The cooked fish was still intact – head, eyes, everything. It also gave off a strange smell to Northwestern swimmer Andrea Hupman. Apparently, the dining hall in the athlete village was not the optimal place to sample authentic Turkish food.
“We were kind of scared of it,” Hupman said. “I don’t think any Americans ate that.”
Adventurous dining was only one of the memories Hupman took from this summer’s World University Games in Izmir, Turkey. She also brought home two gold medals.
On the heels of a breakout freshman season, Hupman was one of 20 women swimmers who qualified to represent the United States in the six-day Games on Aug. 12-17. She swam the leadoff leg of the 4 by 100 freestyle relay as the Americans cruised to a 2.62-second win over New Zealand.
A serious case of the jitters would be understandable – if not downright expected – for a 19-year-old from Lawrenceville, Georgia, making her first trip across the Atlantic.
Not to mention she swam that first leg on the opening day of a competition featuring top athletes and Olympians from 170 countries.
“I had been preparing for it mentally ahead of time,” Hupman said. “So when I got there, it wasn’t a big shock to me. I wasn’t extremely nervous at all. I was just focusing on staying calm and loose and what I wanted to do during the race.”
Hupman’s unflappable approach to her first international competition paid dividends for her country. With a time of 56.26 in the leadoff leg, Hupman put the United States ahead from the start.
She also swam the third leg of the 4 by 200 in the preliminary heat. This helped the Americans secure the No. 1 seed in the finals and earned the NU sophomore her second gold medal.
Making things look smooth doesn’t mean they were always easy for Hupman.
She competed at an elite level while adapting to an entirely foreign environment. Because the U.S. swimmers only had a few days to adjust to the eight-hour time difference, they were told when to sleep on the plane ride.
“I just closed my eyes and tried to get as much rest as I could,” Hupman said.
The team missed its flight connection in Munich and landed in Izmir at 2 a.m. local time.
After finally getting settled in, Hupman and the other swimmers sat through an hour-long bus ride back and forth between their lodgings in Manisa and the pools in Izmir.
“I think it could throw any athlete off, when they’re used to the comforts of staying in a nice hotel and having all the meals they’re used to,” 12th-year Wildcats coach Jimmy Tierney said.
Hupman’s singular focus and mental toughness were on full display in her first year at NU.
She shattered the school record for the 200-yard freestyle at the conference championships and was named second-team All-Big Ten.
Hupman also finished 14th in the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships, earning honorable mention All-America honors.
According to her coach, the accomplished sophomore is actually somewhat of a late bloomer.
Most teenage female swimmers peak closer to their mid-teens, but Hupman made a dramatic jump from high school to her freshman year. The rapid development was helped in part by her mindset.
“She’s out there without expectation,” Tierney said. “She’s not paying attention to who’s racing next to her. It doesn’t matter if they’re an Olympian or not.
“She’s just there to race them. You can sometimes overthink things and get too much involved in it mentally.”
So what exactly does go through the mind of a swimmer racing to victory?
“Usually I get out of the pool, and I don’t remember,” Hupman said.
The Cats will count on their budding star to consistently find that mental zone when the season opens Oct. 21 at UW-Milwaukee. The team will hold a goal-setting meeting next week, but Hupman isn’t about to let on what she hopes to do for an encore performance this year.
“I hate to say things in definite black and white,” she said. “Maybe it’s a little superstition of mine.”
Concrete goals or not, Hupman will have to adjust to a new role this season. No longer the surprise freshman phenom, she will be expected to succeed.
Tierney calls her one of the most talented swimmers in the country with a work ethic to match. He also said Hupman is still growing stronger physically and should aim to compete with anybody in the country.
Higher hopes mean added pressure. That’s where the mental toughness Hupman flashed this summer will come in handy.
“I don’t even consider letdowns,” she said. “You visualize what you want to happen, and that’s all you focus on.”
Reach Gerald Tang at gtang@ northwestern.edu.
