10 days until Trials!

Most swimmers or athletes in their respective sports have the dream of reaching the Olympics or the pinnacle event in their sport. My dream for a long time has been to make the Olympic team for Canada and to have the opportunity to compete against the best in the world on the biggest stage at the Olympics in London.  My journey preparing for this chance to compete at the Olympics started a long time ago where each part of my upbringing being a stepping stone for the foundation to this moment in ten days…

I have competed competitively in swimming even since I can remember. My swimming roots started early following my sisters footsteps at the age of six in Saudi Arabia. Then growing up in Houston, Texas, I swam with Blue Tide Aquatics from ages 8 to 18. It was here that I found a love for swimming, created valuable friendships with my teammates, and always pushed myself to do the limits. I found varying success along the way, but participated in multiple sports until I came to a decision point at the age of 15 as a freshmen in high school.  I had just had an amazing Texas Age Group Championship meet where I won 9 of 10 races I competed in (only losing the mile by a mere .4 of a second), but I had also walked onto my high school baseball team after the swimming season was over and quickly found a niche on the team as the starting third basemen. It was going great until swimming started up again in late April when I had practices/games for both sports conflicting ever day. I had to really sit down and decide my future athletics path at that moment ultimately deciding that although I really enjoyed playing baseball, swimming had a brighter future and required a full year commitment. I did not want to give a half commitment to either team and coach because that is not fair to either and not how I operate. I give my all in whatever I decide to do and I had a choice to make at that point of time that was ultimately one stepping stone towards my Olympic dream that was developing.

The decision proved to be the right one as my next year of swimming resulted in achieving my first Olympic Trials qualifying standard and established myself as one of the top junior swimmers in all of North America. My coach at the time, Steve Wilson, was one of the people that believed in me the most. He gave me another stone in the foundation when he went to Athens, Greece and brought home some sand from the Olympic stadium fully believing that I would be there someday and helped me to start believing it for real too. I went on to break NAG 15-16 records in the 200 scy Breaststroke as a 16 year old and multiple US Junior National Champion. In 2004, I did not compete in an Olympic Trials even though I had qualified because I was focused on the time when I would be ready to compete for a spot four years down the road.

My journey continued to Stanford University where I competed for Skip Kenney and Ted Knapp for five years. I desired to be the best college breaststroker wanting to follow in the rich tradition of excellence at Stanford. A turning point started in training my first year on a test set of 5x300s breaststroke descend. I went a time that was a school record for that set faster than past Olympians Kurt Grote, Tom Wilkens, John Moffet, and school record holder Gary Marshall, etc. It was a whirlwind learning experience my first year, but ended up with a Pac-10 Championship in the 200 breast and top three finish at NCAAs. I realized I could compete with anybody after that. As a sophomore, I saw setback with injury and triumph with a runner-up finish in the 100 breast and new school record. That spring I competed in my first Canadian Nationals and won the 200 meter Breaststroke putting myself in excellent position for the next Olympic year.

In 2008, it all came together. I was the best breaststroker in the NCAAs winning the 100 and 200 scy Breaststroke and was named Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year. Everything was coming together towards my ultimate goal of making the Olympics. I flew to Montreal for this chance, but pulled a muscle in my right leg prior to competition. It was excruciating to compete under that added duress and ultimately contributed to a third place finish in both the 100 and 200 (top 2 make the Olympic squad) meter Breaststroke by the smallest of margins of .03 seconds. It was a very hard time of my life coming up just short of my dream, but now a realize it has been an essential stepping stone to this moment in 2012. Coming so close makes you want it that much more.

I have been preparing ever since that moment four years ago for another shot to go to the Olympics. It is that time now. It all comes down to this…

Main website for all information: www.swimtrials.ca

Look for live Canadian Broadcast of the Finals starting at 7 pm ET (5 pm Calgary time) each night!!

*Update: For Calgary viewers, the Olympic Swimming Trials will be on Sportsnet West (channel 27, 218 on Shaw) from 7-8 pm MST on March 27th and from 9-10pm on March 29th. It is live at 5 pm MST on Sportsnet ONE channel. But check your local listings that week

Competition Schedule: March 27 – April 1, 2012

• Day 1 (March 27th) – 100 m Breaststroke
• Day 3 (March 29th) – 200 m Breaststroke
• Day 4 (March 30th) – 100 m Freestyle
• Day 6 ( April 1st) – 200 m IM