Olympian and Champion of Chemistry and Kicking: Chris Stevenson, EP 261

In this episode, we sit down with Chris Stevenson, an Olympian (Greece) and world and national holder in Masters swimming, chemistry professor, and long-time volunteer for U.S. Masters Swimming. Chris opens up about his recent return to swimming after a long hiatus due to personal and professional challenges, including the loss of his parents and a demanding role as the Chemistry department chair at the University of Richmond. He discusses how he navigated his time away from the pool, including recovering from a shoulder surgery, and the physical and mental hurdles of getting back into shape after being out of the water for so long.

Chris delves into his reputation for outstanding underwaters, sharing insights on how to develop a strong dolphin kick and improve performance off the walls. He provides practical tips for swimmers of all levels to strengthen their legs and breath control. Chris also reflects on the joys and struggles of balancing swimming with life, emphasizing the importance of setting realistic goals, finding enjoyment in the process, and re-connecting with the social aspects of the sport.

Show Notes:

• Introduction to Chris Stevenson, a celebrated Masters swimmer, volunteer and chemistry professor at the University of Richmond.
• Chris’ journey back to the pool after a long break due to family responsibilities, career demands, and injury recovery.
• Challenges of returning to swimming after years away, including fitness, feel for the water, and breath control.
• Discussion on developing a strong underwater dolphin kick, with tips for swimmers at all levels.
• Reflections on goal-setting, training with a group, and finding motivation in the process.
• How swimming can still be fun and fulfilling despite the inevitable challenges of aging and time away from the sport.
• Chris' passion for chemistry and how it connects to everyday life.

Mentions:

• Anna Lea Matysek, US Masters Volunteer
• Heather Stevenson, US Masters Volunteer
• David Berkoff, Olympic Medalist 
• Matt Barany, University of Richmond Swim Coach

Whether you're intimidated by swimming, chemistry, or both, this episode is a celebration of curiosity, perseverance, and the importance of finding joy in pursuits old and new. Join us for a heartwarming and inspiring listen that promises to leave you motivated and enlightened

Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.

Chapters

• 0:01 Return to Masters Swimming and Underwaters
• 12:49 Challenges and Rewards of Masters Swimming
• 16:14 Exploring Passion for Chemistry

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

All right, I am on deck with an on-deck interview after practice at SwimRVA with one of my I'm just going to say it one of my true heroes that I have been wanting to get on the podcast for so long national record zone records, lmsc records. But Chris and I have been friends. We go back all the way to our days when you were at UNC and I was at NC State. We didn't cross over much there, but we do have that little rivalry but we've been friends. But really, chris has so many unique things. I don't just admire you, chris, for all your great swimming, but you have been an unbelievably dedicated volunteer in US master swimming and done so much just for me.

Speaker 1: 0:49

I, you are the Virginia, for me, anna Lee Matisak. Everybody knows who Anna Lee is. So you are the Virginia, anna Lee. You and Heather, your wife, do so much for the sport of swimming and and just before we start talking because I got I just there's so much that I I want to talk with you about. You are also we got to get out of here after morning practice because we got to get you. You are a full-time chemistry professor at the University of Richmond, the Spiders, in fact. We're looking over at a sign that says water may contain spiders here in Richmond, which I love Anyway and so, chris, you've got all these balls in the air. I think the first thing I really wanna talk with you about is, you know, you kind of disappeared here recently from the master swimming scene, and that was a disappointment to me personally, because I love to see you swim, I love to see you break records. So tell us where you've been, what's been going on and why you are now back training.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Right, right. So, and actually one thing I would say is that we I disappeared from the swimming pool, but we still kept on being involved in the volunteer, just because volunteer efforts in Virginia, just because we feel like we can give back. So I guess what happened is that part of it was sort of personal. Both my parents passed away. I'm sorry. Yeah, there was a time when, you know, my mother went first, my dad needed a lot of help and you know, you know how all that is too.

