Alright guys here goes another round.....BTW the source is from OhnoZone....i didn't want ya'll to lurk high and low...i'll be glad to do the job
....here it is ...talks about training:
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE (12/23/03)
Preparation for Olympics is strenuousBy MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE
The complex occupies 35 acres on the site of the former Ent Air Force Base, at the corner of Boulder Street and Union Boulevard. With 24 buildings, this is the workplace for more than 400 people, the home to about 200 resident-athletes and an occasional high-altitude training venue for many more. Olympic medals are the goal.
The wrestling practice room is located on the first floor of the Irwin Belk Olympic Sports Complex, a two-story building on the U.S. Olympic Complex.
The room is long and windowless, with a low ceiling that makes the space feel like a basement. And it may as well be. Eleven pairs of wrestlers don't care about what's happening outside. Inside, workouts are quietly intense with little talking.
Upstairs, U.S. women's volleyball team members, fresh from Olympic qualifying, are doing some drills of their own. Assistant coach Kevin Hambly puts the ball in play, his serve low and hard. Then he stands back as the point is played out.
Why isn't a team member serving?
“When you're playing China or Russia,” explains Paul Soriano, USA Volleyball spokesman, “Kevin's going to serve as tough as they'll ever face.”
This was a Thursday morning in December. About nine months from now, the 2004 Summer Olympic Games will start, and a few dozen people in these rooms will have made it to Athens, Greece.
TV cameras will show U.S. athletes marching in the Opening Ceremony, but fewer people will see how they got there.
Many will have gotten there by being here.
The Belk complex is one of two multi-sport buildings located at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. The wrestling room, weight room and weightlifting room occupy the first floor. Upstairs, three gyms provide space for volleyball, modern pentathlon, fencing and a variety of teams like basketball and badminton, which train here in short-term camps.
Across campus is Sports Center I, headquarters for gymnastics, judo and taekwondo training, among others.
USA Shooting has a building.
USA Swimming has its headquarters on campus. The Aquatics Center has a 52-meter pool, with moveable bulkheads (1 meter each) that increase the versatility of the pool. Olympic swimmers train at the distance of 50 meters. College swimmers might use a 25-yard pool for NCAA competition. Water polo uses a 30-meter pool.
Inside Belk, reaching the Olympics is a full-time pursuit. Most athletes train six days a week, with one off day and one relatively light day.
For summer Olympic athletes, the days are dwindling before Athens. Olympic trials in most sports will be held from January to July. Many athletes' reason for being here is to make the U.S. Olympic team. In the coming months, they'll find out if years of work will result in realized dreams.
In the wrestling room, the Greco-Roman resident-athlete team is finishing its first of the day's two training sessions. Members of the freestyle team are filtering in for their practice.
The typical schedule for a women's volleyball player: breakfast, 9-11:30 a.m. training, noon-3 p.m. lunch and rest, 3:30-6 p.m. training, 6:30-8 p.m. dinner.
As the volleyball team trains a floor above, 2000 gold medalist wrestler Rulon Gardner and his training partner switch positions on the mat, with Gardner starting underneath. They have been wrestling in oneminute segments for more than 10 minutes, alternating start positions.
It's so quiet you can hear shoes squeak and the wrestlers breathe in tortured puffs.
On the whistle, Gardner doesn't get up, instead crawling to his position, breathing hard.
With 50 or so wrestlers, the room is stuffy. Coaches have been known to crank up the heat to prepare wrestlers for hot-weather venues. Athens' average daily high in August is 94 degrees, with 45 percent humidity.
When the session is over, Ethan Bosch, 33, said the day's first workout took “a lot” out of him.
“Today, especially,” he said. “We did a lot of live (wrestling) today.”
Down the hall is the weight room, where athletes from all sports supplement their training. With piped-in music and shiny machinery, the room resembles a downtown fitness club. With one difference.
“We're the most elite health club you can ever imagine,” said Glen Werner, Olympic Training Center operations manager.
Next door in the weightlifting room, there's no music, only a purposeful intensity. Oscar Chaplin III is going for a personal-best lift. Everyone's stopped to watch.
Chaplin grasps the bar, yanks it overhead and strains. The bar bends under the weight. He holds it for a count of one, two . . .
Then his ramrod form breaks, limbs crumpling like a marionette. The bar drops to the floor with a thud. Chaplin tries, and fails, four times. Not today.
This is the daily grind, the part most fans don't see.
“People think it's easy but it's not,” said Shane Hamman, 2000 Olympian in weightlifting. “We may only train 20 hours a week, but it's the hardest job possible. It's a huge challenge. We're tearing our bodies down, making our muscles, joints hurt. But it's rewarding and fun too.”
The public can take free guided tours of the training center, and the most popular stops are the sports buildings. Children, teenagers, retired folks, parents with fanny packs or pushing strollers get to see Olympic hopefuls, and sometimes actual Olympians, in training.
Outside the weightlifting room, they peer through a wall of windows with cupped hands, to the amusement of those inside.
“Welcome to the petting zoo,” said one lifter.
Being gawked at is old hat to gymnast Brett McClure, member of the 2003 world championships silvermedal team. Some newer gymnasts can't resist ramping up their practice routines for the tour groups.
“It's funny to see first-timers come in,” McClure said. “They get excited.”
But even the veteran admits the spectators are “definitely kind of a motivating thing.”
McClure and others know a bigger audience awaits in Athens. For now, there's work to be done.
Lot of Training....and Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!
....here it is ...talks about training:
