Talented people do talented things, and the United States Olympic Swim Team is full of talented people.
Some of those talents and abilities extend outside of the pool – specifically, in this case, 2012 400 IM silver medalist Elizabeth Beisel and Olympic men’s team head coach Bob Bowman.
During a period of downtime during the team’s camp in Atlanta, Georgia, Bowman (on the piano) and Beisel (on the violin) played a duet in the ‘team room’ of the Bach Concerto for 2 violins. Bowman graduated from Florida State with a degree in developmental psychology and a minor in music composition; Beisel is a lifelong musician who plays both the violin and the piano.
Beisel qualified to swim the 400 IM at the Olympics that begin a week from Saturday in Rio de Janeiro. She swam that race on the first day of the meet before breaking her finger before swimming any other finals – resulting in just one swim at the Olympics, though all indications are that the hand is healed and ready to go.
Bowman is the personal coach of 2016 Olympians Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt, and Chase Kalisz, and has been involved in the coaching in a few other members of the team in their careers as well.
Very impressive! I am in awe of the abilities of anyone with artistic talents such as Elizabeth and Bob. I’m a guy who is so “fine arts challenged”, I have trouble “drawing a bath” and/or playing a “CD” (if anyone remembers what those are!)
Question: Why does Beisel work out so hard at practice?
Answer: She does her fiddlin’ around away from the pool.
(Rimshot.)
Missed bobbies rainbow flag a few weeks ago, well msybe next year ah bobbie?
Terrific. Even more of a Beisel fan now!
Agree. Best personality, tough as nails, loads of talent.
Holy crap! I loved it! Encore!!!!!!
Loved it. Our Olympic athletes are so very talented on so many levels. And call me judgemental but it seemed to me that Beisel was a little better musician than Bowman. Enjoyed that a lot !!
Actually, I believe that Bob has a degree in musical composition. He is an extremely talented pianist. But Elizabeth surprised the **** out of me. Superb!
The music was written as a duet for violin. Bob is playing the 2nd violin part. It’s not going to sound flashy when played on a piano.
Is he playing the 2nd violin part or the piano accompaniment for the piece? In the original score the piano is pretty much in the background. Here’s the piece with Steinbacher and Suwanai; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leTVfMb2uME
You are judgmental. On what are you basing your opinion? Look at the piano part for this Bach piece. It’s not meant to feature the piano.
Color me cynical, prolly just an ad for whatever Bonk Breakers are. A redesigned jawbreaker?
I wonder what Mike’s face was like.