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[Music]
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Lou [ __ ] welcome to my podcast thank you
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thanks for having me bro I'm so pleased
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we finally made this happen I went back
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through our DMS we've been going
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backwards and forwards for a while and
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uh just last week you won the world
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Champs in Doha and here you are now it's
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not it's not every day you get to have a
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world champion sitting in your bloody
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spare
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bedroom can you just turn the fers down
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a bit you're peeking oh really okay I'll
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keep your headphones on for a little bit
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just to check the
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sound one two one2 do you want to check
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yours one two one two how's that Max
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Jackson
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okay
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easy Lou clearit welcome to my podcast
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thank you very much for having me mate
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it is an honor to have you here in my
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podcast room just last week you became a
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world champion in
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Doha yeah it's actually pretty wild to
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think about that or hear people say that
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to me um I honestly coming into this
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year or sort of this last campaign I'd
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never thought that I'd sort of be going
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into Olympics as the world current world
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champion um but here we
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are that immediately sounds like a lot
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of pressure to
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me um and there is that saying that
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pressure is a privilege but um yeah how
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how do you feel about that like when you
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think about um the Paris Olympics later
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this year and you having such a big
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Target on your back does it um excite
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you do you have moments where you're
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just in a cold sweat thinking about it
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uh I guess I haven't really thought
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about at too much yet um going into
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Paris you know we still got six months
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um I think it's like 121 days until we
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leave for our staging camp in Spain um
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but I guess if I look back to Tokyo
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Olympics I definitely did feel a lot of
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pressure even though you know I wasn't
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as competitive as I am now um but I
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think this year will be a little bit
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different because you know I've got one
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under my belt I sort of understand how
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the whole system works and pressure like
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you said is a privilege and I think I'm
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just ready to just swim fast that's my
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main priority at the moment and I think
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if I swim fast then you know everything
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else will come with
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it yeah there's um so much to talk about
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with you you just mentioned the um Tokyo
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Olympics then there with the co Olympics
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where you were at and you actually blew
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up on Tik Tok became a Tik Tok star
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think there's one Tik Tok of you getting
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a free pair of Asic that's got like 9
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million views um so there's that to talk
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about the commonwealth games where you
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won a couple of gold medals and you've
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got a couple of bronzers this is the
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drama with you in Wellington which
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forced your move to Oakland um so much
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to unpack in the Louis Cleber story and
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yet only how old what are you 24 [ __ ] is
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that is that sort of um in terms of SP
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career middle age yeah it's I was
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actually it's interesting you say that I
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was looking at the ages of just the
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recent World Champs because they usually
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have your birth date and your entries
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and I was
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probably like one of the older ones in
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my event like there's there's one guy
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1995 one guy 1994 and like I'm racing
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guys 2005 2006 now which is weird and
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even younger even if well if you look at
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the girls it's even younger than that
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but yeah we are we're getting
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middle-aged in the Su Community right
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now yeah so but so but you you've got
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Paris this year um so the next Olympics
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after that La you'll be like 28
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29 I suppose you haven't thought beyond
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that or have you to be honest my plan
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goes until Paris mhm um obviously I'd
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love to keep going um all the way
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through the LA and I mean see how far we
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go um but like there's heaps of heaps of
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factors that go into you know a whole
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another fouryear campaign and the first
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one is obviously training environment if
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you're if you can feel like you can
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sustain a good training environment
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funding how your performance is going
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and then the main thing is just if
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you're having a good time I mean I summ
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in an event where it requires so much
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energy and focus to actually go into
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making sure you're swimming fast in that
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event um that I have to make sure I've
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got enough energy to actually you know
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push through yeah and and also the
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amount of like personal sacrifice that
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goes into that yeah that cannot be
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underestimated and I'm I'm looking
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forward to sinking my teeth into that
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exactly what's uh involved in getting to
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where you are um okay first of all for
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by the way there might be a lot of dumb
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a dumb questions here from a non-swimmer
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that's right um first of all uh 400 m
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individual midle uh what is that event
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what does that mean so it's for Olympic
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distance so we have what we call um a 50
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m pool and a 25m pool and for the
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Olympics we swim in the 50m pool and
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then there's a whole bunch of I mean
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actually there's three different lengths
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of the pool mostly in America you swimm
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in short course yards which is 25 yards
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um and then we have 25 M which is you
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sort of do that in winter it's like our
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winter sport so you go from Summer which
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is obviously the 50 um the 400 m
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individual medle is two laps of every
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single stroke for the Olympic distance
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um so you start with butterfly and then
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you go into backstroke brush stroke and
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then freestyle yeah so bring it home
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freestyle which is obviously the fastest
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stroke wow so you have to be good at
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everything well you don't have to be
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perfect at everything but essentially
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the guys that are best in the that the
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best in the world don't really have a
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weakness yeah yeah so so did Michael
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Phelps used to win this event
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yeah so he was the actually the word
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record holder up until last year where
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someone um absolutely thrashed his
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record wow okay so for perspective
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because I think everyone knows you know
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Michael Phelps is one of these um Sports
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people that have sort of transcended
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this Sport and you know how many medals
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did he how many Olympic medals like 30
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or something something ridiculous I mean
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he won eight Golds and one Olympics
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seven so so so what would um what I
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don't know if you know this information
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off the top of your head but what would
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he do for the 400 meter individual medle
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and what do you do so he his personal
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best was a
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43.8 and my personal best is a
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408 so I still got 5 Seconds he's still
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got 5 seconds on me is that a lot that
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doesn't sound like a lot I mean it isn't
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but it also is like if you look at the
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pool I'd be way out of the frame in the
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in terms of camera um it's probably
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around
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maybe just under 10 m yeah a little bit
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less than that yeah right so you're not
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Eric the Eric the Y not quite quite
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you're still there or thereabouts can
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can you can you make up that extra time
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to get to that sort of speed or is that
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you know you talk about like marginal
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gains or 1ent or whatever is Is it
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feasible from where you are now to shave
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like another four or five seconds off
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that time for sure absolutely yeah I
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mean we look at the race we split it
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into hundreds so each stroke um there's
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heaps of different factors you know
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there's your speed on top of the water
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your speed on under the waterer um so
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you're every after every war you you got
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to do your underwater work and then your
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turn
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um and then just putting that all
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together you get a you know an equation
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or you put an equation in you get what
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whatever you put out um and so there's
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ideal splits for every single 100 so if
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I wanted to if I for say wanted to beat
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that word record I'd be going out 55
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seconds and then i' go 102 110 and then
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55 again so that would give me
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402 um and then you have loose change
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obviously with the that extra splits um
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so it is a bit of a science experiment
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when you're when you're working out
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putting all these different numbers for
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each stroke together
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um and then I look at it usually and I'm
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like oh yeah all those splits they're
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super easy to Hidden training and then
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it's when you put the whole race
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together yeah so and um okay CU I can
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understand in training you can have a
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coach there or a teammate you know
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shouting out the splits to you what
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happens in competition are you just sort
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of like just going balls out basically
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as fast as you can trusting the training
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knowing that you've done it in training
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so you can do it in real time yeah
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what's different for every every event
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um like at the World Championships
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recently I did the 200s and I did the
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400 um the 200 butterfly right yeah 200
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butterfly did the 200 mle and the 400
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mle okay um for the 400 mle it's
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slightly different um it's no known as
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like a middle to long distance event so
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for me I can't just go ball the wall
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straight away like you've got to
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actually pace yourself quite nicely and
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um like the first sort of 100 Turners
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for me is just like relaxed easy speed
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so I'm going as fast as I can but not
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trying to tax my body um so you got
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something in the tank for the tail end
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yeah yeah pretty much and like the way
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I've swam over the years has changed a
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lot like I used to go out so fast in the
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butterfly um and at the recent worlds I
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went out 2 seconds slower in the first
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hundreds so like I've there's always
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like you're always changing and and I
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mean on the day it's different as well
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like there's so much I guess pressure on
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that one that one race that like it is
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it is scary going
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in I can't imagine like I'm um I I love
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my running and um but I've never been
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competitive I've never been fast I've
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never been good I'm only ever competing
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against myself but the the news that I
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get like pre and like you know I did
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this thing called the coastal Challenge
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on the weekend just a 22k run from long
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B div Port I get pre-race nerves for
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that so I can't imagine like what it's
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like you know I know I said pressure a
