NEW YORK – It was a magical night at USA Swimming’s Golden Goggle Awards Monday night, the organization’s annual gala that recognizes the top performances of the year.
The usual suspects were in attendance – Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian, Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer and a whole lot more. There were also a few non-swimmers in the audience and on the stage to present awards – Donald Trump was the one who stood out the most. And there was magician and endurance artist David Blaine.
Backstage after the awards were all given out, Blaine stole the show.
The guy who has willingly been encased in ice for more than 63 hours, held his breath for more than 17 minutes and, most recently, was hit with one million volts of electricity for 72 hours straight, was up to his old habits at New York City’s Marriott Marquis – card tricks. He started off by doing an elaborate trick with Phelps that lasted a good four or five minutes. Phelps was completely floored when the card he was thinking off ended up written on a sharpie Blaine had handed to him moments earlier.
Then Blaine moved on to Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni and Dana Vollmer and did another trick. Franklin was speechless when a folded up card appeared under her watchband … and again when Blaine made the card change its number and suit in an instant.
“Who are you?” a mystified Franklin asked.
Click here for a complete recap of the night (sneak preview: Phelps and Franklin took home the night’s top awards).
A few other thoughts and observations from the evening:
– It was a no-brainer to start the night by playing the U.S. Olympic swim team’s music video of “Call me Maybe.” It’s still our favorite of the “Call me Maybe” parodies on YouTube.
– Phelps is currently filming episodes of the Haney Project, a Golf Channel reality show that features celebrity golfers trying to become better golfers under the direction of coach Hank Haney. We asked Phelps who is tougher: Haney or his longtime swim coach, Bob Bowman.
“They are exactly the same,” Phelps said. “They have the same amount of passion and they’re just going to force it out of you.”
– We chatted with Jessica Hardy and her fiancé Dominic Meichtry on the red carpet about an unfortunate mishap last week that resulted in Meichtry giving Hardy a black eye. The pair was training together in the pool (Meichtry swims for the Swiss national team) and they collided in the middle of the lane after a miscommunication about whether they were swimming side by side or in a circle pattern. Hardy was left bloodied and with a colorful circle around her eye. “The first thing I said when it happened was, ‘Oh no, the Golden Goggles.’ Hardy was able to apply enough makeup that the mark was invisible.
