Drew Johansen - Media Day Press Conference Transcript
7/11/2016 4:41:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Drew Johansen
Indiana Head Diving Coach
Team USA Head Diving Coach
On what you can tell first-time Olympians about the experience…
Johansen: "Overwhelmed is a good word. Along the journey, these six weeks have been filled with moments of excitement, moments of fear, moments of worry and moments of new experiences. Every time one of those moments came to them, it brought energy and we want to harness that energy along the way and use that at the appropriate time to enhance our performance. We want to recognize that what they are doing is pretty darn special, pretty exciting and we want to use all that energy to hopefully create a performance. What they did a few weeks ago in Indianapolis was pretty special. Jessica Parratto and Amy Cozad didn't even have to do their last dive to make the team - as did Michael (Hixon) and Sam Dorman - who had an Olympic bronze medalist coming at them with everything they had and they fought him off fantastically well. When you emerge from the Olympic Trials and your headed on to the Olympic games you are well prepared for those moments. The key is for the kids now is to recognize those moments and handle them appropriately, which they are already doing."
On advice for Indiana swimming head coach and Team USA assistant coach Ray Looze…
Johansen: "With what Ray is doing, watching Cody (Miller) and Lilly (King) over these past couple of years, I need to stay out of his way because he's just rocking it. Ray and I will be in the village together, which you guys know better than me is having both IU swim and dive on the official staff for the Olympic team goes back to the Hobie Billingsley era. Hobie was just out at practice today and told me it was about a 40-year span."
On what he knows now that he could have applied to his first Olympics…
Johansen: "I think the biggest thing that sits in my mind from London to now is everybody we just saw last February challenging us at the World Cup will be better when we see them in August. That's something we saw in London and I wasn't sure if it'd happen or not, so it's our job to get a little bit better here these next four or five weeks."
On expectations…
Johansen: "Expectations are a tricky thing. Our expectations are training, preparedness and team unity. That's the expectation we have for the team. If we can do that and prepare properly, if we can physically and mentally be ready and unify as a team, when the moment comes for them to do the five dives then we'll make up their Olympic experience. The total physical activity they do at the Olympics will be less than a minute, each dive takes about three seconds to do and they do five or six of them. So it'll be about 30 seconds of performance that determines placing's. It's real hard to put any expectation on them other than preparing and having each others backs."
Indiana Head Diving Coach
Team USA Head Diving Coach
On what you can tell first-time Olympians about the experience…
Johansen: "Overwhelmed is a good word. Along the journey, these six weeks have been filled with moments of excitement, moments of fear, moments of worry and moments of new experiences. Every time one of those moments came to them, it brought energy and we want to harness that energy along the way and use that at the appropriate time to enhance our performance. We want to recognize that what they are doing is pretty darn special, pretty exciting and we want to use all that energy to hopefully create a performance. What they did a few weeks ago in Indianapolis was pretty special. Jessica Parratto and Amy Cozad didn't even have to do their last dive to make the team - as did Michael (Hixon) and Sam Dorman - who had an Olympic bronze medalist coming at them with everything they had and they fought him off fantastically well. When you emerge from the Olympic Trials and your headed on to the Olympic games you are well prepared for those moments. The key is for the kids now is to recognize those moments and handle them appropriately, which they are already doing."
On advice for Indiana swimming head coach and Team USA assistant coach Ray Looze…
Johansen: "With what Ray is doing, watching Cody (Miller) and Lilly (King) over these past couple of years, I need to stay out of his way because he's just rocking it. Ray and I will be in the village together, which you guys know better than me is having both IU swim and dive on the official staff for the Olympic team goes back to the Hobie Billingsley era. Hobie was just out at practice today and told me it was about a 40-year span."
On what he knows now that he could have applied to his first Olympics…
Johansen: "I think the biggest thing that sits in my mind from London to now is everybody we just saw last February challenging us at the World Cup will be better when we see them in August. That's something we saw in London and I wasn't sure if it'd happen or not, so it's our job to get a little bit better here these next four or five weeks."
On expectations…
Johansen: "Expectations are a tricky thing. Our expectations are training, preparedness and team unity. That's the expectation we have for the team. If we can do that and prepare properly, if we can physically and mentally be ready and unify as a team, when the moment comes for them to do the five dives then we'll make up their Olympic experience. The total physical activity they do at the Olympics will be less than a minute, each dive takes about three seconds to do and they do five or six of them. So it'll be about 30 seconds of performance that determines placing's. It's real hard to put any expectation on them other than preparing and having each others backs."
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