Mark Has Been Busy

Hi everyone.  For those of you still checking back to see if there are new posts on the blog... here it is!  Mark has been so busy over the last 6 weeks since the Olympics that he has hardly been home, much less had time to blog as much as he'd like to.  To keep up with Mark and all of the exciting things that he is up to, please visit 

www.markgangloffusa.com

On this website you can see his crazy schedule and read his new blog.  I am constantly urging (he might call it nagging) him to take photos of his trips and travels.  There are new pics of his trip to Washing on his album page if you'd like to check it out.

We would also love feedback on the website.  What do you like about it?  What do you dislike about it? What more would you like to see?  Please leave a comment for us.  

Thanks for your continued support!

NEW WEBSITE FOR MARK!!!

Hello all!

I know that I promised not to post again, now that Mark is back in the country, he has many more exciting stories for you, but I have some great news...

MARK HAS A NEW WEBSITE!

 I know, I know... you cannot contain your excitement, but it's true... the web address is:

www.markgangloffusa.com

Mark's website is pretty comprehensive and, like the blog, is very candid and real.  I think that you will enjoy his down to earth conversation, photos, and more.  As it is, www.markgangloffusa.com is being registered with google, so please bookmark the address for easy access.

I hope all of you enjoy this peek into Mark's swimming and life and let us know if there is anything else that you'd like to see or hear from us.

I appreciate all of your support of Mark over the past few months and hope that this new website doesn't fail to meet your expectations.

Thanks!

Pictures... finally!

Its been a busy few weeks since I have been back from Beijing. I have been running around signing autographs at local events, meeting Oprah (which is on TV Monday 09-08-08), and "livin' the dream". It has been amazing. I'm sure you all have thought that I forgot about my promise to post pictures from my Olympic experience...but have not fear... follow the link below to view some of my pics from training camps and the Olympic Games.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashleygangloffpicasa/MarkOlympicGames#

Enjoy!

For your viewing pleasure... cheaper than a night at the movies

Hi again... this is Ashley. I thought you all would enjoy a couple of video clips from our trip. We were given a Flip Video. It is a tiny video camera, the size of a phone, we were able to take it everywhere with us. I got a few great clips of us exploring Beijing after Mark checked out of the Olympic Athlete Village.



This is our new friend Cindy. She isn't shy and manages to give Mark a great plug. I am thinking about hiring her as his publicist! Just Kidding!




This is Andy, the suit maker. And, yes, Mark did actually get the 2 suits and 4 shirts he ordered from the Silk Market. Andy came to our hotel room at midnight to do a fitting and the suits and shirts were completed and delivered to us the next morning at 8am. Andy was wearing the same outfit that morning that he was wearing the night before during the fitting. Mark claims that they are the best fitting suits and shirts he as ever owned!




The Great wall was AWESOME! All Mark could think of was how hard a dry land workout would be on top of the great wall... PK, Mark even claimed that he thinks he could beat Joe G in a race to the top!

Stay tuned... one day Mark will figure out how to post his pictures. He took almost 1,000 pictures- I can't wait for you all to see them!

Im back

Hello all this is Mark and I am back. I am guess that you guys will be asking for Ashley back in no time. It has been a great ride but I am very happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed. I guess it has been a while since I posted and I dont really know where to start. I have been really happy with the excitement that the blog has gotten. I am planning on keeping it up for as long as I can so you guys can keep up with where I am and where I am going.

As you guys saw the Olympic swimming was amazing. It was easily the fastest and deepest swim meet ever held. I heard that swimming was the main focus back in the USA which is amazing. I am so glad to have been a part of all of the excitement even though I didnt win eight gold medals. I would say after my 100 breast I really enjoyed going to the sessions just as a swimming fan. Being able to watch swimming of this level made me proud to have been part of it all. Swimming on the relay was also a ton of fun. I did not swim as fast as I would have liked but it is still an amazing experience to be a part of a USA relay at the Olympics. Watching the finals of the relays made me pretty nervous. The Aussies had a great team and swam a great race. I am just happy we came out on top.

After swimming was over Ashley and I spent a lot of time together. As she told you we were able to see some of the sights of Beijing and we were also able to get to some of the other sporting events (track and diving). In many ways it is more fun to be a part of the Olympics as a spectator. You can sit back and think about the scope of the Olympics and how much it means to much of the world. When you are competing you dont think about how big of a deal it is to be a part of it because if you do then it may hurt your performance. Going to the other sports made me realize this.

