Chapter 12: The Competition

Two days later, in the office occupied by the Director of Exchange Students for the University, I was making a commitment.” I have decided to compete for the University in the Pan-European games as a Danubian.”

The Exchange Director responded with, “How are you going to do that, Marcia?”

“I will swim for the University, Ma’am, but it is my intent to do so nude, as is the Danubian custom. I have committed myself to a full year living as a Danubian, and I feel it would be an affront to the Danubian culture to wear this.”

I held up a tiny nylon-spandex slip of material that represented the University swim team competition suit. She then dropped it into the trash can in the Exchange Director’s office, and said, “Therefore, should the University still wish me to compete in Munich, I shall do so nude.” She turned and left the Director’s office before a word of protest could be uttered.

Munich was known for its pageantry and pomp during athletic ceremonies and competition. Two Olympic games and several Pan-European competitions held there over the years had proved to the world that Munich knew how to be a good host.

Three flights of Griffin Airways aircraft landed in Munich and discharged the Military Corps of Cadets and their officer instructors the evening before I was to compete.

Rumors were already flying in the media that a non-conformist athlete would be swimming in a non-traditional outfit. Most of the media were speculating that Speedo or Tyr had come up with yet another variation of the skin suit that had become popular in competitions in the past several years.

The morning of the competition, the Corps of Cadets marched in formation from the hotel hosting them to the Aquatic Stadium and took their seats. At ten o’clock in the morning my first event was called. It was the one-hundred-meter freestyle, one length down the pool and one back up to the starting blocks.

The announcer gave the name and the university each athlete represented. I was announced as competing for both her home university and the Military Academy of Danubia. A gasp collectively went out of the audience, and several directors were told by their studios to cut live feed to the event when I stood on the starting block and waved to the crowd.

The starter gun sounded and I hit the water smoothly, cutting through the pool like she had never done before. My time at the turn was less than a second off the record for this facility and when I finished and touched the poolside, I was only three tenths of a second off of that record. I won the event. The media, still blacking out the fact that on the medal stand she was nude, panned to the cadets who had risen and were singing the National Hymn of Danubia in my honor. The flag bearing the Griffin Emblem of Danubia rose behind me as she was presented with the medal and a bouquet of flowers.

Still photographs of that presentation, with me blocked by officials or by the large flower bouquet, did make it on the news and into the scandal sheets and gossip magazines around the world. One headline read, “THE NEW SKIN SUIT. REAL SKIN”.