Swimmer's Daily

  • 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

  • ¡Baila con Xop!: Dancing with Xop, the mascot of the FINA 2013 World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain.

    Spanish version

    Catalan version

  • 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)

  • Read Eye Witness News

    Olympic medal winner Cameron van der Burgh’s agent and manager Ryk Neethling says the swimmer feels hard done by that he has not been included in the annual list of National Orders.

    The Presidency on Monday announced the list of recipients which includes van der Burgh’s fellow medal winner Chad le Clos.

    Despite winning Olympic gold, breaking a world record in the final and defending his world championship title, van der Burgh was not recognised in the National Sport Awards and has now been left off the list of National Orders.

    Neethling is questioning the decision.

    “Cameron has really achieved everything that there is to achieve in swimming. I know that he feels hard done by it and I think it’s a definite oversight.”

  • See sbs.com.au

    James Magnussen says Australia’s swimming scandals have been blown out of proportion, but promises to change his brazen ways and become a humble champion. […]

    “I think a lot of it has been blown out of proportion,” Magnussen told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.

    “There was a lot more team unity and friendship among the team than has been reported on.”

    In the video below it is said that he almost quit. London 2012 seems to have been really, really tough on all those who didn’t make it to the very top.

    http://youtu.be/XPMln3Fm_Ww