I am planning on doing some more posts coming up but right now thats all I have. I am going to put up some pictures that I though you guys would want to see (if I can figure it out). Enjoy and I will be back soon. Thanks again for all of your support.

Vacation (with a twist of work)

Well, Mark is finally out of the athlete village and free to enjoy himself (a little bit). Mark checked out of the athlete village shortly after the last day of swimming on August 17th. The Gangloff/Rubenstein family went out to a great dinner that night. We went to a fun tea house where we saw folk music performers and a puppet show. It was a blast. The Gangloff's ordered a traditional Peking Duck and loved it so much they ordered a second one! After dinner we strolled through Tien An Men Square... it was beautiful at night. Mark was so funny because he was just so happy to be out of the village and actually free to walk around!

After dinner, Mark and I headed out to a party hosted by Speedo. We saw so many friends from the US, but also former Auburn teammates from other countries. Funny how the NBA guys were there also... I think they might have a crush on a few of the swimmers!

The family left the next morning, and after a long nap Mark and I headed out for the day. We ate lunch with Jeri and Eric and then Eric, Mark and I walked around the Summer Palace. It was spectacular! Our afternoon was perfectly relaxing as we slowly walked around enjoying being away from the city and spending time with our good friend Eric. We talked about our plans for when we return to the States and what lies ahead for Eric. Mark and I are so proud of Eric for being so strong through this difficult time.

That night we went to dinner with our friends Joe and Anne and some new American friends who are living in Beijing and a couple of their friends who are native to Beijing. We went to a fantastic pizza place in an awesome district of Beijing called Ho Hi. Think french quarter-Beijing style. It was great! There were rows of restaurants and bars. Everyone had set up a TV or screen out in the sidewalk to watch the Olympics. There was lots of music and fun... and lots of karaoke-- I was so tempted!

Yesterday Mark was back to work. He attended a media function at the Speedo headquarters here in Beijing and then we attended a great event hosted by Right To Play. Right To Play encourages sports to better develop children in poverty stricken and developing areas of not only the US but around the world. It was so inspirational hearing from athletes that use their influence and time and effort to help others.

Last night we got to see the finals of the men's 3 meter diving competition. It was awesome! The US guys, Chris and Troy, dove well but missed out on a medal. The Chinese crowd went crazy every time a Chinese diver performed-Chinese audience members were decked out in flags, face paint, and temporary tattoos.

Today I went back to the Great Wall with Mark. It was just as breathtaking the second time... Mark was blown away. After we did a "photo shoot" (the two of us acting ridiculous on top of the great wall and taking pictures of it) we, just like elite athletes do, picked a point and raced to the top... both of us were huffing and puffing!

This afternoon we are waiting on a tailor (we'll see if he shows up) that is making Mark a couple of suits (we think--we found this guy at the silk market and supposedly Mark is getting a couple of suits and four shirts for $350!!). If "Andy" shows up it will be a great deal... if not, Mark will be upset, but at least we'll have a great story to tell.

We leave for the States tomorrow and we're both ready to get back. Mark is excited to share his experiences with you as well.

Swimming Concludes...

The 2008 Olympic Games for the swimmers is now complete. It was a successful week for many of them. The 400 medley relay final was this morning (Mark swam on the prelim relay on Friday... the US prelim relay qualified first as they headed into finals). The relay, though I didn't have tickets, was spectacular with another world record and a gold medal. Mark, though he did not swim in the finals still received a gold medal for his efforts to get the team into the finals. He, like all elite athletes, always sees room for improvement in his performances, but sees the last four years and the last few weeks as a huge accomplishment.

Instead of going to the Water Cube to watch the event today (it was one of the hardest tickets to get because of the Michael's history-making event) mom and I went to the Forbidden City and took a rickshaw tour through a neighborhood. It was fascinating! We toured through a Hutongs where thousands of people lived. The guy driving our rickshaw told us that there is only 1 toilet and 1 shower for every 100 people. Can you imagine?! We saw children playing, women sewing, and small businesses such as bakeries throughout the neighborhood. The "streets" were so small that our tiny rickshaw could barely fit through them. Our "driver" told us that these neighborhoods were more than 500 years old.
After touring the Hutongs, mom and I actually sat down at a restaurant! We had dumplings and some kind of chicken... I think. Neither one of us knows how to use chopsticks, so mom used the soup spoon to eat her chicken and I poorly stabbed at my food with a chopstick. We are so proud of ourselves for eating real food (and all of you that have commented on our previous food diaries of french fries, Pizza Hut, and Zone bars should be proud of us too!).

