heidi earp
2000 was certainly a watershed in the international swimming career of Heidi Earp. She had of course been an established international for some time previously, but it was her swims at the Olympic trials, where she erased Marie Hardiman's old British record over 100m breastroke, and more impressively became the first British woman to record a time under 1:10 that made us all sit up and take notice. Following a, perhaps some might say, slightly (but then only slightly) below par performance at the Olympics, she certainly showed that there had been no ill effects from any negative press that the British team had received by breaking yet more British records at the Winter Short Course Nationals. pullbuoy caught up with her to get her side of the story.
You were voted pullbuoy swimmer of the year for 2000. How do you feel
2000 went for you? You must have been really pleased to break loads of
British Records!!
2000 was a great year for me, I had just finished my A-levels and it was a
year where I could really concentrate on my swimming for the first time.
Education had always come first and swimming had always taken a back seat,
but I moved to Nottingham to train with the Nova squad and it was a
success! When I began to train a lot more and race well, I just knew I
could break the British Record and it just was a matter of by how much!
Do you feel that the experience of Sydney will stand you in good stead for
the world championships in Fukuoka?
Being at the Olympics was wonderful, it was my first major long-course meet
and it was like jumping in head first onto the international scene. It made
me realise what I really want to do and how I am going to go about it.
It's been widely said that the British team under performed in Sydney, -
do you have any thoughts on why this may be?
I do not really think that the swimmers under-performed at all. Just look at
how many British records were broken, it was just that the whole world
improved by a much greater margin!!
Were you disappointed with your swims at the Olympics?
No not at all. It was a great experience, I was only a tenth of a second
off my best time in the individual plus I was in the final of the relay.
At the Olympics, Sue Rolph was very vocal in her criticism of the
facilities in this country - what's your view?
Sue has got a point, but you just make do with what you have got and
luckily I train at an excellent facility in the University.
Bill Sweetenham has recently taken over as NPD; how has this affected you
and other top swimmers in this country? Has there been a definite change
from Deryk Snelling's time?
Bill is great, he tells you exactly what he wants from you and speaks his
mind. At the European Short-Course Championships in December, I have never
been on such a motivated high spirited team, it was great.
Do you enjoy racing or training best?
Racing, you can not beat the feeling of touching that pad first.
How many times per month do you race?
It really depends, sometimes one and other times four.
Do you have any particular race rituals?
Lots!! I am a superstitious person!! For example, I have to have all of my
kit ready and packed at least one day early!!
What do you think about whilst training?
I sing a lot!!
How many hours per week do you train?
Again it depends, swimming plus land training, over 20.
What would be your number one piece of advice for any up and coming
swimmers? and for breastrokers particularly (my sister is a breastroker
and has hit a bit of a wall in terms of times!)
Training consistently is the key. The main thing to realise is that you
cant improve all the time, it is really hard when you reach a plateau, I
know I have been there more than once! You just need to understand that if
you keep training hard eventually your times will start coming down again.
It is really good that you are taking an interest in your sister's
swimming, my brother is extremely important in my swimming career.
Pullbuoy would like to thank Heidi for her time in preparing this article. Look out for part two of our interview coming soon.