ERST LESEN! » of memories from the London Games just

In his first column for ESPN, Australian Olympian James Magnussen reflects on the experiences of the London Olympics, including his silver medal in the 100m freestyle and the Stilnox saga that brought into question the culture of the swim team.Every athlete has a moment when that Olympic seed was sown for the first time, and for me that came in Sydney in 2000. I was nine-years-old, and my dad and I drove down to Sydney from Port Macquarie and watched the heats of the athletics; I think thats all we could get tickets to.That was pretty exciting, and thats when the spectacle that is an Olympic Games really hit home for me; when you see it live and you see the hundreds of thousands of people who were commuting to OIympic Park, thats when it really started things off for me.It was a few years before I really thought I could make it as a swimmer though; that moment arrived when I was 16 and made my first Australian junior team. They had us all in a room at the time, I think we were down in Canberra, and they said to us: Statistically, one in five people here will go on to represent Australia in swimming.So you sort of look around and do a bit of a headcount and you try to cross a few people off the list who you think you can beat. So that was probably the first time I actually thought that I could represent my country in this sport.Five years later and I was in London, and it was an experience I would describe as crazy. From the build-up, to the racing and then all the stuff that happened away from the pool, it was a massive learning curve.I dont have a lot of memories from the London Games just because there was so much emotion, such a lack of sleep, such a crazy environment, and one that seemed to fly past so quickly. I really have little memories of the swimming itself at all.As a life experience, I learned and grew a lot from London; it made me grow up a lot faster than I would have had I not had that experience. Had I become world champion three years out from an Olympics and had that full cycle to, I guess, learn about the sport and get comfortable in that position then it could have been different.But it is what it is.Going into an Olympics as a 21-year-old, as a bit of a poster boy, was pretty tough. Id gone from almost anonymity walking down the street to every second person stopping me and wanting to talk about the Olympics, and that made it pretty hard to switch