• Training camps and workshops for Para athletics and Para swimming technical officials, coaches and athletes. The purpose of the Road to Lima project is to increase the number of participants and countries represented in the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games.

  • Three times Olympic gold medallist, swimmer, Jodie Henry visited the AIS in May 2019 to speak about the important role the AIS has in supporting athletes across Australia. Jodie also touched on how the AIS model has changed since her time as an athlete based at the AIS, in Canberra.

  • The federal Clean Water Act of 1972 regulated pollutants in U.S. waterways with the laudable goal of making then-filthy major city rivers “fishable and swimmable” by 1985. Certainly, not all waterways are swimmable even in 2019, but they are much cleaner. Some portions of the Delaware are swimmable based on bacteria levels.

    Other portions are not, including where the teens gathered near the defunct Pier 18, also known as Graffiti Pier. Their beach is a spit of dirt amid a concrete harbor that housed rail-yard operations in Kensington’s industrial heyday.

    Pollution is far from the only issue. There are good reasons that you rarely see anyone swimming in the urban Delaware. Drowning and being struck by boats and drifting debris are real risks. The city has an ordinance against swimming in areas not designated as safe based on suitable access, currents, river traffic, and other factors. The river is tidal from the Delaware Bay up through Trenton, so currents can be swift and strong.

    Read The Philadelphia Inquirer

    Photo by rik-shaw 黄包车

     

  • Exostoses of the ear canal — more commonly called swimmer’s ear — were surprisingly common in Neanderthals, according to new research by scientists from the United States and France. […]

    In the study, Washington University researcher Erik Trinkaus and his colleagues from the University of Bordeaux and CNRS examined well-preserved ear canals in the remains of 77 ancient humans, including Neanderthals, archaic and early modern humans.

    While the samples of archaic (20%) and early modern humans (Middle Paleolithic – 25%, Early/Mid Upper Paleolithic – 20.8%, Late Upper Paleolithic – 9.5%) exhibited similar frequencies of exostoses to modern human samples, the condition was exceptionally common (56.5%) in Neanderthals.

    Approximately half of the 23 Neanderthal remains examined exhibited mild to severe exostoses.

    “The most likely explanation for this pattern is that these Neanderthals spent a significant amount of time collecting resources in aquatic settings,” Dr. Trinkaus and co-authors said.

    Read Sci News

    neanderthal photo
    Photo by Allan Henderson
  • It sounds like a scene from a monster movie.

    Children from a church group were playing in a creek in West Alexandria, Ohio, on Wednesday evening when one of their leaders spotted a 7-foot-long crocodile swimming nearby.

    There were 16 kids — all first- through sixth-graders — playing in Bantas Fork Creek, and adults were in the water and on a small bridge to keep an eye on them, according to Rick Turnbull, who helps teach the children.

    Another adult “saw something in the water, a shadowy object moving, and he yelled down to the person on that side of the bridge and shouted ‘get the kids out of the water,’ ” Turnbull said.

    Rich Denius was in the water with one of his sons and helped get the children to safety.

    See CNN

  • First, Tokyo Olympic fans will have to find scarce tickets and pay the price. Then there’s the quandary of landing a hotel room with rates that are being inflated due to unprecedented demand. And the summer heat and humidity will be off-putting for some.

    Then there’s one more hurdle: getting around, or even finding a tiny space to stand on Tokyo’s famously efficient but over-stressed rail system.

    Japanese professor Azuma Taguchi at Chuo University has researched Tokyo’s system for years and says it’s already running at double its capacity and the Olympic crunch could push it to the breaking point.

    “When peak capacity is twice or three times above normal, it’s possible some people could be killed,” Taguchi told The Associated Press.

    Read AP

  • Two British triathletes were disqualified from an Olympics qualification race in Tokyo for crossing the finish line hand-in-hand.

    Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown passed over the line in a photo finish, holding each other’s hands and celebrating as they completed the World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Event in the host city of next year’s Olympic Games. Learmonth was then declared the winner.

    But despite being comfortably clear of their nearest competitors, the pair were disqualified for their show of solidarity.

    The International Triathlon Union’s competition rules state that “athletes who finish in a contrived tie situation, where no effort to separate their finish times has been made will be DSQ (disqualified).”

    Read CNN

  • New World Cup Record by Russia’s Vladimir Morozov in the Men’s 50m Freestyle! Beating his own record from last year in Kazan, the new bar was set at 21.27 on day one of leg 3 of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2019 in Singapore.

    In the women’s 200m butterfly on day 1 of the 3rd leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2019 in Singapore, Katinka Hosszu prevailed over countrywoman Zsuszanna Jakabos by .41 seconds. “It’s really good for me to have one gold already, on the first day,” said Hosszu, who will be competing in four more events. Singapore teenager Quah Jing Wen placed third with a personal best of 2:10.26.

    USA’s Andrew Wilson won in style in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke on day one of leg 3 of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2019 Singapore! With a time of 58.93 he was well ahead of Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi and Andrius Sidlauskas from Lituania.

    In the women’s 50m backstroke at leg 3 of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2019 in Singapore, Holly Barratt of Australia won with a time of 27.95 seconds, followed by Hong Kong’s Au Hoi Shun Stephanie and Emily Seebohm of Australia who were separated by .02 seconds to take second and third, respectively. Seebohm had won this event at the first series stop, in Tokyo.

  • There’s seven common workout mistakes that cause you to plateau in your speed and stop improving. Let’s look at what you can do to avoid them and to continue getting fitter and faster.