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Kicking Butts: Jennifer Rodriguez on Smoking and Tobacco
Speedskating, Two-time Olympic medalist
I have had asthma since I was a little girl. I’ve always had to think about my breathing. My parents would scare me to death about smoking. They told me that my lungs would close up and that I would die. And as a kid, I believed them.
I have also been a competitive athlete since I was five years old. It has been the biggest part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can’t imagine not being involved with sports and competition. It’s who I am and what I do.
My friends at school always admired me because I was an athlete. I was “special” in their eyes. I got to travel all over the world—Australia, South America, France and Italy. When I was 15, I was the only girl picked from the U.S. to go to New Zealand for a championship. My friends thought that was the coolest. They looked up to me. I didn’t have to smoke to “fit in.” When I said, “No!” they listened to me. And my skating friends had the same priorities as I did and never smoked.
So, my friends have always treated me with respect. They understood when I would say, “Sorry, can’t smoke – I need to breathe for my sport.” Or, “Sorry, can’t take any drugs – I will be drug tested.” When I was confronted with cigarettes, I always had my excuses ready – “I’ve got asthma,” or “I’ve got really bad asthma,” or “I’ve got to train today.”
The truth is that I can’t stand the smell of cigarettes. Once, a girl a school asked me to hold her cigarette while she tied her sneakers. I must have held it for 15 seconds. And all day my fingertips smelled so gross. And it was in my hair and on my clothes. It’s not only gross – it’s terrible for you. A skating friend of mine has a mother who was a chain smoker. Her teeth were all yellow, and she had wrinkles when she was young. Now she is in the hospital with terrible lung problems. When I think about what I want to feel and look like five, 10, 20 years from now – yellow, wrinkled and hacking is not in the picture. Healthy, happy, fit and breathing big is where I’m headed.
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