In this spoiler-free interview M&F spoke to competitor and Olympic heptathlete Chari Hawkins to find out what she found most difficult, and why, no matter the discipline, it’s okay to finish last as long as you try your best.
Who is Chari Hawkins? The Olympic heptathlete built for endurance
Chari Hawkins not only made an Olympic sport her vocation of choice, she pretty much chose to do the entire Olympics. Because, as a heptathletethis insanely fit woman from Idaho has to beat seven different competitions in two days. For those keeping count, day one includes the hurdles, high jump, shot put and a 200m run, and day two concludes with a long jump, javelin and an 800m run. It’s a process that requires speed, strength and endurance, and luckily Hawkins has all of these qualities in abundance.
In 2011, as a freshman at Utah State, this tenacious track and field player won the Western Conference Outdoor Championship. In 2018 she won gold at the English Athletics Championships Combined Eventsand won the heptathlon gold at the combined events in Spain in 2022. Yet nothing could have prepared her for the challenges that awaited her The Trainer Games, Now streaming on Prime Video, Hawkins must navigate uncharted territory to reach checkpoints, rappel down unstable rock walls and even wade through seaweed.
Olympian Chari Hawkins Shares Endurance Secrets From ‘The Trainer Games’
“The crazy thing is I don’t spend a lot of time at sea,” Hawkins said of being out of her comfort zone on the show. “They made us swim two miles, on a paddleboard, back and forth. I got caught in a rip current and I was stuck for so long that someone on a boat came up to me and said, ‘By the way, you haven’t moved in an hour!’ Hawkins became familiar with it iFIT as a student in Utah. “I’ve been aware of it for a long time,” she explained, noting that the opportunity to become a coach on the virtual fitness platform would be a perfect fit since she already has her own online coaching business. What she didn’t know before filming, however, was the chance of winning a hefty cash prize. “They told us that on day one during the intro,” the $260,000 jackpot athlete explains. “Say what!?”
During the day The Trainer Games, Hawkins would be forced to dig deep, endure immense fatigue and physical strain, and at one point suffer severe skin abrasions and knee pain that left her unable to walk. Still, getting right back up after a fall is tried and tested territory for this courageous girl.
Mental toughness meets extreme fitness in the final of the Trainer Games
In 2024, in her Olympic debut in Paris, Hawkins’ dreams were crushed when she failed to clear her first high jump target of 1.71 meters in the second event of the heptathlon, leaving her out of contention for a podium finish. Although the devastated athlete was aware that she could quit early, this inspiration instead completed the entire event. “There’s a part of you that just wants to go home,” Hawkins says M&F. “I was so sad, and I was so shocked and disappointed and ashamed.”
Instead of running away, Hawkins created an incredible chapter in the story of her career to date. “I kind of had to ask myself, ‘What do I do now?’ and ‘who am I doing this for?’ And the answer I came up with first was that I’m doing it for the me of 2016 and 2021, who worked just as hard as Chari of 2024, but didn’t make the team.
With her friends and family in the crowd, Hawkins turned a moment of immense disappointment into a celebration of both sad and happy tears in Paris as she completed the heptathlon and felt proud of herself. “Now I can talk about this with so much happiness and joy, instead of so much shame and embarrassment,” she explains.
Whether it’s through her tough Olympic test in 2024, or her most recent challenges in… The Trainer Games, Hawkins has an important message for those who lack the confidence to achieve their goals. “I think the coolest thing for me is that I’ve learned my whole life, but something that the Trainer games It really taught me that in everything you try, you will always surprise yourself if you do it with all your heart. I really like to push myself in things that bring me joy.”
The Trainer Games is available to stream on Prime Video, with the finale scheduled for February 5, 2026. For more information click here.
To follow Chari Hawkins on Instagram, click here.
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