That evening, a friend stops by unexpectedly. Ricky makes pasta for them all. It's a totally normal night. But after the friend leaves, Ricky starts to feel a little bit strange. I remember him saying, should we spend the night at one of my friend's houses? Because I guess he had a weird feeling. I don't know.

And I was like, well, I don't want to leave the dogs again because I had just gotten back from that trip and I had nobody to watch them because Frank had alienated me from all my friends. And then we go in the room, we flip on the TV and I took my last sip of wine and I put the wine glass down on my nightstand and I turn over and we're getting ready for bed. And

We said goodnight, and I just remember the feeling of the cool sheets on my body, and I drifted off to sleep. And then I was woken up by a really, really bright flashlight, and someone's screaming at me to get out of bed. And I was like, what? What is going on? Because I was dead asleep. And I realized it was Frank. He wakes us up, screaming at us to get out of bed. I take the covers off. I slowly get out of bed, and I start to walk towards him, and I saw the gun.

And I just, I remember that feeling of my heart falling out of my chest and being like, okay, this is how I die. After the break, Tracy wakes up. There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's crumbly.

got a reputation. It's terrible, terrible dirt. Yazoo clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried. Until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery. 7,000 bodies out there or more. All former patients of the old state asylum. And nobody knew they were there. It was my family's mystery.

But in this corner of the South, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets. Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information. When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's Yazoo clay, nothing's ever as simple as you think. The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that. I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to Under Yazoo Clay on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. I just knew him as a kid. Long, silent voices from his past came forward. And he was just staring at me. And they had secrets of their own to share. Gilbert King, I'm the son of...

I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it. I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known. I never expected to find myself in this place.

Now, I need to tell you how I got here. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Bone Valley, Season 2. Jeremy. Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley, Season 2, starting April 9th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad-free with exclusive content starting April 9th, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

The first thing Tracy hears when she wakes up in hospital is the sound of a camera shutter. A detective is standing over her bed, taking pictures of her body. When I came into consciousness, I knew something bad had happened. And I knew who did it, but I didn't know exactly what. My body felt different. It's almost like, have you ever had work done on your teeth? Yes, yeah. How they numb you? Yeah.

That feeling of it just being numb is what my whole body feels like. Kind of alien. Yeah, strange. It's not a part of you. Not pressure or buzzing, but just different. Yeah. So I knew something was wrong. But like I said, I just, I didn't know what. And my thought was just Ricky. And I remember just calling out for him, like not even being able to speak. I'm just like, where's Ricky? Like, what happened? Yeah.

When the doctors realize she's awake, they tell Tracy everything. Frank used a spare key to get into the house and attacked Tracy and Ricky with a knife and a high-powered pellet gun, like the kind you use to kill small animals. They were both shot multiple times and stabbed. It's honestly a miracle that either of them are still alive. Ricky has a collapsed lung and hearing loss in one ear.

Tracy lost an eye and is now paralyzed from the chest down. It's overwhelming and even harder for Tracy to process because she's still drifting in and out of consciousness. I'm in the ICU and I was intubated because I couldn't breathe on my own because of how high my spinal cord injury is. So I had the surgery on my throat, my eye, they sewed up the back of my neck and Ricky was in another part of the hospital. So he was trying to get to me.

But he was in this hospital gown with the back open, running down the hallway to get to the ICU to find me. When he comes in, I open my eyes a little bit and I try to talk to him. And I couldn't because of the tubes. And I started gagging. And I remember hearing them just go, don't talk, don't talk. And then I lose consciousness again. But I remember seeing his face through like my eyelashes. But here's a picture of...

This is the first time we saw each other. Yeah. I like to call it our iconic picture. It's obviously tragic because you're there in your gown and Ricky's kind of looking at you and you've got this brace on and tubes and you both look like you're, you know, in a sorry state, but also there's something so beautiful about it. Like the way he's looking at you. There's so much love. Yeah, I feel that too. The way he has his hand on my forehead and I...

I love hate that picture. I can understand that. Because it's like it shows all the damage that was done. But at the same time, it's the start of something so beautiful. It's really wild to me to think about just how new Tracy and Ricky's relationship was at this point. Like they'd only been on one official date and hung out for a few days. And now they've gone through this unbelievably traumatic ordeal. I think a lot of people would call it quits after that.

