Swimmer's Daily

  • Elderly winter swimmers are braving below-freezing temperatures in Beijing, claiming the icy waters are the secret to good health.

  • Senior weekend for the Idaho swim and dive team. Great story on they seniors, by Micah Hamilton and Emily Bruneel.

    Swim and Dive Senior feature

  • A diver almost became a real-life Joan-ah thanks to a perfectly timed photo which made it look like she was being eaten by a whale shark.

    Marine biologist Kori Garza was diving off the coast of Papua, Indonesia, on January 9 when she was greeted with a giant shark measuring almost seven metres in length.

    As the giant animal swap around the 27-year-old, diving partner and friend Etoile Smulders captured the moment the shark passed overhead.

    At that precise moment, the top half of Kori’s body was completely covered by the animal’s huge body, revealing just her legs, making it look like she was being eaten by the whale shark.

    Swimming With Whale Sharks

  • In a bizarre and instinctual survival tactic, alligators that normally lurk in a swamp in eastern North Carolina are now “frozen” beneath the murky water. Every inch of the reptiles’ bodies stay underwater — except for their snout.

    Officials at The Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach took to Facebook this week with a videothat shows the gators icebound in the swamp with only their snouts protruding and a toothy grin sealed in place.

    See Fox News

    How alligators survived freezing temperatures in North Carolina

  • A group of employees at a company in Solna, part of the greater Stockholm area, take a dip into freezing water once a week.

    Sweden office workers relax with lunchtime icy swim

  • Anneka is privileged to get up close with one of the world’s rarest and most docile sea mammals, The Manatee, otherwise known as the Sea Cow in The Crystal River in Florida. Are they more closely related to Elephants than whales and walruses? Watch to find out…

    SWIMMING WITH MANATEES

  • A former French swimming champion and ex-manager of one of the country’s most successful hockey clubs was found guilty Wednesday of child rape and sexual abuse and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

    Vincent Leroyer, 61, was found guilty of abusing five boys between the ages of 6 and 14 when he managed the Rouen Hockey Club from 1986-96. His victims, now in their 30s and 40s, told the court how they have since struggled with addiction and a catalog of other difficulties.

    The victims hugged each other after the guilty verdict and sentence was pronounced by the court.

    Leroyer was a French national champion, specializing in backstroke, in the 1970s before injuries derailed his career. He went on to manage the Rouen Hockey Club, which won five national championships during his tenure.

    The three-day trial highlighted how success as an athlete and sports administrator helped open doors that otherwise likely would have remained closed to the single man with no family or children of his own.

    Read AP and KSL

  • “I imagine it would be quite a thrill for them,” Whoriskey said on Wednesday. “The only time that I’ve encountered whites has been (from the safety of) a cage.

    “The idea of free diving with them is a whole different ball game. … It’s not something that I would encourage everybody to do on a regular basis. These animals are kind of two-dimensional. You kind of turn them one way and they’re in feeding mode. That’s a very different animal than the one they encountered. So there’s a certain degree of luck in being there in the right place at the right time.”

    He pointed out humans are very much out of their element when they enter what is ultimately the sharks’ home.

    “They rule there,” Whoriskey said. “All the advantages are in their particular court so you’re entirely there and survive at their pleasure.”

    Read The Chronicle Herald