Author: rokur

James Stanton, Australia’s goalkeeper at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, tested positive for Clenbuterol during an out of competition test on September 15 last year, and has therefore been banned for 2 years, including the London 2012 Olympics. The 27-year old strenuously denies knowingly taking the substance, saying it “goes against everything I believe in”, but accepts that it somehow entered his system. This comes at the same time that the World Anti-Doping Agency is considering changing its rules regarding Clenbuterol, allowing a minimum level instead of none at all because of all the contaminated food out there. Read The…

Brazilian swimming legend Fabiola Molina has tested positive for Methylhexaneamine, a stimulant used heavily as a dietary supplement and a nasal decongestant, as well as in the street-drug known as “party pills”. The CBDA anti-doping commission determined that Molina’s use was not intentional or meant to gain any competitive advantage, so they gave her a lenient two-month suspension from her last competition, which was the Maria Lenk Trophy in early May. She will therefore shortly be eligible for competition again, but has had her results since the meet erased, including her qualifying standards for the Shanghai World Championships. Read more…

Scary stuff, researchers for the online journal Pediatrics report nearly 40 percent of the 209 children who drowned from 2001 to 2009 in the USA did so in small, inflatable “kiddie pools”. The majority (94%) involved children younger than 5 years, 73% occurred in the child’s own yard and 81% occurred during the summer months. “Because portable pools are generally small, inexpensive and easy to use, parents often do not think about the potential dangers these pools present,” said Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, senior author of…

How can this not be swimming relevant? Go straight to photojojo.com and see the 15 tips: Shoot in safe waters, have enough light, stay at the surface, get close, get acrobatic, make bubbles, bring in props, practice your shot before you take it, wear light clothing, shoot up or across, and 5 more. (A relevant and quite brilliant photo, me thinks, courtesy of Mick Gleissner)

Children drownings nearly doubled in Canada last year, according to figures released by the Lifesaving Society. Most concerning was the spike in drownings of children under five, says spokeswoman Barbara Byers, stressing that people aren’t getting the message about water safety. “People just don’t realize the risk or the power of the water,” said Byers. “Some people don’t realize they need swimming survival skills.” In Ontario, most toddler drownings were in backyard pools, Byers said, adding toddlers have an almost “magnetic attraction” to the water. “They’re not fearful of the water, and if there’s a chance to get there, and…

Even though Song Hong-seon, researcher at the Korea Institute of Sport Science according to dongA says that “in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, the winner will be determined by a competition of strategies”, it sounds to me like both Park Tae-hwan and Sun Yang are preparing an all-out sprint from the get-go. Analysts say that having judged he failed to properly cope with Park’s early spurt, Sun will have undergone ample training stressing aggressiveness and cut his 50-meter lap time from the very beginning. As a result, he has seen his times rapidly improve in recent months thanks to these training…

It is tough to be a breaststroker, but even tougher to be hit by their kicks. My recommendation is to stay clear and wait, as they will tire soon :-) *ducking*

This directly off her own website, www.hinkelienschreuder.nl No Shanghai World Championships In preparation for the World Championships in July, discussion about the cooperation between me and my trainer arise. The confidence in this partnership was terminated by him as of today. Only this, gives the technical director reason to doubt my potential performance in Shanghai. He has informed me about the fact that he, for sure, will not let me swim in the heats of the 4x100m freestyle relay. I would have liked to have the opportunity to swim in Shanghai and show what I was intended to do: to…

I sort of pulled the plug myself, deleting another site that turned out to be connected to this one. Dreamhost support to the rescue :-S