Month: February 2012
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Pellegrini and others want Italian Premier to back Rome 2020 Olympic bid
Sixty of Italy’s elite athletes are appealing Premier Mario Monti to give the government’s support behind the Rome 2020 Olympic bid for the summer Games, with the Italian economic crisis as main obstacle to gaining full support. Read SportsFeatures.com.
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Financial problems threaten the Antwerp 2012 European Championships
According to this article on swim.be (in Flemish, I don’t speak Flemish so beware…), the organizers of the 2012 European Long Course Championships are facing serious financial problems, with additional 300,000 € needed now only 3 months away from the event. It is rumored that the Dutch city of Eindhoven stands ready to take over…
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Ashley Callus retires
Sydney Olympic gold medallist Ashley Callus was aiming to become the first Australian to swim at four Olympic games, but has decided to retire now just five weeks out from the Olympic trials. Member of the never-to-be-forgotten ‘smashing guitars‘ relay :-) “I’ve been to three Olympics, I have nothing more to prove to myself. The…
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CC photo #40: Swedish guy having a ball in ‘Droppy’
A Swedish national team member persuaded one the Istanbul 2009 LEN European Short Course Championships ‘Droppy’ mascots to let him try on the outfit, and then went on a rampage, dancing and posing with people for photoshoots and everything :-)
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PETA sues SeaWorld to end killer whale slavery
A US judge is considering a complaint by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against SeaWorld, naming five killer whales as plaintiffs in a lawsuit which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans. They don’t consider it likely that the whales will win their freedom, but campaigners said they…
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Photographer captures giant waves from beneath
Photographer Mark Tipple has an interesting project called “The Underwater Project“, in which he captures photographs of swimmers diving deep in order to survive passing waves. Via PetaPixel.
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DARPA zaps snipers’ brains to induce flow, cut down training time
Interesting article here on NewScientist, on how (mad?) scientists are learning to harness “flow”, by telling for instance swimmers to focus on the water’s movement around their limbs, rather than on the limbs. And by running electricity through the brain. Weisend, who is working on a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme to accelerate…