EP 88 (S2E36): Aidan Ohara ASU D1 Athlete & ETFs Director

·1 hr 19 min·5 clips

Aiden got into ASU after Bob Bowman watched him test-set with Michael Phelps, Mike, and Allison Schmitt.

1. Swim Bros Podcast EP 88 with Aidan O'Hara focuses on his path from Loyola Maryland to Arizona State University under Bob Bowman. 2. Aidan O'Hara is the guest, the Swim Bros are the hosts, and Bob Bowman matters because he offered Aidan a place on the ASU team. 3. The episode asks how Aidan moved from a small-college swimmer to an ASU athlete during the program's rebuild. 4. Aidan says he was 11 years old and 95 pounds when he entered high school, and he calls himself a late bloomer. 5. He trained at NBCA, grew about a foot in high school, and says he did not receive D1 offers until his senior-year mid-season meet. 6. He accepted an offer from Loyola University of Maryland in Baltimore and kept training there through his first two college years. 7. During an off-season period, Aidan trained with Eric Posgay and the NBCA high school group for two months because he wanted to get faster. 8. He told Posgay that he was trying to transfer to a Power Five school, and Posgay later helped him with Bob Bowman. 9. Aidan describes walking onto the pool deck for a test set with Bowman, Michael Phelps, Mike, and Allison Schmitt. 10. Bowman later told him he had a spot at ASU after Posgay attested to his work ethic and the test set went well enough. 11. Aidan says he had never visited the campus before saying yes to ASU, then landed in Tempe for athlete orientation in August. 12. He remembers stepping into 120-degree heat and asking himself, 'what have I done with my life.' 13. He also describes his roommate Kaiser Witt, a 6-foot-6 Kansas weightlifter, cleaning 315 and then 405 for reps in the apartment weight room. 14. Aiden says Witt later won nationals in heavyweight weightlifting, and the story becomes his first 'welcome to the big leagues' moment. 15. Aidan says Bowman wanted athletes to bring the same energy every day, regardless of fatigue, soreness, or what happened in the previous practice. 16. He says that standard was much stricter than what he had experienced at NBCA and Loyola Maryland, and that mental toughness mattered as much as physical work. 17. Aidan also talks about pressure from roster cuts, including a season when Bowman cut about a third of the team after giving everyone a year to prove themselves. 18. He says a spiral fracture in his left ring finger derailed training before mid-season meet, and later Bowman told him he was in a position to be cut. 19. The tone is conversational and personal, with long answers, coaching anecdotes, and a lot of Swim Bros back-and-forth. 20. Listeners who like ASU swimming, Bob Bowman stories, and athlete development will get the most from it, while viewers wanting a short, tightly edited segment may skip it.

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