Kristina Amelong

Connect What fuels your passion for health and fitness?

Pickleball is my daily prayer. I play because I must work to keep up, and that work keeps me alive. I train not to be perfect, but to be present. Movement clears my mind, steadies my heart, and reminds me that strength is built slowly, lovingly, through repetition and joy. Health is how I say yes to life again each morning.

What’s your favorite way to train or stay fit?

I train with weights, pull-ups, squats, and full-body strength work at a private gym, guided by a trainer who helped me rebuild from the ground up. I started as someone who only walked and had never held a paddle. Now I’m strong, fast, and proud of my muscles and my game. Training is where I remember what my body can do, and where discipline turns into confidence and joy.

What would you do with $20,000?

I would devote myself fully to qualifying for the Senior Olympics in pickleball—training, recovering, traveling, and competing with focus and devotion. As an author, I would also write the story of that journey: how strength is rebuilt, how discipline becomes joy, and how beginning again in midlife can become a doorway to greatness. This wouldn’t just be my dream. It would be a map for others to follow.