Swimmer's Daily

  • Read The Australian

    James Magnussen, Cate Campbell and Emily Seebohm are Australia’s “virtual world record holders’’. They are three fastest swimmers the world has seen, they just don’t have the official title to prove it.

    World 100m freestyle champions Magnussen and Campbell, and Brisbane backstroker Seebohm are the fastest swimmers ever in textile suits and are centimetres away from breaking records set during the notorious supersuit era.

    As Australian swimmers prepare for their first major meeting of the year, the Commonwealth Games trials in Brisbane starting Tuesday, hopes are growing that the proud swimming nation will once again reign supreme by holding an official world record.

    “Cate Campbell and James Magnussen would be world record holders if we never had those suits,” Australian head coach Jacco Verhaeren said.

    Image courtesy of Craig Franklin, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Image courtesy of Craig Franklin, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • We where lucky and found lost of this magnificent hunters in plain action, unfortunately for me, my underwater camera had some leaking and I decided to leave it on the boat.

    Fortunately, my friend Carlos Mendieta was kind enough to lend me his Go Pro Hero 3 Camera, which we used to take several shots that and make this video.

    The Sailfish´s dance in action from Iskander Itriago on Vimeo.

  • Read NY Daily News

    A small study by Howard Carter of the University of Western Australia School of Sport Science suggests that immersing the body in water to the level of the heart increases blood flow through the brain’s cerebral arteries, thus improving vascular health and cognitive function.

    “Studies on the positive effect of exercise on heart health have been numerous, but we are taking a different angle and are interested in the link between heart and brain health,” says Carter. “To our knowledge, ours is the first examination of the effect of graded euthermic [warm] water immersion on cerebral blood flow.”

    water photoPhoto by steve.garner32

  • jacco-verhaerenRead Sydney Morning Herald

    The Australian swim team would have a finalist in every Olympic race by the 2020 Games in Tokyo, if not by 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, new head coach Jacco Verhaeren has declared.

    Verhaeren, the former coach of Dutch Olympic champions Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn, was recruited to form a new tandem power structure within Swimming Australia with high performance director Mark Scott, the pair charged with rebuilding the team after a dismal performance in London.

    Verhaeren, who has been in the post since January, said he had identified several events where there is a lack of depth, despite having good performers within them,and they must be the focus of talent development if Australia was to achieve his public goal of becoming the best in the world by 2020.

    He will get his first look at how the Australian hopefuls stack up at the Commonwealth Games trials that start in Brisbane on Tuesday.

    ‘‘I think we know the gaps that are there to cover,’’ Verhaeren said.

     

  • Image courtesy of Bidgee / Wikimedia Commons
    Image courtesy of Bidgee / Wikimedia Commons

    Read Herald Sun

    Eamon Sullivan believes he can get back to his best as a one-lap specialist as he targets a fourth Olympics in Rio in 2016.

    Sullivan will return from the swimming wilderness to compete at a key meeting for the first time since the London Olympics at next week’s Commonwealth Games trials in Brisbane.

    The 28-year-old former world record holder took a year off after a disappointing London campaign — headlined by the dramas surrounding the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay team — to recover from two rounds of shoulder surgery and consider his future in the pool.

    He determined that he wasn’t finished as a swimmer and has been back in training since September last year in his home town of Perth.

    Sullivan has entered the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly for the trials, which he hopes will provide a springboard for more international competition this year, although he is going into the meet without expectation.

  • Read for instance zeenews

    Ian Thorpe`s much-publicised battle have prompted many to believe that success and depression often go hand in glove in swimming, but nine-time Olympic champion swimmer Mark Spitz feels the psychological disorder today is not just limited to his sport but rampant in other disciplines as well.

    The multiple American Olympic champion was here as one of the academy members of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. Talking about Australia`s retired swimming star Thorpe, Spitz said he could understood the problems faced by the latter after having won a bagful of medals over the years.

    “I can understand why he may have been depressed, he probably didn`t complete his career in the way he wanted it to. I think Ian (Thorpe) didn`t have a chance to gracefully retire and a lot of athletes don`t retire gracefully, they hang around for one too many years and then they start to not do as well,” Spitz said ahead of the 15th Laureus World Sports Awards here last night.

    mark spitz photoPhoto by Doha Stadium Plus

  • Former United States swimming legend, Mark Spitz held a motivational talk for the Malaysian athletes and coaches at the National Sports Institute (ISN) yesterday.

  • See ABC

    Cotterell recalls the first time he laid eyes on a very young Grant Hackett.

    He was not convinced Hackett, eventually a gold medallist at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, was even the best swimmer in his family.

    “He was the younger brother of a very good swimmer, his older brother Craig, and I probably didn’t notice Grant’s talents until more like nine or 10,” he said.

    “The pedigree was in the family but Craig at that stage was more athletic and looked to have more potential.”

  • Pro-skater Bob Burnquist has skated on almost every surface imaginable. Now he can add the crystal blue waters of Lake Tahoe to that list. Hope it floats.

    http://youtu.be/FmHDfTBXEE0