A win is a win.

Game #1. Check.

For those of you who may have missed our first game....we played China last night. We won! 12-11. It was a close game throughout the match and at one point we were even down in the final period. We capitalized on two opportunities in the last minutes to put us up by one. At the final buzzer we walked away with a "W".
Everyone we talked to said that it was a great game to watch. The crowd was in to it. China, playing at home, how could it not be? Our fans were battling with the multitude of Chinese people to see who could be louder. Our media director Greg, informed us today that it was the highest scoring game in Olympic history. That's right! Setting records and dazzling fans all in one!

Not everyone was so happy about it. The first thing my mom said when I saw her after the game was "Please don't do that again. I still feel a little nauseous from being so nervous." I just smiled. Oh, Mom. It's OK. Really. A journalist asked me if I was surprised the game was so close. No, not really. I believe all the games are going to be close. If you expect that going into a match than you can relax and just play. Personally, I think it is fun to play in close games. All that adrenaline pumping. The opposing team giving you their best and you battling back with yours. In the end, even if it is only by one, a win is still a win. :)

Tomorrow we play Italy. It will be another close game. Their team has a lot of experienced players, returning 8 of their 2004 gold medalist. Lots of good water polo to watch! Cheer loud! Go USA!

RAIN.

It rained last night. Big, fat, warm drops. It had been threatening a torrential downpour all day. Teasing us with light showers and heavy misty air. But after practice when we came out of the pool area to walk to the locker rooms it was dumping. People were gathering around the windows and an open door to watch the water flow down the stairwells and form pockmarked puddles in the courtyard between buildings. 

I stopped in my path to the changing rooms. I was already wet from being in the pool and in my bathing suit. Never again would I be able to dance around in the rain in china. My bag went to the floor and I was out the door. It wasn't cold. It wasn't hot either. (finally!) The drops were coming down in thick sheets. Looking directly up at the gray sky, I had to half close my eyes, so my eyelashes were woven together as protection against the invading drops. Abandoning that, I just focused on splashing around in the puddles until my teammates came out to play with me. 

Today the rain has past and with it has gone the heat. I actually wore something with long sleeves today! I'm going to go lay down.....GAME TIME in a few hours! China here we come!

Bring on 08.11.08

Oh there are so many photos I am itching to show you! Alas, those will have to wait. :)

Highlights of the Opening Ceremonies:

• Wearing wool pants and a wool blazer with a long sleeve blouse and a scarf wrapped around my neck in 90 degree/high humidity/no breeze weather. BUT, we looked good! (Not a bit of my clothes were dry after six hours.)
• The lighting of the torch was AWESOME. I hope you have all watched it on TV by now....but this man ran/flew the torch around the rim of the stadium in order to light the cauldron. I filmed him doing it and it took over 8 minutes! That takes incredible skill and core strength to move like that, while being dangled in the air AND not have your face singed off by the flame in front of you! (I got chills-despite the sweating- and almost cried)
• We met and took pictures with the President of the US! He seemed to know a little bit about water polo! Even if his staff had just told him about us, I don't care.....he still made us feel special!
• I took a picture with Kobe Bryant. Later on the field, after we marched in, the whole team at one point surrounded him to keep the hundreds of eager fans at bay and give him a moment of reprieve from picture taking. I give him a lot of credit for being so gracious to every athlete that came up to him and asked for a photo. He was incredibly nice to everyone and even chatted it up with Brenda in Italian. It was awesome for us all to just be athletes together. 
• Meeting Jason Kidd (a fellow Golden Bear) and talking to Coach K.
• We used an excellent exit strategy and made it onto the 3rd of about 100 or more buses leaving the stadium back to the village. (Basically we were like little duckings following our 6'8" bald assistant coach, as he weaved through the masses pouring out of the stadium, like he was playing Frogger.)We got home quickly and made our coach very happy.
• I got a picture of the countdown clock at exactly 20:08:08. I wish they didn't use military time. It would have looked cool. But it is still a moment frozen in time. 
• We got mini-snickers in our snack bag as we entered the holding arena before the parade. It is the little pleasures. :)

I took a lot of video since this time I wanted another form of recording my memories. i think the sounds and moving images will be powerful to watch as the years go on. I have no idea why I never brought a video camera before. Maybe it is because they were so bulky. My Flip Cam is smaller than my normal camera!  So after this is all over maybe I can post some video too!

