U.S. Olympic swimming legend Natalie Coughlin Hall returned to her Bay Area alma mater Thursday for a pool dedication at a new school aquatics center named for her.
Carondelet High School, an all-girls private school, celebrated the completion of the Natalie Coughlin Aquatic Center, named in October for the school’s most famous alum, the 12-time Olympic medalist who also starred at Cal.
“I stepped onto the deck, and it said Natalie Coughlin Aquatic Center; it was a little overwhelming, a massive honor,” Coughlin said.
Piscine Sciorba, venue of the Champions League Final Eight, has been presented in a press conference in Genoa, host city of the season’s greatest water polo club competition showcase.
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For the first time, the Champions League season will culminate in a Final Eight tournament on 7-9 June. On this historical occasion, Piscine Sciorba will welcome back the best teams of the continent after 15 years – back in 2013 host side Recco beat then arch-rival Honved (HUN) 9-4 with a stunning 5-0 second half to claim the trophy after twenty years. Five more followed since, making Recco the most successful club in the Champions League history and the Italians are ready to go for the ninth win this summer.
In his message, LEN President Paolo Barelli highlighted the importance of the series and the finals. “The newly shaped Champions League is one of the most remarkable chapters in LEN’s current success story. We’ve transformed this competition into a premium brand, it’s truly the best water polo club competition in the entire world. Champions League is the only event in water polo which offers a dedicated live scoring application, free live streaming of each and every game and highlights being available for everyone just minutes after the conclusion of each match.”
The LEN President added: “The expansion to involve sixteen teams in the main round and to stage a Final Eight tournament has been the next step to reach an even higher level, to promote Champions League and water polo throughout Europe and gain an even more significant share in the sport market. I’m convinced that the Final Eight in Genoa will be an outstanding event and a great coronation of the entire season.”
While staging the event the club of Recco can rely on the strong and committed support of the Liguria Region and the Municipality of Genoa, promoters of the event, who were presented at a press conference in the “Transparency Room” of the Region.
As it has been revealed, for the event the roof of the pool will be open and with additional stands its capacity will be enlarged to accommodate 2,500 spectators. Twelve top-level matches in three days embody a great programme alone but a village of sport adventures shall also be created around the complex welcoming teams, officials, fans and members of the media.
The complex will also host the “Kids Final”, an already traditional youth tournament with teams from all over Europe that will replicate, in miniature, the challenges of the big one. Young water polo players shall have a unique opportunity to breathe the magical atmosphere of the main competition and to meet their idols.
“The Final Eight of Genoa is the result of a journey started two years ago” Recco President and five-time Champions League winner Maurizio Felugo said. “We want to repay the affection and enthusiasm received in Genoa with a fantastic international event and I’m sure the people of Liguria will feel themselves protagonists of this great spectacle. We deliver our job with pride and desire to amaze Europe. We will double the show with the Kids Final that perfectly embodies our values and goals: bringing the youngest children closer to this sport, making them participate and excite to feel the passion. First as an athlete then as a president I have realised how important it is to team up, help each other and collaborate. For this reason I would like to thank Liguria Region, Municipality of Genoa and My Sport – Piscine Sciorba’s managing company – who will play this match alongside us and also for LEN the trust placed in us.”
It’s often recommended to befriend the enemy, but high school freshman Xavier Staubs did more than that. He saved his life.
At a swim meet on January 4, the 15-year-old Michigan boy helped rescue a rival who was struggling under water.
Xavier, who attends Corunna High School, noticed his competitor sinking to the bottom of the pool after they each completed their race. Without hesitation, Xavier dived right in and helped get the other swimmer out of the pool and into the hands of the paramedics.
His actions got the attention of US Rep. John Moolenaar, who recognized Xavier with a tribute in the Congressional Record.
In a venue built for Olympians, young swimmers get a glimpse of what the pool must have felt like during the ’96 Games. The stands are packed with spectators and there’s an ocean of possibilities for these fourteen-and-under athletes, but one of the team’s most admired swimmers couldn’t be there to compete. Just days before the competition, Grace Bunke was hospitalized. Instead, members of the Team USA Swim Team represented her in an Olympic-sized tribute.
Enduring Grace – Members of U.S. Olympic team honor 14 year old
In 2016, Judge Aaron Persky gave 18-year-old Stanford freshman and swimmer Brock Turner six months in jail for sexually assaulting a woman who’d passed out behind a dumpster near a campus frat party.
On October 17, 2008 USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus received an email from an Orange County parent he was all too familiar with.
Two years earlier Tracy Palmero’s allegations that U.S. national team director Everett Uchiyama began a sexual relationship with her when she was a teenager swimmer led to USA Swimming firing Uchiyama and banning him from the sport for life. But the firing and ban remained private, protected by a non-disclosure agreement USA Swimming insisted they sign, according to the Palmeros.
Joe Palmero, Tracy’s father, was emailing Wielgus in 2008 to inform him that Uchiyama was working as the director of aquatics at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs, just five miles from USA Swimming’s headquarters. Palmero also suspected Wielgus already knew.
It was the first in a series of emails in which Joe Palmero would eventually force USA Swimming in 2010 to publicly disclose Uchiyama was banned and list the names of other banned coaches and officials.
Until now, the Palmero family’s names have never been made public. But in interviews with the Southern California News Group, Tracy and Joe Palmero for the first time detail Uchiyama’s abuse, Wielgus and USA Swimming’s effort to keep Uchiyama’s sexual misconduct under wraps, and how they exposed the organization’s role in enabling American swimming’s culture of sexual abuse.
Sognesfjord is Norway’s longest Fjord and lies in the heart of Fjord country and extends more than 200 km (120 miles) inland. This region is where this deep fjord meets the glaciers and Norway’s highest mountains are considered one of the most beautiful travel destinations in the World.
The swimming championships were a series of races but the blue ribbon race where 30 competitors swan was 3.7 Km’s.
