“One Of The Hardest Years Of My Life:” Armstrong Opens Up About Struggles, Alexy’s Support

Hunter Armstrong just completed one of his most successful meets ever at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials, taking an individual Olympic spot in the 100 backstroke and making the Team USA 4×100 freestyle relay team with a personal best time. However, behind the scenes, he was struggling.

At a press conference on Friday night, Armstrong opened up about a period of time in the past year where he was really struggling, which caused him to frequently miss practices and oversleep — sometimes up to 16 hours in a day.

“This has been one of the hardest years of my life,” Armstrong said. “Just so much has happened and I’ve gone through so much.”

To get out of his practice slump and seek help, Armstrong sought the USA Swimming staff, which provided him with a sports psychiatrist. However, another person who was critical to helping him through his troubles was his training partner at Cal, Jack Alexy.

Because Armstrong was skipping practices earlier on in the day during his “down” period, he would a few hours later practice to make up for missed time. And although Alexy had already practiced with the rest of the Cal team, he’d still show up to the pool every day after class to be alongside Armstrong.

“He showed up just so I wouldn’t have to swim alone,” Armstrong said. “So Jack is truly one of my best friends.”

“You just have to surround yourself with good people. When I came out and expressed that I was struggling to my teammates my coaches, and they truly rallied around me. So I may never actually be a Bear, but they are my family.”

Alexy also attested to Cal-Berkeley’s acceptance of Armstrong, who swam at West Virginia and Ohio State but moved to Cal in 2022 to train as a pro. In addition, he believes that Armstrong makes him a better swimmer.

Now, Alexy will not only be Cal teammates with Armstrong, but also Olympic teammates. Alexy finished second in the 100 free at trials, and will likely swim together with Armstrong on the 4×100 free relay. Last year, the two swimmers were on the 2023 World Championships team together.

“Seeing [Armstrong] train every single day and being by his side, I’ve learned that he’s probably the most talented swimmer out there,” Alexy said. “He does things in practice that I’m like, ‘how the hell are you doing that?’ And it’s just, you know, inspiring. It pushes me every day.”

Although Alexy doesn’t see a sports psychiatrist, he also emphasized the importance of prioritizing mental health in swimming. In addition to helping Armstrong, he took the time to start journaling his own career, analyzing everything from his preparation process to his training both in and out of the pool.

Cal swimmers like Alexy and Armstrong have had strong showings this week in Indianapolis. But behind it all were the ups and downs that got them to this point.

“Swimming is a very unique sport — you can get really mentally and physically drained really quickly, so I think it’s really important to check on the mental side just frequently as the physical side,” Alexy said.