Olympic Diary Greece
August 21, 2004
Two days untill my three meter individual competition! Over the last few days ive been watching and realizing how amazing the Olympics really are. Not just as an athlete but as a spectator and a fan. Watching the USA teams competing, winning and struggling puts life into such perspective. Young athletes are so lucky to be watching the Olympics because it shows them that nothing is impossible. Just a few days ago, i went from being an athlete trying to win gold to an athlete who needs to just settle down and enjoy being a part of the Olympic dream. Some people might think that is silly but you have no control over any situation. You just need to continue to work hard and keep putting yourself in those same positions. I might not have won gold a few days ago, but i realize that being a repeat Olympian has its own glories. How many people can say they are a repeat Olympian? I worked hard to make the team again, giving myself another chance to win gold. As I mature and become an even better diver, continuing to put myself in the same situations, i have to believe that it will come and trust me when that day comes it will be great and an amazing dream come true. I just have to remember to believe in myself and that nothing is impossible. GO USA!!! Heres a quote that eveyone should live by and remember. The Past is History, The Future is a Mystery, The Present is an Opportunity.
August 18, 2004
Its been a wild roller coaster since my synchro competition on the 16th. Ive had mixed emotions about it. But I know what happend, happend for a good reason. I dont quite understand that sometimes but who understands lifes long journey anyway. But the greek divers did their job and dove better then I have ever seen them dive. So my hats off to them. I dont know what they showed on tv back in the states but there was a lot more to the competition then diving. First of all we had a male, thats right a tutu wearing male, jump out of the crowd. Not only did he want to show off his tutu but he started taking his clothes off too. Some people say that he was doing advertisement for an internet gambling site, but I dont know thats true or not. It took about 10-15 minutes just for security to get him off the board. Then another few minutes to get him out of the water. He obviously didnt want to leave. That whole event started the most amazing yet weird final round of diving competition that I have ever experienced. The top three countries in the standings just fall a part. China with pressure of winning every event, fails their dive. Then the russians, performing the same dive Justin and I were doing, hit the board. Now that stalls the competition even more to see if the russian diver was ok. Ten minutes later, well after helping the diver, they couldnt get the scores on the board. One of the scoring paddles didnt work. So again after more waiting they finally got it. Man it seemed like forever. They finally annouced our dive and to be honest I cant even recall what happend. Its over and thats all I can say. It didnt turn out the way I wanted, but I have come away from this meet understanding life even more. Somethings you just dont understand. To be honest, this whole episode has brought Justin and me closer together. Maybe thats what God had in store for us. Im holding my head high and using my feelings of frustration and disapointment to fuel the fire for my individual event on the 23 and 24.
August 16, 2004
Well today is go time!! Justin and I have synchro three meter to compete. We will be diving at 10:20PM Greece time which is 2:20PM Central time. The girls synchro will be held one hour before our event. GO USA!!! We had our morning practice and it well really well. All we need to do is keep it up and hold nothing back. Im so looking forward to the event that ive had butterflies all last night and all this morning. But I kept them under wrap by hanging out with the tennis players, volleyball players, mens gymanstics team, divers, and a few softball gals in the athletes lounge last night. This is where we come to email, talk on phones and watch TV, rooting for all the other USA athletes. Last night was lots of fun. We watched the mens volleyball team fight with Italy, losing in four sets, the mens waterpolo team defeating Croatia in a tough fight, winning on a last second shot, and the mens basketball team getting man handled by the Puerto Rico team, losing by almost twenty points. Well, it didnt matter whats was on tube, the teams all bonded. We yelled together, got mad together and then got a little too rowdy for the officials living upstairs. But it was all good, it was all for fun!!
August 15, 2004
Justin and I had our last practice before our day of competing. Synchro is going really well. Im having fun and the pool is just amazing. All we have to do is stay loose and do what we are capable and the judging will follow. At times I get worried aboutthis kind of stuff and whats going to happen, but then I realize that I dont have control over that stuff. I have to eliminate those thoughts out of my mind. I only have control over what I do Im still in shock over opening ceremonies. First of all sharing it with my brother and secondly watching the fireworks and torch being lit. Now that I have two Olympic ceremonies under my belt, they both had lots in common. The huge difference in Athens is that United States is spelled way different in Greek. Therefore, instead of being the team that walks out late in the ceremony, we had to walk 50 of 250 some countries. I made for a long night of standing around, but it was worth it. But I cant express enough that the fireworks were off the chart. They were simply amazing Heres some pictures, hope you enjoy! http://www.troydumais.com/2004.html Last night was the first night of diving competition. The Chinese dominated both events, but there were a few countries right on their feet. Watching the competitions and seeing how they are judging the dives has made me realize that this is anyones ball game. You just have to be solid and consistant.
August 13, 2004
Tonight is the big night...Opening Ceremonies!!!Besides being my brother, Justin, birthday, we are heading to the opening ceremonies. The start of the 2004 Athens Olympics. It feels like yesterday that I was competing at the 2000 Sydney games. How time flies. Well we are off to the start of the games. Ill send pics and have updates on what went on.
