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London is now officially a militarized no-fly zone

Jul 15, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition, Organization, Safety, Wow, WTF

The Aviationist reports that as of this weekend, the usual civilian control of London’s skies is (temporarily) over, and the Royal Air Force is in charge. A new task force called “Atlas Control” will monitor London’s airspace in the weeks leading up to and during the Olympics, with most traffic over the city banned or tightly regulated. “Not since the Second World War have our skies been so closely guarded.” Wow, read Gizmodo.

The Aviationist says flying near London should be pretty tense:

All pilots have to be in constant communication with “Atlas Control”. Even those that are within 10 nautical miles of the outer boundary are expected to keep an ear on the Atlas frequency at all times.

(more…)
Brenton Rickard’s mother threatened by Swimming Australia

Jul 15, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition, Organization

The mother of an Australian Olympian is being threatened with legal action by Swimming Australia after lobbying too hard for swimmers with disabilities. Also, Melanie Schlanger’s parents are angered that they are not sure whether they will get to see their daughter swim in the finals, having applied for ticket in the public ballot but missing out.
CC photo #197: Our president greeting Magnus at FM 2012

Jul 15, 2012

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by

rokur

in CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Competition, Faroe Islands

Jon Hestoy, president of the Faroese Swimming Association, congratulating young Magnus JÃ¡kupsson (1994) at the 2012 Faroese (Short Course) Swimming Championships. The occasion that Magnus had won our highest-ranked ‘starred golden pin’ for his Faroese record of 55.94 in the 100 IM.

Magnus has been a busy man these past 12 days, setting 7 Faroese records and 7 junior records the five days at the European Junior Championship, and then again 6 Faroese records and 7 junior records the six days at the Danish Championships (with one travel day in between).

(more…)
Danish swim chief to become club director after Olympics

Jul 15, 2012

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by

rokur

in Organization

Danish national team director Lars SÃ¸rensen announced early 2011 that he would stop after the London 2012 Olympics, and now it has been announced that he will start as club director of Hovedstadens SvÃ¸mmeklub (the Capitol’s Swim Club), a merger of GI40Hermes and SvÃ¸mmeklubben KÃ¸benhavn into Denmark’s biggest sports club.

In other Danish swimming news, local bloggers are enraged by their Olympic team appearing half-hearted at the Danish Nationals this past week, getting special treatment like being allowed to swim ‘out of competition’ in the outer lanes of finals despite of not having swum prelims, culminating with one swimmer switching from back to breaststroke in the 200 backstroke final (after having qualified for it in the prelims), apparently as planned with the team chiefs.

Their complaint has already hit major Danish news channels like DR Sporten and (tabloid) Ekstra Bladet, SÃ¸rensen offering this explanation (in my bad translation):

‘It is of course against the rules, but I would like to nuance this a bit. Because of Olympic preparations, Rikke only had two days at the Danish Championships, these two days not including the 200 breaststroke that she would like to swim. So it was an attempt to optimize a few days at the Danish Champs seen in respect to her primary event not being there.’
Hackett’s wife Candice Alley under investigation for shoplifting

Jul 15, 2012

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by

rokur

in Gossip

Candice Alley, the singer and estranged wife of swimming star Grant Hackett, is under police investigation for allegedly shoplifting children’s designer clothing from a posh Melbourne boutique. The claim is that she took four items from a Brighton shop on June 30 and five items from a Port Melbourne shop on July 1. Among the items, valued at $700 in total, were “tops, tights and one red dress”, the manager told Fairfax Media.

“She was blonde and dressed very well,” said the manager. “I hope they catch and expose her.”

Read The Herald Sun

This is big news in Australia, of course

Really big news
Team USA recap of the U.S. Olympic Trials

Jul 14, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition

Visit teamusa.org

Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte lead the Men’s U.S. Swimming Squad to London from Jonathan Solin on Vimeo.
3 Steps of a Cliff Dive – Orlando Duque Colombia 2012

Jul 14, 2012

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by

rokur

in Nature, Wow

10X Cliff Diving World Champion Orlando Duque describes his passion and preparation for the sport he loves, cliff diving.
London Olympic committee says link only if you’re nice

Jul 14, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition, Organization, WTF

Another LOCOG internet policing criticism this time on boingboing, pointing to this chapter in the Terms of Use for the London 2012 website:

“a. Links to the Site. You may create your own link to the Site, provided that your link is in a text-only format. You may not use any link to the Site as a method of creating an unauthorised association between an organisation, business, goods or services and London 2012, and agree that no such link shall portray us or any other official London 2012 organisations (or our or their activities, products or services) in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise objectionable manner.”

(Somewhat relevant story on CNN)
Ryan Lochte doing plyometric box jumps with medicine ball throw

Jul 14, 2012

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by

rokur

in Dryland, Training

Via the17thman