Swimming

Today was my last day at my swimming pool. This month has been slightly strange compared to normal because of the World Swimming Championships that are currently taking place here in Barcelona. My swimming pool's one of the official training pools for the event which means the opening times have changed to allow the athletes to practice. So over the last few weeks half of the pool has been taken up with world class synchronised swimmers practising before heading out to the competitions which has made the odd break between lengths a lot more fun than usual. On Monday I swam with the belarus team, then watched a soloist syncrho swimmer, met some of the Italian team in the changing rooms and met a volunteer of the Japanese team smoking outside as I left.

The posters and leaflets all around town made me look up the event online and I found some tickets for the individual synchronised swimming finals. The events are taking place in various points of the city.. we went to Palau Sant Jordi, which is in the Olimpic Park on Montjuic which was built for the olympic games in 1992. I'd been to the olimpic park before on walks and was used to a quiet, empty space with good views towards the airport... This was different though. On the outside escalators that take you up the mountain there was already an atmosphere building up; at the top stalls selling food, lots of people, children playing football, booths with shops and things to do, restaurants, a small bridge over the water display.. and lots of advertising for the event!

The swimmers were amazing!! The Catalan girl, who of course had the most applause during the event, came 3rd and after all 11 swimmers we got to see the medal ceremony. The medals were presented by a lady who I guess was famous. Unfortunately we didn't hear her name because the boo-ing and whistling began before the loudspeakers could tell us... I therefore guess she was something to do with Spanish politics.