Swimmer's Daily | Fast Fix Blog About Swimming

For lower-profile Olympians like Berens, social media is key to branding success

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition, Organization

Interesting article here on Mashable:

“Ricky Berens is a world-class athlete, but heâ€™s no Michael Phelps. The two teamed up to help the United States win a relay swimming gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and will probably both participate in the 2012 Games. But outside the pool their lives couldnâ€™t be more different.” â€¦

â€œYouâ€™re not getting all the TV time, so you have create your own story,â€ Berens told Mashable in an interview. â€œSocial media gives me a chance to do that.â€

Berens began boosting his social presence, primarily on Twitter and Facebook, about a year ago with consulting help from the new media marketing company Spiracle Media. Since then, heâ€™s says heâ€™s secured sponsorship deals with BMW, Got Chocolate Milk and TYR. Those deals were made possible by a number of factors, but Berens says heâ€™s sure his social media efforts played a crucial role.

Read moreÂ here on Mashable
British military testing their missile systems in London

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition, Organization

A chilling site for London residents, the British military rolling out Rapier surface-to-air missile systems on a field in London. Via Geekosystem.

Speaking to the Associated Press, retired Dutch Navy captain and director of the Wiser defense consulting firm Jan Wind had this to say about the Rapier system:

â€œWhen you launch a Rapier missile and shoot down an aircraft, itâ€™s not like the whole thing vanishes. Itâ€™s 100 tons of metal, scraps, and other stuff that is coming down […] If a Rapier is used, the damage could be just about the same as the intentions of the terrorist â€” only on another spot. The goal of the terrorists will be met in a certain sense[.]â€œ

According to that video, ‘the military insists that the measures are prudent and proportionate to the threat’. Struggling here to see how that is supposed to comfort us.
Michael Phelps Foundation IM Program 2011

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Health, Organization, Safety

Recap of the Michael Phelps Foundation IM Program Impact in 2011. For more information on the Michael Phelps Foundation visit www.facebook.com/MichaelPhelpsFoundation. Via the17thman
Russian taxi driver runs car into huge pothole, fortunately knows how to swim

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Fun, Safety, Wow, WTF

As Dave puts it here on Daily Picks and Flicks: “A taxi driver in the city of Kirov, Russia, is having a really bad day.”
Thomas Fraser-Holmes toughs it out after two drowning tragedies

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition, Safety

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Thomas Fraser-Holmes was part of the search party to recover the body of 14-year-old Matthew Barclay, who drowned at the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships on March 28 on the Gold Coast, just 10 days after Thomas-Fraser had beaten Thorpe and all other rivals in the most publicised event of the Australian Olympic swimming trials, the men’s 200m freestyle. Even more poignant for Fraser-Holmes, it was two years since his great mate Saxon Bird had drowned in an almost identical situation, in the same event, on the same beach. Read more here on smh.com.au.
Sexually graphic emails led to firing of former UT swim coach John Trembley

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Gossip

Pornographic images and sexually explicit emails are to blame for the firing of the former University of Tennessee head swim coach, but no criminal charges will be made. UT record don’t make clear whether John Trembley ever acted on his online offers of sex or whether that double life extended past a few days in May and June, the whole issue sparked a complaint on December 2 that Trembley had asked former UT swimmer and double Olympic gold medal winner Melvin Stewart for a check made payable to him personally. In a response to these news, Trembley sent the following statement via his lawyer:

“For the past several years, I have been treated for depression,” Trembley wrote. “More recently I have struggled with substance abuse and addiction to fantasy communications with others through the Internet. … I continue to seek and receive treatment and have been substance- and destructive behavior-free for 2012. … I deeply regret any harm leveled on anyone. … It is a beautiful day and it is great to be alive.”

Read wbir.com, knownews.com and SwimmingWorld Magazine.
CC photo #127: Start splashes at the 2009 Faroese Championships

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Faroe Islands

A photo from the 2009 Faroese (Short Course) Championships. ‘Short Course’ in parenthesis because we only have short course pools here. This year’s Faroese championships start on Thursday, to be televised and probably streamed online and everything, I’ll get back on that one later.
German Swimming Championships start list and details

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Competition

The 124th German Swimming Championships are next week, Thursday May 10th to Monday May 14th in Berlin, Olympic qualifying meet and also German qualification for the European Juniors in Antwerp in July. The start list is now online as pdf and on the championships site with room for results, including of course all major German swimmers, plus one Slovenian. See schwimm.dm.de for more details, there is even the menu plan for you to drool over :-)
A New Aquatics Facility For UCSB Athletics

May 5, 2012

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by

rokur

in Organization, Swimming Pools, Wow

Already one of the top academic institutes in the US, University of California, Santa Barbara is also aiming to raise the bar of its athletic campus, beginning with a new $9.5 million aquatics facility, “A place for champions”. Standing applause here.