Q&A: Triathlete Julie Swail on smiling, ice, beating eggs
By Charlie Snyder // usolympicteam.com // October 30, 2003
Julie Swail was captain of the silver-medal winning 2000 U.S. Olympic water polo team. In 2001, she picked up a second sport at the urging of friends, triathlon. Her friends were supportive and a bit omniscient. “And when I finally ended my water polo career in 2001, I sat down with Larry Drum (the water polo team doctor). We lived in the same town at the time and we went to a local restaurant and he told me, maybe sarcastically, maybe seriously, ‘You just go out there and take the triathlon world by storm.’” She kicked butt almost instantaneously, winning six events in California in 2001. Then she busted out even bigger in 2002, winning her age group in 10 of 16 events, including at the U.S. Nationals and World Championships. In 2003, she turned pro with the goal of returning to the Olympic stage as a triathlete.
At the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic, Swail finished eighth. Teammate Sheila Taormina was the event’s silver medalist. Swail is attempting to follow Taormina’s footsteps. Sheila won a gold medal in swimming in 1996, and then competed in the 2000 Games in triathlon.
We caught up with Julie Swail on the beach of Santo Domingo following her competition at the Pan Ams. She told us about the importance of smiling, ice in your suit and the eggbeater.
Q1: What’s the deal? Why are you always smiling during the race? Aren’t you supposed to be breathing or something?
JULIE SWAIL: “You know the bigger you smile the more air you can get into your lungs … I do it because it’s fun, of course, if it wasn’t fun I would have never made it this far.”
Q2: You’re not smiling the whole way, are you?
JULIE SWAIL: “Most people tell me, there’s been a few times -- moments usually on the run – where it gets pretty tough and I’ve been told that for a brief moment, my smile fades, but for the most part … you’ve got to look good to feel good.”
Q3: Has Sheila been helpful?
JULIE SWAIL: “She has been so helpful and such an inspiration. I’ve been loving the stories she’s told me about when she started out in triathlon. It’s nice to know that everyone out, there no mater how great they are, has had their ups and downs in a race and made little blunders here and there, but it’s how you react to those … your attitude towards the whole racing scene … that makes you a winner. She’s certainly a role model.”
Q4: Any particular tips that she gave you?
JULIE SWAIL: “Have fun. If you’re having fun, you race well.”
Q5: Do you have any funny, interesting story from starting out in triathlon?
JULIE SWAIL: “I don’t know if I really want to share these … my first triathlon when I went over to Catalina Island in care of our team chiropractor, he was unloading my bike off the boat on the dock, 30 minutes before the start of the race, and I realized I didn’t have bike shoes and to me that didn’t mean anything because I could certainly ride in my tennis shoes. That makes it a lot harder, but that was my first one and I didn’t really know the difference. I did a very hilly Catalina triathlon without bike shoes, but I did have the fastest bike-to-run transition out of any of them there.”
“I pretty much have forgotten just about everything at some point, but it’s kind of like live and learn. With every triathlon, I just want to take away some piece of information, learn from every mistake that I make.”
Q6: What did you learn from the Pan American Games?
JULIE SWAIL: ”This time … gosh, that’s a good question, I haven’t reflected on that yet. I learned a lot of things before the race. You can really take it to your competitors on the corners. Sheila and Becky (Gibbs-Lavelle) took me out. We practiced cornering the other day. Just before this race I practiced transitions a lot. My coaches have really been pushing me to get a faster transition and I’m happy to report that I was the fastest in my group going from the bike-to-run. Finally, ice is very good. Oh, here’s what I learned from the marathon runner, that keeping the ice in your hand or on your head is the best way to cool yourself off. And that was very important on this run. I had ice in my suit the entire time!”
Q7: What skills from water polo come in handy in a triathlon?
JULIE SWAIL: “Wow, today I think the skills I used the most were in the water, trying to hold people off. They were raking down my side, which is a common water polo move, and I am not going to stand for that! I was perfectly happy on Becky’s feet and one of the Brazilians came up and she was grabbing at my feet, grabbing at my side and coming over my hips and she just messed with the wrong person today because I am not going to give up my position that early. If she wants it, she’s got to outswim me.”
Q8: So some of those under-the-water water polo tricks that no one knows about came into play …
JULIE SWAIL: “Well, I wouldn’t say that ah … there was nothing … no foul play going on. It’s all in the body positioning. And I think at this level, you have people that know enough about the rules that you just can’t blatantly pull back on somebody, so as long as my body is ahead of them, they’ll, more or less, swim around.”
Q9: Do any water polo skills help for biking or running?
JULIE SWAIL: “Cycling actually carries over well from the eggbeater. You use a lot of the same muscles and it’s the same constant motion that you use in cycling, so I don’t need a break when I cycle, I just keep going.”
Q10: Is there a water polo mentality?
JULIE SWAIL: “It’s definitely a mentality. A water polo match lasts about an hour, but we played some long overtime games that lasted an hour-and-a-half, an hour-and-45 minutes. It’s just a mental toughness on the run. Forty minutes on the run I usually tell myself, ‘hey, this isn’t even as long as a water polo game. I’m not dragging anyone around. I’m not having to tread water; I’m not having to swim. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and make it through this course.
