Olympian Ivan Puskovitch on Open Water Swimming, Paris 2024 & Chasing Greatness

Summer Finke
00:01 - 00:28
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Lane 1 Making Waves. This week on the podcast, we have open water specialist Ivan Puskovich. Now, if you have heard anything about open water swimmers, you have definitely heard Ivan's name before. He is just the fifth male to qualify from the US for the Olympics, and he recently swept the US Open Water National Events, winning the 3K knockout, the 5K, and the 10K.

Summer Finke
00:29 - 00:54
Then this conversation, we touch on how Ivan got started in open water swimming, how his pool swimming translates to his open water swimming, and where he is taking the sport in the future. He has so many fun things coming up on his schedule with PanPaks and with the LA Olympics coming up soon. So with that, let's dive in. So we'll kind of jump right in.

Summer Finke
00:54 - 01:09
I just want to take another second to thank you for joining me today. I know you've had such a busy competition schedule. You've been not only all over the country, but all over the world. So very excited to kind of get into your experiences and what you have coming up on your calendar.

Summer Finke
01:10 - 01:18
For listeners who may not know your story yet, how did you first get into swimming? And at what point did open water become the path you really fell in love with?

Ivan Puskovitch
01:20 - 01:34
Yeah, so thanks for having me. I'm really excited to take part in the ISCA podcast. Yeah, it's been super busy lately, but I'm happy to talk about it. I think that taking it back to the beginning, when like starting swimming, I mean, I started very young.

Ivan Puskovitch
01:34 - 01:46
I think everybody starts at specifically a different age, but I was put in the water before I was even a year old, really. That was on my mom. She just put me in the water so quickly. I just remember taking to it super naturally.

Ivan Puskovitch
01:46 - 01:56
I was lucky. I think I just had a bit of a natural feel for it from the beginning. I just flew through swimming lessons. I was just so far ahead of pace and all that.

Ivan Puskovitch
01:56 - 02:09
I started my first competitive swimming when I was about five or six. Um, and, uh, you know, that's like typical YMCA team. You're just doing the 25s, maybe occasional fifties. Um, but, uh, that's when we like really restarted with competitive swimming, but.

Ivan Puskovitch
02:11 - 02:26
Like I said, I had a bit of an inkling for it from the start. I started taking it pretty seriously really early. I would say around age 9, probably 10 really, was when I had my first taste of success in a way. I was like, okay, I can do something with this sport if I stay on track here.

Ivan Puskovitch
02:27 - 02:38
I found the track, I'm on it, I'm on the high performance track already. Obviously, there's a whole lot of years between now and college, for example. where you can, you know, stray from it. I was like, but if we just like, you know, I love this.

Ivan Puskovitch
02:38 - 02:51
I love this sport. I want to stick with it. And I think I can do something really special. And it wasn't, it was at that same age, actually, age 10, where I did my first open water race specifically.

Ivan Puskovitch
02:51 - 03:08
So, like, I'd already been swimming on, doing organized competitive swimming for like five years at this point. But I did my first open water race at a really early age of 10. I think that's pretty early compared to most swimmers who get into Oklahoma. I think the only person I know who did races before me was my national teammate Becca Mann.

Summer Finke
03:08 - 03:11
I think she started them when she was like seven or eight.

Ivan Puskovitch
03:13 - 03:27
But I did a 1K when I was 10, and I remember I was so scared to try it. Again, my mom, just like she got me into swimming in the first place, wanted me to try this open water race. It was right after a pool competition, so I kind of wanted to go home. I was also a little scared of it.

Ivan Puskovitch
03:27 - 03:39
I don't know. I had never done an open water race before, but because I didn't want to disappoint mom, I showed up to this 1K the next day with her. And I remember it was just rainy. It was in a lake, so it wasn't like a turbulent race or anything.

Ivan Puskovitch
03:39 - 03:53
But it was just rainy, overcast, just like a sad first open water race experience to an observer. And I'm just trying to have my game face on. I just had a pretty good pool meet, but I didn't win any races. I got second in my best race.

Ivan Puskovitch
03:53 - 04:03
So I was like, I also really wanted to win this if I was going to take the time to do it. And it wasn't that big of a race. We're only 10 years old. So there was only, I think, like 10 people in the race as well.

Ivan Puskovitch
04:04 - 04:25
uh but we just kind of ran with it from the start took it out past took the lead immediately and uh won you know and that's kind of how you uh that helps you fall in love with open water swimming a little bit i think when you win your first race so yeah i would have to say you know 10 is when I really got on that open water trajectory. And I knew after doing that race that, you know what? This isn't going to keep me from competing in the pool.

Ivan Puskovitch
04:25 - 04:32
I'm still going to do this, obviously. But I'm doing both. I really like this open water swimming thing. I want to look for more opportunities to do this in the future.

Ivan Puskovitch
04:32 - 04:48
I want to take this to the highest level. Because it opened up a completely different side of the sport to me that you just don't really grow up watching. Or at least what we didn't grow up watching when we were watching Olympics swimming on TV. Open water hadn't been brought back to the Olympics.

Ivan Puskovitch
04:49 - 05:02
until 2008. And it obviously still has so much to grow since being brought back. Whereas pool swimming, I mean, that's what everybody would check in to watch. So we just weren't even thinking about this other side of things in the sport of swimming.

Ivan Puskovitch
05:03 - 05:11
And now suddenly it had been illuminated to me and I was like, oh, I want to do both. I love distance. I love doing these long events. That's why I always wanted to do the 500.

Ivan Puskovitch
05:12 - 05:35
When I was like seven years old, I was like, oh, I thought it's so cool watching the big kids do it. Like I was like, I want someone to be a fan of my lane, like counting for me. And so I was always on the hunt for like that next challenge, you know, doing more laps in practice, but also doing longer races. And so I thought open water just lent itself to that really well, because obviously in Olympic swimming, the races don't get any longer than open water.

Summer Finke
05:36 - 06:04
definitely the longest that's incredible though i mean 10 years old like being exposed to open water i don't think i did my first open water race until i was well into my teenage years and i mean even my brother didn't do it until he was into his teenage years and at that point you've kind of already formed such a strong bond to the pool. Whereas when you are younger, you're just trying to try things like you're like, I may like this, I may not like it. But having that exposure and that opportunity to fall in love with it is huge.

Summer Finke
06:05 - 06:18
And then also you mentioned you can do both. I mean, it's not really an either or situation, especially at that age. Like, I think there's a big misconception where it's like, OK, if you do open water, you can't do pool. If you do pool, you can't do open water.

Summer Finke
06:18 - 06:59
But especially in distance swimming, distance swimmers love a challenge. And it does not get any more challenging, I find, than open water, especially with the unknown and the different elements that you come into. you know that you come in with it's crazy like it's crazy from an outside perspective and you know it's something that you don't truly know until you're kind of thrown into it so having that opportunity as I said at 10 is absolutely incredible and I think most people have that you know similar first experience with open water it's never what you imagine it to be you're just like okay I'm gonna go swim at you know a beach or a lake and it's gonna be fun and I'm gonna be surrounded by you know, all of these

Summer Finke
06:59 - 07:14
cool people, but it's tough. You know, the weather, the waves, feeding. I know at 10 it probably wasn't as complicated, but there's, again, so many factors that go into it that just being exposed to it is incredible and amazing.

Ivan Puskovitch
07:18 - 07:39
I think that you hit one of the nails on the head right there with just having the privilege to be exposed to it so early and so young. I think that's one of the biggest things for the sport moving forward. you know, how do you get more people involved in it? You know, when so many people don't make it until high school, whether they have even the opportunity presented to them, where they can try and open waterways.

Ivan Puskovitch
07:39 - 07:53
So like, how can we get people to just like try it once, just at like a younger age, you know, because I mean, once you got, once you got, once you do it once, I mean, you kind of, you're either going to leave there with something to prove or, you know, unfinished business. That's the way I look at it, you know.

Summer Finke
07:53 - 08:08
Very true. As we mentioned, you know, open water swimming is so much different than pool swimming. So what do you find is the biggest adjustment for you mentally and physically when you focus on, you know, open water swimming versus pool distance swimming?