Now that the Games are open it is time to focus on the competition at hand. Practice bright and early in the morning and again in the afternoon. Last opportunity to go over the plan for China on the 11th! Can't wait till the games start!

Full of Pride.

The countdown on the side of my blog says there is just over ONE day left until the Olympics start. Well, that is according to California time. Here we have just about EIGHT HOURS left. Kind of fitting that I am finally about to sit down and blog with that mystical number of hours left. :) So tonight we will all be decked out in our Opening Ceremonies Outfits (provided by Ralph Lauren) ready to march out into the stadium when the say "The United States of America" over the loud speaker. While the festivities start at 08:08 pm, we will not come out for over an hour after that. I believe they told us we will be the 139th country to enter!

I have become increasingly aware of the fact that whenever I think, speak, or write about the opening ceremonies and think about what we will be representing during it....I get the chills. Full on goosebumps all over my body. No matter where I am. Walking around in  this heat i marvel at my body's ability to create those little bumps when I am already burning up and sweating up a storm. Talk about a the power of the mind! 

I know that I am a patriotic person. Right before I left I painted my toenails with the American Flag. (So did my teammates Natalie Golda and Brenda Villa!) I brought an American Flag with me to the Games and have it hanging in my room. I have stars tattooed on my wrist which is the part of the flag I stare at when our anthem is playing before a game.

But today I got a new thrill when I walked up to the tower of apartments we call home for these two weeks. Never before in my Olympic or Pan American (the two major tournaments in a quad) experiences was our delegation allowed to have flags hanging on the outside of the buildings. It was a security precaution. They didn't want people to immediately know where we were. But every other country has flags hanging from their balconies, windows and stairways. Brazil has a flag so big it hangs down three stories of their building. We were the only buildings NOT to have decorations. But today walking back from the bus after training I looked up to see OUR FLAG proudly waving off every balcony. I dropped my bag and jumped over to hug our trainer, who almost fell over because her equipment bag was so heavy. It was such a beautiful thing to see! (And yes, I got goosebumps again.)

From Daxing to The Olympic Village.

We woke up yesterday morning for our last training and found that it was the hottest day since we arrived AND the most humid. I took my camera to the pool to get a shot of the pool we have been training at. As you can see, there is so much water in the air the flash reflected off of it making the picture all hazy. Pretty impressive you can get a visual of the thickness in the air without actually being here!

So after our last three hour practice with The Netherlands (I'm not sure if I explained that before....the whole reason we came to Daxing when we first got to China was to go to a place where we could train while we got acclimated to the time difference. The Netherlands in not in our bracket of play during the preliminary rounds, so we invited them to train against us. We had two "official" scrimmages- official as they could get while running off someones wristwatch since the game clocks were missing! , two practices where we played "man-up and man-down situations" against each other, and a few solo practices for fine tuning.) we got all packed up and ventured out into the sauna to load the bus. I think it took three seconds for my favorite shirt we got to be completely soaked through. My wrists were sweating before I even reached down to grab my bag and haul it into the baggage compartment! Wrists sweat? I mean I am an athlete and work out all the time. This place is hot!

But that of course didn't put any sort of damper on our enthusiasm to get to the Village! We had coordinated matching outfits for the trip so that the team arrived looking great and tough. Black has a way of doing that. And if you look close the lettering is in gold. That has to be some sort of subliminal message to the world, right? Well, no need for subliminal.

And now we are here! This Village is incredible. The buildings and surrounding gardens (yes, beautiful Chinese gardens filled with flowers, ponds, and statues!) are gorgeous. The food is great. And there are so many amenities for the athletes. Now I would love to show you pictures of all these things but when we got here we were better informed of all the restrictions placed on blogs during the Games. And there are many! The biggest let down for me is that there can be no pictures of anyone but me from now on. Which is a huge cramp in my style since where ever I go my teammates are sure to follow and I love taking pictures with them. AHAH! I am still trying to make sure I have all the guidelines straight before I post something that gets me in trouble! So after looking through the almost 100 photos I took just yesterday after arriving her shortly after 3pm....there is only 1 photo of just me. Here I am with the HUGE mascot of the water sports located right next to the dining hall!

