New Beginnings
End of a Chapter, Start of something New…
I have been swimming competitively at a high level for the past eight years and been in the pool swimming basically since I could walk. After coming up just short of my Olympic dream four years ago by .03 seconds, I was unable to make the squad this year as well. After doing everything I could to be in the best position to make the team, I definitely feel disappointed and heart broken to come up short of my dream to make the Olympics. It has been a long journey with many ups and downs, but one that has shaped me to the man I am today and I move on now with no regrets.
Congratulations to my teammates Amanda Reason and Erica Morningstar in Calgary for making the Canadian Olympic team! Although I am disappointed to not be going to London, I will leave the pool as Canada’s best Short Course Breaststroker of all-time holding Canadian Records in all distances and a former World Record holder in the 400 Medley Relay. I will move on as Stanford’s record holder in the 200 Breast, 2-time NCAA Champion, 7-time Pac-10 Champion, and 4-time team conference Champions. I was a multiple Canadian National Champion and have competed at 2 World Championships and the Pan-Pacific Games for the Canadian National Team. Swimming has let me travel all around the world and build invaluable life skills and relationships. I hope I made my teammates around me better and brought out the best in people inspiring them to attain their goals and dreams.
There is a lot of gratitude I have for people that have helped me along my journey. First my coaches: Thank you to my age group coach Steve Wilson from Blue Tide Aquatics who first believed in my Olympic potential and helped laid the groundwork for my hard work and breaststroke success. Next to Stanford coaches Ted Knapp and Skip Kenney who instilled in me life-long character traits, motivated me, empowered me, preached team-first attitude, and turned me into a NCAA Champion. And to Calgary Swimming coach Jan Bidrman for all his personal attention and care and everyone at UCSC and in Calgary that helped me along the way. Thank you.
Thank you to all my teammates that pushed me to my limits and made me a better swimmer and person, especially the Stanford family. Thank you to all the people (Matthesons), corporations (SIACharts.com), Swimming Alberta and Canada, etc. for financially supporting me. Thank you to all my close friends for always believing in me and encouraging me along the way. But most of all to my family who has always been proud of me no matter what happens and always supported me in love. God has truly blessed me and I give him the glory.
This will most likely be my last swimming post as I move onto a new chapter in my life for the first time without swimming. I will take some time to contemplate my decision and next steps. I could be in the pool at some point again, but if I do swim again, I will probably just focus on SCM where I am still the top Canadian and competitive internationally. Thank you again to everyone who has followed and supported me. But as one door closes, another one opens. So now onto the Next Chapter…
Olympic Trials Recap
Olympic Trials Results:
100 Breast – 1:02.23 (4th overall)
200 Breast – 2:16.89 (7th overall)
100 Free – 52.55 (41st overall, Best Time)
200 IM – 2:08.07 (22nd overall)
More to come shortly…
100 Breast Olympic Trials Final
Did you miss the 100 Breast Finals? Watch it below! I am in the yellow cap in lane 7.
Thank you to everyone this week for their encouraging words and support! I really appreciate it!
Coverage of the Canadian Olympic Trials
I am in Montreal and very excited for the Trials begin. I wanted to write another post with all the information to watch and follow the trials this week. The main websites are at www.swimtrials.ca and www.swimming.ca will also have updates throughout the week.
Live Results: Click Here
Live Webcast of each session: Click Here
Press Release: Click Here
Sportsnet TV Schedule:
| Event Day | Day | DATE | SN ONE (ET) | SN EAST (ET) | SN ONTARIO (ET) | SN WEST (MT) | SN PACIFIC (PT) |
| 1 | Tues | 03/27/12 | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 12:00 AM | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM |
| 2 | Wed | 03/28/12 | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 12:00 AM | 12:00 AM |
| 3 | Thurs | 03/29/12 | 7:00 PM | 12:00 AM | 12:00 AM | 9:00 PM | 8:00 PM |
| 4 | Fri | 03/30/12 | 10:00 PM | 12:00 AM | 12:00 AM | 12:00 AM | 20h |
| * | Fri | 03/30/12 | 10:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 12:00 AM | TBD |
| 5 | Sat | 03/31/12 | 8:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:00 PM |
| ** | Sat | 03/31/12 | 7:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:00 PM |
| 6 | Sun | 04/01/12 | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 1:00 AM | 4:00 PM |
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
2012 Missouri Grand Prix
I am gearing up for the 2012 Missouri Grand Prix here in Columbia, Missouri racing from February 10-12. It has been a while since I have competed, but I am excited to get back to racing to see how my hard training the past 2 months has paid off. This meet should be a good set up meet to trials which is just 47 days away! Racing should be very competitive here once again with lots of the top swimmers from the US, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere competing. Use the links below or check back here periodically during the meet for updates.
