Marayke's beijing blog: March 2008

Australian paralympic swim team announced

It all started for me when one of my all time Paralympic heroes Brendan Burkett (now sport scientist for the team) tracked me down in a hallway (coming out of the toilets of all places!) to say "It's official you're going. Now you need to go over to that hallway on the far side of the diving pool to get ready for the announcement" From there it was a flurry of activity, camera flashes and hugs and we scrambled to get into the matching white Addidas t-shirts we would wear for our big moment.

Then we had to line up alphabetically with girls on one side of the room and boys on the other. Just as we were lined up one swimmer whom I thought had missed out, Kat Lewis Athens Paralympian, walked in and I was so happy for her. She had been sick and hadn't swum as well as she'd hoped. I'd actually heard she retired. Then again, there seems to be a rumour going around that I retired too. When I arrived on the first day most of the swimmers said "hi Marayke, are you here commentating?"!

Once is line, we proceeded down the same long hallway where I learnt that I was going to Athens 4 years ago. Here we waited single file, chatting amongst ourselves and with the inevitable fits of giggles rippling through the girls' line whenever we were told to be quiet.

One by one our names were announced to the crowd (pretty much an empty grandstand spare about 30 family and friends, which was probably one of the only downsides to the night). When my name was called it was my turn to walk out across the end of the pool past an honour guard of past Paralympians ( Many my past team mates: Alistair Smales, Megan Grant, Alicia Jenkins, Jessica Smith, Brendan Burkett). Then it was on to shake hands with Darren Peters, CEO of the Australian Paralympic Committee and finally our headcoach Brendan Keogh ( by then I was so excited I thought a hug was far more suitable than a handshake). We all assembled in rows in front of the media banner for photos with lots of jostling and discussion about who was taller/shorter etc. Just when we had it perfect the photographer announced he actually wanted a picture with the pool behind us so we all had to move down the other end! We did and eventually we got a lovely arial photo with the photographer standing up in the grandstand looking down on us. We got one of just the Queenslanders too, for Swimming QLD.

I had the most amazing suprise after that, a blast from the past as some would call it. Way back in 1994 when I was 14 years old in hospital having a spinal fusion operation and stuck lying down in bed for months I shared a room with a little boy I will never forget. His name way Eliah and he had been involved in a terrible accident with a tiger in a circus across the road from the hospital. Eliah had lost his arms. I remember very little of my time in hospital but I remember his family frantically calling relatives trying to let them know before they heard the news on a tv.I remember the extraordinary grief of a father whose tigon (cross between a lion and a tiger), like a baby to him, had mauled his own son. And I remember the cheek of the media..... camping outside emergency trying to get in. I could see them out my window.One day Eliah and I were alone in our private room when a man walked in with a bunch of flowers. The nurses must have thought he was a relative, but he turned out to be a journalist trying to sneak in and get an interview. No unknown visitors were allowed after that. It certainly made me think about ethics, and when I studied journalism at uni I sure knew what sort of journalist I DIDN'T want to be. I really admired Eliah for being so brave and adorable and felt for his family. Four days later he was transferred to another hospital and though I never expected to see him again the memory of those days has never left me. So standing in line waiting to have my photo taken with the team no one could have beenn more suprised than me when Eliah walked past! He has just started swimming and was racing at his first National titles. GO ELIAH!!! Goodluck I hope to see you swim at the Paralympics in London!!!!

I hardly had time to say hi and introduce myself to Eliah (he, of course didn't remember me) before I was being hustled away to the official team meeting for members of the Australian Paralympic Swim Team. We gathered back in the room this time to sit down and hear from BK. He read out all the people making their third, second and first paralympic team. I was amazed to be the only female going to my third Games. After a while the clapping was dragging on so a 2 clap rule was brought in...leading to a rather funny rhythmic accompaniment as each name was read out.This team is filled with the most amazing people, even something like a formal meeting is fun.Then we heard from swimming Australia CEO Glenn Tasker, our sport psychologist and retired swimmer Alistair Smales. Suddenly the lights dimmed and we watched a slide show of team members in Athens and at World Champs. BK then spoke about the road that has got us to this point and what we need to do in the future. He told us about the Australian coat of arms ( which we were all wearing on our t-shirts). Did you know the kangaroo and the Emu are the only two animals in the world who can't walk backwards? We all need to be kangaroos in our preparation to Beijing......take no backwards steps and make decisions that will have a positive impact on our performance.

Then with that it was over bar getting a handout with important dates etc for the next few months.

