Swimming with the Stars

I would say that I have an obsessive personality. I don't have many interests; rather, I have obsessions. One of my obsessions is the Olympics, and one of my favorite Olympic sports to watch is swimming. Luckily for me I happen to live in a mini-hub for elite swimming, thanks to my alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. This weekend the USA Swimming Winter National Championships were held here. (See the picture below for proof. You may also see one of our favorite swimmer friends hiding there.)

The Winter National Championships is a short course event, which means that in any other country the length of the pool would be 25 meters as opposed to the 50-meter length of the Olympic pool (or long course); however, because we in the United States hate to conform to the rest of the world, our short course events tend to be in yards, meaning that this event had a 25-yard-long pool. The reason why this is important is that it wasn't possible for world records to be broken, since the rest of the world doesn't actually swim these races, but it was possible for American records to be broken. Now it's time to introduce the stars of this weekend's event:

Brendan Hansen: The Retired Legend
Olympic Resume: 2004--Silver in 100m breaststroke, Bronze in 200m breaststroke, Gold in 4x100m medley relay; 2008--Gold in 4x100m medley relay; 2012--Bronze in 100m breaststroke, Gold in 4x100m medley relay.

I love him. This picture (along with his many Olympic medals) is proof of Brendan Hansen's Legend status. He is on a giant banner at the UT natatorium (possibly my new favorite word), because he attended UT and swam with Longhorn Aquatics after graduation. Unfortunately for the world, he retired after the 2012 Olympics, so I didn't get to see him swim, but I did get to see him. He still lives in Austin, so I kept my eyes peeled for him and found him in the press area. I caught this gem on camera. Even though it's blurry, it's probably my favorite picture from this weekend:
 

It is possible that this face is actually in reaction to me, since I wasn't too far away from where he was standing and I had been holding my camera up in the same position for at least a couple minutes, and I know that the guy he was talking to noticed me. I really hope this face was in reaction to me.

Ricky Berens: The Hometown Hero
Olympic Resume: 2008--Gold in 4x200m freestyle relay; 2012--Gold in 4x200m freestyle relay, Silver in 4x100m freestyle relay.
Current World Records: 1

Those of you in the know may be wondering why I consider a swimmer from Charlotte, NC, to be a hometown hero in Austin, TX. Well, like Brendan Hansen, Ricky Berens is a former Longhorn, and as such he was the definitive crowd favorite this weekend. I knew who he was before I attended this meet, but I hadn't realized what a big deal he would be to the UT crowd. The most electrifying race this weekend by far was the men's 200m freestyle, where Ricky Berens and Ryan Lochte went head-to-head. The atmosphere as Ricky surged ahead of Ryan was unbelievable. Ricky even tweeted about it: "Can't tell you how awesome the fans were tonight at #ATTNats! Was incredible to swim in front of all you guys." In case you can't see in the picture, he is holding up a hook 'em horns. Ricky just moved back to Austin after a couple years in SoCal to train with Longhorn Aquatics, so you can bet I'll be keeping my eye out for him every day all the time from now on.

Also, I may have blinded him when I accidentally left my flash on as I took this picture, and it's not even that great of a picture. Like for real, he had a visible reaction to the flash. Whoops!

Here's a better picture. He was only 10 feet away from me:

Nathan Adrian: The Finger Jammer
Olympic Resume: 2008--Gold in 4x100m freestyle relay; 2012--Gold in 100m freestyle, Gold in 4x100m medley relay, Silver in 4x100m freestyle relay.
Current World Records: 1 

Oh, Nathan Adrian, how I love you. How I wish you wouldn't have jammed your finger on a lane line during a warm-down on the first day of the meet, causing you to withdraw from the rest of the meet and not allowing me to see you swim. Really, Nathan Adrian? Really? You jammed your finger on a lane line? Aren't you the fastest 100-meter swimmer in the world? Really?? (I'm channeling Seth Meyers in his Weekend Update segment here. Can you tell?) Okay, now that I'm over the disappointment of not seeing him swim, I have to say that I am SOOO glad I still got to see him. Luckily for me, the three girls sitting behind me were keeping track of his every movement as he watched the races, so all I had to do was point and shoot.

Matt Grevers: The Gentle Giant (I really couldn't think of a nickname for him.)
Olympic Resume: 2008--Silver in 100m backstroke, Gold in 4x100m freestyle relay, Gold in 4x100m medley relay; 2012--Gold in 100m backstroke, Silver in 4x100m freestyle relay, Gold in 4x100m medley relay.

I call him the gentle giant because (1) he is a giant, and (2) he was really attentive to the fans. And yes, he was looking at me. He also used my pen to sign an autograph for the girl sitting next to me, but not for me :( But still, I am never washing that pen again. If he doesn't look familiar to you looking like this, he may look more familiar looking like this:

Matt Grevers was definitely the star of this meet performance-wise. He won a gold medal in all three of his events: 50y freestyle, 100y backstroke (where he set an American record), and 100y freestyle (where I'm sure he benefited from Nathan Adrian's absence). He was amazing to watch. I don't know how such a big person can move so fast, but he definitely does.

Missy Franklin: America's Golden Girl
Olympic Resume: 2012--Gold in 100m backstroke, Gold in 200m backstroke, Gold in 4x200m freestyle relay, Bronze in 4x100m freestyle relay, Gold in 4x100m medley relay.
Current World Records: 4 

Missy Franklin was on fire at Winter Nationals: three gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal. In the women's team competition she placed sixth as the only member of her team, when the other teams above her each had at least a dozen swimmers. She obviously had a LOT of crowd support, because how could we not love that girl? She was literally smiling throughout the entire meet. From what I could tell, everything the broadcasters said about her during the Olympics is true. She makes everyone around her happy, and she is just plain awesome. And yes, she is still just 17.

Ryan Lochte: Jeah!
Olympic Resume: 2004--Silver in 200m individual medley (IM), Gold in 4x200m freestyle relay; 2008--Gold in 200m backstroke, Bronze in 400m IM, Bronze in 200m IM, Gold in 4x200m freestyle relay; 2012--Gold in 400m IM, Silver in 200m IM, Bronze in 200m backstroke, Gold in 4x200m freestyle relay, Silver in 4x100m freestyle relay.
Current World Records: 5 

Ryan Lochte is a funny fellow. My greatest desire regarding Ryan Lochte this weekend was to be able to see his grills. Alas, he was too far away for me to be able to tell if he was wearing them or not. What I did get to see were shoes that literally had wings on them, a backpack blinged out with gold jewels, and a gold chain necklace. I also saw him change his swimsuit, not once, but twice in plain view of the crowd of about a thousand people, including many college-age girls. That man has no shame. Anyway, he didn't do his best the nights I saw him, when he placed third and sixth in the 200y freestyle and 100y backstroke, respectively. I missed when he blew away the competition in the 200y IM on Thursday night. But none of that really matters. I got to see Ryan Lochte, the second-most-famous swimmer in the world, swim competitively.

If you're wondering what "jeah" means, I've wondered that too. Ryan Lochte trademarked the word this summer. Here's a clip from 2009 of him explaining what it means. Start at 0:40. (The other swimmer is the for-now-retired Olympic breaststroker Eric Shanteau.)

All I can say is, "Ryan, stop trying to make jeah happen! It's not going to happen!"