Aug. 2: So we finally arrived in Greece after a long day of traveling. When we got off the plane we were greeted by some local Greeks helping out with the Olympics. We had to check in and get our credentials and room keys so that when we arrive in the village it's a quick and easy entry process. I'm not sure if they only do this for the Americans or not. But it seemed very organized and in no time, all of us (about 60 people, including staff and athletes) were loaded on the bus with our luggage and everything.
When we arrived at the village, we were able to go through security and then caught another bus which took us to the front of the apartment the USA swim team would be staying in. I found out that my roommate in the village is Amanda Beard. She and I have really bonded a lot since we have been here. The apartment is a four-story building with two suites on each floor. Each suite contains a common area and five rooms for two people. The basement of the apartment has been declared our meeting spot and where we can go if we need some water or Gatorade. In my suite there is Amanda Beard, Kaitlin Sandeno, Diana Munz, Natalie Coughlin, Jenny Thompson, Lindsay Benko, Colleen Lanne and two staff members. We also found out that we will be joined by the USA Ping Pong Olympic team.
At our first meeting, we were warned about having a long day ahead of us tomorrow with a lot of walking. So it was off to bed shortly after dinner. Aug 3. We got up early to eat and headed off to the American College of Greece where we were to have more meetings, some more outfitting, and a training session. The college was about a 30-minute bus ride. After we got there, we had a meeting about more logistics of the Olympics in general. We watched a video of highlights from the previous Olympics. This video included highlights from all the sports, including Brooke Bennett's excitement after her 400 freestyle from Sydney. We also watched another video which had congradulations and good luck's from several movie stars and music artists and the President.
Then it was off to training. I'm very amazed at how nice all the pools are here in Europe. I am yet to see one that isn't amazing and well taken care of. It would be nice to have a few of these really nice long course pools in the Tampa Bay area.
Now here's the exciting part. We got more clothes. ... can you believe it? This outfitting was from the United Stated Olympic Committee, which is sponsored by Adidas and Roots. Again we walked into an even bigger room than before and picked up our check list and went through and picked out all the goodies and tried clothes on to make sure they fit. This outfitting process took about an hour and a half. Told you it was a lot of stuff. This time we got our outfitting we had to wear for Opening ceremonies, Closing ceremonies, our parade outfits (what we wear out on the awards stand) and what we have to wear during media interviews, plus some added bonus stuff. We got more shoes, tons of clothes, hats (6 to be exact) and some extra little things like a toothbrush and sunscreen to name a few.
Since I already had so much stuff and only limited space, I had a chance to ship some more stuff home. Basically all the jackets, some of the shoes all the hats. I just kept the stuff I really had to wear. I am yet to get my outfitting by Nike, too (this is something that only the Nike sponsored athletes get!) Lucky me!
After getting our clothes were had to go downstairs and order our Olympic rings. Every Olympics the Olympic committee designs a ring for all the participants of the games. These are free unless you want any upgrades, then you pay the extra money for the upgrades. I figured I would go for the upgrade so I ordered the 10K gold diamond ring.
One thing we do on every trip is take a team photo. We had to wear a jacket and pants that Adidas provided us. Let me tell this was not fun to wear when it's about 95 degrees outside and not a cloud in site. I was roasted by the end of it all. After all this it was off to yet another training session. What a busy day, huh?
Aug. 4 The U.S. Swim team took a short plane ride to Mallorca, Spain, the location of our second training camp. This camp is for us to get away from any distractions and begin to taper in training.
We were really unlucky when we got there because it was about to storm. When we got off the plane we went straight to baggage claim. We got under shelter just before the rain started to come down hard. Apparently we were the only to make it safe and dry. Our luggage was left out in the rain throughout the entire storm. As soon as we got to out hotel I opened my luggage to find everything soaking wet. I was not a happy camper. I had to lay out all of my clothes all over my room. Luckly I am staying by myself so I had unlimited space.
Aug 6. I heard from both Peter Banks and Jack Bauerle today. They have both been keeping in contact with me as much as possible just to check in with me and see how everything is going.
Today we had an outing to the mall. Yes, again it was mainly girls who went. The mall here wasn't as exciting as the U.S.
Aug 7. They took us into the City today. We got to see the cathedral. It was amazing and beautiful and HUGE! Amanda, Lindsey, Colleen and I walked around the city and took several pictures and did a little bit of shopping. We got to this one open area during our walk and say some locals doing a dance for a crowd with music playing in the background by a live band. It was very interesting to see there that part of the culture here in Mallorca.
Aug. 8. We went to Valldemossa. Which is a city in the mountains. From what I heard from some of my teammates, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas own a house in this city and Michael owns a resturant. I believed we passed the resturant on the way, but we were driving so I couldn't catch the name of the resturant or even take a picture.
Aug. 9. This was the most exciting day yet here. We had skit night. At every major international meet, the rookies have to do skits. Skits can be anything your group makes up and performs in front of the entire team. Usually with these skits, anything goes. Well I did mine when I went to World Championships in 2001. We were told we only had to do it once. They lied. Any new Olympians have to do the skits. This was the year for the skits. We had six groups with four or five people. My skit group was Kara Lynn, Kristen Caverly, and Peter van Derkay. I must say every group did a really good job. Our skit was a game show and we won prizes for the right answers. The questions were mainly things about the team (this meant past and present team issues or people). I must say every group was really funny. The entire team was laughing for about an hour straight.
Still to come Greece.... The OLYMPICS.... FINALLY!!!
