Watch: Schmitt and Bowman’s Full Olympic Trials Press Conference

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS

• Sunday June 26th-Sunday July 3rd, 2016
• Century Link Center – Omaha, Nebraska
• Friday-Sunday – Prelims – 9:00 am EDT   Finals – 6 pm EDT
• SwimSwam Preview Links & Schedule
• NBC Televison Coverage Schedule
• Psych Sheets
• Sunday Heat Sheets

At their pre-Trials press conference, Allison Schmitt and coach Bob Bowman touched on the upcoming meet, her mental health advocacy, her road from 2012 to now, and her friendship with teammate Michael Phelps. 

Schmitt and Bowman both talked about her post-Olympics depression and recovery.

“It was rough,” she said. “I’m grateful that I’m still here four years later. I know that throughout the past four years there were many times that I wanted to call it quits, and I remember after 2014 summer crying in the Baltimore parking lot because I was going into talk to Bob, tell him that I was going to stop swimming, and I didn’t want to go talk to him because I knew deep down I didn’t want to quit, but I didn’t know what was going on.”

Since then, Schmitt thinks that her mental state has done “a whole 180” and that she feels like a “completely different person with a completely different attitude about everything.”

Looking beyond her swimming career, Schmitt also talked about pursuing a potential career in psychology.

“My passion right now, besides swimming, and of course I’m here because I still love swimming, and I still have goals, but I have a passion to destigmatize the negativity around mental health and depression.” she said. “So I’m looking to go back to school so I can have the scientific background beside the experience that I’ve had so I can use the scientific background and my experience to help inform other people and to hopefully save a few lives.”

See the full transcript of the press conference here.