Aaron Peirsol Part 1: Career Beginnings & Choosing College Over Going Pro

Pro Corner with Austin Surhoff

Part One of Austin's conversation with Olympic Gold Medalist & World Record Holder Aaron Peirsol.

Aaron is one of the most dominant swimmers in his events (backstroke) in the history of swimming. In the 2000's, you could count on one hand the number of times he lost a backstroke race in international competition. That level of consistent domination is almost unheard of in the world of sport.

In Part One of our conversation, the guys discuss Aaron's career beginnings - his incredible training environment growing up in Southern California, the heroes and mentors he had early in his career, and his big decision to go to college instead of turning pro after winning a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics. That decision required a level of wisdom not usual found in high school kids.

Estimated episode timeline:

0:00 - Austin introduces the episode

4:10 - Choosing to help out the Texas college team by volunteer coaching for them in his final year as a pro from 2009-2010

13:10 - Why did he decide to help out?

17:40 - His place as one of swimmings biggest stars, and what it means to him to use it to contribute to the swimming family

24:00 - Growing up in a swim Mecca like Southern California - heroes, mentors, great coaches

28:30 - The community that swimming provides

32:00 - The importance of irreverence and silliness when pursuing such high pressure goals like Olympic medals

41:15 - When did he know he wanted to be a pro athlete

46:00 - Choosing college over going pro at age 17

51:00 - How did he have such outsized wisdom and perspective as a high school kid?

60:00 - the importance of sport as teaching tool

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