Swimmer's Daily

  • 1 in 5 adults in the UK can’t swim and, as it’s the only sport that can save your life, we are on a mission to change that! Fusion Lifestyle is offering 1:1 free adult assessments in all our centres and free swim school assessments for children of all ages who want to learn how to swim. Simply visit www.fusionswimschool.com to find out more!

  • South African endurance swimmer, Theodore Yach has completed his 100th Open Water Swim from Robben Island to the mainland.
    Yach completed Monday’s swim in just over three hours in difficult conditions. He previously successfully crossed the English Channel.

  • My experience windsurfing in the Faroe Islands is something that will stick with me forever. For starters, the place is utterly beautiful. Everywhere you look seems like it was taken right from post card. However, I must admit that I wasn’t prepared for the arctic conditions. It was brutal, to say the very least. The waves, the currents, the wind, the large cliffs, the rocks, the harsh weather… it was all so overwhelming. I really believed that if something went wrong, I would be gone forever. It was a relief to feel solid ground under my feet again.

    Read The Inertia and The Red Bulletin

    https://youtu.be/ePeJI_h-18Q

  • On a broken knee a gymnast competes. An obsessed wrestler keeps his rival’s picture in his locker, his home, his wallet. A runner races till he falls unconscious.

    These are not normal people. These are the Olympians. These are people like John Naber, old-time backstroke specialist from the 1970s, who – as rower Steve Redgrave revealed in his book, Inspired – works out that he needs to improve by four seconds in four years to win the 100m gold.

    Four seconds is huge in a world judged on fractions so he reduces his life to fractions. He breaks his life into months, days, hours and calculates he must improve by 1/1,200th of a second every successive training hour. In four years he wins four Olympic golds.

    How do you beat these kind of people? How does Joseph Schooling? Through work but also confidence. By standing on the blocks in five months in Rio and believing he can outswim the greatest swimmer the earth has found. Yes, him, Phelps.

    It’s scary, it’s crazy, it’s fantastic. It’s also why I like the way Schooling talks – with that little swagger of the young athlete trying to hide his nervousness and conceal his doubt and stake his place in a hard world.

    Read The Straits Times

    https://youtu.be/kcePUHG6rHk

  • Russia’s sports minister said on Tuesday he was prepared to resign over a raging doping scandal in his country which could cost more Russian athletes their places at the Rio Olympics after “tens” more cases of cheating were exposed in wrestling.

    Russian wrestlers may now join the country’s track-and-field athletes in being barred from competing at the Games in August, after an internal Russian Wrestling Federation (WFR) investigation uncovered multiple doping cases, WFR President Mikhail Mamiashvili said.

    The disclosure came a day after four Russian athletes were exposed as having tested positive for the banned drug meldonium, further damaging Moscow’s efforts to overturn a doping suspension in time for the Olympics starting in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday his sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, would remain in his position despite the scandal. Mutko later said, however, that he was prepared to end his eight years in the job if asked to do so.

    “The country has a leadership who take these decisions. When I see that the matter concerns me, I will leave my post,” R-Sport news agency quoted him as saying.

    Russian sport was thrown into turmoil last year when a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) exposed endemic cheating and corruption in Russian athletics.

    Russian athletes have been suspended from international competition and will miss the Olympics if the country cannot get the ban overturned — a humiliating blow to the pride and prestige of a sporting superpower.

    Since then, at least 18 Russian sportsmen and women have tested positive for meldonium, complicating Russia’s drive to prove itself compliant with international anti-doping standards.

    Mamiashvili said two male wrestlers, 2014 world championship silver medalist Evgeny Saleev and 2015 World Cup silver medalist Sergei Semenov, had been caught using meldonium.

    But he said the sport’s doping problem was widespread.

    “There are tens of positive tests in the team, everyone is in a bad condition psychologically,” Mamiashvili told R-Sport.

    Read Reuters

    https://youtu.be/G2a83G1VG5g

  • Synchronized swimming is more than just floating and dancing in water. Pac-12 Network’s Ashley Adamson learned the hard way after joining the Stanford synchronized swimming team for practice.

  • Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova said in a self-recorded statement from Los Angeles, Monday, that she still hopes to compete in the Rio summer Olympic Games despite failing a doping test for meldonium.

    SOT, Yulia Efimova, Russian Olympic swimmer (Russian): “Dear friends! I think that you have already heard that I tested positive for doping. This is really true. The probe which took place in February, in Los Angeles showed up meldonium. I regret that you didn’t learn this from me personally. Someone rushed to pass this confidential information to journalists. I regret that it brought negative emotions to my relatives, friends, people and companies who helped me but above all, you, my sports fans. I am a professional sportswoman and I clearly understand that I have full responsibility for everything that is inside my organism. At the moment we are preparing for the hearing of my case. We aim to demand the full withdrawal of the charges and to prove that I didn’t break the anti-doping rules. And one more thing: I am continuing to train in the hope that I will perform during the Olympic Games in Rio.”

  • Mom’s a Genius: Unique swim school for kids.

  • Swimmers of all ages and abilities come from all over the world to the Race Club swim camps to improve their swimming technique. Join us! http://theraceclub.com/swim-camps/