Well, the World Championship Swimming Meet here in Indianapolis at the Nat has finished. All those well-seasoned conditioned swimmers roaming our streets and the Nat now a thing of the past. Don't know if you got to see any of it on tv, but the swimmers are poetry, grace, and power in the water at that level of swimming. We had two girls from our club swimming in the meet, and what a thrill it was for them to compete at that level!
Our club officially had Saturday as our volunteer day to work at the meet and while the kids all got to see various swimmers, the adults were pretty busy working. Mark was taking tickets yesterday when Mrs. Phelps came through the line, so he got to see her up close and personal...we all think that Mrs. Phelps is as much of a celebrity as her son, Michael. She asked Mark if it would be possible to switch sides to sit on as she wanted to sit with another swim mom and Mark told her that she could give it a try with the ushers. He said, "I was figuring if anyone could do it, she should be able to."
Matt, Daniel, and Stevie (compliments of the Haslers) got to have VIP tickets the night Michael broke the 200 Fly record, so they were thrilled with that, and the fact that they were sitting in the VIP section in front of Mrs. Phelps (seen in photo at left behind them in light blue shirt), so that when Michael was awarded flowers each time for winning an event, he would bring them to his mother in the stands and they got to see Michael a few times. They were on television as when the cameras panned to that, the boys were right there front and center, so friends were texting them saying, "We just saw you all on TV!" That was, however, as close as they got to actually meeting Michael.
Aaron Piersol broke the world 100 Backstroke record last night...one of Matt's major swims, so that was a good and exciting way to end the run. A lot of fast swimming and fun times for the CSC swimmers (and their families) over the week.
Ali and Sarah got to attend a World Swimming Championship kick-off breakfast with Cullen Jones (Olympic medal winner and one of the first African-Americans to be so in swimming), so here is a fun photo of them at the Make a Splash breakfast, compliments of Buddy and Laurie.
Sectional swimming starts week after this at Miami and Matt is entered in four events for that, hoping that if he gets the cuts he wants in that meet, that he won't need to swim Senior State, making his next meet be Junior Nationals in Washington State and having that week of Senior State Swimming as a bit of a break. Keep your fingers crossed as it would be nice to have that all in place earlier rather than later.