So its fully packed day and its extremely tight. I don’t have any spare time and if I did, that would be like a bonus. So the only time I would have for myself would be Saturday and Sunday if I’m lucky which I spend with family and friends.
You said that you are studying. Are you pursuing any other academic qualifications?
I’m doing my level three coaching and that’s the theory part of it. There is a six month timeline given for that so I have to hand it in by December. It’s a lot of research and there is a thesis involved in it as well. So every spare minute I get is spent jotting down something I find on the internet. I’m also looking at higher studies and looking at doing Bio Mechanics, which I think is not too far ahead. But I’m taking one step at a time at the moment.
You have swum at major events around the world including the Olympic Games. Do you have any favourite pool or is there any particular pool that you would like to swim in one day?
One of my favourite pools was at the Sydney Olympics at the home bush, which is considered to be one of the best pools in the world. It’s also quite a fast pool and the environment is just top class. You just walk in there and it’s totally electrifying and it was my first Olympics and just to see 50,000 people just seated there and cheering makes you go WOW! Adrenaline just rushes through you.
The second pool I would like to swim in would be in Indianapolis where they had the world championships. That again was a portable 25 m swimming pool which was an extremely fast pool, so if I could get another chance to swim there I would be on top of the world.
If I was to choose another pool, or another country to swim in, that would be in Brazil. Brazil is a place where swimming is just like Sri Lanka. Its open doors and its tropical. I’ve never got a chance to visit that country as yet so that is my other dream
Today’s swimming is not only about pure practice, but has also been heavily influenced by technological advances such as streamlined swimming suit designs, which have been credited for the current rate at which records are tumbling. What do you feel about this?
Personally, I would say that if the suit is available out there then you can’t hold anyone against it and tell them not to buy it. Personally, I don’t have one as yet and I’m happy to be one of those people who still don’t have it because even though the suit plays a big part in swimming, at the end of the day it is your natural talent that you need to display.
If your talent is only 60% and the other 40% comes from the suit, that will actually tell you that you are dependent on the suit. You should be able to give your best and your heart out without it. If you train hard enough and if you do the right thing you should still be able to achieve the goal time that you look at.
Swimming since recently, has been heavily focused on steroid abuse which is subject to continuous checks. How many times on average have you or any team mate been tested for steroids.
I have been tested more than 10 times in my career. The first time I was tested was in Sydney and then in Athens for the 2004 Olympics and not forgetting the 2003 Asian Games. This was a whole new experience for me. I swam the 100m, came around and was just standing when a guy comes near me and taps on me and says, “Can you sign this for me please”. This first Question I asked him was, “For what”.
So that’s where it all started. I guess once you win an international medal then you are basically “Noted” and they keep a tight lid on you all the time. Ever since then I’ve been tested many times, both out of competition and in competition within Australia and was tested about three times during the Olympics as well as the post Olympics and after. Testing even can took place during training in Australia as well.
So you’ve been tested over 10 times!
Yes. I guess I’ve been “Lucky” enough to be the victim of this testing as well! (Chuckles) But I guess as long as you know that you have done the right thing then you have nothing to worry about.
Is testing done in Sri Lanka?
Yes. Testing is done in Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan Drug Authorities (SL Anti Narcotics)
You have clinched a majority of swimming awards available in the country and have gone on to win National Colours and even the 2007 HSBC JC1 TOYP (Outstanding Young Persons of Sri Lanka). How many rooms of Trophies do you have!
(Laughing).. Should I say… How many SHOE BOXES I have! To be honest, if you do visit my home, you’ll never see any of them because all of them are in shoe boxes! There are too many to display and I actually don’t have a display cabinet as yet. And I’m still on the verge of getting one done and my parents have been looking high and low for one as it’s quite hard to find one that will be perfect to house everything unless you design one.
But I would say, it’s a lot. At the moment it’s uncountable, because I don’t even know where they are! They are all over the place in shoe boxes, in suitcases and even in my wardrobe. In a rough head count I would say that there are over 300 medals and over 500 certificates and just too many trophies to count and well over 5-6 shoe boxes of little cups.
Maybe we could start a Conrad Francis Museum later someday to house all your awards!
(Laughing) Maybe one day! But I will have a cabinet in the near future soon.
