I didn’t get a chance to post this last night, but here’s the press conference with Nathan Adrian after the finals of the 50-meter freestyle Thursday at the U.S. Winter Nationals at KCAC in Federal Way.
He’s off today, but is in the pool now for a workout.
Nathan Adrian of Bremerton won his sixth 50-meter freestyle national title on Thursday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
On the first night of the U.S. Winter Nationals, Adrian was just one of several Olympic champions who competed. Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt, Conor Dwyer and Maya DiRado all pocketed gold medals.
You can check out what Phelps had to say about his race from the press conference here. He and coach Bob Bowman ate every lunch and dinner at Mitzel’s Restaurant in Kent when they were here 15 years ago.
“Bob and I pretty much had the same meal everyday,” he said. “It was meatloaf, green beans, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy and a bowl of clam chowder. Had the same thing yesterday (Wednesday). It’s still just the same, it’s just as good.
“I was talking to some of the waitresses there and they were saying that it’s the last one. They expanded and came down to their last one and they went back to their roots of real, genuine home-cooking. That’s what I remembered most from going there and it was literally exactly the same meal that I had 15 years ago. It was very, very good. And then desserts are amazing.”
The pool holds a special place in Phelps’ heart as this is where his life changed when he broke 2 minutes in the 200 fly and his legacy as the greatest swimmer of all time was sealed. Six months after that, he made his first Olympic team.
“Bob and I relived some memories by going to Mitzel’s,” he said. “It was kind of here where it started. That’s when everything kind of took off … I’ve enjoyed this pool.”
After waiting around for the other events in the first morning session of the U.S. Winter Nationals, Nathan Adrian won his heat of the 50-meter freestyle rather convincingly Thursday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
Adrian touched the wall in 22.29 seconds, second overall and tied with Brad Tandy. The finals will include Josh Schneider, Anthony Ervin, Paul Powers, Geoff Cheah, Matt Grevers, Cullen Jones and Santo Condorelli.
The finals are at 6 p.m. If you’re unable to attend the nationals you can watch the lifestream via usaswimmin.org here.
It’s been a long time since Nathan Adrian of Bremerton has delighted his hometown fans by competing locally, but his appearance at the U.S. Winter Nationals Dec. 3-5 will end that drought. It’s the first time the Olympic champion will race in Washington since December of 2009 when he swam at the short-course nationals at the King County Aquatic Center in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events, winning both.
Adrian is scheduled to swim the 50 free on Thursday and the 100 free on Saturday.
Adrian is just one of the USA Swimming headliners to compete next week. Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Anthony Ervin, Matt Grevers, Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin are also scheduled to compete. In total, more than 40 national team members are among the nearly 700 swimmers slated to swim.
Tickets are on sale now for the three-day event, which includes preliminaries at 9 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. All-session adult passes are $60 with single day and single-session passes available.
A live webcast of the entire meet will be available at usaswimming.org and NBC will tape-delay the nationals on NBC Sunday, Dec. 6 from 10-11 a.m.
Great read here by Associated Press national writer Paul Newberry (one of my favorites) on Michael Phelps sober journey as he heads toward the U.S. Olympic Trials and the Olympics in Rio a year from now.
Michael Phelps is still focused on going fast in the pool.
Outside the water, he’s made some big changes.
The winningest athlete in Olympic history will be competing this week at the U.S. championships in San Antonio — basically, a backup meet for all those American swimmers who didn’t qualify for the world championships in Kazan, Russia.
Actually, Phelps did claim a spot on the team. But, after his second drunken driving arrest last September, USA Swimming issued a six-month suspension and took away his trip to Russia.
“Obviously, I’d like to be competing at worlds,” Phelps said. “But this is what I have to do.”
There were other things he needed to do, as well.
Phelps underwent 45 days of inpatient treatment, enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous, and decided that he needed to get drinking out of his life, at least in the short term.
“Before I even went to court, I said to myself that I’m not going to drink until after Rio — if I ever drink again,” he said. “That was a decision I made for myself. I’m being honest with myself. Going into 2008 and 2012, I didn’t do that. I didn’t say I was going to take a year off from drinking and not have a drink.”
Phelps, who has won 18 golds and 22 medals overall at the last three Olympics, retired from swimming after the 2012 London Games, saying he had no goals left to accomplish and didn’t want to still be competing into his 30s. That decision lasted barely a year. By the following summer, he was itching to race again.
Now, after enduring another bump in his personal life, he’s determined to end his swimming career on a high note. That means staying clean and sober.
“If I’m going to come back, I need to do this the right way,” Phelps said. “I’ve got to put my body in the best physical shape I can possibly get it in. Is it a challenge? No. I go to bed earlier. I sleep more. I wake up every day and have a completely clear head. I don’t feel like my head went through a brick wall. There are so many positives to it.
“Are there days I’m sitting on the golf course or sitting on my roof (patio) and would like to have a beer? Yeah. But I have a year left in my career. If I really want it bad enough, I will make that sacrifice.”
Phelps is eager to see what kind of times he can post in San Antonio, saying he “has not been in this kind of shape in a long, long time. Maybe not ever.” He’s scheduled to swim four events: the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, the 200 individual medley, and the 200 breaststroke.
The breaststroke is simply a workout, something to do on the final day of the meet Monday. But those other three are his best events, the ones he’s clearly eyeing for the Rio Olympics. While Phelps figures to be the class of the field in San Antonio, he’ll be eager to compare his times to the ones being put up in Kazan, where the eight-day swimming competition began Sunday.
“Of course, it’s going to motivate me,” Phelps said. “I don’t want to be No. 2. I don’t want to be No. 3. I can’t stand it. Sure, this is different. But it’s still the end of the (season), and I’d like to put up some No. 1 times in the world.”
