My Olympic Experience so far

Well, competition day is over and I've been having fun and thinking about what the future has in store.

I love weightlifting! I love the Olympics!

However it's not easy to just love something sometimes is it?

I felt like we were robbed of how special the Olympics were first when the Olympic Trials came around and it was like we were a second thought. Got past that though. Then we were left in the dark about any of the Olympic procedures. Didn't even get our flight itineraries until the week before. Our singlets were a disaster. When we thought things settled down again and we were here just to enjoy our Olympic Experience, we were met with complete chaos with our coaching and staff situation. There was lack of communication, organization and our team was separated most of the time. It didn't make out for a good atmosphere.

Good stuff happened too though all during the months after trials. I went to a training camp at the OTC. I got to celebrate 4th of July in Washington for the Capitol 4th Celebration. I got to go to New York for Mother's Day with my mom for the Thank You mom campaign, media summit in Texas, and  I spoke at a high school graduation.

Despite all the madness that is USAW, we all faired as well as we could have at the Olympic Games.

I went a couple days early to watch Kendrick lift and get a feel for the atmosphere I was going to be thrusted into on Sunday. I didn't want any surprises. I watched Kendrick and cheered my face off. He was fun to watch and I'm glad he put his hands on that 208 clean and jerk.

I spent the majority of my time here eating, resting, training, and getting therapy done.

I made lots of friends in the training room and enjoyed watching people train and compete.

Over a week before I competed, Joe and I went on an adventure to Tower Castle and did a little sight seeing.

Over the course of the trip, my family came in and out. The night before I lifted, I went to the P&G House to have family dinner before I wouldn't see them again for a while.

My training went as well as it possibly could have leading into this competition. I was as completely healthy, had personal records, and lifted the heaviest I had ever in my career. The only thing we think we could have done better was clean and jerk heavier more often.

I got up, ate breakfast, got a little massage and got my hair styled. Afterwards, I got ready and headed to the venue. I was pretty nervous but, I think I made myself more nervous than I actually was. I was more physically and mentally prepared for this competition than any in my entire athletic career. I could hardly eat my breakfast for fear of throwing up. I weighed in at a good weight then ate a little bit and rested until it was time to get ready. My only major concern on competition day was having the butt of my singlet rip out. I had already sewn it closed a couple of days before and it was pretty much past the point of no return on that thing.

I went out for introductions and waved at my family. Later I found out that it wasn't them. Who did I wave to?! Haha All of my warm ups in the snatch were pretty smooth. No hiccups there. I gagged a couple of times though. Like I said, I thought I was going to throw up from being nervous. I was however, not as nervous as I was leading into Olympic Trials. I went out and made a solid snatch at 114, then we went up to 118. I over pulled it and missed it behind. Joe and I made the decision to go up to 120 believing it would land in the right place. It did! I got a 6 kgs pr on my snatch and I was so excited I started screaming.

After snatches, I took a potty break and ate a little snack and started getting ready for clean and jerks. They were all good attempts for the most part. Some of my last jerks were a little sloppy but, successful. I missed my first two jerks because of lack of positioning/effort in the jerk. It was down to my last clean and jerk and I did not want to repeat my Pan Am Games performance so I just relaxed and let it happen. Joe asked for 1 more kgs to force the Samoan girl to go ahead of me giving me more read. I made my last jerk and was so relieved! I got two PR snatches and a PR total. My clean and jerk was 1 kg less than my best competition lift. If I had done my best total from training, 270, I would have only moved up one place. So I'm pretty happy with my performance. Not satisfied but, I overall, had a good day.

After competing we had family dinner and gave my coach a round of applause. Enjoyed each other's company and began to plan the rest of our time here.

We have gone to Tower Castle, Windsor Castle, a War Museum, Museum of Natural History, Stone Henge, and Bath. Today we're going to go on a bus and boat tour.

I'm having a blast! I'm thankful for all of my friends and family who have supported me to get me here. It was awesome representing my country at the biggest international stage! I hope to do it again one day. I've learned that through hard work and sacrifice you can make even the biggest dreams come true!

My next big decision? To participate or not in closing ceremonies!

God bless and Stay strong,

Sarah Robles