Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sports Bubble, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio Entree Fork Media. My name is Jensen carp and
Speaker 1: I'm a sports fan and listen. I admit when I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: and I was wrong about the NBA Bubble because it
Speaker 1: has been fantastic. It's still early to call it a
Speaker 1: total success. But between the emergence of t J Warren
Speaker 1: that out of this world passed from Luca, Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: doing Patrick Beverley things to Dame and the Lakers kind
Speaker 1: of looking beautibule. I mean, the storylines are alive and well.
Speaker 1: I even got a little jealous of those virtual fans
Speaker 1: last weekend. I'm starting to think these playoffs will be enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Definitely different considering we're seeing some real Lionel Huts level
Speaker 1: at offense. But I can't say it won't be fun
Speaker 1: and say if it seems, congrats to our Lord and
Speaker 1: Xavior Adam Silver. And while he's doing his job, I'm
Speaker 1: doing mine, interviewing athletes and sports industry professionals to find
Speaker 1: out how they're doing during this very weird time because
Speaker 1: someone has to. This is the Sports Bubble with Jensen
Speaker 1: carpon competitive swimmer Nathan Adrian is a three time Olympian
Speaker 1: and five time gold medalist who faced the biggest challenge
Speaker 1: of his life in two thousand nineteen when he was
Speaker 1: diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer. He fought his way
Speaker 1: through recovery, staying out of the water for almost a year,
Speaker 1: the longest he'd went since he was four years old,
Speaker 1: and he figured that was the last hurdle he'd have
Speaker 1: to jump on his way to once again compete in
Speaker 1: the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. And then, well, we
Speaker 1: all know what happened next. And let's be honest here.
Speaker 1: At any point during COVID did you think about pools? Well?
Speaker 1: I didn't, but it's safe to assume that if Olive
Speaker 1: Garden can't open its stores, any public training pool is
Speaker 1: having just as difficult of a time staying open. And
Speaker 1: so now with one and his crosshairs, Adrian and the
Speaker 1: rest of the hopeful US team are trying their hardest
Speaker 1: to stay ready for the Games by jumping town to
Speaker 1: town to find regulations that allow them to swim and
Speaker 1: most importantly, stay safe. On this episode, we talked about
Speaker 1: those hardships, how the postponement may have actually helped his
Speaker 1: training and how his public health degree keeps him up
Speaker 1: at night these days, and I find out if Katie
Speaker 1: a deck, he is a warlock. And if you can
Speaker 1: balance a bad beatsa on your head while swimming. Join
Speaker 1: me today with Nathan Adrian in the Sports Bubble from
Speaker 1: Basan Adrian to accept Press one. Hey, how's it going, man?
Speaker 1: It's going well, thank you yourself, well as well as
Speaker 1: it can. We are. We're talking at the end of
Speaker 1: a week where certain states are seeing these large spikes
Speaker 1: in coronavirus cases and debts, and I guess we've been
Speaker 1: really like writing the roller coaster on this podcast. So
Speaker 1: I'm still asking people where you've been through all this
Speaker 1: and if you've loosened up at all with quarantine. All right, yeah,
Speaker 1: no problem. I'm in Oakland, I am in a Bay area,
Speaker 1: and we were first to shelter in place, and honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that we are probably going to be the
Speaker 1: last to continue to shelter in place, even as the
Speaker 1: vaccine comes out and with that rollout um and and
Speaker 1: all of that good stuff. So where we are right now,
Speaker 1: it's it's really complicated because Alameda County contains both Oakland
Speaker 1: and the city of Berkeley, and the City of Berkeley
Speaker 1: also has its own public health department. So even though
Speaker 1: we have two massive fifty pools and a great training
Speaker 1: facility at cal because that is within the city limits
Speaker 1: of the City of Berkeley, like Alameda County has given
Speaker 1: sb okay to swim there, but the City of Berkeley
Speaker 1: Public Health Department still hasn't. So we're we're doing the
Speaker 1: same thing that a lot of other people are doing
Speaker 1: and struggling to find pool space outside of our normal
Speaker 1: training facilities. And I am pretty hardcore lockdown. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's massed on any time on outside of the house
Speaker 1: and you know, still doing the grocery delivery thing, trying
Speaker 1: to cook at home as much as possible with doing
Speaker 1: with the exception of you know, getting take out maybe
Speaker 1: once or twice a week. Sure, well, you're the first
Speaker 1: competitive swimmer I've spoken to on the show, so it's
Speaker 1: gonna be an elementary question. But once we saw the
Speaker 1: nation sort of shut down from the outbreak, does that
Speaker 1: just close all pools to training? Basically? I think that's
Speaker 1: just kind of a broad rush statement. Absolutely. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the unique things and challenges that we as
Speaker 1: competitive swimmers are stays with especially now more than ever,
Speaker 1: was starting to define the difference between training and being
Speaker 1: a professional athlete in the pool versus country club and
Speaker 1: a lot of public health departments. I mean, the bandwidth
Speaker 1: was you know, at its absolute capacity. Uh, and it
Speaker 1: was hard to get any anyone to hear or or
Speaker 1: create differentiations for us. So we kind of are all
Speaker 1: operating under this overarching you know, quote un pool definition
Speaker 1: and a lot of people think, you know, pool restrictions.
