Olympic Diary Entry No. 2
8/14/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Aug. 14, 2004
Well now that the opening ceremonies are over its down to the nitty gritty. We did not attend the opening ceremony as we dive today August 14 and standing on our feet for 6 hours just would not have been good preparation. We all sat and watched it on big screen TV in the village so that was great. For most who have not been to an opening ceremony you leave for the stadium around 6:30pm and don't return back to the village until after 2am so you can imagine it is pretty long and drawn out but well worth it if you have never been. We are down to crunch time as we dive today - obviously we have prepared as well as we possibly could have - I think we are better than in Sydney but so is everyone else. I am certainly anxious, excited, nervous, ready to be done with this in a good way. The girls are focused and realize that their life worth of training will come down to this special day. It's out of my hands at this point and in theirs which makes it that more out of my control. I am confident and can't wait. Our supporters from Houston arrived in Athens yesterday so we met up with them and gave them our Russian flags to wave at the competition - we hope they are loud and enjoy today. Most of them paid alot of money to come cheer so we are very grateful for their presence. I know we will have lots of people cheering and praying for us and I know we will hear and feel you all in their with us. Thanks to all you Coogs out there for your endless support. Most sports start today and I think all the athletes are ready - we have seen lots of celebrity athletes like Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Venus Williams - what's great is that they are all living in the village with us and it seems to me love the Olympic ideal considering how much money they make. They are just normal athletes like all of us - it's still fun to have our pictures taken with them though!! Well I am off to practice at 12pm and then back to the village for a little rest and then on to the meet. We dive tonight at 9pm and then head back to Patra tomorrow to rest and prepare for the individual event on the 25th Aug. We will leave Athens to keep our heads fresh as there is too much time to sit in the village between events. Keep your fingers crossed and talk to you all tomorrow hopefully wearing the gold!!! Bye for now.