{"id":240,"date":"2018-09-19T13:01:53","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T17:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/?p=240"},"modified":"2023-10-16T12:10:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T16:10:26","slug":"swimmirror-interview-rowdy-gaines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/swimmirror-interview-rowdy-gaines\/","title":{"rendered":"The SwimMirror Interview with Rowdy Gaines"},"content":{"rendered":"

SwimMirror\u2019s<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Exclusive Interview with the Voice of Swimming!<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/b>Rowdy Gaines<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>is a three-time Olympic gold medalist\u00a0and\u00a0International Swimming Hall of Fame\u00a0member.\u00a0Known also as the voice of swimming, he has worked with CBS, TNT and ESPN as a regular announcer for swimming and other events, and called his seventh Olympic telecast for NBC at the 2016 Games in Rio. He will again be part of the NBC broadcast team in 2020 for the Tokyo Olympic Games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We are proud that Gaines is an advocate for\u00a0SwimMirror, and\u00a0had the pleasure of\u00a0talking with him\u00a0about his\u00a0impressive swimming\u00a0career,\u00a0advice\u00a0for swimmers just starting out,\u00a0and more\u00a0in the interview below.\u00a0Dive in!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Thanks for\u00a0talking with us,\u00a0Rowdy.\u00a0<\/b>You’ve\u00a0contributed a great deal to the international swimming community, but also locally here as the V.P. of the Central Florida YMCA Aquatics program. In what ways has\u00a0SwimMirror\u00a0helped you with swim lessons and training?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rowdy Gaines:\u00a0<\/b>I think a lot of it is it’s just a great tool for technique. When you talk about\u00a0swimmers and what is the best thing for them, there is no doubt in my mind that\u00a0technique is\u00a0the number one priority for all swimmers\u2014not just elite Olympic athletes, but especially youngsters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the things that we do here at the Y is we teach primarily technique where conditioning is always secondary to technique. It’s a great tool to help\u00a0improve\u00a0your technique because the athlete can actually see themselves in motion. That\u2019s\u00a0next to impossible to do unless you’re filming an athlete. And\u00a0even\u00a0when you’re filming an athlete,\u00a0the feedback comes at a later time, but the feedback is instant with the SwimMirror.\u00a0I think that’s why the coaching staff\u00a0love it. For myself and my\u00a0own stroke,\u00a0even, I love it so much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>: We\u2019re really glad to hear that!\u00a0Speaking of your personal journey as a competitive swimmer,\u00a0your\u00a0documentary\u00a0\u201cRowdy\u201d\u00a0just came out on\u00a0ESPN.\u00a0What was filming it like, and how has the response been?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>: Well, the filming was a little bit surreal because the whole time\u2014that whole, I guess four or five months process\u2014it was about me.\u00a0So\u00a0it was a little awkward the whole time of them filming,\u00a0and then it was even more awkward when it came out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>In what way?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>: We went to the premiere in Connecticut, in Greenwich, Connecticut they had a premiere in a film festival up there.\u00a0So,\u00a0when I’m watching\u00a0[the documentary]\u00a0in this movie theater,\u00a0I’m looking at my wife and I\u00a0say, \u201cI feel like I should be dead,\u201d because so many people are saying so many nice things. And it was just something that, again, a bit awkward because they’re saying such nice things about me and it’s almost in memoriam. It’s just, of course, that I’m alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So,\u00a0it was really nice. I was really touched by it. The filmmaker, Hannah Storm, is a great friend. Her husband is\u00a0too, I do the broadcast with\u00a0him\u00a0in the Olympic Games.\u00a0Their whole family, they’re great friends of mine. Again, it was a humbling experience, no doubt about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>That sounds like a pretty amazing experience, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0Yeah, it is. It’s really cool. ESPN was very generous. We traveled to L.A. I went back to Auburn. They came down here to film. They went over to Winter Haven and filmed my family, my mom and dad. They came here to Orlando to my family, my wife and my kids …\u00a0It was pretty cool. It’s just one hour long, but I think it encapsulated a lot of the things about my life that some people, I guess, didn’t know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>A lot of your newer fans know you as the voice of swimming for your work as a swimming analyst on ESPN and NBC. What do you love most about being able to represent swimming on television?