The first weekend in April, Dynamo traveled to the gorgeous Ohio State Natatorium for the first annual OSU Grand Prix Meet along with a handful of Olympic veterans and Olympic hopefuls all fighting for the air plane tickets to Beijing. Competing at the meet where Michael Phelps, Brendan Hansen, Katie Hoff, Eric Vendt, Cesar Cielo, and Gary Hall Jr. just to name a few. There were also the promising hopefuls, such as Alicia Aemisegger and Kathleen Hersey.

Being at the meet was an experience that I will never forget; not just because of the big names that I was sharing a warm down pool with but because of the unique timing of the swim meet in terms of the Olympic Trials. All of the swimmers hoping to go to the Olympics were tweaking their routine, from warm ups to nutrition to stroke counts in the middle of the race. I was able to watch Eric Vendt glide through prelims, obviously working on stroke count with his coach; then I was able to watch him take the information he learned in the morning and apply it to his finals swim. It was also fun to watch some of the greats swim their "bad" events. Michael Phelps was in an outside lane in the 100-meter breastroke, being beaten by Brendan Hansen’s 1:01.10 breastroke. Katie Hoff, while not typically thought of as a 100-meter freestyle pulled out a great swim, obviously working on speed with her coaches and using this race for practice.

The Dynamo Group also got the chance to see how these World Class Swimmers are much more similar to us than we had thought. Like all tired swimmers at a warm natatorium Michael Phelps dosed off before his 400 meter Freestyle, missing his race and Eric Vendt got disqualified in the 200 meter I.M. I got to have a short conversation with Katie Hoff before the 800-meter freestyle relay. She was so much nicer than I ever thought she could be and was really just a sweet teenager who happens to have extraordinary swimming talent.

I have to admit the athlete that got the most attention from the Dynamo swimmers would have to be Cesar Cielo. The rising sprint star had is home base right near ours during the whole meet, and I think we ended up staring at him more than we watched prelims. On Saturday night Rich, who previously coached Cesar at Auburn, took us over to his team area and asked if we could get a picture with him. With huge smiles on our faces, we all crowded around Cesar and got proof of how close we were to him! All of the athletes that we asked for pictures were extremely kind and had fun getting to know us.

Another really unique aspect to this swim meet in general was the Lazer Racer swimsuit that has just been released by Speedo. This suit has an abnormal amount of press following it because of the allegations that it gives the wearer an unfair advantage over the rest of the field. Speedo had a table set up at the swim meet allowing anybody that wanted to a chance to rent one of the Lazers. Layne Brodie and Laura Browning both got a chance to wear a Lazer, giving the team insight on how well it actually works. Cesar actually dislocated two thumbs before the finals of 50 meter freestyle while trying to put on the swim suit, and Layne almost had to get the suit cut off because of how tight fitting it is.

From watching the incredibly fast swimming to having the chance to meet these world-class swimmers in a relaxed setting, this swim meet was an experience that I will never forget. Many of our teammates are on spring break right now and I know all of us are thinking the same thing no matter where we are, "Did that really happen?". For me the experience was so amazing that I will have to look at the pictures I took in order to remind myself I was actually there.

Anna Griest