Swimmer's Daily

  • Danish swimming is practically in shock after Shannon Rollason announced that he is resigning after the World Championships in December.

    – At this moment we are very disappointed and saddened. We have to just collect ourselves a bit, says Pia Holten, director of the Danish Swimming Federation.

    Jeanette Ottesen, who just three weeks ago won two gold medals at the European Championships in Berlin, is so shaken that she is unsure of what will happen now with his career.

    – I am totally speechless. The last six months have been the best in my career, and now I’m just terribly sad. He is the greatest coach I’ve had. He understood me and knew how I should train. Right now, I know nothing, says Jeanette Ottesen.

    Asked if this means that she is straight out contemplating to stop her career, Ottesen says:

    – I don’t know. I just know that he is the best coach, and that there is no-one who can compare with him. So I do not know what the Swimming Federation can come up with, for me to keep on swimming, says Ottesen and continues:

    – I’ll have to get a coach who measures up to him. Otherwise I will have to move to Australia with him, she says.

    It is because of family reasons, that Rollason returns home to Australia around New Year. His family is not settling well in Denmark, and that has made him to stop prematurely.

    – He has proved to be a huge capacity and helped us now to have the best Danish European championships ever. We just have to pick up the pieces and find out what to. Right now, we must be allowed to be a bit sad, comments Pia Holten.

    The Federation Director was as surprised as the swimmers when she was told that Shannon Rollason was quitting almost two ahead of time.

    – We had hoped that he would be with us all the way to the Rio Olympics. And therefore, we of course have no plans for what will happen now. But, we have previously shown that when we are touched by adversity, we’ll find a solution. We did that also when Paulus Wildeboer quit. It’s not good, but we will find a solution. We have an attractive team, says Pia Holten.

    Read and listen to the interview (in Danish) here on dr.dk

  • Olympian Grant Hackett is back training under master coach Denis Cotterell on the Gold Coast but is adamant he is not making a fully fledged comeback for the 2016 Rio Olympics despite registering for drug testing.

    “Because I’ve been through so much this year, I just wanted to get back into the squad and enjoy a bit of time with the boys and the camaraderie,” Hackett said.

    “I just want to get really fit. That is kind of my goal over the next six or seven months — get to a good level of fitness again. Having a bit of time to put into a bit of swimming and gym work is good fun, that is all.

  • Tired of their sport being seen as underwater ballet, Australia’s synchronised swimmers have stripped off their ornamental image in pursuit of a racier reputation in the build-up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

    Australian national team members have dumped the sequins and thick, China doll makeup in favour of smoky eyes, designer swimsuits and sexier routines.

    A promotional shoot for Sony’s new waterproof MP3 player, leaked to The Courier-Mail, has revealed a more playful, and saucier, side of our dedicated synchro stars.

    “We’re not a high-profile sport so I’m happy to get synchro out there,” London Olympian and Brisbane resident Bianca Hammett said. “Synchronised swimmers are often associated with loud costumes and makeup, so it was nice to portray a classier look and have fun with some contemporary dance moves.

    See Courier Mail

  • A video posted on YouTube three days ago claims to show a hippopotamus swimming in the Chicago River.

    Why do we question the veracity of the video?

    First, this section of the Chicago River is very well traveled by a wide variety of watercraft, including many sightseeing boats filled with tourists. As the very busy summer tourism season wraps up, there has not been one report of a ”hippo” in the river.

    Speaking with Officer Jose Estrada of the Chicago Police Department, we were told, “There have been no reports of wild animals roaming the streets or the rivers of Chicago.”

    Additionally, the video from September 15 is the only one posted by YouTube user “Chris O.” TheBlaze attempts to contact the person who posted the clip have not gotten a response.

    Could a hippopotamus live in this river? TheBlaze called Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo to ask if this was possible. A zoo representative told us that it was highly unlikely that a hippo could survive in the Chicago River, “especially considering the harsh winters we experience.”

    See The Blaze

  • Through much of 2011 and 2012, American record-setting swimmer Dagny Knutson was, by her own admission, in “kind of a fog.”

