Sebastien Rousseau is a two-time NCAA champion, 10-time All-American and two-time South African Olympian.
But there is still more to come.
Before the Olympics, college and even high school, Rousseau was just a kid with a dream.
“My dad actually told me this story a couple years ago,” Rousseau said. “They asked the people at his work to go home and ask their kids what they want to do when they grow up, and I said, ‘I want to swim for South Africa in the Olympics.’”
He realized that dream at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 when the 17-year-old from Cape Town, South Africa, made his debut in the Water Cube — the same pool in which Michael Phelps won his record-setting eight gold medals — for the 800-meter freestyle relay. He served as the anchor in his first Olympic swim and posted a time of 1:50.46 in preliminaries. It was good enough for the No. 8 seed in the finals, where he dropped nearly a second off his previous time coming in at 1:49.55. His relay team would go on to finish eighth in the event finals.
“It was crazy,” Rousseau said. “Beijing was such a crazy experience. Obviously London was amazing, too, but nobody can put on a spectacle like the Chinese can.
“It was just such a huge event and walking out onto the pool deck and having people go crazy was amazing.”
Less than a year later, the top-rated and highly touted recruit made a 10-day recruiting trip to America to look at schools.
Coach Gregg Troy persuaded him to swim at Florida.
“He’s just very open with me, and I like that,” Rousseau said. “He reminds me of my coach (Karoly Von Toros) in the fact that he’s very up front with what he thinks I’m doing, and he doesn’t mind telling me if I’m doing something wrong.”
Convincing Rousseau to swim for the Gators was a big get for Troy, as the redshirt senior has become an integral part of the team.
Troy called Rousseau the steadiest swimmer the Gators have. Assistant coach Anthony Nesty credited Rousseau’s work ethic and leadership as critical components of Florida’s success early this season.
“He was probably the most consistent of all our athletes and probably of an athlete that I’ve seen in a long, long time here at UF,” Nesty said “I think his performances at the end of the summer — all of our men and women really looked up to the job he did on a day-to-day basis.”
Florida ended Auburn’s 16-year run atop the Southeastern Conference at the 2013 SEC Championships in February — something Rousseau acknowledged as the most meaningful moment in his swimming career — and he is determined to make it two straight conference crowns.
But that is a tall order. Florida has placed second behind Auburn every other season that Rousseau has swam for the Gators.
What made 2013 so special is what will make repeating especially difficult.
“Beating them was great,” Rousseau said. “They were really humble in the way that they acted, so that was nice of them, but it was great to finally beat them.”
Florida will get a crack at Auburn before the SEC Championships this season when the two programs meet Jan. 25 in the O’Connell Center.
Rousseau expects a bit of nostalgia to join an otherwise competitive meet.
“It’s a real big dual meet for us, just because it’s our senior meet,” he said. “It’s at home. It’s Auburn. I’ll never forget my freshman year. That was one of the craziest meets I’ve ever been to. Just so much passion on the team. I’m looking forward to that.”
Rousseau is also hoping for a shot at winning a national championship following a disappointing sixth-place finish last season.
But he is reluctant to consider Florida the favorite.
Predicting a champion is too difficult with the level of competition, he said, adding that the Gators must simply control the things they can and count on their training and preparation to be enough to be in it at the end.
Given his success, Rousseau considers winning a national championship the final step in cementing his legacy at UF — but there are some things he considers more important.
“When I look back, I’ll think just in the moments that I shared with these guys are more special than winning a national championship,” he said. “If we win a national championship that would be awesome, cherry on top, but sharing these moments, working hard with these guys is what it’s about.”
And working hard is exactly what Rousseau intends to keep doing.
“You can get complacent in this sport,” he said. “It’s always good to have someone reminding you that you’re not always going to be on top and there might be someone else out there working harder than you.”
These are wise words from the 23-year-old, who plans to stay in Gainesville to continue his four-year training cycle for the 2016 Olympics when his career at Florida is finished.
But for now, Rousseau is focused on the task at hand.
“This year, for me, it’s very special,” he said.
“I’m just trying to give everything back that I’ve received from all the guys, the coaches and making sure that everyone understands what we have to do to in order to accomplish our goal.”
Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire.
Senior Sebastien Rousseau swims the butterfly in the men’s 400-meter individual medley on Aug. 28 in the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational. Rousseau and the Gators start competition at the NCAA Championships today.
