Swimmer's Daily

  • Read The Guardian

    Despite being the son of a talented Australian cricketer, as a boy Ian Thorpe was useless at ball sports (an affliction with which Heroes of Swimming sympathises; in fact, we wonder if Ian is also a rubbish dancer). Thorpe’s older sister told him to come swimming with her instead, but he was allergic to chlorine and had to swim with his head out of the water. It didn’t stop him winning his first race.

    By the time he was 13, Thorpe was already more than six feet tall. He was also now putting his face in the water, and going extremely quickly: at 14, he ducked under the four-minute barrier for 400m freestyle, and a few months later he shaved that time down to 3:53.44 at the Australian Swimming Championships. It got him into the team for the Pan Pacific Championships as the youngest Australian swimmer ever to represent his country.

    Ian Thorpe, photo courtesy of mtlin, cc by-nc-nd

  • Read Charlotte Observer

    A longtime Charlotte swim coach has been banned for life from USA Swimming, seven months after he was charged with misdemeanor sexual misconduct involving a minor.

    Jamie Thomas, 54, owner and head coach of New South Swimming in Charlotte since 1997, had been on leave from the club since July.

    On Monday, the sport’s governing body announced Thomas’ permanent suspension for violation of the USA Swimming code of conduct. The suspension means he is prohibited from coaching or owning one of its club teams.

    “The safety of our athletes is our top priority,” USA Swimming spokesperson Karen Linhart said. “It’s very important to have the right people in our sport, acting in the ways of our code of conduct and doing the right thing.”

  • Read SuperSport

    Graham Hill, national coach of Swimming South Africa (SSA), said he left the national swimming trials for the Commonwealth Games a disappointed man after the conclusion in the Kings Park pool in Durban on Saturday.

    “The final night was a big disappointment as I expected at least another two or three qualifying times tonight,” Hill said on Saturday.

    “I thought Rene Warnes (400 individual medley) and Myles Brown (1500 freestyle) should at least have qualified as they came so close.

    “I expected to have 12 swimmers overall to qualify for the Commonwealth Games, but now we only have nine.”

  • Read New Tang Dynasty

    Former Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima has urged Japan’s young swimmers to step up after a collective flop at the national championships left him wondering if he needs to postpone his retirement.

    The “Frog King” won double breaststroke gold at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics but at 31, and expecting his first child with his pop star wife, he is getting ever closer to hanging up his goggles.

    However, he may have to remain in competition for a while yet after nobody went inside Japan’s 100m and 200m breaststroke selection times for this year’s Pan Pacific Championships and Asian Games.

    Image courtesy of jmex60, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Image courtesy of jmex60, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • Read Swimming World

    USA Swimming has put an end to months of speculation with an announcement today that Michael Phelps is expected to race at the Arena Grand Prix in Arizona next week.

    Phelps has been somewhat quietly making a comeback to competitive swimming since last fall, when the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced that the Olympic legend had taken two out-of-competition random drug tests, something a retired athlete does not do. […]

    The events Phelps is swimming in Mesa will not be known until the release of the psych sheets later this week. He’ll be in good company under the Arizona sun. USA Swimming also announced that longtime out-of-the-pool friend and in-the-pool rival Ryan Lochte is scheduled to swim in Mesa. Lochte has been working his way back to top form sinceinjuring his knee in November and the crowd would love to see the two best 200 IM swimmers in history battling side by side once again.

    michael phelps photo

    Photo by marcopako  , Feature photo by Vironevaeh

  • See ekstrabladet.dk, 25.000 readers have spoken, and their votes together with an expert panel decided that Formula 1 racing driver Kevin Magnussen is by far the greatest (active) Danish sports name, as of now. Lotte Friis was 10th and Jeanette Ottesen 12th.

    ottesen-friis

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  • Jonathan travels to the island of Bonaire to take a course in freediving from Karol Meyer, a world-champion freediver. Soon he learns how to hold his breath and dive—with no scuba tank!

  • Now in its second year, British Gas SwimBritain is supported by a host of big-name swimmers including fellow London 2012 medallists Ellie Simmonds, Michael Jamieson and Becky Adlington alongside funny man David Walliams, who all completed the challenge at events around the country last year alongside thousands of swimmers.

    Find out more and register for this year’s events at swimbritain.co.uk

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  • Read stuff.co.nz

    As expected, Lauren Boyle will head the Kiwi charge for medals in Glasgow. The three-times bronze medallist at last year’s world champs in Barcelona will contest the women’s 200 metres, 400m and 800m freestyle events and lead the 4x200m freestyle relay team.

    Glenn Snyders should be in the medal hunt in the 100m and 200m men’s breaststroke events, but faces a tough task to grab gold ahead of 2012 London Olympic 100m gold medallist Cameron van der Burgh from South Africa.

    Matthew Stanley (men’s 400m freestyle) and teenager Corey Main (100m backstroke) are the other individual event able-bodied competitors in the New Zealand team.

    Luis Villanueva, Swimming NZ high performance boss, said high qualifying standards for the Games meant only the country’s elite gained spots for Glasgow in individual events.