Hunter Armstrong talks World Champs, Olympic Trials, and Loving Relays

Newly minted World Champion Hunter Armstrong covers many aspects of his swimming career and experiences representing Team USA. Most recently, at the World Championships in Doha, Hunter won 7 medals. He won the 100 Backstroke individually and went 47.8 and 1:45 on relays.

Hunter had never been under 1:50 before in the 200. He’s got to swim it soon to qualify for Olympic Trials in the event!

This interview covers many aspects of Hunter’s swimming career and experiences representing Team USA at the most recent Doha World Championships.

They talk about…

• Hunter's reasons for competing at Worlds and his overall positive experience, where he helped provide leadership for younger swimmers.

• His impressive performance swimming a 1:45 in the 4x200 freestyle relay, much faster than his previous best time of 1:53.

• Details on his sprint and technique training approach with different coaches to continuously improve.

• How he thrives in competition against elite training partners like Jack Alexy, Bjorn Seeliger, and Ryan Murphy despite them often beating him in practice.

• How he primarily trains sprint freestyle and doesn’t train backstroke that much.

• How he’s the type of sprinter that has to build to 100% speed it doesn’t come immediately to him.

• Goals and challenges preparing for the upcoming Olympic Trials with some schedule conflicts.

• Developing resilience through lessons learned from Coach Brenda Wherley when he was just 5 years old in dealing with disappointment.

“After the race, you have 15 minutes to be sad. Even if you get 3rd at the Olympic Trials. You have 15 minutes to cry about it, but after that, you have your next race. Your job is not done.”

Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

Watch on YouTube, here.

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Time Stamps:

00:00 Hello Hunter Armstrong 01:00 Why go to Doha? 04:00 Representing America 05:00 1:45 200 Freestyle 10:15 Upper Body Driven Swimmer 11:45 Sprint Revolution 14:00 Getting up and Racing 16:45 Getting beat in practice but not at meets 19:30 Be good most days 20:50 7 Medals in Doha 22:40 Rubbing the Lane Lines 24:00 World Champion 25:15 Behind the Scenes 29:00 Between Now & Trials 30:00 Trials Events 33:20 American Backstroke at Trials 35:15 Managing the Rounds 36:30 Ryan Murphy 38:00 Building Speed 42:10 Why don't you train backstroke in practice? 44:30 Sub 48 100 Free 46:30 Relay Decisions 50:00 Lessons Learned

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