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>I think for me it’s\u00a0what you\u2019ve already said in the question:\u00a0it\u2019s that\u00a0I love the sport so much. Swimming has given me so much in my life. It shaped my life dramatically. I certainly would not be the person I am today without the sport and all the great lessons it taught me. But I think that love and that passion is what I try to get across to the audience that’s watching the sport. Because I think, especially in the Olympics, most people that watch the Olympics have no idea what swimming is all about. They don’t know anything about swimming. They don’t know what a backstroke flag is much less what all the strokes are even.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I try to pretend like I’m talking to a person that’s sitting next to me that doesn’t know anything about swimming and kind of just explain to them the mechanics of what’s going on, but also the drama behind a lot of the stories. Because swimmers\u2014and I think sports in general, athletes\u2014they have great stories to tell sometimes, and that’s what I try to get across to the audience.\u00a0And I love it and I think that passion is one of the reasons why I’m calling my eighth Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.\u00a0I think they recognize I have a lot of passion for the sport.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Mm-hmm. And the listeners can\u00a0definitely\u00a0feel that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Yeah, yeah. I get a little excited too much sometimes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Not a bad thing to bring to an announcement!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Well, thanks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Let\u2019s\u00a0talk about the annual Rowdy Gaines Master Classic, which is coming up on its tenth year. It\u2019s drawn a large crowd of swimmers with a wide range of ages, levels and nationalities to Orlando. How\u2019d the tradition come about, and how do you maintain that friendly and inclusive atmosphere across ten years?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines:<\/b>\u00a0I think,\u00a0for me, Masters Swimming is a great conduit to stay in the sport of swimming. Most athletes\u00a0retire in their mid- to late twenties from elite swimming.\u00a0Masters Swimming\u00a0gives\u00a0the\u00a0ability to those types\u00a0of athletes\u00a0to stay in the sport longer.\u00a0It also gives the ability to people that have been out of the sport for a long time to come back and get on the blocks and actually compete at a level that’s pretty much equal to yours because you’re competing against people your own age. I’m 59,\u00a0so I compete against the people in the 55 to 59 age group.\u00a0It’s really kind of a lovely little ladder to the later years of your life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the other great thing about Masters Swimming is anybody can do it. I mean, my father is\u00a0gonna\u00a0swim in my masters meet this year, he’s 83 years old and hasn’t swum a competitive lap since he was in high school.\u00a0So,\u00a0it’s kind of cool. And my wife has swum in the meet before.\u00a0It’s a way that you can kind of get involved in a competition that’s not too intense or as intense as you want to make it. It’s also a great chance to get to know people from all walks of life as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>That\u2019s really great. How have preparations for that been?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>It’s good. Like you said, this is year number ten, so we’re trying to have a fairly special one. I think for me, the idea of having one was just accidental to start with. It wasn’t like I had this grand idea and I was\u00a0gonna\u00a0have ten of them. I thought it was just\u00a0gonna\u00a0be one. And one thing kind of led to another and we said, okay, let’s try to do this again and do it a little better and do something different. Each year we try to do something a little unique for the audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two years\u00a0ago,\u00a0we were supposed to have it and a hurricane canceled it that weekend.\u00a0We had to reschedule for December, so we kind of had a Christmas theme to it. Those kinds of things come along, but I think this year we’re\u00a0gonna\u00a0have a good turnout and it’ll be fun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>We\u2019ll definitely look forward to it. Are there any other swimming events you\u2019re looking forward to?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>The summer season is pretty much over with,\u00a0so the next thing you really have to look forward to is the college season. I love college swimming, it’s exciting. It’s really team-oriented\u2014not that international swimming isn’t, because you’re swimming for Team U.S.A.\u2014but there’s nothing like swimming for your college. And high school swimming,\u00a0which is going on right now. I like that team atmosphere behind swimming.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, for us it’s always about the Olympics and we’re over the halfway point.\u00a0We’re over the hump as far as heading to Tokyo now. We’re less than two years away. That’s starting to get on everybody’s mind. I know two years seems like a long way, but for swimmers, once you reach past that two-year mark you really start to hone in on your goals. And for an elite swimmer the goal is to make the Olympic team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Do you have a favorite college team?