Swimmer's Daily

  • My good athlete buddy (okay, I’d never met him before) Michael Phelps appeared at the Panasonic press event at CES 2020, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.

    He was touting the Michael Phelps Foundation (which provides swimming lessons to children) and has agreed to be a captain for Team Panasonic, a group of celebrity athletes who are promoting Panasonic’s products and using its technology for events such as the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

    Phelps was heads-down on swimming and nothing but swimming while he was winning 23 Olympic medals. But since he retired for a second time in 2016, he has been pursuing other interests. (One of them was playing Call of Duty 30 hours a week). And now he’s taking an interest in technology to help athletes train and become stronger through tech sensor-monitoring and analytics. We talked briefly about this after Panasonic’s press event.

    See VentureBeat

  • The New Caney Eagle Swim and Dive team is preparing for the district meet on January 18th at the New Caney Natatorium.

  • Cat Moh goes for a dip in the icy waters of Silfra – the only place in the world where you can dive or snorkel in a crack between two tectonic plates.

  • The Balmoral Swim is a unique open water swim held within the beauty of Sydney Harbour, making it a safe event for all comers. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to ocean swimming, we have an event for you

  • More than 100 swimmers took to the water at the 31st annual CUC Sea Swim on Saturday afternoon. The swim saw people of all ages and backgrounds compete alongside athletes from some of Cayman’s swim clubs.

  • Italy opens with an important win over Greece

    The Italian team opened its campaign in Budapest with a fine win over Greece, the world champions were really convincing in the second half. The title-holder Serbians had some struggles in the third period against Russia but bounced back in time and won with ease at the end. Two games saw enormous battles since here the third places in the respective groups and the berth in the top 12 (and possibly in the Olympic qualification tournament) were at stake. Surprisingly, Georgia beat Rio 2016 participant France and the Netherlands came back from two goals down to win against Romania.

    11 SRB PRLAINOVIC Andrija Serbia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Serbia (white caps) Vs. Russia (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    3 SRB DEDOVIC Nikola Serbia, 7 RUS MERKULOV Daniil Russia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Serbia (white caps) Vs. Russia (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    Team GEO Georgia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena FRA – France (white caps) Vs. GEO – Georgia (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Pasquale Mesiano / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    Team NED – Netherlands Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena ROU – Romania (white caps) Vs. NED – Netherlands (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Pasquale Mesiano / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    7 DELGADO BACHES Adria ESP Spain Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena MLT – Malta (white caps) Vs. ESP – Spain (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Pasquale Mesiano / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    3 GRANADOS ORTEGA Alv ESP Spain Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena MLT – Malta (white caps) Vs. ESP – Spain (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Pasquale Mesiano / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    1 GRIXTI Nicholas-Kane GK ESP Spain Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena MLT – Malta (white caps) Vs. ESP – Spain (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Pasquale Mesiano / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    9 FRA MARZOUKI Mehdi France Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena France (white caps) Vs. Georgia (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Pasquale Mesiano / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    3 HUN MANHERCZ Krisztian Peter Hungary Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Turkey (white caps) Vs. Hungary (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    8 HUN JANSIK Szilard Hungary, 6 TUR GURDENLI Emre Turkey Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Turkey (white caps) Vs. Hungary (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    1 WAGENAAR Eelco Netherlands Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena ROMANIA (white caps) Vs. NETHERLANDS (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo © Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    12 LUCAS Thomas Netherlands celebrate Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena ROMANIA (white caps) Vs. NETHERLANDS (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo © Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    9 MILOS Lovre Croatia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena CROATIA (white caps) Vs. GERMANY (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo © Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    3 FATOVIC Loren Croatia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena CROATIA (white caps) Vs. GERMANY (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo © Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    3 SKOUMPAKIS Dimitrios Greece, 11 AICARDI Matteo Italy Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena ITALY (white caps) Vs. GREECE (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo © Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    7 RENZUTO IODICE Vincenzo Italy, 12 VLACHOPOULOS Angelos Greece Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena ITALY (white caps) Vs. GREECE (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo © Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    4 ITA FIGLIOLI Pietro Italy Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Italy (white caps) Vs. Greece (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    Supporter MNE Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Slovakia (white caps) Vs. Montenegro (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    9 MNE IVOVIC Aleksandar Montenegro Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Slovakia (white caps) Vs. Montenegro (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    8 MNE DURDIC Bogdan Montenegro, 4 SVK FURMAN Adam Slovakia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Slovakia (white caps) Vs. Montenegro (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    4 SVK FURMAN Adam Slovakia, 3 MNE RADOVIC Duro Montenegro Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Slovakia (white caps) Vs. Montenegro (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
    12 SRB MITROVIC Stefan Serbia Budapest 14/01/2020 Duna Arena Serbia (white caps) Vs. Russia (blue caps) Men XXXIV LEN European Water Polo Championships 2020 Photo ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

