Read Mail & Guardian
When Chad le Clos edged out Michael Phelps to win the 200m butterfly gold at last year’s Olympic Games the future of swimming in South Africa looked bright – but the sport has, since then, seemingly limped from one fiasco to the next.
Swimming South Africa (SSA) is currently without a title sponsor. This has led to suggestions that some of the members of the team competing at the World Championships in Barcelona in July and August will have to pay to attend the event.
Read The Telegraph
South Aussie backstroker Hayden Stoeckel says he is “going in blind” for this weekend’s national championships at the SA Aquatic Centre after only ending his post-Olympics slumber 10 weeks ago.
Having “let his hair down” for six months after the London games, Stoeckel knows he faces an uphill battle to defend his 100m backstroke title and post a world championships qualifying time.
Read The Age
London Olympic silver medallist Christian Sprenger has called for former champion Grant Hackett to return to the Australian swim team as a mentor, to help fill the leadership gap and develop a new team captain. […]
”I have a lot of respect for [Hackett] and so did the team members back then,” said Sprenger.
”To be honest, I can’t really see another Grant Hackett as yet, unfortunately, but I think we can make the right changes and the right moves as a group.
”It might not even be a bad idea to have Grant Hackett come back to have a bit of a mentor role.
Read news.com.au
Former swim star Giaan Rooney has revealed the details behind her post-Olympics boning from Channel Nine, saying she was stunned to be unceremoniously dumped after seven years with the network. […]
“I believe I am an incredibly loyal person and I had no desire to go anywhere else…I had assumed that my contract would just roll over and that’s what I had been told,” Rooney said in an interview with the blog Show + Tell.
“I loved it and I loved my team that I worked with.
“(But) I came back from London and had a bit of a holiday and all of sudden it was like; ‘We don’t have anything for you next year’. And that came as a huge shock.
Read The Washington Post
Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect of Seattle.
He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.
Thus began an ordeal in which the siblings swam 14 hours to reach land. They lived to tell about it back in St. Lucia, safe but shaken.
http://youtu.be/k7dlNRDcgrU
See also
http://youtu.be/w7fk26IZlBk
http://youtu.be/9vrcoTmSAfc
Read news.com.au
After Seebohm admitted social media played with her mind too much in her final hours before the Olympic final, her coach Matt Brown has cracked down on the use of mobiles for all his squad.
His guidelines mirror the reforms set to be enforced by the entire Australian swim team this year.
“This is not just for her but from a team perspective, phones are not on pool deck,” Brown said.
“They’ve got a place in life, not to dominate it and rule us.
“I don’t mind if you’re listening to music, but not when it’s for other things…”
http://youtu.be/pSM8bIbm8GE
(Video from London 2012)
