The Tribune

Brett Hawke, coach of Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, continues his column for The Tribune:

WITH the opening ceremony there are already so many people in the stadium that they limit the amount of tickets for support staff, so naturally I moved aside for those people who were born and bred in the Bahamas on Friday night. Anyway, this is my fourth Olympics and I didn’t really need to be at another opening ceremony!

Saturday however was jam-packed! The swimming began finally, and what an exciting first day. After an easy swim this morning for Arianna we decided to head back early to the village and catch the end of the swimming before lunch. It just so happened that the Queen wanted to visit the athletes’ dining hall at the same time that we got back to the village. It was crazy! People jumping on tables and crowds of athletes swarming around her like bees! I managed to get off a few photos, even though she stands at around five feet only. That was the excitement for the morning. We went back in the afternoon for a longer swim before the madness of the first night of finals kicked off. Crazy first event! Lochte and Phelps look like they are going to go after each other all week. Strange when you see them eat lunch together every day, but I guess that’s what makes them great teammates, they leave it in the pool.