Albert Subirats, a senior on the 2008 NCAA National Champion men’s swim team, defended his 100-yard butterfly title, took second in the 100y backstroke and third in the 50y freestyle to go along with two firsts and two seconds in relay events last weekend in Federal Way, Wash. The Arizona Daily Wildcat caught up with Subirats to discuss the historic season, his Olympic hopes and where the national title ranks on his list of accomplishments.
Wildcat: What was the most gratifying part of the national championship: your individual performance or being on the relay teams?
Subirats: Oh yeah, (the relays) by far were the most important thing.
W: The women won by 136 points, I guess you guys couldn’t quite beat them in that aspect?
S: (Smiling) But we put up more points (500) than they did (484).
W: So what was better, winning this national title or getting the bronze medal in the 2007 World Championships?
S: Oh, this by far. I don’t think any individual award can come close to a team championship.
W: Does this title mean a little more to you because of what the women were able to accomplish last week?
S: Definitely, the girls helped out a lot. They set the tone the week before and they got us pumped up and they did great. We knew they were gonna do great and we knew we were gonna do great as well.
W: Where does the program go from here?
S: They’ve got a huge class coming in. There’s about 13 guys coming in next year and we probably have the best sophomore class in the nation by far. We’ve got guys like Cory Chitwood who’s a freshman and he stepped up huge, huge for us. If we keep getting guys like that we’ll be in great shape.
W: What about for you, what’s next for you?
S: I’ll be flying to England on Saturday. I’m going to the World Championships (in Manchester) and after that I’ll just be training for the Olympics.
W: What are goals for those meets?
S: For the World Champs, it will be good to just race more and maybe try and get a best time and see what can happen. At the Olympics, it doesn’t get any bigger than that and I just need to be in the best shape I can be and hopefully get a medal for my country (Venezuela).
W: Would you rather get a gold medal in the Olympics, or this national title?
S: Oh, this, a national championship. You get to know guys like Frank (Busch), Augie (Busch), Rick (DeMont) and Rhodey (Greg Rhodenbaugh) and Russ (Bertram). For four years you know how much they’ve tried, and you don’t even want to do it for yourself but for them, there’s nothing better. For once, after them giving us everything for four years, we get to give them something.
– interview by Brian Kimball
