Fun fact.

So here is a fun fact about me. I'm seriously in love with Olympic swimming. Mostly men's. But I mean, come on, I'm only human.

There is a small reason as to why this could be surprising. Just in case you aren't aware, I can't swim. When I say I can't swim, I don't just mean I'm not very fast or I can't do certain strokes. I cannot do the following things.

• Doggie paddle
• Tread water
• Float. 

So yeah. I can't swim. Feel free to offer to teach me. You won't be the first. But if you actually follow through, you would be the first. Well almost the first. Ben Christensen started giving me a crash swimming course on summer tour before they kicked everyone out of the hotel pool. (We know hotel pools close around 10, but we party-it-up folk dancers try every time.) I just couldn't put my head underwater without plugging my nose. That's simply too much to ask of me. 

But ever since the Athens Olympics I've been pretty into men's swimming. I will admit that it all started with Michael Phelps. Think about it. It was 2004, I was a 15 year old girl, I'd been chilling out all summer and I saw this on the USA Today sitting on our kitchen table. 

This picture has been cropped so that it is G-rated. And to alleviate some
embarrassment from what my 15 year old self cared about. 

L to R: Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker, Aaron Peirsol
and Jason Lezak after they won gold in the 4X100
medley relay in Athens 2004

And so it began. However, as I watched the swimming events, I found some other favorites. Though I found them individually, I later learned they were known as the Texas Trio: Brendan Hansen (breaststroke), Aaron Peirsol (backstroke) and Ian Crocker (butterfly). When put with Jason Lezak (another fave of mine) and his freestyle, their 4x100 medley relay was gold medal. And I was smitten. 

For the next three years of high school especially, I was smitten with each of the Texas Trio at different times. I even dabbled in fan fiction (though I quickly found that most of those were not exactly Mormon-girl appropriate). I created separate storylines of how I met each swimmer, which is how I got into the fan fiction. I'm quite sure I still have the notebook somewhere with notes jotted down of the three stories I planned on writing. In fact, I may or may not have created a blog called Beautiful Swimmers just to house an Ian Crocker fan fiction. It's now private so don't even try. It existed for most of my college life until I was somehow reminded that it was there and I then quickly privatized it. Now you don't know what I do there. Ha. 

Michael Phelps slowly faded out of my range of caring. Although not until after I bought his auto-biography. Even though by Beijing I was in college I was still quite into the games and followed my dear Texas Trio quite faithfully. I even started writing a blog post about how excited I was. It's still saved as a draft somewhere. Reality hit when, one by one, the trio stated their intentions to retire after Beijing. I figured my love for men's swimming would fade out. 

Background over.

Lochte circa 200...8? 4? 

I kept forgetting about the Olympics since I was so over Michael Phelps (okay so I'm not really over Michael Phelps, you can't ever really get over someone with that much talent and that many medals). I heard some word about Ryan Lochte who I remembered as a cute boy with some crazy curls. I miss the curls a little, but he's definitely upped his female appeal these days. 

But then I heard some news that changed my view of the Olympics quite definitively. Not only was Brendan Hansen making a comeback and competing in the Olympics (gasp!) but he was the team captain (double gasp!)! In my Texas Trio love, Brendan had been my most recent favorite so this gave me great joy. He always seemed like a very down to earth guy, and the article I read about him being team captain gave me immense joy. Even more so after I found out he had gotten married and he and his wife are expecting their first child (oh how I love families!) 

Brendan has since won a bronze in his individual event (100 m breaststroke). And he was fittingly in a lane next to Kosuke Kitajima, a Japanese competitor he has had some history with. I may still be a little bitter. And he beat him! And I grinned through the whole medal ceremony. Sadly I didn't watch the race live because it happened during the middle of sacrament meeting in my singles ward. Though I was pretty tempted. I did give in and check my twitter when he tweeted a picture of his medal. I fist pumped in the middle of Sunday School. ...hehe. 

I am considering not leaving the house until the Olympics are over so I never miss any more Olympic events live. It just isn't the same re-broadcasted on NBC.com without commentary and such. 

And that's the story of how a swim-less girl loves swimming men.  That's a little awkward. 

And that's the story of a land-locked girl loving swimmer boys. Still awkward. 

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down Oh wait that wasn't me. (Go to the link, you know you need to finish that song now)

And that's how I like my Olympics. 

And cut.