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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJune 24, 2012Teri McKeeverGregg TroyOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: We have Gregg Troy and Teri McKeever, the head men and women's Olympic coaches for the U.S. Olympic Swim Team. In addition to their Olympic coaching duties, Gregg is the head coach of University of Florida as well as Gator Swimming, and Teri McKeever is the head of the women's team at Cal Berkeley and Cal Swimming as well. Can you both comment on the outlook coming into Trials, what your role will be here from the Olympic Team Head Coach standpoint? GREGG TROY: We hope to select the best men's team ever, and our role is simple, we're just kind of caretakers of other folks' athletes. We want to put them in a comfortable situation that they can do well and feel as closely to what they would be doing at home and hopefully they will put on performances here and be even better in London. TERI McKEEVER: I would echo that as far as what our role is about. What I'm excited about is we are going to have a selection and get a team that we know what the men and women look like, and I think on the women's side there is tremendous competition in a lot of different events, veterans versus very young people, people that have missed before, and I'm a firm believer that that competition brings out the best in the people that you would want representing the US at the Olympics. Right now it's the excitement and anticipation of the team developing and then like Gregg said, as we move toward London, making sure that we are facilitating and creating an environment where people are comfortable and can improve and feel supported so that they can be even better in‑‑ how many days is it in? 35 days or whatever it is. Q. Gregg, if you will excuse a regional question, can you talk about Elizabeth Beisel, the progress she has made since '08 and what changes have happened to her in terms of pressure and/or confidence since she won the World title? GREGG TROY: She comes from a great club background in Massachusetts, she swam for Chuck Baxter, and she came in with real good tools. In '08 she was a high school girl that I don't think realized what happened to her. Since then she has been a final list at NCAAs. That competition level has helped her immensely. Last summer's success at the World Championships, she is a lot more confident athlete than what she was. She was a nervous wreck at every event, and she has gotten better at handling those things. She has trained extremely well, doing a tremendous job of getting fit and doing a lot of extra things on her own. She is just a much more mature athlete than she was four years ago. Q. Forgive me for another regional question. I'm curious about your thoughts of the Australian swim team. A few Games ago we thought we had Hackett, these teams that did really well. How would you compare the team that Australia has now? Do you think they pose as big of a threat as they have in previous years? GREGG TROY: Looking at them from afar, they might be a more complete team than what they were before, because they were so one or two‑person dominant in previous years. So you have a good mixture of some experience and some young people. Realize we don't study that, we try to take care of our deal right now, but I think it's a formidable situation. I believe it's every by the as good as the team four years ago. Q. For each of you, you both have produced superlative multi athletes in multiple events with different training regimens. Is there a common thread that isn't obvious that would explain that? How do you explain how you guys have both been successful coming from‑‑ at the sport from different places? TERI McKEEVER: I told Gregg this, but on the outside there is a perception that Gregg and I look at the sport different, and I think in some ways we do, but I think in the way that we hold our athletes accountable and have both set up programs that we have a strong belief in that many‑‑ Gregg much more than I, but many people have found success in. I think that‑‑ I think the constant in that is educating young people to be self‑accountable, to recognize that they have the tools, and our job is creating an environment where success is possible but we can't do it for them. I think an athlete that respects an honest conversation, is honest with themselves and will mature and make the decisions are, for me, what is most fulfilling, and that those rules apply no matter who you are, whether you're Natalie or Sally Smith on my team, that there are certain expectations that that's the way we're going to do things. GREGG TROY: That's a pretty good observation. Teri and I have talked a lot, we have exchanged some ideas, been fortunate to travel together quite a few times, and there are all kinds of ways to do it, it's like making chocolate chip cookies, there's all kinds of different recipes, you've just got to figure out which one works for you. But I think the one constant, no matter what it is, you've got to follow the recipe. Our basic ingredients are the same, but I think both of us are pretty honest with the athletes. I talk with Teri a little bit, sometimes I'm almost blatantly honest with them, but that makes them