For Tracy and Ricky, it was only the beginning, but they still had a long road of recovery ahead. Physical therapy started right away when I was in the hospital, like sitting me up and getting me to move, but I was constantly passing out. So it wasn't going very well. This was a catastrophic injury. I'm literally like an infant again, not even because I don't have control over my muscles, but just learning how to live life again.

Ricky recovered more quickly than Tracy, and so he helped to care for her. And day by day, in the hospital, she regained her strength. They brought me in breakfast, and Ricky was sitting on the couch kind of right next to me under the window, and he was about maybe three, four feet away from me. And we had just gotten into a little bickermint. Not an argument, not bickering, but a bickermint. And they brought me breakfast, and

He asked me if I wanted help with it. I was like, no, I got it. Like, I'll figure it out because I was being stubborn as I always am. And I look at everything and I'm like, crap, how am I going to do this? Because my paralysis affects my hands. I can wiggle my fingers, but there's no strength behind them. So I'm sitting there looking at my breakfast. It's cereal and I have a spoon and I have a little carton of milk. And you wouldn't think that something as mundane as a bowl of cereal would be a task, but it

It was. So it takes me about like five minutes to get the spoon woven in between my fingers to be able to pick it up and feed myself. And I get it in my fingers and I'm about to take a bite of this cereal. And at this point, I'm like, I need to eat. Well, I realized that I hadn't yet poured the milk in because I was so focused on trying to get the spoon. So I

I put the spoon down. I grab the carton of milk and I'm like, how am I going to get this open? And I finally rip it open with my teeth and I make a mess of it, but I get it. I very carefully pour it into the bowl and fill up my cereal. And I put the spoon in and I just, I take this big bite of cereal. And I just remember being so proud of myself. So I smile, not realizing that

Even though Ricky and I had just gotten into a fight and he was pretending like he wasn't paying attention, he was actually paying attention, watching me try to figure this out. And as soon as I take that bite and I smile, I look over at him and he's just bawling his eyes out, sobbing because he's like, I can't believe you just did that. I'm so proud of you that you worked through that. And that was like kind of my first reaction.

Big milestone of learning how to be a quadriplegic. Small victories. Yeah, and that's been the theme throughout this whole time is celebrating the small victories. You know, life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. And as you do things and as you learn and grow, things get easier. It just takes time. The way Tracy talks about that bowl of cereal really says a lot about her.

When she sees a problem, she wants to solve it. She thinks it through strategically and finds a creative solution. And as the months passed and she got to know her new body, all that determination and energy needed to go somewhere. I can't work a traditional job because of my lack of function. It just... Try being a surgeon or something with no hand function. It just doesn't work. So...

Going into medicine wasn't going to be it for me, so I had to find something else because I can't just sit. I'm not that kind of a person. I'm a very go, go, go, get things done kind of person. By this point, about a year and a half into her recovery, Tracy and Ricky have moved back to Florida together. One day, when they're in the car, Tracy has an idea. I turned to Ricky as we were going down the highway and I'm like, why don't we shoot archery? And it was just a random thought. It wasn't anything...

planned. And he looks at me kind of funny, like his face kind of puzzles. And he's like, but your hands don't work. And I'm like, but that's okay. Like, we'll figure it out. We'll, we'll make something work. We'll make something happen. I just wanted to try and understand why it was archery that popped in your head initially. I really don't know. I don't understand it either. Cause I had never shot archery in my life. Yeah. Ever. Ever.

What a weird thing to choose. I know. I get that a lot. It wouldn't have been where I went. You know, never in my life, five years ago, had you told me I'd be a one-eyed quadriplegic who shoots archery. I would laugh at you. I would laugh at you. But here we are.

After that lightbulb moment in the car, Tracy searches for archery programs that have been adapted for people with disabilities. There are only a couple in the whole country, and one of them is just down the road. I send the head coach an email, shot my shot. I was like, hey, what does your program look like? What is your availability? I would love to come explore, see what we can do, see how we can figure this out.

