In SELF’s franchise The Meal I Eat When I’m Feeling…, we talk with chefs, celebs, athletes, and people in the culinary space about the specific foods or meals they turn to amid certain emotions—and how eating their favorites plays a vital role in their self-care.
As heptathlete Anna Hall prepared for the US Olympic Track and Field Trials in late June, she couldn’t help but wonder if her knee—she had undergone surgery back in January—would hold up. “The whole time I was like, ‘Can I do this?’” Hall tells SELF.
She ended up answering that question by winning the final event, the 800-meters, securing her first-place finish overall and a trip to the Paris Games. But afterward, her overarching emotion wasn’t exactly thrilled or ecstatic, as you might expect.
“I think the biggest word I can use right now is relieved,” Hall says. “I just finally feel like I can take a breath and relax.”
It’s been a twisty road to the Olympics for Hall, a 23-year-old Colorado native who lives in Gainesville, Florida. Going into the Olympic Trials held in 2021 ahead of the Tokyo Games, Hall was considered a rising star in the heptathlon, a two-day athletic competition that consists of seven different track-and-field events. But during the opener, she stumbled over a hurdle and broke a bone in her foot, putting her out of the running. Since then, however, she’s worked to climb back to the top, winning national titles in 2022 and 2023 and taking home medals at the world championships both those years as well.
Satisfying as those victories were, competing at the Olympics has been a lifelong ambition of Hall’s since she was seven years old, so she had her sights set on the Paris Games after her Tokyo hopes were dashed. Everything “has been leading towards this moment,” she says. “So many big life decisions were made with this in mind.”
That’s why, coming off her surgery, “it was just so stressful and so much pressure, just knowing that my dream was right there and it might not happen,” Hall says. But crushing the Trials helped restore her confidence, allowing her to focus more on the task at hand: Maximizing her potential and becoming the most formidable competitor she can.
As you might expect, the hours are long—“My team calls me Nine-to-Five because they’re like, ‘You are out there training from 9-to-5 every day,” Hall says—and the intense prep inevitably requires sacrifice, especially when she’s on the road. “I miss so much family time,” she says, including big moments like weddings and bachelorette parties. (Not her sisters’, though.)
But a certain food can soothe the FOMO (or, in Hall’s case, the actual MO). When Hall, a self-described homebody, is feeling especially lonely or homesick, homemade pizza can help fill the void, making her nostalgic for some “really good memories,” she says. In particular, the meal makes her think of her days at the University of Georgia, when she and her older sister Julia started making pizza together at the end of every week as a way to celebrate powering through another round of classes and practices. Since then, the pizza has become a staple for both siblings: Even today, they’ll whip it up together over FaceTime.