The Cowbell – Secret to U.S. Swim Team success in Rio

The Cowbell has been a part of United States swim team success in 2016.

Many, if not all of you, are enjoying watching the 2016 Olympics that have been going on in Rio de Janeiro for about a week. And led strong performances by Michael Phelps, Lilly King and Katie Ledecky, the US Olympic swim team is dominating the world with seven gold medals as of this writing.  So I think it’s safe to say that the U.S. swim team is having a pretty good Olympics.

We all know that years of hard work, training and competition go into developing Olympic champions.  But the competition is fierce and often the difference between winning a gold medal and not winning a medal at all can be very small  So Olympic competitors are always looking for a mental edge, something that can make a difference an put them over the top.

As it turns out, the U.S. Swim team has an unlikely weapon providing it with that edge – the cowbell.  In an article entitled “How the U.S. Swimmers took over Rio with a team effort”, written by Wayne Drehs (Twitter: @ESPNWD) and posted on ESPN.com, coach Dave Marsh is quoted as saying “When each swimmer leaves the warm-up area and heads to the pool to race, he or she is sent off with a cowbell, cheers and chants of “USA, USA, USA.”

Swim team member Jacob Pebley added, “The cowbell, it’s been working pretty good at this meet. I’m not sure if the other countries like it.” Hey Jacob, we Bulldog fans know all about folks not liking the cowbell, but we don’t care and neither should you.

So there you have it – the cowbell, that wonderful tradition that we Bulldogs all love and treasure, is helping our Olympic swimmers bring home the gold.  And I think that’s pretty doggone cool.