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Well, I went to school at Auburn, so that’s always\u00a0gonna\u00a0be my alma mater and that’s always who I’m secretly rooting for. I do have to be impartial, which I feel like I am when I’m calling races. I did the NCAA Championships this year and I’m doing my 29th NCAA Championships for men this year. I feel like I’m pretty good at being as impartial as I can. And Auburn’s always had a great swim team, so it’s easy to talk about them because they’ve won like 13 national titles.\u00a0It’s not hard talking about them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But I admire the greats:\u00a0Texas, Cal, Florida.\u00a0They all have amazing swim teams and it’s easy to cheer for them because they’re really good and they’ve got great coaching and great athletes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Definitely.\u00a0<\/b>Speaking of coaching, do\u00a0you have any tips for a beginning swimmer trying to master the freestyle?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Well, getting back to the\u00a0SwimMirror\u00a0for a second, one of the great things about the\u00a0SwimMirror\u00a0that can really help that swimmer starting out is one of the big tips that I try to teach kids especially is to keep their head in line with their spine. The head is very heavy, it weighs eight to ten pounds which is as much as a bowling ball. And the weight of the head when you lift it up causes the body to arch, or the back to arch, so the head needs\u00a0to be in line. And it’s an easy fix when you have the\u00a0SwimMirror\u00a0because the mirror\u00a0is on the bottom of the pool,\u00a0and for you to swim right with your head position right,\u00a0you have to keep your head down to look at the bottom of the pool.\u00a0So\u00a0when we bring the\u00a0SwimMirror\u00a0out, that’s one of the first things I tell the kids, or our coaches tell the kids, is,\u00a0\u201cLook at the\u00a0SwimMirror. Make sure you’re watching it the entire way because that’s where your head position needs to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I guess the one major tip for me is to keep your head down or rather keep your head in line with your spine. It’s like when your mom and dad tell you to sit up at the table, you know? Good posture. You know, that’s what I’m telling them, sit up at the table, you know. Just have great posture. Posture, line, and balance. Three important words in swimming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Posture, line and balance. Great to keep in mind.\u00a0So,\u00a0to wrap up with one last question, what’s next for you? Any new projects on the horizon?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaines<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0For me, right now things are trying to settle down a little. I still travel quite a bit.\u00a0My main focus is always going to be, besides my family of course, the YMCA and how we can be an asset to the community. I think we do a lot of great things with our scholarship program here. With our reaching out to the community to tell them that leading a healthy lifestyle is important.\u00a0For me that’s one\u00a0important\u00a0thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next thing that I’m really passionate about is drowning prevention. Drowning is an epidemic in our country. It’s the leading cause of unintentional death for children four years of age and younger.\u00a0It’s something that I try to preach about and talk about a lot, especially here in our community because central Florida is only second in the country behind south Florida in the number of drownings nationwide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s something that we really should be aware of in the community and try to do something more about it. So,\u00a0for me, it’s always something that I look forward to in trying to talk to parents and communities and members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About\u00a0<\/b>SwimMirror<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SwimMirror\u00a0is an industrial leader for manufacturing shatter-resistant, reinforced and polished aluminum pool mirrors. We aim to be the perfect underwater swim training tool for instant visual feedback on swimming and stroke technique.\u00a0SwimMirror\u00a0supports athletes, swim coaches and aquatic facilities through nationwide distribution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[maxbutton id=”1″ ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SwimMirror\u2019s\u00a0Exclusive Interview with the Voice of Swimming! Rowdy Gaines\u00a0is a three-time Olympic gold medalist\u00a0and\u00a0International Swimming Hall of Fame\u00a0member.\u00a0Known also as the voice of swimming, he has worked with CBS, TNT and ESPN as a regular announcer for swimming and other events, and called his seventh Olympic telecast for NBC at the 2016 Games in Rio.Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,27],"tags":[40,28,55,6,9,10,11,53,5],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rowdy-gaines","category-swimmirror-news","tag-pool-mirror","tag-rowdy-gaines","tag-rowdy-gaines-interview","tag-swim-gear","tag-swim-stroke","tag-swim-technique","tag-swim-training","tag-swim-training-tool","tag-swimmirror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swimmirror.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}