Off to Beijing

Today I’m off to Beijing along with the rest of the Australian Diving team. I can’t wait to get over to Beijing, move into the Olympic village, get my Australian Uniform and get into the Olympic atmosphere.
As this is my first Olympics, as you can imagine I’m super excited and also quite nervous. There have been so many messages from people wishing me all the best, which has been awesome.
Last Friday I received my accreditation, which is very important, as it lets me into the Village, the sport venues and the dining hall. I also received my first piece of uniform which is the travel top. The Olympics are starting to feel real now.
My Olympic program is on the 10th of August I’ll compete in the Women's 3m Synchronised with Sharleen Stratton at 1:30pm Beijing time (or 3:30pm Eastern Standard time), my next event is on the 12th of August it’s the Women's 10m Synchronised with Melissa Wu, again it’s on at 1:30pm Beijing time (or 3:30pm Eastern Standard time). Then I’m all done competing and be able to let my hair down a little and hopefully I will be able to enjoy the Olympic experience.

Diving Training

After getting my new laptop from Lenovo and Flip-cam (thanks Lenovo!), I wanted to try it all out. Lenovo were kind enough to give me a laptop in return for post blogs in the lead up to the Olympics. To see other athlete blogs click on the Lenovo button on the left. Anyway so I took the Flip-cam to training this morning to film a little bit of harness.

Olympic Countdown - 36 days

With only 36 days till the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympic, the countdown is definately on! We depart for Beijing in early August, and I can't wait. My dad and sister will be coming to Beijing to cheer me on, which will be awesome.

On the 27th of May I was announced as a member of the Australian Olympic Diving Team. The team includes: Alex Croak, Mathew Helm, Matthew Mitcham, Chantelle Newbery, Robert Newberry, Scott Robertson, Sharleen Stratton, Melissa Wu and me. Hui Tong, Xiangning Chen and Chava Sobrino will be the coaches.

The Beijing Olympics will be my first Olympics and I can’t wait for the Olympics to begin. I will be competiting in my two favourite events: Women's 3m Synchronised with Sharleen Stratton and the Women's 10m Synchronised with Melissa Wu.

Diving Grand Prix - Rostock, Germany

Last week the Australia Olympic Diving Team headed off to Rostock, Germany for the German leg of the FINA Grand Prix. It’s a long way to Rostock, three flights and a 2 hour bus ride, all up 35 hours of travelling.
We had a few days of training before competition started. My first event was the Women’s 10m Synchronised with Melissa. The competition was going well, until I over rotated on my inward 3.5 somersault, so in the end we finished 4th. Not a great result, it just means I need to focus on that kick out so the same mistake won’t happen at the Olympics.
The next day was the Women’s 3m Synchronised with Sharleen. We both dove well, with great synchro. We finished 2nd behind the German’s, who were only 2 points ahead of us. It was a good result but disappointing as we were so close to winning.

On our last night in Germany, we caught the train to Warnemunde, which is right on the Baltic Sea. We ate dinner near the Alte Strom (Old Chanel), and went for a walk by the sea, past the lighthouse and Teepott.

Then it was a bus ride and three flights home. I did meet Pete Murray at Frankfurt Airport, which was great, he was lovely.

So now it’s lots of training and fine tuning between now and August. Less than 60 days till the Olympics begin!