August 12, 2020 • 30 mins
In 2019, three-time Olympian swimmer Nathan Adrian was diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer - setting him up for a difficult road to recovery in time for Tokyo 2020, hopefully to be his fourth Olympic Games. Then the global pandemic rescheduled all of 2020. The five-time Olympic gold medalist talks about how the postponement may have helped him, the difficult task of finding Olympic-sized pools in a global crisis, and how his public health degree keeps him up at night these days. Jensen and Nathan also come up with things to balance on his head while swimming, in hopes of leaving that warlock Katie Ledecky in his viral wake. This episode and series supports FeedingAmerica.org. For more of The Sports Bubble, visit treefort.fm/the-sports-bubble
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Sports Bubble, a production of I Heart
Radio Entree Fork Media. My name is Jensen carp and
I'm a sports fan and listen. I admit when I'm wrong,
and I was wrong about the NBA Bubble because it
has been fantastic. It's still early to call it a
total success. But between the emergence of t J Warren
(00:25):
that out of this world passed from Luca, Patrick Beverley
doing Patrick Beverley things to Dame and the Lakers kind
of looking beautibule. I mean, the storylines are alive and well.
I even got a little jealous of those virtual fans
last weekend. I'm starting to think these playoffs will be enjoyable.
Definitely different considering we're seeing some real Lionel Huts level
at offense. But I can't say it won't be fun
and say if it seems, congrats to our Lord and
(00:47):
Xavior Adam Silver. And while he's doing his job, I'm
doing mine, interviewing athletes and sports industry professionals to find
out how they're doing during this very weird time because
someone has to. This is the Sports Bubble with Jensen
carpon competitive swimmer Nathan Adrian is a three time Olympian
and five time gold medalist who faced the biggest challenge
(01:08):
of his life in two thousand nineteen when he was
diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer. He fought his way
through recovery, staying out of the water for almost a year,
the longest he'd went since he was four years old,
and he figured that was the last hurdle he'd have
to jump on his way to once again compete in
the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. And then, well, we
all know what happened next. And let's be honest here.
(01:28):
At any point during COVID did you think about pools? Well?
I didn't, but it's safe to assume that if Olive
Garden can't open its stores, any public training pool is
having just as difficult of a time staying open. And
so now with one and his crosshairs, Adrian and the
rest of the hopeful US team are trying their hardest
to stay ready for the Games by jumping town to
town to find regulations that allow them to swim and
(01:49):
most importantly, stay safe. On this episode, we talked about
those hardships, how the postponement may have actually helped his
training and how his public health degree keeps him up
at night these days, and I find out if Katie
a deck, he is a warlock. And if you can
balance a bad beatsa on your head while swimming. Join
me today with Nathan Adrian in the Sports Bubble from
(02:16):
Basan Adrian to accept Press one. Hey, how's it going, man?
It's going well, thank you yourself, well as well as
it can. We are. We're talking at the end of
a week where certain states are seeing these large spikes
in coronavirus cases and debts, and I guess we've been
really like writing the roller coaster on this podcast. So
I'm still asking people where you've been through all this
(02:36):
and if you've loosened up at all with quarantine. All right, yeah,
no problem. I'm in Oakland, I am in a Bay area,
and we were first to shelter in place, and honestly,
I'm assuming that we are probably going to be the
last to continue to shelter in place, even as the
vaccine comes out and with that rollout um and and
all of that good stuff. So where we are right now,
(02:58):
it's it's really complicated because Alameda County contains both Oakland
and the city of Berkeley, and the City of Berkeley
also has its own public health department. So even though
we have two massive fifty pools and a great training
facility at cal because that is within the city limits
of the City of Berkeley, like Alameda County has given
(03:18):
sb okay to swim there, but the City of Berkeley
Public Health Department still hasn't. So we're we're doing the
same thing that a lot of other people are doing
and struggling to find pool space outside of our normal
training facilities. And I am pretty hardcore lockdown. I mean,
it's massed on any time on outside of the house
(03:39):
and you know, still doing the grocery delivery thing, trying
to cook at home as much as possible with doing
with the exception of you know, getting take out maybe
once or twice a week. Sure, well, you're the first
competitive swimmer I've spoken to on the show, so it's
gonna be an elementary question. But once we saw the
nation sort of shut down from the outbreak, does that
just close all pools to training? Basically? I think that's
(04:01):
just kind of a broad rush statement. Absolutely. Um, you know,
one of the unique things and challenges that we as
competitive swimmers are stays with especially now more than ever,
was starting to define the difference between training and being
a professional athlete in the pool versus country club and
(04:22):
a lot of public health departments. I mean, the bandwidth
was you know, at its absolute capacity. Uh, and it
was hard to get any anyone to hear or or
create differentiations for us. So we kind of are all
operating under this overarching you know, quote un pool definition
and a lot of people think, you know, pool restrictions.
Oh no, we're not going to be able to go
(04:43):
to the Fourth of July celebration and do a coin
dive at our local country club or community pool. But
and that that probably goes without saying. But you know,
after the lockdown, I mean, swimming one per lane in
a a closely monitored chlorinated outdoor pool has certainly, at
(05:05):
least to me, shown that it's been pretty safe. Well,
I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it going with these basic
questions because I do, other than being a fan of
going into the pool, I don't know a ton about swimming.
So you'll have to tell me. Is the idea of
having a house pool, you know, just the normal pool
that we had growing up and swimming in friends houses,
and you know, like, is is that able to be
(05:25):
trained in or is it just am I asking if
you can, you know, play baseball in a small toy.
That's probably a fair comparison, you know, it is sort
of life. Maybe getting a professional baseball player out there
with a whiffleball in a plastic hollow bad or something.
It is good to to do something. It's good to
(05:47):
get that feel for the water. But unless you are
your backyard pool is at least twenty five yards with
good spill over gutters. I'm getting technical here, which means
that you have to have a search tank and that
it's as a lot of construction costs. It's it's not
quite the same. And not only that, but for as
individual as a as a sport of swimming is, there's
(06:09):
something to be said about having teammates around you, you know,
for your for your days where you're hurting a little
bit and you need some you know, motivation either racing
them or watching them perform or doing doing something because
it's it's hard. It's hard to train alone, no doubt
about it, and you have to have those teammates they're
pushing you every day. Is really important and that's that's
one of the things that has been a big adjustment. Yeah,
(06:31):
I know you're a football guy, but I don't know
if you watched any basketball. They had a horse competition
through the NBA before the league restarted, and they would
show us this is pretty early in the quarantine, but
they would show us people's homes and that was you know,
they shot you know, from their phone or whatever, and
they play horse remotely. It was so weird. But one
of the things that I was shocked with was like
they were like, Okay, let's go to Mike Connelly's house,
and Mike Connelly had like a full court basketball, you know,
(06:54):
like a full literally a full gym in his house.
