Swimmer's Daily

  • Returning swimming champion Grant Hackett will stick to his plan of earning a spot in next year’s Olympics through the 200m freestyle.

    The two-time Olympic 1500m champion made his first competitive appearance since the 2008 Beijing Games during a qualifying meet in Brisbane last weekend.

    The 34-year-old swam the 200m, 400m and 100m freestyle events, winning the 400m in a time which would have qualified him for the final at last year’s national championships.

    Despite that result, Hackett’s coach Denis Cotterell says the shorter 200m, and a potential relay spot, remains the best way for his charge to secure a spot on the plane to Rio.

    Hackett’s 200m time at last weekend’s Brisbane meet was a 1:50.68, well off the 1:45.46 Cameron McEvoy swam on his way to the title at last year’s nationals.

    Cotterell says there’s no plan to switch Hackett’s focus to a longer event.

    “He’s not going to find that time. It’s a really long bow to expect he could get back in a distance event in a short time frame. It isn’t easy,” Cotterell told AAP.

    “Plenty have tried and failed. Especially in shorter events, you can’t fake the preparation for that. That needs time to package it.”

    Read SBS

  • FINA learnt with immense sadness of the tragic loss of French swimmer Camille Muffat in a helicopter accident in Argentina. Muffat, 25, won three medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the women’s 400m free (gold), 200m free (silver) and 4x200m free (bronze).

  • Northview High School dive team coach Kurt Mirandette is expected to make a full recovery from a heart attack suffered shortly after helping anunresponsive young swimmer who was pulled from a pool during a state swim meet, school administrators say.

    Mirandette was to be released Monday, March 16 from Holland Hospital after undergoing a surgery to insert stents, Northview Athletic Director Jerry Klekotka said.

    The dive team coach was one of several people to help with the resuscitation of Nolan Gutenschwager, a student at Wyandotte Roosevelt High School, who was pulled from a Holland Aquatic Center pool on Friday, March 13.

    Gutenschwager remained in critical condition at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Monday, a spokesperson said, but Klekotka had spoken with the Wyandotte athletic director and was told the student was expected to recover.

    The News Herald in Southgate has reported Gutenschwager suffered a seizure during warmups and passed out while underwater.

    He was pulled out and a lifeguard and several others, including Mirandette, came to his aid, Klekotka said.

    Gutenschwager was breathing and responsive as he was transported from the aquatic center for further medical treatment.

    “In the end, I think Kurt helped save that man’s life,” Klekotka said.

    Read mlive and see fox4k

    https://youtu.be/ZIRj81o6UP8

  • A “mystery pooper” has pooed in Invercargill’s Splash Palace swimming pool five Friday evenings in a row.

    City council aquatic services manager Pete Thompson said the culprit’s acts had cost the pool “tens of thousands of dollars” in lost revenue.

    The pool was closed for cleaning for about six hours each time faecal matter was found in the water.

    “It generally happens after 5pm each Friday night,” Thompson said.

    See stuff.co.nz and news.com.au

  • Thrill-seeking centenarian Georgina Harwood certainly made the most of her 100th birthday by marking the milestone with a shark dive, two days after completing a skydive. South Africa on Monday 16 March.

    She said of the experience: “I’m so glad I did it, a special experience in my life time, I just can’t compare it to anything else. I really think it doesn’t compare to anything. As I say, I’ve climbed mountains, I’ve been in boats.”

  • Australian swimming is harking back to a golden moniker to regain public pride ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

    The Australian team once again will be named the Dolphins, after the name was dropped in 2009.

    Swimming has worked to rebuild its brand since the Stillnox scandal in the wake of a disappointing London Olympics campaign in 2012.

    Swimming Australia CEO Mark Anderson said the move was an important symbolic one but still a small step in the sport’s cultural change after the London backlash.

    Anderson said the Dolphins brand still held a positive value for the Australian public but said it was just one step in the continued change in the team.

    “A cultural change is an ongoing process,” he said. “We’re a long way from where we need to be in all aspects in and out of the pool, but we are benchmarking what is the best around the world in every area.

    Read The Sydney Morning Herald

  • Operators of learning-to-swim schools are catering to increased demand for private lessons in backyard pools as new Australian migrants struggle to learn water skills in adulthood.

    Petrina Liyanage of ‘Swim with a Smile’ says she teaches many new migrants who are scared or embarrassed of learning to swim in public pools.

    She now has so many adult clients she no longer teaches children.

    “I would say 100 per cent, every single one, come to me because they want private lessons,” she says.

    “They don’t want people watching them.”

    See SBS

  • It’s what appears to be a miracle caught on camera – the moment emergency services rescued an 18-month old girl who’d been hanging upside down in a submerged car in a river for 14 hours, unconscious but alive.

    Police officers in Utah working to right a four-wheel drive that had been submerged, upside-down after a crash discovered that one of the occupants – 18-month-old Lily Groesbeck – had somehow survived hours underwater in the freezing river.

    “Oh my God! There’s a baby,” one of the officers can be heard saying on the video of the rescue, which was captured on body-camera.

    A policeman holds her tiny body, wrapped in a pink shawl, aloft.

    Lily’s mother, 25-year-old Jennifer Lyn Groesebeck, was dead in the driver’s seat.

    The infant received CPR at the scene and was rushed to hospital, where doctors were able to stabilise her.

    What’s even more remarkable than the rescue itself is what officers told local media later on. They all heard the a voice saying “help me”, while they were working to right the vehicle.

    “Someone said ‘help me’ inside that car,” Officer Tyler Beddoes told local TV news.

    Another officer, Jared Warner, said he heard it was well.

    “To me, it was plain as day. I remember hearing a voice that didn’t sound like a child, just saying ‘help me.’”

    See 9News