Swimmer's Daily

  • A gruesome tale in Swedish here on simma.nu/se, Swedish 1980 Olympian former breaststroke world record holder now swim entrepreneur Glen Christiansen is recovering from head injuries he received at the GC International in Tenerife in February, when he blacked out and fell 2 meters down a flight of stairs. The fall apparently because of a super stressful 6 month period, he split his scull from ear to ear and had to be flown to Hamburg in Germany, where he was put in a coma for three weeks, the doctors giving him a 30% chance to survive and even then with great risk of becoming mentally incapacitated. He was paralyzed in his left side and lost his ability to speak, and also suffered with a bout of pneumonia. But now fortunately he is recovering well, being able to walk and talk as before, only problem apparently a left hand that isn’t 100%. Doctors won’t allow him to swim yet (skull has to heal and stuff like that), but he’ll soon be back on the deck at least.

    Here is a video with Glen doing good in Libanon back in 2011

  • Lotte Friis clocked 4:06.49 in the women’s 400 freestyle at the Danish Open 2013 in Copenhagen today, 4th best in the world this year, and Rikke Møller Pedersen a swift 1:06.55 in the women’s 100 breaststroke semifinal, faster than her best time from the London 2012 Olympics. Young gun Magnus Westermann posted a new Danish junior record in the men’s 100 freestyle, with a time of 50.36 in the semifinal, securing him a spot on the Danish squad at the Poznan 2013 European Junior Championships this summer.

    danish-open-2013

    ‘Our people’ from the Faroes did well too, Pál Joensen cruising to a 3:54.95 win in the men’s 400 freestyle, Birita Debes setting a Faroese record of 30.12 in the women’s 50 back prelims and then repeating that exact time to win silver in the final behind Sweden’s Ida Lindborg in 28.93. And now Danish Magnus Jákupsson winning the men’s 50 backstroke in what would have been a Faroese record of 25.92.

    Katrine Holm Sørensen won the women’s 200 IM in 2:14.84 ahead of Iceland’s Eygló Ósk Gústafsdóttir in 2:15.92. And Sweden’s Erik Persson won the men’s 200 IM in 2:04.71 ahead of Norwegian junior Markus Lie in 2:09.78.

    See all results from tonight’s session here on livetiming.dk. A more comprehensive recap of tonight’s session can be found (in Danish) for instance here on SwimNews.dk and here on svoem.org

  • Norway’s Aleksander Hetland on top of the men’s 50 breaststroke medal podium at the FINA 2012 World Swimming Championships (25m) in Istanbul, Turkey. See the result list here.

    DSC07673

  • Read One Perth and Perth Now

    Olympic swimming star Eamon Sullivan is building a restaurant above the new surf life saving club at Leighton Beach in North Fremantle.

    Sullivan already owns Louis Baxters Cafe in Subiaco.

    Sullivan is rebuilding his body after a shoulder operation in November and planned to be on the starting blocks for Australia at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

    “I’m taking a year off from competitive swimming,” he said. “But I might do a few local meets.”

  • Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu on top of the women’s 200 meter butterfly medal podium at the FINA 2012 World Swimming Championships (25m) in Istanbul, Turkey. Also in picture, China’s silver winner Liuyang Jiao. See the result list here.

    Flowers for Hosszu at Istanbul 2012

  • The 2013 Danish Open will be decisive for who gets to represent Denmark at the FINA 2013 World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain and the LEN 2013 European Junior Swimming Championships in Poznan, Poland. See the press release (in Danish) here on svoem.org. For already qualified swimmers Rikke Møller Pedersen, Jeanette Ottesen, Lotte Friis, Mie Ø. Nielsen and Mads Glæsner, it is ‘only’ a matter of managing easier ‘stability time standards’, while the rest of Danish hopefuls will have to manage pretty hard time standards for Barcelona 2013 and/or Poznan 2013, if not to hope for a spot on the relays.

    The Danish Open 2013 runs from Tuesday 26 March until Friday 29 March, with live results on livetiming.dk and live streaming on dr.dk/sporten, courtesy of the Danish Swimming Federation and the Danish national broadcasting corportation DR. See the start list here, we have a few Faroese swimmers also competing at this meet, so I will be following it closely.

    3 færøske stjerner

    (Three swimmers of Faroese origin who will compete at this week’s Danish Open. From left to right Magnus Jákupsson who this autumn switched to Danish sports nationality, Frans Johannesen who grew up in Denmark and has Danish sports nationality, and Pál Joensen who still has Faroese sports nationality. Photo courtesy of René Thomsen, who will be commenting in the mentioned live stream)

  • Read Fox59

    A former swim coach has pleaded guilty to battery.

    Brandon Largent, 21, worked at North Putnam High School in Greencastle.

    He was given a suspended sentence of 180 days in prison.

    Largent was arrested last year. He admitted to kissing a teenage boy after exchanging texts and photos.

  • Read This is Bath

    An Olympic swimmer is appealing for the public’s help in finding a lost watch which was given to her as part of a sports sponsorship deal.

    Jaime King, who was a member of Team Bath and competed in three Olympic games, three Commonwealth games and numerous European and World Championships, was given the sentimental item as part of a sponsorship deal with Mallory jewellers.

    However, she lost it in the city this week, possibly in Nelson Place West, Larkhall, or Sydney Gardens, on Tuesday, and is hoping someone may have spotted it and picked it up.

  • Read for instance The Mirror

    Olympic swimming star Rebecca Adlington is engaged – just months after saying she wasn’t ready for marriage.

    The double Olympic champion declared herself to be the “happiest person ever” after boyfriend Harry Needs, a fellow swimmer, popped the question.