The Morning Swim Show, Jan. 13, 2012: Discussing Olympics, Karate and Photography With Brent Hayden

PHOENIX, Arizona, January 5. BRENT Hayden wants to end his career with an Olympic medal, and on today's edition of The Morning Swim Show, he discusses what he's done in recent months to make that happen.

Hayden also talks about the rocky road to winning the silver medal in the 100 freestyle at the world championships last summer, the joy of being pre-qualified for the Canadian Olympic team and whether photography could be a post-swimming career. Be sure to visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

Special Thanks to Finis for sponsoring the Morning Swim Show's interview segments in the Finis Monitor.
Download The FINIS Custom Suit Catalog
Download The FINIS 2012 Product Catalog
Visit Finis to learn more about their innovative products for aquatic athletes.

Morning Swim Show Transcripts
Sponsored by Competitor Swim Products
www.competitorswim.com

(Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Jeff Commings: This is The Morning Swim Show for Friday, January 13th, 2012. I'm your host, Jeff Commings. And in the FINIS Monitor, we have Brent Hayden, who had finished 2011 as one of the fastest 100 freestylers in the world and looking to make a run at the medals in London. Brent joins us right now from his home in Vancouver. Hey Brent, Happy New Year. How are you doing?

Brent Hayden: Doing good, thank you. How are you doing?

Jeff Commings: How did you spend your holidays?

Brent Hayden: Pretty low key. I don't know. How does anybody spend the holidays? I mean I just kind of stuck around home and did my last-minute Christmas shopping. I hit the malls late and yes, that's pretty much it.

Jeff Commings: How was holiday training for you? I know a lot of people tend to brag about all the big sets they do. I would imagine as a sprinter you didn't do a hundred 100's on 1:10.

Brent Hayden: No, actually, right after the holidays, I ended up getting sick and actually just got over it probably — yesterday was probably my first real healthy day, so my training has actually been really, really slack, for lack of a better word. But I worked really hard. You just kind of stay in the routine. I still showed up to the pool every single day for practice and just kind of cut back on the intensity and just kind of worked my way around the sickness until I could get back into it.

Jeff Commings: It seems like every time we talk to you, there is something going on, either your back or something is going on. How do you keep the motivation going? I mean it's –

Brent Hayden: You know, it's just thinking about the end result, whatever you got coming up at the end of year. It's not necessarily about how good you do today. It's really about just doing whatever it is that you can. And when you're feeling down, if you're feeling injured or you're feeling sick, it's better to actually go in and just try to do something rather than just not show up at all. And I think when you can kind of take all those little tiny successes and add them together, you can really build on something huge there.

Jeff Commings: The Olympics are about six months away. Are you the type of person who is putting little X's on the calendar or are you even looking that far ahead? Are you kind of more of day-to-day guy?

Brent Hayden: I'm a little bit more of a day-to-day guy. I think the one thing that I do to kind of motivate me is I do have just a picture of the 2012 Olympic logo that I just printed off my computer and just kind of stuck it on my wall and it just says "Wake up" just for all those mornings when I just don't want to wake up and I'm just feeling too tired or something. I just kind of look at that and then go, "Okay. I got something I got to do here." And that kind of gets me up and going. But other than that, no, I'm not really looking at the calendar or anything.

Jeff Commings: This is something I heard, that because you won the silver medal in the 100 free that you're already qualified for the Olympics. Is that true?

Brent Hayden: Yes, that's true. I'd definitely say that takes a huge load off. But I don't think that even if I wasn't prequalified and I was going to Olympic Trials I don't think there is really much of a chance that I wouldn't be making the team. I'm not trying to sound cocky or anything but I've been winning or been the best in Canada for the last 10 years and it doesn't really look like that's in jeopardy so, I don't know, [laughs] take it for what it is.

Jeff Commings: Are you going to still go to Trials, just swim the 50 or maybe even the 200?

