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

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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

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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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It sounds like you went in with a really open mind. Yeah, and they prepared us for that. They had a psychologist talk about that so if anyone was freaking out, you had someone to go talk to. We didn ' t really use it but the lady who was a psychologist made us meet as a relay, the four of us, and go over what we wanted to do. What kind of questions would she ask? She had all of us think ahead of time about what we wanted the experience to be like. She told us to imagine ourselves as old grandmas in a nursing home telling our grandkids about it. So, she was like, Do you want to tell your grandkids later in life that you went there and you freaked out and everything was a mess, or do you want to tell them that it was fun and happy? So it kind of put things in perspective for people who were freaking out, I think. Did anyone freak out? One girl was just 17 and she was the only one who made an A- cut for the Olympics, which was really fast. But, then she ended up not doing so good. It felt good preparing for something so big that you don ' t really know what it ' s going to be like. [The psychologist] kept telling us, It ' s going to be big and you ' re going to see famous people and it ' s going to be fun. But don ' t forget why you ' re there. Did you meet anyone famous? I met [U.S. tennis player] Serena Williams and her sister Venus. We took a picture with them and exchanged pins. All the countries get this pin with a flag that says Olympics or London and people exchange them. So, she came up to us and said, Hey, do you guys have any Icelandic pins? And we were like, Oh my God, yes of course. [I also met U.S. swimmer] Ryan Lochte and took a picture with him. He ' s really nice and cute. Senior Eva Hannesdottir poses with U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. Hannesdottir went on a month-long training urogram in England and r rance before arriving in ..ondon. What was staying at Olympic Village like? It was pretty cool. [Cities] get about seven years to prepare for the Olympics, so seven years ago [London] started preparing and they built a village with super security. Inside the village, it ' s peaceful and the whole village had somewhere around 10,000 athletes. What was Olympic Village like at night? They had a big game room. I thought there would be partying and stuff going on, but that was not the case. There was no alcohol and if you tried to bring it, they would take it in security. But [the game room] was a cool place to go because sometimes you would go and there would be guitar playing or Xbox, pool, PlayStation. Everyone was wearing the gear that they get, like I would always wear Iceland and other people would wear Spain, Italy (United] States. Any plans for Olympics 201 6? In Brazil? Well, it ' s definitely an exciting place to visit. I haven ' t really given it thought, because four years for me is so far away ... I ' m going to practice and see what happens. WORDS DESIGN [ Nora Bollinger PHOTOS i Eva Hannesdottir London 201 2 Olympics | 27