Swimmer's Daily

  • 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.

  • Highlights from the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships, here Cameron McEvoy talking about the men’s 200 meter freestyle and Alicia Coutts talking about the women’s 100 butterfly.

  • See kfyr-tv

    This past weekend was the grand opening of the brand new Williston Recreation Center. On Saturday, the lap pool was opened and the 2012 800 meter Olympic champion, Katie Ledecky, came to swim the first lap in the pool dedicated to her grandfather Edward Hagan.

    Ledecky has family in the Williston area that came out to watch the dedication ceremony. Ledecky was excited to come back to Williston and spend time at the new recreation center.

    “It’s great to be here in Williston. It’s just an awesome city, with awesome people. This is a beautiful facility that I can’t wait to see more of and I can’t wait to swim the first lap in honor of my grandpa,” says Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky.

    KFYRTV.COM – Bismarck, ND – News, Weather, Sports

  • Read Yle

    An elderly Russian swimmer who participated in the World Winter Swimming Championship in Rovaniemi, northern Finland has passed away. The man competed in the 450-metre endurance race in the 70 – 74-year old age group.

    The veteran Russian swimmer took ill while competing while competing during the competition’s opening day on March 20. He was given first aid on the scene and later taken to the Oulu University Hospital.

    The local travel and tour company Rovaniemi Tourism and Marketing announced Tuesday that the swimmer later died and that his relatives were informed of his passing.

  • Read Sydney Morning Herald

    Some sporting careers do not travel the easiest path, and so it is with Melanie Schlanger, for whom it would not seem normal if she was not battling an illness or injury in preparation for a major competition.

    Schlanger has defied doctor’s orders to compete in Brisbane this week at the selection trials for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

    The 27-year-old has been hampered for the past 18 months by illness and rib and shoulder injuries that forced her withdrawal from last year’s world championships team.

    She damaged another rib earlier this year and was told to rest for six weeks. But with less than three months to the selection trials, she decided to push ahead with her preparation to give herself the best chance to qualify for the Australian team at the Commonwealth Games.

  • Read Brandon Sun

    Ryan Cochrane’s illustrious swimming career, he says, has come down to a “lot of lasts.”

    He’ll compete at the Canadian swimming trials this weekend in Victoria to make the team for what will be his last Commonwealth Games.

    Next summer will mark his last world championships. The 2016 Rio Games will be his last Olympics.

    “The four years between Beijing and London (Olympics) went by like a whirlwind and I think the older you get the faster those years go by, so I’m just trying to make sure I make the most of all these last chances I get,” Cochrane said. “It’s kind of narrowing down … it’s an exciting prospect but you also have to be ready for the final chances you have at representing yourself and putting all this work you worked so hard for to good use.”

  • Read ninemsn

    For someone who has contemplated retirement, Alicia Coutts can’t seem to stop thinking about swimming.

    Even when the five-time London Olympic medallist sat down to plan her 2015 wedding the sport seemed to creep into her subconscious.

    Coutts, 26, has adopted a year-by-year approach despite being inspired by a post-2012 Olympic chat with former champion Susie O’Neill.

    However, Coutts appears to have already made her mind up about powering onto the 2015 world titles in Russia – she just didn’t realise it straight away.

    “I have scheduled my wedding around the world championships next year. I must be really contemplating contesting the worlds,” she laughed.

    “And Rio (Olympics 2016) are only another few months away from that so maybe I can do that – we will see.”

  • See The Local via Arbroath

    Spanish daily ABC reported that the Ciudad Real woman had been having sexual relations with a man when the cover on a waterwheel well shaft became dislodged.

    She plunged 10 metres into the hole near ‘Playa Park’ – a waterpark popular with local youths as a venue for romantic liaisons and ‘botellón’ outdoor drinking parties – before hitting the water.

    It is believed that the couple had inadvertently loosened the boards covering the well while making love and had been too distracted to notice the impending peril.

    The young man did not, unfortunately, respond in a manner likely to inspire writers of romantic songs and novels.

    Instead of trying to rescue his unfortunate partner, he hitched up his trousers and fled the scene.

    (more…)

  • See ABC Action News, via Arbroath

    “I saw big nostrils going underwater and staying underwater with water blowing out,” Ammons said. An animal lover herself, she didn’t hesitate to jump into the retention pond to rescue the bull.

    “I stripped everything off that the sheriff’s office really cares about,” she joked. “And then I got in.”

    For the next three hours, Ammons and her partners kept holding the bull’s head above the water’s surface as Hillsborough County Fire Rescue brought a truck with a winch and slowly attached the bull to several straps.

    Slowly but surely, the winch tugged the bull to safety.

    “I’m amazed that the deputy was able to hold his head up out of that water,” said Charles Cochran, the bull’s owner. “You’re looking at several hundred pounds.”