April 30, 2007

Exclusive Interview: Shootin the Breeze with Tom Jager

Posted by David

When you think of sprint freestylers two words should immediately come to mind: “Tom” and “Jager.” The former World Record holder in the 50m freestyle for a decade and American Record holder in the 50 yard freestyle until this year’s NCAA Championships broke barriers like it was his job, in fact, he was one of the first people whose job was just that: swimming. That’s because what a lot of people don’t realize about Jager is that perhaps even more than his records, his most important legacy to swimming is his pioneering of professional and post-collegiate swimming. Now retired, with a wife and two sons, Jager is now leaving an impact on the sport through his coaching as he was recently put in charge of reestablishing a University of Idaho women’s swim team that had not existed since 1985. In the following interview, Tom speaks candidly about his career, the obstacles he faced in trying to get swimmers to make money and the biggest problems currently facing our sport.

You are considered a pioneer for post-graduate swimming in the U.S., can you talk about things you did that were unique at the time to make money swimming?

Actually, to be honest there was a lot, certainly a lot more than people realize today. There were a few major things, and it all really started in the political system that we had at the time. In 1984 United States Swimming was taking 40 percent of all of our income. When we asked why, their response was that it was our fee, that we need to pay them. So that’s really what started it because I wasn’t willing to do that. The point that I want to make really clear is that there were four major people involved in the process of allowing what we have today with Phelps and Amanda Beard: Matt Biondi, my wife Becky, Parks Britton, (Matt and I’s agent) and myself. We were really out there in this mess all by ourselves for a while. A couple other of those guys before us were able to make money…but they only thought that there was enough money for them and only them, so they really didn’t lift a finger to help others out.

But then Parks was able to get a hold of Matt and me, and the four of us saw the future. We knew that the Olympics is the largest money making deal in the world and the only organization that doesn’t pay athletes. So, by starting with the political, we started with US Swimming and that trust fund that was taking 40% of our income. We eventually got it bargained down to 10% just by questioning the fact of why they needed to do that. Then Bill Stapleton, a very savvy politician and businessman from Austin stepped up. He knew that this was just un-American, and helped us get rid of it completely. They (US Swimming) also wanted to have access to all of our contacts and all of our contracts before we signed anything, but I can tell you for a fact that Parks, Matt and I never sent one for their approval. That’s not American what they were doing. My conviction, is that they wanted them so that they could say “you don’t want just Matt and Tom you want them all, so why negotiate with just these two?” So getting rid of that fund was the money layer of what we did with the political system.

Then, back in those days US Swimming had control of international travel. So, I couldn’t just go over to Italy, I had to get approval through United States Swimming. And they could, and often did, say no. That was another political battle.

Another was the manufacturing, that is who was making the sponsorship deals and who was representing the athletes. US Swimming was representing all the athletes at the contract level. And this is the one we knew we had to change.  We actuall said: “Matt, Tom, Becky, Parks sit down, do you realize that by going down this path you are actually going to give up personal income.” And we did because we felt like it was important enough for the future of the sport. Speedo, for instance, at that time saw the ending of US Swimming negotiating collective contracts as something they did not want.

Matt (Biondi) and I were the first two swimmers to sign manufacturing contracts. Parks (our agent) did this and we were so lucky to have an agent that had the best interest of the sport in mind. Matt signed with Arena somewhere between 87 and 89, and then I signed with Finals. Obviously we were creating fights inside cause it wasn’t Speedo that signed us. They were the ones with the money and wanted to keep things the same.

But hardest thing through all of this is that the powers that be tried to exploit the fact that we (Biondi and Jager) were sprinters. They would literally tell us: “you don’t work hard so you don’t deserve to make money like you are trying to,” you know, just a clear personal attack on us. But Matt, Becky, Parks and I always tried to take the higher road on that. I must admit, there were times when I attacked back, but we were 20 years old, they were 60, and attacking me when they had all the power. That was a hard time, it was a fun time, but a very hard time. When I look back on that, what is most memorable was the feeling that we knew we were sacrificing our own personal gain for the benefit of the sport. The reason that’s important is because at the time we were doing all this the knock on Matt and I was that we were only out there for ourselves. How do you fight that? But if you look back and track it, it’s clearly the opposite. I feel strong about that.

