We arrive at the pool on Friday at 7 am, yes right when the pool opened to spectators.....and let me tell you, it was WORTH it! 2 full hours of staring at quite possibly the most in shape bodies I have ever seen in my LIFE! I mean you haven't seen in shape until you see a swimmer! It's like 0% fat, 100% muscle! We were shown to our seats in GOLD MEDAL SEATING, and could hardly believe that we got FRONT ROW directly behind block 6! After were were seated, the head of hospitality for the meet, Chip, comes over and introduces himself to us. He then proceeded to tell us where all the Olympic family members were going to be sitting. Phelps family right next to us and the Jones and Lochte families directly behind us. SERIOUSLY?!?! How did we get so lucky??? That in itself was enough to keep me happy for the whole meet, but what unfolded in the following hours and days, HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!!! At times, I felt like I was going to pass out! It was THAT intense!
We first spotted Ryan Lochte warming up in the lane directly infront of us, and then BAM! Michael Phelps had been spotted, walking along the pool deck to the warm down pool, more like gliding......can I just say pictures of these boys don't do them JUSTICE! After an hour or so it was time for prelims to get underway! We are watching the prelim heats and I happen to look to my left and HELLO Michael Phelps sitting 5 feet away from us! 2 mins later here comes Garrett Weber-Gale, Ryan Lochte and Cullen Jones and they all sit down right next to Michael.....4 world class swimmers 5 feet away from us....do you see what I mean by INTENSE now? Garrett left soon after to swim in his heat, so it was just Ryan, Cullen and Michael..... Michael and Ryan were waiting to swim in their heats for the 100 fly and Cullen was waiting (more like PRAYING) that someone would knock him out so he wouldn't have to swim in finals. Pretty soon Matt Grevers walks by and Cullen is yells at him "Knock me out!" Then there was some trash talking between all of them........it was AWESOME seeing how they all really are!
Towards the end of prelims, we went over to the general admission seating see our friend Robin who had brought her 2 children to the meet. We chat for a little while and then all the sudden we see Michael Phelps walking out of the warm down pool area. He's walking towards us and I said "Michael, can I get a picture with you?" He smiled and said "Sure!" Ummmm what??? I was NOT expecting him to actually stop! So I got my pic with him and then Robins son, Timo (who happens to be the BIGGEST GWG fan EVER, and was wearing a Texas Longhorns shirt) wanted his book signed, so Michael leaned down to sign it and saw Timo's shirt and said "We gotta get you a better shirt for tomorrow" HAHAHA! After Michael left, I spotted Matt Grevers (one of my FAVES!) and I was like "Matt, can I get a pic with you?" His response, a huge smile and an enthusiastic "Sure!" Soon after Matt walked away, I saw Natalie Coughlin, she was clearly in a rush but I asked for a picture, and she said yes! That's why I LOVE the sport of swimming, swimmers are NEVER to busy or bigheaded to stop for their fans! Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the pool for finals. We sit down in our seats and watch warm ups. The Gold Medal section started filling up with people, it was ALOT more crowded than prelims! A lady sits down right next to me and I though maybe she was just there watching or was a sponsor or something. Nope, I was wrong........ it was Mrs. Shanteau! Yes, Eric Shanteaus mom! Can I just say how cool that was!!! It was time for finals to start and we were ready for some fast racing!
