Swimmer's Daily

  • Chinese doping officials say they were not trying to cover up Sun Yang’s positive test and that they held back news of his three-month suspension because they did not want to make any mistakes with “the most famous athlete in China”.

    Sun, China’s most successful male swimmer, secretly served his ban during May and August after testing positive for the banned stimulant trimetazidine.

    It was only on Monday that the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) revealed the 22-year-old world and Olympic champion had committed a doping offence.

    “Sun is the most famous athlete in China and is known in the world, which means we need to handle his case very cautiously,” CHINADA deputy director Zhao Jian told the country’s official Xinhua news agency.

    “This is huge bad news but we will not cover it up.

    “We announce positive cases and test statistics in our quarterly reports just as WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) requires.”

    Read Reuters

  • This year’s FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Doha is not only a highlight event in the global sporting calendar but is lining up to be the must-attend event in Qatar this year. Over five days, the world’s fastest swimmers will compete at Hamad Aquatic Centre for the ultimate prize – title of World Champion.
    In an interview ahead of the Championships, Serbian swimmer Velimir Stjepanovic said that he has already moved over his two gold medals at the European Championships (LC) in Berlin earlier this year, and what inspires him, among other things.

    Read Gulf Times

    Image courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu

  • World-famous Hungarian female swimmer Katinka Hosszú has announced on her Facebook page that her motivational book “The Hungarian Iron Lady”, the Hungarian edition of which hit the stores on 22 November, will appear in English next April. […]

    In an interview given to Metropol in September, Ms. Hosszú explains the massive changes she has undergone since the London Olympics both as a swimmer and in human terms. In the book, she wishes to hand on the experiences gained during the past twenty years, with special emphasis on the two years prior to its publication. She described her work as a motivational book aimed to inspire the Olympic champions of the future generation. In the final words of the interview, she promises an explanation for her nickname “Iron Lady” in the book.

    Read Hungary Today

  • Chinese multi-Olympic and world swimming champion Sun Yang had failed a doping test and been banned for three months, China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) told Xinhua on Monday.

    Sun tested positive for stimulant trimetazidine in an in-competition doping test on May 17 during the national swimming championships.

    Sun gave up the chance to have the B sample tested but defended himself in a July hearing where the experts decided to hand him a three-month ban.

    Sun said he used the prescription drug Vasorel for medical reasons and had been unaware that its substance trimetazidine was listed in WADA’s 2014 prohibited list. Trimetazidine is able to increase coronary flow reserve and was added to the prohibited list in January 2014.

    “Sun proved with sufficient evidence that he did not intend to cheat, which helped reduce his ban to three months,” explained Zhao Jia, deputy director of CHINADA.

    “But his failure to inform the doping control official should be punished all the same,” he added.

    Read Xinhua

    According to another story on Xinhua, the quarantine has already passed

    The multi-Olympic and world champion tested positive for stimulant trimetazidine on May 17 during the national swimming championships and had been banned for three months till August 16, China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) told Xinhua on Monday.

    FINA has it on its antidoping reports list this morning

    Doping Offence – Sun Yang (CHN)
    On May 17, 2014, the swimmer Sun Yang (CHN) was tested positive to the substance Trimetazidine (Class S.6.b Specified Stimulants) following an in-competition doping control test conducted with the occasion of the Chinese National Championships.

    The China Swimming Association imposed a sanction of 3 months’ ineligibility on the athlete starting on May 17, 2014. Furthermore, the China Swimming Association imposed a sanction of 1 year ineligibility on Ba Zhen, the doctor of the athlete, starting on the same date.

    Read also SwimVortex, where the comments are already pretty harsh

  • UCLA Magazine “Swim & Dive” from SeaGlass Productions on Vimeo.

  • Featuring Evgeny Korotyshkin, Cameron van der Burgh, Filippo Magnini, Federica Pellegrini and others.

    Swimming Cup Torino from Makers Eventi on Vimeo.

  • Historical footage of Trudy’s Ederle’s Channel swim. The song Blackbird was a hit the same year. As it is with many open water ultra endurance swimmers, they usually have a song stuck in their head. Could this have gone through her mind on the day of her swim so long ago?

    Gertrude Ederle – First Woman to Swim the English Channel from Kerri Lienhard on Vimeo.

  • Swim The Suck 2014 from CraigWalker on Vimeo.

  • Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates says his organisation will fight what he calls an unreasonable proposal to hold some of the swimming finals at the 2016 Rio Games late at night.

    American TV networks want the final sessions to begin at 10:00pm local time, meaning some gold medals would be decided after midnight.

    Coates said discussions were underway to change the draft schedule to protect the athletes.

    “It’s a matter that the AOC will now take up with the international swimming body FINA and with the International Olympic Committee,” he told reporters.

    “It’s just an unreasonable demand on the athletes to be competing at that time of night.”

    Read ABC