David Johnston Discusses Moving to Florida & Exploring NIL Money in Swimming | Episode 295
5/4/20261 hr 16 min
In this episode of Social Kick, Olympic swimmer David Johnston opens up about his recent decision to transfer from Texas to Florida, diving deep into the realities of navigating the transfer portal, and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals in collegiate swimming. He candidly shares his struggles with a debilitating shoulder injury, his relentless drive to return to the sport he loves, and his ultimate goal for the 2028 Olympics. They discuss everything from what it means to “outwork” the competition, adapting to a new coaching style, and the mindset needed to overcome intense physical and mental setbacks. Listen in as David gets honest about what’s next and why he believes his best swimming is still ahead of him!
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsBrian Lundquist· Host0:00
We don't see a lot of these big transfers in swimming, these big, like, free agent signings that you see in other sports. And swimming i- is-- people in swimming get a little disrupted by it. It makes for really big news when it happens. We don't yet have the transparency of how much are these athletes signing for, how much money is available, how far are they up against the salary cap. There is no salary cap, but, like, I think it's really good for swimming to have commercial opportunities for swimmers to... And, and beyond the commercial part, it's like there's... If, if you're going through an injury and, or navigating your career, especially post-collegiately, like this has happened lots of times where there's been people, you know, who swam their college career somewhere and then they moved on to a new school to train with another program that maybe wasn't... You know, they go out and train with another program. Super commonplace after college. He's well over college age. I mean, he's 24. So, like, you know, to have swum as long as he has and also to have been an Olympian and then to be at this place where, you know, you go to another school, it's like, I don't know, I almost don't even think about it like it's transferring, even though it technically is. I mean, what is... How many-- how old is he? He's like Tommy Boy.
John Mullen· Host1:14
The young man is making money to do what he loves, and yes, as he tells us, he's not making millions like other professional or, you know, money-making sports like basketball and football. But this is gonna set him up to be able to train comfortably or a little more comfortably