Bryan Lundquist: Still Loving the Challenge
7/23/2010
MIKE WATKINS//Correspondent
Last weekend’s sectional meet in Athens, Ga., put Bryan Lundquist on alert.
With just over two weeks remaining before the 2010 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships begin Aug. 3 in Irvine, Calif., Lundquist learned he’s not quite fast enough yet to truly contend for a top spot.
But having been in this position before, the Auburn University graduate knows his fastest swims are still in front of him.
He just hopes they find their way to him in time to earn a spot on this summer’s Pan Pacific Championship team and potentially next year’s World Championship squad.
“This meet was my final tune-up before Nationals, and my performance (sixth in the 50 freestyle) showed me I still have a ways to go,” said Lundquist, no relation to 1984 Olympic gold medallist Steve Lundquist, who also hails from the Atlanta area.
“But I’ll focus on improving my speed and my starts over the next two weeks and then rest, and I know my speed will be there when I need it. I’ve learned to trust my taper, and know my body well enough to know it will kick in when I need it.”
That self-awareness and trust paid off for Lundquist last summer at Nationals when, after similar circumstances leading up to the meet, he found his speed. He went on to swim his way to a fourth-place finish in the 50 free, just missing a spot on the World team by a few tenths of a second.
Lundquist went into the final expecting to win, even with Olympians Cullen Jones, Garrett Weber-Gale and Nathan Adrian in the event with him.
After placing seventh at Olympic Trials the previous summer, Lundquist had legitimate reason to expect the best.
“I had been improving steadily and was swimming under the radar coming into Nationals, which was fine with me,” Lundquist said. “I definitely went in thinking I had as good of a chance as anybody, but I swam slower in the morning, and knew I would be faster than that and was going to rip it in the final.”
Even though he’s 6-foot-4 inches tall, Lundquist considers himself to be among the smaller guys in the world competing among the giants in the freestyle sprints.
“Guys like (Matt) Grevers, Nathan (Adrian), Alain Bernard (France) and Cullen (Jones) are huge with big wing spans, but then there are those ‘smaller’ guys like me, Fred (Bousquet of France) and Cesar (Cielo of Brazil) who aren’t that big but are still very fast. Power is the name of the game, and we more than hold our own.”
Lundquist’s current path to National Team status began as a 4-year-old when he started swimming summer league.
A team comprised of other four- and five-year-olds needed a fourth to complete their 400 freestyle relay, so he filled in, and he was hooked.
And while he remembers very little from that first race outside of being in the water, he does acknowledge that it marked the birth of his love for swimming and competition.
“It’s always been about the competition for me. I love the racing, pushing myself as far and fast as I can,” Lundquist said.
He’s also enjoyed the many opportunities swimming has given him in his life – the destinations for meets (his favorite was Bangkok, Thailand, for the 2007 World University Games), and especially, the many people he has encountered over the years.
“After WUGs, I traveled with some guys from the U.S. team around Bangkok, and I was surprised how underdeveloped it was once you strayed away from the heart of the city,” Lundquist said.
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the people there – who were from all over the world, not just Thailand -- were so great and welcoming. The food was interesting, too.”
Now, with Nationals a weekend and a few days away, Lundquist is tapering and going over his race strategy in his mind – his starts, his turn, his speed.
He also realizes that if he wants to make the Pan Pacs team, he at least needs to finish among the top two.
But he’s not willing to take that risk. In his view – and experience – only the winner is assured of making the team.
“Historically, the top two have gone on to compete for the U.S., but I want to be sure of my spot by winning and not leaving anything to chance,” said Lundquist, who has been helping coach the Auburn swimmers while he continues to train. “One thing about men and the sprint freestyles I’ve noticed is that the older you get, the better you seem to get. I am just 24, and I feel like I’m really coming into my own now.
“I know there is a deep pool of sprinters in the United States, so I will have to be on top of my game to make sure I win a spot on the team.”