Swimmer's Daily

  • Danish swimmer Mathias Gydesen managed a 54.75 and joint 3rd with Ryan Lochte in the men’s 100 backstroke at the Indianapolis Grand Prix a moment ago, meaning that he probably missed the qualification for the London 2012 Olympics, after being only one hundredth of a second outside the FINA A qualification time of 54.40 this morning.

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  • Patrick Scully, 58, a locally known performance artist in Minneapolis say’s he’s fighting the ticket he received July 10 for swimming nude at a Sweeney Beach on Twin Lake because he thinks society is too repressive. Police says he just broke the law requiring proper attire in city parks, while the culprit says it was performance art.

    “I believe that you have to be the change that you want to see in the world,” said Scully, a 6-foot-7 dancer known to perform naked on stage and who also is a gay rights activist. “I’d like to live in a world in which our relationship to our bodies is much more relaxed and much less fearful.”

    Fortunately, there are no photos.

    Read more here on UPI.com

  • The queen of Italian swimming is the new testimonial for the Italian underwear brand Yamamay, chosen as an icon of tenacity and determination, qualities you need to succeed during tough swimming training, but also of style and sensuality. Gianluigi Cimmino, head of Inticom Spa, which owns the Yamamay brand, says, “This successful athlete and woman with sensuality in the style of Yamamay will represent the brand’s international development over the next two years.” See Vogue.it

  • Pál Joensen and his coach Jón Bjarnason checking out split times after the 1500 meter freestyle silver medal at the 2010 LEN European Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Those black and yellow trunks are ancient, going back to at least the 2008 European Junior Swimming Championships in Beograd, Serbia.

    Jón & Pál checking out split times at Budapest 2010

  • Benjamin Hockin, who swam for Britain at the 2008 Olympics and was suspended for a year in 2010 for not taking the right steps to notify his change of nationality, has given Paraguay a surprise place in the pool at the London Games, qualifying with a time of one minute 47.79 seconds in the 200 metres freestyle at the Spanish Open in Malaga on Friday. Read more here on Reuters.

  • After winning the 400 IM at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Olympic champion and world record holder Michael Phelps hinted that he may well swim the event in London, despite having vowed at the Beijing 2008 Olympis to never do it again. Read for instance SwimNews and The Baltimore Sun and see result list.

    “It’s a race that means a lot to us as a country and for me, somebody who has swum it so many times. If it happens, it would start everything off on an exciting note.”

    “I’m going to have to come back and do other events well,” Phelps said. “I just can’t have it affect my other races.”

  • At the Indianapolis Grand Prix this morning, Denmark’s Mathias Gydesen was fastest in the men’s 100 meter backstroke prelims, with a time of 54.41, one hundredth of a second from the FINA ‘A’ qualifying time that will qualify him for the London 2012 Olympics. You might remember that he got a dispensation from the Danish Swimming Federation, allowing him to try for a spot on the Danish Olympic team at the Indy Grand Prix, rather than the Danish Trials. Well, this is his one shot, in the final tonight in Indianapolis, watch the finals live here from 6 p.m. Indy time, that’s 22:00 GMT/UTC. Sure hope that the Americans will treat him well.

    (Gydesen in the Indianapolis 2012 men’s 100 butterfly final)

  • Reputable Danish club coach Ejnar Larsen announced this week that he will quit at the end of this season, opting for a job outside the sport of swimming. He coached Lotte Friis in her developing years, and now again formally as the coach of the club Herlev that she competes for at national meets, though not with any practical implications for her with him leaving, as she now does all of her training at the National Training Center in Bellahøj. Via www.simma.nu/dk

    After 20 years of coaching, with the Europeans, Olympics and Worlds on his resumé, and without really wanting to stir things up or sound as ‘a baby who’s lost its pacifier’, he makes the disturbing farewell observation that there is a ‘glass roof’ in Danish swimming, limiting the ambitious coaches’ possibilities on the international field, now with most of the Danish elite concentrated at the National Training Center. (more…)

  • Warning, Annamay Pierse tries burping the alphabet in this video.