US Olympic Trial has been called one of the fastest and most exciting meets in the world, some say even more than the Olympics themselves.
With the start of the Trial just seven days away, we wanted to share the Badger Guide to the Olympic Trials, so you can follow your Badger Teammates.
Clear and Plan your DVR’s and get ready to watch some fast swimming.
Delivering on the Road to Rio Promise 
Dear Badger Swimmers, Families, Alumni and Friends
Today more than 200 of the Badger Families will come together at the Badger pool in Larchmont for a cookout to honor our graduating high school seniors and 16 Badger swimmers who qualified for the upcoming Olympic Trials. Nine of these swimmers are from Westchester and seven are post-graduates.
As you know, my goal has always been to have Badger represented at the highest level of swimming. I am happy to report on Badger’s watch that three Badgers have become National Champions in the sprint that began three years ago, Cody Miller, Zane Grothe and Lindsay Vrooman.
These swimmers are quality individuals that wanted to continue to swim after college but needed scholarships to get them to Rio, and they wanted to compete for Badger. All of our post-grads have the same values, ambition and talent of our other Badger swimmers. They have added considerable value to our Badger program, helping our senior and junior teams right down to our youngest members getting them to “step up”… through education, training and communication of what fast swimming is all about. 
The outcome is self-evident in the posture our entire team has taken in an Olympic year. The shared journey of the Badger program culminates with the Summer Olympics in Rio.
I want to thank all of our swimmers, swim parents, alumni & friends for being a part of this program. And for your continued support of the Badger legacy, which I remain so proud to be a part of. We look forward to the BBQ and celebration of these milestones and thank everyone for their contributions.
John H. Collins Jr 
A note from Badger Parent Advocate, Mike Conaton:
Caeleb Dressel, Social Media and Internet Safety
When both swimming and non-swimming friends send me the same article, it’s a pretty good indication that there are some good stories involved. Indeed, this recent article by Karen Crouse in the New York Times contains messages for parents of swimmers young and old. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/sports/for-a-natural-swimming-isnt-always-easy.html?_r=0
The article features Caeleb Dressel, the rising US sprinter who recently set new American records in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle at his college conference championships. The article summarizes Dressel’s meteoric recent rise, his ironic challenge, and his humble beginnings as an age group swimmer.
Badger 10U parents may hear their kids complaining about having to learn the difficult butterfly stroke. Well maybe it will make the kids feel better to learn that even American record holders once struggled, and even cried over having to swim Butterfly. And add yet another funny story about young kids and their early swimming lessons – Dressel once jumped into an empty lane during a meet and actually won the heat. The problem was that he was not entered in the meet! He was there to watch his older brother.
Later as an age grouper, the article makes reference to a valuable tool that many kids use today: Dressel still keeps detailed notes in a logbook to chronicle his workouts and performance. His entries were much more detailed than other kids’ books, focusing not only on recording sets and pace times (as I know some Badger veterans still do), but also on how his body and muscles felt in the water under different conditions. He was a study on form and technique.
Dressel would emerge onto the national scene, first at the age of 15 as the youngest male competitor at the 2012 Olympic Trials, then a year and a half later making the 2013 Junior World Championships in Dubai.
But when he came home from Dubai, despite all his success, Dressel unbelievably quit swimming. Introducing one of parents’ greatest challenges with their kids – Social Media and the Internet.
Dressel suffered from feeling the burden of expectations. It seems his days of racing anonymously were long gone. Dressel said in the article, “as a 17-year-old kid, people put you on this podium, and it seems like you’re just a source of entertainment for people. I felt like I was swimming for other people and they’d never be satisfied”.
The author of the article summed it up – “The “other people” are strangers on the internet. Dressel’s ascent has coincided with the rise of social media, where every person with access to Twitter has the equivalent of a megaphone”. Dressel was feeling the pressure from social media that expected him to be something special every time he swam.
The point combines two concepts, one we have written about in the past regarding the need for kids to swim for THEMselves. To me the second point speaks volumes of some of the other pressures our kids face today. You can literally be the fastest kid in the world and still feel peer pressure and feel bad about yourself – in this case delivered through the internet and social media. How many times have we had discussions (ok, fights) about social media in our household…It’s obviously here to stay so we all have to figure out how to deal with it – both the unintended and the very intentional and downright mean communications via the internet. I don’t know what the answer is, and obviously there are a lot of great things about the internet (I know I’m showing my age and tech inexperience), but I believe we parents can’t be blind to what goes on with social media and just hope for the best.
