This past weekend the European Short Course Championships (swimming, doh) were held in Poland. As an old swimmer I tend to follow championships like these closely - I like to look up the results, stories and pictures. When Danish swimmers are mentioned in International swimming news, it makes me happy.
I've never understood why Swimming isn't a bigger sport in Denmark. In the US and Australia, swimming has become quite popular - largely thanks to superstars such as Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps (what up Bmore!) In Denmark though, it has onyl started gaining more respect and media coverage again more recently. Super swimmer Lotte Friis gained some popularity after winning some medals and competing in the Danish version of 'Dancing with the starts" (vild med dans). But she still has to compete with the handball team, the soccer team, Caroline Wozniacki, and a plethora of other athletes for media and mainstream attention. More recently, Jeanette Ottesen has been winning and therefore recieving lots of attention. These are swimmers that swam back when I swam - they were the 'good girls' of my agegroup, the ones to beat (even though I was way far off their times even back then....) - and it is SO cool to see them have success. And even more exciting - there are lots of young talents too.
Anyway, back to the Euro SC champs. Denmark won a record amount of medals and topped the medal charts, set some cool records (It's good to see that new swimmers are taking over now that the Mette JAcobsen and Louise Ørnstedt days are over....). I KNOW none of this translates to Olympic Success. But BOY am I excited for this upcoming Olympic year!
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