Open Water Source will cover the women’s 10K marathon swim Olympic qualifier in Shanghai tomorrow at 9 am Beijing time. Follow with extensive pre-race, in-race and post-race coverage via videos, tweets, commentary and results via The Daily News of Open Water Swimming and @openwatersource and the YouTube Openwatersource channel.

With all the athletes staying at the same hotel right on the venue, the tension among athletes and coaches has been steadily rising all week. Tonight in Shanghai, the coaches were milling around the lobby and restaurants talking apprehensively about their athletes’ chances to make the Top 10 and its automatic 2012 London Olympics 10K Marathon Swim qualification.

Frequent smiles have turned to expressionless stares. Lively conversations among friends have turned into short “good luck” nods among rivals. Coaches have spent years with their athletes preparing them physiologically and psychologically, but realize that their most important interaction with their athletes may be the two seconds they will encounter their athletes at the feeding stations.
Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source