Six months ago,\u00a0Cierra Runge<\/strong> swam on\u00a0the U.S. women’s 800 free relay in prelims at the Olympic Games in Rio, and that night she earned a gold medal as the finals’ squad touched first. Just weeks later, she was headed in a U-Haul to Madison, Wisc., for her sophomore year of college and for her first season as a Badger.<\/p>\n

Next week, Runge will swim at her first Big Ten championships, and next month she will head to her second NCAA championships, and she joined this episode of\u00a0Off Deck<\/em> to discuss her Olympic experience and her new life at Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Runge explained what the process of adapting her training has been like after swimming for a year at Cal, then spending the Olympic year training with\u00a0Bob Bowman<\/strong> at Arizona State and then entering\u00a0Whitney Hite’s<\/strong> program at Wisconsin. She then discussed the difficulties of coming back to school post-Olympics and getting back into racing.<\/p>\n

Runge also reflected on what it was like watching close friend\u00a0Missy Franklin<\/strong> struggle during the Olympics and explained how she thinks Franklin will bounce back.<\/p>\n