Speaker 2: 2:19

People, our age, you know we're taking care of our parents. And then I became department chair at UR for six years and that was just. It took a lot of my time, let me just put it that way a lot of my time and energy and emotional energy as well. And so I actually, you know, for a while I stayed in and and swam, although I didn't compete much because I wasn't, wasn't regular enough, if that makes sense, but then then I just couldn't even do that, you know. So for a couple years I was basically out of the water. I walked to and from work as to try to get my heart rate up, and that was about all I could manage to do.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Yeah, did you? Did you have any injuries? Because I think we talked like I would ask people where's Chris, and I think he's injured.

Speaker 2: 3:06

But Right, I did actually. Yes, I had one of my. So what would happen is I would be away for a while and then I would start back up, and that's probably a recipe. Plus, getting older is probably a recipe for injuries as well. But yes, I had shoulder surgery right before COVID hit, so, and actually my PT happened during COVID, so that was kind of difficult too, and then, of course, a lot of swim pools were closed down after that, so so, yes, I did have that to recover from as well. Throwing that into the mix yeah, yes.

Speaker 1: 3:41

So so now you've been back since June and this is, you know, late September that we're talking and how, how is it going and what are some of the different feelings that you have? Like, just just how's it going and what does it feel like at this point?

Speaker 2: 3:57

Right. Well, it's been interesting, because this is the longest by far that I've been out of the water and a lot of things you take for granted your field, your cardiovascular fitness, but also things like your feel for the water. You know how you can, you can tell when someone has a swimming background. You know when you see lap swimmers or whatever, and when they don't, because of you know the way they move, the efficiency of their strokes and things like that. Well, you lose some of that, in addition to just fitness, I mean be able to stay underwater, your your legs not being strong, so when I first started, I probably could barely do a thousand, and so it took like a different mindset. Right, you're used to.

Speaker 2: 4:39

I swam on my own because I didn't want to burden other people with my slowness. So you go in and it's like, okay, I'm going to do, you know, eight, 100s on such and such. You know you come up with these ideas and it doesn't survive contact with the water, as they say. Is that a chemistry term? No, no, it's like that war. Right, it doesn't survive contact with the enemy, and the water's not your enemy, of course, but but you do find yourself like you do a little bit.

Speaker 2: 5:07

You get out of breath. You're like, well, maybe I don't need to do eight, I can do four, my interval can be, you know, such and such. But what I realized is that I had to sort of scale back expectations and be more realistic. And also I used to, you know, bike and lift, and I realized, okay, just get back to basics, just take care of the swimming first, you know, try to get back to the, where it's enjoyable again, because that's the other thing is that exercise isn't. When you've been out for a while, you don't get quite that endorphin rush anymore, at least not initially. You get pain and so, and so you have to kind of overcome that before you start feeling good and then you start to see the improvement and that motivates you to go do more and get faster and so forth.

Speaker 1: 5:54

So you did just mention your underwater. So you are famous in the master swimming community even decades ago for being incredible underwater. You were doing these underwaters. Okay, maybe David Berkoff was the originator, but I would say Chris Stevenson was the second. You know, you were the one that is has been doing them. How did you get into those amazing underwaters? And also, how are they feeling now at this?

Speaker 2: 6:26

point. So, yeah, it's interesting you mentioned David Berkoff because he's slightly younger than me and so I've always had good dolphin kick and I actually remember in high school that one of my first. We lived overseas for a while. We came back and moved to Raleigh, which is where I met you Actually and I have to correct you one thing oh, yes, correct me. So the first time I ever met you was when I was in high school. I went to an NC State swim camp and you were one of the helpers Don Easterling's helpers for for that camp.

Speaker 1: 7:01

I remember that, so, gosh we didn't get you to come to NC State no, no.

