After watching the (belated) 2020 Olympic & Paralympic Summer Games in Tokyo earlier this year, it was hard to miss the sheer number of Australian (and QUT Athletes) making an impression on the world’s greatest stage.
One such swimmer and OlympianisJack McLoughlin, who won a Silver Medal in the men’s 400MetreFreestyle in Tokyo. Heis one of the manyQUT elite athletes who not only highlighted ouruni’selite athlete program, but the outstanding achievements young Aussie athletes are making while also managing to study!
Ichatted withJackabout his training, post-Olympics reflections, and how he manages a healthy work, life and study balance in one of the most competitive sports in Australia – let alone the world.
Here are some of the key lessons I learned from talking to Jack about living a competitive lifestyle while juggling university and career aspirations.
FindYourBalance:
After talking to Jack, the first thing I thought was, “damn, this is a person who has truly mastered the art of time management.” He refers to this skill as a triangle, balancing training, study and social life equally.
It’s not something I personally considered when it came to time management and performing at my best academically; picturing it as learning the art of balance has been quite eye-opening and a fresh new perspective on approaching my study, career goals,and social life.
Pick Your Battles
Another lesson I learned from Jack was that even elite athletes pick their battles. In Jack’s case, it more specifically referred toprioritisingmedalingin the 400m free rather than putting all his eggs in one basket with 1500m freestyles races.
It’s not a matter of whether or not he could do well in 1500m–he knows he probably could,but was selective and strategic about balancing and putting the right amount of time, effort,and training into a race where he knew for sure hecouldget amedal.
I relate to this a lot but in a more academic than competitive sense. I’m one of those people who often doesn’t know when to say no to projects and tries to put 100% into every assessment. If I picked my battles better, I’d be a lotprouderof my results in the future.
PlanYour Rest
Something that stood out a lot to me was how Jack talked about rest being an integral part of his training as an athlete and a factor when coming back from the Olympics. It wasn’tjust jumping straight back into study or training again.
We probably can’t expect theunito start granting us extensions for rest days, but we can schedule time for it ourselves. I know, easier said than done.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s safe to assume the average, non-Olympic, student probably spends a lot of sleepless nights studying, working,and crashing after exams or assessments. For Jack, this just isn’t the case; he has a regimen for every facet of his life and planning essential rest is a big part of that routine.
Chatting to Jack was a fantastic experience;these are just a few of the anecdotes that stood out to me. Jack is not only anoutstandingathlete but also a humble and inspiring person when it comes tolife andstudy.
The Glass team and I extend a massive congratulations to Jack and all our QUT Athletes, who we were lucky enough to have represented Australia and our University on a global stage.
If you’d like to find out more specific reflections and insights from Jack, check out the full interviewtranscript.
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FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
CS:How long have you been studying at QUT for now in Engineering and what field do youspecialisein? Did you always know you wanted to do engineering in that area or was it something you needed to figure out?
JM:“I studya combination of civil and structural – I’m leaning more towards the construction industry for future jobs so I’ve started doing a combination of both.
I’ve been studying since 2014, so quite a while.I just do part-time,with swimmingwhichtakes up about 35-40 hours of intense training a week,so it’spretty much a full-time job.
To do full time studying and swimming, the people who do that are phenomenal, I don’t know how they do it.But for me, because I can be away for so long, the Olympics I was away for 7weeks, whenallthose clashtogether it can be super hard to do.So,I’ve just been doing part-time and am slowly ticking away to the end of itnow, which is exciting.
During school I didn’t really enjoyEnglishand those kinds of subjects. The things I did enjoy was physics, chemistry,and number heavy subjects. A family friend suggested that I should look into engineering and I became passionate about howbroadthedegreewasand allows me to venture out to different areaslater on in life.”
CS:From what I’ve read the Elite Athlete Program can be quite demanding how have you been managing balancing the program requirements, study, (potentially work/internships) and going to compete, in those times how did the Uni support you?
JM:“Forengineering you need to complete 60daysof WIL, so I’m currently looking at a few firmsto startworking in an undergrad position.It probably comes at a good time as I haven’t personally done any yet, whichI need tograduate and I’m having a pretty big break from swimming at the moment.
There’s definitely been stints where I’m home butin-betweentraining and studying, it’s been super tough tobalance those workexperience opportunities.
Ialways call myself a triangle of balancing study, swimming,and my friends and social life.It’spretty important to me to also make sure I’m enjoying life and not just bogged down in training.So,it’s been pretty hard to tryfit work in at the same time.
The elite athlete program works pretty closely with the unitcoordinatorsand faculties,so having the program behind me helps mecommunicate withunit coordinatorsand they’ll help me out knowing what mycommitmentsare.
I’m personally veryorganizedwhen it comes to assignments and due dates, cause’ I have to be.Ican’tbe alast-minutepersonor astudent that submits at 11:50pmespecially when I have training at 5am the next morning.I always make sure thatI’msubmitting well before the due date.
But when it comes to exams, they’re the tough ones; in engineering, we do get quite a lot of those. For example, I had two exams that were the same day as my 400m and 800m freestyle Olympic trials so I needed to defer those. Which is the usual case, but then my third examination period was the same date as my 400m and 800m Freestyle races at the Olympics.
I then had to organize a date to do a particular in-house exam at a different time with my unit coordinators. Thankfully, most of them are really helpful, but by the same token, I do try really hard and make sure I do the best possible thing with them and communicate to them upfront and honestly that I want to be diligent and do well rather than achieve the bare minimum.
I’ve beenfairlydiligentsincehigh schoolthanksto my training regime,I’dget to training at quarterto5in the morning, train till 7:30am, get ready for the daythengo to school till 3pm.Then trained again at 4pm and do homework at 6:30. Doing it all over again the next day.
Idon’treally have a lot of time in those periods to be doing work. Ifsomethingis due on aWednesday,I have to make sure to finish it by aSundaynight for example.”
CS:The AIS has recently granted QUT abrand-newcollaborative scholarship for skilled athletes like yourself, partly due to your and other QUT athletes’amazing performances in Tokyo. How do grants and scholarships like this actually help students and what do you think this could mean for the future of QUT’s elite athlete program?
JM:“I thinkit’lltake a huge weight offstudents’shoulders, likeI said myself,Ican’twork due to study and training. Being ablehave a scholarship that allows youto get by without having to work, means that people whohavehadto sacrificetheirstudy or sport to work and survivewillbe able to train high level.
One thing people tend to not consider is how rest is big part of our training. You just need it sometimes and if you’re working 5 days a week with study and trainingthere’sno way to be at your bestwithout it. Having a scholarship like that is so helpful to young athletes, having something thereis huge and was part of my success later on in life after receiving onewhen I was younger.”
CS:If QUT could change, add,or improve anything to the university support systems andEliteAthleteProgram what would you recommend or like to see for either yourself or future athletes?
JM:“You’re trying to balance two sides here. At the end of theday,you don’t want to get a degree that’sworthhalf the effort or ‘half-done’. I don’t think QUT would want those who are elite athletes coming out with half the degree they could have earned.
You don’t wantthese students going into workplaces without the experience they need for industry.I think QUT has found a good balance and the unit coordinators are more than willing to bend over backwardsto help their students.
My one suggestion as a swimmer would be, making sure students have moreoptions andstudyperiods, despite the degree, for students to study in summer to be able to bang outunits andto keep the degree rolling, that’s coming from an engineering point of view of course.”
CS:You now have 400m freestyle medals from the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and PanPacific Championships. Is it safe to say this is your preferred event? If so, has this changed from longer distance events like the 1500m?
JM:“When Ifirstmade my international debut atRio[2016 Olympics]that was my plan of attack to be a 1500m swimmer. But it changed in 2018 when I had a huge improvement in my 400mand I was second behindMack[Horton]at theCommonwealth games. Even though I had won the 1500m at bothCommonwealthandPanPacific.