And I'm wondering, do do any swimmers or at now?
Are they thinking about getting like a real pool if
they have that kind of kind of dough like a
Michael Phelps. I mean yes, but probably no Olympic sized
swimming pool is fifty Olympic sized swimming pool depth is
(07:16):
you know, ten about ten feet? I mean I could
I could do the math for you right if I
had a calculator, but I mean it's hundreds of thousands
of gallons. You gotta have really massive pumps to to
get the hit the filtration rate for that, you gotta
be adding chlorine. It's it's a lot more complicated than
putting in a really nice basketball court in your in
(07:36):
your house. I'll take that, Mike Conley. But I do
I do like the idea of just having one one lane,
just one lane in your backyard that goes on, doesn't
You don't have to have the whole pool. Well, so
there's also the ability to endless pools, which is for
the average swimmer perfectly adequate to to stay in shape
or even you know, lose some corona quarantine pounds. But
(07:59):
it really is just not quite the same as actually
moving through the like you know, so much of swimming
is about your fuel and I guess that would be
maybe to bring in another sports analogy, like similar to
hitting off of hitting off of mats versus getting off
of grass and golf. Right, that makes sense. Well, how
then tell me how do you train without without a pool?
How do you train for swimming? I mean, you're on
(08:21):
the Olympic team. I know you found out that the
Olympics were were canceled while you were actually training with
your team, So like, what what do you do now, well,
right now because Calis clothes were actually going to the
neighboring county. Kind of counterproductive, I know, when we have
you know, two massive, awesome fifty pools and now we're
having to pay to rent space at facility that's not
(08:42):
quite as good. But that's the game that we're playing
right now, and we're doing our best. Our coach has
made great adjustments for us in terms of what we're
doing in the water to try to you know, maximize
the games that we can achieve from from not having
access to our our normal pool. And then on the
other side of that, I'm all so. I also like,
right when we went to shelter in Place, I went
(09:02):
online and ordered some some weight so I can have
a little home Jim set up because I figured that
this is gonna last a little longer than most people anticipated,
which I am very thankful for now because it seems that,
you know, home Jim set ups are completely sold out
acrost the nation, So I'm really glad I have that
little setup going in the garage to to really help
(09:23):
bridge that gap. Yeah, it's hard to imagine anyone is
happy about quarantine, but I would clearly get in a
fight with people who own a home gym company or
like sweats. Those people are having the best time of
their lives. Are really well, let's talk about some serious things.
You did what many people did during this time in history.
You adopted a dog. Yes, okay, How to be honest,
(09:44):
how much does this help? Because I have a dog,
and boy did I turn to him many times during
this But how much does it help when you feel
like the world is ending to have man's best friend?
You know? For any listeners out there who do you
have a dog or maybe have access to it, you know,
neighbor dog or something, I would encourage them to limit
their news intake to you know, ten or fifteen minutes
(10:08):
and then spend the additional time in their day with
a dog. I really genuinely believe that would make the
world a happier play. It truly does. Yeah, exactly, I mean,
it really does. It really does. Is helpful to kind
of lift your spirits and even walking in the house
after a tough practice, um and and having a dog
great you and just kind of you know, wag your
(10:28):
tail and and try her best to not jump because
you know, we're trying to train or not to jump
on me um, but it is. It really is the
best feeling getting home and having a happy stays treating
you well. You were open about your treatment for testicular
cancer in two thousand nineteen and you were rigorously training
to make the Olympic team. You still are, but with
(10:48):
this delay, now, I wonder does this actually help you
with recovery and getting back into shape because you were
on a bit of a sped up timeline. Absolutely. It
took me a little bit so to realize and appreciate
that fact just as as it would so. I have
definitely been able to gain more strength back, and because
(11:09):
as you mentioned, you know, I was on a little
bit of an accelerated timeline, I've kind of being able
to step back work through some fundamentals, especially in the
weight room, also in in the pool, to kind of
patch over some spots that we had maybe rushed through
in our initial return. So I feel great about we are,
where we are, where are at right now and uh
and where we're going. Yeah. I mean that during the
(11:31):
surgery and the treatment you had, that was the longest
you went without swimming since you were four. You didn't
miss that much time because of it. Sounds like because
of coronavirus. Really, I mean the shutdown and then and
then you found you know, you found pools that worked
out for the team. Yeah, yeah, exactly, so that that
was definitely longest. Yeah, that was longest by far. So
we were yeah, we were fortunate. We found some We
found the pool space um to to sweam Att pretty
(11:54):
pretty shortly after the you know, shelter place, and some
restrictions were lifted just to maintain a little bit of
of swimming, you know, if we weren't going. But but
we did what we could. Okay, now this is my
question about your teammates. You bring them up. I have
a question, how do they understand? I mean, this is
a big question that there are no other public health
(12:17):
grads from UC Berkeley on the team. I don't know
that's a good Is that a question? I mean, I'm
being honest because here's the thing, right, I'm honest. I'm
on Olympic swim team. I we're all scared, We're all like,
can we practice? And then there's a dude whose education
has come into play. Yeah, you know, I guess I can't.
I have an undergrad degree in public health, and that's
(12:40):
that is relatively rare. Berkeley is actually one of the
few places that offers that undergrad degree. Most of the
time it's actually a pastor's or a doctorate level degree.
And I'm not trying to elevate my status because that
I'm just saying I don't know as much as you
know your your typical public health officials. I would honestly
just say that I was in classes that warned us
(13:03):
about what is currently happening and knew that it was possible.
And I mean, looking back, even I had I had
a friend who worked downtown San Francisco and he sent
a time last video of that cruise ship that had
the coronavirus patients coming into Oakland, and I just remember
(13:24):
seeing that now is just terrified. I was like, this
is this, like we are we are introducing this into
our population, and I hope that it's going to be
you know, managed properly, and as we look back, unfortunately
it wasn't. There's certainly a lot of lessons to be
learned there. But but yeah, I think I probably had
my alarm alarm bells ringing a little bit before most people. Yeah,
(13:46):
I can only imagine I was an international relations minor
for a second, and it wasn't something that I like
really truly wanted to get into, but I was so
interested in it. And we had one professor back in
got and he and I even like emailed parents, So
I was so like happy that I had like recorded
it down. But he goes, you know, in the next
four or five years, we're gonna have some crazy terrorist
attack from Osama bin Laden. And I didn't really know
(14:09):
who Osama bin Laden was or anything, so I'm freaking
out there. And then as soon as the you know,
terrible nine eleven happens, I even my parents were like
that guy told you, and I feel like you must
have had a similar instance with this, where like you
immediately knew what kind of damage, what kind of terrible
few months we could have in the US because of
(14:29):
a pandemic something that I thought was just like a
board game name until five months ago. Yeah, I mean
it was you're gonna're gonna You're gonna hit some hot
spots with me, and um so I do. I very
distinctly remember when it was starting to experience community spread,
and even when Dr Fauci and uh the American Surgeon
(14:51):
generally unfortunately forgot his name right now, we're talking about
not wearing masks, and I was very upset about it.
