Ross Murdoch: Rested and Ready For Rio

Photo Courtesy: British Swimming

Editorial Coverage Sponsored By FINIS

By Jeff Commings, Swimming World Senior Writer

After Ross Murdoch won the Commonwealth Games title last year in the 200 breaststroke, he was pegged as a strong medal contender for this year’s world championships. But Murdoch was unable to qualify for Great Britain’s team in the event, placing third. He rallied to swim his lifetime best in the 100 breast, just behind Adam Peaty’s world record to earn a spot on the world team.

Murdoch made the most of his time in Kazan, earning a surprise bronze medal in the 100 breast. He’s back in the pool getting ready for the British Olympic Trials, and took time out to reflect on the past 12 months, the illness that affected his training and what it means to be in a country of such talented breaststrokers.

Swimming World: What has life been like for you since you got back from world championships?
Ross Murdoch: It’s been pretty good. I had a nice break from swimming. I took three weeks off to let my body recover from the last season’s worth of work, and I’m just starting to get back in. This is my second week back at the pool. I’ve been able to relax for the first time in a long time. Last season was very long, and it’s one that I enjoyed very much. I achieved all of my goals to came away with a medal from the world championships in an event that I don’t consider my favorite event.

It’s been pretty good fun just having a little bit of time off, getting myself ready to tackle another long season.

SW: Most swimmers don’t like taking that much time off, especially in the year before the Olympics. Was this break something that you decided to take, or did you coach decide?
Murdoch: It’s something I felt like my body needs. Swimming takes a lot of work. We train twice a day in the pool and once in the gym every single day here in Stirling. It’s a very tough program that we run here, and I feel like we train 48 weeks of the year, so your body just needs some time to recover. You need some time to switch off. We’ve all got strict diets as well, so we’ve been able to switch off from the strict diet and just be a normal human being rather than being an athlete. Having that (break) gets you back into the season more level-headed, in my opinion. Having spent some time having fun and having a bit of a social life, seeing friends that I’ve not seen in months, doing that type of thing gets me back into the season a lot happier. I believe that a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer.

SW: When you talk about being “a normal human being,” what does that mean for you?
Murdoch: For me, it’s literally having that social life where (I say), “I want to go do this,” but in (the middle of the season) I can’t. I live a little bit away from my family. I live away from home, so it gets me the opportunity to go and see my parents any time I like. I live quite a distance away from my friends who don’t partake in swimming anymore, so it gives me the opportunity to see friends I don’t see every week. Basically, it means I get to walk away from my strict diet. I’m a lover of food. I like to eat good food, so it allows me to eat what I like.

It’s also about trying to get the rest of my life in order. Spend some time with my girlfriend, go on holiday, do things that you don’t get to do that often without having the thought of “Is this going to hurt my swimming” in the back of your mind. During those three weeks, it doesn’t matter if it’s going to hurt my swimming or not. It’s about what’s going to make you happy.

SW: It’s been a rough year with some heath issues. Can you go into some detail about that?
Murdoch: In November, I was diagnosed with glandular fever, which is a pretty heavy one for any athlete. I took a month out of the water just getting myself over that virus. It took me about a month to get back into the swing of things before (world championships) Trials. That meant I pretty much shot myself in the foot. I didn’t take any time off after the European championships last summer, and didn’t let my body recover enough. I had to learn the hard way that your body needs rest. So, I had a month out of the pool and it ruined my preparation for the 200 (breaststroke) at Trials and ultimately not making the team in that event. I learned a lot of lessons from that, and I don’t plan on being that silly again.

SW: With all that going on, what were your thoughts of your chances of making the world championship team in the 100 or 200 breast?
Murdoch: Eight weeks out from the Trials, I sat down with my coach, Ben Higson, at the University of Stirling, and said, “I think the 200 is unrealistic to make the team.” He was like, “Why would you come to me with that attitude?” I said, “Look, I’m being realistic. This is what I feel to be the truth. I’m going to go in and I’m going to swim it.” I went 2:08.7, which is not particularly slow. I think it was top five in the world at the time. So, it wasn’t slow, but it so happened that it was … third in Britain. So, it wasn’t good enough on the day.

I basically said to him (Higson) that I don’t believe I’m in shape to go sub-2:08, so what I want to do is I want to change the focus. I said we should take up the 100 (breast), and really try to work the speed for the front end (of the 200 breast), and think of it as a process leading up to the Olympic season where you want to be attacking that season as the fastest you’ve ever been. The thing was I wanted to increase my 100 speed so I could make the front end of my 200 speed a lot easier.

