Fredonia

I am constantly confused and amazed by American swimming. It's logic and unreal and hard core and sweet all at the same time. First of all they have rules.
No bracelets, necklets or rings.
Only team gear allowed (meaning only RIT swimcaps, jackets, pants and bathing suits)

Then we have the setup.
Two teams duel eachother in each meet (meaning that in each meet there are only two teams).
They play the national anthem before each meet (facing the American Flag).
One team is given lanes (like today RIT had lanes 2,4,6,8, while the other team had 1,3,5,7)
One swimmer can only have 3 or 4 events per meet depending on what format it is (today we had the long form, on weekdays we've had short form)
You rarely swim events that you're not good at (I am therefore swimming 1000 & 500 yards at almost every meet)
We always travel to "away" meets together. In a bus.
You get free food and drink.
Usually the meet is only one afternoon or day (depending on the format)

So yeah. It's different. But it's not necessarily bad. It has a certain logic. And being a swimmer is much bigger than anywhere else (except maybe AUS).

BTW, today I swam 50 fly, 1000 free, 200 fly, 200 back in the course of two hours. It was....interesting...

Up, up and away. Stay safe and be nice.