Q&A for Grace Best Elementary

Yesterday, I gave a presentation to Grace Best Elementary School in my home town of Monument Colorado. The kids were great and had a lot of great questions for me. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to ask their questions in the time we had, so one of the teachers gave me index cards with questions the kids had hoped to ask me. Here are the questions and the answers.


Who is your coach?
My head coach is Janusz Peciak, but I have a coordinator, running coach, swimming coach, and riding coach as well.

Where do you train?
At the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for most of my sports. It is open to the public and tours are free. I would encourage everyone who can to come visit the Center. I also go to California several times a year to train with my riding coach out there.

How big are the stadiums you compete in?
At the Olympics, there will be about 10,000 people in the shooting, fencing, and swimming events. I believe there will be close to 40,000 in the riding and running facilities. Pentathlon has sold out in the last two Olympics.

How many countries are going to be in the Olympics?
Around 200. Only about 25 will qualify to compete in pentathlon.

How old do you have to be to train and be in the Olympics?
You can start training very young. Many swimmers and gymnasts start when they are 4 years old. Other sports start much later.

How fast do you swim?
Last year, my best 200 meter long course swim was 2:04. However, that was at World Championships and we were not able to train for 3 of the 7 weeks before Worlds because of travel. My goal is to swim below 2:00 at the Olympics and my coaches and I believe that is realistic.

Why did you choose the Air Force Academy?
I grew up next to the Academy and I had a lot of role models in my life who were cadets. When I was about 8 or 9, I decided I wanted to go to the Academy and I worked all though high school to get there.

What is your best sport?
Running and swimming are both very good for me.

What is your favorite sport and why?
Running and swimming. I like them best because I like training those events. They are also my best events.

What color is the horse you jump?
It depends. We don’t take our own horse to the competition. At the competition, we draw for a horse and have only 20 minutes to ride it before jumping 15 four foot jumps.

How does fencing feel when you win and how does it feel when you lose?
Winning in fencing is very exhilarating and exciting. You get a huge rush when you hit your opponent. When you lose in fencing, it is easy to get angry or upset, but the best athletes control their emotions and immediately start thinking about the next match rather than dwell on the one you just lost.

When you get to China, will you train before you compete?
Yes. We will go three about three weeks ahead of time to acclimate to the time zone, temperature, pollution, and altitude. The closer we get to the competition, the less we will train. This is called tapering.

Which of the sports is the hardest?
I think shooting is the hardest sport for me. Coming from a swimming and running background, it is hard for me to change my mindset and stay focused in shooting.

Does it take a long time to train?
On a typical day, I start at about 7am and have 3-4 practices over about 10 hours. I get two sports massages a week and usually see a sports medicine chiropractor twice a week as well. On top of that, I have a lot of meetings as well.

Are you excited for the Olympic Games?
I am extremely excited, but I also am thinking a lot about this season. I will compete in four World Cups and the World Championships between now and June. After that, I will start my final Olympic preparation.

How long have you been training?
I started riding horses when I was very young (I don’t remember exactly when). Then a few years later I joined the swim team when I was 8 years old. When I was 14, I was introduced to pentathlon; but I decided to mostly train swimming through college. After graduating from the Academy in 2000, I started training more or less full time.

Life after the Olympics

It really is amazing how fast time flies. It has been 6 months since I qualified for the Olympics and only 7 months until I compete. One of the most common questions I get from people is “What are you doing after the Olympics?”.

Between now and August 21st, my focus is on having the best performance of my life in Beijing. That is highly consuming of my thoughts and actions, but I am getting ready for life after sports. I separated from the Air Force in September due to force reductions, but the Air Force is planning on having me return to Active Duty to represent them at the Olympics. While I am extremely excited about the prospect of again representing the Air Force, it would be a purely temporary arrangement and would end following the Olympics. So we can probably write off a career in the Air Force for now. There is a chance that I will follow in the footsteps of my friend and former teammate, Olympian Chad Senior, and try out for Air Force Pararescue in the Reserves.

My first choice for post-Olympic jobs is a program called the White House Fellows. This is a highly competitive and prestigious program that gives a handful of individuals in depth exposure and experience in national government operations. Of the approximately 1000 applicants, only around 15 are selected each year for Fellowship. The program starts the 1st of September and runs until the 31st of August the following year. In a nutshell, the application process is extremely difficult involving essays, letters of recommendation, and two in depth interviews before selection. You have to survive 3 cuts over 4 months to be selected for fellowship. I have been working with a number of former Fellows who are helping me navigate the process and prepare the best I can.

Lunch with Mary Lou

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet another one of my childhood Olympic heroes. Mary Lou Retton was at the Olympic Training Center representing Tyson Foods, now a major Olympic sponsor. I was working the event as a representative of the 2008 Olympic Team. My “job” was to sample some new Chinese food recipes, talk to some media reporters, and help host VIPs from Tyson.

In 1984, I was six years old. My family did not have a color TV (no I didn’t grow up in a cave, but I did grow up on a farm) so we went to a friend’s house to watch the Olympics in color. I don’t remember much about those games, but I do remember watching Mary Lou in her red, white, and blue uniform perform an amazing vault to win the gold medal. It was one of the all time greatest performances by a US Olympic athlete and Mary Lou immediately became a national hero.

When I met Mary Lou yesterday, I the first thing that struck me is that she is really short. I guess my perspective has changed now that I am 6ft tall and almost 30. She looked a lot taller when I was six. She also was incredibly gracious, congratulating me on my Pan Am win and qualifying for the 2008 Olympics. Her manager was very nice as well.

Under the watchful eye of several news cameras, I told Mary Lou about watching her in that famous American flag uniform. She laughed and said they actually thought the uniforms were a bit gaudy. I guess some things never change. There have been several times when I have been subject to team uniforms designed by people who clearly think the gaudier the better. It’s great to wear a patriotic and distinctive competition outfit, but sometimes it looks like the designer put a flag in a blender and out popped the uniform. Fortunately, the uniform designers for the last few Olympics have developed incredibly sheik uniforms for the athletes and I anticipate that we will have great uniforms in Beijing.

It’s always a great opportunity to meet someone you looked up to as a kid, but it’s especially inspirational when they live up to your idealistic image you had of them. Mary Lou is still the American hero that she was in 1984 and I felt privileged to meet her yesterday.

Meeting a hero

As I was growing up, several Olympians had a profound impact on my life. One of those athletes was Josh Davis, a multiple gold medalist in swimming. While there were multiple other athletes I looked up to, Josh was my biggest inspiration when I was young.


In 1994, at the age of 15, I first met Josh when he came through Colorado with Athletes in Action, a Christian sports club which Josh has represented for years. Josh took the time to talk to my swim team while he was out here. I was very impressed with Josh and have looked up to him ever since.


Last week, Josh stopped by the Olympic Training Center with a kid he has been working with. Josh and his athlete jumped in with me and did one one of my sets. It was impressive to see how fast Josh still swims, but more impressive to see what a man of character he is. After practice, I told Josh that I still remembered when he came and talked to my team and that he had inspired me so much with his life story. It was truly an honor to meet up with this swimming legend again. He is a true American hero and I am proud to have had the chance to meet him.

For more informaton on Josh Davis, check out his website at http://www.joshdavis.com/.