Swimmer's Daily | Fast Fix Blog About Swimming

Oprah Winfrey finds swimming to be the great metaphor of life

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Gossip, Health

“Started out the week taking swimming lessons,” Winfrey said in an email Tuesday night. “Moving beyond my amateur doggy paddle. Learning the breast stroke today”. Admitting that for years she had been afraid of the water, she’s finally learned to go with the flow.

“This I’ve known forever is the great metaphor of life,” the lady who hates surprises emailed. “Move with the flow. Don’t fight the current. Resist nothing. Let life carry you. Don’t try to carry it. Sometimes we just have to be reminded. A swim lesson did it for me.”

Read The Huffington Post.
CAS will decide on Cielo and the others on July 22

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Doping

The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced today that it has scheduled it arbitration of FINA’s appeal against Cesar Cielo, Nicholas dos Santos, Henrique Barbosa and Vinicius Waked as well as the Brazilian Swimming Federation for July 20 in Shanghai, partially via video conferencing. They promise that it will take only half a day, and that deliberations and a final decision will be made at the end of July 22. CAS officially states that FINA has requested that the warnings issued be replaced by a period of ineligibility, and that results from the date of sample collection until the commencement of the period of ineligibility be annuled. Read more here on Swimming World Magazine.
Chinese slang for swimming is “boiling dumplings”

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Training

In China the public swimming pools are generally too crowded for swimming, leaving ordinary people no option but to stand on the spot, “boiling dumplings” as they say. Regular schools do not have swim teams and there is no network of community swimming clubs so the majority of training and racing in Chinese pools is at official sport schools, which groom children from a young age to compete internationally. Read more here on google.com/hostednews/afp

(crowded pool in Korea, nothing to do with China, but crowded :-)
How about an underwater bedroom suite for two ?

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Fun, Nature

A little over five years ago, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island opened the very first all-glass, undersea restaurant, offering guests the chance to eat 16 feet below sea level of the breathtaking tropical Indian Ocean. Now in celebration of this, they turned the Ithaa restaurant into a temporary private Hilton-class bedroom suite for two, complete with a private champagne dinner and breakfast in bed. Via modernmet.com.

(more…)
Shanghai pools closed in preparation for the World Championships

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Competition
As probably a natural result of hosting the event, seven or eight swimming pools in Shanghai have temporarily been transformed into training centers for athletes competing in the 14th FINA World Championships, forcing members there to find another pool until next month. Nearby pools are taking advantage of the situation by hiking the already relatively high entry fees. See Global Times.

The affected pools are according to Tales of City.
- Xuhui Swimming pool (No. 329 Fenglin Rd.)
- Swimming pool at International Gymnastics Center Shanghai (No. 777 Wuyi Rd)
- Swimming pool at Jingan Sports Center (No. 151 Kangding Rd)
- Diving pool at Pudong Oriental Sports Center (No. 168 Jiyang Rd)
- Swimming pool at Yuansheng Sports Center (No. 1458 Zhangyang Rd)
- Pudong Swimming Pool (No 3669 West Pudong Rd)
- Swimming Pool at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. 1200 Cailun Rd)
- Besides, the Shanghai Swimming Pool which has been decorated for two years will not open until the end of the competition.
90-year-old coaching legend Forbes Carlile still going strong

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in History, Training

A Channel Nine portrait of Australian coaching legend Forbes Carlile, who just recently turned 90, and though still walks the deck on occasions at Carlisle Swimming. Nice historical videos in this video.
Planking reaches swimming also (with Fanta)

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Fun

Planking is a craze consisting of having a photo taken while lying face down as a plank in an unusual location. Fanta Iceland has been arranging a competition on Facebook now for 4 weeks, called “PlankaÃ° meÃ° Fanta”, where people post photos of themself planking with Fanta bottles, with the chance of winning an iPhone 4. They are receiving a lot of photos, where I think this one is the best. Looks like a quality swimmer, floating like that.
The World Swimming Time Zone is now GMT+8 hours

Jul 13, 2011

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by

rokur

in Fun, Gossip

All the best swimmers in the world are now flocking along the China Standard Time zone, waking up at approximately 7 AM in Shanghai, midnight in London, 7 PM the day before in New York and 4 PM the day before in San Francisco. The Brits are in Osaka, the Americans at the Gold Coast in Australia, the Australians, Swedes and South Africans in Singapore, the Brazilians in Macau, the Dutch in China, and the Japanese in Japan.

Michael Phelps and the others had to wait for 4 hours on the plane in Chicago because of missing pilots, Cullen Jones is searching for a lost Tuesday, Roland Schoeman celebrated his Stilnox sleeping pills so hard yesterday that he almost missed afternoon practice, and Femke Heemskerk had difficulties using Twitter and Facebook in China, later solved by using something called mediafunnel (see MediaFunnel). Australia’s James Magnusson is sadly struck down with pneumonia, forcing him to withdraw from the Shanghai 2011.
Clenbuterol-contaminated meat a worry at Shanghai 2011

Jul 12, 2011

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by

rokur

in Doping

Interesting article here on the Washington Examiner, listing how different teams will cope with the danger of clenbuterol-contaminated meat at the Shanghai 2011 World Championships. USA are as always their own food with them, Australia will import meat and refrain from any pork meat, Italians will be urged to avoid red meat and instead eat more fish, while others like the South Africans and Serbia’s Milorad Cavic will trust the Chinese and FINA to make sure the food is safe.