The following week when Tracy arrives at the All People's Life Center in Tampa, Earl Brown, the head coach, is there to meet her. He has a son who had a stroke in utero. So his left side, I believe it's his left side, doesn't function well. So he shoots with a bite tab, which is a little piece of fabric or dog leash or leather that goes onto the string of the bow and you bite down on it and that's how you draw the bow.

So when I get there, Earl asks me about my function and he ends up putting a bite tab on there for me. Tracy lifts up the bow and takes aim. I was kind of nervous. I was afraid I was going to drop the bow, which I did. My mind was kind of running a million miles a minute trying to learn and figure it out and navigate this new thing that I had never tried before.

How can I troubleshoot this to make it as accurate as possible so I can play this game and enjoy this and do something with it? I took my first shot. I hit the target. It wasn't very far away. It was about 10, 15 feet away. But I hit the target. I heard it. And I'm just like, oh, my gosh. I love this. This is amazing. This is so much fun because it was something that I could do.

on my own. I mean, I need help to get strapped in now and to, you know, make sure everything's secure and safe, but actually executing the shot, I can do it on my own. And it gave me this sense of freedom. If I just discovered archery like Tracy, I would probably be thinking about, you know, joining a club, practicing a couple of times a week, maybe following a few archery accounts on Instagram, you know, the normal hobby stuff.

But Tracy doesn't do things by halves. At that very first session, she pulls one of the coaches aside. I was like, what is the biggest competition for this? What is the end-all be-all? What is the journey for this? And he goes, well, you can go to the Paralympics. And I was like, okay, when is it? And he goes, it's in Paris in 2024. And I was like, let's go. I'll be there. Let's do it. And that's where it all started.

After the break, Tracy does it. She gets to work on making her Paralympic dreams a reality. There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's

got a reputation. It's terrible, terrible dirt. Yazoo clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried. Until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery. 7,000 bodies out there or more. All former patients of the old state asylum. And nobody knew they were there. It was my family's mystery.

But in this corner of the South, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets. Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information. When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's Yazoo clay, nothing's ever as simple as you think. The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that. I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to Under Yazoo Clay on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. I just knew him as a kid. Long, silent voices from his past came forward. And he was just staring at me. And they had secrets of their own to share. Gilbert King, I'm the son of...

I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it. I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known. I never expected to find myself in this place.

Now, I need to tell you how I got here. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Bone Valley, Season 2. Jeremy. Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley, Season 2, starting April 9th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad-free with exclusive content starting April 9th, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

You decided after only firing an arrow about three times that you were going to go to Paris. Can you describe what you then did as like your training regime? How do you prepare for something like that? It was actually kind of a really long road because not only was I learning a new sport,

But I was also recovering from a catastrophic injury. So training wasn't as streamlined as it would have been for someone who was up and running and healthy and didn't have these injuries. I remember very, very clearly struggling about 30 minutes into practice, not being able to continue because I was just so exhausted. The goal is to train almost every day or at least three to five times a week.

Sometimes I maintain that goal. Sometimes I don't. A lot of times I don't because I just don't feel well, but I do the best that I can. At what point did you realize within your training that you actually had a bit of a talent for this?

I don't think I have yet. I can tell you here and now you've got a talent for it. Yeah. I try so hard. I just, I, I have this drive that I want to be better at it, that I want to, I want to be the best at it in my class. I want to take over the world. And like I said, maintaining that mindset of there's always progress to be made, just being an athlete, you know? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Thinking of like being an athlete, what was your first competition and how did that feel? It was the Russ Harvey tournament that was held by all peoples early in the year. And I was just so excited to get started. Like that moment was like, this is where the race starts. This is where training starts. This is where a new life starts. I just remember being so excited that I had something.

I had a thing. Yeah. I feel like there's people that go through their whole life not finding something that sets their soul free like that. And I'm blessed to be able to have that. You're very lucky to have found a thing that gives you that feeling because like you said, not everyone manages to do that. It makes you feel so whole. Yeah. When you find your groove, you know. Yeah.

With each competition, Tracy rises up the archery rankings. Ricky is by her side every step of the way. He's Tracy's arrow agent, which is the person on the team who passes her the arrows and collects them after she shoots. Truly, in all areas of Tracy's life, Ricky's got her back. Then, in 2023, the moment Tracy has been working towards, the qualifying trials for the Paris Paralympics.

