U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS - SWIMMING

June 18, 2021

Annie Lazor

Ryan Murphy

Michael Andrew

CHI Health Center

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Thank you everyone. We are joined by three 2021 Olympians this evening. Next to me I have Annie Lazor, who won the Women's 200 Meter Breaststroke this evening. I have next to her, Ryan Murphy, who captured the 200 Meter Backstroke title this evening, and at the end of the table, all the way to my left is Michael Andrew, who won the Men's 200 IM final this evening.

Q. Annie, congratulations. A little bit of your background, in 2017 you decided to come back. I was wondering what drove you back to swimming? What attracted you back? Did you reach -- how did it work out that you reached out to Lilly, that situation?

ANNIE LAZOR: I decided to come back because I was missing the sport a little bit, and I knew that if I was missing it at all, that I didn't want to look five or ten years down the road and regret not coming back in a time that I could. I can work at a desk all my life, but I can't swim all my life. From that point on it was a pretty easy decision. The road to get here was far from easy, but I had an amazing support staff and teammates that decided to take this journey with me.

I tried out Indiana for a week, and knew it would be a great fit for me, and I did have to -- Ray wanted to get the okay from Lilly before I came and trained with her, so I think for her to accept a competitor into her training environment speaks about the kind of competitor she is.

Q. Annie, what was the desk job?

ANNIE LAZOR: I worked at Cal Berkeley in the athletic department. I was an operations intern with Men's Swimming and Beach Volleyball.

Q. What went through your head when you turned around and realized that you had done it?

ANNIE LAZOR: I kind of knew deep down. I hit the 150 wall and I was like, oh, I'm a little bit ahead. I'm usually not ahead at the 150, so I kind of knew I would be there, and to look up and see Lilly right there, it was just like practice every day.

It was a great feeling to have it be here on one of the biggest stages, but in reality I wanted to make it feel exactly like practice, so, yeah.

Q. Can you take us through how that relationship with Lilly has developed the last few months?

ANNIE LAZOR: I think it's developed more in the last couple of months than it has even the last few years, to be quite honest with you. She has been there for me in ways I can't even describe. Words kind of fall short, to be quite honest with you. But you know what? She is my family outside my family. The people that I train with every day are my family.

The last few months for me have been far from easy, but she has dragged me through the mud and pushed me every day and distracted me, and before we got up for the 200 Breast, she told me she loved me, and let's just do this, and that was all I needed to hear.

Q. Tell me about that reaction. You got very demonstrative. Take me through the moments with Lilly. We did it. You are sitting on the lane line, getting out, hugging Ray, hugging your teammates. Take me through what that was like.

ANNIE LAZOR: I'm still processing it, to be honest. I just knew it was not a one-person effort; it's a whole team effort, so I wanted to make sure that everyone who was a part of it was getting the same amount of celebration that I had, because it took so many people for me to even be sitting here right now. I just wanted to make sure they got all the same credit that I was feeling, that I had myself.

Q. Michael, since you were in the race, you had rattled Lochte's record for a little while there but also to be in what looks like his last race, and just an emotional finish for him. What does that mean to you to be able to win that race and be in that race with him? Then for Ryan, if you could add what it's been like being national team members with Ryan.

MICHAEL ANDREW: Yeah. First of all, it's an honor. Growing up I was always watching Ryan compete with Michael Phelps, and the legacy that specifically Ryan carried, his performance in the pool is amazing. Over recent months being a TYR athlete, getting to become more personal friends with Ryan, especially as he is starting to phase out in this Olympic cycle, it is an honor to share a pool with him and to do it in his race was really special.

I think what was amazing is after the end of the race, being able to embrace with Ryan and for him to tell me, like, he's passing the torch to me, he's saying 'okay, you're the guy, go and do this, go and kick some butt.' That's encouraging as a young athlete. I've always looked up to this guy. It's a special moment that I will remember forever, just part of history.

RYAN MURPHY: I'll get to your question about Lochte, but first I do want to hype up Annie. As she said, she worked at Cal in 2016 and 2017, and she made a big impact on our program. She came down every Wednesday, she would have the iPad, film our practice -- really hard worker.

ANNIE LAZOR: I forgot about that.

RYAN MURPHY: She deserves it more than anyone. She is going to be a great leader for Team USA.

In terms of Lochte, I love Lochte. I met him for the first time when I was 12 years old, because I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and he was swimming at the University of Florida, so we met at a local Florida Senior Championship meet, and I was next to him in the prelims of the 200 Back.

So as a 12 year old, I'm freaking out. He was just coming off of, I think -- no, I was 14. He was coming off the 2008 Olympics, so he had just won the 200 Back in Beijing. He shows up to the prelim. He's got a bright white Speedo on, and comes up to me before the race. He was like, all right, I'm going to go out pretty slow, so you better be beating me to the 100 here. My parents had the video camera out. They are snapping pictures. He let me beat him to the 100, then he just dusted me from there.

