Want to know what it’s like to be one of country’s top athletes?  If you do, be prepared, it ain't an easy ride, as In The Winning Zone found out when we had a chat with Commonwealth bronze medallist Kris Gilchrist. We wanted to learn what it’s like to be 23 and swimming for Scotland, as he prepares for the FINA World Championships in Melbourne.

WZ: Hi Kris, how are preparations going for the Championships next month?

KG: Preparation is going pretty well to be honest.  We’re getting worked pretty hard but obviously that’s what you need.  Everyone is injury free though, so it’s all good. 

WZ: You say you’re getting worked pretty hard, what is your coach (Fred Vergnoux) doing with you?

KG: We’re doing lots of volume, so we’re covering a lot of metres each day, but at the same time it is high intensity.  And when you’ve got both of those combined you’re pretty much tired all the time.  It’s not very pleasant but we’ll benefit from it when we get to Australia and get to rest for a little bit.

WZ: While you say it’s not pleasant, do you appreciate the value in what you’re doing?

KG: Oh yeah, I mean it’s not pleasant physically at the time, but you know in your mind that it is benefiting you and there’s a sense of achievement when you do these things as well.

WZ: When you are training at this intensity, is there any enjoyment in it?

KG: Eh… sometimes!  If you can do a good job on a set that you can compare against sets you’ve done before when you’re not in such hard training, it is a boost. We know we’re going to get some rest when we get to Melbourne, so in theory by the time we get to race we should just fly!

WZ: Are you pretty optimistic about Melbourne?

KG: Yes, everything is going in the right direction so there is no reason not to be positive at the moment, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

WZ: So have you personally or has Fred set any targets for you?

KG: No not really, we set some targets at the start of the season in terms of doing personal bests, but not in terms of position or rank or anything like that.  I stay clear of things that other people can influence.

WZ: Is that something you do as a group, or is that a personal opinion?

KG: Psychologists encourage you not to make targets that other people can effect too much.  A psychologist called Steve Peters spoke to us about the difference between targets and dreams.  We make our targets individually with Fred but he likes to stay clear of putting too much focus on something that you can’t control completely yourself. 

WZ: Fred seems like a really good guy, do you enjoy working with him?

KG: Yeah, he is a good guy, but he can be pretty hard on us sometimes.  One minute he’s your best friend and the next minute he’s shouting at you for not going fast enough.  But to be fair you can’t deny the fact that it works because everyone has improved since he came.  You’ve just got to take it in the right way and know that when he’s getting at you he’s really trying to motivate you.  Sometimes it’s hard to take, but if you know how to take it, it works.

WZ: So on a personal level what is your relationship with Fred like?

KG: I get on well with Fred.  He always goes out of his way to make sure he does the best he can for everyone in the squad.  He spends his own money on us sometimes, buying us clothes and presents and stuff.  He is thoughtful.  He likes to separate being your friend from being your coach, but he’s quite good at both!

WZ: He’s taken you out to a few training camps in France, what are they like?

KG: The training camps are usually harder because your focus is entirely on swimming.  But you get to eat a bit more and it’s a bit healthier and you get more rest.  It’s quite interesting going to France because he is French, and he’s got some contacts there so they tend to be pretty well organised.  Sometimes we get to train with other people which is quite good because it mixes things up a bit and stops the workout from getting tedious. 

WZ: So is it a good laugh, do you enjoy it?  As a group is it something you’re looking forward to or dreading?

KG: Well it depends.  He will usually tell us before we go what the camp is going to involve.  So if it’s right in the middle of the season he might say this is going to be the hardest two weeks you’ve ever done in your life, so it’s hard to look forward to something like that!  But we’ve done some pre-season camps where we’ve done some other activities like canoeing and cross training.  He really likes to mix things up, which keeps things interesting.  Plus sometimes at training camps we’ll get to lie in until 8 o’clock, and that just feels magic!!

WZ: Does it improve your overall core fitness?

