Swimmer's Daily

  • A majority of German swimmers are considering skipping the upcoming European Short-Course Swimming Championships in Israel due to security fears, it emerged at their national championships over the weekend.

    “Honestly, for me, the risk just seems too great,” said Alexandra Wenk, a world bronze medalist who competes in the women’s 100-meter butterfly.

    Wenk is among 13 of the 25 swimmers who do not want to go to Netanya for security reasons, according to the spokesman of the German Swimming Federation.

    Even head coach Henning Lambertz said he was “not hot to go out there” and that he would make a final decision closer to the event.

    In contrast, stars like Paul Biedermann and Marco Koch expressed no fear.

    “The security in Israel will be good. It’s no more dangerous than anywhere else,” said Koch, the world men’s 200-meter breaststroke champion, who secured his place in the competition by setting a new German record for the 400×4 relay medley.

    For Biedermann, the decision to go to Israel has nothing to do with security, but “essentially depends on my ability to swim fast” during the qualifiers. Last season, the double 2009 world champion missed out on a medal at the World Short-Course Championships in Doha, Qatar, but clinched the bronze medal at the World Long-Course Championships in Kazan, Russia.

    The German Swimming Federation said it will leave the choice to all swimmers and coaches.

    Read The Times of Israel

  • Paralyzed after an four-wheeler accident, former Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken speaks about the progress she has made through physical therapy.

  • 80 year old lung cancer survivor and swimmer Ann Long talks about her fundraising efforts for our Swim a Mile in a Month Challenge.

  • Watch our video Q&A to get to know Team Speedo athlete, Olympic medallist and American backstroke star, Tyler Clary, as we chat to him about guilty pleasures, holiday hot spots and his love of motor sports.

  • See press release from FINA

    FINA is very pleased to announce the adoption by UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – of the revised version of the “International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport”. Originally adopted in 1978, the document’s main objective was to declare that “the practice of physical education and sport is a fundamental right for all”. On its point 2.2., the Charter also clearly specifies that “the ability to swim is a vital skill for every person”. The recent approval of this document occurred during UNESCO 38th General Conference, organised in Paris (FRA) from November 3-18, 2015.

    After receiving support and feedback from governmental authorities, sport organisations, academic researchers and experts from the civil society, the revised Charter considers “sport as catalyst for peace and development” and highlights the importance of strategies aimed at “preserving the integrity of sport and favouring grassroots activities”. Throughout its 12 articles, this document also recognises physical education as a “driver for promoting gender equality, social inclusion, non-discrimination and sustained dialogue in our societies”.

    The FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione expressed his satisfaction with this decision: “I’ve been working for many years now on these matters – Sport for All – and the adoption of this revised Charter represents a great milestone in promotion of physical education in the five continents. FINA is also committed to this essential effort and has recently launched its ‘ Swimming for All, Swimming for Life’ programme, aimed at reducing the alarming rates of drowning worldwide by getting more and more children acquainted with the practice of Swimming”.

    Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General said: “The adoption of the revised Charter should mark a shift away from words towards action, from policy intent to implementation. It sets the tone for a new international sport policy debate, which should now focus on the exchange of good practice, education and training programmes, capacity development, and advocacy”.

    See also UNESCO

    Photo by brian.gratwicke

  • Just like any other elite athlete – Theresa shares some of the highs and lows of her career.

    Find out why she has kept swimming competitively 16 years, and how she remains positive and as focused as ever towards her goal.

  • It’s been a month since a cellphone with videos of students changing was found in the locker room of the women’s swimming and diving team at Towson University, and members of the team are upset that the university still hasn’t given them an explanation of the situation.

    https://youtu.be/ENjP8iRcwU4

  • Grant Hackett learnt something valuable about himself in rehab — and it changed everything.

    “I’m an intense perfectionist,” the three-time Olympic gold medalist tells WHO. “I can’t stand anything that’s not 100 per cent right. I would never allow myself to relax, always wanted intensity, always wanted to swim hard, go to the gym hard, run hard, do business hard. You have to offset it and I wasn’t offsetting it.”

    After he appeared half nude in the lobby of the Crown Melbourne hotel and casino on Feb. 22 last year while looking for his lost son Jagger, Hackett checked himself into a US rehabilitation facility to treat his addiction to the sleeping pill Stilnox.

    “It was the pressure of all that stuff over the years — emotional stress, missing the kids, financial stress,” says Hackett, who in 2011 went on an alcohol-fuelled rage inside his and wife Candice Alley’s Melbourne apartment (the pair later separated and divorced in 2013). “Sometimes you just have to hit rock bottom. It makes you realise where you want to go.”

    Read Who

  • Russia was among six countries declared “non-compliant” by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) today following a Foundation Board meeting in Colorado Springs, while six others were warned they face the same action next year if improvements are not made.

    Deeming the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) non-compliant was recommended last week by the WADA Indepedent Commission in its 323-page report which published allegations of systemic doping within Russian athletics, as well as the involvement of the FSB secret police in the testing programme.

    Today’s decision confirmed that recommendation.

    It followed WADA removing accreditation from the Russian anti-doping laboratory in Moscow.

    Russia’s sanction has been accompanied by similar verdicts against Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine, each declared non-compliant for using non-accredited laboratories for their urine and blood sample analysis.

    Andorra and Israel were also suspended with immediate effect after it was deemed that they did not have sufficient anti-doping rules in place.

    Read Inside the Games