The Morning Swim Show, July 20, 2012: Garrett Weber-Gale is Down, But Not Out, After Disappointing Olympic Trials

PHOENIX, Arizona, July 20. OLYMPIAN Garrett Weber-Gale joins today’s edition of The Morning Swim Show to talk about how he is moving on from the disappointment of the U.S. Olympic Trials.

In addition to working on increasing exposure for his business, Athletic Foodie, Weber-Gale has been processing the aftermath of not making the 2012 Olympic team. He talks about the reasons why he didn’t swim up to expectations, and what the results of the meet mean for his future in the pool. He also talks about traveling to London next week to support the American swimmers and what other roles he’ll play there. 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 July 28, 2012. I am your host Jeff Commings. Today in the FINIS Monitor is Olympic gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale. Like the majority of people who attended the Olympic Trials, Weber-Gale left very disappointed with his swims and he is here to tell us more about it from his home in Austin, Texas. Hey Garrett welcome back to the show. How are you today?

Garrett Weber-Gale: I am doing great. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Jeff Commings: Doing great thanks. I am sure you would rather be talking us as a 2012 Olympian I am sure. Tell me what your emotions have been like in these two weeks since Trials.

Garrett Weber-Gale: Well, initially when I missed the team, obviously I was very disappointed. It is not what I worked for or planned for, but actually after the days have gone by, I have realized that I am really happy doing what I am doing. Obviously there was a big sting with missing the Olympic team. I mean I was working so hard, dedicated myself, so much sacrificed a ton and wanting to be there and ultimately of course I would love to be at the training camp right now but to be honest life goes on. It is a minor turn in the grand scheme in the journey of life and I am an Olympic gold medalist and that will never be taken away from me.

Jeff Commings: You were 14th in the 50 free. Eighth in the 100 free in Omaha. As you said not the result that you wanted but you wrote about your reaction to not making the Olympic team quite eloquently I have got to say on your website athleticfoodie.com. I want to read a couple of paragraphs from that. “When I got back to Austin in the fall of 2011 my coach Eddie Reese and I decided the way for me to get faster was for me to get stronger. I’ve always battled getting stronger and this was the area I needed to finally overcome. From September straight through March of 2012, I literally killed myself four days per week in the weight room. I was getting stronger and believed my goal of once again going 47 in the 100 freestyle was approaching,” and then later you write, “Even though I was doing everything right to swim fast. I had worked myself into such a deep hole but I couldn’t climb out of it. I hate to say it but I over trained. Essentially all the hard work is pointless if you don’t give yourself a time to recover from it. Your body needs time to heal and rebuild.” Now, was these the first time you had experienced something like that as far as over training?

Garrett Weber-Gale: I think it was the first time I experienced something to that degree of over training because I just literary worked so hard and dedicated myself to a new regimen I guess you would say this year, the Olympic year and so I never really imagined it would take so much time to rest. Neither did my coaches so it was just kind of I mean especially it was just a training error.

Jeff Commings: During the course of all that training, was there ever any concern that this might happen, that because you were putting so much work into your body that it might take a little longer than you might think to be ready to swim fast?

Garrett Weber-Gale: Certainly not in the fall or the winter, but then as March rolled around, you know I didn’t swim fast in Indianapolis. That’s when I started you know really — I cut back on my leg weight tremendously and my legs got so strong this year compared to what they had ever been and so really after that the Indianapolis meet, I started cutting back the legs a lot. We tapering off the weights somewhat. Like I said I put myself in such a deep hole. It was hard to get out and you know when I went to the meet in Charlotte in May, I was still swimming slow and really eight, nine weeks before the Olympic Trials I was starting to get pretty worried that I didn’t have enough time to rest, which eight or nine weeks out sounds like a long time but I had just broken down the nervous system so hard through all the training that I have done. That it really takes a lot longer than that to fully recover and still what I should have done was I should have started you know tapering my weights in a different way starting in February so that I was gradually going down and what we did was, after we realized that I was in such a deep hole and so broken down, we started kind of dramatically going up the weights and I think that you know that wasn’t the best way to do it and ultimately I just didn’t have enough time to recover.

Jeff Commings: Well I think a lot of people who are watching this and thinking well, you know, I would give anything to be able to be broken down like you were. Get 8th and the 140 and the 50 so – but of course you having won the 50 and the 100 in 2008. You have a lot more expectations put on yourself. What would you say to somebody who feels like maybe they are overtraining in kind of the way that you did?

