With 24-year-old James Magnussen being added to the Australian roster for the upcoming Perth Aquatic Super Series, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist is reflecting up on how far he’s come since those Games. Not only has “Maggie” recovered from intensive surgery performed on his left shoulder last summer, but he is now both mentally and physically preparing to return to his winning ways, hopefully taking on much of the same sprint field in Rio as he missed out on while rehabilitating during last year’s World Championships.
Just today, Magnussen spoke on-air with Perth’s 882 6PR’s ‘Sports Today’, where he described himself as “feeling like a totally different person” than he did in 2012 when American Nathan Adrian out-touched the Aussie by just .01 to claim gold in the 100m freestyle.
In the interview, when comparing his previous Olympic experience to how he is approaching his run at a 2016 berth, Maggie says, “I’m really looking forward to going into this Olympics more experienced and level-headed. I think the whole occasion got the better of me a bit four years ago. I think I was in the shape to win it. You can’t really prepare mentally for an Olympics until you go to one. Four years experience and four years preparation I think I can get it done this time around.”
Magnussen just competed in his first comeback meet last weekend, the Victorian Open Championships, where he earned first place finishes in both men’s freestyle sprint events. He took the 50m freestyle in a time of 22.51 and the 100m freestyle in a mark of 49.35, both of which were impressive enough for Maggie to get the call-up to be added to the Australian line-up for Perth.
Looking forward to the meet being held on February 5th and 6th, Magnussen says, “From Australia I’ll obviously be racing Cam McEvoy who got silver at the World Championships last year and I was sitting at home in a sling watching that on TV. So it’s a good opportunity to race him and that’s world-class racing.”
Below is the entire audio interview with James Magnussen.
In an article on the USA Swimming website, Natalie Coughlin said to Christine Magnuson:
“After Trials, Natalie (Coughlin) told me, and I’m paraphrasing, that people who do well at the Olympics either have enough experience to know what to do to put themselves in the best position or are so ignorant of what to expect that they just enjoy the moment and swim fast,”
Sounds like James got wound up in the idea of being at the Olympics and let the pressure get to him rather than treating it as just another meet. Ledecky had been a year removed from Junior Nationals and was very much like Amanda Beard in 1996, just enjoying the moment and treating it… Read more »
“You can’t really prepare mentally for an Olympics until you go to one.”
“Is that so?” -Katie Ledecky
In all seriousness best of luck to him, glad to see he’s sorted it out.