Speaker 1: Oh no, we're not going to be able to go
Speaker 1: to the Fourth of July celebration and do a coin
Speaker 1: dive at our local country club or community pool. But
Speaker 1: and that that probably goes without saying. But you know,
Speaker 1: after the lockdown, I mean, swimming one per lane in
Speaker 1: a a closely monitored chlorinated outdoor pool has certainly, at
Speaker 1: least to me, shown that it's been pretty safe. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it going with these basic
Speaker 1: questions because I do, other than being a fan of
Speaker 1: going into the pool, I don't know a ton about swimming.
Speaker 1: So you'll have to tell me. Is the idea of
Speaker 1: having a house pool, you know, just the normal pool
Speaker 1: that we had growing up and swimming in friends houses,
Speaker 1: and you know, like, is is that able to be
Speaker 1: trained in or is it just am I asking if
Speaker 1: you can, you know, play baseball in a small toy.
Speaker 1: That's probably a fair comparison, you know, it is sort
Speaker 1: of life. Maybe getting a professional baseball player out there
Speaker 1: with a whiffleball in a plastic hollow bad or something.
Speaker 1: It is good to to do something. It's good to
Speaker 1: get that feel for the water. But unless you are
Speaker 1: your backyard pool is at least twenty five yards with
Speaker 1: good spill over gutters. I'm getting technical here, which means
Speaker 1: that you have to have a search tank and that
Speaker 1: it's as a lot of construction costs. It's it's not
Speaker 1: quite the same. And not only that, but for as
Speaker 1: individual as a as a sport of swimming is, there's
Speaker 1: something to be said about having teammates around you, you know,
Speaker 1: for your for your days where you're hurting a little
Speaker 1: bit and you need some you know, motivation either racing
Speaker 1: them or watching them perform or doing doing something because
Speaker 1: it's it's hard. It's hard to train alone, no doubt
Speaker 1: about it, and you have to have those teammates they're
Speaker 1: pushing you every day. Is really important and that's that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that has been a big adjustment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you're a football guy, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if you watched any basketball. They had a horse competition
Speaker 1: through the NBA before the league restarted, and they would
Speaker 1: show us this is pretty early in the quarantine, but
Speaker 1: they would show us people's homes and that was you know,
Speaker 1: they shot you know, from their phone or whatever, and
Speaker 1: they play horse remotely. It was so weird. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that I was shocked with was like
Speaker 1: they were like, Okay, let's go to Mike Connelly's house,
Speaker 1: and Mike Connelly had like a full court basketball, you know,
Speaker 1: like a full literally a full gym in his house.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, do do any swimmers or at now?
