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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJuly 1, 2012Cullen JonesOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: We'll start. We have Cullen Jones joining us. Q. Cullen, talk about the race tonight and now that you've had a moment to dissect it, what was the key? CULLEN JONES: Um, the biggest thing for me was the start. I've never been this calm going into a Trials. In 2008 I was a nervous wreck. My focus was just to implement everything that I have learned in the past four years. David has completely revamped my stroke from the start, the turn, everything, so there is a lot of T's to cross and I's to dot, but I was focused on the start, just not slowing down and stream rolling to the finish. Semifinals I had a long finish, and I knew with the 22.0 that was the one race that I was sitting there, I'm not ecstatic about that, but I knew that I could go faster if I had a great finish, and my goal was to swim through the wall. Q. Cullen, you talked in the Mix Zone about getting to those individual events and your dream of that. Can you expand on that dynamic? Obviously you've been there before and done the relays. What will be the different dynamic of having these individual events? CULLEN JONES: I think because of the success in 2008 it's overshadowed, but in 2008 I was third in the 100 Free and third in the 50 Free, and had a sour taste because I knew 50 Free was one of the events that I put a lot of heart into, and the 100 Free has always been a trial for me, trying to be as fast as possible, and we worked on that a lot this year with David. It's always been a goal of mine and a dream of mine to represent the country individually, in an individual event, so to be blessed with two events, I'm ecstatic. Q. So Cullen, you say you wanted to represent the county in an individual event, and when you qualified in the 100, did you feel that you got the monkey off your back knowing that your best event was yet to come? CULLEN JONES: I was confused after the 100, which one was my best event? I was so happy with the 100, and it was surreal. To tell you the complete truth, I went out there and just said I'm going to go out and hope to God I make it back! With 25 left, I looked over and saw Nathan and I was like, oh, go, go, go, and I stream rolled straight to the wall. It was such a surreal feeling after the 100, that going into the 50, I had to kind of forget about the 100 and say, you know, I got to make this team again, and that was my mentality, I didn't take it as if I was already on the team. To calm myself I did use that but the 50 was, I got to make this team, I got to make this team. That was my mentality. Q. Cullen, the spring ‑‑ last spring, spring of 2011, it seemed like you were at a crossroads where you were having motivational issues. How did you get from that spot to making two individual events here? CULLEN JONES: Having a great support network. As I think you all know I've been in the sport long enough to know my mom puts her foot in the my butt often when I'm not motivated and paying attention, and we had a long talk and she asked me, "Do you want to do this anymore? If you do, you have to go 100%; you can't do it halfway," which shot me back to when I was 8 years old and she said, "We're going to start swimming, and if you do it you're not going to stop in the middle," and I became focused. Also a big thing for me was the National Team coaches, couple of them came up to me in 2011 in Shanghai and I was watching the relay and they said, "We don't have one of our best 100 Freestylers out there, and we're going to need you next year." I heard that from a couple of coaches and it hit home for me, and when I came back and was racing and training with Josh Schneider and Nick Brunelli and having them every day to go up and race against every day when you feel absolutely‑‑ not good, it helped me. A lot of thanks goes to those guys, because they kept me motivated. Q. This morning Lia Neal mentioned that you talked to her about her 100 Free. What were you able to tell her and how do you see your role as a mentor to the younger swimmers? CULLEN JONES: Being from NewYork and every time I go back I always have a lane, and I always have a place there, I'm thankful for that, and Rachel is say great coach and has been very nice. She always tells me to talk to Lia, and I've seen Lia struggle because at 17 you have so many things going on with school, figuring out where you want to go to school, so for a 17 year old to be sitting here in finals, I knew she was nervous and I told her, "You're swimming against great names," and I saw her face drop, and I said, "Yes, but what they have in experience, you have in raw talent. You have practiced hard, gone out there. You've beaten me in practice. You're not going to die. Go out there and finish hard." She did exactly that and although I didn't get to see her last night, I saw her today, and I gave her a big hug and told her I'm really proud of her and happy to call her a teammate. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Cullen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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