I mean, how are you going to have places like
Hong Kong and Taiwan who are essentially you know, they
like Hong Kong obviously shares a border with Taiwan and
taiwanas Hong Kong shared at the border with with China,
Taiwan is a hundred miles off the coast. There are
people going back and forth all the time. And both
(15:13):
of those countries managed to contain the virus very very quickly.
Um and part of their culture is wearing masks. Even
when there's not a global pandemic. You see people wearing masks.
I'm like that, there's something to be said about that.
And and that was a huge key to their success.
And and here we are, so many months later, still
debating the efficacy of masks, and I just just is
(15:36):
that's the reason why I have to turn off the
news my dog. Yep, Well, that's the reason you adopt
a dog. I get it. You are heavily involved with
the next generation of swimmers, whether it's just through social
media or through your team or the school you run with.
Will Copeland. As far as training for the Olympics, and
you're a bit of a veteran now on the team,
how do you help them that the younger guys keep
(15:57):
the momentum they had before the down. That's a that's
a very individualized question. So there are a lot of
different ways that people are motivated and watching like my
teammates and trying to just maybe create some some reframes
in their minds, you know, looking at the next year
(16:20):
as an opportunity rather than a burden, or trying to
figure out how to get them, you know, get the
most out of them in practice by raising them this
or that, or you know, knowing that they're on a
great track and they don't need any of my help,
like I could only really hurt them. You know, you've
got to really get to know a person or your
teammate before you you you try to intervene in anyway. Sure,
(16:45):
let's get hot button again real quick. I wanted to
talk to you about your mom for a second. She
was a school district nurse. Correct, Yep, that is a
role that could not be more front and center when
we were talking locally, at least in people's neighborhoods to
everyone in the United States right now. It just she
have an opinion about everything going back to school, that
the fact that we're putting our children in these situations.
(17:05):
I mean, she would be the person. She would be
the person working pretty much twenty four hours a day
right now, I assume, I mean, yeah, she's not. Let
me put it this way, my mom has not really
been in close contact with any of her grandchildren. She
will have an outdoor picnic socially distance and normally she
(17:26):
you know, sees and hangs out and and helps with childcare.
I don't know, anywhere from one to three times a week.
And ever since I started. I mean I remember following
her saying you you need to stop that, like immediately,
and she was like no. I was like, no, no, Mom,
it's in Like I mean, we had a we had
(17:46):
a pulmonologist from from Denver come and talk to us
while we were at the training camp, and basically he said, hey, listen,
based off of our knowledge and this is the way
back in February. So based off of our knowledge, right now,
we anybody over sixty that gets this disease. It's literally
like playing Russian roulette. With the revolver, uh and having
(18:08):
one bullet in the chamber, and I was like, whoa,
that's like that put it into perspective for me. So,
you know, a seventeen chance of dying, like you wouldn't
play Russian roulette, right, Like you would do everything in
your power to not have to do that. So my
mom and my dad are are doing essentially that until
(18:29):
you know, a vaccine or or the numbers go down.
And to your point, I mean, yeah, she's not in
support of of going back to school. I mean she lives.
She also lives in Washington State. They are they've been
they've handled that. I was pretty well, um, and are
pretty conservative with the handling of public health. We've been
telling people because we have my wife and I have
(18:50):
a one year old, and we're so lucky that we
don't have to make that decision right now, you know
that whether school or not. And we're not, you know,
we're not in the situation to make that because some people,
you know, both of us work at sometimes like it
would be impossible to take care of him, you know,
all day long for another five six months and we
would have to I mean, that's that's where we would
we we are not letting them out. But you know,
(19:12):
your mom probably took our job very serious, and it
would be a very hard decision for any of these
teachers or these nurses that know they have a job
that they love and a responsibility that they love to
to not go or go. What a difficult decision for them. Yeah, absolutely,
I mean they're they're really they're stuck in between a
rock and a hard place. You don't go into teaching
or school nursing because you're going to get rich, That's right.
(19:35):
You go into teaching or school nursing because you love kids,
you love what's happening at the school, and you want
to help the generation beyond your own. And again, it
just comes down so much to you know, what's happening
at your community level. Like I live in my little
bubble in Oakland, Alama County has I think one point
(19:55):
six million people like we do have. You know, we
have days where we have four I have six cases.
So yeah, no, I don't necessarily think that we should
be going back to school. But if you're in you know, Wyoming, Montana,
it's in in a rural district and you haven't had
cases for two weeks, like, of course you need to
go back to school. And I'm not trying to suggest that,
(20:16):
you know, people shouldn't go back to school the entire
year or whatever. It's just it really just has to
be managed and managed closely because it's very stressful and
and dangerous to to fit and wait for test results
for a week and wonder if you may have gotten it. Yeah,
it's insane. I know. There's some billionaire I was reading
about yesterday who is looking into creating outdoor schools. I
(20:41):
love that, I do, you know. I mean, let's talk
about this. And so you have a one year old,
if you were forced to have your and imagine these
let's call it seven eight years old, would you send
you get back to school or would you be consider
And what some of my friends are more than one
of my friends are doing is is essentially like taking
(21:04):
extra jobs um or you know, if they were furloughed
or unreduced or whatever it may be. UM basically being
an education coordinator for these kids that are learning from home. Yeah,
I have to. I mean we you know, like I said,
we're just lucky we don't have to make that decision.
But I mean, like if I was in that position.
I could not send them to school. I had a
I had a childhood. I could worry all day. Right,
(21:26):
I mean, I've already I already feel that nerves. I'm
not I'm not adding I'm not throwing them out to
the wolves. So I would I would have to come
up with something. You're right, I'd become a bit of
a professor myself. I don't know. It's not not something
I have to face, luckily, and I feel bad for
those who do more. With five time Olympic gold medalists
swimmer Nathan Adrian after this right now, Feeding America is
(21:50):
working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students
who were out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs
are impacted, and low income families continue to have acts
as to food and other needed resources during the COVID
nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed
to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and
their greatest need is donations and support of local food banks.
