Olympic Swims

I was hoping the Olympics would inspire me to feel like swimming again, but nope.  Not yet.  I am avoiding Facebook to prevent spoilers.  I am quite glued to the TV and staying up late every night to watch.  Swimming and gymnastics are my two favorites and they are almost over.  Although, I am grateful to the invention of the DVR and how efficient my Olympic watching has become!  

This post is really about something that happened three years ago -- after Phelps broke records in Beijing and his pot smoking scandal debuted.  Santa Clara Swim Club, the club that taught me to swim, has been hosting the Santa Clara International for the past 45 years!  It is a great swimming facility for little ol' Santa Clara.  As a sidenote, Sedonia swam here, too, but we didn't know each other during those swim days since she's such a spring chicken.  

Anyway, my friend, Dennis, volunteers at the event and scored two coach's passes to be on the pool deck.  Nick and I were not dating yet, but he was the obvious choice to invite (probably my only friend that even cared about swimming at the time).  

Since I have swimming on the brain, I figured I would head to the "archives" and pull out some pics from this hometown event.  

Nick showing off his pass

Stephanie Rice

Kirsty Coventry in the Longhorns cap

Getting ready to warm up....that's his body guard in the black shirt not really paying attention to him

Phelps in the warmup pool

Walking out for the 100M free (there is no zoom on this folks!)

My highlight -- Ryan Lochte and Brent Hayden

Notice how much buffer he is these days compared to 3 years ago.  If you saw any of the interviews, he said he was so disappointed after Beijing that he changed his workout and began focusing on strength training (and it shows).

Thank goodness he grew out of this silly mustache phase

Summer Sanders interviewing Phelps (he got silver).  When is Summer going to replace Andrea?  I'm tired of her dumb questions.

Phelps and Hayden on the podium