Oh and one more thing. I act like a kid in a candy store, all star struck by the other athletes. My teammate, Patty Cardenas, was sitting next to me at lunch yesterday. We had almost finished when she made a squeak I have never heard come from her before, a smile spread across her face and she pointed behind our table. I looked up to see the back of a Spanish athlete as he walked away. What Patty? That is the tennis player Nadal! OH gosh Patty. SWEET! Wimbledon Champion and all around awesome tennis player! She was sooo excited to see him. She is a huge fan. I was like "Lets go get a picture!". So we chased him down....and despite the fact that he was on his phone, and probbaly bothered by the many fans that were coming up to him, he took a picture with us. The smile didn't leave Patty's face all night. That is what the Olympics are all about!

You've got mail.

So I thought I would try something out.....

Who wants a postcard from the village?

Now, I know I could be getting myself into something crazy because I am really not sure how many people are actually reading this. Which is why I am putting a time limit on this. According to my world clock it is 6:15am in California on Sunday, August 3. Here in China it is 9:15pm. We practice tomorrow morning one more time before we HEAD TO THE VILLAGE!!! (Can you sense my excitement?) Once we get to the village I will try and check my blog. If you want to receive a postcard from me, from the village, just leave your address in a comment at the bottom of this post. We have the day after that off, giving us time to explore the Village. At which point I will get postcards. But if your comment comes too late....than the window for mail will have closed, because I will need to simply concentrate on competing after that.

Recap.

Comment before the wee hours on Monday, August 4th = snail mail from the Olympic Village.


*****NOTE*****
Thank you all for reading my blog! The time has now run out. All the comments posted thus far should look out for a post card in the mail soon!
Again, thanks for the support and may you enjoy all the future stories!

Feeding the masses.

Meet William. He is the chef that has been cooking for us while we are in Daxing. He is employed by the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) for the duration of the Games, to cook for the USA Athlete delegation. We are lucky enough to have him with us for this week, while we are training here.

When we move to the Village tomorrow, he will go back to BNU, a university that the USOC has commandeered in Beijing. There, the USOC has manufactured an Olympic Training Center complete with an "American" style cafeteria (that is where William comes into play), training facilities for all sports, a weight room powered by 24 Hour Fitness, and business center for athletes and coaches to utilize for preparation purposes. It is supposed to mirror facilities you would find in Colorado Springs, thus giving us a place to feel "at home" while we are competing here. 

When William isn't cooking for us he is working at the Miami Marriott, in Biscayne Bay.

Fun Facts I have learned about William:

1.  Largest group he has cooked for- 1,500 people! 
   
2. He fed a Pro Football Team of 75, who was in Miami to play the Dolphins. They ate enough food to normally feed 400 people. 
3. He can cook an entire meal using just those small cans of chemical fire that you put under trays to warm them at a buffet. (This technique has been utilized during the hurricanes in Florida)
   
4. While in China, cooking for the US athletes he is not allowed to use butter. The only thing he has in the kitchen that is even a little bit fattening is extra virgin olive oil. Ha!

 The 13 of us are definitely not creating a big enough challenge for him!!!! This must seem like vacation. 

Add these to your I-Tunes Library.

Each person on the team picked out a song to add to our pump up mix. Bets couldn't choose so she has two. :) This is what we will be listening to during weight sessions and before games!
(songs are listed in order by cap number)
1.Take Me Out-Franz Ferdinand
1.I'm Shipping Up To Boston-Dropkick Murphys
2.The Way I Are-Timbaland
3.Mercy (feat. The Game) [Remix] -Duffy
4.This Way-Dialated Peoples Feat. Kanye West
5.Eye of the Tiger-Survivor
6.You-Atmosphere
7.Lose Yourself-Eminem
8.Stronger-Kanye West
9.Tear It Up-Yung Wun

10.Numb/Encore-Linkin Park (Ft. Jay-Z)
11.American Boy (ft. Kanye West)0-Estelle
12.Forever-Chris Brown
13.Grace Kelly-MIKA

