On Monday, I wrote a "back to work after swimming camp" blog post. I didn't quite say here, although I did say to various people "Oh well, back to swimming with the hoi polloi of Oxford after hobnobbing with Olympians such as Hannah Miley in Tenerife"*.
How Wrong I was.
On Monday, I was impressed by a girl doing poolside warm ups when I was completing my swim. When I saw her start swinging her arms, I wondered if she'd been on a Swim for Tri course and learnt the same routine as me. However, it wasn't, and quickly proved much more extensive with star jumps and use of therabands. I wasn't around to see her swim. On Tuesday I was back, and I was a bit later/she was a bit earlier, and after the same, extensive warm up, she was in the pool. WOW. Lapping everyone in the fast lane about every 4-6 lengths, swimming breastroke with just 4 strokes to get to the other end... I was still impressed but thought nothing of it until one of my friends said "so, what did you think of the silver medallist?". A silver medallist? Well, yes, it turned out that the seriously amazing swimmer was Aliaksendra Herasimenia! She won silver in the 50m FC and 100m FC at London 2012!! WOW!
No idea what she is doing in Oxford, and quite why she is swimming at Ferry Pool (rather than the Rosenblatt or somewhere a bit nicer or with a club setup), and I have been too shy to speak to her, but let's just say that swimming this week has been less about the swimming and more about the delight of being in the same pool as a double Olympic silver medallist and watching her amazing style. Wow!
* not that I sadly *did* get to Hobnob with Hannah but I was swimming in the same pool as her at the same time.
Wow, so cool! There's a guy at my pool who always wears a swim cap with an American flag, which makes me think he's an Olympian of some sort, too.
ReplyDeleteThat is really exciting, how fortunate you are to live in such a place!
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