Swimmer's Daily

  • Swimmers in an Olympic-sized pool could be surrounded by up to 50 gallons of urine, a new study has revealed.

    Scientists used an artificial sweetener found in urine to measure how much pee is in swimming pool water.

    They discovered the sweetener acesulfame potassium (ACE), is consistently present in urine, making it easy to monitor pool levels.

    In tests they found a 91,500 gallon pool contained 5.8 gallons of urine and a 183,000 gallon pool, a third the size of an Olympic pool, was awash with around 17 gallons.

    Read The Telegraph

    Photo by tano_d’ere

  • When Mike McQuay Jr., an 18-year-old with autism, was growing up, the place he felt most safe and calm was in his parents’ backyard pool.

    “We’d take him to the mall and he would get overloaded with sensory issues from all the fluorescent lights and crowds,” says his mom, Maria McQuay, 50. “But when he’d come home, going in the water really soothed him.”

    Now a college freshman at Middlesex Community College in Edison, NJ, Mike’s swimming is more than calming exercise. He might soon be competing with neurotypical peers — those not on the autism spectrum — as part of Team USA. Depending on the success of his trials, he aims to swim at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

    Mike’s inspiring story is being told in the new documentary film “Swim Team,” showing as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival, which celebrates people with disabilities and runs Thursday through Wednesday at JCC Manhattan.

    Read New York Post

  • Budapest ended its bid to host the 2024 Olympics on Wednesday, citing a lack of unity after a political movement opposing the move collected more than a quarter of a million signatures to force a referendum on the issue.

    Running alongside powerhouses Los Angeles and Paris, Budapest had been considered a long-shot candidate, pinning its hopes on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Agenda 2020 initiative aimed at promoting less lavish events.

    Read Euronews

  • After staying in his lane as a swimmer and not speaking out about doping in international competition, Michael Phelps is ready to take on the issue in retirement.

    Phelps testified Tuesday before a congressional hearing on improving anti-doping measures, delivering the message that he doesn’t believe the Olympics and other competitions are clean and that athletes don’t believe in the testing system that’s in place. Phelps, who has won 28 Olympic medals, said athletes get “disillusioned” when they see others cheat, he and asked the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to help “ensure the system is fair and reliable.”

    “I don’t believe that I’ve stood up at international competitions and the rest of the field has been clean,” Phelps said during the hearing. “I don’t believe that. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that. I know that when I do stand up in the U.S., I know we’re all clean because we’re going through the same thing.

    Internationally I think there has to be something done, and it has to be done now.”

    Read NZ Herald

  • The finals of the FINA/NVC Diving World Series in Beijing (CHN) – from March 3-5 – will be live streamed, free of charge, on FINA TV.

    Source FINA

  • Farhan Sultan is Bahrain’s fastest swimmer but his career – as well as his Olympic dream – could be over if he fails to set new records.

  • Several of the Bahamas’ famous swimming pigs have died after tourists reportedly fed them beer and rum.

    Seven of the animals were found dead in seas off the country’s Exuma Cays, leading the government to ban visitors from feeding the porcine creatures.

    One of the pig’s owners, Wayde Nixon, told The Nassau Guardian: “The pigs were given the wrong food.

    “We had the government vet in there [who] examined them all thoroughly. He gave them shots, he gave them medicine, and I was there and I worked with them for three days straight.

    “We had them pigs there almost 30 years, and never has this happened before, but now we are going to have to regulate it.

    “Right now it’s blowing out of proportion with people, anybody, bringing food there, anybody doing what they [want to] do. We have people coming there giving the pigs beer, rum, riding on top of them, all kinds of stuff.”

    The majority of the pigs – believed to be around 15 – are still alive, although some reports said the figure was just seven or eight. The famous creatures swim in the sea off the Exuma Cays and are a popular attraction for tourists, who travel to the island to swim with the pigs.

    However, other officials said the cause of the pigs’ death was currently unclear.

    Read Independent

    https://youtu.be/_AEUz02HuJw

  • The FINA Diving World Series is a high-profile competition which offers an annual meeting opportunity for the world’s brightest diving stars. This prestigious and exclusive event invites internationally-recognised divers, mostly medallists from previous Olympics, World Championships and World Cups.