London’s Calling: Haley Anderson and Alex Meyer

TEMPE, Arizona, July 3. WITH the Olympic swimming roster finally set for Team USA, it is time to highlight the individuals that worked countless hours – in and out of the pool – to earn the honor of parading behind the stars and stripes in the London Olympics opening ceremony July 27th.

There are 24 days until this highly anticipated event unfolds to the world (or at least to those with access to television or an Olympic ticket). In this brief time span, Swimming World will profile two members of Team USA daily.

Today, we bring you our Open Water Olympians, both set to compete in the Olympic Marathon Swimming 10k race. The women's 10k will be swum on August 9th, with the men's 10k set for the following day.

Haley Anderson:

Due to NBC rights holder restrictions, the following video interview is only viewable until 7/27/2012:

Photo Credit: Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE

20-year Haley Anderson old was born November 20, 1991. She is heading into her senior year at the University of Southern California (USC), where she swims under head coach Dave Salo and distance coach Catherine Vogt.

Vogt is heading into her fifth year coaching at USC, and has worked closely with Anderson in that time. Anderson holds USC records in the 1000 and 1650 freestyle events.

Before heading to USC, Anderson was coached by Jeff Pearson at the Sierra Marlins Swim Team in her hometown of Granite Bay, California.

Last month, at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier in Setubal, Portugal, Anderson brought home Gold in the 10k and clocked a 1:44:30.6. She narrowly beat Hungary's Eva Risztov by a margin of 1.4 seconds in this event.

“…Every young swimmer has dreams about making an Olympic team but as you get older sometimes your dreams are affected by reality. My Olympic dreams came into focus,” says Anderson.

Alex Meyer:

Due to NBC rights holder restrictions, the following video interview is only viewable until 7/27/2012:

Photo Credit: Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE

23 (soon-to-be-24) year old Alex Meyer was born July 5, 1988. He currently lives and trains in Cambridge, Massachusetts under coach Tim Murphy with Crimson Aquatics. Meyer has trained under Murphy since attending Harvard in 2006.

Murphy is currently the head men's swimming coach at Harvard, and will travel to London with Meyer as the Olympic Team's Open Water head coach.

In June of 2011, Meyer won Gold in the 10k US Open Water Championships. This qualified him to compete in the Open Water World Championships in Shanghai later that year. In Shanghai, he placed fourth in the 10k race, becoming the first person to qualify for the US Olympic team.

His previous accomplishments include winning Gold at the 2010 World Championships in the 25k open water event.

In his personal life, Meyer was good friends with recently deceased open water swimmer Fran Crippen. Crippen tragically passed away in October 2010 at an open water competition in which both athletes were competing. Meyer is now the only male on team USA to qualify for the Olympic open water events.

“…I'm not going to London alone. Fran's going with me, and we're going to represent our country, our schools, our family and friends, and we are going to give it our best,” Meyer says on his website.

Written and Posted by Shoshanna Rutemiller
@ShoshyJean

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