Editor's note: This is a Web Diary written by Valrico resident Maritza Correia, a member of the U.S. swimming team. Watch for more blogs from Maritza and her family from Athens. And watch for a profile of Maritza in Thursday's sports section.
By MARITZA CORREIA
Published August 10, 2004
[Getty Images: Streeter Lecka]
Maritza Correia
Stanford. July 18-July 31.
The team met in Stanford to get together as a team and to start training together as a team. In these two weeks we got to get to know one another on a more personal basis. My roommate was Colleen Lanne, who is also swimming the 4x100 free relay. We do get to choose our roommates if we want too. I've known Colleen for a few years through college. We've swum against each other for many years. It was a tough two weeks to balance in swimming, eating, nap time, sleep, and time outside the hotel.
On July 20th we got outfitted by Speedo. Oh my gosh. I have never had so much fun shopping for free. It's this huge ballroom at the hotel that was filled with clothes. We walked in and check in and picked up our check list of all the things we had to get. It was a page and a half of stuff ranging from clothes to bags to hats to shoes and sandals. Then through the room and picked up all the items. It took me about 45 minutes to get everything.
There was so much stuff that we had to ship some of it home. USA swimming provides a box for us to ship things home that we won't need in Greece. We got a few sweats and jackets that we won't need. And some of the things we got we weren't going to wear on the pool deck, so I sent that stuff home.
On July 22nd I got to meet a very special athlete. His name is Muhammed Ali, my idol. He is definitely one athlete I dreamed of meeting, but never believed it would happen. He was at the pool doing an interview for ESPN and we got to meet him after he was done. I was able to get pictures taken with him. And one of the most amazing things he did was hold his arms out and gave me a huge hug. Gives me goosebumps just thinking that I actually got to meet the "greatest" athlete of our time.
We also had a series of meetings where we discussed the logistics of the meet and things to expect in the village. Some of the veterans like Lindsey Benko, warned us that the Olympics aren't the most ideal situation to swim in. Things are bound to go wrong and many distractions will pop up. They told us about lines we are going to have to wait in and we need to allow ourselves more time than usual.
We also had a meeting to get to know everyone on the team. We sat in a circle and said our names and told about a story behind a scar we had. My story was about a scar on my head. I got 22 stitches when I ran into a nail from my brother chasing me because I stole his bat. Oops! One of our last get togethers at the meet was a girls' night at the hotel room. Where we decorated T-shirts to our liking. The team managers bought t's and put rhine stones on them, colored, hot glued ribbon on. Anything that we wanted they had. It was fun to see everyone shirt at the end of the night. We also indulged in some candy and watched the movie 13 going on 30.
We had the honor of also hearing Bill Walsh the 49ers coach come and speak with the team about mentally preparing ourselves for the Olympics and how to deal with distractions that will arise. Our USA Swimming president also spoke with us about how proud the US is of all us making the team and wishing us good luck in Greece.
We had a family weekend where we got to get away from Stanford and go into the city and walk around and enjoy the cool weather. Because this trip was going to be really expensive for my family, they were not able to come all the way to Stanford for this weekend, especially with only one week's notice, so i was adopted by the Sandeno family for the weekend. It was great. I went out with Kaitlin Sandeno and her family and Diana Munz. We walked around and went shopping and ate out!
Just walking distance from our hotel was a mall. That spells big trouble for girls. So you can only imagine how much time we spent over there. Too bad I had to ship a lot of what I bought home. We also go to go the movies if we wanted to and I got a chance to get my nails done. Which anyone who knows me really well knows I have to get my nails done before my meet. Food is either made by the hotel staff or we also had a few nights on our own, where were given per diem to use at a restaurant of our choice near the hotel. On July 31st, Kaitlin Sandeno had a local friend who invited her and some of her friends over for a meal. The group was Kaitlin, Diana Munz, Lindsey Benko, and Amanda Beard. It was great to go over there to get in one last home cooked meal. We all knew it was going to be our last one until we got back in September. We fully enjoyed the barbecue!
These two weeks were for hard training. The first week was really hard because we went way back up in yardage and intensity. At times I felt like I was back in the middle of the season training. It was a lot of hard work, but I think it was a great two weeks for the team as a whole. By the end of the two weeks we were all ready to go. July 31st was our last practice and I had a great one. We did some stand up 50 off the block and I held 4 of them up at 26.4. That's great for me. Kara Lynn Joyce and Amanda Weir (UGA Swimmers) had really great practices as well. It seems like many people did fast stuff that day and the coaches were very impressed by how everyone swam. I was really looking forward to heading of to Greece.
The men's and women's teams train separately. But before every practice we stretch as a team and the coaches bring up anything they feel needs to be discussed. Then we split off as teams. The women's team does a general warmup together before splitting off into our separate groups, meaning sprinters together, distance swimmers, IMers, and so on. I mainly worked with Frank Bush, the head coach of Arizona. His type of training is very similar to what do with Jack Bauerle at Georgia and Peter Banks at home in Florida. My training group is mainly Rachel Komisarz, Kara Lynn Joyce, Amanda Weir, Margaret Holtzer, Amanda Beard and Katie Hoff. By the end of the two weeks it was about time to get out of there and head on over to Greece. We had a 20-hour travel day ahead of us to Greece. There were a few of us who decided to get in on Aug 1st just before we had to leave to do a quick stretch out practice before the long flight.
We headed off to the airport in shifts. Five vans leaving 10 minutes apart. My van left last and we were escorted in by the San Francisco police at curb side. Then some Stanford swimming families met us inside where they had all of our bags laid out for us and ready to be checked in. We also had our own check in line and our own security check point line. It was a smooth and fast check in. Yet to come ... Athens.
