Swimmer's Daily

  • In August 2015, she and her younger sister Yusra took the same hazardous route to Lesvos themselves, as refugees fleeing the war in their native Syria.

    The women, who are trained elite swimmers, captivated audiences around the world, first for their rescue of their 18 fellow passengers after their flimsy boat’s engine failed, and again when 18-year-old Yusra made history when she competed in Rio this year as part of the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team.

    This autumn, 21-year-old Sarah returned to Lesvos as a volunteer lifeguard with Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a Greek, non-profit humanitarian organization that assists refugees in distress as they attempt to reach the island.

    Visit UNHCR

  • It was the first time a South American country ever hosted the Summer Olympics. But Brazil’s political, economic and health crises soon trumped the pre-event excitement. Yet the organizers hailed it as success but not everyone agrees. Months after the party – the money worries remain. CCTV America’s Lucrecia Franco reports.

  • Russia is for the first time conceding that its officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history: a far-reaching doping operation that implicated scores of Russian athletes, tainting not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but also the entire Olympic movement.

    Over several days of interviews here with The New York Times, the Russian officials said they no longer disputed a damning set of facts that detailed a doping program with few, if any, historical precedents.

    “It was an institutional conspiracy,” Anna Antseliovich, the acting director general of Russia’s national antidoping agency, said of years’ worth of cheating schemes.

    A lab director tampered with urine samples at the Olympics and provided cocktails of performance-enhancing drugs, corrupting some of the world’s most prestigious competitions. Members of the Federal Security Service, a successor to the K.G.B., broke into sample bottles holding urine. And a deputy sports minister for years ordered cover-ups of top athletes’ use of banned substances.

    Read The New York Times

  • When he was 5 years old, Cullen Jones nearly drowned. But that didn’t stop him from getting back in the water. Today, he’s a four-time Olympic medalist who has made it his job to help others learn to swim.

    See Great Big Story

  • Sure, many athletes have competed in multiple Olympic Games. Many have won multiple individual golds. But doing so 16 years apart? That’s an exclusive group. In fact, membership may consist solely of Anthony Ervin.

    Sixteen years after tying for the Olympic title in the 50 meter freestyle at the Sydney Games, Ervin returned to swimming’s grandest stage in 2016 and sprinted to the top of the podium once again – in the process becoming the oldest swimmer to ever win individual gold.

    To say the 35-year-old took the road less traveled to Rio is an understatement.

    Read USA Swimming

  • Every four years the planet’s biggest multi-sport event comes around to thrill the masses.

    The 2016 Olympic Games took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    But just like previous editions the build-up to the Games was thick with controversy.

    In times of economic hardship in the region the Games’ multibillion-dollar price tag raised concerns and tempers amongst locals.

    And the threat of a mosquito-borne virus, high levels of pollution and crime rate and the usual delays in infrastructure and construction of venues also dominated the pre-Olympic headlines.

    See euronews

  • Falling through ice on a frozen lake can be terrifying, but if you keep calm you can save your own life. This video demonstrates what happens to your body when you fall into freezing water and how to climb back out onto the ice.

    Read Lifehacker

  • When two young dads meet, what do they talk about? Their kids, of course — even when the two dads in question are Prince William and gold medal Olympian Michael Phelps.

    After Phelps cemented his title as history’s greatest Olympian this year, collecting five more gold medals (for a grand total of 23!) in Rio, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year event in Birmingham, England.

    Presenting the honor was none other than Prince William and fellow swimmer Ian Thorpe. On stage, the royal lauded Phelps’s accomplishments in the pool.

    Read PEOPLE

  • An Iraqi refugee convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy at a Vienna swimming pool has had his sentence increased from six to seven years in prison as the result of a retrial.

    A Vienna court slapped 21-year-old Amir A. with the longer prison sentence on Tuesday, after finding him guilty of serious sexual assault and rape of a minor.

    The retrial came after a previous sentence of six years was overturned in October after a defense lawyer argued that the lower court had not done enough to determine whether the rapist had realized that the boy was saying no.

    Read RT