Continuing to move along at the 2008 Olympic Trials

We continue to see some very fast swimmers in Omaha. I was thinking last night about the 2004 Trials, and how much faster everyone is swimming in 2008. There are some events that if you got 2-3rd place at the 2004 trials, you would not event make the final heat in that event at the 2008 Trials. The pool has been constructed to be very fast. I know you may hear alot about the new "Technical Suits" that are bring worn, but I think there is more to it. Since 2004, all of these athletes at this meet (in 2004 there were about 800 athletes at the trials, and without really changing the cut times in 2008, there are over 1200 athletes at the trials, so I am expecting the cut times for the 2012 trials before London to be a bit faster) have been thinking about this meet, making sacrifices, and training hard for this meet. The excitement here is awesome. When they get back, ask Sam and Alex Apa, Steph Kinsey, Karlee Hoke, Emily Weaner, and of course Coach Alyson. They are seeing the fastest swimming in the world on a very intense scale. There was a statistic released to the coaches today that so far 50% of the swims at this meet are faster than their seed times. In 2004, that stat was 17%. We will see how that stat changes as we move through this meet.

Leah had a good swim yesterday, I think she wished she could have gone faster, but at this meet (as like I talk at Y Nationals), we have to move forward for the remainder of our events. Tricia had a good 100 backstroke swim as well, and she will now move on to swim her 200 back on Thursday. Today (Tuesday......I am typing this here in the stands at the meet) Leah will have her 200 free (which the 6th place time in 2004 would not even make the Top 12 at this meet) and Joe will be time trialing the 400 free (his best time is 4:02.....so we are looking for a bit faster)

Good luck to those WSY and NYAC swimmers who will be swimming in the Hot Heats meet on Wednesday. Those 8-9 year old swimmers will be 13-14 years old for the 2012 trials, and if we are really looking forward those same swimmers will be 17-18 year olds in 2016 (where the Olympic games may very well be back in the USA).

Thanks again for following not only the WSY swimmers but all of Team USA........More later