Swimmer's Daily

  • Malaysian media The Star has this story on how the Olympic dream is over for 6 Malaysian swimmers, caught between having made the Olympic invitation time and not being invited by FINA. As swimming coach Paul Birmingham Thomas puts it:

    “We also couldn’t apply for wildcards as this wasn’t allowed as we had swimmers who already bettered the Olympic qualifying standards in the first place.

    “This is ludicrous as we are deemed not good enough to join the top ranked swimmers at the Olympics while those from countries ranked at the bottom make it.

    (more…)

  • The 30-year-old actress Jessica Biel has spent a week time in Puerto Rico, where her fiance Justin Timberlake has been filming his new movie “Runner, Runner”, to take advanced PADI diving courses. If I understand it correctly, meaning she can dive down to 30 meters now. My guess is that her speciality is hot water dives :-)

    Via Business Standard

  • Incredibly realistic except for the budgie smugglers and the high-cut swimming suits. For PS3, Xbox and PC, see www.olympicvideogames.com

  • At the U.S. Olympic Trials yesterday evening, Rebecca Soni and Micah Lawrence qualified for the women’s 200 breaststroke, with a time of 2:21.13 and 2:23.03 respectively. Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary took the men’s 200 backstroke in 1:54.54 and 1:54.88, Michael Phelps took the men’s 200 IM in 1:54.84 ahead of Ryan Lochte in 1:54.93, and in the women’s 100 freestyle, Jessica Hardy and Missy Franklin took the individual spots in 53.96 and 54.15, with Allison Schmitt, Lia Neal, Amanda Weir and Natalie Coughlin qualifying for the 4×100 relay. See all results from day 6 here.

  • Last night at about midnight after having swum for more than 40 hours, 49-year-old Penny Palfrey was pulled out of her swim from Cuba to Florida “due to a strong southeast current that made it impossible for her to continue her swim.” Read for instance the Washington Post.

  • Masters swimming is in its infancy here in the Faroe Islands, with the annual Faroese championships only two years old, and competitions scarce. We are also not really ‘there’ yet when it comes to making this part of competitive really serious, proven for instance by the fact that we typically switch roles and let the young swimmers be officials, and hesitate started registering national masters records and stuff. But that being said, the young officials are really enthusiastic and probably just as good as the rest of us :-)

    Young officials at the SuSvim masters meet

  • Olympic champion Grant Hackett battled a “heavy” reliance on the controversial sleeping pill Stilnox towards the end of his swimming career, an investigation has revealed. The pills were administered by swimming officials during meets, including the Olympics.

    “At one point they scared me,” he said. “They’re evil.

    The overuse was because of a shoulder injury from 2006 onwards and continued grueling training sessions of 16 km a day in the pool. He had problems sleeping and took Stilnox over a “longer than usual period”, the Sunday Telegraph now blasting team doctors et al.

    The greatest Olympic swimmer of all time, US superfish Michael Phelps, has openly admitted to using Ambien (the US version of Stilnox) when in heavy training and competition throughout his career.

    Read more here on news.com.au

  • A traditional Faroese rowing boat, design from way back in the viking days, used as on of the escort boats at the open water race “Jóansøkusvimjingin” across the firth of Tvøroyri back in 2011.

    DSC_5718

    Our national sport is races in these rowing boats, arranged as a series of races at village festivals where they rack up points, with the big final being on our national day in the capitol of Tórshavn.

  • At the U.S. Olympic Trials yesterday evening, Marine Pirate Scott Weltz and Clark Burckle upset favorites Eric Shanteau and Brendan Hansen by taking the men’s 200 breaststroke Olympic tickets in 2:09.01 and 2:09.97. Cammile Adams and Kathleen Hersey took women’s 200 butterfly tickets in 2:06.52 and 2:07.72, and in the men’s 100 freestyle Nathan Adrians and Cullen Jones in 48.10 and 48.46. See all results from day 5 here.