{"id":9252,"date":"2022-02-03T08:17:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=9252"},"modified":"2022-02-03T08:17:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:17:01","slug":"against-the-current","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2022\/02\/03\/against-the-current\/","title":{"rendered":"Against the Current"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meredith Novack finds her lane at Georgia Southern, breaks world record and convention<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Meredith Novack finds her lane at Georgia Southern, breaks world record and convention<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A professional swimmer and triathlete, world-record holder, coach, motivator and model, Meredith Novack has heard it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re too short. You\u2019re too small. You\u2019re too old. And her personal favorite \u2014 you don\u2019t look like a professional swimmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Novack, who graduated from Georgia Southern University in 2000 with a bachelor\u2019s in sports management while dually competing in collegiate NCAA Division 1 swimming and cross country, doesn\u2019t have time for doubt. She\u2019s too focused on what\u2019s important to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you’re going to make it in professional athletics, you need to have a lot of grit and determination and you have to have to want it,\u201d Novack said. \u201cI think that’s probably the number one requirement. You need to want it so badly. I’ve always wanted to be the best that I can be. That’s definitely what drives me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That tenacity has led to numerous career highs for Novack, an All-American triathlete who competed for the U.S. in four world championships. Within her 14-year elite triathlon career, she was the Gatorade Triathlon National Series Champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Novack became the first woman to swim Hawaii\u2019s \u201cMaui Double,\u201d a grueling, 20-mile open water swim from Maui to Lanai and back. She smashed the world record, clocking in at 11 hours and one minute, outpacing previous competitors by more than 40 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never had a moment where I thought I couldn’t,\u201d said Novack. \u201cI was extremely physically prepared so I didn’t have any doubts that I could handle it physically or mentally. The way I approached my swim training was to back-half everything. I always think that nothing starts until the last 50% of whatever I’m doing. I always try to finish stronger and to go harder at the end. That served me very, very well in this channel swim. In my mind, the swim really didn’t start until after halfway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considered one of the most dangerous swims in the world, footage of Novack went viral after the Surf Channel, who captured her achievement on video, showed a tiger shark, estimated to be 12 feet long, trailing her by several yards in the final quarter stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Novack, who trained up to seven hours a day for eight months in \u201cevery single condition you can think of\u201d for the challenge, wasn\u2019t deterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019d been racing toward that moment her whole life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daughter of two tennis professionals, Novack was born in Florida, grew up in Hong Kong and Mexico and was one of the \u201cfirst babies on tour.\u201d Her mom played on the professional circuit, including matches in the US Open and French Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe moved a lot,\u201d Novack said. \u201cI went to quite a few different schools, but the one thread that was always common was swimming. I really loved swimming. I started swimming at nine years old competitively, and I was one of those phenomenon kids. I was in the top five in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 13 years old, Novack participated in double morning practices multiple times a week in high-octane atmospheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had phenomenal coaches growing up,\u201d she said. \u201cI swam with these factories that produced Olympian after Olympian. It was so exciting to go to practice. If you loved swimming, it was a complete dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following years of rigorous swimming practicums, moving into collegiate athletics didn\u2019t present a major obstacle, yet university life did. Unhappy at a school in the northeast, she told her parents she wasn\u2019t going back at the end of her first year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a summer-long argument, her parents insisted she earn a college degree. Novack finally agreed, but the location had to be warm and offer a D1 swimming program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only school in the entire country that hadn’t started that fit the criteria was Georgia Southern,\u201d said Novack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University had a late start that year due to construction. Novack\u2019s parents contacted head swimming coach Scott Farmer immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An \u2018Accidental Eagle\u2019 Finds A Perfect Fit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cSo they called up Coach Farmer,\u201d explained Novack. \u201cHe said, \u2018Fly her here, I\u2019ll get her in.\u2019 And I literally was on a plane the next day. It was like, wow. I had never heard of Georgia Southern. I flew there, sight unseen and I ended up loving it. It was a fantastic fit. The team was so nice. Coach Farmer is a legend. He went on to be the athletic director of the school. Had I not gone to Georgia Southern, I wouldn’t have been able to both run and swim Division 1, which led me to my professional career after college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By her junior year she was competing in cross country and backstroke and swimming medley relays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI lived to go to track meets and swim meets,\u201d Novack said. \u201cIt was definitely challenging at times, but I think a lot of credit goes to my coaches because they always took me seriously, which is quite amazing because most athletes are not bothering their coaches about future professional careers. They worked together to help make it work for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novack began successfully competing in international triathlons and soon asked the USA Triathlon committee for permission to turn pro at 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though I was one of the best athletes in the world at the time, I was told no because I was too young,\u201d Novack recalled. \u201cProfessional athletes were around 30 years old or older. I had this argument for almost five years until I was 25. I was so good they could not say no. I had seven Top 10 results at major triathlons with more than 2,000 competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight out of college Novack moved to central Florida, the hotbed of racing. She continued to compete internationally through her mid-30s while she coached club and collegiate swimmers and triathletes, as well as Olympic and master swimmers, across the U.S., Australia and Asia. At 37, she signed with a modeling agency and served as a brand representative and spokesmodel for Gatorade, BeachBody, Ironman and Riverflow by Current Systems, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2020, Novack left a coaching stint in Singapore as COVID\u2019s spread closed borders. She is now in her second season as the head women\u2019s swimming coach at Pfeiffer University, located outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also a motivational speaker, Novack appreciates her broad spectrum of audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal in life has always been to motivate and inspire,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd being a professional swimmer and being an extreme swimmer has let me reach thousands and thousands of people around the world. So I’m fortunate that I can coach and touch people personally, and that I can also compete and do these wild events so that I have a much larger platform. I hope in the future to do more work on television as a commentator so that I can get people excited about swimming and sport, and educate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the horizon is ice swimming, which takes place in water temperatures of 5 degrees celsius or colder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting the \u201cvery competitive\u201d environment of extreme swimming, Novack isn\u2019t quite ready to share specifics, only hinting at her next great challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat can I tell you? I’m working on more world-record swims,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s something that’s on my mind and in my heart that I think I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foiling convention comes naturally to Novack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m in my 40s, you know, and people ask me if I am going to slow down,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I say, \u2018absolutely not.\u2019 I think I’m just starting to hit my prime. It’s been really crazy because since college, I’ve managed to get faster. I think age is a myth.\u201d \u2014 Melanie Sim\u00f3n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meredith Novack finds her lane at Georgia Southern, breaks world record and convention Meredith Novack finds her lane at Georgia Southern, breaks world record and convention A professional swimmer and triathlete, world-record holder, coach, motivator and model, Meredith Novack has heard it all. You\u2019re too short. You\u2019re too small. You\u2019re too old. And her personal favorite \u2014 you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-9252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-winter-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}