Garrett Weber-Gale: I think it’s really important that you go to meets. I thought for a while that I really didn’t want to go to Indianapolis. I didn’t really want to race end of March but it’s super important that did go to Indianapolis for the reason that we realized how broken down I was. So it’s important to monitor how much you are lifting, go to meets to test yourself. See how you are doing in practice and so those things, being open with your coach can help you define whether or not you are really broken down and for me obviously moving forward, I would have a great understanding of how I would better adjust my training to not have happen what happened this summer, and like you said I was very — you know I had very high expectations going into the summer of swimming fast. I had the second-fastest relay split in the world last year in the 100 at 47.3. I went 48.1 in a 100 freestyle in Shanghai in a time trial which is what Nathan Adrian won the 100 freestyle in at the Trials. I have expectations and confidence that I could win the 100 freestyle and go 47 again and I think if the Trials had been three to four weeks later I would have won the 100 freestyle and I still believe that I am one of the greatest 100 freestylers in the world. So unfortunately, I don’t have that opportunity and you know I didn’t get the rest that I needed but I am still happy with knowing that I did absolutely everything that I could to compete well and swim fast. I took care of my diet, physical therapy, keep my body healthy. I literarily, I was never a guy who shied away from training, and if anything I probably was a guy who overtrained and worked too hard and Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik would tell you that. You know in fact Eddie Reese after the 100 freestyle I was telling I think maybe I just trained too hard and he said in any pool you have ever been in and anything you have ever done you have been the hardest worker so you know that I think is a blessing and it can sometimes be a curse and this time it didn’t work out as well we want but you know I think it’s important to continue having perspective and the fact that it is just swimming, and it’s like Neil Walker told me it’s just one stop on the journey of a happy life.

Jeff Commings: So I have read this essay that you have written multiple times and my, I guess the answer to this question I am about to ask seems kind of vague but maybe you can answer it more specifically, was Olympic Trials your last swim meet?

Garrett Weber-Gale: It’s hard to say that. The Olympic Trials obviously for me, I really love to chase the dream of swimming and chase the opportunity of going faster and figure out the challenge of how I can go faster. Obviously leaving there I have so many thoughts that I could have gone a lot better. I could have gone so much faster and really that leaves me very hungry to continue swimming, training and go faster next time. Currently, I am you know working hard at Athletic Foodie getting that business really ramped up. I am actually going to London. I will be supporting Team USA, doing appearances there, some hospitality engagements. So I will be in London and obviously that’s going to sting to some degree while watching everyone compete and sitting there watching them compete. But ultimately you know I am a supporter of Team USA and I think it is important that I will be there and show my support. So I am not sure whether or not you know I will get back in the water in September or January or May or who knows what I will do, but you know I really love swimming. I have loved it the past several years and you know, it’s taught me so many, many wonderful things so. I guess to be determined but I know I still have a great hunger upon swimming fast again and I think whenever there is a hunger, you know, people want to continue searching for that so we will see what happens but I love swimming. If I swim again you know I would continue to love it and I am sure but right now, I am really focusing on athleticfoodie.com and hoping that business achieve great things, because you know ultimately our goals is how people have a better quality of life by what they eat.

Jeff Commings: Well, putting all my swimming fan and Longhorn biases aside I have got to say it’s great to hear that you’re not completely giving up the sport.

Garrett Weber-Gale: Yeah.

Jeff Commings: But I know that that’s probably something that’s weighed heavily in your mind.

Garrett Weber-Gale: You know it does weigh heavily on your mind I think to some degree but – actually I mean I love swimming. It has given so many wonderful things to me, so many opportunities to travel around the world and compete and meet wonderful people. You know certainly in the food world it has given a greater access that I would have ever had if I hadn’t had swimming and haven’t had a success in swimming that I did and so I will always be grateful for the sport of swimming, those in this swimming community who really help me achieve great things and kind of go down a wonderful and happy journey, and for the rest of my life I will always work to give back to the community of swimming, whether that’s through swimming, through teaching kids or mentoring them. We are working on some Athletic Foodie events right now, where we go into communities. We bring nutritionists, myself and Olympic parents and we have a more all encompassing swimming event. So I am not sure exactly what’s going to happen. What I do know is I love the swimming world I really appreciate all that has ever done for me. I will continue to stay involve into swimming world and to the capacity that is I am not quite sure yet.

Jeff Commings: Well you mentioned you are going to be working to grow your business Athletic Foodie. What specifically will you be doing?