Olympic Trials is right around the corner. For full information about the meet, you can follow the main page for all information at http://swimtrials.ca/
Schedule:
Friday: 100 Breast, Prelims – 1:04.43, Finals – 1:05.16
Saturday: 200 Breast, Prelims: – 2:23.23, Finals – 2:25.26
Sunday: 200 IM – 2:10.47, Finals – 2:10.52
Main USA Swimming Page for all info on the Grand Prix: click here
Main Page: click here
Results: click here
2 Months until Olympic Trials!
I can’t believe it is only 2 months until the Canadian Olympic Trials in Montreal! We just came off a four week block of hard training. We spent the first two weeks in Calgary after Christmas before we left on January 7th to Hawaii for two weeks. The whole two weeks we were there, we only had one day off so it was all business there. We trained at the University of Hawaii again where the weather was absolutely beautiful compared to -40 degrees back in Calgary, it was sure a nice time to get away and focus on training.
I have been focusing a lot on breaststroke technique and have really taken my recovery and stretching to new levels during hard training times. I have had some encouraging practices so far and look forward to competing again the second weekend in February at the Missouri US Grand Prix Meet.
Below are some pictures from Hawaii Training Camp:
Photos courtesy of Rick Pelletier
US Winter Nationals
Happy December to all! I am now getting ready for my races tomorrow at the US Winter Nationals in Atlanta. We are competing at the Georgia Tech Natatorium, which is the same pool used for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. I have swam in this pool two other times. Once, in 1998, when I was 11, at my first ‘Zone Championships’ for Gulf Swimming in Texas which was a really awesome experience as a youngster swimming in the Olympic Pool just two years earlier and supplanting that Olympic dream at an early age. Then competing at this renovated pool in the spring of 2006 at the NCAA Championships as a freshmen for Stanford University where I set the fastest time ever swam by an 18 and under male in North America for the 200 yd Breast in a 1:54.41 coming in third just half a second from first!
So I have had some good experiences in this pool and plan to continue them tomorrow in the 100 lcm breaststroke. Check back here for updates after each session or use the results link below for live results. There is also a webcast for each session with links on the USAswimming website (link below).
Schedule: December 1-3
Friday – 100 Breast – 1:04.19
Saturday – 200 Breast – 2:20.64
Results: click here
Main Landing Page and live webcast: US Nationals
Canada Cup Competition
Time for some fast swimming at my fall competitions. I will be competing in the Canada Cup in Toronto this weekend and then will be heading down to Atlanta for the US Winter Nationals from December 1-3. Then our racing group will be heading down to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a week of hard Christmas training.
Recap of European Tour:
I realized I hadn’t updated my progress from last stop in Europe. Berlin was by far my best stop where I qualified 4th in both the 100 breast and 200 breast setting season bests and ended up 6th or 7th at night overall. I loved Berlin and was even able to meet up with some Stanford friends after the meet that came to watch me as well.