This afternoon, now that swimming is over, Mark will check out of the athlete village and come to our hotel for the next few nights. We did have a chance to visit Mark in the village a couple of days ago. It is amazing. It is like its own city with a population of more than 15,000. Within the athlete village there is a huge dining hall where all athletes eat, a barber shop, post office, stores, a museum and anything else you might find in a small town. The athletes stay in apartments that are similar to college dorms. We had so much fun sitting in the dining hall with Mark and all of the other athletes. Mom sat next to Jason Lezack and was thrilled when Jason pulled his new bronze medal out of his bag and let her hold it.

Looking around, even though the village is great, we were even more amazed that these athletes were able to perform best times, best performances and record breaking races. Between the small living spaces, all of the traveling, cafeteria food and all of the walking I can see where it would be difficult to perform at your best... but many of these athletes do! When I think about it... I am more impressed with every event I see.

Mark and I will be sight seeing more in the next few days after my mother and the Gangloff's head back to the States tomorrow. Mark and I will stay until the 21st. I will probably post one more time and then I will pass the blog back over to Mark so that he can share his experiences with you. Thanks again for your support!

Another Great Day... Another Wonder of the World!

Yesterday, with no tickets in hand, the five of us, Ken, Jenny, and Cindy Gangloff, my mother, Diane, and I hopped on a bus and went to the Great Wall. We went to a part of the wall called Mutianyu. Because of the cycling competition, the part of the wall that is usually popular amongst tourists was closed so we actually got to visit one of the most beautiful stretches of the wall. The tour guide said that in Chinese culture if you climb the wall then you are considered a "real hero". Well, we are about half a hero each because we took the chair lift up and the toboggan down (the chair lift is just like a ski lift and the toboggan is on a metal slide, kind of like a luge--it was AWESOME!). I took plenty of pictures and video that I will post when we get home.





So, was the great wall great? Yes... it was amazing. It was hot, but we were able to actually see blue skies being that far from the city and we were able to see for miles. It was breathtaking. The smog in Beijing has been worse than even we could imagine. Think about L.A. on its worse day and multiply by at least 100! So, needless to say, escaping from the city and being able to breath clean air while experiencing one of the wonders of the world was fantastic!

My mother and I met a couple of friends for dinner last night at the famous Courtyard restaurant in Beijing. It was delicious! While at dinner, Mark called me to fill me in on his day. Yesterday Mark received a letter from a new fan, Lynn Cheney's executive assistant! She wrote him a personal note telling him how proud she was of him, that she was a former swimmer, that her favorite movie is The Guardian, and that she would be cheering for him. She also invited us to the White House this fall-- cool, huh?!

Today, my mother and I have a busy day... we are going to diving and then straight to football (soccer)- Go USA!

Tomorrow we are hoping to visit Mark in the athlete village. Mark did say earlier this week that he ate breakfast with Roger Federer, so we are hoping to see someone really amazing (in addition to Mark, of course!).

Still, we are having the time of our lives here in Beijing and we can't wait to tell you more about it. If there is something specific you'd like me to tell you about in my next blog, please let me know in a comment and I will do my best fill you in.

Congrats Mark!

Today was a fantastic day! We got up early again and went over to the Water Cube on the USA Swimming bus. We met up with Joe and Anne (one of Mark's great friends from Firestone High School and his wife came to Beijing to cheer for Mark... wasn't that incredibly nice?!) and all seven of us headed into the venue. There was amazing swims heat after heat. Mark raced about an hour after the session started (thank goodness because I don't think I could have waited any longer). He marched out with the other finalists like normal, but looked even more relaxed, cool and collected than usual- this is usually a very good sign for a great swim. With all of his friends and family cheering for him at home and the seven of us in the stands as well as his coach David Marsh and other teammates, Mark swam a great race and posted a time of 1:00.2. He had gotten faster with every swim at this Olympic Games! Mark finished 8th, but swam a very solid race and was extremely satisfied. As we walked to lunch he leaned over and said, "you know that my time this morning would have won the 2004 Olympics, right?!" I knew when he told me that, that he was happy and ready for his next race... the relay.


Mark received many handshakes, hugs, and "congrats!". Jenny Thompson and Gary Hall Jr. and Mark's agents, David Arluck and Sabir Muhammad, all greeted Mark after his race to tell him what a great swim he had. We also ran into another family who lives in Akron and attended Firestone High School who stopped to talk to Mark and take pictures with him- what a small world. Everyone was very proud of Mark, as I am sure you all are. Pleas know that we appreciate every ounce of support and every single nice thought and word of encouragement.

