Usually, in the fall of an Olympic year, things slow to a stand still. A lot of swimmers take breaks and try to capitalize on the all-to-small window of opportunity that Olympic athletes score following their return from competition. And while we look forward to that, we know we’re going to miss swimming.

We had an exceptionally long drought in the aftermath of last summer’s nationals. That wasn’t the plan, but that’s how things panned out.

So where are we going to get our fix? Your guess is as good as mine!

I’ll probably go spend some quality time with the Ohio State pool that I love so much. Michigan is coming to me this season for a 2-day tri-meet with Penn St. I’m definitely hitting that up. As for more National meets, I’ve been eyeballing the Minnesota Grand Prix and Short Course Nationals. If I can get up to Minny, I can reunite with Carrie and go to the Mall of America. Win-win, right?

But with trips like that, I’ll need to budget like a mad woman, as I have already penciled in that trip to Rome for Worlds. If I have to give up a few domestic meets in order to make it to Rome, then so be it. After all, it’s ROME!! Holla atcha girl!

If I stick around Ohio this fall, then I will absolutely make the trip to Long Beach for the grand prix in January. Kiwi will have relocated to SoCal, not to mention I have family out that way. I’ve been wanting to get to that meet for a couple of years now, so I think it’s about time.

According to the Quad Plan, Austin (TX) is getting a grand prix in March, pre-NCAAs. If all else fails, you may see a group at that meet because 6th St. is beckoning all of us.

Now, if for some reason, we figure out that Rome is an impossibility, we will definitely attend the CP Summer Nationals. IUPUI is hosting in Indy again, and we already have a hotel room. (If you’re thinking about going, we suggest you book yours now, too. You can always cancel later!) We wanted to stay at University Place last year, but couldn’t get a room and the people doing reservations were incompetent. So we ended up staying at the Omni and driving to and from sessions. We’ll be hoofin’ it that 1 block distance this time around.

So, Indy is our backup plan. I’m pretty sure that if we go to Rome, we won’t be able to swing Indy just weeks before that trip. This is the time when I miss Spring Nationals. Having selection meets just a couple of weeks before a major international competition makes it virtually impossible for us to attend both. Were Spring Champs still around, we could go to both. *shakes fist*

So that’s where we’re at with our trip planning. Nothing I’ve mentioned is set in stone, so don’t be surprised if you see a Swim Aid at a meet near you!

I’ve been home for almost 12 hours now, but haven’t done anything productive. Don’t judge me! I didn’t sleep at all last night. I mean, what’s the point when you have a 5AM flight, right?

Anyway, now that Jason has ruined our fun, I have to move on to other memorable moments from the final day of the 2008 US Olympic Team Trials. I would also like to state that being able to type this on my own computer, as opposed to my Sidekick phone, is a relief. Maybe it won’t take me 52095720 years to write this!

Sleeping in yesterday was glorious. Since I operate on “vampire time”, it was like being at home! We were out pretty late (at Farrell’s, of couse) but when we came back to our hotel, we stayed up a loooooong time! I’ll come back to some Farrell’s talk later because there are some things that we must vent about.

So the pool action. It was brief, no? But very exciting! Dara Torres’ agent, Evan, emailed me before the session and predicted a win and the American Record. He nailed that one! And how about Miss Jessica Hardy?! She amazes me! How many people are able to be world class breaststrokers and sprint freestylers? Recently, I can only think of one; Jessica! We got to meet her father earlier in the week, which was great because after you trade emails with people enough, you want to actually meet them face-to-face.

And I know I’ve already talked about this, but PVK tore shit up in that 1500 Free! I was like “Dayum! Where did that come from?!” I am so proud of him. Like seriously! He went from the label of “relay swimmer” back in 2004, to a bonafide stud in multiple individual events! He could come home from Beijing with 4 medals! And while I was ecstatic for Pete, I couldn’t help but be sad for Erik. I don’t know what happened with him. His prelim time would have put him on the team for this event! We watched that race with his parents and the Vanderkaay and we all saw how Bob was trying to get him to slow down, but he didn’t. Did he maybe expend too much energy? I don’t know. All I know is that I kept waiting for him to make his move, like he usually does, but he never did. Thank goodness he grabbed that last spot for the 800 Free Relay!
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Soooooo, remember how annoyed I was, in the previous post, with how John Naber was conducting interviews after the awards ceremonies?

I still can’t get over the question he asked Natalie. I mean, seriously. WTF?

Imagine our surprise tonight when the head of media for USA Swimming, Jamie Fabos Olsen, was the one conducting those interviews.

She handled them with much class that was lacking before. Thank you, Jamie!

And how funny was PVK not really hearing her question about him and his brothers all competing together here? He stumbled all over that one! It’s ok, Pete. We still love you!!

I sent him a “good luck” text earlier today, so I’d like to think that’s what pushed him to win tonight. I do have that kind of power, ya know.

Ok, enough of this. I got some partying to do! Last night in Omaha, baby!

This won’t be so much a collection of stories as just general observations. We’re now into day 3 and things are starting to mush together, so apologies if this is already incoherent.

We had lunch with the BHOers. A lot of fun! We hadn’t seen a lot of them in a year, so reunions are always great! We went to the Omaha Farmer’s Market and ate at Spaghetti Works (?). It was delicious! Good food and good people! We had storytelling time - which included a couple of fabulous impressions - and it was classic. But that’s for us to know and you to be envious of.

We were much more rested yesterday after staying up entirely too late the night we got into town. We couldn’t help it! We hadn’t seen each other in a long time. The Swim Aids usually only go a couple of months in between meet-ups, but we’ve been in a drought as of late.

We’ve been trying to avoid talking about this, because our hearts are breaking, but we feel we have to. We are soooo sad for the Asian. His 200 Free semi did not go as planned and he’s now on the outside looking in. We called him to the Olympic Team, last year, as a member of the 800 Free Relay. Doesn’t look like it’s going to happen as he’s the 1st alternate for tonight’s final. We have a hard time looking at the pictures of his race.

We are also in shock over Rachel Komisarz not qualifying for the 100 Fly. Didn’t see that one coming! I’m not sure she intended to go out that fast and then not hold on, but that’s what sometimes happens at the Olympics Trials. You just never know! Dreams are both made and crushed.

The security measures are a bit much. I get that this is a HUGE meet, but man! When we go into the media entrance, a drug sniffing dog takes a whiff of our bags. I don’t know, but I feel like if you’ve approved someone for media credentials after that in-depth application process, that you feel comfortable with them being around the athletes. Guess not! We don’t have anything to hide, so the dogs can sniff to their hearts content. I was just amused at it. Peter Bick informed us that the dogs need to do a sniff before you are granted access to the catwalk or some of kind of foolishness. Word on the street is that a lot of the bigger named photogs aren’t happy.

Brendan Hansen’s press conference last night was a treat! He’s great with the media and his personality shines. There were lots of laughs from what we saw and heard, and we weren’t even there the entire time. Props to B-Han.

How about that big-ass Matt Grevers TYR poster of awesomeness? We approve. We approve.

I can’t remember anything else I should share, so I’ll just stop! Here’s to some more World Records!

There won’t be any threats or lawsuits coming from NIKE with regards to their signed swimmers testing the waters with the Speedo LZR. Maybe, just maybe, they think it’s bad for business? Who knows.

But what we do know is that NIKE hasn’t created a suit in line with TYR’s Tracer Rise or Speedo’s LZR Racer and it looks like they are openly acknowledging that fact. I will say that I was feelin’ their suits with the white band from a purely visual standpoint. That black/white combo is hot to me, just ask any of the Swim Aids!

An Associated Press piece announced that the 7 signed athletes will be allowed to compete with the Speedo suit at the upcoming Olympic Trials in 2 weeks. NIKE’s spokesman Derek Kent said the movie gives the swimmers the chance to “experiment with other products, satisfy their curiosity and compete without distractions”.

We’d been hearing that some of Team Nike has already been rockin’ the Speedo, with logo blacked out, so this doesn’t really come as that much of a surprise. (Forgot where I read that, though)

I’m just glad there will be no additional drama for Trials. These athletes don’t need to be worrying about things like that when there’s so much on the line. Kudos to Nike for doing the right thing.

Y’all aint ready!

USA Swimming has sent out a press release pimping the AquaZone that will be available to all in Omaha for the Olympic Trials. Entry to the AZ is free with your paid admission to any session at the Qwest Center.

Typically, the AquaZone provides fans the opportunity to interact with swimming’s biggest stars - past, present, and future - as well as other fun activities and other swimming-related exhibits. The Omaha AquaZone boasts more of the same. And don’t forget to pick up your Speedo catalogues. The Swim Aids may or may not have made return trip to the AZ to get multiple copies…

On the guest list for the legends are Matt Biondi, Donna de Varona, Mary T. Meagher, Debbie Meyer, Pablo Morales, John Naber, Mark Spitz, Mel Stewart and Jenny Thompson. I don’t know about y’all, but the Swim Aids will be stalking Jenny Thompson. We love her! She retired just as we started getting into the sport. Figures, huh?

Here is a list of activities that USA Swimming is promising for Omaha:

• Measure up to your favorite athlete, challenge an Olympian to swimming on the Wii and play the trivia gameshow with USA Swimming.
• Be one of the first to compete and play Beijing 2008â„¢ - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games before it hits store shelves in July.
• Meet and greet a legend of the sport during the Athlete Journey on the USA Swimming stage.
• Experience the wildlife of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Adventure Tour.
• Shop for Olympic Trials, Beijing and Speedo merchandise in the USA Swimming Store
• See how the pool was built inside the Qwest Center at the Myrtha Pools exhibit.
• Create your own commercial at the Toyota Moving Forward Studios.

Omaha is the center of the swimming universe for the week of the Trials, so learn how the athletes got here with the Omaha Sports Commission

• Learn about the ground-breaking technology behind the latest LZR swim suit from Speedo’s AquaLab.
• Test the latest mobile and digital technology from AT&T.
• Come relax and get your picture taken in the Hilton resort display.
• Create a cheer card for the Olympic Team with the USA Swimming Foundation.
• Watch live reports and broadcasts from Swimnetwork.com.
• Test your reflexes off the blocks with the American Swimming Coaches Association.

We are fond of the AquaZones, in general. We had a simply wonderful time last year. (Proof: Part 1 | Part 2) And even though we’ll be without one of our core members — she’s too fabulous to attend — we still look forward to exploring the scene and putting our stamp on it. Ya heard?

Maritza has been swimming and training through a great deal of pain. That stretch goes back to the Athens games, but really intensified in the past year and a half. I can’t imagine going through the rigorous training that swimming requires for that long with intense pain.

As a result, Maritza has stepped away from competitive swimming for good. Don’t fret, though! She still plans to be involved with the sport she loves in a number of different ways.

She continues to make appearances for her sponsor NIKE, and speaks to young children about her swimming career. Just a few weeks back she attended the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Awards in Los Angeles.

The St. Petersburg Times details more of what Maritza is up to and how she handled her retirement.