At a USA Swimming teleconference earlier today, Katie Ledecky, Nathan Adrian, Ryan Lochte and Coach Dave Durden all spoke and answered questions from the media in preparation for the 2015 World Championships.
The team is beginning to come down into “full taper mode,” as Katie Ledecky referred to it. The team is putting their final touches on their training at home before leaving on Tuesday for the first portion of the World’s team training camp in Croatia.
Below is what they told us today:
Katie Ledecky
You have spent some time training at altitude this year, how has that affected your training and the way you are approaching?
“Altitude training has been a huge boost for me. Spending time at the Olympic Training Center always elevates my level of training when I get back home too. The couple weeks after are usually my best weeks of training. No, I didn’t break any world records at the meet right after altitude, but I think my training after my altitude camp has been really good. That has been really exciting for me and makes me really excited for Worlds.”
Do you get bored dominating every distance freestyle race you swim, and have you considered branching out to or other stokes or sprints after Rio?
“No I don’t get bored. It should be pretty competitive in the distance races as well, and I never take anything for granted. The 200 just looking at the top times in the world so far this year have been extremely fast throughout the season and if everyone is on their game in a few weeks it will a very exciting race and hopefully I’m apart of it.”
“200 free semi-final will be 18-25 minutes apart from the 1500, so I will have to manage my energy and be ready to race.”
“Right now Im focusing on Kazan and swimming my races. I did enjoy swimming the 400 IM in Indiana, I was pretty surprised by my time there, but I think my focus should be on my freestyle races because I do the best in those. I’m definitely not looking past Kazan right now.”
Dave Durden
What do you think is wrong with American Sprinting right now? There hasn’t been an American sprinter under 48 seconds in the 100m freestyle since 2013. Currently there is not a single an American sprinter ranked in the top 25 in the world this year.
With our American sprinters, a lot of our guys have the opportunity to dip under 48 seconds. We are gearing up and looking forward for Kazan in two and half weeks to see some performances.
We have A little bit of an older group with us. We have both ends of the spectrum, we have some guys that have more experience in that event and know how to race and perform at that level. And we have some guys that are younger, and have some experience, either at World University Games,Pan Ams, or US Nationals. You’ll see that the best of American Sprinting is directly in front of us. We’re seeing, internationally, a lot of fast swims come from selection meets or trials meets, or at major international competition.
Ryan Lochte
How many big international medals do you believe you have left in you?
I don’t focus on the medals I want to get, if I go up to the blocks, I am going up to win. Hands down, I want to win. If it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Either way Im going to keep going after the Gold. Honestly I don’t even know how long I’m going to keep doing this. 2016 could be my last year, but it’s also a possibility that I will keep going another four years for 2020. I’m just going to take it year by year and race by race. I just have to hope for the best; I know I’ve done the training.
Go Dave!
Ryan Lochte is Nuke LaLoosh come to life.