Once we said goodbye to Mark and wished him another big congrats, Joe, Anne, my mother, Jeri Moss (one of my best friends--and Eric Shanteau's girlfriend), Mr. Moss, and I all sat at the Moss's hotel for a slice of pepperoni pizza. We had a blast at lunch. Another Auburn University friend, Yoav Bruck, joined us. Yoav swam for David Marsh in the early nineties and has since returned to Israel as a sports broadcaster... he is still a huge AU fan... of course! We talked and laughed and told stories. WAR EAGLE is everywhere!!

After hanging out with our friends in the afternoon, my mom and I headed back to the Olympic Park to spend some time in the superstore... I hope everyone wants Olympic gear for Christmas this year--don't even bother with a Christmas list!

We went back to the pool tonight to watch another friend, Jeremy Knowles, who trains with Mark and swims for the Bahamas, swim the prelims heat of the 200m fly. Jeremy is a great guy and we are really looking forward to the rest of his swims this week. Mark, who was sitting in the athlete section, really saw some excitement when he sat next to LeBron James... yep, that's right, LeBron James. The basketball team heard how well the swimmers had been competing and wanted to see it for themselves. Don't worry, Mark got a picture and we will post it as soon as we get back home.

Did I mention that President Bush, Bill Gates, and other big wigs have been attending the swimming sessions?! I think they were good luck for Mark and now I am just wondering how we are going to get them all to all of Mark's meets.

Have I even talked about the men's 400 freestyle relay yet? It was AMAZING! I have never seen four guys more determined to win an event in my life. Each one of them, Michael Phelps, Garret Webber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak swam great splits, but Lezak is now my hero! The US team was never close to leading throughout the entire race until Jason Lezak's last stroke. The sweetest thing (for all the romantics reading) is during the victory lap, Lezak climbed up into the stands to give his wife a kiss--- I hope Mark was taking notes!



Well, I hope that I have satisfied your craving for a little Beijing news and I hope to catch you up as the week progresses. Tomorrow we are going to see the great wall, I'll take lots of pictures, and maybe I'll try something more than McDonald's.

I will post video clips and more pics when we get home, but I have posted a couple more to get you through until then.

In Beijing-

We arrived in Beijing on Friday after a two day trip (I left Wednesday at 11am!). As soon as we arrived we met a friend of a friend at the airport to head straight to pick up all of the tickets we had purchased the week before. Cindy and Ken (Mark's sister and dad) took the luggage to the hotel while Jenny, my mom, and I headed out with Jewel (our new friend) on our first Beijing adventure.

We took a taxi to the ticket office (which was much easier with traveling with someone who spoke Chinese we later learned) and then took the subway to the hotel from the ticket office. We used the restroom which was much different than in the states, to say the least.

At this point we were thrilled... we had picked up every ticket that we had ordered. We were all so relieved to have them in our hands after hearing and reading about horror stories of fake and fraudulent ticketing agencies. We were set and ready to go!!!

When we got to the hotel we were pleasantly surprised by all of the amenities and familiar things. We are staying at a Double Tree complete with chocolate chip cookies. During the opening ceremonies, we met up with all of the other USA Swimming families to watch the opening ceremonies together. It was so nice to meet and mingle with other parents, families, and friends of other USA Swimming team members.

Mark's event, thankfully, is on the first day of the Olympic Games. I say "thankfully" because I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to be nervous for many more than 24 hours before we got to Mark swim. Mark's first swim was not his best, but was good enough to get him into the semi finals ( 1:00.7- Mark's best time was posted at the US Olympic Trials at 1:00.1) With a big sigh of relief we knew that he would get at least one more swim the next morning in the semi-finals (top 16 make the semi-finals and Mark was 15th after prelims).

As a side note: I got horribly sick on this first day and it was a miracle I even got to see Mark swim. Once I was able to cleanse my system of whatever had gotten in it I started feeling much better. I immediately stopped making fun of my mother who packed 100 individual Germ-X wipes and enough over-the-counter drugs to supply all of Beijing. Each and every Germ-X wipe will be used by the end of the trip... I can guarantee you.

So, excited to watch Mark loosen up a little and swim his race like he knows how to do, we got up early this morning, ate breakfast (don't worry, I just had a piece of toast) and headed to the Water Cube on the bus organized by USA Swimming. We got to the pool and anxiously sat in our seats.

