August 22, 2024 • 23 mins
Olympic medalist Paige Madden soon to be a competitive eater
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back Sports Talk nine ninety five Randy Kennedy in
the Threaded Fastener studio and right now it is a thrill.
It's an honor to have Page Madden in studio with us.
I got to tell you that I've been in the
media for a long long time, and I get like
most people in the media, I get trained to not cheer.
Like I can watch the Iron Bowl and I never
once have ever cheered one time. I just don't do it.
(00:28):
You just kind of you're professional about it. I gotta
tell you, I was watching you in the eight hundred
and I was screaming out loud. I was cheering for you,
and I was with a bunch of folks and it
was like it was like this big party as we
were cheering for you as you made your move in
the eight hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Provide some entertainment and keep you on the AEDs of
your seat. That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Let's talk about I want to talk about the eight hundred.
That's where you got the bronze. And that was one
of the most anticipated races really in all of the Olympics,
or events in all the Olympics. That was supposed to
be the big deal, Katie of the Decky, Yeah, your teammate.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Gold and it was pretty incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So and then she had the great challenger from Australia, right, Yeah,
and that was supposed to be all this is going
to be the big showdown. And meanwhile, in the qualifying
and then in the actual you know, medal race, you
were kind of right in the middle of all that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah. I wasn't really in the middle of it until
the end of the race. I kind of held back
to and try to make my move. Maybe I should
have made my move a little bit earlier. But at
the end of the day, I think those girls were
We did a press conference after and they were just
really excited that it was such a good race and
(01:36):
that was cool to see. You know. It was Tipmus's
best time, it was Ladecki's fourth gold, it was my
first medal. That was just a special moment to share
with them.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, your first individual medal.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Mm hmm, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Well you were under selling your performance though, because I
want to walk through like how you progressed in the
eight hundred, so you weren't in that in the last Olympics.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Nope. Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And then somehow you get in the eight hundred. Here
you go to the Olympic Trials and I think you
were like, well like twenty five seconds off of your
best time previously, something remarkable like that.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I so, I think I dropped seven seconds at Olympic Trials.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And how much more did you drop in the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
An additional seven actually, ironically, so that's.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
But that number of seconds, that's like a it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's a long swimming, it's a long race, but it
is a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
How do you account for the fact that you got
that much better at that event?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So the thing is people keep saying that, They're like,
how do you drop so much time and a matter
of months? And for me, it didn't happen in a
matter of months. It happened over four years. It just
I never performed the way I wanted to in the race,
and I was training really well, but I just wasn't
(02:58):
racing the event really well, and it wasn't really clicking
until trials. I finally qualified, and that's when it became
a goal for me to get an individual medal in
the event. But I knew that I was due for
a time drop. I didn't know that it was going
to be that big of a drop, But yeah, I
think my coaches knew what I was capable of, and
ultimately what mattered was that I believed in myself, and
(03:21):
I think it took me a while to believe to
get that belief.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
When you look back over your career, even back to
ums where you were multiple time state champions and then
national champion at Virginia, this wasn't your thing or was
it going that long a distance.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So it wasn't until my last couple of years of
college I picked up the mile, went from the two
undred backstroke to the mile. That was mainly because the
two inndred backstroke was getting pretty crowded in terms of
competition and not a lot of people want to do
the mile. So I told my co hey, I really
love the two back, but I think I can do
(03:59):
better at the mile, like score more points for the team,
and that's what it's all about and college swimming. So
just swam it and ended up being in c DOAA champion.
But that was short course yards, which is a whole
different ball game than long course meters, which is what
the Olympic pool is. So yeah, for a while I
didn't even swim anything over a four hundred, So I
(04:22):
think it was I've sort of changed my training the
last two years to add some more distance in there,
and that's when I realize that's really my bread and
butter and what I kind of gravitate towards and just
learn to embrace it rather than fight it.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So it's all hard. I mean, swimming, it's hard. It's
hard being fast. It's a lot of practice. But I
got to think that doing that eight hundred is is
even way more difficult than the other stuff you're great at,
like the two hundred. Is that is that true?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I think so. I think it's mentally challenging because you
have a lot of time to think during the race.
And my tactic now is to count my strokes during
the race, so I'm not thinking as much and I'm
not freaking out, you know, oh my gosh, I'm only halfway,
so I have a four hundred to go, like you can.
It's pretty easy to get caught up in that. I
will say the the eight hundreds that I swim in
(05:15):
season hurt a lot more because you're broken down and
you're tired and you're in hard training. So I think
that eight hundred in Paris probably was the least painful
because I kind of had this out of body experience
and my mind kind of took over, and yes it
was painful, but it wasn't as painful as the past. Once.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
When you're doing that long race like the eight hundred,
I mean it is a long time. A lot of
stuff's happening in that amount of time. Are you always thinking,
I wonder how fast I'm going? I want to go fast?
