University of Minnesota Athletics
Get To Know John Bushman
1/20/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
MINNEAPOLIS - Senior John Bushman has had a successful start to the season and has many goals regarding how he would like to end his college swimming career.
Bushman transferred from Wisconsin after the 2013-14 season, and had to sit out the 2014-15 season due to eligibility rules. He has had a successful season thus far, including posting a career-best 1:56.83 in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Bushman attributes much of his success to the offseason training he did in Colorado, as well as help from his coaching staff and teammates.
"John is a leader on our team in terms of work ethic. He gives his all everyday and is respected by his peers for leaving all he has in the pool everyday," Coach Kelly Kremer said.
"As a coach, you love seeing a guy like John succeed. He's earned success, and I can't wait to watch him this championship season."
Gopher Sports: What do you like about the University of Minnesota and the team?
John Bushman: I think I would have to say the range of ages. Being 23 this year, I can interact and hang out with 18 year olds if I want, but then we definitely have our older group. Also, everyone on the team is very knit together. Everyone gets along. You do have your cliques, but when we travel and are at meets it's a lot of fun because everyone is basically unified.
GS: How have you grown since your transfer?
JB: When I first transferred, I had to sit out a year. I was ineligible due to Big Ten regulations. That whole first year I was kind of distanced from the team. I wasn't traveling. All I was doing was training, I was by myself when it came to meets. Since I first started competing for them last year, I think I've just had this mentality that I'm going to go out and do what I can regardless of what happens. Whatever Kelly (Kremer) has me do training wise and whatever the guys have me do in the weight room, I need to hand it over to someone else to guide me. There is only so much I can do as an individual and if I don't buy into or agree with styles or lift programs, it would be a lot harder for me. I think I have just grown up in the way that I am trying my best to do with what I can.
GS: How do you think your hard work during the offseason has contributed to your success in the pool?
JB: My family is from Denver. Out there it is roughly 5,500 elevation. My club team, we do about five doubles a week and three or four drylands a week on top of that. For two full months, I was at home swimming a lot and training a lot. I had good nutrition. Being away from Minnesota a little bit and only focusing on swimming instead of everything else; it was nice to just step away and kind of just focus on myself. It seems to be paying off pretty well so far.
GS: What are your goals to finish out the season and how will you accomplish those goals?
JB: My goal this season, I have talked with Kelly about it and my teammate Jakub (Maly) about it, I'd like to hit top three in the 200 breaststroke and 400 IM at Big Tens. Then, to make NCAAs and swim in a top-16. Hopefully things go well.
GS: What are your hobbies outside of the pool?
JB: I am a huge video gamer. I have been for some years. I also like to go on walks every now and again, depending on the day, if it's not too cold out. Other than that, we don't have a whole lot of time. I do watch my fair share of Netflix. I'm really into computers, so anything computer related I can learn or do, I'm going to. Whatever I'm feeling, I guess, at the time.
GS: What is your desired career path?
JB: My major is business and marketing education through the College of Education and Human Development. Since I'm a fifth year, I've been able to do some extra courses that go off-track of the major just because I'm interested. I'm that major with an emphasis on data analytics. My goal is to do data analytics when I graduate. I have an internship set up this semester where I will be doing just that, analytics for a company. It will be nice to have a lot of experience under that realm.
GS: Who has been your greatest influence and why?
JB: I would say my twin brother, Tom. He has been kind of with me everywhere. When I was at Madison, he transferred from Green Bay and came to Madison with me. Then when I opted to transfer out of Madison, he came with me here. He's kind of always been the one kid I can go to for support. He's very blunt and will always give me his opinion about anything and everything that I do in my life, regardless how mad it will make me. He's kept me level headed through the past four or five years now.
GS: Do you have any closing statements about the season?
JB: We are going to be a force to be reckoned with at the end of the season. People kind of underestimate us going into the championship season. We're all excited to just show people what kind of hard work we've put in and how badly we want to win.
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Players Mentioned
