WE CAME 4TH!!!

We had an amazing swim!!!

We cam 4th!! Japan got a penalty from touching the bottom and we beat US!!!!

We are really proud!!

Closing today!!!

Final day!!

I'm a little early on schedule so I've got a little bit of time to write...

After a night of counting and reviewing my routine, we got up ate breakfast and did our hair, make up (which we had a class for Cirque du Soleil) and we put our hat on...

The schedule today looks a lot like yesterday... And I might not have time to say how it goes before a day or 2.... But, here is the draw... US goes first, which is really good for us, then 2nd Australia, 3rd Egypt, 4th Canada, 5th China, 6th Japan, 7th Spain and 8th Russia.

After our performance, we have a dinner at the Canada house with our friends and families.

That's about it for now.... I can't wait to perform...!! And be done... hihi!!!

We tied with the US!!!

Today was a really good day!

Not even we finally tied with the US team, but we also got one of the best performance of our tech team program which was . It contains 11 different elements.

We had a little music pratice this morning for 15 minutes and we shared with Japan. The practice went really well! Our coaches almost didn't know what to say after each part of our training! We also did a runthrough to make sure we were ready physically and mentally before we competed.

After that, we had a little time to do make up, relax, watch video of our music practice and then we were getting ready for the big event!!!

Imagine what goes in your mind while you're sitting there, an hour before you go... You think about thousands corrections that you have, and then you think of how many people are going to watch you on tv, that your family is in the stands for the BIG competition, you also think about how many hours, weeks, years that you work to be able to swim there...!

It was almost 3.... then you put your cap and googles back on, and you get ready to do the last warm up before the competition. I did my laps of the routine with the I-pod that goes underwater with a teammate, then got out and walk to the call room.

There, we had our focus group, where the captain says what to think about in certain places of the routine, and she told us that whenever we were feeling distracted because it was the Olympics Games, just count louder in your head!!

Then, I took a few breath, a sip of water and the doors opened in front of us. It was OUR turn now!

So we walked on... as cool as we could be and we did our routine, trying to convince everyone that we ROCK!!

The swim felt really good! And the coaches were really happy at the end!

We were swimming 3rd and US 8th... (they are our big competitor) So we went to watch them live... and when we saw that we were tied with them we were just so HAPPY!!!

We had a few minutes after that to go see our families! So I ran up to them and talked to them for a little while...! That was really cool to have them with me at that moment!

We had a short practice for the Free team around 4h30.... We were so excited to go back in the pool and just fight!! So we can be ahead of them and go up in the world ranking.

We are now back in the Village and we can't wait to compete tomorrow!!

COMPETING TODAY!!

I got up not a long time ago...

I'm competing today! Finally, after all that training! It's tech team. I have a thousands things to think about. My hair are up already and half of my make up is done!

We are swimming around 3 this afternoon! For the one that wants to watch it live go on !http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/

Can't wait to swim!!!

Duet free final day...

This morning I had the chance to enjoy our last sleep in before the competition started. I really took the time to rest. My family also had a chance to have special tickets to come and visit the Olympic Village. It was really cool to have them here! At lunch time, I got them Mc Donalds from the cafeteria, while I was eating my little plate of couscous beside them. Oh well, I can't wait t0 treat myself and have some Mcnuggets at the end of my competitions!

After they left, we had our daily video session where we focus on what to imprive for the upcoming practice. The spirit was really good and we were really productive. We, then, left all together for the Water Cube to watch the duet final competition. It was really exciting to see the top 12 duets in the World performing back to back and being able to compare them.

Right after that, we jumped into our suits for a pratice of an our in the cold pool. It was good the have Marie-Pier (one of the duet girl that also swim in the team) back in the patterns, because she was focusing on duet the 2 days before. We were swimming with only 7 in the patterns.

10 minutes later, we were sitting in special Canada cars to go to the further training pool. The goal today was to do quality on the first time. It took a little while at first, but we got in pretty good by the end.

It is now 9 o'clock and we are in a bus going back in the Village, I'm also really looking forward to swim in the competition pool tomorrow and show everyone else what we are made of!!!

Olympic starts for Synchro!

Today, it was the technical duet competition. They are swimming on the theme of cold (which was pretty easy to feel because the pool is freezing!) They swam 11th out of 24. In synchro, the draw is really important because it influences the judges for the scores. They had one of their best swims this year. Their elements were really good. My team and I were overwelmed. They got 6th place, Russia is 1st, Spain second, Japan third, China fourth, and Us fifth. The Russian duet was amazing to watch! They are really really close to perfection!

