Swimmer's Daily

  • A five-time Olympic gold medalist at 22 years old, Missy Franklin shares the lessons she learned while pursuing her dreams.

    https://youtu.be/o1AdGhn1PGU

  • The story of Swedish swimming star Sarah Sjostrom years before she became her country’s first female swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

  • Join Olympic Medalist Anthony Ervin, the fastest swimmer on the planet, for an intimate and personal discussion about his new memoir, Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian.

  • Athletics and swimming mixed relay competitions are among those included at Tokyo 2020 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it was announced here today.

    A mixed 4×400 metres relay will be held in athletics.

    A mixed 4x100m medley mixed relay has been added to the swimming programme.

    Male and female BMX freestyle park and 3×3 basketball have also been confirmed as two new disciplines on the programme, as exclusively reported by insidethegames yesterday.

    Mixed team competitions have also been added judo, table tennis, archery and triathlon.

    A mixed relay will be held in triathlon along with table tennis doubles and mixed team archery and judo.

    Men’s and women’s madison cycling races were also added to increase the total number of track events to 12.

    Swimming also gained additional men’s 800m and women’s 1500m freestyle races, ensuring that male and females will be able to take part in the same number of events in the pool at Tokyo 2020.

    Read Inside the Games

    Photo by Sjaak Kempe

  • Most of the things we encounter in daily life are extremely static, or at least unresponsive, compared to the way living things work. That’s true for clothes: You put them on, they stay on, and if you want them to change you unzip zippers or undo buttons.

    But a new class of workout clothing leverages living bacteria, which expand when exposed to moisture and contract when dehydrated. Developed by a multidisciplinary team at MIT in collaboration with athletic-wear company New Balance, the clothes have vents that open automatically as the wearer starts to sweat.

    Read Smithsonian Mag

  • Anthony Ervin knows all too well what it’s like to be stared at and alienated for something uncontrollable.

    Before he was a famous swimmer and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Ervin was just a kid trying to cope with Tourette Syndrome, as his overpowering motor tics would draw negative attention from others.

    “It’s like an itch that constantly wants to be scratched,” he told For The Win. “When I was a preteen and a young teenager, it was really just these bursts of additional nervous energy that came out through mostly my eyelids and other facial expressions.”

    But after years of dealing with the unwanted attention, something he once struggled with when he was younger turned out to be one of his greatest strengths behind the blocks at the Olympics.

    “When I was with those seven other guys in an Olympic final and they’re all freaking out and thinking about how they’re being viewed and gazed upon by all these people back in their countries – all these people around the world – with me, I knew what these jitters were,” said Ervin, who won his first gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2000 Olympics when he was 19.

    “I was very familiar with them. I didn’t need to be thrust on such a big stage in order to feel that anxiety. It’s something that I coped with daily as a youth, so I felt a little more comfortable in that environment. And I really think that gave me a particular kind of edge when competing on that kind of a stage.”

    Swimming also helped the sprinter manage his facial tics growing up. He learned through his teens and 20s how to give the effects of the neurological disorder space to escape his body.

    Read USA Today

  • Drowning doesn’t only happen in the water. Dry drowning can happen hours or days after a child has gone swimming. What is it and what are the symptoms?

  • A four-year-old boy from Houston, Texas has died of “dry drowning” almost a week after he last went swimming.

    Francisco Delgado Jr. told ABC 13 his family went swimming at the Texas City Dike with his son Frankie, 4, on Memorial Day weekend.

    About a week later, Frankie complained of shoulder pain and woke up a few hours later.

    “Out of nowhere, he just woke up. He said, ‘Ahhh,” Delgado told the news outlet. “He took his last breath and I didn’t know what to do no more.”

    Read People

  • Today is World Oceans Day. Yet another reminder of the importance of protecting our oceans and its incredible inhabitants. How are you celebrating?

    My roommate, big wave surfer Polly Ralda, and I are lucky enough to live on Oahu and enjoy being in the ocean each and every day. It’s our daily medicine. We owe so much to the ocean and believe it’s our responsibility as athletes to protect our playgrounds. This summer, the visibility has been crystal clear, so we wanted to share its beauty with you via our GoPro.

    We were pleasantly surprised on our last freediving adventure when this majestic dolphin pod surrounded us off the Hawaiian Islands. They were swimming for as far as we could see, bunched up in groups displaying the various families and dolphin couples. We couldn’t help but listen to their peaceful singing while underwater, which you can listen to in the raw video. Let’s just say it was one of the best days of our lives…

    Following this special experience, we are more motivated than ever to save our seas and fight for its many species that are depending on us to use our voice to stand up for them, and change our habits to stop polluting their home. We hope the sentiment is contagious.

    See The Inertia

    https://youtu.be/c46L7UHCgdc