Swimmer's Daily

  • Australian Commonwealth Games swimmers have reacted strongly to repeated questions about the team’s London Olympic Games campaign, which was notable for disappointing performances in the pool and bad behaviour out of it.

    However, senior squad member and 100-metre breaststroke world champion Christian Sprenger thinks while it was “bizarre that they still bring that up” there was only one way for the team to consign the episode to history.

    “People can very quickly forget about bad situations that happen, you see it in a lot of sports such as rugby and soccer and yeah if we bring home hundreds of gold medals this week the Australian public will see a new swimming Australian team,” Sprenger said.
    “… That’s the only way we’re going to get away from it, by really stamping our authority over these Commonwealth Games.”

    Read The Sydney Morning Herald

  • This canoe-kayak hybrid has a transparent polymer hull that offers paddlers an underwater vista unavailable in conventional boats. Seating two people, the sturdy hull is made of the same durable material found in the cockpit canopies of supersonic fighter jets.

    See Hammacher Schlemmer

  • 9. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time

    Michael Phelps is one of the greatest athletic icons in the world. Phelps also holds the all-time record for Olympic medals and credits much of this success to his ADHD. He started the Michael Phelps Foundation which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles.

    Read health24

    Photo by Vironevaeh

  • Lauren Boyle has yet to hear whether her father will arrive in Glasgow in time to see her opening race.

    Allan Boyle was on Virgin Atlantic flight VS251 from Shanghai to London which was forced to make an emergency landing in Irkutsk, Russia, after the Airbus A346 developed “a technical issue”.

    He and his partner, Tracey Berkahn, are now among 283 people stuck in Siberia – waiting on an alternative flight to be arranged to Heathrow Airport before heading to watch his daughter compete in the women’s 200 metres freestyle heats and final on Thursday.

    Read stuff.co.nz

  • Scottish swimming hopeful Michael Jamieson says he plans to secure gold at the Commonwealth Games.

    But he’s not finished there. The Glaswegian star also wants to claim a world record in his hometown.

    Jamieson’s desire to make history is so strong that the record time of two minutes and seven seconds is the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes every day.

    The Olympic silver medallist races in the 200 metres breaststroke on Thursday and is Scotland’s top hope alongside fellow pool star Hannah Miley.

    Japan’s Akihiro Yamaguchi holds the world record but Jamieson has been dreaming of breaking his mark of 2:07.01.

    He said: “I’ve woken up for training every morning with the world-record time on my alarm clock.

    Read Scotland Now

  • Australia’s swim team fears a gastro outbreak after quarantining one of their leading swimmers with the symptoms of the norovirus that has ripped through more than 50 staff at the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village in Glasgow.

    News Corp has been told that one of the female athletes on the swim team has been quarantined from her teammates after showing the symptoms of a virus that has plagued event staff for the past week in the village.

    Read Courier Mail

    Photo by Ninian Reid

  • Who says you need a beach to hang loose?

    Certainly not YouTuber Devinsupertramp. He’s making quite a splash in the streets of San Francisco for his newest extreme video “Urban Surfing — Bear Naked.” (Note: No one is actually naked in this video; It was created in partnership with Bear Naked Granola).

    The team set up a 260-foot Slip ‘N Slide through the steep, curvy streets of the city and captured people’s goofy stunts with a GoPro. Beware: If you’re holed up indoors at work, this video may just make you throw in the towel.

    See Mashable

  • The 28-year-old breaststroke king initially hated the water so much that he was kicked out of his private learn-to-swim lessons, given a full ­refund and told to look at other sports.

    “I don’t remember, I was very young — three or four — but the story goes it was a private learn-to-swim pool in someone’s backyard with an elderly lady and she took me in for one lesson and I refused to pretty much do anything she said,” Sprenger said.

    “I hated the water and I just screamed the whole time, ­apparently.

    “About halfway through the lesson the lady came to mum and said, ‘You can have your money back. I just can’t teach him. It’s not going to happen. You might have to try another sport’.

    Read news.com.au

  • Maui-based filmmaker Justin Edwards captured some truly breathtaking video of a humpback whalemother and calf surfacing for air using a GoPro HD HERO3 attached to a drone.