Swimmer's Daily

  • Allison Schmitt opens up about her struggle with depression and where she is now in her mental health journey.

  • Sometimes you get used to people being part of the landscape, their presence is a constant, immutable and irreversible. Sport gives that illusion from time to time, only for time itself to enjoy the last laugh.

    The outpouring of sadness that greets footballers leaving the stage for the last time seems to be most poignant in Italy, perhaps the increased longevity, perhaps the more universal acclaim tearing up supporters more than elsewhere.

    Fans of the Azzurri may well find themselves saying farewell to another sporting legend this year, as Federica Pellegrini has intimated that she may be on the verge of hanging up her swimming costume one final time.

    “My heart is telling me to stop after too many personal disappointments out of the pool,” she recently confessed, “on the other hand, my head wants me to continue. By Autumn I will decide what to do with my life permanently.”

    Read OnsideView

  • Amanda Weir talks about her path back from injury and the mental challenges she faced on that journey.

  • The knee situation… The Olympic Training Center. How did I get here? What I’ve been up to.

  • South Africa’s most decorated Olympian and YOG Ambassador Chad Le Clos is now opening the CleC Academy. Le Clos wants to give something back and created an academy for the next generation in Swimming. This academy wants to speak to the changing needs of the young people today but most importantly, keep up the fun aspect of swimming!

  • Stacy Michael-Miller of USA Swimming discusses the importance of mental health for athletes.

  • Cullen Jones had the opportunity to teach his mom to swim. This moment came years after his mother put Jones in swim lessons to make sure he was water safe.

  • The people of Tilbury in Essex received a shock this afternoon as a beluga whale was spotted making its way up the River Thames.

    The mammal was seen off Coalhouse Fort near Gravesend and Kent’s Shorne marshes, where ecologist Dave Andrews tweeted his sighting.

    “For anyone twitching the beluga, it’s been feeding around the barges for the last hour and hasn’t moved more than 200 metres in either direction. Still present,” he wrote.

    Read The Guardian

  • Hannah Miley has been dropped from British Swimming’s world-class performance squad, dealing a huge blow to her hopes of reaching a fourth and final Olympics at Tokyo 2020.

    The 29-year-old, who loses her Lottery funding, was the biggest name missing from the 54-strongsquad list which is headed by Olympic champion Adam Peaty and Scotland’s 
European gold medallist Duncan Scott.

    British Swimming chiefs defended axeing Gairloch’s Miley less than two months after the Scot claimed European Championship bronze in Glasgow. Her Stirling-based rival Aimee Wilmott, who pipped her to the Commonwealth Games 400m medley gold in April also lost out.

    A British Swimming spokesperson said: “This time last year, Hannah, Aimee Wilmott and Andrew Willis were all put on reviews post-Commonwealth Games and given half-year funding.

    “That was reviewed after Gold Coast and now they are no longer funded swimmers. We have a maximum number of places from UK Sport and we have three less than last year on the programme.”

    Read The Scotsman