Behind every great swimmer is a great but silent coach. How far do you agree with this statement and how far have your coaches contributed to turn you into the champion you are today?
Actually, the credit should initially go to my mom and dad and sister. I am what I am today because of what they have done for me. I have learnt to be disciplined and dedicated and determined, which I call the 3D’s and I live by that. I also take one day at a time. When I wake up in the morning I focus on what I have to do and set a target of what I have to achieve during the day and I try my best to achieve it before the day ends.
When I am a swimmer, I don’t talk much. I listen to my coach. Otherwise it will erupt into a world war if both of us talk at the same time. It’s hard when you are a coach and you have another coach trying to teach you and you will inevitably have enough and more clashes because both of you know what they other wants to do. But both of us compromise and whatever my coach gives me, whether it is 100s, 200s, or 400s, I keep my mouth shut and I don’t talk much.
But I’m very arrogant in training because I focus on myself and they normally say that it is very hard to talk to me during training because I just give them the “stare”. And I think this is more because I’ve just been trained to focus in that way in Australia. When you are doing something you should only focus on that spot and there should be no distractions.
But after completing the main set or during breaks I’m basically the joker in the team and smile and joke around. But its very rarely that you will find me joking in a main set and if I do joke around the guys will be like “Are you OK? But that’s when I’m actually enjoying it as well and I encourage the youngsters and the seniors with me to push each other. We try to be a team and even when I coach I tell the guys to give a pat to each other and to maintain the team spirit even though the sport is individual at the end of the day. But you should train as a team
My Coach calls me a silent guy, but I know what I’m doing. I may be arrogant at times, but he’s got used to it. Sprinters are the hardest nastiest people ever to train! It’s just that we want things done as quickly as possible and we don’t waste time. We like the short distances, the spirit and the faster versions of things. This spills out into everything I do. Even my day to day life, this could also include driving!
You need to train them and keep them as a team for four years. It’s not only swimming. You have to prioritize and look at the big picture and identify what they need individually as an athlete. The training and the standard of training have to tremendously go up. The facilities and the coach-swimmer education is the most important part and you have to educate the swimmer and tell him “why we are doing 10 100s’. The swimmer needs to know why we need to do this. There is no point in the swimmer just swimming without the knowledge of what he is swimming for.
So we lack in a lot of theory and it is the responsibility of a coach to teach the swimmers about the background of swimming. That is where the sport will develop and that is how the word of mouth will spread. We need to take the raw talent and turn them into positive swimmers. There are so many potential swimmers in the outstations that come for local meets. You don’t have to go in search of them. They just naturally come. But you have to identify them and take them into a separate batch and identify them as a team that we could develop. And if you can identify two excellent swimmers out of that team you could have two medal winners someday.
So the development plan and the structure of swimming and the level of coaching are very important and have to go up. If you look at all the Western Countries today you will see that all the coaches’ work as a team. It’s not individuality, despite the final even being an individual one, but you require team work to improve the sport. It is the ideas that you share among each other that will help groom the sport and make it an environment where swimming can go up in Sri Lanka. And maybe one day, we can be right up there in the Asia Region.
My dream is to produce a swimmer one day who will be within the first three places in the world, and that is the biggest medal I can get as a coach.
The swimming calendar should not only be restricted for six months. It has to be a continuous 12 month cycle where you have your short course and long course period. So as you finish your long course period, you will be coming back into your short course period. That is how swimming has to develop. There should be no off season where you stop, and even if you do have an off season, it should be a very minimum time, where a swimmer should get a months recovery and then get back into the full session again.
And with funds, I would basically develop the coaches, and run coaching clinics within Colombo and Outstations which is the key factor. And I would bring down international coaches and give the local coaches experience and allow them to benefit from their knowledge. That is how we can improve the sport.
The more you can get foreign exposure that is the starting point for you as a coach to start thinking alongside different angles and to think outside the box. It is basically trial and error where you can modify future training sessions based on the results of past sessions.
A good coach will always come up with his ideas and theories and think in a different path. That is the way I see it at the moment. I don’t follow anybody. I follow my own self and rely on my 17 years of experience in swimming and I put it all together.
And if you can rely on your experience and train, then I think that you will be very successful as a coach and I am happy to share my experience with other coaches for the betterment of the sport in Sri Lanka.
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