Sharing the Pool

I shared the pool with potential swimming royalty yesterday. The Chinese Olympic Swim Team (well, their top 16 swimmers) are in Australia practicing. I thought it was a little odd that they were here (in Australia) when the Olympics are in a couple of years in Beijing. I figured they would be practicing at the facilities there, but anyway. They are here at school practicing and my water aerobics class on Monday shared the pool with them. As a form of encouragement from the instructor she kept telling us when we were swimming laps that she couldn't tell the difference between us and the Olympic team. Yes I know they are Chinese and we are Caucasian, based on that she should be able to tell us apart. But like I said she was trying to encourage us and congratulate us on the improvements we had made with our swimming.

It turns out that they Olympic team is here because they are trying to get their top athletes used to traveling especially in and around Australia. The swimming championships are being held in Melbourne next year, which all the countries use as their warm-up to the Olympics.