Swimmer's Daily

  • A surprise call is being hatched to unleash James Magnussen in the relay heats so Australia’s new swimming figurehead can blow out any nerves and mistakes as an Olympics rookie before his full-on shots at gold medal glory. Read The Herald Sun

    “We’ve got to look at how to get the fastest team possible in the final and it may be letting guys go and make a mistake, be a bit nervous on the first 50, get the nerves out and absorb the atmosphere in a morning heat so they are coming in that night to get the job done,” Fowlie said.

  • No, not a lame duck but a tame duck outside the main doors of the swimming pool in Tórshavn during the Faroese (Short Course) Championships 2012. Someone fed it bread, maybe even cake, but when we went inside a gull dove down and stole it all.

    A tame duck outside the Faroe Champs 2012

  • A period nicknamed “the blackout” started today in which athletes competing in the games may not appear in any advertising by companies that are not official Olympic sponsors.

    To understand what this means, consider Michael Phelps: Subway has long sponsored the Olympic swimmer, but it’s not an Olympic sponsor. That means no Subway ads featuring Phelps can air between July 18 and Aug. 15. But this Head & Shoulders commercial of Phelps washing his hair is fine — Head & Shoulders is owned by Procter & Gamble, which is an Olympic sponsor.

    So here is the P&G commercial

    Read for instance The Washington Post and NPR, via SCAQ Blog

  • Four-time gold medallist Michael Johnson takes us through 26-minutes of London’s road to staging the greatest sporting show on the planet. Including exclusive interviews with Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, David Beckham, Jessica Ennis, Vivian Cheruiyot, Danny Boyle, Seb Coe and others, the programme promises to be a mouthwatering appetiser for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The part with Phelps starts at 21.42.

  • Only $250, tailor made, durable and 100% functional. Order them at 3-Fins

    Untitled from Monika Naumann on Vimeo.

    Via Buzzfeed

  • The voters have spoken: Swimming sensation Ryan Lochte and soccer star Alex Morgan have the most awesome bodies in sports. See ESPN W.

  • At the age of 17, Judy Grinham became the first British woman since 1924 to win an Olympic swimming gold medal, setting a world record en route to the 100m backstroke title at the 1956 Melbourne Games. When she returned to London airport on 16 December, she was greeted by enthusiastic relations, friends from the Hampstead Ladies Swimming Club, and ITN reporter John Hartley. Read Channel4

  • Read La Gazzetta dello Sport

    “I’m stopping next year. If I want to carry on swimming long into the future, I need to take a year’s sabbatical, a year completely dedicated to me, when I’ll put myself first. The World Championships take place next year, and I’ll just focus on trying to make it into the relay team. I won’t be taking part in any individual races. That means no 200 or 400 metres for me. I want to take things easy and do the things I do in a hurry now, but much more slowly. Even a holiday. A skiing holiday.”

    And oh yes, the headline of that story: Fede wants sex at the Olympics:

    “Abstinence? Are you mad?” Her comments are in complete contrast to those made by her boyfriend, fellow swimmer and Olympian Filippo Magnini, last month. In an interview that will appear in Italian gossip magazine Chi, which will hit the newsstands tomorrow, Fede said: “Filippo was joking. That’s all we need!”

  • Interesting story off The Telegraph, via GoSwim on Twitter

    Competitors from Australia and the United States were on buses that took almost four hours to get from Heathrow Airport to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, despite being able to use a newly-opened Games lane on the M4. It should take less than an hour.

    The driver of the Australians’ bus admitted that he had never driven the route before and did not know how to work the vehicle’s satellite navigation.

    As a result, he gave his passengers a roundabout tour of the capital, taking in Buckingham Palace and West Ham, until one Australian provided directions from a map on his mobile phone.

    For some weird reason, the Brits have already made a documentary about this :-P