I don’t think it really gets any better than this.

Usually, we bitch and moan about how expensive swim trips are for us and how we can never afford them. Not the case, this weekend. Well, at least for me! A crapload of the National Team will be in my hometown for the Toyota Grand Prix at the Ohio State University. Perfect!

Not only do I have no travel expenses, but also not lodging issues either. Because of my media credentials I don’t have to pay for tickets. And the cherry on top, is that my dad works at the Ohio State hospital and I’m ganking his parking pass for the weekend, so I won’t have to pay for that, either!

The only negative for this meet — yes, I was able to find one — was that my Swim Aids posse will not be with me. I’m on my own this weekend. I will take my alone time and roam the deck. I will try to harass as many of my faves as possible. I will stop by the SPA area and catch-up with Megan “Too-Ghetto-For-You” Romano, as well as NBAC crew, led by our fave coach. And if they’re lucky, I’ll shout-out my CW peeps. I miss those kids.

If you want the goods, I’m going to try and post as much as possible on Swim Stars Live. It’s going to be harder than usual with no help from my girls.

If I have funny stories/pictures/etc., that’ll probably end up here; unless it’s CW-related. All CW anecdotes will be shared on MGoSwim.

So here we go! Now, be forewarned that I didn’t end up doing much predicting this year. Mostly thinking/rambling out loud. You love it. I’m sure that’s why you come here anyway. What few predictions I did make stand a chance at being 95% wrong. But I don’t care. It’s fun for me!

SENIORS

#1. Lacey Nymeyer (Arizona)
This is a no brainer. I would be absolutely shocked if Lacey didn’t continue her swimming career. For the longest time I thought she was a senior last year with Whitney. Anyway, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that she signs with Nike. Nike scooped up Whitney last year and pretty much sucks at scooping up major talent. They’re set up perfectly what with Zona being a Nike school. However, she could sign since the Swoosh is losing their 2 longest signed females Kaitlin and Maritza) after this summer. I’ll put it this way: I’d be surprised if she went Nike, but not shocked. As for agents, who knows. Octagon only seems to sign “superstars”, and while Lacey rocks, I don’t know if she fits the mold they have or whatever. I’d guess PMG, but so many are signing with agents I’ve never heard of that I should probably give up guessing agents.

#2. Caroline Burckle (Florida)
Ahh, the Lochtenator’s better half. I’d like to think including her here is more than wishful thinking. I’m dying to see how Caro does when she can focus exclusively on swimming as a professional. She was a member of the 2005 World Champs squad, so the talent is obviously there. The events she swims are deep, but I still think she can make some noise. Should she sign, I’m chalking one up for Speedo. Congrats to Caro for being awarded the Honda Award for Swimming.

There’s a host of other swimmers who, should they make the decision to continue, could have quite a long career. I mean, take a look at Randall Bal. His events (backstroke) are so loaded that he didn’t make last year’s World Champs or any Olympic team, but he still pushes the competition and does very well for himself. He won this season’s World Cup men’s title which came with a hefty $100,000 prize. If he swam for any other country, he’d be a super star! Same goes for those like Robert Margalis. So, I guess for many, it’s just a decision of how much they enjoy competing in the sport and if they wish to continue or move on to other things in life. I’m not familiar with enough of this year’s class to make that call well. Emily Silver, Emily Kukors, Andrea Hupman, Christine Magnuson, Kara Denby…they have all earned swimwear contracts with their work in the pool. It’s just a matter on if that’s what they want!
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Stumbled across this article by the Daily Telegraph and my face now looks like this:

Stephanie Rice had some pictures on her Facebook. They looked like everyone else’s. It’s not anything that would have ended up on Bad Jocks or anything. Girl can’t go to a party and take pictures? Well, not if you are a high profile swimmer in Australia!

Swimming Australia thinks the shots were too “raunchy”. That’s what is considered raunchy? Seriously? Wow.

And another thing, while having access to Steph’s page is limited to facebook users and those she’s chosen to be her facebook friends, the Daily Telegraph just went and showed the entire world! How exactly does that help matters?

We have never, nor will we ever, use any swimmers’ facebook pictures on here. Well, not unless we were the ones who took the said picture. We’ve been silently policing certain communities so that personal fb pics aren’t spread.

Over the years, we’ve even counseled a handful of our swim pals with regards to their facebook usage. The Lochtenator used to have his cell phone number on his profile. We made him take that down! Also take note of his listed website, while you’re there. Then there was the Asian. He, too, had his cell phone number posted. I talked to him about it, and he took his down as well.

We’ve always been super protective of our swimmers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had fans solicit personal information of National Teamers. It’s the reason I’m not on AIM as much anymore. They offer me money for AIM screen names, phone numbers, email addresses, and more. Information that I do not, under any circumstance, give out. They usually want the goods on Phelps, the Lochtenator, and The Hoff, but not always.

Once, someone offered me $100 for PVK’s phone number. I joked with him that he was lucky that I wasn’t an opportunist or I would have sold him out. He countered by wondering if the person was totally crazy. And if not, he instructed me to give it to them and we could split the money 50/50. That PVK; such a kidder!

Swimming World Magazine has some good advice for swimmers that we totally agree with:

Long story short, swimmers – take precautionary online measures to protect your privacy; national bodies – let the young adults be just that, young adults with their own lives.

The swimming communities and their governing bodies need to trust their athletes a little more. No one is shown doing a kegstand or anything. They’re just being themselves and showing part of their personalities. The more personality that is shown, the better for the sport. Can you imagine if USA Swimming removed all signs of Ryan’s personality from his facebook photos? I shudder at the thought.

Bear with me here…

First I was impressed when the Ohio State women finished 15th overall at NCAAs with only divers scoring.

The next week, the men’s team almost matched that output with a 16th place finish. The Buckeye Men got big points from diving, as well. On the final night freshman (yes, freshman) Sean Moore broke the NCAA meet record in the platform diving competition. However, in the men’s meet, they got a wee bit of help from the swimmers.

It is for this reason that I propose that they change the sport’s official title at Ohio State to ‘Diving & Swimming’ instead of ‘Swimming & Diving’. That is all.