CONRAD FRANCIS, OLY

Aquatics Instructor & Performance Coach

Conrad Francis, OLY, or Coach Conrad as the students call him, learned to swim all by himself at the age of 5 in the Indian Ocean. Fifteen years later, he would go on to represent his country, Sri Lanka, at the Olympics. His story is an inspiring tale of passion, dedication and discipline.

How did you learn how to swim?

Actually, it all began back home in Sri Lanka. My introduction to swimming came through my grandparents, particularly on my mom's side. My dad's father wanted me to play cricket for the country. Almost every Saturday and Sunday, they would bring me to the beach by the ocean, and I would simply drift away, despite my young age.

So that's how you learned how to swim - in the ocean?

I taught myself how to swim and survive. I was around five or six years old. It was always a family affair as we lived close to the beach. We built sandcastles and such. My grandpa would take me out to the reef and leave me there because he used to be a good swimmer. That's how it all started. There were no floaties, nothing! [laugh]

And then?

I was attending St. Joseph's College at the time. Our school was the first school to have a 50 meter pool. So, my dad used to take me to the pool in the afternoons after school until one day - I must have been 10 by then - the school swim coach stopped me and asked me and my dad if I was interested in swimming for the school. And, next thing I knew, I was training in the pool at 5:15 am. Everyday, I would train at 5AM, then go to school. And I started liking the sport. But, even then, I knew it was all on me to wake up and show up.

How did you get that kind of discipline as a 10 year old?

From my grandparents. They were quite the disciplinarians. [laughs] And, probably also from attending a Catholic school. You stand when the teacher walks into the class, and, until she sits, you stand.

When did you realize that you had the potential to become a professional athlete?

In 1995, I was offered a scholarship by the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka. I had the opportunity to select either London, Australia, the US, or Canada for training. I chose Australia because I had relatives there. Mom and Dad were extremely supportive. So, at 15, I moved there by myself. My auntie selected the club, called the Nunawading swimming club. Training would start at 5:30am and last until 7:30am. I would change to catch the public bus all the way back to school, then it was back to the club for the afternoon session. My coach, Lee Nugent, was one of the top coaches in Australia. And he told me, “You know your country sent you here to make the Olympic team.”

So, from that day onward, this was my goal: the Sydney 2000 Olympics - having those five rings under my belt. An olympic cycle is four years, so we started from ‘96 all the way to 2000. In those four years, I only took two weeks off. That's all I was permitted to take. It's a sacrifice. It's a massive sacrifice. I only saw my parents once in those four years.

What did the sport teach you?

Discipline. Because if you don't get into the pool by 5:30am, the doors are shut; you stand out for the next two hours or you go back home. When that whistle goes off, you're in the water no matter who you are. And of course, looking up to role models. My greatest role model was Nelson Mandela. He was a simple man with morals. It made me realize that if he can go through the struggles he did, then I can go through the struggle as well.

Let's move forward to the day that you learned that you're going to the Olympics.

Oh, my! It’s a lot of pressure. You know… when I left the country… there was a press conference at the headquarters of the National Olympic Committee and they said, “We are backing you. You are the guy who's going to be one of the first Sri Lankans to make the Olympic team.” But I never ever put that as a burden on my shoulders because I was swimming for myself.

The Olympic qualifying year started in ‘99, which was also my last year of high school. That’s when the pressure hits you - you know… when you start racing on the first of January. You have 12 months to qualify. I was swimming the 100 Fly in 57s, the qualification was 56s. That's a lot! That 1.5 seconds is not easy to catch up - no matter how much hard work you put in. I was a small, lanky guy: such a tiny fellow. But I was skilled. I used to work a lot of my skills to keep up with the Westerners because Westerners are more powerful. Then we realized that the only way that I could match our power to weight ratio is by putting on some weight, which never happens. I was a 65 kg guy, and I had to be up to about 73kg, and that took me almost seven months just to get there. You know… my coach would feed me every single thing possible just to help me get bigger. And it happened! It came up to 73 and I was able to keep up at that 75 meter mark. Normally by the last 25 meters, I had nothing left anymore. So we trained differently. We trained a lot more negative splits - that means going slow and coming back hard. And that worked. That system started working. In April the following year (in 2000), came the Olympic trials in Sydney.

That morning I woke up and I felt good. I really felt good. My routine is: I wake up, I read the Bible, pray. That's how my day starts. That's how it is. It's always been like that, and I said if it's meant to be, Lord - let it be. In the call room, you get all the big guys like Klimmy [Michael Klim - editor’s note], Geoff Huegill, Mike Mintenko... And then you have this little mustard seed [laughs]. And all I needed was to go with a 56.3s. That is all I needed to make the team. So, yeah… that first 50 meters - I went so hard, I thought, “Forget it. I'm going hard.” And my only concern was to not die on my bum towards the end. When I broke the surface, I kept my head down still for the first two strokes. And then, when I looked, I was a body length ahead. And there was only one thing that kept going through my head: be composed, keep it together, just hold on and keep it together. Then I touched the wall, looked back, and it was 56.2s.

So you’re going to the Olympics. I remember watching those games, the pool was on fire, because the Australian team was huge. How was it for you?

It’s electrifying. That feeling is just… you're swimming against the best in the world, right? No matter who you swim against, no matter who wins, there are only three who can win. And are the rest losers? No. Because, at the Olympics, our motto is if you have qualified for the Olympics that means you're the best in the world. And only three can win. That's the way it is. But we had respect for each other. My coach told me, “Trust the system and the process. Everything else will fall into place.” The day before my race, I didn't even want to see my parents, because they knew I was absorbing so much pressure that I would never show them. Everything was all calm on the Western Front, right? I didn't even open my phone.

