Champion’s Mojo Podcast (Rowdy Gaines)
A three-time Olympic gold medalist, International Swimming Hall of Fame member, and ESPN and NBC Sports swimming analyst for seven Olympic Games, Rowdy Gaines knows a thing or two about postponing one’s goals. An athlete in peak form in 1980 during the United States Olympic boycott, Rowdy was forced to do something that, at the time, was considered crazy: train for another four years to compete at the Olympic Games in 1984. Despite the adversity, he did it, going on to win Olympic gold in three events. You can read (or listen to) Rowdy give his opinion on swimming in this unprecedented time and how it will affect the swimming community going forward.
This week, the Champion’s Mojo Podcast talks about a variety of timely topics with Rowdy Gaines. Below is an abridged Q&A of the interview, conducted by Kelly Palace and Maria Parker. You can listen to the full podcast episode #60 at https://championsmojo.com or by clicking here.
Champion’s Mojo: Can you just talk about 1980 and how you felt when those games were canceled?
Rowdy Gaines: Forty years is a long time, but it still resonates with me and a lot of other people. Fortunately, I had my day in the sun, so to speak, because I had 1984. There were 336 athletes that made the 1980 Olympic team that did not make it in ‘76 and did not make it in ‘84. For me, those are the real heroes. It’s a little apples and oranges compared to what is happening today, but the empathy and the sympathy I feel for them is just as strong. You’ve got to remember that for us this was something that was completely taken away. I mean this was not something that was postponed. So there’s a big difference in the word postpone and boycott. Not that it doesn’t take the sting off the postponement that we’re going through right now. But for us, it was something that was permanent. As a swimmer, the pinnacle of success for us is the Olympics. We don’t have a World Series or Super Bowl that happens every year, where if you miss it one year, you get a chance the next year. We didn’t have that 1980. That’s what made it so devastating.
Champion’s Mojo: What was your mindset and what lessons can be learned?
Rowdy Gaines. Photo Courtesy: Tim Morse
Rowdy Gaines: We started hearing rumblings about it in December of 1979. Obviously, we didn’t have the type of news sources that we have today as far as instant news. This was literally reading about it in the newspaper or watching the nightly news every evening. So we started hearing about the fact that if the Russians didn’t stop their invasion of a country called Afghanistan, then the United States would consider boycotting the Olympics. They were supposed to have been held in Moscow back in the Soviet Union, what we now know as Russia. The initial feeling was complete denial. You just never thought in a million years they would do something that dramatic. For that three month period, I had my nose to the grindstone and just trained every day. I was thinking that this was going to be my best swimming year. I was world swimmer of the year that year. I broke two world records. My time’s that year would have won five gold medals. 1980 was my best year. So for the next three months, I was really training very hard. The announcement came literally April 1st, 1980, April Fool’s Day. The President of the United States states announced that we would officially boycott those Olympic Games. That denial turned into instant anger. I think if we get to today what the athletes are feeling, they’re probably feeling the same sort of thing or they felt the same thing. There’s that denial. Like, there’s no way they’re going to postpone the Olympics. There’s no way that’s going to happen. Then you get angry that something like that is going to be taken away from you. Then you start to come to accept it. That’s what happened when I came to accept the decision. And today, I think that acceptance is much stronger than it was for me because I was really against the decision. I think the decision now was made for all the right reasons. People ask me all the time, what was the number one reason why you wanted a gold medal, and I tell them every single time was because I love to swim. I loved it. I loved going to practice consistently. Not every day. Not every minute. But consistently. I loved what I did. And if the athlete feels the same, if that swimmer feels the same, then this year is going to fly by really fast.
Champion’s Mojo: So what are you doing today? Are you swimming?
Rowdy Gaines: I wish we had video right now because I’m sitting right by my pool in my backyard. So yes, I am swimming in my 30 foot pool. I don’t have a band or anything like that. I used to have an endless pool, which was awesome. Unfortunately, I don’t have one anymore. We have one at the YMCA that I work with, but I don’t have one in my new pool because we just moved about a year ago. But I still swim everyday.
Champion’s Mojo: Normally in the spring, and especially in an Olympic year, you’re constantly traveling between meets. Now you’re sitting at home. How are you doing?
Rowdy Gaines: We were just talking about it before we went on air. The fact is, I’m really starting to go nuts. We are in a situation where we’re all in this together. The entire planet is one big family right now. I know there’s bickering back and forth between political parties and all of that. But really, when it’s all said and done, we’re all in this together. That’s a big difference between this and the boycott. There were a lot of countries that didn’t attend the Olympic Games. So yeah, I’m used to being around people. I travel quite a bit for swimming and other reasons. And I love my work at the YMCA. I’m a real people person. And that’s been very difficult. The great thing about that is that my family, my wife and one daughter, are home with me now. So it’s a great chance to reconnect with them and to FaceTime my other daughters. I have three other daughters and three granddaughters. So a lot of FaceTime almost every day with each one of them. So that has been really very sweet. But we’re all in this together. Every single one of us. That’s why I think next summer is going to be the most spectacular Olympics in history.
