Swimmer's Daily

  • A popular Potomac recreational club is drowning in disbelief, after falling victim to a $70,000 embezzlement scheme.

    On Oct. 24, Montgomery County Police pinned nine felony theft charges against Amelia Hillman, 49, of Potomac. Hillman, police say, used her position as treasurer of the Tallyho Swim & Tennis Club to launder tens of thousands of dollars over a number of years.

    “It’s very shocking to hear something like that. You definitely don’t expect it in your swim club, and you don’t expect it in this neighborhood,” Hillman’s neighbor and former Tallyho member Andy McClymont said.

    See ABC7

  • Saturday 8th November 2014, Svein Aasjord and Trond Ivarsøy were out in their small boat on Kaldfjorden (‘the cold fjord’) in Kvaløya (‘whale island’), Norway, when they saw several whales in the distance, feeding on the herring that the fjords are packed with at this time of year. They shut down the engine, as not to disturb the whales, and the whale in return came closer.

    A lot closer.

    See the video here on tv2.no

  • Magnussen finished the 2014 long course season with a crippling back complaint that often meant he struggled to get out of bed in the mornings and has since quit training with his coach Brant Best as he reshapes his program for a two-year push to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

    The 23-year-old dual world champion is yet to confirm his official new coach, believed to be former Port Macquarie squad teammate Mitch Falvey, but is back in the pool and busy preparing for his world title defence in Kazan next year.

    But Magnussen’s major goal is to win the gold medal in Rio, with the 46.91 second world record set by Brazil’s Cesar Cielo during the supersuit era also a mark he wants to dismantle.

    In an interview with the BBC, Magnussen revealed he’d been chasing a 46 second 100m freestyle swim since he was 16.

    “I can achieve it,” Magnussen said.

    “It’s a realistic goal of mine that before the end of my career I’d like to drop below that 47 second barrier.

    “I remember when I was about 16 I said to my coach ‘I’d love to do something nobody else has ever done.’

    “He said ‘well 47 seconds.’ I said ‘yeah do you think people can swim 46 seconds?’ He said ‘I don’t know but you could always give it a try.’

    Read Herald Sun and see BBC

  • Chad le Clos, fresh from winning the World Cup series again, will head into the world short course championships next month with his eye on three world records.

    He came tantalisingly close in the past few weeks in all three butterfly races, missing out by split seconds. Le Clos goes into the competition in Doha, from December 3-7, ranked No1 in the world in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly events.

    More impressive is that his best times over the three distances are considerably lower than the current world short course championship marks, which were all posted at the last gala, in Istanbul in 2012.

    “Chad could go big,” predicted Graham Hill, the coach of the South African team and Le Clos’s mentor. “He could get three golds and three world records.”

    Read BDLive

  • Olympic Gold Medalist Roland Schoeman has developed one of the fastest dolphin kicks in the world. The dolphin kick has become so important in the sport of swimming, now being used in all four strokes, that it is commonly referred to as the ‘fifth stroke’. In this video series on #thefifthstroke, Gary Hall Sr has Roland demonstrate several ways to improve the dolphin kick. In part I of this Race Club Swimisode series, find out what Coach Gary Hall has up his sleeve to get Roland to work both the up and down kick in Butterfly.

    See The Race Club

  • A group of fishermen off the California coast caught their close encounter with a hammerhead shark on video after they baited the predator close and then jumped in the water to swim with it.

    See Inquistr

  • Cobra scull – Basic Freestyle drill with 2014 Swedish 800 and 1500 free champion Laura Lajunen and swim coach Lee Williams. Courtesy of Ã…ngaloppet in collaboration with SK Neptun

    1. Great starting drill
    2. Introduce the feel for the water
    3. The pressure on the hands
    4. Opening up the arms from streamline

    Ã…ngaloppet looks pretty awesome

  • Age is catching up with Egre now. After years of marching in the infantry and scaling mountains in the ski patrol, the avid tennis player’s body is breaking down.

    “I have end-stage kidney disease plus a lot of other morbidities. I lost my right shoulder, pretty much my left shoulder. I lost my right foot, my right knee is gone. I have CAD, artery disease,” he said.

    All of those ailments are speeding up the clock. Doctors told him in order to stay alive he needs to stay active and one of the only activities a person with his limitations can do is swim.

    Luckily for him, swimming was his childhood hobby.

    “Swimming is my life. It keeps me going. Without swimming, I probably would not be alive today,” he said. “When they take away my swimming, I’m going to a wheelchair and that will be the end. I won’t be around much longer.”

    See wtsp.com

  • International Swimming Hall of Fame Gold Medallion recipient, Adolph Kiefer is recognized for his swimming and contributions to swimming as a business man and philanthropist.