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Most exciting atmosphere imaginable Latest: Sunday September 10, 2000 09:31 PM
University of Georgia swim coach Jack Bauerle will serve as an assistant coach for the U.S. women's Olympic swim team in Sydney. In his twenty-one years at Georgia, Bauerle's swimmers have won 17 NCAA individual titles and three NCAA relay titles, and the women's swim team won the NCAA championships in 1999 and 2000. Check in with Bauerle on CNNSI.com throughout the Olympics.
September 1, 2000
What's the responsibility of an assistant coach? As an assistant coach you are responsible for certain athletes, and usually if you put certain athletes on the team you are responsible for those athletes. But you want to be a good coach for everyone. Number one, you are making sure they are making it to workouts. Also, you are communicating with their home coaches and making sure the athletes' needs are met. Everyone is training right now. The swimmers are doing three or four double practices a week. We are all in Pasadena, all together. It was important after the trials that everyone gets back in the pool. Once we get to Sydney, we'll start resting more. How many coaches are there for the U.S. team? The two head coaches were named four years ago (Richard Quick, Mark Schubert). Then the six assistant coaches were named mainly on merit, the number of people they put on the team and international experience. I have four athletes (from the University of Georgia) -- Kristy Kowal, Courtney Shealy, Amanda Adkins and Kim Black, plus two incoming freshmen. The Olympic pool in Sydney has been called a "fast pool". What does that mean? Deep water. Good gutter system. And in this instance a good atmosphere. With 17,000 fans it's going to be the most exciting atmosphere imaginable. People on the outside have to realize that swimming in Australia is different than in the U.S. It's like the NBA or NFL in America. Last year when we were at Pan Pacs -- the finals were an eight-day meet like the Olympics -- the meet was the most-watched television event of the entire year. I think we are going to react really well to the atmosphere. You can use it in a lot of ways to your advantage. I may be a hostile crowd, but your energy is going to be terrific. What's the team's schedule for the coming week? Right now we are in the midst of training. We have a team banquet tonight and few more training sessions Saturday. Sunday evening we all leave for Sydney where we'll go check in to the Village before heading for Brisbane for training.
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