I don't know why any of us were nervous... this is Mark's job and he does it very well. Very confidently he got up on the block and swam like he needed to swim to put him into the finals (1:00.44- still not his best time, but a solid time to lock him into a finals swim tomorrow). He was so happy, he even looked up into the stands and smiled.

After swimming, my mom, Cindy and I (along with two friends of our who traveled to China to watch Mark) sat at McDonald's and ate something familiar, finally... french fries! After lunch and hanging out at the Olympic Park for a couple of hours we went to a gymnastics qualifying round (during our time in Beijing we will see gymnastics, diving, table tennis, men's soccer, and swimming, of course). One thing that is surprising to all of us is that the venues are not full. There were literally hundreds of seats open at the gymnastics session. We are shocked because the events are sold out but it seems as though people are not showing up. It is so disappointing to see people outside of the gates, desperate for tickets, and hundreds of open seats that these desperate ticket seekers could be sitting in.

Our challenges in Beijing have included transportation and getting around the city. It is incredibly difficult to hail a cab and once you get a cab to pull over, no cab drivers seem speak English and some cannot even read a map. The hotel we are staying at is very new and so many drivers don't even know that it exists! Tonight we circled Beijing in a cab for almost an hour.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow's race. Mark will swim in the finals and I've got a great feeling that it is going to be a big swim for him. I saw him tonight after his practice and he looked happy and ready; I can't wait! Tomorrow will be the day that he breaks 1:00 minute.

I will try to get back on and post again in the next few days. Please keep your fingers crossed and Mark in your thoughts... I am off to bed to dream of fast swimming and french fries!

Okay, Okay, I have been resisting posting since Mark turned it over to me. I am going to try to remember that this blog is not a chance for me to live out my dreams of being a celebrity, but a chance to share our upcoming trip with you. Well, as all of you can imagine, a trip to Beijing is a pretty big deal. The process started about six months ago when we tentatively started making plans. We hooked up with a friend of the family who is a travel agent and began making tentative flight and hotel reservations. "Tentative" might sound harsh, but I didn't want to jinx anything, as Mark still had to swim out of his mind at Trials in June (which he did!!).

For the last year we continued to hear, and read, about how hard it was going to be to find, much less buy Olympic event tickets. I shrugged off the entire issue until recently... and recently I started FREAKING OUT. Thankfully, last week a block of tickets opened up and we ended up having access to swimming tickets, diving, tickets (which I am so excited about), ping pong tickets, gymnastics tickets, and soccer tickets, among others but these were our tickets of choice.

(When I refer to "us" and "we" I am referring to my mother and I. We have been planning for a couple of years that if we had the opportunity and a reason to go, that we were going to travel to Beijing together... I am so excited to go with her!)

Anyway, we started filling in the blanks of our trip as soon as Mark touched the wall to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games. Our trip was officially on... and we still had a lot to do. In the last few weeks since trials we have been making plans and taking care of details such as travel insurance, vaccinations, Chinese visas, etc. It has been a very involved process, but I am happy to say that it is all done and we leave tomorrow!!

This evening I have been running around the house like a crazy woman, packing, making photo copies of my passport, gathering up granola bars and fruit snacks to take on the trip... I felt like I was running in circles, so I decided to sit and write.

I will be leaving Charlotte tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:30am and won't get into Beijing until 10:30am on Friday. On Friday we will run around Beijing, picking up tickets, checking into our hotel, and getting ready for an incredible 2 weeks!

I have got to get back to packing... and I have to get Daisy out from under the bed (I have not seen her since I pulled the suitcase out of the storage closet!). I will continue to post updates and highlights from our trip... stay tuned...

#6

Hey guys I am back. I am sorry it took so long but I have been kind of lazy. All my chess playing and talking to Ash on the webcam has taken up most of my free time. I better be getting better at chess because I have played quite a few games since the trip started. Eric still has the lead 13-9 so I still have some work to do. Anyway I know you arent reading this blog to hear about my chess playing. Safari night was really cool and we saw all kinds of cool animals like different kinds of deer, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, tigers, lions, hyenas, and wolves. I will not be posting any pictures though, apparently wild animals dont like the flashes from our cameras so the park told us we were not allowed to use them. I tried to take some other photos without the flash but they were black blobs and I dont think you guys want to see that.

