Swimmer's Daily

  • At the Scottish National Open Swimming Champs at the start of July we caught up with our Olympians and chatted about their final preparations ahead of Rio, their hopes and aspirations. We also threw in a few random questions! Here’s Hannah Miley from Garioch.

  • Video game ‘Abzû’ wants to take you on an emotional journey into an underwater world. It’s the first game to come from Santa Monica’s Giant Squid Studios, which is being led by Matt Nava. Nava was previously the art director on the games “Flower” and “Journey” for thatgamecompany, creating games that broke from traditional game formats and creating gameplay that’s more about a specific experience.

    Read 89.3KPCC

  • On one side of the cramped outdoor pool, children are taking swimming lessons. Opposite, another group of kids riotously splash around. In the middle, a teenager is desperately trying to train for the Rio Olympics.

    Conditions are hardly ideal for Siri Budcharern Arun, one of just 5 athletes from the poor, communist state of Laos traveling to Brazil.

    She will arrive as a rank outsider in the 50 meter freestyle, hailing from a Southeast Asian country which has few sporting heroes, and none known beyond its landlocked borders.

    It does not help that she is training in a 25m public pool – half the size of an Olympic pool – whose deck is strewn with empty beer bottles from parties the night before.

    “I am very proud,” the 14-year-old told AFP, goggles in hand and catching her breath after a training session at the pool in the capital Vientiane.

    “We may not be a big country but I want the world to know that we do have swimmers,” she added.

    Read Rappler

  • While Suicide Squad is filled with CG, many moments are not, including Margot Robbie’s underwater fight. The Harley Quinn actress told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show she learned to hold her breath for five minutes, even though the scene required she do so only for one.

    “I worked with this amazing free-diver, and he came in and I did four sessions with him. His name’s Kirk,” she said, adding that she called him Captain Kirk. “It’s all about lowering your metabolic rate…You kinda, like, meditate underwater. It’s what free-divers do, but it’s amazing.”

    Admitting to her competitive nature, Robbie described how she would try and hold her breath longer than her stunt double. “I got to five minutes and I was like, ‘You know what? This is above and beyond what I thought I’d get to. I’m good, I’m good with five.’” She says she tried pushing it even further when her double got to five-and-a-half minutes, but she was advised against it.

    Read Entertainment Weekly

  • Meet Allison Schmitt, a member of your USA Swimming 2016 Olympic Team representing the stars and stripes in Rio. Allison will be competing in the 4x100m and 4x200m women’s freestyle relays.

  • Meet Olivia Smoliga, a member of your USA Swimming 2016 Olympic Team representing the stars and stripes in Rio. Olivia will be competing in the 100m women’s freestyle.

  • The 2016 Summer Olympics will be without its highest-profile royal couple.

    Monaco’s Princess Charlene has decided not to attend the Games in Brazil, and her husband Prince Albert will considerably shorten his own visit over health concerns.

    A former Olympic swimmer, Charlene has decided to remain home with the couple’s 19-month-old twins, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella.

    “First, she has decided not to go because she couldn’t stand to be away from the babies for two weeks and they’re really not old enough to support the trip,” Albert tells PEOPLE.

    Charlene is also worried about the Zika virus.

    “She has important health concerns,” he says. “She doesn’t like what she’s been reading, hearing, about the Zika virus and some other health issues.”

    Read People

    Photo by Nebunel1

  • Meet Conor Dywer, a member of your USA Swimming 2016 Olympic Team representing the stars and stripes in Rio. Conor will be competing in the 200m men’s freestyle, 400m men’s freestyle and 4x200m men’s freestyle relay.