By Steven Munatones, Swimming World Special Correspondent
SEVILLE, Spain, May 2. AS night settles in Seville before the FINA World Open Water Championships, the athletes run down their checklists one final time for the Olympic 10K qualifier. The athletes prepare their favorites drinks and gel packs, check their feeding sticks, pack at least one extra set goggles and caps, confirm their coach's preferred position on the feeding station and discuss race tactics one last time with their coach. In the morning, they all usually eat a very good breakfast and some may go for both a morning wake-up swim and a good warm-up before the 10 a.m. scheduled start.
However, one truly special athlete in tomorrow's women's 10K world championships has worries that are simply unfathomable to her competitors.
Natalie du Toit of South Africa, who lost her left leg in 2001 when a careless driver smashed into her motor scooter after morning workout, is that special swimmer who competes at the highest levels of open water swimming. And what she has to face to prepare for these championships is simply mind-boggling.
Compared to most swimmers who arrived days or weeks ahead of time, Natalie just arrived in Seville for a Saturday morning race on Friday afternoon after a long 12-hour flight from Cape Town. Not complaining about missed flights or her long flight to Seville less than 24 hours before the start of the 10K, Natalie got right into her swim suit and went right into the river to test out the race course, smiling as she greeted her friends and competitors in the swimming community.
Like her competitors, Natalie will prepare her drinks, gel packs and extra sets of goggles. She understands her strategy and learned of her start position like the other swimmers.
But the most admirable thing about this remarkable young lady is the fact that her luggage did not arrive with her. For mostly everyone else, this may cause some slight inconvenience, but the problem for Natalie is that her prosthetic leg runs on batteries. And the batteries are scheduled to run out of juice tonight. This means that without her luggage, Natalie will have to struggle from her hotel to the race start and get around the check-in desk and ready room on Saturday morning on a non-functioning prosthetic leg.
But, Natalie remains hopeful and optimistic. "I have always had a dream to take part in an Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn't change anything," she says.
Dive Start at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships
The women's start position for the Olympic 10K at the 2008 World Open Water Championships were drawn at random today during the pre-race briefing. 51 women will start together with a dive start off of a wooden dock approximately 8 inches off the surface of the water. With so much at stake and 15 available guaranteed spots available for the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim finals on August 20 in Beijing, all the coaches and athletes were very anxious to learn their start position on the dock.
Position #1 is located towards the middle of the river, closest to the starter, while position #51 is located towards the river banks, closest to the stands. The women will line up in order of their position number and will take off straight down the course approximately 900 meters to the first turn buoy. With 900 meters to sort things out, there will be plenty of time and opportunity for a surging lead pack to form.
The two turns on the course are formed by 3 large buoys. These buoys form an equilateral triangle that requires the swimmers to make an extremely sharp turn. Due to such sharp turns, there are very significant advantages to maintain good positioning. Without a good inside position around the turn buoys, swimmers can lose 1-3 meters on each turn. Like pool swimming, because the difference in making the Olympics and not are usually only tenths of seconds, the turns can ultimately determine who goes to Beijing and who does not.
The position of the top contenders are shown below
Keri-Anne Payne of Great Britain, position #4
Poliana Okimoto of Brazil, position #5
Kirsten Groome of the USA, position #13
Jana Pechanova of the Czech Republic, position #15
Karley Stutzel of Canada, position #16
Edith van Dijk of the Netherlands, position #17
Larisa Ilchenko of Russia, position #19
Cassandra Patten of Great Britain, position #33
Micha Burden of the USA, position #34
Angela Maurer of Germany, position #36
Ksenia Popova of Russia, position #37
Melissa Gorman of Australia, position #44
Britta Kamrau-Corestein of Germany, position #50
Natalie du Toit of South Africa, position #51
Feeding During the Women's 10K
There is one feeding station on the 10K course at the 2008 World Open Water Championships. The feeding station is a wooden dock placed in the middle of the race course where 51 coaches will position themselves to feed their swimmers. The 51 coaches will be dressed in a variety of colorful outfits and armed with a variety of feeding sticks. Many coaches will hang their country's flag off of their feeding sticks so the swimmers will be able to spot them from a distance.
The feeding sticks come in all shapes and lengths with some as short as 6 feet and some as long as 25. Each team has designed their own feeding sticks and believe their equipment is best.
Rick Walker of SIU will be the coach on the feeding station for Kirsten Groome, while Paul Asmuth will be the coach for Micha Burden.
"The key will be placement in the pack coming into the feeding station," said Walker who has nearly 20 years of experience feeding swimmers in international competitions. "Getting in and getting out of the feeding area is critical. Kirsten and Micha need to get in and get out fast."
In the pre-race briefing, the coaches were reminded that there are no specific areas assigned for the coaches – unlike the swimmers who are placed in specific positions at the start.
The FINA rule is one coach can be on the feeding station for each swimmer in the race. Therefore, because many teams have two swimmers entered in the race, many teams have two coaches on the feeding station. The coaches generally act in unison and position themselves at different locations on the feeding stations. If the swimmers from any one country are separated, then both coaches usually have the ability to feed to both swimmers, thereby increasing the likelihood that the swimmer will get fed.
During the two-hour race, the swimmers will pass their coach eight times. The coaches will yell, whistle and cheer for their swimmer on every loop. Each time the swimmers pass the floating feeding station, the coaches will arm themselves with a feeding stick and the athlete's favorite drink.
These drinks include Gatorade, fortified water and as many concoctions as there are swimmers.
The swimmers and coaches must synchronize their timing perfectly. Any error in timing and the swimmer's chances of grabbing their drink decreases considerably.
As the coaches lean, kneel and stretch out as far on the race course as possible, the swimmers swim close to the feeding station. Because of the crush of the swimmers before them and the crush of the swimmers behind them, all swimming fast and aggressively, the swimmers have just one window of opportunity to grab their cup delicately cradled in the feeding stick.
As the swimmers fight for position coming into their feedings, they expect the end of their feeding sticks to be slightly above the water's surface, facing just at their preferred angle, so they can quickly reach up and grab their cup without breaking their stroke rhythm. A missed stroke means losing valuable ground to their competitors where the difference between gold and bronze is often less than 2 seconds. If the coach-swimmer teamwork is successful, the swimmers reach up for their cup, roll on their backs, gulp their drink and resume swimming – all without losing momentum – within 2 seconds.
Meanwhile, the coaches themselves are pushed and jostled by other coaches trying to reach their own athletes at the optimal position. But, there is only so much space and so little time. The coaches have no more than 2 seconds to position their feeding stick at the water's surface, hold and release the swimmer's cup at the optimal position, and then retrieve their feeding stick without hitting any competitors.
Despite the coach's best efforts and years of experience, when a large pack of swimmers come flying into the feeding station together, coaches can face additional problems. Sometimes, swimmers may inadvertently hit other swimmer's feeding sticks and spill their competitor's cups. In these cases, no apologies are made…both swimmers and coaches simply chalk it up to bad luck and poor timing.
Secondly, if a pack 3, 4 or 5 swimmers come into the feeding station together, the feeding stick sometimes cannot reach the swimmer who is positioned furthest from the feeding station. In those cases, the swimmer usually turns up the course and accepts the unfortunate situation.
Occasionally, tempers flare and expletives in numerous languages can be heard; sometimes directed at others, sometimes direct at themselves.
Yet, an unwritten gentlemen's code of conduct is strictly followed at the feeding stations because every open water coach knows that if he or she were to fall in the water and disturb another swimmer, his or her own swimmer would be immediately disqualified.
So the pressure is on – both the coaches and the athletes.