Are you ever thinking like what you're gonna have for dinner?
Or you know, like do you ever like just space
out that way?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I'm pretty dialed in. I campartimentalize a lot. So I'm
at practice or training or racing, I'm thinking about that.
I'm thinking about my technique, IM thinking about my strokes.
But as soon as it's over, when I go home, like, yeah,
I want to think about what I'm having for dinner.
But no, I can't say I was thinking about that
in Paris, so I was thinking about, you know, go
(06:18):
like where am I in the race, and trying to strategize.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The other thing This may be harder to answer, but
this is the thing I always think when I watch,
particularly these Olympic events, is when you're in the middle
of a long race like that, Are you thinking I'm
in the Olympics, this is a big deal. Or are
you just thinking, I'm swimming the eight hundred and here's
how I can go the fastest I can possibly go
in the eight hundred.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's a tough one, though, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I think subconsciously you know that you're on this big stage,
and of course before your race you look down and
you see the Olympic rings and it's kind of daunting.
And I think it hits different people at a different times.
But for me, I love pressure like that, like, no
more pressure, the better. So I don't think thinking that
(07:09):
necessarily hurts me. I think it probably does, probably helps me.
Probably just yeah, rise to the occasion type thing.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
When you're doing this eight hundred and that's like what
was your time in the eight.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Hundred in Paris?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah? Eight thirteen eight minutes in thirteen seconds. I mean
that is a really long time. I'm just thinking about,
like being on a treadmill and jogging for eight thirteen
is like, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You've got marathon runners and the olden water swimmers are
swimming for over two hours.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I'll bet they're thinking about what they're eating from there.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Oh, I bet they are.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I don't think you could concentrate for two weeks.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I can't. You can't.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
But eight minutes okay, So is it eight minutes of
a sprint or are you thinking like, okay, let me go?
You know what is it like thirty one seconds? Let
me go a link in like thirty one seconds? Or
what are you thinking in terms of pacing or there's
just no pacing? I just gotta go.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh no, you gotta pace. If you go from the
get go, you're that's no good. But I think everyone's
pace is different. I know, like Ladecki, she goes after
it from the get go. But sort of what I
was talking about earlier, things clicking. I kind of learned
like for me, it worked better if I stayed back
and I actually even split the race to the hundredth
which is a pretty unusual strategy, but I think almost
(08:25):
it made the first half of the race feel really
easy and really nice, and for whatever reason, that strategy
just works better for me. But yeah, if I was
gonna go full sprint, you you would have to get
the lifeguard to get me out of the floor.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, I figured that would be the case. Yeah, the
same thing in like trek and Feel where they you know,
they have those like it's not the marathon, but it's
not the sprint, and it's the same thing. When it's over,
it's like, oh my gosh, that's so taxing to go
that distance, even more so than the shorter ones or
the longer ones, right, and you pace yourself more if
you're like a marathon or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, And what's interesting to me about track and field
and marathons and all that is, yes, we have a
wide range of distances in swimming, but in track and
field it's even more so. You go from like a
ten second race to a to a two hour race.
And for us, at least in pool swimming it goes
from twenty something second race to a fifteen minute race.
(09:23):
It's less of a big difference. And I find that
really interesting in track and field.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Talking to Paige Madden here, she's got her medals. She
had one from Tokyo and now two from Paris, one
in the individual eight hundred free and then in the
four by two hundred relay with that awesome team that
she competed on there. When you went to the Olympic Trials.
I'm gonna go back a little bit here when you
went there, did you know what you were exactly had
the best chance to qualify for What was your thinking
(09:50):
when you went to Indianapolis of what it might look
like with you on this Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Absolutely. I think for me, my bread and butter has
always been the two and the four hundred freestyle, So
I definitely wanted to qualify in those. And the two hundred,
to me, is so important because that four by two
hundred relays, so that's the primary goal. The eight hundred
is later in the meet. There's also the fifteen hundred
in the middle of the meat which I was entered
(10:15):
in and I personally wanted to swim, but my coaches
didn't feel like I was ready for it, so had
to listen to them. But yeah, I think the people
who make the team know that they're gonna make it.
And it's a confidence thing, I think, And it's also
just you know abilities, you can only be so talented,
(10:38):
but I think that you know, there's such a mental component,
you know, if you believe you can do it, and
so yeah, you kind of have to tell yourself before
the race, like I'm gonna do this and there's no
other option, like it's just gonna happen, and then lo
and behold it happens.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So you talked about when you were in college with
the won a national championship at Virginia that was precedent setting,
not only for Virginia but the whole ACC. You guys
were the first ever do it. I think, yeah, from
the ACC, very cool stuff. And you talk about having
to kind of find your place to help the team
the most. Is there any element of that with the
Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh? Absolutely. I think I actually had a unique situation
where I was scratched. So Ladecki qualified individually in the
two hundred freestyle and I had gotten third at trials
and for those of you who don't know, they usually
take top two, and so since she scratched, that then
bumped me up to the second place spot. And I
(11:41):
felt really overwhelmed by how many events I was doing.