(22:12):
This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the
proceeds from the show to Feeding America and we hope
that you can join us in this effort to find
out how you can help Feeding America dot org backslash
COVID nineteen. Now let's get back to Nathan. You obviously
(22:33):
have a bit of a decision coming up with Tokyo.
There's a bit of an Olympic bubble joke, right, there's
like a meme with this village where all you guys stay,
and there's been jokes for years about how STDs and
sicknesses go around it, and it's it's sort of a bubble.
And it's funny because now we rely on these bubbles
for Tokyo, you know, we we we rely on them
(22:53):
to make it work. So so you tell me, is
it going to be safe? You've been there? Can it
be healthy? I do believe that, Campy says, and I
do believe it could be healthy. You know what's crazy
is in and a pretty lead up to every Olympic Games,
there's always there's a story that goes around, right and
seen it was zekwelve, it was security the two Thousand Days.
(23:16):
I honestly I can't remember. I was too young. But
there's like a reason why these games are gonna be
you know, catastrophic, And here's Japan finishing all of their infrastructure,
like month inmit bands which is totally unheard of, and
then the actual global pandemic, the one thing that isn't
up to them at all occurs and in delays the game,
(23:37):
which is just so unfortunately. I really sully feel for
you know, Tokyo and all those organizers. But that being said,
I mean it is going to be an amazing opportunity
for Japan to create and execute on a on the
bubble and a safe and effective Olympic Games. I think
they can do it. I mean, I I trust them
to do that. Yeah. Well, I guess all of sports
(23:59):
is have being this kind of kind of issue. And
like we said, you're a bit of a football fan,
but specifically I think you are a Seahawks super fan.
Oh yeah, okay, known for their incredible fans, the noise
that they make in the stadium. Could you imagine? This
is the one I think about all the time. A
empty quiet century link like I can't even fathom without
the Twelfth Man. It seems crazy. It is, it is crazy.
(24:21):
But all of this is crazy, man. I have seen
the practice facility and seeing what those guys like, you know,
getting up and getting after it at practice and there's
no noise happening at where is it Kirkland or wherever?
Wherever it is, and it is, I don't know. I
I believe in in Coach Carroll is like, you know,
fostering of that competitive nature, of that competitive spirit. Obviously
(24:44):
the Twelfth Man makes a huge difference. It's absolutely unbelievable
to be there and not and be talking and not
even be able to hear your own voice. It's like
it's something something special, but it obviously it's not gonna
happen this year. I just really hope the season. I
hope they figure out a way to at secute on
the successful season, saying, well, let's hope it's more basketball
than baseball. I want to end with something that was
(25:06):
all over the internet this week. Uh, swimmer Katie Ladecki
on the internet swimming the length of a pool with
a cup of chocolate milk on her head doesn't spill
at all. It stays on her dome the entire time.
Is this as insane as it is to enoyre me?
Like me? Is she some sort of warlock? Uh? She
(25:29):
is a warlock, be very clear about that. She is
very she is a very special athlete. I would put
money on percent of the national team being able to
do that though. Wow, really yeah, maybe ninety maybe ninety.
There's some there's some people whose head head moves all
over the place when they swim. But it's it's I mean,
it's it's hard. Don't get me wrong. I mean you're
(25:51):
talking we're talking about national team athletes. We're talking about
the absolute best of the very best. So it takes
a lot of aesthetic awareness to be able to keep
your head that still while you're pushing, you know, move
into the water. I had no idea that it could
be that common. So I wanted to ask you if
there were some other things you think could balance on
the head of an Olympic swimmer and if it would work. Okay, alright, shoot, okay,
(26:14):
First is a bucket of chicken. It's more tubular, kind
of definitely larger, but you know, like it fits like
a hat, so it might be easier. You know, if
we were doing backstoke, I'd say, I'd say, for sure, yes,
doing freestyle, it's it's a little harder. You know. What
also matters is the shape of people's head, you know. Okay, yeah,
(26:36):
that's that's a little that's confounded like that. Alright, how
about a sneaker Oh easy, yeah, yeah, okay, good? A
football that feels I can't even really hold it in
my hand. I would be impressed with anybody who could
swim fifty with the football. All right, you heard that,
Katie Kie like pinching it right? Okay? This one, this one,
(26:57):
I really went back and forth on a stiff pete
like uh, like a chuck e cheese a little a
little tougher of crust in the box or just the pizza.
Just the pizza in the box, I feel like is
a cheater, but it's that is long. But I'm gonna
go with just the pizza. Uh. That would be hard,
That would be hard. You you could, you could definitely
get away. You would finish the fifty with with some slices,
(27:20):
but not the whole thing. Good good, Alright, My last two,
This one I think, like you said, might play into
the shape of the head a plunger. Oh yeah, that
is that's all about. That's all about whether or not
you could get uh you could get a little suchtion
going on your head. I bet I have a good
chance of it because I have the I this is
my this is my claim to fame. Here we go.
(27:41):
I had the largest circumference head of the national team
members leading up to WHOA you have like a dome piece.
Do you know what your hat size is? I think
it's like seven and five. That's big thing. That is
a big head. It's pretty big, pretty big. That isn't everything? Well,
I will throw out plunger for you in alright, six
my last one, and I'm I'm almost suggesting this is
(28:04):
your viral video because if this were to happen, I'm
telling you, man, this would be all over the place.
What if you swam and kept a Jenga game completely
intact on your head? Now you are talking, Wow, this
could be I mean, this could be a viral challenge
because you could start with, you know, one layer, put
on another layer, put on another layer. See how far
(28:25):
you you go. I don't know if I could do
the whole thing. That sounds really hard. I'm just trying
to get you one up on Katie Ladecki. Uh well, Nathan,
please stay safe for me and I. I genuinely am
thankful that there I mean, honestly, it sounds dumb, but
I'm thankful that there is someone with a public health
education working with the Olympic team, because I I some
(28:47):
people don't get it. Man, Like you said, it's people
still fighting not to wear masks. Yeah, hey, listen, I
learned about it in class. I learned about the seatbelt debate. Yeah,
there's a direct there's a direct the inverse correlation between
personal freedoms and public health intervention. And and just to
understand that, I think is is important. And to understand
(29:10):
that these interventions, if done well and effectively throughout the population,
are short term. So that's I'll end with that. Two
Better Times. The Sports Bubble is produced and distributed by
Treeport Media. The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner,
(29:33):
Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan
is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with production
and editing by Jasper Leek additional production help from Tim Shower,
June Rosen, and Haley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed
by Spilkis. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe,
rate us and review us on the I Heart Radio app,
(29:55):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and please
visit Feeding America dot or if you're able to make
a donation, any amount makes a difference, and you can
learn more about other ways you can help on their website.
