|
|
|
|
Learning to Win
By
Hugh Biggar
April 25, 2004 Swimmer Markus Rogan has won two NCAA championships, and was named Stanford University’s top male athlete in 2002. He’s headed to the Olympics, and already has several endorsement deals lined up. Given all of this, he is a decidedly low-profile guy around campus. During a recent lunch hour at Stanford’s Student Union, crowded with students and the visiting families of prospective freshmen, nobody gave the 6’5 Rogan a second look. With his shorts, sandals, t-shirt, backpack and conversational language peppered with “like,” “sweet,” and “kickin’ it,” Rogan blends in easily. In his native Austria, where Rogan is the number one-ranked swimmer, things are different. “I get the double-triple look,” Rogan says of his fellow Austrians. “They send their kids over to get an autograph. Sometimes when I buy something and they see my name, they apologize for not recognizing me earlier.” By contrast, Rogan says he doesn’t mind being just another face in the crowd at Stanford. Swimming at Stanford has brought him other advantages—advantages he believes he would never have had in Austria. “In Austria, there is a national culture of being mediocre. I think they have just lost too often,” Rogan says. He points out that Austria has lost all of its major wars in the last 100 years and has had an official status of political neutrality since 1945. “[Austrians] are perfectly happy to be in the middle,” says Rogan. “They don’t want to be the best, they don’t want to be the worst.” Rogan escaped this middle-ground malaise by moving to the United States from Vienna when he was fourteen. At that time, his stepfather was assigned to work as a television correspondent in Washington D.C. The move proved providential for Rogan. A casual interest in swimming in Austria soon became his full-time focus. With the help of his high school coach in suburban Virginia, Rogan became an All-American swimmer. His coach also encouraged Stanford to recruit Rogan. In turn, Rogan was attracted to Stanford because of its culture of both academics and athletics. “In Austria, I would have finished at school and then would have had to make a decision. Do I want to go the academic way or the athletic way?” he says. At Stanford, Rogan feels lucky to be able to do both, especially since top athletes in Austria usually skip college altogether. In addition to practicing thirty hours a week in preparation for the upcoming European championships and the Olympics, Rogan is also finishing his undergraduate degree in political science and economics. He hopes to use his degree to go to work in management for one of his sponsors when he finished with competitive swimming. Athletically, Rogan feels one of the most important things he has learned at Stanford is an American-style confidence that gives him an edge in the pool. “I wouldn’t have been nearly as good a swimmer if I hadn’t come to Stanford,” he says, recalling his experience as an eighteen-year-old at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. “I was too scared to do well, then,” Rogan says. “It was a very Austrian way to think.” Now, he says, he has no such fears. “It’s amazing at practice when you know, if you keep up with (your teammates), you can keep up with anyone in the world.” The Austrian papers tease him about this newfound confidence and his tendency to complain about finishing second. “At first they called it an “Americanism,” now they have learned to accept it.” Rogan hopes this confidence will make all the difference in Athens this year. He wants to do well so he can raise swimming’s profile in Austria, a nation normally fanatical only about skiing. He notes that Austria hasn’t won an Olympic medal in swimming since 1912, something he plans to change. He also plans to use his ‘Americanism’ mentality to help him win. For despite all his recent successes, this ‘Americanism’ way of thinking is what drives him, he says. “I feel haven’t won anything big yet. I haven’t won the Olympics. I realize there is a lot more to do.” Contact Hugh Biggar at hbiggar@stanford.edu.
|