Last week, I shadowed (and swam with) Olympian Jessica Hardy, a gold-medal swimmer, at her practice in Los Angeles. This is what I learned about what it takes to make it to the Games.
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Olympians swim a lot. Like, a lot a lot. (Duh.)
Hardy, who won a gold and a bronze medal for her relay work at the 2012 London Olympics, was in the water for about two hours, which isn't a crazy amount of time. But when you start adding up how much she swims annually, and has swam in her 10-year national team career, you just might be blown out of the water (pun intended).
Hardy estimates that she averages about 3.7 miles in the pool daily, 1,252 miles annually, and just over 5,000 miles every Olympic cycle. Yeah, that's A LOT of swimming.
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They also practice HARD.
I got the chance to hop in the water for about 45 minutes with Trojan Swim Club, the team Hardy trains with, to get an idea of how fast they swim, and boy, did I eat their bubbles. But they didn't just move faster; obviously, they're Olympic-level, they should be crushing me. Everything they did was effortless. While I was struggling to not embarrass myself (and I swim with an adult team and captained my high school team), Hardy & Co. were going about business like they were auditioning for the live-action version of The Little Mermaid. All of this brings me to my next point...
Macey J. Foronda
It's all about technique.
The 27-year-old Hardy said maintaining good technique is "the most important thing" in anything she does, and highlighted something she often says when she talks to younger athletes.
“I always tell kids when I start talking to them how important it is with their school backpack, if they have six books in them, not to have it sagging at their butt, thinking about your posture every day when you’re walking around doing anything else," she said. "[This] will help you be a better athlete because you’ll be more aware of your body.”
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