The two hundred isn't necessarily my best event, so I
also decided to scratch it, which then bumped the fourth
place minister up. But that really helped from a team
perspective because this girl was also on the four by
two hundred relay, So again her the chance to swim
(12:01):
it individually, get her toes in the water because she's
a rookie, get her toes in the water in Paris,
get those like kind of cob webs out, and the
nervousness because it's really scary, like stepping up on the
blocks for your first Olympics. So for her to do
that and then have that race under her belt for
the four x two hundred, it also gave me more
rest for the relay. And I think it was just
(12:23):
a good, good situation all around. But definitely there are
elements of that. I think there was another girl who
also on UVA scratched the hundred free and bump someone up,
So there's some behind the scenes stuff, some chess chess plays,
I guess if you will.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
By the way, uh go Virginia. Like half of y'all's
team were Virginia grads, right, maybe, but a whole bunch
of Virginia folks on that Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, about six or seven. And our head coach is
Todd Desorbo from the team. So that was really fun
and it was kind of like it became a running
joke also because we had so many fans, so many
UVA fans and the crowd people that I've swam with,
I've gone to school with, and it became a running
joke that Paris is Charlottesville two point zero. So I
(13:14):
thought that was pretty neat.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Very cool. So when you you had that great performance
in the eight hundred and you win the bronze medal,
how often have you swam that fast in that event?
And how often are you trying to swim like a
real competitive time even when you're practicing. How much does
that happen every day? Every day that day?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yes, I mean you're pacing and you're just trying to
go your hardest, which is why I knew I was
capable of a time drop because my training showed it.
And of course when I go to meats and stuff,
I'm still trying my hardest in the race. It just
when you're broken down in training, you can't always swim
as fast, and it's a lot of times it's not
(13:58):
until the end of the season that you put it
all together. But yeah, it's it's every single day I'm
trying to go at it. So it wasn't just on
that day.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
You know, when's the last time you went really hard
before the Olympics, Like how much time was there in
between where you're like, Okay, I'm not going to be
broken down when I'm there competing in Paris. Or did
you do you train right up really hard right up
until the end.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
No. We we taper off on our training probably twice
a year. So maybe in December we had us open
and we rested a bit for that, but not a
fool taper, if that makes sense. So it wasn't one
hundred percent rest, but it was going pretty hard for
most of the year. We did three different altitude camps
(14:42):
in Colorado Springs and that is really hard. Let me
tell you, I've never done like a proper camp like
that up at altitude before, and I think that really helped.
But it's so hard to breathe up there and makes
training really hard, but it really really helps.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
And then you guys did a We went to Europe
for a little while before the Olympics, right.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yep, we went to Croatia. That was awesome. That was
so First we had our domestic camp in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and then went straight from there to Croatia. And there's
a number of reasons why we go there. There's a
lot of resources there. It's also on the same time
zone as Paris, so you get adjusted before the meat.
And it's just good team bonding. We're training together, we're
(15:24):
eating together, we're doing activities together. It really builds that
camaraderie before the Olympics, and I'm really glad that Team
USA does that because not a lot of other countries
get the chance to do that. So I'm definitely like
thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Speaking of that team camaraderie, what was it like still
being in the pool after you won your individual medal
and Katie came over and that really kind of felt
like a USA team moment.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yes, and that's what the Olympics are all about. She's
so cool and she was so gracious to me after
the race. You know, she mentioned you went the world
record before I broke the world record. I didn't even
realize that, and I was like, wow, Like that's so
cool that, like Katie's saying that to me, And it
was really cool to be her peer in that moment,
(16:14):
rather than look up to her as this celebrity, which
she is, but she's also just a down to earth person.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
So that's really cool. I want to ask you about
the whole experience. First of all, do you like where
swimming falls on the calendar in terms of like being
able to do opening ceremonies and then afterwards have a
little downtown or how does that work out in terms
of swimming. Was fairly early in the swimming.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
It was the first a which I think is great
for viewership. That also meant that a lot of us
weren't able to do opening ceremonies. You know, I can't
go stand on a boat for six hours and then
race the next day. It's just not good practice. So
but yeah, I think it is. It is good to
kind of get the height of the Olympic viewership and
(17:01):
the beginning of the Olympics, and also that you're not
just sitting around watching all the other sports and just
like anticipating and then in turn at the end you
can watch some of the other sports. I actually stayed
for closing ceremonies, which you did special. Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Did you what are the sports? Did you go see anything?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I saw beach volleyball and water polo. I was meant
to go to the gold medal soccer game, but I
went to a reception and said and watching it on TV,
but I think it would have been so cool. But
beach volleyball was really fun. It was underneath the Eiffel
Tower and it had all these chants with the crowds
and USA wasn't even playing, but it didn't even matter.
