Swimmer's Daily

  • Michael Phelps briefly returned to the spotlight last month when he testified about anti-doping before a congressional subcommittee.

    Phelps detailed the extensive testing process he subjected himself to for 16 years in order to compete in the pool in and for the U.S. But during a Facebook Live on Friday — while touching on a variety of topics — he proved that he will continue to defend himself against those who question if he was a clean swimmer.

    Phelps responded to a Facebook Live comment — which was, according to Swimming World magazine, regarding a tweet from former swimming rival Milorad Cavic, who called Phelps’ push for anti-doping reform “convenient” — that clearly pushed his buttons.

    Read USA Today

    https://youtu.be/BJiO7detXNo

  • The first half of Ian Thorpe’s boundary-pushing documentary Bullied has been met with substantial praise online from viewers, media figures and even a former Australian Prime Minister after its airing on Tuesday night.

    See Sydney Morning Herald

    https://youtu.be/MthNiJvpKOM

    https://youtu.be/pBgu1lXIRzQ

  • During the shooting of a documentary in arctic Norway, we got up close and personal with killer whales. Rather than ferocious killers, orcas are gentle and inquisitive, at least when it comes to human encounters. Hundreds of orcas and humpback whales gathers in the Tromsø region in the period of November to January, to feed on the overwintering herring.

    Via Lonely Planet

  • Former sprinter Frankie Fredericks quit Tuesday as head of the IOC commission monitoring candidates for the 2024 Olympics amid a probe into money he accepted from a sports marketing chief accused of corruption.

    Fredericks, 49, strongly denied any wrongdoing in accepting nearly $300,000 (283,000 euros, Sh30 million) around the day that Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympics.

    But said he had “personally decided that it is in the best interests of a good functioning of the International Olympic Committee candidature process that I step aside as chairperson of the 2024 Evaluation Commission, because it is essential that the important work my colleagues are doing is seen as being carried out in a truthful and fair manner.”

    The Namibian athletics great went on: “I do not wish to become a distraction from this great contest.”

    Read Daily Nation

  • Ian Thorpe will host a controversial new hidden camera documentary series exposing schoolyard bullying, to air on the ABC later this month.

    “Bullied” is a new social experiment that follows two high school students who have been bullied at their schools, with the incidents captured on hidden camera footage that is then shown to their parents, peers, school teachers and the bullies themselves.

    “I have some personal experience around the issue of bullying so I want to share my insights to help Australian kids,” Ian shared when the series was announced last year.

    See qnews.com.au

  • The Bahamas are famous for sun, sand—and swimming pigs.

    Seven of the feral animals, which are popular as a tourist attraction, have been found dead on Big Major Cay, one of the islands, according to the Bahamas Humane Society. The death toll may be up to 10, which leaves eight or nine of the famous swine remaining—only a handful of which are adults.

    Though initial reports suggested that tourists had given the pigs fatal doses of alcohol, Humane Society inspector Ventoi Bethune told National Geographic that the dead swine had likely ingested sand.

    Veterinarians who visited the site found large quantities of sand in the deceased animals’ stomachs, which Bethune says may have been caused by a recent influx of visitors throwing small amounts of food on the beach.

    “The pigs have been on the island so long, they are used to foraging for natural food,” Bethune says. The pigs would only go the beach for an occasional treat.

    But with the increase in tourism, the pigs are relying on humans more than ever.

    Read National Geographic

  • “Canottieri Ortigia” sports club in Syracuse has started a cycle of free swimming lessons for young migrants. The course is open to unaccompanied minors who arrived in Sicily on board barges, after crossing the Mediterranean.

    https://youtu.be/eq83q89DGuI

  • People love to have debates about who’s the greatest of all time in any given sport; maybe it’s because you don’t even have to be an expert to get in on them. All you need to know is the yardstick for success. Serena Williams or Steffi Graf? Tom Brady or Joe Montana?

    That’s what makes Michael Phelps special. There’s no debate. He’s the greatest swimmer and most decorated Olympian of all time: 28 medals won over four different Olympic Games, 23 of them gold.

    The question is, how? Well, Michael Phelps is not a fish. Doctors have shot down the notion that his abnormal wingspan and flexible joints give him an out sized advantage.

    It turns out, Phelps worked hard on his craft. He also does a few mental exercises that the rest of us would do well to emulate. Fortt Knox sat down with him to get some of his best insights.

    Read CNBC