SWIMMING: Abbotstown on a Tuesday morning. It's already very hot in the aquatic centre and several of the spectators look down longingly at the block of blue water.
This morning there are lots of prelims; 18 for the 25 metres backstroke and six for 4 x 25 metres freestyle mixed relay. There won't be any medals given for either of these events today, so it's a chance to look at the real meat and potatoes of teams.
Finals are easy to get excited about, but this is what it's like most of the time, simply slogging away without any glory.
The purpose of the prelims are to reassess ability. All competitors will swim again in the next and final round the following day, but they will be matched with the people who were closest to them on time for prelims, to make the races as fair as possible.
So this morning is a workmanlike one in the pool, with competitions finishing early, shortly after 2 p.m.
There are some spectators, and they're certainly noisy, but you couldn't call the place even a third full. As close as you're going to get to a sense of what training sessions are like; a glimpse into the long corridor down which these athletes have already travelled to get here; what's been happening last month, last year, two years ago.
Mary Stack is here with her three children, twins Lucy and Brendan (12), and Robert (13). They have come up to spectate for the day from Newmarket in Co Cork.
"We just wanted to be part of it," Stack explains. "Having the games here will make people more aware of disability, but I don't know if it'll change our attitude to disability. The good thing is that our children have an opportunity to be aware by seeing them compete."
Louis and Maureen McGauran from Churchtown have grandchildren working as volunteers at the RDS and have come along for the day to spectate. "You just had to listen to how everyone was talking on Sunday after the opening ceremony," Louis says. "Having the games here will make a difference to our attitude to disability in the end."
It's prelim five of the relays. Austria, Canada, Seychelles, Belgium. Most of the action is usually at either end of the pool, but this time, there are a few people at the side of the pool. They are lowering Austrian athlete Johann Schwarzl from his wheelchair to a special chair which is being winched into the pool.
He is second to swim, makes his way the length of the pool as slowly and carefully as a zen artist. Seychelles come in first, at 1 min 11 seconds. Austria are last, on 2 mins 42 secs, but they get the loudest cheer and the furthest-dropped jaws by far.
The last relay prelim of the morning are Jamaica, Kazakhstan, and four teams from the USA. Jody Ann Cambra is first to go for Team USA 2. Her swim is stately, gutsy and single-minded. She has the attention of every spectator. By the time Cambra touches the wall as the signal for the second swimmer on her team to start, all the other teams have completed all four of their legs.
Her three team members swim alone in the pool. Team USA 2 finishing time is 3 mins 29 secs; Jamaica have come in fastest, at 1 min 19 secs. Two different finishing times, 24 different stories alone in prelim number six, with its 24 athletes.
Afterwards, outside the aquatic centre, Jody Ann Cambra (21), from Maui, Hawaii, is with two of Team USA's aquatic coaches, Rae Oshiro and Daniel Epstein. "Jody is a perfect example of what Special Olympics are all about," says Epstein.
Cambra, who has a rod in her back and often needs a wheelchair, has been swimming her 25 metre event for four years. Since being selected for the team last autumn, she has been training up to three times a week. "When she started, her time for 25 metres was four minutes. Every year she improved dramatically. Now her time is a minute and a half."
"That is a huge personal achievement for Jody," says Oshiro. Team USA's bus is waiting. Cambra, Oshiro and Epstein have to go. They don't look back. But then, Special Olympic athletes aren't in the business of looking back. They go forward and onwards, no matter how long it takes.
