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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJune 29, 2012Scott WeltzOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: We have Scott Weltz up here, winner of the Men's 200 Breast. Q. Scott, how do you go from 37th in this event four years ago to first? SCOTT WELTZ: Um, I really don't know. I think it's a lot of great coaching. I think it's something I really wanted. When I graduated, I took about eight months off and I just kind of had an itch, I guess you would say, and I really wanted it, and I thought if I was going to put myself in debt trying to keep swimming and afford it, I had to give it my best. I think it's hard work, surrounding yourself with people who believe in you and having a great coach really helps. Q. Since we don't have your bio in the media guide and you just mentioned your coach, can you tell us about your coach asking your training? SCOTT WELTZ: My coach is Peter Motekaitis. I went to UC Davis. I was a distance swimmer and I swam with Rick Henderson, and toward my junior year I transferred over to shorter things and started focusing on breaststroke a little more. Pete always‑‑ our team was cut, UC Davis lost its men's swim team, so he transferred over and became the assistant coach for the women. And after I graduated, I went back to him. He helped put Haley Cope on the 2004 Olympic Team, and he asked me if I was really serious about it because he didn't want to mess around, because he puts a lot into it. I owe him a lot for that. We sat down, we had a plan from day one. He said, "We're going to do this." We started doing a lot of things differently. Sometimes I would joke and say, "If you would have trained our whole team like this, we would have been way better," but we were going on different cycles, five days on, one day off, instead of doing the weekly thing, pretty hard swimming weekends. And we don't have a team, so it's just me and him in the pool. I train by myself. Sometimes the women's team is there, but they're doing their own thing, so he's the only one there to push me. He always gives me words of encouragement and basically he has a plan and we stick to it. Q. How many times have you been told that if you really want to take it seriously you need to go to a program where you can train with other men, and can you talk about the‑‑ what you've gained from having this, what someone would say is "nonconventional training"? SCOTT WELTZ: You know it's true. Pete was the only person that recruited me out of high school. He obviously saw something maybe early on. You know, I always kinda wanted to go to Texas, things like that, Cal, Stanford, because you go to the big schools and train with these guys‑‑ but you know when I came back and knew I would be training by myself, Pete said, "You're going to be mentally tougher than anyone else there because you do this by yourself." Sometimes I like doing it for the guys. UC Davis is a pretty small school, not known for swimming. I have the title of "volunteer" coach for the women's team, but another volunteer coach from our track team just made the London Olympic Team. She is a distance runner, and she trains a lot, I've seen her in the weight room by herself and she does it a lot, too. And I think it's cool to represent a small team like that, and we found out last night she was in the finals and she dropped 30 seconds, distance runner, and in the last hundred yards she passed two people by a couple of hundred of seconds to get her A cut, and her coach e‑mailed Pete and said, "Never count an Aggie out," because sometimes you have that mentality, you don't have the biggest support or all that but you have a chip on your shoulder because you don't have that and you want to prove something to people. Q. Speaking to kind of what you commented on there, you said that Herb Brooks is your sports hero. He definitely was the epitome of the little guy and if he was here today what do you think he would say to you? What advise do you think he would give you? SCOTT WELTZ: I don't know. I watched that movie "Miracle" every time before I go to a swim meet; my girlfriend gets annoyed. I repeat the lines before he says 'em. I love that speech he gives, and he would probably say something like that, you know, what did he say, "Played them 10 times they might beat you 9, but not tonight, not this time." So I think that's what it's about.            It's about putting yourself out there. My old age group swim coach liked the part where after they won, it shows in the movie he let them celebrate, and he goes in the hallway by himself, and he says how much he was proud of them for giving up so much of themselves, and things like that.            You really do have to give up a lot, and having people there who support you and‑‑ yeah, he would probably say something‑‑ I don't know, I'm kind of rambling now. Q. Are you the first Aggie to make the Olympic Team as a men's swimmer? SCOTT WELTZ: As a men's swimmer, I really don't know. Maybe. I don't know. We were Division II until about three years ago, four years ago, so I don't know. Q. And maybe a little more seriously, I see you got the Aggie "wear" you're sporting here. They cut the team and made the statement that men's swimming was something less than a priority. It seems incongruous for you to be wearing shirts plugging them. SCOTT WELTZ: Yeah, sometimes people are like, "Aren't you mad they did that? Why did you want to keep supporting them?" I think it means a lot. I was lucky enough to graduate the year they cut it so I finished out, but a lot of the guys on the team weren't able to. I think I do it for them, in part. I do it just so people remember. I'm still swimming, we're still around, Pete is still coaching women, so even though they tried to get rid of us, we're a little more difficult to get rid of than they thought. Q. As good as your story is, can you appreciate what's gone on with Jason Lezak here? And I'm sure you're familiar with Ryan scratching and giving him the opportunity to get in the final today. Can you talk about that? SCOTT WELTZ: You know, I was watching that race and I was rootin' for him. I think that's really cool, I'm really glad he gets to go. I'm actually glad I'm going on a team with Brendan Hansen and Eric Shanteau. I've watched those guys swimming for a while, look up to them. I enjoyed being in the finals between them. My parents got a lot of air time on TV because of that. (Laughter.) There are so many good leaders like that. You know, when Jason Lezak did that in the relay four years ago, that was the most amazing thing I have seen happen, and to have these leaders on the team and have this experience, it's going to help me because I have zero experience. So I definitely have someone to look up to. I'm honored to be a part of that. These guys are like legends, and to be associated with them in some way I think is cool. I'm grateful for that. Q. Congratulations. Is there something that goes with the breaststroke with all of the moving parts, the timing of the legs, people do the arms different? Because of all the moving parts does it lend itself to upsets, that race where sometimes you hear about the young 14 year old girl can come up, go super fast, she is real light. There are different things with that race. Do you think it lends itself to upsets? SCOTT WELTZ: I definitely think it's unique. It's funny because I used to be an IMer, but when I came back it seemed like the most open events were breaststroke, of course, that was before Brendan Hansen decided to come back. It is unique, sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don't. In the prelims I felt great. In the semi finals, I felt awful. I tried harder and went slower. This morning it was a big risk‑‑ I don't know if it was a big risk, but I swam the 200 IM in prelims and people were like, "Why did you want to do that?" It was important for me to get my stroke back underneath me, and it's such a rhythm and timing thing, and if you're off, you're off, and little tiny differences can make you feel terrible at the end of the race and you can feel amazing. I think I read an article that my coach sent me that says that breakstrokers are the "weird" people on the team, both physically and outcasts, maybe, but it definitely is a different stroke, and it lends itself to upsets. Some people say it's the most difficult because it's so weird. Maybe the people usually have it locked down, it might not be as big of an upset, I don't know. THE MODERATOR: Scott, thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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