Hear From Bob Bowman, Carson Foster, and Others During Pre-Olympic Press Conference at Texas

Five soon-to-be Olympians affiliated with the University of Texas — swimmers Drew Kibler, Erin Gemmell, Carson Foster, Luke Hobson, and diver Alison Gibson — met with local media on Friday along with their coaches: women’s swim coach Carol Capitani, diving coach Matt Scoggin, men’s swim coach Eddie Reese, and incoming men’s swim coach Bob Bowman.

You can check out the full 47-minute interview session at the bottom of the article, but we’ve picked out some of the best quotes here.

Bowman, who recently became director of swimming and diving for the Longhorns after leading the Arizona State men to their first national title, will coach with the French team instead of the U.S. at the Paris Olympics next month. Nevertheless, the 59-year-old coach of Leon Marchand has plenty of confidence in the American staff to guide his domestic swimmers.

“It’s the best staff in the world, in my opinion, collectively,” Bowman said of the U.S. coaching staff led by Florida’s Anthony Nesty and Virginia’s Todd DeSorbo. “So I think that they’re going to do a great job preparing those guys.”

Bowman called Paris his “favorite city,” listing the patisserie and Michelin restaurants among his favorite parts. He also offered insight into his approach with his swimmers over the next few weeks before the Summer Games kick off.

“More of the same, but it’s really fine-tuning,” Bowman said. “So we’re looking at the swims they had at the Trials and maybe finding areas where we could affect that in training and might improve a weakness or something they could do better. Usually it’s technical, something we could improve on. So we’re trying to spend this next period in between focused on fine-tuning the details.”

Before Bowman signed off, he revealed that Hubert Kos is training with Marchand in Europe right now. He also expects Marchand to spend the fall 2024 semester in Europe focusing on World Cup events before returning to Texas in January to start training for next summer.

Meanwhile, Foster and Capitani both agreed that the consensus among U.S. Olympic swimmers is that Trials is tougher than the Olympics itself.

“Everyone that’s been to the Olympics, they always tell me that Trials is harder than the Olympics,” Foster said. “It’s way more pressure-packed. So it feels like I have the hard part done and can just enjoy the Olympics because I just have to do the same thing I did there and things will turn out well.”

Foster also reflected on how much it meant for him to make his first Olympic roster after barely missing out on a trip to Tokyo in 2021. At the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, he got run down by Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland over the final 100 meters of the 400 IM. The next month, Foster fired off a 400 IM time (4:08.46) that would have won gold at the Olympics.

“2021 Trials was probably the hardest week of my life. Definitely the lowest point I’ve ever been in the sport, where I was questioning, ‘Do I actually like this?'” Foster said. “I felt like so much of my self worth was in it so I was like, ‘This isn’t fun.’ I can’t enjoy this when I know that my self worth is on the line if I don’t swim well. Going back in the last three years and focusing on my mental preparation and my perspective, all of that combined with my race execution was super rewarding.”

Foster credited Reese and the rest of the Texas coaching staff for helping him pull off an IM sweep (1:55.65/4:07.64) at last week’s U.S. Olympic Trials. He said, “Eddie has a different joke everyday,” before recounting one of his favorite memories of the legendary 82-year-old coach.

“Fourth of July, Eddie just randomly at the end of practice took off his shirt, stepped up on the block, and did a can opener into the water,” Foster recalled. “Everyone was like, ‘What just happened?’ But that’s just his personality.”

Reese got emotional in what figures to be one of his last official media sessions as he heaped praise on Foster and Hobson, whom he called “the most unflappable guy I’ve got.”

“He handles big situations better than anybody I’ve ever been around,” Reese said of Hobson, who qualified for the Olympics with his 200 free victory in 1:44.89. “Luke probably needed another week and a half of rest. Glad he won. He knows he’s way better than that. He doesn’t talk much, does a lot of fishing, bought a boat last year. Ask him about fish.”

Kibler shared just how detailed his training plans are for the next few weeks leading up to the Paris Olympics.

“I know the exact number of volume, when I’m training on a daily schedule until the Games start,” Kibler said.

Kibler also revealed why he had “mixed emotions” returning to Texas along with Bowman in April.

“I love Texas,” said Kibler, who swam for the Longhorns from 2018-22. “I have it tattooed on my back. I’m really, really proud to be a Texas Longhorn. But I had a life in Tempe… I love the city and the I love the surrounding nature. So it was a little bit of mixed emotions: I was excited to come back but I was also sad to leave.”