Swimmer's Daily

  • 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.

    Read ESPN and DutchNews

  • YMCA holds swim safety event

  • A British woman fell from the deck of a cruise ship and spent a harrowing 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia before being rescued on Saturday.

  • Here’s what pet owners need to know to keep their dogs safe.

    https://youtu.be/XcXTsG7Uvjs

    Photo by Bobby McKay.

  • Applying sunscreen on your body may be good for your skin, but not so much for the fish, a new study has revealed.

    Scientists have found that sunscreen from the body of bathers releases significant quantities of polluting titanium dioxide (TiO2) into the sea, which has the potential to harm marine life.

    TiO2 is one of the main ingredients of sunscreen and acts as a protective agent against harmful UV rays. Most major regulatory bodies consider it safe for human use at the concentrations used in sunscreens, however, concentrated TiO2 or long-term exposure could be toxic to a variety of fish and other aquatic organisms.

    Read ANI

  • Philippine Consul General Henry Bensurto, Jr. made the trip from San Francisco to Salinas to personally present Salinas swimmer Clark Kent, aka Superman, with a special honor.

  • Sajan Prakash finished a creditable fifth in the men’s 200m butterfly at the 18th Asian Games taking place in Indonesia. Prakash made a historic swimming final for India after 32 years but is not able to share the news with his family which is stuck in Kerala floods.

    Starting in lane 3, Prakash clocked 1:57.75 seconds to set a national record in the 200m butterfly final with Japan’s Seto Daiya winning it comfortably with a timing of 1:54.53 seconds. Prakash had qualified as third fastest swimmer in the heats.

    Speaking to Times of India after setting national record, Prakash said, “I still have no clue as to where they are and how they are. All I know is that they are being taken to some safe place. I pray for their safety.”

    Read The Indian Express

  • The latest event of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes place in the heart of the Danish capital of Copenhagen on 25 August 2018. The men’s 27m platform is mounted on the cantilevered roof of the Opera House, with the Amalienborg Palace as the regal backdrop.

  • One person died and another person is in critical condition after they got caught in a rip current in Seabrook.