Garrett Weber-Gale: So we are working right now on scheduling events. I think the swim clinics that people give are great, but ultimately people need to know and especially kids needs to know what is really important about becoming successful, and it’s not just figuring out your stroke and refining your stroke and having a better underwater kick. Being successful in the pool and in life is about many little things that you do and so Athletic Foodie events are focused on the little things. What you should eat, stretching, obviously we do in the water work. Starts turns, talk about the Olympics but we are bringing nutritionists to every event that we go to talk to the parents and their kids about what they can do become healthier and also to eat better for performance. I am giving a live cooking demo at every single event that we are doing. That’s going to be 20 minute demo of what people can cook the morning of the race with their parents or the kids can cook. My mom is going to the clinic with me. She’s going to meet two or three before and parents absolutely love having her talk about how they are going to support their kids without smothering them. The intricacies of supporting young athletes. We are also having healthy food and drinks for the kids. Athletic Foodie merchandise, so it’s a more all more all encompassing concept and we are trying get multiples teams involved in each event than I think just the normal swim clinic. In the normal swim clinics, you are doing some stroke clinics, you are doing autographs, some pictures and then you leave. But I think that we can offer the kids and their parents a greater value and so that’s what I am trying to do.

Jeff Commings: Yeah I think that’s a part of sport that really has gone Garrett. I think you are definitely going to be the person that can really bring this sort of forefront.

Garrett Weber-Gale: Yeah thanks, and if you want an Athletic Foodie event go athleticfoodie.com or email us at info@athleticfoodie.com. So really some exciting things and also you know I am not going to fully let this out of the bag, I have been working on healthy restaurant concept. I have been working out for the past several months. I have been meeting with some people about how I would go about making that happen. I think that is another branch on Athletic Foodie we’re working on very diligently because ultimately I think there is a big need out there for people who want delicious food that’s healthy and that’s affordable.

Jeff Commings: I think you could be the next Gordon Ramsey, only nicer.

Garrett Weber-Gale: I think that’s absolutely right. I am working on it.

Jeff Commings: Well you said you are going to be in London for the Olympics. I imagine like you said it’s going to sting a little bit but what do you think the Americas chances are to relive the magic in that 400 free relay?

Garrett Weber-Gale: You know what, after being on that relay I’m never in my life going to say that Americans don’t have a chance. You know I believe USA is the greatest country in the world and not for a single moment leading into 2008 did I ever think that we would not win that race. You know we have great swimmers in our country that are going to give an awesome run for the gold medal and ultimately it’s the Olympics so it’s who comes prepared who can handle the nerves, can do the relay starts right and I know who ever that they put on those relays will do as good a job as they can and I am looking forward to supporting those guys on their quest for gold. So one thing I do know is it’s going to be a very intense race and I just, man, that’s going to be a crazy ordeal to watch. I was actually a part of it obviously in 2008 but it will be interesting to see itas a spectator.

Jeff Commings: Yeah I am sure it will be just as exciting, the roof will blown off no matter what the result.

Garrett Weber-Gale: Yeah. No question. Actually interesting when I was at Olympic Trials the first couple of days before I swim, I would watch the Trials on TV. They are live on TV obviously and it’s funny how I never really watch swimming on TV like that and sitting in my hotel room and I would just get so many nerves and so excited and so you know ready and I will just sit there like oh my God I wanna race. I want to be in there and there is some much excitement and I am really looking forward to watching that and supporting those guys and you know representing and being the ambassador not only for the sport swimming but also for the USA as best as I possibly can be while over in London and the rest of my life.

Jeff Commings: Well that’s great Garrett. Congratulations again on what you are continuing to do with your business and safe travels to London and like you said, leaving the door open, I am sure we will see you in some capacity on deck down the road.

Garrett Weber-Gale: Yeah, there is no question. This isn’t the end of me at all. You know, it is just a story of something different. Roger Federer I know that is there is a quote in my blog, you know after he beat Murray in Wimbledon, he say, you know this isn’t the end. It is the start of something great so I am not exactly sure what that’s next step is gonna be but I am staying positive. I am really happy. I understand that I am still living the dream and I completely believe that and I am thankful for every such a wonderful life so I am just moving forward and you know, this is just a little turn in road for me.

Jeff Commings: Well, that’s a great. Today, we have Garrett. Thank so much and we will be in touch down the road.

Garrett Weber-Gale: Thank, talk to you guys soon.

Jeff Commings: Alright, that’s Garrett-Gale talking to us from his home in Austin. That’s it for today’s Morning Swim Show.

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