Amy Bilquist finished her collegiate career in spectacular fashion in March.
The Cal senior was part of three NCAA winning relays, finished runner-up individually and finally put together the championship meet she had been dreaming of since she arrived on campus in the fall of 2015.
But after all of that success in the water, Bilquist stunningly announced last week she would move back to Scottsdale leading up to the 2020 Olympic trials, moving back to her old club team before she moved cross country to Carmel Swim Club before her junior year. She swam for the Westside Silver Fins for most of her years in Arizona, but changed to Scottsdale her final six months before moving to Indiana.
Why change things after all of that success? Bilquist said it was a difficult but tactical decision.
“I looked back on my swimming career and reflected on the periods when I have the more dramatic success, and it has been when I had dramatic changes,” Bilquist told Swimming World. “Switching from Arizona to Carmel, I had huge success. Then moving to Cal, same thing. I feel like I am at my best when I am pushed outside my box.
“Of course, my training at Cal will carry over, just like my training at Carmel will carry over.”
But it is the extra challenge that has brought the best out of Bilquist in the past.
“I have always wanted to succeed and be the best I can be. But when you are thrown into a new environment, you are not the best. It pushes me to try harder. It is all about learning things that make me better,” she said.
“When I moved to Indiana, my mom wasn’t there yet and my dad was working a lot and I had to be on my own. It was learning things about myself. It is scary, but I like doing things like that.”
Bilquist will live with her older sister Berit in Scottsdale, something she hasn’t done since she was 8 when her sister left for college.
“Going back to where I have so many great memories of my roots — that is really important to me at this stage,” she said. “I want to have fun and enjoy my journey.”
She will train at the same city where she grew up, when she was coached by the late Ryan Kent.
“I want to be able to be close to what Ryan built and make sure it doesn’t disappear. I want to be close to where it all started,” she said.
Amy Bilquist and Ryan Kent. Photo Courtesy: Amy Bilquist
Bilquist has felt Kent’s presence in her life a lot lately — especially at the NCAA Championships. All it took was a song.
“This senior season was a big moment of loving the sport,” she said. “When I was growing up, I used to walk out to ‘We Will Rock You.’ That was our song. I would get first in prelims so I could have the song. Ryan used to clap along. That song came on about 10 minutes before finals this year at NCAAs — every day. I cried every single time. ‘I feel you Ryan, let’s go do this.’
Something so simple like a song brought me back to those moments as a little girl.
“I still do love swimming. That was the moment that I realized I still love it.”
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After the 2016 trials, Bilquist wasn’t so sure.
She had a stellar meet and finished third and fourth in the backstroke events, just missing the team.
“In the moment, I was completely devastated. It was so hard to process. In my head, I thought I could make the team. Everyone else thought I was kind of the dark horse,” she said. “I just believed in myself and thought I could make it. Everyone else thought I should be happy to be so close. That was hard to process because I was so close, but I did so well.”
Bilquist now looks back on the experience in a completely different way.
Amy Bilquist and Terry McKeever. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
“Now having taken perspective on it, I am proud of it. Teri (McKeever) never gave up on telling me I should be proud of myself,” she said. “I was 18. No one expected me to do that, even though I did. I went best times and dropped a ton. For the first time in a long time, I was confident in myself behind those blocks. Third and fourth at Olympic trials — to amazing people. Instead of using that as a moment of defeat, which I did right away, now it is a proud moment. You want the whole world and want it right now when you are 18.
“That was the biggest test of my character ever. It brought out some things in me that I wasn’t proud of. I was so upset. I had to find my values again and find out what is important. I had to fall in love with the sport again. I don’t know who I would have been if I had made that team. I don’t think I would have grown as much.”
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Bilquist returned to Cal after trials and after a strong freshman year. But things changed. She dealt with injuries and never really accomplished what she hoped to in the pool during her sophomore and junior seasons.
Senior year didn’t start so well, either, as she was finally cleared after healing from a stress fracture injury only to break her foot the next day after she was cleared.
She somehow was able to push through all of that and have the best meet of her college career at the NCAA Championships, helping Cal get second.
The meet was so full of dominating experiences that Bilquist could only sum it up one way: “It felt like we won.”
For Bilquist, the meet was more than a victory — it was vindication.
Photo Courtesy: Dan D’Addona
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Bilquist now begins her career as a professional swimmer.
Her first stop was at the TYR Derby Pro Swim in Louisville, where she finished third in the three-round 50 free.
“I definitely thought I would be the first out. I ended up finishing sixth. I went 25.1, which is the fastest I have been in a bit to advance to finals and got third,” she said. “Just adjusting to the ‘pro life,’ It doesn’t feel quite real yet since I am still in school. That event was great across the board. They really treated us like kings and queens. We had a tour of the Ali museum and the Downs. I was pretty excited to get all dressed up and go to the Downs. I had never been to a horse race.”
She turns her attention to long course and nationals.
“The long course meets are all tune-ups. Getting in a couple tuneups is what I need. I usually pull it back in the summer before the big meet,” she said. “Nationals is the main focus.”
At least for this year.
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Next year will be all about the Olympic trials, and Bilquist learned so much from her experience four years ago, that she will be ready mentally for the pressure-packed meet.
It is about reminding herself how much she loves the sport.
“For me, this next year, I am just trying to stay in the place of having fun and loving the sport. That is how I have competed at my best. That is what I want to do,” she said.
“Trials is just another meet. There are amazing swimmers who don’t make the Olympics. It is a celebration this round. A celebration of all the hard work, all the time, a celebration of the journey, getting my hand to the wall.”
That maturity and mindset has transformed Bilquist the past four years. She is moving forward, but remembering back to her roots all at once.
“Believing myself and connecting with that ‘We Will Rock You’ little kid Amy. I want to make the experience positive no matter what happens. I want to make the team with every ounce of my being and I am going to give it everything I have. No matter what happens, swimming is the biggest part of who I am today. But now I have the maturity to know that it isn’t everything I am.”
Amazing story!
yes Amy!! you are so inspiring 🙂
Ryan Kent = Westside Silverfins, where Amy swam 7-8 years till swimming with Scottsdale for about the last year before moving to Indiana. From other releases, Amy has said she will be training with Kevin Zacher and Bob Platt at Scottsdale. So she is going back to the State where she grew up, not the Club. Silverfins keep being left out of the “Amy returns to Arizona” stories, but even Scottsdale has been dissed a bit in some of these stories (“…stunningly announced …”) as they make it sound like such a shock that an elite athlete would choose to train there. Taylor Ruck trained at Scottsdale with Zacher up through the time she won her Olympic medals; Ryan Hoffer was developed by Zacher, including :41.23 100 Free as a Junior in High School before going off to Cal and winning the NCAA 50 Free (but still not matching his high school 100). The point is that Amy will be in highly qualified hands as she makes this training choice, just as she has been in each step of her development (Kent, Zacher, Plumb, McKeever and back to Zacher). Here’s hoping Amy has another jolt of improvement from taking on a change and “rocks” her way onto the 2020 team.