[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]
Abbey Weitzeil Working on "Taming Mind" Before Unleashing Everything at Trials BY DAN D'ADDONA
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hen Abbey Weitzeil steps onto the block, she puts everything into her race — body, mind and heart — to get to the wall first. In the sprint events, the roar is unleashed with everything on the line in a matter of seconds. On the mental side, the key is to have everything blocked out and be ready to roar. Overthinking is an issue for many swimmers as they build to the moment on the blocks, no matter how elite the athlete. “Experience helps because you know what to expect and how to calm your nerves and work with your mind behind the block a little bit,” Abbey Weitzeil told Swimming World. “That has been a struggle for me, to tame my mind behind the blocks. I have been working on it. Being a veteran allows you to be more excited and enjoy the process more. When you are younger and it is new, you are caught up in everything. You don’t know how to control your mind or nerves, and that is where being a veteran comes into play.” There is no secret formula. And just because something worked once doesn’t guarantee it will work again. 32
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“I don’t think there is a specific answer, just having the experience of going through the motions enough and learning to not overthink,” she said. “I just want to dive in and race. I do my best when I am racing and overthinking. I definitely have not perfected that. It takes a lot. I feel like I know where my mind will go and that helps me.” Once her mind is tamed and her blinders are on, it just takes a short burst of clarity and focus before Weitzeil bursts into the water. Her focus is trained on her race alone, and her face shows her ferocity as she readies to at the start. “I try not to pay attention to it,” she said. “I am going to dive in and do what I can do. I can’t control what anyone else does. I can do my best and race as hard as I can and the outcome will be the outcome.” That is not to say Weitzeil isn’t aware of who is around her. For most of her highest-profile races the past five or six years, she has been in a middle lane next to Simone Manuel, who qualified for Rio in 2016 with Weitzeil in both the 50 free and 100 free. While they are rivals, it’s a friendly competition that seems to bring the best out of each other. They swam with and
