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.