This year’s swim and dive preseason meeting included someone it has never had before: an olympian.

The team’s preseason meeting, held Sept. 29 in the media center, featured U.S. Olympic swimmer Connor Jaeger, who earned silver in Rio this summer in the 1500m freestyle. Jaeger acted as a motivational speaker for the group as they prepare for their upcoming winter season.

“He basically told the story of his swimming career, telling us about how he started swimming for his high school team, before talking about swimming at Michigan, and what that was like training next to some of the fastest swimmers in the country,” swimmer Caroline Rhodes said.

Jaeger’s visit was coordinated by Jan Boyer, junior swimmer Fran Boyer’s dad. Initially, when swim & dive coach Geoff Schaefer announced that Jaeger would be at the meeting, many team members assumed it was just a ploy to get more students to attend.

“I kept saying ‘I’m being completely serious, he’s going to be here,’” Schaefer said. “They were shocked when they walked in to see an olympian.”

Because the meeting was meant to introduce the new season and familiarize new swimmers with the team, Schaefer gave the attendees a paper outlining the season and his policies, but directed the rest of the meeting to Jaeger.

In addition to talking about his early years, Jaeger discussed his recent success in Rio, while emphasizing the long journey it took to get there.

“He talked about winning the silver as only part of his career,” Schaefer said. “He’s gotten 8th place, 12th place, then he qualifies certain times for big meets. He said ‘you will fail over and over again, but it’s perseverance, it’s focus, it’s the fact that you show up—that’s how you become a champion.’”

Team members were affected by Jaeger’s message, and hope to carry it with them into the season.

“Everyone was really impressed and generally in awe of him; as soon as everyone walked into the library, you could see it on their faces that they were super excited,” Rhodes said. “Connor is a really great example of the success you can have through hard work and perseverance, so it was really cool to talk with him.”

Like the students, Schaefer was in awe of Jaeger after following him during the summer Olympics.

“I still am in complete shock,” he said. “The fact that he was in this building was an honor for me.”