Best times in Berlin: (all times in SCM)
50 Breast – 27.73 (36th in the world for 2011) , (split from 100 breast)
100 Breast – 59.65 (29th in the world for 2011)
200 Breast – 2:10.03 (38th in the world for 2011)
Schedule:
Canada Cup Nov 25-27
Friday – 100 Breast, Prelims -1:01.15 scm (2nd), Finals -1:03.51 lcm (4th)
Saturday – 50 Breast, Prelims – 28.13 scm (2nd), Finals – 29.04 lcm (5th)
200 IM, Prelims – 2:01.72 scm (2nd, best time), Finals – scratch
Sunday – 200 Breast, Prelims – 2:13.18 scm (3rd), Finals – 2:23.15 lcm (7th)
Main Landing Page: www.eswim.ca
Results: click here
US Winter Nationals – Dec 1-3
Friday – 100 Breast
Saturday – 200 Breast
Landing Page: US Nationals
Results: click here
Stockholm World Cup over, onto Moscow
Stockholm World Cup comes to a close after 2 days of racing. I am now off to Moscow in the morning for a quick turnaround where we will be racing starting Tuesday. Stockholm got off to a slow start because of some sleep issues the first night because of jet lag, but finished up with my first World Cup final in the 100 breast. I will be looking to improve on all my times and places on this next stop!
Results:
50 Breast prelims: 28.33 (10th)
200 Breast prelims: 2:12. (10th)
100 Breast prelims: 1:00.58 (6th)
100 Breast finals: 1:00.56 (7th)
Swimming Canada’s news release here
Here are some pictures of an afternoon we spent in Old Town Stockholm seeing the sights.
*All pictures taken by Erica Morningstar
European Swimming World Cup Tour
I am writing to everyone from my hotel room in Stockholm, Sweden. I just arrived here this morning for the first stop of the European circuit of the FINA Swimming World Cups. I will be swimming the breaststroke events (50, 100, 200 scm) at each stop in Stockholm, Moscow, and Berlin. This will be a great chance to get some fast racing in against good international competition. It will be a lot of racing (6 times in 9 days), but will be a great start to the Olympic season getting some more international experience while representing TEAM CANADA. I will post more about Stockholm and the competition soon, but wanted to give you some general information about the competition first.
Main landing page for all updates, results, information and webcam: FINA World Cup page
Swimming Canada public release: “Canadian Swimmers kick start the Olympic season at FINA World Cups”
Competition Dates:
| 15-16 Oct. 2011 | Stockholm (SWE) |
| 18-19 Oct. 2011 | Moscow (RUS) |
| 22-23 Oct. 2011 | Berlin (GER) |
Live Webcam: Click here (You can watch the races afterwards using the player)
Prelims: 8:40 am start
Finals: 3:40 pm start (It is 8 hours ahead of Calgary (MST) in Sweden)
A special thanks to Swimming Canada, Calgary Foundation for Swimming Excellence, and SIACharts.com for helping fund my travel and competitions. It is invaluable to have support to be able to compete in these meets. -Paul
Fall Training Underway
A new season is upon us as I have started my preparation for the 2012 Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials which are March 27-April 1, 2012. I have been back in the water now for two and a half weeks and am pretty excited with my training already. This is going to be a great season where I will give everything I have to be the best I can be and leave everything in the pool!
We got to do some different cross-training the last two weeks, which I really enjoy where we went hiking/biking in Kananaskis Provincial Park. The first hike we did was called Misty Ridge Trial. It was a slow uphill climb through some brush then over a ridge, however it was absolutely freezing out and snowed on us most of the way!! I did not anticipate snow at the end of August in the mountains. The second hike was Headwall Lakes Trial. It was a wet and cold hike as well bc of all the rain/snow from the day before. Hike wasn’t too bad as I bushwhacked a lot of it until the very end when we got up to the lakes. I had a little energy coming home so I decided to do some trail running at the end.
The next week, we went on a beautiful hike, Pocaterra Ridge Trail. We started this hike in the Highway Pass, so we were already at really high altitude and then it has a really steep climb to the top of the ridge that makes the best athletes slow. The weather this day was absolutely gorgeous and you could see mountain ranges all around you. The next day, I went for a bike ride through the mountains instead of hiking to get some more cardio and leg strength training in. Below is some awesome pictures from the hike.
