The International Olympic Committee has embarked on an ambitious strategic roadmap for the future: The Olympic Agenda 2020. It includes 40 recommendations that aim to make sure the games are clean and good governance measures are applied. In an exclusive interview with CNNMoney Switzerland, IOC President Thomas Bach says the committee is on track with the reforms, but that keeping political neutrality is a challenge. On the recent doping scandals, Bach says: “Doping will always happen. This is one of the wars you cannot win.” Bach also tells Martina Fuchs his view on whether or not eSports could become an Olympic discipline any time soon.
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Michael Phelps: To a naked eye, Milorad Cavic won — 10th anniversary of Beijing butterfly
So many onlookers thought Milorad Cavic beat Michael Phelps in the Beijing Olympic 100m butterfly. Even Phelps himself.
“To a naked eye, he won the race,†Phelps said in an Omega documentary first published in 2016.
The 10th anniversary of that final — which Phelps won by .01 on a come-from-behind, half-stroke finish — is Wednesday night in the U.S./Thursday morning in China.
It marked Phelps’ seventh gold medal of those Games en route to his final tally of eight, breaking Mark Spitz‘s record for golds at a single Games. But it wasn’t without a little controversy.
Years later, Cavic jabbed again about the results that his Serbian federation unsuccessfully protested in Beijing.
“I don’t necessarily feel like it was an injustice,†the Serbian said in the 2016 film. “Mistakes were made on my side. There were things that I could have done better which would have made it a definite victory for myself, but my gut instinct is that I won.â€
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Women Who Travel Podcast: A Record-Setting Swimmer on Seeing the World by Water
Meet Jaimie Monahan, an ultramarathon and cold-water swimmer who has pitted herself against some of the world’s harshest bodies of water—from the choppy Pacific to the glacier-filled seascape of Antarctica—all for the sake of, as she puts it, “pursuing new experiences.†This month, Monahan embarked on what is perhaps her greatest challenge to date: to become the fastest person to swim six marathons on six continents in just 16 days (yes, it’s a very specific Guinness World Record). After beginning at New York’s Coney Island, she’ll spend the next few weeks swimming in the open waters of Cartagena, Sydney, Singapore, Sharm El Sheikh, and Geneva. Oh, and did we mention she also has a full-time day job? Tune in to this week’s episode to hear us grill her on what it’s like to submerge yourself in sub-zero temperatures, the cold-water swimming community (it’s global!), and how we can all become better travelers. Desperate to know how she gets through her toughest swims? “Just breathe through it and see what happens,†she says.
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Big Dreams Start at Home – The Swimmer
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The Long Swim: Glowstick on Speedos
Lewis Pugh, oceans campaigner and endurance athlete, continues his ‘unrelenting’ mission through the dark sea.
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Crocodile caught on camera using swim noodle to cross canal
A photo posted to Instagram earlier this month is creating a stir in Key Largo, Florida.
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The Best Wild Swimming in Wales
Wales in the summer involves a lot more swimming than wales in the winter.
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Man drowns in pool trying to teach himself to swim: Peel police
Peel Regional police say a man has drowned at his apartment building pool in Mississauga, Ont., while teaching himself to swim.
A police spokesperson told Global News officers were called to Queen Frederica Drive with reports of a drowning around 4 p.m.
The spokesperson said paramedics transported a 29-year-old man to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The victim’s little brother went to the building’s pool to check on him around 3 p.m. and found him without vital signs.
Officers said it appears from surveillance video in the facility that the 29-year-old slipped in the deep end and failed to resurface.
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Police have reviewed surveillance footage which shows the man going into the deep end and never resurfacing. The victim was in the pool for a couple hours before being found by family. Officers now holding the scene, coroner en route. #Mississauga https://t.co/Topbn0lzOX
— Jeremy Cohn (@JeremyGlobalTV) August 19, 2018
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Ill health forces Dutch Olympian Maarten van der Weijden to halt long-distance swim
Maarten van der Weijden beat leukemia and went on to win an Olympic gold swimming medal in Beijing, but even his powers of endurance weren’t enough to complete his latest challenge.
Ill health on Monday forced van der Weijden to halt his ambitious bid to swim the 200-kilometer (124-mile) route of an iconic speedskating race in the northern Netherlands, bringing to a premature end a fund-raising feat that had enthralled his home nation.
Van der Weijden had swum 163 kilometers (101 miles) since plunging into a canal in the northern city of Leeuwarden early Saturday morning.
Wearing an orange-and-black wetsuit and swimming a slow freestyle, the 37-year-old swimmer was cheered on by thousands of supporters lining river banks over the weekend. Tractors drove alongside him at night to illuminate the water, and he was hoisted over canal locks by cranes.
He was attempting to swim along canals and rivers linking 11 towns in the northern province of Friesland that are used for a speedskating race in the years when cold winters freeze the entire route. The last such race was in 1997.
Supporters unable to get to Friesland followed his progress on a live stream by national broadcaster NOS.
Yet in a post on his official website, van der Weijden’s team wrote Monday that a doctor who checked him considered it “irresponsible” to continue. The swimmer was suffering from an imbalance of salt and was unable to keep down any medicine due to nausea, according to his site. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital for checks.