Swimmer's Daily

  • South Korean wind surfer Wonwoo Cho got his first ride in an ambulance the other day, taken to a Rio de Janeiro hospital with dehydration, vomiting, a headache and dizziness.

    Cho is one of four athletes to have “officially” fallen ill so far at the week’s Olympic sailing test event in Rio de Janeiro’s polluted Guanabara Bay. Officials acknowledge the reporting is incomplete with many teams and some of the 300 athletes skittish about disclosing illnesses.

    The 20-year-old Cho on Wednesday was back to “50-60 percent” strength and out training, 24 hours after his hospital stay. He said he doesn’t know “the exact reason why I got so sick.”

    His coach has fewer doubts.

    “Probably it’s from the water,” Danny Ok, Cho’s coach and an exercise physiologist, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “It’s kind of a sad story.”

    Ok described the water as “smelly” and added: “Especially in the bay, it’s terrible. I can’t imagine how they can have racing in this area.”

    Read for instance The Southern

    https://youtu.be/nOt8UdyskIY

  • At four years old, Eva Dunham is like a little fish in the water. Swimming laps, doing somersaults and not wanting pool time to end.

    “I’m very proud of her, she’s worked hard,” said her mom

    Jessica Dunham knows her little girl got a second chance after a near tragedy at the family pool two years ago. One second she could see Eva on the back porch. And the next?

    “I found her face down floating in our family pool. By the time I got to her she was completely lifeless, blue,” Jessica said.

    See wnyt.com

  • To use them, you start by looking towards your destination (probably a buoy or landmark), then pressing a button on the goggles to save that heading. Once you start swimming, the onboard electronics will detect any deviations from your course toward that point – this includes drifting due to currents or wind.

    See gizmag and www.oncoursegoggles.com

  • Online retailer Allearplugs.com are continuing to raise awareness for hearing loss with their Save Your Hearing Campaign. Hearing loss affects people all over the world. 1 in 6 people in the UK and 15 per cent of all American adults suffer some form of hearing impairment. This month, Save Your Hearing is focussing on swimmer’s ear – a painful and irritating condition that affects thousands of people around the world.

    (more…)

  • Long feared and almost universally reviled, rats have been linked with a multitude of awe-inspiring feats, including wiping out millions of humans through three global pandemics. (Although a recent study exonerated rats for spreading the bubonic plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century. Gerbils are now taking the fall for that one.)

    Now there is video footage demonstrating how rats swim up sewer pipes and into toilets.

    See The Sydney Morning Herald and National Geographic

  • Denise Diering didn’t expect to see a big black bear standing at the edge of her swimming pool when she looked out the back door of her North Vancouver home late on Monday afternoon.

    She told CBC News she shouted to her husband, Tony Diering, who was nearby, to “Close the door!”

    When she looked back, the bear slid into the pool, then climbed into the adjoining hot tub for a quick soak.

    See CBC and CTV

  • CNN host Chris Cuomo helped save a man from drowning and opened up about the incident on Tuesday while hosting “New Day.”

  • Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones shares stories about his work with the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash Initiative.

  • Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt discuss 2015 and things to come in an interview for USA Swimming’s Race for Gold.