2023.02.04-05. – ‘Remax-iin Dalma’ or Masters Swimming Championships in Mongolia

This was a looong weekend. Thus, a long post is needed to relive it.

We got up at 6:30-ish to get ready and get a taxi at 7:15 the latest. As it was Saturday morning, we weren’t sure if we could just hail a taxi by the road, and we didn’t want to be late (warm-up started at 8), so my husband downloaded a taxi app (that actually uses registered drivers and their cars are also registered on this app and all, and I guess they pay taxes too, so like, legit taxi) and we got a driver right away. By 7:15 we were actually getting in the car. He took us to the pool in no time (again, we weren’t sure how long it would take but my guess was 25 minutes – it took 15). There, we decided to just sit down by the entrance and wait for the coach and one of the girls (they came there together) to arrive, since the girl speaks English and the coach had the key to the room that would be allocated to the team during the competition anyway. Most people who mingled there or arrived just stared at us, but some of the organisers actually came up to us, looking worried, and asked if we wanted to swim in the competition, if we had registered, and just in general what the heck we were doing there. They also told us to go to them if we have any questions. Again, Mongolians are pretty helpful and nice. (Although later that day Coach said they were only so kind bc they had thought I was from the embassy or something, not with Re/Max Swimmming Club – and I told him that, to be honest, I am kinda with the embassy, as my contract is with them, lmao.)

Once we dumped our bags in the room (it was a mostly cleared out gym that our team got to use during the weekend), I went to swim warm-up, and my hubby sat on the bleachers, watching. Then I patted my swimsuit as dry as possible before getting dressed. I’ve also gotten a zip-up hoodie and a parka with the team logo on it, like everyone else on the team, free of charge (I mean, it kinda makes sense, since our sponsors (Re/Max) basically use these clothing items – and the whole team – as a marketing platform, but still, it was a nice surprise, especially for me, who is used to having to pay and pre-order for every piece of teamwear).

Here's my team in the new gear.

The competition was supposed to start at 9am, so I went to the call room (they had a call room! Not something I am used to, at home you just walk to the general area of the blocks and someone may or may not be there calling the names for the next heats) – however, the competition did not actually start until 10:30. We sat there, waiting, thinking the competition could start any minute, for one and a half hours. That is so Mongolian (it’s always chaos and being late and not knowing stuff) and so frustrating. By this time, the warm-up was way too far away and I really just wanted to get it over with. Accordingly, my race didn’t go that well (not that bad either, tbh, considering my knees are still healing and all the headache from the disorganisation). I got second place, which is a bit disappointing, and I was a good 0.5 seconds behind the gold medallist (she swam in the heat after mine so I couldn’t see her – in my own heat, I’d won with about a 10-second margin, meaning I had no competition to keep me on my toes).

Then we spent hours upon hours watching the competition (I was supposed to swim 50 backstroke too, but they randomly switched the backstroke events with no one knowing, so it was 100 m backstroke for under 40 and 50 m backstroke for 45+ on Saturday (instead of Sunday), and I did not enter the 100 m in backstroke). It went slow and although it was fun at first, it just made us really tired, sitting there doing nothing – especially while I knew I had so much work waiting for me at home. Some random people came up to us on the stands too, just introducing themselves and asking where we were from. I think most of them just wanted to flex/practice their English, and they were genuinely interested what we were doing there.

Meanwhile, there were basketball games in the same sports center, right across the pool.

In the afternoon (after another, short warm-up, and an opening ceremony which was so random and weird and long but kinda funny), I swam the 100 m fly; being the only single participant in my category, I didn’t really need to swim fast – so I decided not to, and did a pleasant, calm swim, paying attention to my technique and my underwaters (even with my still-weak knees). I got gold anyway, being the only one to even enter the competition.

Then it was time for the relays – our 4*50 m freestyle relay won gold, but it was a good race, we didn’t have too big of a margin.

With all the medal ceremonies (bc of the delay from the morning, they did all medal ceremonies in the evening, after all events, which meant it was super long) we’ve spent 14 hours in the pool on Saturday. No wonder we were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home – and I didn’t really do any work, giving up after about 15 minutes.

My medals (and new zip-up hoodie) after Day 1

On Sunday, already knowing it wouldn’t take that long to get to the pool, and that I don’t need to be there at 8 am sharp, we got up later, at about 7:15 – such a relief. Then we got ready, went to the pool, I had another warm-up (being slightly sore from the previous day, not even from racing, I think, just from having sat all day and from having overstretched a bit), and it was time for the 100 freestyle and 50 backstroke events. There were 3 of us in both, and I won gold in both (easily, to be frank, but it was to be expected, since I have such a huge advantage over Mongolians, coming from Hungary where swimming is just so much more advanced). This time, they did the medal ceremonies right after the events so that they wouldn’t have such a long finish at the end of the competition as they did the previous day.

A teammate gave me an energy drink (mango-passion fruit) and I am always so happy when I understand what the package says.

Since this time, the competition wasn’t that much behind schedule, we could actually come home for lunch – and I even had some time to get a bit of work done before heading back to the pool.

In the afternoon, we swam the 50 m fly – again, 3 entries, but one of the girls was actually pretty fast! On the first 12.5 meters she did give me a bit of a scare, keeping up with me (even being ahead of me by a skin of a teeth for a few strokes). I do like a challenge though, and on the second 12.5 meters I had to swim fast but I was pretty sure I would win – and I did, by 0.5 seconds. Best race of the whole competition, for me. By the looks of it, this girl used to be a fly swimmer too, because in every other event, she was significantly slower, not giving me a hard time, except here – I felt a bit sorry for her, taking away her gold in her own event (probably), but I still raced with a handicap and it was an open competition, so…

As for the last relay, it was a medley relay and I did fly, obviously. Not a very good time – and if I did just 0.3 or so seconds better, we would have gotten gold, but then again, the others could have swum faster too, so it’s not solely upon my shoulders, it was a relay, as hard as it is to accept and not see it as my own failure. But I did my best and I guess that’s what matters. So anyways, we got silver, making my first and last medal of the competition silvers, framing the 5 middle golds.

