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The days are dwindling
BRISBANE -- Greetings from Brisbane, an hour's flight from Sydney and site of training camps for U.S. swimming and track and field teams. It's a sure sign that the Olympics aren't far off when you can watch ads here proclaiming that TV 7's 24-hour-a-day Olympic coverage is but a week away; or when taxi drivers tell you their preference of sailing class ("Definitely tornado; 470's a lazy-bloke's vessel," Arthur from South Brisbane told me); and certainly when the topic of debate on the metro is how to score the best set of field-hockey seats at this late date. Here in Brisbane you can tell the days are dwindling when you hear Texans and Californians reciting lines from Crocodile Dundee with lingo mastered and inflection refined. Why, you're practically a local, mate. The sense of nervous anticipation was unmistakable when we sat down with members of both teams Saturday. We visited the Sleeman athletic complex, where we spoke to several track athletes enjoying a barbecue in between training sessions. Then we went to the Chandler Aquatic Center, site of the swim events for the 2001 Goodwill Games. The track athletes haven't gone to Sydney yet; the swimmers spent two days in the Olympic Village before heading to the Brisbane camp. We wanted to know if athletes from both teams could recall the moment when it sunk in that the Olympics were nearly here.
Track and fieldStacy Dragila, world-record holder, pole vault: "There were kids coming up to us [at the training camp in Brisbane] and one of them gave us a stuffed koala. That doesn't happen to us every day." Jearl Miles Clark, 400 and 800: "When I took that 14-hour trip over here. And then I felt it when I saw all those signs around saying: '12 days to go, 11 days left, 10 days.' There's no countdown like that for a typical meet when we blow in and out." Joetta Clark Diggs, 800: "It hit me when I kept watching shows with programs of the torch. It's also something you can feel. We're in an Olympic atmosphere even though we're not training in Sydney and not everyone's here." Curt Clausen, 50k walk: "I can tell by the days on the calendar and by the fact that I'm getting low on Power Bars. I keep a training log and I'm running out of days to fill, so I know I'm very close to goal day. I thrive in it. I know something's going to happen soon and it just feels right. This is why I'm here. Six months out it's hard. One month out I start to get that feeling." Meb KeflezIghi, 10,000: "It hit me coming over on the plane. Right now I'm trying to tell myself it's just like any other race, even though I know it's not going to be like any race in my life. It's a great opportunity to represent the country, so I don't want to put pressure on myself. The thing I've been thinking about lately is my ninth-grade yearbook [from San Diego High School]. That was the first time. People knew I ran, they knew what I wanted to do. So many of my friends, I remember, signed my yearbook: 'Good luck in the Olympics.' I always said, 'Yeah, right.' I didn't want to bring it on myself, but other people around me saw what I could do. I was lucky. I had people that believed in me. I don't always think about the yearbook, but here I've been thinking about it."
SwimmingTom Dolan, 200 and 400 individual medleys: "This time it was different in terms of when it hit. I've been through it before, so it wasn't until I checked into the village. We're used to seeing other swimmers, but it's at an Olympics when you see the guys from the other sports going through the same things." Ed Moses, 100 breaststroke: "I knew it when we landed in Sydney and went over to the Olympic pool -- it was all business -- and in the dining hall at the village. I was in that atmosphere before at the Pan-Am Games [in Winnipeg last summer], but here they have so much food. I could put on 10 pounds in 10 days. The best thing I had was ostrich. Have you ever had ostrich? It's really lean. I never had it before I came here." Tom Malchow, 200 butterfly: "When we walked into the Olympic pool at Homebush. It's the same pool as last year [when many U.S. swimmers competed at the Pan-Pacific meet], but it didn't feel the same. It has an Olympic feel about it. Ever since I made the Olympic team, I've slept like a baby. That's the hard work, just getting here. Once I knew I was on the team, I've been expecting a few sleepless nights, but I've really slept better than all that time I wasn't sure if I'd get here." Erik Vendt, 400 IM, 1,500 freestyle: "When I walked onto the Sydney pool deck and I saw how high the stands were on the left side. I don't have to hear the stories anymore. I can see it: 18,000 people. The most I've competed in front of is less than half that." Chad Carvin, 400 freestyle: "It hit me a little when I went home after trials and started packing all my stuff for this long trip. But mostly it hit me here when I opened the newspapers and saw swimming on the front and back pages. That only happens at the Olympics. It only happens in Australia."
SI writer-reporter Brian Cazeneuve, the magazine's Olympics expert, is already in Australia gearing up for the Games. Check back daily to follow his behind-the-scenes reports.
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