Swimmer's Daily

  • At the Danish nationals in Copenhagen this week, national head coach Nick Juba announced a new program called Olympic Hopefuls, aimed at those ‘genuine Olympic contenders’ that have made the Danish qualification times for Rio 2016, or are very close to making them.

    See the qualifying time standards here on svoem.org. Swimmers representing Denmark (or in Pál Joensen’s case Faroe Islands) at the Kazan 2015 World Championships are automatically selected, while others can qualify by making the time standard established from the Danish Olympic Qualifying Times for Rio 2016 plus 1.5%.

    At the moment, the hopefuls consists of the 7 Danish swimmers selected for Kazan who are based in Denmark, plus Pál Joensen the Copenhagen-based Faroese swimmer who can compete for Denmark at the Olympics. In addition to these, Julie Kepp Jensen made the time standard at the Baku 2015 European Games, while Anton Ørskov Ipsen made the time standard during the just finished Danish nationals. 4 US-based swimmers are apparently not included in the program.

    They are as of now planning to take a selection of the hopefuls to a kick-off camp in Cyprus in September, and a warm-weather camp in Bermuda in January-February 2016. After April 2016 they will probably run a couple of alternatives, so that different people can do different things.

    See also the video interview with Danish national coach Nick Juba on svoem.dk.

  • This short documentary shows Canada’s top swimmers in training for the 1964 Olympic Games. Under the critical eye of coach Ed Healy, they practice long hours in the gym and in the pool to build strength and stamina.

    https://youtu.be/RseUXgeR1nM

  • A 28-year-old Texas man taking a late-night swim was attacked and killed by an alligator. Hear an eyewitness recount the attack.

  • https://youtu.be/xuswQuxhbUQ

  • Manchester United legend Eric Cantona is going to swim the English Channel if 10,000 beer fans agree that Kronenbourg is the best lager in the world.

    The Frenchman revealed that his latest quest will see him ditch the football boots for a pair of speedos in order to “stand up for what I believe in”.

    See The Independent

    https://youtu.be/pmC-u75Ae2E

  • In the days and weeks after its launch last April, one of the biggest curiosities surrounding the Apple Watch was its tolerance to water. Thanks to a few initial tests — from showers tohigh dive pools — we now know that the Apple Watch is indeed a bit more waterproof than Apple promises, and with that in mind a few London-based iOS developers have created the “World’s first swim app on the Apple Watch,” and put it through its paces in a new video.

    Having designed a similar app for the Pebble, Ted Bradley and his team decided to take that idea — a lapping, time, and heart rate monitoring swim app — and transplant it onto the Apple Watch. The developers put each smartwatch to the same test, swimming four full lengths of the London Aquatic Centre’s 50 meter pool. The test proved successful, with the Apple Watch mirroring the Pebble’s results of a four lap, 200 meter swim. Apple’s smartwatch even continued to measure heart rate successfully, raising from an initial 88bpm to 138bpm immediately after the test finished.

    See MacRumors

  • This controversial method teaches infants survival skills to save themselves from drowning.

  • One of the top sports stories in Australia revolves around tennis star Nick Kyrgios who might be slapped with a $27,000 fine for “tanking” or purposefully giving up points during a match at Wimbledon.

    Kyrgios, who’s father is Greek born has been criticized by media in a country where tennis is taken very seriously. But in addition to this being a sports story, it’s now turned into one of alleged discrimination and what the tennis player referred to as “racism” and “unaustralian behavior by a swimming legend.” in a media slugging match between the two.

    Enter former champion swimmer Dawn Fraser, herself a major sports figure in Australia after winning the 100 metres freestyle at three successive Olympics.

    In an interview with Australia’s Today Show, she lashed out at Kyrgios’ behavior on the tennis court and suggested “if they don’t like it, they should go back to where their fathers cam from,” a reference to Kyrgios’ Greek immigrant father.

    Nick Kyrgios fired back at Fraser on Tuesday, accusing her of being a “blatant racist” about him and Davis Cup teammate Bernard Tomic in a nationally televised interview.

    Dawn Fraser Slur Against Nick Kyrgios

    See The Pappas Post

  • She was the quintessential recruit for the women’s swimming team at Harvard University: a nimble breaststroker with a fierce work ethic and sharp intellect. But when Schuyler Bailar jumps into the school’s Olympic-size pool this fall, he instead will be a member of the men’s team, the first openly transgender collegiate swimmer in U.S. history.

    Emerging from a tortuous year of self-reckoning and a lifelong quest to feel comfortable in his own skin, Bailar, 19, will be navigating far more than the usual freshman challenges; he also will be a pioneer and role model as society openly grapples with shifting mores about traditional male/­female gender lines.

    Bailar, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound athlete, struggled for years through depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and a broken back. As a girl, Bailar competed at a high level — setting a national relay record on a girls’ team with future Olympic champion Katie Ledecky — but she was confused and pained.

    “I was a very lost kid who didn’t understand why I spent my entire childhood being a boy but not really, one who focused intently on studies and swimming to distract from anything that came up in my mind,” said Bailar, who grew up in Virginia and attended the private Georgetown Day School in the District. “I was caught between two worlds.”

    Read The Washington Post