Swimmer's Daily

  • Don’t remember if I posted this back in 2013, but then it is worth re-sharing. Via Reddit

    Surfer watches GoPro footage only to find he swam 3 feet above Great White shark without realising

  • See video on TVNZ

    A British tourist is getting set to take the plunge and swim the Cook Strait tomorrow as part of an attempt to swim seven oceans around the world.

    Adam Walker will make the notorious sixteen nautical mile stretch down the Cook Strait as part of the Ocean’s Seven challenge – which Mr Walker describes as the seven hardest ocean swims on the planet.

    “Four people in the world have done it,” he says.

    “No British person has.”

  • Read FijiOne

    The Australian Sports Outreach Program, ASOP Sports Development Grant through their Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has provided a grant of close to 20 thousand dollars to  Fiji Swimming.

    This is for its “Swim Safe” project initiative.

    The primary aim of the Project is to qualify the coaches of Fiji’s seven swim clubs, together with swim trainers from local schools to incorporate this “Swim Safe” initiative into their own swim programs.

    Coinciding with a coaches clinic this long weekend, visiting Australian coach Hayden Belshaw will also be part of Fiji Swimming’s Junior, Development and Elite Squad Easter Camp today and tomorrow.

    The “Swim Safe” Project will be conducted throughout the whole of Fiji.

    Photo by Frontierofficial

  • Read The Mirror

    Swimmer Rebecca Adlington has revealed the extent of thousands of cruel Twitter taunts which led to her having surgery to reduce the size of her nose.

    The four-time Olympic medallist said she had “fallen into fame” and never expected the recognition – and criticism – that would follow.

    She said she had been forced to block close to 4,000 Twitter trolls who subjected her to vile abuse about her nose and overall appearance.

    The newly retired athlete still refuses to confirm or deny rumours she underwent surgery to have her nose reduced in size and remove a bump.

    She told the Daily Mail: “If somebody else wants to know [that], well tough luck. It’s my life.

    rebecca adlington photo

    Photo by photoverulam

  • park-joon-hyukRead The Wall Street Journal

    “At first we didn’t think it was that serious,” Joon-hyuk said. But then the boat lurched further onto its side and the waters rose. “We heard the helicopters outside and told each other that the rescuers were coming.”

    Joon-hyuk and his friends helped a young girl, not even 10 years old, don a lifejacket and hoisted her upward through a door, where rescuers were waiting. (Joon-hyuk believes she eventually made it back to shore.)

    But Joon-hyuk and the other students were unable to reach the opening themselves, and began looking for another way out. The problem: by then, all other escape routes were blocked by water.

    So Joon-hyuk and several other students took the plunge. In the murky water, there was no clear route to safety, so he felt his way around. Eventually he sensed an opening, swam through it and emerged into the open water. About 20 seconds after he surfaced, he was rescued.

    “I wasn’t thinking about anything,” he said. “The only thing I was thinking about was coming back out of the water.”

  • Read The Atlantic

    Guanabara Bay, the site of several 2016 Olympic sailing events, has 78 times Brazil’s legally allowed limit of fecal pollution, and 195 times the U.S. limit. In addition to human waste, the bay is also a receptacle for trash from ships and the bay’s 15 adjacent communities, as well as toxic runoff from a former landfill. And its not just Guanabara–the ritzy Leblon and Ipanema beach areas are plagued with similar pollution problems. The state environmental agency, INEA, found that Leblon and Ipanema were unfit for swimming for 40 percent of 2011. Botafogo Beach had so much fecal pollution that it did not pass a single INEA test in 2013, according to the BBC.

    “In the waters just off Copacabana beach, the measurement of fecal coliform bacteria spiked to 16 times the Brazilian government’s satisfactory level as recently as three weeks ago, bad news for the marathon swimmers and triathletes set to compete there,” the AP noted in November.

    Olympic teams are getting grossed out and nervous.

    Photo by Rodrigo_Soldon

  • See for instance Sky

    David Cameron has reportedly been stung by a jellyfish while swimming in the sea at a Lanzarote holiday resort.

    According to reports the Prime Minister was said to have ignored warnings after locals spotted a number of the stinging marine animals at the island’s Arrieta beach.

    According to the Daily Mirror, tourists saw him suddenly run from the water rubbing his arm yelling: “Ouch!” […]

    A source said the Prime Minister was not seriously hurt and the sting did not require medical treatment.

    david cameron photo

    Photo by bisgovuk

    Featured Photo by kla4067

  • Read The Roar

    Which brings me in a roundabout way to Michael Phelps. At the end of the London Olympics, Superfish couldn’t get out of the pool quick enough.

    “I’m so sick of the water,” he said.

    “There will be no more staring at that black line for four hours every day.
    “Once I retire, I’m retiring. I’m done.”

    (more…)

  • See TED

    In the pitch-black night, stung by jellyfish, choking on salt water, singing to herself, hallucinating … Diana Nyad just kept on swimming. And that’s how she finally achieved her lifetime goal as an athlete: an extreme 100-mile swim from Cuba to Florida — at age 64. Hear her story.

    [ted id=1896 lang=en]