• sue-walshRead The Buffalo News

    It’s hard to fathom, but Sue Walsh is about to send her youngest child off to college. Shawn Stankavage is headed for Vanderbilt on a football scholarship. Kids these days would compare him to Johnny Manziel, but his mother’s generation would see the next Fran Tarkenton.

    It’s hard to fathom because it seems like yesterday when Walsh was going off to college after pit stopping in Moscow for a gold medal. At least that was the plan when the former swimming prodigy from Hamburg graduated early from Mount Mercy Academy and skipped prom to train for the 1980 Summer Olympics.

    “And I’d do it all over again,” Walsh said by phone last week.

  • Read The Telegraph

    A lifeboat crew stopped an out-of-control speedboat by lassoing it.

    The six-metre vessel went into a spin when its skipper, Peter Channing, 66, was trying to moor up and accidentally knocked the throttle.

    He was thrown overboard and had taken off his kill chord — a safety device attached to his leg that should have pulled out the ignition key when he fell in the water — so the boat began to circle.

    http://youtu.be/s2n3hTFpkEU

    Featured photo by leppre

  • Awesome!

    Wakeboard from Anko James on Vimeo.

  • See The Copenhagen Post (and our original story here)

    After all, why peer-pressure somebody into sinking a few shots, when you can dare them to risk life and limb to sink like a stone into the icy waters of a built-up harbour?

    So yeah, the shame is on us.

    breakneknomination

    The fad has btw passed by now (for now?), about the same time as a popular local musician shamed everyone back with his musical nomination answer ‘a stupid time’ (or something like that, translated)

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  • Read Washington Post

    Ryan Lochte walks slowly into the room, a bulky brace on his left knee. He’s still got that same goofball demeanor, that same unique sense of fashion (on this day, he’s wearing a fedora with his trademark phrase “Jeah” embroidered across the back).

    But the signs of change are all around.

    He’s hobbled by the most serious injury of his career. He’s adjusting to a new home in North Carolina. And there’s that 30th birthday looming in August, the surest sign that he’s getting closer and closer to the day when he’ll have to find something else to do besides swimming.

    “As you get older,” Lochte said, “your body doesn’t get any younger. I’ve started to realize that.”

  • Read Los Angeles Post-Examiner

    Sports needed this.

    Swimming needed this.

    And of course, Baltimore needed this.

    Michael Phelps is back, which means swimming is back and even more importantly, it means one of the most underappreciated sports rivalries is back: Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte.

    You can’t have a sport without a rivalry, which makes fans gravitate to the competition, whether it’s on land or water.

    michael phelps photo
    Photo by cliff1066â„¢

  • Read The Australian

    New ‘ditching procedures’ for 737s instruct cabin crew to tell passengers to jump into the water and “swim away” if a plane goes down and life rafts are not used.

    The document comes as a war of words has erupted between Qantas and South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, who is critical of the airline because it is considering getting rid of life rafts on some flights.

    According to the regulations, life rafts are not needed on 737s unless they travel more than 400 nautical miles out to sea.

    However, pilots and cabin crew are concerned that if a plane goes down 300 miles out, for example, people would die of hypothermia without a raft.

  • Guest post by Ryan Bach

    As if being a swimmer wasn’t hard enough, managing your swim workouts while also being a full-time student can get pretty hectic. While sometimes it may seem impossible to succeed in both the pool and the classroom, it is necessary to remember that it’s been done before by past swimmers, many of which turned out just fine. Here are some tips to consider when approaching a tough period of training and schoolwork:

    Manage Your Time

    This may seem obvious, but during “crunch time”, temporarily reducing the activities of your day that are not deemed necessary to either school in swimming will make a significant impact on your results in both your practices and your exams. Don’t lounge around in the shower after practice, refrain from playing video games etc; maximize your time to hit the books right after practice so you can get the most out of your studying.

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  • See NBC Chicago

    With the unofficial start of boating season on Lake Michigan quickly approaching, officials are warning Illinois boaters and swimmers about a hidden danger lurking in fresh water.

    Electric shock drowning, or ESD, is a rising threat in marinas and popular freshwater areas, and those at risk are often unaware of the potential danger, according to Safe Electricity, which launched an awareness campaign as part of National Safe Boating Week.


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