Confessions of an almost olympian

IU junior Eric Ress returns to pool, ready to suit up for Rio 2016 He was three-tenths of a second away from making his dream a reality.

This summer, IU junior and French dual citizen Eric Ress competed for a spot on the French Olympic swimming team, but failed to finish in the top three qualifiers in the 200-meter backstroke.

The men’s and women’s French Olympic swim team went on to finish third to the United States with a total medal count of four gold medals, two silver and one bronze.

Although Ress is in his fifth year at the University, he will not graduate until 2014. He obtained an Olympic waiver of eligibility in order to still be able to compete for IU for two more years. Coming to terms with his failure to qualify by such a close margin was not easy for the 21-year-old.

“If I had missed it by a full second or even two seconds, that would have meant I really didn’t have a shot,” Ress says. “But being so close, I was really bummed that night.” Ress redshirted and placed his Big Ten career on standby while he trained for the trials.

The most important lesson from Ress’ experience is the way he handled it, says IU Head Swim Coach Ray Looze.

“Ultimately, he tried to make himself better through the experience,” Looze says. “He’s not one to point fingers. He’s an emotional guy, but he’s also a class act. There’s a reason why he’s been a captain with us since he was a sophomore.”

Missing the Olympic qualification time did not prevent Ress from returning to Indiana and continuing to train with the IU swim team.

“I think one of the most important traits is how you bounce back from failure,” Looze says. “Eric’s a pretty resilient guy and people can learn something from watching what he’s done. Eric’s a tough son of a gun and he never gives up.”

Following the summer trials, Ress still has his Olympic dream in sight and anticipates training for the 2016 French Olympic trials.

“The Olympic creed is that the journey is more important than winning the medals,” Looze says. “I think Eric has enjoyed the journey and gotten a lot out of the pursuit of swimming and the Olympic games. He will have his time in the sun.”

Inside sat down with the Olympic hopeful to uncover his formula of perseverance and resilience.

How did you become involved with swimming?

I started swimming when I was six years old competitively. I got into that from being around the pool so often. My dad, who swam at Indiana, would go do lap swim and I would just tag along.

How did you decide to try out for the Olympics?

When I was watching the Olympic trials in 2004 I was 13, and I said to myself, ‘Maybe I could try to swim for France.’ In 2008 for the Beijing Olympic trials, I was fourth in the 200-meter backstroke, so I missed it by two spots and missed the time standard.

At that time, I was a senior in high school, so in four years I would be a senior in college. So I redshirted a few times and took a year off to try to train for the Olympic trials. This time, I went into it thinking I had a pretty good shot. I was the number-two backstroker then, and I had to be in the top two. The time standard was one-tenth of a second faster than my best.

What was it like trying out for the French team?

In March, the French Olympic trials were at the same time as the NCAA championship meet. I chose to do an Olympic waiver of eligibility, so I will be at IU for another year. That way there would be no conflict because I wouldn’t compete collegiately at the time and could go to the Olympic trials.

What happened at the Olympic trials?

I went to the meet and was doing really well in prelims and semi-finals and it looked like I’d have a pretty good shot to make it. But then in finals I missed the cut by three-tenths of a second and got second place.

It was up to the country’s discretion to say if they could take me, but they elected not to because they already had someone in the number one spot.

What was running through your head when you barely missed the qualifications?

It was really tough because I had seen a few of my friends do the same thing. But the thing with swimming is that it’s not like basketball or a team sport where you make it as a team.

When I touched the wall and saw the time, I knew instantly that I didn’t make it. The thing that kind of snapped me out of it was that my meet was over and my season was done. The thing that instantly motivated me was the success of my teammates at the NCAAs.

Why do you think you were so motivated by your team’s success?

I swim better when I’m swimming for my team than when I’m swimming for myself.
I’m motivated to have my own personal success, but having swam for a French Nation team at European Championships, I have a sense of pride when I’m doing that. But the sense of pride I have for swimming with my teammates at Indiana, it kind of trumps that.

When I’m swimming for my teammates, I feel like there’s more on the line. If I let myself down, yeah, I’m going to be bummed but that’s all on me.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

Post-trials, I really wouldn’t have done much differently. I was pretty relaxed about swimming after the fact. I wasn’t as serious for a few weeks. Some people wondered why I got into it so fast after and why I didn’t take a break. I really didn’t want to take a break, but instead end the summer on a good note.

A few weekends ago at the U.S. Open in Indianapolis, I got third in the 200 backstroke, the event that I tried to qualify for. Had I gotten the time I did three weeks ago at the trials in March, I would have made it.

I touched the wall and that was really gratifying for myself because I didn’t jump into things too soon and I also didn’t take it too lax.

How are you different now?

It put a lot of things into perspective. I’m young enough where I can try again. And if it doesn’t work out down the road, so be it, but I’m really going to do all the little things to ensure that I’m going to make it.

It would be fun for me this time, but I wouldn’t have been that competitive compared to the top five guys in the world. I feel like it’s getting me motivated to swim multiple events next time to be in the top eight.