Column by Kristen Heiss<\/i><\/p>\n
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, August, 7. THE U.S. Open in Minneapolis, Minn., surprised many people. The national meet after the Olympic Trials is usually a smaller meet. The Olympic Team swimmers are absent, and many other swimmers take a break or retire after Trials. <\/p>\n
Despite these factors, the U.S. Open this year was a fast meet. In several of the events, the top eight from the U.S. Open this year were as fast or faster than the top eight for U.S. Nationals last summer. <\/p>\n
For the swimmers who had prepared mentally and physically to peak at the Olympic Trials this summer, it can be hard to turn around two-and-a-half weeks later to swim at another meet. Despite this, there were many swimmers who swam faster at the U.S. Open than they did in Omaha. <\/p>\n
The atmosphere was much more relaxed at the Open, and the intense pressure that many swimmers feel to make the Olympic team was non existent in Minneapolis. Without the added pressure that was present at Trials, many swimmers simply relaxed, stepped up to race, and were pleasantly surprised by the outcome. <\/p>\n
Nick Thoman is an excellent example of someone who shocked the small crowd of spectators. It was fun to see the excitement on the face of someone who clearly did not expect to be only three one-hundredths off the world record. Hayley McGregory is another Trials finalist who bettered her lifetime best in the 100 backstroke at the U.S. Open. Both Thoman and McGregory's times they swam at the U.S. Open would have placed them on the Olympic Team. The U.S. Open gave swimmers another opportunity to race, and for many, the lower key atmosphere was the perfect atmosphere to swim fast. <\/p>\n
The smaller size of the U.S. Open was also nice for a change. National meets can be intimidating experiences for younger swimmers, and for the new national meet qualifiers, the meet was small enough that many of these swimmers had opportunities for a night swim in one of the finals heats. <\/p>\n
Overall, the U.S. Open was a nice change of pace from Trials. Although there weren't 13,000 screaming fans in the stands in Minneapolis or the thought of a trip to Beijing in the backs of the swimmers' minds, it didn't stop the athletes from stepping up to race and swimming fast times at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Column by Kristen Heiss COLLEGE STATION, Texas, August, 7. THE U.S. Open in Minneapolis, Minn., surprised many people. The national meet after the Olympic Trials is usually a smaller meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usa","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n