Swimmer's Daily

  • Russian swimmer Vitaly Melnikov has been handed an eight-year ban by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) Doping Panel after failing an out-of-competition drug test.

    The 26-year-old tested positive for a growth hormone on March 29, with the swimmer now set to be banned until April 21, 2024.

    Melnikov had previously served a two-year doping suspension from 2013 to 2015, after a positive test at the 2013 European Short Course Championships.

    On that occasion, he was found to have taken the banned blood booster erythropoietin, leading to the swimmer being stripped of a 100m backstroke silver and a 4x50m medley relay gold from the Championships.

    He is now set to be stripped of all results achieved on or after March 29, including having to forfeit any medals and prizes and reimburse any prize money won.

    Melnikov had missed out on qualifying to represent Russia at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

    Read Inside the Games

  • Cameron van der Burgh & Adam Peaty play out 5 race intimidation tactics! We are not sure who is more intimidating! :)

  • This weekend the traditional North Sea Swim Meet will be arranged in Stavanger, Norway for the 43th time.

    The pool is well renowned for being fast and many fast swimmers have attended the meet over the years. 2016 is no exemption, no less than 14 athletes on the start block this weekend represented their respective nations in the Rio Olympics.

    (more…)

  • Maybe the most memorable moment of the 2016 Rio Olympics occurred prior to the 200-meter butterfly when Michael Phelps was shown with a menacing and somewhat disgusted look on his face while his chief rival, Chad Le Clos of South Africa, was shadow-boxing-dancing-something in the foreground.

    Many assumed Phelps was annoyed by Le Clos and whatever he was doing. But no matter the reason, in those few seconds, a meme was born: #PhelpsFace.

    Intel recreated that moment in a new commercial starring Phelps and Jim Parsons. While the commercial has Phelps mimic the PhelpsFace as the result of a slow computer, with a fake Le Clos dancing in the foreground, the best part comes at the end. That’s when Parsons asks Phelps what Fake Le Clos is doing.

    See Business Insider

    https://youtu.be/PWbn4sjsz1A

  • Ryan Lochte, the 32-year-old swimmer who caused an international scandal after he exaggerated a tale about getting robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro this summer, confirmed Friday that he plans to compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

    Read The Washington Post

    https://youtu.be/n2PBhmizrzM

  • Nearly 2 ½ months after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, hundreds of workers still haven’t been paid and are planning to sue the local organizing committee to get their money.

    Among those late getting paid are about 100 freelance contractors who worked as stadium announcers, show producers and DJs, and several hundred others who worked for the Olympic News Service, which produced written summaries about the sports and athletes at the Olympics and subsequent Paralympics.

    “I’m working with a legal firm that is already representing someone involved with Rio 2016, so they have a pretty good handle what is going on,” Rocky Bester, a South African freelance show producer, told The Associated Press in an interview.

    Bester, a spokesman for the 100 contractors, said he’s never experienced such problems at previous Olympics. This was his seventh, and he said all he’s received from Rio organizers is silence and excuses.

    “We’ve had robust conversations at other Olympics about payments, but it’s always been an open conversation,” Bester said. “What is happening here is that no one is talking back. We’re sitting in the dark. We’re mushrooms at the moment.”

    He termed it a “basic lack of respect.”

    Read USA Today

    Photo by jmarconi

  • Watch live on the FINA YouTube Channel: The final day of the last event of the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2016 in Hong Kong.

  • Watch live on the FINA YouTube Channel: Day 1 of the last event of the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2016 in Hong Kong.

  • “Swimming is 20 percent physical endurance and 80 percent mental endurance,” says Elizabeth Fry, one of four swimmers ever to have completed the Double Triple Crown—twice swimming the English Channel, Catalina Channel, and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. In addition to the tremendous exposure these athletes face—and the mental and physical challenges that exposure presents—Fry says the hardest parts of open-water swimming are dialing in your hourly feeding schedule, fitting in a time-intensive training regimen, and adhering to your safety protocol.

    Read OutsidePhoto by Sonic Fitness