Saturday, in turns of interacting with swimmers, was pretty BLAH. Yes MP sat in Gold Medal seating before his prelim heats, at this point I was like "Cool, Michael Phelps" He's just another person, like everybody else, this is why I don't freak out. LOL Mark Gangloffs wife, Ashley, came and sat by right by us for prelims, and yes she had the baby! We talked a little bit and she was very nice, and their baby is SO SO CUTE! It's really cool how down to earth all these swim families are! So prelims finished and we were heading out to the car to head back to the hotel and we saw Mark Gangloff, his wife and baby (ADORABLE!) standing outside. We made our way over and got pictures with him (I looked at mine when we got to the hotel, and started dying of laughter.....Marks eyes were closed!) A few hours later, we made our way back to the pool ready for a night of some intense racing, mainly the Mens 100 back. It was STACKED! Michael Phelps, Nick Thoman, Matt Grevers and Aaron Peirsol all made it into the A final......I didn't know who to cheer for! The race started and it was pretty clear from the start the it was gonna be a REALLY close race! Everybody was standing up to get a better view, Nick started pulling ahead and I was going crazy!!!! They got closer and closer and then......NICK TOUCHED THE WALL FIRST!!!! Everybody screamed and WOW never been in a louder building in my life! It was CRAZY! In the excitement of realizing that he'd won, Nick somehow managed to lose his goggles LOL!
Sunday, ohhhhhh Sunday! Sunday May 16th 2010, more like EPIC May 16th 2010. We got to the pool bright and early to make the most of the last day. NGL I was a little depressed when we got there and saw that there was barely any swimmers warming up, alot of them had left already so I was like well, I'm just gonna make the most of it. Little did I know that this day was about to be the most EPIC day of my life! While we had been sitting by Erics mom all weekend, we hadn't gotten the chance to get a picture with him. I saw him walking across the pool deck with Jack Roach and I really wanted a pic with him, so we got up and as he was walking by I asked if we could get pictures, he said of course. So I stood next to him and his put his around me back/shoulder......Nikki was having some trouble getting her camera out, but he just stood there and left his arm on my shoulder for like a minute! This was pretty cool that he felt comfortable enough to stand there for that long. Anyways, I got my picture with him and wished him good luck, then we went back to our seats. A little while later, Debbie Phelps made her way in and sat in the back row, pretty soon after a little boy came and joined her. I realized almost instantly that it was Connor Bourke! A little way through prelims, we saw Aaron Peirsol had stopped to sign autographs, we made our way over since I wanted a picture with him. He of course said yes. He is seriously the most RELAXED person I have ever met! After I got my picture with him, we head back to our seats and I see Garrett Weber-Gale sitting there waiting for his heat. Up until this point, I hadn't really had a chance to talk to him. So I said "Hey Garrett!" He looked up and smiled and was like "How are you?" Then me being the dummy I am, was like "Do you know who I am?" he said "Yeah! You're Kaitlin" So while it was pretty cool that he remembered me, I felt like such an idiot! LOL My nerves got the best of me I guess! HAHAHA We went back to our seats and watched more of prelims. After a little while, we went over to see Robin and her kids again. When we got over there, her son Timo was waiting to give Garrett the letter he wrote. SWEETEST thing ever! Timo gave Garrett the letter, and Garrett got a huge smile on his face! You could tell he loved the letter! After Garrett left, I saw Matt Grevers so I stopped him and got an autograph, and of course I couldn't say no to another picture! Mark Gangloff was also standing there with his wife so I said "Mark, can I get a picture with you? I got one yesterday but your eyes were closed" He laughed and said "Sure" then when Nikki took the picture, Mark said "My eyes are open this time, right?" HAHAHA
We were heading back to the car when we saw that Cullen Jones was at the Make A Splash table signing autographs and taking pictures. So of course we stopped. But there was a line so we decided to go over to get pictures with Ricky Berens and Rebecca Soni who were standing in the parking lot signing for other people. Ricky saw my shirt (it was a Texas Longhorns shirt) laughed and said "I like your shirt!" Then I got a pic with Rebecca. We made our way back over to Cullens table and got pictures with him, then we headed back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel and we really didn't feel like going anywhere to get lunch, so we decided to eat in the lobby. This ended up being a REALLY good choice! The lady who was working was HILARIOUS! She asked us what we were in Charlotte for, and we told her the swim meet. She was like "Ooooo did you see Michael Phelps?" She LOVED MP! So Nikki went to get her camera to show her pictures, the first thing out of her mouth "OH MICHAEL! MY BABY BOY!!!" We DIED laughing!!!!
