Sue Norman: Racing Rapids, Becoming an Unexpected Parent at 56, & Risking It All
The Ready State Podcast
Kelly Starrett & Juliet Starrett
4.9 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2025
⏱️ 87 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Sue Norman’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. From her roots as a world-class whitewater athlete and U.S. National Champion to her time in the military and her inspiring decision to become a mom at 56, Sue’s life is packed with resilience, adventure, and heart.
In this episode of The Ready State Podcast, Sue shares her incredible story of navigating risk, overcoming childhood challenges, thriving in elite sports, and embracing unexpected motherhood.
Learn how she balanced a life of daring whitewater adventures, military service, and raising a child from a tough start in life. Tune in for lessons on courage, adaptability, and finding strength in the wild outdoors. Don’t miss this deeply inspiring conversation with a true legend.
What You'll Learn in This Episode- How Sue went from a chaotic childhood to becoming a world-class paddler
- The unlikely Army program that launched her elite kayaking career
- What it takes to lead an all-women’s rafting team through Class V rapids
- How nature became her anchor during trauma, menopause, and motherhood
- Why she took legal custody of her nephew at 56 — and how it changed her
- What parenting a traumatized child taught her about strength, identity, and healing
This episode of The Ready State Podcast is brought to you by Laird Superfood, The World As You'll Know It podcast, Momentous, and LMNT.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Julia and one of our other teammates gets attacked by a hippo. |
| 0:03.4 | The boat literally comes up out of the water and pops over, but they fall out. |
| 0:08.0 | So I just see this canoe come up out of the water and flip over, and there's no hits. |
| 0:12.9 | Sue is a world-class whitewater athlete. |
| 0:16.2 | She's actually a legend. |
| 0:17.4 | You leave the military. |
| 0:18.8 | You actually do use the GI Bill to go to college. You also then |
| 0:22.7 | return to your serious paddling career and ultimately become U.S. national champion. |
| 0:28.7 | Tell us a little bit about what it is like to become an unexpected parent at 56 years old. |
| 0:35.7 | When I was 52 years old, I got a call and he called up with this 20-something |
| 0:40.5 | year old woman to tell me that they were going to be parents. It really went into the crapper when |
| 0:45.1 | the birth mom decided she was going to leave her relationship. What did you learn about, you know, |
| 0:51.3 | raising a child, especially a child that spent the first part of their life |
| 0:55.8 | in a neglected situation. |
| 0:57.7 | Yeah. |
| 0:57.7 | Well, you know. |
| 1:00.3 | This episode of the Ready State podcast is brought to you by Laird Superfood. |
| 1:04.9 | Do you, we're rolling in the summer. |
| 1:07.9 | We have some river chips planned. |
| 1:10.0 | What happens every afternoon on the river trip? |
| 1:11.9 | So we pull into whatever camp we are. |
| 1:14.8 | Wherever. |
... |
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