Safari night was a lot of fun but probably the best part of the night was on the way home on the bus. The bus was like a regular coach bus with a bunch of seats but they had this little downstairs with a couch and two chairs, it looked a little bit like a limo but not that nice. Anyway they had a tv screen and some microphones and a bunch of the swimmers were doing karaoke. That was really entertaining. I will never think of "Hotel California" in the same way ever again. Honestly I think we have been gone so long that people are getting really bored and very stir crazy.

Last night we had our rookie skit night. The people who have never made the Olympics get put into groups where they have to make up and perform their own skits. Most of the time they just make fun of the older members of the team (ie. Dara Torres). Its all in good fun and every has a pretty good time doing it. I will have to say the best was Cullen Jones performing as Steve Urkel. Their group did a version of the Dating Game. Cullen was Urkel while the other members of his group were members of the team. For those of you that dont know Cullen he is usually very stylish and sleek so I would not expect him to be that great at playing Steve Erkel. He was amazing and really dorky and funny it was great and people loved it.

So that is basically what has been going on around here. Training is good, more of the same. I am sorry to let every know but this is my last post until after the Olympics is over. The USOC has some restrictions on blogging during the Olympics so I am going to follow all of their rules. If I can get back on then I plan on it but if not Ashley will be taken over my duties. She is going to start posting when she gets to Beijing so every will still be able to know what is going on. I am sure she is going to do a great job, she happens to get herself into some interesting predicaments.

Since this is the last time you hear from me, I would like to tell everyone thanks! Everyone has been very supportive since I put up this blog and sending me great messages. It does mean a lot to me especially when I am away from most of you for so long. A lot of us dont get to see each other much so its great to get your well wishes and it is greatly appreciated. On top of that I have to say thanks again for all the support that you have given me throughout my career. I honestly believe that without the support of my family, coaches, and friends that I would not have had the success that I have had today. Everyone should feel very much a part of my Olympic experience. Only seven days until I swim and I expect everyone at home to be cheering for me. I hope everyone is well and I will do my best to bring home the gold!

#5

After receiving blogging guidelines from the International Olympic Committee we have revamped a few elements of my blog including the web address to remain within the rules and regulations. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I would hate to flirt with the rules....

Please pass this new web address onto friends and family to keep up with me and my experience leading up to and at the Olympic Games.

#4

Im back. It didnt take too long either. I just finished talking with Ashley. We have just recently discovered the invention of the webcam. We were both very impress on how well it worked so that was really fun being able to hang out with her and see her face and also to see Daisy (our dog). Basically spent about 2 hours talking to her today so that ate up a lot of time.

I have had a little bit of jet lag the last two nights. Monday morning I was up at 2:30AM and stayed awake until last night so yesterday was a long day. It was good that I didnt take a nap though because I was able to sleep until about 5:30 this morning which doesnt sound like much but I got 8 hours of continuous sleep which was nice.

Yesterday night we did some fast work at the pool. I went a couple of 50s at my race tempo and went some pretty good times so I am starting to get excited. Only 10 more days. Wow coming fast. Today is going to be pretty boring just sitting around the hotel since we are supposed to be resting. We will be able to go on a drive through safari tomorrow night. I am pretty excited for that and hopefully I will get some good pictures to put up for you guys to see. I didnt mention this but we saw about 10 monkeys Sunday when leaving the pool so I think the safari should have some really interesting animals along the way. We will see and I will keep you posted on any pictures that I take. Later.

Blog #3

Hey I am back. I know that I said I wouldn’t wait so long to write but I forgot that I was going to be traveling for about 24 hours. My itinerary went basically like this. Leave Palo Alto hotel 10:30AM Friday morning for airport, leave San Francisco 2:00PM and fly 13 hours to Hong Kong, about 2 hour layover in Hong Kong, 3 hour flight to Singapore, and arrive at hotel 1:30AM Sunday morning after going through customs and getting out bags. Where did Saturday go?

The hotel here in Singapore is sweet. The world university games team came here last year before going to compete in Bangkok and everyone was talking about how nice the hotel was and stuff but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I have been in a lot of nice hotels around the world but I think this one may take the cake. It’s also pretty awesome because usa swimming gave most of the us our own rooms here. Now I have heard this is a five star resort so usa swimming must be shelling out some good money for us to stay here. Coach Schubert said that he wants us to have a five star taper so I plan doing so. I just have to remember I can’t gain five pound before I leave, if breakfast is any indication of how good the food is then I am going to have to be diligent about how much and about what kinds of food I am going to eat. Either way it’s a really great “problem” to have because village food is okay but nothing like this. You can’t really consider anything about this trip to be too much of a problem except for the fact that I can’t see my wife for about a month and a half.