(17:41):
It was just fun to go.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So when you're an Olympian, a current olympian there you
just have like a bag you can go anywhere. You
can get in any Olympic event. How's that work?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yes? And no, You've got to sign up so you
can only go to one sporting event a day. Okay,
They've got certain allocated spots and it's just kind of
a lottery sys So you've got to go through this
portal and sign up or respond to this email. And
it's a little bit more complicated than I thought it
would be. I kind of thought the same thing. I
can just walk in and they'll just like, yeah, no,
(18:11):
it doesn't work like that, but I wish it did.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, you got a pass. Do you see my metal?
This is my past right it should work.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I wish uh. Anyway, that's a that's good stuff. What
about the We heard a lot about the Olympic village.
What was your was your take on the Olympic village.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You know, there were some problems. I don't know if
that's what you're referring to, just the transportation, and I've
got some good stories from the transport. I'll tell you later.
But yeah, the food they were serving raw chicken, I
personally wasn't served yet, but I was like cutting it open,
like checking like is it pink? Like is it fully cooked?
(18:56):
But it got a lot better as it went on.
And and I do think that the people who had
the mindset, you know, we're all in this village together,
like you don't really have an option, like it is
what it is. If you have that mindset, it's gonna
affect you less. And I definitely noticed a trend with that.
(19:19):
And I actually got pretty comfortable in the village. I
I slept great in there on the cardboard beds, And.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's what I was gonna ask you. I heard a
couple of stories like people like this is a bed
in the Olympic village, which was not like your bed
at home.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
It's not, but nothing's ever like your bed at home.
And someone told me, you're at the Olympics, you're not
gonna sleep anyways, just because you're so nervous, and I'm like, yeah,
you know, you're kind of right, but yeah, I saw
great on it. But I'm also not too picky about
mattresses and things like that.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Are you a Are you a nervous pregamer like night before?
Are you a nervous pregamer?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Oh? Yes, yes, absolutely. I mean I think the night
before my eight hundred prelims. Actually it was right after
we won the medal in the four by two hundred,
and I couldn't fall asleep until like five am. And
part of that was just coming down from the high
of the metal ceremony in the race and everything. Yeah,
(20:17):
but ultimately I just had to tell myself it's not
the night before of sleeps that's matters. It's all these
sleeps that you've led up to and everything that you've
done over the years. So yes, I am a nervous pregamer,
as you said, but I try not to let it
affect me too much.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So when you guys, when you won your silver medal
in the relay and you do the whole you know,
ceremony and all that cool stuff, was there any level
of Okay, now we've done that, and I'm gonna do
my best going forward. But I'm kind of free rolling
now like I've already had a good Olympics. Do you
think that way at all? Or is it you just
gotta put that away?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh? Absolutely? And I think that was how thing that
I had to prep for mentally even before the four
by two hundred, because I knew we were gonna win
a medal, because I trained with these girls, I knew
we were gonna do well. I also knew it was
gonna be the tight turnaround with the next morning, so
I actually worked with my sports psychologists, how do I
come down from this and try not to get too
caught up in the emotion so I can sleep at
(21:19):
least a little bit. And Katie and I were both
in the same race and the eight hundred, so that
was good. We bypassed the media immediately after the relay
got a little special ass. You have to go through
this whole maze after your race, and.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's like the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, it's pretty exhausting actually, especially like you've just done
this all out effort and you're breathing hard and you're lightheaded,
and then you've got to walk through this hole maize
and stop and talk to people, and your legs are
filled with lactic acid. I actually saw one of my
teammates pass out after all the media stuff because his
(21:55):
adrenaline was so high and wow, he just yeah, it
was just a little overwhelmed me. So I was like,
I don't I don't want to be that person. So
we kind of had to come up with a game
plan to kind of mitigate that.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And I'm sure even after you win the uh your
medal in the relay, there's like a million every person
you've ever met wants to congratulate you at that point
when you're still in the middle of your whole Olympic experience.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Right exactly, And it's everyone wants to hug you and
talk to you and interview you, and it's like, I've
got to go cool down, like I've got to go recover.
And it's not that you don't want to talk to
those people. You just gotta put your foot down and
be like, hey, like I still have the meat going on,
(22:39):
Like I've got to run basically, and most people understand that.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
So we'll take a break round here. Paige Madden Olympic
Olympic medalist. She brought two new medals with her today
in addition to the one that she won in Tokyo.
