Swimmer's Daily

  • “Ask a question to our Speedo Advisors here”

  • Read Times Colonist

    Students at Craigflower Elementary School heard about “physical literacy” on Monday from an expert source — two-time Olympic swimmer Ryan Cochrane.

    “It’s about playing with friends, it’s about finding what you like,” said the 25-year-old Victoria resident. “Maybe it’s not swimming. Maybe it’s running. Maybe it’s trying a new thing you never tried before.”

    Ryan Cochrane

    Image courtesy of JD Lasica, CC BY-NC 2.0

    (more…)

  • Read and listen to NPR

    Free-divers, who take a breath, swim as deep into the ocean as possible and then come back up, come to Dahab from across the world to compete. But a diver’s death in November has raised questions about the safety of the sport, with some divers saying too little has been done to cut down on overly ambitious competitors and common injuries.

    At a recent competition in Dahab — the first since diver Nick Mevoli died in the Bahamas — a dozen competitors had strung their yellow buoys out in a row across the blue hole. Each buoy had a weighted rope attached, which the divers followed down into the blue abyss.

    Freediving the Ocean - Into the Light

    One … two … then three minutes would go by. And then, a diver would come back up with a tag that proved he had reached the bottom.

    But not all the scheduled divers competed that day. Maxim Iskander, a Canadian-Egyptian free-diver, withdrew from competition because of an injury known as a lung squeeze.

    “How did I know? I spit a little bit of blood,” Iskander says. “Not that much, but enough to tell you, OK, something happened.”

    Image courtesy of jayhem, CC BY 2.0

  • See Orange County Register

    “I’ve been doing this for about seven or eight years, but always out at Dana Point or Long Beach – never around the pier,” said the 27-year-old, whose father, Mike Ali, owns Zack’s.

    With his LED flashlight guiding him, Ali scrounged around the pier pilings, diving to about 16 feet deep when he spotted the “bug.”

    Ali said he was going after a smaller lobster when he noticed the super-sized version hiding in the structure left behind by one of the old piers.

    After resurfacing to catch his breath, he dove down to the same location, stuck half his body in the hole, and grabbed the lobster from behind.

    Quickly, a battle of who was holding onto whom ensued. Ali said the lobster kicked backwards, latching onto his mask and face.

    “There was no way my hand could wrap around his back to grab him, but luckily he latched onto me,” Ali said.

  • See NBC2

    A North Naples homeowner watched from behind her sliding glass door as a family of bears leisurely took a dip in her swimming pool last weekend.

    “Two bears in my balcony! They’re trying to get in my house. I’m so scared!” North Naples resident TJ Ozbay told a Collier County 911 dispatcher. “Oh my God, there are three bears now!”

    Ozbay called 911 last weekend when she stumbled upon those bears swimming in her pool. Her home is on Cherry Wood Drive.

    “They’re coming inside. I said oh my God. I closed all the curtains, everything,” Ozbay said.

    That’s when she pulled out her iPhone and recorded it all.

    NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral

  • dick-shoulbergRead for instance philly.com

    Longtime swimming coach Dick Shoulberg, who has been on administrative leave from Germantown Academy in Fort Washington since October, will return as coach emeritus for the remainder of the school year, according to a letter Monday night from the head of school, Jim Connor.

    Shoulberg, who cofounded the Germantown Academy Aquatic Club and turned it into an elite national squad over the last 44 years, could not be reached for comment.

    Connor’s letter says Shoulberg “took a leave of absence . . . to address health concerns,” and rebuts unspecified rumors to the contrary. Shoulberg told The Inquirer on Dec. 4 that his leave was not voluntary and that he was not ill.

  • Read via ShanghaiDaily

    Sun Yang received a gift for his 22nd birthday from Swimming World Magazine on December 1 – he was elected as the Male World Swimmer of Year 2013.

    Instead of celebrating, he apologized – for an eventful year that saw him breaking up with his coach, missing training and caught driving without a license.

    “I am deeply suffering from guilt, apology and regret towards my parents, coaches, supporters and friends,” said China’s first ever male Olympic champion swimmer on his Twitter-like Weibo account.

    “I have grown up and matured. I will work harder, discipline myself and correct my mistakes.

    Sun Yang on top of the BCN2013 men's 1500 free podium

  • Read The Independent

    An entire class of children was evacuated from a swimming pool after a prosthetic leg was mistaken for a paedophile.

    Teachers from Kings Hill Primary School in Kent spotted the leg poking out from a cubicle whilst taking their class of year 4 children swimming at Larkfield Leisure Centre.

    They believed it belonged to a “peeping Tom” and after alerting staff evacuated the 60 children from the pool post-haste.

    prosthetic-leg

    Head teacher Kerry Thomas told the Kent Messenger:“One of the members of staff had seen it, and we quickly moved the children out, and everything was dealt with in accordance with school policy.”

    Yet upon investigation it was found that the leg belonged to a disabled man who had left it on the floor of the cubicle while he went for a swim.

    Image courtesy of U.S. Military / Wikimedia Commons

  • As we had plenty of spare time around the Herning 2013 event itself (not), I went to Silkeborg and interviewed two very interesting persons for an hour or so. Sound and videos look okay, but I need to cut a bit, before posting.

    DSC04677