The Garage That Builds Olympics; How One Florida Gators Coach Continues To Shape The Games Best
Eight Florida Gator Olympians jogged off the field, matching with their iconic Mr. Two-Bits t-shirts (complete with screen printed ties) and elated smiles. The Gator Nation medal winners from the 2020 (2021) Tokyo Olympics had just served as the honorary Mr. Two Bits, all of them together, before the Gators homecoming win against Vanderbilt.
After leading the team onto the field, the Olympians stood on the field for the first quarter, basking in the crowd and excitement and moment of laid-back exuberance that punctuated their incredible showing at the Summer Games. Two months out from the closing ceremonies, many of the athletes are returning to the pool or track or field to prepare for the next showing—the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. So they soak in this last moment of jubilation before the grind becomes the norm once again.
The grind though, the endless pursuit of unattainable perfection, is often the only private aspect of their lives that these world class athletes have. It’s when they can retreat into their training, contemplate their goals, set then forge a path to reach them, and decide what it’s worth to achieve immortality through a legacy.
And for that, they turn to Matt DeLancey.
Caeleb Dressel calls DeLancey and his wife, his “garage parents.” In a quite Millhopper neighborhood in northwest Gainesville, DeLancey—now in his 20th year in Hogtown, a longtime strength and conditioning coach for the Florida Gators athletic program—and his wife, a former collegiate volleyball player (the two met after college) take care of and train a generation of Olympians.
In the DeLancey’s attached two door garage, surrounded by personal affects and trappings of everyday life, sits workout equipment, exercise machines and the makings of an Olympian. And it was here, as the world shut down around them with a global pandemic, a couple of current Olympic legends trained to take over the world stage.
DeLancey is the current S&C coach for the Gators volleyball team, as well as the Track and Field squad. He's there from 4:50am until well past dark most days, training the teams. For many years he also headed up the training for the Gators swim team. It’s there on campus he became the most trusted voice and expertise for those looking to ascend to the top of their game.
After a rush of athletes, Gators and non, rushed to Gainesville in recent years to train with Olympic and Florida coaches like Gregg Troy (swimming) and Mike Holloway (track and field), DeLancey became the go-to strength coach. And even after those in Orange and Blue graduated, they stayed in town. They stayed near DeLancey.
“It’s a silent expectation that you help our post grads,” DeLancey recently told GatorBait Magazine. “But that’s not why I work with them. I enjoy working with them. They’re good humans. I have one rule and it’s that you have to be a good person.”
Under his tutelage, 15 medals came home from the 2012 London Games. He trained athletes for the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2020 (2021) Tokyo games and promises he’ll be in Paris in 2024. He helped swimmer Ryan Lochte to 12 medals over the years, received huge national attention himself after Lochte dominated at the 2012 World Championships and Olympics, and will be there as Lochte contemplates a return to competitive swimming after missing out on the Tokyo Olympics.
“I think that the hardest part for this last cycle for him was probably adjusting on how to be a parent,” muses DeLancey of the former Gator great and world record holder, as the guy who knows Lochte almost better than anyone. “It's probably one of the tougher things you get to try to manage as being a pro athlete and a parent at the same time. It’s challenging, they’re both full time jobs.”
But DeLancey has spent even more time recently with the younger athletes. For this past Tokyo Games, he trained close to 10 athletes, including five that brought back medals; Dressel, Holloway and Taylor Manson, plus he worked with Bobby Finke and Keiran Smith when they first arrived on campus, before S&C coach Taylor Zimmerman took over swimming full time. It’s the fewest he’s ever trained for a game. But two—Dressel and Grant Holloway—received some of the most personal attention yet.
Dressel, in route to five gold medals and two world records at the Tokyo Olympics, credits his time toiling in DeLancey’s garage with preparing him for becoming the face of Team USA this summer.
“We made do with what we had you know,” Dressel tells GatorBait. “We didn't have any of the gyms open. Matt opened up his house for us. And we got done, I feel like everything we had to. We worked around the issues that fell into place because of limited space, but I didn't feel like I was setback in any way. I thought it helped me if anything.”