For more information on the Sports Bubble, links to the socials,
and for show transcripts for our hearing impaired listeners, go
to tree fort dot fm. Be Safe and be Well.
(30:18):
The Sports Bubble is a production of I Heart Radio
and tree Fort Media. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to the Sports Bubble, a production of I Heart
Radio Entree Fork Media. My name is Jensen carp and
I'm a sports fan and listen. I admit when I'm wrong,
and I was wrong about the NBA Bubble because it
has been fantastic. It's still early to call it a
total success. But between the emergence of t J Warren
(00:25):
that out of this world passed from Luca, Patrick Beverley
doing Patrick Beverley things to Dame and the Lakers kind
of looking beautibule. I mean, the storylines are alive and well.
I even got a little jealous of those virtual fans
last weekend. I'm starting to think these playoffs will be enjoyable.
Definitely different considering we're seeing some real Lionel Huts level
at offense. But I can't say it won't be fun
and say if it seems, congrats to our Lord and
(00:47):
Xavior Adam Silver. And while he's doing his job, I'm
doing mine, interviewing athletes and sports industry professionals to find
out how they're doing during this very weird time because
someone has to. This is the Sports Bubble with Jensen
carpon competitive swimmer Nathan Adrian is a three time Olympian
and five time gold medalist who faced the biggest challenge
(01:08):
of his life in two thousand nineteen when he was
diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer. He fought his way
through recovery, staying out of the water for almost a year,
the longest he'd went since he was four years old,
and he figured that was the last hurdle he'd have
to jump on his way to once again compete in
the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. And then, well, we
all know what happened next. And let's be honest here.
(01:28):
At any point during COVID did you think about pools? Well?
I didn't, but it's safe to assume that if Olive
Garden can't open its stores, any public training pool is
having just as difficult of a time staying open. And
so now with one and his crosshairs, Adrian and the
rest of the hopeful US team are trying their hardest
to stay ready for the Games by jumping town to
town to find regulations that allow them to swim and
(01:49):
most importantly, stay safe. On this episode, we talked about
those hardships, how the postponement may have actually helped his
training and how his public health degree keeps him up
at night these days, and I find out if Katie
a deck, he is a warlock. And if you can
balance a bad beatsa on your head while swimming. Join
me today with Nathan Adrian in the Sports Bubble from
(02:16):
Basan Adrian to accept Press one. Hey, how's it going, man?
It's going well, thank you yourself, well as well as
it can. We are. We're talking at the end of
a week where certain states are seeing these large spikes
in coronavirus cases and debts, and I guess we've been
really like writing the roller coaster on this podcast. So
I'm still asking people where you've been through all this
(02:36):
and if you've loosened up at all with quarantine. All right, yeah,
no problem. I'm in Oakland, I am in a Bay area,
and we were first to shelter in place, and honestly,
I'm assuming that we are probably going to be the
last to continue to shelter in place, even as the
vaccine comes out and with that rollout um and and
all of that good stuff. So where we are right now,
(02:58):
it's it's really complicated because Alameda County contains both Oakland
and the city of Berkeley, and the City of Berkeley
also has its own public health department. So even though
we have two massive fifty pools and a great training
facility at cal because that is within the city limits
of the City of Berkeley, like Alameda County has given
(03:18):
sb okay to swim there, but the City of Berkeley
Public Health Department still hasn't. So we're we're doing the
same thing that a lot of other people are doing
and struggling to find pool space outside of our normal
training facilities. And I am pretty hardcore lockdown. I mean,
it's massed on any time on outside of the house
(03:39):
and you know, still doing the grocery delivery thing, trying
to cook at home as much as possible with doing
with the exception of you know, getting take out maybe
once or twice a week. Sure, well, you're the first
competitive swimmer I've spoken to on the show, so it's
gonna be an elementary question. But once we saw the
nation sort of shut down from the outbreak, does that
just close all pools to training? Basically? I think that's
(04:01):
just kind of a broad rush statement. Absolutely. Um, you know,
one of the unique things and challenges that we as
competitive swimmers are stays with especially now more than ever,
was starting to define the difference between training and being
a professional athlete in the pool versus country club and
(04:22):
a lot of public health departments. I mean, the bandwidth
was you know, at its absolute capacity. Uh, and it
was hard to get any anyone to hear or or
create differentiations for us. So we kind of are all
operating under this overarching you know, quote un pool definition
and a lot of people think, you know, pool restrictions.
Oh no, we're not going to be able to go
(04:43):
to the Fourth of July celebration and do a coin
dive at our local country club or community pool. But
and that that probably goes without saying. But you know,
after the lockdown, I mean, swimming one per lane in
a a closely monitored chlorinated outdoor pool has certainly, at
(05:05):
least to me, shown that it's been pretty safe. Well,
I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it going with these basic
questions because I do, other than being a fan of
going into the pool, I don't know a ton about swimming.
So you'll have to tell me. Is the idea of
having a house pool, you know, just the normal pool
that we had growing up and swimming in friends houses,
and you know, like, is is that able to be
(05:25):
trained in or is it just am I asking if
you can, you know, play baseball in a small toy.
That's probably a fair comparison, you know, it is sort
of life. Maybe getting a professional baseball player out there
with a whiffleball in a plastic hollow bad or something.
It is good to to do something. It's good to
(05:47):
get that feel for the water. But unless you are
your backyard pool is at least twenty five yards with
good spill over gutters. I'm getting technical here, which means
that you have to have a search tank and that
it's as a lot of construction costs. It's it's not
quite the same. And not only that, but for as
individual as a as a sport of swimming is, there's
(06:09):
something to be said about having teammates around you, you know,
for your for your days where you're hurting a little
bit and you need some you know, motivation either racing
them or watching them perform or doing doing something because
it's it's hard. It's hard to train alone, no doubt
about it, and you have to have those teammates they're
pushing you every day. Is really important and that's that's
one of the things that has been a big adjustment. Yeah,
(06:31):
I know you're a football guy, but I don't know
if you watched any basketball. They had a horse competition
through the NBA before the league restarted, and they would
show us this is pretty early in the quarantine, but
they would show us people's homes and that was you know,
they shot you know, from their phone or whatever, and
they play horse remotely. It was so weird. But one
of the things that I was shocked with was like
they were like, Okay, let's go to Mike Connelly's house,
and Mike Connelly had like a full court basketball, you know,
(06:54):
like a full literally a full gym in his house.
