The Morning Swim Show, Nov. 28, 2011: Joao de Lucca Wants to Make an Impact for Brazil and Louisville

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 28. ON today's edition of The Morning Swim Show, Brazilian freestyler Joao de Lucca talks about swimming at the University of Louisville.

De Lucca was impressive at the recent Tennessee Invite, and he talks about the upcoming meet in which he will attempt to qualify for the Olympics, what he's looking to do at the NCAAs and how Louisville is helping him achieve his goals. Watch the full show in the video player below and visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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

Peter Busch: This is the Morning Swim Show for Monday, November 28th, 2011. I'm your host Peter Busch. In the FINIS Monitor today we'll talk to Joao De Lucca. He's a sophomore at the University of Louisville and he's becoming one of the fastest swimmers in the NCAAs. Joao joins us right now in the FINIS Monitor from Louisville. Hey, welcome to the Morning Swim Show. How are you?

Joao De Lucca: Pretty good. How're you doing? Thank you to invite me to this show.

Peter Busch: It's pleasure to have you on. So 43.1 in the hundred, 1:35.6 in the 200 already this year.

Joao De Lucca: Yeah.

Peter Busch: You're setting the pace.

Joao De Lucca: Yeah, I mean, I feel that's pretty good. I like it a lot this result from last week. I'm pretty glad that I'm going like 1:35 right now like training fast, not resting. And I'm pretty glad, I'm pretty proud based on that.

Peter Busch: What's the goal for you this year?

Joao De Lucca: Pretty much as always getting better and I feel like if I just get better like things are gonna follow up, like my goal is go to Olympic Games, do my best, and I'll be top three in NCAA.

Peter Busch: I know there've been some countries who have conflicts with the NCAA's and when when their Olympic Trials are. When do the Brazilian trials fall?

Joao De Lucca: Pretty much the last trials we have is in May but we have a couple trials as long as you make the cut you are ready to go. But I'm going to Brazil on December 11th to swim the Brazilian Nationals on 14th to 18th.

Peter Busch: So you can qualify for the Olympics right then and there?

Joao De Lucca: Yeah, pretty much. I also can qualify to swim over here as long as I make the cut I'm totally fine to go.

Peter Busch: Yeah. Sometimes I wish more countries would do it that way. I mean, I know, for America it doesn't make as much sense but we've talked to guys from France, for example, who had to choose one or the other and that's a tough choice to make, you know. Swimming for your team in NCAAs or trying to make the Olympics for your home country.

Joao De Lucca: Yeah.

Peter Busch: So mid-December is gonna be your big meet coming up. What are you going to swim?

Joao De Lucca: I'm going to swim a 100 and 200 freestyle pretty much and all the relays.

Peter Busch: So are you trying to qualify individually or just for the relays?

Joao De Lucca: I wanna swim the, like, individual event, but, I mean, I'm pretty sure, like, if I swim the individual event for sure I'm gonna swim the relays.

Peter Busch: How did you end up at Louisville? Your coach is Brazilian there, right?

Joao De Lucca: Yes he is. Pretty much like one of Brazilian coach introduced me to him via email and he, like, Arthur got pretty excited, like, to recruit me from here and we're talking like pretty much for one year and I pretty much just came here like for — I didn't do any recruiting trip, just came straight to practice with the team.

Peter Busch: What part of Brazil are you from?

Joao De Lucca: I'm from Rio.

Peter Busch: You're from Rio.

Joao De Lucca: Yes.

Peter Busch: So like a guy from Rio now going to Kentucky.

Joao De Lucca: Yeah. Pretty much.

Peter Busch: Interesting transition, huh.

Joao De Lucca: Mhm.

Peter Busch: The beaches aren't as good in Louisville but, you know, nice people.

Joao De Lucca: Well, it would be awesome to have like some beaches here like I would love to. That's one thing that I miss a lot at home.

Peter Busch: Rio's not bad.

Joao De Lucca: No, it's not.

Peter Busch: The Louisville team right now it's got kind of a sprint focus which is a good thing for college swimming for sure. Give us an idea of what the program is like and the training environment.

Joao De Lucca: Well, the program is — I mean it's pretty good. I'm enjoying it a lot and I literally can see that like things are going the right away, you know, like we practice real hard here and also the workouts it's pretty tough. And I was not used to work out and lifting, everything, but I mean, I feel like I'm on the right spot, you know, like pretty much the team motivate me to do things well and pretty much everyone boost each other and we work together. It's awesome.

Peter Busch: And back at home when we're talking about the Olympics next year, the Brazilian relays. I mean, we know about Cesar and we know that he's probably the best sprinter in the world right now. But do you guys have four guys that can put together a relay that can medal? Joao De Lucca: Yeah. I guess we have pretty fast guys like here's another guy Bruno Fratus who swam 48 low on the last nationals. We have really fast guys in Brazil, too.

Peter Busch: What is — is Cesar a rockstar down there or is it for swimming, you know, people just don't notice him as much?

Joao De Lucca: I mean, swimming in Brazil is getting bigger and bigger like it's pretty much our first gold medals in swimming. And I mean Cesar is real — his real family is in Brazil and people knows who he is and I guess pretty much — Brazil was like the country of soccer, you know. But now it's good that Cesar pretty much open a new door like for — with a gold medal and I hope like swimming would be a big sport in Brazil.

Peter Busch: Yeah, well, with 2016 with you guys getting to host –

Joao De Lucca: Oh, yeah.

Peter Busch: Probably some excitement going for the Olympics sports.

Joao De Lucca: Yeah, pretty much that, I feel like that's my main goal like competing at home. I hope I can do well swimming at home.

Peter Busch: Well, Joao, good luck with the short term goals and the long term goals. Thanks for coming on the show.

Joao De Lucca: Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

Peter Busch: All right, that's Joao De Lucca joining from the University of Louisville. That's it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.

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