Speaker 1: Are they thinking about getting like a real pool if
Speaker 1: they have that kind of kind of dough like a
Speaker 1: Michael Phelps. I mean yes, but probably no Olympic sized
Speaker 1: swimming pool is fifty Olympic sized swimming pool depth is
Speaker 1: you know, ten about ten feet? I mean I could
Speaker 1: I could do the math for you right if I
Speaker 1: had a calculator, but I mean it's hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of gallons. You gotta have really massive pumps to to
Speaker 1: get the hit the filtration rate for that, you gotta
Speaker 1: be adding chlorine. It's it's a lot more complicated than
Speaker 1: putting in a really nice basketball court in your in
Speaker 1: your house. I'll take that, Mike Conley. But I do
Speaker 1: I do like the idea of just having one one lane,
Speaker 1: just one lane in your backyard that goes on, doesn't
Speaker 1: You don't have to have the whole pool. Well, so
Speaker 1: there's also the ability to endless pools, which is for
Speaker 1: the average swimmer perfectly adequate to to stay in shape
Speaker 1: or even you know, lose some corona quarantine pounds. But
Speaker 1: it really is just not quite the same as actually
Speaker 1: moving through the like you know, so much of swimming
Speaker 1: is about your fuel and I guess that would be
Speaker 1: maybe to bring in another sports analogy, like similar to
Speaker 1: hitting off of hitting off of mats versus getting off
Speaker 1: of grass and golf. Right, that makes sense. Well, how
Speaker 1: then tell me how do you train without without a pool?
Speaker 1: How do you train for swimming? I mean, you're on
Speaker 1: the Olympic team. I know you found out that the
Speaker 1: Olympics were were canceled while you were actually training with
Speaker 1: your team, So like, what what do you do now, well,
Speaker 1: right now because Calis clothes were actually going to the
Speaker 1: neighboring county. Kind of counterproductive, I know, when we have
Speaker 1: you know, two massive, awesome fifty pools and now we're
Speaker 1: having to pay to rent space at facility that's not
Speaker 1: quite as good. But that's the game that we're playing
Speaker 1: right now, and we're doing our best. Our coach has
Speaker 1: made great adjustments for us in terms of what we're
Speaker 1: doing in the water to try to you know, maximize
Speaker 1: the games that we can achieve from from not having
Speaker 1: access to our our normal pool. And then on the
Speaker 1: other side of that, I'm all so. I also like,
Speaker 1: right when we went to shelter in Place, I went
Speaker 1: online and ordered some some weight so I can have
Speaker 1: a little home Jim set up because I figured that
Speaker 1: this is gonna last a little longer than most people anticipated,
Speaker 1: which I am very thankful for now because it seems that,
Speaker 1: you know, home Jim set ups are completely sold out
Speaker 1: acrost the nation, So I'm really glad I have that
Speaker 1: little setup going in the garage to to really help
Speaker 1: bridge that gap. Yeah, it's hard to imagine anyone is
Speaker 1: happy about quarantine, but I would clearly get in a
Speaker 1: fight with people who own a home gym company or
Speaker 1: like sweats. Those people are having the best time of
Speaker 1: their lives. Are really well, let's talk about some serious things.
Speaker 1: You did what many people did during this time in history.
Speaker 1: You adopted a dog. Yes, okay, How to be honest,
Speaker 1: how much does this help? Because I have a dog,
Speaker 1: and boy did I turn to him many times during
Speaker 1: this But how much does it help when you feel
Speaker 1: like the world is ending to have man's best friend?
