Love food? Love swimming? In Charlotte for this weekend’s Grand Prix? Well, you’re in luck. You can have dinner with an elite, Olympic swimmer who is also a gourmand and a trained gourmet chef: Garrett Weber-Gale. The Charlotte UltraSwim Grand Prix is known as one of the most fan-friendly meets on USA Swimming’s schedule: including offering a “fan zone” and an autograph tent. But Weber-Gale is taking that fan-friendly nature to a whole new level, as tonight he will host the Chowdown in Charlotte (not to be confused with Thursday’s Showdown in Charlotte).
Tomorrow night, after the awards are handed out, in addition to a lot of cash, Weber-Gale will be hosting a dinner event at the local Intermezzo Pizzeria — specializing in pizza and Serbian food, of all things — for only $20 (which includes pizza, a drink, tip and tax). This is a great opportunity to mingle with Garrett (and reportedly a few other National Teamers), and talk to him about food, swimming, or life in general. These are the types of events that can earn a swimmer a huge fan-following, so a big kudos to GWG for hosting such a great event. If you’re sticking around in Charlotte until Monday, be sure to stop by and say hi.
Hi Braden, I’m @entropygoddess on Twitter and I wanted to check back with you and let you know how well the dinner turned out! The food was delicious, the weather perfect for the patio, and the owner and staff of the restaurant were very kind to all of us. The fans that came got to enjoy a pleasant meal, conversation and even some basketball smack talk with Garrett, Matt Grevers, Simon Burnett and Peter Vanderkaay. My kids and I thoroughly enjoyed this chance to meet these great swimmers – very cool, friendly guys, all of them – and chill out with them after three days of swim meet mania. The kids in the group got to hear some swimming tips… Read more »
Thanks Robin for posting! Sounds like it was a great, laid-back event. Nice to see that those guys can let down their guards just enough to have some fun with the fans.