tom911

Natalie competed in the 100 freestyle Friday night in a packed arena, and we couldn't even tell the results until the scoreboard displayed them. When it was done, she had placed 4th, so although she had an excellent swim, no medal today. The winning time by Australian Libby Lenton matched the 2nd fastest swim in this event that Natalie had set in semi-finals on Thursday night, so they both now hold that time record.

Afterwards we had dinner at Von's on Hardware Street (I had an excellent gnocchi, while others in the group had lamb shank or other pastas). We spent the afternoon at the Queen Victoria market and shopping along Bourke Street mall. I'm using a daily transit pass now ($A6.10/$US5) as my weekly pass has expired, and we only need these passes through Sunday (a daily pass for Sunday is $A2.50/$US2). Monday we're off to SYdney for a one day event scheduled Tuesday night, US vs Australia Duel in the Pool.

This morning (Saturday) we are off to our last session of prelims at the Rod Laver Arena. I"m heading there in 5 minutes.

tom911

Hello this Sunday morning from Melbourne, Australia, the last full day we’ll be spending here. On Monday morning we’re off to Sydney (minus Megan’s boyfriend Brian, who flies back to the U.S. today), and then Tuesday evening the U.S. competes against Australia head-on for the third time in Duel in the Pool (previous events have been in Indianapolis and Irvine in the U.S.). This event will be televised in the U.S. over a weekend later in the month (and probably televised "live" in Australia, where they really take their swimming seriously).

The sunny weather has completely gone away, and it’s been overcast and around 68F/21C the last couple days. It started raining again after dinner Saturday night. I talked to some Victoria Police officers at the Queen Victoria market who said this is more typical of the weather this time of year, versus the 37C/99F when I arrived 9 days ago (I’ve heard a couple locals mention that was the high temperature last week).

Saturday night Natalie swam semi-finals of 50 freestyle, an event that is not offered at the Olympics. She placed 7th going into finals, and we will be back tonight (Sunday) to see her compete in finals for this, her very last event at the World Swimming Championships here. She faces some very tough competition for this event.

She also competed in the finals of 4X100 medley relay on Saturday night, the last event of the evening. She started off the U.S. team with the 100 backstroke, the event she holds the new world record in established just a few days ago, and hit the wall before Australia. The U.S. lead did not last long, though, as two Australians with world records of their own competed in the following legs, and Australia won the event by a good margin (they have some very good female swimmers here, and broke their own world record in the event). Although the Australian women have won a stack of gold medals this week, we couldn’t think of one event that the Australian men took gold.

As the winning teams paraded around the pool, Natalie clapped her hands to the music of "Land Down Under" by Men at Work, a song that has become the standard here anytime the Australian women win gold. She had a big smile on her face and was clearly happy with her performance.

Natalie’s medal count right now is identical to what she won at the 2004 Athens Olympics: 2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze.

For dinner we went to Southbank again, but on a Saturday night at 10pm our first restaurant choice could not get us in, but fortunately the World Restaurant, where we were a few nights ago, had some tables way in the back, and that worked fine. I had "Turf and Surf" for $A27.50($US22) which consisted of 3 small prawns (shrimp) and 3 separate steaks, all on a stack of fries. I’m guessing it must have been better than 2 pounds of steak, and I must admit defeat in trying to finish everything on my plate (can’t remember the last time that happened). Looks like they take their steak here seriously, too. Others in our party had pasta and pizza and a seafood salad. We had a 2004 Australian shiraz ($A30/$US24) which was very good.

Did want to mention Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe came over to say hello to the Coughlins on Friday night. Didn’t take a photo, though, as it just didn’t seem right (and hundreds of people would have noticed him and homed in for photos of their own--he seems to stay below radar until someone points him out).

Next update will likely be after we’re in Sydney, and include comments on my Qantas lounge visit and flight.

Photos from the last few days start at #374 in this folder:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/[email protected]=ALL
If they don't appear right away, they'll likely be there in a few hours when yahoo updates.