Back to the story…Dressel was back in the water after a much needed six-month break from the water. With continuing support from family, friends and coaches, Dressel is constantly reminded to keep his success in perspective and his focus on himself and his teammates.
Three time Olympian Brendan Hanson is quoted in the article, summing up this last point very well when he spoke to Dressel’s mom – “the best thing you can do for your kids is put away your stopwatch and let it be THEIR sport, not yours”.
As for social media…hope is not a method – very coincidently, our local high school recently hosted a presentation by Laura Forbes, Senior Assistant District Attorney with the Office of the Westchester County District Attorney and member of the High Tech Crime Bureau. Ms. Forbes spent a couple hours scaring parents with horrible stories and describing the many risks presented by the internet. In short, the following top 10 list of recommendations were discussed:
So we’ll add to the list – Parents are awesome…it ain’t always easy…and it can be really scary…
Tomorrow begins the 2016 Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Georgia Tech, in Atlanta Georgia.
Three former badger swimmers are slotted to swim in what has been stated as the worlds fastest short course meet, the meet itself is filled with high energy as teams and individuals via for the NCAA Titles.
Brian Hogan a senior at Yale swimming the 1650 Freestyle, 500 Freestyle and 400 IM.
Patrick Conaton a sophomore at Stanford will be swimming the 200 Backstroke, 50 Freestyle, the 100 Backstroke and possibly a relay.
Oliver Patrouch representing Indiana University will be swimming relays for Indiana.
Please Follow the meet and cheer on the teams as they via for individual and team titles.
William Powers swimming for Brunswick School struck gold setting a new 500-freestyle high school team record of 4:38.19 and also broke the team record in the 200-free at 1:43.29.
Team mates James Simone took third in the 500-free at 4:42.43 & Christian Farricker, a freshman, finished third in the 200 IM with a school record time of 1:55.86
Exciting News
Metro has just issued the newest Records Update and Badger has 14 NEW METRO SC METER RECORDS
Photo Courtesy of Taylor Brien
Through the eyes of a lens, Swimming World Magazine captured some great moments at the Cera ve Invitational including a great shot of our very own Carly Cummings and Anina Lund.
As reported by Swimming World
“Swimming World intern Grace Schwiederek had a chance to get on deck and capture some of the magic of the evening session of day two. Schwiederek’s photos especially captured some of the faces from behind the scenes.
Along with Schwiederek was Swimming World’s Taylor Brien capturing the action and some candids of the athletes participating in this weekend’s meet.”
Photo courtesy of Taylor Brien
AS REPORTED BY SWIMMING WORLD MAGAZINE
“Bobby Yribarren glances briefly at the opponents to his right as he waits behind the starting block, quickly returning his gaze to the furiously churning turquoise waters at his feet. From an outside standpoint he is like every other swimmer on deck–perhaps a bit nervous, but absorbed in his personal goals for the event. But Yribarren is anything but similar to the young men he is swimming against.
In fact, he is much older than they are.
It has quite literally been a long and winding road for Yribarren to get to this point. The thirty-year-old Harvard University graduate is the oldest swimmer at the 2016 CeraVe Invitational by a wide margin–a whopping six years separates him from the next oldest competitor. In no way has this dissuaded him from returning to the pool.
“It’s definitely humbling, but I’m really happy for the other swimmers,” Yribarren explained of the unusual phenomenon that comes from competing against swimmers 10+ years his junior. “It’s really great to see how fas the sport is getting. A lot has changed [since I was swimming D1].”
“It’s been a process to get him back into any kind of swimming shape,” admitted Badgers head coach John Collins. “We’re happy to have him because he’s a good middle distance, open water type swimmer, and he trains well with the group that I have right now.”
Collins has been coaching the thirty-year-old for just over five months now, as Yribarren found his team in September of 2015. Prior to joining the Badgers, it had been two years since he hit the water competitively. It was during that time period that he went through many changes, the most notable being physical.
“I was 260 pounds at one point,” Yribarren explained. “I couldn’t even see my toes.”
“That’s a big drop, right?” he joked with a thousand-watt smile lighting up his face. Despite continually facing a great deal of adversity, Yribarren speaks passionately and enthusiastically, even about a difficult time in his life. Rather than see it as a road block, Yribarren chooses to see that time period as a “lifestyle change.” It is this optimistic attitude that he believes is crucial in handling the pressure of a competitive swimmer.” [READ MORE]
Photo courtesy of Lets Make a Deal video footage.
Badger swimmers, Derek Toomey & Emily McClellan are stars in the pool and on Lets Make a Deal too!
Watch it here to see what happens! Our stars are at mark 9:20.