Daxing, China.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Daxing! Clear BLUE sky with wispy, light and fluffy clouds lazily floating around. The sun shone through instead of being a big hazy orange ball in the sky. In the distance we could even see huge black multi-layered mountains surrounding the whole area! It felt like we were home, in Southern California, after a rainstorm and suddenly the San Gabriel Mountains are staring at you with snow capped peaks, where before there was only a thick layer of yellowish smog. The scene was a refreshing change. When the smog departed, so did the humidity. Walking outside last night (mind you our walk is VERY short....our hotel is about 200 yards from the pool complex) made me want to pull up a lounge chair, break out a cold beverage and watch the sunset or have a BBQ. It was one of those perfect temperatures where it doesn't feel hot or cold, and there is a slight breeze to keep you feeling that way. Instead of rushing to the entrance to the hotel, I think I may have strolled. :)

Alas, today is a new day. It is back to being hot and humid. The sky isn't quite as blue. But it has a bluish tint. The team went outside to take a picture for Hawaiian Island Creations(who donated the sweet shirt) and Fuzzy Duds(who donated the awesome shorts).

We were out there for about four minutes at which point we scurried back inside due to excessive sweating. May there be more days like yesterday in our furture!!!

 

Pump Up Poster

My good friend Darcy, the whiz with photoshop and the same person who made the header for my blog, made the team an inspirational poster to take with us to the Village. Thought I would share it with you!

Thank You!

I just wanted to thank everyone for the support you all have given me throughout this crazy journey. I have received numerous e-mails, phone calls, text messages, facebook posts, and snail-mail letters.....all have left an imprint on my heart and I carry your words with me here, as I get ready to compete. Knowing that so many people are behind me is an immeasurable advantage in competition. I could not have reached where I am today without all of you. 

When I moved to Long Beach in 2002 to start full time training for Athens I started to frequent a local cafe for breakfast. It was right around the corner from my house. The Potholder Cafe on Broadway and Euclid. If you are in the area stop by! The food is fabulous and the coffee keeps us going on the hardest of Fridays. The waitresses have become our friends, following our competition schedules and feeling the emotions of wins and losses like they were on the team themselves. The day before we left I drove by and saw this message they wrote on the window. 

Thank You Mo and Beth. We love you!  :)

Leaving Home. Arriving in China.

I love to travel. I hate packing. Why can't someone invent a machine (a la The Jetsons) that you type in what you need and out pops your perfectly packed bag. We invented dishwashers, laundry machines and i-pods. Come on, this can't be asking too much. ha ha :)

About two weeks ago we were given a list of mandatory things to bring. The list wasn't long- our swim suits and a short list of speedo clothes we got. (USA Water Polo has a contract with Speedo so we need to wear their swim suits and clothes on the pool deck.) Those things were neatly folded and ready to go in the bag in seconds....that was the easy part. Then I had to think about the month I would be gone and exactly what else I would need.

*******

Here are things I have learned over the years:

1.I will need toiletries like shampoo, face wash, body lotion, tooth paste....Packing normal size anything makes my bag heavy and takes up space. But being on a month long trip, I need to pack enough of my favorite things so that I have them for the duration. If I can buy the items where I am going....then I just pack one travel size of each and buy more as needed. But if I am going to a place where buying things in not an option, I pack a few travel size containers of each thing. They are small and can fit in the random space in my bag. As I use them up, I throw the containers away and my bag gets lighter and has more space-to fill with all the things I buy while on the trip.  OH! And I ALWAYS put them inside plastic bags. With the way our bags get thrown around there is always something that explodes.

2. I always pack more underwear than I need. 

3. If I can- I make my carry-on a little roller bag. Walking through the giant terminals and waiting in security lines with a huge bag/backpack full of heavy things like books, snacks, a water bottle and a computer is sure to make my back hurt. Factor in some quality time in those extremely comfortable airplane seats and my whole body hurts. Unless you are lucky and fly Business Class, rollers are the way to go! 