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privilege but [ __ ] it's a lot it's a lot
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eh yeah yeah I mean you'd understand
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right like you spend 99% of your time
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training and then you do that one run I
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don't know it might be every couple
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months or whatever we have maybe one or
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two major competitions a year where we
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have to be in the best shape of our life
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we can't be sick we can't have anything
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wrong with us like we're
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essentially like you talk about a
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Formula 1 car like we're a Formula 1 car
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we can't have anything wrong with us
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going into um these major competitions
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because it's like there's so much on the
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line right like it's pretty much like
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that's our funding for the year if we
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don't swim fast then see you later you
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know you're not getting paid this year
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yeah it's brutal isn't it yeah it's
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brutal so yeah obviously in Doha um this
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is the event where you became the world
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champion everything went right but you
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looking the lead up to it there's the
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Wellington stuff which we'll get into
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which um was less than ideal um and then
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didn't you um didn't you lose your gear
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bag on the on the day of the event
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didn't you lose your togs and stuff yeah
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so the everyone lives in this like one
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apartment or like this one hotel and
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every day R would come along and we'd go
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into the food Hall and we'd all just put
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our bags on the outside like outside of
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the food Hall cuz it's pretty like dis
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respectful if you bring your bags in or
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whatever so we would leave our bags out
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so like a games Village yeah pretty much
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but swiming it's not as olypic vill um
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and yeah I walk out of lunch and I'm
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like looking around and my bag isn't
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where it is meant to be um and I asked
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the whoever the um the manager is and it
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took like an hour and a half to get it
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back but it
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was it's like an interesting moment
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where you're like well I don't have any
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goggles I've got no racing togs I had
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one spear racing tog like one spear set
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that was like just like my training set
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um no accreditation so it is a bit of
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like a was a bit of a shock and like
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just unet like yeah it is unsettling but
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I mean I I trusted that like I was in a
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pretty safe place um like there are
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security cameras everywhere in that
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place so I knew that they were just
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going to check the cameras and it was
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all going to be good but yeah it's like
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a little bit of an on edge moment yeah
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so so the race itself
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um how how do you know how do you know
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how well you're going during the race or
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don't you don't you have any idea I
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suppose if the if the if the top seeds
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in the lane next to you I suppose you
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can have them in your peripheral vision
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yeah we we have goggles that like
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they're pretty wide angle so like you
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can get a pretty good angle um but I
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mean butterfly you breathe forward
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backstroke you breathe up and then
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breast stroke you also breathe forward
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so we I only really see the guy next to
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me a lot of the time um until I get to
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the free cell and then I can sort of
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look across the pool um there's a huge
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thing on which side do you breathe for
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freestyle so a lot of people will only
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breathe one side not not two um I can
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breathe both ways so I usually would
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look across the pool one way and then
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look the same way the next lap so I can
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got that flexibility um but yeah I I
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assumed going into the into the race
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that I was going to be quite behind um
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at the end because there was one guy
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that he's sort of like the silver
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medalist like got second at the last
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World Championships by the behind um a
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guy that got the world record and I
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assume that head' be wayhe head um the
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guy next to me he was the Bronze
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medalist and I was in front of him so I
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knew I was in a pretty good pretty good
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position um but yeah I pretty much
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didn't know until the last 100 yeah man
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and then um your celebration at the end
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um you what's it called is it a pukana
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yeah pukana yeah yeah yeah yeah was was
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that sort of um spontaneous or was it
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sort of pre-planned were you like if I
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win I'm going to do this it was
00:14:02
reasonably pre-planned
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um we I sort of talked about it with my
00:14:06
coach and some of the like the the guys
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on the team um cuz I'd done it it was my
00:14:11
um like my walkout move so everyone has
00:14:14
to do like a video for the um the TV
00:14:17
production team so when you walk out it
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plays on the screens around the pool and
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so that was the move that I did um
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walking out and I sort of just thought
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it' be pretty cool if I could replicate
00:14:28
that um if I'd won so most people get up
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on the l r once if they win the race and
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I did that but I honestly didn't think
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it would be that big but I guess because
00:14:39
of the All Blacks and the New Zealand
00:14:42
culture like people love it like we
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would walk around the pool and be like
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when you got people would be asking us
00:14:47
when are you guys going to do the haaka
00:14:49
um and so I think the world just loved
00:14:53
seeing the the New Zealand multic
00:14:55
culture on the world stage especially
00:14:57
for for a country that you know we
00:15:00
usually don't perform that well um in
00:15:03
swimming yeah yeah it's been been turned
00:15:06
into a cartoon and it's on a t-shirt now
00:15:08
it looks bloody epic yeah it's really
00:15:10
cool yeah you you seem like um I don't
00:15:13
know prankster is the word but like just
00:15:15
really light-hearted like you um yeah at
00:15:18
the Paris Olympics um no sorry at the um
00:15:20
Tokyo Olympics um yeah you did a mano
00:15:23
into the pool um and then there's the
00:15:25
Tik Tok stuff you can trouble for any of
00:15:27
that or as long as you're swimming well
00:15:29
everyone just leave you the hell alone
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um definitely mixed mixed reviews um I
00:15:35
am like you said I like to be like
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lighthearted people see me as like this
00:15:39
real serious guy and my humor is
00:15:41
actually quite serious but I'm you know
00:15:43
not as serious as people think um it
00:15:45
does get me in trouble for sure yeah
00:15:47
because I feel like um like the the the
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Tik Tok stuff which was I think it was I
00:15:51
think it was Bloody great like it's just
00:15:53
gives every yeah we'll get to that in
00:15:54
more detail later but it just give gave
00:15:56
everyone sort of an insight into you
00:15:57
know a side of the Olympics that I guess
00:15:59
we never see but um I know was that Comm
00:16:03
games it was Olympics Olympics yeah yeah
00:16:06
um and the comth games where you won
00:16:07
like two gold medals as long as you're
00:16:09
getting the results and everything's
00:16:10
going well I suppose everyone's going to
00:16:11
sort of give you a wide birth but as
00:16:13
soon as you're doing that stuff and not
00:16:14
getting the results that's when people
00:16:16
will blame the non results on the other
00:16:18
stuff potentially yeah which is unfair
00:16:21
but yeah yeah I mean like if you're
00:16:23
compe like you said if you're racing
00:16:25
well
00:16:25
like everything's good what yeah
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yeah um I mean it was a little bit
00:16:31
different in Wellington like we I did
00:16:33
have a lot of restrictions around like
00:16:34
what I could do with filming and stuff
00:16:36
like that and it pretty much like
00:16:38
whatever the restrictions they had was
00:16:40
just like it meant that I couldn't do
00:16:41
anything so I just gave up on it but um
00:16:44
it was it was really fun like I I had
00:16:47
such a good time doing all that sort of
00:16:49
stuff and I
00:16:51
mean like we when it's going viral viral
00:16:55
like you're having a good time
00:16:56
regardless because people are viewing it
00:16:57
you're getting awesome comments like
00:16:58
people yeah everyone was loving it yeah
00:17:01
I feel like um yeah you need like a a
00:17:03
stress relief like otherwise what do you
00:17:05
do you just sit there getting in your
00:17:06
own head for days on end overthinking
00:17:08
the event it's probably a nice stress
00:17:09
release um okay so like the Doha thing
00:17:12
the world Champs um for that and I
00:17:14
suppose the Olympics and comth games run
00:17:16
through like um like an average final
00:17:18
day like how does yeah from start to
00:17:20
finish yeah so for me like I'll arrive
00:17:23
at the pool 2 hours before I'm set to
00:17:25
race they are pretty regimented on like
00:17:29
when you're racing so like I was I think
00:17:32
I was at like 8:32 my race was planned
00:17:34
to be so I'll get there like six 6:00
00:17:38
just just after that in the evening in
00:17:40
the evening yeah so we race what do you
00:17:41
do all day we sleep eat like we I sat in
00:17:45
my room I was I had my own room so I was
00:17:47
a bit of a loner over there um I just
00:17:49
sat in my room and did nothing um pretty
00:17:52
much the whole afternoon I actually had
00:17:54
to order food out because the food Hall
00:17:57
only opens it a certain period And I was
00:17:59
already going to be on the way to the
00:18:00
pool by the time that happen so um I
00:18:02
ordered food out and then you do the bus
00:18:05
ride over which is like 30 minutes um
00:18:08
and then when I get to the pool it's
00:18:09
sort of you click into like this
00:18:12
timeline that I create or my coach
00:18:14
creates um that we all sort of get
00:18:17
structuring the routine very structured
00:18:19
down to like the minute sort of thing um
00:18:21
so I'll do pretty much I'll do 30
00:18:24
minutes of stretching activation
00:18:25
preactivation I'll do around an hour of
00:18:29
inwater warmups so it's around like 3 km
00:18:33
maybe and then by the way for most
00:18:36
people listening to
00:18:37
this it's a big swim it is yeah it's
00:18:40
it's a decent amount like especially
00:18:42
like towards the end of the competition
00:18:43
when you're you're getting tired you
00:18:46
actually need to do more rather than
00:18:48
less to get the body awake um and then
00:18:51
I'll probably maybe 30 minutes before
00:18:53
I'll have like a sports gel has a bit of
00:18:56
caffeine in it um and then you have to
00:18:58
put your raceit on usually takes 15 20
00:19:01
minutes cuz they're like they're tight
00:19:04
they um they still look like bike shorts
00:19:06
yeah there's like Gemma style um they go
00:19:09
just above the knee um and my ones can
00:19:12
go like quite high around my hips why do
00:19:14
they take so long to put on cuz they're
00:19:16
just like skin tight um they're
00:19:19
essentially meant to stop drag right so
00:19:22
they have to be pretty flush with the
00:19:24
body um and they especially when it's
00:19:26
hot you can sweat while you're put in
00:19:28
the on so um yeah so so you're like
00:19:32
naked in the changing rooms trying to
00:19:33
get these things on for quarter of an
00:19:35
hour yeah pretty
00:19:36
much we we usually we put the tow around
00:19:39
us and we're you know whipping them on
00:19:41
but yeah it's uh it's probably the worst
00:19:43
part of the preparation when you have to
00:19:45
put your suit on that's what by the way
00:19:47
that's um that's the most mind-blowing
00:19:49
thing for me so far really 15 quarter of
00:19:51
an hour to get some TS on yeah and the
00:19:53
girls the girls even longer like some of
00:19:56
the girls are in there for half an hour
00:19:57
even more that what are the what are the
00:19:59
girls it's just like a swimsuit isn't it
00:20:01
they've they've got the same okay but
00:20:03
then their ones go all the way up and
00:20:05
over their shoulders so it looks like a
00:20:06
sort of a triet suit yeah exactly like a
00:20:09
triet suit yeah yeah but they sort of
00:20:11
because they're so tight in the girls
00:20:13
most of them will only put the shoulder
00:20:15
straps on like just before they walk out
00:20:17
um cuz they're like they're super
00:20:19
uncomfortable for them so you don't
00:20:21
train in that suit no we're just
00:20:23
training sort of Bud Smugglers yeah okay
00:20:25
and you um are you how do you Psy
00:20:28
yourself up you you listen to music or
00:20:30
or you just sort of meditating what are
00:20:32
you doing bit of mixture um I've changed
00:20:34
things over the years I've just do
00:20:36
whatever I want pretty much but I talk
00:20:38
to people in the the marshalling room um
00:20:40
there's a few really good guys that I
00:20:42
race against that we have a good yarn
00:20:44
this year I um listen to music uh DMB
00:20:48
it's pretty good bit of rap as well I I
00:20:51
went to America over December and got
00:20:52
into rap um did you yeah yeah cuz that's
00:20:56
what I listen to they don't list about
00:20:58
in we you Arizona all right yeah yeah
00:21:01
it's whole different music scene over
00:21:02
there I sort of like eye opening yeah
00:21:05
but it was um it was cool and then you
00:21:07
go into marshing like 20 minutes before
00:21:09
you race and then you just sit there
00:21:11
just
00:21:12
waiting and then they do the um oh and
00:21:15
then they do the like the call out thing
00:21:16
swimmer by swimmer where they sort of
00:21:18
introduce you and stuff what what are
00:21:20
you feeling at that point are you just
00:21:22
like amped and ready to go or are you
00:21:24
[ __ ] yourself uh sometimes I'm tired
00:21:27
like start of the week I was I got
00:21:29
really tired cuz I was racing a lot um
00:21:31
but by the time I got to 4 into midle I
00:21:33
was just like energy rushing through me
00:21:36
yeah like I was pumped walking out um I
00:21:39
think I was just I was I was a mixture
00:21:42
of angry and ready to swim fast like I'd
00:21:45
missed the qualifying time for Olympics
00:21:47
twice well actually six times before
00:21:49
going walk actually seven times walking
00:21:52
before I did the 400 midle final um so I
00:21:56
and I really wanted to make sure that
00:21:57
I'd qualified at the world Champs um and
00:22:00
so I was just ready to
00:22:02
go man that is so cool and everything
00:22:05
went well yeah I mean it wasn't a
00:22:08
personal best like I didn't some
00:22:09
lifetime best um but in terms of when
00:22:12
you get into that Championship final
00:22:15
like you throw the time out the bag like
00:22:17
it's just racing um and I mean to Come
00:22:20
Away with a gold medal and to be new
00:22:22
ze's second ever person to win a a world
00:22:26
championship gold medal and it was in
00:22:28
sort of one week where we got both of
00:22:29
them was was pretty special who who is
00:22:32
New Zealand's best male swimmer ever
00:22:34
would it be danion yeah I think so danan
00:22:37
we've got Lauren Bole we have we have
00:22:39
quite a few like historically you know
00:22:42
really good Summers yeah yeah yeah is
00:22:44
that I don't know if you want to say
00:22:46
this out loud but like would that be
00:22:48
your goal to be New Zealand's best ever
00:22:50
male swimmer I think so I mean I've
00:22:52
never really thought about it like that
00:22:54
I mean we've always seen danion the guy
00:22:56
that won I think he
00:22:59
he won two golds in one o games late
00:23:03
yeah that was before you were born right
00:23:04
like the year yeah yeah so like we've
00:23:08
always seen that as unachievable like we
00:23:11
we don't we don't think well in my eyes
00:23:13
like I don't think anyone could ever do
00:23:15
that again I mean but you never really
00:23:18
know right like we could but I've always
00:23:20
seen as seen that as unachievable yeah
00:23:24
okay well that gets us up to speed with
00:23:26
where we are now so let's um Loop all
00:23:27
the way back to the beginning and then
00:23:29
work our way through the Louis CIT story
00:23:31
so um early years when did you start
00:23:35
swimming honestly I'm not sure like Mom
00:23:38
and Dad threw me in the water at 3 um to
00:23:40
learn how to swim dad dad was a Clubby
00:23:43
so he did surf life saving um he's from
00:23:45
py North as well actually um and he got
00:23:49
me and my two older sisters into
00:23:50
swimming because he was never very good
00:23:53
at swimming in the in the surfly saving
00:23:56
scene um he reckoned that he'd be like
00:23:58
the best ever surf life sa if he just
00:24:00
knew how to swim that's why he got me
00:24:02
into swimming yeah I don't know if
00:24:04
there's much of a surf life saving scene
00:24:05
at um hangi yeah that was his local Surf
00:24:08
Club yeah was it actually a hell of a
00:24:11
beach it's like a state highway like you
00:24:13
have cars like zooming along the beach
00:24:15
yeah that's crazy so Al um so it's like
00:24:20
one of your earliest memories then just
00:24:22
swimming um what other sports did you do
00:24:25
everything I was running golf I was a
00:24:28
bloody Road cyclist North Ireland
00:24:31
Champion um who you what age year eight
00:24:34
so
00:24:35
14 wow why did why did you give that
00:24:38
away uh I just chose summing yeah so you
00:24:41
sort of um okay so you went one of these
00:24:44
kids that was doing like 6:00 a.m.