August 10, 2004
Three days till opening ceremonies! We just arrived back into athens. Funny thing is that everyone is so so glad to be back. We have AC now and it feels so good. The more and more I think about being in Berlin the more I realize that it was a good thing to do. Instead of getting bored with the village and wanting to leave, Im back and ready to go. The trip to Berlin was great other then them having no ice and no AC. When we saw a store, it was a mad dash to the drinks sold in friges. It was a delicacy believe it or not; Berlin was fun, watching movies all the time and hanging out with the boys. Playing ping pong with Mark Ruiz everyday made warmup exciting and fun. We had some really close games, but he beat me most of the time. But it was fun. I wish they had some ping pong tables here in the village. Funny thing is that if we werent playing table tennis or diving, Mark, Jan, pronounced yawn, our security man, and I were visiting another hotel called the Generator playing pool. That was lots of fun too. The Generator Hostel, yeah a hostel, was next door to the Park Plaza Hotel where we were staying It had everything from video games to internet to movies showing nightly, in english. Yeah it had German subtitles but I didnt pay any attention to them. So even though it was hot, the team always managed to have fun. The village is now completely full. The internet and gaming places all have lines to wait in. The coaches got hooked up and are now staying on the same floor with us. We are sharing the house with the womens soccer team and fencing team. The tennis players were supposed to be on our floor, the rooms that the coaches now have, but they decided to stay in hotels. It would have been lots of fun to hang out with them, but oh well. The mens swimming team is just getting back from there training camp and it was awesome to see my Texas Longhorn teammates and my University of Texas head coach, Eddie Reese. Being here with them brings back some great memories, winning national titles and being NCAA champs, of home in Austin, TX with the team.
August 9, 2004
Today I got my first day off. I went to downtown Berlin to pizza hut to have an american meal. I got to drink soda for the first time in Europe with ice. Its a limited commodaty out here. It was so nice to drink a cold drink. Its been so hot here and my room has no AC and the only way to cool it off is opening the window in my room. I guess being on the eighth floor doesnt help to cool things off when the sun beats down on the top floor of the hotel we are staying at. Its been fun out here because Ive been able to play ping pong every morning to warm up, as long as I get the rest of my warmup done first. Diving is going really well, especially with synchro. But I cant wait to get back to the village to get some AC and try to cool off. Today we had two workouts. Both went really well for all members of the team. Mark and Kyle look great in synchro and Kyle did a heck of a job, nailing his reverse 3 1/2 tuck, back 3 1/2 pike and back armstand triple, not to mention his flawless required dives. Marks back twisters are getting better then ever and Justin and I are as synchro as we have ever been. Mark and I played two hours of billiards pool in the village after eating our chicken Mcnuggets at McDonalds. He was the man tonight on the pool table. But once we get back from Berlin I will get him back.The village is huge. It takes at least 10-15 minutes to walk anywhere. Thats a lot for me.
August 8, 2004
Its been about six days now and finally the greek deligation realized that the athletes need to save their legs for their competitions. So instead of running one or two buses for the village, its now up to a fleet of ten, circling the village all day everyday. The village is comprised on one main dining hall, two residence dining halls, three residence internet cafes, an outdoor swimming pool with full weight equiptment and cardio room, and not to forget the 200 or so apartment complexes where all the athletes sleep. The boys and the girls are in two separate apartments, where the coaches and managers are rooming in another. I am rooming with my brother, Justin. We have been getting along really well and enjoy hanging out with the rest of the boys. Just last night there was a power surge that went through our apartment. The exit of the power surge just so happened to be my xbox gaming system. We had just received the new tv and plugged it in when the pop sound and the sight of smoke coming out the back of the xbox told us that i was no longer. Well the idea of having a Tiger Woods 2004 competition between the boys and coaches is out the window. We are now sticking to the idea of having Texas Holdem gambling tournaments instead. My body is holding up pretty well with a few minor aches and pains. I twisted my ankle at Senior Nationals and that has its ups and downs, but it is almost 100 percent now. Funny thing is that my knee is bugging me and the doctors think its from taking it easy on my ankle. But with the amazing 24 hour physical therapists, trainers, doctors and specialists here in the village, the knee pains are rapidly decreasing. Tomorrow morning we leave for Berlin, Germany.
August 3, 2004
Today we had one workout in the morning. It was our first workout off. We used it to walk the beach and lounge around. The day was really restfull until we almost hit a car trying to cross the train tracks. Well the drivers arent any better over here July 31, 2004 Live from GREECE! Today I finally got my bag that I checked on my flight overseas. It was the only bag that didnt come for the whole US delegation arriving two days ago. Oh well, lol! The village is absolutely amazing. Its really spread out which gives us lots of room to work with but the down side to is that we have a lot of walking to do. We practiced for the very first time in the Athens 2004 pool. It also looks amazing, a whole lot cleaner than in Feb when they hosted the World Cup. Anyway, my practice started off slow but picked up. I came away from the pool happy, even though I still feel fat and swollen from the flights over here. Funny thing is that I dont have any ankles, all legs and then feet because of the swelling, which makes diving even harder. Justin Wilcock did some diving today...that was good to see. His back is feeling much better.
July 27, 2004
Two days till we leave. This morning was hard to wake up. Seven AM workout came way too soon. Its always hard to wake up the next morning from a travel day and have the motivation to train. Anyway, practice came and went, however, I have to stay awake for one more practice today. This could be my last Tuesday diving at the Woodlands. But only time will tell. By the way practice went better then expected. Thank goodness!!
July 26, 2004
Three days till we take off for Athens, Greece. I just got home, to The Woodlands, TX, from the Senior Naitonals in Mission Viejo, California. I was so nice to be back in my home state, California, and dive at the same time. I am really pleased and happy with my performances in my individual event on three meter springboard and also with my brother Justin in the synchronized three meter event. Coming off of the two wins at the Nationals, Im hoping to keep my focus and work harder for my goal at winning gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics.