SEALs push US Olympians to limit in their training
Then the SEALs warn their audience, comprised mostly of U.S. sailing team members: "We're going to re-set your baseline today."
Within hours, some athletes are on the edge of hypothermia, some are crying, others are cursing like, well, sailors, and all are fully immersed in misery.
VIDEO: SEALs train U.S. Olympic hopefulsAt the end of their four-hour "Hell Afternoon," filled with pushups, runs, drenchings in a freezing lake, waiting for orders in a bracing wind, rolling in dirt, and countless group hoists and carries of 200-plus-pound logs, the sailors are asked what they've learned.
"Never give up," says one.
"Dirt is warm," says another.
"We push in our training," says Zach Railey , a 2008 Olympic silver medalist in sailing, "but this was just a totally different type of physical and mental exhaustion."
The London Summer Olympics are nearly three months from now with the opening ceremony July 27. The training several U.S. Olympians have done with the SEALs — 10 U.S. teams in Olympic sports have been through at least one session in recent years — is an arduous, indelible part of their preparation.