Ep.81 BLM and the Bold Truth w/ Anthony Watson

Olympian bobsledder, Anthony Watson, shares his thoughts on standing up and speaking truth. Programming Lions talks leadership and influence with this dedicated athlete. 

Links:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/awatsonjam/

X:  https://x.com/AWatsonOLY

TIMELINE

00:00 Intro

00:27 Olympics

01:22 Bobsledding

04:11 Speaking against BLM

06:50 Comfort in truth

08:02 Leadership

10:08 Being a well

13:15 Family & Faith

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. Anthony Watson is with us, a former Olympian bobsled athlete. He is a very interesting guy and has a crazy story. He spoke out against BLM and lost everything. All of his sponsorships, everything. He is now the co host of Turning Point USA's Campus Crashers. Anthony traveled the country. Motivating students to stand for truth, despite all of the headwinds and opposition that face them today. He frequently appears on Newsmax, One American News, and Real America Voice. You are about to get inspired. So let's get into it. Yeah.

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Anthony Watson, thanks for joining us on the Programming Alliance podcast. Oh my gosh, thank you guys so much for having me. I love this. Yeah, it's, uh, great to have you here. Now, we want to get into your story a little bit. Yeah. But I, I know a bit about you. You're an Olympian. We've got an athlete on the show, boys. So we can, you know, we can get into that. You're an Olympian, right? Yes, sir, I am. I wish but no I didn't I'm an Olympian not an Olympic medalist, what year years did you compete 2014 in Russia and then 2018 in South Korea? Oh, wow. How was how was Sochi? Was it like? Mild. Yeah? Super mild. Like the snow was melting and you saw like everyone who was competing around that time, they were like doing the things where like the snow was melting and then everything else, the events were just gonna get really rough. But then like South Korea was like bone chilling. I'm talking like the coldest day that on record for us there was negative 52 degrees. Woah. Oh yeah, the kind of stuff that makes your eyes water and then when your tears start running down your cheek, you know, like they start crystallizing and freezing and then it goes up in your eyeball and you get like, it gives you really bad headaches. And everyone's like, why'd you do it? I'm like, it's the only Olympic sport that took tryouts. So I had no choice, really. And so bobsledding, tell us a little bit about that. Okay, so when I started with Bobsled, I was a brakeman, so I wasn't a driver, so I was in the two man and the four man. So I was, uh, there's the driver, and then in the two and the four man, I was the second guy in, then there was the third guy, then the brake guy. And then in Two Man, it was the driver and then the brake guy. Okay. And then I switched because, um, I didn't like it when you crash in those things. Those things are so heavy and scary. You have 600 pounds or 800 pounds of carbon fiber and steel that pin you to the ice if you flip over. And on, I did Skeleton. So Skeleton is when you're going on your stomach, head first down the same ice track, four inches, like On your stomach head first, with your chin four inches above the eye, so about like there. Yeah. So, you know, the distance of falling from like here to there isn't as bad, but it still hurts a ton. I bet, I bet. That's gotta be kinda freaky, huh? It's scary at times. Like when I first started doing the sport, you know, like they don't just take you from the top and have you rip it off. That's how you die. Um, so they take you from lower parts of the track. You do a couple of runs there, then they take you a little higher than you do runs from there. Then they take you to the top and then you start getting used to doing it full speed from the top, getting in everything. So when you become a seasoned athlete, whenever you go to a new track or try to get in anywhere else. The only time it becomes dangerous is if you don't know what direction the track goes. So they said, don't worry about how to enter and how to exit. Just make sure when you're on the track, if this track has 18 or 19 curves, you know which direction each curve goes. Right. Because the worst thing for you is to lose your place and be like, I don't know what's coming next. And then you don't know if you're going right or left. And when you can't anticipate it and you can't drive it, that's how you flip and crash. Yeah. Wow. Are you going fast? Oh, the fastest speed that I've been clocked at was 81 miles per hour. So that's like if your dad just like duct taped you to the hood of a car and then just put a helmet on you and then slowly increase to 81 miles per hour going through like the streets and what not. That's kind of what it feels like. Hey, you know how it feels to be duct taped to the top of a car? Well, no. I was like, I think I should stop talking before I incriminate myself. I'm just kidding. How did you get into such a sport? It was the only Olympic sport that took tryouts. As a kid, you know, like, I grew up getting bullied. Didn't really like school. Didn't really like anything else like that. And look, like, you young guys. I know you may not like school. I hope you like school. I like school. Okay, good. No, not me. Yeah. I was like, so, school was a struggle for me, but sports was