Swimmer's Daily

  • 200 days are left to go to the 16th FINA World Championships 2015. To mark this occasion, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) offered a congratulatory message to all aquatic sports fans. As we previously reported, the symbol of the 16th FINA World Championships is currently aboard the ISS. It was launched into space on September 26, 2014.

    The symbol of the 16th FINA World Championships is a special barrel filled with water from the Kazanka River where the open water swimming and high diving tournaments will take place. Together with the Soyuz TMA-14M crew, the barrel travelled to the International Space Station aboard the space capsule. Currently, there are six astronauts on the ISS. All of them are part of the 41/42 long-term expedition crew led by Barry Wilmore. Three of them are Russians: Alexander Samokutyaev, Elena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov. Today they took time away from their research to congratulate all fans of aquatic sports on a special occasion – 200 days to go to the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan.

    “Our country has kicked off a series of major international sporting events – we’ve already hosted the best Summer Universiade and fantastic Olympic Games. There are just several months left before the FINA World Championships, which is yet another mega sporting event.

    We are pleased to also make our own contribution to the preparation of the upcoming event and to remind once again that the symbol of the 16th FINA World Championships is here with us in space.

    Russia is famous for its brilliant athletic accomplishments and now we are listed among the best organisers of major sporting events. Busy and important days of preparation lie ahead and we wish the Championships organisers to complete their task without strain and strictly according to plan. As for athletes who are currently gearing for the Championships at all corners of the globe, we would like to wish them to reach their peak form so that these competitions will be not only the most well-organised but also most dramatic and action-packed!” the message says.

    See Kazan 2015, where you can see the video greeting also (in Russian)

    iss-greeting-kazan-2015

  • “Take off your clothes,” a foreign voice said over the loudspeaker – slowly, rhythmically, emphasising each syllable. “Get into the water.”

    It was not the kind of voice you disobey. So although I was on the Arctic circle, surrounded by ice and snow on all sides, I got in. Technically, the 25-metre pool was in a river, although even at a time of year when temperatures rise and daylight increases, the ice it was cut into was thick enough to drive snowmobiles across. This was the moment I had been training for the past six months: the 50-metre men’s freestyle event at the World Winter Swimming Championships (WWSC) in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland.

    Read The Guardian

    http://youtu.be/LOjqVdMKBfk

  • Who needs coffee as a pick me up when you can jump into freezing cold water?

    That was the case at the annual Polar Plunge in Peoria at Sunrise Pool Saturday morning.

    It’s more than just about swimming in a pool that hasn’t been heated since November.

    Everyone at the event donated money to go toward free swimming lessons for city youth.

    That’s important for a state where drowning is the number one cause of death for kids under the age of four.

    See abc15

  • Developed by Belgian engineering graduate Alec Momont, it can fly at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour).

    “Around 800,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest in the European Union every year and only 8.0 percent survive,” Momont, 23, said at the TU Delft University.

    “The main reason for this is the relatively long response time of emergency services of around 10 minutes, while brain death and fatalities occur with four to six minutes,” he said in a statement.

    “The ambulance drone can get a defibrillator to a patient within a 12 square kilometre (4.6 square miles) zone within a minute, reducing the chance of survival from 8 percent to 80 percent.”

    See for instance Yahoo! News, Slate, CNET and of course TUDelft

  • http://vimeo.com/115826587

  • Much in the same way Jaws made people scared to traverse the ocean’s waters and Psycho made people wary of staying in roadside motels run by insane murderers, Ghoulies caused me fear-imbued trips to the toilet as a child. After seeing this video, my nightmares have become a reality, and I have to — once again — resort to wearing diapers.

    See Uproxx

    Photo by Furryscaly

  • Gold medal swimmer Missy Franklin made a young woman’s holiday wish come true on Tuesday.

    Franklin visited a cancer patient at Rocky Mountain Hospital For Children.

    Rebecca Carcaterra was in the middle of her sophomore year of college when a tumor was found in her shoulder this October. She was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive bone cancer.

    Carcaterra has been a competitive swimmer since she was 6 years old and has always looked up to Franklin. So when Carcaterra’s father sent a letter asking Franklin to visit, she was happy to say yes.

    See CBS Denver

  • Hempfield Area High School’s swim team lost its captain Tuesday, a senior described as an accomplished and popular athlete and scholar.

    Judson Shiffler, 18, of West Hempfield died Tuesday morning in UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh from injuries suffered when his car crashed into a hillside Monday, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

    High school Principal Kathy Charlton called Shiffler a “solid, really great young man.”

    Read TribLive and see WTAE

  • A young man who died trying to jump from a light pole into a Gisborne swimming pool had spent the afternoon playing football and enjoying a few drinks with friends.

    The 20-year-old had been at his friend’s family home in Lytton West when he attempted the fatal jump from a tennis court light pole.

    “My wife and I were here until just before the incident actually happened,” the property owner, who did not want to be identified, said.

    “There were about 20 of them just having a few pre-drinks before going to Rhythm & Vines. They were my son’s friends.

    Read The New Zealand Herald