Swimmer's Daily

  • Award winning documentarian Richard Fitzpatrick, together with the team from the Catlin Seaview Survey, will be hanging out on Google+ from beneath the sea LIVE from the Great Barrier Reef this Friday March 30 at 3:45 p.m. Sydney Time (that’s early Friday morning 04:45.00 UTC in Europe). Leave your questions and comments for the divers here, Google+ is sort of a mix of Facebook and Twitter, only without your friends :-P

    (OK, that was uncalled for … I use Google+, and I like it, but then I’m a geek :-)

  • Interesting fact here on Slate:

    Because it’s practically freezing down there. The water temperature at the bottom of the ocean usually hovers around 37 degrees Fahrenheit, and most deep-sea exploration vehicles don’t have climate control. Explorers tend to bring hats, gloves, long johns, and other warm layers, which they pull on as they descend and the temperature drops. Socks and caps are particularly important, as it’s coldest on the floor and ceiling of the submersible. Because of concerns over electrical fires, deep-sea explorers wear natural fibers like cotton and especially wool, which is fire retardant, instead of synthetic fabrics.

  • News broke last week that former Mission Viejo Nadadores assistant coach Daniel Ad’m Dusenbury “may face a lifetime ban from swimming following allegations that he had sex with an underage female Nadadores swimmer” according to the Orange County Register.

    Interviews with Nadadores officials, parents and others indicate that Nadadores coaches and officials may have suspected as early as 2006 that Dusenbury, then 28, was involved with a then 16-year-old Nadadores swimmer, who also attended Aliso Niguel High School. Some coaches and club officials continued to discount evidence that surfaced in recent months that appears to confirm that Dusenbury had a sexual relationship with the girl that lasted more than four years.

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  • At the Canadian Olympic trials yesterday, Brittany MacLean clocked 4:06.08 in the women’s 400 freestyle to lower the previous mark of 4:07.32 set by Brittany Reimer at the 2005 world championships in Montreal. MacLean qualified easily for the Olympics, along with Savannah King in 4:07.02. Scott Dickens qualified with a 1:00.42 in the men’s 100 breaststroke, Alec Page and Blake Worsley with 4:17.78 and 4:23.22 in the men’s 400 IM, and Katerine Savard with a 58.45 in the women’s 100 butterfly. Read more here on swimming.ca.

  • It took Vasili Krapivin 50 seconds to swim 25 meters during an open tournament in Sochi, Russia, having had the category “100 years or older” added to the swimming championships program especially for him. Born in 1912, he worked in the coal mines from the age of 18, graduated from the Tomsk Polytechnical Institute in 1936, but was sent to labor camps for 20 years for anti-Soviet propaganda, unable to ever find out specifically what he was imprisoned for, with no trial and all. Mining gold an tine ore in Kolyma, Siberia, meeting his quota fully, he would receive the full ration of 900 grams of bread, which enabled him to survive. “They have 12 months of winter there, and the rest of the time it’s summer”, the 100-year-old swimmer said about his imprisonment, with a laugh.

    And by the way, he believes there is no special secret to long life: You just have to get up every morning at 6:00 a.m., run down to the sea, take a swim, and run back again.

    Hats off to Krapivin!

    Read more here on Russia Beyond the Headlines

  • Czech swimmer Michal Rubacek has been suspended two years for testing positive for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine at the Czech championshipos in December 2011, meaning he will miss the London Olympics after competing at the games in Athens and Beijing. He holds the Czech records in the 50 and 100 meter butterfly. Read more here on The Washington Post.

  • At the “Broadcasters’ Meeting” yesterday, it was revealed that the surroundings of the Debrecen 2012 European Swimming Championships pool will be covered with temporary grandstands for the athletes and media, as part of the struggle to have as many seats as possible for the fans.

    László Szakadáti, director of LEN said: “The pool is not very big but it is going to be made big by the event. On behalf of LEN we must be grateful to the Hungarian for electing the adventure – sticking with their traditions – and accepted the organization of this event three months prior to the opening ceremony. They knew what they undertook and we knew they were probably the only federation capable of pulling off such a feat on a high level.”

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  • A smart looking Frédérick Bousquet on deck at the FINA 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Italy. Jeez, I can’t get over that he missed out on the London 2012 Olympics.

    Frederick Bousquet

  • The Canadian Olympic & Paralympic Swimming Trials started today, and will be streamed live here on swimcanweb.tv until Sunday, April 1, prelims from 10 AM and finals from 7 PM local time in Montreal (that’s 14:00 and 23:00 UTC), with video on demand available also. Visit www.swimtrials.ca for all kinds of details, including schedule, live results and browsable start lists and results. I’m looking forward to Cochrane’s 1500 on Sunday.