I plan on getting some pictures up on the blog if I figure out how to do it so you guys can see the hotel for yourselves. It’s actually hard for me to call this only a hotel, it really is a resort. The pool outside is probably 30 meters long by about 15 meters wide so pretty big. They also have a putting green and two golf holes that are about 30 or 40 yards long. Too bad I didn’t bring my clubs; I guess I have other things on my agenda besides golfing like the Olympics. I almost forgot. They also had walking path that goes through what I could only consider a small rainforest with some waterfalls and small ponds with koi fish in them. I didn’t go in the Spa/ Gym but it looked pretty sweet from the outside (the gym overlooks the pool).

I plan on going to the pool later to swim off the trip and then enjoy my time here as much as possible. The trip has gone by so fast already and it is only going to go by faster. That’s all for now but since I have my own room now I may be posting a little more since Shanteau and I will be playing a little less chess. I probably shouldn’t say that though because there is a real possibility that it will be three days before I post again. Just keep checking and maybe I will keep my word. Later.

Blog #2

16 days until the start of the Olympics and 17 until I swim my first race.

I mentioned in my last blog that sometimes different people swim in different groups. Last Friday was one of those days and Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte came and swam with our group. I guess at some point and time last week Eddie Reese decided that our group was going to do a quadrathlone. I don’t know if I spelled that right or even if it is a real word. A quadrathlone is very simple. It is a 50 of each stroke all for time. We did the set in the short course yards pool. I think that we went on somewhere in between a six and eight minute interval. The coaches recorded everyone's time on a white board and at the end you add up all your times to see where you place.

For those of you that don’t know much about my swimming history when I was in high school and even I college I was a very successful Individual Medley swimmer. There were several times while I was at Auburn when we did a quadrathlone as a team. Because I am a pretty good sprinter and I am good at underwater dolphin kicking I usually won or placed second during my time at Auburn. Now we had some really great IM swimmers at Auburn when I swam there but not like Phelps and Lochte (obviously they are one step ahead of everyone). Just to refresh your memory of some of the other guys swimming in the group Ian Crocker (amazing at three of the four strokes and not a bad breaststroker by most standards), Aaron Peirsol (144 in the 200IM), Eric Shanteau (great IMer), Ricky Berens, Brendan Hansen, Dave Walters, and Scott Spann. As you can guess it is pretty exciting getting to be able to race these guys in this set. In fact everyday at this training camp is pretty fun.

It not going to come as a surprise that before the set most of the talk was on Phelps, Crocker, and Lochte (for good reason). My main goals was to show these guys and the coaches that I am a pretty good sprinter and that I am good at all of the strokes. I wasn’t worried about where I was going to place, I just thought if I had a great set maybe I can come close to one of those guys. As you have probably already guessed by my long introduction, I had a great set. For those of you wondering what my times were here they are. Fly 21.5, Back 22.3, Breast 24.1, and Free 20.3. All of those except the breast were personal best times for me. For all of the young swimmers that are reading this you can do best times in practice without fast swim suits on. It will not happen often but if you are feeling good let it go and just swim fast, that’s what makes swimming fun. I am sure most of you are wondering how this measured up to the other guys. I am proud to say that I got second place in the quadrathlone. Ryan Lochte won. His times were. Fly 21.1, Back 21.0 (wow!), Breast 25.3, and Free 19.5. Lochte beat everyone by quite a bit. It was one of the most fun days of training that I have ever had.

This has already turned into a longer blog than I was expecting but I also wanted to tell everyone about Saturday morning when we got all of our gear from the USOC. Basically after our morning workout we got on a bus and headed over to the San Jose State University campus where the USOC was doing the processing for all of the 2008 Olympians. When we got there my group was selected to go straight to uniforming. The way that uniforming works is they give you a huge shopping cart. Not a little shopping cart like the ones at your local grocery store. We got big Home Depot shopping carts. They also give you a check list with about 50 or 60 things on it and everyone lines up. Once you are in line you go through this huge room that is set up like a warehouse and try on and pick up all of your sizes. Now Nike is the main sponsor for the USOC so the majority of the stuff that we got was Nike but Ralph Lauren did the uniforming for the opening and closing ceremonies so we got plenty of Ralph Lauren stuff too. The cool thing about the opening ceremony stuff is that Ralph Lauren sent some of the their people there to make sure everything fit correctly and even had a tailor and seamstresses adjusting everyone's pants. When it was all said and done the entire Home Depot cart was over flowing with stuff. I should also mention that USA Swimming is sponsored by Speedo and earlier last week we got a ton of Speedo gear as well which was pretty sweet. They have also told us that we are going to be receiving a box of more stuff from the USOC with more clothes in them. So if any of you end up getting some USA Olympic gear from me for Christmas, you know where it came from. What can I say I am a regifter.

