In at the Deep End
David Davies
Language: English
Pages: 100
ISBN: B00AM0WKUQ
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
As he was carried off on a stretcher at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Welsh swimmer David Davies was celebrating his success. His exhausting performance in the first ever 10 km open water race earned him a silver medal and, more importantly, a place in British swimming history. But what was running though his head as he collapsed from the physical exhaustion of completing the Olympics' most gruelling swimming race?
This is David's own story. The tale of how an ordinary schoolboy from Barry made the swimming world sit up and take notice. He talks about his determination and drive and his life both in and out of the water.
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very happy and knew I was back. So, having qualified, the next step for me was the World Championships in Melbourne which were to take place in April 2007. I hadn’t really taken in during the Commonwealth Games what a great sporting city Melbourne is. It’s sports-mad. There were posters everywhere advertising the swimming with pictures of the Australian superstars Grant Hackett and Leisel Jones, and other top swimmers, on billboards around the city. You know it’s big when you get a police
it, is it going to work?” My response was, “I’ll do it, because it’s the Olympics.” Mum responded by telling me that it was easy to say that, but it would be tough and that I had to do what was right for me. I talked to Dave, my coach, and he was very unhappy about what I had to say. It was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t want to hurt him but I had to be honest. I let him know that I was unhappy and he pointed to all the achievements I’d made over my long
had been three years since I’d had a personal best time in my main event. The prospect of a new fifty-metre pool in Cardiff didn’t alter my thinking. After all, I’d trained in a twenty-five metre pool and achieved an Olympic bronze medal three years earlier. In the end Dave was really good about me leaving. He said, “Move on then. Do what you need to do. Just make sure you train hard and do what you have to do for next year.” He had some suggestions as to where I should go. I also consulted Bob
from Athens I’ll see what I can do for you.” I trained really well for the three weeks at the Olympic training camp in Cyprus. I think that’s where I won my Olympic medal. I met up again with Bob Treffene and the training was both consistent and consistently good. I was able to compare notes with Bob as he had Kieren Perkins’s training records and I was actually on a par, if not slightly better than he was. That gave me enormous confidence. Also I loved training with Graeme Smith in a
visibility in my race was a problem. But that’s the beauty of Open Water swimming – you never know what conditions you’re going to get. I hadn’t decided to do the event until January 2008, which is late to take up an event for the Olympics, in terms of preparation and planning for it. I’d been purely a pool-based swimmer all my career, so dealing with the changeable conditions of Open Water was going to be my biggest challenge. My coach Kevin and I came to the conclusion that the best way for me
