End of Day 8: Au Revoir Swimming

google says it's time to swim in sync

Finished typing everything slowly and it's only 4am. It could only be *sighs* the last day of the swim events. I admit I lost a little bit of interest by sleeping yesterday and attempting to give the meet a miss the day before. But the usual melancholy of the finale still struck me. With my end of day posts getting shorter and shorter, I'm sure you can tell how I'm doing. :((

I'm more composed now. Hopefully during the next olympics I can really be a real neutral spectator and not have any more biases. I don't really want that to happen though, where's the fun in that? Having someone to root for, something to look forward to, really gives you that adrenaline and emotional roller coaster that could be so awesome and satisfying. I can get on to reality now. Everything that was paused can now be resumed now that swimming is over. I can sleep now. :)))

I had fun throughout, and I concluded there's only 3 types of medalists. The young guns announcing their arrival to the world, the bridesmaid who was forever waiting and waiting for their turn to shine, and then there's the ex-champions looking to defend their titles. I've witnessed so many heartwarming moments, bridesmaid who finally got a taste of gold, young swimmers who never swam as fast in their lives and are shocked to tears at their own capabilities, these are swimmers who gave up so much in their life, just for that 15-25 years old time of glory. It's a short career, but it's the price to pay for being the best in the world in swimming. Many swimmers who have yet to reached their peak managed to produce such stellar results. I look forward to seeing them in 2016. :))

And to the real olympic fish Michael Phelps. You are truly the greatest olympian alive. Your story will live for generations to come and I am glad I have stood by to witness it all happen. I'm glad to be in this generation that is basking in your hype. Have a good rest and continue to spread your love to the rest of the world, truly living up to the London 2012 motto - inspiring a generation.

xoxo

End of Day 7: Goodnight!

swim events coming to an end - athletics starting :D

Hello Day 7. It's been a week. And like I've said earlier, I have been lazy. And distracted. And maybe just impatient. Watched a very satisfying Tennis Men's Singles Semifinals; and I really feel like learning the sport. What's cute about it are the audience and ball girls. They run almost in cubified anime version to the fallen tennis ball only to crouch down by the sides, or stand as still as a stone behind. And the 4:30hr match, claimed to be Federer's longest ever match, attracted Kobe Bryant as well. The NBA legend signs a couple of autographs while chatting with fans, shot being cut to during small intervals. Also happening during those intervals, are every other spectator that shot up. Some stretched, others just stand and stone. I'm guessing their butt hurts from all that sitting down. As soon as the game begin, the cooperative bunch sat back down. 

The fish legend is swimming in a while but I really feel like hitting the sacks. For the first time ever, the yoggroupie has lost a little bit of steam and is going to retreat for the night. Is it that the swim event s had grew...uninteresting? Its as if I'm treating it as world-class entertainment and when that is over - really less people will be interested. Ok I don't really know what I'm yapping about. Oh man I am ashamed. It's 2am. Goodnight everyone. We'll see each other tomorrow.

x0x0

End of Day 3: Justifications

le icon of le night. good night. *yawns*

Hello, today I am faster, because I wasn't glued to the tv. I'm 2 couch lengths away, half typing, just so I could sleep before 5 for a change. I went to work tapping away on my ipad, searching for pictures to match my game coverages. I woke up a little earlier than 9am today, my head and my heart totally immersed in the swimming events. Dear blog, is this right? This is me, excited me, the me that is totally in love with the swim events and can't let go of it until I exhausted every strength I have to devour it whole. The blog's a perfect platform for that. 

Every mention of the word 'Olympic', every mention of the world 'swimming', every mention of any swimmers I know of at all, stirs me up. When I hear crowd cheering noises from someone's laptop I suppose they're watching the Olympics. It's a crazy kind of obsession. I don't even know where I get all these energy from. I haven't been sleeping much since the opening. 

BUT I AM JUST SO FREAKISHLY EXCITED!

But is it really worth it to be so mentally and physically exhausted? Is it really worth it to burn out my organs and feel the veins in my head pulsating every now and then? Is it worth it to wrinkly and be ugly for a week because of the inability to replenish skin cells (along with other organs of course, but I'm talking about surface value here). For a little moment at about 1:30am, I do feel like going to bed. I have assignments from le mum and le sis to deliver. Is the Olympics more important than my family? I did manage to proceed with these assignments, if you're wondering. It'll end by tomorrow. 

But the butterflies I get during this period is undesirable. It's like the 13 year old me when reading Harry Potter. It's like the 15 year old me, when watching So You Think You Can Dance and secretly locking myself up almost everyday just to, well, dance. It's pure love, that's the closest explaination I can arrive to. 4.45am, I do hope to reduce some of that throbbing migraine. 

Adios my friend, until tomorrow. 

xoxo

End of Day 2: Calm Me Down!

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. 

End of Day 1

*Yawns* It's end of day 1 and it's 4:45am here in sunny Singapore. No worries, it's a sunday and I only need to be up at about...11am. Abit delusional here but would like to get some of my feelings out.

le google icon of le day

I still am awestruck by Olympics and especially swimming. I am amazed by the resilience of the swimmers, and how some could shine under pressure and deliver such incredible results. These people meet each other about twice every year, and they better themselves each year, train while thinking about their fiercest opponent on the other side of the world. Don't you think its just amazing? I was checking their track record but then I got tired of it. Almost all of the athletes you see at the pool held the world record some point in their career. Some are current holders. Some are new, fresh holders. I love how the commentator say "...and the world record holder in right there in the pool in lane..." He or she maybe the idol of his/her competitors in the other lanes, trained against his/her timing for years. It's all about the split seconds, +0.18, +0.02...it could make or break a swimmer. It could cause you your chance in the finals, it will make you lose your gold. 


Yup, the best in the world; they are compatriots, rivals, maybe friends. Without each other they won't be spurred on to swim their best.Sports is beautiful.  Sports is life! Can't live without it. Can't live without sleep, either. Adios my dear friends. Until tomorrow! 


xoxo,
olympic fish