Right after the duet (Marie-Pier Boudreau and Isabelle Rampling) competed, we got into the warm up pool, in the Water Cube, and we did about 2 hours of (training our routine without musique) Then we took a shuttle to another training pool and we did our music practice. It was a pretty good practice, we still have a few things to correct before the 22 and 23 though.

Tomorrow is free duet prelim!

Training in Korea and back in the Olympic Village

The 2 last practices in Korea, we had our best runthrues of our lives. It felt really good to go away just our team and train. We were training about 7 hours a day plus an hour of video when we were getting at the hotel. We met the Mayor of the city of Gimcheon, where we were.

Yesterday, the 15th, we flew back to Beijing and we had a day off form training. We went tanning on the pool deck of the village and then I went to the Olympic Store to buy some souvenirs from friends and families.

Today, we had 2 practices, the first one was in a training pool, about an hour away from the Village. We had a really good practice but it was really really hard!!! Then right after, we had a ride to the Water Cube, our competition pool. We saw the Russian team for the first time this year.

Canada won their 3 first medals today.

My parents and brother sould come see me in the Village on the 18th. They got to Beijing 2 days ago. I'm really looking forward to see them!!

Korea training camp

Yesterday we made our journey to Korea, while waiting in the airport we all sat around on the floor and watched woman’s gymnastics on the big screen TV. There are no TV’s in the rooms at the Athlete’s Village so we haven’t been able to see any of the Olympics so far.

Upon arriving in Korea we took a 3 hour bus ride to Kimchon City the location of our training camp. The bus took us straight to the pool and we had a short training session from 7h30 till 9 before going to our hotel for the night.

This morning we woke-up and went straight to the pool to train. Since leaving Montreal we have had minimal pool time and even less music practice so it was is nice to have the whole pool to ourselves. Right now we are extremely focused on making the most of our training camp here in Korea, making improvements every day, and perfecting our routine to every last detail.

Village life...

The Village is like a little city of the best athletes in the World. There are game rooms, big TVs, a gym, a super large cafeteria, and a free McDonald. Our apartments in the Village are HUGE! I’m rooming with Tracy Little one of my teammates. We each have our own bed and the rest of the team is close by.


Since being in the Village, we have had 2 training sessions at the University pool of Beijing. The venue was really nice, but it felt like it was 40 degrees on the pool deck. The duets from Mexico and Greece were training at the same pool as us.

Slowly we are getting use to the jetlag and the 12 hour time change.

I really enjoyed my time in the Village. Right now, we are flying to Korea for a training camp. We have been there before and it has proved to be an excellent place focus 100% on training and be ready to perform at the Games.

Openings!!!

Two days ago I went to the Opening Ceremonies... We waited for more than 3 hours in a gymnasium and then we waited outside for another 2 hours sweating in the heat. I have never been so hot in my entire life! Everyone was drenched in sweat. While waiting, I called my parents and coaches back home in Canada, they were thrilled here from me at that moment.
Right before we walked into the stadium we entered this hallway. At the end of the hallway, we could see a glimpse of the brightly lit stadium. The whole Canadian delegation started singing the national anthem. I had shivers, the experience was unreal!!! I can’t describe walking into the stadium for the first time! Everyone was cheering and up in the stands I saw thousands and thousands of people.

We made a lap around of the stadium waving at the audience and following the camera men around. After that we waited for the other countries to come in and enjoyed the environment.
When it was time to light the torch a man ran around the top of the stadium before lighting the final torch on the roof of the Birds Nest Stadium. It was just amazing!


By the time the ceremonies were done it was 1-2 am and we were exhausted but still so excited at the same time.

Leaving tomorrow!!!

Today was our last practice in Montreal!!! That sounds so weird! Not so long ago we were at the contdown 272 days before the Games starts... Now, it's 3 days!!!

Our last 4 practices went really well! We are getting more and more consistency everyday which give us he confidence we need to perform over there.

Yesterday I was on the front page of the news papers in Quebec...!! http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080804/CPSOLEIL/80803066/6696/CPSOLEIL

And I also got my first caricature... It's posted... hihi

Sunday, we had some families and friends coming to our practice, we did a little show...! Even them saw the improvement we did from the last show!

My suitcase is now ready...!! We are leaving tomorrow morning! Flight to Toronto, and then direct to Beijing!

Next post will be from the Olympic Village!!!