Elise had the good fortune to be able to take part in a huge swimming competition here in Stockholm this spring. It is an annual event called Basta Fyran, and it brings together 8-member relay teams from 100 schools in the city. Elise and her team competed in April against 7 other teams from our Kommun. They won their race and posted the second fastest time amongst all the schools. This win garnered them the opportunity to participate in the finals, held at an enormous swimming complex in the heart of the city, called Eriksdalsbadet. 
I'm not sure if my picture can capture the size of this complex. There were 12 lanes in the pool, a diving platform that I couldn't look at without getting nauseous, and spectator seating on three sides of the pool. The seats quickly filled up with school children revved up to cheer on their school with banners and horns. Somewhere along the way, the organizers have come with the idea to have a prize for the school with the most spirit. I think they were the ones wearing the protective headgear over their ears! I'm sure most people left with a headache that day! The excitement was contagious and our group of students and moms did our part!
Elise's team of four girls and four boys competed in the 9th heat. There were 10 heats with 10 schools in each, 8 children per team....I am so glad I avoided the change rooms! Each child swam one lap, half of them diving in from the platform, the others pushing off from the wall in the pool. Elise swam second, pushing off from the wall and doing a respectable front crawl. She stopped to pull down her goggles after 10 meters...I could only laugh and cross my fingers that it didn't affect the outcome! Her team went on to finish with a time of 2:59. They qualified for the finals and were so proud!The final race was tough. They were closely matched with the other teams at the beginning, but then some swimmers started to pull away. They finished 8th overall, despite one of our competitors falling off the diving platform! It was a thrilling 3 minutes! They deserved to feel great about themselves, 8th out of 100 teams!! Yeah, BIPSS!!
