Spartans in Bangkok

We shave, not just the face, but the entire body. Being Italian means being blessed with heavy hair-growth. It takes me more than an hour to get rid of my “Armani-esque” fur coat. The point of shaving is not for “silky smooth legs,” but to exfoliate the topmost skin layer in order to feel the water better; like aerodynamics in water — aquadynamics. This traditional ritual that every swimmer goes through is reserved for momentous occasions only. Deep gashes on the Achilles tendon are customary —  the dark streams of blood in the shower don’t seem to bother me anymore.

Final Report [en/de]

With this post I’d like to inform you about the final few days that I spend in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mit diesem Eintrag möchte ich euch über die letzten Tage in Bangkok informieren.

The beautiful sunset over Bangkok.

Der wunderschöne Sonnenuntergang über der 14 Millionen Stadt.

Dragons like this one are found by almost every temple.

Drachen wie dieser findet man bei nahezu jedem Tempel.

This temple was made with Italian marble.

Dieser Tempel wurde mit italienischem Marmor gebaut.

Keeper of the Temple.

Ein Tempel Hüter.

Busy doing Nothing

As you probably can tell, I haven’t posted any pictures lately. That doesn’t mean that I am not taking any. Actually I am snapping lots of photos, but I didn’t have time to upload them yet. Be patient – they’ll come. Check out Michel’s Blog, he is a little better with keeping it up to date …

Wie Ihr bestimmt gemerkt habt, habe ich schon seit längerem keine Bilder mehr hochgeladen. Dies heisst jedoch nicht, dass ich nicht am fotografieren bin. Ganz im Gegenteil, ich bin fleissig am Bilder knipsen, ich bin nur noch nicht dazu gekommen alle hochzuladen. Übt euch in Geduld – die Fotos kommen noch. Falls Ihr nicht warten könnt dann geht auf Michel’s Blog, er ist besser im aktualisieren als ich …

My Time in the Relay [en]

Since a lot of people asked me about my time in the relay, here is the exact break down…

• Reaction time from the time the swimmer in front of me touched the wall until my feet left the block: 0.37sec. – that’s a decent reaction time, it’s rather a save exchange than a fast one. A good relay exchange is somewhere between -0.03sec (the minimum that is acceptable, before it becomes a false start), and 0.10sec.
• The first 50m: 26.31 that was already a 0.06 improvement to my morning swim (26.37).
• My second 50m in the final was a 28.57. This was also a step-up compared to the 28.62 that i swam in the morning.
• Therefore my 100m split time was a 54.88, which was more than a tenth faster than in the morning (54.99). – It’s actually a really fast first hundred for me. I never went out that fast.
• On the third 50m I swam a 29.05 in the morning and a 28.96 at night, which is a OK third fifty, since I’m not getting too slow compared to my second fifty. This fifty is mostly the slowest and crucial one for a good race.
• I finished with a 28.70 (28.93 in the morning). That is almost as fast as the third fifty and that is without a flip-turn, which means that it was almost just as fast as the third fifty. That split is a good indicator that I died a little at the end. For all of you non swimmers, that last fifty hurts – a lot.
• My end time: 1:52.65 (1:52.97 in the morning).

Swiss Record with the Relay [en/de]

As I announced in my earlier post, I was ready to swim a fast relay. Our time in the morning (7:27.60) was just enough to enter the final and drop the old swiss record by a good 3 seconds. Everybody (David Karasek, Dominik Meichtry, Christian Schneiter, Marco Ferraro) was able to step it up in the final and drop the newly set record by another 2 seconds to 7:25.49. This time is also a qualification time for the European Championships in Eindhoven (Netherlands) that will take place in March 2008.

Wie ich es schon angekündigt hatte, war ich bereit um in der Staffel schnell zu schwimmen. Unsere Zeit am Morgen (7:27.60) war gerade schnell genug um als letzer in den Final zu kommen und den alten Schweizer Rekord um gute 3 Sekunden zu verbessern. Alle (David Karasek, Dominik Meichtry, Christian Schneiter, Marco Ferraro) konnten am Abend noch einmal etwas drauflegen und nocheinmal den neu aufgestellten Rekord um 2 Sekunden auf 7:25.49 zu drücken. Diese Zeit sichert uns zudem ein Ticket an die Europäischen Meisterschaften in Eindhoven (Holland) welche im März 2008 stattfinden werden.