He's just a guy -- deep down he really has a good heart. That's what I really appreciate about Lochte. He really does care about people. It's a bummer that he didn't make this team, but what an incredible guy. He's done so much for our sport, and we will miss him on this team.

Q. Michael, to that point of Ryan acknowledging of passing of the torch to guys like you, and given everything you have accomplished this week, is this week everything that you could have imagined it to be?

MICHAEL ANDREW: Everything and more. Coming into Trials, my dad and coach, we had great plans. We knew what we wanted to accomplish. Obviously this being our second Trials and my first realistic shot at the team, I feel like everything has been smooth, and I'm excited just with what we have been learning to take that next couple of weeks to get faster.

Like Ryan is saying, we have an incredible team, and I'm stoked just to be going to Tokyo and representing the US.

Q. Annie, congratulations. With you, when you came back in 2017, what was your dream situation? I know you said you couldn't put in words what Lilly meant to you over the past few months, but could you maybe try in your own words what the last three years has meant for you and where you are today?

ANNIE LAZOR: I don't know I could have ever envisioned this happening when I came back in 2017 and 2018. There were a lot of times where I questioned myself, I doubted myself. I think even when I got to Indiana in 2018, I don't think putting myself on the Olympic team was a solidified goal of mine, or my coaches. I just wanted to work as hard as I could and see how good I could become.

And I just think that hard work works. That's honestly how I've ended up here, and I can't summarize it any more than that. I've just had the perfect support system, teammate, family that just has undoubtedly been there for me every step of the way.

Q. Annie, after the 100 Breaststroke when you finished third, what did Lilly say to you after that race, anything to boost you up?

ANNIE LAZOR: No, I mean, yes and no. That moment right after I got third, I felt bad for a second because I wanted her to be able to celebrate the fact that she just made her second Olympic team and has been so dominate in that race over the last five years, but I could tell she was torn between wanting to celebrate and be heart broken with me, so I felt bad that she felt like she had to pull her heart in two different ways.

You know what, after that, her confidence never faded in me. I had a great race. I just got beat by the two fastest times in the world; that's all that happened. I didn't lose any confidence in what I was going to do in the 200 and neither did she. To have one of the most confident swimmers in the world say that to you is incredible.

Q. Annie, what led you to step away from the sport in 2016?

ANNIE LAZOR: I didn't make the 2016 team, and really professional swimming is not what it is now. The only people that went pro were people who were surely going to make major international teams or were already Olympic medalists, what have you. So I didn't think it was really my place to go professional. I had finished my career at Auburn just a few months before that and was disappointed in how the last few months of my career went and wished I could have done them differently, but that's just how it played out for me.

I was really frustrated and thought I needed that time and didn't set a time for me to come back and didn't really think I was going to come back.

Q. Do you look at the sport differently because of the -- what kind of perspective do you have that the break gave you?

ANNIE LAZOR: Great question, actually. One of my coaches before we started this Olympic cycle, he sat me down and we were talking about our goals and what we thought that I can do going into this Olympic year. He sat me down and said you have the other side. You've seen the other side of the sport that pretty much no one else that you're swimming against has seen before. You have that card in your back pocket that no one else has, you don't have this target on your back that everyone else who has been swimming for years has.

So I think I have that perspective of enjoying every moment of the sport that I have. I've missed it before. I've been on the other side and missed it, and I know when I'm done I want to be done. So, yeah, that's what I've taken from it.

Q. Annie, after what you've been through the past couple of months, losing your dad, what does this moment mean in that context, having such a big moment now after all you've been through just this year?

ANNIE LAZOR: It's still kind of hard to put into words, honestly. Still such a shock for me and my family. One thing it's taught me is that the people that are close to me mean more to me now than ever.

The people who are there for you and reach out to you, you know, in your highest of highs but especially in your lowest of lows, words fall short on how much it really means. You know I came here, and I was nervous to see all these people again. It's my first meet since that happened. There are some people that you don't need to say anything to know that they're thinking about you. When I got here, Ryan came up to me and gave me a big smile and a big hug and even that from someone who probably knows, like, he didn't have to say anything for me to know that he was thinking of me and, you know, other people have done the same thing, whether they have given their condolences or said I'm so happy to see you.

That's meant so much to me and, again, you don't ever think words are enough or what it means for you in a time when you are trying to -- the last couple of months I've been going through trying to achieve the greatest thing that's ever happened to me while going through the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Sometimes my heart, for the first few weeks, it felt like I was choosing grief that day or choosing swimming that day; there was no in between.

But with the help of all the people who have been checking in on me and supporting me and pushed me every day and distracted me at practice and made meals for me, and my boyfriend who just made the Olympic Team and 24 hours later was on a flight home to my parents' house. It's unbelievable the amount of love that you see from people who will literally drop anything for you in that time of despair. That was a long answer, but that's my answer.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone.