Dan Wallace discusses his competitive swimming career, the rising talent of British swimmers, and his journey from retiring young to rediscovering swimming through challenges like ice swimming and coaching.
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#swimming #worldaquatics
00:00 Hello Dan Wallace!
02:50 University of Florida
06:00 NCAA Swimming
09:50 Gregg Troy & Ryan Lochte
12:30 Great Britain & the 200 Freestyle
18:00 American Confidence
19:00 Tom Dean, Duncan Scott, Jimmy Guy, Matt Richards
23:00 Scottish Pride
26:55 Why’d you retire at 24?
32:25 Swimming the English Channel
35:15 Ice Swimming
36:15 Finding Swimming Again
All right mate here we go Dan Wallace how you doing mate I’m very well thanks for having me on looking forward to it yeah no no worries good to catch up uh where are you right now uh I’m uh in Scotland that’s where I live now where
I’m from um I’m about 30 minutes outside Edinburgh which is like the big city um in Scotland and kind of where I grew up and uh I’ve been obviously living away from here for a long time at University of Florida and then spent a few years after swimming kind of living down in
London as well um but I’ve slowly found myself gravitating back to where I’m from which is uh it’s been nice it’s been good Life’s good up here there’s no place like home huh that’s exactly it yeah it’s uh it’s good like got a lot of friends and family around here and stuff
And a lot of stuff to kind of keep me grounded and and keep me focused as well so uh yeah it’s it’s nice to be back yeah listen mate I don’t uh drop back into my past too often uh with with the college side of things I’ve I’ve moved
On to to professional life but every now and then someone appears in my life and I just remember they gave me headaches and you you’re one of them man you gave me bloody headaches oh yeah it was good fun we’ve uh we’ve had a couple good Runnings I
Guess back in the day um I was lit just thinking about that as well before this call um I try I do the same I I don’t really think too much about kind of What’s um already been done I always like to kind of look forward on on on
What’s next but uh it’s always good to look back and you remember people that maybe you haven’t spoken to in a while or haven’t seen and um yeah I think we shared some good moments uh over in the states we did mate we did you were you
Were a tough son of a [ __ ] I remember that you were a tough competitor man every time we we just hit the pull deck you were just there you had a little had a little uh oh there we go we got your back there for a second um you always
Had a little grin on your face like you knew you knew what you had you knew what you were capable of and you knew what you about to do I like that about you was it was like a total respect thing you know yeah it’s it was uh kind of the
Perfect environment for that I think everyone there um over at Florida Auburn and SEC or just nc2 in general like it’s a really high intense environment so if you’re not walking on that pill side kind of backing yourself straight away thinking like this is where I need to be
And uh I can stand up and and race up against the best and you’re probably in the wrong environment so so that was uh that I I Lov that from day one um you know you’re quietly confident you know it’s going to be um a tough gig out there to to step
Up and and race pass so often as well um but you know that’s kind of where I developed all my skills in those type of environments yeah how did you end up in Florida you know you you grew up in Scotland how the hell did you end up in
Florida yeah it’s a really good question actually and uh I uh I sent I knew a few people that had gone over to Florida jimo JMA sper um to name a few um who Steph Pride was out there Marco loan and um i’ I’d been following them for a
While uh and I guess I got to the point where I was like looking at universities over here um and I was kind of like I wanted to do something a little bit different um there’s a great you know it’s a great system here in the UK now
We’ve got some really nice performance centers and Sterling and lra where the produce some amazing Summers and I uh I just felt like that wasn’t really going to fit into what I wanted to do and wanted to do something a bit different and you know I was pretty naive at the
Time and I literally just researched and Googled where the fastest T medley swimmer was in the world and obviously that was Ryan that was Loy at the time um so I found out where he trained he trained at Florida and I was like I’m going to do everything I can to to go
And learn from him and and his teammates and as coaches and I knew nothing about the nc2a circuit I didn’t know much about which schools were good and which ones to go to but I just had my eyes firmly set on fla pretty straight away
Pretty quickly on um so I reached out to them and uh they initially said kind of like politely said no as far as I wasn’t quite at that standard yet I think they’ taken on a few other International scholarships so there wasn’t much cap
For me um but they said you know if I I spent the summer maybe improveed my time slightly because they can maybe work something out so um I went to like the European Juniors this was 2011 European Juniors and picked up a couple silver medals there made some big drops in my
Time um and uh yeah they kind of accepted me to go out and I’d never visited the states I didn’t do a recruiting trip like most other people I think I just maybe knew like deep down like that I was almost that that’s where I needed to go so there was no worries
About like is it going to pay off I was like I need to go and see how the best do it h why they’re the best why Ryan was breaking World Records like why Troy was just producing unbelievable Summers like they’re doing something different over there than what was happening over
Here um so I think I just always knew that Florida was a place to be and uh you know once I did my research as well and like understood a bit more about the training environment there the the workload that they do it was kind of
Similar to what I was looking to do here and what I was currently doing at training like I’ve always been you know a really hard work as far as being able to handle quite a lot of of meterage and yardage and every year I was trying to
Do more and more and that was suited for me because when I was younger I was never that strong or or just physically built so I was having to really work uh very hard to just get bigger and better so I thought that the transition from
What I was currently doing and what I heard and could see that Florida were doing was right up my alley um so yeah I just knew that Florida was where I needed to go yeah I always find too that the most successful foreign athletes are the ones that fully embrace the new
Environment and I got that sense from you you know straight away like you had you had taken on everything that Florida was selling and you were buying into it and you were you were eating it up and that’s kind of why you had immediate success right yeah absolutely like the
Uh and it wasn’t just for it’s like all the whole nc2a circuit and especially the SEC from what I can see it’s like that team environment High intense team environment was like perfect for me and it’s something that you can’t really replicate outside of the US because it’s
All done on team points right it’s all done on how you’re placing as a as a team based off individual results and I just love that’s that that’s the process of how we’re going to measure success you know we got 20 guys and 20 girls you know smashing every race we’re going to
Do well as a team and that’s going to make us all happy and then we’re going to all kind of achieve our uh Collective goals so yeah that that was EX L the mindset and the environment that I needed and I bought into straight away
And it wasn’t like I was coming in and trying to change anything I was like right how do we do over here yes sir I’ll do that and just really just buy into the process right right right yeah that that’s that’s a given right that’s that’s absolutely necessary in order to
Have success I think in the pool but but outside the pool there’s some things you got to let go of too like you’re you’re living back in Scotland now you you’re loving life back in Scotland obviously but there’s things that when you move to Florida you’ve got to accept you got to
Let go of you in order to succeed in order to kind of fully embrace your environment so like those those things outside of the pool that had an influence on you as well what are the things you had to let go of and what are the things you kind of had to
Embrace yeah I mean um I uh the the fact that I’m back in Scotland now like obviously this place means a lot to me um I got great Roots here great family and friends um but they all they all bought into why I was out there as well
Like they all knew that all right Dan’s he’s on some sort of mission here he’s on some sort of Journey so you know having to let go of that and let go of that and just you know go out to somewhere I’d never visited before somewhere I’d never
Thought about living or settling down um was a big adjustment but it’s crazy because like looking back at it now it feels like so long ago and I was so young at the time um but just the culture over in America like the weather was great right so I wasn’t like there
Was there was some things that were awesome being a part of a a a large organization as well like the University of Florida was really special um and I I think I appreciate that from from straight away um but you know you have to kind of uh like grow up and mature
Very much on your own like my family my mentors over here like were they were other side of the world so I kind of had to figure things out myself and and hopefully surround yourself with the right people and there was some great leaders both on the coaching staff uh
Within my friendship groups um with on the team as well that you know allowed me to kind of have that sense of having a family away from away from home um but there was a lot that you had to kind of just figure out like what kind of guy do
You want to be what kind of man do you want to grow into and I think that that’s what these um these University programs do really well is that yeah they want you to be a great athlete when you walk away from here but they also
Want you to be hopefully a better a mature person and there’s like obviously bumps in the roads but you know you got to figure it out yeah yeah absolutely what about um you mentioned locky and even even Troy Greg Troy um what are some of the things you learned from them
You think that um set you up for success or had you know continued success while you were there for the four years what why did you click so well with that training group and and even that coaching style yeah um I I still do and I always did just have the utmost
Respect for Greg Troy uh he he knew how to push my buttons uh in the right way and I needed that so I needed to you know I got quite quite thick skin I’d say and and I needed to be like kind of on that short leash and just like kind
Of he needed to be on top of me at all times in order to get the best out of me know some people might need things a bit more kind of sugarcoated and a bit more gentle but I needed you to say it how it
Is and tell me what to do and if I’m not doing it call me out and and and Troy did that from day one so there was no issue there so that was really good so he knew how to really push me to the point where I was then working a lot
Harder than I ever thought I could and I was doing better than I ever thought I could on the flip side of that and someone like Ryan just was having the best time practicing in training and in life all the time and he was able to toggle on
And off between Ryan locky world class athlete the best in the world and Ryan locky ging around in practice like having having a great time and you know it’s very cliche but like I was just trying to enjoy myself in the sport um and I think that there’s times to be
Serious and there’s times to have a laugh and being in these team environments a lot of uh team sports like the the camaraderie you get between your uh your teammates is so special and you’re always you’re going to have fun no matter what you’re doing so I learned
From Ryan that there’s there’s times to switch on and there’s times to switch off um and I was able to do that quite well where I would never not look forward to going to practice I was always looking forward to going to practice because I
Knew it was going to be good fun for two hours going to be surrounded by some fun people uh but at the same time we were going to work hard and that’s what Troy did he came in and he worked us hard but then as teammates we all made sure that
We were enjoying oursel as much as we could yeah man I’m looking at uh your resume here and some of the success you had I mean early on uh you know you’ve had success you had success in in the 200 freestyle and you’re part of kind of
This uh you know hold up I think I lost you there still good I can’t I’m not got any audio what about now yeah so I was saying you had you you went in uh with the intention to be successful in the in the IM which which
You were uh really successful in your medle but uh you your 200 freestyle came on too and you were part of this uh early team in in Great Britain that had success at some some big championships World Championships Olympic Games things like that this this Great Britain team
Has just kicked on for the past kind of 10 years now where there’s they’ve had this dominance in in the 200 freestyle especially as as a group as a unit what are you seeing in Great Britain that is enabling them to have this kind of
Success oh it’s uh it’s so great to see it’s so great to see because we’ve seen it for other nations in other Rel the US for example just been so dominant across almost all the Rel for so long but for us now to get um like that movement that
That generation of just like we’ve been kicking ass in the 4X two and in other whe as well the medley and the shorter ones to see this movement and and just like you said there like yeah kind of being one of the early the Early figures
In that is something I’m pretty proud of um yeah obviously I saw a medley so I was always going be working on other strokes and probably could have had a pretty good tuner bread stroke if I wanted to my tuner freestyle was always going to be working on because I got to
Come home good in that medle so and because it’s 200 like I was you know I could always do the 2003 even 400 free as well at one point and I think that we just uh the Stars start to align for us as as a nation where in the likes of I
Mean Robbie renck was around for years and he didn’t quite have the other three on the team at the time and there was moments where he had some really good guys but he was always the star and he needed you know he needed someone on the
Bench with him um and then we got like James guy who came through as a youngster and then suddenly we had a couple Superstars that that could put together a really good team and you know I was one of those is where I I managed
To make it for a couple years and and I think that all you need is that all you need is a couple of guys to to collectively stand up and race well together alongside each other and then you get that kind of momentum and and and now if you’re British you’re like I
Want to be great at tuner freestyle because if I’m on that relay you know we’re contending for gold we’re we’re contending for the world record so it’s like that it’s a golden ticket now you know so PE it’s such an attractive event to be good at in the UK and that started
Off with just a couple of guys getting dropping those world class times in in the same era and it’s now it’s it’s like um it’s like recruiting to to to a sports team you know you get a couple of good guys that that come in at once and
Then for the next five 10 years you’ve got just this uh this next Generation wanting to come to that team because at one point you it was it was all aligned and that’s a really strong team so we yeah we put together a strong team and I
And I and I think for for year hopefully years to come there’s going to be people that are training right now that are 13 14 15 and their eyes are set on being an amazing tuner freestyle amazing medley swimmer amazing 4×1 4 by1 medley um team
Member because we’re good at that now we we can go up against the best in the world um so I think that over time it just starts to snowball and and it’s now a bit of a legacy and so it’s now you know we had a couple good runs but it’s
Now like how how long do we want to push this for how long do we want to be the best for because it’s great to win you know Olympic gold medal as part of a 4X two Rel team but we want to we want to repeat that and then repeat that and
