2005 Winter Apnea Games
Posted By Panos Lianos on 9 May 2005
We started planning this competition months ago. I organized a judges course with Bill Stromberg, so our future competitions could have “National Open status” etc. We contacted the Municipality of Nikaia and they were more than happy to let us use their 50m Olympic pool. We also managed to find six sponsors: Deep magazine, Magestic (carbon constructions and fins), Apnea (diving equipment), Power Bar, Marea (suits) and Underwater Hobby (freediving school). So things looked good. We announced the competition to AIDA International, set up the competition website and some emails started coming in. First Tom Sietas said he would come and then some freedivers from Cyprus. Tom had to cancel due to some medical tests that he had to do. But about a week before the competition my phone rang and when I picked it up, I heard Peter Pedersen asking if he could come. After some light interrogation he said he would try for a WR in Dynamic Apnea. So I arranged for an Anti-Doping test kit to be available. I also placed the announcements and the official top times on the competition website days before the competition, so all athletes could plan their day.
We arranged for the pool to be open for training for the subscribed athletes during the week right before the competition. The guys from Cyprus arrived and we went for a training session. It was nice to see them again. Last time I saw them, I was a judge at their competition in Cyprus. This time we would all be in the water. Peter arrived one day before the competition and I met him at the airport to take him to the hotel in Athens. The first thing I said to him was “I recognized you from your hair”, and he started laughing out loud. He seemed like a nice guy and we talked non-stop all the way to downtown Athens.
Saturday morning at 10:00, we all met again at the pool to register, pay the fees etc. Power Bar supplied the athletes with a sports drink and a couple of bars, all put in a bag for each athlete to take right after the registration. AIDA Hellas supplied the competition t-shits for free. Three colors, white for the athletes, blue for those involved in the organization and red for the judges. The pool was set up in no time (banners, tables to stand on during static in the competition zones etc) thanks to the great number of volunteers that we had. The judges, Peter and myself had a small meeting to talk about the last details about his WR attempt, just to make sure everything was clear. I wanted this competition to be perfect, so I couldn’t relax. Being an organizer and an athlete at the same time is a little hard. People kept telling me to stop worrying and concentrate on my performances but I just couldn’t.
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