There are three rounds and the final one is in May. You shoot the 72 arrows for a score out of 720 and you have to hit a minimum qualifying score, which is 520, I believe, for my class at the time. On the day of the final trial, Tracy isn't feeling well, but she shoots her arrows into the target with her usual laser focus. It's hungry work.

And so after she puts her bow and arrow down, she decides to have a well-deserved snack on some chocolate rice cakes. And I was munching and my mouth was full of food and I turned to the right and there's a bunch of people around me and a bunch of cameras that I didn't realize were there. And Ricky's walking towards me with this white box.

I'm like, what the hell? First of all, my mouth is full of food. I probably have chocolate everywhere. I'm starving. And Ricky's coming towards me with this box and he puts it on my lap and it has the seal of the Paralympic team on it. And I just, I lost it. So I open it and it was this hat that was made for all the Paralympians. And it says made it on the inside. And

And I just remember people taking pictures and just bawling my eyes out because I had just finished this competition not feeling well, but I made the Paralympic team. And then two days later on the 15th, I found out I was pregnant. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Life changed in a flash. Yeah, so much stuff happened in such a condensed small period of time. Tracy had also just experienced another major milestone.

In January of 2023, her ex-boyfriend Frank was convicted on multiple charges for the attack on Tracy and Ricky, including attempted murder. He was sentenced to 40 years behind bars. Some could say that my life is the way that it is. It is so good because of him. But no, I refuse to think that way. My life has changed because of him.

But everything that ensued after that was all given by not only the grace of God, but through hard work and dedication and love and navigating our way, not because of him.

Absolutely. What Frank did was a terrible, terrible thing. And the amazing thing that both you and Ricky have done is managed to just continue, not just continue living, but to thrive beyond that. Like you've kind of phoenixed from the ashes and that's all you. I have to. It's got nothing to do with him. Oh, absolutely. Like I just, I can't not. I'm the kind of person that I go with all my heart wherever I go and

I just, I can't justify not having conversations like this and bringing awareness to situations like this because it could save somebody's life one day. I want to change the world. Don't get me wrong. I want to take over the world and just leave this place better than I found it. But if I can change just one person's world by, you know, having a conversation or sharing my story, then...

I'm going to do it. Yeah. And show someone that they really do have the power to build life back up when someone's knocked all the blocks down. Absolutely. I want to get the sense of how you felt. You know, it's summer 2024. You're going to Paris. What were you feeling and thinking getting on the plane? Because that's so cool. Yeah, I was just, it didn't feel real. It didn't feel real.

I don't think it really hit me until we got to Paris. Oh, I know when it hit me. We were on the bus going to the venue and they were like 30 minutes from the Paralympic Village. So we were at 30, 45 minutes. So we were on the bus for a while. So sick on that bus. Oh my gosh. Oh, pregnant too. Yeah. And I had four kidney stones from being pregnant too. Oh, wow. It was horrible. It was so sick. It was so sick. All day, every day. But we fought through it.

But I remember being on that bus and we go past the Arc de Triomphe. I saw it in all of its glory and I just lost it. I lost it. I started bawling my eyes out like, oh my God, we're here. We're doing this. We're in Paris. This is really happening. Yeah, it must have just felt...

amazing out of this world happiness and bliss doesn't cover it well then not only that but you were doing this competition with a baby unborn baby by your side you know really doing it with you like oh yeah so cool that must have felt amazing this transitional point of your life

The archery finals in Paris take place in the gardens of Les Envalides, an elaborate complex of buildings built in the 1600s. Tracy is shooting in the shadow of a massive gold dome where actual Napoleon is buried. That finals venue was just breathtaking.

The royal blue carpet, the targets down at the end with like the flags on them blowing in the wind. I can see the crowd on both sides going all the way down from where I'm at to the target. And the energy of the crowd was just amazing. Like everyone was just so excited and so... So when we were doing the practice runs, I was really jittery and my shots weren't going the way that I wanted them to. So that made me more nervous.

But when it's time for Tracy to shoot for real, everything shifts. I wasn't nervous anymore. It was just, I almost felt calm and quiet and ready to do what I set out to do. Can you describe the moment you were kind of like drawing back the bow in that like official finals? Yeah, in my head, I was like, I believe in you.

