Swimmer's Daily

  • A ten meter diving tower. People who have never been up there before have to choose whether to jump or climb down. The situation itself highlights a dilemma: to weigh the instinctive fear of taking the step out against the humiliation of having to climb down.

    See Maximilien Van Aertryck and The New York Times

  • A great white shark was apparently ready for its close up when it photo bombed a 10-year-old Australian boy catching some waves. Chris Hasson says after showing the photo to experts, they determined it was a juvenile great white shark about 8 feet long. His son, Eden says he’s glad he didn’t notice it while he was out on the water. No one was hurt and even though it gave everyone a scare, now that it’s all over Chris and Eden think it’s actually kind of cool.

  • Ippei Watanabe – who smashed the 200-meter breaststroke world record in Tokyo on Jan. 29 – has revealed that improved lower body strength was a key factor behind breaking the world record.

    The 19-year-old swimmer, who managed to chalk up an unprecedented time of 2 minutes and 6.67 seconds during the Kosuke Kitajima Cup at Tatsumi International Swimming Center in Tokyo, decided to work on his lower body strength following the 2016 Rio Olympics.

    Read The Mainichi

  • Six days a week, at 5:30 in the morning, you’ll find 75-year-old DeEtte Sauer swimming a total of 120 laps at a Houston aquatic center.

    Sauer admits that when she first started swimming, she felt like a fish out of water.

    “It was horrible, I quit in the middle of the first lap,” she said. “And I was swimming with my head out of the water so my hair wouldn’t get wet.”

    In her 40s, Sauer was considered obese, tipping the scale at 250 pounds. She was ashamed when she couldn’t fit into a small boat on a family vacation and decided to do something about her health.

    Sauer changed her diet and started exercising. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to lose 100 pounds in less than a year.

    See CBS Evening News

  • It is one of the most famous stadiums in the world and was a showpiece venue for the Rio Olympics, but six months on from the Summer Games the iconic Maracana looks more ghostly than glitzy.

    The usual bustle of rowdy football fans is nowhere to be seen. Daily tours to the world-renowned landmark have been suspended and trouble in the area has been on the rise.

    Violent robberies and vandalism have been reported nearby and, despite the stadium’s padlocked gates, a recent break-in led to the loss of expensive equipment and precious memorabilia, including a bust of late journalist Mario Filho, whom the stadium is named after.

    A series of legal battles and abandonment have left the once glorious Maracana in a state of total decay and as Rio de Janeiro kicks off one of the state’s main seasonal cups, it is unclear whether the stadium will be able to host matches for this, or any, upcoming tournament.

    Read CNN

    https://youtu.be/L93NsEKdkdI

  • Tokyo Olympic organisers on Wednesday called on the Japanese public to donate old smartphones and other old electronic devices to help make medals for the 2020 Games.

    In a push to give the Olympics an environmentally friendly hue, Tokyo’s organising committee is aiming to collect eight tonnes of gold, silver and bronze at recycling bins across Japan from April, officials said, to make 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals.

    Tokyo 2020 said e-waste such as digital cameras, laptops and games units can also be donated at collection boxes in more than 2,000 stores of mobile phone giant and Olympic sponsor NTT Docomo.

    Recycled metals have been used in previous years to make Olympic medals, including in Rio last year where the silver and bronze medals were 30 percent made from recycled materials.

    “An Olympic medal is one of the most coveted items in existence,” American two-time Olympic decathlete champion Ashton Eaton said.

    “People spend decades, often agonising ones, working to obtain one,” he added.

    Read The Nation

  • Adidas has today unveiled its SS17 Parley swim range made from Parley Ocean Plastic and featuring up-cycled ocean plastic made from used fishing nets and debris intercepted in coastal areas and converted into technical yarn fibres such as Econyl®, a recycled Polyamide yarn.

    https://youtu.be/rheJCzhHEAk

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  • American male backstroke swimmers have swept the 100m and 200m races in the Olympics since 1996. After unseating both 2012 Olympic champs at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Ryan Murphy grabbed hold of the legacy and didn’t let go once landing in Rio. He topped the podium and set an Olympic record in the 100m backstroke but he was only halfway done, before again beating the field in the 200m backstroke to become the first swimmer since 2004 to win both races. There was still more, with Murphy setting a new world record in the 100m backstroke as lead-off for the gold medal winning 400m medley relay that was the final Olympic race for Michael Phelps. See more Rio Moments at usaswimming.org/ReCelebrateRioMoments

  • Narrowly missing an Olympics berth in 2012 by 12-hundredths of a second, Plummer nearly left the sport but came back strong in search of his first Olympic berth. En route to becoming the oldest Olympic rookie in American swimming history, the 30-year old got married and had two children (including a son six weeks old at the 2016 Olympic Trials). Being on the team in Rio wasn’t enough, as he raced to the podium in the 100m backstroke for a bronze medal in his first-ever Olympic event, later adding a gold as part of the 400m medley relay team. See more Rio Moments at usaswimming.org/ReCelebrateRioMoments