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U.S. OLYMPIC SWIM TRIALSJune 24, 2016Dana VollmerOmaha, Nebraska THE MODERATOR: Thanks, everyone, for round 2 of press conferences today. Kicking things off, again, with Dana Vollmer, two-time Olympian, four-time gold medalist and mom to 15-month-old Arlen. Dana, tell us a little bit about how different you preparation has been this time around as opposed to four years ago. DANA VOLLMER: Compared to four years ago, it's extremely different. It's just having morning practices and then running around with my toddler all day. He definitely keeps me busy and makes sometimes simple things harder, but also makes the hard things simpler with his smiles. So it's different preparation, but I actually feel better now, I feel more confident in what I've been doing in my racing and I'm really excited to race this coming week and see how fast I can go. Q. Talk about being here with Arlen and how you're going to manage him here, how you're gong to sleep, logistically how it will work here. DANA VOLLMER: My husband is going to be super dad and be in charge of Arlen all week. I'm rooming with Liz Pelton, and I thought it was really important for me to just be -- just with the team and with my teammates and really try to get into the meet. Then my husband has a room in the same hotel; it's going to be my husband, my father-in-law, my brother and Arlen in a room, so they're going to have a little boys' pow wow. I told them to try to make Omaha the experience that he wants it to have and go to eat with my parents, and I have an amazing support group here, so I'll get to see Arlen kind of when I write Andy and say, "Hey, I'm ready. I have time right now. I have the energy," and I definitely want to see him a little bit every day. But we didn't want connecting rooms. The whole point was to not have me hear him cry if he's up at night and just really try to focus on getting good sleep while I'm here. Q. Was it hard for you to sort of let go in that way? Will that be hard for you? DANA VOLLMER: It is. It's one of those things, though, that I feel like with this being my fifth Trials that it's easy for me to kind of get into the groove of a meet and the first meet that I went to where I didn't bring him, it was heartbreaking, and that was really hard. But here, knowing that he's here -- I came out a day earlier, and they're flying in this afternoon, and it was hard to even leave, but then knowing he was going to be here, and I can see him, and then my husband gets to do the dinner and bedtime and putting him to sleep routine this time. Q. Can you talk about the Omaha experience, this will be your third one, what it was like the first time to walk into to this gigantic arena and all the pyrotechnics that have gone on, and is there now even a comfort level that you have of knowing where everything is here? Should this almost be a permanent home for the swimming Trials? DANA VOLLMER: I mean, this is the most incredible swim meet that we get to go to, and Omaha does an amazing job of, I think, having great entertainment for the fans outside and the lights, and you don't -- I feel like you go to a lot of swim meets where it just seems like heat after heat of swimming, and they just do it up really well. It gets people excited to watch swim meets, and to come to a meet that is as expense as Olympic Trials, and I think also to make it exciting for us. I remember in 2008 or maybe it was '12, the fireworks that go off, and the rainwater, and the lights and, you know, I've been to a lot of swim meets in my life, and to get to come to one that's just cool to be at, I think Omaha does an amazing job of making the athletes really excited to be here. Logistically having the hotel that connects to the pool is amazing for teams. You don't have to schedule the time when the bus or the cars leave. You can walk over when you need, or even this morning there were people that forgot suits, and it's easy to just run back and grab it. So it definitely calms you down in that sense that, you know, we can be really strict with our own schedules, and when I'm done racing I can get my warm-down done, I can get the food that I need, and then I can go to sleep while my teammate might have a longer routine. Q. Dana, I'm wondering fifteen months ago did you have any idea you would be here swimming and swimming well? DANA VOLLMER: No? It was one of the goals. I feel like I've always had to set really lofty goals ever since I was little, and knowing that I wanted to get back in shape, that was kind of the first goal. I wanted to kind of have control over my body again after being pregnant, and it's what I love about this sport is finding the little things, playing around with technique, playing around with the physics in the water and learning more about how we can go fast and how the body works and I missed that in those two years off. There was not that level of fine tuning kind of in the rest of my life in those two years off. To come back, it was humbling. I could hardly make it through warm-up, and to kind of have -- each practice was getting better, each practice I was learning different things. I felt like my coach, Teri McKeever and I