I believe in you. I believe in you. And I just kept saying that to myself over and over again. And I took a deep breath, lined up my shot. I exhaled, let the arrow fly. And then I ended up hitting a couple of tens, I think. But I was the first ten of the day for that one. And I was so excited. And it was just, it was a really cool moment. Where did you place and how did you feel about it?

I placed eighth in individual and sixth in mixed teams with my partner, Jason. From a normal, I guess you could say, perspective, I'm incredibly proud because we were there. We did it. The goal was to go and compete. But from an athlete's perspective, I'm hard on myself. I want to do better. I want to bring home the gold. So...

That's on my agenda to do, to complete. That's my next goal is to win gold on home soil in LA 2028. Other than that, I'm incredibly proud over the moon with what we did and pushing through given being pregnant and having kidney stones. I think we did pretty well. Just as Tracy is saying this, Ricky pops his head into the room. Come here, babe. Put a headphone in. Hey. Hey.

Hey, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. So sorry, I just came in to grab some coffee, but just a touch base about her making it to Paris. Not only did she make it to Paris, she went in ranked number one in the world. Oh, okay. You managed to miss that one off, Tracy. Yeah, I can brag about this one all day. She usually misses something. And she was pregnant, which...

Kicked her butt, Beth. So sick. You guys are so cute. I'm obsessed. Will you adopt me, Mom and Dad? Yes, of course. One night, before they headed home from the City of Love, Ricky arranged for them to make the obligatory romantic trip to the Eiffel Tower. But Tracy wasn't feeling it. It took us about two hours to get an Uber successfully to be able to go to the Eiffel Tower. And at that point...

I was so hungry and I was so sick, just not feeling good. I'm like, I don't want to do this. I can't do this. I'm like, let's just, let's just give up on this. Let's go another day. Well, we finally get in the Uber and we get there and my whole like chosen family in wheelchairs is there and his mom is there. His sister's there. So we go to take a picture and

But then Ricky walks around to my blind side and gets on one knee and I'm getting ready to move out of the way so other people can take pictures. So I'm starting to move. And Ricky's like, wait, wait, wait. And I'm like, oh, there's a diamond. And I'm just like, you're on your knee and the Eiffel Tower is in the background. And it was nothing less than magical. And he asked me, he's like, will you be my wife? And

I'm like, yes, absolutely. And I hug him and we cry. Well, I cry. I ugly cried for like 20 minutes after. I remember his mom and his sister came up to me afterwards and give me the biggest hug and said, welcome to the family. And it was a very wholesome moment. And yet again, Ricky just being so smooth. Yeah, I know.

About five months after Ricky made his grand proposal, they welcomed a new addition into their family. Can I show you the baby? Is there a baby around the corner? Ricky appears holding their tiny one-month-old daughter, Riley. This is my little doggie who's... Oh my God. We're recording on Valentine's Day and Riley is suitably kitted out in an adorable red onesie covered in love hearts.

How do you ever get anything done? Everyone asks me that. I don't get anything done, to answer your question. I don't. I stare at her all day. She's gorgeous. Thank you. I like to think so too. She's pretty perfect. Rikki tenderly takes baby Riley and carries her into the other room. Looking back now at everything that you've achieved, how do you feel about your journey? I wouldn't trade it for the world. Everything? Everything.

I wouldn't trade it for anything. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Recovering from a spinal cord injury, picking up a new sport, having a baby, trying to live life again. But it has been the most amazing, beautiful, colorful, outstanding, I don't even have the word to describe this journey. And I'm so grateful for it. I'm

I have my moments where I get sad and depressed and, you know, like I hate to say it, where like I get sad to that point where suicide does come up and it hurts. But I always take myself out of it and I always work my way through it. That's just a part of mental health. And finding help and taking care of myself has been a big part of that journey. But at the end of the day, I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be more grateful. Blessed beyond belief is what I always say.

Because God has given me so much that I wouldn't change it for anything. So I don't need to reinforce here just how special Tracy is. Or Ricky, or even Riley for that matter. It became so apparent to me over the course of our chat that despite them both being younger than me, I now refer to them as mum and dad. And I'm going to be bringing around my laundry very soon.

