Swimmer's Daily

  • A selection of really nice photos from the 2014 North Sea Swim Meet, courtesy of Bjørn Wigdel / North Sea Swim Meet. More can be found here on images.northseaswimmeet.com.

  • Scientists and Surfers travel to Mexico to test technology in hope of improving athlete performance. The goal of the Red Bull Surf Science project is not to revolutionize the way we approach surfing, or even try to elevate it to next level, instead the objective is to further the technology that is being developed, and test it in the harshest conditions possible. If we can get this technology to work and produce credible results, we’ll be able to take key learnings and hopefully improve athlete performance, not only in the water but with other sports as well.

  • How many caps can you fit on your head in 47.63 seconds? Video featuring Matt Abood, Dave McKeon, Jess Corones, Britt Elmslie.

  • Video courtesy of Swimming Australia on YouTube

  • “When I joined City of Derby, I had no idea just what to expect. I hadn’t really got a preference over which stroke I liked best.

    “I kind of got bullied into concentrating on my breaststroke by (coach) Mel Marshall!”

    Marshall, who won the Matrix Fitness Performance Coach of the Year award at the Derbyshire Sports Awards, held at the Roundhouse, is understandably proud of her protégé.

    She remembers the first time she saw Peaty in the pool.

    “Adam was in lane three, the slower lane, with all the 10-year-old girls,” joked Marshall.

    “I remember watching him swim freestyle and thinking ‘oh my goodness’.

    “But then, when he swam breaststroke, I knew he had something special. I can still remember watching him swim breaststroke for the first time.

    Read Derby Telegraph

    Image courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu

  • Swimming Australia should never have put coach Scott Volkers in charge of the national women’s team, a royal commission has been advised.

    The child sex abuse inquiry has also been advised by its chief counsel to find the swimming body did not follow its own mandatory screening policy by not asking Volkers about his suitability to work with children.

    Counsel assisting Gail Furness said that before employing Volkers as head coach, Swimming Australia knew he was the subject of sex abuse allegations from three former students in the 1980s.

    But the body did not know and did not take steps to find out the details of those allegations, Ms Furness said in her submission, which was released on Friday.

    “Swimming Australia should have carried out its own internal investigation into the allegations against Mr Volkers, applying the balance of probabilities as the standard of proof, prior to employing him as national women’s head coach,” Ms Furness said.

    “In the circumstances, Swimming Australia should not have employed Mr Volkers as national women’s head.”

    Read 9NEWS

    http://youtu.be/bi2qqNFJDIs

    See also 7NEWS

  • A Japanese swimmer accused of stealing a camera during the Asian Games in South Korea in September denied the allegations on Thursday, saying an unidentified male forcefully put it in his bag.

    Naoya Tomita, 25, was expelled from Japan’s swimming team on Sept. 27 following investigations over a missing camera at the Incheon games. He paid a fine of one million won ($923) to resolve the case after being indicted by South Korean authorities.

    Mr. Tomita said he admitted the theft to the South Korean police, but he described that as a false confession stemming from fears that the investigation would be prolonged and he wouldn’t be able to return to Japan.

    “I did not steal the camera,” the swimmer said at a news conference in Nagoya on Thursday. “I should have kept a strong will and told them that I didn’t do it, but I was weak,” he said. “I apologize for causing all the trouble.”

    Read The Wall Street Journal

  • Jaring Timmerman passed away in hospital early Wednesday morning.

    The Winnipeg man swam his way into the record books as the world’s oldest master swimmer.

    His son Don Timmerman said his father was admitted to hospital Monday after he started feeling ill.

    He said he wants his dad remembered as an inspiration.

    “I guess you know his determination and his inspiration to so many people,” said Timmerman. “One of the things that really stood out in our minds is the swimming heat on January twenty-fourth when he set two world records.”

    Timmerman admits the swimming started taking a toll on his father’s health last January.

    But, he said, his dad had no regrets about that, because of his love of swimming.

    Read CBC News

    Read his obiturary here on The Globe and Mail

    In his long, industrious life, Jaring Timmerman was a Royal Canadian Air Force veteran, a dedicated member of the Salvation Army and an insurance executive. He witnessed two world wars and the rise and fall of nazism and communism.

    But it was as a centenarian athlete that Mr. Timmerman gained fame. In the last three decades of his life, the Winnipeg resident won more than 160 swimming medals and set six world records.

    Mr. Timmerman died on Wednesday at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg. He was 105. “[His] heart stopped beating, and his marvellous life on this earth ended,” his family said in a death notice e-mailed to The Globe and Mail.

  • Gymnastics legend Larisa Latynina upbraided her fellow record-breaking Olympian Michael Phelps after a drink-driving charge which saw him slapped with a six-month suspension from swimming.

    The 79-year-old Russian, whose record of 18 Olympic medals stood for 48 years until Phelps broke it in 2012, called Phelps “weak” for his arrest and subsequent suspension earlier this month.

    “I really regret this fact,” Latynina told reporters at the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) awards show in Bangkok, where she won the prize for outstanding performance.

    “Besides that, I’m really disappointed that he, being an outstanding and talented athlete, allows himself to be so weak in front of such human factors,” she added, referring to the drink-driving charge.

    “He definitely could have avoided this.”

    Read iafrica

    Photo by Vironevaeh