Phelps won’t be the only Olympic gold medalist in San Antonio. Training partner Allison Schmitt, one of the biggest stars of the 2012 London Games, failed to qualify for the last two world championships and finally went public this year with her battle against depression. She hopes the nationals will show that her life and swimming career are back on track with the Rio Games just a year away.
Cullen Jones, a four-time Olympic medalist, will also be at nationals, along with Dana Vollmer, who has four Olympic golds and recently returned to competition after the birth of her first child.
But all eyes will be on Phelps, who seems to have taken his life in a different direction away from the pool. He’s engaged to be married, celebrated his 30th birthday at the end of June, and has thrown himself fully into training for what he said will surely be his final Olympics.
“I don’t go to bed at night worrying about what I’m going to find in the morning,” said Bob Bowman, the swimmer’s longtime coach. “That wasn’t always the case.”
Phelps said therapy helped him uncover and address some of the issues weighing down his seemingly perfect life.
“I feel like people think I’m more approachable now than I ever was,” he said. “I feel like I am OK and I am happy with who I am. I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself, who I truly am. I can honestly say there aren’t many people in this world who have seen who I really am.”
USA Swimming announced Thursday it will hold its domestic training camp in San Antonio, Texas, July 13-21, 2016 at the Northside Swim Center. It’s also the site of the 2015 National Championships. The international training camp will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Here’s the full press release from USA Swimming:
SAN ANTONIO – USA Swimming announced today that it will hold the domestic training camp for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team in San Antonio at the state-of-the-art Northside Swim Center from July 13-21, 2016.
Following the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming in Omaha, Nebraska, athletes who qualify to represent Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will gather in San Antonio and train at the Northside Swim Center, site of the 2015 USA Swimming Phillips 66 National Championships, to begin preparations for the Games.
“The Northside Swim Center is one of the top swimming facilities in the United States and will provide an excellent training environment as our athletes prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games,” USA Swimming National Team Director Frank Busch said. “This is where the camaraderie of our team begins to take shape, and the staff and facility here will play a key role in setting up Team USA for success in Rio.”
During the camp, area swimmers and sports fans will have the opportunity to meet the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team, as one practice will be open to spectators, followed by an autograph session. The timing and details of the open practice and autograph session will be announced next summer prior to the start of the camp.
“Hosting the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team at the Northside Swim Center is a tremendous honor for the Northside Independent School District, the city of San Antonio and all of Texas,” said Dr. Brian T. Woods, Northside Independent School District Superintendent. “These amazing athletes will be an inspiration for student-athletes of all ages in San Antonio, and we look forward to helping them prepare to represent the United States next summer.”
Completed in July 2013, the Northside Swim Center features a 50-meter, Olympic-size outdoor pool and 25-meter diving and warm-up pool. The outdoor swim center features shaded seating for 2,400 spectators, as well as high-tech timing, lighting, sound and video scoreboard systems. Locker room facilities can accommodate as many as 1,200 athletes.
The facility also will host a quartet of high-level meets in 2015: USA Swimming’s Phillips 66 National Championships (Aug. 6-10) and Speedo Junior National Championships (July 30-Aug. 3), as well as the U.S. Masters Swimming Spring National Championships (April 23-26) and World Deaf Swimming Championships (Aug. 17-22).
2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Schedule:
Olympic champion Nathan Adrian of Bremerton won the 100-yard freestyle at the Winter Nationals Saturday to claim all three freestyle events at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greenboro, North Carolina.
Adrian set his second course-record of the meet and blew away the rest of the field with a time of 41.31 seconds. Second-place went to Anze Tavcar in 43.03, a full two seconds behind Adrian. Josh Fleagle placed third in 43.09.
Adrian holds the American record in 41.08. He also won the 50 free on Thursday and the 200 free on Friday.
For the first time in his career, Nathan Adrian won the 200-yard freestyle at the Winter Nationals Friday at Greensboro, North Carolina. It was the Bremerton Olympic champion’s debut in the event. Adrian specializes in the sprints (50 and 100).
Adrian won in a personal-best time of 1 minute, 32.83. Michael Wynalda of Grandville, Michigan, was second in 1:33.95 while Josh Fleagle (St. Mary’s, Ohio) finished third in 1:34.33.
“That was a lot more of what I think that I need to be versus where I was about two weeks ago,” Adrian said. “I swam a lot more of my own race that time and I was happy about that.”
Adrian won the 50 free title on Thursday and will swim in the 100 free event on Saturday.
Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian successfully defended his 50-yard freestyle title on Thursday at the Winter Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Adrian, the American record-holder in the event in 18.66 seconds, touched the wall in 18.81 — a course record — to beat Simonas Bilis in 19.28. Eric McGinnis was third in 19.37. It was Adrian’s fifth fastest-time ever.
Adrian will also swim in the 100 free on Saturday, an event he also won last year.
Gold medalists Nathan Adrian and Katie Ledecky will compete at USA Swimming’s winter nationals at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in North Carolina next week.
More than 800 swimmers are expected to participate in the meet, Dec. 3-6. Prelims are at 6 a.m. Pacific with finals at 2 p.m. Also expected to join Adrian and Ledecky are Andrew Gemmell, Connor Jaeger, Cullen Jones and Micah Lawrence.
Adrian holds the American record in the 50 and 100-yard
freestyle events. He is coming off a Golden Goggles appearance
where he was nominated along with his teammates for relay
performance of the year in the 400 medley relay from the Pan
Pacific Championships.
Ledecky won three Golden Goggles Monday in New York.
A live webcast of the meet can be found at usaswimming.org.
Also, here’s extra footage from Nathan at the Arena Grand Prix in Minneapolis where he talks about his 200 free race strategy. And, how he felt about his 50 free time.