00:24:46
swimming swimming school all
00:24:48
through not really like I would I mean I
00:24:51
would be busy every morning and every
00:24:53
afternoon with sport whether it was
00:24:54
swimming or other sports um like I did
00:24:57
rugby as well but yeah like I sort of
00:25:01
just Mom and Dad were like you just do
00:25:02
whatever you want do everything um and
00:25:05
then later down the track you can sort
00:25:06
of choose what one you you want to do
00:25:09
and summing sort of picked me I guess
00:25:11
because I was reasonably good at it um
00:25:13
and with success you sort of that is fun
00:25:17
so I just kept going with swimming and
00:25:19
sort of slowly dropped everything else
00:25:22
that's such a good attitude by your
00:25:23
parents yeah I'm Co yeah Mom and Dad
00:25:26
were they're they're pretty awesome dad
00:25:28
ask me too many questions nowadays about
00:25:30
swimming what do you mean like what he
00:25:32
loves he loves well he loves swimming
00:25:34
now he's more knowledgeable in swimming
00:25:35
than I am but he especially because now
00:25:39
that I'm not in Wellington he doesn't
00:25:41
have that sort of daily you know we
00:25:43
don't cross paths every day um so he
00:25:46
loves asking me questions anything
00:25:47
swimming yeah well I suppose um yeah
00:25:50
asking you questions is better than like
00:25:51
telling you like you're messaging you
00:25:53
hey the swim went well but you could
00:25:55
have done this better or yeah yeah
00:25:57
they've always been good that yeah so um
00:25:59
yeah swimming some I'm I'm intrigued by
00:26:02
the sport like I've never been a swimmer
00:26:03
but all my cousins were and the the
00:26:06
amount of training that goes into it um
00:26:08
you can see why people end up dropping
00:26:09
off because for every Louis Cleber
00:26:11
there's probably like I don't know
00:26:13
another 5,000 swimmers that are going to
00:26:15
the pool at 6:00 in the morning with
00:26:16
their parents and going back to the pool
00:26:17
in the afternoon and never making it to
00:26:19
the S level you have it's a in terms of
00:26:21
training it's a it's a hell of a
00:26:23
commitment hey there so much work
00:26:25
involved yeah it is and like if you want
00:26:27
to be the best like you can't have
00:26:29
anything missing right like you have to
00:26:31
do everything right pretty much like
00:26:33
there's there's a few guys that would
00:26:34
get away with not doing everything but I
00:26:37
mean for me and especially in my event
00:26:39
like we we have to do everything right
00:26:43
we can't miss one session if you would
00:26:45
you miss a session that's someone else
00:26:47
that's got one extra session over over
00:26:49
you so like we yeah we're we're
00:26:52
pretty it's high performance to the to
00:26:55
the peak yeah how um how um tuned in
00:26:58
with Michael Phelps are you and the
00:26:59
Michael Phelps story and training ethos
00:27:01
and all that I think growing up a lot um
00:27:04
nowadays I don't really like to think
00:27:07
about too much um I mean like I'm always
00:27:09
learning I think most elite athletes
00:27:12
while the best in the world are
00:27:13
constantly learning about how other
00:27:15
people do things and um I've used I
00:27:18
guess a lot of his theories and what he
00:27:19
does I've tried to bring bring them into
00:27:21
what I do like the way he used to eat
00:27:24
was incredible right like everyone
00:27:25
everyone used to see how much he ate I I
00:27:28
don't think I could physically eat that
00:27:29
much ever but like fueling is like a
00:27:33
huge factor and or like a component yeah
00:27:35
but he he was like a training Savage um
00:27:38
like I saw a clip on YouTube of him
00:27:39
talking about um his reason for training
00:27:42
seven days a week and it's a thing
00:27:43
called compounding time and he's like if
00:27:45
um my opponent's only doing six days a
00:27:47
week by the end of the year I've got 52
00:27:49
more days training under my belt than
00:27:50
what they have when I um who that it did
00:27:53
make me think of you and the and the
00:27:55
lockdown lockdown phase um [ __ ] that
00:27:58
have been tough so you couldn't you
00:27:59
couldn't train in the pool um yet your
00:28:03
um you potential future opponents in
00:28:05
other parts of the world they're still
00:28:07
back they're back in the pool training
00:28:08
or they never had like training
00:28:10
restrictions on um what was that like
00:28:12
was it a good reset for you or was that
00:28:14
um like mentally really tough I think it
00:28:17
was it was a good reset for sure like I
00:28:19
hadn't I never really had any time off
00:28:22
like even since lockdown I haven't
00:28:24
really had any time off proper time off
00:28:26
um but it was tough tough like I mean
00:28:30
when you train 22 hours plus per week
00:28:35
and then suddenly you go from doing that
00:28:36
to doing nothing like what do you do
00:28:38
with your time I had all the Time in the
00:28:41
World to do whatever I wanted I play
00:28:42
Playstation like 12 hours a day like I
00:28:45
was like I literally just turned into a
00:28:46
Hermit um doing nothing but it was it
00:28:49
was good you know
00:28:51
it things like that I mean for short
00:28:54
periods of time right like it was
00:28:55
reasonably long but for short periods of
00:28:57
time things like that that happen they
00:28:59
just make you hungrier like they just
00:29:02
you feel you feel like you're missing
00:29:05
out so you want to do more to try get
00:29:07
yourself back onto back on track and I
00:29:09
think it just made me more motivated to
00:29:12
to get back onto you know the the
00:29:14
training regime and um I was lucky I
00:29:17
actually had a family in Wellington that
00:29:19
had a endless swimming pool in like
00:29:22
their house so they oh you're like a
00:29:25
like a like a big Spar pool but it's got
00:29:27
yeah you're swimmming against the
00:29:28
thing yeah yeah so um when like the
00:29:31
levels all allowed I don't know what
00:29:32
level it was that it was during the co
00:29:35
um they let me come in and do a bit of
00:29:37
swimming um every day for like an hour I
00:29:40
actually I cranked the like the thing so
00:29:43
high that every now and then I'd Short
00:29:45
Circuit the whole
00:29:47
house um so it was sometimes I I hit the
00:29:51
limit yeah yeah which was cool and I did
00:29:54
the same actually there was um last end
00:29:56
last year I went to the new Institute of
00:29:58
sport in Wellington um and we had the
00:30:00
The Flume or the the endless swimming
00:30:02
pool going max speed and I short
00:30:04
circuited the whole building yeah front
00:30:06
of feel you say this almost like a badge
00:30:08
of
00:30:09
honor it is an honor yeah so so how much
00:30:12
of um of what you do is um like natural
00:30:14
talent and how much of it is hard work
00:30:16
you mentioned just before uh 22 hours a
00:30:18
week training is it is it like a
00:30:20
combination of of both or is it way more
00:30:23
just um hard work than natural Talent
00:30:26
yeah I mean I'm not sure right like you
00:30:28
can get I think with swimming you can
00:30:29
get to a certain point as an age group
00:30:32
with natural Talent um and then once you
00:30:35
get um to like a I guess when you leave
00:30:38
High School like you're pretty much the
00:30:40
guys that are the best that mostly know
00:30:42
how to work hard um but yeah like
00:30:45
natural talent I think is probably a
00:30:47
pretty big component like I just I think
00:30:49
I grew up with the feel of the water um
00:30:53
like technique is huge in swimming like
00:30:55
if you're efficient in the water then
00:30:57
then you're to go and I think I I was
00:30:59
probably like naturally had a lot
00:31:02
of that um and that's probably because I
00:31:05
grew up in the water you know dad was a
00:31:07
Clubby um in the surf and we always used
00:31:10
to go surfing and stuff so I was sort of
00:31:12
just born into it oh that's
00:31:15
cool yeah what does an average week look
00:31:18
like you mentioned 22 hours yeah how's
00:31:21
that broken up well I say it's Tuesday
00:31:22
now right I've done 21k in the pool so
00:31:25
far um and I've got one more session
00:31:27
this afternoon
00:31:28
but we do like we split we sort of split
00:31:31
the week up into two Monday to Wednesday
00:31:33
and then Wednesday to Saturday um and so
00:31:38
I do two swim sessions on Monday with a
00:31:40
gym session and then Tuesdays two swims
00:31:43
Wednesday one swim in a gym and then the
00:31:45
afternoon you get the afternoon off so
00:31:47
it's like your reset then the second
00:31:49
half of the week you do two
00:31:52
Thursday a a Friday swim and then
00:31:56
gym and then
00:31:58
depending on who you are you might do
00:31:59
another swim so I'm adding that another
00:32:01
swim in on Friday and then Saturday
00:32:04
morning is like your final session of
00:32:06
the week and that's like your hardest
00:32:09
the best session of the week yeah oh my
00:32:11
God what what does a hard session look
00:32:13
like in terms of distance or intensity
00:32:16
bit a mixture of both yeah distance
00:32:18
intensity and short rest yeah so if you
00:32:22
add all those together then you got a
00:32:24
recipe for a a pretty hard session so do
00:32:27
you know um what you're doing before you
00:32:29
like have you got an app from your coach
00:32:30
or a diary from your coach or did you
00:32:32
just turn up and he wh writes it on a
00:32:33
whiteboard how does it work yeah I come
00:32:36
to the pool and I get handed a piece of
00:32:37
paper and that's when I find out what
00:32:40
I'm doing yeah my what I used to do what
00:32:43
my old program it used to be pretty
00:32:45
regim regimented you used to I used to
00:32:47
be able to sort of guess what I was
00:32:48
going to do that day you know we had
00:32:50
those hard well those key days where
00:32:52
there be key sessions um but moving into
00:32:55
this new program up here in Oakland um
00:32:57
it's like every day is a surprise so I
00:33:00
sort of have to prepare the same for
00:33:02
each each session cuz I do do you like
00:33:05
that or you're full of anxiety driving
00:33:07
to the pool um I quite like it you know
00:33:09
I think if I knew if I knew going in
00:33:12
like what I was doing it would give me
00:33:14
more anxiety but because I don't really
00:33:16
know then I've only really got like two
00:33:18
or 3 minutes before I get in the pool to
00:33:20
have that anxiety attack and then and
00:33:23
then do it lead oh my God it's so I I
00:33:26
don't think people would understand
00:33:28
like you know or comprehend just how
00:33:30
much work goes into it you must just be
00:33:31
exhausted all the time it makes me super
00:33:33
appreciative that you're here this
00:33:35
afternoon in between sessions yeah it's
00:33:38
it's I mean it's tough and you know I
00:33:39
was I think I was saying before like the
00:33:42
best way for me to explain it is
00:33:43
probably not a very good way to explain
00:33:45
it is I'm pretty much a vegetable 99% of
00:33:47
the time like I I have like very low
00:33:50
energy cuz we're we're heading you know
00:33:54
the we're redlining most of the time
00:33:56
we're here like well we're sing um and I
00:34:00
mean in my opinion like there's like
00:34:02
there's like where you're getting sick
00:34:04
there's like this bar here and then we
00:34:06
sit just below it so we're like we're
00:34:09
pushing just beyond just below Breaking
00:34:11
Point yeah so we're pushing just be like
00:34:13
just below Breaking Point um during a
00:34:16
End season yeah yeah I can see why you
00:34:19
only do it um like Olympic cycle by
00:34:21
Olympic cycle think um Michael FS I I
00:34:24
read that he was 11 when he like wrote a
00:34:26
12E a 12y year plan for his life and
00:34:29
it's like I don't know how you can how
00:34:31
you can do that because it's um yeah the
00:34:33
sacrifice involved it's it's it comes at
00:34:35
a huge personal cost I guess yeah I mean
00:34:38
I think my family probably feels it more
00:34:40
than me yeah what way um I mean I'm
00:34:43
traveling a lot um I mean now I'm not in
00:34:46
the same city as them and it's hard to
00:34:48
get home to to to see them because you
00:34:51
know I'm I guess I'm swimming most of
00:34:53
the week and it's actually hard to you
00:34:55
know find time to come back and travel
00:34:57
was
00:34:58
I mean it takes up energy right like if
00:34:59
I do a weekend trip and then I'm having
00:35:01
to get back in the pool um can be tough
00:35:04
um but yeah like I I do have to
00:35:07
sacrifice a lot of that time and social
00:35:10
time as well but also like I choose this
00:35:13
life right like I enjoy it this is this
00:35:15
is fun for me I'm I'm challenging myself
00:35:18
every day like I think if like for an
00:35:21
everyday person like I just set goals
00:35:23
and I'm chasing after them and it's
00:35:25
keeping me busy yeah it's a good
00:35:28
attitude there's um there's a podcast I
00:35:30
really like this guy called Jay shitty
00:35:31
have you heard of Jay shitty no he's
00:35:33
like a he put out a really good book
00:35:35
called um think like a monk and it's
00:35:37
about re one thing he talks about is
00:35:38
rephrasing things so if someone says to
00:35:40
you hey Louis do you want to come to a
00:35:41
party tonight um you could say oh I
00:35:44
can't I I have to go to training um but
00:35:47
his way of rephrasing is saying I get to
00:35:49
go to training like turn it into a
00:35:51
positive rather than negative rather
00:35:52
than you're missing out on something but
00:35:54
do you do you have much of a like a
00:35:55
social group do you have any friends
00:35:56
outside of swimming or anything yeah I
00:35:58
have people like I mean I've got heaps
00:36:01
of friends that like you know that I
00:36:03
that I catch up with all the time most
00:36:05
of the time it's just for coffee or
00:36:06
lunch or whatever because you know
00:36:07
that's have to eat anyway um but yeah
00:36:10
like a lot of my my circles are summers
00:36:12
you know guys that I train with day in
00:36:14
day out I'm pretty lucky that um you
00:36:17
know the guys that I sub next to are
00:36:19
some of my best mates um and the guys
00:36:21
that I compete with around the country
00:36:22
also my best mate so you know we we all
00:36:25
sort of live similar Lifestyles um
00:36:27
obviously a lot of us are different
00:36:29
stages of our career um but yeah like we
00:36:32
have so much fun during during the day
00:36:34
during training and stuff like that yeah
00:36:35
yeah well that makes perfect sense
00:36:37
because I think in any sort of like
00:36:38
working environment you sort of become
00:36:40
you become friends with the people that
00:36:41
you spend most of your time with right
00:36:42
so it makes perfect sense but for
00:36:44
example your your 21st birthday what did
00:36:46
that look like well it was it was
00:36:49
actually meant to have a 21st birthday
00:36:51
um but it was during so the Olympics
00:36:55
just got cancelled and so I was like
00:36:57
sweet I'm going to have a 21st um and
00:37:00
then I was like a week out from having
