It was fun to watch Susan von der Lippe swim the 100 fly in prelims. She moved up in the field roughly 30 places and finished 105 out of 137 to the best of my memory. I talked to her afterwards (she was hanging out at the motel pool with her kids and husband) and she thought it might have been close to her lifetime best (= her qualifying time) since she didn't swim much fly as a kid. Let's see what she can do today in the 100 ***.
Great to see world records in the first two final events. With all the records falling this year, I was not surprised to see two under the WR in the men's 400 IM - I'm betting this will happen more than once this year.
For me, the most exciting race was the 400 free. Great swims by the top four swimmers!
Also nice to see some swimmers move way up in the fields with some big time drops. Over 12,000 in the audience for both the prelims and finals yesterday. It took a while for the crowd to figure out how to cheer for people swimming breaststroke...
Parents
Former Member
I forgot that Mel had started this thread. I'm repeating my post from the other thread....
July 4th: Random notes from Trials...
---Dara did it! The crowd went wild. She's been getting big cheers here.
---John Naber interviews each athlete after they receive their medals. His first question to Natalie Coughlin was, "So, how does it feel to get beat by a 41-year-old?" There were gasps from the crowd.
---Ryan Lochte walked into our restaurant tonight after finals. The entire place erupted in applause.
---Bob Costas was in the restaurant, too. He's almost as short as I am...
---Speaking of short, the blond woman who is doing the swimmer interviews on NBC has to stand on a box when she's interviewing the swimmers.
---The event has been extremely well-organized. I heard comments to the effect of, "They should just make this the permanent home of the Trials."
---Dara carried her daughter to the stand for the awards ceremony. She put her medal around her daughter's neck. Her daughter promptly took it off and gave it back to her mom!
---They've had former Olympians on hand to present medals. Today we saw Jenny Thompson, David Berkhoff, Donna DeVarona, and Mark Spitz.
July 5th:
Uh-oh, it's cloudy and gray out there. We're in trouble if it rains. We've been too cheap to pay for parking at the Qwest Center - we've been parking several blocks away on the street. That could backfire if it rains...
I forgot that Mel had started this thread. I'm repeating my post from the other thread....
July 4th: Random notes from Trials...
---Dara did it! The crowd went wild. She's been getting big cheers here.
---John Naber interviews each athlete after they receive their medals. His first question to Natalie Coughlin was, "So, how does it feel to get beat by a 41-year-old?" There were gasps from the crowd.
---Ryan Lochte walked into our restaurant tonight after finals. The entire place erupted in applause.
---Bob Costas was in the restaurant, too. He's almost as short as I am...
---Speaking of short, the blond woman who is doing the swimmer interviews on NBC has to stand on a box when she's interviewing the swimmers.
---The event has been extremely well-organized. I heard comments to the effect of, "They should just make this the permanent home of the Trials."
---Dara carried her daughter to the stand for the awards ceremony. She put her medal around her daughter's neck. Her daughter promptly took it off and gave it back to her mom!
---They've had former Olympians on hand to present medals. Today we saw Jenny Thompson, David Berkhoff, Donna DeVarona, and Mark Spitz.
July 5th:
Uh-oh, it's cloudy and gray out there. We're in trouble if it rains. We've been too cheap to pay for parking at the Qwest Center - we've been parking several blocks away on the street. That could backfire if it rains...
