Open Water Swimming Connection

Only one more day until the Open Water World World Championships begin! We are all very excited about starting the competition and having a few great 5K's. Yesterday was fairly uneventful but we had a great time lounging around the hotel between training sessions.

We split our training between the pool and the beach and saw some really amazing things out of everyone on the team, which gives us great hope about what's to come for us in competition. We get to go to the venue at where we will be competiting for a training session tonight which will help us learn exactly what the race course will be like, where the feeding stations and where the finish will be. Practice makes perfect and we're going to practice aiming in for our finishes and turns around the buoys, hopefully a great advantage for TEAM USA! The race water has been fairly smooth so far, not too wavy but rough at times depending on how many boats are near. More about the race site next time.

Ciao, Katie

Another great day in Italy for the U.S. Open Water team! We have had two more great training sessions since the last time I wrote. In the 10K and, more importantly, the 25K, feedings during the race are very important for refueling and energy, and we got to practice these feedings last night during our pool workout.

This morning we got another training session in at the beach, just down from the race site off the coast of Naples. The water was beautiful and the view is breathtaking. We are all well taken care of with lotions to prevent sea lice while swimming and we have no problems with that yet which is a good thing!

The team is having an absolute blast between training, just hanging out getting to know each other a little better. We have had a few friendly games to get to know a few things we wouldnt otherwise have known. Then our head coach, Rick Walker, got us together last night for a great card game, which was a blast!! Italy has been amazing so far and we are all definitly ready for the competitions to start. The 5K starts on Tuesday, August 29th so we're getting close!!!
Ciao,
Katie Ball

Here are the members of the US team and the events they are swimming.

Katie Ball - 10K:
Claire Hawley- 25 K
Chip Peterson- 5 and 10 K
Dan DeMarco- 5 and 10 K
Erica Rose- 10 and 25 K
Kirsten Grooms- 5 K
Brittany Massengale - 5 K

Erica Rose is doing the marathon swim next week from Naples to Capri, its
a 36 K and should take 8 to 9 hours.

Ciao, from Naples, Italy.

It was two long days of traveling Tuesday and Wednesday and we are finally in beautiful Italy.
After a nice loosen up swim with the team on Wednesday, we all caught up on sleep with a great nights rest and we were up and at it again on Thursday.

Training has been going very well, the team comraderie is amazing and has made for some great training
sessions. We had our first training session in the sea last night which was amazing, the water is perfect and the view is absolutely gorgeous.

The Italians are treating us very graciously and we have been very thankful for that. There have been a few obstacles we have had to overcome between traveling, training sessions, and language barriers but we have had no problem overcoming those and continuing on our way to a great competition. Being flexible is
so extremely important with open water swimming because nothing is ever set in stone!

Well were off to the beach to get in a good swim, till next time, Ciao! Katie Ball