Can you talk about what happened in between 1992 and 1996, did you retire at any point?

I never really retired in there. It was a big deal to “retire” then. But for me I wanted to fade to black, rather than stopping immediately. At some point I knew that people were going to beat me, but it I thought that it was important that I actually reach that point, where people started beating me, than to just quit. Like Gary Hall, if he’s going to beat Papov, he’s got to beat me. I thought that was the thing to do.

During that time though, I started to develop a business plan, and started to make sure that after my career I was going to have a good transition. So I think that was probably a setback to my swimming a little because I was concentrating more on what I was going to do in ‘97 than ‘96.

On that note though there was a defining moment in ’96, because I was fast in ’95. But in March of ‘96 I had a pretty serious sledding accident. At the time I still thought I was invincible, now I’m older and all of a sudden I’m hurt. Looking back, it doesn’t bother me, because that’s how I lived my life. I didn’t do stupid stuff, but I wasn’t going to live in a bubble for the Olympics.

But mentally, the defining moment was the night before the 50 free at the ‘96 Olympic Trials. All I could think about was that in 24 hours, I’m going to be done swimming and I can’t wait for that moment. I knew I was beat, I couldn’t win with that attitude. I mean I still went out there and had a decent race, but something like that certainly takes your edge off on race day.

You were actually a better backstroker coming out of high school and at the beginning of college. There is a rumor that you one day you told Dave Berkoff “you guys are getting too good” and stopped swimming backstroke to concentrate on freestyle. Is there any weight to this?

There is in that it was a conscious decision based on the fact that I couldn’t do a butterfly kick. My era was the big backstroker, John Naber was 6’4” and the other guys were up there too, they were just bid dudes. Rick Carey, was shorter but just so strong and he was my idol. Once Berkoff came and a couple other guys started doing all that underwater stuff I realized that I couldn’t keep up with them, I couldn’t do that butterfly kick, so I started concentrating less on backstroke.

You swam for one of the best programs in national history, in UCLA, which cut its program not too long after you left. Do you think the program will ever be restored?

I think that everyone certainly hopes that it will be. It’s really very important for swimming in general, and it’s important to the NCAA as well. I mean I see that they sign a many multi-million dollar commercial deal for basketball, but then all the freshmen are leaving after a year. Yet, they (the NCAA) is telling me that most of their athletes are “going on to something other than professional athletes.“ At the same time they’re still cutting all those programs, the ones with athletes that actually are going on to something different.

The way the rules are set, it makes all these schools cut the programs. But it’s great because the schools can say it’s the NCAA’s fault, and then the NCAA can say it’s the school’s fault so…it turns out it it’s no one’s fault. Hopefully at some point it gets turned around. If it is all about money then the athletes in men’s swimming that are actually doing well now will have to make a conscious effort to help bring these sports back. If not, I think it will break the cycle that started with us and other swimmers from the 90s, because there are not enough of us to support them. The whole thing is terribly disappointing. I have a 10 year old boy that trains hard and does well in school because he wants to swim at UCLA. What do you say to that?

Do you have any different thoughts on the matter now that you are a college coach, specifically for a women’s college program?

Nothing is cut and dry. I would say that now my understanding is more in terms of the workings of an athletic department and how these things come down from above. I understand the limitations. Because it is two-sided. I see why they are cutting the men’s programs and I agree that women absolutely need support, as there were no options for women in the ‘70s. So the fact that we’re equaling all that out now, I have no problem with that. I just think that there’s enough money out there to start adding women’s programs and stop cutting the men’s in order to get equality.

It really is a very elitist system in the NCAA. The rich get richer so to speak. You used to have basketball schools and football schools. Ohio State and Florida were football schools. Now, you have football schools that are going to basketball too, getting the top revenue and second largest revenue sports.

My feeling on it, is I have 8 years (until his kids start going to college) for me to try and make an impact. I don’t know the best road to take to try and get men’s swimming back but my goal is to try and investigate and learn about it so that it’s not just swimmers upset saying “you guys are bad.” I mean I’m not the first person in the world to try and do this, but I need to understand the thought process if I’m going to make an impact.

