Swimmers Reflect on Positive and Negative Aspects of Day Seven Finals

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BARCELONA, Spain, August 3. AN exciting day in the pool once again gave the media some interesting and compelling quotes to use for their newspaper, magazine and Internet articles. We at Swimming World continue to deliver the quotes we collected to our readers in unedited form for your reading pleasure:

Simone Manuel, USA, 50 free heat

“I feel good about getting the first swim out of the way, I was kind of nervous. But it’s pretty exciting to see a good time and make it to the semi-finals. My teammates have been swimming really well and they made me want to swim really fast too. Before semi-finals I’m just going to go back, take a rest, look at the video and see what I can do in terms of tonight.”

Natalie Coughlin, USA, 50 free heat

“It was good, good enough for semi-finals. It’s been really difficult sitting around for the past six days so there are some things I needed to work through this morning, but I think I got that out of my system and I’m going to do better tonight. Keeping the excitement up has been difficult for the past six days, but if I want to do this event, I going to have to get used to that. This morning was just all about getting a spot in the semi-final which I did and I have some places that I know I’ll improve upon. It’s a few minor mistakes, nothing too big.”

David Plummer, USA, 50 back heat

“Feels good getting back into the pool after a few days. Pretty clean race. I tried to get under 25 in the morning and it feels good for going into tonight. It’ll be easy to be a few tenths faster tonight, and I’ll hopefully get into the final tomorrow. The past few days have been a lot of fun. The team is doing well and this trip has been a blast.”

Matt Grevers, USA, 50 back heat

“I feel good, it was a decent morning swim and top 16 is always good. Tonight will probably be a little bit of a different story. I’m going to have to re-shave myself, have some coffee and be ready to go. I liked a couple days of rest, especially after press conferences and drug testing it was getting a little late and it feels good to be able to recover for a few days. The last few days have been really great, a really great unit within the team. Everybody’s rooting for everybody. I think that is pretty unique in such a big team. Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh I want to win so I am not going to cheer for you’ but really everyone wanted everyone to do really well within the team.”

Dana Vollmer, USA, 50 fly final

“Obviously that’s not what I wanted. Right from the start, it just wasn’t like the other two races and I just didn’t have… I don’t really know. It just felt off. Eighth [place] is not what I wanted but I learned something from it.”

On the medley relay
“I’m really excited (that) now I’m feeling better to get the opportunity to do a 100 again. The medley relay is always my favorite. Getting together with those other three girls and just seeing how fast we’ll go.”

Nathan Adrian, USA, 50 free final

“Lanes 6, 7 and 8 got it done and Lanes 1 through 5 didn’t. 21.6, it’s okay. It would have medaled at most international competitions but the 50 was really, really fast this year. It’s really wild, it makes me wish I could time travel. I’ve been saying this all week, training has become so incredibly specific for every single event […] It’s become so specific, the more you can specify, the better you can become.”

Elizabeth Pelton, USA, 200 back

“It felt a lot better than it actually was. I maybe got too excited but it was a great race with Missy [Franklin] going a pretty fast time, so I’ll take that for my teammate.”

Looking ahead
“Just sticking to my game plan and trying not to get caught up in everything, but it’s kind of cool when there’s 12,000 people screaming. [Overall] I’m definitely happy [with my race] regardless of the time.”

Jessica Hardy, USA, 50 breast semi

“It’s a good time. Not unhappy with it but hopefully striving for more. It’s a really fun race. It’s a blast and the final is going to be fun. Tomorrow’s going to be a really fun night. Pump it up, just push, have fun and swim for the US.”

On the new breaststroke world records
“It’s surprising. It’s faster than last summer and I’m swimming really fast for myself and it’s a good time to be a part of it. I took a lot of time off swimming freestyle and really am enjoying being a part of it when it’s so fast.”

Missy Franklin, USA, 200 back final

“I’m exhausted. The 200 back is my favorite race but it’s probably the most painful. I’m really happy with it. I tried to swim a smart race, I was sticking to my race plan and I’m really happy with the 2:04. It’s right where I was in London and I haven’t been there all season. I was 2:05 in [Indianapolis] so to be a 2:04 again, I’m really, really happy with that. I felt so good having a morning off. I have another one tomorrow before the relay tomorrow night so I’m really looking forward to that. I only slept until 8 a.m. Swimming’s ruined me for life, I can’t sleep in past 7:30.”

