USA Olympic Trials Begin Sunday!

Greetings everyone. Hope you are all enjoying your summer thus far. Things are going well at GCIT. The swimmers training in the summer are working very hard and we have had a considerable number of best times already. We will be looking toward Junior Olympics, Senior Champs, Sectionals, and Junior Nationals in July and August to finish the long course season.

Now, as many of you may know the 2008 US Olympic Swimming Trials will get started in 6 days. This time around the event will be held at the Quest Center in Omaha, Nebraska. This is an area which normally seats 16,000 people for events like ice hockey and the circus. A temporary pool has been constructed and over 14,000 people will be on hand to witness what I guarantee will be the fastest swim meet in history. This is the type of event that you work your schedule around so that you can be in front of the television to watch the live coverage every night. And I thought I would pass along this Guide to watching the Trials. Please share this with your children as it will help enhance their understanding of the meet and give them more to watch for than just the races.

-Swimmers that qualify for the Olympic Trials consist of 2% of all registered USA Swimming members.

-GCIT has four team members who will be competing in the meet. Jamie Marks (Unattached Arkansas & GCIT Swimming) will be swimming the 400 IM and 200 Breast. Bill Cregar (Athens Bulldogs Swim Club & GCIT Swimming) will be swimming the 200 IM and 400 IM. Mike Joyce (GCIT Swimming & Univ. of Florida) will also be swimming the 200 IM and 400 IM. And Christian Sprang (Univ. of Michigan & GCIT Swimming) will be swimming the 400 Free and 200 Free.

-In the other 3 Trials held since GCIT was created in 1994 two team members went to the meet (Heather Meng in 2000 swam the 100 and 200 Breast and Christian Sprang in 2004 swam the 1500 Free). In just four years we doubled the total number of Trials qualifiers and almost tripled the total number of events swum in all previous Trials.

-The highest finish at Trials for a GCIT team member is 24: Heather Meng in the 100 Breast in 2000 and Christian Sprang in the 1500 Free in 2004.

-The Trials are run in the same format as the Olympic Games except the prelims will be swum in the morning and the finals at night (in Beijing finals will be held in the morning and prelims at night). All events 200 meters and shorts will have a prelim session in the morning. Then the top 16 swimmers will swim a semi-final that same night. Then the top 8 swimmers from the semi-finals will swim in finals the next night. From the finals, the top two finishers will be named to the Olympic Team.

-The race is not always for the top 2. Pay particular attention to the 100 and 200 freestyle events. The top 6 finishers from the finals will get named to the Olympic Team. This gives the USA Team in Beijing four relay swimmers and 2 alternates. The 100 freestyle will determine the 400 freestyle relay and the 200 freestyle will determine the 800 freestyle relay.

-8 is the magic number. Michael Phelps is trying to make the team in at least 8 events. Phelps swam 8 events at the 2004 Athens Olympic winning 6 gold and 2 bronze. If he makes it to Beijing in 8 events and wins 8 gold medals he will receive a $5 million bonus from his main sponsor, Speedo. At last April's World Championships Phelps won 7 gold medals (setting 5 world records in the process). He would have had a great shot at an 8th gold medal but the men's 400 medley relay false started in prelims and was not able to race for the gold at finals.

-Local Talent. A good friend from Suburban Swim Center has a shot at making the finals in the 200 backstroke as well as the 200 IM and 400 IM. Ian Clarke attended Southern Methodist University and took a year before entering the work force to work on his goal of making finals at the Olympic Trials. The folks at Suburban have always been very gracious to our team in giving us pool time (at no charge) when our pool has been shut down in the past. We were able to return the favor somewhat by having Ian and his brother Jaffrey train with us when we initially went to long course training in April and May.

Three other swimmers from our area with a legitimate shot to make the Olympic Team come from the Germantown Academy Aquatic Club: Katie Reifensthal, Theresa Crippen, and Alicia Ammesinger. I've known Katie since I coached her on the 2001 Winter Zone Team as a 10 year old. She is a really nice girl and will be in the mix with Theresa in the 200 backstroke as well as the 100 and 200 freestyle. Alicia swims for GA and Princeton University and has a chance to make the team in the 200 and 400 IMs.

-Not just about first or second place. The worst thing to think about while watching the Trials is that it is only about first or second place. One of the times I talked to Mike Joyce this week he said something that is very true, "This is a dream come true." NBC will really focus on the top two and especially on the household names like Phelps and Hoff. But there are over 1,200 swimmers in the meet. This is about 2% of all swimmers in the United States. For most of them the reward is getting to Trials as it is the pinnacle of swimming in this country. They only hold this meet once every four years and the best of the best in the USA will be in Omaha together. Its a great meet and a great atmosphere.

Quick Links:

Trials TV Schedule

Trials Event Schedule

Live Results From Omega Timing
You can watch the results of the heats from prelims as they happen...you see reaction times at the start and all splits for each swimmer in the heat. A great way to keep track of GCIT Swimmers as they compete.

Trials Psych Sheets

USA Swimming's Olympic Trials Page

NBC's Olympic Swimming Site

Live Trials Video

Live Results and Analysis from Swimming World Magazine

Article from the Press of Atlantic City on GCIT Swimmers at Trials

Article from the Vineland Daily Journal on Mike Joyce and Christian Sprang heading to Trials

There will be an article in the Courier Post this weekend on all South Jersey swimmers heading to Trials.

And finally...be sure to stay up to date at the team blog we will be posting results, pictures, videos...as much behind the scenes stuff as we can to give everyone an idea of what goes on at Trials beyond what you will see for an hour each night on television. Hopefully there is some kind of wireless internet access at the pool so we can update while the meet is going on. I WHOLE-HEARTEDLY PROMISE TO UPDATE THE BLOG REGULARLY DURING TRIALS!!!!