Eight of the top Danish swimmers including Lotte Friis, Mie Ø Nielsen, Rikke Moller Pedersen, Viktor Bromer, Pal Joensen, Mads Glaesner, Daniel Skanning and Magnus Westermann will be spending the next 15 days training in Bermuda.
The camp comes at a perfect time for the Danish athletes as they are currently in the midst of winter, “Training camp is always good when it’s cold at home, and everyday life is becoming too dull and uniform,” Nielsen told the Danish Swimming Federation. “Therefore, a training camp is good now, both for the mental but also physical.”
Seven of the swimmers (minus Joensen who competed in Kazan for the Faroe Islands) were part of the Danish World Championships team that finished 15th in the medal standings earning two silver and two bronze in Kazan. While all the athletes attending the camp are Olympic hopefuls four of the swimmers have already qualified for the games including Nielsen, Friis, Pedersen and Bromer.
Bermuda was chosen as the destination for the camp for two main reasons; the climate and the time zone. The temperature and humidity in Bermuda in January will be similar to that in Rio in August and the time zones are also relatively similar with Bermuda being two hours behind Rio.
“As I see it, it is an exercise that we are doing in training camp to see how easy we are changing our circadian rhythm, and how long it takes before we can perform optimally,” says Bromer.
“Swimmers must be trained to be able to perform optimally at times other than what they are used to. That may well turn out to be a challenge,” explains Nielsen.
All eight were not part of the Danish team for Kazan. Pal Joensen represented the Faroe Islands, he only represents Denmark at the Olympics.