We'll be back with her in just a minute here
on Sports Talk ninety nine to five count
Welcome back Sports Talk nine ninety five Randy Kennedy in
the Threaded Fastener studio and right now it is a thrill.
It's an honor to have Page Madden in studio with us.
I got to tell you that I've been in the
media for a long long time, and I get like
most people in the media, I get trained to not cheer.
Like I can watch the Iron Bowl and I never
once have ever cheered one time. I just don't do it.
(00:28):
You just kind of you're professional about it. I gotta
tell you, I was watching you in the eight hundred
and I was screaming out loud. I was cheering for you,
and I was with a bunch of folks and it
was like it was like this big party as we
were cheering for you as you made your move in
the eight hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Provide some entertainment and keep you on the AEDs of
your seat. That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Let's talk about I want to talk about the eight hundred.
That's where you got the bronze. And that was one
of the most anticipated races really in all of the Olympics,
or events in all the Olympics. That was supposed to
be the big deal, Katie of the Decky, Yeah, your teammate.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Gold and it was pretty incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So and then she had the great challenger from Australia, right, Yeah,
and that was supposed to be all this is going
to be the big showdown. And meanwhile, in the qualifying
and then in the actual you know, medal race, you
were kind of right in the middle of all that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah. I wasn't really in the middle of it until
the end of the race. I kind of held back
to and try to make my move. Maybe I should
have made my move a little bit earlier. But at
the end of the day, I think those girls were
We did a press conference after and they were just
really excited that it was such a good race and
(01:36):
that was cool to see. You know. It was Tipmus's
best time, it was Ladecki's fourth gold, it was my
first medal. That was just a special moment to share
with them.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, your first individual medal.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Mm hmm, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Well you were under selling your performance though, because I
want to walk through like how you progressed in the
eight hundred, so you weren't in that in the last Olympics.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Nope. Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And then somehow you get in the eight hundred. Here
you go to the Olympic Trials and I think you
were like, well like twenty five seconds off of your
best time previously, something remarkable like that.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I so, I think I dropped seven seconds at Olympic Trials.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And how much more did you drop in the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
An additional seven actually, ironically, so that's.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
But that number of seconds, that's like a it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's a long swimming, it's a long race, but it
is a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
How do you account for the fact that you got
that much better at that event?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So the thing is people keep saying that, They're like,
how do you drop so much time and a matter
of months? And for me, it didn't happen in a
matter of months. It happened over four years. It just
I never performed the way I wanted to in the race,
and I was training really well, but I just wasn't
(02:58):
racing the event really well, and it wasn't really clicking
until trials. I finally qualified, and that's when it became
a goal for me to get an individual medal in
the event. But I knew that I was due for
a time drop. I didn't know that it was going
to be that big of a drop, But yeah, I
think my coaches knew what I was capable of, and
ultimately what mattered was that I believed in myself, and
(03:21):
I think it took me a while to believe to
get that belief.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
When you look back over your career, even back to
ums where you were multiple time state champions and then
national champion at Virginia, this wasn't your thing or was
it going that long a distance.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So it wasn't until my last couple of years of
college I picked up the mile, went from the two
undred backstroke to the mile. That was mainly because the
two inndred backstroke was getting pretty crowded in terms of
competition and not a lot of people want to do
the mile. So I told my co hey, I really
love the two back, but I think I can do
(03:59):
better at the mile, like score more points for the team,
and that's what it's all about and college swimming. So
just swam it and ended up being in c DOAA champion.
But that was short course yards, which is a whole
different ball game than long course meters, which is what
the Olympic pool is. So yeah, for a while I
didn't even swim anything over a four hundred, So I
(04:22):
think it was I've sort of changed my training the
last two years to add some more distance in there,
and that's when I realize that's really my bread and
butter and what I kind of gravitate towards and just
learn to embrace it rather than fight it.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So it's all hard. I mean, swimming, it's hard. It's
hard being fast. It's a lot of practice. But I
got to think that doing that eight hundred is is
even way more difficult than the other stuff you're great at,
like the two hundred. Is that is that true?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I think so. I think it's mentally challenging because you
have a lot of time to think during the race.
And my tactic now is to count my strokes during
the race, so I'm not thinking as much and I'm
not freaking out, you know, oh my gosh, I'm only halfway,
so I have a four hundred to go, like you can.
It's pretty easy to get caught up in that. I
will say the the eight hundreds that I swim in
(05:15):
season hurt a lot more because you're broken down and
you're tired and you're in hard training. So I think
that eight hundred in Paris probably was the least painful
because I kind of had this out of body experience
and my mind kind of took over, and yes it
was painful, but it wasn't as painful as the past. Once.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
When you're doing that long race like the eight hundred,
I mean it is a long time. A lot of
stuff's happening in that amount of time. Are you always thinking,
I wonder how fast I'm going? I want to go fast?
