LANE | Harting keeping beard and trying to keep motivation after Olympics were postponed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Zach Harting completed his collegiate eligibility as a swimmer at the University of Louisville a year ago. For the last twelve months, he's been training with the school's professional group while also adding a Masters in Engineering Management to the Mechanical Engineering degree he got from the Speed School.

"It's been really hard," Harting said. "I try not to lose sight of the fact that this is what I want to do. If I wanted to be done swimming, I could have done that. But I like and enjoy and love to swim, and this time out of the water has made me realize how much I love to swim."

It took some time for things to sink in when the U.S. Trials and then the Olympics were postponed for a year.

"I kind of went super slap-happy," said Harting, an Alabama native. "I was like 'Woah, I don't have anything to do for a year.' I realize that's not the best mindset, so I was trying not to fall in that trap."

One of the top butterflyers in the country, Harting's been kept out of the pool during the COVID-19 shutdown for as long a stretch as he's experienced since he began swimming at age 7. He said the motivation to stay in top shape has been lacking at times.

"You know the VHS tapes, the workout videos where you have guys doing crunches and saying 'C'mon, you can do it,'" said Harting, by way of analogy. "That kind of feels like what we're doing: rubbing two sticks together hoping it pays off a little bit."

A guy who is known to keep things pretty loose outside the pool, Harting's grown a prodigious beard in the last few months. It was coming off for the U.S. Olympic trials, but for a guy who couldn't grow any kind of beard until pretty recently, he said it's going to stay a while longer.