Swimmer's Daily | Fast Fix Blog About Swimming

Antwerp 2012 day 3: Mie scorches the 50 back with a new Nordic record

Jul 6, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Competition

After three days of racing at the Antwerp 2012 European Swimming Championships, Russia is still clearly in the lead with 8 gold medals, 3 silver and 1 bronze, ahead of Italy’s 4 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze, and Germany’s 3 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze. Most winning swimmer(s) is now Russias relay teams with 2 gold and 1 bronze, the individuals still Italys Gabriele Detti and Russia’s Iuliia Larina with 2 gold medals each.

(Mie at the Stockholm 2010 World Cup)

Boys 200 butterfly

Great Britain’s Matthew Johnson took the gold in 1:58.50 ahead of Russia’s Andrey Tambovskiy in 1:59.25 and Germany’s Tobias Zajusch in 1:59.78. A nice sweep from behind by the youngster aged one year younger than the favorites, Johnson ranked 4th on the entry list with a time of 1:59.2, 4th in the prelims with a time of 2:01.64 and 4th in the semifinal with a time of 2:00.62.

(more…)
CC photo #188: Valentina Artemyeva at Rijeka 2008

Jul 6, 2012

—

by

rokur

in CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Competition

Russia’s Valentina Artemyeva at the Rijeka 2008 European Short Course Championships. She won gold in the 50 and 100 meter breaststroke there, see omegatiming.com.
CC photo #187: Mireia Belmonte GarcÃa at Debrecen 2012

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Competition

Just yet another photo of the ‘Phelpsian’ Mireia Belmonte GarcÃa.
Wir fÃ¼r London – DSGV video featuring Daniela Schreiber

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Uncategorized

A video featuring Daniela Schreiber and her unorthodox (or maybe really orthodox?) start position. 54.41 and bronze at the Debrecen 2012 Europeans, not so shabby.

Wir fÃ¼r London from robert staffl on Vimeo.
5-year-old swimming with sharks sparks YouTube outrage

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Nature, Open Water, Safety

A Connecticut couple David and Elana Barnes have been widely criticized after they posted online a video of their 5-year-old daughter, Anaia, swimming with sharks in the Bahamas.

Read more here on Digital Journal
Electrocution kills 3 children swimming in 2 separate incidents

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Open Water, Safety

On the Fourth of July, Alexandra Anderson, 13, and brother Brayden, 8, were killed while swimming near a private dock in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri around noon Wednesday. Two hours later, at Cherokee Lake outside Knoxville, Tenn., a 10-year-old was killed and another boy was seriously injured in an eerily similar incident. Read more here on ABC News
Florida lifeguard fired for saving out-of-bounds swimmer

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Safety, Wow, WTF

Thomas Lopez, a lifeguard at Florida’s Hallandale Beach, was fired Monday for leaving his official work zone in order save the life of a drowning swimmer. Apparently two other lifeguards have been fired for backing him, and four others have quit.

â€œI ran out to do the job I was trained to do,â€ Lopez, 21, of Davie, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. â€œI didnâ€™t think about it at all.â€

I say give the man a medal, and give his boss the boot.

(Update – Actually they did end up giving him a kind of medal)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu4D_O2tSgU

Read for instance NY Daily News and International Business Times
USADA allegedly allows confessed dopers to ride in return for testimony

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Doping, WTF

Confession, I used to be a cycling afficionado following the classics and the tours religiously up until the mess with first Festina and then Bjarne Riis obviously doped before confessing, me turning to Marco Pantani because he looked too tiny to be doped, just to have my newfound hero first caught doping and then dying from a bleeding cocaine overdose. My heart for cycling in shatters, watching Le Tour by habit only to realize that so many of those guys just won’t quit theirs.

Well, now the story goes that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has struck a deal with still active riders George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde and team director Jonathan Vaughters, to start a 6-months doping ban after their participation in the Tour De France and Vuelta a Espana, in return for turning on their former teammate and 7-team Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong. Read for instance road.cc and NBC Sports

Vaughters makes his and his team’s official statement in the video above.

I guess we’ll know in September.
Antwerp 2012 day 2: Carli takes down Heidi Grein’s (GDR) record from 1986

Jul 5, 2012

—

by

rokur

in Competition

After two days of racing at the Antwerp 2012 European Junior Championships, Russia’s youngsters are dominating the event with 7 gold medals and 1 silver (out of 14 gold possible till now), ahead of Italy’s 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze, and Germany’s 1 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze. Most winning swimmers are Russia’s Iuliia Larina and Italy’s Gabriele Detti, having won 2 gold medals each. And Italy’sÂ Diletta Carli took down East Germany’s Heidi Grein’s 400 freestyle European Junior Championships record from 1986.

Boys 100 backstroke

Russia’s Andrei Shabashov took the gold in 55.24 and 831 FINA points ahead of Italy’s favorites Fabio Laugeni in 55.31 (827 FINA points) and Niccolo’ Bonacchi in 55.63 (813 FINA points), Shabashov ranked third with a time of 56.08 on the entry list before clocking 56.72 and 6th in the prelims and then 56.15 and 3rd in the semifinal.

Detti winner of the 400 free, yesterday. Photo courtesy of JÃ¡kup Jacobsen

(more…)