Ivan Puskovitch
08:10 - 08:40
Yeah, so I mean, that's a great question. I think that one of the misconceptions with my training and probably many open water swimmers training is that it's so different, like the preparation from pool versus open water. Um, and it really is not for me, you know, I mean, yes, I've had been doing them both, you know, in conjunction with each other for a very long time at this point, 15 years, which is crazy to say. Um, but it's, uh, I think like with regard to the actual, uh, training and preparation, I mean, it's really like not that much different for me.

Ivan Puskovitch
08:40 - 09:14
I mean, I think that, uh, you still got to, I think that that's one of the reasons you've seen a lot of, uh, the top 1500 swimmers in the world, like getting really involved in open water, especially from Europe. Um, like pretty much all of them also do open water. I mean, in my opinion, I feel like if you're one of the top 1500 swimmers in the world, you're probably not doing much more training than the top 10k swimmers in the world. Maybe what you're doing within that 70, 80 kilometers a week, it can vary a little bit, but it's not like you don't necessarily have to find six more hours of swimming this week when you're already doing over 20.

Ivan Puskovitch
09:17 - 09:43
And so with regards to the time spent training, I really don't think it's that different, at least for somebody like myself. If I was strictly doing 1500 and 800, I think I'd still be in the pool just as many hours a week. I've always responded well to high volume training over the course of putting in a lot of volume throughout the day, over the course of the day, over the course of the week, over the course of training blocks and entire seasons. I derived a lot of mental confidence from it, a lot of physical confidence.

Ivan Puskovitch
09:43 - 09:59
I think that just kind of lends itself to my physique a little bit. I think I'm just more traditional distance build physiology and anatomy. you know, just putting in more miles is going to be good for my fitness. And just my, I'm going to win all like off aerobic capacity, essentially, you know?

Ivan Puskovitch
10:00 - 10:27
And so much of open water is like that outlasting element, trying to outlast your competition and, you know, or anybody else in the race, really. And so, yeah, I think that you take like a training, really not that much of a different approach for me. Like what, how I think about the races and like the mental approach, you know? Oh, also one thing I forgot to mention is that, I mean, I do like 99.9% of my training in the pool anyway, you know?

Ivan Puskovitch
10:27 - 10:59
So, uh, I think that's another big thing that people get and people miss is that like Olympic open water swimmers do a lot of open water training. You know, some would do more than others, but still the pool is going to make up the vast majority of your training, um, for nine out of 10 Olympic open water swimmers. Because at the end of the day, I mean, you can find, you you can practice and get up to speed in different conditions or environments or scenarios. You can get up to speed on those things pretty quickly, I think, if you just diligently take note of them every time you're exposed to them.

Ivan Puskovitch
10:59 - 11:17
But as you know, it takes long hours and commitment and discipline to just get faster by even like a 10th of a second per hundred. Um, and so you need the pace clock to do that though. I mean, that's like your best friend with training when you're trying to get faster. So the open water is so fast these days that, uh, I mean, there's no gradual buildup throughout the race.

Ivan Puskovitch
11:17 - 11:38
You know what I mean? You get in, like you're going fast from the start and you're trying to go faster at the end and who can hang on. So you got to train a amount, in my opinion, to succeed in the sport these days. Like you also have to train a lot of speed in conjunction with the endurance, uh, and speed, you know, you're gonna be training more speed if you're doing the 1500 or the 800, you know, and so I think that right now, my training poises that, like, I approach

Ivan Puskovitch
11:38 - 11:55
my training for open water meets and cool meets pretty much identically. And mentally, I would say, also pretty identically, except for the fact that I'm like, way more stressed for the open water races. Yeah. Because like, I mean, like, you know, I'm pretty good in the pool, you know, like nationally ranked in 1500.

Ivan Puskovitch
11:55 - 12:08
But what I travel for Team USA is obviously open water. And so that's my that's my passion. That's what I achieving the highest level of success. And that's what I have the highest expectations of myself and for myself, my team, my coach, my country.

Ivan Puskovitch
12:10 - 12:34
And so. I think that going behind the pool, going behind the blocks for a pool race. I can definitely have this laughy, jovial, this is just going to be so easy compared to racing a 10k. I did the 1500 at US Open back in December, and I remember thinking, I've done six 10ks this year, this is going to be over like this.

Ivan Puskovitch
12:34 - 13:02
And then it felt like it was. I felt like I could take it out fast, and I wasn't going to pay the price because it was going to be over in a blink. And so you get all this perspective, obviously, when you've been competing for team USA and putting and having all this, like, honestly, like anxiety and stress running selection, Olympic teams, pen pack teams, world championship teams, you know, in one specific area of the sport, like my open water, that the part where I'm not dealing with some of those things is like, like, this is like, this is like easy mode here, you know?

Summer Finke
13:03 - 13:32
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, just touching on the fact that you said open water, like, you guys still have to have speed. I mean so many of those races come down to a touch and a touch in a two-hour race is insane and also as you said the misconception that you know you guys make it look so easy I think you know and that's a compliment but it also makes it look like you guys are just you know you're just swimming you're just out there and then all of a sudden you put in like your kick for the last 500.

Summer Finke
13:33 - 13:51
The last 500 kicking after a 10K is crazy still, but that's also a huge misconception. You guys are sprinting from the start. You just have that aerobic engine to maintain throughout the race, and then it becomes just this mental battle of will, of, okay, I'm going to outlast. I've put in the work.

Summer Finke
13:51 - 14:32
Time to start kicking for another like five to ten minutes to eventually, you know Smack the touchpad that's above you like it's crazy. Just thinking about Like again, as you said how fast you guys are going for how long you guys are going. I like all the way from you know the 3k knockout which has its own intricacies all the way up to the 10k i mean there's so much variability in there but it is a sprint no matter what you're doing which is again just you know crazy coming from the the pool 15 minute race to two hours or you know under two hours at this point for everybody yeah i think that uh probably the uh

Ivan Puskovitch
14:32 - 15:09
the most fun way to describe the difference I can take mentally going up for an open water race versus a pool race is that for the pool, I feel like I'm getting behind the blocks and I'm getting ready to swim a pool, swim a race. I'm getting ready to just do 30 laps in the pool or 16 laps in the pool. But when I'm getting ready for an open water race in the days or the hours leading up, I feel like I'm getting ready to enter the ring. I think that the sports are obviously completely different, but I think that you could liken you know just like the the cycle that takes place leading up to during and after an open water race to like a boxing match you know um i i i and so like

Ivan Puskovitch
15:09 - 15:38
i and we we've seen how locked in those those fighters are you know um before they enter the ring you know i definitely i try to keep it like you know relax and like have fun like while i'm going into the races you know like i always try to smile because it just helps me take the edge off a little bit you know um but like definitely like you know between the ears um up here like you can uh I would definitely describe it as like, you're getting ready to enter the ring. So you don't have to have that mentality necessarily when there is no physical element.

Summer Finke
15:39 - 16:00
No, I mean, as you mentioned there, like there is that physical element also to open water that, you know, you never know who's at your feet, who's next to you, where their stroke is going, where their arm is going, like there's so much involved in it. You became just the fifth American man to qualify for the Olympics in open water. What did that accomplish mean to you personally and to the people who helped shape your journey?

Ivan Puskovitch
16:02 - 16:13
I mean, that was probably one of the highlight moments of my life to date. I mean, qualifying for the Olympic team. That was 2020. I remember that February 4th, 2024 at World Champs in Doha.

Ivan Puskovitch
16:13 - 16:47
And I mean, we'd just been through so much in the short term leading up to that. I mean, we'd done like a pretty like serious, like I was in a serious accident, had a big injury recovery from there, just like within a year of this race. And so To go through so many challenges over the course of your entire career, and then also literally in the short term leading up to the moment where you're either going to become an Olympian or not, to be able to achieve it was so fantastic. And I was so honored to ink my name in history alongside four other storied and great American open water Olympians.

Ivan Puskovitch
16:51 - 17:06
It was a dream come true, as cheesy as that sounds. I mean, we swimmers and Olympic athletes, Olympic sport athletes, we grow up just dreaming of qualifying for the Olympic Games. And so to make it happen, it still doesn't feel real in some respects. It still is sinking in.

Ivan Puskovitch
17:06 - 17:32
Here we are two years later. But it meant a lot, like I said, to ink my name in history on Team USA's Olympic list. And it also meant a lot specifically because I'm the fifth American overall, but I'm actually the second from my club at TSM Aquatics to do it. So 40% of the open water male Olympians that Team USA has sent to the games have come from TSM Aquatics.

