Update!

Okay, so I’ve already fallen behind in updating my blog every other day... I have reasons I swear!


So first off, I wrote this on a plane on my way to California with Mariya to do an exhibition during the Walnut Creek Aquanuts Night of Champions! (And I'm not posting it till the next day because I just got internet :D) This leads me to last week. I was asked to give a schedule of what our travel plans are leading up until the games. While nothing is ever set in stone, here’s what I know:

On June 5-7, some of my teammates, Mariya and I were all at a Press Event in New York for USASynchro’s sponsor Infusium23! This was a crazy 2 days of meeting press, swimming some of our routines, and actually becoming coaches ourselves when some of the Press got in the water with us to try out our sport! Not as easy as it look hmm? J
Now like I said, Mariya and I are on our way to California for the Aquanuts Night of Champions! We have a few days here to train and then our Exhibition, and then we’ll be taking a red-eye flight back to Indy! I plan on sleeping all day Sunday haha!
Almost immediately after, the two of us and our coach Mayu Fujiki will be on an international plane flight to Spain for a competition! We’ll spend a good amount of time in Europe, as after the competition we have a few days training at the Spanish Olympic Training Center in order to prepare for another competition the next weekend in Switzerland. How exciting is that? Wish us luck!
We’ll make our way back to the states after that, and (as far as I know RIGHT now) we’ll continue training in Indianapolis until USA Olympic Team Processing in London a few days before the Opening Ceremonies.


Another thing I was asked to write about was who my idols were growing up.
I’ve grown up with a lot of idols, because there are so many people who have helped me immensely in my journey! But why not, I’ll give it a shot.
Anna Kozlova, Bronze Duet and Team medalist in the 2004 Athens Games, was always an idol of mine. Growing up I actually used to look at some of her routines when I was choreographing my solos, it was an amazing experience to later be coached by her at the Santa Clara Aquamaids!
Carrie Barton was someone I longed to follow in the footsteps of. She originally swam for my first Synchronized Swimming team, The Pirouettes of Texas, and moved to the Santa Clara Aquamaids to swim under now 3 time Olympic Head Coach Chris Carver (who after I moved to California, I got the pleasure of swimming for her as well!) and became an Olympian!
Victoria Bowen to this day is still one of the best spinners I know. (For those of you non-synchro jargon readers, that’s where the athlete is upside down with both legs in the air, spinning as fast a possible) Remember! We don’t touch the bottom! She taught me how to spin the way she did, and I actually ended up winning Age Group Nationals that year in my Solo.

So as you can tell, I have many people who I would consider an “Idol” and I’m sending a shout out to everyone who’s ever helped me along the way to where I am today! Also, I promise I’ll be better about the updates.  Again, if anyone has ANY questions let me know! I’ll answer them in the next blog post.

I found a quote in my corrections note book that really has hit home for me recently and I wanted to share it with everyone:
“For myself, losing is not coming in second. It’s getting out of the water and knowing you could have done better. For me, I’ve won every race I’ve been in.”
                                                                                                    --Ian Thorpe

I hope after our swim in London I can look at that and smile. Because it was my best and you can’t do any better than that. Remember to do your best all the time, work your hardest, and your goals CAN be reached! Can’t believe we’re only 6 weeks away from the Olympic Games…

Don’t forget to Like me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter!

--Mary