The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Swimming's Kris Kubik on Beijing: Part two
10.20.2008 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Oct. 20, 2008
No swimming fan will forget the finish in the 400-meter freestyle relay at the Beijing Olympics. For you, it was all the more gratifying to see one of your own former Longhorns, Garrett Weber-Gale, on that winning relay. Tell us what you remember from that relay. I remember the whole thing like it was yesterday. It was unbelievable how fast (France's) Alain Bernard was going. I was standing next to Aaron Peirsol, and with about 20 meters to go, we both conceded that we were going to be in second place. It reminded me of Phil Dawson's field goal against Virginia a while back...where the ball kind of hung in the air for a while, and no one knew if it was going to go through the uprights, and then it did.
Everything just magically fell into place. When Jason Lezak touched (the wall), I looked at Aaron and I looked at my hands and said, "Look at my hands!" He looked down, and I said, "I have goose bumps inside the palms of my hands, that's not humanly possible!" It was one of the most exciting things I've ever seen in sports, be it in swimming or anything else. Forty-five minutes later, I went up to Jason and I said, "I have seen a lot of great swims in my life, and I mean a whole lot. And that was the greatest swim I've ever seen." It was something for the ages.
What he did in our sport, no one ever does. He has been the mainstay and the anchor for so many relays for the United States and had never come close to that time. He improved by an immense amount of time. Just the fact that he was able to do that on that stage at that moment...was something that was unforgettable.
Anyone who ever saw it will always remember that race. It turned many people into fans of swimming in one fell swoop of 46 seconds. That's not to take anything away from the effort by Garrett, Cullen Jones or Michael Phelps. Everyone contributed, and you could see their excitement. It was a great moment in sport.
Tell us about being able to share that gold-medal moment with Garrett after working with him for so long. When the American flag went up, there were tears of joy...and tears of joy for the kid (Garrett). It was wonderful. His family has been involved in helping him get to that point for a long time, and it was very well deserved. His future is still very bright. He has not reached his peak of performance, and he's got some great swims ahead of him. He's the youngest guy on that relay...a youngster in sprinting who continues to improve. He is gaining on the people ahead of him and is doing what he can to catch them.
Two UT juniors -- Ricky Berens and Dave Walters -- brought back valuable experiences -- not to mention a pair of gold medals- - from Beijing. How will their Olympic experiences benefit them in their two remaining years of college swimming? It could work both ways. At their next big meet, they may only have 200 people in the stands. They just swam in front of 17,000 people in Beijing and millions of people watching at home. So, it's a bit of a challenge from a coaching standpoint. But, the team atmosphere in college swimming...being a part of that will help. They're not alone standing there, but the eyes of Texas truly are upon them.
The swimming fans from Texas, and a lot of people in this state and country who are Longhorns fans in other sports, who have suddenly become swimming fans...they (Ricky and Dave) have a responsibility to them to continue and lead the next generation. We have some people in our freshman class who could very well be in their shoes when we get to London. Now, they need to not only do what they can to be a part of that team, but also help and guide and be mentors to the next generation of swimmers.
You've been here for 26 of Eddie Reese's 31 years as the head coach at UT, but the Olympics gave you an up-close look at how he coaches outside the college environment at an international level. Did you notice anything different about his approach at the Olympics? I think that Eddie's greatest gift is his ability to care for each individual athlete. As Eddie got to know each member of the team better, I feel like they were more comfortable with him and listening to him. They already had an enormous amount of respect for them. He had a very calming effect on all of them in terms of letting them understand that the hardest thing they did was making the Olympic team -- the hard part was over.
The easy part was going to Beijing and being the one of the two people to compete individually in each event and one of the six each relay. He didn't go overboard to emphasize that, but he certainly drove that point home on more than one occasion at various team meetings.
It was fun watching him work with other coaches who I respect a great deal....to be a teacher but also be a peer with them. He was the head coach in Athens and USA Swimming saw fit to select him as a head coach again for Beijing.
I'm sure the reason was that everyone in Athens had a great experience with Eddie. I feel like everyone that was part of the men's staff and the men's team had a great experience with him. He has a unique gift...he is not a whole lot different with his college guys than he is with an Olympic team. If he were coaching peewee soccer, I think he'd have the same gift for coaching the little boys or girls playing peewee soccer.
Does Eddie learn different things -- coaching-wise -- at each international meet? I have no doubt. USA Swimming had a follow-up meeting and asked for contributions. They asked what we can do differently...what should we do the same? A lot of what Eddie was going to offer as what we could do differently pertained to things he learned along the way during this trip. It looks like things will be perfect, and as we all know, not everything is going to be perfect.
There were some bumps along the way, and for our team, we handled it all the best we could. No one could have predicted prior to the U.S. Olympic Trials that an athlete training with us, Eric Shanteau, would be diagnosed with testicular cancer. Eddie and I knew prior to Trials and maintained all of that in confidence with Eric until after he made the team. Then we had to get Eric through the going public of all of that. He did that at training camp at Palo Alto with the team, and then went public to the world the next day. That was hard on some people.
Day in and day out, there were some challenges, and I think Eddie learned from those. If he's on the staff at the 2012 London Games, he'll be better because of that. I'm sure there were things he learned from Seoul, to Barcelona and to Atlanta. I don't think a day goes by where he's not learning...and trying to learn to make something better.
Describe the two-month-long journey from the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., to the USA Swimming Training Camp in Palo Alto, Calif., to the overseas training camp in Singapore and finally to Beijing. We got out of Trials with seven people associated with our UT men's program, then one more with our club team (Eric Shanteau), then one freshman-to-be on the women's side (Kathleen Hersey) all making the Olympic team. It was totally unbelievable. The U.S. men's team had 21 people, and eight had ties to our program. That's just not often done.
I had been told prior to Trials that if we put enough people on the team that USA Swimming would like to take me as a along as a special assistant. We didn't know what the number was, but things fell into place. Then, all of a sudden, I'm getting ready to go on this long journey that will end in a place called Beijing.
It was wonderful to be around the guys and watch them interact. We weren't separate from the rest of the U.S. team, but we had our own little Texas contingent, did a lot of sitting and playing cards and going out to eat. The thing that made me the most proud was that almost everyone on the staff would tell me what really nice people I was coaching. We had genuine, sincere, really nice kids, and a lot of the people would say, "I know you taught them."
I don't know we really did, I think that comes from their parents. At UT, we help them continue what they learn at home. When Brendan finished fourth (in the 200m breaststroke) at Trials, I heard about all the letters from people saying what a class act he was. His Olympics experience was not what he wanted to have happen, but he handled it in a stellar manner and has made a lot of friends as a result.
I look on this and think about the USA basketball team coming to swimming, and they came back after seeing it for the first time. They enjoyed the sport. Some of players came by the Olympics Village and ate with the guys. For me to know our kids were able to have those experiences...that was heartwarming.
