Swim w/ 7 time Olympian Medalist, Kirsty Coventry (12.28.10)

During Sydney's Winter Break, she got to see and swim with Kirsty Coventry (9/16/1983). Kirsty was in Thomasville, GA and held a clinic for any swimmer at the YMCA. We took Katareen with us and they both had the opportunity to get coached.

At the clinic, Kirsty gave the following tips for swimming:

• Focus on time not just place on podium. Once you make time that will put you where you want to be which is on the podium.
• Channel nerves into good thing to be successful, they can help us learn how strong of a person we can all be in our life.
• Swim for techniques rather than endurance. Focus on technique in younger years.
• At end of day we all have 2 legs and 2 arms- people put pants one legs on at time.

• FYI: Peak for women swimmer 18-24 yrs old but age growing.

How often do you get to meet an Olympian. Then, how often does it happen that you get to race with them. That is what Sydney got, the opportunity to race against Kirsty. Kirsty swam a 100 IM by herself and the kids raced one link against her. The video is Sydney racing Kirsty on the backstroke link. Sydney is in the right lane. I thought this was amazing.

(Sydney is wearing the blue cap with white letters.)

BIO: Kirsty Leigh Coventry is a Zimbabwean swimmer and world record holder. She swam competitively for Auburn University. At 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece Coventry won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze. While in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China she won four medals: a gold and three silver. Currently she is the World Record Holder in the 200 m backstroke (2:04.81).

Additional PicturesThe below are pictures of Katareen with Kirsty.