Swimmer's Daily

  • Experts agree that it’s a great way of staying fit and healthy at any age, but when faced with higher prices people are likely to swim less often, while other forms of physical activity such as working out or walking are barely affected.

    According to a study by Brunel University London’s Health Economics Research Group (HERG), swimming is the individual activity that most people would drop if they faced higher prices.

    The study included interviews with 1,683 people, 83% of whom took part in physical activity in some form. It found that people facing 10% higher entry fees to swimming pools were 29% less active, once other variations such as their age and differences in income were taken into account.

    A similar 10% higher price of a gym workout would hardly dent enthusiasm, with participation dropping by just 3%. In the case of brisk walking, the expected drop would be even less at 2%.

    Prof Julia Fox-Rushby, Professor of Health Economics at Brunel’s HERG, said: “Among those surveyed there was a very clear understanding that physical activity is a means of getting healthy, losing weight and having fun.

    “But, we have shown for the first time in England, that engaging in physical activity costs you real money and people make a trade-off between whether to go to a leisure centre and how much it would cost them.”

    Read EurekAlert

    Image courtesy of stevepb

  • A Good Samaritan rescued an elderly man who accidentally drove his SUV into a swimming pool on Long Island.

    The incident happened around 3:45 p.m. in Commack.

    79-year-old Joseph DiDonato was driving a 2010 Acura SUV through the parking lot of Mayfair Foot Care on Harned Road when he apparently pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake.

    The Acura broke through a fence into the backyard of a home and landed in the deep end of an in-ground pool on Smiths Lane.

    The homeowner, John Bacchi, 32, was in the backyard at the time of the crash.

    Bacchi jumped into the pool, broke the driver’s side window, and pulled DiDonato out of the window to safety.

    See ABC7

  • Becky Adlington has a vision that every child in Britain should be able to swim 25 metres by the time they leave primary school.

    And on Saturday her SwimStars team arrived at Stockton’s Total Fitness health club to announce the opening of the scheme at the health club.

    Launching the scheme, she said: “Despite my retirement from competitive swimming, my commitment to swimming is as strong as it ever was. I’m delighted that, after a very successful first year, my Becky Adlington’s SwimStars programme is going from strength to strength and we are rolling out new swim schools across the UK.

    “There are over 3,000 kids on the programme. It’s so nice to see them having the best time – they think that they’re just having a lot of fun but they’re actually learning a valuable life skill.

    See The Northern Echo

  • See FinaTV, FINA is providing live coverage of the FINA 2014 Swimming World Cup finals in Tokyo on 28th and 29th October 2014.

    Post by FINA.

  • This is the moment a London lifeboat crew saved the life of a woman thought to have epilepsy from the River Thames. Report by Claire Lomas.

  • Zumba is so different to my usual form of exercising! Check me out…not my greatest performance haha.

  • With the seeds planted by American Lynne Cox, a team of hardened swimmers expanded upon her 1987 swim from Little Diomede to Big Diomede. Many of the world’s best ice swimmers from 16 countries realized years of planning in swimming from Russia to the U.S.A. It was the history’s most dangerous swim with large ocean swells, heavy fog, stiff winds, relentless whitecaps, currents, and water temperatures under 5ºC (41ºF). Escorted by a large ship, everything about the Bering Strait Swim was oversized. Doubts and fears were packed away and replaced by optimism and energy.

    See The Daily News of Open Water Swimming

  • Firefighters in Mesa, Arizona were in for a big surprise Saturday when they had to rescue a horse from a back yard pool. It’s unclear how the horse got in, but after using a tranquilizer to keep it calm crews used straps to pull the horse out.

  • A tranquil diving trip turned into a nightmare during a sea lion attack. The rare moment was captured on tape as freediver Chris Okamoto enjoyed the silence of the blue ocean on the Californian coast. He had been swimming near the Santa Barbara island on October 10 when an adult sea lion rushed towards him with it mouth open. Quick-thinking Chris brandished the butt of his speargun and the angry mammal retreated.

    http://youtu.be/e2uTdQo1gog