Swimmer's Daily

  • Our new short film (12 min) is finally out. Turn out the light, put your headphones and freedive with me around the world.

    One Breath Around The World

  • Chinese three-time Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang is reserving the right to sue British newspaper the Sunday Times for defamation. What is the full story?

  • At the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens, Michael Phelps claimed his first Olympic Gold Medal. In the 400-meter individual medley, Phelps easily won with a world record time of 4:08.41!

    Michael Phelps' 1st Olympic Gold Medal | Throwback Thursday

  • One of the most frustrating things about exercise is how easily progress can be undone – “use it or lose it,” as the old saying goes. If you don’t keep up the workout routine, your muscles slowly shrink and you’ll end up back at square one before you realize it. But maybe that’s not quite the case after all. Putting a new meaning to the phrase “muscle memory,” researchers have now found that muscles keep their nuclei from past growth, which makes it easier to rebuild later after a period of inactivity.

    Read New Atlas

  • Freezing myself just for your entertainment.

  • The Chinese Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang is threatening legal action against a British newspaper over claims he may face a life-time ban. An article in the Sunday Times alleges that Sun clashed with anti-doping testers after missing an out-of-competition doping test in September. But Sun’s lawyer says the testers failed to show proper authorization letters and Sun Yang was entitled to reject an invalid doping test.

  • What we did for practice this past Friday! We don’t do this particular set every Friday. All week we have been grinding 90 x 50s at 200 pace (30 x free, 30 x back, 30 x IM order) so we decided to switch it up a little because the body needed some speed work.

    In this session we did 3 x 100 pace sets

    20 x 25 Fly
    20 x 25 Back
    20 x 25 IM order

    Overspeed (training for the 50) Kaatsu Training (Blood Flow Restriction)

    This was shot 100% on a GoPro hero 6

    A USRPT Friday Morning…

  • The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on Sunday (27 January) stripped Malaysia of the right to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, which were due to be held in Kuching between 29 July and 4 August.

    The decision was taken by the IPC Governing Board at its meeting in London, Great Britain, after the Home Ministry of Malaysia failed to provide the necessary guarantees that Israeli Para swimmers could participate, free from discrimination, and safely in the Championships. This includes full compliance with the IPC protocols related to anthems and flags, and where required the provision of relevant visas.

    Andrew Parsons, IPC President, said: “All World Championships must be open to all eligible athletes and nations to compete safely and free from discrimination. When a host country excludes athletes from a particular nation, for political reasons, then we have absolutely no alternative but to look for a new Championships host.

    “The Paralympic Movement has, and always will be, motivated by a desire to drive inclusion, not exclusion. Regardless of the countries involved in this matter, the IPC would take the same decision again if it was to face a similar situation involving different countries.

    “In September 2017 when the IPC signed the contract with the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (NPC Malaysia) to host the World Para Swimming Championships, we had assurances that all eligible athletes and countries would be allowed to participate in the event with their safety assured.

    “Since then, there has been a change of political leadership and the new Malaysian government has different ideas. Politics and sport are never a good mix and we are disappointed that Israeli athletes would not have been allowed to compete in Malaysia.

    “As a result of the Board’s decision today, we are now looking for a new host for this vital World Championships, which acts as a qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. We will strive to maintain the same dates and conditions for the Championships as to not upset the training schedules of athletes who aim to peak for the end of July and early August. However, we may need to be flexible in this area bearing in mind the circumstances we face.”

    Read paralympic.org

  • Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang is considering to file a lawsuit against British newspaper the Sunday Times over a report claiming the swimmer violated anti-doping rules.

    In a statement sent to Xinhua by Sun’s lawyer Zhang Qihuai on Sunday, Zhang said the newspaper reported the incident with “a malign intention” which “severely damaged Sun Yang’s reputation and violated his privacy.”

    “We reserve the right to file a lawsuit against the relevant international media which reports the incident,” the statement said.

    Sun rejected an out-of-competition doping test at his home in Zhejiang on Sept. 4, 2018 as doping testers from IDTM, the organisation to conduct out-of-competition doping tests, failed to show adequate identification proofs, Zhang said.

    Sun and the doping control team had a dispute which later was referred to world swimming governing body FINA who ruled in favor of Sun after a 13-hour hearing on Jan. 3, Zhang said.

    In the report titled “Olympic champion Sun Yang abuses drug testers”, the newspaper reported Sun “faces a lifetime ban after a clash with anti-doping testers ended in him and his security guard using a hammer to smash a sealed vial containing the swimmer’s blood.”

    It said Sun “objected to the identification card of the chaperone, there to observe him passing urine, claiming it was insufficient proof he was an official member of the testing team.”

    Zhang denounced the report as “untruthful”.

    “FINA has ruled on Jan. 3, 2019 that Sun Yang did not violate the World Anti-Doping Code,” Zhang said.

    Read New China

    Photo by jdlasica