00:37:02
the 21st was meant to be like a normal
00:37:04
21st you know like do all the normal
00:37:06
stuff and then like the the week of the
00:37:09
21st uh Co lockdown happened in ockland
00:37:12
so all my Oakland mates couldn't come
00:37:14
down so we had to cancel it um but I
00:37:16
still had like a little get together but
00:37:17
it was just like any normal 21st even
00:37:19
without the orlanders yeah so so you've
00:37:22
never been like a like a big partyer or
00:37:24
a big drinker or anything like that no
00:37:26
not overly like I
00:37:28
I don't really like alcohol like if I'm
00:37:31
good yeah like I mean I like some things
00:37:33
like is obviously the rtds that you
00:37:35
drink and they're just like drinking
00:37:36
juice um but yeah like I I'm either I'm
00:37:41
on two spectrums right like I'm either
00:37:42
drinking nothing or I'm drinking
00:37:44
everything and I'm I'm ending up in the
00:37:46
gutter sort of thing so like and I don't
00:37:49
do that often and that that might be
00:37:50
once a year you you'd be um a super
00:37:53
lightweight wouldn't you like I'm
00:37:54
imagining after the common worth games
00:37:56
where you won like two gold medals and a
00:37:57
bronze you you having a a massive Bender
00:38:00
after that would be three beers wouldn't
00:38:01
it yeah if that
00:38:04
yeah oh that's cool that's awesome what
00:38:07
would your girlfriend say about so you
00:38:09
you mentioned um before your girlfriend
00:38:10
moved from Australia to be with you and
00:38:12
now she's stuck in Wellington and you've
00:38:14
moved from Wellington to here what would
00:38:16
um if she was here in the room what
00:38:17
would she say that you like to be around
00:38:19
like during the week are you like are
00:38:21
you in between swimming sessions like
00:38:23
are you grumpy are you like a beer with
00:38:25
a sore head or uh um good question we
00:38:29
should actually get her in she's up here
00:38:30
at the moment um but I
00:38:33
think like a a mixture you know
00:38:35
sometimes I'm just tired um a lot of
00:38:38
time I'll she'll she's into walking and
00:38:40
running and stuff um she'll want to go
00:38:41
for a walk I can walk into a certain
00:38:43
point and then I get tired so I either
00:38:45
get on my bike and walk next to her I
00:38:47
like bike next to her um you tired from
00:38:50
walking yeah M I'm was tough yeah
00:38:53
actually um the world doesn't know this
00:38:56
but um whenever we go to competitions
00:38:59
like walking is huge for swimmers so we
00:39:00
try and minimize as much walking as
00:39:02
possible and even weight on our
00:39:04
shoulders so you know how most people
00:39:05
have a backpack we go to the extreme of
00:39:08
taking our suitcases to the pool so we
00:39:10
just we minimize full weight off our
00:39:12
body um is that is that overthinking it
00:39:15
or is that one of those like marginal
00:39:16
gains I think it's just one of those
00:39:18
marginal gains yeah cuz like when you're
00:39:21
in a village type scenario walking you
00:39:22
are walking a lot you're walking to the
00:39:25
buses um you're walking from the bus to
00:39:27
wherever you want wherever you're going
00:39:29
um you have to walk to the Food Hall you
00:39:31
just you do a lot of additional walking
00:39:34
that you wouldn't normally do during a
00:39:35
normal week of training yeah yeah I
00:39:37
suppose it's easy to um without even
00:39:39
thinking about it get that step count up
00:39:41
eh yeah yeah for sure but still going
00:39:43
for a STW with your your misses come on
00:39:45
yeah like that's need jump on a live
00:39:46
scoter then non-negotiable I guess I I
00:39:49
do have to do it yeah but I think yeah
00:39:51
like you said like I think I I am like I
00:39:54
am sometimes a mixture you know happy
00:39:55
sad um like the week of that competition
00:39:59
at the world Champs like I went went the
00:40:02
greatest high at the end and I had a
00:40:05
roller coaster fix before that you know
00:40:07
I think even if like if I asked her how
00:40:10
she thought I was feeling throughout the
00:40:11
week she would have said yeah he you
00:40:14
know he ended up being really happy but
00:40:17
the 3 days before that I was down in the
00:40:19
dumps you know like I was I was pretty
00:40:21
upset with myself um and yeah like to
00:40:24
turn it around um she probably would
00:40:26
have thought she was pretty proud of
00:40:27
Yeah well yeah I mean that's that's the
00:40:30
thing like sitting in front of you now
00:40:31
it's the first time we've met we've been
00:40:32
talking for 40 minutes you can put on a
00:40:34
like a mask and even though you've swam
00:40:36
21 K in the last two days you can put on
00:40:38
a mask and be pleasant but for um
00:40:41
someone that knows you intimately you
00:40:42
tend to drop that mask so she gets to
00:40:44
see the real unfiltered you how um how
00:40:47
has your mental health been is it is it
00:40:49
pretty good yeah I think it is like I I
00:40:52
went through probably a period last year
00:40:55
where it was like not very good I mean
00:40:58
when was that the Wellington stuff which
00:40:59
we yet to get to yeah it sort of it sort
00:41:02
of started when I didn't swim so well
00:41:04
last year at our our key key event and
00:41:07
um I had to change a few things to to
00:41:09
get myself back on track and um I I feel
00:41:13
like you don't really sometimes know
00:41:15
that you're struggling until you know
00:41:18
you have that you have a moment um and I
00:41:21
had that moment last year where I was
00:41:22
like actually
00:41:24
like I'm probably not in a good space
00:41:26
right now you know I I wasn't I wasn't
00:41:30
putting in 100% of my effort to to make
00:41:33
sure I was being a fast swimmer um and
00:41:36
that's when I sort of I guess made the
00:41:39
decision that I was no longer going to
00:41:41
take crap from people around me in my
00:41:44
environment so I you know that's maybe
00:41:46
when I started burning a few Bridges
00:41:48
with the Wellington city council and
00:41:50
those sort of things so yeah by the way
00:41:51
I'm firmly team
00:41:53
leis but what was um yeah what was the
00:41:55
moment in particular where you realized
00:41:57
[ __ ] it's not where it should be I just
00:41:58
swam like [ __ ] yeah yeah like real [ __ ]
00:42:01
I mean it wasn't real [ __ ] but it was
00:42:02
[ __ ] um and I thought I deserve more um
00:42:06
and yeah I just had a realization of you
00:42:09
look back on that previous six months of
00:42:13
what you were doing on a day-to-day
00:42:14
basis and I I didn't think it was it was
00:42:16
good for me and I I wasn't happy with
00:42:18
with it I wasn't happy with myself yeah
00:42:20
have you had have you been to a sports
00:42:22
psychologist or you had access to one
00:42:23
over the years yeah yeah I I I've had a
00:42:26
couple yeah um and I I do enjoy talking
00:42:29
with them I do find it really tough for
00:42:33
me as myself to to get deep and to
00:42:35
really like express my feelings there's
00:42:37
a lot of guys that I train with that are
00:42:39
like really open and can like easily
00:42:42
talk about how they feel but I sort of
00:42:45
can't you got walls up yeah like walls
00:42:47
up but like I I tried drop them but I
00:42:49
don't know how to you know cheer yeah so
00:42:53
it is it is interesting yeah that is
00:42:55
interesting yeah it's um vulnerability
00:42:57
is like a really big word these days and
00:42:59
it's you know I'm probably about the
00:43:01
same age as your dad so we grew up in a
00:43:03
different generation where you just
00:43:04
didn't show any sort of weakness but you
00:43:06
like to think it's getting better but I
00:43:08
suppose often it comes down to a
00:43:09
personality type you just you know you
00:43:10
feel comfortable sharing that stuff or
00:43:12
you don't I'm trying to get better at it
00:43:13
cuz I understand how important it is and
00:43:15
it's really cathartic as well yeah yeah
00:43:17
yeah I mean my my dad's probably similar
00:43:19
like he's he's a tough man um and I feel
00:43:22
like I'm probably pretty similar to them
00:43:24
even though I don't like to say that but
00:43:26
yeah it is tough
00:43:28
yeah oh good on you
00:43:30
um okay
00:43:32
so we'll go the first com with gam so
00:43:34
they were the First Comm games you went
00:43:35
to they were the Gold Coast ones so you
00:43:38
were how old at the time were you still
00:43:39
at school I just left school 18 so I the
00:43:44
yeah I'd been out of school like three
00:43:45
months that's crazy hey crazy so you go
00:43:49
from just leaving school to being um
00:43:51
like a bronze you've got a bronze medal
00:43:52
at those games right yeah yeah and I
00:43:54
wasn't even meant to be there like I
00:43:56
wasn't selected on the team in the
00:43:58
original um announcement and it was like
00:44:01
uh yeah you're not on the team but we
00:44:04
could find you a spot just before the
00:44:06
games um and this is when I was like all
00:44:08
right well I finished school so I want
00:44:10
to go to R&V and do all the festival
00:44:12
normal nor like finish school type stuff
00:44:16
um and then they were like when the
00:44:17
announcement happened they were like
00:44:18
obviously yeah didn't make team but you
00:44:21
know you could make it so I was like all
00:44:23
right so do I train like I'm going or do
00:44:26
I just go to the normal school stuff and
00:44:28
they were like well you probably got to
00:44:30
train like you're going so I spent the
00:44:32
next like however many months just
00:44:33
training as if I was going and then I
00:44:35
was lucky enough to obviously get that
00:44:37
call up um and I knew if I wanted to get
00:44:39
if I knew if I got the call up I didn't
00:44:42
want to be not prepared or not take that
00:44:46
opportunity for granted um and I was
00:44:48
just lucky that um I just grabbed it
00:44:51
with both hands and went in to the games
00:44:55
obviously no one knew who I was I'd
00:44:57
never properly done an international
00:44:59
competition and managed to snag the
00:45:01
bronze which was pretty cool for me yeah
00:45:04
that was amazing um what was that like
00:45:06
for you uh suddenly you go from you're
00:45:08
being on nobody's radar to I suppose
00:45:10
getting a bit of media coverage back
00:45:12
home a little bit of recognition and
00:45:14
stuff um did you did you did did things
00:45:17
feel any different when you came back
00:45:18
I'm guessing in particular in that sort
00:45:19
of pool environment yeah I I felt like a
00:45:22
superstar right did you honestly I
00:45:24
thought my life would
00:45:25
change I thought I was going to be a
00:45:28
millionaire um welcome to a high
00:45:30
performance sport
00:45:31
buddy um but yeah it was cool like I was
00:45:35
like the man in the group you know like
00:45:37
I was the guy yeah I was rolling around
00:45:38
with the bronze medal um I actually had
00:45:40
to go back and do like our Nationals
00:45:42
after which was like the week after um
00:45:45
and yeah everyone was it was pretty cool
00:45:47
like I I loved sharing that moment with
00:45:50
with all my mates you know they were I
00:45:52
was probably the only one in my Edge
00:45:54
group that had qualified for the games
00:45:56
at that point um but yeah it was so much
00:45:59
fun just coming back and like sharing
00:46:01
that experience with everyone were you a
00:46:03
comth games family growing up CU I feel
00:46:05
like there's two sorts of families
00:46:06
families that commor games isn't really
00:46:08
a thing and family is where it is like I
00:46:09
was a massive commor games um household
00:46:13
growing up so I understand the import
00:46:15
the importance of it but a lot of people
00:46:17
that like me Olympics and nothing else
00:46:19
we used to love it at Olympics comth
00:46:21
Games those like we were glued to the TV
00:46:24
um and I mean we had sort of personal
00:46:26
connections cuz cuz we I mean I swam a
00:46:29
lot of the time next to the guys that
00:46:31
were going to the comth games in
00:46:32
Wellington they used to be a high
00:46:33
performance unit down there um and I
00:46:35
remember watching Gareth Keane who's
00:46:37
like a new zealan record holder in the
00:46:39
Turner back and you think he still has a
00:46:41
lot of those records and he got a silver
00:46:43
middle and I mean I just used to idolize
00:46:45
guys like that and that was probably
00:46:48
part of the motivation to be like yeah I
00:46:49
want to do that and so um yeah that was
00:46:52
cool being able to grow up next to those
00:46:53
guys so so that bronze that you got
00:46:55
where you when you were 18 uh um what
00:46:57
did your parents do with that or what
00:46:58
did you do with that like the physical
00:47:00
metal yeah yeah yeah um it's in
00:47:02
Wellington I think it's in my um little
00:47:05
townhouse still in Wellington in the
00:47:07
just hidden in a corner somewhere I do
00:47:09
love it's actually not this so it's on
00:47:12
display somewhere not in a sock drawer
00:47:14
no no it's not on display yeah it's it's
00:47:16
it's like literally in a probably a sock
00:47:17
draw sort of
00:47:19
thing no I have a I have a box of
00:47:21
international medals um that are like I
00:47:24
sort of know where they are um that I
00:47:25
usually pull out um but that is my
00:47:28
probably still to this day my favorite
00:47:30
metal and metal box just because it was
00:47:33
like it was so special to me to be able
00:47:36
to get to get that one yeah yeah there
00:47:38
must have been a crazy feeling those
00:47:39
games so there you are like fresh out of
00:47:41
school um basically there as a as a
00:47:43
tourist like no one's expecting I don't
00:47:45
know if you were expecting to do that
00:47:46
well yourself but no one else was
00:47:48
expecting you to do that um and then
00:47:50
you're in that environment and um yeah
00:47:53
were you sort of like fanboying a bit
00:47:55
yeah being in the New Zealand yeah yeah
00:47:57
like I was I was rolling up to the the
00:47:59
village and I was seeing all my idols
00:48:01
and I was like yeah I'm one of the boys
00:48:02
like
00:48:04
I'm cuz when you're in the games
00:48:06
environment you have sort of like the
00:48:07
team New Zealand um apartment complex
00:48:10
and so um everyone's in the same
00:48:12
building and you know everyone meets
00:48:14
down the bottom where there's like New
00:48:16
Zealand snacks and like there's Team New
00:48:18
Zealand guys and they look after you and
00:48:20
it's it's a whole lot of fun and we I
00:48:22
mean I was on the team with Sophie Pasco
00:48:24
and she was like the legend she is the
00:48:27
legend of swimming in New Zealand
00:48:29
especially paralympic swimming um and
00:48:33
like I was chatting with her every day
00:48:35
like it was the coolest thing ever um
00:48:37
and so yeah what what sort of chats with
00:48:39
these people like pecking their brains
00:48:41
about different bits and pieces or yeah
00:48:44
I guess so and just life chats we have
00:48:46
these things well this thing called a
00:48:48
lift chat so um every Olympic Games you
00:48:52
what do you do you have a lift Chap and
00:48:54
yeah it's like oh how you going what
00:48:56
what Vue got or wins the final and you
00:48:59
know that sort of thing and it's it's
00:49:00
usually only like maybe 10 seconds cuz
00:49:02
you know that's how long last yeah yeah
00:49:04
so that's like the the lift chat yeah I
00:49:07
love that and did you um did do you form
00:49:09
any like firm friendships with anyone
00:49:11
I've had I've had um Sam Tanner the 1500
00:49:14
meter Runner and H ker the high jumper
00:49:16
both on the podcast and they sort of um
00:49:18
they met at one of those events Olympics
00:49:19
or com games and like bro it out pretty
00:49:21
hard you met any um anyone that you've
00:49:24
become like FM friends with um yeah over
00:49:26
the years for for sure um David liy
00:49:29
probably um he's a weightlifter he's
00:49:31
like I remember him for like it's a very
00:49:34
unlikely peering yeah yeah like I I mean
00:49:37
we we've only met like maybe three times
00:49:40
but like we're like best friends on
00:49:41
Instagram um well I reckon we are um but
00:49:44
I remember him being at the the go Coast
00:49:46
com games and I thought he was like an
00:49:48
absolute Legend because he used to roll
00:49:50
around with like a strap um like a strap
00:49:52
rounders thing with like the speaker and
00:49:54
he'd be like the team DJ it's like all
00:49:56
all the bus rides and stuff he'd be
00:49:58
rolling the the tunes and stuff so I
00:50:00
thought he was the man and then a couple
00:50:02
years down the track like we're sort of
00:50:04
good mates now so it's pretty sweet oh
00:50:06
that is so cool and then okay so that
00:50:08
was the uh the com games your first
00:50:09
experience that s of an International
00:50:11
Event and then there was the um the
00:50:12
Olympics um which and hind like giving
00:50:16
this is the beginning of your career and
00:50:17
you've got Paris and whatever's beyond
00:50:19
that it's probably an exciting thing to
00:50:21
be involved with because there's never
00:50:22
going to be another Olympics like that
00:50:23
you wouldn't think in your lifetime like
00:50:24
the co games yeah it's wild right
00:50:28
like I mean I'm not sure what a normal
00:50:31
Olympics is like cuz I've never been to
00:50:33
one um but you could see the potential
00:50:35
and you could see how big it would have
00:50:37
been um but yeah it was cool and I think
00:50:40
that was one thing that was was
00:50:42
incredible was that brought the whole
00:50:44
New Zealand team together because we
00:50:46
couldn't do anything like we were just
00:50:48
stuck we're pretty much stuck in our
00:50:50
apartment complex um during the
00:50:53
non-competition times so where did I
00:50:57
feel like form quite a lot of
00:50:58
relationships with just like the New
00:51:00
Zealand team and um I remember talking
00:51:03
to Hamish Bond it was the first time I'd
00:51:05
properly met him and he comes up to me
00:51:07
and he's like Louis you're a lot smaller
00:51:11
in person and I was like Chez mate
00:51:16
like thought I was this big dude but n
00:51:20
I'm skinny man he's not he's not big
00:51:23
himself as well especially not um
00:51:25
standing next to ER
00:51:27
I've never youve never met him is he
00:51:29
you're quite tall is he shorter than you
00:51:31
he's definitely shorter than me he's
00:51:32
probably got a bit more like muscle but
00:51:35
yeah he wasn't he wasn't too big
00:51:37
himself feels like a mind game in a way
00:51:40
say to someone that's taller than you
00:51:41
yeah yeah that's cool was that a good
00:51:43
experience at the Olympics um yeah I
00:51:45
loved it I mean like you probably saw it
00:51:47
on Tik Tok social media like I sort of
00:51:50
tried to make the most of it um I mean
00:51:52
the main reason why I did so much Social
00:51:54
Media stuff is because when I used to
00:51:56
watch the Olympics you know these guys
00:51:57
would be having McDonald's and stuff and
00:52:00
they never really used to show much like
00:52:02
you'd see maybe the photo um but I guess
00:52:05
with the Tokyo Olympics like videos were
00:52:08
a thing and Tik Tok had just sort of hit
00:52:11
the charts and everything so I was like
00:52:13
well little Lewis little kid Lewis 10
00:52:16
years ago would love to see this so I'm
00:52:18
going to share it and that's just sort
00:52:20
of how it all kicked off and I think
00:52:23
yeah I was just trying to show the
00:52:25
little LS what I was was doing yeah well
00:52:27
and um also yeah big Dom here well I me
00:52:31
it really resonated because yeah as I
00:52:33
said earlier it's like a peek behind the
00:52:34
curtains that um 99% of us never get to
00:52:38
see you know i' I've always been
00:52:40
intrigued about the you know the layout
00:52:41
of the food court at the Olympics and
00:52:43
things like that and it was a
00:52:44
interesting Peak behind the curtain but
00:52:45
your biggest um tick Tok from those
00:52:47
games was you lining up for a free pair
00:52:49
of asex like 9 million views that was
00:52:52
quite alarming that that had so many
00:52:54
views why do why do you think that um
00:52:56
Reon so much everyone loves free [ __ ]
00:52:58
you
00:52:59
know and I mean I'm I'm not no different
00:53:02
like I love some free [ __ ] honestly the
00:53:05
the shoes were the worst shoes of like I
00:53:08
don't use them at all they they were
00:53:09
like slippers they weren't even proper
00:53:11
shoes but like the idea of like getting
00:53:14
them custom fitted and all that sort of
00:53:17
crap was like I think people just like
00:53:20
were like damn that is so cool but
00:53:22
honestly the experience wasn't that cool
00:53:24
like it was it was pretty like you got
00:53:26
your your your foot scanned on the
00:53:28
scanner and then it just determined what
00:53:31
size um inner so you got everyone got
00:53:34
the same size shoe but it was just the
00:53:35
in AOL right yeah so I don't know it was
00:53:38
pretty cool and I mean I I was filming
00:53:40
it and I was like giggling to myself
00:53:41
because I was like this is going to go
00:53:43
viral no matter what yeah so it was
00:53:45
quite funny it was a fun experience yeah
00:53:47
was it that the games where they had the
00:53:48
wooden beds know the the cardboard
00:53:50
beards yeah they were actually made a
00:53:52
cardboard yeah yeah so actually it was
00:53:54
funny I was on Tik Tok I was known is
00:53:56
the um official bed tester of the games
00:54:00
so I did like this whole brand deal with
00:54:01
Tik Tok being like the official bed
00:54:03
tester it was quite cool but yeah the
00:54:05
the beds were interesting they were
00:54:08
strong I mean David ly slipped on one
00:54:09
and didn't break it so obviously there's
00:54:11
not a problem with issues um they even
00:54:14
had a bid extension so if you're a
00:54:17
basketball player you could throw
00:54:19
another couple meters on the end of the
00:54:21
bed and you're good to go yeah soing it
00:54:23
was cool and did you um due to the natur
00:54:26
of the games being the co games I don't
00:54:27
know if you have any cool stories but
00:54:29
anyone that's been to the Olympics I ask
00:54:31
about the um you cool Olympic stories if
00:54:33
any I think the the winner so far would
00:54:35
be Susie Bates you know Susie Bates New
00:54:37
Zealand cricketer no yeah New Zealand
00:54:39
New Zealand Cricket Legend but when she
00:54:41
was like actually probably similar age
00:54:42
to what you were at the com games she
00:54:44
was 18 19 she went over playing um
00:54:48
basketball for New Zealand and the bunch
00:54:50
of the girls ended up on um the bus with
00:54:52
the American redeem team so they they
00:54:55
went out St in with um LeBron and Kobe
00:54:59
ended up in a booth with David beam as
00:55:01
well I think that's the the Pinnacle of
00:55:03
Olympic story so far did you have
00:55:04
anything or um everyone walking around
00:55:06
with a mask on so you couldn't tell who
00:55:08
was who yeah I guess probably the main
00:55:11
the main story I probably shouldn't talk
00:55:13
about just cuz that's the one we want
00:55:15
yeah that's the one you want um but
00:55:18
another one that I'd probably I'd openly
00:55:20
talk about was on like the last night of
00:55:22
competition you're not allowed to drink
00:55:23
you know like well the co games weren't
00:55:26
allowed to drink but we actually managed
00:55:29
to sneak in like a bowl of vodka
00:55:33
um and anyway there was like it was a
00:55:35
last night of swimming so all the
00:55:36
swimmers had decided that we were going
00:55:39
to go meet on the grass field in front
00:55:40
of the Olympic rings that where everyone
00:55:42
gets the photo and we were all there
00:55:44
like there was a huge group of us and we
00:55:46
pretty much I mean were outside so we
00:55:48
weren't adhering to any of the co
00:55:50
restrictions I guess we can probably say
00:55:51
it now because like oh no one cares
00:55:54
anymore no one cares anymore um
00:55:56
but yeah we were all just having a good
00:55:58
time you know like someone had a speaker
00:56:00
we were yarning like I was sitting next
00:56:02
to the guy that I just raced and he got
00:56:03
a silver medal sort of thing um and it
00:56:06
was a good time and then all of a
00:56:08
sudden like all these security guards
00:56:10
start marching out and this like
00:56:14
starting to surround us it was like
00:56:15
we're about to get like arrested and
00:56:19
then like everyone's like oh crap like
00:56:20
we're going to get in trouble here so it
00:56:22
was like disperse of athletes as this
00:56:26
as these security guards trying to tried
00:56:29
to surround us to to get us out but yeah
00:56:31
that was probably one of my like most
00:56:33
memorable stories yeah oh my God oh my
00:56:36
God and then um and you struggled a walk
00:56:38
you said
00:56:40
so yeah it was blurred vision a little
00:56:42
bit you know trying to get out yeah I
00:56:44
can see why you wanted to do that
00:56:45
because um you guys were well aware that
00:56:47
you were on a flight the next day coming
00:56:48
back to New Zealand to spend you know
00:56:50
two weeks in individual hotel rooms so
00:56:53
after going through an experience like
00:56:54
that with the Olympics I can understand
00:56:55
why you'd want want to LIT off a little
00:56:57
bit of steam yeah what was what was the
00:56:59
other Story the one that yourself SE
00:57:00
said on um oh it was just the plane
00:57:03
plane ride home oh yeah you might have
00:57:04
heard no nothing I mean it was just like
00:57:07
a good time I mean I was up in business
00:57:09
class cuz I'd actually um you well how
00:57:12
they work the plane because it's a
00:57:14
charted plane so we're the only ones on
00:57:15
the plane the Olympians um and because
00:57:18
of Co there was like three different
00:57:19
planes or whatever cuz we all had to
00:57:21
just like leave as soon as we finished
00:57:23
um competing um I actually some one of
00:57:26
the rugby boys came back and was like oh
00:57:28
I do want to trade seats cuz I just want
00:57:29
to sit with my boys so I got to trade
00:57:33
seats with him and so he he was in
00:57:37
economy or premium economy and I was I
00:57:39
was in premium economy cuz it's lottery
00:57:41
so you get your you find out your seat
00:57:43
when you go get your ticket at the
00:57:45
reception or whatever you get your
00:57:46
ticket from um and yeah like I I was up
00:57:51
in business class and just living the
00:57:53
dream yeah me and two of my mate Zack
00:57:56
Reed and Erica F they just like having
00:57:59
the best time I remember at some point
00:58:01
the pilot was sitting on the end of my
00:58:02
seat and we're having a yarn and I was
00:58:05
like who's flying the bloody
00:58:08
plane but yeah like it was it was such a
00:58:10
cool flight and because it was like just
00:58:12
us just the athletes um we we just had a
00:58:17
ball and we could just sort of like
00:58:19
unload the last two weeks of competition
00:58:22
yeah well that's a cool story there was
00:58:24
there was no Scandal no nothing that
00:58:26
came out about it no no was there was
00:58:28
there something that I missed there was
00:58:29
like a one article that was like oh
00:58:31
athletes go crazy on the plane um but
00:58:34
like it was humble like it was really
00:58:36
just like a good time I mean like I was
00:58:39
in business class there was only like 20
00:58:40
other people out there but you know we
00:58:42
were all just yarning having a good time
00:58:43
we had a few photos with a few gold
00:58:45
medals rolling around from the rowing
00:58:47
and like it was like such a cool
00:58:50
experience just like having that moment
00:58:52
where you're stuck in the air for 9
00:58:54
hours with all the other athletes yeah
00:58:56
that's amazing and were you happy with
00:58:57
your results at those games given it was
00:58:58
your first Olympics and you're still
00:59:00
quite you made two finals didn't you
00:59:02
yeah yeah I mean I think overall like
00:59:03
I'm really happy um I went into the I
00:59:07
got second out of the Heats going into
00:59:09
the final so I was essentially ranked
00:59:11
second um and I completely bombed the
00:59:14
final um so I I believe I should have
00:59:17
been on the podium um but I just didn't
00:59:20
swim very well in the final and Honestly
00:59:22
for probably two years I couldn't watch
00:59:25
the race because I was that disappointed
00:59:27
myself but now looking back on it like
00:59:29
it's it was a moment in time that you
00:59:31
know I [ __ ] up and I just we just have
00:59:34
to move on and we had to figure out ways
00:59:36
that I didn't [ __ ] up again yeah the way
00:59:40
you phrase it I don't reckon you've
00:59:41
moved on honestly probably not
00:59:44
but do you do that you you like self
00:59:47
self-critique self analyze beat yourself
00:59:49
up a bit after these things yeah I was
00:59:51
actually listening to your um Mark
00:59:53
Richardson podcast and I've probably
00:59:56
pretty similar to to him but maybe not
00:59:58
on the extreme but like I like in
01:00:01
training like I I remember those moments
01:00:03
and I try fix them yeah so you use it as
01:00:06
fuel yeah yeah more fuel than anything
01:00:08
else yeah and and in a sense I guess
01:00:11
those those Olympics I mean you were
01:00:12
very young at the time um it sort of
01:00:15
takes takes the unknown out of the the
01:00:18
Paris games where you you're potentially
01:00:19
a real hot real you know real shot at
01:00:21
meddling so it's not the big scary
01:00:23
Olympics anymore you're not a first Tim
01:00:25
you know what a is yeah 100% like I'm
01:00:28
going and I know my body more now like I
01:00:31
one of the biggest issues for me was
01:00:33
like the morning it was the morning
01:00:35
final so we would have the heat at night
01:00:37
and then we'd have to go to sleep and
01:00:39
then wake up the next morning and do the
01:00:40
the final and I didn't have a proper
01:00:43
protocol with racing in the morning um
01:00:46
I've got quite bad asthma um and it's
01:00:49
more like exercised and Juice Asma so um
01:00:52
I didn't have a protocol back then to
01:00:54
actually be able to hand or understand
01:00:58
like how I could get through and now I'm
