Today’s Through my Eyes focuses on senior Andy Grant, who spared a few minutes of his hectic schedule to sit down with The Daily. Grant, a captain of the Stanford men’s swimming and diving team and a computer science major from Livermore, Calif., didn’t begin swimming competitively until age 16.

Grant has emerged as one of the nation’s finest freestylers. He is the school record holder in his specialty, the 200-yard freestyle, as well as a six-time All-American. Grant also just qualified to compete for the United States in his first international event, the Pan-American Games, to be held in Brazil next summer. This season, Grant will be a key component in the team’s quest for their 26th consecutive Pac-10 title, as well as the Cardinal’s first NCAA title since 1998.

A typical day

My alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m., I grab a quick snack and run off to the pool for 6:30 practice. Practice ends at 8:00, so then I shower, change and go back to my room at Kappa Alpha. I make myself some scrambled eggs and a bowl of cereal, since we don’t have a chef in that early. Then it’s nap time for an hour until my classes, which go until 12. I grab some lunch, close my eyes for 15 minutes until my 1:15 class, and head off to afternoon practice from 2:30 to 5:00. Dinner is usually 6-6:30, and I squeeze in some homework ‘till 8:00, when I take an hour break for my favorite TV shows. Depending on the day, I’ll watch ‘Prison Break,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ or ‘24.’ After that, I either do more work or chill until 11:30, when I crash into bed.

Being a Stanford men’s swimmer this year

Being on this team means you have guys that you can count on for anything, in or out of the pool. You’re a part of a group with everybody working towards a common goal, and that pushes you to achieve things that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Hopefully, this year that will translate into winning our 26th consecutive Pac-10 Championship, as well as the national title.

The Coaches

We have the best coaches on the face of the earth. It always amazes me how Skip [Kenney] can be such a successful coach in a sport he’s never competed in, but all those years of coaching experience have made him such an amazing motivator. Our assistant coach, Ted [Knapp], is so good at paying close attention to detail. It’s really impressive how he’s able to correct the smallest thing in your stroke.

Being a team leader

The senior class is definitely a leading part of the team. We’re a very strong class and very close, but we get our energy from the underclassmen, mainly the freshmen. We like to take their excitement and feed off it. Our freshman class is really strong this year, and we expect that they will make great contributions towards our team goals.

Swim Beginnings

I started swim lessons before my first birthday because my mom was a pool manager. Basically, she put me in swim lessons instead of hiring a babysitter, so I would do them all day until around age five. I actually didn’t start swimming competitively until really late — the summer before my sophomore year in high school, when I joined a year-round club team. Starting so late, I was able to improve pretty fast, and now I’m on one of the greatest teams in the country.

Recruiting

The main reason I got recruited was based on my potential. I wasn’t exceptionally fast in high school, but by my senior year I had won events at the North Coast sectional meet. Since I hadn’t swum much, I caught Skip and Ted’s attention, and they thought they could develop me into a much better swimmer, which has worked well for me. Before Stanford started recruiting me, I never even thought that I would swim in college. I just assumed I’d go to the same college everyone from my high school goes to. Being recruited was really cool. Now I realize that I was really naive in the sport. I didn’t know all that Stanford had done in swimming. All the information I knew was on a piece of paper I was handed with the guys’ times on it, and I that’s when I realized I was good enough to swim here.

After Graduation

I hope to get involved in the Internet security area, working with a major corporation to help develop improved security software. As far as swimming goes, I’m going to keep on training to try to make the 2008 Olympic team.

First international team

Next July I’m going to be swimming on my first international team at the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro. I had never experienced much success aside from collegiate swimming, so that was really exciting. Now I have confidence that I can compete against the big guys.

Competitive Spirit

I love swimming really fast. If I’m going to win, I want to win by a lot. I’m not satisfied with just winning. I want to swim my best every time.