Are you ever thinking like what you're gonna have for dinner?
Or you know, like do you ever like just space
out that way?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I'm pretty dialed in. I campartimentalize a lot. So I'm
at practice or training or racing, I'm thinking about that.
I'm thinking about my technique, IM thinking about my strokes.
But as soon as it's over, when I go home, like, yeah,
I want to think about what I'm having for dinner.
But no, I can't say I was thinking about that
in Paris, so I was thinking about, you know, go
(06:18):
like where am I in the race, and trying to strategize.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The other thing This may be harder to answer, but
this is the thing I always think when I watch,
particularly these Olympic events, is when you're in the middle
of a long race like that, Are you thinking I'm
in the Olympics, this is a big deal. Or are
you just thinking, I'm swimming the eight hundred and here's
how I can go the fastest I can possibly go
in the eight hundred.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's a tough one, though, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I think subconsciously you know that you're on this big stage,
and of course before your race you look down and
you see the Olympic rings and it's kind of daunting.
And I think it hits different people at a different times.
But for me, I love pressure like that, like, no
more pressure, the better. So I don't think thinking that
(07:09):
necessarily hurts me. I think it probably does, probably helps me.
Probably just yeah, rise to the occasion type thing.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
When you're doing this eight hundred and that's like what
was your time in the eight.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Hundred in Paris?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah? Eight thirteen eight minutes in thirteen seconds. I mean
that is a really long time. I'm just thinking about,
like being on a treadmill and jogging for eight thirteen
is like, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You've got marathon runners and the olden water swimmers are
swimming for over two hours.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I'll bet they're thinking about what they're eating from there.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Oh, I bet they are.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I don't think you could concentrate for two weeks.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I can't. You can't.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
But eight minutes okay, So is it eight minutes of
a sprint or are you thinking like, okay, let me go?
You know what is it like thirty one seconds? Let
me go a link in like thirty one seconds? Or
what are you thinking in terms of pacing or there's
just no pacing? I just gotta go.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh no, you gotta pace. If you go from the
get go, you're that's no good. But I think everyone's
pace is different. I know, like Ladecki, she goes after
it from the get go. But sort of what I
was talking about earlier, things clicking. I kind of learned
like for me, it worked better if I stayed back
and I actually even split the race to the hundredth
which is a pretty unusual strategy, but I think almost
(08:25):
it made the first half of the race feel really
easy and really nice, and for whatever reason, that strategy
just works better for me. But yeah, if I was
gonna go full sprint, you you would have to get
the lifeguard to get me out of the floor.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, I figured that would be the case. Yeah, the
same thing in like trek and Feel where they you know,
they have those like it's not the marathon, but it's
not the sprint, and it's the same thing. When it's over,
it's like, oh my gosh, that's so taxing to go
that distance, even more so than the shorter ones or
the longer ones, right, and you pace yourself more if
you're like a marathon or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, And what's interesting to me about track and field
and marathons and all that is, yes, we have a
wide range of distances in swimming, but in track and
field it's even more so. You go from like a
ten second race to a to a two hour race.
And for us, at least in pool swimming it goes
from twenty something second race to a fifteen minute race.
(09:23):
It's less of a big difference. And I find that
really interesting in track and field.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Talking to Paige Madden here, she's got her medals. She
had one from Tokyo and now two from Paris, one
in the individual eight hundred free and then in the
four by two hundred relay with that awesome team that
she competed on there. When you went to the Olympic Trials.
I'm gonna go back a little bit here when you
went there, did you know what you were exactly had
the best chance to qualify for What was your thinking
(09:50):
when you went to Indianapolis of what it might look
like with you on this Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Absolutely. I think for me, my bread and butter has
always been the two and the four hundred freestyle, So
I definitely wanted to qualify in those. And the two hundred,
to me, is so important because that four by two
hundred relays, so that's the primary goal. The eight hundred
is later in the meet. There's also the fifteen hundred
in the middle of the meat which I was entered
(10:15):
in and I personally wanted to swim, but my coaches
didn't feel like I was ready for it, so had
to listen to them. But yeah, I think the people
who make the team know that they're gonna make it.
And it's a confidence thing, I think, And it's also
just you know abilities, you can only be so talented,
(10:38):
but I think that you know, there's such a mental component,
you know, if you believe you can do it, and
so yeah, you kind of have to tell yourself before
the race, like I'm gonna do this and there's no
other option, like it's just gonna happen, and then lo
and behold it happens.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So you talked about when you were in college with
the won a national championship at Virginia that was precedent setting,
not only for Virginia but the whole ACC. You guys
were the first ever do it. I think, yeah, from
the ACC, very cool stuff. And you talk about having
to kind of find your place to help the team
the most. Is there any element of that with the
Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh? Absolutely. I think I actually had a unique situation
where I was scratched. So Ladecki qualified individually in the
two hundred freestyle and I had gotten third at trials
and for those of you who don't know, they usually
take top two, and so since she scratched, that then
bumped me up to the second place spot. And I
(11:41):
felt really overwhelmed by how many events I was doing.
