Swimmer's Daily

  • In 2007 Michael Ventre attempted to swim the English Channel. After 13 hours of swimming he was making no headway against the tide and was pulled out of the water in sight of the French coast. He wasn’t disheartened: after all, 13 hours of swimming is still a huge achievement. And that experience taught him something: he had endurance. In the words of Dory in Finding Nemo, he could “just keep swimming.” In 2011, on his third attempt, he successfully crossed the Channel.

    With the Channel under his belt Michael went on to swim two more Oceans Seven crossings: Molokai and Catalina. But that wasn’t quite enough. He wanted an extreme challenge, a swim that had never been attempted before.

    “I began Googling the world’s longest swims,” says Michael. “That’s when I came up with the idea of swimming from New York to London as it hadn’t been done before.”

    Read H2Open

  • British greats Rebecca Adlington and Steve Parry help inspire Wearside kids to swim at the Sunderland Aquatic Centre.

  • World champion swimmer and Michigan native Allison Schmitt teams up with the United Dairy Industry of Michigan to promote chocolate milk and good nutrition for all ages.

  • We needed to pass the time during a delay at the RDU airport.

  • In this video, (slowed down to highlight the timing) you can see that the swimmer maintains connection between the components of their stroke and is able to keep their entry in line with their core. Increasing the pace of that core-driven rotation is how you should think about increasing your tempo.

    In this video, you can see an athlete whose arms are working independently from their body, forcing the tempo without a matching rotational pace from their core. Notice how the right hand is entering while the body is still rotated to the left. This is a common mistake and can lead to a number of ancillary stroke flaws.

  • Russia operated a huge state sponsored doping programme that sabotaged the London 2012 Olympics and should be banned from athletics, according to a damning report by the World Anti Doping Agency.

    The 325-page review by an independent commission chaired by Dick Pound, a former Wada president, uncovered a “deeply rooted culture of cheating” and recommended that Russia be suspended from competition and barred from the Olympic Games in Rio next year unless it entirely overhauls its approach.

    Read The Guardian

  • She’s a world record holder, Commonwealth Games record holder and a gold medallist. Watch our quick-fire video interview with Team Speedo GB swimmer, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, where we cover sport, Spongebob Squarepants and rubbish TV.

  • Just over a year since he came out as gay to the world – telling TV interviewer Michael Parkinson, “I’m not straight” – Thorpe, 33, has finally made peace with himself.

    And, despite a serious ongoing shoulder injury, the five-time Olympic gold medallist is stronger than ever.

    “I’ve had a really great year,” he says later, as we settle ourselves at a table in the kiosk above the pool.

    “There have been times when I thought, ‘This is not what I expected’, but throughout all of it, I’ve been really happy living my life with authenticity and honesty.

    “It’s not like everything’s been great because I came out,” he adds.

    “There have been ups and downs, but progressively I feel like I’m a lot more comfortable in myself, and I’m looking forward to the future, which is really nice.”

    That future, he says, will be here in Australia.

    Early this year, he settled in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and, after 10 years hopping between here, Los Angeles and Switzerland, has no plans to leave.

    He’s also actively looking for someone to share that future with.

    This is where things get tricky.

    Read The Daily Telegraph

  • Annual Open Water Swim Event on the Côte des Arcadins, Haiti.

    Experience the Undiscovered Beauty in Haïti Cherie.

    The next Swim is Sunday, January 24, 2016.

    See www.swimforhaiti.org