Champion’s Mojo: We’ve moved the finish line for these athletes. What encouragement do you have?
Rowdy Gaines: As a swimmer at that level you become hyper focused with this tunnel vision on trying to accomplish that goal. Because, again, the Olympics is so far apart that an athlete’s life can come and go in a span of four years. To reach this goal you kind of just eat, breathe and live, swimming. That is devastating when that’s completely taken away. At least I was able to swim. Most of these athletes, everything was completely taken away from them. They’re together in that it was taken away from everybody. You are in this with everyone. I’m just speaking on behalf of swimming, because that’s pretty much all I know. You’re in this together with this swimming family. And if you think about swimming, it is like a family. So my little brothers and sisters and my older brothers and sisters, whether the Olympic brothers or sisters or my swimming brothers and sisters. The good news is that we’re doing this together. We’re going through this very tragic time in our history together. I think my advice would be to sit back and take a deep breath. Appreciate your good health and well-being. Appreciate your family. And then that saying this too shall pass is going to happen.There’s no doubt in my mind that we are going to come back from this. I really believe that this is going to pass and we’re going to be better people from it. We go through these peaks and valleys in life right? So the champions I have found in swimming are the ones that can live through the peaks. It’s easy living through those. Going best times. Winning gold medals and blue ribbons.The valleys are what defines us. I really believe the valleys define the kind of person you become in your life. I learned a lot more from the valleys than I did the peaks. I didn’t like the valleys, but I learned from them. This is a valley. This is a big valley. And I think you’re going to be better. I know it’s a bit cliche and corny, but you’re gonna be a better person because of this.
Champion’s Mojo: Any thoughts or advice for those NCAA swimmers who missed their senior year and will never get to compete for that milestone?
Cullen Jones gives Rowdy Gaines a hand with his tech suit; Photo Courtesy: Rowdy Gaines
Rowdy Gaines: It’s tragic because there’s nothing like your senior year in college as a student athlete. It’s a joyous time because you feel this leadership quality in you. I mean, I was voted team captain my senior year. So you feel like you’re on top of the world as far as being that leader. You stop being a follower in many ways and you become this leader. And to have that swept away, at least at the very end for those swimmers. I’m just talking about swimming, but for all athletes as well. That’s very tough. But for swimming, you did get to experience most of what that year is all about. For me, I learned a lot more about the journey I took on my Olympic path than I did actually winning the gold medal. I learned about myself and about the values of that journey. More importantly than actually winning, I learned the values of dedication and commitment and responsibility and teamwork and setting goals. That’s what they got to experience. Their senior year. They literally got to experience that. It just didn’t come into fruition at the end. These seniors are laughing at me now, but down the line they’re going to appreciate their senior year and what it taught them. It’s going to take the sting off. It’s not going to solve the heartache, but it’ll take the sting off eventually because of the many, many things they learned their senior year in college.
Champion’s Mojo: What do you learn from not getting to experience your greatest moment in sports?
