Aug. 3, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Four Wildcats are part of the USA Swimming contingent set to compete August 8-14 at the 2007 World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand. Northwestern head coaches Bob Groseth and Jimmy Tierney are mentoring the squad, while senior Andrea Hupman and 2007 graduate Matt Grevers will be in the pool for the Red, White and Blue.
The team flew to Singapore on Sunday, July 29, to begin training for the meet. They then will hop over to Bangkok on August 6 for the competition. Both Grevers and Hupman will swim in the 100 free and 4x100 relay events for Team USA.
The Wildcats' men's team also has two other representatives at the Games, with 2007 graduate Mike Alexandrov swimming for his native Bulgaria and senior Bruno Barbic competition for his native Croatia.
Hupman will be keeping an online journal of the experience for NUsports.com right here on this page, so continue to check back for updates from the WUG!
ENTRY ONE
August 2, 2007
My time in Singapore has been going great so far! It started out with a long plane ride. We had layovers in L.A. and Tokyo and over 20 hours of in-air time. Luckily, I had a soft pillow and Harry Potter to keep me company -- not to mention lots of teammates. So everything went pretty well.
The hotel and training facilities here are amazing! President Clinton even stayed at this hotel once as documented by a picture of him with the tailor in the window of one of the clothing stores on the first floor. The rugs in the elevators have the day of the week on them and get changed every night at midnight. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the hotel is the breakfast buffet with every imaginable kind of food. They also have foods I wouldn't have been able to imagine like little rolls with shrimp in them.
The training pool is at the top of a hill at a country club and overlooks a golf course and mountains with a jungle. There are two training pools, one long course and one short course, and also a small wading pool with a little waterfall into it. One of our favorite pastimes as we drive home from the pool is looking for monkeys that we sometimes see sitting in small groups on the side of the road. We've even heard stories that the monkeys are a problem for the country club because they steal cell phones and wallets out of the golf carts while people are out playing.
One of the highlights since being here was a visit by the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, Patricia Herbold. We had a tea and reception with her. She gave a speech to let our team know that the U.S. Embassy was cheering for us in the competition. We are definitely enjoying our good fortune in everything here, all the more so because we know the accommodations in Bangkok will not be as luxurious.