Swimming Extravaganza.

I belong to a small fraction of the country who actually follows swimming in non-Olympic years. I count down for Nationals and Worlds, I Youtube clips from the Grand Prix series, and I follow more swimmers on Twitter than hockey players.

Of course, Michael Phelps is my favorite swimmer of all-time, but I also love Nathan Adrian, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, and Dara Torres. After months of subtle hints and even some flat-out begging, I realized that getting tickets for London 2012 was pretty unrealistic.

So, I convinced my mom to go to Indianapolis with me on Friday for the Grand Prix held at the Natatorium at IUPUI. It. Was. Amazing. Honestly, it was a dream come true to see Michael Phelps swim in person.

We showed up a little early to get good seats and, while we were sitting there, we spotted Ryan Lochte, listening to music and hanging out around the pool. Luckily, his shirt was on and we didn't deem him completely unapproachable. My mom shouted out to him and got him to sign our heat sheet!



The first men's championship final of the night was the 400m IM and Mr. Phelps himself was competing in it. It was surreal to see him on the starting blocks, stretching and flapping his arms like he always does. He barely won his race with a nail-biting finish time of 4:12.51. Tyler Clary took a very close second with a time of 4:13.01. The Natatorium went absolutely crazy for him.







Ryan Lochte competed in the 200m backstroke, but he came in a surprising fourth place. He must be tapering before the Olympics. He did, however, keep everyone entertained when he came out wearing a shirt that said 'Weirdo,' a blue sock, a bright green sock, and Chucks. He was also the only swimmer to compete in a Speedo. Hilarious.



I got to see a ton of other national swimmers and Olympians, including Missy Franklin (who won the 200m backstroke), Dara Torres, Cullen Jones, Peter Vanderkaay, Katie Hoff, Dana Vollmer, and Caitlin Leverenz. My favorite race, however, was the men's 50m freestyle. Why? Former slice of Man Meat and the only honoree to ever respond, Nathan Adrian.



While competing in the 100m freestyle the night before, Nathan's swimsuit ripped on the starting block. So, his (probably perfect) behind was exposed during the entire race. Despite the slight disadvantage, he won the race, beating even Michael Phelps with a time of 48.62 seconds. So, after cursing the gods for having me miss that incident by ONE night, I got my camera ready and taped his 50m race.



He won with a killer finish and a time of 21.88 seconds.

I seriously can't wait for the Olympics. Only 117 more days!

...and, in the meantime, I got myself my own little swimmer.




Actually, my sister bought him while on spring break in Florida and named him Jalapeño. She gave him to me because I love turtles. He is a baby yellow-bellied slider. He is only about an inch right now, but he will get much bigger and could live over 40 years! He's pretty shy right now, but I love watching him swim around.