did an awesome job of taking that raw spot that I was at -- I hadn't been in the water in two years. Let's really look at changing techniques in a way that can make me faster, improving my relationship with the water, so it's been an amazing fifteen months of kind of figuring out how I can be faster, and so did I think that I would be here swimming faster than I ever have in season? No! I'm stoked that I am, and I'm really excited that I am, and I feel happier in my own life and in my schedule and in the routine that I have, and that makes me really excited going forward. Q. For so many athletes this is a be-all-and-end-all right here, this week, but I'm wondering if you have the perspective of some other people we've seen over the years where you have a child in your life, and your husband, that regardless of what happens here, you have something else to go to, and that maybe you find it's even more fulfilling than swimming. I wonder if you can talk about the difference in your mindset knowing what you have now as opposed to you didn't have those folks in your previous Trials. DANA VOLLMER: Yeah, definitely in 2008 I did feel like this was it; this was the end all. You make this team, this kinda defines who you are as a person; it's why you swam, and it's hard to swim like that for very long. That's why I think it was a blessing that I didn't make that team, and I worked really hard with my coaches and teammates and gained perspective going into 2012 just that, you know, my life wasn't over after this. I just feel like it's a whole other level that's been taken away now that I have Arlen, and he's so excited when I come and I get to hold him after a race, and it's not because I swam well or didn't swim well, it's just to see me. Andy, my husband, is looking forward to many, many, many years, and Arlen might not know mommy the swimmer; he'll just know mom. So it definitely helps me know that -- I mean it makes me smile when you say, like, this is the end-all for some people, and I'm glad that I have that life perspective now because I feel like it's very freeing to stand behind the blocks and not have that feel of failure, to stand up and be able to try as hard as I can, and I just feel like it opens so many doors to how fast that I could go without having that fear. Q. If you do make the team, will they go to Rio with you? DANA VOLLMER: My husband is going to, but my son will get some needed grandma/grandpa time! Q. I'm curious, motherhood, what are some of the -- has there been any surprises for you, totally not swimming but as a new mom? What have you particularly enjoyed about it and what has maybe been a challenge or something you didn't expect? And I have a follow-up to that. DANA VOLLMER: I've absolutely loved all the little things, like I feel that's part of the perspective, is he got so excited when he first threw a ball, got so excited when he put on my shoes! I have a video of him walking around the house in my shoes and seeing him feel so grown up. You can't beat hugs, and now he gives kisses and actually goes, "Mah!" when he does it. It makes you so happy. It was definitely more challenging than I think I thought it would be, just in a lot of different areas, in sleep and my husband is at work and going through that routine. I always thought it would be the two of us, and a lot of times it's me. And to kinda find that inner strength when I didn't think I had it, you know, I feel like it's made me learn to be, um, nicer to myself, like, just forgive myself. It's okay that I'm struggling; it doesn't make me a bad mom. It's okay that I'm sitting there rocking him and just really hoping that he falls asleep, and little moments where I just realize that I can't tell him, hey, I need a break, that you have to find that strength, you have to find it somewhere, and I think the hard times have made me stronger than I think I've ever been in the past. I don't think there is much people could throw at me now that would take me off my game. Q. Do you think that's why you're swimming faster? DANA VOLLMER: Yeah, I -- Q. Is that why you've taken that -- DANA VOLLMER: The combination of perspective, the combination of that emotional strength of just being able to feel like anything can be thrown at me, and I can handle it. I know that while I don't like getting only four hours of sleep, I can do it, and I can race, and when I lay there and I don't have a good night's sleep, like I'm still laying in bed resting, that's not going to freak me out. I know that I can still get up and swim. And I think it's helped me kind of in that balance of coming back, realizing how important recovery is as well, and I think that was a blessing with having Arlen. It wasn't just coming back and trying to do as many practices as I could and about getting in shape as fast as I could. I was a nursing mom. I was a new mom. I knew I had to eat enough calories to still be able to nurse my son. It wasn't that I needed to lose the baby weight to swim faster; it was very much a healthy approach to the come-back, and Teri being really good about, you know, I would text and be like, I'm sorry I've only slept two hours. I can't do it today, and that wasn't a bad thing. That