That was when we looked atthe events and at the 1500s there werethree Europeanswimmers dominating the scene swimming–GrantHacketttype times. My plan was that I always wanted to medal at theseTokyogames andmedalingin the 1500mwas going to be very,veryhard.So,we looked to the 400mand my time was really upthere.So,there was kind ofthatrisk of puttingallmy eggs in one basket. The1500mis still my backupbuta super tough event both inAustralia(we’ve got like 4 or 5 top boys in the world)andinternationallybut I do enjoy it.”
CS:Mack Horton was a pretty high-profile scalp of yours at this year’s national trials. As the defending Olympic champion and Australia’s premier men’s distance swimmer over the last 5 or 10 years, was beating him a big confidence boost for you or were you confident your form would hold you in good stead?
JM:“Mack and I are really good friends and we always chat before and after swims. It wasn’t like a‘ohyes I beat my arch nemesiskind ofthing,’we do joke about all that stuff and have a good laugh about it. For me I was confident in my abilities.
The 400m trials at nationals was ridiculouswe had 4 boys in the top 6in the worldand they only take 2. EvenMack’s time,that he got 3rd with,would’ve gotten bronze at Tokyo. When I did get selectedit was a confidence boost,IrealisedI’ve got tomake sure I get this job done now.”
CS:Veryfew people have heard of AhmedHafnaouibefore these Summer games. Had you factored him in as a threat prior to the final?
JM:“I did know that theOlympicsalways has outsiders, there are always people who make huge improvements.It’shard especiallyinswimming, becauseincountries like Australia,theUKandtheUS,trials are so big and we always have to be at our best so you kind of know what to expect.
Smaller countries or teams don’t often have to compete againsteachotheror be at their best to get selected.So,theseathletes get a lot more time than us to properly rest.
Wehaven’thad an international meet in 2 years so I knew there was probably going to be someone who comes out. If we had had an international meet before thesegames,we may have seen himcome out andrecognisethat this guy is really on the move. It’shard judging it as a surprise when 12 months is a huge amount of time in swimming let alone 24 months.”
CS:You were unlucky to miss the 1500m final despite a really solid qualifying time. What were you thinking when you watched Bobby Finke’s last 50m?
JM:“I was more focused in the 400m so I was pretty happy with my time regardless, as it was more of a backup plan to make the team. It’s such a rich event in Australia’s history that I still want to take part if I’m capable. If I wasn’t focusing on the 400m I would’ve been gutted, otherwiseI’mhappy with my Silver.”
CS:Your teammate Mack Horton has been fairly outspoken in his objection to Sun Yang’s continued participation in international swimming. What did you think when you heard he would be banned from competing in Tokyo? Do you think the extenuating circ*mstances involved in his original positive test are mitigating, or should all positive tests be treated the same?
JM:“As someone whothinks what he did is despicable and as someone whois racing him, I did find the8-yearbanto bereally harsh.I think that was a big statement against what he did.
For anyone who doesn’t know he,smashed a doping blood test with a hammer – due to not being happy with it.So yeah, it was a big,bigno-no.
Even if he was concerned with how the test was carried out, with all of our tests we complete there’s areas in the forms where you canreportwhat you weren’t happy about. If the panel thinks that it’svalid,they will scrap the test, no matter what happened.So,there was no real reason for him to do what he did.
We aremeticulouswith that stuff, when I look at a vial even if I see a speck of dirt init,I request a new testing tube. Just flat out refusing is a no-no. We all agreed that he should be banned for something like that.”
CS:We see a lot of incredibleBrissyOlympians transition from competing to training after theyretire;you’ve mentioned your career aspirations earlier but do you have a desire or think there will be room to coach and train future Brisbane swimmers like yourself?
JM:“I have thought about it a lot and I am really passionate about swimming. I really do love toanalysenumbers.Mack and I joke about it a lot becauseI canreciteeveryone times,howthey swim, andwhat their splitsare.Becauseof that everyone says,“oh you’d be great coach!”, but at the same time I really loveEngineering. I know I can be successful and passionate about both so I might just get to a point where I get sick of or miss swimming, soIwon’t put anything out of the woods just yet.”