After uniforming we did some other logistical things like we got sized for our commemorative rings, took some head shots, and had a team briefing meeting. It all is so boring after getting all of your free stuff. All in all Saturday is one of the most fun parts about being a part of the USA Olympic team. Hopefully I wont wait four days before writing again.

Mark

7/19/08

19 days until the start to the Olympics!!!

Hello all. If you have made it this far I must start off by saying thanks for coming and checking my blog out. For those of you that dont know me my name is Mark Gangloff and I am a professional swimmer that will be competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I am going to do my best to keep everyone posted on what is going on leading up to the Games. I am a first time blogger so bear with me because my thoughts may be a little scattered. So much has happened in the last three weeks and I will do my best to let you know how it has gone.

For those of you that dont know after the Olympic Trials in Omaha, NE finished the whole Olympic team assembled in Palo Alto, CA for a training camp. We got here on the July 7th and will be here until July 25th. On the 25th we leave for Singapore for another training camp (if you can call it that; by this time most if not all of the athletes are tapering by now). The main reason we head to Singapore is probably to get our bodies acclimated with the time change. On August 4th we go from Singapore to Beijing and get settled into the athlete village. As most of you know the Olympics start on August 8th and then swimming starts on the 9th. The prelims of the 100 Breast is on first day so I will be competing on the 9th, 10th(semi-final), and 11th(finals) and then on either the 15th(prelims) or 17th(finals) I will be swimming on the 4x100 Medley Relay.
That is basically how the next few weeks look for me.

Taking a few steps back I want to let you guys know what it is like at the training camp here in Palo Alto. We are staying at a hotel pretty close to the pool which is on Stanford University's campus. For those of you that have never been to Stanford's swimming facility it is pretty phenomenal. The have two eight lane 50m pools, one eight lane 25yd pool (which contains a diving well), and there is also another 25yd diving well that has several power racks and power towers in it. I usually get a lot of questions on how training camp works, who trains with who, who coaches who, does the intensity of training go way up, ect. Basically every athlete is assigned a coach who is on the official USA Olympic staff. For instance I was assigned to Eddie Reese's group. Now Eddie has several swimmers on the Olympic team (Spann, Shanteau, Hansen, Peirsol, Crocker, Walters, Weber-Gale, Bernes) so those swimmers swimming in his group with the addition of me. Greg Troy, Bob Bowman, and Frank Busch are the other coaches on the Olympic staff and they each have their own groups respectively. Coach Troy and Coach Bowman for the most part take the athletes that swim middle distance to distance events. Coach Busch takes the sprinters for the most part. Hopefully you get the idea. Just because you were assigned to a specific group does not mean that you have to train with that group every practice or every day. If you or the coaches decide that it is better that you change groups then that day you change groups. An example of this would be Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte came into Eddie's group yesterday because they wanted to do a sprint set with our group (more on that later). Or if Eddies group was doing some longer more aerobic work and I needed to do some sprinting then I would probably go with Coach Busch's group or ask one of the other staff members to help me out with a sprint set.

Since there is only about five weeks between the Trials and the Olympics training is kind of strange because you have to increase the volume and intensity of the work that you are doing but not too much. If you increase the intensity or volume too much and get broken down then there is not enough time to get fully rested again. So a lot of the training is on how you are feeling every day. If you feel good then you can usually go pretty hard but if you are starting to feel fatigued then you probably need to back off some. This basically goes on until about two or three weeks out from the Games and then usually everyone starts their taper again.

Here at the camp I do have a roommate and it is Eric Shanteau. Most of you know by now that Eric was diagnosed with testicular cancer about ten days before the Olympic Trials. Eric was one of my best friends while we were at Auburn University so I was very upset to here that this has happened to him. Eric has assured me and everyone that he is being very safe about his decision to continue swimming. He is working with some very reliable doctors and is being tested every week to make sure that nothing is spreading or growing. I can tell you he is doing very well and training great.

By the way Eric has just called me and we are going to head to dinner so I will be back in the next couple of days to keep you posted on how things are going.

Mark