From Setbacks to Choosing Joy: How Julie Letai Redefined Success on the Road to Milan
When Julie Letai talks about confidence, she doesn’t frame it as fearlessness or hype. She talks about love. Love for the sport, for the people around her, and for the process that keeps her showing up, even when things don’t go according to plan.
That mindset has defined her journey to Milan 2026.
Just recently named to the 2026 Olympic Team, Julie is now a two-time Olympian in speed skating. She’s been on the ice since she was two years old, and her career has stretched across multiple Olympic cycles, World Championships, and (most importantly) seasons of growth that didn’t always show up neatly on a results sheet.
There Was No Single “I Made It” Moment
Unlike her first Olympic qualification, Julie’s path to 2026 didn’t come with one clear-cut moment of celebration. Instead of a traditional Olympic Trials event, qualification unfolded gradually across four World Cups, where athletes earnedspots to represent Team USA in Milan.
“It was more like a slow relief,” Julie shared. “You kind of know you’re in, but it doesn’t hit all at once.”
That gradual process mirrors where she is mentally this quad: grounded, patient, and focused on what she can control.
Redefining Success After Setbacks
Midway through the cycle, Julie’s momentum was interrupted by a hip surgery in October 2024, followed by a string of injuries that forced her to miss an entire season. Just months earlier, she’d had the best year of her career. Consistent top-10 finishes, a World Championship silver medal in the relay, and a seventh-place individual result on the World stage.
Suddenly, the goals she’d set at the start of the quad were no longer guaranteed.
That’s where her mental approach shifted.
Rather than chasing outcomes that were now uncertain, Julie reframed her definition of success. Individually, it became about perseverance. Proving to herself that she could keep showing up, adapting, and trusting her body again. As a teammate, it became about contributing to something bigger, especially on a relay team still capable of standing on the Olympic podium.
Confidence, for Julie, wasn’t about ignoring adversity. It was about staying committed through it.
Her Turning Point: Choosing To Have Fun
One of the most powerful moments in Julie’s story came not from a race, but from a decision.
She reached a point where the mental weight of elite sport became unsustainable. She loved skating, but she wasn’t enjoying it. So she made herself a promise: If she couldn’t have fun doing this, she wouldn’t keep going.
That ultimatum changed everything. In season that followed, she rebounded and stopped letting pressure steal the joy from competition.
“We’re all going to show up to the start line ready to go,” Julie explained. “The intensity is already there. You don’t need to pile more on top of it. You have to love what you do.”
That mindset of letting the hard work speak for itself while protecting joy is now central to how she approaches both training and racing.
Confidence Isn’t Loud - It’s Lived
Today, Julie talks about confidence as something built quietly: in daily conversations with teammates, in practices where progress is measured internally, and in choosing gratitude over frustration when things don’t go perfectly.
She knows that not every goal will look the same as it once did. But she also knows that confidence doesn’t disappear when goals change, instead it evolves.
As Milan 2026 approaches, Julie’s focus isn’t just on results. It’s on showing up fully, supporting her team, and staying connected to the reason she started skating in the first place.
That’s what Back The Team’s Kickstart 2026 with Confidence series is all about. Because when pressure spikes and everyone is ready at the line, the athletes who last are the ones who love what they do.
