Swimmer's Daily

  • A #SwimBiz presentation by John Martin, Sports Communications Manager, USA Swimming, courtesy of USA Swimming on YouTube

  • The secret is consistent management, according to a new study. […]

    You might be tempted to think the answer is as simple as “Michael Phelps.” But the U.S. has been dominant in the sport since long before Phelps’s first Olympics. And now the organization has produced a study that it believes explains why: management. […]

    You would assume all countries have the same rigid management map for their Olympic teams. But Kirwan says that’s not the case. In Ireland, he says, “people would often say that some of the athletes were succeeding despite the program, not because of it.” And it isn’t that young American amateur swimmers have more raw talent than young swimmers in other countries, either. Their talent is shaped more effectively: “The problem we had in Ireland was we couldn’t properly manage the talent,” says Kirwan. “The structured environment we have here just wasn’t in place.”

    Read Fortune

    Photo by bryangeek

  • Yesterday in his opening address at the SportAccord Convention in Sochi, Russia, president of the International Federations Union SportAccord Marius Vizer held no punches back against the International Olympic Committeee and IOC president Thomas Bach, stating that “The International Sport Movement Needs Real Reforms”, and in a following interview that “We don’t need Cardinals of Sport“.

    This was followed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) immediately withdrawing its SportAccord membership, and the International Paralympic Committeee (IPC) following suit the day after, and the council of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federation deciding unanimously to suspend relations with SportAccord, with immediate effect pending a full review. Read Reuters

    'What I say is true and nobody can stop that'http://goo.gl/1umgrNDo you agree with Mr. Vizer? Comment and let us know! Posted by SportAccord on Tuesday, April 21, 2015

  • The South Korean doctor who administered an injection that caused swim star Park Tae-Hwan to fail a drugs test has become the scapegoat in the affair, her lawyer argued in court Tuesday.

    The doctor, identified only by her surname Kim, is standing trial on charges of professional negligence, violating the medical code and causing bodily harm.

    She pleaded not guilty to all three charges Tuesday as the case opened.

    Read SuperSport

    Photo by KOREA.NET – Official page of the Republic of Korea

  • For a myopic teenager who can barely see his hand in front of his face, Australia’s Mack Horton has a laser-sharp focus on his bid to restore his nation’s dynasty in the 1,500 metres freestyle.

    Swimming’s most gruelling pool event holds a special fascination in Australia, which has produced an honour-roll of 1,500 champions since Andrew “Boy” Charlton at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

    “I’m definitely aware of all the greats, Murray Rose, Kieren Perkins, (Grant) Hackett,” 18-year-old Horton told Reuters in a telephone interview of the legacy of Australia winning eight of the 24 Olympic titles in the race since the 1908 London Games.

    “I’ve grown up through the Hackett era, so that’s probably what I know best.

    “They’re massive shoes to fill … I’m just doing what I can do and do the best that I can do whilst enjoying it.”

    Read euronews

  • A French Swimming Federation official denied the French swim team used cocaine, a claim made by Olympic champion Amaury Leveaux in an autobiography.

    Lucien Gastaldello, the federation’s honorary vice president, said he was often head of a French swimming delegation that celebrated titles with champagne, but not cocaine, according to French media citing a Republican Lorrain report.

    Leveaux, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian, detailed specifically an instance at the London 2012 Olympics where at least one French swimmer used cocaine at a party.

    Read NBC OlympicTalk

  • Tonight at 21:25 CET on Danish TV2 SportsLab, see their facebook page

    Glæd jer til SportsLab i aften kl. 21.25 på TV 2 SPORT. Her får du blandt andet svømmestjernen Jeanette Ottesen at se i en noget anderledes svømmedragt.

    Posted by SportsLab on Tuesday, April 21, 2015

  • The Danish Swimming Federation has selected the squad to compete for World Championship medals in Kazan in August.

    There will be 12 Danish swimmers participating in the World Swimming Championships when they get underway in the Russian city of Kazan from August 2

    It is a very strong and experienced squad who will be competing for medal and final positions in a wide range of events. Lars Green Bach, the Danish Swimming Federation‟s High Performance Manager, has expectations for a number of medals for the Danish squad.

    “It‟s a relatively large Danish World Championship team and a squad where many of the swimmers have a good solid experience from previous World Championships. Swimmers like Jeanette Ottesen, Rikke Møller Pedersen and Lotte Friis have all previously won individual medals on the World Championship stage, and Mads Glæsner, Mie Østergaard Nielsen, Pernille Blume and Viktor Bromer are swimmers with significant international experience. It‟s a strong foundation for our chances in the Volga city”, says High Performance Manager Lars Green Bach and continues:

    (more…)

  • On April 22, former swimmer Amaury Leveaux publishes an explosive autobiography titled “Sex, drugs and swimming”, depicting a vitriolic portrait of the French swim team between lines of cocaine and unbridled sex. ‘Some of us didn’t frown upon a line from time to time, while it for others was not a line, but a highway of white powder that was sniffed at light speed’.

    He describes how they used it both at parties and during competitions – where it is doping classified.

    Soon…il arrive #sexedroguenatation #fayard

    A photo posted by Amaury Leveaux (@aleveaux) on

    Read Europe1 – and please excuse me if my translation is bad: Never having learned French, I am trying to get by with Google Translate and this story in Swedish.

    The book can be found here on Fayard.fr