Linz Swim Meet

This past weekend I had my very first swim meet of the season in Linz! It began on Friday, October 19^th. The whole Knittelfeld swim team, all 35 of us or so, met at the train station in the early morning and had a 3 hour ride to Linz. Once there, we walked from the train station to our youth hostel and passed the athletic facility on the way. At the hostel we unpacked our things and ate lunch there. I think it is great how the food overall is very healthy in Austria no matter where you go. The facility was only a 10 minute walk from the hostel and once there we changed and got ready to warm up at 13:30. My coach allowed me to do my own warm up because I had an estimated 7 hour wait until I swam my 400 IM that evening. 600 total swimmers from Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, and Hungary and 60 heats of 400 frees and IMs. This wouldn’t have been a big problem, but there wasn’t a separate pool for warm ups/downs and they never opened the pool for breaks either. Anyways, after hours of sleeping, music, and being on autopilot, I got pumped up for my first ever 400 IM. I tried to have a positive attitude and ended up having a great race. I finished in 5:21.82 and was fine with that. I look forward to trying it again! By the time it was over, I walked back to the hostel, ate dinner, and our team had a meeting with our coaches to discuss the next day and how that was all going to work. Got a good night’s sleep and was ready for day 2.

Saturday was an even better day of swimming. Warmups were pretty early and this time I didn’t have that long of a wait between my various races that morning. 50 free was first and went a little too slow, in 28.34. 50 fly was better in a 29.28; it felt aggressive and would have been a good split for my 100 fly later that day. 200 Breast went well also, 2:50.55 but I felt I could have gone out with more speed in the first 100. Once that was over we got tickets for lunch in the facility which was also healthy and then I warmed up again even though I had another 7 hour wait ahead of me. The 100 fly that evening was my best race of the weekend though. As this is also my favorite event, I put extra effort into it and snagged a AA time in 1:03.87! Finished 1^st out of my age bracket out of all the Austrian swimmers and the international swimmers too!

Last day and most difficult one was Sunday. Same warmup routine but only the 100 breast that morning. That ended up being a great race too in 1:16.79 just off another AA time. Another mid day break to eat and warm up again. At this point I was feeling really exhausted and unmotivated and had an ok 100 free in 1:01.23. Lastly for the whole weekend was just my 200 IM, my 2^nd best and 2^nd favorite event. Somehow my energy, motivation, and excitement came back and had an awesome finish to the meet. Felt great in 2:26.35, also a AA time! I had an extremely exciting swim meet and not many people can say they’ve been to a swim meet in another country! 6 medals: 3 bronze (100 Breast, 200 Breast, 100 Free), a sliver (200 IM), and 2 gold (100 Fly)!

Some of the differences from meets in America and in Austria:

1. The timers are the officials

2. Teams cheer for each other more in America

3. Starts are faster paced in Austria

4. Some small technical differences in the swimming

Aside from the racing, I enjoyed getting to know a lot of the younger kids on the team and being a role model for them, seeing a different part of Austria, seeing what the differences are between meets in the US and here, and spending 3 days with some of my best friends! I am really excited for the next one in a few weeks!

Video of my 200m IM