Swimmer's Daily

  • California Polytechnic State University student Christian Yellott recently captured some first-personGoPro footage of a fast jet ski trip through Mountain Sheep Canyon on Lake Powell in Arizona that bears more than a passing resemblance to a video game.

    Via Laughing Squid

  • Goliath grouper eating a black tip shark in one bite off the coast of Bonita Springs Florida. August 2014.

    Courtesy of Gimbb14 on YouTube

  • Duke Kahanamoku, who won a total of five swimming medals in Olympics from 1912 to 1924, probably did more than anyone else to bring the sport of surfing from his native Hawaiian islands to the United States mainland. Almost in reverse, he also played a substantial part in the Americanization of old Hawaii.

    Born in Honolulu in 1890, descended from patrician ancestors who counseled the Hawaiian monarchy, he grew up near Waikiki Beach as the son of a police captain. Duke was a child when Queen Liliuokalani was thrown under house arrest and Hawaii transformed, by aid of the United States Marines, into Uncle Sam’s territory.

    With no outward hint of resentment toward those who had seized and subjugated his country, Duke sought and won a place on the American swimming team at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, the only Hawaiian present. The Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Edgar Forrest Wolfe (who used the pen name Jim Nasium) pronounced Kahanamoku in 1913 “a human fish” and “the greatest swimmer the world of sport has ever seen.”

    Read The New York Times

  • In 2012, Michael Phelps saw the writing on London’s Aquatic Centre scoreboard. In the third of four preliminary heats of the Olympic 400-meter individual medley, the Japanese teenager Kosuke Hagino clocked at 4 minutes 10.01 seconds.

    Phelps, the world-record holder in the event since 2002, remembered cringing, because he was in the final heat and Hagino’s time was faster than he had expected to have to push himself.

    In the Olympic final, Hagino pushed Phelps off the medals podium and toward retirement when he edged him for the bronze. A year later, Hagino competed in six individual events and one relay at the world championships in Barcelona, Spain, and collected two seconds, three fifths and a seventh.

    Read The New York Times

  • At the FINA/Mastbank Swimming World Cup leg in Doha this morning, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu set a new short course world record, clocking 57.25 in the 100 individual medley where here own world record from the World Cup leg in Berlin last year was 57.45. This during prelims, with the final coming up later today. See the result list here.

    Image courtesy of Doha Stadium Plus Qatar, CC BY 2.0

  • A team of swimmers attempting a 76-mile relay swim from Catalina Island to La Jolla Cove in support of wounded veterans abandoned the swim after multiple shark encounters, organizers said Sunday.

    The group of eight swimmers, three kayakers and a support boat left the city of Avalon on Catalina Island about 4:10 p.m. Friday and planned to arrive at La Jolla Cove sometime this morning, group organizer Will Miller said.

    But the group abandoned the swim for precautionary reasons Saturday after swimming 44 miles because of multiple encounters with sharks, Miller said. One shark followed about 20 feet behind a swimmer at one point and the group spotted a total of eight sharks nearby. They were about 20 miles offshore from Camp Pendleton when they decided to stop.

    “After 44 miles, safety takes precedent over ego and wanting to finish,” Miller said. “At night it was pitch black, and our concern was we would never see the shark at night until it was too late.”

    Read Times of San Diego

    Photo by USFWS Headquarters

  • We caught up with Michael Jamieson, Ross Murdoch and Craig Benson about the strength of Scottish Breaststroke.

    Courtesy of Team Scotland on YouTube

  • A former sumo champion has accomplished something that only four other people have done: swimming back and forth across Utah’s Bear Lake.

    The swim would be tough for just about anyone, but consider that Kelly Gneiting is pulling 430 pounds of his own weight.

    The Idaho native says he did it partly for himself, but also for others.

    “Not only big people, but anybody, despite their perceived weakness, or inability, they can still do great things,” Gneiting says.

    See wwlp.com

  • Scots swimming star Ross Murdoch has launched an appeal to find a mystery young fan who penned him a letter after his gold medal win.

    The Commonwealth Games swimming champion took to Twitter in an effort to track down the five-year-old, known only as Brian.

    Murdoch received the mail after claiming Commonwealth gold in the 200m breaststroke at the Glasgow 2014 Games last month.

    The letter, with no address on it, was sent to “Ross Murdoch, Commonwealth Champion, Balloch”.

    Read and see video on stv.tv