Swimmer's Daily

  • Diana Nyad swimming in NYC for Sandy ReliefSee keynews.com

    The city of Key West is considering placing a monument of world record swim champ Diana Nyad at Smathers Beach. That’s where Nyad landed on Labor Day after crossing 111 miles of ocean from Cuba without a shark cage. It was her fifth and final attempt to accomplish what no one had done before.

    While no one at city hall has mentioned going as far as commissioning a statue, City Manager Bob Vitas has “Diana Nyad monument at Smathers Beach” listed as part of his report to the City Commission for its 6 p.m. Wednesday, meeting at Old City Hall, 510 Greene St.

    Details weren’t available Friday from Vitas because he will deliver his report first to commissioners, said city spokeswoman Alyson Crean.

    But the recommendation from the Art in Public Places board is for the city to announce a $5,000 international competition for a Nyad tribute.

    “What shape, I have no idea,” said Michael Shields, the board’s chairman. “That’s up to the artist. It’s for people coming to Key West. I mean, this is Lindbergh in Paris.”

    Image courtesy of Andrew Dallos, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

  • Read Politiken (in Danish)

    At the first Great Danes assembly, this weekend, Danish national coach Nick Juba listed up a slew of exciting Team Danmark financed challenges abroad, with support from experts in coaching, nutrition and sports psychology, in return for an investment in courage, positive attitude and ambition from the 10-12 talented young Danish male athletes that have been selected.

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  • A story from back in 2012. And crazy. “Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helped save a drowning man and got fired for it. The reason: He left the section of a south Florida beach his company is paid to patrol. The Orlando-based company, Jeff Ellis and Associates, says Lopez broke a company rule and could have put beachgoers in his section in jeopardy…”

  • Read Popsugar Fitness

    “You watched him win 22 Olympic medals, break numerous world records, and grace the covers of several magazines, but how exactly how did Michael Phelps get into swimming? Enter Hilary Phelps, the oldest sister of the Phelps clan, whose siblings would later follow in her swimming footsteps. But there’s more to her than a famed last name: Hilary is a journalist, yogi, and, oh yes, an Ironman. We sat down with Hilary for her advice on stretching boundaries, finding balance, and crossing the finish line.”

  • Marlon Kjærbo, chairman of Suðuroyar Svimjifelag in Vágur, Faroe Islands, here running to Tórshavn as part of a fundraising run between all Faroese swimming pools that are used in competitive swimming. He ran at least a marathon the first day, and has now on the second day clocked 13 hours and 58 minutes and 105,4 kilometers, raising money and collecting samples of pool water for our first long course pool, under construction in Vágur.

    SuSvim chairman visiting all Faroese swimming pools on foot

  • See wbtv.com

    Pools are a child’s playground.

    Usually swimming is the lesson kids are learning while in the water.

    But researchers out of Australia say there are other benefits with the simple strokes kids are getting smarter and YMCA aquatics instructor Saunte Bruton agrees.

    “It teaches them another way of dealing with being afraid of things and it also teaches them the concept of actually doing more than one thing at a time,” said Bruton.

    A four-year study reveals he younger children start swimming to the smarter pool of talent when it comes to intellectual and social skills.

    “We’ve just seen some improvement in general, the sleep patter, the attention span; it’s just gotten so much better,” said parent Lisa Pugh.

    WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

  • See AUSTSWIM

    Australia were pleased that both parents and non-parents chose “learning to swim” as the most important activity for children aged 5 to 14 years when provided a set of seven popular extra-curricular activities in a recent community survey. In addition, when asked to assess the relative importance of a set of eight water safety and aquatic skills, the majority also rated “personal survival skills” as the most important, followed by “water safety knowledge” and “survival swimming strokes”. This survey finding contradicts the views of swimming teachers from previous research conducted by both organisations where teachers were asked to rank the same skills from a parent’s perception. Teachers of swimming and water safety believed that parents would value competitive strokes as the most important skills.

    Learning Breast Stroke

    Image courtesy of Tommy Wong, CC BY 2.0

  • “We are Florida Swimming and Diving and this is how we define success.”

    http://youtu.be/xJW8ujh0OGw

  • Title says “Swim to grow – Arena promotes the practice of swimming”. Or something like that.