Swimmer's Daily

  • Read SwimNews

    Olympic 4x100m free relay gold medalist Melanie Schlanger has become the first member of the London 2012 squad to call for head coach Leigh Nugent to fall on his sword. In a week that delivered two damning reports that revealed the extent of bad behaviour, members of the men’s 4x100m free relay team at the heart of the crisis of culture attended a press conference to make a public confession. Now the focus is shifting to dry land. Schlanger tells Wayne Smith at The Australian, that she believed Nugent had changed his story several times when it came to when knew that some of the relay boys had taken Stilnox, a prescription sleeping pill often used by athletes trying to cope with jet lag but banned by the Australian Olympic Committee.

    “I personally don’t trust him to be our head coach,” said Schlanger. “His story changes every day. How can he stand up in front of the team and tell us what we can and can’t do? The situation has become far too volatile for him to remain as head coach. If he was a football coach in any code, his job would have been taken away already. The fact that we are an Olympic sport shouldn’t make us any different.”

    (Video from when they were happy in London)

  • Read Inside The Games

    Europe’s biggest open-water swimming series, the Great Swim, has moved its event in Scotland to Loch Lomond after the 2012 race at Strathclyde Loch had to be cancelled because of the poor quality of the water and fears competitors would get ill.

  • Oh the irony, read the Guardian

    Last week, an eyeglass-retailer executive from Rui’an City, coastal Zhejiang province, offered the city’s environmental protection chief Bao Zhenming more than £20,000 to take a 20-minute dip in a highly polluted local river. The entrepreneur, Jin Zengmin, posted the dare to his microblog beneath pictures showing the waterway overflowing with discarded aluminum cans, polystyrene boxes and paper lanterns. He blamed the river’s industrial demise on dumping by a local rubber shoe factory.

    The Rui’an government responded by saying that most of the river’s pollution was caused by individuals, not factories, and could be attributed to overpopulation. Bao has since declined the offer.

    Via Inhabitat

    (Another river in China, ‘likely to scare off many potential swimmers’)

  • “Freediving in Gulen on a crisp, clear and sunny day in february. Kristoffer find`s his first scallops in 20+ meters visibility. What a day!”

    Feelgood freedive in Norway – Gulen from frivannsliv on Vimeo.

  • Behind the scenes at the Speedo video shoot – ‘The Speedo Harlem Shake’.

    http://youtu.be/gzc6ENUKR64

  • “Lisa Curry on the Bluestone Review. Drinking by Australian swim coaches during Olympics to be investigated. AUSTRALIAN swim coaches will come under investigation for drinking during the Olympic Games, with revelations it was not the athletes but officials who were accused of drunken behaviour in the cultural review into the sport.”

  • “Porterhouse School dominated the opening day of the Inter-School Swimming Gala, which brought together swimmers from leading International and Private schools around Nairobi. Meanwhile the National Swimming Federation National Championships kicked off at the Kasarani Aquatic Complex in Nairobi. NTV Sport Warothe Kiru has the details in our local Swimming wrap.”

    http://youtu.be/n-a-NO_gKZk

  • English backpackers make the best of torrential storm weather at Coogee Beach, Sydney

  • An interview with the accomplished Netherlands swim coach Jacco VerHaeren. From the start of his career he knew he wanted to help athletes to succeed in the demanding sport of swimming. As part of that effort, he knows the importance of nutrition and has been happy to develop an association with Herbalife who is also committed to providing athletes with the tools they need to succeed.

    http://youtu.be/mr9mBWxwvL8