everyone for coming out today
so I’m Brent Hayden grew up in Mission
BC so in the last 10 years of my
athletic career in Vancouver and I was
an Olympic medallist I was world
champion two-time Connells Games gold
medalist current six-time Canadian
record holder I held two World Records
so obviously success did not come come
easily to me you could say it was
actually very difficult for me to to
find success it wasn’t just in swimming
it was pretty much in everything I was
doing whether it was in growing up in
playing soccer or or baseball just one
funny story about baseball actually some
of you might relate to that some of you
might not there’s always that one kid on
the team he set out as far into the
outfield as he could sit down on the
grass cross-legged pulling at the grass
up other roots putting it on his pants
trying to see how big of a pile he could
make so that was me I was I was that one
kid on the team I wasn’t exactly
everyone’s favorite team player I was
out there cross-legged on the grass
because I was afraid of failure I was
afraid that if the ball came to me that
I would screw up and that I was grew up
for everybody else on the team so I
figured if I just put myself away from a
situation where I could be that guy that
fails and lets the rest of the team down
now just stay out there but there’s one
time this ball actually came to me so I
don’t know this kid must have made it to
the major leagues or stolen because that
and the balls rolling across the grass
and I’ve run out to it I pick it up and
I just kind of panic I’ve never been in
the situation before and I’m looking at
the runner he’s running to first base
and he’s run in a second I’m thinking
like okay but I got a guy on 3rd who’s
gonna run and run to the home plate so
I’m thinking like okay where do I throw
it and I just hear somebody probably the
coach they just scream
throw the ball home and so when my
moment of panic I turn around I face the
direction of my house and I throw the
ball over the fence needless to say in
that in that moment I failed I let the
team down but I learned something I
learned what throw the ball home meant
and it was it was the same in in soccer
I was again one of the worst kids on the
team if not the worst kid on the team in
my very first game I got the ball and
I’m running with the ball and I feel
like I’m on a breakaway and I’m feeling
so proud of myself I’ve never been in
this situation before you know it’s my
first game and people just start
screaming my name Brent Brent and it’s
making me run even harder and then my
own teammate comes up beside me and he
takes the ball away from me and he runs
in the opposite direction because nobody
told me that when were in the game were
supposed to shoot against the other
goalie so I learned something I learned
in the game even though you’re
practicing shooting against their own
goalie in practice you’re supposed to
but we’re not born with the fear to fail
and when we learn to walk imagine how
far we get if every time we fell
somebody pointed out at us and said you
failed or they handed you a report card
with an F on it no you take a step and
you fall and you learn from it you get
up and you try and make two more steps
and you fall and the same thing when you
when you’re right
a bike you know you take the training
wheels off and you’re riding around and
you fall down and what happens when you
fall you might get scraped up you know
on your knees or your elbows you clean
it up you put a bandaid on you learn
from the mistake and you go again and in
life we keep doing things this way well
we’re learning that failure is an
essential part of learning because your
parents are your teachers or your coach
they can tell you things so many
different ways but until you truly
experience the failure of that situation
sometimes it’s the only way that you’re
gonna learn to adjust when I got to my
first Olympic Games I was I was 20 years
old that’s been my whole life
kind of imagining what it was going to
be like to swim at the Olympics that was
gonna be this huge big magical moment
you know that everybody goes the
Olympics and succeeds you know they
might not all win a medal but at least
they’ll all perform their best you know
you spend your entire life preparing for
this one moment that how do you do
anything less than perform your best and
I got to the Olympic Games and before
the competition started I had already
kind of jinxed myself or I pretty much
already ruined what was going to be my
competition I had this there was a power
adaptor because our clocks didn’t really
have alarm clocks yet so we still
traveled with with them with the travel
clocks so I had this power adapter and
it had this high-low switch on it and I
didn’t check it I didn’t see if it was
on low or on high I just put it in the
wall plugged it in set my alarm for 7:00
o’clock went to bed thinking I was gonna
wake up at 7 o’clock not realizing that
the setting was actually set to high so
my clock actually ended up running extra
fast so when my alarm went off I thought
it was 7 o’clock I got out of bed I got
my track suit on I checked my bag made
sure I had my training suit have had my
racing suit my goggles put my backpack
on walked out the front door and I kind
