Swimmer's Daily

  • Jellyfish Lake is isolated from the ocean in Palau, an island nation in the South Pacific.

  • Anti-doping officials in Russia are being stopped from testing athletes and threatened by security services, says a World Anti-Doping Agency report.

    The report was published two days before athletics’ governing body rules on whether Russian competitors can take part in the Rio Olympics this summer.

    In November, Russia’s athletes were banned after a Wada report highlighted widespread failing in testing.

    The country’s athletics chiefs had pledged to make wholesale changes.

    What does the Wada report say?

    The latest Wada findings include:

    • 73 of 455 tests on athletes could not be collected
    • 736 tests were declined or cancelled
    • 23 missed tests, which the report described as a “significant amount”
    • 52 adverse findings

    The report includes examples of the lengths athletes from different sports allegedly went to both to avoid tests and fool doping control officers (DCOs).

    It says one athlete was seen running away from the mixed zone after an event, and another left the stadium during a race and could not be located.

    Wada also highlighted the case of an athlete who, it says, used a container inserted inside her “presumably containing clean urine”.

    When she tried to use the container it leaked onto the floor and not into the collection vessel. The athlete is alleged to have tried to bribe the DCO before providing a sample that subsequently returned an adverse finding.

    Read BBC

     

  • Police have warned of the dangers of open water swimming after a sixteen-year-old boy died after getting into difficulties under a 70-foot high waterfall.

    Curtis Atherton, from Hartlepool, got into difficulty in the pool below High Force in Teesdale, County Durham, at around 8pm yesterday.

    He was found in the water following a major search operation at 9.45pm but died at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough later.

    Read The Telegraph

    Photo by westy48

  • A juror who helped convict a former Stanford University student-athlete of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman complained to the judge about his “ridiculously lenient” six-month jail sentence, which the juror said made a mockery of the panel’s verdict, a newspaper reported Monday.

    The Palo Alto Weekly published a letter that the juror sent Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky over the weekend to convey his shock and disappointment over the sentence 20-year-old Brock Turner received

    “It seems to me that you really did not accept the jury’s findings,” he wrote to the judge. “We were unanimous in our finding of the defendant’s guilt and our verdicts were marginalized based on your own personal opinion.”

    Read Chicago Tribune

    https://youtu.be/unopfkwAQ00

    https://youtu.be/ixdRCPRJlOU

  • After searching through the night, rescue workers have not yet found a 2-year-old Nebraska boy who was dragged away by an alligator at a lake at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa on Tuesday night, officials said Wednesday morning.

    “This is still a search-and-rescue operation,” Jeff Williamson, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, said at a news conference. “We are hoping for the best. Sometimes you get the worst, but we’re certainly hoping for the best.”

    See New York Times

  • On Tuesday, a nine year old boy braved the waves of San Francisco Bay to complete the two mile swim to Alcatraz and back. Californian James Savage has been swimming since he was 5. He and his coach worked together to train for the big swim. James said that about 30 minutes into the two hour swim, the waves were hitting him so hard in the face that he wanted to give up. But the paddlers who were keeping pace with him encouraged him to keep going. James is now the youngest person to swim to the former prison island, after a ten year old boy made that record last year.

    https://youtu.be/tRCmLQ4QBJE

  • SportsLeaks.com and DopingLeaks.com are one and the same website. It is a secure global platform which enables you to drop off information and files to investigative sports journalists working around the world. We have all received leaked data in the past from whistleblowers. That spawned the idea of creating a secure platform in order to provide better protection for our sources and to collect more data.

    See SportsLeaks.com

  • The European Sports Federation members of the European Championships Board have confirmed their intentions to take part in the 2022 edition of the multi-sport event.

    The Board members of the European Sports Federations of athletics (European Athletics), swimming (LEN), cycling (UEC), gymnastics (UEG), rowing (FISA), triathlon (ETU) and golf (ET & LET) all committed in principle to participating in 2022 after preliminary discussions on the host venue selection process for future editions of the championships.

    In 2018, the existing senior European Championships of athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon will be brought together for the first time in Glasgow and Berlin, with a new Golf Team Championships also being introduced onto the European stage.

    European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen, co-chair of the European Championships Board, said: “There is already great interest from cities, regions and countries in the hosting of the 2022 European Championships, which shows the value of our innovative concept – for the sports and the bidding cities. It is obvious why all the participating sports want to carry on in 2022 as the European Championships is a sustainable event that brings together our existing championships without adding to a crowded calendar, and this is very attractive and affordable to a wide range of host cities.”

    Fellow co-chair Paolo Barelli, President of the Ligue Européenne de Natation (European Aquatics), said: “The inaugural edition in 2018 will deliver to the participating sports huge benefits in terms of aggregation, through a higher profile and reach through our media agreements with the European Broadcasting Union. This will ensure our long-term financial security as we are confident the championships will go from strength-to-strength through 2022 and beyond.”

    Aileen Campbell, Scottish Government Minister for Public Health and Sport, said: “This is a huge vote of confidence by the sports in this exciting new concept which we warmly welcome as we work to project Scotland as the perfect stage at the inaugural event in 2018.”

    Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “As Host City to six of the sports taking place in 2018 we are sure many other European cities will be interested in staging the 2022 European Championships due to its sustainable model, broadcast reach and potential to deliver meaningful economic, sporting and social legacy.”

    The seven participating sports in the European Championships met in the German capital Monday for their regular Board meeting.

    The Board also received updates from 2018 hosts Berlin and Glasgow and Working Groups related to the overall timetable, brand, and ceremonies, celebrations and shared experiences. The next Board meeting will be in Rome on 27 October 2016.

    Around 1,500 athletes will compete in Berlin through 7-12 August 2018 as part of the European Athletics Championships, while approximately 3,025 athletes will compete in Glasgow in the other six events between 1-12 August.

    Read LEN

  • The backstroke spin drill is one of the most effective ways of teaching swimmers to accelerate the straight arms quickly through the recovery phase of the stroke cycle. One of the greatest challenges we see with our swimmers at The Race Club is getting them to turn their arms over fast enough in backstroke. In this Race Club Swimisode, World champion backstroker Junya Koga demonstrates how fast one can move the arms with the backstroke spin drill, preparing for a strong backstroke race. While a fast stroke rate in backstroke is not the only important technique to swim faster, it is critical, since most backstrokers turn their arms over way too slowly.

    Many backstrokers are taught to deliberately slow their arms down before the hand enters the water, yet that is not what you should do. The faster the arm accelerates through the recovery, the more energy is coupled with the arm pulling underwater and the faster you will go. Don’t worry about being delicate or getting air bubbles trapped behind your hand. It is far more important to throw the arm backward aggressively and forcefully,with the little finger entering the water first, increasing the power and the speed of the stroke.

    At the Race Club we are proud of the many backstrokers we have helped by using the backstroke spin drill. Try the spin drill with hands open or closed to increase your backstroke speed.