what I excelled at naturally. So, I wanted to be an Olympian for track and field, but I had a knee injury that kept me from competing. So, I went through every single sport to find out which one had tryouts, and Bob Sutton's skeleton was the only one that did. So, I was like, well, I guess it's gonna have to be this. And, uh, that's literally how I got into it, and competed for 13 years. Wow. And, um, made it to some world championships, made it to two Olympic games, and, you know, ended up losing everything and getting cancelled because I came out in a public statement and said that BLM was stupid. So Yeah, yeah. Well, we want to get into more of that. Oh, absolutely. So, I know you're a man of faith and you spoke up against some, uh, pretty, pretty heavy headwinds. Yeah. As a black man in, in America during BLM. I don't consider myself a black man, just someone that's got a slightly better tan than the rest of the world. Okay, okay, fair enough. I like the way you think. Absolutely. I would like to hear more about what that experience was like, the headwinds that you faced, and, uh, backlash you got maybe from friends, colleagues when someone asked me about it, they said, like, how do you think about all the injustice happening? I was like, with what? And they were just like, well, like, George Floyd. I was like, well, I mean, like, if you don't want the police called, don't pay with counterfeit money. Yeah. Because that's the reason why the police were called, was because he paid with counterfeit money. Then when the police found him, that was when he was high out of his mind on fentanyl. So it's just like, you know, I tell everybody, regardless of how that situation played out, I said that man had made decisions that put him in that exact moment. Because I said if he was a law abiding citizen that was working hard not on drugs, I said he wouldn't have been in that kind of situation. I said it's, I think it's stupid because I said, what is BL unfixed? I said what neighborhood have they built up? What kid have they sent to college? You know, like, what community have they restored? I was like, you have to be an idiot. To bus people in from a neighborhood that doesn't live in the same city that you are, to come and burn up your neighborhood, for them to go home and then tell you to go back there and live in that. I said, in what universe does that make sense to anybody? And I said, it did to me, and I said, and then two weeks later after that, all of my Olympic sponsors, all of my endorsements were all gone. And so I had nothing. You know, but I tell everybody right now. It's just like everyone's like you're so brave this and I was like I wasn't brave in that moment. I was like, it's just something that I knew that when I said it I couldn't backtrack because you're literally at a position where you're somebody that's gonna be confident Yeah And the things that you say in the decisions that you make Or you're gonna be someone that's gonna be like everybody else the minute you start getting pushed back You start giving these silent press releases to be like, well, I didn't really mean that this is this and if I offended anybody I'm sorry and I apologize. I don't feel that way at all. I don't regret anything that I said because what I said is true. Because look at all the communities that BLM is impacted now. Same issues that they were marching for are still happening. And even in more increasing numbers. When they haven't done anything to change it, help it, or get it anywhere to normal. So, where we find ourselves now, especially as you, you, you young boys, right here. As a grown up, someone who's like near your dad's age, we look at young guys like you, and I'm gonna tell you something that's very, very important, so you need to pay attention to this. There is never, never, you hear that? Never, there is never going to be a time when doing what's right is convenient. There's never gonna be a time when speaking the truth and standing up for what's right is gonna be comfortable. Every single person that you see and respect here that you guys want to talk to, all of them had to come to a decision and a choice in their own heart, in the privacy of their own home. Or in their own moment. When it was just them and the choices that they made for themselves of whether or not they were going to commit to this or if they were going to be people that just backed out of it. And everybody's had to make a choice to stand for something. And it was always when the cameras weren't rolling that they stood for it. And then when people finally found out what they did, that's when they got the spotlight. Because sadly, you have a lot of people that want to do the right thing only for the cameras. They want to do the right thing for the money. And they want to do the right thing for the clout and for the numbers and the views that will get them temporary notice but does has no longevity and no long lasting prospects or future or career for them because money fades. When you spend it, it's gone. I was like, you can burn it, you can people can steal it, you can lose it, all of this stuff can happen. But when you're people that want to do the truth and do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, that's when you'll have more people that'll surround themselves by you because you'll be leaders. And leadership always does one thing. It isolates