KG: Yes, that’s a huge difference that Fred has made.  He’s very much about improving us as athletes rather than just swimmers.  Everyone in the squad is stronger and fitter.

WZ: How do you feel about the fact that swimming doesn’t get the press it deserves in Scotland, especially with so many talented guys out there?

KG: Sometimes I feel it’s not fair that other sports are getting all this attention, but at other times, when you’re in hard training it’s quite nice to not have to go to photo shoots and stuff all the time.  It’s one of these things that when you’ve not got it you want it, but when you’ve got it you wish you didn’t have to do it. 

WZ: Do you think swimming deserves more press coverage than it gets?

KG: I suppose it depends on how the swimmers actually perform.  Obviously there has been more since the Commonwealths and Europeans last year because people did well.  I think if you’ve earned the attention then you should get it. 

WZ: Would you have preferred to be a top performer in another sport if you could go back ten years?

KG: I do think about that sometimes and I think a lot of swimmers wish that they were doing another sport because, in a way, it’s not the swimming that you love, it’s the competition and the training in general.  A lot of athletes just enjoy doing sport in general, and they wouldn’t necessarily mind what sport it was.  I think I’m kinda like that.  I played a few sports when I was younger, but as my swim training got more serious they went out the window. 

WZ: What sports were they?

KG: I played tennis for a while, and volleyball.  But swimming was the one that I’d done from the youngest age and I was at the highest level in, so it made more sense to stick with that.  But I suppose essentially I would have preferred to have done a sport which didn’t require as much training.

WZ: Is there such a thing at that level?

KG: I don’t know. It’s not so much the intensity as the actual hours that swimmers have to put in.  In other sports such as weight-lifting it’s not actually possible to train as often.  It’s such load on their body so they can’t train as much.

WZ: So do you think the way you have to train (e.g. early starts) is to do with the lack of facilities over here, having to use public pools.  Do you think it would be different with private facilities?

KG: Possibly, but most squads in Britain have swimmers at university and school, so they have to do those sessions in the morning and evening anyway.  Certainly when I was at school and university the training times were very similar to what they are now.  

WZ: Do you think more financial and media support would help swimming in Scotland?

KG: I suppose enjoyment isn’t the only reason lots of little boys want to be footballers!  There is always the dream of being rich from doing something that you love.  Being rich from a sport would be a lot of people’s dream.  It’s not realistic here at the moment, but it’s a much bigger sport in Australia.  If you go to a pool in Australia the public are pretty good swimmers, they go to the pool a lot.  I think it’s easier if you’ve got a climate that means you can train outdoors.  Even some places that we go to in France, where there are outdoor pools, when we finish training at eight o’clock the public flood in!  It’s completely choc-a-bloc!

WZ: Do you think that is a reason why the swimming circuit is stronger in places like that?

KG: Yes, definitely.  You only have to see the little kids swimming in these countries.  There can be around 50 kids just diving into the pool and swimming around.  And they love it because they are getting to jump in from the side and then they get out when the sun is going down.  And it probably costs them hardly anything.

WZ: On a personal level, have you had to make a lot of sacrifices to do what you do?

KG: I went part time in my fourth year at university.  I studied Sports Science and Psychology.  So my course took a year longer, which isn’t too big a deal.  In terms of friends, that was a sacrifice at school because that is the time when you’re making friends to last a lifetime.  I wasn’t socialising very much as I was training all the time.  But I was socialising with the people I was training with.  That’s a choice I had to make, though you can argue that swimming friends are just as important as school friends.  Being actively involved in other sports as hobbies had to take a back seat as well.  Looking back though, I may never have been any good at tennis anyway…

But I’m very happy.  If the regrets had been high I probably wouldn’t be swimming now so I’ve made those decisions and stuck by them, and I’m still swimming at 23.  I’m not going to complain. 

WZ:  Thanks Kris.  Good luck in Melbourne, we’ll be cheering for all of you!

KG:  Thanks.