The Real Hipster Olympics

On my various swim teams, I was always the weird hippie music chick.  Which is funny, because to many music friends, I'm a midwestern athlete chick.  It's all about perspective.  Swimming, like any sport that breeds young champions, takes an incredibly focused lifestyle.  Elite winners have to train upwards of 20 - 30 hours a week, both in and out of the pool.  It's a full time job that is often supplemented by a strong family tradition and teammates, for better or worse, being your classmates, training partners, and social circle.  I loved the social aspect, but it's easy to grow tired of swimming culture; even for an uber swim geek like me.

Luckily, I had a few teammates who also had fantastic taste in music along with interests well within Wizzle World.  Sarah Reddick, Heather Greidanus, Katie Schmaling, and Rachel Brown are leading examples.  Rachel has a new last name now, but we'll keep it Brown for nostalgia.  Btw, nice Badly Drawn Boy song on your website, Heather!

Therefore, it's refreshing to hear Amanda Beard reveal her jamband roots a little over the halfway point in this video clip. (I don't know how to imbed a buried flash link, but I'm sure there's a way). In addition to owning a dog named Jerry, Amanda listened to The Dead to pump herself up before races. That's insane. I used to listen to "March of The Pigs." However, in retrospect, it makes sense to calm one's nerves. Hippieism is not new to the world of swimming whatsoever, as Gary Hall Jr. proved twice.  

When I was a kid, I always wanted to manage one of the Olympic swimmers.  I felt it was unfortunate that their years of work really only paid off from a media perspective for two weeks preceding and following the Olympics.  I also thought that the swimmers' media personalities were never marketed correctly. Not that I wanted to create the Menudo of swimming or anything, but I felt their was potential for 1-2 top swimmers to extend their media career shelf-life. I'm sure to EW circa 1996-2000, that meant an presenting an award at the MTV VMA's alongside Ben Stiller or something. But, it's 2008 and we live in the future.  The Speedo LZR suit and the machine that keeps Dara Torres' incredible 41-year-old body in tune are two prime examples.  Sponsorships allow swimmers to keep at it years past college and turn the sport into a career.  Swimmers aren't cool yet, but I like that Amanda Beard has entered her post-jam phase with indie-influenced photos taken by her photographer boyfriend on her hip-leaning website. Natalie Coughlin is the other swimmer I think has additional extended cool potential, though I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's her Bay-area roots, love of Macs,and slight resemblance to Natalie Portman (I've always thought they've had a similar vibe, but it's probably just due to sharing a first name).

Anyway, all of these thoughts especially cross my mind every four years during the swimming Olympic trials and swimming portion of the games.  Most people don't fully understand how INSANE the American swimming Olympic trials are.  The Olympic games are of course a huge deal, but it's really like the payoff for years of training and getting through an incredibly stressful meet.  Only the top 2 athletes in each event (sans the 100 and 200 free for relay purposes) qualify.  In a sport that separates world record holders from national class youngsters by hundredths of a second, that is nuts. One can be undefeated and the fastest swimmer of all time, but if you have an off day, years of training are often washed away in an event that only occurs every four years. And most of the races are under two minutes long.  Thousands of hours in a pool, for a a few minutes every four years.  I get nervous for the swimmers watching the trials!

I came close to making the 2004 trials, but at that point was quickly getting distracted by rock n roll.  No regrets, well worth it.

But watch NBC @ 8 PM on the 4th of July. Dara Torres is pretty incredible, whether one knows anything about swimming or not. I do not have TV service, though I do have a TV used to view digitized films, music, internet streams, and other media run through a Mac. Thus, I've enjoyed squatting TV coverage at work, my building's gym, and a sportsbar down the street this past week.  By the 2012 London games, I'm sure everything will be streamed live online.  It drives me crazy whenever there is a rare (usually live sporting) event I want to watch.  I would have no problem paying $5 to stream a live Packer playoff game (did I just admit that?), commercials included.  My fantasy is to have internet ratings combined with TV ratings, so networks don't lose their ad revenue.  aka then I can watch swimming anywhere I want.  NBC is streaming some coverage, but one must have network TV and broadband internet to see the whole trials.  Maybe I'll just have to go to London in 2012 instead.

Btw, if Mark Johnson has an in to the infamous raging party post-Olympics that sounds wilder than any tour rager I've ever witnessed, I want to go!

xo