Swimmer's Daily

  • Former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan will file for an injunction against the Korea Olympic Committee on Thursday while he awaits a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on a controversial doping suspension, his legal representative said.

    Park has already served an 18-month ban imposed by swimming’s world governing body FINA but is fighting to repeal a KOC regulation that imposed an additional three-year suspension, effectively ruling him out of the Rio Olympics.

    The KOC said last week it had turned down Park’s appeal to overturn the suspension, leaving the swimmer’s hopes of competing at Rio in the hands of the CAS.

    Sean Lim, an attorney with the Lee & Ko law firm representing Park, said at a news conference in Seoul that the swimmer would lodge an injunction against the KOC and Korea Swimming Federation later on Thursday.

    “Park is filing for injunction in Eastern Seoul district court today right after the briefing,” Lim said. “This is to prepare for the situation where the KOC refuses to comply with the CAS decision.”

    Read Reuters

  • Thomas Mlambo, host of sport @ 10 interviews Michelle Weber – Long distance swimmer, the only female athlete swimmer to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

  • The Kansas City Swim Academy will be well-represented over the weekend in Omaha at the United States Olympic swimming trials.

  • Rio 2016 will be the 5th Olympic Games for Spyridon Gianniotis. The 10km distance is his most successful discipline and the Greeks hope for a medal for their athlete of the year 2012.

  • Six weeks before the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the laboratory that was set to handle drug testing at the Games has been suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency in a new escalation of world sport’s doping crisis.

    WADA — the global regulator of doping in sports that oversees some three dozen testing labs around the world — confirmed the suspension Friday, citing a “nonconformity” with international standards.

    The Rio de Janeiro lab had a disciplinary record. It was suspended in 2013 — a year before Brazil hosted soccer’s World Cup — and was reinstated by WADA only last year.

    To win back its certification, the lab spent roughly 200 million Brazilian real, or about $60 million, to retrofit three floors of facilities at a federal university in Rio and train more than 90 technicians. That included a substantial commitment of government money in the face of a pronounced recession.

    Dilma Rousseff, who was removed as Brazil’s president this year amid a sweeping graft scandal, signed a measure in March to ensure the lab’s policies were changed in accordance with global standards such that its certification to run Olympic testing was not revoked.

    On Friday, however, WADA suggested that effort had not been enough.

    Read The New York Times and BBC

  • An Olympian has not only hit gold in the swimming pool. He’s also sitting on a gold mine provided to him by the world’s biggest social network.

    Michael Phelps, who holds the all-time record for Olympic gold medals with 18, has picked up a side gig as a media personality. Phelps hosts periodic live video chats with fans via his Facebook page after signing a deal with Mark Zuckerberg’s company, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    Phelps gets paid $200,000 and is one of nearly 140 video creators who have signed deals to create live videos for the social network’s newest feature, Facebook Live.

    See 12 News

  • It’s been nearly two years since 22-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps finished a 45-day stint in rehab following his second DUI arrest.

    Now, with those dark days in his rearview mirror and his fifth and likely final Olympics right around the corner in Rio, the greatest swimmer of all time is opening up to ESPN The Magazine about his past struggles with alcohol and suicidal thoughts.

    Phelps cemented his place as an Olympic legend two years before checking into rehab in October 2014. He should have been on top of the world at the time, but instead he was drifting – drinking heavily and struggling to find his identity outside the pool.

    “I thought the world would just be better off without me,” he told ESPN The Magazine for its July 18 Body Issue. “I figured that was the best thing to do – just end my life.”

    Read People

    https://youtu.be/ZWo_IJedKEY

  • President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday handed the Italian flag to Italy’s flag-bearers for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics, respectively swimmer Federica Pellegrini and sprinter Martina Caironi, at a ceremony at the presidential place featuring the two teams.

    Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) President Giovanni Malagò told Mattarella “the athletes will do their utmost to honour the Azzurri colours” and said they “represent our country’s pride”.

    Pellegrini said “I hope to realise even bigger dreams in Rio”.

    Read Ansa

    https://youtu.be/YUC6gERj36A

  • Our John Chapman was given a backstage tour of the Olympic Swim Trials.