you, because everybody wants the reward of leadership, but nobody wants to go through the sacrifices, because everyone who's been achieved everything else, they had to give up something, it cost them something, they had to lose something, but they kept themselves. Because at the end of the day, you have so many people that have a lot of money, but don't know who they are at the end of the day. That's why nothing makes them happy. That's why they're miserable and upset. That's why they react and overreact to every little thing that happens to them. They make everything everybody else's fault. They don't take accountability when they do something wrong. Everybody else is to blame. And they're the people that are the most miserable people to be in company with. You know? But when you are comfortable with decisions that you make as young men now, in your livelihoods, when you guys grow up, it's like athletes that lift weights. It hurts in the beginning. The tearing of your muscles and stuff is painful, but the more consistency you do it, your muscles get bigger, they get stronger, and you don't feel it as much. The older you get and the more decisions you make to do what's right, you start listening and caring about people's opinions far less. You get afraid a lot less. I was like, you don't worry as much as you used to when people used to now make you feel some type of way for saying certain things, and people literally start leaving you alone because they know no matter what they say, it's not gonna make you feel any different and it's not gonna change your mind. When you're able to be those kinds of people, that's when this podcast, the things and the people that you want to associate with, their titles won't mean anything to you, they won't intimidate you, they're not going to be using that, and you won't be people that are swayed by accolades and acquisitions and everything else because you'll be looking past that to see if that person's got a good heart. And when you're able to do that, that's when you guys will be able to maneuver anywhere, and then you will be able to sift between the people who are going to try to bring you down from the people who can help you get ahead. But it starts with you. And it starts here. And you're not too young. I like that a lot. That's interesting. And that's also really deep. But that's cool. Hey, listen. Let me paint you a picture since I'm a visual person. You have a lot of people in life that are like wetlands. You know what a wetland is? No. It's miles and hundreds of miles of water that's only an inch deep. It looks great. It looks deep and big and massive from the outside. But you step in it, it's like this. You got a lot of people that are like wetlands. Their influence looks massive. You know, their beauty and everything else that they have looks attractive and everything else. But when you actually have to sit them down and talk to them, they ain't got nothing to tell you. They say the same thing that you've heard everywhere else. They have no original opinion and they can't say nothing about it. You need people who are wells. See, wells get overlooked because it's one little circle here. But I said wells have depth. And they go down, they go down deep. And you have a lot of people that talk from a place that they've never been. And they try to give you advice from a place that they never want to go themselves. So when you are people that are dedicated to becoming wells of knowledge, that you go deeper in Christ, you let Him take you into deeper places, because whenever you get to a deeper place, He's the only person that can get you out of it. That's why He says, Draw near Him. And the deeper you get, it gets a little scary. But in life, when you realize and step out of your fear, you always ask yourself, What was I so afraid of? I didn't have to be worried about this. This was not a big deal whatsoever. And when you're somebody that can do that, and you let the Lord take you and do that, you'll forever have something to dig deep into, to give to everybody else that doesn't run out because you're tapped into the source. He digs you deep enough, so that when you strike water, it's not something that runs out because the water is coming from underneath. And it's always gonna be able to shoot up that way. People that are this way, that are flat and surface level, they dry up. And they can't do nothing because when people start doing it, they start shrinking and then people start realizing that they're not as big as they made themselves out to be. Yeah. Make more sense? Wow! That's crazy. I like that analogy a lot. We were actually speaking with Topher earlier. He had a really interesting message that's similar in terms of, people are tested in different ways. And part of what you're talking about is, like, God will test people in different ways, depending on what their purpose is and where they're going in life. And so different people have different tests. Like, you've had some tests in your life, we've had tests in our life, but they're different. But our purpose is different. Kind of compiled on some of the other things we've learned today. It's great. A couple follow ups. You mentioned, uh, the, the boys and the youth. You're not too young to be doing this. I appreciate that so much because we Kind of stepped out of our comfort zone. We, uh, similar to you, we spoke out against some of