The two hundred isn't necessarily my best event, so I
also decided to scratch it, which then bumped the fourth
place minister up. But that really helped from a team
perspective because this girl was also on the four by
two hundred relay, So again her the chance to swim
(12:01):
it individually, get her toes in the water because she's
a rookie, get her toes in the water in Paris,
get those like kind of cob webs out, and the
nervousness because it's really scary, like stepping up on the
blocks for your first Olympics. So for her to do
that and then have that race under her belt for
the four x two hundred, it also gave me more
rest for the relay. And I think it was just
(12:23):
a good, good situation all around. But definitely there are
elements of that. I think there was another girl who
also on UVA scratched the hundred free and bump someone up,
So there's some behind the scenes stuff, some chess chess plays,
I guess if you will.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
By the way, uh go Virginia. Like half of y'all's
team were Virginia grads, right, maybe, but a whole bunch
of Virginia folks on that Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, about six or seven. And our head coach is
Todd Desorbo from the team. So that was really fun
and it was kind of like it became a running
joke also because we had so many fans, so many
UVA fans and the crowd people that I've swam with,
I've gone to school with, and it became a running
joke that Paris is Charlottesville two point zero. So I
(13:14):
thought that was pretty neat.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Very cool. So when you you had that great performance
in the eight hundred and you win the bronze medal,
how often have you swam that fast in that event?
And how often are you trying to swim like a
real competitive time even when you're practicing. How much does
that happen every day? Every day that day?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yes, I mean you're pacing and you're just trying to
go your hardest, which is why I knew I was
capable of a time drop because my training showed it.
And of course when I go to meats and stuff,
I'm still trying my hardest in the race. It just
when you're broken down in training, you can't always swim
as fast, and it's a lot of times it's not
(13:58):
until the end of the season that you put it
all together. But yeah, it's it's every single day I'm
trying to go at it. So it wasn't just on
that day.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
You know, when's the last time you went really hard
before the Olympics, Like how much time was there in
between where you're like, Okay, I'm not going to be
broken down when I'm there competing in Paris. Or did
you do you train right up really hard right up
until the end.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
No. We we taper off on our training probably twice
a year. So maybe in December we had us open
and we rested a bit for that, but not a
fool taper, if that makes sense. So it wasn't one
hundred percent rest, but it was going pretty hard for
most of the year. We did three different altitude camps
(14:42):
in Colorado Springs and that is really hard. Let me
tell you, I've never done like a proper camp like
that up at altitude before, and I think that really helped.
But it's so hard to breathe up there and makes
training really hard, but it really really helps.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
And then you guys did a We went to Europe
for a little while before the Olympics, right.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yep, we went to Croatia. That was awesome. That was
so First we had our domestic camp in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and then went straight from there to Croatia. And there's
a number of reasons why we go there. There's a
lot of resources there. It's also on the same time
zone as Paris, so you get adjusted before the meat.
And it's just good team bonding. We're training together, we're
(15:24):
eating together, we're doing activities together. It really builds that
camaraderie before the Olympics, and I'm really glad that Team
USA does that because not a lot of other countries
get the chance to do that. So I'm definitely like
thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Speaking of that team camaraderie, what was it like still
being in the pool after you won your individual medal
and Katie came over and that really kind of felt
like a USA team moment.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yes, and that's what the Olympics are all about. She's
so cool and she was so gracious to me after
the race. You know, she mentioned you went the world
record before I broke the world record. I didn't even
realize that, and I was like, wow, Like that's so
cool that, like Katie's saying that to me, And it
was really cool to be her peer in that moment,
(16:14):
rather than look up to her as this celebrity, which
she is, but she's also just a down to earth person.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
So that's really cool. I want to ask you about
the whole experience. First of all, do you like where
swimming falls on the calendar in terms of like being
able to do opening ceremonies and then afterwards have a
little downtown or how does that work out in terms
of swimming. Was fairly early in the swimming.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
It was the first a which I think is great
for viewership. That also meant that a lot of us
weren't able to do opening ceremonies. You know, I can't
go stand on a boat for six hours and then
race the next day. It's just not good practice. So
but yeah, I think it is. It is good to
kind of get the height of the Olympic viewership and
(17:01):
the beginning of the Olympics, and also that you're not
just sitting around watching all the other sports and just
like anticipating and then in turn at the end you
can watch some of the other sports. I actually stayed
for closing ceremonies, which you did special. Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Did you what are the sports? Did you go see anything?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I saw beach volleyball and water polo. I was meant
to go to the gold medal soccer game, but I
went to a reception and said and watching it on TV,
but I think it would have been so cool. But
beach volleyball was really fun. It was underneath the Eiffel
Tower and it had all these chants with the crowds
and USA wasn't even playing, but it didn't even matter.
