The past few days at home have been a godsend.  I was fortunate enough to qualify for my three events at Trials (100 back, 200 IM and 100 free) and then jet home as soon as I was done in order to get a few extra days of peace and quiet before reporting to training camp.  Other than a celebratory meal at one of my favorite local restaurants (Oliveto’s), I didn’t do anything special.  I just relaxed at home with Ethan and played with SheRa. 

Normally we would start camp with meetings and icebreakers, but today we started it out a bit differently.  National Team head coach Mark Schubert invited two guest speakers: Pete Carroll and Lou (didn’t get his last name).  I usually don’t really enjoy motivational speakers, but they did an awesome job.  Lou (as I understood it) is a sports psychologist and he spoke about the power of belief and imagery and how they affect your physiology.  His talk was short,but helped me to make sense out of my past Olympic experience.  I’ll get into that some other time…

Pete Carroll, of course, is the USC Trojans head football coach.  Although it pains me to sayit (since I’m a Golden Bear) he was an incredibly charismatic and engagingspeaker.  He spoke about many things, but what stuck in my mind was the mentality of his team and how they expect nothing but champion-like behavior.  They have achieved things that no college football team has ever achieved, and yet they are not surprised by their accomplishments.  They have planned for greatness by expecting nothing less, so when it happens it’s not an extraordinary event. 

On the surface this mentality can seem arrogant, even condescending.  I remember USC quarterback Matt Leinart’s reaction to losing the championship game to Texas a couple years ago and I remember thinking it was a bit arrogant.  He said that although Texas beat them in the game that USC’s players were still champions.  After listening to Coach Carroll’s talk, I now understand what Leinart was talking about.  If you leave every practice and every meet knowing that you gave your best, you are a champion regardless of the outcome. The goal is to be the best you. In doing so, that makes you a champion. 

The next 30 or so days are going to be challenging.  Olympic Trials are such a physically, emotionally and mentally draining meet that it can be hard to get right backinto training.  Starting camp out with a rousing speech was a great way to get us all to reset and refocus our goals on performing our very best in Beijing.  From today on, we are no longer Golden Bears, Trojans, Longhorns, whatever… we’re team USA!