2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd
- Budapest, Hungary
- Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
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British breaststroker Ross Murdoch offered insight into his perspective on not only his race, but his perspective on, and attitude towards, the sport after racing the men’s 200 breast. Murdoch talks about how the lockdowns that were associated with the COVID-19 global pandemic have changed his relationship with the sport of swimming.
This section of the interview is available in the tweet below. Murdoch tells journalist Nick Hope that he remembers feeling that back around 2016/2017, he saw Australian swimmers Cate Campbell and Kyle Chalmers take a year off from the sport. He says that at the time he had spoken about how he was having mental struggles with the sport and he was unsure if he wanted to continue, but that “if I could afford that [to take a year off] – If I could actually financially afford to do that, I totally would have taken that up.”
Murdoch goes on to say that during lockdown he spent 15 weeks out of the water, and although he was still training on land, it “gave me an opportunity to step away from swimming, and really refocus on what it is I love about the sport – and it’s about the friends.” He continues, saying what a pleasure it is to be back racing again, and how he’s returned with a “better perspective”.
Murdoch concludes the interview by discussing how he began running, and “absolutely loved it,” saying it’s “almost like meditation for me.” Running 8k-12k regularly with his brother, Murdoch says he and his brother would just talk the whole time, and he was able to “take in the moment.” Murdoch says he tries to take that same mentality into his day-to-day swimming training now, and that it’s been a “spiritual awakening” of sorts for him in the sport.
https://twitter.com/NickHopeTV/status/1395482802825596930?s=20