On the way to practice today I got a call from one of my swimmers giving me the sad news about Alex passing away. The rest of the day I have been in shock.

The death of Alex is a great loss in many ways.

First of all for his family. Loosing a son at age 26 who is so full of life and still have so much to achieve in life is a greater loss than I believe anyone of us can imagine without trying it. My thoughts go to his familie in this great time.

I didn´t know Alex well enough to call him a close friend but I always enjoyed chatting with him when I met him either here in Iceland where he came a lot or at competitions around the world. It was always great talking with Alex and I will miss talking with him. For you out there who knew Alex even better than me, I feel with you. It is a great loss.

The world of swimming has lost one of the greatest swimmers of our time. Great not just because he was fast but because of the attitude to the sport and his smile that reached far outside the sport of swimming.

In many ways I have been inspired by Alex since I met him first at European juniors in 2003.

As a coach in a small country myself it has been great to follow how Alex has raised so far above the level of swimming in his home country and by doing that has helped lifting the level of swimming in Norway.

He has been the king of Norwegian swimming for almost a decade now and with him as the king Norwegian swimming has improved year by year inspried by his great performances as a coach.

I interviewed Alex here in Iceland a couple of years ago and since then I have referred to Alex as a great example for my own swimmers. A great as he was he still had a humble and down to earth attitude to his swimming.

He was thankful that his coach would be there with passion for each of his training sessions and said he owed it to the coach to come to practice ready to do the work it takes to be great. He talked about how important it was for him to enjoy his life and how having great friends around him helped him become a great swimmer.

I remember how I was impressed by him being aware about what time of the day in his own local time Kitajima and Brendan Hanson would be training and thinking “Now he is training over there in Japan – what am I doing now to become better” – What a great way to stay motivated.

I am sure lots of you have been inspired by Alex over the years. Here is the last chance to get inspired and learn from this great athlete. Swimming world interviewed Alex just one week ago and just posted the interview. It is a must see for all swimmers!

Last interview with Alex 

A also want to share this video from last years World Champs. Just a few days before 100 breast there was a terrible mass murder in Oslo that shocked the world and especially Norwegians. In these interviews from the worlds Alex talk (in Norwegian) about how he take all that energy in and use it to compete. He went out to swim for his King, his nation and his people. He went out to show how important it is for a people to stand together in crises. And finally he swam this race with the thought that if his performance to bring some joy to just a few people back home he had done his part. As we all know he ended up winning in a world best textile time and almost breaking the plastic world record. First from his country to be world champion in swimming ever.

A great race by a great swimmer who after winning tapped the flag on his swim cap to show the pride of his country.

See the race here:  The race from last years World Champs

My thoughts go to Alex´s family home in Norway and to every one how had the joy of having met Alexander Dale Oen. It is a great loss.

I hope his to short career has inspired sone one out there to become great swimmers, coaches and simple great people.

For all of us one little change in life can end up changing the results we make big time.
One little thing can have a huge impact on our life.

A little a thing as making the coffee machine ready in the evening before going to bed….

For one of my clients that was the thing that finally got him motivated to wake up earlier in the morning, go to the gym and in the end be more fresh for work.

After coaching him some time he decided that he wanted to wake up earlier and start the day in the gym. After some weeks of “trying” to wake up we had a long talk about what could make him motivated and after discussing several different solutions he figured that the coffee being ready could get him out of bed.

After making the coffee machine ready in the evening all he had to do was flip the switch on his way to the bath room in the morning and his house would be filled with the smell of coffee. Knowing that was enough to get him out of bed earlier and after a few weeks going to the gym had become a new habit for him and lots of other issues in his life started to be much easier to fix.

It all started with making the coffee ready.

Think if you could find that little thing you could change and make your life flow easily…

It is all about small habits. Once you get used to changing habits you can start building the life you want. You can never know what little habit you can change and make a huge impact on your life.

It is all about relaxing!

I also like that she also realize how much pressure there is on the coaches. It is almost never talked about.

But haven´t we all had sleepless nights leading up to major competitions?

“The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top!”

I interviewed Ian just before the British trials and in that interview he say more about how he think the attitude towards training matter mor than the set you swim.

Ian got one of his swimmers qualified for the British men 4×200 Olympic relay and one of his former swimmers took the spot in 100 breast stroke. Congrats Ian.

With a time of 50.35 Thorpe is #21 and now out of the run for the Olympic games.

After making the semi final in 200 free there was maybe some hope that he could pull out something in 100 m with his speed and technique. But no.

Personally I am now waiting to see if these past year have given Ian Thorpe his love for swimming back make him want to keep on training. I would love to see him going all the way and get back to the top of the swimming world.

Crocker is asked what advice he have to swimmers who are going to the Olympic trials. This meet will for most of them have the biggest crowd they have ever seen om a swim meet.

The advise he give can be used for all swimmers around the world who is going to the biggest meet of their life.

“Remember it is just a swim meet and you are here just to race like at any other swim meet. What ever brought you here is what you need to swim fast here”

Brilliant words that I hereby pass on! At next big meet do what you know you do well !

He has done a great job of bringing the best Danish swimmers the last difficult step to the élite of world swimming. First Australian Mark Regan lay the foundation and start a change of hos Danish athletes think and then 4 years ago Paulus took over and brought the swimmers even further than anyone would dare to dream.

He has even proven that he can work with swimmers in as different disciplines as 100 free (Jeanette Ottesen – world champion) and 1500 free (Lotte Friis – world champion).

One of the issues Paulus mention in the article is that swimmers a this level all demand a lot of attention and feed back. He has to think about how he spend his time so all the swimmers get what the need.

It is sometimes a challenge to handle such a strong group of swimmers. As Paulus say in the interview:
“- There are many girls who will all be the princess of Denmark. That they are trying in many ways. One of them is about to perform. It is good because they try to outdo each other, says Paulus Wildeboer.”
This article also reveal a bit of the training philosophy behind the Danish success.:

“- I’m on the overall shape. My philosophy is to make people safe from injury and disease. When you have them in a really good shape, you can make impressive things in the intensive training. The problem is that they become ill or injured, when you start to push them if they are not hundred percent fit. So we spend lots of time getting them into a terrific basic condition.”

says Wildeboer, who has agreed to give the short version of his gospel.

“- When the mold is in place, we press them hard in the specific preparations. Part of that is altitude training camps. There we do amazing things in training. Good form is not just fitness. They must be muscularly strong, and therefore there are weeks where we do more than 10 hours of strength training on land”

In this video you can see world champions Friis and Ottesen in training with the rest of the Danish National Team.

Basically the grand old man of anti-doping is pointing out that all these great resources now spend to test athletes for doping should have been spent while athletes were preparing for the Games. That is when they need the cheat – not when they are in London!

Do you believe there is a future with clean sports?

For the events in this competition there are registered Icelandic records and especially for the girls it seem to be athletes coming from swimming and gymnastics who are strongest.

This year in the push up competition there was first a new record with 107 pus ups (on handle bars – when you go down you are done)

Then a swimmer came along. Jóhanna Júlia Júliusdóttir smashed the record and did 177 push ups!! (news in Icelandic…)

SWIMMERS ARE AWESOME