Swimmer's Daily

  • Michael Andrew is an athletic phenom, famous for breaking the most National Age Group Records in USA Swimming history. He’s the youngest swimmer ever to turn pro, doing so at the age of 14.

  • A professor at Stanford is in hot water after she tweeted a link to a song that promotes violence against convicted rapist Brock Turner. Devin Fehely reports. (12-7-17)

  • A woman who suffered a spinal injury as a teen received a multi-million-dollar award in a case revisiting the decades-old debate about starting blocks and water depth.

    It also serves as a wake-up call to those who own aging facilities, reminding them that grandfather clauses might not hold up in court.

    In October, jurors held the University of Regina, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, negligent in a diving accident that rendered Miranda Biletski paraplegic. She was 16 at the time and an aspiring Olympic swimmer. She trained with the Regina Piranhas Swim Club, which rented the pool from the university. In 2005, Biletski was practicing her diving starts when she struck her head on the bottom of the pool, fracturing her C6 vertebrae.

    Biletski alleged that the school was at fault, claiming there wasn’t enough water in the pool and that it didn’t meet code.

    Attempts to settle out of court failed, and Biletski became too consumed with a new passion — wheelchair rugby — to pursue damages through civil court until well into adulthood. (A Paralympian, Biletski was the first woman on Canada’s wheechair rugby team during the 2016 Summer Olympics.)

    The trial finally began in September. The jury heard testimonies about how shallow is tooshallow.

    Read Aquatics International

  • Five-time Olympic swimmer Dana Torres on the Russian ban from the Winter Olympics over doping and safety concerns for U.S. athletes competing in South Korea.

  • The Shubenacadie Canal waterway spans 114km and goes through the heart of Nova Scotia. One swimmer wanted to become the first person to swim the whole waterway and experience the history, beauty, obstacles along the way.

  • An International Skating Union (ISU) rule imposing severe penalties on athletes participating in speed skating competitions unauthorised by the world governing body has been ruled as a breach of European Union anti-trust laws and must be changed.

    The ruling is considered the most significant legal case in European sport since the 1995 ruling in favour of Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman which secured free movement of players within the EU.

    Other sporting bodies are now likely to come under similar pressure to change their competition rules in which sporting leaders claim could “destroy the Olympic values underpinning sport”.

    The European Commission, however, claim that ISU rules which had permitted sanctions, including lifetime bans, for those participating in unlicensed events were unfairly persecuting athletes and preventing the innovation and growth of the sport.

    “International sports federations play an important role in athletes’ careers – they protect their health and safety and the integrity of competitions,” said European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is responsible for ruling on competition policy, when announcing the verdict today.

    “However, the severe penalties the ISU imposes on skaters also serve to protect its own commercial interests and prevent others from setting up their own events.

    “The ISU now has to comply with our decision, modify its rules, and open up new opportunities for athletes and competing organisers, to the benefit of all ice skating fans.”

    Read Inside the Games

    Photo by David Rosen Photography

  • This is the Aquaclimb, a climbing wall designed to be installed over a pool so you don’t need any safety equipment since you’ll just land in the water if you fall (unless you installed it backwards). It comes in a variety of different styles and climbing configurations and I imagine it would be rather difficult to climb while barefooted and slippery.

    See Geekologie

  • The Full Federal Court of Australia recently dismissed an appeal brought by the Australian Olympic Committee against a first instance decision of Wigney J that Telstra’s 2016 “Go to Rio” advertising campaign did not contravene the Olympic Insignia Protection Act 1987 or the Australian Consumer Law: Australian Olympic Committee Inc v Telstra Corporation Ltd [2017] FCAFC 165.

    Read Lexology

  • Teresa the Traveler explores some of British Columbia’s best waterfalls, swimming holes and natural hot springs for her latest book. It’s on sale now at Chapters in Kamloops.