Swimmer's Daily

  • Baby pygmy hippopotomus Monifa takes her first swim, watched by her Taronga Park Zoo Keeper in Sydney, Australia. “She’s really good, she’s an amazing swimmer, we’re very proud”, via neatorama

  • This report released today by the Danish Sports Confederation (DIF) reveals growing membership numbers in Danish football (soccer), swimming and gymnastics, while sports like handball, badminton and tennis see pretty much equivalent declines.

    The 10 biggest sports in Denmark in 2011

    1. Football 356,754 (+13,799)
    2. Golf 157,496 (-588)
    3. Swimming 146,103 (+9,515)
    4. Gymnastics 129,876 (+5,086)
    5. Handball 113,323 (-1,605)
    6. Badminton 90,967 (-3,597)
    7. Workers’ Sport 79,032 (+4,716)
    8. Equestrianism 73,023 (-1,214)
    9. Tennis 60,414 (-2,127)
    10. Sailing 56,624 (-1,663)

    (numbers in parenthesis is change compared to 2010)

    The ambition is to have 100.000 more Danes doing sports by the end of 2013 compared to 2010-numbers, piloted by 20 development projects including new federations and projects focusing on more members in existing federations. Football (soccer) has seen the biggest growth in sheer numbers, while swimming has the fastest growth rate among the biggest sports.

    The results from the annual membership registration show that DIF’s 61 federations now have 1,734,094 members in total, which is 13,494 members more than the year before. This is a small number compared to the 13,799 in football alone, and 28,400 in football, swimming and gymnastics combined, so there seems to be more a shift towards these sports from other sports, rather than recruitment of new members of sport in general.

    See DIF Statistics for more details.

  • 27-year-old Paul Sleeman and 60-year-old Peter Sleeman had been fishing at a beach in Cornwall, Britain when large wave swept Paul off the rocks and into the rough see, his dad trying to save him with a lifebelt before being dragged also into the surf by another huge wave. They were both in the lifebuoy when rescuers arrived 30 minutes later, read the Mirror:

    RNLI volunteer Damien Bolton said yesterday: “We saw the men near the cliff. They were being thrown into the rocks like they were clothes being tumbled around in a washing machine.

    “The son was holding his father and both were in a lifebuoy. The father was face down in the sea.

    “I told the son he would have to let go of his dad and swim towards us.

  • Great Britain is the only major London 2012 medal contender not to be offering any financial bonus to athletes who win gold medals at this summer’s Olympic Games, the athletes instead having to cash in on their triumph after the Games, at a time when post-Olympic corporate interest may wane, or be diluted by the 16-22 expected home team gold medals. Read The Telegraph.

    National Olympic associations bonuses for gold medals
    (not including private sponsorship deals)

    • Italy £116,075
    • Russia £85,791
    • France £41,455
    • China* £34,980
    • Japan £22,847
    • South Korea* £22,000
    • USA £15,736
    • Australia £12,906
    • Germany £12,436
    • Denmark £11,087
    • Great Britain £0

    *Figure relates to bonus paid after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

    (I’ve included Denmark, since I know the amount … DKK 100,000)

  • London 2012 organizers point out open water swimming as one of the five Olympic venues most vulnerable to disruption by lone pranksters, organized protests or terrorists, and will therefore will rely on thousand of trained stewards lining the course, on top of thousands of Metropolitan Police and military directly involved in Olympic security. The stewards will stand around 25 yards apart on the edges of the race courses, facing the spectators to monitor the crowd for suspicious behavior, and there will even be high security surrounding the Serpentine several weeks before competition to prevent poisoning of the water. Read The Telegraph via GoSwim on Twitter.

  • Via Boston Herald, RT goes even further calling an especially deep cut a ‘suicide attempt’, don’t know if that is overinterpretation, though.

  • The 2012 State King of the Bays is part of a six-race ocean swim series taking place on some of New Zealand’s most beautiful harbours and beaches, see oceanswim.co.nz

    Part 1

    Part 2

  • Impressive live graphics and design by Zspace for Network Ten, used at the 2012 Australian Swimming Championships last month.

  • Photo taken during the closing ceremony of the Rome 2009 World Aquatics Championships.

    Flags around the Roma 2009 Pool