Brent Hayden: I'm going to go to Trials. I'm going to do the 50. I'm not going to do the 200. I've pretty much taken that and write it out of my schedule over the last year. But I'm going to be going into trials. I'm still under training so there is not going be any serious taper there so I'm really going to be really interested to see how well I can do under the load and try to kind of get that momentum

Jeff Commings: So let's go back to world championships. Silver medal, 100 free, 47.8. Give me your thoughts about how that meet was for you.

Brent Hayden: That meet was, it was a struggle, actually. I hadn't been seeing a whole lot of success earlier that season. I mean Commonwealth Games were back kind of October and I was under 48 seconds there with that 47.98. But ever since then, I've just been swimming really poorly. I've been super tired. I went to Santa Clara and I think I was dead last in the B Final for the 100 free. I think I went like a 52 or something like that and that was just weeks before the World Champs. And when I got to the World Champs, I was having trouble finding the motivation to go. Usually, I kind of get into that. There is really that mental space that I usually get into for a race and kind of start to feel physically like the tingling fingers and that kind of stuff, and I just wasn't feeling that at all. And it was tough to kind of get my head around it mentally so it was the first time ever I actually walked out on deck with my headphones on because I was trying to pump myself up. But I think it was the semifinal. Still, I went into the radio room feeling totally unmotivated. It's not even feeling like I was even at a swim meet. But then watching the live feed on the camera or on the TV in there, and I saw my fiancée in the stands, and that's kind of the moment that really clicked for me. So from there, I just kind of got into the game and I swam the semifinal kind of almost like learning how to race in, like, a super race mode and then that kind of got me into the final and basically the finals, just kind of give it everything you got now. But getting to that point was definitely more difficult than it had been in the past.

Jeff Commings: So knowing the road that you took to get to that final and get that silver medal, were you shocked by the time and the fact that you got second?

Brent Hayden: In the grand scheme of things, I actually wasn't really all that shocked because I mean, like, right before the race, just to kind of — I just kind of reminded myself that it was less than a year ago that I broke 48 seconds, and so I already knew that that was possible. So I think it was just satisfying just to see that I was still able to do that, to kind of tell myself that you know what? I am still on the right track for the Olympics. I think the shocking thing was really just seeing exactly how close I was from being off of the podium. I mean our third place was 5/100 and then fourth place was only 6/100. But I also know what being on the other end of that slate because in 2009, I missed the podium by 2/100. So I don't know. I wasn't, like, over the top. It was definitely not like 2007 when I had tied with Magnini for the gold medal, but it was definitely satisfying just knowing that despite everything that happened that year with the poor racing and the lack of motivation that I was still able to get the job done.

Jeff Commings: So how did you take that going forward into now what is the Olympic year, knowing that right now, after what Cielo did at the Pan Ams going 47.8, knowing that you are pretty much in a position to win a medal in London?

Brent Hayden: I know right now I'm in a very good position despite what César went at Pan Ams, because I mean that kind of just reminds me of the Commonwealth Games. We had Pan Pacs that summer and then at the Commonwealth Games, I went faster at the Pan Pacs. So I just kind of see it like he is just kind of doing what I already did. Of course, that's like a tenth faster but that's really, really nothing. And after the World Cup Tour, I went to Estonia for about a week or five days rather and worked with Rein Haljand. I changed my stroke technique, found out where I can actually make some improvements, and it's nothing really even that major. It's really a minor adjustment of my freestyle work. And I've already been seeing improvements in training and racing already as well so I'm looking forward to it.

Jeff Commings: Yes, that's got to be pretty satisfying to know that you go somewhere to get some stroke techniques and pretty much all they say it's very minor changes you need to make.

Brent Hayden: Yes. I mean we're at such an elite level that every improvement that we make now is so miniscule because we really are masters of our craft like everybody, right from the guy who is winning gold right down to the guy who is — he is just the best in his country and not really even, you know, in a position to win. But we're all really, you know, we're all masters of it really. So, like, where can you improve on that?

Jeff Commings: You mentioned your fiancée was there at Shanghai and there are a lot of photos I saw circulating around about you celebrating with her after you got your silver medal. When are you two planning to get married?