You quiet the noise. How do you just focus on what you're there to do?

I was never the guy who would have headphones. I was never brought up that way. You know… I'm used to just switching off by myself. The moment I walk into the pool, I'm a different person. I'm actually like an animal. I'm just waiting, just waiting. And then, when they called us out, I just blocked out everything. I didn't even care where my mom and dad were. Because, for me, it was just me and the pool and being steady on the block. And once I dived in, I could hear that roar going on.

Can you actually hear it?

You can to an extent, yes. But you try not to think of it. And, for me, it is pretty much me against the clock. It was never against my opponents. Because if I beat the clock, and if I beat my own personal time, I know I won that gold. And that first Olympics was just basically a learning curve at 20. Right? And finishing off the race the best way that I can do the best swim that I can do. I swam 55.9s. At that point, I knew I did everything that I could do within my powers and within the capabilities of my physicality. I think after 48 hours my entire team met again and the next thing they asked me was: are you retiring? Or do you want to do another four years?

Did you know that you wanted to keep going?

I looked at my coach. I said, “What do you think?” And after that race, I took two weeks off. I needed that. Just to switch off from the pool, to switch off from everything.

Did you get to enjoy the rest of the Olympics after that?

If you ask many athletes in that era, it was one of the best games. I feel it was one of the best games. You know… they did so well. I don't think there were any flaws. And I had the opportunity of meeting Michael Johnson. We sat on the same bench together and, for a second, I thought, “Is this who I'm thinking this is?” And at that time, I was reading his book Slaying the Dragon. It was such an honor to meet him. You meet so many great athletes at the village that sometimes you lose track, you lose focus. But for me, it was - get the job done. Once the job is done, you can do whatever you want.

How did you navigate your life after your professional career?

For me, it was… I call it the three Ds. Discipline, Dedication, Determination. And, till today, that's how I live my life, with those three Ds. I never forgot the roots of where I came from. That's something my father taught me: the higher you go, you're going to be humble. That's when things happen. Good things happen. And keep your head down all the time. There's a lot of pressure, a lot of commitments, a lot of endorsements. You know… pleasing everybody, but in the right way. For me, it was not about money, it was about doing the right thing.

So, I studied and worked at the same time. I knew that the day I retire, I'm already one foot in. I did my own research. I put myself into university. Nobody wrote applications, I wrote my own applications. Nobody proofread them. And I was always the guy who was always a week ahead of my studies.

How did you get into coaching? And, more specifically, how did you end up working for an international school?

I got into coaching after I saw my coach beat the crap out of me [laughs]. In coaching, it's all trial and error. Half the time is what you do in training - sets, programs, and the other half is psychology - knowing how the athlete reacts. And you need to have an eye for that. If you want to get the best out of that athlete, you need to go to their eye level, to their mentality, and put yourself in their brain. How do they react? And that's what my coach did with me. I loved it, loved it, loved it. So, that's how I got into coaching.

In 2008, I decided to go back home. I thought it's time to go be with my mum and dad. I wanted to give back to the sport and I wanted to have something of my own back home. So, I rented a pool at the British School and I started my own squad. I went up to 70 athletes. In one year, I had seven on the national team. Then, one fine day, the swim coach from the British School decided to retire from the school. They wanted to give me the job, but I asked to apply like everyone else. And yeah, I took over the job. And, by then, I had almost finished my studies. I had a degree in sports management. And then, in 2016, I applied to ISB in Beijing. And since then, I've been out of the country. ISB [International School of Beijing], JIS [Jakarta Intercultural School], SFS… and enjoying the process. And I make sure that wherever I go, I do my best.

What I like the most is the challenge, and the different types of student athletes you meet - the mentality is different. How they look at it is different. How do we get past those hurdles? And how do we get the best out of each one to be a successful team? At the end of the day, it's not about individual performance. A collective performance is what brings the best out of them.

How's the SFS team doing?

Awesome. They’re like my babies. I call them my children. I absolutely love the team. Starting from SWEP all the way up to the club team. That includes the KAIAC and High School club team. They keep me on my toes, which I love - and sometimes hate. My job is to make sure that the student athletes are well suited to take on challenges in life. Because once you leave the school, you're on your own. And I keep telling them, “You got to be ready to take the hit. You've got to face it straightforwardly. Because your mom and dad won’t be there. You should be grateful to your parents, don't misuse things, make the most of it, but be respectful to everybody. It doesn't matter where you come from.

Be polite to people.” I keep saying to them, “Be humble. Keep your head down all the time. No matter who you are, wherever you are. Because that's when people start to respect you.”

The team: we’re a small bunch - only 30 athletes. But we are so close; we are developing a culture in the team. And there are times when the seniors will take the middle schoolers, put them in their lane, keep up or put them in front and they chase them. And they will say, “Don't let us touch your feet.” You know… which is good because they give that sense of responsibility. There is no difference in the club team: everybody's treated alike. And that's the best part - we are always together cheering on our teammates. And the Aquatics department, starting with Sean [Cary], and Miss Gray, they are just fabulous. I believe the culture of the school also helps a lot. And the working environment. You know, I deal a lot with Sean.. and he's just been awesome. Hands down one of the best aquatics directors I've worked with. He’s so fun. There’s never a dull moment with that man. [laughs] He keeps us on our toes, and I love it. I love waking up in the morning, at 4:15am. I enjoy what I do. It’s really been a blast.