Swimmer's Daily

  • The International Olympic Committee has reportedly identified 43 potential refugee athletes to compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. As many as 10 will be selected to compete on a team as “a message of hope” at this summer’s Games.

    According to IOC President Thomas Bach, the 10 athletes selected will compete on “Team Refugee Olympic Athletes”. The selection depends on the specific sports’ qualification criteria.

    “We have all been touched by the magnitude of this refugee crisis,” Bach told reporters. “By welcoming this team of refugee athletes to Rio, we want to send a message of hope for all refugees of the world.”

    Among the 43 potential athletes is a 17-year-old swimmer named Yusra Mardini, who fled Syria with her family. Along with a group of 20 other refugees, she used an inflatable boat to travel to Turkey. When the boat began deflating, she and her sister pushed it to shore by kicking in the water for three and a half hours. All passengers on the boat — none of whom were swimmers — arrived safely.

    Mardini, who now lives in Germany, is one of several athletes to have received funding from a $2 million IOC scholarship fund for refugees.

    Read Triathlon
    https://youtu.be/5b9d5vEN6v8

  • Despite an outbreak of the Zika virus, Michael Phelps says his fiancée and newborn son will accompany him to the Rio Olympics.

    Nicole Johnson is due to give birth to the couple’s first child in May. She is with Phelps this week at the Arena Pro Series meet in Orlando (NBC Sports Live Extra, Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. ET), one of the key tuneup events for the Olympics that begin Aug. 5.

    Zika has become an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean since last fall. The virus is mainly spread through mosquito bites and has been potentially linked to birth defects.

    “We’re not worried about it,” Phelps said. “I think if you go into any Olympics, there’s always something that comes up.”

    Of course, it would be a different story if Johnson was scheduled to deliver after the games.

    “If she was pregnant, she definitely wouldn’t go,” Phelps said. “But she’s fine about it. She’s not missing it. And I wouldn’t want the little guy to miss it either. He won’t be able to remember it. But he’ll have a story to tell.”

    Read NCB Sports

  • If humans were meant to swim, we’d have flippers, gills and, ideally, inflatable air bladders. This goes some but not all of the way to explaining how games heroes like Master Chief, Claude from GTA 3, Altair and John Marston react so poorly when they come into contact with water.

  • This is a small promotional video to undestand better the athlete’s perspectives about masters sport. It was made during the European Masters Games 2015 in Nice, France.

  • Anuar Patjane is a photographer who last year won National Geographic’s photo contest for a picture of a humpback whale and her calf. He relives his encounter swimming with the largest living mammals on earth.

  • To show just what’s possible when you use your iPhone to livestream from a GoPro camera using Periscope, GoPro Thursday livestreamed a dive featuring famed wingsuit flyers / base jumpers Jeb Corliss and Roberta Mancino and some great hammerhead sharks.

    Read CNET

    Photo by bocagrandelasvegas

  • The Guinness World Record for the longest underwater breath-hold has just been shattered – Aleix Segura from Spain held his breath for 24 minutes 3 seconds, after breathing Oxygen as part of his breath-up, on February 28th 2016 at the 17th Mediterranean Dive Show in Barcelona.

    Read Deeper Blue

    Video: Aleix Segura breath-holding 23 min 9 sec in February 2016

  • International Olympic Committee officials say about five to 10 refugee athletes are expected to compete in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

  • Ball State swimmer Bradley Ridge knew he was good. He just needed the opportunity to prove it.

    Thanks to his Jewish faith, Ridge recently competed in the Maccabi Games in Santiago, Chile where he not only won gold, but also gained a confidence level that has propelled him to even more success at Ball State.