And I'm wondering, do do any swimmers or at now?
Are they thinking about getting like a real pool if
they have that kind of kind of dough like a
Michael Phelps. I mean yes, but probably no Olympic sized
swimming pool is fifty Olympic sized swimming pool depth is
(07:16):
you know, ten about ten feet? I mean I could
I could do the math for you right if I
had a calculator, but I mean it's hundreds of thousands
of gallons. You gotta have really massive pumps to to
get the hit the filtration rate for that, you gotta
be adding chlorine. It's it's a lot more complicated than
putting in a really nice basketball court in your in
(07:36):
your house. I'll take that, Mike Conley. But I do
I do like the idea of just having one one lane,
just one lane in your backyard that goes on, doesn't
You don't have to have the whole pool. Well, so
there's also the ability to endless pools, which is for
the average swimmer perfectly adequate to to stay in shape
or even you know, lose some corona quarantine pounds. But
(07:59):
it really is just not quite the same as actually
moving through the like you know, so much of swimming
is about your fuel and I guess that would be
maybe to bring in another sports analogy, like similar to
hitting off of hitting off of mats versus getting off
of grass and golf. Right, that makes sense. Well, how
then tell me how do you train without without a pool?
How do you train for swimming? I mean, you're on
(08:21):
the Olympic team. I know you found out that the
Olympics were were canceled while you were actually training with
your team, So like, what what do you do now, well,
right now because Calis clothes were actually going to the
neighboring county. Kind of counterproductive, I know, when we have
you know, two massive, awesome fifty pools and now we're
having to pay to rent space at facility that's not
(08:42):
quite as good. But that's the game that we're playing
right now, and we're doing our best. Our coach has
made great adjustments for us in terms of what we're
doing in the water to try to you know, maximize
the games that we can achieve from from not having
access to our our normal pool. And then on the
other side of that, I'm all so. I also like,
right when we went to shelter in Place, I went
(09:02):
online and ordered some some weight so I can have
a little home Jim set up because I figured that
this is gonna last a little longer than most people anticipated,
which I am very thankful for now because it seems that,
you know, home Jim set ups are completely sold out
acrost the nation, So I'm really glad I have that
little setup going in the garage to to really help
(09:23):
bridge that gap. Yeah, it's hard to imagine anyone is
happy about quarantine, but I would clearly get in a
fight with people who own a home gym company or
like sweats. Those people are having the best time of
their lives. Are really well, let's talk about some serious things.
You did what many people did during this time in history.
You adopted a dog. Yes, okay, How to be honest,
(09:44):
how much does this help? Because I have a dog,
and boy did I turn to him many times during
this But how much does it help when you feel
like the world is ending to have man's best friend?
You know? For any listeners out there who do you
have a dog or maybe have access to it, you know,
neighbor dog or something, I would encourage them to limit
their news intake to you know, ten or fifteen minutes
(10:08):
and then spend the additional time in their day with
a dog. I really genuinely believe that would make the
world a happier play. It truly does. Yeah, exactly, I mean,
it really does. It really does. Is helpful to kind
of lift your spirits and even walking in the house
after a tough practice, um and and having a dog
great you and just kind of you know, wag your
(10:28):
tail and and try her best to not jump because
you know, we're trying to train or not to jump
on me um, but it is. It really is the
best feeling getting home and having a happy stays treating
you well. You were open about your treatment for testicular
cancer in two thousand nineteen and you were rigorously training
to make the Olympic team. You still are, but with
(10:48):
this delay, now, I wonder does this actually help you
with recovery and getting back into shape because you were
on a bit of a sped up timeline. Absolutely. It
took me a little bit so to realize and appreciate
that fact just as as it would so. I have
definitely been able to gain more strength back, and because
(11:09):
as you mentioned, you know, I was on a little
bit of an accelerated timeline, I've kind of being able
to step back work through some fundamentals, especially in the
weight room, also in in the pool, to kind of
patch over some spots that we had maybe rushed through
in our initial return. So I feel great about we are,
where we are, where are at right now and uh
and where we're going. Yeah. I mean that during the
(11:31):
surgery and the treatment you had, that was the longest
you went without swimming since you were four. You didn't
miss that much time because of it. Sounds like because
of coronavirus. Really, I mean the shutdown and then and
then you found you know, you found pools that worked
out for the team. Yeah, yeah, exactly, so that that
was definitely longest. Yeah, that was longest by far. So
we were yeah, we were fortunate. We found some We
found the pool space um to to sweam Att pretty
(11:54):
pretty shortly after the you know, shelter place, and some
restrictions were lifted just to maintain a little bit of
of swimming, you know, if we weren't going. But but
we did what we could. Okay, now this is my
question about your teammates. You bring them up. I have
a question, how do they understand? I mean, this is
a big question that there are no other public health
(12:17):
grads from UC Berkeley on the team. I don't know
that's a good Is that a question? I mean, I'm
being honest because here's the thing, right, I'm honest. I'm
on Olympic swim team. I we're all scared, We're all like,
can we practice? And then there's a dude whose education
has come into play. Yeah, you know, I guess I can't.
I have an undergrad degree in public health, and that's
(12:40):
that is relatively rare. Berkeley is actually one of the
few places that offers that undergrad degree. Most of the
time it's actually a pastor's or a doctorate level degree.
And I'm not trying to elevate my status because that
I'm just saying I don't know as much as you
know your your typical public health officials. I would honestly
just say that I was in classes that warned us
(13:03):
about what is currently happening and knew that it was possible.
And I mean, looking back, even I had I had
a friend who worked downtown San Francisco and he sent
a time last video of that cruise ship that had
the coronavirus patients coming into Oakland, and I just remember
(13:24):
seeing that now is just terrified. I was like, this
is this, like we are we are introducing this into
our population, and I hope that it's going to be
you know, managed properly, and as we look back, unfortunately
it wasn't. There's certainly a lot of lessons to be
learned there. But but yeah, I think I probably had
my alarm alarm bells ringing a little bit before most people. Yeah,
(13:46):
I can only imagine I was an international relations minor
for a second, and it wasn't something that I like
really truly wanted to get into, but I was so
interested in it. And we had one professor back in
got and he and I even like emailed parents, So
I was so like happy that I had like recorded
it down. But he goes, you know, in the next
four or five years, we're gonna have some crazy terrorist
attack from Osama bin Laden. And I didn't really know
(14:09):
who Osama bin Laden was or anything, so I'm freaking
out there. And then as soon as the you know,
terrible nine eleven happens, I even my parents were like
that guy told you, and I feel like you must
have had a similar instance with this, where like you
immediately knew what kind of damage, what kind of terrible
few months we could have in the US because of
(14:29):
a pandemic something that I thought was just like a
board game name until five months ago. Yeah, I mean
it was you're gonna're gonna You're gonna hit some hot
spots with me, and um so I do. I very
distinctly remember when it was starting to experience community spread,
and even when Dr Fauci and uh the American Surgeon
(14:51):
generally unfortunately forgot his name right now, we're talking about
not wearing masks, and I was very upset about it.
