Another Day at McKay (Blog #2)

It was 5:00AM when all 67 team members of the USC Swim team showed up downstairs in the McKay Center. Except today is more special because our team mate Dimitri Colupaev turns 22. There were Happy Birthdays being spread around but 22 is just another day to get closer to a gold medal in the next Olympics. Many of you may not know who Dimitri, also known as Dima, but he is from Germany and swam in the 2012 Olympics for Germany. Dima is a strong and dedicated swimmer for USC and Germany. He treats everyday as if it were an opportunity to become better than the best swimmers in the world. That takes pure dedication right there. However, just one day out of the year to relax is that too much to ask for?

Coach Kipp always tells the team to "train in ways your competition hasn't even thought of training because somewhere somehow someone is training just as hard if not harder to beat you someday." On Dima's 22nd birthday, he spent the early part of it being with us and training. The life of an Olympian revolves around becoming a better athlete in every way possible. Social life is one of them. Today, Dima has asked us to NOT post on his Facebook page. Why? Because he is monitored so closely that it is a pain for him to have to worry about people posting inappropriate things on his Facebook page. That is something that many of us do not understand and may never understand.

Hello World

It was the winter of 2010 when Head Coach Dave Salo of the men's and women's swim team, had a phone conversation with my head coach back at De Anza College about potential recruits. "Dave, we have a swimmer that you would be interested in. He works harder than everyone in this pool and his love for USC is something I have never seen in a young man," said my head coach at De Anza College. Dave was probably thinking, "I have a billion other recruits to look at who are USA National Swimmers and Olympians...why would I bother to look at this dude from a junior college...but what the heck..." So from my knowledge of that conversation on, I worked harder than I already worked and waited for the green light to give the recruiting trip call. And with much patience, that phone call came one morning a week after the coaches conversation; I was on my way to USC to be a potential swimmer 48 hours later.

Upon my arrival at USC, I was picked up at the air port by Team Captain Jack Ostler and Assistant Coach Jeremy Kipp. Both Jack and Kipp were enthused and happy to have myself and the other 3 recruits there. On our car ride back to USC, I met my future team mates and learned that two of them are international swimmers from Venezuela and Germany. Both of them had also been medalists at World Championships...I no longer felt like the best swimmer I had felt my whole life. Once we arrived at USC, we were introduced to one of the best swimmers in the world who was on the team, Vladimir Morozov. Chin held high and chest out, Vlad shook our hands and said, "Welcome to USC dude." My lifelong dream had finally come true, I am going to be a Trojan.

Throughout our recruiting trip, we were told of the USC legacy and traditions and what not. However, one thing I noticed was their behavior around social life. On a Thursday night, they were giving recruits a tour of Los Angeles and acting like they care instead of wanting to go party. However, they pulled it off quite well. As the trip went on, they started to distinguish themselves from the normal student with one all of their USC Athletics gear, their behavior towards athletic staff, and their daily attire. The attire of Jack Ostler was sweats, athletic shoes, and a USC Swimming t-shirt. I started to wonder, how is social life for athletes here?

I became closer with Vlad and Dimitri Colupaev, another Olympian on the team, and they told me stories about their time at USC being the best decision they have ever made and so on however, they began to leak details of their social life that many people do not understand. As a USC Olympian, Vlad is forced to behave in a standard that is above any other student and student -athlete. He is forced to tweet and create Facebook posts appropriately and is monitored by Russian National Athletics, USA Athletics, USC Athletics, and USA Swimming. I witnessed him struggling with a twitter post about a television show. He is forced to tweet about to seem "normal" however he could not find the words to say except "this TV show is f***ing hilarious!!!" Any student at USC can tweet that and nothing would happen. If a twitter account is monitored this closely, how is the social life of USC Olympians especially Team USA USC Olympians.

As a member of both the men's water polo and swim team at USC, I have been privileged to witness the life of an Olympian. Many people do not understand the life of a USC Olympian and there should be a level of understanding of an Olympians life because they are still human beings, which is something many people seem to forget at times. Just because Vlad has medals around his neck, does not make him any less human.