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.
ENTRY TWO
August 4, 2007
Everything in Singapore is still going great! We are getting used to the heat and humidity (there's even more humidity than my native Atlanta!) so it is feeling even more comfortable the longer we are here.
We found some places to go shopping. You can find pretty much anything you want if you know where to look. One of the coaches has a friend who is from Singapore, and she sent a three-page long explanation of the shopping that can be done! I went out to a small open-air market a few days ago. We saw lots of silk shops that would make custom clothes for you. They had some beautiful fabric. I bought a pink silk pillow cover with some intricate designs on it.
One of the most fun things we've done so far is go to the zoo. Apparently it is one of the best in the world. We went in the evening/night to go on the Night Safari. We rode on a tram with a guide who pointed out all the animals. We saw some endangered species of Asian deer that were very petite and cute and that were roaming free in the beginning parts of the exhibit. We also saw some lions and tigers and sloth-bears! There were huge rhinos that were standing really close to the edge of their pens so we saw them pretty close up. We took a break from the tram half-way through and went down a walking path where the big attraction was a pair of leopards. They also had a large bat pen that you walked through several doors to get into (they were cleverly designed so the one ahead of you only opened when the one behind you was closed). There were bats hanging from trees just feet from the walking path. They were about a foot or foot-and-a-half long just hanging and had a 3-to-4 foot wingspan when they flew! Pretty impressive. We got back on the tram for the rest of the safari and saw giraffes, hippos and elephants (there was a huge male with giant tusks!). We even went by some huge black and white tapirs that were within feet of the tram!
The man who does our lactate testing, Genadijius, who goes by G, joked that he wanted to quit his job with USA Swimming and work for the zoo to do lactate testing on the cheetahs to help them catch their prey faster. When he walked by a sloth exhibit, he said, "Lot's of slow twitch muscle. No lactate. I don't even need to pull my equipment out."
We don't have too much time left here. It's already Saturday, and we leave for Bangkok on Monday. But we'll be doing our best to enjoy the time we have left here!
ENTRY THREE
August 5, 2007
 Several monkeys, including this little guy, came out to watch Team USA work out at the pool in Singapore.  |
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One of the most exciting things to happen was that the monkeys came to the pool! There were four of them that hopped along the roof of the buildings surrounding the pool and stared down at us. Sometimes they'd stand up on the big lights mounted to the roof and bounce them back and forth. Supposedly they were just trying to get food, but I bet they just wanted to say goodbye to us (it was our last day there). One of them got a PowerBar (someone probably gave it to him because I didn't see any of them getting that close to our stuff). Then as we were waiting for the bus, some of the monkeys were getting really brave and hopping down into the trees closer to us. They could be kind of sneaky, because suddenly they were within feet of us! I was getting a little nervous about a monkey attack! Luckily we went down the stairs to the bus, so we avoided any closer encounters.
We leave today for Bangkok and am really excited for the meet to get started. I'll write again from Thailand!
ENTRY FOUR
August 8, 2007
We arrived in Bangkok a few days ago and have been settling into the athlete village. We are being housed in the dorms at Thammasat University. The dorms are suites with two small bedrooms connected to a common room. Although there's no TV and internet is limited, we are having fun hanging out with each other and exploring the athlete village.
The venues for the events are all nearby. The pool is about a kilometer away. One of the challenges thus far has been catching the trolley to and from the pool. We are staying flexible with everything and learning to leave extra early to get places!
The pool is very nice. There are two 10-lane 50 meter pools, one for competition and one for warm-up. There is also a large diving well. We're all looking forward to starting the meet tomorrow!
Yesterday was the flag raising ceremony. In front of the stadium is a large display with dragon statues. There is also a large expanse with flags from all the participating countries. The mayor of the village gave a speech, and the anthem of the games was played. Then the U.S. flag was raised to join the others.
For now, I am relaxing in the rooms with my teammates. Hopefully I'll be writing again soon with good news on the meet!