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U.S. OLYMPIC SWIM TRIALSJune 26, 2016Connor JaegerOmaha, Nebraska THE MODERATOR: We will go ahead and get started with Connor. If you want to give us thoughts about how the race played out from your perspective and what your emotions have been like since. CONNOR JAEGER: First of all, going back to prelims, a couple of guys went 47s, 48s, seven people went 48s, I think, and eighth was 50, where back in 2012 a 47 made the team, like third place was 48.0 or something like that, so right off the bat you knew it was going to be a competitive field. Everyone probably had a little bit left in the tank for tonight. So I dive in, I feel like I'm pushing it pretty hard, and I'm still staring at Conor Dwyer's feet the whole race. It was like having some sort of outer body experience around the 200 thinking, man am I out of this or am I going to be able to turn it around? And I basically said, like, there is no giving up in this race. And I -- okay. No giving up, and I just went until I couldn't feel my legs or any arms any longer, and on my last 50 I peeked over and I was ahead, which was kind of an incredible realization and, you know, just went as hard as I could and touched the wall. I couldn't believe that I placed first. It's really pretty -- what an exciting experience! A couple of profanities came out of my mouth right after, you know, me and Dwyer, we're good friends, so to be able to punch the ticket like that, it's great. Q. Connor, whether you looked like it, you appeared after prelims this morning to be absolutely brimming with confidence. I don't know if you felt that as you displayed it to us in the media. Were you? Because you certainly appeared very confident. CONNOR JAEGER: I would say for the past eight months I've been struggling to get under a 3:50, that's normally something I've been able to routinely hit in season, no matter where we are in our training cycle. It's been something that is normally pretty easy for me to do, except these past eight months it's just been 3:55, 3:59, you know, some really horrible swims mixed in there. So to have 3:47 this morning and it felt like I had a little bit left. It felt great, felt like I was back in my old body, and I was just happy that I was going to swim in the final. Q. Four years ago in this chair from the same event was Peter Vanderkaay. You guys at Michigan have this great tradition in this race and in the distance events. What does it mean to you personally to kind of have been passed that torch. I know this is not new for you now, but just to share this event with Peter and the history at Michigan? CONNOR JAEGER: Yeah, I couldn't be prouder. I really couldn't be prouder! I mean, to look at the history that we've had and with Peter specifically, and Peter is a great friend of mine. Just how much he's motivated me over the years and encouraged me, right, and then to feel like I'm doing something that makes him proud. I got a text from him right away, he said he was shaking so much he could barely type on his phone. Going into the race, more than I wanted to make the team or more than I wanted to win, I didn't want anyone else -- it had to be Michigan that was going to win that race, and that's how I approached it. Q. 400 is a race possible to win medal in 400 or defend the race against Paltrinieri, last day? CONNOR JAEGER: I think the 400 is a little bit more of -- really, either race it's going to come down to that day and who is going to perform on that day. I mean, Paltrinieri, that guy has been rippin' it all year, right? But I'm excited to race him. I think that -- I just did a best time in the 400, and I can't really believe that that happened. I still have a week until I swim the 1500, but I've been thinking about that 1500 for a while now. Hopefully I make the team, and I'll be there to swim Paltrinieri. Q. Connor, what's the approach now over this next week? Obviously you have the 200 tomorrow, but then resetting for the 1500, you kinda know that you're swimming real well so how do you maintain that for the next week as opposed to if you hadn't swam as well today? CONNOR JAEGER: That I'm going to leave to the coaching staff to figure out. I mean, we've done it before and I've worried about this at World Championships, as well, you swim 400 the first day, 1500 the last day, can you maintain the fitness? It's worked out. Josh and Mike have figured it out. We'll do a little bit of training; I'll swim tomorrow morning for sure and hopefully tomorrow night, and then from there we'll just have to see, probably be a little bit of training and, really, keep, you know, mentally. It's what are you going to do between your ears that's going to affect how you swim a week from now. So just keeping your head in the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Connor. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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