James Madison University - Bluestone Schoolmaam Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

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Senior swims for Iceland ' s Olympic relay team OLYMPIAN Friday, Aug. 3 was a day senior Eva Hannesdottir would never forget. On that morning, the Iceland native swam a relay in the 2012 London Olympics. But rewind five months and ask Hannesdottir about her summer plans; she probably wouldn ' t have mentioned the O-word. In February 2012, Hannesdottir had just missed the top qualifying time for the NCAA championship. It was her last college meet, but she was reluctant to hang up her bathing suit and cap. One month and a five-hour plane ride later, she participated in the Icelandic Championships and qualified for the European Aquatics Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. During this meet, Hannesdottir placed fifth, crushed an Icelandic record and was invit ed to anchor the 400-meter medley relay in the London Olympics. Olympics | 25

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When did being in the Olympics finally start to feel real? A A committee person from the Icelandic Swimming Association called me and was like, We ' re pretty sure this is happening, so you ' re invited to come meet the prime minister of England in Iceland. There was a get-together of athletes that were definitely in and some that were maybe going to go. They had athletes who had competed when London last hosted the Olympics [in 1948]. So it was sort of getting real by that point. That ' s about the time that I started to allow myself to tell people I was going. Walk me through what that Friday, probably one of the most important days in your life, was like. We got there for warm-up around 8 a.m. and then my race was around 11 a.m. I ' ve been to a ton of swim meets but I don ' t think any as big as this thing. My [two] sisters from Iceland were there. IT LOOKED LIKE A FOOTBALL STADIUM ...THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE. Eva Hannesdottir, senior It looked like a football field stadium; [the stands] were just so high up and there were so many people. Posing with the other members of her relay team, senior Eva Hannesdottir prepares to swim the 400-meter medley relay. Hannesdottir ranked 8th with 4 minutes and 7 seconds in the second heat. We got ready and this was my first and only day of competition. So, I didn ' t know what to do or where to go. Thankfully I had [my relay team] with me and we had to go to three call rooms. In call room one, they had to check if our cap had a big or small logo and if it was too big, we had to switch out caps. And if our goggles had too many logos on them, we weren ' t allowed to use them. That ' s very strict! Yeah, and I don ' t know how to explain it, but if you ' re super nervous and about to go compete and you ' re not allowed to wear your goggles, you ' re going to freak out. But everything was fine. So that was the first call room. What were you feeling by call room three, when you were about to swim? We were just going crazy. I was so nervous, but so excited too. I remember seeing the U.S. girls and they just looked so big and so calm. Oh my God, they were so intimidating. How do you relax before the swim? Do you have any mantras or lucky charms? I don ' t have any lucky charms or any rules or routines I need to go through, because I learned pretty early that, [for example], if you have to wear these goggles otherwise you ' re going to swim slow and you can ' t find them, then everything ' s just going to mess up. Were you nervous? I thought I was pretty calm and not nervous at all. But, then I remember walking out. I was on the last leg of the relay, so all the girls before me dove in, and [the girl before me] got in and I was like, Oh my God, it ' s about to happen. Then I started to freak out. But I think because I ' ve been doing it for so long, I didn ' t really mess up. Of course, I wanted to go faster. I ' m sure it all comes with practice. Yeah, and also the first day we got there, I was like, Oh my God, this is so big. This pool is so much bigger than I expected. What am I doing here? But then, I [dove] into the pool and I was like, OK, this is just a swimming pool. There ' s nothing different really except the hype about it. So I just tried to hang onto what I knew, even though everything else around me was crazy and blown up. 26 | Features