All my medals.

Then it was time for the closing ceremony – less random and weird than the opening ceremony, but still pretty long and strange (they kept giving awards and medals to people and teams and sponsors and I don’t even know who, while all of us swimmers were standing around the edge of the pool, just like at the opening ceremony). We also took some team pictures and when they started pushing people into the pool, I fled (both bc I did not want to get soaking wet in my clothes and bc I was afraid for my knees, with all the wrestling on the slippery tiles). We gathered our stuff in the team room with my husband, and by that time the others arrived back as well, telling us they managed to throw the coach into the pool as well – that is a custom we have back in Hungary too, and it gives me heart-warming memories.

Some random things about the competition that we found strange or funny:

• 2 blocks out of the 4 were broken and pretty wonky – the block for lane 3 actually had to be grabbed by the turn judge standing (at this point, squatting) behind it every time someone wanted to jump off of it, because it was wobbling so violently.
• We started the competition 90 mins late – for no apparent reason. Everybody was waiting very patiently though. (And the afternoon set of the second day also started 30+ mins late, but nobody was surprised by that point.)
• The set lists just kept changing?! First they had something uploaded on SplashMe (an app for competitions), then printed something completely different out, by which time the heats on SplashMe had changed as well. They also changed them another time (or maybe twice) on Sunday too – I wasn’t happy about that bc they gave me the unstable lane 3 for the 50 fly.
• They had a call room (with 2 rows of 3 seats, makes no sense) but only 4 lanes, wonky starting blocks, very loose lane ropes, and in general, not a very professional setup. But then they also had accreditation, giving out laminated cards at the beginning of the competition – and the cards had a design for so much info (name, team, category, all events you entered) but they only put your name on it, leaving the rest empty; also, nobody ever checked our accreditation, not at the call room, not at the medal ceremony, not ever. So why did we have them?
• At the opening ceremony, after they gave out some awards for current/previous swimmers or something similar (I didn’t understand anything, it was all in Mongolian, obviously, and sometimes someone who spoke English would give me some explanations, but most of the time we were just guessing at what was happening), they had a rapper duo come and perform. Right there by the poolside, with all of us standing around the edge of the pool. It was very loud, very echo-y, and very unexpected. Based on their reactions (and the fact that I have seen his face on ads around the city), the fact that I was standing about 2 meters from Big Gee while he performed live was a big deal. Another guy sang a song too, which got a lacklustre dance from some people but many sang along.

Big Gee performs in the opening ceremony (you can also spot me in the background)
- credits to the photographer, who was definitely not me -

• The medal ceremony on the first day lasting for about 2 hours. That was crazy. And it was chaotic too! Poor kids were running all around the pool with the trays for medals and certificates (and it turns out it took so long bc they decided to write out all names and event details in hand, for each medallist).

Look at that girl running for the next medal as soon as mine was off her plate.
(Also, as you can see, in 100 fly I was the only participant for my category.)

• Another thing about the medal ceremony: we only used the middle part of the podium. They had 3 equally long pieces, in differing heights, as it should be, but could only fit one of them in front of their huge banner, so they put printed 2, 1, 3 numbers on the middle piece, and decided to have that as the whole podium.
• Medallists, after the medal ceremony, take their medals from around their necks and dip it in the pool. As my English-speaking teammate explained it to me, this means you are showing respect to the water.
• They had categories A and B, where A is the used-to-be swimmers and B is the amateurs. They only disqualified people for breaking rules in category A. I think that’s nice, since category B swimmers sometimes couldn’t even swim with actually acceptable strokes or jump into the water or do proper turns.
• They just kept having early starts. I shit you not, I think at least 30% of the heats started with an early start. Sometimes the whole heat fell/jumped into the water, sometimes just one or two people. But they kept doing it, even on the second day. How did they not realise by then that they were supposed to wait for the whistle? And since they weren’t disqualified, they could just go back behind the block, wait for everyone to get back into position, and start over. That probably also contributed to the fact that it was such a long competition.
• Many people came up to talk to us/me. On the stands, by the side of the pool, by the call room, everywhere. There was a guy in an orange parka sitting next to my husband on the stands who kept engaging him in discussion and he even cheered for me when I swam. Some young people just wanted to have small talk (and one or two had really good English too!). There was a middle-aged guy coming up to me, asking where I was from, then letting me know his dad used to work in Hungary before I was even born; he also told me he was an actor at the National Theatre. I would have talked to him longer but I was dragged away by the girl from the team who speaks English (and us such, was my assigned babysitter for the weekend). Later, some lads in the call room asked me if I knew who I’d talked to and told me he was a famous movie actor – so apparently someone cool. Oh, and there was a woman who, walking by us, told me (in Hungarian!!) that I did a great job, taking us completely by surprise. I love how there is at least 1 person who speaks a bit of Hungarian everywhere in Mongolia.
• All of it was in Mongolian, meaning I had to listen very carefully for when they said my name at the call room / medal ceremony / in any other context. I had to listen for 'Remax-iin Dalma' and hope that I was in the right place. That was also mentally tiring tbh.

So yeah, interesting, eventful two days. Very tiring. Pretty fun. Super long. Quite an experience. But it made us like the country and its people just a little more.

My team won the championship cup as well - yay!