On being a part of the Los Angeles Current, Seliskar said, “It’s awesome. I am really excited. It’s cool to be a part of a professional organization and I have a lot of my Cal teammates on the same roster. I am glad it worked out that way since we all keep to the same schedule. I am looking forward to it.”
He praised General Manager and four-time Olympic gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg for being an “icon” in the sport. “It’s cool to get to know him on a personal level and on a different basis. He compiled the best roster he could. We have the best balance of athletes for the format that we are going into. I think Lenny has done a great job,” he said.
Last year, Seliskar was nominated for the “Breakout Performer of the Year” Golden Goggles Award. “It was exciting. I had never been to a Golden Goggles event before,” he said. “It’s a good balance of community and competition, which makes the USA Swimming Team the best in the world.”
At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Seliskar won the bronze medal as part of the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, and he had the privilege to lead off the relay. “Leading off the relay was an honor. It was a huge experience to race at that highest level. There were a lot of takeaways from that meet. I came out of it with a lot of motivation,” he said.
On being a swimmer in the digital age, Seliskar said, “It is definitely different. It ties into that community. It is cool now with social media and on YouTube with videos going online. It is nice to see how everybody else is training and competing. It is more of an open sport where there is a lot of information about how people are at the level that they are at. It is great to see how other athletes are training and trying to emulate that.”
Seliskar uses technology for recovery purposes such as NormaTec and Hyperice Hypervolt. “I feel fortunate that I have access to some of the best trainers in the sport at Cal,” he said.
He expressed his love for Dave Durden as his coach, who is the Men’s Swimming Head Coach at the University of California, Berkeley and he will be the Head Coach of the Men’s Swimming Team at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. “Dave is one of the best problem solvers in the sport. He is never taking one thing at face value. He is always two or three steps ahead. He has an individual plan for every swimmer and he gets the best results out of us. He is so organized and so driven in what he does. Dave is a role model to everyone on our team,” he said.
For young and aspiring swimmers, Seliskar offered the following advice: “Never take for granted what you are doing. Always keep it fun. I try to keep that in the forefront of my mind. I swim because it’s something I love to do and I love to compete. Enjoy the process.”
He listed the “butterfly” as his personal favorite stroke, though he admitted that it is one of the hardest. “Butterfly is pretty tough. It is muscularly the most taxing,” he admitted.
On the title of the current chapter of his life, he said, “Being an Independent Person.”
Seliskar defined the word success as “reaching your goals or learning something new.”
To learn more about professional swimmer Andrew Seliskar, follow him on Instagram.