So we decided that we wanted to be at the pool right when it opened at 5......I didn't want to waste any of the remaining time that we had! We sit down in our seats and about 30 mins later, Michael Phelps goes walking by........and then the song "I gotta feelin" came on! It hadn't been on ALL meet and this song was the theme song in Indy. We were like "SIGN!!!!!!" A couple minutes later Debbie Phelps walks by us to sit down......the song came on AGAIN!!!! A little while after that, Garrett tweeted the picture that Timo had given him earlier in the day, and we wanted to tell Robin that he tweeted, so we got up and went over to see her. When we got back to our seats, in was getting pretty crowded. So we decided to spread out since there was empty seats between us and DP. Nikki moved over to a seat in between DP and I, leaving one chair in between them. A little while later, "I gotta feelin" came on yet again! We knew something EPIC was about to go down!
Finals get started and pretty soon it's time for Michael to race. It was pretty crazy sitting next to DP during his race! She really gets into it, which wasn't that surprising seeing as she is probably her sons biggest fan! During the race, I was secretly cheering for Eric to win! Michael won and Eric got 2nd. We were watching the womens races when I notice that there is a swimmer standing right behind us. I thought maybe it was Ricky Berens since his family was sitting right there too. But then I realized that this person was talking to Cullen Jones' mom, so it didn't make sense that it was Ricky. Almost as soon as I turned around to watch the race, this person climbs over the chair, almost falling in the process, and sits down right in between DP and us......it finally hit me who it was. It also was a BIG clue how every single camera in general admission was pointing towards us LOL! Yes, Michael Phelps had just sat down RIGHT NEXT TO US! I was like "Cool", Nikki meanwhile is FREAKING OUT! LOL It's time for the mens 200 back A final. Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers, Aaron Peirsol and Nick Thoman are all walking out to the blocks to race and as Ryan walks by, Michael lets out a loud "JEAH!" Ryan looked behind him and couldn't figure out who it was, Michael said "JEAH!" again and Ryan still couldnt figure it out that Michael was right there! I don't think Ryan expected Michael to be in Gold Medal seating! hahaha Michael then said "Lets go dawg!" and Ryan finally figured it out LOL! Michael sat through the race then got up to head back to the warm down pool. He stepped on my toes on the way out, but I'm cool with that! He walked into me on the way out in Indy and stepped on my toes in Charlotte HAHAHA Pretty soon after there was a MOB of people and Michael stopped and signed for EVERY SINGLE PERSON. It was awesome to see! We stuck around after finals because we hadn't gotten Ryan yet. We see him coming out of the warm down pool and Nikki grabs him and gets a pic, he then left to go get his award and when he came back was MOBBED by people. I stood behind him for like 5 mins and was like WHATEVER so we went to get GWG and got talk to him for a little while and get pictures with him. He thought we were CRAZY driving 14 hours! LOL On our way back over to Ryan, Matt Grevers walked right by us and was like "Oh I already got you" HAHAHA I was like uhhhh you remember me? LOL! I finally got Ryans autograph and we weren't quite ready to leave so we headed over to see Robin and her kids. Her son Timo wanted to go down and see Garrett. So Timo and I headed down and as we are walking down the stairs Timo yells "Garrett Weber-Gale, I know you!" It was SO cute! Timo then said "This is my friend Kaitlin" Garrett said, "Yeah I know Kaitlin!" By this point Nikki and Robin had come down and we all talked with Garrett for a little while and then Garrett taught Timo how to do the Hook 'Em Horns.........it was SO PRESH! We all said bye to Garrett then headed out.
One of the best weekends of my life had come to a close. It was pretty bittersweet leaving. I wished that it could've lasted longer, but the memories that were made will last me a lifetime!
Still so jealous! wish I could've been there
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