My times / Meine Zeiten:

Prelims / Vorlauf:
David Karasek (1:52,04), Dominik Meichtry (1:49,45), Christian Schneiter (1:53,14) und Marco Ferraro (1:52.97)
Final / Endlauf:
David Karasek (1:51.99), Dominik Meichtry (1:47,77) Christian Schneiter (1:53.08) und Marco Ferraro (1:52,65)

Getting ready to swim fast [en/de]

Tomorrow I’ll be swimming fast, therefore i had to get rid of all the unnecessary body hair.

Morgen werde ich schnell schwimmen, aber um dies voll zu gewährleisten, musste ich mich zuerst von der überflüssigen Körperbehaarung trennen.

Swiss Universiade Team – Official Page

Official Page

Opening Ceremony

A lot of things have been going on since my last post. We visited the Swiss Ambassador at the local Swiss Embassy. He answered the often asked question of how to become a Ambassador. It was a really extensive response that I don’t want to post here. The visit also included a traditional Thai Dance Group that was performing an ancient fight between a princess and a monkey on one side and a warrior on the other. During the visit we got to talk to some university students of the surrounding area. They were all studying one of the three languages (really four, but Rumantsch is almost a dead language) that are spoken in Switzerland. I got to speak Italian and French with a couple of the scholars.

We also attended the official flag rising ceremony. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera, stupid me.

Yesterday, was the day of the Opening Ceremony. Once arrived at the Stadium we had to wait for almost 2 hours before we were allowed to march into the Rajamangala National Stadium. It was worth waiting, the Ceremony was a blast and definitely a unique experience.

Sehr viele Dinge sind seit meinem letzten Eintrag geschehen. Wir waren zu Besuch bei der Schweizer Botschaft und hatten die Gelegenheit dem Botschaftler einige Fragen zu stellen. Unter anderem erzählte er uns das gut gehütete Geheimniss, wie man am einfachsten Botschaftler wird. Der Besuch bei der Botschaft beinhaltete auch einen traditionellen thailändischen Tanz bei dem die Gruppen einen alten Kampf, zwischen einer Prinzessin und einem Affen auf der einen Seite und einem Kämpfer auf der anderen, personifizierten. Während dem Besuch hatten wir auch Gelegenheit mit ein paar Studenten der Uni’s in Bangkok zu sprechen. Alle waren Sprachstudenten einer der drei Sprachen (eigentlich vier aber ich zähle Rumantsch nicht dazu) welche in der Schweiz gesprochen werden. Ich konnte meine italienisch und französisch Kenntnisse zur Schau stellen.

Zudem fand das offizielle hissen der schweizer Fahne statt. Leider habe ich meine Kamera nicht mitgebracht und konnte deshalb keine Fotos machen.

Gestern fand die Eröffnungszeremonie statt. Als wir beim Stadion angekommen waren, mussten wir fast 2 Stunden warten bevor uns die Organisatoren ins “Rajamangala National Stadium” einmarschieren liessen. Das Warten hat sich aber gelohnt, die Zeremonie war genial und sicherlich eine einzigartige Erfahrung.

Day 2 and 3 in Bangkok [en/de]

I just uploaded some more pictures.

Ich habe noch mehr Bilder hochgeladen.

University Games? Universiade? [en]

What are the World University Games or the Universiade?

A lot of people have asked me this question, and I never really knew how to answer them correctly. “It’s like the World Championships of different sports that are held at one venue and is only for students” or “Olympic Games for Students” were my best answers. But here is the official explanation as it was given in the “Universiade Daily” the local University Games Newspaper.

“The Universiade is an international multi-sport event and cultural festival, organized for university students by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a combination of the words “University” and “Olympiad”. The Universiade is often referred in English as the World University Games or the World Student Games.”

Here some more facts about the Universiade:

• The Universiad is staged every two years in a different city and is second in importance only to the Olympic Games.
• The Summer Universiade consists of 12 compulsory sports (athletics, basketball, fencing, football, gymnastics, judo, swimming, diving, water polo, table tennis, tennis and volleyball) and up to three optional sports chosen by the host country.
• The biggest Universiades on recored were in 2005 when 7805 athletes took part in Izmir, Turkey and in 2003 when athletes from 174 countries contested the games in Daegu, South Korea.
• The Winter Universiade consists of seven compulsory sports (alpine skiing, Nordic skiing composed of jump, cross, country and combined, curling ice hockey, short-track, speed skating, figure skating and biathlon) and one or two optional sports also chosen by the host country. A record of 2223 participants from 50 countries contested the Winter Universiad in Innsbruck, Austria in 2005.
• For this years Universiade, the Organization comity is expecting more than 10′000 athletes from 151 countries.

Source: Universiade Daily, August 5, 2007