Speaker 1: You know? For any listeners out there who do you
Speaker 1: have a dog or maybe have access to it, you know,
Speaker 1: neighbor dog or something, I would encourage them to limit
Speaker 1: their news intake to you know, ten or fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: and then spend the additional time in their day with
Speaker 1: a dog. I really genuinely believe that would make the
Speaker 1: world a happier play. It truly does. Yeah, exactly, I mean,
Speaker 1: it really does. It really does. Is helpful to kind
Speaker 1: of lift your spirits and even walking in the house
Speaker 1: after a tough practice, um and and having a dog
Speaker 1: great you and just kind of you know, wag your
Speaker 1: tail and and try her best to not jump because
Speaker 1: you know, we're trying to train or not to jump
Speaker 1: on me um, but it is. It really is the
Speaker 1: best feeling getting home and having a happy stays treating
Speaker 1: you well. You were open about your treatment for testicular
Speaker 1: cancer in two thousand nineteen and you were rigorously training
Speaker 1: to make the Olympic team. You still are, but with
Speaker 1: this delay, now, I wonder does this actually help you
Speaker 1: with recovery and getting back into shape because you were
Speaker 1: on a bit of a sped up timeline. Absolutely. It
Speaker 1: took me a little bit so to realize and appreciate
Speaker 1: that fact just as as it would so. I have
Speaker 1: definitely been able to gain more strength back, and because
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, you know, I was on a little
Speaker 1: bit of an accelerated timeline, I've kind of being able
Speaker 1: to step back work through some fundamentals, especially in the
Speaker 1: weight room, also in in the pool, to kind of
Speaker 1: patch over some spots that we had maybe rushed through
Speaker 1: in our initial return. So I feel great about we are,
Speaker 1: where we are, where are at right now and uh
Speaker 1: and where we're going. Yeah. I mean that during the
Speaker 1: surgery and the treatment you had, that was the longest
Speaker 1: you went without swimming since you were four. You didn't
Speaker 1: miss that much time because of it. Sounds like because
Speaker 1: of coronavirus. Really, I mean the shutdown and then and
Speaker 1: then you found you know, you found pools that worked
Speaker 1: out for the team. Yeah, yeah, exactly, so that that
Speaker 1: was definitely longest. Yeah, that was longest by far. So
Speaker 1: we were yeah, we were fortunate. We found some We
Speaker 1: found the pool space um to to sweam Att pretty
Speaker 1: pretty shortly after the you know, shelter place, and some
Speaker 1: restrictions were lifted just to maintain a little bit of
Speaker 1: of swimming, you know, if we weren't going. But but
Speaker 1: we did what we could. Okay, now this is my
Speaker 1: question about your teammates. You bring them up. I have
Speaker 1: a question, how do they understand? I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a big question that there are no other public health
Speaker 1: grads from UC Berkeley on the team. I don't know
Speaker 1: that's a good Is that a question? I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: being honest because here's the thing, right, I'm honest. I'm
Speaker 1: on Olympic swim team. I we're all scared, We're all like,
Speaker 1: can we practice? And then there's a dude whose education
Speaker 1: has come into play. Yeah, you know, I guess I can't.
Speaker 1: I have an undergrad degree in public health, and that's
Speaker 1: that is relatively rare. Berkeley is actually one of the
Speaker 1: few places that offers that undergrad degree. Most of the
Speaker 1: time it's actually a pastor's or a doctorate level degree.
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying to elevate my status because that
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I don't know as much as you
Speaker 1: know your your typical public health officials. I would honestly
Speaker 1: just say that I was in classes that warned us
Speaker 1: about what is currently happening and knew that it was possible.
Speaker 1: And I mean, looking back, even I had I had
Speaker 1: a friend who worked downtown San Francisco and he sent
Speaker 1: a time last video of that cruise ship that had
Speaker 1: the coronavirus patients coming into Oakland, and I just remember
Speaker 1: seeing that now is just terrified. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is this, like we are we are introducing this into
Speaker 1: our population, and I hope that it's going to be
Speaker 1: you know, managed properly, and as we look back, unfortunately
Speaker 1: it wasn't. There's certainly a lot of lessons to be
Speaker 1: learned there. But but yeah, I think I probably had
Speaker 1: my alarm alarm bells ringing a little bit before most people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can only imagine I was an international relations minor
Speaker 1: for a second, and it wasn't something that I like
Speaker 1: really truly wanted to get into, but I was so
Speaker 1: interested in it. And we had one professor back in
Speaker 1: got and he and I even like emailed parents, So
Speaker 1: I was so like happy that I had like recorded
Speaker 1: it down. But he goes, you know, in the next
Speaker 1: four or five years, we're gonna have some crazy terrorist
Speaker 1: attack from Osama bin Laden. And I didn't really know
Speaker 1: who Osama bin Laden was or anything, so I'm freaking
Speaker 1: out there. And then as soon as the you know,
Speaker 1: terrible nine eleven happens, I even my parents were like
Speaker 1: that guy told you, and I feel like you must
Speaker 1: have had a similar instance with this, where like you
Speaker 1: immediately knew what kind of damage, what kind of terrible
Speaker 1: few months we could have in the US because of
Speaker 1: a pandemic something that I thought was just like a
Speaker 1: board game name until five months ago. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it was you're gonna're gonna You're gonna hit some hot
Speaker 1: spots with me, and um so I do. I very
Speaker 1: distinctly remember when it was starting to experience community spread,
Speaker 1: and even when Dr Fauci and uh the American Surgeon
Speaker 1: generally unfortunately forgot his name right now, we're talking about
Speaker 1: not wearing masks, and I was very upset about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, how are you going to have places like
Speaker 1: Hong Kong and Taiwan who are essentially you know, they
Speaker 1: like Hong Kong obviously shares a border with Taiwan and
Speaker 1: taiwanas Hong Kong shared at the border with with China,
Speaker 1: Taiwan is a hundred miles off the coast. There are
Speaker 1: people going back and forth all the time. And both
Speaker 1: of those countries managed to contain the virus very very quickly.
