At 29, Fred was a relatively old swimmer by the time the supersuits arrived. But it was
at that age that Richard told him that he would break 21 seconds in 50 free. Fred does
not consider himself a talented swimmer, much less born to swim. He started at 14 years
old. At that age most coaches think they know whether a swimmer will be fast or not. 5 years
after taking his first strokes, Fred qualified to represent France in the 4x100 relay at
the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After the Olympics, his desire to swim faster
led him to the same place it led many of us from around the world. The National Collegiate
Athletic Association in the USA. The NCAA is by far the best opportunity for swimmers.
It is the only place I know of where you can earn your college degree and compete with
athletes from all over the world. The high level of competition and collaboration breads
the best swimmers and coaches in the world. Auburn University’s coach David Marsh offered
Fred a scholarship and he accepted it. The job of a good coach consists on planting crazy
ideas in their swimmers’ minds and working with them until they become reality. Richard
Quick did it with David Marsh. And David Marsh with Fred Bousquet. At Auburn, David Marsh
planted an idea to the French swimmer. "You will be the fastest swimmer in history." Fred
did not believe him at first because he was suffering from cognitive dissonance. Since
he was such a good student of swimming, he knew that the best swimmers in the world,
like Ian Thorpe and Alexander Popov, swam with bent elbows, above and underwater. Swimming
with straight elbows uses more energy. Fred knew this and yet he felt more comfortable
swimming with this windmill technique. David ended Fred's internal conflict. He told him
to do what felt most natural and that he shouldn’t fight his instincts. If his body asked him
to swim with straight elbows, that he should do that. At that moment Fred lifted off the
weight of several generations of bent elbow tradition and he finally felt free. Fred discovered
his style of freestyle that was perfect for speed but was not written in any book.
In 2004, using this technique, he became the fastest swimmer in history 25 meter swimming
pool. But the 21-second barrier in Olympic size pool was still intact and far from being
broken. Now we know that with this windmill freestyle,
the arm enters the water with more speed. This creates more power in the stroke. But
to be able to swim well with this style, it requires more shoulder rotation. That helps
make it more effective and less dangerous for the shoulders. After Fred, more and more
swimmers started using this style to swim the 50 free. Including the fastest swimmer
in South America, Cesar Cielo. In 2007, destiny brought to Auburn 3 of the
5 fastest swimmers in the world along with the legendary coach Richard Quick. It was
here that Richard planted the idea to his swimmers that in two years you will break
the 21-second long course barrier.
Auburn became the sprint power house. Cesar describes that time as the most difficult
of his career. Every day was a competition. Every lift in the gym, every swim, every time
there was a swimmer next to the other, they were competing. Much like the Spartans, training
was so difficult that war became a vacation. That's how Auburn sprinters came to any competition.
Used to competing 30 to 50 times a day, competing just once or twice with their peers was a
relief.
In 2008, Fred and Cesar were going through difficult chapters in their career. Down under
in Australia, Eamon Sullivan had broken Popov's record, with a time of 21.56. Months later,
the Frenchman Alain Bernard would break Sullivan's record in 21.50 seconds. 4 days later Sullivan
would break the record again in 21.41. And the next day he would break it again at 21.28.
Fred and Cesar watched these two sprinters approach the 21 second mark and they couldn't.
Fred came back to his third olympics in 2008. For the first time France had become the best
sprint team. So much so, that Fred only qualified in the relay and not in individual events.
With his experience, he was the leader of the relay that was favorite to win the 4x100.
I’ll leave the story of this relay for another video, but suffice it to say that Fred managed
to regain his speed and confidence, he left the French relay in first place and had the
best time out of his teammates. Cesar for his part, was going through a confidence
crisis. He didn’t swim well in the relay.
In the final of the 100-meter freestyle, he had qualified with the 8th fastest time. Meaning
the worst time of the final. He felt that he shouldn't be there. He felt that he had
sneaked in by accident. Then, he saw one competitor’s hands shaking while putting on his goggles.
At that moment, he knew that the other 7 participants were scared to death. Cesar had doubts but
not fear. At that moment he regained confidence. A tie for 3rd place with Jason Lezak, made
him cry and regain his confidence. He believed in Richard Quick's idea again of breaking
the 21-second barrier in the 50.
Cesar qualified to the 50 free final in first place. He did the sign of the cross three
times and took the last breath until he reached the other side of the pool. Of course, the
victory moved him and even more when listening to his national anthem. But once again, the
21-second barrier remained intact.
In December of that year Richard Quick was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
I didn't find anything about it but I like to think that he was watching French nationals
on tv when Fred Bousquet entered the water. And a single tear rolled down his smiling
face when Fred touched the wall 20 seconds and 94 hundredths of a second later.
And in December 2009, Richard smiled from heaven when he heard another victory roar,
but this time in Portuguese. In the next video, we will talk about the
4x100 relay. A special mention to Brett Hawke who was also
Cesar and Fred's coach but I didn't know how to include him in the story.
I’ll see you in one of these two videos! Swim fast!