‘It gave me chills’: Team USA swimming athletes, coaches reflect on Coach K’s pep talk

Before entertaining swarms of young swimmers at Cary’s Triangle Aquatic Center on Saturday, the U.S. Olympic swim team welcomed a 77-year-old Durham resident to their North Hills hotel on Friday.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Bobby Finke now admits, with a bit of embarrassment, he was not up to date on the guest of honor.

“I didn’t know who Coach K was,” Finke said with a laugh.

Finke isn’t a basketball fan. He doesn’t follow the sport at all. But despite that, Mike Krzyzewski’s message clearly resonated. N.C. State’s Katherine Berkoff said the former Duke men’s basketball coach spoke to Team USA for an hour. He shared advice from decades with the Blue Devils, but also from his tenure as the USA men’s national team head coach.

Finke said a highlight of the conversation was learning how Krzyzewski brought together top NBA talent in 2008, leading the “Redeem Team” to gold in Beijing.

“You can have the best athletes in the world,” Finke said, “but if they don’t work together, you’re not going to do squat.”

USA assistant Braden Holloway, who serves as N.C. State’s head swimming coach, said Krzyzewski “had a couple of jokes against N.C. State.” Holloway later approached the Hall of Famer to ask “where were the jokes against UNC?”

“He was really low-key, down to earth,” Holloway said. “I think it gave some comfort to the team. Because this team — there’s a lot of expectations on USA Swimming. I think he gave the group a lot to think about to maybe alleviate some of that stress and get more excited.”

Holloway said Krzyzewski told the swimmers to elevate their teammates and the environment, and instructed the coaches on managing different personalities.

USA head coach Anthony Nesty called Krzyzewski’s visit “unbelievable.”

“He talked about the ‘92 game with [Christian] Laettner and the last shot,” he said. “I mean, I watched that game and seeing Coach K in person was the highlight of the day.”

Standards, accountability and unity — those are the themes that stuck out to Nesty. Lindsay Mintenko, director of USA Swimming, said Krzyzewski emphasized the same core values she and the coaching staff have repeated for the last 18 months.

In particular, Mintenko remembers Krzyzewski asking the swimmers to reflect: Why do you want to be an Olympian in the first place?

Mintenko thought, especially for the multi-time medalists, that contemplation was impactful.

“When I was talking with Coach K in the process, it gave me chills,” Mintenko said. “It got me choked up to hear him talk about the process and what being part of Team USA means. I was inspired, and I hope everyone else in the room was as well.”

This story was originally published July 6, 2024 at 7:24 PM with the headline "‘It gave me chills’: Team USA swimming athletes, coaches reflect on Coach K’s pep talk."