Rowdy Gaines: I wish I could wax on poetically here and make them all feel better about what’s happening to their lives right now. But there’s nothing. I have nothing on that. I mean that in a very sincere way, because I think it’s OK to be vulnerable. I think it’s healthy to be vulnerable and have these feelings of disappointment and anger and frustration. It’s OK. I don’t think you should go on and not feel those feelings because they’re natural. For me, in 1980, it was so difficult. I went through such a period of real depression because of the fact that my whole life kind of revolved around swimming and trying to reach that ultimate goal of becoming an Olympian. The great thing about being an Olympian is once you’re an Olympian, you’re an Olympian forever. There’s no such thing as the past Olympian. So I felt an emptiness in 1980 and really wanted to try to achieve the goal of not being a ghost Olympian, so to speak, which was something that I think we all felt in 1980. So for those athletes that are suffering through that moment right now, you just have to push the reset button. Nothing else you can do. You have your whole life ahead of you. You’re 20 years old and you’re 21 years old. You have this entire life in front of you where you’re going to make a mark. Because my belief is we were all put on this earth for a very specific purpose. And I don’t know what that purpose is for each individual. Maybe my gravestone will read Rowdy Gaines, Swimmer. I’m OK with that. I’m hoping a lot more than that. That I was a good father and good husband and good son and a good friend, et cetera. You really have to take a look at yourself and figure out. How you’re going to reset. It’s tough. I have a 20 year old daughter. She’s not a senior. She wasn’t in athletics. But I can’t imagine going to my daughter and having that talk to her. You just have to kind of lay back and let them soak this in and let them be vulnerable and to make sure you communicate to the people that you love the most about the frustration you’re feeling. I think the takeaway is to embrace this trauma that’s happened to them. They have lost and I think they need to go through that grieving process. They lost their senior year. I’m heavily involved in the ACC. I really, truly believe that the University of Virginia women would have won the NCAA title. I think they would have won some individual titles that they had never won. I think NC State women were going to win a couple of relays and some individual titles. Those two teams did not shave and taper those women for ACCs. There are tons of swimmers in that same boat all over, from USA swimmers to pro swimmers. I think they just need to embrace that loss and go through the steps of anger and depression and then reset. I love that there’s a personal development thing where you look at the end of your life and you say, what do I want at the end of my life? What do I want people to say about me? And this is going to be a small thing, like you said, at the blip when they’re 20 years old. Right now, it’s huge. You had a certain goal that was gonna happen for you. You’re working. You’re winning in your head. Every Time you have that win. I feel guilty because, as you said earlier, we’re all in this together. There’s a lot more going on out there. I imagine that’s true for lots of people. Many listeners may be goal oriented. It’s not going to happen or it’s going to happen differently. I realized when I woke up this morning that it was OK to feel bad about that. It’s ok to feel bad, but you still have to recognize that it’s small in the grand scheme of the world and my life and everything else. I hope people see it that way. It’s ok to be authentic. But you eventually have to move on.
Champion’s Mojo: What do you see as the future for reopening swimming and swim meets?
Rowdy Gaines: I think our governing body, USA Swimming, is the strongest governing body in the country. I believe in its leadership. I think Tim Hinchey, Mike Unger are simply amazing leaders. I love what they’re doing. They were swift in their decisions. Tim was one of the first, if not the first, to make that plea to the IOC that the best thing to do was to postpone the Olympic Games. So they’ll be the first back to make sure everybody’s ok. I don’t know this to be true but I’ve heard that for every day you’re out of the water. it takes about a half of a day to get the feel for the water back again. So if you’re out of the water for two weeks, it’s going to take you about a week to even begin to feel the water again. So if let’s say they’re out of the water for two straight months, then it’s going to take about a month to get back into it. A month may seem like an eternity. I’m assuming that most of these swimmers, especially the ones that had qualified for the Olympic trials or for any big meet coming up, they’re staying active. They’re not just sitting on their butts. I’m sure a lot of them are doing some sort of aerobics or active training at home. So it’s not going to take long for them to get that feel back for the water and be back to full strength. It may be the end of the summer before that happens. That means a summer’s wiped off the map as far as big meets go. But they’ll be right back at it in the fall and they’ll build a nice little base this summer. Let’s say they don’t go back to swimming until June 1st. They’ve got that summer to kind of build the base back again and get ready for a great 2021.
Champion’s Mojo: What’s the hardest part of the quarantine for you?
Rowdy Gaines: I think the hardest part for me, outside of not seeing my two daughters and my three granddaughters, really is not walking out on that deck every afternoon at the Rosen YMCA Aquatic Center and seeing two or three hundred kids in the water. I would literally just go sit up in the bleachers and watch those kids swim. Not every day, but most days, I would be out on the deck and we had a lot of sports going on, we have water polo, synchronized swimming, diving, and underwater hockey. The whole pool was in action.
I really miss that the most. I miss seeing that on an almost daily basis.
Champion’s Mojo: What lessons have you learned from this quarantine?
Rowdy Gaines: One of the biggest lessons is that it really helps put my life in perspective as far as health and well-being. I did go through a health scare a long time ago, almost 30 years ago. The summer of 1991 I had Guillain-Barre Syndrome which is a neurological disorder that strikes your nervous system. I was literally paralyzed and spent about six months in the hospital, but I think at that time when I got out, it helped me appreciate my health. Over time that dissipates a little bit. You begin to take those things for granted again. For me, especially seeing the suffering that is going on and our healthcare workers and healthcare providers and our first responders going through what they do, it’s really helped me again to appreciate my good health and my well-being. I hate admitting this, but I did not appreciate our healthcare providers and healthcare workers as much as I do now. This is tough for them now obviously with the Coronavirus, but they also live this life almost every day. Right. They’re heroes. They’re real life heroes.
Champion’s Mojo: Thank you so much for spending this time with us today! We’ll see you on the pool deck soon!
Rowdy Gaines: Absolutely, my pleasure, thank you!