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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJune 24, 2012Allison SchmittOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started. We have Allison Schmitt up here, 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist in the 4x200 Meter Free Relay. She is swimming multiple events here in Omaha this week and currently trains with Bob Bowman at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. Allison, you are taking the year off from Georgia this year and training with the team up at North Baltimore. How has that been going for you? How was training? I know you just came back from Colorado Springs. How are you feeling heading into Trials? ALLISON SCHMITT: I'm very excited heading into Trials. I feel like I'm ready for it. Taking the year off has been a change for me, but it was a no‑brainer. I could train with the best in the world, and go back to Georgia and finish my last year, so it's been fun and I definitely don't regret red‑shirting this year from Georgia. Q. Allison, yesterday Michael credited you with kind of lightening the mood in his training group. How did you go about doing that? ALLISON SCHMITT: I guess it's just my personality. I don't like to take things too seriously, I just like to have fun; especially in a sport like swimming, you kind of have to keep the mood light, joke around, play games, have fun. Q. Allison, can you talk about in Colorado? You guys were there for such a long time. Talk about the workouts and outside of swimming, what did you guys do to sort of chase the boredom away? ALLISON SCHMITT: For me it was different because we usually do triples out there, and we were just doing doubles, single/doubles, so I had a lot more time‑out there. We played a lot of board games, to pass the time, and watched a lot of movies. Q. Allison, with Michael exiting sort of his competitive phase of his career, it seems like another generation will be coming up. How do you plan to sort of handle the attention? How do you plan to keep swimming in the spotlight after he's gone? ALLISON SCHMITT: I don't think much of it. I have fun doing it, so I'm just going to keep having fun and he's definitely going to be missed. I've been around him since 2007 and we've had a great time together, it's always a fun time with him. Even watching him swim as I'm on the sideline, I get so excited watching him swim. He's just‑‑ he's so smooth in the water. So I'm excited for him, I'm excited for the next chapter in his life. I'm just going to continue to have fun and make the best out of my career. Q. I'm just wondering how you're feeling when you head to London about the threat from our Aussie girls, Bronte Barratt and the like, how do you feel the Australian team will do compared to you Americans. ALLISON SCHMITT: Australia has always been a strong team, and I know their 800 Free Relay team has always been competitive; they have won the gold in the past few years, and it's going to be tough, but we've been training hard, and I'm excited to see how it pays off in the end. Q. Allison, from the outside looking in, Bob's program does not look like it's for fun‑loving, light‑hearted people. How much reservation did you have about that end of it, that maybe would you fit in personalitywise and why do you think it did work out so well? ALLISON SCHMITT: I trained with him before 2008, so I knew exactly what I was getting into. I just‑‑ it worked for me back in 2008, it's worked for me the past‑‑ the past summers, the past four years I went there to train, and I just like to keep it light. I am pretty good at blocking out outside factors, and kind of staying in my own world. Just trying to keep it light, joke around and have fun! Q. What were some of the board games and movies? Second, talk a little bit, if you could, about your program, your favorite events, are you going to swim everything that you've signed up for? Is some of that still a mystery like it is with Michael? ALLISON SCHMITT: Board games, we played a lot of "Sorry" and "Scattergories," Chess, we played a bunch of games. Some of the movies we watched, Alien and Aliens, which was the sequel to "Prometheus," which is the sequel we went and saw after one of our Sunday practices. We played a lot of games and watched a lot of movies, though. For this week I'm signed up for all the freestyle events, the 50 through the 800, and I'm not sure if I'll do all five of them. I'm definitely doing the 100, 200, and 500, and I'm not sure past that. Q. How do you have that kind of range that you are so talented right now in all of the free styles? What do you have to do to be successful in the sprints all the way up to the 800, in training, just in general swimming those kind of races with that range? ALLISON SCHMITT: I guess I train‑‑ I just listen to Bob. Whatever practice he tells me to do, whatever he gives me, I just do. I don't think about the parts like how I'm doing it; I just do what I'm told. It always happens to work out for the best, so I've been lucky in that way. Q. Who won the board games when you were playing? ALLISON SCHMITT: Well, I won a few games of Chess, only a few though. It got pretty competitive. We celebrated if we did win, but the winners changed every game. There wasn't a certain winner, one that won most of the games. I like to take the credit that I did win some! Q. Allison, can you talk about your Olympic experience in 2008 and when you kind of reflect on that? Are you motivated by certain performances? ALLISON SCHMITT: I'm definitely motivated and definitely in the past four years. I've still been thinking about getting ninth by one 100ths at the Olympics, so I know that every 100th counts, and I've been training for that the past four years, and I'm excited to see how more ready, more experienced leading into this summer I am. Q. Allison, how do you look at the times set byMissy Franklin on the 200 Free because she seems to be ahead of the others on this event. Do you feel able to keep up with her pace? ALLISON SCHMITT: She has definitely posted great times, and she is a great swimmer. I am excited to race her and see what happens at the end. Q. How much did the medals of last year help you to believe in you and your ability to shine, to medal? ALLISON SCHMITT: I'm sorry? Q. The last year, medals in Shanghai, how much did it help you to believe in yourself more? ALLISON SCHMITT: I've been working on my strokes, my swimming strategies, and I wasn't as happy in Shanghai for getting sixth place, and since then I've been working on different strategies, getting stronger, more fit, and preparing for this summer. Q. When you're listening to Bob and doing what he says, are you guys‑‑ can you talk about your training? Are you training distance and you're just coming down and showing this speed for the sprints or do you practice sprints or middle distance? What kind of strategy do you have to swim the range that you're swimming? ALLISON SCHMITT: It changes every day. There are days that I'll be doing stuff off the blocks, there are days that I'll be swimming endless laps in the distance lanes, so it changes every day. I'm stronger this year than I've ever been, so that's helped out a lot in my sprints. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Allison. Good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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