France Training Camp and Italy Open Compeition

When our team first arrived In Narbonne, France on May 26th, the weather was beautiful! Clear skies and sunshine. However, once we hit the water the next day the temperature took a dramatic turn on us! For our full week of outdoor training our team faced the challenge of swimming under the rain and clouds almost everyday, including 40km/h wind with the temperature no higher than 14degrees..!! With the physically and mentally strong team we have, we were able to forget about the harse weather and continue our training in preparation for our upcoming competition in Savonna, Italy.

On June 5th, our team took a 6hour train from Narbonne, France to Savonne, Italy. We had three days of official competition training in our competition pool. One challenge that we faced throughout the competition was that the pool we swam in was less than 2m deep!! We could stand on the bottom and have the tops of our heads poke out of the surface! Our team dealt with the situation as best as possible and knew we were not the only ones who had to deal with this concern. On June 9th, we placed first after our first tech team competition, ahead of Italy's olympic national team. After a tough fight in both free team and combo finals, the Italy team managed to pull into the lead, capturing first place. However, our team was not dissapointed.. We were very proud of our performances and thrilled to know that our team gave Italys 2012 Olympic team a run for their money! In addition, the audience gave us standing ovations after our final swims. It was an honour to have the crowd show their respect towards our teams hard work and dedication, they loved our performances!

Following the end of the competition, my team was given 3 weeks off. My mom (Lori Kowalski) and I travelled accross Italy to Venice, Florence and Rome! The weather was beautiful and the sights were even more spectacular. I wish I could have brought Italy back with me in my suitcase to share with everyone!

Enjoy your summer!