Nathan Adrian reveals 'secret sauce' behind Team USA swimming's relay success

United States freestyle specialist Nathan Adrian is one of the most respected names in swimming.

Not only is the five-time gold medallist hoping to compete at his fourth Olympic Games in Tokyo, but he also beat cancer in 2019 before reclaiming his place at the top table of international swimming.

In an Instagram live call with Olympics, the Washington native revealed how his battle with cancer prepared him to cope with the changing world during the COVID-19 pandemic, how Michael Phelps made him feel like he could beat anyone, how he stays mentally strong through adversity and what the diet of a world champion swimmer looks like.

READ: USA Olympic Swimming Trials 2021 Results

OC: How has this disrupted Olympic cycle been different for you and Dave Durden, your coach, who has been part of your life for a long time?

NA: Totally. It has. Honestly, I was prepared for it because I got diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and previously having had this illusion of control, thinking that I am doing everything in the world to be healthy. And then all of a sudden this kind of just freak genetic accident happens to me. And I have testicular cancer. And I'm not trying to encourage people to not care because that's not my message here. But you do have to understand that: control what you can control, control your lifestyle because that contributes to these factors such as cancer risk. But sometimes people are genetically programmed, as we know, to have cancer. That translates almost perfectly to what's going on right now. It was like, 'Oh wow, COVID is spreading really fast in China. Oh, wow. 'What can I do?' I can only train. I can only do my best to try to find my way to the pool, try to find my way to the weight room.

Once it was delayed, taking that week off, that was me and Dave taking care of my emotions. It was crazy. He did a really good job of saying 'Hey, this is what we're working on and we can do it in this training environment.' And that was really important even through the cancer thing, through the COVID thing. I think always having something to be able to work on, to feel like I'm making progress in some aspect of my life is really important for my mental health.

OC: In addition to the physical challenge, what were some of the tools that you used mentally and emotionally to get back to your best swimming?

NA: I was lucky because I am a member of USA Swimming, who after 2016, actually recognised that mental health is an important initiative in the Olympic space and athletics as a whole. So they actually created a fund for the 2016 Olympians to use for therapy. And I was like, 'Why would I not take advantage of this?' I'd heard such great things about doing therapy. And through all of that I actually already had a relationship with a psychiatrist and I still talk to him every two weeks now. Sport is a very traditionally hyper-masculine thing. And to be tough is to not have to talk about your feelings is to wake up, and even though I don't want to go to the pool, is to drag your butt out of bed and go do it anyway because you know that's what you need and it's all going to pay off in the end. And that works to a certain extent until it doesn't. And I think that the 'until it doesn't' part, is something that I always wanted to avoid. And even beyond that I began those conversations and continue this conversation because I do feel like there are a lot of times in issue transitioning from professional sports to whatever it may be after that sports career is done.

I don't necessarily see myself training and competing at Paris 2024... if it was in L.A., I think I would have made a run for it because swimming in front of a domestic crowd would have just been unbelievable. I get shivers even thinking about it. So I knew that was something that I wanted to be equipped to manage when the time comes. And hey, it worked out well because I had that accessibility through a very difficult time in my life.

OC: What went through your head as you made the final turn in the final of the 100 metre freestyle which you won at London 2012?

NA: I went out as smooth as I wanted to be. I was like a metronome hitting those stroke rates. And I knew James [Magnussen] was gonna be really good on the second 50 [metres]. I wanted to make sure that I didn't jump on it right off the go off that wall, so he got a little bit ahead of me and then at that 25 [metre] mark, I got a little bit ahead of him, and it went back and forth, and then I got him by a hundredth of a second. It really couldn't have gone better for me in that particular scenario. James had been swimming incredibly the entire two years leading up to that and had been the favourite by a massive margin, and that race right there was the best time by half a second, which is a huge, huge margin in swimming. 47.5 seconds. It was just everything came together just so perfectly for that race. It's kind of the reason why you keep swimming, it's because you'd never know when all those different things you are going to work click together at the same time. And for me, it happened at the right time at the Olympic final in the hundred freestyle.

There is this tendency, this illusion of control... I think a lot of athletes, and I think that may or may not be one of the reasons why we struggle as we transition to normal life after athletics, because we really think that through our hard work and our dedication, those things are proven to be successful and translate directly to the business world or whatever it may be that you pursue. I think the probabilistic mindset of saying, 'Yes, I'm going to do absolutely everything I can. I am going to wake up early. I'm going to get out of bed and go swim. And in the weight room, even when I'm tired. What is going to be the best thing for me to do today? And then follow those instructions even when it's hard. Because at the end of the day, I want the best chance possible to win a gold medal. I think if you frame it appropriately and in that way, whatever happens next year, as long as I take that mentality and approach to my my swimming throughout this next training year, I'm not going to fail, because I'm doing everything I can to give myself the best opportunity. There are just so many externalities we can't control. We can't control what other people are doing. What if we get completely shut down? I can't train in a pool the entire year worst case scenario... To put that all on myself would be a whole lot of burden, and I really just don't think that would be fair to myself. So I'm going to evaluate my performance off of what I did in order to prepare and execute that race strategy.

OC: People tend to see swimming as an individual sport because you're by yourself in the lane. But you've won multiple golds in the relays and you've been a part of this U.S. swimming tradition that's really carried on for decades now. What does 'team' mean to you and how important has it been for you to be a part of the teams that you have?

NA: I like the idea of 'stronger together' and in swimming it is that interesting paradigm of it being thought of as this individual sport. But as I had actually mentioned earlier, but during tough training days, there is nothing that gets you through a tough training day than having a teammate there to go through it together with. And you're racing them. And maybe while you're racing them, you don't have such nice thoughts about them. You want to beat them. You want to make them regret the day they even thought they could compete against you. But as you get out of the water I want to give him a hug. But they made me better by being there, and I hope that I made them better by being there and competing against them. The other thing I think about is actually as we transition from Olympic trials to the Olympics. I mean, Olympic trials, you talk about a stressful meet, you're competing against some of your good buddies, but if you don't beat them, you're not on the team, and if they don't beat you they're not on the team. And the people who would make eventually make it to the team, you know they're tough, man. You know they are ready to go, you know physiologically they are tough. You know, mentally, emotionally, they are tough. And there's no one in the world that you'd rather want to walk out behind the blocks with, with Team USA and an American flag on their cap, because we're going to fight, and that is our secret sauce. It's really awesome.

OC: After swimming alongside Michael Phelps for so many years, the greatest swimmer that's ever lived, did you feed off each other?

NA: Absolutely. He was such an awesome person to be a part of a relay with. You're talking about the intimidation factor, you want to walk out with Michael Phelps listening to his music with a hood on! That was good. There's something special and it's this sort of confidence that just exudes from him, and it's like confidence, not arrogance, it's walking up there saying: 'I'm going to execute my race plan. I'm going to go out and I'm going to do everything I can to put all of us in a good place to win this relay.' It's really awesome.

OC: Your motto has always been that you want to work hard and if you can see results from yourself, that you're going to continue to keep going. You said that maybe Paris 2024 isn't a reality for you, but how do you set goals?

NA: It's still just there. I still just wake up excited about making myself better and doing something today that's gonna make me better in the pool. And I just feel really lucky to be able to look forward to my job in that way each and every day.