By Samyr Laine
CJ Special Contributor

At this point we have just about a week to go until the opening ceremonies and I couldn’t ask for things to be going more smoothly.

After getting one last tune-up competition in London on the 14th, I have truly settled into things at my training base in Paris and am putting the finishing touches on things before my Olympic debut on August 7th.

That tune-up competition was very encouraging, to say the least, considering the conditions in which we competed and my ability to fiercely compete with the other jumpers until my last jump (which was actually my best jump and moved me from 5th to 4th place in the competition).

Above all else, coming out of any competition healthy is always the most important thing and since then, my training sessions here in France have been going extremely well and I am feeling as good as I could hope for.

Of course, waking up extra early for training sessions in order to simulate what my 10:45 a.m. qualifying round will feel like wasn’t fun for the first day or so, but not only is it necessary, it began to feel normal fairly quickly, which is exactly what I was aiming for.

I’ll stick to the same plan upon moving into the Olympic Village on Wednesday, July 25th and will definitely have another diary entry ready for you guys once I get my bearings in London.

The fact that am going to be an Olympian has not quite set in yet, though it is starting to as July 27th and the opening ceremonies inch closer and closer.

It all just seems somewhat surreal, which is quite possibly a good thing though as I am intent on not getting consumed by or lost in the moment until the evening of July 9th; after my Olympic final.

In the mean time, I’ll go back underground and continue chiseling away at imperfections that might, in some way, hinder my Olympic medal aspirations.

Until next time…

Triple jumper Samyr Laine will be representing Haiti in this summer’s London Olympic Games. This is the second entry of his Haiti Olympic Diary for Caribbean Journal.