Swimmer's Daily

  • Scottish swimming hopeful Michael Jamieson says he plans to secure gold at the Commonwealth Games.

    But he’s not finished there. The Glaswegian star also wants to claim a world record in his hometown.

    Jamieson’s desire to make history is so strong that the record time of two minutes and seven seconds is the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes every day.

    The Olympic silver medallist races in the 200 metres breaststroke on Thursday and is Scotland’s top hope alongside fellow pool star Hannah Miley.

    Japan’s Akihiro Yamaguchi holds the world record but Jamieson has been dreaming of breaking his mark of 2:07.01.

    He said: “I’ve woken up for training every morning with the world-record time on my alarm clock.

    Read Scotland Now

  • Australia’s swim team fears a gastro outbreak after quarantining one of their leading swimmers with the symptoms of the norovirus that has ripped through more than 50 staff at the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village in Glasgow.

    News Corp has been told that one of the female athletes on the swim team has been quarantined from her teammates after showing the symptoms of a virus that has plagued event staff for the past week in the village.

    Read Courier Mail

    Photo by Ninian Reid

  • Who says you need a beach to hang loose?

    Certainly not YouTuber Devinsupertramp. He’s making quite a splash in the streets of San Francisco for his newest extreme video “Urban Surfing — Bear Naked.” (Note: No one is actually naked in this video; It was created in partnership with Bear Naked Granola).

    The team set up a 260-foot Slip ‘N Slide through the steep, curvy streets of the city and captured people’s goofy stunts with a GoPro. Beware: If you’re holed up indoors at work, this video may just make you throw in the towel.

    See Mashable

  • The 28-year-old breaststroke king initially hated the water so much that he was kicked out of his private learn-to-swim lessons, given a full ­refund and told to look at other sports.

    “I don’t remember, I was very young — three or four — but the story goes it was a private learn-to-swim pool in someone’s backyard with an elderly lady and she took me in for one lesson and I refused to pretty much do anything she said,” Sprenger said.

    “I hated the water and I just screamed the whole time, ­apparently.

    “About halfway through the lesson the lady came to mum and said, ‘You can have your money back. I just can’t teach him. It’s not going to happen. You might have to try another sport’.

    Read news.com.au

  • Maui-based filmmaker Justin Edwards captured some truly breathtaking video of a humpback whalemother and calf surfacing for air using a GoPro HD HERO3 attached to a drone.

  • The World Anti-Doping Agency doubled bans for “serious doping offenders” from two years to four years last November, to be implemented in 2015, but many would like to see lifetime bans.

    WADA has looked into it, and it doesn’t appear to be an option.

    “Our advice was that [life bans] would be challenged and would not be sustainable in law,” WADA president Craig Reedie told the BBC. “A four-year penalty will stand up in court and takes a person out of the cycle of an Olympic Games.”

    Read NBC Olympic Talk

    Featured photo by Andy Miah

  • Off the coast of Mexico, a diver untangles a sea turtle from a hank of rope. Instead of making a quick escape, the turtle hangs around long enough to say his thanks and pose for the camera.

    See Neatorama

  • Wildlife photographer Dale Frink was on a whale watching trip in San Diego on July 2. Nearby, a pair of blue whales were lunge feeding, and managed to surface just behind the boat Dale was on, capsizing it. Luckily, another boat was whale spotting and came to Dale’s rescue. See more about the incident on Dale’s blog: dalefrink.com

  • When filming an octopus it decides to attach itself to the diver’s camera and start removing components. Watch closely when the Octopus is on the lens and you will see it cleverly removing a critical gasket to the underwater camera housing.