I first heard of Wieslaw at the Stanford Worlds. He was 49(top of the age-group) and had just set the world record in the 200 back. Later I googled him and found he was a Polish Olympian who now lived and swam in Canada. I first saw him here swimming the 200 back against Joe. Joe had a great swim , but he got walloped by Wieslaw. So who am I sitting next to for my first event(400 IM)? None other than Wieslaw. In the marshalling area you have plenty of time to meet your competitors and we quickly became friends. I told him how I had seen him swim 2 years prior and looked forward to racing him in the 400 IM. Now here is the interesting part. I thought I was nervous! Wieslaw made me look catatonic. He told me in his broken English how he hated this event, that he could only swim backstroke, he hadn't been swimming well, why was he doing this, ect... Anyway, it opened my eyes. Here is a guy who has swam in the Olympics, numerous Masters Champs, and still gets nervous. Or was he playing mind games with me? It turned out no, that was just his personality. One of the friendliest guys I have ever met. Oh, and we had a great race. We were close in the fly, he buried me in the back(7 seconds), I caught and passed him in the breast and held on in the free.. We ended up 2nd and 3rd. We have since run into each other numerous times and have chatted quite often. We also had a great battle in the 200IM. Anyway, for those who still get nervous at competitions, you are not alone. Ex-Olympians do also.
John
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