Swimmer's Daily

  • So others may live! That’s the motto of the Coast Guard’s most elite unit. Technically, they’re called aviation survival technicians, but most people know them as rescue swimmers.

  • Every year, thousands of Filipinos die by drowning, and, as investigations would reveal, many of those victims didn’t know how to swim.

    Some of these incidents took place during a typhoon — or in the midst of incessant monsoon rains. Others happened in maritime disasters, such as the sinking of MV Doña Paz in 1987.

    In certain cases, perhaps the ability to swim may not have been able to count for much. But even with the best of weather conditions — and without a precipitating disaster — many drowning incidents have happened in the country. In last year’s Holy Week alone, for instance, dozens of fatalities in various tourist spots were reported — from waterfalls and creeks to swimming pools and beach resorts.

    Surely, there were other factors at play: lack of supervision (particularly for young children), inadequate equipment, among others. But there remains the question of how many deaths could have been prevented had the victims possessed some swimming ability.

    Read Inquirer

    Photo by Jun Acullador

  • National Team member Jordan Wilimovsky took time to visit with some aspiring national teamers on his recent visit to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

  • How do you train for swimming in open water while dragging a tree? Get a POV look at Ross Edgley’s insane strength training workout as he helps get our poor cameraman in shape. If you’re into fitness videos, this is the one you need.

  • Footage of an interview with Team England swimmer (and Olympic gold-medallist) Adam Peaty ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Also includes cutaways.

    https://youtu.be/k0JkWLCmstY

  • How Meditation improves my life.

  • A no-cost, day-use permit could be required for people who want to take a dip in the increasingly popular Blue Hole swimming area in this western Ulster County town, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Thursday.

    The system, if instituted, would mandate that visitors obtain a permit before using Blue Hole — part of the Rondout Creek in the Sundown Wild Forest area of the Catskill Park — on weekends and holidays from May 15 to Oct. 15 each year.

    Up to 40 permits would be issued per day, and each permit would allow entry by up to six people.

    Read Daily Freeman

  • The Potomac River is healthier than it’s been in decades, according to an annual state-of-the-river report that notes steady improvements across a range of environmental indicators, from water quality to wildlife growth to recreational uses.

    The river report card, issued Tuesday by the Potomac Conservancy, awarded the waterway its first B, a grade based on declining pollution levels, the return of bald eagles and other native species, and the expansion of protected forests up and down a watershed stretching across more than 14,000 square miles.

    It was the advocacy group’s highest rating in its 10 years of monitoring river conditions, up from a B-minus last year and a D in 2011. One biologist working with the group declared a new “golden age” of eagles, osprey and other waterfowl thriving within the tidal reach of the Chesapeake Bay, which includes the Potomac up to Washington.

    “The comeback from where the river was just 10 years ago has been tremendous,” Potomac Conservancy President Hedrick Belin said in an interview. He cited decades of recovery initiatives — including waste-treatment upgrades and agricultural-pollution controls — that may be nearing an ecological tipping point.

    Read The Washington Post

    Photo by anokarina

  • Denver native Amy Van Dyken’s life after an ATV crash that left her paralyzed from the waist down in 2014 will be documented in an HBO special that airs Tuesday night.

    Van Dyken is a former Cherry Creek High School and Colorado State swimmer who won six career Olympic gold medals before her retirement from the sport in 2010. About four years later, Van Dyken hit a curb while riding an ATV near her Arizona home, tumbled down an embankment and almost completely severed her spinal cord. But with the help of Greg Roskopf, an Englewood-based muscle function specialist, Van Dyken has worked to regain strength in ways that doctor’s initially believed was not possible.

    The HBO program Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel is calling the segment “Uncharted Waters” and it will air at 8:30 p.m. It features Van Dyken’s return to the pool where she discusses her changed relationship with swimming since the crash.

    See Denver Post