Preparing to Summit Mt. Everest 7/20/12

Our journey to London was pretty smooth.  Most of the team was upgraded to business class on the flight out which was great for them. Unfortunately, the coaches were still stuck back in economy, but the reality is that I am glad the players had that opportunity.  Regardless, the nine and a half hours went by very fast.  In fact, I think I slept the entire way - waking up with just forty-five minutes left before landing at Heathrow.  After being processed and getting our credentials at the airport we loaded a bus for what was suppose to be an hour and a half ride to the Olympic Village. Apparently, there was some type of taxi strike and they formed a blockade downtown.  Traffic did not move for quite a while and it took us just over three hours to get to the Village. On a positive note we had good views of Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace and the London eye (a giant ferris wheel) as we made our way through town.  All the guys stayed in good spirits throughout.  When we finally arrived at the Village it was beautiful - set in a park-like setting with lots of trees and green grass.  Now if they can just get the weather to cooperate.  London has had lots of rain and more is predicted.  As we walked towards our new home in a cold light rain, one of the guys commented “is this the Winter Olympics?” 

The apartments are very nice and Team USA is situated in a very strategic location which is close to the dining hall and the transportation center.  We ate dinner in the dining hall (food was good) and then explored the Village for a bit.  It is very nice but seems empty.  We are here very early and the Village is probably at about 10% of its capacity. Finally, at about 8 pm we had the chance to go to one of the training pools (Eaton Manor) and get in the water.  Nothing better than a good swim to clear your head and shake off some of the effects of jet lag.  After swimming for about an hour and fifteen minutes I called our entire team together for a brief meeting.  This included all players, coaches and staff. I wanted us all to be on the same page about one thing.  That one thing was to win a gold medal.  I simply told them that it is time to “act as if” we have already won the gold.  I encouraged them for the next month to be calm and confident and to have a presence about them that says I am going to win the gold.  I also told them that all of us will be blown away by the magnitude of the events that lie ahead - whether that is opening ceremonies, something in the Village or something else Olympic.  I told them that these moments may feel overwhelming and I encouraged them to take a few deep breaths at these times and get back to our focus of winning that gold. 

After a good nights sleep we took a bus over to Team USA’s processing center.  There were six different stations set up to collect all of our Olympic gear.  The first was Ralph Lauren which is donating all the clothing for Opening and Closing Ceremonies.  The process took awhile considering that every piece of clothing was custom fit to each player.  Some things fit well off the rack and others had to be tailored.  The guys were excited as they loaded up on a whole new wardrobe.  In the end they would get gobs of clothing from Ralph Lauren and Nike, five pairs of shoes, sunglasses, watches, rings and goodie bag full of toiletries and more.  Each athlete left with five bags worth of stuff!  It was amazing.  The coaches made out too.  It feels a little like Christmas.  It is an interesting process that took us about five hours. It also is one of the aha moments where you realize that you have made the team.  Each piece of clothing says somewhere on it “USA Olympic Team”.  There is no escaping the fact that you are now representing your country.  

After returning to the Village, we ate lunch and went back to work.  We had gym time as well as pool time in the competition pool. It was exciting to walk onto the pool deck where we are gong to make history and imagine the place filled with fans.   Our training was good but needless to say the guys were pretty exhausted from the day.  Lots of energy spent on the emotions of processing.  All in all a very good day.  One that I am happy is done with early in the journey and now allows us to get back to work and focus on what we need to do to win that gold.

After a good nights rest we were up early Thursday morning and ready for the next portion of the adventure.  This was a travel day.  Off to Croatia - first a one and a half hour bus ride to the airport (much more reasonable) then a two and a half hour flight to Croatia and then another one hour bus ride to a small town called Varazdin.  This is where the Croatians are spending their final few days training before they go into London.  We arrived and had a late lunch and then two hours later were in the pool scrimmaging the Croatians.  Surprisingly, we did very well and beat them pretty good.  They left upset and I am sure had a long meeting last night with their coach, Radko Rudic. (Radko used to coach Team USA - between 2000 and 2005).  He is well known to most of our guys who trained with him during that time.  He is known as one of the best coaches in the game and his teams have reflected that over the years.  

Training on Friday was definitely a bit different.  The Croatians showed up in full battle mode and after a rough first period in which there were almost two fights, both teams settled down and played a hard fought scrimmage.  The Croatians definitely got the best of us in the morning.  Mental games... we had a meeting a came back and beat them good this evening.  Take that Croatia...  Anyway, obviously these games do not mean much at this time.  There is just a sense that you want the upper hand going into the Games.  We with train with them again tomorrow before we head off to Hungary for a few days of training.  This entails a three hour bus ride to Budapest before we spend our last few days of training outside the Village.  After that we will settle into the routine at the Village and continue to “Act as if” the gold medal is ours....

We are one week away from our first game.  Mt. Everest is now in site and we are preparing to climb to the summit over the course of the next few weeks. 

See you at the pool

Coach