WCSN Blogs

Happy New Year! I am so happy to be back reporting to you all. It has been a great couple of months and we are getting nearer to the home stretch of Olympic trials! I took about eight months off of competing, which is something I have never done before, but coming off mono and trying to get back on track my coach and I thought it would be fore the best. My first meet back proved that it was a good decision. I competed at U.S. nationals in Atlanta in early December and had a great meet. It felt so good to be back on the blocks racing again. I placed second in the 50 and 100 freestyles and won the 200 free. My times were better than I’ve ever been at this point in the season and overall I just felt great in the water.

We are in the middle of our Christmas training right now - which is the hardest point in the season. It involves extra practices, longer hours, lots of weights and some running … yuck! I love the swimming part, lifting is OK, but the running … I could definitely do without. I was not meant to enjoy activity on land and in fact I am a firm believer that I was born to float, not stand. It always pays off in the end so for right now I just have to push through.

My Christmas at home in Michigan was awesome, as always. I love going home to see my family, relax and eat lots of home cooking! I bought my puppy, Lilly with me. It was her first Christmas which made it impossible not to spoil her. I included some pictures of her with her Santa outfit on.

I have to go to bed now, tomorrow is Sunday and during holiday training that means two practices instead of none! I’ll check back soon, bye for now!

So I know it has been a long time since my last blog and I have a lot to catch you all up on. Let me start by talking about the pictures I posted. This is mostly what has been occupying my time. Decorating and shopping for the new place. I’ve gotten a lot done in the last two weeks or so and I really love the way things are coming together. The pictures are all of my downstairs –- the office, kitchen, living room and some other views. The upstairs is still a big work in progress so I’ll hold off on pictures of that. This has been such a fun experience for me because I absolutely love decorating and shopping for new things, and that’s what buying a new place is all about!

Aside from decorating and shopping like mad, I’ve been swimming a lot too. I feel so good in the water now, and I really think that having mono was a blessing in disguise because I’ve never felt so rested and recovered in my life. Having said all that, I am still not all the way back in shape. Today I actually did my first double practice since I’ve been back. I am having a good time getting together with all my friends again in the pool and getting into some good head to head races in practice –- which is what I love more than anything! It’s bed time for me now, but I promise I’ll post again sooner next time.

I’m finally back in Athens after a visit home to see my parents. Though it’s great to be back in my new house, I am only reminded of all of the millions of things that I need to get done! Becoming a homeowner is a lot harder than I anticipated. There are so many new responsibilities that go along with a new house and only one person to take care of them –- me! One of those responsibilities is furniture. I have been watching my TV (which sat on the ground for a week) from my dining room table ever since I moved in, and let me tell you, it is hard to stretch out and relax on wooden chairs. No worries, though — my couch is scheduled to arrive some time next week. I have included a picture of my place just so you can see what it’s like. I will be sure to include more as soon as there is more to see.

On a swimming note I am FINALLY able to get back in the water after about six weeks of being dry. I couldn’t be more excited about this. While I was home, I went to the Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix meet held at the University of Michigan pool. Seeing all of my teammates and competitors race their first meet of the season in such great shape only made me want to get back in even more. Today is my first day back; hopefully I still remember how to do that front crawl. I’m not sure how long it will take to get back to where I was before I came down with mono, but I am definitely ready to start this next phase of my training. At the Michigan pool there is a giant digital countdown that reads the days until the start of the Beijing Olympics. Watching from the stands, wishing I was in the pool, I noticed it said something like 430 plus days until Beijing –- just a little over one year away!! Time to get started!

As difficult as it was, I had to leave my new condo this week, though for a very good reason. As part of my Speedo contract, I was invited to visit two awesome teams in New Jersey; Montclair YMCA and X-Cel Swim Team at Princeton. I really enjoyed talking with the kids. It’s so great to be able to share my story with them and help inspire them. Every Olympian has a story about success, and I think it’s so important for kids to understand you can succeed from anywhere and prevail through any setbacks as long as you are willing to work hard. I got to spend a few hours with each team talking and signing autographs. Some kids even brought pictures of my puppy Lilly they found online! I thought that was especially cute.

I spent my nights in New York at the Hudson Hotel really close to my agent, Amy. She took me to some great restaurants in the city and a cute nail salon called Pinki’s. On Monday, to cap off a great weekend, I had a meeting with NBC to discuss marketing strategy for the upcoming Olympics. They shared some really interesting ideas for next summer in Beijing.

That was cool, but the best part of my weekend had to be a near run- in with Matt Lauer of the Today Show. I am probably the biggest Today Show fan ever! I watch it every morning and was devastated when Katie Couric left for CBS. A true fan, I stayed tuned and am now very accepting of Meredith Vieira. Anyway… so I was standing outside of the NBC studios and none other than Matt Lauer walked RIGHT by me!! Naturally I was speechless and only watched as he breezed by with his body guard.