By the time the meeting ended the pool was closing, so everyone headed to the Novotel bar with their families and we has a great time. I caught a cab and finally got home at 2am.

Relief is definitely the emotion that sums today up best for me.

I had expected to cry when I found out I made the team, but there was never really a wow moment. When Brendan Burkett first told me he was really just in a rush to cross names off his list and get us all organised. So it wasn't really a huge celebratory moment.

Plus I had an inkling I was going after I raced, seing as BK was so happy with my time.

Then at about 3pm I got a text message from BK saying

"Hi swimmers please bring your white APC t-shirt tonight.

Meet at the end of the pool when swimming finished.Thanks, BK"

Well back in 2004 at the Athens trials we all got a letter saying meet at the end of the pool for the announcement. My roomate Brooke Stockham and I really hoped it meant something, we carried it around and practically slept with it. But we didn't know for sure if it meant we made it on the team until the announcement. I thought everyone got it but it turned out those who didn't make the team didn't get the letter.So this time when I got a text about what to wear and where to meet and some other swimmers didn't I was pretty sure that meant I had a seat on the plane! At least it spared me the sick in the stomach feeling some people had when we arrived at the pool.

It was a great end to a long day. I was up at 6.30am to leave for the pool. Apparently there is meant to be bad traffic and the 10 minute drive to the pool can take 1 1/2 hours. But I was in luck- no traffic - so I got to the pool 3 hours early for my 50m breaststroke! After the race I jumped into the warm spa which really seemed to stop me getting sore. Must remember that trick. Then I went back to the hotel and started this blog to keep everyone up to date. I feel like I made two great achievements today, making the team and FINALLY working out how to get online in this hotel room (took many phonecalls to reception!)

Now trials are over and it is time to start the hard training

161 days to go (I'm not counting or anything!)

take care

xoxooxoox marayke xooxooxox

Hi and welcome to my Beijing Blog

I plan to use this blog to keep you all up to date with news from the Olympic and Paralympic swimming selection trials. Hopefully, if all goes to plan I will be selected in the Australian team which will be announced on March 28 on pool deck at the trials. First I have to swim fast enough to qualify. I have my one and only chance to qualify

Fingers crossed Iwill make it!

Here's how the trials have unfolded for me so far:

Day 1 Monday 24/03/08

Well I have arrived in Sydney for the Paralympic trials and the emotional roller coaster ride that is a Paralympic year has begun- only stop in September when when the fireworks at the closing ceremony fade out and the flag is handed to London for 2012

I am really excited about my race now. Being in Sydney where my Paralympic dream began has really taken me back to my roots and reminded me how much I love swimming – and HOW MUCH I WANT TO GO TO BEIJING!

The flight down was great. At 11.50 I flew out of Maroochy Airport, Mum and my boyfriend Alex were there to see me off. I left a rainy windy Sunshine Coast to emerge into beautiful Sydney sunshine. A lovely couple shared my luggage trolley to the taxi line (I paid, they pushed). And now I am at the Novotel Olympic Park. Novotel is at Olympic Park in Homebush, where the Sydney Olympics were held and is walking distance to the pool, stadium Australia and even the Royal Easter Show which is being held here this week.

The hotel is really nice and the ends of the toilet paper are even folded into a neat triangle! Out the window I can see the Royal Easter Show, Stadium Australia, the train station and way off in the distance are Centrepoint tower and the Harbour Bridge.

But it is all the memories that have really helped get my psyched up. I remember the first time I saw the Sydney Olympic Pool. I was in a bus with the QLD team for the National Disabled Championships in 1999 and everyone was singing along to the radio when there it was- the pool here I hoped all my dreams would come true at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics. I took a quiet moment amongst the chaos to say to myself “this is the most beautiful pool in the world and I am going to swim SUPER FAST here.” The side we drove up to it on was facing the grass mound so it looked like the whole pool was underground and I remember thinking that is really unique.

Then there was the first time I swam in the pool- and qualified for the Paralympic team. And my first Paralympic race- 150 IM, which was the first event on the first day with thousands of cheering Aussies in the stands.

I remember the first time I stayed in this hotel too. The whole paralympic team was here together for the Sydney trials and we would get SO EXCITED if we were sharing an elevator with Ian Thorpe or Susie O'Neil.

I was such a rookie traveler I didn’t know your could turn the airconditioning down and slept with all my clothes on to stay warm! And then there was this mysterious silver thing on the bathroom wall that turned out to be a pull out washing line.

