Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad’s fourth attempt to swim across the Straits of Florida ended Tuesday morning after severe jellyfish stings and a lightning storm put her off course, her team said. She had been in the water for 60 hours and was about halfway through her swim from Cuba to Florida. Nyad was stung by jellyfish overnight, and a major lightning storm put anyone in the water in extreme danger, said Mark Sollinger, Nyad’s operations chief. He said the 62-year-old exhausted swimmer was pulled out as the dangers mounted. “With all the threats continuing, Diana decided that it was not a risk that we wanted to take,” Sollinger said. Read more here on CNN
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Shark Feeding Frenzy at New Jersey Shore
I guess swimming was cancelled that day, via Buzzfeed
Shark feeding frenzy in Ocean County, NJ, shot August 16, 2012 . These sharks were aggressively feeding on menhaden (moss bunker). The frenzy came within 50 yards of the shoreline. The sharks were probably (according to marine scientists), brown sharks, juvenile blacktip and sandbar tiger sharks.
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Katie Ledecky Exclusive – A Hero Returns with Improbable Gold
Via Swimming World on Facebook
At the age of 14, swimmer Katie Ledecky sat down with her coach and set a goal: to get to the 2012 London Olympics. After months of training, waking up at 3:45 a.m. for practice and balancing a full course load at a brand new school, Katie blazed through the Olympic Trials and earned a spot on the USA Women’s Swim Team. On August 3rd, Katie continued to exceed expectations and shock fans everywhere when she took home gold in the 800-meter freestyle. She set an American women’s record for the event and is the second-youngest American woman to win an individual gold medal.
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Teen swimmer completes historic Lake Ontario crossing
14-year-old Annaleise Carr has arrived at Toronto’s Marilyn Bell Park, making history by becoming the youngest swimmer to cross Lake Ontario. That’s 52 km in about 27 hours, for charity. Read for instance The Globe and Mail and see CTV News.
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Ryan Lochte interviewed in Vegas
Barechested alongside girls in bikinis, thank god he’s not a congressman ! :-)
Via the17thman
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Congressman Yoder apologizes for skinny dip in the Sea of Galilee
Oh the humanity, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas apologized to his constituents Sunday night after a published report revealed the freshman lawmaker swam nude in the Sea of Galilee during a private fact-finding trip to the Mideast last August. Giggle, read more here on The Kansas City Star and see for instance ABC News and wgrz.com
Here’s Letterman’s angle on the incident
And here is a song, thank you YouTube
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CC photo #235: Extreme rower Livar Nysted giving free rides to kids on a tiny viking ship
Funny and most adorable sight in KlaksvÃk, last Saturday, Faroese rowing legend Livar Nysted giving free rides to kids on a small Faroese rowing boat that he refitted to resemble a viking ship. Silly hat and all, still this guy was part of the 4-man-crew that in 2010 set the still standing transatlantic rowing world record, rowing from New York to the Isles of Scilly in 43 days, 21 hours and 26 minutes. Now he offered to row people about in the harbor of KlaksvÃk for several hours, as part of the annual Sjómannadagurin (‘Seaman’s day’). Some of us wondered if he didn’t get tired, but I guess in no way in the same way as when crossing the Atlantic :-)
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Swimming Review – London 2012 Olympic Games
Swimming Review from the Aquatics Centre at the London 2012 Olympic Games., including the record breaking exploits of Michael Phelps. Must say open water gets a lot of coverage here, compared to for instance Ryan Lochte and Matt Grevers.
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London 2012 Olympics: Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay Final
Full replay, courtesy of the Official IOC Olympic Channel on YouTube