Speaker 2: 7:07

Well, the funny thing is again sorry for the aside here, but when we first moved to Raleigh my parents had heard of Don Easterling and tried to get me to to swim with him because I think at that time he had some, some USA swimmers and I. I was coming off of a lot of injuries then and and he, at least famously for me, said, no well, we have girls swimming faster than that. Probably you he was talking about. So I was not, yeah, and so I was not fast enough to swim at that time, to swim for NC State, which changed, you know, shortly afterwards.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Which boy? He really regretted that one and you made him regret it.

Speaker 2: 7:44

Anyway. So back to the the Burkoff thing. I don't think it wasn't in college when I started. Yes, I took underwaters more than most at the time, but you know, for for the what was normal at the time, I would take like three or four underwater kicks and I would do it on freestyle as well, which was a little unusual at the time. But it wasn't enough to truly take advantage of it. And once, berkhoff, you know, I should have put the pieces together. I knew my kick was as fast as my swim, you know, and and that's on top of the water, so underwater even faster. But it was probably in Masters when I first started working at it.

Speaker 2: 8:21

And that's the thing is, it is something you have to work at because it doesn't people see sort of the finished product and think that, oh well, I can never be like that. You know I can't. I don't have that dolphin kick or those underwaters. But it made me realize coming back that I didn't have them then either my legs would get tired after 25. You know I was kicking with a kickboard so I didn't have to worry about holding my breath. Holding your breath is something that also takes a lot of practice. So my underwaterers are better now than they were a couple months ago, that's for sure, and they're probably better than most people's, but they're not where I used to be, you know. So I still have a lot to work on.

Speaker 2: 9:02

But that's the thing is that you have to have a plan, like you know, okay, if I'm swimming when you have a set, you say, okay, I'm going to take six underwaters off of every wall if you're doing a backstroke or whatever. So there's a definite plan. It's not just doing whatever repeats on whatever intervals. It's how many underwaters to take. Same thing with races, you know you have to know how hard you can push it early on, because otherwise you go into oxygen debt too fast and can't do it. So yeah, it's definitely something that's very deliberate. But yes, having a, I've always was a good kicker, so I had that kind of natural. I don't know if it's flexibility of ankles and knees or whatever, but I do think it's also something that can be trained and worked on.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Oh, I love that and this is just the kind of gem that our listeners will benefit from. So, if you're just so, if you're talking to kind of an average kicker off the wall which I'm going to raise my hand here and say that is me. So what would be other than having a plan? If I can, right now I can do one dolphin off my walls one, and I try to do that in practice. But what might be a step up thing that I could do to maybe get two.

Speaker 2: 10:14

So I would say that there are two things you have to do. One is you just have to strengthen your legs and core, all right, and that can be out of the water but also in the water. A lot of people don't believe in kickboards, but I'm not one of those people, so I guess double negative. I do believe in them, just in the sense of, because sometimes you don't want to have to worry about trying to hold your breath, you just want to strengthen your legs, strengthen your core, and dolphin is different than flutter kick right. So you have to work on dolphin kick.

Speaker 2: 10:43

I've never liked a lot of people nowadays do dolphin kick on their back on the surface and I've never liked that. Because you're stronger, is your down sweep with. You know, when you're facing down or right, so you're up, sweep if you're on your back, and when you're on the surface you don't have much to push against. You know if you kick really hard, you just push water up, you know. So you need to either be underwater or with a kickboard. You know you have to be a little careful if you have shoulder issues with a kickboard, but it does help just to build up strength. So that's one thing thing. And the other is is the breath control. If you do one, go for two next time. You know that sort of thing, but it has to be something, something that you're deliberate about, and you have to. Sometimes you have to say, okay, I'm not going to worry about my time, I'm going to do this set of whatever. And my main goal is to do two or three or whatever dolphin kicks off of every wall and to make them count.