SW: What are your thoughts about this very competitive field of breaststrokers in Great Britain?
Murdoch: I love it. I absolutely love it. If you look at world swimming at the minute … breaststroke seems to be coming at it strong. I think it’s the only stroke where all the world records belong to (swims done in textile suits), so it’s a wonderful thing. It’s an event that’s being pushed hard in the world, but I feel Britain is leading the way with such a big depth in breaststroke.

It’s really nice to have that because it’s one of those things where I wake up in the morning knowing that the world record holder in the 100 (Adam Peaty) is no more than 500 miles away and I need to race him every single race. I need to race him every time I step on the blocks, but that’s a really nice thought to have that I get to experience that. People across the world don’t get to experience that as much as I do. That encourages me to train even harder, and I get to base my progress off the best in the world. I want to race the best as often as I can.

adam-peaty-ross-murdoch-fina-world-championships

Ross Murdoch (left) with 100 breast world champion Adam Peaty Photo Courtesy: Maria Dobysheva

SW: Swimming in Scotland has also been doing well in the past year. Do you believe that’s growing interest in the sport among younger people in Scotland?
Murdoch: I think so. If you look back to London 2012, that generated such hype in Britain, as it would in any country. Any country who hosts an Olympics creates a hype around these sports that aren’t professional sports. Swimming certainly had a lot of fast times go down in London. Britain didn’t have the best Olympics, but it still encouraged a lot of people to get in and get involved. It certainly inspired me watching Michael Jamieson. He’s a Brit, but he’s also a Scot. Watching him there made me truly believe that not just British people but Scottish people are capable of getting medals on the world stage. That’s what made me believe I could go and win a medal at the world championships or Olympic Games.

SW: And then having the Commonwealth Games in Scotland last summer must have helped with exposure.
Murdoch: That was amazing. Being able to stand on top of the podium with a world-leading time and hearing the national anthem “Flower of Scotland” … is so rare to be able to have that. I’ll probably never experience that again, hearing my home nation’s national anthem (while) standing on top of the podium. That’ll probably never happen again in Scotland. I’m sure (400 IM winners) Dan Wallace and Hannah Miley share that. There was such hype during Commonwealth Games and after for swimming, which was really, really nice to see. People know of my name now in Scotland, and all these other names that became household names because we did so well in the pool.

SW: Do you feel like you are a celebrity in Scotland?
Murdoch: I got a little taste of a celebrity lifestyle. You walk around the supermarket, you get the stares and people stop you and want to take your picture. It’s nice having that many people supporting you. It comes with the job. If you want to be the best, these things happen.

SW: Next year, the Olympic Trials will be in Scotland. I’m sure that’s giving you a boost in motivation.
Murdoch: I performed out of my skin (at the Tollcross International Aquatic Center at Commonwealth Games) and it’s one that I’ll never forget. I can’t wait to have the Scottish people back again at Tollcross and hopefully I want to see as many people I can in Tollcross supporting all the athletes. It’s going to be such a good meet.

SW: You said the 200 breast is your favorite event. Why do you like it more than the 100?
Murdoch: The best way to describe it is I’m almost a bit of a diesel. It takes a bit for me to get going, but once I get going, I’m big, I’m efficient, I’m clean. I feel like I’m a back-end swimmer, and looking at my 100 from the world championships, I had the strongest back 50 in the field (31.14). It was my last 20 meters that ultimately got me that bronze medal. I feel like my stroke suits that. I’m not a terribly big guy. I stand at 6 feet, whereas a lot of these 100 boys stand at 6’2”, 6’3”. I feel like I’ve got speed through efficiency. When you’re talking about a distance that’s over 100 meters, you’re certainly looking to be as efficient as possible. I love swimming the 200 because there’s more tactics that you can use in it.

SW: Obviously, you’ve got a long swimming career ahead of you, but what sort of career do you have in mind when you move on from swimming?
Murdoch: For me, I’ve always thought about whether I would go into coaching. I’ve got a lot of experience to pass along to younger swimmers, and also I want to develop senior athletes as well. It’s one of those things I’m not sure I would go into that. Something that has been a long-term dream of mine is to be a police officer. I would love to be a policeman in Scotland. It’s a great career. There’s a long pathway in it, and it’s got opportunities to move up the ranks. It’s a great career, but it’s also a short career. You can make a living and support a family, and you can retire early as well and enjoy your life.

It all depends on how good your swimming career is. A lot of athletes go into motivational speaking and careers in the media. I’ve got to wait and see how things pan out. But, my dream since I was a little boy was to be a police officer.

SW: That would be cool to have a Commonwealth Games champion out on the street policing Scotland.
Murdoch: I would love it. That would be great.

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Firouzeh Salmanpour

8 years ago

????????

Marichuy Frausto

8 years ago

Me gusta!!!! Ya meto regreso a la Alberca