01:01:00
moving on three years you know I've I've
01:01:02
got that routine that I've you know that
01:01:04
I do that you know allows me to actually
01:01:06
swim really well in the morning now yeah
01:01:09
you know in Paris if there's like a
01:01:10
massive line to get some free AIC you'll
01:01:12
be like nah yeah ex got them already
01:01:15
just going to rest up okay so after that
01:01:17
came the um the most recent com games
01:01:19
these were the Birmingham once they were
01:01:21
2022 2022 okay so that was like a year
01:01:24
and a half ago and and you [ __ ] you
01:01:27
cleaned up right a bronze medal and two
01:01:29
Golds yeah just insane that was pretty
01:01:32
sweet I think everything went right not
01:01:35
really to be honest like we'd have we'd
01:01:37
had the World
01:01:39
Championships um like just under a month
01:01:42
beforehand and I got food poisoning lost
01:01:45
three or four kilos um and
01:01:49
then um pretty much had to spend the
01:01:52
next month trying to put that weight
01:01:53
back on um and it also
01:01:57
this is another cool drunken story I
01:01:58
ended up in the gutter after that like
01:02:01
from having a really good night out the
01:02:03
town and I'd fallen down the stairs on a
01:02:06
boat and I'd really hurt my tailbone and
01:02:10
I couldn't do brist joke for like three
01:02:12
of the four weeks letting into the com
01:02:15
games um but obviously it didn't really
01:02:17
matter cuz I'd done a personal best time
01:02:20
and all that sort of stuff at the end
01:02:21
but it was a it was a moment where the
01:02:25
team man manager swimming his own was
01:02:27
really pissed at me like i' I'd [ __ ]
01:02:29
up like and i' accept that I probably
01:02:31
shouldn't have whatever I did I
01:02:33
shouldn't have done um but yeah it sort
01:02:36
of like was that moment where it's like
01:02:37
oh I just made more hungry to make sure
01:02:39
that I'd fix what I'd done um done wrong
01:02:42
and yeah like almost
01:02:44
overcompensate to put it right these um
01:02:47
these stories are are really pleasing to
01:02:49
hear because I'd hate to think that your
01:02:51
life is just um even though it's the
01:02:53
life you've chosen for yourself is just
01:02:55
you you know swimming for a few hours in
01:02:56
the morning having a nap swimming again
01:02:58
in the afternoon you know rinse and
01:03:00
repeat for 4 years without any sort of
01:03:03
social life so the fact that you are you
01:03:05
know I don't know letting your ha down a
01:03:07
little bit from time to time I think I
01:03:09
think yeah that's it's a good thing you
01:03:10
want to have some sort of um sense of a
01:03:12
normal life don't you yeah yeah I mean
01:03:14
and probably the stories that I'm
01:03:15
telling you are like the drunken stories
01:03:18
that probably makes me sound like an
01:03:19
alcoholic but like we no to me it sounds
01:03:24
like you're just like a a very very
01:03:26
normal you know guy in his early 20s
01:03:28
yeah like we have fun you know like and
01:03:31
I mean I've got the recipe that if I'm
01:03:32
having fun then I'm swimm fast yeah and
01:03:35
you know that is literally my recipe for
01:03:37
success for me um so yeah another thing
01:03:40
that's probably worth worth mentioning
01:03:41
not that I want to put words in your
01:03:42
mouth but it's like Mo most guys your
01:03:45
age have probably got a story like this
01:03:46
from every couple of weekends and it
01:03:48
probably involves some Kine or some MD
01:03:50
or whatever else the fact that I feel
01:03:52
like you've told me just about every
01:03:53
drunken Story You've Got pretty much
01:03:56
yeah i' maybe got one or two more but
01:03:57
that's
01:04:02
yeah so those yeah those games were good
01:04:04
did life change when after that at all I
01:04:08
you know you know you said you thought
01:04:09
after the the um Gold Coast games when
01:04:11
you won the bronze medal you thought you
01:04:13
know things were going to change did
01:04:14
life change after that two Golds and a
01:04:15
bronze um Yes actually quite a lot I
01:04:19
mean I thought that it was going to open
01:04:21
more doors for me and it did um it
01:04:23
brought in you know a lot of
01:04:24
opportunities like I've working with
01:04:26
fory bar and you know there's there's a
01:04:28
few opportunities that I that I got from
01:04:30
it but also it closed a lot of doors um
01:04:34
how so eyeballs so I had a lot more
01:04:37
eyeballs on me um straight after those
01:04:40
games and I felt like I was under the
01:04:42
spotlight during you know certain
01:04:44
situations and so you can't get drunk on
01:04:46
boats anymore yeah what you mean no no
01:04:49
like in terms of so I um this is like
01:04:53
restrictions around what I can do and
01:04:55
what I can't do like I would come to the
01:04:57
pool and it would be no you can't do
01:04:59
that
01:05:01
because there's people watching and if
01:05:04
you do that then everyone else is going
01:05:05
to want to have to do that and it's
01:05:06
going to be a nightmare so um I had a
01:05:10
essentially like I I came back from from
01:05:13
there and um I couldn't couldn't train
01:05:16
like I normally would train yeah and and
01:05:18
it was tough yeah is is that where the
01:05:22
the problem started with the Wellington
01:05:23
situation I for sure yeah it sort of
01:05:27
Amplified it yeah yeah I guess sort of
01:05:30
alluded to that a couple of times and
01:05:31
there's probably some people listening
01:05:32
that have no clue what we're talking
01:05:34
about but um yeah the reason you're
01:05:36
sitting here today in my podcast studio
01:05:38
in Oakland is because um you've recently
01:05:41
moved from Wellington where you had um
01:05:43
um a very sad breakup by all accounts um
01:05:46
with your coach Gary Hollywood who's
01:05:47
been coaching you since you were 16 so
01:05:49
he's been there through all these events
01:05:51
we've talked about you know you
01:05:52
finishing school you're getting that
01:05:54
first bronze you going to the Olympics
01:05:57
he he didn't go to the Olympics with you
01:05:58
he wouldn't have been allowed no he did
01:05:59
oh he did yeah yeah so he was there he
01:06:01
was at the Gold Coast with you when you
01:06:02
w every every sort of main swimming
01:06:06
achievement that you've had he's been by
01:06:08
your side and then um you reached the
01:06:10
tough decision of having to leave
01:06:11
Wellington and him and he's got a family
01:06:13
in Wellington um yeah how was that was
01:06:17
he sort of pushing you to
01:06:18
leave you you just you had to leave and
01:06:21
we'll get to the the ins and outs of
01:06:22
that soon but um yeah it was devast like
01:06:26
a like a relationship break up for both
01:06:27
of you guys yeah it was tough
01:06:30
and I mean Gary was the guy that put me
01:06:35
on the map right like he was the guy
01:06:37
that turned me into me um he was he was
01:06:41
so know he's so knowledgeable when the
01:06:43
world was swimming and um like he he was
01:06:46
the guy that I would go to and just be
01:06:47
like so what do I do in this situation
01:06:49
and he would just tell me um slightly
01:06:52
crazy all coaches have to be slightly
01:06:54
crazy you know slightly inhumane you
01:06:57
know they would that' give you sets that
01:06:59
you'd look at and you'd be like what the
01:07:01
hell am I going to do like this is tough
01:07:03
um and he worked me like a Workhorse um
01:07:06
and it was good you know I've just made
01:07:09
me the person I am um today but um it
01:07:13
got to the point yeah that it
01:07:15
was it was no
01:07:18
longer Workhorse it was there was too
01:07:20
many distractions um where I was so like
01:07:24
it was I had to make the decision um he
01:07:27
was like he still wanted to to keep to
01:07:30
keep the well he still wanted me to stay
01:07:32
he thought that it would um it would
01:07:35
come right um but I thought there was
01:07:37
there was too there wasn't enough time
01:07:40
to go through this process we'd been
01:07:42
through it three times of something
01:07:45
would happen and I'd get pissed off
01:07:48
because I could no longer swim like I
01:07:50
would want to swim um and so it was the
01:07:52
point where I was like right stuff this
01:07:54
like I'm I'm gone yeah and so he I mean
01:07:59
he couldn't move with me right he's got
01:08:01
a kid and and a wife that and a house um
01:08:05
yeah I always had a bit more flexibility
01:08:07
I guess yeah it's got to be hard cuz
01:08:09
there's a lot of Coach athlete
01:08:10
relationships that end um you know on
01:08:12
sort of bad terms but this is most
01:08:13
definitely not one of them um I read an
01:08:15
article and it sounds like he was like
01:08:17
heartbroken by the split yeah I think it
01:08:20
what hurts him more than me right like I
01:08:22
I continue my my journey
01:08:26
um whereas he he was his only job was to
01:08:29
coach me like he was employed by
01:08:31
swimming New Zealand just to coach me
01:08:32
and if I left then he loses his job so
01:08:36
he essentially lost his job um he was
01:08:39
able to sneak back into Club um coaching
01:08:42
and I'm sure he probably won't have an
01:08:44
issue getting jobs anymore just with you
01:08:48
know the talent that He is um but yeah
01:08:52
like he it's his dream as well right
01:08:54
like he wanted he he was
01:08:56
he sacrificed a lot to be a part of this
01:08:58
journey with me um and yeah it's sort of
01:09:01
the way ended was tough but yeah like I
01:09:03
think you know we're we both understand
01:09:06
yeah yeah there's an analogy I like to
01:09:09
use it's like um climbing a tree so you
01:09:11
get to a branch and then you hang to
01:09:12
that Branch for B then you want to climb
01:09:14
to the next branch and I suppose that's
01:09:15
just the natural progression in the
01:09:17
Louis Cleber story it's like you know
01:09:19
you just sort of
01:09:20
outgrew that pond which was Wellington
01:09:23
and Gary and you had to move on to the
01:09:24
next thing did he did he message you
01:09:26
after after Doha like he's still in
01:09:29
touch yeah yeah um if you know well you
01:09:32
the people that know Gary know that he
01:09:34
is like the worst person ever to try get
01:09:36
in touch with so any message any message
01:09:38
you get from him is like wow that is
01:09:41
insane so he he did message me um and I
01:09:44
was like cheers G mate like you're a
01:09:46
play Legend but um yeah like if you know
01:09:48
him you know that he's just like he's a
01:09:50
man of very few words on like in terms
01:09:53
of compliments and stuff yeah like if
01:09:54
you get you get a compliment from him
01:09:56
you must have done something bloody
01:09:59
well well that's cool yes so what was
01:10:01
the story with Wellington so um I read a
01:10:04
bunch of articles about this knowing
01:10:05
that you were coming up i s when it
01:10:07
happened I think that's when I first
01:10:08
reach out to you knowing you were moving
01:10:10
to Oakland so there was a little piece
01:10:11
on the news which I saw um but I went
01:10:13
into a deep dive in the last couple of
01:10:14
days reading articles and the whole
01:10:16
seems thing just seems faral like
01:10:18
actually embarrassing for New Zealand in
01:10:20
a way the fact that you've done so well
01:10:24
so far um in spite of all this sidh
01:10:27
that's been going on incredible it's
01:10:30
incredible so so what happened so you
01:10:32
swimming at a Wellington city council
01:10:34
pool yeah yeah so we like all I mean
01:10:38
there's not many private pools in New
01:10:40
Zealand at all there's probably two or
01:10:43
three and the two that are in New
01:10:46
Zealand I'm training at right now so um
01:10:49
they they I mean it's their pool they
01:10:51
own it they own the rules they do what
01:10:53
they want essentially um and we try to
01:10:55
influence them as much as we can and I
01:10:59
mean we learn a lot over you know every
01:11:03
time we go away we we come back with new
01:11:05
ideas or innovations that we want to
01:11:07
implement um and there's things that as
01:11:11
a swimmer um especially a competitive
01:11:14
swimmer you require so that's Lan space
01:11:17
you know you don't want to be swimming
01:11:18
with eight people or little kids or
01:11:20
whatever so you know we we had a deal
01:11:23
with the council that you know would
01:11:24
allow us to do that and um I
01:11:28
guess the simple the simplest way to
01:11:30
explain it is like it it just ended up
01:11:33
being too tough like we by the way from
01:11:36
what you've explained it sounds like a
01:11:38
very very reasonable
01:11:40
request yeah and and for the most part
01:11:42
we got it you know we we we did pretty
01:11:45
well with what we had in Wellington that
01:11:47
there's one major pull in the whole city
01:11:51
um and we were we were in there training
01:11:54
next to God knows how many different
01:11:56
sports and we pretty much got what we
01:11:58
what we needed um not maybe what we
01:12:01
wanted but what we needed um but yeah
01:12:04
like I said it just got really tough and
01:12:06
it got quite political um and like I
01:12:10
said before when you got eyes on you
01:12:12
like there was serious some serious eyes
01:12:15
on me doing my day-to-day business like
01:12:17
I sometimes like I would be swimming and
01:12:20
there'd be someone standing in up in the
01:12:22
stands like waiting for a wrong move for
01:12:25
for me to do something wrong um and it
01:12:28
just got so toxic that I was like yeah
01:12:31
like this I just can't be here and do my
01:12:33
job yeah do you feel like that's toall
01:12:35
poppy syndrome in a
01:12:37
way yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure for
01:12:40
sure yeah like I
01:12:42
mean I think it's in every sport some
01:12:46
way or the other um and I'm
01:12:49
probably like I get jealous of when
01:12:52
people compete really well and it's not
01:12:54
me but that just cuz probably more of my
01:12:56
competitive spir Spirit um but yeah like
01:13:00
there there was
01:13:01
a um a part of that and I think it was
01:13:05
in other swimmers as well like they I
01:13:09
mean if you see me doing well you want
01:13:11
to do what I'm doing right um and so
01:13:13
there was there was another club that
01:13:15
was formed that was essentially trying
01:13:17
to take off what what we were doing um
01:13:20
and and a coach that was really pushing
01:13:23
um to to get me out and Gary out he
01:13:26
honestly he despised both of us oh now I
01:13:29
I read is this the coach that um
01:13:30
complained about the music yeah so you
01:13:33
what's the story it says like you had
01:13:34
your own UI boom and were playing some
01:13:36
music and he was like it's it's not a
01:13:37
rave yeah yeah so if if you follow me on
01:13:40
Instagram I've got this this message
01:13:43
group chat calls the 6 a.m. club and it
01:13:47
was at 6:00 a.m. when this guy came up
01:13:49
and he was like you can't be playing
01:13:50
that it's not a rave and I was I was
01:13:53
essentially like [ __ ] you like we're
01:13:55
listen to music no matter what because
01:13:57
like I'm not here to fall asleep in in
01:14:00
