Swimmer's Daily

  • john-dougallThree weeks ago, former Scottish international swimmer and now head coach of the Fife Performance Swimming Squad John Dougall experienced acute stomach pain, and called 999 for an ambulance on the verge of collapse. Read for instance Fife Today, The Scottish Sun, The Courier and the Daily Record

    “They asked me the usual questions and basically asked if I had been drinking. I told them no, none of that and explained I lived on my own, that I couldn’t move. I needed help, I was in a really bad way but they said my symptoms wouldn’t warrant any help.”

    According to John, they advised NHS 24 would call back within two hours and when he stressed he was “in agony” the call handler replied: “but you are able to speak to us”.

    An hour later in a call with NHS 24, he was advised to take some painkillers.

    John said: “I told them this was starting to scare me now. There‘s sweat pouring from me and burning coming from my chest and abdomen. I pleaded for an ambulance but they said they would get a nurse to ring me in the next couple of hours to go through treatment options with me.”

    Desperate, John crawled to his front door where neighbours happened to be passing.

    Horrified, they immediately rang 999 but were refused assistance.

    Turned out he had a ruptured intestine and was heavily septic. His team did well though at the following Scottish Nationals, despite of their coach being confined to a hospital bed. Read for instance Fife Direct

  • steffen-deiblerGermany’s Steffen Deibler enjoying the sun in Hamburg, en route to a two-week training camp with hopefully even better weather in Sardinia. Laying the foundation for Barcelona 2013, and promising to try to post from Sardinia also. Yay!

    He broke the German 100 butterfly record with a 51.19 at the 2013 German National Championships recently, world’s best time this year that would have won him gold in London.

  • Via Belfast Telegraph

  • See for instance Discovery and Live Science

    Three college students were filming a short movie as a class project at Lough Foyle, a large tidal estuary in County Donegal, Ireland, when something very odd moved through the water in front of them

    “Looks like we have our own Loch Ness monster!” Conall Melarkey, a student at North West Regional College in Derry, Ireland, wrote in his posting of the video clip to YouTube.

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  • “Manta rays are one of nature’s most graceful and eerie animals. In Episode 2 of UnderH2O, we go underwater off the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii — in the dark of night — to film these enormous creatures.”

    – Not sure, but I think that sound is added ;-)

  • Read for instance ninemsn.com.au

    In a rollercoaster week that began with a 400m flop, Fraser-Holmes is now primed to make a splash in the four-lap IM at July’s world titles in Barcelona after posting the year’s second fastest time on Friday night. […]

    Just like Thorpe in the 2004 Olympic trials in the same event, Fraser-Holmes received a shock 400m disqualification when he overbalanced and fell off the starting blocks.

    After bouncing back to claim the 200m freestyle gold in a personal best and the world’s fourth-fastest time, Fraser-Holmes capped his comeback with another, albeit unexpected, 400m IM crown. [in a new Commonwealth and Australian record of 4:10.14]

    “Yeah my family have all gone home,” Fraser-Holmes laughed.

    “They left on Wednesday. I have to cook meals for myself now.

    http://youtu.be/Y63ZkCc2Brk

  • Read Herald Sun

    With the sport humiliated and chastened in the wake of London, rehabilitation is a long, incremental and necessary haul that will need every kilometre of the road to Rio.

    Often considered curious, swimming’s prominence was grounded in its capacity to showcase the vibrant best of Australian youth.

    Central to its hold was winning. Medals from the pool have long underpinned Olympic campaigns and a nation has drawn its sporting worth from those treasured days at four-year intervals.

    The cycle broke spectacularly en route to London.

    The narrative was anchored in the past. Failed and forlorn comebacks outshone the need to rejuvenate. In a deteriorating environment of favouritism and indulgence, the athletes were seen as churlish and pampered. The toxic symptoms developed unabated until finally the winning stopped and the recriminations began.

  • Read for instance news.com.au and The Australian

    Guided by Hackett’s coach Denis Cotterell at the same Gold Coast pool, Harrison last night became the second fastest 17-year-old in the history of the 1500m freestyle.

    Harrison’s 14min51.02sec is quicker than Hackett’s 14:51.70 when he won the 1998 world championship in Perth.

    The fastest time ever by a 17-year-old is still held by Kieren Perkins, who swam 14:50.58 at the 1991 world titles. Given Perkins and Hackett both won two Olympic titles in the 1500m freestyle, Harrison is a name to remember. [… ]

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