After every heats and final session we would gather in the meeting room for a meal and team manager Tracy Lawrence would check our times off aginst her list to see if we’d qualified for the team. It was in the dining hall of this very hotel that I first heard the words "Congratulations Marayke Jonkers Paralympian". Our names even made it into the Sydney newspapers.

Straight after these trials we flew overseas to Holland and England and my luggage nearly got left behind. We were away for 3 weeks so no way could I carry it all. I called for a porter to our floor, put my bags at the door and he accidently took someone else's and left mine!

Somewhere around here is a brick with my name on it in a pathway of Sydney competitors- though I’ve never found it after many attempts looking over the years. I did find my name on a pole in an installation artwork near Stadium Australia which is amazing.

I went over to the pool to watch the finals and to catch up with my former coach Sacha to discuss our plan for the next few days. My coach Mike couldn't make the trip down so Sacha is helping me with my warm up and to get my fastskin on (no easy task!)I didn't manage to find her (I suspect the crowd was so loud with all the cheering she didn’t hear her mobile when I rang).But I am so glad I went over to the pool. At first I was a bit tired and wanted to stay in and watch it on the tv (plus I didn’t want to miss Home and Away!). But after watching one race on channel I decided to stop being lazy and walk over- the atmosphere is huge and it is great to catch up with familiar faces and see such top level swimming. Now it is 10pm and I’m so hyped up I can't get to sleep-swim meets tend to do that for me. I end up running on adrenalin all week.

I caught up with my friend and team mate Esther, and her mum offered to help with my fastskin which is really lovely. Apparently we can ask to try the new speedo LZR racing suit which I am really keen to do.

At the pool Annabelle Williams broke the world record for 50m fly and Sam beat Matt Cowdrey in the 400 free. Exciting stuff. Leisel and Tarnee White qualified for the 100m breast and I was so thrilled for Tarnee, who missed the Athens team. I really admire the way Matt Welsh handled coming third and missing the Olympic team to two newcomers. He then retired from swimming.What an exciting night!

The first thing I did when I walked in the door from watching the finals was start my motivation wall- a pre race ritual I use at all important meets. Usually I write my target time on a gold star and tack it to the wall. This time I have made a special picture of myself holding a Beijing gold medal surrounded by images of the Water cube, Beijing village and mascot. It really helps me to visualize myself swimming there.

The other pre race ritual is painting my nails- a bright cheery shade of red.But I will do that tomorrow so they are nice and fresh on race day.

On TV I saw that the Olympic flame is lit in Olympia today – totally inspring. They were worried about rain as the rays of the sun light the flame. Apparently there is a small controversy about a new rule that priestesses lighting the flame have to be aged under 40 and good looking! Crazy, they should have come to my body image talk on International Womens' day.

Finally, I have promised myself to begin this Games diary and keep it updated all the way through to Beijing. Every Paralympics I promise myself to do this and it doesn’t happen, so third time lucky. I will just have to make the team so I can have at least one Paralympic games diary to show for a 12 year swimming career.

Take care until next time xoxooxox

Marayke

Day 2- Tuesday March 25, 2008

I had a quiet day today, resting up before I race. With the time difference I didn’t get to sleep till just past midnight here, and woke up at 10.25 am. It was rainy and grey outside so I decided not to go to the show and opted to stay inside and read book instead. I bought Mike Zupans ( star of the oscar nominated wheelchair rugby movie 'murderball' ) autobiography about wheelchair rugby at the airport so I would have something to keep me occupied.

In the afternoon I went to Muffin Break downstairs and had a spinach and feta pie with salad and tried to buy a paper to read but they were all sold out. The one in the coffee shop was a week old.

One thing I needed to do today was sort out accommodation for the end of the week. I made a booking here back in November, but they were booked out from Thursday so I have to move. In fact every disabled room within a 30 min drive is booked out! Novotel Darling Harbour are getting back to me about whether my wheelchair will fit through a standard door. For some strange reason they said they had to get the engineering department to investigate ( not sure why they couldnt just use a ruler or tapemeasure!).But that was a week ago and still no word.

A lovely lady at reception rang them for me and they haven't found an engineer yet because it was easter (ridiculous, I didn't need an engineer just to tell me the width of a door!). Lucky the lovely lady rang around for me and found Courtyard Hotel in North Ryde. Meant to be 10 min drive and they had a cancellation in the disabled room. SoI finally have somewhere to stay!