Also some exciting news to look forward to. I will be competing in three FINA World Cup Circuits this October over in Europe! More details will follow later, but my schedule next month will be:
| 15-16 Oct. 2011 | Stockholm (SWE) |
| 18-19 Oct. 2011 | Moscow (RUS) |
| 22-23 Oct. 2011 | Berlin (GER) |
US Nationals at Stanford University
I will complete my long course season this week at the 2011 USA Swimming National Championships here at Stanford University from August 2-6. This meet is a bit of a homecoming for me seeing how I spent 5 years at Stanford for my college years and one year after working. When I saw US Nationals was at Stanford, I knew I had to go. This will be another chance to swim fast and a great chance to see a bunch of friends in the Stanford area.
I will be representing Team Canada at the meet, but I still feel like I am representing Stanford at this pool. Since this meet is a selection meet for the US team for Pan American Games, they are not allowing foreigners (those whose sport nationality is for another country and thus cannot represent the US internationally) to swim in their finals. So, I will just be competing in the morning preliminary heats. I will be swimming some relays for Team Canada in the finals Tuesday and Saturday night.
Schedule:
Tuesday: 100 breast (1:03.46), 400 free relay (3:24.44)
Thursday: 100 breast time trial
Saturday: 200 breast, 400 medley relay
Prelims begin at 9 am PT, Finals at 6 pm PT
Live Results: http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/LC%20Nationals/2011/
Tickets: click here
US Nationals coverage and webcast: click here
Canadian Summer Swimming Nationals underway
The 2011 Canadian Summer Swimming Nationals are underway here in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. This meet will be a qualifying meet for the Nations Cup (Tri-Meet with France vs. Brazil vs. Canada) and the Pan-American Games. Nationals also has some National B teams from Mexico, Denmark, France, and Brazil competing this weekend that will up the level of competition.
My schedule of events:
Thursday – 200 Free (result – 1:54.67, 26th overall, best time)
Friday – 100 Breast (result – 1:03.16, 6th overall), 4×200 fr relay (1:53.09 split, total 7:34.08, 3rd overall)
Saturday – 50 Breast (result – 29.10, 7th overall), 4×100 free relay (51.59 split, total 3:26.05, 2nd overall)
Sunday – 200 Breast (result – 2:18.03, 5th overall), 4×100 medley relay (1:03.7 split, 5th overall)
Live results can be found here:
Don’t forget to check out the live webcast of finals tomorrow night at http://swimcanweb.tv/
“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”
~Abraham Lincoln~
Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions
The Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions (SMOC for short) was a lot of fun. The first day I swam the 100 free in a 53.6 in the morning and swam on a UCSC relay at night which took fourth splitting a 53.3. On Saturday, I swam the 200 breast making the A finals and finishing sixth in a 2:21.5. The last day I swam the 100 breast finishing tenth in a 1:04.9. The breaststrokes were a little slower than I wanted, but I am working a lot on technique and hopefully the changes will show up soon.
The weekend I got to stay with some former Stanford teammates with Patrick Simpkins and current Stanford senior Michael Zoldos. It was also great to catch up with them, John Criste, Chad La Tourette, and the Zaich’s at a great dinner Saturday night and throughout the meet.
Find full results link here:
I will be training for the next week in San Diego on the Coronado Island with my racing group from UCSC. It is a beautiful spot in sunny California. I love training outside and will look to get some good work in this week before we start tapering and focusing on more speed work.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter @pkornfeld for more real-time info and random tid-bits.
“Accept the challenges, so you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
~George S. Patton~
Hawaii Recap and looking forward to Summer Racing
Here are some photos from the Hawaii Training camp:
All images are courtesy of Rick Pelletier. Check out all his pictures at Rick Pelletier’s Flickr here.
Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. I have taken some time updating my website so feel free to check out the other page links above too. More updates will follow as I get some more time this summer too. I was in Hawaii again for a training camp for a couple of weeks in May where we did some heavy training.
