Author: rokur

Production engineer and certified swim coach. Full-time IT consultant, spare-time swimming aficionado. 2 sons, 2 daughters and a wife. President of the Faroe Islands Aquatics Federation. Likes to run :-)

People going crazy on Polar Bear Swim 2012 at English Bay, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada. Air temperature: 5ºC / 41ºF. Water temperature: 7.7ºC / 46ºF. Polar Bear Swim 2012 from Beto Galetto on Vimeo.

Read More

“Randy Bennett is the Canadian Head Coach for the 2012 Olympics. Ryan Cochrane looks to be the only challenger to current world record holder in the 1500 meter freestyle Sun Yang of China heading into the London Olympics.” Let’s (hopefully) see about that last statement! :-P Video courtesy of Gary Hall Sr. / The Race Club, including “footage of Ryan’s amazing technique”.

Read More

Fun tweet from David Carry, who has been testing some Kopi Luwak coffee. We’re talking coffee made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet (Toddy Cat), defecated, gathered, washed, sun dried, roasted and brewed. And then drunk by people as the most expensive coffee in the world with prices reaching $160 per pound. Nice. http://twitter.com/#!/davidcarry/status/153827524869234688 Image courtesy of Praveenp / Wikimedia Commons

Read More

So this photo is from when I was shooting some sponsor photos of Pál and the rest of us at the Budapest 2010 European Swimming Championships competition pool, between prelims and finals the penultimate day of the meet. European 100 meter breaststroke champion Alexander Dale Oen (NOR) was swimming more or less alone in the pool, taking it easy before the 50 meter breaststroke final that evening.

Read More

Scotland’s Robbie Renwick will be writing about his preparations for the London 2012 Olympics every forthnight in The Scottish Sun, here is the first chapter. MY alarm normally goes off at quarter to five each morning. Then it’s a quick bowl of Special K or Rice Krispies and off for the start of training half an hour later at Glasgow’s Gorbals Leisure Centre. I know it’s a crazy time to be up. But in swimming it’s all or nothing. Thankfully yesterday I had a rare break from the all too familiar sound of the buzzer going off though. As we…

Read More

Leading sponsorship agency Octagon estimates according to the Independent, that some British athletes could pick up £2m (US$ 3.1 million) before Rio 2016, should they win gold at the London 2012 Olympics, and 22-year-old super-heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua maybe even up to £5m. Swimmer Adlington, who said after Bejing that all she wanted was to buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, could follow in the footsteps of Imelda Marcos should she strike double gold again.

Read More

The Independent has this fun article today called “The long, short and tall of Britain’s Olympic hopefuls”, lining up interesting ‘records’ of British athletes training for the London 2012 Olympics, like 18-year-old featherweight weightlifting champion Hannah Powell being the shortest and lightest with her 4 ft 9 in (144 cm) height and 7 stone (44.4 kg) weight … so small that she had to convince a male date that she was member of the British weightlifting team by lifting him on her shoulders. Shanghai 2011 bronze medallist Ellen Gandy is mentioned: Furthest resident from Olympic Park Ellen Gandy lives 10,059 miles from the…

Read More

Interesting article by Michael Cowley here on The Age, on the comeback of Ian Thorpe. He believes that despite whatever ‘weak’ results Thorpe has produced by now since his comeback, he will make the Olympic team, “certainly as a member of the 4 x 200 freestyle relay team, possibly in the individual 200, and he could even swim in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay in London.” And then there is the really good bit, about how Australians have refound their interest in swimming: There is a buzz around swimming again, it has become a talking point once more as…

Read More