Ivan Puskovitch
17:32 - 17:50
The first being Jordan Wolamowski, who went in Rio and in Tokyo. So that was a pretty cool statistic to pad as well. I felt really good for that fact. on my coach's behalf because, you know, thinking of my coaches there when I qualified as well, so we were able to share that moment together.

Ivan Puskovitch
17:51 - 18:26
Because, you know, we both put in so much work in order to, you know, earn that accomplishment. And so for him to be able to say like, yep, like, you know, we just coached another guy to the Olympics from this team, no less, like take note, like TSM Aquatics, like open water Mecca right here. Like it was like, it felt really good and gratifying to be able to do that for my coach because I couldn't have done any of it without him. Yeah, I mean and it's a I'm hoping that we can get a lot more names on that list I mean like I said, yeah, you know the 2008 was just like the first Olympics that we brought up water back But so we you know, you know, there just

Ivan Puskovitch
18:26 - 18:54
has not been that many Olympians named to the team in the past 20 like in a short time span of 20 years, but You know, one thing I'm really hoping for with regard to 2028, especially against the home games, is that we've actually never sent two men and two women to the Olympics because the qualification is totally different than for the pool. Yeah, there's a very limited amount of spots at all. And so not even all countries get to send athletes, you know, you know, and so a country, you know, you get to send up to two, but some only send one, some send two, some send, most send none.

Ivan Puskovitch
18:57 - 19:03
It's the home Olympic games that would be really cool if we could get like that full roster of two men and two women. That would be historic for sure.

Summer Finke
19:04 - 19:28
Yeah, no, we're speaking that into existence right now. And I think that, you know, open water swimming, it has come such a long way, but it does have such a long way to go. I mean, as you said, 2008 was the first Olympics that it was brought back, and that's not that long ago. I know when we look at, you know, how many years has passed, like, it makes me feel old, but also, you know, 2008, like, I don't even want to say how many years ago it was, but we haven't had that many Olympics in between then.

Summer Finke
19:29 - 19:52
So, you know, we have so much growth that we can do and so much visibility that we can bring this sport to give these opportunities to people to, you know, continue swimming past when they thought they were going to be able to. It's a lot of fun. I know I've mentioned this prior to hitting the record button. It's so much fun keeping up with open water swimmers on social media.

Summer Finke
19:53 - 20:13
I'm probably biased because I was a distance swimmer, so I know there's so many different personalities and so many different quirks that everyone has. And you guys get to practice and train and travel to so many amazing places. How do you balance having fun with the sport while also competing at the highest international level?

Ivan Puskovitch
20:14 - 20:31
Yeah, so one of my philosophies actually is if you're not having fun doing this, then you're just not doing it right. At the end of the day, this is swimming. We can get so wrapped up in all of the times and the awards and the placements and the teams and all that, and those are all super important. Don't get me wrong, especially when you're doing it professionally.

Ivan Puskovitch
20:31 - 20:45
You rely on those things. At the end of the day, it is just swimming when you take it down to brass tacks. People go swimming to have fun. We got into the sport to race and to have fun.

Ivan Puskovitch
20:45 - 21:10
We got into the sport to be on teams where we can have fun with the other people. I think there's always going to need to be a balance because the fun should always be there. The answer is not cutting like, oh, well, we need to completely deprive ourselves of enjoyment, laughs, and fun here. we're here for a competition and it's in four days, you know, you gotta, you gotta have both, you know, you gotta have fun putting in the laps and grinding, um, like with your teammates.

Ivan Puskovitch
21:11 - 21:53
I think that, uh, you know, I mean, open water is like a pretty close knit group and we know each other all pretty well because I mean, we always travel together and the open water team, you know, it's, it's just less events. So we have a, we have a much, um, much smaller roster size than like the pool team at us assuming, for example, which can be, you know on a travel trip can be like 60 people um just with how many events there are and you know both genders and all that and so like i've been on plenty of like trips with the pool team and training camps and such you know and it's like it's like when you have that many people though i mean you can't really get you can't get to know like everybody that well you know you kind of just like settle into your friends and like you know maybe you know maybe meet some more people here and there like later on you know but with open water like we all really know each other and so that actually makes it really

Ivan Puskovitch
21:53 - 22:20
easy to like really respect each other as well like there's so much like mutual respect i think on the team Not only for what we've all accomplished and what we're also trying to do, but also just knowing that we all really deserve to be there because you simply cannot be doing these Elite 10Ks unless you're really working hard. There's just no skating by on talent when you're doing the 10Ks. You're either putting in the hours and you're swimming fast in practice every day or you're not.

Ivan Puskovitch
22:20 - 22:46
But if you're not, then you're just not there. You're not going to be on these trips. The past couple of weeks, I was away with the national team competing at the World Cups in Spain and Italy, and those are two beautiful locations. It's always a pleasure traveling representing Team USA overseas, but it's always even more fun when you get to do it with the open water because we get to go to the best places and we get to swim in the most beautiful locations because you can build a pool

Ivan Puskovitch
22:46 - 23:01
anywhere, but you can't build the sea anywhere necessarily. Yeah, so it was Ibiza, Spain, and Sardinia, Italy, specifically. But we were there for two weeks. And so we obviously were competing while we were there, but there was plenty of training that had to be done as well.

Ivan Puskovitch
23:01 - 23:28
And so that requires coaches communicating with each other and trying to put together the best workout that we can all do together. Because there's limited lane space, we can't have a million different workouts going on. But that also presents the fun opportunity during training while staying locked in for the competition. You know, swim in the lanes with these people or swimming lanes next to these people that you don't get to train with you around, but you already have so much respect for because you're here on Team USA together and you both, you know that you're both working as

Ivan Puskovitch
23:28 - 23:37
hard as you can in order to be there. You get to kind of like feed off feed off of each other's energy. in a fun way during those pre-race training sessions. And it makes you both a little bit better, I think.

Ivan Puskovitch
23:37 - 24:00
It makes everybody involved a little bit better by just that extra 0.1%. And in a sport where hundreds of a second can matter, as you said, some of these 10K races, two hours long, they can come down to the touch. A lot of them do. Getting that 0.1% better just from a qualitative factor, like training with your national teammates, can make all the difference.

Ivan Puskovitch
24:00 - 24:26
You never know. And so I've never really struggled with balancing the fun or the, uh, and like the, the work side of, you know, these open water competitions with, uh, the national team, because. I try to, like, I just try to have fun with swimming at least a little bit every single day. And so when being in a new, fun, exciting, riveting environment presents itself, it's not like I'm being, Oh, well, like now I have to balance this thing.

Ivan Puskovitch
24:26 - 24:38
I haven't been like dealing with before, you know, while being locked in, you know, I've already like put in the practice and the reps of. you know, enjoying life and enjoying swimming while being very disciplined, working hard and holding myself accountable.

Summer Finke
24:39 - 24:57
No, swimming is definitely a sport, especially, you know, open water and distance swimming is very honest. Like you will jump in the water and you'll kind of immediately know, as you said, who has been putting in the work and who has been training. versus, you know, those who haven't. Like, it's going to show very honestly.

Summer Finke
24:58 - 25:33
And having that mutual respect and that underlying, you know, compassion and just camaraderie within open water is so much fun to see. especially from you know just a fan of the sport looking in like you can definitely tell even within you know you know USA Swimming deserves to highlight you guys more but even within like the posts that you do get that you guys do get like you can just see how much fun you guys have but you also know how much work you guys are putting in. And that's something that I don't swim anymore, but it definitely still inspires me to see that camaraderie.

Summer Finke
25:34 - 25:51
And I've spoke with Ashley, and I've spoken with Becca, and all of you guys have the same response. And it's not fake. You can definitely just tell the teamwork and the accountability that you guys kind of hold each other to. And it's an amazing thing to watch and to witness.

Summer Finke
25:53 - 26:05
Looking back on your experiences at Paris, what moments stand out to you kind of the most now that you've had a year or two to reflect on it? And was there anything about that experience that surprised you?

Ivan Puskovitch
26:08 - 26:29
Yeah, I mean, I would say the Olympics is full of surprises, you know, even starting with qualifying, not that I didn't think I could do it or I wasn't trying to do it. But, you know, it's one of those things where you it's just so big and you dream of it so long and there's so many moments you don't think it's going to happen. You know, it just it still comes as a surprise when it actually happens. I mean, no one steps up behind the blocks or on the open water pontoon knowing they're going to make the Olympic team, you know.

