Swimmer's Daily

  • A team of firefighters have rescued a bull from a swimming pool in Texas after it escaped from a local ranch. The bull wandered into the back garden of a residential home in San Antonio and fell backwards into a covered swimming pool. Members of the San Antonio Fire Department and Animal Control were on hand to assist with the rescue. “It fell in the pool down here in the deep end and then they got it pulled over to the end and just kept its head above the water, and then it got out,” said homeowner Dottie Bierschwale.

  • South African swimmer Sebastien Rousseau interviewed by Florida Swim Network at the 2014 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships.

  • Learn what it takes to be an Open Water swimming champion and Olympian by following Alex Meyer through a typical day of training as he prepares physically and mentally to compete with the worlds best swimmers.

    http://youtu.be/8Zl5wOCWv54

  • By the power of Reddit, see Mashable

    It all began when Reddit user ashinn found a beat up GoPro camera that had washed ashore in Huntington Beach, Calif. The camera was so rusted and in such poor condition, he had to tear it apart in order to retrieve the SD card, which stores the camera’s files.

    Luckily, the card was still readable, and although there were only 16 files on it, ashinn uploaded them to Dropbox, and posted to the subreddit r/WhatsInThisThing, with the title “I found a GoPro washed up on the beach yesterday. Here are the files. How did it get there?”

  • See Motherboard

    Before launching into any sport, it’s important to know three things: the rules, the stakes, and when to quit. In the case of Diana Nyad, the resolute 64-year-old long-distance swimmer, acknowledging two out of three ain’t bad.

    On August 31st, 2013, Nyad jumped into the shark-friendly waters of Cuba and swam some 110-odd miles—without the protection of a shark cage—to eventually reach the shores of Key West, Florida, some 53 hours later.

  • See pictures on New York Daily News

    http://youtu.be/RnjbrEdsfBA

  • See MailOnline

    She has just landed the highly prestigious cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.

    But Chrissy Teigen has revealed she is no natural bikini model – as she can’t even swim.

    ‘Well I can’t swim and I actually hate sand,’ she tells chatshow host Bethenny Frankel on Tuesday’s edition of her show.

  • Read for instance Reuters

    Spain said on Thursday border police had fired rubber bullets in an attempt to turn back around 200 migrants who tried to cross the frontier between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave Ceuta on February 6.

    Several migrants from the group drowned in the Mediterranean trying to swim around a man-made breakwater that separates Moroccan and Spanish waters. The death toll rose to 12 on Thursday as Spanish police said they had found another body near the shore. They are still searching for victims.

    http://youtu.be/8eEah3n31ns

    Every year thousands of Africans try to reach Europe via Spain’s two north African enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla, either by swimming along the coast or climbing the triple walls lined with razor wire that mark the border with Morocco.

    Migrants who live rough in the mountains on the Moroccan side, waiting for an opportunity to rush the frontier, told Spanish media the police fired rubber bullets at them and sprayed them with tear gas as they tried to swim to land.

  • Read The Economist via road.cc

     

    Image courtesy of Pslawinski, CC BY-SA 2.0
    Image courtesy of Pslawinski, CC BY-SA 2.0

    According to an article in The Economist, Russia has been using xenon as a performance-enhancer for a few years now. A 2010 document produced by the State Research Institute of the Ministry of Defence advises on how to use the gas. Before competition it can help with listlessness and sleep disruption, and afterwards it can improve recovery.

    The manual recommends a 50:50 mixture of xenon and oxygen, inhaled for a few minutes, ideally before going to bed. The gas’s action continues for 48 to 72 hours, so it should be repeated every few days.

    Xenon doesn’t just stimulate EPO production. Because it works by activating production of a protein called Hif-1 alpha, which in turn causes production of other hormones as well as EPO, the manual claims its benefits include increasing heart and lung capacity, preventing muscle fatigue, boosting testosterone and improving an athlete’s mood.

    According to Danish media jp.dk, experiments have been made with elite swimmers. I cannot find a source in English, but then there is this in the Economist article:

    And the gas appears to have been used in past Olympics. The website of Atom Medical Centre, a Russian medical-xenon producer, cites national honours the company received for its efforts in preparing athletes for the 2004 summer Olympics and the 2006 winter games.

    BTW, inhaling Xenon has an interesting (short time) effect on your voice