I mean, how are you going to have places like
Hong Kong and Taiwan who are essentially you know, they
like Hong Kong obviously shares a border with Taiwan and
taiwanas Hong Kong shared at the border with with China,
Taiwan is a hundred miles off the coast. There are
people going back and forth all the time. And both
(15:13):
of those countries managed to contain the virus very very quickly.
Um and part of their culture is wearing masks. Even
when there's not a global pandemic. You see people wearing masks.
I'm like that, there's something to be said about that.
And and that was a huge key to their success.
And and here we are, so many months later, still
debating the efficacy of masks, and I just just is
(15:36):
that's the reason why I have to turn off the
news my dog. Yep, Well, that's the reason you adopt
a dog. I get it. You are heavily involved with
the next generation of swimmers, whether it's just through social
media or through your team or the school you run with.
Will Copeland. As far as training for the Olympics, and
you're a bit of a veteran now on the team,
how do you help them that the younger guys keep
(15:57):
the momentum they had before the down. That's a that's
a very individualized question. So there are a lot of
different ways that people are motivated and watching like my
teammates and trying to just maybe create some some reframes
in their minds, you know, looking at the next year
(16:20):
as an opportunity rather than a burden, or trying to
figure out how to get them, you know, get the
most out of them in practice by raising them this
or that, or you know, knowing that they're on a
great track and they don't need any of my help,
like I could only really hurt them. You know, you've
got to really get to know a person or your
teammate before you you you try to intervene in anyway. Sure,
(16:45):
let's get hot button again real quick. I wanted to
talk to you about your mom for a second. She
was a school district nurse. Correct, Yep, that is a
role that could not be more front and center when
we were talking locally, at least in people's neighborhoods to
everyone in the United States right now. It just she
have an opinion about everything going back to school, that
the fact that we're putting our children in these situations.
(17:05):
I mean, she would be the person. She would be
the person working pretty much twenty four hours a day
right now, I assume, I mean, yeah, she's not. Let
me put it this way, my mom has not really
been in close contact with any of her grandchildren. She
will have an outdoor picnic socially distance and normally she
(17:26):
you know, sees and hangs out and and helps with childcare.
I don't know, anywhere from one to three times a week.
And ever since I started. I mean I remember following
her saying you you need to stop that, like immediately,
and she was like no. I was like, no, no, Mom,
it's in Like I mean, we had a we had
(17:46):
a pulmonologist from from Denver come and talk to us
while we were at the training camp, and basically he said, hey, listen,
based off of our knowledge and this is the way
back in February. So based off of our knowledge, right now,
we anybody over sixty that gets this disease. It's literally
like playing Russian roulette. With the revolver, uh and having
(18:08):
one bullet in the chamber, and I was like, whoa,
that's like that put it into perspective for me. So,
you know, a seventeen chance of dying, like you wouldn't
play Russian roulette, right, Like you would do everything in
your power to not have to do that. So my
mom and my dad are are doing essentially that until
(18:29):
you know, a vaccine or or the numbers go down.
And to your point, I mean, yeah, she's not in
support of of going back to school. I mean she lives.
She also lives in Washington State. They are they've been
they've handled that. I was pretty well, um, and are
pretty conservative with the handling of public health. We've been
telling people because we have my wife and I have
(18:50):
a one year old, and we're so lucky that we
don't have to make that decision right now, you know
that whether school or not. And we're not, you know,
we're not in the situation to make that because some people,
you know, both of us work at sometimes like it
would be impossible to take care of him, you know,
all day long for another five six months and we
would have to I mean, that's that's where we would
we we are not letting them out. But you know,
(19:12):
your mom probably took our job very serious, and it
would be a very hard decision for any of these
teachers or these nurses that know they have a job
that they love and a responsibility that they love to
to not go or go. What a difficult decision for them. Yeah, absolutely,
I mean they're they're really they're stuck in between a
rock and a hard place. You don't go into teaching
or school nursing because you're going to get rich, That's right.
(19:35):
You go into teaching or school nursing because you love kids,
you love what's happening at the school, and you want
to help the generation beyond your own. And again, it
just comes down so much to you know, what's happening
at your community level. Like I live in my little
bubble in Oakland, Alama County has I think one point
(19:55):
six million people like we do have. You know, we
have days where we have four I have six cases.
So yeah, no, I don't necessarily think that we should
be going back to school. But if you're in you know, Wyoming, Montana,
it's in in a rural district and you haven't had
cases for two weeks, like, of course you need to
go back to school. And I'm not trying to suggest that,
(20:16):
you know, people shouldn't go back to school the entire
year or whatever. It's just it really just has to
be managed and managed closely because it's very stressful and
and dangerous to to fit and wait for test results
for a week and wonder if you may have gotten it. Yeah,
it's insane. I know. There's some billionaire I was reading
about yesterday who is looking into creating outdoor schools. I
(20:41):
love that, I do, you know. I mean, let's talk
about this. And so you have a one year old,
if you were forced to have your and imagine these
let's call it seven eight years old, would you send
you get back to school or would you be consider
And what some of my friends are more than one
of my friends are doing is is essentially like taking
(21:04):
extra jobs um or you know, if they were furloughed
or unreduced or whatever it may be. UM basically being
an education coordinator for these kids that are learning from home. Yeah,
I have to. I mean we you know, like I said,
we're just lucky we don't have to make that decision.
But I mean, like if I was in that position.
I could not send them to school. I had a
I had a childhood. I could worry all day. Right,
(21:26):
I mean, I've already I already feel that nerves. I'm
not I'm not adding I'm not throwing them out to
the wolves. So I would I would have to come
up with something. You're right, I'd become a bit of
a professor myself. I don't know. It's not not something
I have to face, luckily, and I feel bad for
those who do more. With five time Olympic gold medalists
swimmer Nathan Adrian after this right now, Feeding America is
(21:50):
working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students
who were out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs
are impacted, and low income families continue to have acts
as to food and other needed resources during the COVID
nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed
to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and
their greatest need is donations and support of local food banks.