So instead, I wanted to highlight another part of Tracy's story that I think is really significant. And that's finding that thing. The thing that makes you feel alive. Your version of Archery. Now, you don't have to go through something as horrific as Tracy has to find the thing that makes even a mundane, untraumatic life more liveable.

For me, I realized that I was an absolute sucker for music and theater when my parents took me to see the iconic 1994 West End production of Oliver. I've spent my entire life running around stages and making noises in microphones ever since. So you can blame them for this podcast.

These are things that we, silly little humans, do just for the joy of it. And if you feel like you're not doing enough things just for the joy of it, then you need to take a leaf out of Tracy's book. Because if there's one thing this interview is absolutely brimming with more than tragedy, it's joy and hope and a great sales pitch for the life-altering force that is archery and other passions.

I am really excited to share the stories of some truly incredible women with you this season. Coming up on The Girlfriend Spotlight, Luanne escapes the order. I was approached to be married to my cousin slash nephew as his fourth wife. I knew that it was going to happen with or without my consent.

Nellie goes undercover. In the first paragraph, she writes, "'Could I pass a week in the insane ward at Blackwell's Island? I said I could, and I would, and I did.'"

Rose solves at least 86 cold cases. And I'm telling you, I've never had this feeling before in my life. The hair on the back of my neck was starting to stand up because this was the guy. I mean, it was unbelievable. And June rocks America. I might as well have said, we're going to walk on the moon, as say, we're starting a band. I mean, was that ridiculous, you know?

you've reached the Girlfriends Hotline. You can leave your mini story after the tone. Right, catch you later. Bye. My grandma passed away about four years ago and she passed away in Oman whilst I was living in London and I wasn't able to go back for the funeral. My flatmates were taking excellent care of me during this time. But one specific incident stands out to me. I remember it was like a gloomy November night. It was raining. It was freezing outside. And I was like,

And I had just been feeling quite sad and like I needed some kind of refreshing change of routine. Without hesitation, my flatmate said, "Alright, put on your coat, put on some boots and a scarf and let's go on a walk."

And this has probably been the most memorable walk I've ever taken in London. I think we walked for about three hours and passed every monument and landmark of London from Westminster Parliament to Big Ben to the Tower of London to London Bridge. And the whole time she just listened to me talk about my grandma or talk about things that would distract me or just very silly things like how badly we wanted to watch the Shrek musical, which we passed by.

I just remember laughing and smiling so much during a time that would have otherwise been characterized by a lot of sadness. And I just feel so grateful to have friends who will go on three to four hour walks with you in the middle of winter in London when you need a change of scene.

If you have your own story like the one you just heard and you'd like the whole Girlfriends gang to hear it, then please send it to us. You can record it as a voice memo under 90 seconds, please, and email it straight to thegirlfriendsatnovel.audio. Please don't include your name. We're keeping things a little anon.

We want stories like, say, that one time you faked an emergency on an awful date and your bestie bailed you out with a phone call. We love her. Or that time when all of your girls showed up on your doorstep with five pizzas, two tubs of ice cream and three bottles of Sauvignon Blanc because the man of your dreams just dumped you.

I want stories that are meaningful or silly. I want big. I want small. I'm desperate to hear them. So send them over. This season, The Girlfriend Spotlight is supporting the charity Womankind Worldwide. They do amazing work to help women's rights organisations and movements to strengthen and grow.

If you'd like to find out more or donate to help them secure equal rights for women and girls across the globe, you can go to womankind.org.uk. The Girlfriend Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcast. For more from Novel, visit novel.audio. This episode was written and produced by Caroline Thornham.

Our assistant producer is Lucy Carr. Our researcher is Zayana Yousaf. The editor is Hannah Marshall. Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers. Production management from Joe Savage, Cherie Houston and Charlotte Wolfe. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson.

Music supervision by Jake Otajewicz, Nicholas Alexander and Anna Sinfield. Original music composed by Louisa Gerstein and Gemma Freeman. The series artwork was designed by Christina Lemkuhl. Willard Foxton is creative director of development. And special thanks to Katrina Norvell, Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcast, as well as Carly Frankel and the whole team at WME. ♪

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