4. Packing anything electronic? I always double check I have the cords to recharge them. Frustrating times without them!

5. An added bonus if I have room are things that may make me sleep better- my own pillow, an alarm clock, and a prescription of Ambien. Because everything on a trip is better if I am well rested. :)

****

After a few trips to Target and rummaging thorough my room, the pile next to all my Speedo stuff had grown quite a bit. (There were three books, an i-pod, my computer, sunglasses, assorted snacks, a bag of starburst, a camera, my FlipVideo, room decorations, a teddy bear, a weight belt.....your get the picture) Now how was I going to fit all of that into a two foot long roller bag and a backpack?  I couldn't take a large roller bag because on our way to China we were stopping in San Jose for Team USA Processing (I'll go into that in detail later) and I was going to be getting a lot of team apparel and a few bags there. So we were told to fit our stuff in the smallest amount of space possible. 

Of course I managed to do it. I did have to re-pack it a few times when things didn't fit. I guess I should look at it like a game or a puzzle and it would be more fun. But I'm still leaning towards a machine that does if for me. 

Here we are boarding the plane for China.....

And then we landed 12 hours later to be greeted by one of the Olympic mascots!!!

 

Home.

A week ago we finished a four game series against Australia.
Results were as follows:
July 4th @ The US National Training Facility- Los Alamitos, Ca 13-12
July 6th @ Coggan Aquatic Center- La Jolla, Ca 12-11
July 8th @ Coronado High School- San Diego, Ca 12-6
July 10th @ Avery Aquatics Center- Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca 7-5

Playing every other day, the line-up of games was designed to simulate the schedule that we will have once we start our competition in China. Play a game. Have a day off to fine tune what is needed for the next game and maybe rest a little. Play again.

This schedule was adopted in 2003 at World Championships in Barcelona. Before, games were played everyday. The women playing one week, followed by the men's competition the next. (At the Sydney Olympic Games we played 5 round robin games, a semi, and a final-and were finished in the first week of the Games) But too many times one of the semi-final games went into overtime, then sudden death, having a match last well past the usual hour long time period. Leaving those two teams exhausted. Only to have them turn around the next day and play a team, in a medal round game, who had played a regulation length game the day before. A little unfair they thought. So now we play every other day, alternating men's and women's matches until the end of the Games.

Our last game up at Stanford was particularly special for me. Being in Northern California, it was one of the rare occasions that I got to play close to home! (Home is in Orinda-East Bay Area) Which also meant that my family and friends were in the stands to cheers us on!!!!

But so were 2,985 other folks!!!! The largest crowd EVER for a Women's Water Polo Game in the US!!!!!! With the record-breaking crowd, the television cameras all over place(NBC filmed the game for a National broadcast), and other Olympic athletes in the stands to cheer us on (the USA Swim Team was training at Avery as well-yes, I mean Michael Phelps.) this was as close to experiencing a game in China as we were going to get. Perfect preparation for next month. Thank you to the Stanford Club team for making that game happen. It was awesome.

My Brother, his wife Susie, and my nephew Conor made the trip down from Seattle to see the game. And brought along some of Sus's family to see their first water polo game. We successfully acquired new fans.

I got to stay home after the game and spend some quality time holding Conor and hang out with my family before I returned to Long beach for these last weeks of training. There is something about Home and being around my family that rejuvenates me like nothing else does. I know the next time I see Conor, in about two months, he will probably already have a cell phone and be driving, he is growing so fast. So every moment counts. Especially the ones where he is asleep and looking like an angel. :)

Realizations.

See that countdown there on the right.....

The Games start in 24 days!!!!!! And today at the chiropractor's office I realized that our team will leave the LA area to head to processing and then China....in 12 days!!!!!! I am sooooo excited!

That is all for now.

P.S. Happy Birthday to my 2000 and 2004 teammate Nicolle Payne!!! :)

Take me out to the ball game....

We took Dodger stadium by storm today. Our team was announced pre-game on the first base line.


My Highlights:
1. Listening to The Stars Spangled Banner while standing on the field in front of the LA dugout. I love to hear the nation's anthem when I am not getting prepared to play a game.

2. Getting the chills as we returned to our seats. People were clapping and reaching out for high fives. You could sense the pride they had in our team and for the USA.

3. Eating a dodger dog drowning in nacho cheese.

Brenda threw out the ceremonial first pitch.....to Nat!!! :) They got to practice a few times first.