Swimmer's Daily

  • Finland’s Hanna-Maria Seppälä happy with her 59.24 women’s 100 meter individual medley win at the Rijeka 2008 European Short Course Championships. It was a new European Championship record, and it was her birthday.

    Seppälä winner of the Rijeka 2008 women's 100 IM

  • The annual Swim Cup Eindhoven will be held in the Pieter van den Hoogenband swim stadium from tomorrow April 12th until Sunday April 15th 2012, featuring world class swimmers from the Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain, Slovenia and Brazil, the likes of Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Sarah Sjöström, David Carry, Peter Mankoč and Bruno Fratus. See startlist here from the event site and follow their channel on YouTube, I understand that this is quite an important test for the Swedes, via www.simma.nu/se

    Update: Lot’s of videos from the Eindhoven Swim Cup on Zwemsiten!

  • According to SwimNews, French breaststroke Olympic medallist Hugues Duboscq has finaly parted company with mentor and coach of 15 years, Christos Paparradoupolos, after dissapointing results at the French Olympic trials in Dunkirk last month. Duboscq telling L’Equiope:

    “I hardly saw Christos in Dunkirk … after the races, he disappeared. Just like last year in Shanghai, where after the 100 breaststroke, I didn’t hear from him for three days. For years, after each of my performances, I was left to myself. The role of a coach is to be there no matter what. He must be present at the pool and afterwards. The swimmer who fails always turns to self-reflection – but he also needs to talk.”

  • 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.