Wallace back for Brazil boost
DAN Wallace was ahead of the Brexit curve. At just 18, he had to choose whether to remain or to leave. Growing up near Edinburgh, he had an ecosystem in place to accelerate an already promising swimming career, with the option of a sporting scholarship within Scotland. It made, as these things often do, almost perfect sense.
Instead, he surprised many by choosing to opt out. The University of Florida, where sunshine comes as a perk, dangled an offer which proved irresistible.
“That was the best thing for me at the time,” Wallace recounts. “There were always some great opportunities for me in America. I was willing to fly halfway across the world to see what it was like over there.” Twenty days out from his opening swim at the Olympic Games, the 23-year-old readily credits the benefits of his spell in the colours of The Gators. Under their watch, he claimed gold in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the 400 metres individual medley before earning a world title last year as part of the UK’s 4x200 freestyle relay quartet in Kazan.
Yet he has been honing his preparations for Rio in the cooler climes of Somerset, choosing to switch his base to the Millfield centre that is home to world champion James Guy and others – a relocation driven by an urgent need for reinvention. His American adventure, quite simply, ran its course.
“Fortunately now, there are some amazing places in the UK to train. British swimming has come a long way in four years but at that point, it was my best option. There were great facilities. And everyone there became a second family. Moving over as an 18-year-old was quite hard. But they are a very close-knit group of people and we all understood we’d made that choice to go there.”
The initial homesick blues were instructive. The life of an international athlete inevitably involves time on the road, away from the comfort of family and friends. The Skype generation have it easier than their predecessors. But it still requires selfsufficiency to thrive.
Wallace embraced the diversion. Campus culture in Gainesville places its sporting students on a pedestal. American footballers and basketballers treated as gods with even its track athletes and swimmers receiving exalted status. Their Scottish recruit trained hard and played hard. Until the late-night escapade in May 2014 that brought him a very public shaming and a suspension from the swimming team.
Arrested for urinating on a police car, he suffered the indignity of being handcuffed on the ground. The charges were speedily dropped, the ban lifted. But it was a shake to the shoulders that Wallace acknowledges was probably required.
“Definitely there are moments in your life when you’re growing up, you’re becoming a man, a professional athlete, that you get a wake-up call. You realise to make the next step, you have to change. There have been several points in my swimming career where I’ve had to look and say: ‘why am I doing this? Where do I want to go?’ There’s been some failures I’ve had that have eventually helped me with my swimming.”
Such resilience has served him well in recent months. At the Olympic trials in April, he was only third in the medley and well off his usual pace.
Ultimately, British Swimming’s selectors kept faith, treating the mis-step as an aberration. Still, he recognised it was best to return to the UK with Rio in mind.
Revamped Olympic rules mean only those who swim in relay finals earn a medal. At the recent European Championships, Wallace was utilised only in the heats, a demotion that – regardless of how he performs in his individual outings – means the need to prove form has become ever more pressing. It is a battle he is determined to win.
“I might not have been performing the way I want to, but there was never a point where I didn’t believe I could get there,” he says. “I’m focused. I’m committed to the training. If I race to my potential, there’s no reason why I can’t get a medal in Rio.”