From Feb. 10 to 26 many UW-Madison students will sit in the comfort of their apartments or dorm rooms and watch the 2006 Olympic Games. While many will simply admire the athletes, some may dream of one day getting to be there and experience all the Olympics have to offer. For UW-Madison students Carly Piper, Adam Mania and Maureen Brunt, this dream is a reality.
This year the Winter Olympics takes place in Torino, Italy and will feature UW-Madison's own Brunt on the United States curling team. Piper and Mania, on the other hand, went to the 2004 Games in Athens and have their goals set on swimming in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Brunt just graduated from UW-Madison last fall with an English degree. She is a native of Portage, Wis.
For curling, unlike many sports, the athletes pick their own team to compete throughout the Games. Brunt and her team members all live together in Bemidji, Minn.
In order to qualify for the 2006 Olympics, Brunt and her team competed in a the national competition that took place in Madison, Wis. from Feb. 19 to 26, 2005. They won that tournament and advanced to World Championships in Scotland, where they took silver.
'We're excited to do well. We took silver at the World Championships last year, so we've played most of the teams we're playing. We kind of have an idea of what we're up against,' Brunt said.
Brunt and her team have trained for the Olympics by working with a trainer from the Olympic Committee, as well as playing in many tournaments throughout the fall and into the winter.
Brunt's team left on Wednesday, Feb. 1 for Torino and plan on arriving back in the States on Feb. 28. Their actual competition begins on Feb. 13 and Brunt is starting to move toward the nervous stage of preparation.
Qualifying for the Olympics and graduating in one year is a lot to have on tap. Brunt handled the situation well and at times had to convince her professors curling was the reason for not being in class.
'It's not like a normal NCAA sport where you get help from professors at all. They kind of didn't know what curling was. But a lot of the people were very nice about it and would let me make stuff up and kind of believed me when I said that's what I was leaving for,' Brunt said.
On the other hand, there are a few seasoned Olympians that may be able to offer Maureen Brunt some words of wisdom. Carly Piper and Adam Mania, both swimmers from UW-Madison, competed in the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. They are currently working toward graduation and training to make the 2008 team.
Mania was born in the United States a few months after his parents moved here from Poland and has had dual-citizenship his entire life. He is in his last semester, majoring in history and political science. Mania swam the 100-meter backstroke for Poland in Athens and said, 'the experience was great.'
Mania is currently an assistant volunteer coach for the UW-Madison swim team and is in the process of switching citizenship to the United States as he trains for the 2008 Olympic team.
He said one of the biggest adjustments was the crowds. Swimming in front of approximately 20,000 people can be quite a daunting task when the normal crowd has consisted of no more than 1,000 in the past.
'I got [to the preliminaries] and marched out to a crowd of about 20,000 people. It's kind of shocking and I kind of froze up a little bit. I was pretty nervous, but the overall experience was great,' Mania said.
Other than that, Mania noted a new coaching staff as a challenge he faced in Athens.
'The only thing that was hard was getting used to working with those coaches. There wasn't a problem understanding each other. It's just such a different type of training and they have a different style than I'm attributed to,' Mania said.
When it comes down to it, being in Athens and experiencing such a high level of athleticism is what matters to the athletes.
'Just being at the pool, you know, and just seeing what was going down and seeing how everybody'the whole crowd'was so into it. You know, in the U.S. it's not as big of a sport, except for during the Olympics, but to see spectators that go crazy over swimming'it was just awesome,' Mania said.
'The atmosphere was great, to be able to be on that kind of level ?? the same level as the best of the best all over the world,' Mania said.
In the pool with Mania was Carly Piper. Piper is also in her last semester at UW-Madison, and will finish with a zoology degree. She won the gold medal as part of her 800-meter freestyle relay team and notes that as a moment that will not soon be forgotten.
Piper also helps coach at UW-Madison and is happy to be back with her team.
'I knew of these people but you come from all different places and all different teams and you come together as one united team, so it was kind of hard just to adjust to that,' Piper said.
Piper and Mania are seasoned in the Olympic experience, and soon Brunt will come back to UW-Madison, hopefully with a story of success.
Piper's favorite memory from the Olympics was 'standing on the podium and just hearing the National Anthem play and just knowing how many people were behind me.'
Hopefully the UW students will come home from Torino with medals for the U.S. teams.
Good luck and On Wisconsin!