So I’m still waiting to get back in the water after about a four-week break. The break, while it’s great, isn’t exactly what I had been hoping for in terms of rest. After I got back from Australia, I really struggled trying to recover from what I thought was horrible jetlag. Finally, after a doctor’s visit and a blood test, it was determined that I tested positive for mono! This is news that I can’t say I was prepared for because I’ve already had mono and I thought you can only get mono once in you life — kind of like the chicken pox. I’m just going with it and following the doctor’s orders, no swimming and plenty of sleeping and hydrating. Like the first time I had mono, the most severe symptom — excessive tiredness — is the toughest to handle. Originally I was only supposed to get about two weeks off but this just extended my break a bit. Jack, my coach, has been really great about keeping me out of the water and letting me rest.

All of the time out of the water gave me the opportunity to take care of some other things I have going on in my life. I just finished all my paperwork and filed my forms for a mortgage. As if turning 21 wasn’t enough to make me feel old, now I’m actually buying my own place! It’s a brand new townhouse on the other side of town from where I live now. It’s a great location and convenient to nice restaurants, stores, the mall and actually less than a mile from my coach (not planned). I’ll post more pics after I get settled in!

What is cuter than a small puppy? NOTHING! At least, that is what I think…

I got a puppy about three weeks ago and let me just say she is ADORABLE! Lilly is a 10-week-old Yorkshire Terrier — seriously, about the size of a beanie baby. She is definitely a baby, and we quickly formed a bond with our great love of naps and food.

It has been quite the adventure teaching Lilly that the middle of the night is not the opportune time to go potty and that buttons on your shirt, as much fun as they are to chew, are not treats. I can’t take her anywhere without everyone that we pass literally gawking over her cuteness and smallness. She certainly is quite the attention grabber!

Two of her favorites are toys that squeak and empty water bottles. Lilly is going to be my sole housemate in a few weeks when I move into my new townhouse.

Lilly was delivered from a breeder in Atlanta while I was still in Australia for World Champs. My friends took turns taking care of her until I got back and even taught her a few cool tricks. She came to meet me at the airport, and it was puppy love at first sight. She is the friendliest, most adventurous little dog I’ve ever met, and I have no shortage of doggie sitters begging to keep her for me when I am traveling.

So, it’s Speedo!

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I signed my first professional contract — a six-year deal with Speedo — and I couldn’t be more excited. Every swimmer grows up with Speedo and their awesome swimsuits and catalogs.

Silly as it may sound, as a little girl, one of my main goals (along with making the Olympic team and making it on The Today Show) was to make it into the Speedo catalog, so this is really exciting for me. Actually, being a member of Team Speedo is another step towards living the dream. My first photo shoot is at the end of the month in L.A., and I can’t wait!

I also want to give a shout-out to my agent, Amy Stanton. I signed with Stanton Shade, a relatively new agency out of New York owned by Amy Stanton and Sheryl Shade. They are focused on promoting women in sports and, actually, one of my fellow WCSN bloggers, U.S. Olympic snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, is represented by them as well.

Amy is really awesome and did a great job negotiating my first contract with Speedo. She actually came to Melbourne for the FINA World Championships to watch me race. I am so happy with my decision to sign with Stanton Shade, and I am really looking forward to working with Amy.

After a very long and challenging week and a half of swimming at the FINA world championships in Melbourne, I am spending a few days relaxing with my family in Sydney before I head back to the United States

I am very pleased with my meet; it’s always nice to end a season with best times. Overall our team swam out of their suits. I am sure that when the final tallies are in, it will go down as one of the most successful meets Team USA has ever competed in. At this meet there were seventeen American records and eleven world records broken. Eleven world records … I still can’t believe it! It seemed like every time an American was swimming the pool just lit on fire–truly remarkable. Watching people like Michael, Natalie and Katie break records is always exciting, but it was our “diamonds-in-the-rough” that really made the meet seem magical — people like Margaret Hoelzer and Leila Vaziri breaking American and World records. Watching Leila set a World record is one of those things that really gets you going. Leila has been swimming for 15 years and only now realized that the 50 backstroke is her event, after swimming it for the first time here at this meet!

I competed in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, the prelims of the 4×200 freestyle relay and the 50-meter freestyle. The 4×100 freestyle relay was really awesome. Natalie Coughlin led off, followed by Amanda Weir, Lacy Nymyer and me anchoring. We ended up breaking the American record and claiming the silver medal. The Aussie girls only touched us out by two tenths of a second, one of the closer relay races of the meet. I know I don’t speak only for myself when I say that it was great for us to get second. We have come a long way since taking second at the 2004 Athens Olympics and every time we race the Australians it gets closer and closer. I really believe that next year in Beijing we will bring home the gold and take that world record back!