the morning sort of thing like I'm like
01:14:02
I'm working this is my my work hours so
01:14:05
um and I didn't want to stop playing
01:14:07
music um everyone listens to music when
01:14:10
they're working out um but yeah I just
01:14:12
pretty much told him to piss off um and
01:14:15
that was when it's
01:14:16
like I try explain it as like
01:14:20
um what is what is it so it's gone out
01:14:24
of my head now um there's
01:14:27
passion and my passion was so strong for
01:14:31
this that nobody was going to stop me
01:14:33
from doing it because I knew that it was
01:14:36
it was going to make me successful and
01:14:39
if someone got in the way from me doing
01:14:41
that like I go from nice Sky lwis
01:14:44
to piss off like the like you're not my
01:14:49
mate anymore sort of thing so yeah like
01:14:51
I have a lot of passion for swimming and
01:14:53
success and um that was my formula and
01:14:56
yeah there was no way some some guy
01:14:59
random guy was going to stop me from
01:15:00
doing something that I that I thought
01:15:01
was going to help me I love that I love
01:15:03
that so much I've um I've been I got
01:15:06
I've been banging on about this in
01:15:07
podcast recently just because it's one
01:15:08
of the most recent books I've read
01:15:10
there's a guy called Tim Grover who's
01:15:11
like a personal trainer and mental
01:15:13
skills coach of the NBA and he just
01:15:15
talks about the guys he's worked with
01:15:17
you know LeBron MJ Kobe and they're all
01:15:21
[ __ ] like they they work themselves
01:15:23
harder than anyone else but they you
01:15:25
know they just have that this sort of
01:15:26
tunnel vision it's it's amazing I think
01:15:29
it's necessary but um so when did all
01:15:30
this go down like November October no um
01:15:34
so the actual like altercation happened
01:15:37
like years ago I think um so it's been
01:15:40
festering well I
01:15:43
guess nothing would have happened unless
01:15:45
well this probably wouldn't have risen
01:15:47
again the the that whatever happen um
01:15:51
but because I left and all the other
01:15:54
stuff blew up about the Council This
01:15:56
Guy's in Canada like he's not even in
01:15:57
the country anymore um he
01:16:00
obviously didn't like me that much that
01:16:03
get that far away to avoid your playlist
01:16:05
yeah yeah but he he's that far away and
01:16:07
he still wanted to talk about me so
01:16:10
obviously he he didn't like me that much
01:16:12
so I'd cause that much of a trouble for
01:16:14
him um but yeah like like you're saying
01:16:19
like sometimes we do have tunnel version
01:16:21
and I see myself as like one of the
01:16:23
nicest people ever like I see myself as
01:16:25
as a nice guy but like if you're trying
01:16:27
to you know undermine what I'm trying to
01:16:29
do then like you're going to hear about
01:16:31
it for sure yeah well this whole um
01:16:33
sesow I think it makes what's happened
01:16:35
in Doha even more remarkable like you've
01:16:38
had a buildup that none of your
01:16:40
competitors had it's and it's crazy to
01:16:42
think that so you you uprooted your life
01:16:45
moved to a new city um had to like get
01:16:47
your head down with a new coach new swim
01:16:49
team um and basically sort of reset and
01:16:52
start again and build on what you've had
01:16:53
and uh you've done so well paying
01:16:55
dividends already yeah thank you it's
01:16:57
it's been a journey for sure the last 6
01:16:59
months you know like yeah like you said
01:17:01
moving up here having to re out my life
01:17:03
I pretty much packed up a ute full of my
01:17:09
stuff so I left most of it in Wellington
01:17:12
um I'm living in an apartment that's 99%
01:17:14
empty you know I've got just the basics
01:17:16
up here right now um but yeah like it it
01:17:19
has been a journey and I was lucky that
01:17:22
I had Doha um world championship sh that
01:17:25
actually have that first sort of test
01:17:28
and I guess update to see where I'm at
01:17:31
you know especially with my relationship
01:17:33
with my new coach and my team and how
01:17:35
that training is paying off or if it was
01:17:37
paying off um and so it did make me a
01:17:39
little bit nervous going into sort of
01:17:42
the Doha the competition where I was
01:17:44
like well I don't really know where I'm
01:17:46
at if I'm if I'm doing well or I'm not
01:17:48
doing well I knew that was swimming fast
01:17:50
cuz we' done a few usually do some time
01:17:53
trials and stuff like that and I'd push
01:17:56
some some really good times just you
01:17:59
know before the competition so I knew I
01:18:00
was ready um but you never really know
01:18:03
until you known and that's when you you
01:18:05
race yeah oh how good and so so Paris
01:18:08
What's um what would a successful
01:18:11
Olympic campaign look like good question
01:18:14
I actually got asked that the other day
01:18:16
um yesterday to be to be fair um
01:18:19
and I think the most important thing
01:18:23
would be if I'm that I'm happy you know
01:18:25
I'm happy to be there I'm excited I'm
01:18:28
excited to race um I'm having a good
01:18:31
time and then obviously the next thing
01:18:33
would be I just want to be swim fast
01:18:34
right like that's that's ultimately why
01:18:37
I'm going I just want to go there and
01:18:38
swim fast um to be on the podium would
01:18:41
be even awesome more awesome um I think
01:18:43
it's I mean it's definitely um on the
01:18:46
table um but yeah just got to swim fast
01:18:49
yeah is it is it an expectation even
01:18:52
after the world after the world Champs
01:18:54
um um no I don't think so yeah I mean
01:18:58
maybe for New Zealand they see that he's
01:18:59
won a World Championship gold medal that
01:19:01
it should translate into Olympic gold
01:19:03
medal um but N I don't think so I feel
01:19:07
like now I've got to a point of my life
01:19:11
where I'm just like happy to just swim
01:19:13
and try swim fast and that's not whether
01:19:17
that's metals or not you know I mean a
01:19:19
Middle's always nice and you it's like
01:19:22
probably the I mean it's the the reason
01:19:24
we do this sport like sport right is to
01:19:26
to get on the podium but I mean um I
01:19:30
just want to be able to swim fast and
01:19:31
swim without restrictions yeah yeah you
01:19:33
you seem really good at um blocking out
01:19:35
that external pressure that external
01:19:37
noise yeah sometimes yeah yeah I
01:19:40
mean I guess so I
01:19:44
I if you talked to me three years ago
01:19:46
probably not but I think maturity yeah
01:19:49
mature um I think I'm really just like
01:19:52
in a happy place right now for me yeah
01:19:55
just always too tired to too tired to
01:19:57
think about it yeah yeah are you um how
01:20:00
are you with reading reading stuff
01:20:01
online about
01:20:02
yourself um do you do you read
01:20:05
everything or do you do you consciously
01:20:06
try and avoid reading about yourself I
01:20:09
mean it's it's got to be hard to do when
01:20:10
things are going really well yeah I mean
01:20:13
I mean when you open your your social
01:20:15
media or whatever you know a lot of time
01:20:17
it's the first thing you see because of
01:20:19
your bloody algorithms these days um but
01:20:22
yeah I'm mixed I I think I sometimes
01:20:24
chuckle at some of the stuff I'm I'm
01:20:26
reading like I think one of the news
01:20:28
stories that I've read um that someone
01:20:30
sent me as well was like Louis clber um
01:20:35
he his best part of the medley was the
01:20:37
breast stroke and that's like my worst
01:20:39
stroke but they they said that cuz I'd
01:20:42
caught up in the breast strob and so
01:20:44
sometimes I laugh I'm like ha like If
01:20:46
Only They Knew um but yeah I I read some
01:20:50
I quite enjoy sometimes reading it um
01:20:52
especially when you're swiming well you
01:20:53
know it gives a bit of that boost but
01:20:55
when you're not doing so well um you
01:20:58
just hope there's not too much negative
01:20:59
stuff but um I think generally it's I've
01:21:03
only really had good stuff which is cool
01:21:06
so I I've had Lisa Carrington on the
01:21:07
podcast Dame Lisa Carrington um she said
01:21:10
during like Olympic campaigns and stuff
01:21:12
she avoids all social media stays
01:21:13
offline all together because she just
01:21:15
doesn't need the additional pressure and
01:21:17
stuff well um yeah do you have any sort
01:21:19
of plan or strategy for Paris I think
01:21:22
this year I'll probably delete the apps
01:21:25
of my phone I oh not Tik Tok we need you
01:21:28
Louis yeah maybe not honestly I'll
01:21:29
probably say on Tik Tok yeah yeah I
01:21:31
haven't really done much posting since
01:21:34
uh since Tokyo to be honest on Tik Tok
01:21:36
um it's a bloody hard app to crack um
01:21:39
but yeah I'll probably delete like a lot
01:21:41
of those purely the messaging apps yeah
01:21:44
so it's it is really tough to I mean
01:21:47
it's awesome how much support we get
01:21:48
while away but it's really tough to
01:21:51
reply to everyone so I think I'll
01:21:53
probably delete or at least mute the
01:21:55
apps just so that I can just either just
01:21:58
post without restrictions and just not
01:22:00
have to reply to people yeah yeah well
01:22:02
speaking of um social media I put on
01:22:04
Instagram that you were coming over and
01:22:05
I asked if anyone had any questions
01:22:07
there there were a few um actually a few
01:22:09
comments as well um is it Ally your
01:22:11
sister oh yeah yeah yeah she said no
01:22:13
question just a a proud sister which is
01:22:15
really cool and two cousins as well two
01:22:18
cousins message yeah yeah everyone seems
01:22:20
to you be just be rooting for you be
01:22:23
really proud of the success which I
01:22:25
think says a lot about you any a way
01:22:26
yeah I think um I I mean I love my
01:22:28
family and you're tight yeah we're super
01:22:31
close and it has been tough not being in
01:22:34
Wellington with them especially because
01:22:36
I mean I used to have dinner at my
01:22:38
parents even though I didn't live with
01:22:39
my parents I used to have dinner at my
01:22:40
parents every single night and so Mom
01:22:42
really how far away did you live oh only
01:22:44
like 10 minutes yeah yeah less than that
01:22:47
um so I used to see them every day yeah
01:22:49
right do you drop off um like a basket
01:22:50
of washing or anything or sometimes yeah
01:22:53
sometimes yeah that sh Mom Mom's a
01:22:55
legend you know like I think moms moms
01:22:57
love that it feels like they're still
01:22:59
they're still muming in a way yeah she
01:23:01
probably misses it a little bit I mean
01:23:02
she still actually sends up bacon egg
01:23:04
pie for me that's how much she probably
01:23:06
miss yeah so I just had a bacon egg pie
01:23:08
last week sent up to me so I was it was
01:23:10
pretty cool and who are they going to
01:23:12
Paris who's going to Paris yeah they all
01:23:14
are yeah yeah yeah so they'll be their
01:23:15
tickets were like one grand a pop what
01:23:19
do you get you going do free tickets
01:23:21
nothing yeah yeah we get nothing I mean
01:23:24
they get if I make the final they get
01:23:26
the right to purchase one ticket I think
01:23:28
but they still have to buy it yeah yeah
01:23:30
so it's not like you know we the rugby
01:23:32
where you can the players sometimes can
01:23:33
give away tickets yeah we don't get any
01:23:34
of that unfortunately you can shout them
01:23:36
with your your salary from high
01:23:38
performance sport New Zealand yeah
01:23:39
Millions yeah quadruple figures or
01:23:42
whatever it is yeah all right some of
01:23:44
these questions uh what advice would you
01:23:45
give to Young athletes who look up to
01:23:48
you um have fun you know pick something
01:23:52
that you're enjoying um not necessarily
01:23:55
what you're good at because I think if
01:23:56
you're having fun then you'll get good
01:23:57
at it and be consistent and set goals
01:24:01
yeah like if you're find that recipe
01:24:03
where you know you're constantly trying
01:24:05
to improve then you know if you're
01:24:07
always improving then you're going to be
01:24:08
a world champion right um so yeah just
01:24:10
have fun and keep sitting those goals
01:24:13
when you're not training or competing
01:24:14
what are your favorite ways to relax and
01:24:17
unwind sleeping eating and gaming yeah I
01:24:22
haven't gamed a whole lot in the last
01:24:23
couple years especially since you know I
01:24:26
was living with my girlfriend in
01:24:27
Wellington but now that I'm not living
01:24:28
with my girlfriend um gaming is is back
01:24:31
on the radar for me which is quite nice
01:24:33
do you do you play with um friends
01:24:35
online strangers online or just one
01:24:37
player games or yeah I I try play with
01:24:40
people um but a lot of my mates have
01:24:42
girlfriends so they're off the game as
01:24:44
well now so um it's not great for
01:24:46
relationship so yeah no probably not so
01:24:48
much um but yeah I like gaming with
01:24:51
people and having a yarn yeah it's good
01:24:53
fun uh how do you prioritize your mental
01:24:56
health amidst the pressure of being an
01:24:57
elite athlete still learning not sure
01:25:00
yeah yeah yeah it's tough for sure it is
01:25:02
a it is a tough one eh it is a tough one
01:25:04
thankfully like you're at the point at
01:25:06
the moment where I suppose you you're
01:25:08
not um stressing about selection and
01:25:10
things like that like it's you're just a
01:25:12
a fast track into the into the games uh
01:25:16
so that's one less thing to worry about
01:25:18
but yeah a lot of pressure right yeah it
01:25:20
is I mean like I was saying before like
01:25:23
a lot of your funding and all that sort
01:25:25
of stuff is based on one or two
01:25:27
competitions a year so it can be quite
01:25:29
stressful even just making you know
01:25:31
those competitions but I think for me
01:25:33
I'm like you said in a position where
01:25:35
you know I can I've been making the
01:25:38
competitions um year after year and um
01:25:40
the qualifying time is like I'm quite
01:25:42
beyond that so um I think for a fringe
01:25:46
athlete it's worse because first of all
01:25:48
you're not getting any funding and
01:25:50
you're sometimes making the teams and
01:25:52
sometimes you're not making the teams so
01:25:53
like I'm I'm in a lucky position where
01:25:56
you know I've been I've been getting
01:25:57
that for a few years now yeah by the way
01:26:00
this um high performance sport funding
01:26:01
even the top tier stuff it's it's not
01:26:03
it's not great money is it no it's not
01:26:05
exceptional money like it's um you're
01:26:07
barely sort of scraping by aren't you
01:26:09
yeah I think if we're talking actual
01:26:10
numbers if you're Olympic gold millist
01:26:12
you're earning 60 Grand a year yeah so
01:26:15
that's average wage for you know someone
01:26:18
that's working class yeah yeah like
01:26:20
starting wage for a cop um yeah so did
01:26:23
you finish your degree you're doing a
01:26:24
comic degree at ve did you have finished
01:26:26
four more papers left wow so I'm I'm not
01:26:28
studying this yet but yeah I definitely
01:26:31