Speaker 2: 11:41

And because that's another thing is, a lot of times kicking sets are a recovery set, an after thought for a lot of people. And actually I got this. You know, some summers I've swum with the coach, matt Barony, and one thing that he did that you know you're still learning, even at our age, right, one thing he did that I thought was interesting. Well, two things. One is he often had warmups as a hard kick set, and not just a rinky dink kick set, but where you're really pushing yourself, you're trying to do good, good times or tough repeats or whatever. And then the other thing is sometimes the main set is a kick set. Right, don't do it after the main set, do it as your first main set and look at your times and try to make them get faster, because that's once you're kicking. If you don't have a good kick, you're not going to have good underwaters. Right, that's just the way it is. You have to also have to have good breath control, but you to have a fast kick.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So oh I'm. I'm loving this. This is just like you're. You're. You're talking to the person that needs it, and I know a lot of our listeners will. So, uh, you've been back in the water since june. We established that. What are some of your goals coming up and how are you planning to deal with this time out of the water and what might be ahead?

Speaker 2: 12:56

well, it's gonna be a challenge in the sense that I know the first I'll eventually go back to a meet, probably next winter or spring, and it'll be a challenge because I'll be slow, right, even if I'm in good shape. You know, if I'm happy with my shape, it'll have been I don't know ten, eight, ten years since I last competed seriously, you know so. Even if I had swum that whole time, I would have been I don't know 10, 8, 10 years since I last competed seriously, you know so. Even if I had swum that whole time, I would have been slower. So that'll be a challenge, right it, the clock doesn't lie, and so it's kind of hard right. And there's the other saying it's like the older we get, the faster we were you know so you kind of misremember how fast you were and forget the struggles you know, know.

Speaker 2: 13:35

So, um, but I guess you just have to, um, push forward. It's nice to have something to shoot for, um, I I spent a couple months on my own, like I said, but now I'm swimming with the group and that's good too, because they push you and plus, you get the social interactions and you know you can forget how hard, how badly you're hurting if you have someone to joke about with it.

Speaker 1: 13:56

So yeah, you're hurting if you have someone to joke about with it. So, yeah, yes, yes. Well, yeah, as we have established on the podcast, the swim rva masters group uh, this morning group are they're? They're beasts, they're young, they're fast and you are already at the front of a lane and doing really well. Is there anything that you might be ahead of where you thought you were?

Speaker 2: 14:19

I don't know. I'm a pretty harsh critic of myself, so I don't. I guess it doesn't hurt as much as I thought, but mostly I see the places where I'm missing, like on Friday we had to do some fast swimming and I was slower than I wanted to be, you know. So I don't think and I wouldn't say I'm at the front of the lane, I'm in the fastest lanes, but there are still people who are quite a bit faster than me, especially on the sprint part, which I have not gotten.

Speaker 2: 14:50

One of the things you lose when you get older is the ability to get your heart rate way up there, right. So the difference between my hold this pace for a while and my all-out speed is much less than I would like it to be, and so that's why I'm a little worried about racing, because I'm like, oh, that's not much faster than I go in practice. But, um, so I I guess that's not a good answer, um, I guess, I guess my underwaters and my breath control is better than I expected it to be at this point, but I still have a ways to go.

Speaker 1: 15:26

And is it as fun as you remember it? Oh yeah, definitely. Well, the last question, which is just is there anything that I have not asked you that you might want to share with our listeners about anything? Master swimming chemistry.

Speaker 2: 15:44

I guess both chemistry and master swimming. You know they can be intimidating for people from a distance, from the outside, but it's not. I mean, there's always something that's your speed. You can show up in a group. It's nice to have people to swim with and have someone else tell you what to do, rather than come up with your own workouts. But yeah, just give it a try. You know you'll find someone your speed and people to talk to. So before you know it, the hour's gone and you've had a good workout.

Speaker 1: 16:14

And how can you make me like chemistry, chris? And how can you make me like chemistry?

Speaker 2: 16:18

Chris, I guess I've always liked things based on what they can explain or what they can do for you. So chemistry is the central science, as they say right, everything around us is matter. So how? Why things behave the way they do? I just it's interesting to know how the world works, including chemistry.

Speaker 1: 16:38

I love it. Thank you so much for joining me today, my pleasure.