Also finally got the Melbourne Zoo photos up this morning, which includes their colony of 16 fairy penguins:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/[email protected]

tom911

Hello from the Qantas Lounge at the Melbourne, Australia airport. Just had some toast and orange juice, and found the free computers here. I was expecting to meet the Coughlins here (I came out by airport bus, they came out separately from their hotel), but seems we are departing from different terminals (I depart from domestic at noon, and they depart from international at 11:30, likely because their plane continues on somewhere else outside Australia). We're booked at the same hotel in Sydney so we'll certainly catch up this afternoon. The terminals are not connected here in Melbourne, so there's no way for me to get inside their terminal.

Last night (Sunday) was the final night of swimming. Natalie competed in the 50 freestyle, a non-Olympic event, and did not medal. The big news of the day was that the U.S. mens team was disqualified in prelims for the 4X100 medley relay in the morning, so they were unable to compete Sunday night in finals, which they were expected to win, giving the Australia men a gold.

Natalie ends this meet with 2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze, and I'm sure she is happy with all of those.

At the end of the evening, the USA team co-captains, which included Natalie and Tara Kirk (too busy taking photos to look and see who the mens co-captains were), accepted the award for winning the meet. I did write down the medal count, and overall it was a good meet for Team USA:

USA: 36 total medals
Australia: 21 total medals

and the gold medal count:

USA: 20 gold medals
Australia: 9 gold medals

Team USA will compete against Australia in Sydney on Tuesday night at Duel in the Pool.

Sunday afternoon the sun did come out, and it was beautiful in Melbourne, with blue skies everywhere (quite a contrast to clouds everywhere in the morning--weather does change here quickly). We walked out to Lygon Street (Italian district) and had lunch at Pasta Rustica, sitting outdoors under a canopy. We walked past Michael Phelps mother who was also dining out there, though we selected a different restaurant. I had gnocchi, while Jim, Zennie and Megan had various pasta dishes. We were lured into this restaurant by the offer of a "free bottle of wine for Americans". This was not unexpected, as I have been out in this area with groups before, and received a similar offer as we walked around checking menus. They even let us choose among several types, and we had a Lindemann's cabernet shiraz.

Afterwards we hit a gelato shop (I had tiramisu, rum raisin and baileys--3 scoops for $A5/$US4), and then back into the city.

That's it for this morning. Have about an hour before I head for the gate.

Rudi

Thank you Tom911 for your extensive reports ^ which:
1) make me sooooooooo©® jealous
2) make me feel much more being part of it when watching the whole event on Eurosport TV

I only 'trust' statistics that I falsify myself, so here I go

Populations
Australia 20,788,357
USA > 300,000,000

medals per head:
Australia approx 1 per 1 Million
USA approx 1 per 8.3 Million

gold medals per head:
Australia approx 1 per 2 Million
USA approx 1 per 15 Million

ozstamps

That seems to show ozzies swim 8 times better than the Americans Rudi.

Tom may not agree with those math extensions, but I am happy to sign off on them.

Take away Phelps and add back Thorpe and it would be 50 times higher, but we all know what they say about statistics.

And many congrats to Natalie -- she did very well this week - which by the way is on prime time TV live for a week. ^

tom911

Aren't 90% of Australians within a few miles of the coast? We need to factor that in if we're going to sort demographics, as surely it plays a role And you do have a superwoman of your own in Libby Lenton.

tom911

Hello this Wednesday afternoon from the Sydney Airport. I’m in the Qantas first class lounge waiting for my flight to SFO. Started my time here with a glass of Moet champagne and some cheese, fruit and pastries, and I’m waiting for them to put lunch out. Can’t seem to get their PC’s to turn on, but the ethernet cable seems to work fine with my laptop.

On arrival in Sydney on Monday afternoon, I met up with the Coughlins at our hotel near the central railway station. We flew on Qantas flights 30 minutes apart, but their flight went from Melbourne international terminal to Sydney international terminal, while mine went domestic to domestic. I took the train in ($A12.20/$US10). They came in by shuttle van.

We walked over to Chinatown for lunch on the top floor of a shopping mall (I had three Indian curries), and then set off on a hike to Darling Harbour, down to Circular Quay (dark outside now), and out under the Harbour Bridge which offered excellent night views of the Opera House and Luna Park across the water.