It was great to swim outdoors again in the sunshine. I really enjoyed being able to get away and fully concentrate on swimming again with my team. We did some really heavy training and did the most meters in a week that I have ever done going around 90 km in one week and totaling around 155,000 meters overall. This included some long three-hour 10,000 meter practices. It was really important during this time to recover in between practices as much as possible so you were ready for the next practice. My freestyle got a lot better during the camp and the results showed at a meet the week after where I went a best time in the 100 free in 53.40 seconds. Hopefully building this solid training base during May will lead to great things this summer in July!
I will be heading down to Mission Viejo, California for the Meet of Champions where I will be competing from June 24-26. This will be my big test of the summer, so I am getting prepared to swim fast before summer nationals.
World Trials Recap
The Canadian World Trials didn’t go as well as I had hoped and planned. I did not qualify for the World Championship team this summer and will set my sights on other goals this summer to set me up for a position to make the Olympic team next year. I will still have a chance to qualify for the Pan American games this summer at the Summer Nationals for Canada.
I finished fourth in the 200 breast in a 2:15.27 after going out well but struggling the last 50. I finished fifth in the 100 breast in a 1:02.62 turning in a 29.12. I scratched the 50 breast and 200 IM to focus on a 100 breast time trial on the last day, but that didn’t go as well as I had hoped either. I know I can go much faster so I will be working hard to get my times back to where I know they can be.
I will be taking some time off before restarting my training again. It is always good to take a physical and mental break after a long hard season to refocus and get motivated for the next season. Thanks for all your support, thoughts, and prayers during the meet. I will keep you updated on my travels and training as much as I can.
-Paul
Results and Webcast
Results can be found here: https://swimming.ca/liveresults/11worldtrials/index.html
Webcast can be found here of finals starting at 5:45 pm PT: http://swimcanweb.tv/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2&lang=en
Now off to the pool for the 200 Breast!!
2011 Swimming World Championship Trials
The Canadian Spring Nationals are finally here! I am currently in Victoria getting ready for the big meet of the spring that will feature Canada’s best try compete for a chance to represent Canada this summer at the 2011 FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China. Some breaststrokers from Cal swimming will be coming up to swim against us also to get their FINA standards to qualify for their countries including Sean Mahoney, Damir Dugonjic, Martti Aljand, and Martin Liivamagi. Qualifying is pretty simple. If you win an event you qualify, if you get 2nd and are under the FINA ‘A’ standard, you will also make the team.
Competition will run from Wednesday, March 30th to Saturday, April 2nd at the Saannich Commonwealth Place. Preliminary sessions start at 10am, and Finals start at 6pm. I will be swimming all the breaststroke events and 200 IM. Here is my schedule below:
Wednesday: 200 Breast
Thursday: 100 Breast
Friday: 50 Breast
Saturday: 200 IM, 400 Medley Relay
I will update this post when I find a better results link, but Swimming Canada’s event page with all the information can be found here:
CBC coverage will air on Saturday, April 2nd from 4 to 6pm and Saturday April 9th 12-1pm EST. In addition to their television broadcast, CBC will partner with Swimming Canada in providing a live web stream of finals on their website at http://www.cbc.ca
CIS Stroke Camp
I love working with kids and especially being able to give back some of my knowledge and passion about swimming back to them. Definitely one of the benefits of being a professional athlete is having young swimmers look up to you and the opportunity to inspire, encourage, teach, and motivate them to be better swimmers and better people.
During the CIS weekend in late February, I was involved in a stroke camp for young kids aged 10-14. We had a great turnout of about 100 kids from all across Alberta, but mainly from swimmers in the Calgary area. We ran the stroke camp on a Saturday afternoon right before the last night of finals of the CIS Championships of University Swimming where the Dinos brought home the team title in both the men and women’s divisions.
We split up into four groups where a local coach was paired with an elite swimmer to demonstrate. The four stations were breaststroke turns, backstroke starts, back to breast turns, and underwater push-offs. I was in the underwater push-off/ kick off the wall station with 3-time Olympian, silver medalist, and now coach Tom Ponting and worked with Lindsay Delmar who is a swimmer on the Racing Group with me at UCSC that I train with who is one of the top 200 free and 200 flyers in the country.