function pretty well because it's pretty honest when you get in the blocks. It's about you and performance, and that's what it gets down to. Q. Teri, I wanted to ask you about Dana Vollmer. Obviously, 2008 so disappointing for her, and I know you had just started working with her at that point, but how different is she now than in 2008 and how much does that experience drive her in this one? TERI McKEEVER: I think the first thing you said about how disappointing not to make it, and I know at the time and I've said to Dana if the worst thing that happens to you is that you didn't make the Olympic Team in 2008, that's a pretty darn good life, so let's keep it in perspective. I think she definitely did struggle for a year, and I just challenged her to figure out why you're doing it and get clear on why you want to do this and do you want to keep doing it, and what are the changes that you're going to need to make if you want to continue to improve. And I think it's similar to what Gregg said about Elizabeth, like no matter how old you are, I'm more mature now than I was in 2008 as well, and I think it's just maturing and a perspective. She is married now and life is fuller, and I think it keeps it in perspective, and that has really helped her find sort of to be more comfortable in her own skin, I think, and to know she can deal with whatever is going to happen. Q. Teri, there is so much on the Phelps/Lochte rivalry, but Natalie and Missy is enticing as well and will be going head‑to‑head and good events for both of them. How do you think Missy is going to handle that? What's your thought on those two going at each other? TERI McKEEVER: I don't think Natalie looks at it as going head‑to‑head with Missy or with anybody. I think the way Natalie has looked at her career is going head‑to‑head with Natalie. That's what the challenge is in the next eight days, for her to be her best and work on where she is now compared to she was in '08 or '04 and, again, just that process and that journey. She and I have no‑‑ absolutely no control over what Missy or anybody else does, so I don't think she spends too much time thinking about that. I think other people spend a lot more time on that than she does. Q. Gregg, these will be Michael Phelps fourth and last Olympic Trials. Can you reflect on his career? GREGG TROY: I'm glad he's doing one more Olympic Trials. We need him. He's obviously the best. I think when you look at Michael, the thing that's missed is his race instincts. He is one of the best at preparing for a challenge and it extends in every event he swims and very seldom you never see him swim an event that isn't all full bore. His versatility is amazing. If the program were different, he would probably go three or four different way in events he swims. His importance to the sport is gigantic because we‑‑ 10, 12 years ago we wouldn't have had this many reporters at a swimming press conference, and I think that's a direct result and tribute to Michael and how he's handled things. Q. Teri, I'm wondering in your years of working with Natalie, how you have seen her change and how she is the same? TERI McKEEVER: I think how I've seen her change is just a little bit‑‑ a broken little girl walked on to the deck in 2000, and there is a young woman that is very confident and very interested in so many different things, just like the‑‑ what's the right word, I want to say the‑‑ what is it when people get more too them? When any of us are 18, you know, you're 18, and as you're a 30 year old you got more‑‑ there is more to you. There is the swimming piece, the food piece, there is the how are the chickens doing, there is the professional piece, the wife piece, the friend piece and it's just been fun to‑‑ I was talking to my assistant yesterday, in a lot of ways we've grown up together in this sport, and that's been‑‑ I have a hare time sometimes even remembering the one that I first met, you know, because you see the one you have now. I think in the ways that she is the same is that she is very determined and focused and purposeful in what she wants to do. She listens to Natalie and is going to do the things that bring Natalie joy, and I really have always admired and respected that. I think that she's just stayed true to what has been important to her. Q. Question for both of you: We had Missy Franklin here just amazing, just graduated her junior year, incredible recruit. What's it like to‑‑ for you guys to watch her? What kind of talent do you see in her? Is there anybody to compare her to coming down the pike? Some have compared her to the biggest recruit to college swimming since Natalie Coughlin, and how hard is it not to recruit her now during Trials? She said most coaches are going to lay off her right now and let her focus on the Trials. TERI McKEEVER: I guess I'll start since she is a female. I think that as you work with the National Team and the assistants that ultimately will be with us that we're very clear on that our‑‑ I'm very proud of the fact that I'm the coach at the University of California Berkeley, but on July3rd, there shouldn't be anything to do with that. I'm the coach of the US Olympic Team, and that is a higher calling. Whoever ends up on the team, there is a time and a place to take care of what her