Swimmer's Daily

  • Interesting column here on SwimmingWorld Magazine, about the danger of inadvertent doping from contaminated food in China. Prior to the Beijing Games in 2008, the risks were know to be significant, and food control therefore strict in the Olympic village. The same risks exist today, but there will be no Olympic-type village at the World Championships in Shanghai. Is FINA taking any precautions, asks the columnist.

  • Slovakian sprinter ĽuboÅ¡ Križko has been banned for two years by FINA, after testing positive for a metabolite of Tamoxifen at the European championships in Budapest on August 12, 2010. Tamoxifen is the standard anti-estrogen therapy used to treat breast cancer patients, but is also used in doping to control the side effects of taking steroids. Read SwimNews.com.

  • A pack of orcas hunting a seal really close to shore in Oyndarfjørður on the island Eysturoy where I live, yesterday. Difficult to see, but the seal eventually manages to escape, by hiding between the rocks and seaweed straight under the video photographer’s feet. We call them ‘bóghvítuhvalur’ because of their white belly, or ‘mastrarhvalur’ because of the large dorsal fin resembling a mast.

  • WesternLeader brought this story last Friday, about some local event called the World Bombing Championships in Henderson, New Zealand, yesterday. They want it to become a regional event next year, and then maybe turn it into a world competition. But but, researching this a bit, I find that there already was a UK / World Water Bombing Championships organized in Sheffield in at least 2010 and 2007, and a Splashdiving World Championships organized in Germany in 2010. This is exactly the reason why we need a central organization, to prevent this noble sport from degenerating into something silly :-)

  • Frédérick Bousquet has placed himself on a collision course with the French federation by threatening to boycott Shanghai world titles if his coach at Auburn, Brett Hawke, is not on the deck in China as part of the France contingent.  Read more here on SwimNews.com.

    Frédérick Bousquet at the Rijeka 2008 European Short Course Championships

  • The Nordic countries are seeing great development in long distance swimming, with swimmers like Lotte Friis, Mads Glæsner and Pál Joensen taking international medals, and others coming up through the ranks. For instance yesterday in Norway, 15-year-old Henrik Christiansen improved upon his best 1500 meter effort with 50 seconds, going from 16:55.73 and a 18th spot on the Norwegian short course championships start list, to 16:04.35 and a bronze medal in the overall competition. Unfortunately this was during prelim heats, so we don’t see him here in the final video. Via www.simma.nu/no

  • We have those here in the Faroes, and stories to tell like when two of my friends swam in the ocean at Leynar, with a third on land suddenly seeing two huge basking sharks playing pretty close to them. They never saw the sharks themselves, which was probably just as well. Via liveleak.com.

  • France’s Camille Muffat won the Championnats de France 200 freestyle moments ago, in 1:55.95 which is the 3rd fastest time ever in a textile suit. And in the following race, also French Yannick Agnel set a national record in the same event, with a time of 1:45.47, 14th best time in the World at all.

    La finale d’Agnel

  • The German Swimming Federation and the City of Berlin will host the 32nd European Championships in Swimming, Diving, Synchronized Swimming and Open Water Swimming as announced this week-end after a LEN Bureau meeting in Luxembourg. Venue will probably be the Velodrom, to accommodate more spectators than in the nearby Europasportpark swimming and diving center. Sources: swimsportnews.de and LEN Press Release.

    velodrom - berlin