Swimmer's Daily

  • New Zealand’s Olympic swimming hopes appear dim after SPARC’s damning review of the sport an insistence on change – with insiders saying there is little or no hope of medalling at London next year. Read more here on nzherald.co.nz, via the17thman.

  • In USA, African-American children are three times more likely to drown than white children, based on studies and statistics. Nearly 70 percent of African-American children can’t swim, compared to 40 percent for white children, according to the most recent survey from USA Swimming. The civic group 100 Black Men of Jackson wants to change this, having started an aquatics program to teach 125 area youths from ages 8-17 how to swim. Here is another one working hard to help, because of own bad experiences. Read clarionledger.com.

  • CDC’s Healthy Swimming Program is asking the public to make short, creative videos that feature simple steps everyone can take to ensure a healthy and illness-free swimming experience. There is a 1000 dollars to be won, plus worldwide fame and knowing that you made a difference, so get at it! Via imperialvalleynews.com.

  • Norwegian breaststroker Aleksander Hetland explains (in English) how he does fast breaststroke turns, and then demonstrates it in the water. He won bronze at the Dubai 2010 Short Course World Championships, so listen up ! :-)

  • Australian swim star Michael Klim admits to there having been times when he has climbed out of the pool and shaken his head, now after his comeback, mornings he has returned form a session and told his wife Lindy he wasn’t sure he could continue.

    The most recent difficult time came in Dubai when he was hit by a virus in the days leading up to an event and swam 51.7sec in the 100m freestyle. His old world record was 48.18sec.

    As he rested in the cool of his Dubai hotel room, flattened by illness and racing, his friend and Olympic champion Ian Thorpe just happened to call.

    “I’ve hit a bit of a wall,” Klim told Thorpe. “I’ve been going so well.”

    Thorpe had also been gliding through the water and then hit the wall. They spoke about the plateau.

    “My time trial I did a couple of months ago was faster than my Dubai race,” Klim says. “It’s hard. I expect to be improving every single time.”

    Read more here on the Sunday Telegraph.

  • Oh my, Charlene Wittstock is probably the first olympic swimmer to have her own royal maccaroons designed. Via gamutnews.com.

  • Designers have come up with an astonishing, floating, plus sign-shaped pool they hope to build in the East River, off Brooklyn Bridge Park. One of the technical challenges is water filtration, with the pool being planned as basically a “giant strainer”, filtering contaminated river water into clean, swimmable pool water. In order to accomplish this, the team has launched a Kickstarter project called +Pool, asking the public to pledge the $25,000 by Friday, July 15, that they need to build and test a model of the filtration method. Currently, they’ve got $13,005 pledged by 280 backers, with 27 days to go. Via Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

    +Pool is designed as four pools in one: a children’s pool, sports pool, lap pool and lounge pool. Each pool can be used independently, combined to form an Olympic-length lap pool, or opened completely for play. “We want to appeal to athletic swimmers as well as bathers,” says Wong Dong-Ping Wong from the firm Family New York.

  • In the last few years of the twentieth century, the Mayor of Lille in northern France had a quandary. The old swimming pool in Roubaix had been closed in 1985 due to safety problems, so why not simply knock the building down? Except, the pool was a stunning example of Art Deco architecture. Read kuriositas.com via neatorama.com. Picture courtesy of Graham Chandler.

    La Piscine, the art gallery in Roubaix

  • Last weekend, the Scadding Court Community Center swimming pool was drained, filled with tap water, and then filled with over 2,000 rainbow trout. This to offer city dwellers a summer fishing experience without leaving the city. It is an annual event called “Gone Fishin‘”. Fantastic! Via blogto.com.