Swimmer's Daily

  • Former Miami Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad wasn’t exaggerating when he said he was stranded in the ocean for 16 hours after falling overboard last month.

    The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed Konrad’s account of what happened after investigating the incident that occurred Jan. 7.

    According to the review, which was obtained by the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Konrad was “thrown overboard when a wave hit the side of the vessel” around 12:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 7.

    Konrad tried to swim back to his boat, but the boat was on auto pilot and moving away from him at a rate of about 5 mph. At that point, Konrad decided that swimming west would be his best hope to reach land.

    After 16 hours and 12 minutes at sea, Konrad finally reached land at 4:42 a.m. on Jan. 8 after swimming nine miles. The former Dolphins fullback ended up on the shores of Riviera Beach in Palm Beach County, Fla.

    Read CBS Sports

  • A high-speed collision between my shoulder and somebody else’s knee during a tag-rugby match smashed my clavicle and resulted in my arm being put in a sling for three weeks. During the ensuing lay-off – when even the simplest activity, such as dressing, became an epic struggle – I reached an irrevocable conclusion: my days of competitive field sports were over.

    This led to an obvious question for someone the wrong side of 40: what activity could I take up to stay in shape? It would have to be injury-free while still presenting a physical challenge, not cost too much and, better still, be something indoors and out of the cold. But, most of all, it had to fit into my family and professional lives.

    Joining a gym was the obvious choice but, after a visit to the Markievicz Leisure Centre in Dublin 2, an even better solution presented itself. An instructor there mentioned that the annual membership subscription, a snip at a special rate of €229, also included access to the pool.

    Swimming? Now that ticked every box for me. It can be as demanding as you make it, works the entire body and, given my age, is something I could keep up for many years. Best of all, though, I’d hardly be risking a repeat of my broken clavicle experience and the pool was next door to the office so I could swim before work or during my lunch break.

    Read The Irish Times

  • Inside a small college in Conway, some of the best swimmers in Central Arkansas are racing for a trip to the state tournament. The stands are packed with parents, but most are cheering for one swimmer in particular: the swimmer in lane seven.

    He can hear it and feel it, but he can’t see it.

    “Worthy was born with a veil over his eyes,” said his mom, Bo Springer.

    Worthy Springer is blind.

    “He doesn’t see the ceiling or floor so he doesn’t have any boundaries,” Bo said. “He doesn’t accept the word I cannot. That is not in his vocabulary.”

    “Ever since my youth, I’ve never been concerned about what’s in front of me,” said Worthy.

    See KATV

  • A life-size statue commemorating fallen lifeguard Ben Carlson could soon be keeping watch over the Newport Beach coastline.

    City leaders, along with members of the Ben Carlson Memorial and Scholarship Foundation, are currently determining whether the Newport Pier or the Balboa Pier will be home to a 9-foot tall sculpture of the late lifeguard. The Newport Beach Arts Commission is expected to discuss and possibly take action on plans for the statue at its next meeting.

    Read LA Times

  • As Missy Franklin started to walk out of Berkeley’s Haas Pavilion, she flung her backpack over her shoulder and asked, “Anyone want to go to sociocultural anthropology?”

    There were no takers. Which is too bad. The sophomore swimmer won’t be able to offer that kind of invitation for much longer. The daily college grind portion of the 19-year-old Olympic champion’s life is about to end, at least for a little while. Franklin’s leaving Cal’s swim team to turn pro, eyes set on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

    “This will, I guess, really start my professional career,” Franklin said of her upcoming transition. “This way I’ll be able to start my job and start my career and really start saving the money that’s going to sustain me, and hopefully, my future family for a while.”

    Read San Francisco Chronicle

  • One way to test your mettle in winter is to take one of those quick penguin plunges in icy water. But some stoic swimmers actually carve pools out of frozen lakes and race each other.

    The sport of winter swimming is popular abroad, especially in Russia, Scandinavia and China. But last weekend, a newly formed organization to promote winter swimming in the United States held its first national competition on the Vermont-Quebec border.

    Wrapped in down coats, competitors from all over the world waited in a warm lakeside restaurant in Newport, Vt., for the races to start. More than two dozen people from around the country raced in a two lane pool cut into the icy lake.

    Hometown favorite Brynna Tucker arrived with a cheering section of family and friends.

    “Yeah, it’s acclimating to the cold because most people forget that cold actually feels good,” she says. “If you have a sore knee, if you have a sore elbow, you put an ice pack on it, and the first nine seconds of that, it’s horrible.”

    But around the 10th second of swimming in icy water, she says her body shuts down in an oddly relaxing way.

    Read and listen to NPR

    http://youtu.be/pErXIP7mmjo

  • John Lewis intended only to say hello to Amy Van Dyken and get his picture taken with the six-time Olympic swimming gold medalist when he saw her at the UCLA-USC women’s swim meet last week.

    A former competitive swimmer and the father of swimmers, Lewis had followed Van Dyken’s career from afar — especially her 1996 and 2000 Olympic triumphs — and rooted for her as a fellow Coloradan.

    But when he approached Van Dyken, who is paralyzed from the waist down since she severed her spinal cord in a near-fatal ATV accident last June, his poise crumbled. “It was so emotional,” he said. “I started crying and said, ‘I’m so sorry.’”

    Van Dyken, preparing for her role as a commentator on the Pac-12 Networks’ telecast of the meet, comforted him and told him not to be sorry. “I was crying like crazy and she was smiling at me,” Lewis said.

    Van Dyken has learned to handle such occasions gracefully.

    “I understand that people are sorry that the accident happened. I’m sorry that it happened, too, but it’s an accident. Accidents happen,” she said. “And the things I’ve gotten to do since I’ve been sitting have been pretty cool. I’ve met some really fun people. I’m back at work, I’m back doing what I love, so don’t feel sorry for me.”

    Read LA Times

  • How long can you hold your breath for? Some free divers, who swim without a snorkel or scuba gear, can hold their breath for more than 10 minutes. For some, it’s a recreation while for others it’s a competitive sport. Amanda Smith (who can only hold her breath for one minute) takes a look.

    Read ABC

    [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192695751″ params=”color=ba0000″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

  • Last year saw something of a revolution take place in the world of synchronized swimming. On November 29, 2014, a congress of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) in Doha voted to include mixed-gender events in its world championships.

    The decision met with mixed reaction, with three-time Olympic champion Natalya Ishchenko going so far as to say that she was “embarrassed to imagine what it will look like with men in.”

    However, male synchronized swimmer Alexander Maltsev is undaunted by this scepticism. The Russian will become the first man from his nation to compete in the synchronised swimming World Championships, to be held in Kazan from July 29-August 9, 2015.

    Read The Telegraph