Australian swim coach Ken Wood has tough love for his compatriots in the Olympics this year: “We’re getting too soft. Our work ethic has dropped down.” Having helped train China’s double gold winner Ye Shiwen, he says the Australians “cannot afford to be soft” to compete with Chinese swimmers, and questions the work ethic of Aussie athletes, saying those in London seemed to be more interested in socializing. “They’re running their mobile phones, Twittering and Facebook and everything else,” Wood said. “It was more of a carnival atmosphere.” Read CNN
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David Hasselhoff’s girlfriend rescues swimmer
I knew it, they were for real ! :-P
The actor, who played a lifeguard on popular TV series Baywatch, was snorkelling with Welsh girlfriend Hayley Roberts in the Riviera Maya when she heard the desperate calls from a man who was suffering from cramps.
The 32-year-old blonde, who has been dating Hasselhoff since last year (11), swam to his rescue and pulled him to shore, leaving her Hollywood star boyfriend impressed.
“I said to David, ‘I made a rescue.’ He said, ‘Good job – you could have been on Baywatch.’”
Read Hollywood
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The Art of the Jeah with Ryan Lochte
Speedo USA via Buzzfeed
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“Ryan Lochte Is Terrible At Commercials” (Spoof)
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Cheeky thieves steal stripes from bottom of Albuquerque swimming pool
Bernalillo County officials said they’re baffled after someone stole the stripes off the bottom of the Paradise Hills swimming pool. “You have to pull pretty hard because it’s been welded together,” Ed Chismar, with the parks and recreation department, said. Officials believe it took more than one person to do the job. The crime was not caught on camera because officials said there hasn’t been enough crime in the area to warrant surveillance. Read KOAT, via Arbroath
(video autoplays, put below the break)
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Ryan Lochte on Peeing in Pools
That’s it, I think I’ll just start swimming in the toilet
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The Olympic Ticket Scalper featuring Ryan Lochte
»Turning 2 first round badminton tickets into 4 final round swimming tickets is called ‘flipping the birdie’« :-) See Funny or Die
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CC photo 223: Eva Risztov being congratulated at Debrecen 2012
Hungary’s Eva Risztov silver medalist in the women’s 1500 freestyle at the Debrecen 2012 European Swimming Championships. Now also Olympic champion in the women’s 10K Marathon :-)
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Is IOC violating the fundamental rights of athletes, humans ?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake has fallen foul of the Olympic branding police after he wore his own (Richard Mille) wristwatch during his silver medal run. 800-meter track hopeful Nick Symmonds is forced to cover up a temporary tattoo on his left arm bearing the Twitter handle of one of his sponsors (Hanson Dodge Creative).
When some members of Team GB gave Dr. Dre and his Beats brand a shout-out for giving them free pairs of headphones that they wore on TV ahead of competition, IOC sanctioned them, telling them to stick to headphones from the official games sponsor Panasonic. Australian swimmer Libby Trickett was sanctioned for retweeting a good luck message from her sponsor Inner Nutrition and IOC forced 1500 meter track silver medal winner Leo Manzano to take down pictures of running shoes and comments about their performance from his Facebook page.
But, Olympic athletes have rebelled against the branding police, lashing out at IOC’s Rule 40, writing under the Twitter hashtags #wedemandchange and #rule40 to criticize the IOC restrictions, which they say hurt amateur athletes. Apparently even while blatantly waving those rules when it comes to the big names in for instance tennis.
And here is a gem off Google+, Mike Elgan bashing IOC with:
The IOC justifies this crackdown by citing Rule 40 of the IOC charter.
You like rules and charters? I’ve got one for you, IOC. It’s called Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifies that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”