While I was at reception I saw the newsbreaks about protests at the torch lighting in Olympia. It really is just awful. I’d love to see a free Tibet, and I hate hearing horrorstories like that half China's organ donations come from executed prisoners. Infact the family of the prisoner even gets billed for the bullet. Amnesty international estimate about 30 prisoners each year are wrongly convicted and executed because their 'confession' was gained under torture. An Olympic boycott looks unlikely, and no one is even mentioning the Paralympics in the boycott debate. So I'm trying to stay focused on swimming. But I hope all this focus on China can make a difference. I’m sure if I wasn’t an athlete I would be protesting. But I don’t think I could give up the chance to compete. From experience I can say that the Olympics and Paralympics are a unique way of achieving peace. When the youth of the world come together to celebrate sport,then share a bus and a meal in the village together afterwards something special happens. Barriers are broken down, friendships are formed.Sport is a language for peace.

I talked to my boyfriend Alex at night just before the finals. He is good but tired. Our washing machine is fixed which is great. Oma (my grandma) went to my unit to let the repairman in as I was down here and Alex was at TAFE.

I plan to watch Home and Away, then head over to the pool to watch a bit of the finals before coming back for a room service dinner and an early night. Must catch up with Sacha and make sure I am entered for the time trial.

Well…………goodnight. I will write again tomorrow. Hopefully with news about a good swim xoxoxxox

Day Three- Race day

Yahoo it’s over.It is now 10pm and I am writing this before I go to bed exhausted but happy.

So this morning was my big race- 150m IM time trial. My one and only chance to qualify for Beijing.

I am pretty happy with the way it went and confident that I managed myself well enough to put in my best performance. I did a 3.39.79, which places me ranked 7th in the world. It isn't a personal best time but is the fastest I have gone in 2 years and shows I am making progress.

So here’s how the day went.

8.30 am wake up- I set 2 alarm clocks and woke up every few hours automatically to check the time. This is one day I definitely don’t want to oversleep!

I needed to be at the pool at 10am today. So I set the alarm for 8.30 am and had breakfast downstairs in the restaurant-lots of cheese and fruit. Yum! Then I came upstairs to grab my bag and had an anxious 10 min wait for the elevator to get downstairs to the pool ( felt like it would never come) Then I walked over and met another swimmer who I had heard about but not met yet- so nice to put a face to a name. We pushed over to the pool together.

10am I met another S3 swimmer Esther and her mum and coach Sam on the way into the pool and Esther's mum helped with my fastskin. I really appreciated it. The new fastskin was very tight- but that’s good it should help me swim faster!

10.30 am All suited up and ready to go I headed to the warm up pool to find Sacha and plan my warm up. I jumped in and did 300 easy, some turns, then a 12.5m effort of each stroke swim back. I really want to focus on my start, turn and finish. After that it was another 150 easy and then it was time to jump out and head to marshalling. The MD 100m free was on just as I finished warming up so I didn’t get to see everyone race.

I went to marshalling and they are taking our accreditation while we race- this is a first. I had marked my name off and sat down in a corner to get in the zone, when the marshalling lady came over and said “Is that the cap you are wearing to race?” I had on my Maroochydore Club cap.

It turned out that I wasn’t allowed to wear the cap because it has the brand name eyeline written on it twice, and no advertising is allowed. They looked over my other caps and couldn’t decide whether I could wear my uniform dolphins cap because it had the old telstra logo instead of the new one. So finally we settled for an Australia cap, which although it said speedo, was allowed because speedo is a sponsor of the meet and Swimming Australia. All this was a distraction I didn’t really need....so I decided to go back to the corner. Then another swimmer came to chat. After a while I decided I would just have to explain that I wanted to focus so I did and put my goggles on.Eventually we walked down the back corridor to the other end of the pool. I kept my dolphins jacket on till I got in the pool for warmth.I usually get freezing in the drafty corridors before I race because I am wet from warming up.

11..29am- Race

After my race was announced I marched out behind lane 3. I climbed to the side of the pool and jumped in when the whistle blew to get set up for a backstroke start. The water was warmer than I thought. I swallowed some in my start though- which sucked. Then we were away. I went out hard, hoping a fast backstroke while I still felt fresh would help. After the turn I thought the clock said 1.09 but afterwards I found out I’d done a 1.08 which is awesome. The breaststroke felt long but I tried to keep the pace up. When I turned into freestyle I had a fright thinking the male swimmer Grant was beating me and he said he expected to swim a 3.45- so I really put the power on and raced home. I could hear people cheering which meant a lot….I think it was my friend Amanda and her family. On the freestyle leg I saw BK (Paralympic head Coach Brendan Keogh) up waving me along with his program when I took a breath. I wonder whether I should have breathed head up-I did sideways- this is a running debate I have with myself. Breathing head up like a surf swimmer is faster but hurts my neck, whereas sideways breathing (which I did today) is better for me but I think a little slower.

