Women's swimmer Katie Riefenstahl Q&A
Feb. 6, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas -- TexasSports.com sat down with senior swimmer Katie Riefenstahl to talk about a variety of topics including nervousness before a meet and her plans for after graduation. How did you get into swimming? I was five years old and it was just one of those things where you meet friend in kindergarten and they're like, "come swim!" It started with summer league and then I had a natural talent in the water, so my parents signed me up for club swimming when I was seven. That's kind of where it started. What is your overall goal for this season? I think as a team, our goal is to place in the top four at NCAAs and to win Big 12s. It's our last competitive Big 12s with A&M, since they're going to the SEC. Individually, my goal is just to keep having fun and to enjoy my senior year. Best times are always nice, especially at this stage in the sport. What is your goal for this weekend's meet at SMU? SMU is kind of fun. A couple of us are swimming off events. I'm swimming, for example, the 500-yard freestyle, which isn't something I normally swim. It kind of gives us a chance to not focus on our primary events, have fun and do a day trip. No pressure. Break down the backstroke for us. What is something we might not know about racing backstroke events? I think, especially collegiately in the short course pool, underwater kicking has become the new thing. I'm not very gifted underwater, so that's something that I've struggled with the past couple years. So technically, a lot of it comes from your ability to hyperextend your knees. A lot of people that can do that are good underwater kickers. Shoulder flexibility--being able to kind of press while you're underwater--is also important. I've changed my stroke a couple of times in the past couple of years. I think the most important thing is a smaller kick--kind of keeping your legs closer together--and a better catch right when you hand hits the water.
What is your favorite spot in the freestyle relay line-up? I'm usually put in the middle, which I think is good. A lot of teams, including ours, have a tendency to lead off with the best person, just because they have fresh water and it's kind of like an individual race. Sometimes the relay starts aren't' as good. I have a decent relay start. I think it gives me a chance to stay in the mix and hopefully pull ahead when I'm in the middle so I can set it up for the anchor. Do you have any rituals that you perform before you compete? Yeah, I used to be really, really superstitious. I've gotten a lot better. The girls told me I was a little too psycho. The night before a race, I like to get a good meal. I like to eat a lot of carbs and a lot of protein. When I'm right behind the block, I've been doing the same thing since I was about ten years old. It's just a little stretching ritual. I don't really know how I came up with it, but it just kind of helps me relax. The other thing I've incorporated is taking a couple of deep breaths before I swim because it helps me relax and stay a little less nervous. Do you get nervous before every race or does it depend on the meet or event? Yeah, for sure. Especially being my last year, I want to have some good swims. You just get nervous, but it's a good nervous. It's just adrenaline. Swimming for Texas is such an honor. You don't want to disappoint when you dive into the water. I think that's where a lot of it comes from. Do you have any practice rituals? Not really. I think I've gotten a lot better over my past three and a half years. When I'm at practice, I'm focusing on what I have to do. But then when I leave the pool, if I had a terrible practice that day, putting it away and not thinking about later that night. Not letting it affect things outside of the pool. So I guess if that's a ritual, I've gotten a lot better with that. What is the most fun you've had with the team this season? I think (Texas) Invite was just a really fun meet. It's really competitive and that's cool. Four out of the top six teams from last year were at Invite so that's always fun and I swam pretty well. As a team, we have a ton of fun. We do a trip in September for team bonding at Camp Longhorn and then in January, we were in Puerto Rico for a training trip. We always have fun when we're together. We like to keep it light and laugh a lot because life is too short (not to). Does your team have a motto or catchphrase? Some years we've done that and some years we haven't. It depends on the year. Our t-shirts for Big 12s--I'm not going to give away what they say on the back--but it's short, to the point and it's all about Texas this year. Especially for Big 12s, it's all about trying to come out with a win in the last really competitive Big 12 Championships. That's our short term goal right now. Do your teammates have any nicknames for you? It's not really a nickname, but even when I was in high school, everyone calls me 'KTR.' It's my licence plate on my car. We spell it with three letters, so it's 'KTR.' It's not quite a nickname. Do you have any hidden talents? I'm really good at Sudoku. That's the first thing that comes to mind. I really like putting stuff together, like playing with legos when I was little. My mind just works very logically. I don't know if that's a talent, but my brain's kind of weird. What's your favorite restaurant in Austin? Moonshine. That's easy. I love it. I order the rainbow trout, usually. What will you be doing after you graduate from Texas? I'm in McCombs, the business school here. I don't graduate until December. To graduate from McCombs, you have to have an internship. It's required. Swimming has kind of taken up a lot of my time. I'll plan on doing an internship in the fall. It's still too early for me to even apply or anything. My major is half engineering, half business. So I guess, after graduation, I would see myself in a role that's kind of in-between something technical and something business. I'd like to be more of a communication link between engineers and business people. I want to be in a city, but other than that, I'm just going to see what happens. |
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