The Greek Swimming Federation have been ordered to pay 277,000 euros to 100m freestyle swimmer Tonia Machaira for wrongfully excluding her from the Athens 2004 Olympics on the grounds she had failed a drugs test. WADA confirmed that she had not failed the anti-doping test, as suspected by the Greek federation, she filed a suit for one million euros eight years ago, and now she got just over one-fourth of the amount she requested. “The bitterness remains the same,” Machaira told NovaSport FM radio. Read The Star
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Aww, neglected ducks like their first swim
About two dozen ducks had reached adulthood without ever having the opportunity to swim. They (along with 100 other birds) were confiscated from an animal hoarder by the Ulster County SPCA and lodged with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Of course, the flock was apprehensive about going into the water at first, but once one of them decided it was fun, the rest soon did as well. Read Neatorama
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Justin Bieber swimming (scared) with shark
Justin Bieber swimming in a water tank full of sharks and beautiful women for a new video, but he admitted to ET’s Christina McLarty that the plunge wasn’t without some hesitation. See the Justin Bieber Zone
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Swimming like a Samurai
Walking or running in a full suit of samurai armour is not the easiest thing in the world. Swimming in it is even harder, behold the Kobori ryū samurai style combative swimming. Read for instance Japan Daily
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CC photo #282: MarkiÄ won the Rijeka 2008 men’s 50 breast
Slovenia’s Matjaž MarkiÄ being greeted by countryman (and here bronze winner) Emil TahiroviÄ, after winning the LEN 2008 European Short Course Championships men’s 50 breaststroke in a then new championship record of 26.47. See result list here
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CPR Makes You Undead
A WTF PSA proudly presented by the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation, see #theundeading via Mashable
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Lotte Friis leaves Denmark to train with Muffat in Nice
According to Danish media Sporten.dk, Lotte Friis has made an arrangement with the Danish Swimming Federation to leave Denmark and the National Training Center in Copenhagen, to train with Camille Muffat and others in Nice, France. She has not decided whether she’ll train for Rio 2016 or not, in other news she’s expressed excitement for having the 2013 Short Course Europeans on home turf, this switch now seems to be to try something new.
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CC photo #281: Borysik after winning the Rijeka 2008 men’s 100 breast
Ukraine’s Igor Borysik reacts to winning the men’s 100 breaststroke at the LEN 2008 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Rijeka, Croatia, in a then new European record of 57.33. See result list here
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Michael Phelps nails amazing, possibly record-breaking 159-foot putt
Michael Phelps who’s going to be on the “Haney Project” in 2013, is already making strides on golf’s biggest stage, after he holed a 159-foot putt at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Though obviously paling in comparison to the 18 Olympic gold medals and countless records he set in the pool, he may have set a record for the longest televised putt in golf history. Wow. See for instance Yahoo! Sports, Sports Grid and Deadspin