Swimmer's Daily

  • China’s Olympic champion Sun Yang showed a softer side to his gnarly public image on Sunday by lavishing compliments on rival Japanese swimmer Kosuke Hagino at the Asian Games.

    The towering Chinese topped the time sheets in the morning’s 200 metres freestyle heats in Jakarta in a leisurely one minute, 47.58 seconds before being reminded about an unseemly diplomatic row he sparked at the last Asian Games in 2014.

    Furious after being ambushed by Hagino in the 200m free in Incheon, Sun branded Japan’s national anthem “ugly” — not the first time the three-time Olympic gold medallist has become involved in a war of words.

    “Look, I think Hagino is a good guy,” Sun told reporters. “The way he swims the individual medley is an inspiration to me. We should be working together to raise the level of Asian swimming.

    Read The New Indian Express

  • Two years after clinching a historic gold for Singapore at the Rio Olympic Games, national swimmer Joseph Schooling has given himself six years to make his mark as a professional swimmer before he hangs up his swimming trunks and goggles.

    Revealing this in an interview on Saturday (Aug 18), this is the first time the 23-year-old has indicated that he plans to stop swimming in 2024.

    The six-year deadline will give Schooling another two shots at Olympic glory in Tokyo 2020, and Paris in 2024.

    While his thrilling 50.39sec race to the finish against American great Michael Phelps in the men’s 100m butterfly in Brazil may have catapulted him to international fame – and cemented his status as a Singaporean hero – Schooling is ready to move on from the past, and achieve greater success in his career.

    “Rio changed my life, but I like to live in the present… I want to swim until 2024, I don’t think I want to swim past 2024 right now,” said the swimmer ahead of the Asian Games opening ceremony in Jakarta on Saturday.

    Read TODAY

  • He’s been labelled a drug cheat after serving a three-month suspension in 2014 for using a prescribed medication to treat a heart condition, saying he was unaware it had been added to the banned list.

    Sun triggered a diplomatic row with Japan at the last Asian Games four years ago when he petulantly branded their national anthem “ugly”.

    He has also irked Chinese officials with his sponsorship deals and once spent a week in a detention centre for a driving offence.

    But Sun carries on, unfazed by all the kerfuffle and seemingly revelling in his reputation as swimming’s bad boy.

    To those who know him best, nothing could be further from the truth. Sun’s part-time coach believes the Chinese superstar is a gentle giant.

    “He’s actually a very sensitive guy,” said Denis Cotterell. “He’s very emotional and he gets upset by a lot of the things that are said and written about him because a lot of it just isn’t true.”

    Read Channel NewsAsia

  • This oddly satisfying ASMR video shows us dumping one million orbeez into a swimming pool, shows them growing underwater, then does it all in reverse. It’s the most satisfying video in the world that you could see and hear.

  • A ceremony celebrating a very special accomplishment: dozens of people in our area are now going to be safer around water because now.. they can swim!

  • A 14-year-old boy who went under while trying to swim across a channel between Waukegan Harbor and the city’s beach at about 6 p.m. Friday was in “extremely critical” condition after being located and pulled from the water by a Waukegan Fire Department diver, a department spokesman said.

    Fire Marshal Steve Lenzi said the teen was one of four young men who attempted to cross from a breakwall near Stiner Pavilion off the south end of Municipal Beach to another bordering the harbor. He added that while one made it across and was helped from the water by passersby, two stayed on the Municipal Beach side, and they saw the teen go under water.

    Read Chicago Tribune

    Photo by smaedli

  • Long Nook Beach in Truro, where a man was bitten by a shark earlier this week, remains closed until further notice due to “continued shark activity.”

  • Allyson Henning reports on the graduation of swimmers at Raines High School.

  • With it being this hot, chances are you’re going to try to find some water to cool off in this weekend.