Swimmer's Daily

  • FINAlogoSee fina.org

    After a memorable year in terms of performances, the FINA Family voted for the “Athletes of the Year 2013”, having chosen 11 exceptional competitors in the six FINA disciplines. Organised by the “FINA Aquatics World Magazine”, this selection had a important participation of 674 voters, coming from the FINA National Federations, FINA Committees, media, partners and experts in Aquatic sports.

    The results and achievements at the 15th FINA World Championships, held in Barcelona (ESP) from July 19 to August 4, 2013 largely dictated the outcome of the vote, with all the selected athletes leaving the Catalan capital with at least one gold medal. For this fourth consecutive edition of the “FINA Athletes of the Year”, High Diving was included for the first time in the vote, after its inclusion in the programme of the FINA World Championships.

    The list of the FINA Athletes of the Year 2013 is:

    SWIMMING
    Men: Ryan Lochte (USA)
    2013 World champion in the 200m back, 200m IM and 4x200m free; 2013 World silver medallist in the 4x100m free. FINA Athlete of the Year in 2010 and 2011.

    Women: Katie Ledecky (USA)
    2013 World champion in the 400m, 800m (in a WR time) and 1500m free (in a WR time), and 4x200m free.

    DIVING
    Men: Chong He (CHN)
    2013 World champion in individual and synchronised 3m springboard; 2013 World Series – second in the overall 3m springboard ranking.

    Women: Zi He (CHN)
    2013 World champion in the 1m and 3m individual springboard; 2013 World Series – winner of the overall 3m springboard ranking.

    HIGH DIVING
    Men: Orlando Duque (COL)
    2013 World champion.

    Women: Cesilie Carlton (USA)
    2013 World champion.

    WATER POLO
    Men: Denes Varga (HUN)
    2013 World champion, MVP in Barcelona; 2013 World League – silver.

    Women: Jennifer Pareja (ESP)
    2013 World champion, MVP in Barcelona.

    SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING
    Svetlana Romashina (RUS)
    2013 World champion in solo free, solo technical, duet free and duet technical. FINA Athlete of the Year in 2011.

    OPEN WATER SWIMMING
    Men: Thomas Lurz (GER)
    2013 World champion in 25km and Team event; 2013 World silver medallist in 10km; 2013 World bronze medallist in 5km; 2013 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup – winner. FINA Athlete of the Year in 2011.

    Women: Poliana Okimoto (BRA)
    2013 World champion in 10km; 2013 World silver medallist in 5km; 2013 World bronze medallist in Team event.

  • See 9News National

    Jack Strickland had a GoPro camera strapped to his chest when he and his friend Aaron Gallagher went diving for fish, A Current Affair reports.

    Mr Gallagher was holding his breath as he chased a dog-tooth tuna 17 metres underwater, but when he eventually speared it the fish started to drag him deeper.

    spear-fisher-near-drowning
    (more…)

  • A fun (and geeky) episode out of DigitalRev’s Fake a Big Shot video series, in which Kai Man Wong has to replicate a classic dive photo that Chase Jarvis shot with a Hasselblad H3D worth $25,000. ” I gave him 8 hours … and a GoPro Hero3PLUS ($399) to get it done.” [chasejarvis.com]

    And Kai didn’t even have a pool deep enough to dive in :-)

  • Read City Press

    The young swimmer recently said that his next goal is to break one of Michael Phelps’ world long course records and he is hoping to achieve this at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, or perhaps at the next World Championships that will be held in Kazan, Russia, in 2015.

    “It is just about getting faster each year and the most important thing is that I keep on dominating the events that I dominate and extending on other events like the freestyle and the individual medley races,” he said after being crowned the best swimmer at the World Cup series in Beijing at the end of last year.

    Graham Hill, the head coach of Swimming South Africa (SSA) said they will be concentrating on the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July, but it is going to be a very busy year for the swimming team.

    The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships kicks the year off in Australia towards the end of this month.

    “There is also the Youth Olympics for the younger swimmers and Commonwealth Games, the Fina World Cup series and the World Short Course Championships, where South Africa will be represented,” he said.

    Image courtesy of Doha Stadium Plus, CC BY 2.0

  • See FOX40

    Swimmers, starting off their weekend with a splash, braved cold winter waters Saturday morning to raise money and awareness for the city’s aquatic program.

    “It’s not even freezing but, trust me, when you jump in over your head, it will take your breath away,” said Terri Webster Schrandt, the City of Sacramento’s recreation supervisor.

    Video autoplays, therefore moved below the break

    (more…)

  • “700 swimming enthusiasts braved icy waters to compete in an ice swimming competition ahead of Harbin’s annual Ice Festival.”

  • See wptv.com

    Early morning practice may not be what college students want to do over winter break. But it sure beats what their friends and families are doing back home.

    “It’s a high of 12 and a low of -12, 100% chance of snow, they’re supposed to get 2 feet it’s wild,” said Christina Hurley, a swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania swim team.

    “I called home last night and my wife and son are shoveling a foot of snow off our driveway. I’m much happier to be down here, our whole team is too,” said head coach Mike Schnur.

  • “These heroic women show what spirit, courage, and perseverance can achieve. May their bravery inspire us in 2014 and beyond.”

    http://youtu.be/ZyB7bzYRoqY

    Image courtesy of Fortune Live Media, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

  • FINAlogoSee fina.org

    The 2014 FINA Swimming World Cup calendar is now official, including two stops in Arabia in late August, one in Hong Kong late December, two in Europe early October, and three in the Far East late October / early November.

    Berlin is out, Germany according to SwimmingWorld without a World Cup stop for the first time ever in the history of the series, and Europe is thus down to only two stops, compared to the usual three.

    The calendar according to FINA

    • August 27-28 Doha (QAT)
    • August 31 – September 1* Dubai (UAE)
    • September 29-30 Hong Kong (HKG)
    • October 4-5* Eindhoven (NED)
    • October 8-9 Moscow (RUS)
    • October 24-25* Beijing (CHN)**
    • October 28-29 Tokyo (JPN)
    • November 1-2 Singapore (SIN)

    * dates to be confirmed
    ** place to be confirmed