Is This Real?

Post #103

Oakland, California - There are only eight days until we leave for London, and the excitement is slowly but steadily building. It started with the gymnastics, track and field, and swimming Trials that were on TV last week. It was a strange experience for me to watch them; I'd get so excited for each athlete that made the team, thinking they'd have such a cool experience in London.  It felt like the Olympics were some distant thing that was happening to other people. I kept having to remind myself that I also get to have that experience!

It continued to build when we got our Olympic competition gear in the mail last week. It was a big bag of clothes that included the uniforms we'll race in.  I wore mine a few days ago for practice (gotta break it in) and visualized what it would be like to go to the starting line in it. It gives me chills just to think about it.

Then there was the 97-page U.S. Olympic Committee Athlete Handbook that was delivered to our inboxes a couple days ago. I'm still wading through all the information about arriving in London, going through athlete processing, what the Villages will be like, how to handle yourself in front of the media, what security will be like, and a million other details about the Games.

Despite all of these moments, there are still times I'll be driving to practice, or walking down the street, and have to pinch myself to remember that this is all actually happening. I'm going to the Olympics next week. How crazy is that?

Misc. Updates:
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Info about Olympic TV schedules is in the "Media and Links" tab at the top.