    Men’s preliminaries, Round 1
    Group A: Slovakia v Montenegro 4-15, Germany v Croatia 9-17
    Group B: Serbia v Russia 13-9, Romania v Netherlands 8-9
    Group C: Turkey v Hungary 5-19, Malta v Spain 7-23
    Group D: Italy v Greece 10-6, France v Georgia 7-9

    Greece’s miserable run against Italy at the Europeans didn’t come to an end in Budapest either. They have never beaten their Mediterranean rival (Italy won 10 out of 11 games, one ended in a tie) – and their hopes to halt this terrible streak lived only till halftime. Then it stood 4-4 but Italy came back strong for the third, shut out the Greeks for 6:54 minutes, scored three connecting goals and that did the damage. They won the second half 6-2, drowned the Greek offense – the number of shots (34-21) and those on target (23-12) tells the story.

    The other game in this group offered even more the tensions as Georgia pulled off a surprising win over France. It was a balanced match but the Georgians made most of their chances in the second half while the French could score only twice in this phase after netting five in the first. With 6:47 to go it stood 7-7 but Georgia scored two in a span of 44 seconds and managed to kill all French attacks in the remaining 5:24 minutes.

    Earlier, a thrilling match kicked off the men’s event, which saw the Netherlands staging a big comeback against Romania to earn a crucial win. The Dutch led at halftime 4-5 but Romania enjoyed a great spell in the third, netted four goals to go 8-6 up. But they were unable to score more in the last period (their drought lasted 9:51 minutes indeed) while the Dutch started rolling and with a 0-3 rush, they turned the game and bagged three points and set themselves to reach the top 12.

    In the other game of Group B the Serbs seemed to sit comfortable in the driving seat as they led 7-4 at halftime only to see the Russians netting three connecting goals in a span of 1:55 minutes early in the third for 7-7. However, the title-holders responded well, hit back with a double in 66 seconds and did the same after 9-8 in the fourth to secure their win at the end.

    As expected, in Group A and D the favorites enjoyed easy matches while they geared up the engines. Both Montenegro and Croatia claimed surprisingly easy wins, even though after the first period nothing promised an easy cruise either of them. The two greats were 1-2 down after eight minutes against Slovakia and Germany respectively, then the Montenegrins staged a 6-0 rush and won the second half 8-2 while the Croats won the middle two periods 12-3.

    Spain also had a slow start against Malta (4-3), then speeded up and scored 19 more goals. Hungary did the same, spent the opening quarter with calming down, and that was quite visible on the scoreboard (4-4). But once they found the necessary level in concentration, Turkey had to face the inevitable, which came in a form of a 15-1 blast, much to the joy of the home crowd.

    For more details, detailed statistics, play-by-play descriptions visit:
    http://wp2020budapest.microplustiming.com

    Press release from LEN, images courtesy of Deepbluemedia

  • A major new report shows that owing to climate change, the world’s oceans continued to get warmer last year, making them the hottest they’ve ever been, and they’re still heating up. An international team of experts has examined data compiled by a Chinese institute to work out changes in ocean temperatures over decades. Researchers say this global warming of our oceans is already having a major impact on marine life, and on the severity of storms, cyclones and hurricanes.

  • Attorneys representing the families of four victims killed when the Conception dive boat burned and sank off the coast of Santa Cruz Island last September are putting the blame on the boat’s owner and its captain.

    The disaster took the life of 34 people. It is the deadliest maritime disaster in California in more than 150 years.

    “Their training was inappropriate and their policies and procedures were deficient,” attorney Robert Mongeluzzi, of the Philadelphia-based law firm Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett & Bendesky said at a news conference Monday.

    Read ABC7

  • An alligator bit a teenager visiting Florida’s everglades, according to officials who said she suffered injuries to her leg.

    The 18-year-old was swimming in water at the Everglades National Park—the largest subtropical wilderness in the U.S.—at around 1:30 p.m. on Friday, when the reptile bit her. She was on a wet hike with her college group which was being led by their professor, the Everglades National Park said on Twitter. The animal left her with two puncture wounds on her lower right leg.

    National Park Service Rangers and Miami Dade Fire and Rescue were called to the scene. The authorities told national park officials the teenager was calm following her ordeal, and was “not experiencing much pain.”

    Read Newsweek

    alligator photo
    Image courtesy of Sponcia, Pixabay License Free for commercial use, No attribution required