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THE INTERVIEW WITH FAITH JOHNSON
High Point Christian, senior, swimming

Faith Johnson, 17, is the reigning NCISAA Class 3-A state champion in the 50 freestyle (23.00 seconds) and 100 freestyle (50.31) and is the 2011 News & Record All-Area girls swimmer of the year. Johnson, who signed with Tennessee, has qualified for the Olympic trials in both events. She competes for STAR Aquatics year-round.

Q: When did you first get into swimming, and what made you stick with it?
A: When I was 5 is when I first had lessons and I just always loved water. It’s kind of like my little escape in a way.

Q: What was it like winning two state championships and receiving so many accolades last season?
A: It’s just always been very rewarding. I’m blessed and so happy that I’ve been given these talents. It’s just another thing to keep me going.

Q: What are your expectations for yourself heading into the high school postseason?
A: I really want to go and get the two state two records that are left, those two that I didn’t get last year (at the state meet). I was really close last year in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Since I’m going to Tennessee next year and I have (Olympic) trials this summer, I really want to finish the high school season with my year-round team really strong so I have a head start going into next year with Tennessee.

Q: You compete with STAR Aquatic year-round. How did you first hear about that organization?
A: By word of mouth. I heard they were really big on technique and everything. And my shoulders were really messed up when I wanted to change programs, so I was told by a lot of people to check it out and I did and I absolutely loved it.

Q: What was wrong with your shoulders?
A: I had an overbalance muscularly front to back, my back muscles weren’t strong enough and I was having knots all down my back. It was awful. I went through a lot of physical therapy and I had to redo my whole swimming program by starting with a little bit of yardage and build my way up without having pain.

Q: How do you get prepared to compete in a big event?
A: I have to mentally prepare. I talk to a sports psych guy every week. That’s how I mentally prepare. I just have to stay focused and trust my coaches to get my physically prepared for it. I usually pick what we talk about, but we talk about things from motivation to goal-setting to what’s going on and how I can control my attitude in certain situations and all that stuff. It’s been a big help. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now and I can tell a major difference in my attitude and everything.

Q: How so?
A: I can usually stay more calm in certain situations. I used to have a temper. Now I can just take it with a grain of salt and go on and be happier in general.

Q: What has been your most memorable swimming experience?
A: When I was 12 at Southern Zone in Texas. It’s like each state picks seven people from each age group and we go. I was swimming the 100 free and I really wanted to break a minute in long course. … As soon as the race ended, the first thing I looked for was if there was a “1” in front of the time and there wasn’t and all my teammates came running up to me screaming “Good job, good job!” I’ve always had time goals but breaking a minute in freestyle is kind a big goal for everyone, and … I had done short course a while ago, and I really just wanted to do it long course.

Q: What is the different between competitive long course and short course swimming?
A: You have to have a lot more endurance for long course, because you don’t have that little split second of a break with the turn, and it’s harder to maintain your stroke because you get more tired and your stroke starts to fall apart a little bit.

Q: I would think that short course might be more difficult because you have to make that turn as opposed to just staying straight, but that’s not the case, huh?
A: For me it’s not, but some people like long course better, so it kind of depends on the person.

Q: What are your thoughts on the Greensboro Aquatic Center?
A: I really like it. It’s a great pool to get to train at when I get to train there. And it’s a nice facility to have around here. Some of the other places I train at are not as great and fantastic as the Aquatic Center.

Q: Do you have any superstitions or any routines that you follow?
A: I have my pre-race routine, but I don’t really have any superstitions. I always pop my back before I swim. I don’t even know why. I have a specific thing I go through. I usually start out sitting behind the blocks and a couple of heats before I swim I’ll jump around and shake out my muscles, and I kind of use the block to pop my back, and I take a lot of deep breaths and focus, and I usually fiddle with my goggles a whole lot.

Q: Is there anything you have to eat or drink on the day of a meet?
A: I always drink Gatorade now. It used to be Vitamin Water, but I switched to Gatorade. I think it was just from swimming outside. I was told I needed a lot more electrolytes and more substance to what I was drinking, so ever since then I started drinking Gatorade all the time.

Q: What’s your favorite flavor?
A: We go to Sam’s and I like the Fierce package, and it’s strawberry, melon and grape. I think strawberry and melon are my favorite.

Q: What does it take to compete at such a high level? What do you do to train?
A: It just takes a lot of dedication and focus. I have a great team to train with and a great coach and I always have to keep positive so I can train my absolute hardest all the time. I swim six days a week and I lift two days a week and I also have the sports psych. So it takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s all worth it in the long run.

Q: Why did you decide to continue your swimming career and education at Tennessee?
A: Just the relationships I know I can form there. And I absolutely love the coach. And when I was talking to the person in charge of kinesiology, she seemed like she was so on top of everything and it just felt like the right place to go.

Q: What’s something interesting about you that most people don’t know?
A: Most people who only know me by seeing my black-and-white picture in the newspaper don’t know I have red hair.

Q: Do you have any pets?
A: I have a pet bird, which is kind of weird. It’s a cockatiel. She’s really polite. She doesn’t ever chirp until after I get up, because she’s in my room, so she’s really nice and quiet for the most part. Her name is Nikki. I’ve had her since after fourth grade. I usually just give her birdseed, but she really likes eggs, which I find really funny. And little noodles. She likes to get into things sometimes and just steal my food. She’s allowed out. She’s usually in her cage, but we’ll open the door.

Q: What kind of music do you enjoy?
A: I love hip hop and rap. Chris Brown is my all-time favorite. I actually really like Usher, even though he’s kind of old, and Ne-Yo. I don’t really bring my iPod to meets. I’ll listen to it on the car ride there. I’ve only been to once concert in my life, and that was when I was really little and I don’t hardly remember it.

Q: What bothers you more than anything else?
A: I have really bad road rage. So I guess just people driving, when they’re acting stupid, that bothers me. I got into a wreck recently, but that was partially because I couldn’t see anything because my windows were really foggy.

Q: What happened?
A: I was pulling out of my neighborhood and my windows were really foggy. And it was a combination of I was already frustrated and I pulled out slowly and a car was coming and tore the bumped off my car. It kind of tore the whole front off of my car, actually. I drive a BMW, so the hood was fine, but the whole underside was just like gone.

Q: Were you OK?
A: I’m pretty sure I cried for like three hours after that. My mom was in the car with me. We were all OK and the other car didn’t have too much damage because I just caught the back end of him. Technically, it was my fault because I was pulling out, but it’s debatable because I think he was going too fast. My bumper was all the way across the road.

Q: So were you able to still drive the car?
A: I could still drive it. I was going to the doctor’s. So I drove it up there. And it was actually so I could be released back to swimming after my concussion, so, yeah…

Q: Oh my goodness. How did you get the concussion?
A: The day before winter nationals started, we went down there and they had the pool open for warm-ups … and this guy was swimming butterfly toward me and hit me in the head and I got a concussion from it. And then I had to swim the rest of the meet with a concussion, so that was fun. I got out after that happened, because I wasn’t feeling too well and my head was really hurting. Then at dinner my vision was getting a little messed up. Then the next day I hit my head on a beam. So that didn’t help matters. I wasn’t too far off my times and I still made the finals at nationals, so I was pretty happy with how I did, considering I had a concussion.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, other than swimming?
A: With what little free time I have, I’m generally really tired, so I watch a lot of TV, I guess. I watch NCIS. I record them, so I watch those and occasionally random movies that come on.