Swimmer's Daily

  • gareth-keanRead The New Zealand Herald

    Olympic swimmer Gareth Kean has decided to take a break away from the sport but few reasons have been given for his sudden departure.

    The 22-year-old will miss next week’s national championships in Auckland, which double as the Commonwealth Games trial.

    Kean, who won a silver medal at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in the 200m backstroke, said he needs some time away after more than a decade dedicated to the sport.

    “I just don’t have the passion that it takes to be the best I can be right now,” Kean said. “I believe I could qualify for Glasgow but I do not want to go there to make up the numbers. If I am not in the sort of shape to win a gold medal, then I am not doing justice to myself, my family and to the public of New Zealand. Right now I am struggling to make that commitment.”

  • See nrk.no, there is a nice video interview with her also, in Norwegian.

    Ingvild Snildal can’t find the motivation again. Therefore, one of Norway’s best swimmers ever retires at the age of 25.

    ‘The last half year I have felt that I am comfortable as a normal person who isn’t an elite athlete, Ingvild Snildal says to NRK.

    The swimmer has thought about it since last season, and has now decided that the career is over.

    ‘I actually realised it already in autumn. I felt it was nice to be able to sleep in, to not have to go up at five for practice, and to not be dead tired all the time,’ she explains.

  • runa-imaiRead The Japan News

    There are high hopes that a new swimming star will emerge at this month’s Japan national swimming championships, although “star” might not be the appropriate word for 13-year-old Runa Imai.

    Imai, whose first name is based on the word Luna, the Roman goddess embodying the moon, finished third in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke last year. She aims to reach the top spot at this year’s meet, which starts April 10 at Tatsumi International Pool in Tokyo.

    The championships serve as the qualifier for the Asian Games, to be held in Incheon, South Korea, this autumn.

    (more…)

  • See KENS5

    A group of parents and students came to the defense of a high school coach who they said did no wrong in making swimmers do bear crawls on the track.

    In a story KENS 5 brought you first on Monday, a former swimmer at Reagan High School in the Northeast ISD said the head swim coach punished several swimmers because they were late to practice in February. The girls were made to do bear crawls on the track. The punishment left one swimmer, Stacia Trujillo, with blisters on her hands and bruises on her body.

    In defense of the coach, several swimmers said bear crawls are part of their training. One swimmer said she did bear crawls along with Trujillo. She said the coach didn’t realize the exercise hurt their hands.

    “‘Cause he told us afterwards, like after everything had cooled down, he said he was really sorry and he didn’t want to hurt our hands,” said Bethany Flummer.


    Image courtesy of the U.S. Army, CC BY 2.0

  • Read for instance CTV News and see Brisbane Times

    A large shark killed a woman near her terrified husband and friends as they took their daily morning swim Thursday off a popular Australian east coast beach, police said.

    Christine Armstrong, 63, was taken by the shark as she attempted to swim the 600 metres between the wharf and beach near the village of Tathra, 340 kilometres south of Sydney, police said.

    The victim was some distance from the other five swimmers, including her husband, Rob Armstrong, when they saw a 3-to-4-metre shark nearby, said Police Inspector Jason Edmunds.

    “The group joined up together and did their best to keep the shark at bay, although it didn’t directly attack them,” Edmunds told Nine Network television.

    Locals called it “a tragedy waiting to happen,” see Canberra Times

  • Panic sets in as getting wedged on a radged rock inside a narrow tube underground, while its filling with water, is a proper stupid thing to do…

    Worst caving experience ever….

  • See tv2.no

    The Norwegian Short Course Champs started with a bang Thursday, with youngsters clocking a total of six Norwegian records, nine Norwegian junior records and two world records for disabled people.

    17-year-old Henrik Christiansen demolished Gard Kvale’s 7:50.45 Norwegian record in the 800 freestyle from back in 2005, with a time of 7:43.26 now.

    Also 17-year-old Armin Porobic erased Thomas Sopp’s 22-year-old Norwegian record from 1992 in the 200 back, taking it down from 1:57.56 to 1:56.08.

    (more…)

  • Image courtesy of Sarah Ewart, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Image courtesy of Sarah Ewart, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Read The Guardian

    Grant Hackett’s former coach says the Olympic swimming champion’s Stilnox addiction is the price he paid for his success in the pool.

    Hackett’s long-time mentor Denis Cotterell says the triple Olympic gold medallist was given the sleeping medication by team officials who didn’t tell him it was addictive until he’d been taking it for years.

    Cotterell said Hackett was given Stilnox by team staff throughout his career, which included a decade-long unbeaten 1500m freestyle run, to aid sleep on long team flights and on the eve of a big race.

    Cotterell said staff only told them it was addictive years after first offering it. “Unfortunately being on those teams so long probably deepened the addiction,” he said.

    Asked if the addiction was the price Hackett paid for his success, Cotterell said: “Absolutely. We would go on a plane and the doctor gave us some because he couldn’t go to sleep.

    “He started doing that every meet. And when you are on the team for 12 years, and you are winning, you don’t change too much. “Then all of a sudden they turn around and say, ‘By the way it is addictive.’”

  • See Sydney Morning Herald, ninemsn, ABC, news.com.au

    Olympic swimming champion Grant Hackett has left rehab saying he feels proud he had the courage to seek treatment for a sleeping pill addiction.The triple gold medallist spoke about his experience at Los Angeles Airport on Wednesday for the first time since checking himself into a US rehab centre five weeks ago.

    He had been battling a dependency on the controversial Stilnox medication.

    “It just gets to a situation in life where you’re not coping too well, and you need to put your hand up and ask for help – I certainly got to that situation,’’ Hackett told Channel Nine.

    “I feel proud of myself that I had the strength and courage to do that, because I want to have a great and happy life ahead of me.
    “I want to be a great father and I want to do all those things properly.