Ivan Puskovitch
26:30 - 26:56
And so it was full of surprises from the start. And, you know, I guess taking it to the actual Olympics in Paris, I think. I think a lot of people, you know, us and not us were surprised at like how many things like weren't going perfectly, you know, like logistically at the Olympics, which, you know, I would definitely say the staff tried to prepare us for you know they told set us up multiple times and said, like, hey, like we know you've been dreaming of this like picturesque perfect moment.

Ivan Puskovitch
26:56 - 27:22
your entire lives, your entire careers. But we just want you to take the rose colored, tone the rose tinted glasses down just a notch. Because with an event of this size and how many moving parts there are, there's just going to be things that slip through the cracks, short-cutted, or are going to go wrong. And I feel like I've had to be pretty flexible in my life, the entirety of it.

Ivan Puskovitch
27:23 - 27:43
with regard to like, you know, really long commutes, you know, maybe you're hitting traffic at a time, you know, like, you know, not, you know, moving around all the time, you know, growing up, like it's, and so I think that like, I didn't think too much of it and I knew I was going to be fine. So I wasn't necessarily surprised by like the things that went wrong at the Olympics. I would say that those are some of the things that stick out to me the most.

Ivan Puskovitch
27:43 - 28:07
I think that like being able to look back and say, huh, like this dining hall situation, these transportation situations, like I think I handled that like a pro, you know? And I think that like, that definitely served to benefit me in my Olympic performance. But knowing that I now already have one Olympics under my belt and that issues with dining hall and transportation and what other things were out of my control didn't stop me the first time. I don't have to even think about it or worry about it going to the second time.

Ivan Puskovitch
28:07 - 28:27
Because if things are better in those respects, then fantastic. If not, I already know I'm well equipped to handle it. And I would know that if I see my competition not handling it well, I'll give myself a little confidence boost because of that. Just feel pretty good, like, oh, these guys are in their heads because they're running out of meat here at the dining hall.

Ivan Puskovitch
28:28 - 28:46
I'm not letting that get to me, though. So I'd say some of those moments stick out the most in terms of learning moments. It would be pretty hard to pick the thing that sticks out the most. Regarding just like the fun and the whimsy of it, you know, I mean, I think that I can't like it's no one else could have experienced it except for 29 other people in the world.

Ivan Puskovitch
28:46 - 29:02
But yeah, I will say during the open water 10k race, you know, being able to pick your head up when sighting in one direction and see the Eiffel Tower like right there. That was pretty incredible. I will say, I mean, that's like I still have not watched the recording of the race. at all, I never will.

Ivan Puskovitch
29:02 - 29:39
I want my experience at my Olympic 10k debut to be exactly how I remember it for having experienced it like firsthand. And so that was a pretty like, and it's that's an image I kind of have like screenshotted in my mind, and it's going to be kind of like a motivator moving forward, you know, things that like, I didn't expect. Man, I didn't expect how like wholesome, the village was gonna be, you know, like, I think that like, we kind of get the village painted as like this, it's got two tones, it's like locked in, or it's like extremely rambunctious, you know what I mean? Like, there's like, you know, like, we've all heard the stories that kind of like, who knows what's like myth and what's reality at this point.

Ivan Puskovitch
29:40 - 30:14
But like, we've heard, we've all heard the stories about how crazy the Olympic Village can get, like as the games go on, you know, I would definitely say it got like a little emptier, for sure. I mean, granted, I did go to a post COVID Olympics, who knows what this was like in 20, pre 2021 Olympics. But The whole time though, even when it started becoming a little bit less locked in of an atmosphere in the last week of the Olympics, because most of the sports had finished up at that point, it was still just such a wholesome energy. I love talking to new people, I love talking to my competition.

Ivan Puskovitch
30:16 - 30:37
But here I am for the first time at a multi-sport event where there's going to be athletes from disciplines that I've never met before, I'm never going to have the chance to meet before. I probably wouldn't even go watch most of these sports myself. But here, you take everybody from all over the globe who's best in their respective field and you put them all in this Olympic village. There's some really cool people to meet and maybe it's just some cool things to exchange or just cool things to learn.

Ivan Puskovitch
30:37 - 30:58
Who knows? One of the best ways to actually break the ice with a lot of people was the pin trading. I wasn't expected for how fun that was going to be, the pin trading, because that was where I got to see a lot of the wholesomeness of the Olympic Village dynamic on display. It was a very pleasant surprise.

Ivan Puskovitch
30:58 - 31:20
I was able to talk and meet with so many athletes, shake hands with so many cool people. that were there for their respective nation, trade a pen, if we can communicate well enough, hear a story from each other, who knows, ask each other about our sport. But yeah, it was still a surprise nonetheless. I was sitting around in the Olympic Village for weeks waiting to compete.

Ivan Puskovitch
31:20 - 31:46
I was towards the end last time, pool swimmings in the beginning. I passed the time basically through these interactions and like, you know, frolicking around the village, having fun, trading pens, you know. And it just made it very enjoyable to have a very welcoming and wholesome vibe always outside your window while I'm waiting until, I think it was August 10th that I competed. I think I got there on July 22nd, you know.

Summer Finke
31:48 - 32:06
No, that's incredible. I think so many people go into the Olympics and it is crazy because you never know what you're going to get, whether it be the Olympics, whether it be an international competition, whether it be a national competition, whether it be practice down the road. I mean, the heaters may be broken. You never know what's going to happen.

Summer Finke
32:07 - 32:47
And a lot of people that I've talked to have said that they wish they would have soaked in the experience more. Like they were so locked in on their race that they forgot to truly just sit back and appreciate where they were and all of the hard work and the dedication that it took to get there. And so like hearing your experience, it just sounds so refreshing because it does seem like you were kind of able to, again, just still, you know, be locked in and compete and realize, OK, like I'm here representing my country, but also, you know, realizing how cool of an experience it is to just be there and to reach that pinnacle of our sport that, you know, every age group only dreams of.

Ivan Puskovitch
32:48 - 33:15
Yeah, I think that one of the things that I kind of started doing actually, like during the Olympics was because, you know, since pool was in the beginning and open water was at the end, you know, so many of the pool athletes were like, rightfully and understandably were like locked in their room, staying in the air conditioning, getting napping, eating, training, sleeping, whatever it was, you know, getting ready to race because they're racing very soon, you know. And so in the beginning, when like everybody else, everybody, everybody else on there on the team, I'm on the Olympic team with has to kind of adopt that. you know, that mentality.

Ivan Puskovitch
33:15 - 33:36
I was, I was the only one that was able to kind of like walk around and like go discover things in the village, like what stuff you could get, who you could talk to, like what sort of like little like nooks and crannies they were to like, you know, hang out in because like they had everything there. It was, it was really incredible. And so I started just like texting the group chat, like cool things that I was discovering so that, uh, you know, so when people were done racing, they just knew what to do and where to go, you know?

Ivan Puskovitch
33:36 - 33:58
Um, because like, there were some things where like, because I had had so much time before I competed, I had, I had so much time to discover like all of the things that the village had to offer. I might've missed some things, but I think that I definitely like, I was like, I'm going to milk this experience for like all that it's worth because. I mean, even if you return to the Olympics, it's still going to be a completely different experience the next time. You know, the village will be different, the city will be different, the vibe will be different, you know.

Ivan Puskovitch
33:58 - 34:30
And so, like, I never lost that, like, first time Olympian, like, whimsy, I suppose, finding myself in the village for the first time. But it certainly did not serve as a distraction, though. You know, I definitely, I mean, I was very, very much able to balance milking all of my olympic experience for what it was worth on like that uh in like those um tertiary areas um with like the full-on training i mean i remember i was having some of the best workouts in my life while i'm having all this fun in the village and i think that that was part of the reason why you know it's like i'm having this i mean i feel like i'm on cloud nine the whole time experiencing all these things i

Ivan Puskovitch
34:30 - 34:46
couldn't have ever expected you know Um, and the Olympic village, my own Olympic village. And then I take, go up to get on a bus later to go train at the 1924 Olympic pool. You know, like it was just like, I was like, I couldn't believe I was living in reality, you know, like, like everything was just going. Everything was just so fun, you know, back to your thing.

