Swimmer's Daily

  • The lineup of the Russian Olympic swimming team is complete, with 29 athletes earning the right to represent their country in London 2012, following the conclusion of the National Championships in Moscow. According to RT the one chance that Russian swimmers had to qualify for the Summer Olympics, which makes you wonder what the heck Lobintsev was thinking:

    “You know I came to the championships completely out of form, which was plain to see,” Lobintsev explained. “I completely flunked the 400 meters and didn’t do much better in the 200 meters. But now I’ve more or less found my form again, I got silver in the 100 meters and managed to qualify and I still think that’s a success.”

    (more…)

  • Construction is already underway on the Shimao Intercontinental Hotel in the Songjiang District of Shanghai – a five-star, 19-story, 380-room, luxury hotel built into an abandoned, part-flooded quarry, including underwater public areas and guestrooms facing a ten-meter deep aquarium. The lowest level of the hotel will contain a leisure complex with a swimming pool and water-based sports, and an extreme sports centre for activities such as rock climbing and bungee jumping will be cantilevered over the quarry. Sheesh, I sure hope they will sound-proof those windows. See Atkins via Gizmag

  • Another photo of Japanese fans at the the Rome 2009 World Aquatics Championships, the other one was here.

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  • Wow, according to The British Journal of Photography, security guards from private security firm G4S recently ran out and harassed photographers taking pictures of the Olympic site from public land, going as far as shouting at them, grabbing the cameras and pushing them back. The guards’ manager approached the photographers, explaining that they had been trained to deter people from taking photographs, whereafter the photographers asked for police to attend, who confirmed that the photographers behavior was entirely lawful.

    “The guards are very poorly trained by G4S,” claims Hoffman. “The blame should be on G4S and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games whose penny-pinching attitude and contempt for the media is already causing us problems and is certain to cause us a great deal more problems unless we take a stand.”

    The hi-vis army, Olympic Park, East London

    (Photo courtesy of J@ck!, CC BY 2.0)

    Read The British Journal of Photography, via PetaPixel

  • Brazil’s Olympic champion Cesar Cielo unveiled on Monday (April 23) the latest skin-tight Arena swimsuit he will wear at London’s Olympic Games this summer. And promised to break the world record, come London 2012. Cielo and other Brazilians swimmers will compete for a spot in the Olympic games this week at the Troféu Maria Lenk 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (April 24 – 28). A meet that will also feature Danish world champions Lotte Friis and Jeanette Ottesen, competing for the Corinthians in the team competition.

    See start lists and live timing

  • Swimming superstar James Magnussen has been laid low with another chest infection, ruling him out of a three-day training camp with his Australian relay team-mates in Canberra. Aussie head coach Leigh Nugent plays down the illness concerns, insisting it is just a blip in his preparations ahead of the London Games starting in July, and by the way also says “He seems to go pretty well if he’s sick or not”. But still, just a few days earlier we read on the Daily Telegraph how they ‘wrapped him in cotton’ to prevent illnes from derailing his campaign, making a “contingency plan” and even considering taking antibiotics before competition. Read ABC News.

  • According to the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention, participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by as much as 88% among young children aged 1 to 4 years, who are at greatest risk of drowning. But with many families still struggling financially, swim lessons are not a top priority in many homes, and that’s why the YMCA is teaching hundreds of preschoolers from all over Thomas County in Georgia these life saving swim lessons for free. Read WALB News.

    The CDC drowning prevention tips are:

    • Learn life-saving skills. Everyone should know the basics of swimming (floating, moving through the water) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
    • Fence it off. Install a four–sided isolation fence, with self–closing and self–latching gates, around backyard swimming pools. This can help keep children away from the area when they aren’t supposed to be swimming. Pool fences should completely separate the house and play area from the pool.
    • Make life jackets a “must.” Make sure kids wear life jackets in and around natural bodies of water, such as lakes or the ocean, even if they know how to swim. Life jackets can be used in and around pools for weaker swimmers too.
    • Be on the look out. When kids are in or near water (including bathtubs), closely supervise them at all times. Adults watching kids in or near water should avoid distracting activities like playing cards, reading books, talking on the phone, and using alcohol or drugs.

  • Vintage swimming footage from the Japan 1933, Helsinki 1952, Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Munich 1972 Olympics. WestCoastMedia have a DVDs from these Championships that you can purchase for $20 if you live in North America and $26 if you live overseas, see video description.

  • “The one thing that will keep the kids safe around the pool is a parental supervision. Watching your kids while they’re swimming to make sure that they are out of danger and they are not falling down hitting their head or having any types of accident while they’re in the pool.”