was what I needed right there, and to value sleep, to value the nutrition, value that hydration part that -- I think I had always focused more on how much -- more of the training side, and to feel like now I have a much better balance in my life. Q. Does Arlen know what mommy does? Does he -- does he cheer for you and know what swimming is? DANA VOLLMER: I don't know. He definitely knows what swimming is. He's come to practices; he's come to meets. I've gotten him -- he throws his arms up and kinda cheers, so we're, working on the cheering part. Q. Dana, you talked about improving your relationship with swimming and you would think that someone who won a gold medal in 2012 your relationship with swimming would need no improving. What did you exactly mean? Even strokewise it would seem like there was nothing needed improving there. DANA VOLLMER: It's part of what's been really exciting for me in working with Teri McKeever and Milton Nelms is that I feel like I've only scratched the surface of the knowledge that they have about swimming, and to swim that Olympic race and to break a world record and to have both of them ready with ways that I can get faster. You know, I feel like it's one of those things that as an athlete where if I really felt like I had gone the fastest that I ever could, then why would I keep doing it? It's that challenge of always wanting to find ways to get faster, and I feel like in my own growth in just that -- the perspective of life and taking -- learning more ways of taking pressure off myself and really thoroughly enjoying what I do every day, combined with learning new technique and being invested in the program and what the other girls are learning, and it's just been an amazing environment, and that all kinda gets summed up in that relationship with swimming. Q. Couple questions about some of the competition in the 100 Fly. First off, what was your impression of watching Sarah Sjöström break your world record? DANA VOLLMER: I mean, it's hard! It's hard to see your world record fall, but knowing her as a young lady, and she is an amazing athlete and an amazing friend. I felt like she kind of -- people built her up to have this amazing London Games, and to see her struggling and to not have the London that she wanted to have, I was really proud of her for coming back, and she is swimming great. Does that mean I want to beat her any less? Well, no! It's one of those things where I think my personal -- my personality, like, I like chasing. I like almost more that she has now broken it, and it's not me defending it, it's me fighting to get that back, and that's just a big driver for me. Q. And then also seeing what Kelsi Worrell has done, especially in the short course, taking that mark down to a ridiculous level? DANA VOLLMER: That was always my goal was to break 50 seconds, and it was one of those things with her and with Sarah was just, you know, it's hard, but I also got to look and see my 15-month-old son and kinda know why I stepped away from the sport. I am excited to see how fast I can go at Trials. Q. You talked about the fear of failure that some have when they come here, right, and how you've grown past that. Can you give me an idea of what that looks like? Even in the warm-down pool can you see someone who is going through that at a meet like this, and if so do you say anything to them? Do you keep away? What that looks like when someone is in that head space? DANA VOLLMER: Yeah, I feel like it shows up differently in every person. For me, it was -- I'm usually very chatty with my teammates, and I remember in 2008 just being kind of secluded, and I was kind of self-absorbed, like you're just sitting there thinking about all the things that you need to do or what could go wrong, and I remember just feeling like I could let a lot of people down. That instead of viewing my parents as support or news articles as support, I viewed them as pressure, and that people expected me to do all of these things, and what if I didn't live up to that? Working on that and viewing it as support and excitement and, you know, I mean that takes work; it's not just something you can flip a switch, but I really enjoyed that we even had a team meeting before coming here, and things to say to you and things not to say to you, and each athlete gets to express those, and my coach, Teri, did an amazing job of that in 2012. I felt like I knew the goals better than I ever had on the National Team. A lot of times the National Team comes together -- we train all over the country, and we come together and you're kind of told individually you got to where you needed to go, just keep doing that, and to have it be more of a team, and to know what my teammates like to be told when they're nervous, what makes them more nervous if you say it. I might be trying to help you and completely freak you out! So to have my teammates here this time, and to get to hear all of that and share all of that and kinda come in as a group and that we're here to do this together and support each other. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Dana. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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