The 4×200 freestyle relay was another great race for me. In the prelims of the relay we were behind by a good deal. Getting a low finish in a circle seeded heat is not a good thing if you plan on making it back top eight. I swam the third leg and knew there was a lot of pressure on me to catch up to the rest of the heat and secure our team a lane in the finals. I had the best split of my life and we ended up sneaking in to Lane 8 for the finals. Team USA went on to win with outside smoke and also smashed the World record!

After having two good solid swims on the relays I was really pumped to get going on my individual event. In prelims of the 50 freestyle I had a pretty good race and qualified as the top seed going into semi-finals with a solid time of 25.23. In international meets with prelims, semifinals and finals, you can count on everyone swimming faster each time they qualify for the next round of the event. Having qualified first going into semi’s, I was really excited for my next race. I did a life time best by almost 2 tenths of a second, 24.80 and qualified second going into the finals. For what turned out to be one of the fastest heats of the women’s 50 freestyle in history, I was pretty happy with my finish. I touched in a time of 24.83 — second best time ever and fifth place. I placed fifth in the 2004 Olympics in the 50 freestyle as well, so this wasn’t new territory for me. Although at the Olympics I swam a 25.00. I am an extremely competitive person, so naturally I am not satisfied with fifth place. I will most definitely be aiming for gold next year in Beijing.

It’s been about three days since I landed in Oz! I have always heard about how big swimming is in Australia, but its one of those things I never really believed — until now! When we got through customs in Melbourne, it was the coolest thing … the actual floor of the airport was carpeted to look like the World Championship pool, including ten lanes, lane ropes, black lines and all! Talk about rolling out the carpet … it really got Team USA excited to see something like that at an airport.

After escaping the herds of press that came to greet us, we got right on the bus and headed for the small town of Geelong, about an hour outside of Melbourne, where we will be having our training camp for the next week or so. A typical day includes morning practice, breakfast, maybe a nap or watching some TV, lunch, another practice, dinner, a team meeting then lights out. The food here is top notch! We have a buffet line for all our meals with a huge variety of healthy food. The fruit is my personal favorite; it’s all grown locally and is perfectly ripe.

The down time can get to be a bit monotonous at times so the staff tries to do little things to keep it interesting for us. Last night we all received per diem and we were able to go out on the town for dinner. I went out with Natalie Coughlin, Jessica Hardy, Elizabeth Beisel, Tara Kirk and Mary Descenza. There were so many small restaurants within walking distance of our hotel. We settled on this place called Savaah’s that was highly recommended by the locals.

The food was very similar American food and they served a great three-course meal. I had minestrone soup, veggie crepes and a vanilla pudding with strawberry sauce for dessert. The owner of the restaurant was so friendly and brought over complimentary samples of delicacies the restaurant served as well as items for us to autograph. The last thing he brought over was brains of sheep! I must say that I am not an adventurous eater and was one of two people at the table that did not opt to try it out. And good thing because from what I hear it was about as good as you can expect sheep brains to taste!

More from Geelong in a bit, back to the pool now for another practice!

I am sitting on the plane on my way to Melbourne, Australia, for the 2007 FINA World Championships! I feel a great sense of relief, and yet I also feel excitement beginning to build. It has been an incredible week leading up to this moment.For those of you who don’t know me, I am Kara Lynn Joyce. I am a senior at the University of Georgia and have just completed the final meet of my college career, the 2007 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. I ended the meet by winning the 50- and 100-yard freestyles for the fourth consecutive year.

I had a great time swimming for my school. Those four years go by fast! I don’t think it is all sinking in yet that my college career is over. My plan is to continue to train with my Georgia team through the next few Olympics, so not much has really changed.

Now I’m on to the next phase. I am really looking forward to this meet. It is the last major international competition before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, so it’s a great benchmark to see where I am at and where the rest of the world is at.

The night after my meet finished was an absolute whirlwind! There were so many things I had to do! I hired an agent (her name is Amy — she is really great, but more about her later), met with potential sponsors (I can’t talk about that yet, but I promise there will be some big news soon), attended a team dinner where I said good-bye to family and friends that came to Minnesota to watch my meet, and then flew home to Georgia where I had a day and a half to pack up my life for a month on the road. Somehow, I managed to get everything together in a short amount of time, including a trip to Best Buy for an international power converter, an adapter for the plane so I can use my computer and a new iPod. My old one has a short battery life, and I could not imagine a trip this long without music. Needless to say, I am seriously sleep deprived!

The longest I’ve ever been on a plane is 11 hours, so this flight from L.A. to Australia, at 17 hours, is definitely going to be a new personal record. I am one of maybe three lucky people on the plane that has an entire row of seats to myself, and I am going to take advantage of this right now. I am putting on my headphones, and I am going to stretch out on these seats and try to catch up on some serious sleep. It doesn’t sound like the most comfortable option, but if you are me right now, it doesn’t matter.

OK, that’s it for now. More from Melbourne later!