After Sectionals

So that was interesting... I really have no idea what happened the last five days except that I swam and slept for all of it. (not to mention eating) The first day I had the 1000 free, It wasn't great but not bad. The second day was the best though, I had the 200 back where I made it into finals and finished 24th with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds. I also made my first SCS cut which I talked about in a few posts ago. The third day was ok, I just had the 200 free, not my best event but I did get a best time. The fourth day was a little better, I had the 100 back and the 500 free (the exact order of events I swam at high school state) and I did pretty well. The very last day, today, I swam the mile. The longest even there is and definitely the hardest. The mile is not something to be taken lightly, if someone wants you to swim it protest harshly.

My team mates also did awesome too. One of my team mates, Katie Hale also made it back in one of her events, the 100 back. She was only at the meet for three days though because those were the days her events were on. My other team mate, Alandra McDowell did amazing as well. She unfortunately did not make it back but I believe that both of these girls could have really won it all.

Photo courtesy of 7hillscanvass.com

But thats not all... theres more do do in Texas than just swim. You can eat some darn good cow too. I really have never seen so many steakhouses on one street before in my entire life. There are some local restaurants that are awesome. They sell all kinds of stuff. This one place we went to (it was definitely just a one time thing) sold steaks practically floating in pounds of butter. It was pretty gross afterward but it was an experience that we all got to share. My coach the other families and some other people from Utah. All of us except for our coach agreed we would never go back there.

Like I have said before, if you want to see exactly how I did you can look it up on Meet Mobile and search my name with park city swimming with will also lead you to the ladies that went with me.

The Most Famous Swimmer of Modern day

As you probably know Michael Phelps is the best male swimmer to ever walk the earth today, but nobody I have asked really knows where he came from. His first national meet he attended was the 2002 Pan packs meet. Nobody really knew him or what he was capable of (least not yet anyway).

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

His first huge meet was the 2004 Athens summer olympics. Now people started to get the picture, he would not go down without a fight and his will not lose that fight. Unlike other olympians he trained separately from his team mates. I figue it was because they were too slow for him. I know that sounds a little harsh but it's also best for the other swimmers as they don't have to feel bad about being beaten by so much. In the next few years he gained quite the reputation for swimming the fly. He is the best at the second hardest event. I have never seen him swim the mile but the fly definitely gets a lot of credit from me.

Then he shocked the world by announcing his true goal. He was going to be the most decorated olympian to ever live. By now you probably know that he achieved his goal and is back for more but he had some speed bumps along the way. He retired and came back twice and had some rough spots in life like everybody, but unlike everybody he got back up and tried again.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Michael Phelps is the president, the king, the top dog, and a dream that everyone wants to become. If I could be anything in the world right after some mystical creature it would be Michael Phelps. I could never imagine living that kind of life in all of my wildest dreams. He not only is the best swimmer but he is also quite the student, he had one of the highest collage GPAs out of any major swimmer and he is far smarter than Ryan Lochte. This is where the term "Collage... if Ryan Lochte can do it, so can you" comes into play. Michael is really just an amazing person despite his few mistakes that others would be crushed over.

Getting Ready for the Ultimate Goal

For football there is the Superbowl. For soccer there are the Cups. Every sport has an endpoint where exceedingly above average athletes compete to prove who has what it takes. For swimming there is the Olympics, and that is the ultimate dream for every single person on this planet. Sure you can say, "ya my team won the superbowl." Good for you and the 100 other players on your team. There's just something special about being able to say, "Hey, see that gold medal up there hanging on the mantle? I got that in the olympics!"

You race right along side your team mates, the ones you have trained thousands of hours with, and swimmers from completely different countries. The thrill of having millions of people watch you during and well after your race. I am not saying you'll be awesome just because you're famous (which you will be) but because you were lucky to be one of fifty people in the entire world to stand out. Swimming is the most watched sport in the olympics by 50% of all the people who watch it.