Ivan Puskovitch
34:46 - 34:50
I'm like balancing fun and work, like even getting on the bus to go to the pool was fun.

Summer Finke
34:51 - 35:15
Yeah. No, it sounds like you kind of became team USA or at least like team USA swimming is a little like Olympic village travel guide with all of a little bit, I think. Yeah. You know, open water, we've talked about it, it requires strategy, adaptability, and a lot of patience in ways that fans might not fully understand if they're just looking at the sport from the outside.

Summer Finke
35:15 - 35:25
When you approach a 10K, what is going through your head throughout the different stages of the competition? So like pre-race, during the race, the final stretch, and then after the race?

Ivan Puskovitch
35:26 - 35:39
Yeah, so pre-race, I mean, like, I got a routine. Like I definitely have a routine that has flexible moments because you know, every place is going to be different. Every race timeline is going to be a little different. There's going to be things you can't account for even sometimes.

Ivan Puskovitch
35:40 - 36:06
Um, but I try to stick to a routine, you know, and so that entails like my good, like online physical warmup that I do before the race. You know, I kind of have like a, I always, it starts the night before, like I'm so, I'm so, uh, OCD with like packing my race bag the night before, you know, like, like, like, after the I usually only swim once in the morning, the day before 10k. And as soon as I get back, if I got to shave, I get out of the way and then I pack up my bag. It could be noon.

Ivan Puskovitch
36:07 - 36:20
I can pack up my bag for the race the next day. Cause I'm like, I need everything in exactly the right place that I need. I know where it is. You know, so I could like pull from everything that I need, like as efficiently as possible because it can be a little chaotic and like the ready rooms for the, for these open water tent case.

Ivan Puskovitch
36:20 - 36:29
Cause everyone's essentially under a tent and you've got people changing into tech suits. You've got a million different languages being spoken. You've got coaches taking care of athletes, massage tables. Like it's just, it's just mayhem.

Ivan Puskovitch
36:30 - 37:03
And so I really want to make sure that I'm going to be I'm going to be a much lower risk of deviating from like a locked in headspace because I'm getting distracted or stress over my belongings. If I just like absolutely take care of that to a T as in advance. And so like, So all of those things, they sound so small, but they actually open up so much room cognitively for me to prepare and really focus on getting locked in for what's about to take place, which is a six round, 10K open water race at incredible... Yeah, six round isn't six loop, but a six loop, 10K.

Ivan Puskovitch
37:04 - 37:10
incredibly fast open water race. Conditions are going to be cold. Maybe they're going to be crazy like they were in Spain. It was super wavy in Spain.

Summer Finke
37:11 - 37:12
The videos.

Ivan Puskovitch
37:13 - 37:39
Yeah, it was chaos. Or it'll be relaxed, but you're still going to be dealing with getting elbowed in the face or something. Before the race, it's just about trying to control the controllables, eliminate as many things out of my control that I can, because I want to be able to drink my fluids on the timeline I want to, because you've got to hydrate so much before the race. I want to be able to go to race check-in where I can get my numbers, get my GPS transponders.

Ivan Puskovitch
37:39 - 37:42
I want to be able to do that early, fast, and get it out of the way.

Summer Finke
37:43 - 37:49
I've got to be able to do my drylands warm-up routine, because I don't warm up in the pool or in the sea before an open water race.

Ivan Puskovitch
37:51 - 38:27
I think a lot of people don't, um, but I just got kind of an onland routine that I do kind of get the blood flowing a little bit and then get out and just start the race from scratch. Um, and, uh, I'm just kind of listening to music while I'm doing that the whole time, you know, just trying to like, stay like locked in, get hyped, you know, like, uh, less than like good music, speak to the soul and like, kind of like reverberate within me, you know, get psyched, just give me that like little extra, you know, getting into the, uh, getting into the pre-race environment. Um, And then we got to go to the technical meeting where they explain the course one last time, maybe any changes.

Ivan Puskovitch
38:27 - 38:46
They talk about the rules, general safety, precautions, all of this. And then you're getting called out one by one after that to start the race. And sometimes they have the camera going at the international races. So I always try to smile at the camera, do something a little funny, just because it kind of keeps me a little loose while I'm extremely focused.

Ivan Puskovitch
38:47 - 39:15
Because I don't want to just sit there and get too tense, like turn to stone. you know, I think, you know, when you swim relaxed, you swim fast, you know, and so you can be focused, but relaxed. And then you're all just kind of like jostling for position with each other, like on the star pontoon, you all have a specific number to start on for these international races. And so it's like organized chaos, in a sense, because it's not like there's, it's like kind of like you're sitting on the airplane, you know, like you're kind of bumped, bumping shoulders with the person next to you.

Ivan Puskovitch
39:15 - 39:41
It's exactly like that for the open water race. And so you're kind of just like, it's really hard to take you to exactly what's in my headspace during that those moments, because It's kind of like everything and nothing all at once, you know? And then when you start the race, it kind of just like all goes quiet for a second for me, which is crazy because it's the most chaotic part of the race. You know, you dive in, there's a bunch of splashing, a lot more elbows and, you know, fists accidentally getting taken to like the ribs or the face than at any other point of the race.

Ivan Puskovitch
39:41 - 39:55
Cause you know, there were 90 plus athletes at these last two races I just did internationally. So you got 90 people all dive in and try to converge into like the fastest point. It's just like, it's extremely chaotic. But it's just like a, it's just silence.

Ivan Puskovitch
39:55 - 40:05
You know what I mean? It's kind of like you can just like, there's some movie scenes where you just like, everything goes quiet. And like the main character just hears their heartbeat, you know? Yeah, I'm not saying I can hear my heartbeat, but like, it goes quiet, kind of like that, you know?

Ivan Puskovitch
40:05 - 40:18
And then it just kind of flies by. I mean, the first lap just goes by so quick. I mean, like, you know, you kind of talk and think about your feeding strategy before every race, I think, you know, like, what laps are the most important here? What are the conditions warranting here?

Ivan Puskovitch
40:18 - 40:32
Hotter water or colder water? That's a really big, big factor to account for, I think, with feeding. But I'm very much just locked in in the present moment. One stroke at a time, I'm racing one person at a time.

Ivan Puskovitch
40:33 - 40:43
The only next to one or two people at once. You're in a race of 90 people, but what's going to be a little bit more easier to mentally bite off? Oh, I've got to beat 95 people. I got to beat these two.

Ivan Puskovitch
40:44 - 40:50
No, no, I got to beat this guy who's next to me again. Oh, no, I'll just keep moving up and just beat one at a time, you know? Yeah. One lap at a time.

Ivan Puskovitch
40:50 - 41:03
It's six laps. Six doesn't sound that much, but the first lap flies by. I would say the second lap generally feels a lot slower. Not because we're moving that much slower if at all, but just because that initial adrenaline is now like kind of subsided a little bit, you know, like there's definitely an adrenaline.

Ivan Puskovitch
41:04 - 41:29
Um, what's the word? Like the, uh, I'm trying to think of that diagram where it's like the rising action, the climax, the falling action, the story pyramid or something. Adrenaline has its own story timeline, basically, during an open water race. A lot of the beginning subsides a bit, bits and pieces of it throughout it, things like turns or critical positioning moments, and then obviously the end, you're trying to get all your adrenaline up again.

Ivan Puskovitch
41:33 - 41:51
You have to focus on it one stroke at a time, in my opinion, in order to succeed in a race that's thousands of strokes, like the 10K. It's probably over 10,000 strokes. I would be curious to actually sit down and do the math, because I will certainly never count my strokes in a water race. It would be interesting to know.

Ivan Puskovitch
41:51 - 42:03
And it just kind of flies by. And then there's moments where you're thinking a little bit more, but it's always strategically and tactically. If you're in the race, in the pack, you're not really thinking about, oh, I'm hurting so much, or oh, I'm so cold. You're more thinking, how can I pass this guy?

Ivan Puskovitch
42:03 - 42:17
How can I get on that side of the pack, even? Because the feeding dock is a better line there, or it's an inside of the turn. You're thinking very tactically and strategically, I would say. Other than that, in those moments, I certainly like to kind of have a bit of a zen, just feeling the water.

