While the UFC-A, the A-BC, and SAMAS held most of the attention, there was also the Animalia Track and Field events. While they weren’t as big as they were during the IAC, it was still a lot of fun.
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One of the reasons that the Track and Field events were interesting was due to the size and weight of things like the shotput, discus, hammer, and javelin. This was because of Animalians breaking Lyre High School’s own equipment by accident during their first “year”. Other improvements were also put in place because of the elephant Animalians’ trunks. It was something to see Nzynga’s daughter use her trunk to throw a specially made discus with her trunk.
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The “foot races” that were part of the event were also interesting to watch, even if males were more interested in the female races. But there were other races that were designed to play to an Animalian’s strengths, such as combining sprinting with hurdles.
But there were new events that most humans never considered, but made sense to Animalians. Some of them were imports and adaptations from television shows like Global Guts or Ninja Warrior, while others were entirely new. Jungle Racing for example involved getting to the finish line in the shortest possible time without touching the ground even once. This was achieved by swinging from “vine to vine” in the Jungle Gym. This wasn’t entirely without laughs, as every now and then a guy would do a Tarzan yell in an attempt to show off, which would end up costing them time.
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There was also a display from the new Animalia Gymnastics class as well as the new Animalia Aquatics class. Again, males would be more interested in the female performances, but it was nice to know that Animalian sports weren’t all about strength and speed.
The Animalia Gymnastics Showcase was more like a combination of regular gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics, but to seemed to showcase the agility of the class even more. What was a bit disappointing (to guys at least) was that their uniforms were a bit more reinforced to prevent anything from “breaking free”, though it would happen now and again, causing an immediate ref’s timeout while things got covered up.
The Animalia Aquatics Showcase not only showcased swimming races and synchronized swimming, but it also showcased a new event called Underwater Rhythmic Performance, (or URP). It seemed to be even more interesting than standard synchronized swimming because most of the moves were done underwater on one breath, so to speak, and was recorded on waterproof cameras for display above the pool. The Claw Coliseum Coach for URP was a retired Swedish synchronized swimming champion named Lydia who had retired after claiming her tenth, non-Olympic, gold medal. She had become an otter Animalian to teach synchronized swimming to Animalians, then got the idea for URP after staying underwater for ten minutes before coming up for air. Everyone in her swimming classes enjoyed her, especially Polly, because she often either exaggerated her Swedish accent, or spoke like the muppet Swedish Chef, or made references to “the old country” for everyone to enjoy.
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After everyone returned from the colony tour, they were allowed to join the event they wanted to as “latecomers”, and they weren’t penalized for showing up late. Jeremy was really surprised to see Polly in the URP showcase, but even more so when Polly won second place overal.