Holloway was a favorite to win gold in the 110m hurdle’s—his only event—and eventually came home with silver. In his first Olympic Games, Holloway was just shy of taking the top podium as three time Olympian Hansle Parchment. For his first Olympic Games, silver is nothing to scoff at, and he, like Dressel, credits so much to his time in the small garage at DeLancey’s home.
“It was great,” recalls Holloway for GatorBait. “I mean, me and Caeleb, we were training partners for about a year. And I think that just elevated both of our games. We're both happy with what we had going on. I knew at the end of the day, we just had to work for it.”
DeLancey, for his part, knows Holloway will return home and to his garage with a renewed sense of purpose. The track and field star has had a taste of the podium at the Olympics now, and he wants another shot at the top. Only 0.05 of a second separated Holloway and Parchment. Even fewer separated Dressel from those chasing his tail in the pool.
It’s that commitment to slicing off that extra sliver of time, that attention to the most minute detail, that keep these guys motivated. There are only a few individuals in the world with the wherewithal to chase that goal. A decent portion of them just happen to chase it in DeLancey’s garage, allowing him to see the process up close. It’s one everyone wants to replicate, but few can.
It starts with attention to detail, and that starts with DeLancey.
“The first thing is you got to have parents that brought the DNA to the table right so without the genetics, it doesn't matter what we're doing,” jokes DeLancey. “And then they got to have a supporting cast throughout their developmental years in high school and middle school, high school that kept them on the straight narrow. People who perform at the highest level typically have a good supporting cast around them.
“Then once they get to us, it’s on the conscious side…I look for any kind of dysfunction on day one. And to clarify any kind of dysfunction that could cause a performance decrement or some sort of an injury problem down the road, that's what I'm looking for on day one and we address what we find and work from there.
“Then people always talk about details, they don't necessarily explain what it means but like, just for example if I see an ankle protesting in key jumping mechanic, then we're going to address that; there could be any number of details that are specific for any given athlete so the day to day, the attention to details is looking for things like that.”
From there, the rest is up to each individual athlete. How much are they willing to take on? How much are they willing to sacrifice? How far are they willing to go? DeLancey is willing to get them there.
“Dressel for sure is all about details and Grant,” notes DeLancey. “Those guys are detail guys. Lochte in his time was a pretty good detail guy. Elizabeth Biesel was a really good detail [girl], Gemma Spofforth. Conor Dwyer when he was here back in the day.
“It's hard to be successful swimming if you're not detail oriented, same in track and field. They're fighting for hundreds of a second, and any of those details slip, the wrong time and instead of a gold medal, it could have been seventh for Caeleb.”
That’s a lot of weight on sculpted shoulders; the weight of a nation and a sport and their own expectations, knowing years of training come down to one moment, one race. DeLancey knows that as well, so he works to make his garage a place that can build an Olympian without tearing them down. He uses a Thanos infinity gauntlet for levity and a carefully set schedule to relieve pressure.
“We joke a lot. We joke around a lot. I like to keep all the stress off those guys because, in reality, when we're doing whatever we're doing in the weight room, in between the sets, I want them to be able to shut it off. And then when we get ready to get back into a set, to be able to turn it back on.
“Because these meets are long, track meets and swim meets, they are a long ordeal. You can't constantly be pushing their buttons, all the time where you where you wear them out mentally, you wear them out physically too. So there's a lot of joking around going on between sets, and then a lot of locking back in.
“I think it's an important skill set for any athlete at this level. You got to be able to turn it off, turn it back on in a second, so it's more fun.”
Even as the world returns more to normal post-COVID and these Gator Olympians return to their training, with their eyes on Paris in 2024, Matt DeLancey will be there, his garage door open, just like always; the garage that builds Olympians.
“Everybody that's ever been an Olympian under me has come to the garage at some point…I’ve had a lot of people come to that garage.”
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