You were more on the business side of swimming from 1996 until 2005, what made you decide to shift into the coaching side of the sport?

The main thing was that my wife Becky got her PHD in history and she wanted to teach at a University. We sat down together and thought, hey (laughs) well there’s probably coaching at Universities too right? We were just lucky, because we were in Kalispell (Montana) and Idaho was only 5 hours away. But my wife and I certainly had a long term goal of reaching this level as both of us like working with college age kids. I wanted to travel less and our kids are growing up so we wanted to be in a smaller town for them. For us, we are just in a really great situation at the moment.

You have some records that stood for quite a while, the 50m record stood for about a decade. There is a lot of talk about the legitimacy of the Papov’s record, as the race in which he set it is questioned for its legality. Does this bother you?

No, not necessarily. I don’t know exactly what went on in Russia in those days, and I don’t think anyone does. To be honest, people had the same feeling when I broke the World Record. It happened when Matt and I had a head to head race in the 50.

But my response to those opposed was always: “I’m sorry well I thought there were only two people in the water every time I swam the fifty.” Take that as you will, but I was not worried about the guy in Lane 2.

I don’t know what happened in Russia, but he broke the record and that’s the deal. It’s cool to have had it for such a long time, but ultimately what it says is that Matt and I were way ahead of the game. The record wasn’t that fast before we got a hold of it (22.52 to Jager’s eventual 21.81) and I think that we took it to a new level.

There have been some great American Sprinters since you that were unable to go under 19.05 seconds, what was your feeling when Ben Wildman-Tobriner finally took down the record this year?

I heard about it, don’t even know who I heard it from as I am not as attached to men’s collegiate swimming as I once was. I think I overheard two people talking about it in passing like “oh did you hear that another guy went under 19?“ and I immediately asked: “was he an American?” But it’s like I tell my kids, someday I’m still gonna be the fastest kid from Collinsville (where Tom was born in Illinois).

If you had the technology, suits, training, etc. that exist today back in 1990, do you think it would have made a big difference i.e. under 19 seconds?

It kind of goes back to last statement about Matt and I, about how far ahead of the game we were. What they’re doing today, those that are successful, is very similar to what we were doing. I think Dave Marsh (former Auburn Coach), for instance, is a smart guy and that he paid attention to what we were doing. At the time a lot of people just viewed us as if no one else could train like us and succeed. What I always felt that what I was blessed with, is that I actually feel like I got everything out of my swimming, I don’t think that there were more tenths in me: that if you added the new suit, the different training that it would have done much, short course that is.

Long Course though, since it was still such a new event, I think that if I had started earlier in my career I might have been able to get down to 21.5. I mean our records were almost always broken in three tenth intervals because we could take one stroke off of our race. I thought that if I could just take one more stroke off I could get down there.

What do you hope to get out of the sport at this time in your life? Will we see your kids on posters in that famous head up, exploding off the blocks pose?

(Laughs) I wouldn’t want to do that to my kids. Expectations are a hard thing for everyone to handle and my kids have already put some on themselves, so I’m just trying to back off.

My feeling is that since ‘96 I’ve been looking forward to the future of the sport. I went through a lot in my career. In the ’70s there was a huge problem with burnout, in the ’80s it was with finances, in the ’90s there was a period where no one knew whether to do less or more in training. The way I see my impact on the sport is that I have been around the block and I am trying to tell other people how to do it. It’s different than guessing because I actually have a map from being around so long. I take it seriously and try and share the knowledge with my athletes.

Now, I coach on all commitment based goals and we do not talk about the performances as much. My athletes are judged on commitment, and commitment to each other. Did you give 100%? Well, then that’s all you can ask. To me that’s a pretty valuable lesson that kids can learn. I learned that in 1988 when I lost the 50 free, that was a life changing experience. I literally thought that I was a bad person for losing and I think that attitude is too prevalent, to base success completely on place. It’s not right. People should have a sense of pride based on the fact that we