Ivan Puskovitch
42:18 - 42:37
I mean, open water is very like, primal and like it can be aggressive and violent when during like moments where everyone's on top of each other but at the end of the day we're still trying to swim you know and so I kind of have this joke that I'll say where it's like in the battle of man versus water, water is undefeated. It's never lost. If you're fighting the water, you're just never going to win.

Ivan Puskovitch
42:38 - 42:52
And so that's why I would always frustrate us when we're young swimmers and we're having a bad day at practice and you're all frustrated and you're fighting the water and your coach says, just relax, lengthen it out, long swimming. And you're like, how is that going to help me swim faster? I'm spinning my arms as fast as I can right now. I'm kicking as hard as I can.

Ivan Puskovitch
42:53 - 43:15
But you're just creating a whole bunch of mess, you know. And if open water, that's exactly the same case, you know, depending on conditions could be even more important. And so I'm kind of trying to exist in this like Zen state where I have this like loping galloping stroke, because I breathe to just one side on my right. And I'm trying to love the water with every stroke.

Ivan Puskovitch
43:15 - 43:31
Really feel it and just savor every stroke. Because I also would want to savor the moment during the races as well. I mean, when you get to swim in such beautiful locations, you just look around you and you just see crystal clear water. You're out in the middle of the sea, just like, how does this get better?

Ivan Puskovitch
43:32 - 44:09
And so I'm savoring that as well, while I'm savoring the actual act of competing and racing. And then after the race, I'd say mine is pretty blank, pretty initially, you know, you just, when you hit the finishing pad, I mean, you're just so like at your, at your wits end, essentially, like you just brought yourself to the brink of exhaustion. I mean, did a whole marathon swim at the fastest intensity of any, you know, any open water swimming in the, in the world. And, um, you know, and, you know, maybe there's like qualification implications for certain races, you know, you'll start thinking about those first and foremost, I would say, um, when you start actually having thoughts, but, um, I'm kind of just like on autopilot getting out of the water, getting

Ivan Puskovitch
44:09 - 44:32
my transponders cut off, you know, looking for my coach, you know, and then, um, you know, when you're thinking when things went great in the race, obviously you're on cloud nine, like everything went perfect. Like I executed it perfectly. But when you come up just short or, you know, really short of what you were aiming for, you know, it can be kind of like, I wouldn't say like disheartening, but like, uh, you're still very, like, you're very even, you're very even after the race. You know, the good thing is that when you swim 10 K, like.

Ivan Puskovitch
44:33 - 44:52
you still swim 10k. I mean, you still have something to feel great about, you know, like, you can't just like, you can show up for the two free and if you don't want to do it, you can just swim really slow. And you know, you'll add 20 seconds, but it's two minutes a day, you know, like open water. It's like, Oh, if you just like if you just hit a rough race, but you like finished, you know, it's like, man, that was two hours of hell.

Ivan Puskovitch
44:52 - 45:16
But like, I'm still kind of a champ in my own right. That's still kind of a superhuman feat of endurance that I put on display there, even if it's a little less superhuman than what I was looking for. That kind of timeline, that flurry of those thoughts, I would say, just leading up to an open water race.

Summer Finke
45:16 - 45:33
That's incredible. Again, just hearing what goes into it from the night before to the morning of to diving off of the platform. Sometimes I know they have running starts, which are also just chaotic in itself, having swimmers run into the water. Especially when we're not really good runners.

Summer Finke
45:33 - 45:51
Yeah, most of the time you see at least one or two people just fall, and I'm like, that would definitely be me, but to each their own. But just hearing your timeline, and there is so much preparation that goes into such a long race. It's not only the race itself, it's all of those moments that come before it. all of those moments that also come after it.

Summer Finke
45:51 - 46:05
I can't imagine having those thoughts finally return. Because when you finish a 10K, you're exhausted. You're just trying to stand and get your feet back. Because you've been like this for two hours.

Summer Finke
46:05 - 46:11
I can't imagine even trying to get your feet back underneath of you and become a human again. It's funny you say that.

Ivan Puskovitch
46:11 - 46:36
Because I would say, even after the best races, I had a really good nationals this year. those races you know you're still finishing you are still wobbly legged and just like trying to like get your bearings to get your wits about you you know like just because you won doesn't mean you don't need a water at the end of the finish line you know give everyone a water please exactly like that they usually usually you've got somebody handing out water or Gatorade at nationals you know it's usually some kid it's like really nice um but the uh

Summer Finke
46:37 - 47:08
it's like you are not immune to that like whether you got 40th or first you know like it you know your mind's gonna be just blank on survival mode afterwards no matter what yeah no it's incredible and you know speaking of this past year like you won the 10k the 5k and the 3k knockout you recently just qualified for the pan-pacific championships to represent team usa What excites you the most about all of those accomplishments and also representing the United States again in that team environment?

Ivan Puskovitch
47:09 - 47:24
Yeah, well, Nationals was a huge success. I mean, it was a lot of fun across the board. I mean, as nonchalant as this sounds, that's not how it's supposed to be. It's just kind of how it is, though.

Ivan Puskovitch
47:26 - 47:41
That is kind of what I went to Nationals to do. I wasn't thinking about the 3K knockout or the 5K before the 10K. The 10K was the most important because that's the PanPac selection event. But just to even focus on the 10K specifically, I went there to win the race.

Ivan Puskovitch
47:41 - 47:58
That doesn't mean that it was going to be a guarantee at all because I got some incredible competition, some very, very hard working. you know, disciplined country mates. But my goal is to win an Olympic medal in 2028. And so to do that, you probably got to be your national champion, you know, and here we are two years out.

Ivan Puskovitch
47:58 - 48:13
I mean, we got, you know, I think I'm on the outside of the medals poking in, you know, I feel that breakthrough coming very soon. And so it was very easy to be feel very accomplished and very proud after winning the 10k and then all the other races at nationals as well.

Summer Finke
48:14 - 48:14
But

Ivan Puskovitch
48:15 - 48:31
When it came time to get on the plane and come back, I mean, it was already in the rearview mirror. We as in me and my coach. And because we were on the same page, we both thought, you know, this is great and we got to feel good about it. But we were, we wanted this, you know, like we would have been mentally preparing for this.

Summer Finke
48:31 - 48:33
We've been visualizing this.

Ivan Puskovitch
48:34 - 48:51
And so it was just like, we're on the right, we're on the path, you know, like what's, you know, that Kobe Bryant video where it's like, job's not finished, you know, like it's kind of like that, you know. Because we were like, well, PanPac selection still has to be secured. That's a multi-step process. And also the Olympics are two years away.

Ivan Puskovitch
48:51 - 49:21
I mean, every day needs to be taken advantage of in order to make the leap that we're trying to with our results. So it felt great. And I was really honored to do it in such dominant fashion. We have moved on by the end of the Nationals, and we're moving on to those two World Cups, which I've mentioned previously, in Spain and Italy, because those are going to be the races that we're going to finalize the Pan-Pacific team for Team USA, because the pool team

Ivan Puskovitch
49:21 - 49:36
has already been selected, but we were waiting for the open water selection to come through. There's going to be four men and four women. huge honor to have made that team. I mean, really, something I always say is it's never a bad day to represent Team USA, especially on the day you're selected.

Ivan Puskovitch
49:36 - 49:49
It's a great day. And so even after the Olympics, even after multiple world championships, it still doesn't get old. I mean, when you still get that email saying, hey, you've been selected for this competition, would you like to accept a decline? I mean, it still is very humbling.

Ivan Puskovitch
49:50 - 50:02
It still makes me smile. It's like, Because it doesn't matter if you're winning your nationals, all three races, or if you're the last person named to the national team. I mean, it's an honor to get the Team USA email. And I really live by that.

Ivan Puskovitch
50:02 - 50:26
I draw a lot of my motivation and pride from competition from representing Team USA and just representing my country as a whole. And having never been to a PANPAC competition either, very excited for that as well. It'll be a first time, which is cool. Um, because they haven't done it since 2018, you know, uh, you know, they had to scrap the last one because of COVID.

Ivan Puskovitch
50:26 - 50:48
It just was not a priority when they're trying to reschedule the Olympics and worlds and everything else. Um, so. It'll be the first time that we've held this event in almost 10 years and we're hosting too. So that's, that's the part I'm looking the most forward to actually, not only as team USA hosting, but we're hosting in Southern California, uh, which is, you know, That's where the Olympics are, obviously.

