There’s been some very fast swimming in the pool at the WUG’s in Kazan Russia and it’s going to be exciting to see how things unfold in the 10K open water swim on the 17th. We’ve gotten some more intel from Team USA’s Joey Pedraza on life in the village.
Tell us about the athlete’s village. We’ve heard the organizers have done a great job in setting things up for the athletes.
“This place is pretty awesome. Well organized, and very very pretty. The dinning room is very big. They an Asian section, local section, a Ladas section, pizza section, and I believe two more sections, can’t think of the names right now. They also have 20 or more refrigerators of drinks inside as well, they also have them inside the dorms for all the athletes. There’s also an international building, on the way to it, it’s got all the flags of all the countries on posts as well as a sign that says World University Games Kazan 2013. This place is really cool. There’s a lot of security, so it’s a very safe place as well.”
This is Joey’s first WUG’s and he’s definitely primed for the competition. He says he learned a lot coming of his performance at the USA nationals in May and is expecting to be a force in this race.
The dining hall IS impressive. The sections are Pizza/Pasta, European, Local (Russian), Halal, Asian, Salad Bar, and of course a McDonalds. Outside the dining hall, in the village, they have a small supermarket, a beauth salon, a florist, a tailor, a bank, gift shops, a lounge area, a sudio where you can do clay modeling, a folk art gift shop, chess and other games room. There is some kind of live music each afternoon on the plaza, opportunities to have your portrait sketched, face painted and balloon art made. The Welcome center has meeting rooms , a fitness center, another cafe, and a variey of displays – including a museum of the Universidade that has a really impressive talking halogram… Read more »