want to finish it off at some point but
01:26:33
yeah I've got four more papers left yeah
01:26:35
and you were interning at um foresight
01:26:36
bar and they've sort of been um champing
01:26:38
you a bit so do they what do they do
01:26:40
they throw some money away or yeah like
01:26:42
I'm a I'm technically an employee of um
01:26:45
foresight bar and they've been awesome
01:26:48
you know I've I've essentially how I'm
01:26:51
seeing it is um eventually hopefully
01:26:53
maybe I'll be able to properly integrate
01:26:56
into the business after I um finish
01:26:58
swimming um but yeah at the moment I'm
01:27:01
just sort of doing bits and Bobs I do a
01:27:03
few events for them as many as I can um
01:27:05
but yeah like they're s such an awesome
01:27:08
you know um organization to work with
01:27:11
yeah oh that's so cool it's really
01:27:13
pleasing when you hear about companies
01:27:14
like that like getting in behind
01:27:15
athletes and stuff it's really cool
01:27:17
because you sort of rely on it don't you
01:27:18
you need it yeah for sure and I've got
01:27:20
I've got a couple really good ones that
01:27:22
you know I work with u Fusion 5 as well
01:27:24
the their business solutions like it
01:27:26
little bit it company and there's a lady
01:27:28
Rebecca toal who just like loves
01:27:31
swimming and she's been my biggest
01:27:33
supporter since I started swimming
01:27:36
competitively in like well
01:27:38
internationally in like 2016 2017 so
01:27:40
she's been with me that long so it's
01:27:42
pretty cool oh that's neat oh thanks for
01:27:43
giving them a shout out there you go um
01:27:46
someone wondered on Instagram is it true
01:27:48
that you have a daily pie for breakfast
01:27:50
um I actually got caught right before I
01:27:52
went um to the Doha games or Doha War
01:27:57
Champs um at the Zid station getting a
01:28:01
pie I'm in a coffee but that was mostly
01:28:04
because I ran out of food so I needed to
01:28:06
eat something yeah oh that happen once
01:28:08
and suddenly you're the pie guy no it
01:28:10
happen it happened three times but yeah
01:28:13
but I C I got caught once yeah yeah
01:28:15
right right uh what's your what's s of
01:28:17
pie it was butter chicken pie butter
01:28:19
chicken pie oh controversial before a
01:28:20
swim mate yeah I mean it didn't have the
01:28:23
side effects that you probably thought
01:28:25
but it was it was good I I did enjoy it
01:28:27
but yeah a little bit controversial
01:28:29
speaking of yeah side effects with a
01:28:30
butter chicken pie similar question to
01:28:31
that from someone on Instagram um do you
01:28:33
pee in the
01:28:34
pool uh no comment
01:28:37
because either answer I give I'll I'll
01:28:39
get in trouble yeah but I will say I
01:28:42
think people can make their own minds up
01:28:43
you're sing 21k it's not practical to
01:28:46
get in and out of the PO yeah yeah yeah
01:28:49
sometimes especially when you're in a
01:28:50
main set you it's um you're not meant to
01:28:53
get out a main set and sometimes they
01:28:55
can go up to an hour a main set so um
01:28:58
you make your own mind up there's plenty
01:29:00
of chlorine in there come on a little
01:29:01
bit of Way's not going to hurt yeah yeah
01:29:03
and I mean for for me in my event you
01:29:06
have to be very relaxed when you're
01:29:07
swimming and so one way you can test if
01:29:10
your relax as if you can pee while
01:29:11
you're swimming oh pee while you
01:29:14
swimming yeah so if you're swimming
01:29:16
you're usually quite tense right but if
01:29:18
you can pee while you're swimming then
01:29:20
you're
01:29:21
relaxed okay I just had this mental
01:29:23
picture of you like like um you're
01:29:24
waiting for the event to start like at
01:29:26
the end of the lane or something peeing
01:29:27
while swimming that's some Next Level
01:29:29
multitasking yeah yeah it's it's
01:29:31
difficult for sure and this is not a
01:29:33
question from Instagram this is a me
01:29:34
question um if if you if you fart in
01:29:37
those togs like does it does it bubble
01:29:40
in the back or uh it does a little bit
01:29:42
but then it when you move it pops out
01:29:45
and and water farts are horrible yeah
01:29:48
okay where is this interview going' been
01:29:50
doing so well yeah the wheels are
01:29:52
falling off um okay favorite swimming
01:29:54
meme page uh this is probably from
01:29:57
swimming memes I'm going to guess um
01:30:00
swimming memes is pretty good yeah yeah
01:30:02
there's a Instagram page called swimming
01:30:04
means actually a New Zealand guy and
01:30:06
they're pretty viral in the swimming
01:30:07
community favorite Instagram page is a
01:30:10
guy called Kyle sockwell though and he's
01:30:12
American guy he love he loves me I mean
01:30:14
I don't know if he loves me but he gives
01:30:16
you a lot of like repost or no not
01:30:19
necessarily that but like he pinned my
01:30:22
comment one time and I was like this is
01:30:23
the
01:30:25
yeah if if you could compete against any
01:30:27
swimmer past or present who would it be
01:30:29
and
01:30:30
why um Ryan
01:30:33
locky oh the American guy the American
01:30:35
guy weird weird dude he round about the
01:30:37
same same time as Phelps yeah didn't he
01:30:40
there something happened some Scandal
01:30:42
like he pretended he got robbed at a
01:30:43
service station and it was made up he
01:30:45
was very like um controversial guy but
01:30:49
he would have been the Michael Phelps if
01:30:50
Michael Phelps wasn't there yeah yeah
01:30:51
like he was Breaking All the records but
01:30:53
that already been broken from Phelps
01:30:55
sort of thing right yeah so he he was a
01:30:57
really really good legit swimmer yeah
01:30:59
yeah he was Unreal and he was just like
01:31:01
a funny dude he had his own TV show he
01:31:03
had a reality show that's right for a
01:31:04
season but he was sort of um people sort
01:31:06
of took the piss out of him a bit right
01:31:08
yeah yeah like he they say he's just
01:31:09
like nothing going on upstairs like he's
01:31:11
dumb but he's he was funny yeah right
01:31:14
why why him I Reon just cuz he was a
01:31:17
legend like he he brought like the
01:31:19
coolness to swimming oric and like he
01:31:21
would get up on the podium and he'd have
01:31:22
a like a diamond gold grill sort of
01:31:25
thing like he he just brought the fun
01:31:27
back sort of thing yeah yeah yeah um
01:31:30
what is the harshest criticism you've
01:31:32
received in your career probably when I
01:31:35
was in year 10 at school my teacher said
01:31:39
to me you're never going to make
01:31:42
anything from swimming like it's an
01:31:43
amateur
01:31:45
sport yeah and I was like look at me
01:31:48
today maybe not making money but yeah
01:31:50
look at me today yeah have you have you
01:31:52
been back to that school like for a
01:31:53
speech assembly or anything yeah oh my
01:31:55
old school I love that school yeah yeah
01:31:57
yeah it was just like the one teacher
01:31:58
but he was he's still Legend but I just
01:32:01
thought it was funny looking back on it
01:32:02
now well because you've got that
01:32:03
relationship and you think he's a legend
01:32:05
have you been like no I haven't seen him
01:32:08
like since he's I don't think he's
01:32:09
teaching a school anymore but um he's
01:32:11
probably like laughing right now yeah
01:32:14
you're not really a I Told You So guy no
01:32:16
not so much no yeah no yeah um how do
01:32:20
you how do you how do you envis envisage
01:32:22
your life and career after retiring from
01:32:24
competitive swimming a for South B yeah
01:32:27
potentially yeah um it's nice that by
01:32:29
the way it's really refreshing and nice
01:32:31
that you're thinking about that already
01:32:32
yeah yeah for sure I mean there was a
01:32:34
story of the marathon runner that came
01:32:37
out and he was trying to extend his
01:32:39
career and he was taking drugs to extend
01:32:41
it because he didn't have anything after
01:32:42
it um the Kiwi r i ca's name um and it
01:32:45
sort of solidifies I think Plan B you
01:32:48
know everyone every athlete has to have
01:32:50
a plan B and that's why I was studying
01:32:51
and having the foresight bar option
01:32:54
coming up was will come up was pretty
01:32:55
cool as well yeah oh that was zann
01:32:57
Robertson by the way had him on the
01:32:59
podcast as well that's right I L yeah
01:33:02
it's tough bloody said yeah it's bloody
01:33:03
said but it's um I mean he he he was a
01:33:06
runner like he was he was Bloody good
01:33:08
like he would have he could tune up to
01:33:09
any marathon in New Zealand on any
01:33:11
weekend and had win it but the
01:33:12
difference between being that good and
01:33:15
being like aliot Kip chogi world record
01:33:17
good like you know being New Zealand
01:33:19
good you're never going to make the
01:33:21
podium of a marathon it's it's a hard
01:33:23
it's a hard sport yeah um what goes
01:33:26
through your mind when you're on the
01:33:27
starting blocks
01:33:29
nothing I call it like Flow State yeah
01:33:33
I'm not much meditator um I take my bike
01:33:36
out to do my meditation um but I call it
01:33:40
Flow State just like this is just like
01:33:42
where I'm relaxed and I'm just ready to
01:33:45
do what I do every single day yeah so
01:33:47
not thinking at all and then and then
01:33:49
when you're swimming in a race you're
01:33:50
just thinking of the stroke and how you
01:33:53
your Technique think yeah just doing the
01:33:55
little things right making sure I'm just
01:33:57
doing what I practice every single day
01:33:59
not thinking too much and trying to beat
01:34:00
the guy next to me I guess and what
01:34:02
about when you're training like you
01:34:04
mentioned it's Tuesday today uh you've
01:34:06
got a training session after this you've
01:34:07
already swam 21k this week when you're
01:34:10
doing those Long training sessions are
01:34:12
you are you thinking about other stuff
01:34:13
honestly you think about everything
01:34:14
under the sun right yeah but also like I
01:34:17
have to count my laps so it's hard to do
01:34:19
two things at once so I'm it's a bit of
01:34:22
a mixture of both trying to count trying
01:34:24
to figure out timing when you're leaving
01:34:26
on stuff um but yeah like I probably I
01:34:29
think about a lot during during a swim
01:34:32
session for sure
01:34:34
amazing yeah I'm just trying to think of
01:34:35
if I like when I'm running I can think
01:34:37
about anything I can go out go out um
01:34:39
for a 10k run and have complex problems
01:34:41
in my life that I can solve on that time
01:34:43
but if I was swimming I'd need to be
01:34:44
thinking about what I'm doing but I
01:34:46
suppose you know the am you're doing
01:34:48
it's just something you could do
01:34:50
literally in your sleep yeah it's
01:34:51
probably like you running yeah yeah yeah
01:34:53
uh um cap from Instagram actually kind
01:34:56
of serious ones to finish with if you
01:34:58
could go back and change one decision in
01:34:59
your life what would it
01:35:01
be um leave Wellington sooner
01:35:04
potentially no I think I you know it I
01:35:06
probably made me the summer that I today
01:35:08
it made me tough um one thing I mean I
01:35:12
could have gone to America and done the
01:35:14
the college system I'm not sure how it
01:35:16
would have turned out there was a lot of
01:35:17
unnown there for me
01:35:21
um yeah I don't know not sure yeah
01:35:24
biggest adversity you've
01:35:26
faced
01:35:28
um good question probably the moment
01:35:33
where I didn't do well in the 400 a.m.
01:35:35
Final in Tokyo where I was like [ __ ]
01:35:38
this I don't want to look at the water
01:35:39
anymore and I had to get back in the
01:35:41
next day because I had a 200 a. to do um
01:35:45
and it was a moment where I was like at
01:35:48
the lowest point but also had to switch
01:35:50
off and turn it on again yeah it was
01:35:52
tough got how do you do that just out of
01:35:54
necessity pretty much yeah yeah we I
01:35:57
mean I got a message from Moss burer
01:35:59
who's a pre handed yeah Legend yeah
01:36:01
Legend something he was you read um he
01:36:04
was like one of your sort of
01:36:05
Inspirations or Idols growing up yeah
01:36:07
for sure for sure um and he was like
01:36:09
well he did his 200 butterfly at the uh
01:36:12
Beijing Olympics and he had the H 100
01:36:14
butterfly to go but he sort of wrote it
01:36:16
off and didn't didn't S as well as he
01:36:18
could have um and he said to me like
01:36:20
look you got to you got to get back on
01:36:22
the horse sort of thing because you
01:36:23
don't to be like you know do what I did
01:36:25
um and I sort of had to make the best of
01:36:27
the opportunity yeah and I was I was
01:36:29
happy with how I performed in the 200
01:36:30
a.m. after that yeah and I suppose it's
01:36:33
um good for future events to know that
01:36:35
you can you reset Park a disappointment
01:36:37
and move on so quickly yeah for sure I
01:36:39
mean I did it in Doha like I was bloodly
01:36:42
disappointed that I didn't qualify the
01:36:43
olymp for the Olympics there um in the
01:36:46
the other two events but I had to park
01:36:48
it and move on to the next one yeah yeah
01:36:51
and last one um when was the last time
01:36:53
you
01:36:54
cried
01:36:56
um probably not that long ago cried of
01:36:59
Happiness to be honest like I it was it
01:37:02
was probably when I moved up to Oakland
01:37:05
and I sort of got into my routine I was
01:37:07
just like so happy that like I'd made
01:37:10
the decision yeah that's amazing I when
01:37:13
you said tears of happiness I was just
01:37:14
thinking my mind went immediately to the
01:37:16
world Champs and Doha yeah no really
01:37:19
that's what so well I suppose you had so
01:37:21
much like um anxiety and nerves about
01:37:23
what am I doing am I doing the right
01:37:25
thing um so then I suppose when you have
01:37:27
the moment where it's like oh yeah
01:37:28
everything's sort of clicking into place
01:37:29
and it just sort of reaffirms that you
01:37:31
did do the right thing yeah what it was
01:37:33
or was it just cuz you were actually so
01:37:34
tired from swimming so yeah probably
01:37:37
just so tired yeah that happens as well
01:37:39
actually yeah oh hey mate this has been
01:37:42
a lot of fun yeah thank you yeah I
01:37:44
really appreciate you making the time
01:37:46
and being so generous with your time and
01:37:47
I'm really looking forward to seeing
01:37:49
what the year not just actually not just
01:37:50
the year but what the future brings you
01:37:51
as well um yeah bloody great so the
01:37:55
swimming after this what's the afternoon
01:37:57
session not sure I'll probably find out
01:37:59
2 minutes before I hop in but you must
01:38:02
have like an inkling an idea uh I've
01:38:04
been told it's a
01:38:05
breaststroke technique based set maybe
01:38:08
with a bit of fast stuff but yeah it's
01:38:11
um hopefully recovery because it's been
01:38:12
pretty tough so far this week
01:38:14
yeah oh God hey good luck mate yeah
01:38:17
thank really appreciate it thanks leou
01:38:19
yeah thanks for having me on
01:38:23
a
01:38:25
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