At age 27 Jenna Campbell: Elite College Swimmer to Masters World Record Holder, EP 258

Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo hosted by two world record-holding athletes. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your hosts, kelly Pallas and Maria Parker.

Hello friends, Welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast. I am your host, Kelly Pallas, and, as usual, I am with my co-host, Maria Parker. Hey Maria, hey Kelly, it's great to be with you here today. Yes, and Maria, this is a special edition of Champions Mojo from the Pool Deck and we have a great interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful.

Yeah, interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful. Yeah, I wasn't there, but I was able to listen to the interview and some great takeaways.

Yeah, we hope you'll stick around and catch the takeaways. And here we go. All right, I am on deck with the brand new world record holder, Jenna Campbell. She just set the Masters World Record on the 200 long force meters free here at the beautiful Mission Viejo pool. And Jenna World Record, how did it?

feel, yeah, I mean, I don't think I was expecting that at all going into this meet, Like I'm really here, you know, I have a couple friends that are here with me and we're just kind of here to have fun and enjoy it, and I mean I think that makes for some fast swimming, but certainly wasn't expecting something like that you weren't.

No, not at all we learned before I started recording that you swam at Cal Berkeley. Tell us a little bit about your college career and how you transitioned to the Bastards.

Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean I've been swimming ever since I was a kid, ever since I was eight years old, and so you kind of grew up through the sport. You go to high school all your friends are in the sport. You go to college all your friends are in the sport. I don't think I ever expected to stay in it as much as I have. I took a break kind of after college and then I just kind of found my way back. It's kind of what I've always done, how I've always met people in the world and I think I wanted to hold on to that. So, yeah, I ended up moving to Colorado a couple of years after college and joined a triathlon group actually. But yeah, they keep me in the pool, they keep me swimming, they keep me coming here. So I think you know that's the biggest thing. It's just a whole bunch of people that are, that are awesome people. So still, having fun.

So swimming has always been part of your life. Did it feel weird when it wasn't after college? How did you exactly come back to swimming.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it certainly felt weird.

I think that was one of the biggest things I struggled with was it's been my identity, it's been part of my life since I was eight years old and I think there's a time for it to, you know, change what it means for me in my life. But right after college I, you know, took at least six months completely off. I definitely was a little disorienting. You know, it's like so much of your life, from your friends to your schedule, to just how you orient your year, you know has been based off of something and and once it's very freeing, you know you can do whatever you want. Like, in the other sense it's how do you structure all that? How do you stay fit when you're not racing, and you know there's so many things. So it was definitely pretty disorienting and I think it kind of eased back into it where, yeah, I just found a master's group and started swimming with them and then it's easy to kind of to figure out what my life looks like when it's not so rigid and structured like that.

So 202 is year 27,. Right yeah, and that's not very far off of Olympic trials right now, so that I mean such an elite time. How much training did you do to go?

202? Yeah, well, it's interesting. I think I mostly focus on triathlon right now actually. So I think that's kind of the sport that I got into and obviously keeps me sleep pretty well and I think that you know the other pieces of it the bike and the run like keep me a pretty decent shape and then, because I have so many years of doing the sport, I can still kind of pop in and I do something like that. I actually over the winter kind of tried to see if I could get a trials cut in the 400 free actually, and it's a little bit short, so haven't been know, never, not what I used to do by any means, but have been doing some more serious swimming and again then just staying fit with the rest of the sports. I think just I've been surprised how fast I can swim, but it's awesome to be able to still do this.

So what might advice that you give to somebody graduating from college thinking that they're going to retire.

I don't know. I don't want to tell them to swim or not swim. I know people are in different places with that, but I think the same things that hold true when you're eight years old about the family that you can find in the sport and just the joy that you can find in I think that still carries, and whether it's swimming or whether you are joining a running group or anything like that like there's such a world out there that's still exciting. And just because this big piece of your life is over doesn't mean that your whole life's over. You know, there's a hundred other things that you can go do and it's still awesome and fun and, yeah, I'm still enjoying it.

So when you see someone like Gabrielle Rose. You know at Olympic trials at 46, maureen Kornfield today swam 103. Do you see yourself in the future like that?

Oh, I don't know. I it's hard to tell. You know, I think five years ago I didn't see myself where I am now, so I guess I have no idea where it's going to go. But you know, I think I have people in my life that are awesome and doing crazy things like that too. And, yeah, seeing those guys out here, like whether or not it's swimming and that's what it is specifically. Or you know, like I said, a hundred other really cool things that you can do when you're out of college and past the college age, like yeah.

Anything that I haven't asked you that you wanted to share with our listeners.

Kind of a big one is just like thanking the people around me that they give me so much and you know I have a bunch of cool friends here that are, you know, supporting me through this and through everything, and like I don't do this without them. So, yeah, just I want to thank them for being so supportive of me. That's beautiful. Thank you for being on Champions Mojo. Yeah.

Thank you for having me me Stay tuned for the takeaways. Want to succeed like a champion? Five-time Olympic coach Bob Bowman, coach of Olympic legend Michael Phelps says Kelly's book Take your Mark Lead is a powerful addition to your personal improvement library, and learners from all walks of life will gain key insights and enjoy. This inspiring book. Take your Mark Lead debuted as an Amazon number one bestseller in five categories and is available online. And now the takeaways.

All right. Takeaways on Jenna Campbell, newly minted world record holder. Maria, what was your first takeaway on chatting with Jenna?

Well, it was fun to hear her say you know, I just really came down here to be with my friends and I had very low expectations and she said it's a world record. So I guess my takeaway for that is A if your main goal is to have fun with your friends, you're probably relaxed and it's going to be easier to set a world record. And also it's okay to combine any sport with just being with your friends and having fun.

Yes, I love that Absolutely. I think that's the essence of master swimming. My takeaway was she's young, she's in those younger age groups and you know she swam in college and now she had kind of missed the structure. And that is one of the things that we encourage people to get into master swimming at a young age, because you do come out of college if you're doing some sport that gives you I want to be at practice at three o'clock every day and then all of a sudden you don't have that. It can be rather, you know, disconcerting.

So she uses this new routine with her group and her master's group to have structure and she loves it. I mean, she's also a triathlete, so she's got a lot of structure and that would be kind of a semi takeaway. Is she's not training crazy in her swimming it's one third of her training. So you know, I thought it was amazing I watched her swim 202 in a long course. 200 meter free is so elite, it's just unbelievable. So anyway, that was. That was a really, really exciting to get to talk to.

Jenna, yeah, and it reminded me of how important structure is. The structure that being an athlete provides to me is in my life and makes everything else go better.

Yes, absolutely Part of the reason. We do it. All right, maria Love you, sally Love you too. Bye-bye, bye-bye.

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