(17:41):
It was just fun to go.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So when you're an Olympian, a current olympian there you
just have like a bag you can go anywhere. You
can get in any Olympic event. How's that work?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yes? And no, You've got to sign up so you
can only go to one sporting event a day. Okay,
They've got certain allocated spots and it's just kind of
a lottery sys So you've got to go through this
portal and sign up or respond to this email. And
it's a little bit more complicated than I thought it
would be. I kind of thought the same thing. I
can just walk in and they'll just like, yeah, no,
(18:11):
it doesn't work like that, but I wish it did.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, you got a pass. Do you see my metal?
This is my past right it should work.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I wish uh. Anyway, that's a that's good stuff. What
about the We heard a lot about the Olympic village.
What was your was your take on the Olympic village.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You know, there were some problems. I don't know if
that's what you're referring to, just the transportation, and I've
got some good stories from the transport. I'll tell you later.
But yeah, the food they were serving raw chicken, I
personally wasn't served yet, but I was like cutting it open,
like checking like is it pink? Like is it fully cooked?
(18:56):
But it got a lot better as it went on.
And and I do think that the people who had
the mindset, you know, we're all in this village together,
like you don't really have an option, like it is
what it is. If you have that mindset, it's gonna
affect you less. And I definitely noticed a trend with that.
(19:19):
And I actually got pretty comfortable in the village. I
I slept great in there on the cardboard beds, And.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's what I was gonna ask you. I heard a
couple of stories like people like this is a bed
in the Olympic village, which was not like your bed
at home.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
It's not, but nothing's ever like your bed at home.
And someone told me, you're at the Olympics, you're not
gonna sleep anyways, just because you're so nervous, and I'm like, yeah,
you know, you're kind of right, but yeah, I saw
great on it. But I'm also not too picky about
mattresses and things like that.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Are you a Are you a nervous pregamer like night before?
Are you a nervous pregamer?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Oh? Yes, yes, absolutely. I mean I think the night
before my eight hundred prelims. Actually it was right after
we won the medal in the four by two hundred,
and I couldn't fall asleep until like five am. And
part of that was just coming down from the high
of the metal ceremony in the race and everything. Yeah,
(20:17):
but ultimately I just had to tell myself it's not
the night before of sleeps that's matters. It's all these
sleeps that you've led up to and everything that you've
done over the years. So yes, I am a nervous pregamer,
as you said, but I try not to let it
affect me too much.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So when you guys, when you won your silver medal
in the relay and you do the whole you know,
ceremony and all that cool stuff, was there any level
of Okay, now we've done that, and I'm gonna do
my best going forward. But I'm kind of free rolling
now like I've already had a good Olympics. Do you
think that way at all? Or is it you just
gotta put that away?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh? Absolutely? And I think that was how thing that
I had to prep for mentally even before the four
by two hundred, because I knew we were gonna win
a medal, because I trained with these girls, I knew
we were gonna do well. I also knew it was
gonna be the tight turnaround with the next morning, so
I actually worked with my sports psychologists, how do I
come down from this and try not to get too
caught up in the emotion so I can sleep at
(21:19):
least a little bit. And Katie and I were both
in the same race and the eight hundred, so that
was good. We bypassed the media immediately after the relay
got a little special ass. You have to go through
this whole maze after your race, and.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's like the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, it's pretty exhausting actually, especially like you've just done
this all out effort and you're breathing hard and you're lightheaded,
and then you've got to walk through this hole maize
and stop and talk to people, and your legs are
filled with lactic acid. I actually saw one of my
teammates pass out after all the media stuff because his
(21:55):
adrenaline was so high and wow, he just yeah, it
was just a little overwhelmed me. So I was like,
I don't I don't want to be that person. So
we kind of had to come up with a game
plan to kind of mitigate that.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And I'm sure even after you win the uh your
medal in the relay, there's like a million every person
you've ever met wants to congratulate you at that point
when you're still in the middle of your whole Olympic experience.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Right exactly, And it's everyone wants to hug you and
talk to you and interview you, and it's like, I've
got to go cool down, like I've got to go recover.
And it's not that you don't want to talk to
those people. You just gotta put your foot down and
be like, hey, like I still have the meat going on,
(22:39):
Like I've got to run basically, and most people understand that.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
So we'll take a break round here. Paige Madden Olympic
Olympic medalist. She brought two new medals with her today
in addition to the one that she won in Tokyo.
We'll be back with her in just a minute here
on Sports Talk ninety nine to five count
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