Olympic Gold Medalist, Garrett Weber-Gale: "Driven To Succeed"

2008 Olympic Gold Medalist, Garrett Weber-Gale (or GWG for those who know his blog and his life as a foodie), has produced a new DVD. 

Driven To Succeed: Freestyle Insight with Garrett Weber Gale is NOT just another boring swimming instructional.  Garrett opens up and infuses the narrative with his real-life drama; all his reasons why stroke efficiency, superior starts and turns, and mental preparation are supremely necessary for him to compete and win. 

"I'm not as tall or muscular as other world-class swimmers," Garrett told me. "To be honest, I don't have the talent really. I've had to work to shave every tenth of second. I'm like a lot a swimmers out there, swimmers who weren't born to succeed." 

Garrett didn't come out and say it, but he was alluding to his health challenges. He suffers from high blood-pressure, which might be an understatement. When he was diagnosed in 2005, his doctor told him not to practice or compete, that he'd be at risk for a stroke or heart-attack.  

Garrett was faced with a future that looked bleak.

Not competing wasn't an option for Garrett, so he formulated a game-plan. He was prepared to do anything to continue his swimming-life as he'd always known it.

"I had to take medication, which was scary," Garrett said. "Four of the seven drugs were on the ban-list. I take Benicar, which isn't bad. It has few side-effects. But taking medicine wasn't nearly enough. I had to change the way I lived." 

Garrett tried to control his salt in-take and used meditation to lower his stress. It helped, but only slightly. Garrett knew he needed to do something drastic.  

"I radically changed my diet," Garrett told me. "That's a big part of my DVD. While I suffer from high blood-pressure, the truth is, all swimmers have to have proper nutrition if they want to be great athletes."  

Nutrition is part of the entertainment in Garrett's DVD. He takes you into his kitchen to whip up one of his favorite dishes. 

"My salmon recipe's in it. You could say my DVD's part cooking show too," he laughed!

Garrett sounds like he had a lot of fun making his DVD. So if you're a swimmer, or swimming fan, or a mother and father of one, Driven to Succeed could be the perfect stocking-stuffer this holiday season. 

Go to here to order DRIVEN TO SUCCEED. And checkout Garrett's commercial for a glimpse of what you'll see: 

And for those who don't know Garrett, the champion, check him out in action:

Comments

[crystal]

i seriously love GWG. i love his story, and his dedication, hard work, all of it. and the fact that he's doing his part to spread the healthy vibe. my dad has high blood pressure - which is a scary thing in itself. he's not a swimmer, but i've tried a few of Garrett's recipes (and they are absolutely delicious, like the salmon one.)

i haven't bought the dvd yet. honestly, i'm waiting to see if anyone got it for me as a christmas gift :) but can't wait to see it.

and another thing, i know i've told you before, but thanks *again* for giving GWG some love.

[Mel Stewart]

The more I get to know, GWG, the more I like him... Everyone knows a student or an athlete that went a lot further than you ever thought they could. I'm glad GWG has shared that part of his story too. He's so FAST now, you'd never know it... I think he's got a lot of GOLD left to win between now and 2012. Beijing had to be a huge confidence builder.......

[Robin]

This is the kind of athlete I like to hear about, to hold up as examples for my kids and for my own enjoyment - those for whom it wasn't ever close to being easy, but they're still persevering, working hard and getting it done. Best of luck to GWG in swimming, cooking, all of it... but then he's the kind of guy that makes his own luck.