Trials From the Stands
Last week, I had the privilege to travel up to Omaha with my mom to watch every session of the Olympic Trials. The nine days I spent there were probably some of the most exciting days I have ever had. Even though the next trials are four years away, my mom and I have already decided that we will be going back, whether I swim or not. In the stands, you can feel the energy and excitement that people always talk about, which is something you just can't appreciate by watching on TV. Other than getting to watch the races first hand, my favorite thing to see was the medal ceremony after each race, where the winner was given their medal and a bouquet of flowers as they were announced as an Olympian. Getting to watch their emotions on the stage gave you a look into their personality, which made me even more excited to see how the swimmers will perform in Rio. I have been to meets with well-known swimmers before, but trials is so much different because literally everyone one of these well-known swimmers that hope to make it to Rio has to be at their best for this meet. It was so cool to see all the swimmers that we hear about and look up to in the same place.
We didn't have any family ties to the swimmers, but some events were still hard for us to watch. Since this year's Olympic Trials had so much young and new talent, it was exciting and very motivational to watch college swimmers, not much older than me, beat the professional athletes that have already had Olympic experience. At the same time, I wanted the older athletes like Missy Franklin and Matt Grevers to make the team again, since I had taken so much inspiration from them and looked up to them growing up. In my opinion, we saw this the most in the 100 back finals where the middle six lanes were younger college athletes that had not yet made an Olympic team, and in lanes one and eight were the two backstrokers that we all grew up watching, Missy Franklin and Natalie Coughlin. This just shows how USA swimming is just constantly improving, which makes me proud to be part of it. Another thing I took away from this was how Missy Franklin didn't seem to mentally give up after failing to make the team in her signature event, but kept moving forward and managed to make the team in three other events by the end of the week.
The most notable difference between trials and the other meets I've been to, besides the caliber of the swimmers, was how genuinely interested everyone was. Each time a heat dove in, all 15,000 people in the stands were dead silent, as in I could hear someone speak from the opposite side of the arena. In every finals race that I can remember, the entire crowd was on their feet screaming by the last 50 meters, except during the Phelps/Lochte showdown in the 200 IM and all of Katie Ledecky's distance races (people were on their feet cheering the whole time). Overall, my first Olympic Trials experience completely surpassed my expectations going in. USA Swimming definitely puts on an amazing show in Omaha, and I left trials with more motivation to improve and a week of incredible memories that I will cherish until I can hopefully get to experience it again in 2020.
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