It’s amazing to be one year out from the next Olympic games. It feels to me, as Beijing was still just a couple of months ago, let alone Athens being almost 8 years ago. The day-to-day training is so similar I tend to forget all the amazement, excitement, and enjoyment the Olympics offers. When you are living and breathing the games side by side with a group of people who are doing the same, you become sheltered from build up the rest of the world is feeling. Olympians and hopefuls live by a motto “It is not every 4 years it is every day” because we must. You have to put in the years of training just to have a chance at representing the country and gain that moment of glory. The hard work during the years between the games starts to see pay off as the 365 day countdown begins. Slowly you start to realize that you and your teammates have fans. As the year turns to months you start to discover that its not just your hometown and family but your state is watching you get ready. As the naming date approaches newspapers are emailing and calling asking about YOU. As those months become weeks you discover that the world is watching and waiting for this 4 year drought to end. The worlds best athletes are about to compete and you have given yourself a chance to be part of it. The most amazing part of the whole experience is when it come time for it to start…it all goes away. It is still you and the team you have grown close to, the other men around you that you would do anything for, and it’s a 6-lane boat race that you want your bow ball to cross the line first.