the woke ideologies that are happening in society. And we put our boys on the channel with us. And we get a lot of backlash about, they're too young to even talk about this, to think about this, to learn about this. And we disagree with that. We think it's important that kids learn from a young age, like, common sense, personal responsibility, Good conservative values. We're on a mission to do that. And to your point, we're trying to, put the haters over here and really listen to the people that are thoughtful and meaningful and care. And we've found that we've lost some friends and acquaintances but we've gained a lot of others that are more aligned with us. You know? Yeah, like better. They're deeper people. They're, they're more wells. Well, let me, let me say something to you guys that you can understand. Like, you, you guys got upgraded. That's what that means. You know that. All you, all the Fortnite that you play. You guys got special packs now. Friends. Yeah. And all this stuff. But what I will say in my closing statement is this. Is that when it comes to decisions and stuff like that. I always go to the Bible. And the one thing that I can always say is what Jesus said in Matthew, where he says, Broad is the road, broad is the gate that leads to destruction. And he says, many are on it. But he says, narrows the gate and narrows the road that leads to life. And he says, very few find it. Yeah. So, and that's a very important thing because you have a lot of people that in this ideology, the things that they're trying to tell you, it's wrong. And if it affects you, you're allowed to say something. Because I said, you're the targets now. People are coming after you because if they can get you at this age now, people have no holds barred. People have no regard for life. They have no regard for the sanctity of anything that's holy. They have no regard for anybody's personal boundaries and the families that they want for themselves. Because everyone is being selfish. And so when you hear those kinds of things, and you're seeing that kind of stuff, and it's affecting you, you have the right to say something. So when people are saying, like, you shouldn't have your kids on this show, it's just like, no, I want other people who have kids, and have families, and don't know how to have these kind of conversations because they're too nervous of kicking the hornet's nest and everything else. There are far too many adults now that try to be their kids friends. Very few people know how to be a parent. Yeah. Is somebody that has to say things to you time and time again. How many times have your parents looked at you both and said, I'm going to tell you this one more time. You understand when you get to my age, it's just like my parents have told me things that now finally clicked at my old age. That's the difference between growing up and being raised. When you grow up, you as young men will take influence from wherever you find it relatable. If it's good or if it's bad and whatever the outcome is, what the decisions that you make will either make you good young men or it'll destroy you. When you're raised is when your parents are intentional to put things inside of you that then becomes a lifestyle that you actually live out. That's the difference. So that's why your parents will say the same thing through all the I knows. They'll say it when you silently turn around and be like, I hate you. I hope you don't say that. You better not. Respect your parents. Bible says The Bible says obey your parents for this is right. There is a very strategic attack to make you two separated from your safety net, which is your family. And they're gonna peep. These are the same people that don't care about family, could care less about where you come from, don't want anything good for you, and then they want to tell you how to live a better life, when you guys don't even know what you want in life yet. Yeah. So. I don't care how many times you've heard it. If you've heard it over and over again, stop trying to just wait to hear it and start finding ways to practice doing it. Because when you start practice doing it, that's when it becomes a pattern and that's when you do it without having to be told. And you're not too young to learn that you learn chores, cleaning up after yourself, being respectful, young men saying, yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Learning at a young age. Now how to open doors for when a woman is behind you, how to pull out a chair for when a girl, that kind of thing, how to be respectful to your mother. All these young girls that you guys are going to start having crushes on when you get out of the cootie stage and stuff Are all going to see and look at how you treat other people And when they see that, that's where the words don't match Because you have a lot of people now that will say one thing but then they treat people completely different And that's where the wires get messed So, that's my, that's my challenge to y'all In this new year that's coming up Challenge accepted Challenge We're making a gentleman's agreement. You heard that this binding and it's on the camera. That's right. And I appreciate you giving the boys such great advice. It was a pleasure having you on the podcast. We appreciate you coming in and we wish you the best of luck in your journey. All right. God bless you guys. All right. Thank you.