33 women and 48 men took the departure in Viedma (ARG) with amongst them some big names in the world of open water: Germany’s Angela Maurer (2013 10km World bronze medallist) and Thomas Lurz (2012 10km Olympic silver medallist), Brazilian Alan do Carmo (2014 overall winner of the Series), Greek Spyridon Gianniotis (2013 10km World champion) and Italy’s Martina Grimaldi (2012 10km Olympic bronze medallist).
Courtesy of FINA on YouTube
A top Rocky swimmer won’t be able to compete at state this weekend after district leaders decided not to let him. Allegations of hazing essentially ended his season early.
Late this week, district administrators decided not to let him compete as they investigate claims that he and three other swimmers hazed a teammate over the past two months. All four swimmers were initially punished. They’re not allowed to say how, but a subsequent investigation sparked when parent Kristen Kessler addressed the school board this week.
“Swimmers physically held my son against his will and sucked a hickey on his neck and touched him inappropriately,†said Kessler at the school board meeting.
This triggered the administration to punish Josh Fleming for the second time. Fleming admits he’d been involved in incidents in the past. Back in November he claims horseplay, not hazing, brought about a first punishment.
“I think the punishment is very extreme,†said Fleming.
See WQAD8
In winter or on a rainy day, an indoor pool can be just the way to get moving and to get your heart pumping. However, common chemicals in pool water that can get more concentrated indoors may make it harder on your lungs.
“The main concern with indoor pools is the chlorine, which is used as a disinfecting agent,†according to pulmonologist Rachel Taliercio, DO. While it’s important to keep harmful bacteria under control, it can be potentially irritating, she says.
Swimming in indoor pools can expose you to higher levels of chlorine in the air and increase your risk for lung-related problems, but the benefits of exercise often will outweigh the risks. It’s important to consider the overall health of your lungs and the amount of exposure. Also, watch for signs of discomfort; if you cough, wheeze or feel your throat burn, take a break.
Overall, competitive swimmers are at greater risk than recreational swimmers, she says. After all, they spend a lot more time in pools than the average person.
The dual Olympic 1500m champion may be on the comeback trail, but he reserves the right to step off at any time if he doesn’t want to continue.
Having watched the hype that surrounded his great friend and rival Ian Thorpe’s failed comeback for the 2012 Olympics, Hackett is cautious about his own prospects and does not want them overblown.
He is 34 and has been out of the pool for six years. His last race was the 1500m final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He knows he’s not the swimmer he was. But the competitor’s heart still beats within.
“This is the last time that my body will be young enough to do this,” he said between training sessions at the Gold Coast yesterday.
However, he will not commit to a full campaign to qualify for a fourth Games in Rio next year until he is certain he still has the speed and stamina to match the younger generation.
“I am not getting ahead of myself in any way. If I can’t get to a level that I find satisfactory I will shut up shop.”
And those hoping to see him back swimming the 1500m are destined for disappointment.
“I have no desire to swim the 1500m again.” […]
Hackett revealed that it was a conversation with the American superÂstar Michael Phelps (who came back last year) at the Pan ÂPacific championships on the Gold Coast last August that made him reconsider. “Michael said ‘You should swim again’ and it was the first time that I felt like I wanted to get back in the water,” Hackett said.
Read The Australian
http://youtu.be/Ohfi79LD_WE
One reason for my love of underwater swimming was my failure on the surface. My college roommate, Cromwell Anderson, was captain of the swim team, but I was simply a flop at the crawl or backstroke. I could, however, swim farther underwater than he could. I was able to make it twice the length of our Olympic pool, 100 meters in all, before surfacing. I thought this was great until another friend did three laps.
It turns out, I now learn, that we were doing something very foolish. And I exacerbated that foolhardiness by often swimming those laps alone in the pool. There is an effect associated with this kind of underwater swimming so important that it has been assigned a name, shallow water blackout. People die from it. Last summer, Annapolis Midshipman Kyle Hurdle passed out while doing so and lifeguards were unable to revive him.
Read The Buffalo News
Yesterday at the CRASH-B Sprint World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston, USA, Faroe Island’s Dánjal Martin Hofgaard won the men’s open lightweight discipline.
The Men’s Open Lwt was won by Danjal Martin Hofgaard in 6:16.7 – first ever Open gold medal for the Faroe Islands. #crashb
— Concept2 (@concept2) March 1, 2015
Get this, Dánjal Martin born 1989 is a childhood friend of Pál Joensen born 1990, from the same tiny street of Skálabeiti in Vágur (population 1361) in Faroe Islands (population 49,709). They grew up training under first coach Johan Martin Thorsteinsson in the local swim club Vágs Svimjifelag (VS), and then under coach Jón Bjarnason in the merged swim club Suðuroyar Svimjifelag (SuSvim).
A photo posted by Pál Joensen (@paljoensen) on
One is currently the European vice-champion in the 800 and 1500 meter freestyle. The other is the World Champion in indoor rowing.
We don’t care about odds. Framá Føroyar !
Every elite athlete is looking for an edge, and Emily Seebohm has found hers while hanging upside down from a pole.
After beginning her year with unprecedented speed, the world’s No 1-ranked 100m backstroker has revealed that twice-weekly pole dancing classes have contributed to her outstanding form.
“I’ve done that for about a year now and I find that it gives me something outside of the normal gym that really works my core muscles and my strength, which is exactly what I need,” Seebohm explained. “Leading into the Olympics, you need to find those little bits that aren’t fine-tuned, and for me, this is one of the few things that I can work on other than my swimming skills, so it’s been really good.”
“It’s fun and it’s easy to do when you’re strong. The first couple of sessions I was so unco-ordinated because I was used to doing other things but I’ve nailed some of the tricks now.”
Read The Australian
Managed a new trick the other day! #corestrength #poletricks #CrossTraining pic.twitter.com/VdFvLIVxDH
— Emily Seebohm (@emcbomb) February 6, 2015
Generic, non-Olympic advertising by athletes during the Olympics will be allowed if an International Olympic Committee executive board proposal is approved in July.
The board proposed changes to Rule 40 and Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, the IOC said Thursday.
“It has to do with advertising around the games, on a social media site, or newspaper, or whatever,†IOC spokesman Mark Adams said, according to The Associated Press. “So if someone has a contract with a watch manufacturer, that may continue as long as the advert doesn’t relate to the games.
“Athletes have wanted this changed for a very long time. It’s been a very long discussion.â€
The Olympic Charter currently restricts that for about a month period around the Games.
Read NBC OlympicTalk
Lewis Pugh, who is the United Nation’s Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Patron of the Oceans, is undertaking a series of swims in the Antarctic Ocean to influence world leaders to make the Ross Sea – which is under serious threat from commercial fishing and global warming – a Marine Protected Area.
And Pugh has spoken of the intense pain he suffered swimming in -1.7C waters, with a 50-minute hot shower required afterwards to get his core body temperature back to a healthy level.
‘It was an exceptionally tough swim, especially as I had to navigate around sharp ice and couldn’t just keep my head down and swim,’ he said.
‘My fingers were in absolute agony from around the 300m mark, I’ve never felt pain like it before.
Read Metro