Allison Schmitt, Ten-Time Olympic Medalist on dealing with harmonal changes

Schmitt was coached by renowned American coach Bob Bowman, who also steered Michael Phelps' career.

One of only seven American swimmers to compete in four Olympics, having competed in the Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo Games, the freestyle specialist, won 10 medals—four gold, three silver, three bronze—including five podium finishes in 2012. In London, the Pittsburgh born, set Olympic and American records while winning gold in the 200 free and contributed to a world record in the 4×100-meter relay.

Schmitt was coached by renowned American coach Bob Bowman, who also steered Michael Phelps’ career. However it was a learning journey for both, dealing in female health and blending that knowledge with peak elite performance towards the end of her career, buying into science much later than she’d have liked.

“I needed that (scientific help) because of my performance at a time. I wasn’t able to finish practices. I wasn’t able to do practices at the level that I needed to do them at. And, I mean, it was kind of like hands up in the air. Bob and I don’t know any information on the female health side, so teach us what we can [learn] and what’s going to be beneficial. It ended up working—all of us working together (she worked with bloodwork experts) —and results started improving. From where I was in March and April to where I was in Tokyo was a drastic difference, and I don’t think that we could have got there without the help,” she told sporttechie.

Accustomed to following the relentless training pattern intensity of men, she slowly unlearnt the philosophy that brought her success but wasn’t healthiest. “I come from a mostly male training environment, and my mentality, which in that environment has gotten me a lot of success in sport, is, ‘Okay, put your head down, push through, you can get through it.’ But I think just now learning the difference between pushing through something, and getting the right help in this situation, is a big difference, but also the difference between men and women,” she said.

A fundamental biological question that sport blithely ignored, nagged at her. “Why are we training females like males? And why is all the research on males when females and males are different people? How our bodies are made up is completely different. It’s critical to treat your body how it’s made up, understanding that [females] can use those hormones and the differences to their advantages, and they can be more powerful than what they already are,” she noted.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/allison-schmitt-ten-time-olympic-medalist-on-dealing-with-harmonal-changes-8180487/


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