of looked up and I realized like
wow it’s really dark for 7:30 you know
by 7:30 by the time I actually got out
the door there I was like oh well just
kept going to the cafeteria walk all the
way there walk into the cafeteria I’m
looking around and nobody’s there it’s
just me I’m thinking okay something is
wrong
other the Olympics already over and I
overslept or it’s really early so so I
pulled my phone and they call my team
manager and it took me a couple tries to
get him to answer and kind of answered
his like hello like what time is it
it’s 3:30 and that was pretty much the
end of my competition right there
because I I panicked my heart rate
started like fluttering like crazy I
went all the way to back to our dorms I
just ripped off my shirt pants and just
jumped into bed and just put my head on
the pillow I was like okay just go to
sleep just go sleep just go sleep just
go sleep just go sleep if you ever try
to go to sleep the night before
Christmas when you’re a five-year-old
kid it doesn’t work the more you try and
tell yourself to go to sleep the more
awake you become so I just basically
spent the next four hours wide-awake
dreading you know what it was that I was
going to be doing because I was suddenly
already zapped I felt like I had already
done my competition so I get to the pool
and I have to I’m taking power naps I’m
taking over the massage table
I’m just got my head on you know a bunch
of clothes and my my bag I’m trying to
sleep
just trying to get some some rest in
right before they raise my miCoach hands
me a coke says here you need this
so I chug the coke and I go to go to the
ready room and I get up on the block’s
and this is for this is a 4 or 4 by 2
and meter freestyle relay and I went I
think about 3 seconds slower than what I
just gone in Canadian Trials
and we missed the medal by less than two
seconds my time alone was enough to make
up for the difference to get us onto the
podium and so I became known as the
single reason why the entire Canadian
team left without a medal my own team
may end up ended up calling me out on
national television didn’t call me out
by name but he says you know a very
specific swimmer on this team you know
didn’t really do his job and so after
the games I was very very upset with
myself I took some time off on the pool
and I actually was contemplating
quitting at this point I spent a lot of
time talking to my sports psychologist I
was having private meetings with my
coach and I just realized that I can’t
quit there was there is a lesson here
that I need to learn okay because
through my failures I’m going to learn
and I’m going to adapt and I’m going to
move forward and so I had four more
years to make up for that mistake or to
learn from that mistake and so going to
the 2008 Games in Beijing now I’m a
veteran I have the experience in 2007 I
became world champion and so I’m going
into these games now and every time I
would you know sell my computer I google
my name to see what people are saying
about me like you know whether it’s in
the province or National Post or you
know on Facebook or people were always
talking about the medal that I was going
to win or you know I’m Canada’s best
hope at getting a medal and so I was
just they started going to my head I
started walking around like wow I’m a
world champion I’m going to become an
Olympic medalist and I got to the game
so I walked up for my semi final and I
still had the four by two new meter
freestyle relay at that same night so in
a way I was kind of thinking okay well
maybe maybe I’ll save a little bit of
energy in this 100 freestyle semi-final
I only need to come top eight I don’t
need to succeed today I just need to
have enough energy to do the forward
tuner meter freestyle relay because
that’s the relay that let everybody down
four years ago
and so I tried to strategize know how to
meet her freeze down again like I don’t
need to succeed today and immediately
write off the blocks last place came up
at the 15 meter mark started taking my
first few strokes and I’m already
looking at the guy’s feet in the lane
next to me and I just panicked I just
thought oh my god I tried to get back
into the race I have swam that raised a
hundred or even 110 percent but I
couldn’t get back into especially when
you get behind somebody’s feet and
you’re basically fighting against their
wake splashing over the lane kids in
swimming you can actually draft if you
get up on the wave but I was on the
opposite side of that so I wasn’t quite
able to to get up on it and to be able
to ride that wave back into contention
and I ended up in 12th place I didn’t
have the opportunity just one 100-meter
freestyle final even though I was a
world champion but in the 4×2 and meter
freestyle relay that night I was I was
fired up I guess you could say I was
kind of angry at myself and I dove into
the pool I was the third leg of the
relay when I dove in we were in seventh
place when I touched the wall I brought
us back into second all because of what
that failure earlier in that day did for
me they got me angry and made me realize
how unacceptable not trying to succeed
was trying to strategize when you need
it to go and we ended up fifth but I
couldn’t be more proud of our team’s