The pictures below show a little glimpse of the event. The feedback we got from the parents was really encouraging to hear afterwards as well. It is always an honor for little kids to look up to you and it is something I always love to be apart of. Hopefully some of the kids will have better streamlines and underwater kicks off the wall, but also that they will be encouraged to have fun in swimming and pursue their dreams too. I often look back at my swimming career and think about certain athletes along the way who helped inspire me to be the swimmer I am today.
-
- Tom Ponting discusses push offs
(Photos by Rick Pelletier)
Indy Recap and start of taper
Sorry for the delay in this post, but I did want to provide a quick recap on my meet in Indianapolis as I head into Championship season. I swam about the same times in the breaststrokes as I did in Missouri swimming a 1:04.04 (out in 29.97) in the 100 breast and a 2:19.77 in the 200 breast. The big improvement I did see was in my 200 IM where I swam a 2:10.01 in prelims and an in-season best for me of 2:08.67 in the finals. All of these times were encouraging for me as I raced well at night and will transfer into good results come Canadian Spring Nationals in two and a half weeks.
So what do I mean by taper? Taper is a swimming term referring to “the reduction of workload during a period immediately prior to a major competition” or what I call the best part of swim training where practices become shorter, more speed focused, and more fun. Taper is more than just a reduction of meters in the pool though, it just as important time of mental preparation to get ready to swim fast through visualization. Typically during taper time, swimmers may appear very lazy and try to do as little physical activity as possible, but since swimming is a truly full body sport, it is very important to cut back on all physical activity, especially to rest your legs, so that your body is as full of energy as possible come race day. I know this is a lot of swimming jargon, but for me constitutes the most important part of the year as I prepare for the Canadian World Championship Trials in Victoria this March 31-April 3. Time to swim fast is quickly approaching!
Indianapolis Grand Prix
I am in getting ready for my last preparation swim meet before Canadian trials March 31 in Victoria. I am currently in Indianapolis getting ready for the Grand Prix meet starting tomorrow. I will be swimming the same events as two weeks ago in Missouri starting with the 100 Breast tomorrow, 200 Br on Friday, and 200 IM on Saturday. I might also be apart of some Swimming Canada relays.
Main website for the meet can be found here with includes a live webcast of both prelims and finals. The competition will be broadcast on Universal Sports on Thursday, March 3, from 3-5 p.m. PT and on Friday, March 4 from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. PT.
The competition should be really fast again which includes most of the same people I was racing at Missouri and adding in 4-time Olympic gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima. I will also be taking on Phelps, Lochte, Rogan, Mellouli, Shanteau, etc. in the 200 IM. The Indy pool is home to the US Olympic Trials from 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, as well as many other major events, diving Olympic trials, and synchronized swimming Olympic trials. My team, UCSC, has 10 swimmers entered in the meet, so should be a lot of fun this weekend racing and cheering them on. I will update a couple of times during the meet if I can.
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
Missouri Recap – 4th in 200 BR
I was overall pretty happy with how the meet went in Missouri this past weekend. Saturday night, I swam both the 100 and 200 Breast in the A finals and was on my goal times for both. I finished up with an eighth place finish in the 100 going 1:03.93 (out in 29.93) which is one of my fastest in-season times. I finished off the night with a fourth place finish in the 200 breast in a 2:19.45 taking it out much faster like I promised in a 31.34 and 1:07.33 at the 100. Both of these times were encouraging for me and rank me in the top 25 in the world early on in the 2011 season where I hope to stay in those rankings.
Sunday, I got to swim the 200 IM in an A final after some scratches which rarely happens for me anymore since I have focused on breaststroke mainly after college. But I swam to a seventh place finish in a 2:10.19 which was alright for me too. I will look to improve on these performances at the next Grand Prix meet in Indianapolis on March 3-5. So stay tuned for more updates concerning this as it approaches.
Shout-outs:
No. 2 Stanford men’s swimming completes perfect dual meet season with upset win over No. 1 Cal
Video of the 400 free relay that decided the meet won by Stanford by .08!
Calgary hosts the CIS Championships this weekend at the University of Calgary. Live results here
Paul Kornfeld 