Today we arrived in Barcelona. This is my first
international tournament, and I am both nervous and excited. As I expressed in
my last entry, it is truly an honor to be chosen for the squad and I am ready
to make the most of this great opportunity.
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| Getting ready to leave for the airport (with my mom and brother) ! |
We arrived at the airport at 10 am Barcelona time, which is
2 am back home in Colorado. I was absolutely exhausted. At the airport we met
some tournament volunteers who were there to bring us to our hotel. Once we
arrived at the hotel there was just enough time to quickly get settled and
then we left to for a quick practice.
My roommate for this tournament is our starting goalie,
Keith Johnson. Keith has been on the team for nine years, and has participated
in two Paralympics, Athens in 2004 and London in 2012. Having a veteran as a
roommate for my first tournament is very nice because he can answer any
questions that I have, and I have a lot of questions.
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| Keith Johnson, Goalie, US Paralympic Team |
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| Keith Johnson, Goalie, US Paralympic Team |
After we got settled in we left for a short practice.
Everyone was tired from an extremely long day of traveling, so all that
practice involved today was a quick warm up and then a possession drill called
5 v 2 to get some touches in and get our legs under us. Once we finished
practice we jumped in the pool for a while to cool off our muscles and to relax.
After swimming we had about an hour of downtime, and then we
left again to go participate in a study about Cerebral Palsy. In the study
there were five different stations, and at each station, we were asked to do
three different movements that all used one specific muscle group. The stations
focused on quickness, balance, jumping and strength, and there was also a
station that took our body measurements. The only downside to all of the tests
was that by the time they were finished it was already 9 o’clock and I was
starving. Thankfully, that’s just about when dinner starts in Spain. Dinner
tonight was pasta with cream sauce, chicken sausage and bread with butter.
Everything was delicious. It’s now 10 o’clock and I haven’t had a good night’s
sleep in 36 hours. I guess it’s all just part of living the dream.
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