Speaker 1: Um and part of their culture is wearing masks. Even
Speaker 1: when there's not a global pandemic. You see people wearing masks.
Speaker 1: I'm like that, there's something to be said about that.
Speaker 1: And and that was a huge key to their success.
Speaker 1: And and here we are, so many months later, still
Speaker 1: debating the efficacy of masks, and I just just is
Speaker 1: that's the reason why I have to turn off the
Speaker 1: news my dog. Yep, Well, that's the reason you adopt
Speaker 1: a dog. I get it. You are heavily involved with
Speaker 1: the next generation of swimmers, whether it's just through social
Speaker 1: media or through your team or the school you run with.
Speaker 1: Will Copeland. As far as training for the Olympics, and
Speaker 1: you're a bit of a veteran now on the team,
Speaker 1: how do you help them that the younger guys keep
Speaker 1: the momentum they had before the down. That's a that's
Speaker 1: a very individualized question. So there are a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways that people are motivated and watching like my
Speaker 1: teammates and trying to just maybe create some some reframes
Speaker 1: in their minds, you know, looking at the next year
Speaker 1: as an opportunity rather than a burden, or trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to get them, you know, get the
Speaker 1: most out of them in practice by raising them this
Speaker 1: or that, or you know, knowing that they're on a
Speaker 1: great track and they don't need any of my help,
Speaker 1: like I could only really hurt them. You know, you've
Speaker 1: got to really get to know a person or your
Speaker 1: teammate before you you you try to intervene in anyway. Sure,
Speaker 1: let's get hot button again real quick. I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you about your mom for a second. She
Speaker 1: was a school district nurse. Correct, Yep, that is a
Speaker 1: role that could not be more front and center when
Speaker 1: we were talking locally, at least in people's neighborhoods to
Speaker 1: everyone in the United States right now. It just she
Speaker 1: have an opinion about everything going back to school, that
Speaker 1: the fact that we're putting our children in these situations.
Speaker 1: I mean, she would be the person. She would be
Speaker 1: the person working pretty much twenty four hours a day
Speaker 1: right now, I assume, I mean, yeah, she's not. Let
Speaker 1: me put it this way, my mom has not really
Speaker 1: been in close contact with any of her grandchildren. She
Speaker 1: will have an outdoor picnic socially distance and normally she
Speaker 1: you know, sees and hangs out and and helps with childcare.
Speaker 1: I don't know, anywhere from one to three times a week.
Speaker 1: And ever since I started. I mean I remember following
Speaker 1: her saying you you need to stop that, like immediately,
Speaker 1: and she was like no. I was like, no, no, Mom,
Speaker 1: it's in Like I mean, we had a we had
Speaker 1: a pulmonologist from from Denver come and talk to us
Speaker 1: while we were at the training camp, and basically he said, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: based off of our knowledge and this is the way
Speaker 1: back in February. So based off of our knowledge, right now,
Speaker 1: we anybody over sixty that gets this disease. It's literally
Speaker 1: like playing Russian roulette. With the revolver, uh and having
Speaker 1: one bullet in the chamber, and I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: that's like that put it into perspective for me. So,
Speaker 1: you know, a seventeen chance of dying, like you wouldn't
Speaker 1: play Russian roulette, right, Like you would do everything in
Speaker 1: your power to not have to do that. So my
Speaker 1: mom and my dad are are doing essentially that until
Speaker 1: you know, a vaccine or or the numbers go down.
Speaker 1: And to your point, I mean, yeah, she's not in
Speaker 1: support of of going back to school. I mean she lives.
Speaker 1: She also lives in Washington State. They are they've been
Speaker 1: they've handled that. I was pretty well, um, and are
Speaker 1: pretty conservative with the handling of public health. We've been
Speaker 1: telling people because we have my wife and I have
Speaker 1: a one year old, and we're so lucky that we
Speaker 1: don't have to make that decision right now, you know
Speaker 1: that whether school or not. And we're not, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not in the situation to make that because some people,
Speaker 1: you know, both of us work at sometimes like it
Speaker 1: would be impossible to take care of him, you know,
Speaker 1: all day long for another five six months and we
Speaker 1: would have to I mean, that's that's where we would
Speaker 1: we we are not letting them out. But you know,
Speaker 1: your mom probably took our job very serious, and it
Speaker 1: would be a very hard decision for any of these
Speaker 1: teachers or these nurses that know they have a job
Speaker 1: that they love and a responsibility that they love to
Speaker 1: to not go or go. What a difficult decision for them. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're really they're stuck in between a
Speaker 1: rock and a hard place. You don't go into teaching
Speaker 1: or school nursing because you're going to get rich, That's right.
Speaker 1: You go into teaching or school nursing because you love kids,
Speaker 1: you love what's happening at the school, and you want
Speaker 1: to help the generation beyond your own. And again, it
Speaker 1: just comes down so much to you know, what's happening
Speaker 1: at your community level. Like I live in my little
Speaker 1: bubble in Oakland, Alama County has I think one point
Speaker 1: six million people like we do have. You know, we
Speaker 1: have days where we have four I have six cases.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I don't necessarily think that we should
Speaker 1: be going back to school. But if you're in you know, Wyoming, Montana,
Speaker 1: it's in in a rural district and you haven't had
Speaker 1: cases for two weeks, like, of course you need to
Speaker 1: go back to school. And I'm not trying to suggest that,
Speaker 1: you know, people shouldn't go back to school the entire
Speaker 1: year or whatever. It's just it really just has to
Speaker 1: be managed and managed closely because it's very stressful and
Speaker 1: and dangerous to to fit and wait for test results
Speaker 1: for a week and wonder if you may have gotten it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's insane. I know. There's some billionaire I was reading
Speaker 1: about yesterday who is looking into creating outdoor schools. I
Speaker 1: love that, I do, you know. I mean, let's talk
Speaker 1: about this. And so you have a one year old,
Speaker 1: if you were forced to have your and imagine these
Speaker 1: let's call it seven eight years old, would you send
Speaker 1: you get back to school or would you be consider
Speaker 1: And what some of my friends are more than one
Speaker 1: of my friends are doing is is essentially like taking
Speaker 1: extra jobs um or you know, if they were furloughed
Speaker 1: or unreduced or whatever it may be. UM basically being
Speaker 1: an education coordinator for these kids that are learning from home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to. I mean we you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: we're just lucky we don't have to make that decision.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like if I was in that position.
Speaker 1: I could not send them to school. I had a
Speaker 1: I had a childhood. I could worry all day. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've already I already feel that nerves. I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not adding I'm not throwing them out to
Speaker 1: the wolves. So I would I would have to come
Speaker 1: up with something. You're right, I'd become a bit of
Speaker 1: a professor myself. I don't know. It's not not something
Speaker 1: I have to face, luckily, and I feel bad for
Speaker 1: those who do more. With five time Olympic gold medalists
Speaker 1: swimmer Nathan Adrian after this right now, Feeding America is
Speaker 1: working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students
Speaker 1: who were out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs
Speaker 1: are impacted, and low income families continue to have acts
Speaker 1: as to food and other needed resources during the COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed
Speaker 1: to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and
Speaker 1: their greatest need is donations and support of local food banks.
Speaker 1: This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the
Speaker 1: proceeds from the show to Feeding America and we hope
Speaker 1: that you can join us in this effort to find
Speaker 1: out how you can help Feeding America dot org backslash
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. Now let's get back to Nathan. You obviously
Speaker 1: have a bit of a decision coming up with Tokyo.
Speaker 1: There's a bit of an Olympic bubble joke, right, there's
Speaker 1: like a meme with this village where all you guys stay,
Speaker 1: and there's been jokes for years about how STDs and
Speaker 1: sicknesses go around it, and it's it's sort of a bubble.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because now we rely on these bubbles
Speaker 1: for Tokyo, you know, we we we rely on them
Speaker 1: to make it work. So so you tell me, is
Speaker 1: it going to be safe? You've been there? Can it
Speaker 1: be healthy? I do believe that, Campy says, and I
Speaker 1: do believe it could be healthy. You know what's crazy
Speaker 1: is in and a pretty lead up to every Olympic Games,
Speaker 1: there's always there's a story that goes around, right and
Speaker 1: seen it was zekwelve, it was security the two Thousand Days.
Speaker 1: I honestly I can't remember. I was too young. But
Speaker 1: there's like a reason why these games are gonna be
Speaker 1: you know, catastrophic, And here's Japan finishing all of their infrastructure,
Speaker 1: like month inmit bands which is totally unheard of, and
Speaker 1: then the actual global pandemic, the one thing that isn't
Speaker 1: up to them at all occurs and in delays the game,
Speaker 1: which is just so unfortunately. I really sully feel for
Speaker 1: you know, Tokyo and all those organizers. But that being said,
Speaker 1: I mean it is going to be an amazing opportunity
Speaker 1: for Japan to create and execute on a on the
Speaker 1: bubble and a safe and effective Olympic Games. I think
Speaker 1: they can do it. I mean, I I trust them
Speaker 1: to do that. Yeah. Well, I guess all of sports
Speaker 1: is have being this kind of kind of issue. And
Speaker 1: like we said, you're a bit of a football fan,
Speaker 1: but specifically I think you are a Seahawks super fan.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, known for their incredible fans, the noise
Speaker 1: that they make in the stadium. Could you imagine? This
Speaker 1: is the one I think about all the time. A
Speaker 1: empty quiet century link like I can't even fathom without
Speaker 1: the Twelfth Man. It seems crazy. It is, it is crazy.
Speaker 1: But all of this is crazy, man. I have seen
Speaker 1: the practice facility and seeing what those guys like, you know,
Speaker 1: getting up and getting after it at practice and there's
Speaker 1: no noise happening at where is it Kirkland or wherever?
Speaker 1: Wherever it is, and it is, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: I believe in in Coach Carroll is like, you know,
Speaker 1: fostering of that competitive nature, of that competitive spirit. Obviously
Speaker 1: the Twelfth Man makes a huge difference. It's absolutely unbelievable
Speaker 1: to be there and not and be talking and not
Speaker 1: even be able to hear your own voice. It's like
Speaker 1: it's something something special, but it obviously it's not gonna
Speaker 1: happen this year. I just really hope the season. I
Speaker 1: hope they figure out a way to at secute on
Speaker 1: the successful season, saying, well, let's hope it's more basketball
Speaker 1: than baseball. I want to end with something that was
Speaker 1: all over the internet this week. Uh, swimmer Katie Ladecki
Speaker 1: on the internet swimming the length of a pool with
Speaker 1: a cup of chocolate milk on her head doesn't spill
Speaker 1: at all. It stays on her dome the entire time.
Speaker 1: Is this as insane as it is to enoyre me?
Speaker 1: Like me? Is she some sort of warlock? Uh? She
Speaker 1: is a warlock, be very clear about that. She is
Speaker 1: very she is a very special athlete. I would put
Speaker 1: money on percent of the national team being able to
Speaker 1: do that though. Wow, really yeah, maybe ninety maybe ninety.