Brent Hayden: We're actually going to get married, the date is August 19th, so just a little bit after the Olympics. And we're doing the destination wedding. We're going back to her home country in Lebanon and having it there. People say that planning a wedding is stressful. We've actually been having, like, a wonderful time getting it done and we actually just did our engagement photos yesterday. So it's really been — it's been one of the best years of my life so far.

Jeff Commings: Well, it takes away from the physical stress of training, I'm sure.

Brent Hayden: Oh, definitely. It definitely gives me something else to think about.

Jeff Commings: Now, we've had you on the show, as I mentioned, many times before. But here is something I didn't know until very, very recently, that you have your black belt in karate.

Brent Hayden: Yes.

Jeff Commings: Do you still keep that up?

Brent Hayden: No. I stopped doing karate quite a while ago actually because my dojo was back in my hometown, and just with the hours that swimming takes now, it's just there is just no way that I could keep up that kind of activity. But it took me I think five years to get my black belt, but I've been out of karate for much longer than that now because that was back in high school when I stopped. But there were definitely a lot of things that I have carried forward that I learned, and that goes beyond self defense, more on the mental aspect that karate taught me, and yes, it's actually one of the reasons why I have the tattoo on my side with the three stars. It's actually derived from my style of karate.

Jeff Commings: Interesting. That is very interesting. And then something else I didn't know until recently looking through your website is you're a pretty, very good photographer. How did that get started?

Brent Hayden: I've kind of had a joy of photography. Ever since I was a little kid, I would always steal my parents' cameras and go shooting. And sometimes, my parents would try to walk in front of my picture and pose and smile and I'd scream out, like, "Get out of my shot." I did a couple of years of photography courses in high school, working with black and white film and developing and printing in the dark room, all the stuff now that you don't really get to enjoy in digital. But ever since I got my first digital camera about six or seven years ago, I really had just been pushing my limits and trying to learn as much as I can, taking a couple of courses here and there, and investing a lot of money into equipment.

Jeff Commings: Well, like I said, it's pretty impressive. Is this something you think you might do when you retire from swimming as a profession?

Brent Hayden: I kind of want to do it like semi-professionally, definitely not as a main source of income because it's a really tough market to be successful in. But it's definitely something I just enjoy doing and if it's something that I can actually do and make a little bit of money on the side, I'm definitely interested in doing that. I've already got some portable studio lighting and stuff that I've been kind of playing around with so I think I got the gear that it takes to be at that level.

Jeff Commings: Well, speaking of retiring, do you think this will be your last, the Olympics will be your last meet, or do you think you'll keep going?

Brent Hayden: Right now, I'm actually thinking that London is going to be my last Olympics. I think that actually makes it a little bit more motivating to make sure that I go out with a good performance. And it's been an awesome ride. I've been on the national team since 2002 so it will be 10 years. I'll have a whole decade under my belt and three Olympics. And I think that's pretty good, although this time, it would be nice to actually win a medal [laughs].

Jeff Commings: Yes, I'm sure that would be the best way to retire.

Brent Hayden: Yes, definitely.

Jeff Commings: Are you going to be down here for the Santa Clara meet this year?

Brent Hayden: Yes, it's looking like it. I try to go every year. I think I probably only missed one or two. I mean it's a great meet and I love being outdoors and there is always good competition there. And yes, it's just a lot of fun and it's a good measuring stick heading into the summer.

Jeff Commings: Well, Brent, thanks so much for joining us today. Again, Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing how everything progresses in the next six months.

Brent Hayden: Thank you very much and thanks for having me.

Jeff Commings: All right, our pleasure. That's Brent Hayden joining us from Vancouver. That's going to do it for today's edition of The Morning Swim Show. I'm Jeff Commings. Thanks for watching.

Subscribe to this show FREE via iTunes!

To purchase this or previous episodes of The Morning Swim Show, to send comments or show suggestions, click here to send an email.

To purchase copies of our Ready Room interviews, click here.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use