I can't wait for Friday!

I'm blessed with having Friday morning available to do something fun, and I CANNOT WAIT, to go do this!

This Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Austin is hosting the "Austin Grandprix of Swimming".

I've never seen a live swim meet, and I'm totally psyched about seeing world class swimmers in real person to get to see how fast they truly swim!

I remember back in 1984, Mats Wilander, Henri Leconte, Pat Cash and a pink polo, jeans short wearing 18 year old Andre Agassi came to the little town in France that I lived in for a tune up the week before the French Open.  I was absolutely amazed at how FAST that ball really travelled over the net, back and forth, and how incredibly accurate these tennis players were.  Mats Wilander ended up dominating the event, and then went on to win the French Open, in arguably his best Grand Slam tournament ever.  It was fantastic to see him at the top of his game.  ( I still have all their autographs in the official program book!)

So now, I'm totally committed to checking out the swimming.  The agenda calls for preliminary swims on Thursday and Friday both at 9:30am and 5:30pm, then finals on Saturday morning.  It's general admission, and doors open at 8:30am, so I'm going to be there shortly thereafter to get a GREAT seat.  

I'm so friggin' excited!!  Seriously!  (May even bring my SLR high end camera!, just need to find a zoom lens to borrow.  anyone!?)

If you watched the olympics, and paid attention to names of the kickass swimmers, you can't tell me you don't recognize each and every one of these names:  Aaron Piersol, Dara Torres, Katie Hoff, Eric Shanteauh, Peter Vanderkaay, Garret Weber-Gale, Kristy Coventry.

I'm even more exicted that I get to go at 9:30am, when everyone else is hopefully at work!

Tickets are ONLY $6!

Who's with me!?!?

USA Swimming 2009 Grand Prix Series Fourth Stop in Austin, Texas 5-7 March

Olympic Swimmers Dara Torres, Aaron Peirsol in the 2009 Austin Grand Prix Meet

From USA Swimming, for About.com

Dara Torres, USA, and Cate Campbell, AUS, Women's 50m Freestyle final held at the National Aquatics Centre during Day 9 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 17, 2008 in Beijing, China. Torres won the silver, Campbell the bronze

Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Ten members of the 2008 US Olympic Swim Team, including Dara Torres¹ and Aaron Peirsol², will compete March 5-7 at the 2009 Austin Grand Prix, the fourth stop of the2009 USA Swimming Grand Prix Swim Meet Series³. The meet will serve as the first competition back for both Torres and Peirsol since Beijing. Torres, 41 years old, won an Olympic silver medal in the 50-meter free in 2008, becoming the oldest Olympic medalist in the history of the sport.

Both Torres and Peirsol took home hardware in Beijing and will be competing in preparation for the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships in July which will serve as the qualifying meet for the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome. Torres is entered in the 50 free.

National Teamer and current Grand Prix Series leader Mary DeScenza will look to extend her 32-point lead in Austin. DeScenza is in pole position for the $20,000 prize that will be awarded to the highest-scoring swimmer at the conclusion of the series.

Additional U.S. Olympians competing in Austin include multiple American record-holder Katie Hoff⁴ (Towson, Md.), Lacey Nymeyer⁵ (Tucson, Ariz.), Peter Vanderkaay⁶(Rochester, Mich.), Kara Lynn Joyce⁷ (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Elizabeth Beisel⁸ (Saunderstown, R.I.), Kathleen Hersey⁹ (Atlanta, Ga.), and Austin locals Garrett Weber-Gale¹⁰(Milwaukee, Wis.) and Eric Shanteau¹¹ (Lilburn, Ga.).

In addition to the strong pool of American talent, world-record holder and Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) will compete at the Austin Grand Prix. Brazilian Olympic gold medalist Cesar Cielo, French Olympic silver medalist Fred Bousquet, and Trinidadian Olympian George Bovell will also swim in Austin.

In Austin, preliminary heats will be held in the 25-yard pool (short course) while finals competition will be held in the 50-meter pool (long course). Race footage from each night of finals, as well as interviews from the Grand Prix meet will be broadcast online at www.swimnetwork.com¹². Footage will be available on-demand, beginning Friday, March 6, at 12 p.m. ET.

The Austin Grand Prix is the fourth stop in the six-meet USA Swimming Grand Prix Series, which awards the overall series winner a $20,000 grand prize. A leaderboard¹³ can be found online. Swimmers are awarded five points for a gold medal, three points for a silver medal and one point for a bronze medal.

Tickets for the meet, taking place at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center at the University of Texas at Austin, are $10 for final sessions and $6 for prelim sessions. Tickets for students and children are available for $5 per session. Tickets can be purchased at the door. The complete competition schedule can be found online here. Finals start at 5:30 p.m. and prelims begin at 9:30 a.m.