future might look like or any other‑‑ you know, it's an odd dynamic, July 1st is the first time we can talk to recruits, and personally I've made a decision for our program and what my responsibilities are, I'm not going to do any recruiting until August 5th when‑‑ you know, doesn't mean I'm not going to send an email or things like that, but I'm not interested in doing that. For me to be my best I need to be focused on what an honor this is and what a responsibility this is and I, and I'm sure Gregg, will do everything we can to help Missy and everybody else be prepared and in an environment where their focus is on what's important. There is time for down the road, whether it be taking a break or am I going to retire or where am I going to go to college. Everybody, in a couple of weeks, is going to have a lot of‑‑ there's a lot of athletes here that this is their, you know, not only where do I go to college, but where do I get a job? Do I want to keep swimming? So I'll speak for me, but I've got people all over on the group that I'm working with on‑‑ they're in different parts of their life, and it is a part of what we're doing as coaches, but as far as someone that you don't work with on a daily basis, I think it's just to focus on Missy Franklin, the Olympian, and how to make her first Olympic experience successful. If we do this right, Missy is going to be a figure like a Ryan or Natalie or a Michael, and that's what I would like to focus on for Missy, not so much right now but how do we have a talent like that, like Gregg was saying, about Michael. I think Missy has the potential of being on multiple Olympic Teams and help the US not just for the next month but hopefully the next generation of great swimmers. GREGG TROY: I was hoping Teri was going to take off until Decemberso I could catch up a little bit. We're in the same dynamic. One of my assistant coaches stopped me and reminded me that she was, in fact, going to be a senior. I thought she was going to be a junior, so I'm way behind! She has a tremendous future, great, young, bright star, and we're cognizant that she is a young lady and she has a long way to go, and I think sometimes we put too much pressure on people so young to be more than what they are. Her versatility ‑‑ she is amazing. She has the same characteristics that you see from Ryan, Michael, Natalie. She is a great racer, she is in a close race, she knows how to get her hand on the wall, and those are real, real hard things to teach. From a recruiting standpoint we have put everything on hold. It's way too important of a year for these folks to worry about what they're doing next fall. What they need to be doing is getting ready for this summer. Q. Four years ago it seemed like every other question at these press conferences was about the swimsuits. Assess where the suits are now and looking back, if they were too fast four years ago, please. GREGG TROY: I think the suits, where they are right now, is where they should stay. We're back to a little more truer sport. We're here talking about athletes not about the equipment that they wear. I think it's leveled the playing field to the standpoint that if you're someone to make the commitment to work hard, the equipment isn't going to equalize things for everyone, it comes back to natural abilities. It's put a premium on performance again. There aren't as many world records but the ones that have been broken are premiere now; they really mean something. Overall I think it's a good thing for the sport. TERI McKEEVER: I would echo that, from a coaching perspective, it was frustrating to‑‑ I think it took away some of the joy of coaching, too, you know, that if‑‑ and rewarding good coaching, not only good performance and hard work but good coaching by putting, yeah, it took 45 minutes to get it on, but that's easier than four or five months of doing something and that's what was going on. And different people, depending on your body type or whatever, were getting different kinds of bumps. It was not enjoyable, and I hope that we can get to where we just‑‑ like Gregg said, where we can talk about the people that are putting in the work and are technically sound and emotionally and mentally sound, and those are the ones that are achieving the highest level in our sport, not the one that gets lucky enough that they got the right suit on that day or it didn't rip or whatever, you know? It was just a lot of energy in places that, unfortunately, we shouldn't be spending energy on. GREGG TROY: There is an aspect to those suits that was helpful from a coaching perspective: It removed some glass ceilings for athletes, as far as what expectation was. I think that's one reason why there may be more people that made the stands for the meet. It showed you that there were capabilities, that you could go out faster in events maybe than what you can prior, but in order to do that you had to supplement your training. You had to increase what you were doing trainingwise to hold it, so I think it enhanced the athletes abilities of what they can do. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone. Appreciate your time, thank you, Gregg and Teri. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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