11.32 It’s over, relief fills my body as I turn to the score board and see my time is 3.29.8- and inside the top 8 in the world! It should be good enough to make my third Paralympics. I then mortally embarrass myself twice getting out of the pool. First I couldn’t see which side of the pool my chair was on, so I didn’t know where to get out.

Then I realised it was to my left so I rushed over there and swam under 3 lane ropes surfacing in lane 8 only to realize I was stuck under a giant Telstra banner and couldn’t surface to breathe. Rapidly choking I eventually got out and was too busy to greet BK, Sacha and Grub who all were there to congratulate me. BK said Well done you got your priority 4 selection time and that’s all you needed to do. So I felt so HAPPY!

11.40 warm down in the pool then wheel down. One of the coaches Peter Freeney helped lift me out of the warm down pool- darn annoying I can't do it myself in this tight fastskin!

1pm – back in the hotel, I changed and went down to Subway for lunch. SMSed Mum and Mike with the news. Mum said she won't come to Sydney to watch the team announcement as she has the flu.

Then I decided to celebrate and headed to the Easter Show where I met the Drennans ( Wayne, Ann, Kelly and Amanda). We explored and went on a ride courtesy of their friend Russel who owns a ride. I felt sick and my neck was starting to hurt so I called it quits after one ride. I must be getting old and boring.We ended the night watching the show – rodeo, horses and dancing bobcats, motorcross and precision driving capped off by fireworks.

Now I’m home in my hotel room and my mobile phone isn’t working. I need to wash my towells etc………but I am so tired and sore it will have to wait. Moving hotel tomorrow morning

Take care and goodnight!

marayke

Day 4

I can’t believe how relaxed I am compared to the Athens trials 4 years ago. Now my race is over there’s nothing more I can do so I am just having fun. I remember last time spending the day before the team announcement at DFO shopping and being just so distracted and desperate. Today I was just at the show having fun. And all the others seem so nervous and I am reassuring them. I remember an older swimmer Alistair Smales doing that with me and Brooke last time and I thought he was being far too casual about the whole thing. Maybe I’m just getting old!

I didn't have any races today, but I did have to move hotel. So I packed and checked out at 11am. Then I put my bags in storage and went to the show…was so much fun. I loved the petting zoo. Now I want a pet goat they are SOOOO cute. I saw a cow milking show, dog and cat shows, stalls, craft, cakes, food.....the show is HUGE!

Luckily when I woke up I wasn’t feeling sore anymore.

I took a taxi to North Ryde, the driver was from Athens and really lovely. We talked all about Greece.

Now I’m in my room watching the swimming on tv. Wish I was there. Apparently it will take me an hour to get to the pool so I have to leave before 8am

Ordered risotto from room service. The hotel seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

I’m going to eat then head to bed for an early start

Goodnite

11pm.....just been woken up by a ringing phone. It was reception asking if I enjoyed my dinner and telling me to put my plate outside. I said sorry but I'm in bed asleep- and they didn't even apologise. Strange hotel. No one helped with my bags when I arrived either.We stood at the counter for ages while the two staff had a conversation ignoring me. the taxi driver got a trolley and did it in the end, and they still didn't offer to help. When we brought it back the driver said 'hey guys I could've stolen your trolley' and still they said nothing!

Grrrrrrrrrrr now it is hard to get back to sleep.

Day 5 - 50m breaststroke and Team Announcement

Today is a big day. I was up at 6.30am.

In the end I got there 3 hours early so I had breakfast at the cafe in the pool. Sacha helped with my fastskin and then I did a warm up by myself and went to do my race. We were in marshalling for ages and the door was open with cold air blowing in. By the time I had to race I was purple and shivering!

After the swim I got lunch at Muffin Break then hailed a taxi from outside Novotel.

Now I am in my room resting. I finally worked out how to hook up FIFI my laptop to the internet thanks to some help from reception so am setting up this blog. Will fill you in on the announcement tonight when I get home. Five hours till I know if I'm going to Beijing!!!!!!

3.38- Just got an sms from BK saying swimmers please bring your white APC Tshirt to the pool tonight.This sounds promising! The chosen team members are to wear it for the announcement.