Swimmer's Daily

  • China’s Sun Yang today clocked a 3:42.89 in almost-meet-canceling pouring rain at the Miami Super Challenge in Miami, Queensland, Australia, followed by compatriots Li Yunqi in 3.45.69, (16-year-old) Hao Yun in 3:45.69 and Dai Jun in 4th in 3:50.79, with 1st Aussie Wally Eggelton in 5th in 3:57.60. Sure wish I had a video from that race. See results here and read Speed Endurance Blog

  • We know the story, she’s given up on a lot of money in order to be able to stay NCAA eligible. According to USA Today some $130,000 in prize winnings plus three endorsement offers, while her mother has taken a year-long sabbatical to be her scheduler and media handler. But team is important to Missy Franklin:

    “Team is so important to me,” she says. “I love being part of a team. It, for me, is one of the best feelings in the world.”

    Read more here on USA Today

  • A bit old video here, but interesting. Dad sounds like a swell guy, making her swim farther out into the sea than she dared.

    Colors 77 – Federica Pellegrini from bryce licht on Vimeo.

  • National Team member and Olympic hopeful Tyler Clary shares his thoughts on challenges and dealing with pressure leading up the 2012 Olympics Trial on Omaha, Nebraska. Ouch, he dislocated his shoulder at the Duel in the Pool in December, something that ‘happens from time to time’ as he has ‘super-loose’ shoulders. Still, ouch.

  • The beautiful Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto indoor aquatics centre at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, during the 13th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Rome 2009. Inaugurated in 1959, designed by architects Enrico Del Debbio and Aniballe Vitellozzi to host the swimming, diving, water polo, and swimming portion of the modern pentathlon events for the 1960 Summer Olympics, refurbished to host the European Aquatics Championships in 1983, reconfigured and expanded for the 1994 World Aquatics Championships, and then used again as the Roma 09 warmup pool.

    Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto

  • Jake Schultheis “captured his only fish in the sea” with a pre-staged marriage proposal for girlfriend Cassidi Humphries on Thursday morning, a news release from the Virginia Aquarium said. It took a moment for Humphries to realize the message was intended just for her, but she got it when he got down on one knee, popped open a lighted ring box, and presented her with a diamond ring. And said “Yes!”. Read WAVY.com

    Aww, and it rhymes and everything

  • The Australian Institute of Sport, working with Australia’s national swim team, has just published a new study of altitude training in the Europe Journal of Applied Physiology, where they took 37 elite swimmers and divided them into three groups:

    1. Classic altitude training: three weeks in Sierra Nevada, Spain (2,320 meters)
    2. LHTL, spending at least 14 hours a day for three weeks at simulated 3000m at AIS in Canberra
    3. A control group that didn’t go to altitude

    Although they found a clear increase in total hemoglobin mass of about 4% in both altitude groups, they did not find the same increase in performance. In the scientists’ own words:

    Although altitude training induced erythropoeisis, this physiological adaptation did not transfer directly into improved competitive performance in elite swimmers.

    Read more here on Sweat Science

  • A statement by Namibia Swimming Union president Klaus Laborn has come under fire, that Nambian swimmers haven’t got enough time left to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics.

    “We will not have Namibian swimmers qualifying for the Olympics. They are far away from the qualifying times, the spaces are limited and the time to qualify is also limited. We are working on getting there in four years time”

    He has since rephrased his statement, but the gates are closing anyhow, as participating nations need to submit a provisional list of athletes before March 15.

    Any athlete not on these lists will not make be allowed to participate at the London 2012 Olympics, even if they make the time before July 9th.

    Read Namibia Sport

  • Ian Thorpe has made late changes to his training regime in an effort to find form before the Olympic trials in March, following disappointing performances at the Victoria State Championships last week. He sat down with coach Gennadi Touretski, national head coach Leigh Nugent and performance science manager Bernard Savage to analyse his performance, and together they identified three areas that need to be addressed: Thorpe’s fitness, his training stimulation and approach to racing.

    “When he swam the 400m (before his 2006 retirement), his fitness came from the work he did in the pool but now he’s not training enough (in the pool) to get that fitness,” Touretski said from Switzerland yesterday.

    “He thought what he was doing was enough to swim sprints but it isn’t. The key thing is that his athletic level is not in place. So he must spend more time doing cardiovascular fitness work.”

    Thorpe doesn’t have the time to make those fitness gains in the water, so the focus will be on training out of the pool – skipping, cycling, treadmill work.

    “He never did dry-land training before because he did the work in the water but now he must,” the coach said. “We are establishing that program.”

    Read more here on The Australian