July 1, 2008

Karen Frazier Recaps Day Three of the Olympic Trials:

June 30...

Well, today was one of the most exciting days of my life. I finally achieved my lifelong dream of competing at the Olympic Trials for a spot on the Olympic team heading to Beijing. The first event in the preliminaries was the women's 100 backstroke, and Hayley McGregory broke the world record, only to have Natalie Coughlin, the previous world record holder, reclaim her record in the following heat. Needless to say, the whole place was going crazy with excitement.

My event was third, I was not nervous about my race until I entered the ready room. I have an anti-nervousness routine that includes shaking out my legs and praying. However, when my heat was led up onto the deck, I got incredibly nervous, even more so than when I swim at the MAC meet or any other important competition. When I dove in, though, it all disappeared and I focused completely on racing the girls in my heat. I placed fourth in my heat and was disappointed with my time, but overall, it was one of the most fun races of my life.

Tonight, I went back to watch the finals session. No more world records were broken, but a lot of people, including Randall Bal in the 100 Back and Brendan Hanson in the 100 Breast, came close. The 16,000 seat arena was almost full, and people were really getting into the races, especially when swimmers were under world record pace. It was great to get to sit back and relax and not have to worry about preparing for my own races. Overall, this has been an absolutely amazing experience.

Day Two Recap

Day One Recap