(22:12):
This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the
proceeds from the show to Feeding America and we hope
that you can join us in this effort to find
out how you can help Feeding America dot org backslash
COVID nineteen. Now let's get back to Nathan. You obviously
(22:33):
have a bit of a decision coming up with Tokyo.
There's a bit of an Olympic bubble joke, right, there's
like a meme with this village where all you guys stay,
and there's been jokes for years about how STDs and
sicknesses go around it, and it's it's sort of a bubble.
And it's funny because now we rely on these bubbles
for Tokyo, you know, we we we rely on them
(22:53):
to make it work. So so you tell me, is
it going to be safe? You've been there? Can it
be healthy? I do believe that, Campy says, and I
do believe it could be healthy. You know what's crazy
is in and a pretty lead up to every Olympic Games,
there's always there's a story that goes around, right and
seen it was zekwelve, it was security the two Thousand Days.
(23:16):
I honestly I can't remember. I was too young. But
there's like a reason why these games are gonna be
you know, catastrophic, And here's Japan finishing all of their infrastructure,
like month inmit bands which is totally unheard of, and
then the actual global pandemic, the one thing that isn't
up to them at all occurs and in delays the game,
(23:37):
which is just so unfortunately. I really sully feel for
you know, Tokyo and all those organizers. But that being said,
I mean it is going to be an amazing opportunity
for Japan to create and execute on a on the
bubble and a safe and effective Olympic Games. I think
they can do it. I mean, I I trust them
to do that. Yeah. Well, I guess all of sports
(23:59):
is have being this kind of kind of issue. And
like we said, you're a bit of a football fan,
but specifically I think you are a Seahawks super fan.
Oh yeah, okay, known for their incredible fans, the noise
that they make in the stadium. Could you imagine? This
is the one I think about all the time. A
empty quiet century link like I can't even fathom without
the Twelfth Man. It seems crazy. It is, it is crazy.
(24:21):
But all of this is crazy, man. I have seen
the practice facility and seeing what those guys like, you know,
getting up and getting after it at practice and there's
no noise happening at where is it Kirkland or wherever?
Wherever it is, and it is, I don't know. I
I believe in in Coach Carroll is like, you know,
fostering of that competitive nature, of that competitive spirit. Obviously
(24:44):
the Twelfth Man makes a huge difference. It's absolutely unbelievable
to be there and not and be talking and not
even be able to hear your own voice. It's like
it's something something special, but it obviously it's not gonna
happen this year. I just really hope the season. I
hope they figure out a way to at secute on
the successful season, saying, well, let's hope it's more basketball
than baseball. I want to end with something that was
(25:06):
all over the internet this week. Uh, swimmer Katie Ladecki
on the internet swimming the length of a pool with
a cup of chocolate milk on her head doesn't spill
at all. It stays on her dome the entire time.
Is this as insane as it is to enoyre me?
Like me? Is she some sort of warlock? Uh? She
(25:29):
is a warlock, be very clear about that. She is
very she is a very special athlete. I would put
money on percent of the national team being able to
do that though. Wow, really yeah, maybe ninety maybe ninety.
There's some there's some people whose head head moves all
over the place when they swim. But it's it's I mean,
it's it's hard. Don't get me wrong. I mean you're
(25:51):
talking we're talking about national team athletes. We're talking about
the absolute best of the very best. So it takes
a lot of aesthetic awareness to be able to keep
your head that still while you're pushing, you know, move
into the water. I had no idea that it could
be that common. So I wanted to ask you if
there were some other things you think could balance on
the head of an Olympic swimmer and if it would work. Okay, alright, shoot, okay,
(26:14):
First is a bucket of chicken. It's more tubular, kind
of definitely larger, but you know, like it fits like
a hat, so it might be easier. You know, if
we were doing backstoke, I'd say, I'd say, for sure, yes,
doing freestyle, it's it's a little harder. You know. What
also matters is the shape of people's head, you know. Okay, yeah,
(26:36):
that's that's a little that's confounded like that. Alright, how
about a sneaker Oh easy, yeah, yeah, okay, good? A
football that feels I can't even really hold it in
my hand. I would be impressed with anybody who could
swim fifty with the football. All right, you heard that,
Katie Kie like pinching it right? Okay? This one, this one,
(26:57):
I really went back and forth on a stiff pete
like uh, like a chuck e cheese a little a
little tougher of crust in the box or just the pizza.
Just the pizza in the box, I feel like is
a cheater, but it's that is long. But I'm gonna
go with just the pizza. Uh. That would be hard,
That would be hard. You you could, you could definitely
get away. You would finish the fifty with with some slices,
(27:20):
but not the whole thing. Good good, Alright, My last two,
This one I think, like you said, might play into
the shape of the head a plunger. Oh yeah, that
is that's all about. That's all about whether or not
you could get uh you could get a little suchtion
going on your head. I bet I have a good
chance of it because I have the I this is
my this is my claim to fame. Here we go.
(27:41):
I had the largest circumference head of the national team
members leading up to WHOA you have like a dome piece.
Do you know what your hat size is? I think
it's like seven and five. That's big thing. That is
a big head. It's pretty big, pretty big. That isn't everything? Well,
I will throw out plunger for you in alright, six
my last one, and I'm I'm almost suggesting this is
(28:04):
your viral video because if this were to happen, I'm
telling you, man, this would be all over the place.
What if you swam and kept a Jenga game completely
intact on your head? Now you are talking, Wow, this
could be I mean, this could be a viral challenge
because you could start with, you know, one layer, put
on another layer, put on another layer. See how far
(28:25):
you you go. I don't know if I could do
the whole thing. That sounds really hard. I'm just trying
to get you one up on Katie Ladecki. Uh well, Nathan,
please stay safe for me and I. I genuinely am
thankful that there I mean, honestly, it sounds dumb, but
I'm thankful that there is someone with a public health
education working with the Olympic team, because I I some
(28:47):
people don't get it. Man, Like you said, it's people
still fighting not to wear masks. Yeah, hey, listen, I
learned about it in class. I learned about the seatbelt debate. Yeah,
there's a direct there's a direct the inverse correlation between
personal freedoms and public health intervention. And and just to
understand that, I think is is important. And to understand
(29:10):
that these interventions, if done well and effectively throughout the population,
are short term. So that's I'll end with that. Two
Better Times. The Sports Bubble is produced and distributed by
Treeport Media. The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner,
(29:33):
Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan
is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with production
and editing by Jasper Leek additional production help from Tim Shower,
June Rosen, and Haley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed
by Spilkis. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe,
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(29:55):
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For more information on the Sports Bubble, links to the socials,
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(30:18):
The Sports Bubble is a production of I Heart Radio
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