Watch: Team USA Coaches Press Conference

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

National Team Director Frank Busch, Head Women’s Coach Dave Marsh, and Head Men’s Coach Bob Bowman answered questions from the press on the last day of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials.  The three leaders of Team USA’s Rio squad spoke for over 30 minutes, and you can watch the full video above, or click the link below to read the full transcript, but here are a few of things that we thought were most important:

Team Stats

  • Despite the feeling that there are a lot more new faces on the team this year than normal, Busch said that there were 29 first-time Olympians this year, as opposed to 28 in 2012.
  • The average age for the men is 23.9.
  • The average age for the women is 22.3.

Relays

  • The whole coaching staff will get together and decide relays, subject to rule constraints (e.g., relay-only swimmers must swim prelims or finals).
  • “We’re going to see how people are training, if people want to do time trials, they can, and if they don’t, they don’t have to, and we can kind judge where we think people are” (Bowman).
  • I think that’s our own only goal, to put a relay together that wins a gold medal. If that happens to have Michael on it, that is fine, if it doesn’t, that is fine as well. I’m not here to promote Michael’s agenda. He has plenty of relay medals. We want our relays to win, and we want the four people on there who will do the job (Bowman).
  • “We had some rough relays last summer, and we have to put our people on the relays that would get us in the finals” (Marsh).
  • “The world, especially the men’s side, 400 Free Relay and 800 Free Relay, Medley, they’re putting their “A” players in the morning swims now. Our first job is to get in the finals, because if you are going to win a gold medal, or any medal, you have to be in the finals to do that, and so we will be working on that” (Marsh).
  • “First meeting with the coaches today, I just said, if you have any guys like Anthony Ervin, in my case, that hasn’t done a relay start in a long time, do a lot of relay starts in the next few weeks, please, so we can get comfortable with that” (Marsh).

Other Highlights:

  • The press conference began with an announcement of the assistant coaches for the team.
  • Busch indicated that he was not worried about having the Games in Rio and that “Team USA is excited to go.”
  • Bowman: “One of the things that we have always done well, better than anyone else, is improve from the Trials to the Games, and I’m confident we’re going to do that again.”
  • The coaching staff is confident that having Trials close to the Olympics is an advantage for the USA.
  • Bowman said he thought the Phelps’s “times this week were mediocre,” and that Bowman has a plan for Phelps, although he declined to go into specifics.
  • During the training camps, there is a plan to progressively move training cycles back later in the day to help deal with the late start time of finals.  Bowman: “If you look at physiology, when you are younger your body temperature keeps rising until it reaches a peak about midnight. That’s why they stay up late so much.”
  • There are some plans for swimmers with families (e.g., Dana Vollmer and Michael Phelps) to be able to have their families around during the first camp, but not later.

Read the full transcript here.

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Know It All
7 years ago

Would much rather see the coaches be Durden and Marsh……

Irish Ringer
Reply to  Know It All
7 years ago

Really you would rather anyone but Phelps and Bowman. Just come out with it already 🙂

Samos
Reply to  Know It All
7 years ago

Looks like as usual, the Olympic coaches selected are pretty much the “good ole boys.” Do they select the old bulls they’re most comfortable with? Is selection a reward for years of coaching, like getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars?
Did they really announce the selected coaches even before all the races had been swum at Trials?

Scotland
Reply to  Know It All
7 years ago

Are you Dave himself, family relative perhaps? I read a lot of ‘pro’ Durden comments on here… Bob deserves his chance, he’s measured, experienced and by all accounts fairly bold.

Know It All
7 years ago

No one gave Dara anywhere near the coverage Phelps is getting for making his/her 5th Olympics. GOAT and all, more events etc., just interesting USA Swimming playing favorites.

Eagleswim
Reply to  Know It All
7 years ago

I think your memory may have some recency bias. Dara got an absolutely outrageous amount of coverage when she made her 5th team. Way more than I’ve seen for Michael

Banana Hammock
7 years ago

At 29:27 Bob drops the hammer and I couldn’t agree more.

Don
Reply to  Banana Hammock
7 years ago

I was just about to post the same thing and I love that Bowman addressed it.

Taa
Reply to  Banana Hammock
7 years ago

Interesting comment. What the media writes can have an actual impact on a young swimmers development. So parents and coaches keep your talented swimmer off those evil sites?

Swammer81
Reply to  Taa
7 years ago

internet lesson #1 – never read the comments lol

Swammer81
Reply to  Banana Hammock
7 years ago

oooooooh burn

Years of Plain Suck
7 years ago

Thanks for the informative, insightful video. If I had to recommend just one video from the past week, it would be this one. Lots of interesting stories, strategies, plans, and realizations. Bob Bowman especially had some provocative things to say about the Trials recent history and significance.

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