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News Release

TEN QUESTIONS WITH GEZA SZABO

2/10/2006

Senior Geza Szabo holds the school record in the 200-yard butterfly.

Geza Szabo

Senior

Butterfly

Szolnok, Hungary/Ady Endre Gimnazium

Notes: School record-holder in the 200-fly (1:49.03)…2003 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Meet…2003 NEC 500-free champion…2004 ECAC 200-fly champion…2004 America East 200-fly and 500-free silver medalist…2005 America East 200-fly champion…2005 America East 100-fly bronze medalist…2005 ECAC 200-fly silver medalist…2005 Academic All-District second team.

Q: What are your goals and expectations for the upcoming America East Championships for yourself and for the team?

Geza Szabo: Obviously I would like the team to win. That’s the goal. We won the past three years. For myself, to be honest, I just want to swim some lifetime best times. This is going to be the last meet of my college career, so I just want a happy ending.

Q: You’re from Hungary. Why did you decide to come to the United States for college?

GS: I wanted to come to the U.S. to study here. To an 18-year-old kid from Eastern Europe, it’s a big deal to study here in the U.S. I think that’s the dream of many students there. I had this opportunity to come here through swimming, and I ended up here (at UMBC).

Q: How did you end up at UMBC?

GS: I talked to different colleges. It’s pretty hard to make a decision through the phone and the Internet. I e-mailed different coaches. Based on what I saw on the Internet and in the media guide, UMBC looked like a good swimming program, and I wanted to study finance. Chad (Cradock, head coach) was extremely helpful to me. He called me once a week. We started talking in May, and from then until I ended up here, he called me every Monday at 7:00, which was pretty scary to me because my English wasn’t really that good. But that was real nice of him, and none of the other coaches did that. They didn’t call me once a week, they didn’t ask me about my exams, about school, about swimming. I think that was a major factor in my decision. If I had to make the decision again, I would make the exact same choice.

Q: Do you get homesick being so far away from home?

GS: Not anymore. I used to get homesick a lot. My first year was pretty hard. I still miss Hungary, but I don’t get the homesick feeling everyday. I go home for the summer every year.

Q: What do you miss most about Hungary?

GS: Obviously I miss my family a lot. I miss some of my friends. I miss the culture and the country itself. It’s just so different. There’s so many small things. You don’t have to drive to the grocery store. You can watch soccer on TV. You eat Hungarian food.

Q: What are you going to miss most about swimming?

GS: I’m not sure if I want to stop swimming. Yeah, my college career is over now, but I feel like I need the structure. I need to do something a few times a week. Now, just a week before the championships, I’m really excited. I keep thinking about the meet, thinking about being on the podium after the race, hopefully. That’s why I swim, to be in that situation, to get pumped. I definitely want to swim, at least for fun, a few days a week. If I have the energy, maybe I’d go to some meets. I guess I need the excitement of the races sometimes.

Q: What are you going to miss most about UMBC?

GS: I’m going to miss the swim team a lot. The team is really like a small family. If you’re down, you have a bad day, you always have someone there to talk to. We really care about each other, and I think that’s great. I think the team really helped me to get used to the American way of life.

Q: You’ve won a lot over your four years here. Is there any one win that has been the most special?

GS: I like every single one of them. It was very special to me when I broke the school record (in the 200-fly at the George Mason Patriot Invitational as a freshman in 2002). I hope I will be able to break it again next week. Since I’m a butterflier, it was very special to me when I won the 500-freestyle in the Northeast Conference Championship meet my freshman year. That was great. It was really unexpected to me. After three years I still can’t believe it.

Q: Why did you start swimming when you were young?

GS: My parents wanted me to learn how to swim. I went to an elementary school where five times a week we went to swimming for an hour. My coach told me I was talented, so I went to swim with the club team in my home town. When I was a little kid, I didn’t really like it, but I got used to it. As I got older I started enjoying swimming more and more. When I was 10, 11, 12, I really hated it and I always wanted to quit, but my parents never let me quit. I always wanted to quit in the middle of the season, but they always told me I had to wait until the end of the season, and then I could quit. But the end of the season was always in the middle of summer, when everything was fine. We didn’t have school; it was good to be at the pool when it was hot outside. So I stuck there.

Q: Who has been the biggest influence throughout your career?

GS: I always looked up to my parents and my brothers. I have two older brothers; they are 34 and 32, so I was the little kid in the family. I know my parents had to work real hard to get to the point where they are now. Our family lives in a pretty good standard in Hungarian terms, and I know they had to work a lot to get there. They always supported me in everything. They always helped me to reach my goals. Same thing with my brothers. I remember when they were in college, I saw them studying and working hard. They’re my family, but they’re also my role models.

The 2006 America East Swimming and Diving Championships are Feb. 16-19 at Boston University’s Aquatic Center.