accomplishment because on paper we
probably shouldn’t have even come fifth
so there was a huge success
not all successes are measured in wins
and losses sometimes your successes are
measured by your own performance so for
my hundred meter freestyle I didn’t
perform but I know I performed in my 4×2
Noor meter freestyle relay and I didn’t
let my team down but I had to take two
months off after those games two months
because I was still so heartbroken over
what transpired in the hundred meter
freestyle
that I had a chance to become Canada’s
first-ever medalist
in the hundred meter freestyle I even
had a chance to win gold but I didn’t
try to succeed I thought I would do that
the next day I also realized another
mistake that I made I was expecting to
succeed now sometimes when you expect to
succeed that is often when you’re gonna
fail I’m sure some of you can relate to
this you’re expecting a certain result
and you go in thinking that it’s just
gonna happen because you’re prepared
you’ve done all the hard work it’s just
gonna happen and then it doesn’t and
then you also had moments where you kind
of just don’t expect anything and that’s
also when you succeed okay so in that
moment the failure came down on me and
it told me you can’t expect success you
have to be determined to make it happen
so I spent the next four years making up
for this other mistake made their team
again so I had a third a third time and
started thinking well maybe third time
will be my charm but two weeks before
the games were staging in obeah Italy
and two weeks before the games I
suffered a back spasm now I’ve been
plagued over the last four years at this
point by these chronic back spasms and
they would take me out of the water from
midday maybe two but I would still be
able to walk around and do things so I
was never fully you say sidelined I’ll
just kind of take a break walk it off
and I get back in the next day but this
bad one was so bad I spent four days
barely able to walk my workouts two
weeks before the Olympic Games was just
trying to walk at the end of my hallway
every day I was getting massage therapy
physiotherapy getting my chiropractic
but nothing was working my back just
wouldn’t loosen up but on the fourth day
I made myself go to the pool because I
decided that if I can’t make it happen
I’ll just fake it I’ll act as if
everything is okay and I’m just going to
get myself back into the process and so
I went to the pool very slowly and I’m
there on the pool deck I’m nice I can
see my coach looking at me
and looks at me and goes okay what’s up
I look at him it’s just this thought
that had been popping to the back of my
head over the last four day it was
getting louder and louder and louder and
I just looked at him and I said I don’t
want to retire before the Olympics and
he says why don’t you you see I had had
this fear of failure popping back into
my head right before I was never really
that afraid of failure it’s always just
been again it’s always been an essential
part of learning as much as you don’t
like to fail it but it’s just kind of a
part of the process and every time I
failed I’ve always learned it but I was
inherently fearful of failing again in
front of everybody that I was starting
to think that maybe it would be better
if I just walked away pulled myself away
from the equation I became becoming that
kid sitting wet in the outfield again
and when he said why don’t you it just
made me erupted I just I essentially
just blew up in anger he wasn’t telling
me what I wanted to hear but he was
telling me what I needed to hear he
needed me to face that thought in my
head and within two days my back was
better I was training perfectly and I
was off to the Olympic Games now I went
up to that semi-final and I realize that
I have to swim this race like it’s my
last because I know that there’s not
every day’s you’re gonna have another
opportunity so I swam that race like it
was going to be my last and I got into
the final came in sixth place I was
two-tenths from not making the final
where as four years earlier I was too
tense from also not making the final but
on the other side of it so this time
going into the final realizing that this
is my last chance I had nothing else to
to swim for except my entire life behind
me and everything all my failures that
have been building me up to this moment
from what happened in Athens the
failures learning from it learning from
my failures in Beijing moving forward
all my strengths or all my weaknesses
were now my strengths by the time I got
to London I had experienced every level
of failure that nothing was going to be
able to stop me I was five years older
than any of the other swimmers I wasn’t
able to walk for four days two weeks ago
and that is when I had my most success
and when I got my bronze medal so
there’s there is a quote by Thomas
Edison they asked him when you failed so
many times making her light bulb why
didn’t you just give up and he said I’ve
never failed
I just learned 10,000 ways that won’t
work so we shouldn’t fear failure we
should embrace failure as the most
honest teacher the most honest coach the
most honest peer that we’re ever going
to have because like my coche failure
will always tell you what you need to hear thank you