Tuesday we set off to Bondi Beach in the morning by train/bus (I had a day pass for $A15, around $US12, the Coughlins had weekly yellow passes for $A45/$US36 as they’re staying a few more days). After a visit there, back on the bus to Bondi Junction, and a train to Circular Quay to get the noon ferry to Manly Beach, where we had lunch at a café across from the beach (fish and chips all around). Megan and Zennie got in some quality beach time, while Jim and I hiked along the waterfront. It's a 30 minute ferry ride each way.

We left for the pool at 5pm via train from central station, and arrived about 6:30 after waiting for the connecting train to Olympic Park from Lidcombe station. The Duel in the Pool lasted 3 hours, and afterwards Australia Swimming hosted a barbecue outside, featuring steaks (beef or kangaroo), and an open bar with beer and wine. At 11:30pm we went back into the city on a chartered bus, and were at our hotel about 12:15a.m.

We did get to visit with Natalie, and she'll be in Australia a few more days. She is in Canberra as I write this.

The Duel in the Pool was won by USA based on total points, but if you break it down, the U.S. men beat the Australia men, and the Australian women beat the U.S. women.

Will get some more Melbourne photos up when I get home, as well as SYdney photos from the last 3 days.

Some final comments:

What an amazing two weeks here. This country has a passion for competitive swimming that we don’t see in the U.S, and they particularly have a core of elite female swimmers right now whose names we have heard every night (Lenton, Schipper, Henry come right to mind). We were stopped in restaurants, cafes, pubs, and even on trams and trains, and asked about swimming, and what swimmer we were here to support (we were wearing USA swimming apparel so we did stand out). We were made quite welcome and would love to come back to Australia for another swimming event.

Thankyou, Australia and Australia swimming, for a great time!

Rudi

Aren't 90% of Australians within a few miles of the coast? We need to factor that in

that factor makes Switzerland, with one silver medal, the winner - thank you.

Libby Lenton

? please translate in swiss german

ozstamps

Tearing down an indoor pool at world record speed has nothing whatever to do with where one's home may be AFAIK.

I think it is all about ability.

If it had anything to do with population living near the sea, there would likely be 20 countries well ahead of Australia and the USA.

Cairo alone has more than the population of all Australia and is very near the sea. I do not see too many Egyptian pool medallists. Never seen one AFAIK. @:-)

Don't Americans have 20 times more indoor swimming tools also than Australia?

That's the stat that has relevance. @:-)

I loved the fact Libby Lenton broke a (women's) world record last night as she was swimming only against Michael Phelps. THAT is pretty interesting.

Nat should have raced Ian Thorpe when he was competing and red-hot. ^

alect

Thanks for the whole TR tom911 - it has made me even more homesick. Your TR has really been interesting and enlightening.

ozstamps

I smiled to see she now insists on being called Lisbeth Lenton this week.

alect

Yeah and if this was the criteria there is a much higher % of Americans with guns than Austrlian, but this doesn't translate to Olympic shooting medals historically.

Also saying that 90% of Austrlians live near the coast is a little misleading - like saying in LA those loving in the Inland Empire live near the coast - comparable to those in the western suburbs of Sydney!

ozstamps

Yes, taking that logic a step further the last country on earth that should win the last America's Cup sailing competition would be mountainous land locked Switzerland.


2003: Alinghi, Switzerland, def. Team New Zealand, New Zealand, 5-0 at Auckland, New Zealand

tom911

Rudi-

Libby Lenton is the hottest Australia swimmer right now, with 5 gold medals at Worlds, and an uncertified world record from last night also, when she swam against Michael Phelps in the first leg of a mixed relay event (different format for Duel in the Pool). She's on the front page of the paper here this morning.

Looks like I'll be here a little longer. Qantas just announced an hour delay for the SFO flight due to a mechanical.

ozstamps

Numbers matter sometimes.

Getting a little OMNI here, (sorry!) but ever looked at the comparative deaths by gun stats?

Very sadly, the USA wins that one hands down I think.