Swim Off, Swim On; Annie Chandler’s Thoughts on Paris Open

Guest blog by Annie Chandler

PARIS, Open, June 28. SWIMMING took me on a wild ride on day one of the EDF Paris Open as a slow prelims swim tied me for eighth, which required a swimoff. I looked up at the clock after my swim and knew it was "pas bon" (not good). But I did not think it would put me on the cusp of making the one and only final…

Since it seems everyone around me understands or speaks French and all announcements are made in French, I did not realize I was in this swimoff after my morning swim until halfway through my cool down. My buddy, Sara El Bekri, gave me the sad puppy face. I assumed it was because she was bummed by her own swim or was empathizing with my feelings toward my swim, but then she told me we were to swimoff for the eighth position of the 100 breast final…Seriously? I have to go mano-e-mano with one of my best buds, and potentially get knocked out or knock her out of the final we were both shooting to win? I thought my friend was pulling my leg.

Sara and I both dropped nearly .8 from our prelims time in the swimoff and I held her off by .04 despite her finishing speed. Cal assistant coach Greg Meehan came over after the swimoff to inform me that the bus was leaving in 15 minutes (at 1 p.m.) and departed from the hotel at 2:30 p.m. to haul us back to the pool. That left us with one whopping hour to inhale our lunch then put our legs up in the room. I should have done my research to be better mentally prepared for 4 p.m. finals.

I went on to swim the 100 breast from lane 8 in finals and won it in a personal-best time of 1:07.80.

My only explanation for my progressive time drops is that my biological clock was on Arizona time. I did not get the fast twitch I wanted in the morning because my body's watch was reading 3 a.m.

I should not pretend to know more about swimming than I do. My meet predictions in the last blog were far from accurate, and I did not realize my 100 breast was a best time until I checked out the USA Swimming database. The French sprinters I referred to did not even make the 100 free final. Matt Grevers did not disappoint with a blistering 53.3 in the 100 back. However, he did disappoint the crowd which was largely backing French backstroker Camille Lacourt. Nathan Adrian raced tough in the 50 and 100 free, but both events were dominated by Brazil's Cesar Cielo. An amateur swim fan screamed out just before the beep sounded for the men's 50 free, which seemed to hurt Adrian's reaction time, and that's too short of a race to start off .1 behind the field.

I really would like the U.S. to join the rest of the world and indulge in 50s of stroke every now and then. I swam the 50 breast on Sunday and loved every second of my half minute in the pool. The field was closer than I sensed during the race, but I'm lucky to catch a glimpse of anyone while thrashing through a 50. I turned in a time that I thought would earn me some prize money, but no such luck. Randall Bal and Grevers were both letdown to hear their inspired backstroke races made them zero dinero in prize money. The money was awarded to the five best female performers and five best male performers decided by FINA points. Grevers missed out by one point. Better luck next year.

We will be leaving Paris with slimmer wallets, but are grateful for the enriching experience we have had here. Today I got to be a tourist. I just finished the French equivalent to a Dove ice cream bar after walking around the Notre Dame area all day without feeling guilty for putting extra miles on my legs. I have a couple days to breathe easy before diving back into competitive American waters. Au revoir!

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