Speaker 1: There's some there's some people whose head head moves all
Speaker 1: over the place when they swim. But it's it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard. Don't get me wrong. I mean you're
Speaker 1: talking we're talking about national team athletes. We're talking about
Speaker 1: the absolute best of the very best. So it takes
Speaker 1: a lot of aesthetic awareness to be able to keep
Speaker 1: your head that still while you're pushing, you know, move
Speaker 1: into the water. I had no idea that it could
Speaker 1: be that common. So I wanted to ask you if
Speaker 1: there were some other things you think could balance on
Speaker 1: the head of an Olympic swimmer and if it would work. Okay, alright, shoot, okay,
Speaker 1: First is a bucket of chicken. It's more tubular, kind
Speaker 1: of definitely larger, but you know, like it fits like
Speaker 1: a hat, so it might be easier. You know, if
Speaker 1: we were doing backstoke, I'd say, I'd say, for sure, yes,
Speaker 1: doing freestyle, it's it's a little harder. You know. What
Speaker 1: also matters is the shape of people's head, you know. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a little that's confounded like that. Alright, how
Speaker 1: about a sneaker Oh easy, yeah, yeah, okay, good? A
Speaker 1: football that feels I can't even really hold it in
Speaker 1: my hand. I would be impressed with anybody who could
Speaker 1: swim fifty with the football. All right, you heard that,
Speaker 1: Katie Kie like pinching it right? Okay? This one, this one,
Speaker 1: I really went back and forth on a stiff pete
Speaker 1: like uh, like a chuck e cheese a little a
Speaker 1: little tougher of crust in the box or just the pizza.
Speaker 1: Just the pizza in the box, I feel like is
Speaker 1: a cheater, but it's that is long. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with just the pizza. Uh. That would be hard,
Speaker 1: That would be hard. You you could, you could definitely
Speaker 1: get away. You would finish the fifty with with some slices,
Speaker 1: but not the whole thing. Good good, Alright, My last two,
Speaker 1: This one I think, like you said, might play into
Speaker 1: the shape of the head a plunger. Oh yeah, that
Speaker 1: is that's all about. That's all about whether or not
Speaker 1: you could get uh you could get a little suchtion
Speaker 1: going on your head. I bet I have a good
Speaker 1: chance of it because I have the I this is
Speaker 1: my this is my claim to fame. Here we go.
Speaker 1: I had the largest circumference head of the national team
Speaker 1: members leading up to WHOA you have like a dome piece.
Speaker 1: Do you know what your hat size is? I think
Speaker 1: it's like seven and five. That's big thing. That is
Speaker 1: a big head. It's pretty big, pretty big. That isn't everything? Well,
Speaker 1: I will throw out plunger for you in alright, six
Speaker 1: my last one, and I'm I'm almost suggesting this is
Speaker 1: your viral video because if this were to happen, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, man, this would be all over the place.
Speaker 1: What if you swam and kept a Jenga game completely
Speaker 1: intact on your head? Now you are talking, Wow, this
Speaker 1: could be I mean, this could be a viral challenge
Speaker 1: because you could start with, you know, one layer, put
Speaker 1: on another layer, put on another layer. See how far
Speaker 1: you you go. I don't know if I could do
Speaker 1: the whole thing. That sounds really hard. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to get you one up on Katie Ladecki. Uh well, Nathan,
Speaker 1: please stay safe for me and I. I genuinely am
Speaker 1: thankful that there I mean, honestly, it sounds dumb, but
Speaker 1: I'm thankful that there is someone with a public health
Speaker 1: education working with the Olympic team, because I I some
Speaker 1: people don't get it. Man, Like you said, it's people
Speaker 1: still fighting not to wear masks. Yeah, hey, listen, I
Speaker 1: learned about it in class. I learned about the seatbelt debate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a direct there's a direct the inverse correlation between
Speaker 1: personal freedoms and public health intervention. And and just to
Speaker 1: understand that, I think is is important. And to understand
Speaker 1: that these interventions, if done well and effectively throughout the population,
Speaker 1: are short term. So that's I'll end with that. Two
Speaker 1: Better Times. The Sports Bubble is produced and distributed by
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Speaker 1: Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan
Speaker 1: is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with production
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