There’s the guy who stands in the corner screaming at the wall, the one who paces back and forth muttering, and the woman with the death glare who speaks to no one.
Behind the scenes at an Olympic swim meet, the area known as the ready room – a holding pen for the athletes before they venture out onto the pool deck – is where, in those final minutes before a race, things can get a little weird.
Don’t let the images of stoic athletes poised on the starting blocks fool you. Minutes earlier it might have been different.
Swimmers tell stories of seeing competitors berating themselves, vomiting, praying, laughing, joking, meditating and staring off into space. Whatever it takes for an athlete to jolt themselves into performance mode. And every person is different.
Summer McIntosh is all business. The multiple-medal hope for Canada in Paris says she gets tunnel vision before a big race.
“By the time I go in the ready room I’m really just focused,” McIntosh said. “I’ll be thinking about strategy and things like that. Most of the time I’m just trying to stay calm and collected, but at the same time getting myself pumped up.”
Penny Oleksiak is different. She’s a talker. The seven-time Olympic medalist needs to keep things loose before races.
“I cannot sit there and be locked in and be, like, so serious. Because then I start overthinking it,” Oleksiak said.
She prefers it when there’s a like-minded teammate around, such as fellow freestyler Mary-Sophie Harvey.
“I love being around someone like a Mary-Sophie where she’s so goofy and like, let’s talk, and let’s listen to music, and let’s dance and joke around.”
But the ready room also has a dark side. Various forms of trash talk and intimidation can be used to throw rival swimmers off their race. Many swimmers have stories of gamesmanship directed their way, sometimes in the oddest of ways.
“The strangest thing for me was when two Americans talked about me in front of me,” said Mark Tewksbury, recalling the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
“They were talking about how bad I looked. Like ‘Mark didn’t look that great this morning,’” he recalls.
“But I was very focused; I had music, I had my favourite towel, I had a whole ritual that I would go through.”
As awkward as that moment was, it didn’t get to him. Tewksbury won the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke.
“I’m one of those high-pressure performers. So the more pressure there is, the better I actually usually do. The ready room is just part of that intense experience.”
At other times, what happens in the ready room is directed at no one in particular.
“People yell in the ready room. Like, really loud,” said Brent Hayden, who won bronze at the 2012 London Games.
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“Like, they just go and scream in a corner.”
Images of a swimmer trying to fire themselves up by slapping themselves or hitting their chest are not uncommon. But the room can also be quiet and calm.
In her book, seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky of the United States talked about how she would sometimes get there early to prepare. “I’m always early,” she says.
Michael Phelps was known for sitting silently with a hood up and headphones on, staring straight ahead. In 2016, he was famously caught on camera wearing a prerace scowl that went viral. It is still known eight years later as Phelps Face.
Australian swimmers are known for being laid back in the ready room. One of the first times McIntosh spoke to Australian great Ariarne Titmus, they talked about their vacations.
Several Canadian swimmers follow that same easygoing approach. Men’s relay swimmer Yuri Kisil likes to crack jokes to keep his teammates from getting tense.
“A relaxed swimmer is a good swimmer,” Kisil said. “If I can make people laugh, I’ll do it. I’ll always take that shot. Sometimes they don’t land and people look at me like I’m crazy. But when it does land and everyone’s laughing, there’s nothing better.”
Canadian Josh Liendo, a contender for the podium in Paris, spends the hour leading up to a race listening to music. But he turns it off as the race gets closer.
“Going into the ready room, I won’t be listening to music,” Liendo said. “Just kind of being calm and collected.”
Taylor Ruck, a four-time Olympic medalist in the women’s relay, said those last few moments are all about managing nerves. At the world championships in February she credits the bronze medal Canada won in the 4x100 relay, in part, to “just being weirdos in the ready room.”
“I think that’s what swimming should be,” Ruck said. “Not getting too worked up about the anxieties about it all, because that can be a scary thing.”