Then repeat that just like the US have been doing for Generations so it’s now like it’s our time it’s our turn um yeah so yeah it’s cool to be a part of that like initial wave yeah well that’s what I was going to say like that started
With you man you and a couple other guys the mentality of like we’re getting on the podium you know that that’s a tough thing to initiate isn’t it to start of like hey we can be on the podium we can actually be on the top of the podium as
Well we can contend and like that mentality starts somewhere and I guess maybe some of that was born from you going over to America and being around a guy like Ryan locky and and being coached by Troy and people like that and believing that hey we can expect more
Out of ourselves too you know definitely it’s it’s confidence right it’s um individuals having confidence that they are good enough to podiums and then it’s having four to six guys that all believe they can Podium and then as a team you’ve just got this really strong Foundation of really great athletes that
Believe that they can they can not just win medals but win the event and I think there was a shift uh within team GB and Brit swimming a couple years ago and we were almost a bit sick and tired of our goals being let’s make top 16 top eight
But it’s shifted to like hold on we’ve got Jimmy guo and we’ve got p and we’ve got this you amazing Rockstar athletes like we’re not shooting to make top eight we’re not even shooting to get top three we’re shooting to win now um and I think that it’s just that individual
Confidence and and uh those those good results build future confidence so we’re just like everything gets bigger and better and you get you become stronger as a team when you all don’t just believe you can win but actually start winning and you just need that one glimpse of success and that that one
Good result and you’re all right we can do this let just keep going uh the US are just so confident the Americans I don’t know what it is culturally I talk about this quite a lot like everyone that I know over there were just like if they said they were going to do
Something they were going to do it it wasn’t like well what if it doesn’t go well it’s like you know we I know I can do this whatever the goal is I know I can do it and I think that British culture almost like we’re quite quiet
About our goals we don’t shout as loud um but I think that we should um the Americans shout about it right they want they they let you know um and I think works it works for them so I think that you know team GB have got some great
Results that they can back up back up their confidence now and um and hopefully for Generations now we’re just we’re just shooting for for Higher Goals because of that yeah mate look how good as Tom Dean and Matt Richards I mean two are the best ever mate like
These guys and they’re hungry they’re young and they don’t they don’t back down at all do they it’s uh what’s so amazing to see about that is like I mentioned Jimmy guy so he burst on the scene t a Freestar world champion and then Duncan came along and he was then
Got he was then the guy and then like within a swiit second Tom came along and then and now you got Matt Richards it’s like it’s never ending so it’s not like we’ve got one St on the team it’s like we’ve got four you know world champion you know level freestyle
Swimmers so like you don’t know who who to put your money on there which is like so exciting as someone that is trained and raced with almost all of them um it’s great to see and I want that to continue like yeah sure Matt ridard was
A guy a world chance but next year I want it to be someone else and next year I want it to be someone else and you just slowly get this like pedigree of you know gold medal winning talent and if they’re all on the same team it’s
Like it’s so cool to see so I don’t know who I’m going putting money on going forward because it could go any way in and um I’m biased towards Jimmy because he’s a very good friend of mine mind but you know to see him even medal at European short course just passed and
Like he’s still he’s still in the fight now as well so um it’s very exciting it’s cool to see yeah man look I agree I think all those guys are in the fight and you’re right at times it feels like a toss of the coin but uh you I will say
I did interview Matt Richards and I was like really impressed with his mental attitude you know like physically I don’t know I have never seen him train I watched him race a couple of times like physically he looks as good as anybody else out there you know but mentally I
Was like oh this guy’s got an edge about him you know yeah there so I I don’t know M personally that well um but what I’ve Loved about he’s just taken EV he’s doing everything in his control in the right way so he’s training at milfield
Where he knew it worked for him he’s he’s gone back to his roots he’s he’s playing it safe he’s not just uh thrown at the wall and hopefully it works like he’s understanding okay this is exactly what I need to do to reach these goals he’s being clinical about it and which
Is and and he’s getting his results so that’s just giving him so much confidence he’s on the right track and I remember listening or or reading a little interview after after he won and uh he was still critiquing like the results like oh yeah next year we still
Got some stuff we need to work on it’s like wow like he’s his goals are bigger than than just winning gold which is exactly what we want um like we just spoke about like 15 years ago 10 years ago it’s like the goals for our team we’re to guys in the
Top eight and now it’s like we’re got we got guys winning and they’re still not they’re still not happy they’re still not they still want a bit more um so that’s exactly what we need um so it’s going to be and and it’s like you know I
I can’t wait for Olympic trials you know to watch that to see which which two are going to get you know the the the individual spot it’s like used to watch uh Omaha used to watch the US trials and it was just like the top four top five
Top six could make the Olympic F the Olympic Podium so we kind of have that kind of situation now um with our guys and uh that’s really cool that’s really special that might not last forever but hopefully it does yeah me it’s hard to sit here as an outsider and and you’ve
Probably heard this a million times and may even laugh at this but it’s hard to sit here as an outsider and see your last name and see where you come from and not correlate the the Heritage to the mentality as well you know like my favorite movie right is Braveheart like
I just I’ve watched it a hundred times so so is that like what’s the correlation between your last name and any any form of Heritage when it comes to to that I uh I haven’t really done the research but um to be scti you gotta
Get out there and do the 23 and me I know I really need to because to be Scottish and have the second name Wallace it’s it’s pretty badass to be honest um so even if it’s just that kind of reputation then it’s good enough for
Me it’s h yeah I’m very proud to be Scottish and uh you know we spoke about for the last couple minutes they’re Racing for Great Britain but I also have the opportunity or had the opportunity to race for just Scotland on our own at comth games twice and that’s like really
Special that’s when I feel really proud to to be doing what I’m doing and uh you know Glasgow 2014 conth games was very much a career highlight for me not just because one the greatest races in your career one of the greatest races I’ve ever seen you know at home like that and
It wasn’t even just uh the results that was awesome for me there it was like the the whole atmosphere to have like a home games you know as I said with the second main Wallace like it was all a bit of a fairy tale and uh you know walking out
Into the the final of those medley swims and at the at the games and like 80% maybe more of the crowd are like chanting your name and want you to win was like so so special um not many people get to not only represent their country in at home games
But do really well and that’s when I kind of shot onto the scene and and and did some respectable world class times which um it was yeah as I just said a bit of a fairy tale for me yeah yeah I can’t believe you haven’t dug into that
More man like geeez come on get get out there and do some history on yourself that should yeah absolutely um how much of that how much of that is true actually by the way the the story of William Wallace is that is that actual fact yeah I think a lot it’s very
Factual as far as um there was a big rivalry and issues between England and Scotland and he was kind of the leader in rebelling against them and that kind of fits me a little bit Yeah but yeah like he was a he was a badass and he and
And he and he wore the name loudly and proudly um so it’s uh it’s something I honestly don’t think about it a lot but I guess from an outsider’s point of view it’s quite cool to think about and uh it’s a Kickass movie so maybe I should
Uh I think we did once watch it on the uh on the team bus at Florida on the way to SEC as we watched braveart and that got me real fired up yeah that’s what it was great thanks a lot that was our secret I would have been pumping that
Myself don’t worry about um that’s awesome is there is there any kind of like U Heritage side or uh you know place where people can go and visit is there anything there in in Scotland yeah there’s there’s quite a bit actually about um William W second name and uh
It’s at the University of Sterling I so in Sterling it’s like it’s quite a small City I guess in Scotland I trained there for for about a year and I I went through there as a youngster quite a lot because that’s kind of where it’s like the Scot Scottish national performance
Center not just for swimming for a lot of other sports that’s where Duncan H trains right now and Stephen TIG coaches and and quite a few others as well so um yeah that’s kind of like the where it’s all based so there’s a lot of Scottish Heritage around there I’ve had friends
From the US come out and I take them to Sterling and kind of show that I mean it’s you look around it’s it’s surrounded by you know uh like big hills and mountain ranges and it’s a it’s a very kind of cool place and there’s there’s castles
And you know that’s what I as a youngster I don’t appreciate that kind of stuff and then I went to the US and I was like wow like history goes way way further back than your guys I was so as I get older I’m way more interested in
That kind of stuff and appreciate where I’m from um but yeah there’s there’s there’s a lot that’s happened in in where I’m from that I’m pretty proud of yeah that it fascinates me manate I love to get out there and and take that tour myself and check it out that’d be cool
Um listen I I made my first Olympic team when I was 25 and and I see here you retired at 24 why did you stop so early man yeah it’s it’s a question I get so often Brett um but I was um do you know what it was such an intense like Olympic
Cycle for me as far as 2011 moved to Florida it started to pay off 2013 first world champs 2014 com games 15 World Championships where you know we won in the relay I stood up and raced against Ryan in the final stuff like that and
Then like and then Rio 2016 I felt like that was it was crazy for me it was just so intense it was a whirlwind three four years and uh and luckily and I feel very fortunate that within that small that small time period like I achieved all
All my goals as a little kid I achieved all the goals I’d ever set out um and I was like all right that’s pretty cool and then I remember 2016 kind of asking myself right what are the goals for the next four years and um performance-based goals were
Basic basically more or less all the same but maybe try and improve a couple of places like I don’t know maybe I was sell myself short and it you know you know the Comm games gold medal should have been then upgraded to like okay well let’s try and win World
Championships but I was I felt pretty happy with the way i’ the way i’ performed the last four years um so I I was try I was struggling on motivation to be honest like you’ve all heard of like the Olympic blues and and kind of how athletes feel pretty down and pretty
Low energy and pretty demo motivated after a pinnacle year like the Olympics and and a pinnacle event so I was really struggling with that and I was like right well what else do I want to do within the sport is there anything else in the sport that I want to do like I’ve
Just spent four years at UF I’ve I’ve you know gone to all the major meets and I’ve looking enough one medals all almost all of them as well so performance- wise I was like I am happy with that like like I I don’t need to keep chasing it and keep repeating it
Some people become obsessed with it and they are you know the reigning Olympic champion and they want to be the same next four years and and repeat that but for me that was never something I was like losing sleepover um and maybe that was just my mindset and maybe my goal
Should have been to to repeat it but I felt like hold on I’ve got I’ve got an opportunity here to like leave the sport on my own terms um and not not not let it be based performance or injury or being cut from teams or anything like I
Was like I you know I’m doing pretty well here but I can start to exit the sport in my own term so basically from 2016 to 2018 I was basically working on like let’s call like an Exit Plan where I was like right what do you want to
Squeeze out the last couple years here is it going to be trying to chase more medals or is it going to be just enjoying the sport for what it is and uh you know my mindset was a little bit foggy at that point and I was you know
As I just said demotivated and a little bit lost because I knew that I didn’t want to be in the sport but I didn’t know what I wanted to do afterwards so yeah it’s it’s it’s a tough time for a lot of people they feel very lost and
They have answers they have questions they can’t get answers to and uh even though there was support there I just felt I needed to stop swimming I felt like I’d done it and and that was it for me but I didn’t know what I was going to
Do so yeah like physically could have kept going I was still strong and healthy and performance- wise I probably could have got some another few years of great results but like mentally I just felt like I was done with swimming but at the same time didn’t really know what
I was going to do so it’s a tough time and looking back on it um yeah I was a little a little lost but at the same time I was happy because I thought this is what I needed to do and this is what
I wanted to do and I was happy that I was able to do it on my own terms yeah no absolutely mate um look if you’re ever interested we can get you part of the Sprint Revolution as well you know yeah I’ve been seeing that I’ve I’ve
Been keeping a close eye on it that’s uh it’s cool and what’s interesting is so like after 2018 I wanted nothing to do with the sport so I there was no coaching there was no following results there was nothing like that so I didn’t really know what the world swimming
Looked like and it’s only actually in the last 12 months I’ve started to get back into and I’ve started to become passionate about like following results and seeing which swimmers are doing well and and who’s coaching where and you know seeing stuff online like content wise as well like only now
Starting to find myself moving back towards a sport um so I’m pretty clued up in it now but there was a long period it was like four years maybe where um I had nothing to do with swimming and I felt like I needed to do that um yeah
Yeah you know I think that’s pretty common though like that that’s that’s a fairly common response is like when you feel like you’ve you’ve given everything in order to move on you got to let go of it too right and so it’s the same thing as like moving from Scotland to Florida
You got to let let go some things and at the end of your your swim career you got to let go of it in order to kind of refocus and go somewhere else with it you can still take those skills that you learned and apply them somewhere else
But in order to move on fully you got to let go sometimes and sometimes that just means blocking it out and not looking at not seeing it um which is completely understandable but I have seen some stuff especially recently where you’re you’re doing some ice swimming um you’ve
Also done um the Channel as well you done some long distance swimming there for for charity events and stuff tell tell us about how you got back into some of that swim stuff yeah so um it is interesting because obviously as I said when I stopped I wanted nothing to do
With it and I’m now finding myself um not just interested in the sport again but actually taking part in it again and I never thought I’d do that um and it was uh you know I had a conversation with some old uh teammates at University of Florida Jack bazinsky who us SW with
And uh he was like he just moved to London and I was living there at the time and he said listen dude let’s uh let’s get a team together let’s swim the English Channel because I guess that’s what he thought people did when they moved to London or moved to England so
Uh not skinny people man no we don’t skinny people in no so I was like all right we can maybe put a teams together so uh called up a couple of old swi teammates and like let’s swim the channel as a relay and let’s uh let’s do
It for charity because I think that makes it a bit more purposeful um because I had no interest in in swimming the channel to be honest at the start but obviously as we got into it it was nice because it was a very purpose purposeful way of getting back into
Swimming um we were we were meeting up regularly for for um training in and around work in London and then you know over a few months got our fitness up to a good point um as for the swim itself you know we raised well over six figures
For charity which was like incredible to do um that really opened my eyes to okay hold on maybe I’m not quite done with sport yet maybe I’m not quite done with swimming um I know that I was I’m never going to get back into the high performance I’m not going to fully get
Back into 11 sessions a week but it did just give me a taste of what swimming was like again I was like I do miss this like you know we’re both capable swimmers so we can both appreciate when we go for a swim we can make it nice and
Easy and smooth and therapeutic and like the gliding through the water uh I love the motion and and the muscle memory there and a lot of people don’t get to ever experience that so I want to keep that up for as long as I can I want to
Be at a point where I can swim a 1,000 MERS you know in 30 minutes over a session and just feel nice the whole time um so I I I got to experience that again and I was like this is nice I quite like getting back in the pool H
And then from there I I looking into kind of some mental health things around cold water exposure and and immersion and I was doing the ice bass and I I live right by the coast here and it’s it’s freezing out there but I I was
Jumping in the sea and I was like this is really fun and you know this is this is technically still swimming right so I’m I’m getting to see a whole other side of the sport that I thought I was done with and then I I found out about these ice ice swimming competitions
Which are crazy by the way um it’s like basically a regular swim meat but the water is sub five degrees Cel I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit but it’s pretty damn cold yeah and uh so I just came I just got back from Romania actually last week
When I was competing at the European ice championships um and it’s a very humbling event because uh trying to swim 100 freestyle at at a race Pace in sub five degrees your body freaks out you don’t it doesn’t know what it’s doing the last 25 there’s no uh blood or
Oxygen getting to your muscles and you just like seize up so I was like wow I’ve never experienced anything like that um so for me I always like to do new things I like new challenges that’s pretty much how I felt at the end of every hundred Freestyle by the way it
Didn’t matter what the water temperature yeah I can relate you know you’re right it is everyone has felt that pain before um but imagine your whole body being numb from it so it’s h yeah what I liked about that is uh I’m like finding other ways to enjoy swimming again um like
Doing charity swims doing ice competitions like it’s s but it’s not the sing that I knew and I like that because I don’t want as the reason that I stopped sing was I didn’t want to just keep repeating the same thing I wanted to do different things and and get joy
Out of the sport in different ways and I’m finding I’m finding that again and that’s why I think I’m becoming more passionate about it again and on even a coaching point of view I’m getting more into that set of things and I’m just understanding that swimming is not all
About being the fastest tun Med the swimmer in the world it’s that’s one that’s what’s one version of swimming for one person right that’s what I what I thought swimming was when I was 21 years old but now I realize that there’s a whole other side of it there’s uh
There’s I swimming there’s distance swimming there’s charity stuff there’s teaching there’s coaching you know I run a swim school now and it’s like I teach three year olds up to 15 year olds and it’s like wow there’s there’s a lot more I could get out of this sport that I
Didn’t I wasn’t aware of and that’s why I needed that time away to come back and come back in a new way I’m actually glad you’re you’re speaking about this and and you’ve had this um kind of epiphany in yourself as well because uh I think I
Went through some of this stuff too um after college I was so burn out I just wanted to walk away from it and took some time away and and I realized to myself I hadn’t touched the water um in many years you know about 10 years Ju
Just from coaching and being so involved on the pull deck I hadn’t really looked after my own health and my own side of things as well and so I had I had pushed pushed that away and and after that experience I kind of came back to kind of reconnecting with
The water again and one of the realizations that I had which which I’m glad you’re having now is that look for for whatever reason you and I were born with a god-given talent I mean that’s just that’s just the way it is like when I when I watch Dan Wallace swim I’m like
That guy is talented now that doesn’t take away any of the work that you did and and the the the time that you put into your craft but you have definitely been blessed with a god-given talent that is beyond and I’m not talking about just the the normal and the usual I’m