Ivan Puskovitch
50:49 - 51:11
And so I'm hoping, we're going to be racing in the Marine Stadium for the open water event. I'm hoping that, you know, we don't know if that's going to be the Olympic venue, basically. I think that it's between a couple spots right now. I think that is one of the ones in there, but either way, whether we get to race in the actual Olympic venue or not, it'll still be a great opportunity to race on home soil and practice before the Olympic games.

Ivan Puskovitch
51:11 - 51:39
And that's going to go for the pool and, the open water team, you know, I mean, essentially, I'm calling it a dress rehearsal. Like, we're like, we're obviously we will pan packs, we really have historically dominated this competition, as team USA, we want to keep that, keep that rolling. And it's kind of going to be a great, it's gonna be a great dress rehearsal for a water team to race an open water on home soil in front of a home crowd, but also for the pool team to do a major international level competition competition leading up to Olympic trials.

Ivan Puskovitch
51:39 - 51:56
Sure, Olympic trials won't be in Los Angeles. But You know, for people who are on this PANPAC team, some of them are Olympians, some of them are people who, you know, maybe haven't gone to trials yet or, you know, went to trials once, but they weren't competitive. So it was a totally different experience than going and being competitive to make the Olympic team. So it's just a dress rehearsal across the board.

Ivan Puskovitch
51:56 - 52:27
I'm really excited for that. And I just kind of view it as just like another, like, taking the plan for, like, things that we need to do to, you know, achieve what we want in two years at the Los Angeles Olympics. I think that I definitely did leave, despite earning my PanPak selection. I definitely did leave the World Cups a bit dissatisfied, a bit underwhelmed, because I'd done well, and I'd achieved good results, and of course I got the job done, being selected for PanPaks, but you know, just with how high I'm shooting in the long term for my career,

Ivan Puskovitch
52:27 - 52:49
you know, it's really easy to just want more, and want another leap, want a bigger leap, you know. So we've we've come back from these World Cups, you know, very humbled, very proud of where we're at, proud of what we've accomplished, but also humbled by the by the realization that like, OK, like we still do have like a lot more to do. You know, we have the time for that because we're going to start because we're going to keep it. We're going to keep the train going right now.

Ivan Puskovitch
52:49 - 52:57
And just, you know, same thing. I mean, those World Cups now they're in the rearview mirror. We're looking ahead forward. I'm going to do one more World Cup race before Panpax.

Ivan Puskovitch
52:57 - 53:05
It'll be another great 10K international opportunity before we come back home. We get the job done at Panpax in August.

Summer Finke
53:06 - 53:54
It's incredible hearing your mindset around everything, how proud and you say getting that Team USA email, it always just gives me goosebumps because as you said, that's a huge accomplishment no matter how long you've been in the sport to get that email and to hit accept like it's just such a feeling of you know relief and accomplishment but also knowing what you're capable of and knowing that you're capable of so much more is only going to you know push that forward and compete at those higher levels so having that balance between being proud But knowing that you can do so much more is such an exciting feeling to be able to then, you know, go to pan packs and put that on display and treat it as a dress rehearsal for the Olympics and all of the goals that you have coming up. Like, it's an incredible mindset to have, and it's only going to push you forward.

Summer Finke
53:55 - 54:09
Open water, or to many young swimmers, trusting the process can be extremely difficult. Swimming is not a straight line. It doesn't just increase like this. I wish it did, but it comes and it goes, and sometimes it takes years.

Summer Finke
54:10 - 54:17
So what advice do you have for age group swimmers who feel like they need that immediate success to stay motivated?

Ivan Puskovitch
54:19 - 54:28
I'd say two things. One is kind of what I said earlier. Like if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right. You know, I mean, you're going to have to find, you have to find some fun outside of going to best time.

Ivan Puskovitch
54:29 - 54:43
You have to find some fun outside of getting a cut. It's a, cause that, that's, what's going to keep you in it for the long haul anyway. That's what keeps anybody in it for the long haul. And then the other thing is, it's kind of one of my mantras, my personal mantras, and it's, you know, persevere and you will succeed.

Ivan Puskovitch
54:43 - 54:51
And, you know, like you just said it perfectly, swimming is not a straight line. Like it does ebb and flow here and there. And it's just non-negotiable. It's a non-negotiable part of the process for any and every swimmer.

Ivan Puskovitch
54:51 - 55:13
I know I've certainly had my valleys after some of the highest peaks. But at the end of the day, it's the end destination though like that like you persevere and you will succeed you will reach that end destination whatever you've said that whatever you identify as that for yourself. I think that a. We live in this era of instant gratification.

Ivan Puskovitch
55:14 - 55:18
People want to be good. People want good things. They want it now. But swimming is not like that.

Ivan Puskovitch
55:18 - 55:26
No skill really is like that in general. What skill is really worth learning if you can just pick it up in a day? It's not a skill at that point. It's a cool little trick.

Ivan Puskovitch
55:27 - 55:45
These are skills that we're trying to hone here. In the case of swimming, it takes days, months, weeks, years to see any amount of improvement. And there is also the law of diminishing returns to account for as well. I mean, the better you get at something, the harder you're going to have to work to get even less better than you just got.

Ivan Puskovitch
55:47 - 56:11
That's what can drive people insane a little bit. If you have fun, and if you persevere, and if you just stay disciplined, and if you trust your coach, it will work out. The dots will connect themselves. I've had some very low moments in my career, but I focus on the fact, OK, I need to rediscover, or I need to preserve my love for the sport right now in order to find a way to the other side here.

Ivan Puskovitch
56:13 - 56:41
And doing that in a persevering fashion is going to make sure I get there. And then I ended up getting my goal in the end, you know, and it's, you know, of course, there's a whole lot that goes on in between, in between those things as well. But like, still, it's a huge critical step of the process, because, you know, something that I think, you know, not a lot of people know is that, you know, less than two years before the Olympics, the two years before the Olympics, I almost quit the sport or something. And I saw like, I was swimming terribly, I had achieved so much when I was younger, I was down in the dumps.

Ivan Puskovitch
56:42 - 57:00
And you know, while swimming in college was not getting results I wanted. It was no longer a competitive name in the sport. I was a fine swimmer, but I wasn't doing, I was not near my ceiling, what I thought my ceiling was. And I was kind of faced with the crossroads of, all right, do I give it another try somewhere else, or do I quit?

Ivan Puskovitch
57:00 - 57:09
Am I done? Am I retiring? Do I call myself retired, even though I never even made it pro? And I decided, OK, I'm going to give it one more try.

Ivan Puskovitch
57:09 - 57:35
I know how much I've loved this sport in the past, because that's something I was really struggling with at the time. I'm going to find a new coach, I'm going to find a new team, I'm going to find a new training philosophy that I think is that we're going to be able to do the first thing necessary in order to be great again, which is fall in love with the sport of swimming again, enjoy going to practice, have fun swimming laps. by taking that box first and then starting to really think about national teams, Olympic teams, World Championship teams, so on and so forth.

Ivan Puskovitch
57:36 - 57:47
It made those bigger things a lot more manageable, and it made them just kind of come more naturally as well, because we took care of the easy things first. I mean, love in the sport should be easy, whether you go best time or whether you add a second.

Summer Finke
57:48 - 58:18
Yeah, it should be, but it like, there's always, there's always a time I feel like in, in anyone's swimming career where you kind of lose sight of why you started and it's like, okay, well, why did, you know, five-year-old Ivan start swimming? He started swimming because he loved it. And then all of the success, you know, eventually piled on from there, but, you know, taking yourself back to your roots and finding the coaches that work for you. I mean, not every coach is for every swimmer and that's okay.

Summer Finke
58:18 - 58:41
But, you know, changing the environment, finding what works for you, falling in love with the sport, like you will have hard days. It's inevitable, inevitable, whether it's in swimming or whether it's in life. But as you said, persevering is so important because then you're just going to leave with those, well, what ifs? Like, I knew that I could accomplish this, but, you know, I quit on myself and, you know, it's never a good feeling to have, you know, those thoughts.

Summer Finke
58:41 - 58:48
So just, as you said, falling in love with the sport and taking a step back to then propel you forward is so important.

Ivan Puskovitch
58:50 - 58:51
Yeah, absolutely.