    Just months after leaving her native North Dakota in the summer of 2010 for an Orange County-based USA Swimming elite training program designed to serve as a pipeline to the Olympic Games, Knutson found herself without a coach and financial support, and battling severe depression and an eating disorder.

    In April 2011, Knutson, encouraged by her attorney, accepted a financial agreement with USA Swimming that was worth less than her original deal with the sport’s national governing body, she said.

    Knutson filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court this week against that attorney, Richard J. Foster, the former USA Water Polo president and longtime powerbroker in national and international swimming and aquatic sports. The suit alleges fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and financial abuse of a dependent adult.

    Knutson alleges in the suit that while counseling her to accept the 2011 settlement, Foster failed to reveal to her alleged conflicts of interest stemming from his representation of the original contract’s architect, then-USA Swimming national team director Mark Schubert, in contract negotiations and a civil suit.

    In filing the suit against Foster, Knutson said she wanted to get “my story out there because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

    Read The Orange County Register

    Photo by bloomsberries [/caption]

  • The central government and Budapest’s council will jointly finance a development of the Dagaly spa in the city’ northern 13th district from a budget of 17 billion forints (EUR 54.5m), the deputy mayor of Budapest said on Wednesday.

    Gabor Bagdy said the project will consist of two phases, one to complete the facilities for the swimming and water polo world championships in 2021, and the other to refurbish the popular spa itself.

    Read Politics.hu

  • After three World Records were broken following outstanding performances at the FINA Mastbank Swimming World Cup 2014 – Doha, the capital is set for a thrilling Festival of Swimming from November 29 to December 7, 2014, as preparations for the 3rd FINA World Aquatics Convention and the12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) continue.

    The FINA Convention is scheduled from November 29 to December 1 at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Doha, and precedes the World Swimming Championships (25m), which will be held from December 3 to 7 at Hamad Aquatic Centre.

    The Convention will place Doha once again at the centre of sport development, uniting world leaders in aquatics during a comprehensive conference programme and exhibition. The third edition includes the FINA Extraordinary Congress, a session to determine future innovations and rule changes in the sport, and the 2nd FINA Gold Swimming Coaches Clinic, a knowledge-sharing opportunity for top-level coaches.

    “We are delighted to welcome FINA back to our city,” said Khaleel al-Jabir, President of Qatar Swimming Association and CEO of Doha 2014. “Both the Convention and Championships offer a chance for businesses to network and share best practice with the international Aquatics industry, and to promote FINA’s disciplines to the Qatari population, engaging them in aquatic sports. We look forward to demonstrating and celebrating Qatar as a hub for Aquatics and a destination for all sport.”

    Read Gulf Times

  • The Danish Swimming Federation today announced that they have received NTC head coach Shannon Rollason’s resignation, to leave his position as head coach of the National Training Center in Bellahøj after the World Short Course Championships in Doha in December.

    Rollason has been head coach of the Danish NTC since 1 March 2013, and was contracted to stay until after the 2016 Olympics in Rio. But family reasons made him cancel his contract, and leave Danish swimming ahead of time, for Australia.

    Director of the Danish Swimming Federation Pia Holmen is distressed by the decision, but understands that family well-being must take precedence over everything else, even if it means that the Danish Swimming Federation now faces a huge challenge.

    – “We have to admit that Shannon’s dismissal was certainly not part of the plan leading up to Rio 2016. At the same time, we must respect the fact that private interests can affect the professional life, and that has unfortunately been the case here. We have now begun finding solutions, so that we also in the future have an ideal set-up around the swimmers at the National Training Center NTC”, says the Danish Swimming Union director.

  • A U.S. citizen was caught trying to cross a river border between South and North Korea, government sources said Wednesday.

    The man, who appeared to be in early his 30s, was taken into custody by South Korean Marines at around 11:55 p.m. on Tuesday in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. He had been attempting to swim across the Han River to go to the communist country.

    The man allegedly told the officials that his purpose was to meet the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

    “The American man was swimming northward with the current when he grew tired and laid low near the riverside. This was when he was discovered by the Marines,” the source said.

    Read The Korea Herald

    Photo by tommy japan [/caption]