What I see in the coaching staff and what I see
in the athletes that we have here is something

truly very special. If you want to have an image
of what it means to be a perfect student-athlete,

I invite you to come see the swim team. A lot of
coaches are a little bit overwhelmed with a lot of

the data, and so, we don't necessarily use use it,
because they don't necessarily know how to use it.

The best thing about Dr. Ono is he translates it
for us. Each swimmer is like another math problem.

There are so many variables you have to pick and
choose which are the ones that are important. You

get to a certain level as an elite athlete where
you know there's like only little tiny things that

you can do to improve. It was cool to see someone
who's not my coach, someone who is looking at it

from more of a scientific perspective. A big
part of our curriculum is analyzing data and

analyzing swimming. It combines physics, fluid
dynamics, math to apply that in a way that

actually makes a difference for athletes and help
them achieve whatever their goals they may have.

The great story is Paige Madden. We were focusing
on the 200 freestyle and she wasn't necessarily

even going to swim the 400 freestyle. What would
be next for her right now if you were still here?

Oh good. We'll give you enough
times that you can actually execute

the 200 at 400 pace. Don't worry about the time.
You're not gonna you're not gonna do the time.

Yeah, I don't want you ... I don't even know if
i can hit that. Hey, Paige, you'll hit 100 hard,

on his call. I think he, along with our coaching staff,
have convinced her to swim to 400 free and also

convinced her that she actually has a shot. And he
predicted her to go 4:03. Her best time was 4:09. Six

seconds is a lot of time. So, I was like, "There's
no way that's gonna happen," and I almost scratched

the four free, and was like, "I don't know if
I'm ready for this." But then decided to do it and

he was right. We have the type of student-athletes
who will think about it and can apply it and can

make those changes and really focus on it.
Because he's showing them, as great as they

already are, there's there's room for improvement. They haven't reached their full potential, which

they hear from us as a coaching staff, kind of
from a little bit of a different angle and then

they hear from him you know as more the science,
you know, research-driven side of things, and

the numbers don't lie. It gave me a
good confidence boost to know that

I was worth analyzing and now that I'm working
with Ken and Jerry and realize how many hours

are actually going into this, that's a really
big compliment, because it's a lot of work.

He's played a pretty, you know, pivotal role in just
communicating with these athletes and helping them

to be confident to see what they can actually do, and what they're capable of. What I hope our

little project indicates is our true belief in the
spirit of interdisciplinary work. But what I want

people to understand here is that at the University
of Virginia, we celebrate even a mathematician

collaborating with an Olympic swimming coach
and that's what we're about here at UVA.