Summer Finke
58:51 - 59:07
Open water swimming, it's grown a lot in visibility. I would say in the U.S. over the past few years, we've spoken it still has such a long way to go. So in your opinion, where do you think the sport is headed and what would you like to see happen to help it continue to grow domestically?

Ivan Puskovitch
59:07 - 59:23
Where do I see the sport headed? I mean, I think that we've seen it only grow, you know, and I think that it's with every Olympic Games it grows. I think that there were all these issues surrounding the Olympic Games with the open water race in Paris. But one thing it definitely did draw was a lot of attention.

Ivan Puskovitch
59:24 - 59:37
It brought a lot more eyes to the sport. It was very cool to take part in the most viewed open water race in history. So that made it very exciting. It's been growing.

Ivan Puskovitch
59:37 - 1:00:00
And so I think that that's exactly the direction that we're going to continue to head. I mean, I think that one thing that I see, especially when I compete overseas, is just like, you know, how much further ahead a lot of the European nations are with their love for open water. And they're just like, you know, embracing of it because they put on some incredibly elite and well put together events. You know, like it's like the World's Cups are always a joy, always a pleasure.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:00:00 - 1:00:25
Like the community, like the event organizers and the federations take it very seriously. And then the greater community loves open water swimming because of it, you know. And so I just think I'm always reminded when I go to these open water races internationally, I'm like, wow, like the ceiling for the sport at the Olympic level has just not been reached yet. And I just mean in terms of like, how much it's out it's reach, you know, like, certainly like physically, like, athletically, it's certainly reaching optimization, you know.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:00:26 - 1:00:37
But with regard to like actual like audience engagement, just reach up the sport. I was like, we have not even seen the ceiling here. Like, like, and I think that that's a huge thing that like World Aquatics, for example, is very aware of. I mean, like, they love pumping out water content.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:00:37 - 1:01:03
It's not like the redheaded. stepbrother getting no attention off in the corner, whereas it has sometimes felt like that in swimming in the United States. World Aquatics, they're putting out a lot of content, more than some other sports that they host as well, like diving, for example, which I respect all the divers, but I'm happy to see some open water love from World Aquatics. And so I think that it's going to grow globally.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:01:04 - 1:01:26
I want to see it grow domestically as well. On top of that, in conjunction, there's a couple intangible areas that we have to catch up with, with regard to the countries that have really taken it and embraced it more earlier on after the 2008. But the pieces are there, and we can certainly do it. And why not join the momentum of the growth of the sport that's taking place all over the world?

Ivan Puskovitch
1:01:27 - 1:02:00
I think there's a ton of practical things that I would like to see done differently with regard to the open water approach. in competitive with a competitive open water swimming approach for like age group summers and yeah you know at the senior level like in the United States. But I think that just to kind of boil it down to like one thing that I think you know, just generally one thing that I think would be very good if it took place in the United States to help with the growth of open water domestically is just present more races, just have more races, you know, at the senior and at the junior level, you know, and I don't mean like too many, but I mean like, you know, maybe one more race, one or two more open water races at the senior level.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:02:00 - 1:02:26
That's kind of like a pro series level, you know, like we have like the pro series stops, you have the, you know, the pool world cup stops, which we've hosted in America. So it's like, you can find one more open water race at another time of the year. At like a pro series level, you know, and then also host more like, um, I don't know, like LSC and like zone type, um, open water races for age group summers, you know, because like, that's actually where I did my first water races. Thankfully, the Eastern zone has always had a great open water zones.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:02:26 - 1:02:51
Um, and, uh, in 2011, that's where I did it for the first time. You know, when I was 10 years old, I would not have been exposed to a formal water race for God knows how long, if, uh, if I hadn't, if Eastern zone of water swimming hadn't had that, obviously other parts of the country. It's much less of a priority, though. I think just getting more racing under the belt of people across all levels is going to really allow U.S. swimming to organically take part in the growth that's taking place with open water swimming.

Summer Finke
1:02:52 - 1:03:17
Absolutely. Exposure is huge. It's where you develop that fundamental love for the sport before, as you said, you put in those years of hard work, you have that fundamentals. as you said, not just at the age group level, not just at the senior level, but everywhere, like it would be cool to have, you know, college coaches kind of jump on this bandwagon and take their distance summers or even their, you know, tuner freestylers, like who knows,

Summer Finke
1:03:17 - 1:03:34
to more open water races, like, have more competitions, have more people compete, and just have more coaches kind of respect open water in its own capacity. Like, we can grow it so much and we can grow it quickly if we could just get more people exposed to it.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:03:35 - 1:04:00
I think you just hit the nail on the head right there, bringing up the coaches. I mean, I think that the increasing race opportunities will not only directly help the athletes by making them aware of more race opportunities, whether they're a teenager, 10 and under, college kid, you know. But it would also indirectly be increasing the awareness of coaches as well, because there are some coaches out there that don't know about open water nationals, or don't know when it is on the calendar, or don't know about open water zones, regardless of where they are in the country, you know.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:04:01 - 1:04:16
And so it's kind of, we've got a problem on both respects. We've got a two-front problem there, you know. You've got athletes who are their job is to work hard, swim fast, and go compete. It's not like their job is to be hunting down every single open water race or race in general.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:04:16 - 1:04:30
That's what your team, that's what your coach is there for. It's like, okay, here's the race calendar, here's all these meets that we're supposed to go to. And so just more races, more events. It would just spread the word of Open Water more, put it on more people's calendar.

Summer Finke
1:04:30 - 1:04:48
Back to the basics. Just one last question for you. I could pick your brain forever about Open Water. When your competitive career is eventually over in the far, far future, what do you hope people remember the most about you as an athlete and teammate outside of the water?

Ivan Puskovitch
1:04:51 - 1:05:15
I want them to remember that he persevered and he succeeded. That's what I want. Because, you know, I mean, it's so easy when you're looking at the athletes at the highest level to just like, think of that, think of their life, their experience as an athlete, like in a vacuum, you know, but we all know, having done sports or support and families of people who've done sports that like, there's just like, like everything in your day, everything in your life impacts what's going on.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:05:16 - 1:05:23
when you are trying to pursue anything and be great. It'll affect your day at school. It'll affect your day at swim practice. It'll affect your day at church if your family goes to church on Sundays.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:05:23 - 1:05:44
It's just going to affect the energy with which you're able to collect to bring to events, to bring to things where you're pursuing excellence. And as like anybody else in this world, I've certainly had my own challenges out of the water that have made it harder. But I always tried to persevere and succeed in the face of them. And I would definitely want people to remember that.

Summer Finke
1:05:45 - 1:06:22
Yeah, well, I think you're definitely well on your way if not already accomplished that already. So it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you and learning about your experiences all the way from five years old and 10 years old competing in your first open water swim to where you're continuing to take the sport. I think you're doing so much to help open water swimming in the United States and helping expose these age groupers and even these college swimmers to what they can potentially achieve. And so I'm very excited to, you know, follow your path and see PANPACS and, you know, the 2028 Olympic Games.

Summer Finke
1:06:22 - 1:06:24
Very excited for your future in the sport.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:06:26 - 1:06:38
Thanks again for having me. I'm happy to talk about my swimming and talk about a lot of the things that go on behind the scenes with it. Definitely PANPACS is the next big thing on the calendar. So One thing to say, though, is that it is August 10th for the open water race.

Ivan Puskovitch
1:06:38 - 1:06:51
Free admission, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure anybody can come watch. So anybody who finds themselves in the Southern California area at that time should definitely come and watch the 10-pack 10K. It'll be like an Olympic preview, in a sense.

Summer Finke
1:06:51 - 1:06:58
No, 100%. We'll have everyone out there to support. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it out there. That would be amazing.

Summer Finke
1:06:58 - 1:07:25
Just watch everybody swim. Well guys, I hope that you enjoyed this conversation just as much as I did. It was so much fun learning about Ivan's history in the sport and again, where he is taking open water swimming to give it that visibility that it truly needs. Now, if you would like to follow Ivan, I am going to list all of his social media handles here and also put them in the description below.

Summer Finke
1:07:25 - 1:07:44
As always, this podcast would not be possible without the International Swim Coaches Association and also Swimming World Magazine. If you liked this week's episode, give us a like, follow, shout us out. I'm going to put all of our social media handles here and also link them in the description below. So with that, I'll catch you guys next time.