Anna Peplowski Uses Patience to Reach Team USA Once Again
Patience is a difficult virtue to master, especially for swimmers. But it can be pivotal.
Patience to know when to make a move in a race. Patience to know how to get through a long meet.
For Anna Peplowski, it was patience having to wait three days for a swim-off.
“I definitely had to stay really chill this week knowing there was going to be a swim-off.
I just tried to stay mentally present. Having three days between my swim and the swim-off was kind of challenging,” Anna Peplowski said.
She rose to the challenge, swimming a 1:55.70 in the 200 free swim-off, better than she swam in the finals and she moved to No. 6 in the world rankings. But she didn’t win the swim-off as Erin Gemmell also bettered her time and went a 1:55.23.
Both made the team, though it might mean the difference between swimming the prelims or finals of the 800 free relay.
But knowing she had a spot on the team helped her with that patience.
“I think with our situation, we both were going to make the worlds team, which was different. We weren’t fighting for a worlds spot. It relieved a little bit of pressure, but at the same time, when it is a head-to-head swim-off, you want to get your hand on the wall first,” Anna Peplowski said. “I felt like I did really good. I have been waiting to push through this 1:56-1:57 area in the 200 freestyle and have been having a lot of confidence in my training recently. I have been switching some things up with long-course training and a great NCAA season.”
Once it got to the week, it was about the mental game, especially with the three-day wait.
“I have been trying to stay mentally present, and being mentally sharp is what is most important and that is what carried me through this meet,” she said. “Coming off of graduating college, transitioning to this pro life is off to a good start. I am excited.”
Peplowski, who made the Olympic team last year on the same relay, is hoping to use that experience to help the team in Singapore.
“It means so much. I love every opportunity I get to be in Team USA. It is really inspiring to watch everyone come to this meet and swim fast,” Anna Peplowski said. “I am looking forward to having a great time on that relay with those girls. That whole field with five girls being 1:55 in that final is really inspiring and I think that relay is capable of so much, if not more than we think.
“With those girls, especially Katie Ledecky, they are so inspiring inside the pool and outside the pool. Being on those trips with them have been pretty great and once that relay rolls around, we are all ready to go to have each other’s back.”
