Swimmer's Daily

  • Sydney real estate agent Melissa Hatheier chanced upon a stranded shark while swimming in a rock pool – and decided to give it a helping hand.
    She told the BBC that it was not heavy and it felt “kind of like a toddler” in her arms.

  • Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) is investigating an incident involving a jet ski, ridden by Olympic swimmer Taylor McKeown, near whales off the Sunshine Coast.

    McKeown, and two friends, were on a jet ski off Mooloolaba earlier this week when they came across a pod of whales.

    Jet skis are not allowed within 300 metres of whales.

    “The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) has been alerted to a recent incident at the Sunshine Coast and is now formally investigating the matter,” a statement to the ABC said.

    McKeown, an Olympic silver medallist, posted a video of the encounter on social media.

    She told the ABC that she took two friends out on the jet ski off Mooloolaba on Sunday.

    “I knew they were going to be out this weekend [the whales] and I had my phone in my jet ski, which I always do just in case I get into trouble,” she said.

    Read ABC

  • Things go swimmingly as David interviews Fares Ksebati, co-founder and CEO of MySwimPro. This app offers personalized swim workouts and training programs to swim smarter. Visit https://myswimpro.com and find out more about this Michigan-based company.

  • The duty of care scandal engulfing Olympic and Paralympic sport has plunged to a new low as British Swimming admitted disabled swimmers, including vulnerable teenagers, were subjected to a “climate of fear” while training for Rio 2016.

    The former head coach of British Para-Swimming, Rob Greenwood, has left his post and the governing body took the rare step of publicly apologising to athletes he was found to have verbally abused and used discriminatory language about, as well as their families.

    The Guardian understands the situation was deemed so serious that a group of affected athletes, which includes Paralympic champions, were offered complimentary psychotherapy sessions if they required help coping with the trauma of the abuse and subsequent investigations.

    The performance director, Chris Furber, has also faced internal disciplinary action although this is in regard to management failings and a “lack of empathy” towards athletes. He is not accused of abuse or discrimination. […]

    The swimmers were enormously successful, winning 47 medals, 16 of them gold, and finishing second in the medal table, contributing to Greenwood being handed the High Performance Coach of the Year award by Sports Coach UK in November 2016.

    Months later he was gone in a cloud of controversy and suspicion. The chairman of British Swimming, Maurice Watkins, said: “On behalf of British Swimming I want to apologise to the British Para-Swimming athletes and their families who have faced unacceptable behaviours and comments. I have written to those athletes and their families I understand have been affected by this.

    “In the pursuit of excellence, we recognise there have been failings in the culture and communication within British Para-Swimming. We are correcting that, recognising the need to ensure strong athlete welfare in our sport. British Swimming has in place a robust action plan, which follows a lengthy and detailed inquiry designed to make sure transparent procedures are followed and adhered to. These procedures are being widely communicated. We want to ensure a closer working relationship with the British Athletes Commission. Our goal continues to be medal-producing performances, consistent with medal targets, in a positive culture.”

    Read The Guardian and see interviews on BBC

    Photo by Ben124.

  • If I say the word freediving, what comes to mind? The Big Blue, athletes, difficult, holding your breath for an insane amount of time…

    When I first thought of freediving, that’s what came to my mind, particularly after watching the movie ‘The Big Blue’. Then, I interviewed Lidija Lijić as a ‘Character of the Sea’ and learned a little more. I was extremely impressed by her accomplishments and her beautiful-mad-passion for freediving but I never thought it was something that one could just ‘try’.

    We finished the interview with Lidija telling me, that maybe I could come out with her one day; “sure” I said, thinking it was one of those idle promises or closing sentences but it turns out she was serious.

    Two months later I got a message from Lidija asking if I would like to come out freediving with herself and Vitomir Maričić on Palmižana; I jumped at the chance but was quietly freaking out. I love the water and everything to do with it and have no issue swimming but I have never explored the depths. I have never been scuba diving and have issues diving below 2-metres as I have never been able to equalise properly; so, I doubted my capabilities but put on my big-girl-panties and off I went.

    Read Total Croatia News

  • Had anyone else been involved, it might have all seemed a little surreal. Sitting in a roomful of swimmers, who have all been selected to represent Scotland at Gold Coast 2018, there is a group of journalists set slightly apart, all gathered around a mini tablet, conducting an interview via skype with someone sitting in their bedroom over a hundred miles away.

    But the person holding court is Hannah Miley, and she has never been one to conform to the norm, not if she thinks it will help her development.

    She could have made the trip down from Inverurie to Stirling for the Team Scotland announcement and photo-call but that would have disrupted not only her training but also her recovery, which she is hoping will be aided by camping out in an oxygen tent.

    So, instead, there she is, sitting on her bed, enclosed in a shelter, talking about the number of books she is looking forward to getting through and laughing about how the 12-hours-per-day camping sessions get her out of washing-up duties.

    Allowed out for breakfast and training, she will eat lunch and dinner in the makeshift accommodation, and she will sleep in there but, still smiling, she says that at the end of it, she will hopefully be in even better shape to tackle the challenge of becoming the first Scot ever to win three gold medals in the same Commonwealth event at three successive games.

    “I have done it before, it is to simulate being at altitude. I am going to be in it for like 12 hours plus a day which is going to be quite tricky, but it is just another crazy bit to add to training. I am not normal!

    Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/more-in-sport/hannah-miley-spends-12-hours-a-day-in-oxygen-tent-1-4580860

    Read The Scotsman

  • In a team that included Michael Phelps, it was Jason Lezak who swam a superb final leg for the United States to edge out France to win a thrilling 4x100m freestyle relay in Beijing 2008.

  • In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, the sea is a constant reminder of a trauma for the refugees who crossed the water in search of security. But a group of swimming instructors in Lesbos, Greece, is working to help them overcome their fear and reconnect with the water.