Q&A Follow-up

Last month I decided it would be interesting to follow-up with some of the swimmers that did Q and A's with us last fall and see what they are doing now that they have made their respective Olympic teams. The question I asked was...

Now that we are in the last 90 days of preparation what are you focusing on in your training and how do you feel? With the pressure of making the team now behind you and your spot secure, do you feel more confident or does it increase your anxiety?

And their answers follow:

Markus Rogan

I don't want to sound conceited, but there really wasn't any pressure to make the team. The qualifying standard for Austria is about as fast as Brendan could go with his girlfriend hanging on to his shoulders during the race.

I personally think the US team was so exceptional at World Champs in Melbourne because Trials for that meet had been 7-8 months before. I don't expect such amazing performances in Beijing because they will all have to go through the toughest Trials in history just four weeks before...

In training, I'm focusing mostly on backstroke. But I'm also working on my twistleg/wavehand combination on the dancefloor :)

Joe Bartoch

What I am working on now...just lots of kick! It's been the weakest part of my race for the longest time and has come around in the last while so we are having one last push with that before we get into the last stage of preparation - race prep, hahaha. For that we are tweaking my start and my turn and continuously working on my finish.

Now that I have made the team - seems like there's a void there, my whole life and last couple years especially where focused on JUST MAKING the team. Now the goal is to make the final. It was tough to come off Trials after making the team and making a new goal in such a short period of time because nothing will come close to the original goal that was all consuming for the past 4 years - to make the team. It's hard to explain, I hope you understand...just accomplishing making the team, leaves you with the WHAT'S NEXT? syndrome I guess. It will take time to make a new goal or maybe there won't be one as big as that ever? Who knows? I guess thats why a lot of people retire after making the Olympics. (As for me, I am going to wait until after the Olympics and see if I want to set another huge goal for myself or not - a world record would be sweet, but I dunno Phelps is gonna smoke the 50.40 for sure seeing as he went 50.9 this weekend!)

Christian Sprenger

Obviously everyone would be amazed at how fast the Olympics is approaching, and right now is time I'm really pushing the hard work, and technical side of things. As this will be my first Olympics, I don't really know what to expect, but I do know that I'll have to train hard if I want to be in the mix!

I will have to say that my first thoughts after making the team, was that the pressure was off.. But after all is said and done, that was just the beginning.. I had put my mind and body into our trials, that I hadn't thought beyond that. But it was soon after the hype had settled down, that I was ready to make new goals!

Duje Draganja

I am feeling the same as before. Olympic games are an special event but for me it is just another meet in the row in which, like in any other meet. I will be aiming to swim my best personal time and only God knows where that time will take me.

For a couple of the guys I took the opportunity to ask an additional question...

Joe Bartoch

BHO: How do you feel about the Canadian team uniforms? I kinda dig them, especially the t-shirts, but those warm-ups are pretty controversial.

Joe: As for the Uniforms, there's some cool stuff and some weird unique stuff. I don't really have an opinion, hahaha. I think we will stand out which will be good, but lucky for us we get Speedo clothing as well. Other teams hate us for that because at other multi-sport games if the clothing was bogus we just went with the Speedo stuff, hahaha. You can always count on the Speedo gear!

Christian Sprenger

BHO: How do you feel about the whole Vegemite controversy?

Christian: Haha, well, I won't deny that I enjoy vegemite on toast! But If that is the case, I won't have a problem with going without it for a little while, haha.

And finally, a special question for Gary Hall, Jr. who didn't participate in the Q&A Series (but then later made the mistake of friending me on Facebook)

BHO: Why does USA Swimming wait so late to have it's Olympic Trials and how is your training going?

GHJ: The decision is made by people that don't swim, NBC executives, the same that dictate morning finals. What's good for ratings is not good for swimmers.

My training is good. I feel like I have a chance to make the Olympic team if I swim well at our Olympic trials.

I really want to thank all the athletes who took time to do the original Q&A's for us and now the follow-up and wish them all the best in Beijing. I wish our swimmers here in the United States were already finished with their Trials and now preparing for the Games as well. I can't help but think it handicaps our chances to have so little time in between to recover and refocus.

That said, I'm getting so excited for our Trials coming up in just a few weeks now and it's been hard to look past that and on to the Olympics but talking to these guys who have already passed that first hurdle has got me thinking more about it. Less than 60 days to go now...