Swimmer's Daily

  • Not really sure what is happening here, maybe the LEN prize money winners plus a few others, at the Rijeka 2008 European Short Course Swimming Championships.

    A star studded Rijeka 2008 group photo

  • A man sought emergency treatment at hospital in Auckland last week with an eel stuck up his bottom. It is believed the patient was sent for X-rays and a scan, which showed there was an eel lodged inside him.

    “The eel was about the size of a decent sprig of asparagus and the incident is the talk of the place,” a hospital source said. “Doctors and nurses have come across people with strange objects that have got stuck where they shouldn’t be before, but an eel has to be a first.”

    It is unclear how the eel managed to be trapped inside the man. It is believed medics successfully removed it and the man was later discharged.

    Eel

    (Photo courtesy of rach2k, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Notice! – This is *not* the eel in question!)

    Read more here on The New Zealand Herald, via Arbroath

  • “We live on an island and had no means of transportation to take her to the mainland so we tried swimming – and she loved it. Despite being a horse, she took to it like a duck to water. It helps to keep her fit, and we find swimming is good for her mentally as well.” Read Arbroath

    This *must* be what she is thinking, while swimming :-)

  • Surgery scars are an unsightly problem for many but now there may be a way to soften their appearance without chemicals or medication. Jamie Howard, a physical therapist in Center City, says she’s had success using the Graston technique. It was first developed for athletes, to loosen muscles, tendons, and scar tissue under the skin. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is said to be a devotee. Read 6ABC Action News

  • The resort my wife visited earlier this month, on a field trip with 9th grade students and fellow teacher and parents. A huge, former airship hangar transformed into Tropical Islands, complete with fake horizon and everything. By pure coincidence, another Faroese party visited at the same time, bringing the total tally of Faroese visitors up to 50, or about 1‰ of the total Faroese population. And oh yes, she recommends it.

    The Tropical Islands resort near Berlin, Germany

  • One and a half billion people in the world have to use contaminated water, the main vehicle for disease. In Africa, 4 out 5 deaths are linked to water. The lack of drinking water is one of the fundamental causes of hunger, disease and poverty. Read Arena International and see AMREF.

  • Aqualillies and what appears to really be Psy doing the Gangnam Style ‘synchro style’. As commented a couple of times on YouTube, ‘slightly disturbing’.

  • A short film by Paula Marinkovic & Alexandra Menk starring Melissa Gil, Diana Salom, and Kalia Aguera. Get a glimpse into the aquatic lifestyle of these amazing women!

  • Read Mail Online, Rebecca Adlington, the golden girl of British swimming, has revealed that she will not race at the next Olympic Games in Rio in four years’ time – and may even have swum in her last event.

    ‘Rio is out of reach,’ she said last night. ‘I’ll be 27 then, and swimming, especially for distance swimmers, is a young person’s game. Do I want to carry on and not get any faster? The answer is No.

    She also has a theory about why she (and the rest of the Brits) didn’t perform as expected (or hoped) at the London Games:

    ‘I think the reason I swam slower in the Olympic final than at any point during the year is because our first trials last March were too early. Most of the British swimmers swam their fastest times before the Games, too.
    ‘We have a 15-week cycle, which is why we all swam so well in our June trials. But it was too long to hang on to that form for London.
    ‘The first trials would have been better held in April. I’ve trained and raced well all season, but swam slower when it mattered. I wasn’t upset with the bronze in the 800m. It was the time that bothered me.’