Author: rokur

One of the (at least) three additional 14th FINA World Aquatic Championship – Shanghai 2011 training venues, the Yuan Shen Natatorium in the Pudong district. In walking distance from our hotel, so we used it a lot.

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Olympic swimmer George Bovell III has also become a world class freediver and spearfisherman. In this video he shares some tips on freediving, including most importantly on safety, courtesy of The Race Club.

Born in 1918, Adolph “Sonny Boy” Kiefer was the first ever to swim 100 yards backstroke under 1 minute. He won the 100 backstroke at the 1936 Summer Olympics in (Nazi) Berlin, was asked to audition for the role of Tarzan but joined the US Navy instead and served during World War II, was appointed to set guidelines for safety and training there and taught more than 33,000 navymen to survive in water, before building the succesful and innovative Kiefer brand. Worked with the major of Chicago building swimming pools across the inner city of Chicago, providing facilities needed for…

Sightings of a creature not dissimilar to the Loch Ness Monster have caused a stir in the normally quiet waters of the Lake District in England. Local swimmer Thomas Noblett, world record holder in fresh water swimming, thinks he was within feet of the creature whilst out of a morning swim back in 2010, and earlier photographer Linden Adams took photos that forensic experts say prove that ‘there is certainly something in the water’. Watch and read BBC

Short version of a documentary in production on the Australian ocean pool culture in Sydney such as the famous Bondi Icebergs swimming club. Via Gold Medal Mel on Facebook, love it!

Swimming superstar Michael Phelps has won 14 Olympic gold medals, more individual Olympic golds than anyone in history. He spoke to AFPTV in New York earlier this month. about the upcoming Olympic competition in London and his plans for retirement after the games.

Shetland coach Keith Oliver participated in all men’s and mixed relays at the Rhodes 2007 NatWest Island Games, I guess because they’d otherwise only be three male swimmers. This photo is from the last mixed 8 x 50 freestyle fun relay – as you can see, he’d chosen the state of the art pants of that era, unfortunately though not enough to win the event.

Funny how music can make a ‘fun swim’ slideshow really, really dramatic :-) Rottnest Swim 2009 Perth from Robert van Koesveld on Vimeo.

A Faroese music video handpicked by Vimeo Staff to be one of “the videos we really, really love”. The grey people here are the mythical “huldufólk” (‘hidden people’), who according to Faroese folklore live in big rocks and mounds around the islands. “Orka” is the band’s name, song title “Aldan Reyð” translates to ‘the red wave’. Director Heiðrik á Heygum made that tribute to his swimming granny that I posted here in August. Don’t count on the ‘hidden people’ to save you if you drown. ORKA – Aldan Reyð (Director: Heiðrik á Heygum) from Heidrik á Heygum on Vimeo.

Wow, great shot here on the United States Marine Corps Official (Flickr) Page, CC BY-NC 2.0. Major Greg Burgess won a silver medal in the 200 IM at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1997 and has among other things served two tours of duty in Iraq. Here is a Morning Swim Show from back in 2010, where Peter Busch interviews Greg Burgess