Swimmer's Daily

  • Rio 2016 organisers hailed the second most attended Paralympic Games in history as Saturday’s sell-out crowd of 167,675 in the Olympic Park beat the attendance of 157,000 on the busiest day of the Olympics.

    Barely a fortnight after organisers were forced to announce cuts to these Games because of a serious budget crisis caused by an apparent lack of interest from locals and the struggling Brazilian economy, the Paralympics came to life on the third day of competition in Rio. It was impossible to buy a ticket in the Olympic Park on Saturday, while a combined crowd of 48,325 attended the morning and evening sessions at the Olympic Stadium.

    The financial problems came to light when ticket sales stalled at a paltry 200,000 last month, representing 12% of the available capacity. Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, warned that the Paralympic movement faced the most challenging circumstances in its 56-year history.

    Yet affordable pricing and a concerted publicity drive led sales to rise to 1.8m, surpassing the 1.7m sold in Beijing eight years ago. The 2.8m tickets sold at London 2012 remains the figure to beat but Rio organisers are hopeful of meeting their revised target of 2.4m.

    See Rio 2016 on YouTube and read The Guardian

  • The Olympic Games have been plagued by issues in recent days in Brazil.

    It looks like the Organisers may be about to have one of their biggest problems in the coming days, as many volunteers are not turning up to do their jobs. Volunteers work in all areas of the events from athlete assistance to helping fans reach the venues around the city.

    According to Luis Moreira, a former volunteer, many have left their positions due to the poor working conditions.

    “Many volunteers had to quit because they had to work two weeks in a row”, he told CBC. “Schedules were messed up, lots of people quit because of the food: they were told to work eight, nine hours and were only provided with a little snack.”

    “I don’t think the organising committee had enough consideration for people’s lives and welfare. It was as though the organising committee was doing us a favour. The committee uses the volunteers to make money, uses us for free labour.”

    The conditions which the volunteers are working in, is in stark contrast to those of the IOC officials. It was revealed before the Games, that the IOC top-brass were given an €800 daily allowance for food during the Olympics.

    Around 50,000 volunteers were given jobs ahead of the Games, the New York Daily News, claim that 15,000 have already left their posts, despite being called “the backbone of the Games” by an IOC spokesman.

    Read newstalk

  • Two and a half days into the Rio 2016 Paralympics and 65 world records have fallen.

    Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada told Around the Rings the number of world records at these Games have defied expectations from Games organizers.

    “I want to praise the athletes – we have had an amazing 65 world records broken – 42 in swimming, 14 in athletics, five in cycling track and four in powerlifting – an amazing performance of the athletes so far in the Games,” Andrada says.

    Andrada added that the volume in which the records have been broken may come from the way Rio 2016 venues were designed.

    “There have been an unusual number of world records at the Paralympics and the Olympics,” he tells ATR.

    “I think it may be partly because in the swimming there is no diving tank on the side so it is a faster pool,” he added. “Also the same thing happened in the velodrome because the course is not symmetrical with one side sloped more than the other.”

    Although there are slight differences in the venues, Andrada says each was tested and certified by its respective International Federation before the Games began.

    “Also it is important that the results should all be attributed to the achievements of the athletes here who are doing an amazing job,” Andrada says.

    Read Around the Rings

  • Courtesy of Chloe Sutton on YouTube

    After 15 years of long distance training, I never had any injuries. I believe that it is because I began this shoulder strengthening routine that I practiced after every workout.

  • The Olympic swimmer appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show next Monday where he’ll candidly discuss his 10-month suspension from swimming after lying to authorities and the media about being held at gunpoint in Rio. USA Swimming and the United States Olympic Committee also banned the 32-year-old athlete from the 2017 National Championship, which prevents him from qualifying for the FINA World Championships next July in Budapest.

    “You know, I’ve been swimming my entire life and I’ve never taken a break, and for someone telling me that I can’t do something I’ve been doing my entire life…it’s heartbreaking and it stinks,” he tells host Ellen DeGeneres.

    See E! News

    https://youtu.be/yxRs17qco-w

  • We filmed with US Paralympic swimmer, Mallory Weggemann, before the 2012 London Paralympics. She was paralysed from the waist down after an epidural injection to treat post-shingles back pain. A last minute reclassification in 2012 hampered her performance in London. But she’ll be competing in eight events in Rio.

  • With the summer winding down, most children have already headed back in school, but there’s a younger age group that still has some prime time on their hands.

  • Day 1 provided plenty of drama

    some magical medal moments and…

    29 new world records!

    Here are some or our highlights…

  • After Russian athletes were banned from Rio in the wake of widespread doping, the alternative competition gets underway as the official Paralympics gets underway in Brazil. CCTV’s Julia Lyubova reports from Moscow.