At 17, Larsen Jensen was on the cover of Swimming World magazine, with the headline “The Next Great American Distance Star?”
I don’t usually approve of question marks in headlines, but, in this case, the punctuation acknowledged a reality—that there were astonishingly high expectations that would be hard for anyone, let alone a small-town teenager, to meet. Jensen loved pizza and Zoolander, and spent the little free time he had with friends or on the computer. But he'd also just done the seemingly impossible, breaking the long-standing American men's 800 meter freestyle record. The 2003 article proved prescient. The following summer in Athens, Jensen won an Olympic silver medal in the demanding 1500 meter freestyle, beaten only by legendary Australian swimmer Grant Hackett.
“Nobody ever goes to the Olympics trying to win a silver medal,” said Jensen. “Everyone’s trying for the gold. So, obviously, I’d have preferred to have the American National Anthem playing, but that wasn’t in the cards. And I went the distance with Grant, who in context was really my hero.”
Today, Jensen lives a very different life. He served as a Navy SEAL and then went into venture capital. After several years at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Jensen set up his own shop, Harpoon Ventures, in 2018. I asked Jensen if VC and elite swimming have anything in common, and the answer is pretty much no. On the other hand, he says, startup founders do have overlap with Olympians—both journeys are often thankless and isolating, and the payoff at the end is far from certain.
"I think it connects more directly than I would have anticipated,” said Jensen. “Now, it’s interesting as I talk to founders and go through their journey, their suffering. Life is a lot of suffering, with some highlights that come in between.”
Still, there are some lessons from elite swimming that venture should perhaps consider, Jensen said. One’s a pretty spicy take—in swimming, rivals train together, often under the same coach. It’s an iron-sharpens-iron theory that dictates that, if you train the best to beat one another, everyone levels up.
I spoke to some of Jensen’s Olympian training buddies (and rivals) about how that worked—while those relationships were deeply competitive, they were mostly characterized by warmth and respect. I reached out to Hackett, who said via email that his 2004 face-off with Jensen was "the hardest race that I have ever done. He pushed me to my limit that day." Three-time medalist Erik Vendt similarly admired Jensen’s ability to "show up when it mattered most." Vendt found the pressure of training with direct competitors as worthwhile preparation for a harsh but freeing reality.
"Almost doesn't count,” he said. “It’s black and white, you win or you lose.”
Success in tech and business is rarely so definitive as gold, silver, or bronze medals. But either way, to triumph in that pivotal moment requires massive preparation. Very few see startup founders toil for years before the business takes off. Peter Vanderkaay, another Jensen friend and rival with four medals to his name, describes the grueling training schedule of an Olympic swimmer, in his case, ten practices per week for 15 years.
"The best memories are the struggle and the grind of it,” Vanderkaay says. “The wins and all that stuff is, of course, great, but the part you cherish the most is the process, and in today’s society that gets easily lost. Everybody wants to tap a button and have something done, but most things don’t happen that way in real life.”
What’s it like to stand on an Olympic podium? I asked Jensen and his response was striking. He’s gracious and thoughtful about it, but you can also tell that, even now, he wishes he’d won the gold. And it’s a reminder that, as we all hunker in to watch the Olympics for the next few weeks, these athletes have surrendered much of their lives for essentially one moment.
"It does feel surreal [on the podium],” said Jensen. “It does because you spend so many years and there are so many thankless moments. In my sport, at 5 a.m., you’re in the water, even in the freezing winter. And where I grew up, it was all outdoor pools, frost on the pool deck. The loneliness of doing that, where not even coaches showed up…that was misery. That was grit, it was determination, and my own worst enemy was myself. It’s hard, lonely, and not very glamorous—then it's a moment of global recognition. Just a minute, maybe two minutes. I watch now, and it’s remarkable what athletes put themselves through for that opportunity.”
I remember as a kid thinking Olympians were glorious, finished people, and couldn’t possibly be works-in-progress. They had to be supernaturally talented, and had always been that way. But maybe the people who are the best in the world are the ones who are somehow able to keep following the line at the bottom of the pool. Then do a flip turn, and start over again.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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