Talking about the the the 1% of 1% people in the whole world you know just these and we were just blessed with that and so for anytime I see somebody just shut swimming out of their life completely it it bothers me now because I’m like man you were given this gift
For a reason it was put in you for some reason and I’m glad that you’re connecting with that now whether that’s jumping in you know ice water or teaching kids or whatever it is is like it was given to you and and I think we have a responsibility to that when when
The 1% of 1% people are given this certain gift right like I wasn’t given the gift of being musical or um you know whatever it is applied to life but in terms of this swimming gift I was given it and you were given the same gift so whenever I see somebody reconnect with
That gift again it makes me happy you know yeah I totally agree with that and that’s really what I’m what I’ve been going through the last 12 months is like realizing that I know a lot about swimming and and and that’s that’s what made me good and that’s what made me
Successful in the sport and for a while I shut that side of me out but then I was you know little things like I would get friends asking me for advice and like I would almost question like why do why are they asking me but then it’s
Like it be it was second nature for us for so long that we could just we could get in the pool we knew how to do it but not everybody can just get in and they don’t have the talent that we have and I think that it is our responsibility to
Give that back and if you can find passion in that then it’s really important so I think I needed the time away from the sport to then come back and be like I have more to give because this is something I know so well this is
Something I can help others with I can and I can still help myself with as well um so I’m loving that you you know that that Epiphany that I’m having now on like I still do love this Sport and I still got a lot to give and I’m here for
It yeah I love that mate um where can people find you uh on your social media um so Dall 93 I’m putting together like kind of loads of just little swimming content things so following what I’m up to doing these crazy ice swims but at the same time trying to give some sort
Of uh Direction on on uh just like tricks of the trade that me and you know inside out but but most people won’t uh I’m also working on some kind of like online coaching as well um so that’s going to be on swim.com um it’s swimmer
Without thee that’s going to be a bit more of a a a full-blown education platform where there’s courses around technique and and specific areas of the sport um along with some programs as well um there’s going to be some collaborative courses with other athletes as well um because I think that
Collaboration is a great way to get more information out there and hopefully give more people guidance um I’m just one person so trying to work with other people on that um so there’s going to be loads of stuff where they can kind of keep in keep keep up to date with what
I’m doing and what I’m trying to try to give back as well I love that mate good stuff that’s awesome congrats on that and really happy to hear that you’re you’re doing this stuff and reconnecting in in a big way and I hope that down the line maybe even there’s some way that
You could connect with uh you know Scottish swimming or or British swimming in some way where you can give back to them as well well um that’d be super cool but if if that doesn’t eventuate at least you’re doing this and and you’re connecting with the world and I see you
Putting really good stuff out on social media already and that’s just going to you’re going to get better at that the more you do so so that’s cool but um yeah I just wanted to say I just wanted to pass all my respects to you I mean
You always as a competitor you always gave me everything you had you always gave me your best and and I love that you know and I always I always say this about Greg Troy I’ve said this a couple of times on this program here is like
The thing I loved about Troy is that you knew you were going in for a fight every time you competed against Troy it was going to be an allout fight but it was going to be a fair fight right like you both had gloves on and you both going to
Punch each other in the face and at the end Greg was going to shake your hand win or lose right most of the time he would beat me up pretty good but I was like you know I respected the fact that he would come to you and he would and he
Would look you in the eye and he would thank you for your competition and I always I always felt that about you too man you were respectful but you were tough as Nails man and and I always have ultimate respect for people like that you know I really appreciate those words
And I think that yeah you know Troy you know he put the gloves on and and he would put up a good fight and I think that that’s what he instilled in us as well it’s like every opportunity you get you give it your best and you know I’m thankful for the
Lessons that I’ve been taught within the sport uh there they’re still the same mindsets and attitudes that I use every single day no matter what I’m doing um so it’s great to be able to discuss that with you today and catch up yeah cool mate good to see you Dan and um there’s
There anything I can do for you always available okay amazing thank you br cheers mate take care cheers
1 Comment
One of my favourite memories in swimming was at my first World Trials, watching Dan Wallace come out for the 200 free final wearing a superman onesie 😂