On the medley relay
“I think it’s going to be so much fun. We have an unbelievable medley put together. It’s probably my favorite relay that we do and it’s always the best way to end the meet. It’s so much fun and there’s so much energy involved in it. It’s nice to end my individual races on that note and end the meet, hopefully, on a great race.”

On her medal wins
“It’s hard to think about. I’m really excited about all those little Xops that I’m getting too. You know, those little mascots that they give. I’m really excited about all of those. I don’t know how I’m getting them back home. It’s just incredible. I could never have imagined this coming into the meet and it’s just nice knowing that after London, I was still able to motivate myself and all that work I’ve put in this past year has just really been worth it, and I’ve been able to do what I’ve done here.”

On where she’s keeping her medals
“In a safe in my hotel room right now. When we get home, who knows? I’m putting the Xops everywhere around my house for sure.”

Anthony Ervin, USA, 50 free final

“I need to watch the race and see what happened. I know where some mistakes were. You live and learn, so to speak and hopefully I’ll rebuild next season. It was a start issue for sure and then I deviated from my plan a little bit. It happens. I don’t know what happened. I felt incredible yesterday. Things today just didn’t line up perfectly.”

Breeja Larson, USA, 50 breast semi-final

“All these world records are really exciting and inspirational. I feel good about my own race, I was a few tenths faster than this morning. I am really pumped and excited. I have the relay tomorrow morning and the final that night so I’m ready!”

Ryan Lochte, USA, 100 fly final

“I don’t know if triple last night had an effect on today. I just didn’t have it. I felt good the whole race and then at the very end I got really short and choppy on my stroke and I just fell apart. But this was my first time swimming the 100 fly internationally. I’m still learning how to swim that event. I’m going to keep trying it every year and hopefully I’ll get better.”

On the medley relay
“I am swimming the relay tomorrow, but definitely not the breaststroke leg. I just got to get ready for that. I don’t know what leg I’ll be swimming, but I think you all know.”

Laszlo Cseh, Hungary, 100 fly final

I am really happy with the medal. It was a very hard race with very brave boys. I expected to do very well because I had been working very hard and I am very happy. When I touched the wall, I thought the race was so fast, and the silver is a very exciting result for me.”

Chad Le Clos, South Africa, 100 fly final

“I was really worried last night, I couldn’t get much sleep in. This morning I was so nervous. And then the closer it got to the race I got much more confident and relaxed and I thought I had a really good chance of winning it and that’s what happened. I’m really, really happy. And it was the fastest time in the world, so that is really cool. The 100 is a little bit more special to me than the 200, just because of the line-up. Lochte came in and he really wanted to win the race and I think that gave the race extra flavour. That was one of the biggest races tonight. I heard the crowd just before, they couldn’t keep quiet and on the block I just thought ‘Chad, don’t jump in the pool, don’t get excited’. I felt like a boxer. It was so awesome. I’m not even tired right now, I just feel like going again. I knew that if I was 24.0 or 23.9 high, I would be okay. My biggest concern were my turns, I always mess up my turns. The underwaters come a bit short, but tonight went perfectly. I got 14 meters.”

On the German Steffen Deibler
“I know Steffen, he is a very great competitor and he was world number one before. I knew he was going to be out fast. But I knew that if I was by his hip at the turn, I would be okay.”

Simone Manuel, USA, 50 free semifinal

“I tried to have a better start than this morning, a better entry. I was a little late on breakout, but I was able to pull my arms a little faster and catch up. It’s so exciting to represent Team USA in the final. I just came here for the experience and I did the best that I could and I did and making the final made it all worthwhile.”

Matt Grevers, USA, 50 back semi final

“An even lane would be good. If I get lane six, I would be extremely happy. For every 50, lanes six and seven are killing it so I would love to be in lane six. Obviously it’s a big bummer for David. In a 50, you have to go for it and he completely wiped out, but from January 1 we won’t have that problem anymore (referring to the approved backstroke platform).”

Vladimir Morozov, Russia, 50 free final

On Coach Dave Salo’s opinion that competing at World Universitiy Games and World Championships may have been a disadvantage
“I agree and disagree. Physically, I am in a great shape right now. I just swam my best 50 ever and my 100 free was pretty good, but I went out too fast, 21.9 is way too fast. Mentally it’s harder. It’s a big meet and there are a lot of people. You have to re-focus in just ten days and go to World Championships. But I am happy that I went to both, it’s been a great experience there in Kazan and World Championships are going to be there in 2015 and I am happy that I did both.”

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