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| le google cartoon of the day |
Hello Swimfans and friends, if you so happen to pop by. It's 5.30am here in small little Singapore. Unlike yesterday, it matters now because in 3 hrs time I have to get up and go to work (summer job). Nevertheless, the fire in me is igniting too fiercely to be able go to sleep now!
There's a few things I would like to talk about.
First, A-Teams and B-Teams. If you would qualify swimmers just for the timings, I'm sure you'll just see the Americans, Aussies, French, one or two unbeatable banzukis from some countries like Germany (Paul Beidermann) or South Africa (Cameron Van der Burgh). That'll be the world championships, right? But this is not the world championships, its the Olympics, it focuses on bringing the world together, focuses on friendship between nations. There must be some limit as to how many athletes a country can bring per event. Even though Australia have, lets say, 100 swimmers under A-team time, they could only bring 20. That's why you don't see the kids at the Youth Olympic Games that are from Aus or Usa here. You do see the others, but just not from the powerhouse countries. There's just too many celebrity-status veteran swimmers. And when they do finally appear, they'll be like Dana Vollmer or Missy Franklin (too young for an example, but that's the name at the back of my head). And I see alot of past B-Team swimmers who rose up to become A-Team and are making into the finals. How cool is that!
Next, I must really calm myself down. Records are broken everyday. Everyday minute. Every sec...that's too exaggerated (drama queen much). I know I like to weep over how the world record holders, the young hopefuls, the consistent racers are all in the same pool. How old medalist fail to make it and young out-of-nowhere rising stars bag to gold. But time passes. People get old. Records can never stand for long. Even if they are record holders, they might never match their own record timings ever again. And the young have the energy, have the physical prowess, have the hunger for their first ever medal chance in the world's stage. What excellent emotional balancing skills they must possess. Witnessing their inability to perform as well as their 4 years younger self, witnessing their 2 times defended gold title being taken by another young swimmer...they are real athletes. They respect the sport, love it to death, together with all the cruelty it brings upon.
Yes time passes. Peaks passed, new peaks reached. This is the time to shine for the 15-20 year old ladies and the 20-25 year old lads. Cameron Van der Burgh slogged for the past 4 years just to get a taste of his long waited gold. Dana Vollmer, Camille Muffat, two first time event finalist and gold medalist swam way ahead of their competitors and they didn't even make it to the last Olympic games. It's their time. There's too many talented swimmers but they just show up or happen to be in the wrong time. Get what I mean? It's like they are at the right age, the right stage of life, just the right amount failures and experience to get them to the top. They might never get to defend their title because their time has passed. Therefore I say: the real test comes in between the Olympics. How you keep up. How you become better. Vollmer actually said that she knew she could go faster. Note that no women in the history of swimming has got under 56s and she did!
Ahh the Olympics. It's pure art.
Usa's Dana Vollmer underwent a heart surgery in 2003 and suffers from another condition that causes her heart to stop at random. Nevertheless this 24 year old fighter, who failed to qualify for the 2008 games, went on to break the American record, Olympic record, and then the world record for the 100m Butterfly events. She is the first and only women swimmer in the world who has gone under the 56s mark. Dana said she knew she could have gone even faster. Just look at that smile when she swims, she is just happy. She knows she's going to get it. Her long awaited gold. She's just happy to be doing this, happy to be alive. 
Cameron Van Der Burgh didn't even qualify for the finals in 2008, but he has held the world record in 100m & 50m Breaststroke events since November 2008. I really liked how he celebrated his win. Already confident from the start, he seem to race with a smile to finish. And then he slung himself on top of the lane divider and soak in the moment. World Championships ain't enough for him. Olympics is the real deal and he has done it. Congrats!! Kosuke Kitajima failed to defend his 2x champion titles. His long time rival Brendan Hansen managed to finish 3rd. He was 4th in 2008. It's also excellent maintaining and keeping up, don't you think? :))
