University of Houston head coach Mark Taylor passed away late Friday evening of an apparent heart attack in Austin, Texas. His wife, Lorrain, and his two sons, Troy and Zane, survive Taylor, 50. Taylor had just completed his ninth season as head coach for the Houston swimming team. Before that, he coached teams in Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania and Great Britain, including Louise Ørnstedt who placed fourth in the 100 backstroke at the World Short Course Championships in Moscow in April 2002. Read SwimmingWorld Magazine.
Kitajima on the podium in BeijingJapanese breaststroker Kosuke Kitajima has a very touching list of sympathy messages here on his website, that shows how close-knit the international swimming community really is. There is a message from Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen, who won silver behind Kitajima at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. From American Jessica Hardy who knows Kitajima personally, Oussama Mellouli from Tunesia, Markus Rogan from Austria who remembers Chernobyl, Dominik Meichtry from Switzerland who has been training with Kitajima, and Roland Schoeman out of South Africa.
Per Stig Møller Culture Minister of Denmark is to put pressure on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), to clear up its rules on the possibility of clenbuterol traces from contaminated food in doping tests.
Middlebury College has suspended for the rest of the season all of its female swimming and dive team members except for the freshmen in a tough response to the latest report of hazing on the Vermont college’s campus. Little is known about what happened in early February at a swim team party, but the school newspaper the Middlebury Campus reported that the party “crossed the line from innocent initiation to hazing.” (more…)
British Swimming today announced a four year rights deal with the BBC to broadcast swimming and other aquatic sports in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, the Commonwealth Games 2014 and beyond. Also, they partner to launch the Big Splash, a UK-wide mass-participation campaign, to get people in the pool.
The Danish world champion Lotte Friis tells sporten.dk, that she fears the possibility of a positive doping test, because she cannot control 100% what she eats. She is backed up by Jens Evald chairman of the Danish Anti Doping Association, who says that there is a hole in the current WADA regulation, making innocent athletes nervous while allowing offenders to get away with a ‘beef excuse’.
Wildeboer and Friis at the World Cup in Stockholm 2010
A new study by Spanish researchers has warned that swimming for long hours in chlorinated water could increase the risk of developing bladder cancer. According to the study, regular swimmers are at increase risk of absorbing cancer-causing chemicals called trihalomethanes (THMs) through the skin. The risk is small, but significant enough for the researchers to conclude that regular swimming and baths in chlorinated water eliminated the benefits of drinking bottled water rather than (I guess chlorinated) tap water. Read themedguru.com and indianexpress.com.
If you are contemplating on going to the Olympics in London 2012 as a spectator, it is now between 15th March and 26th April that you have to apply for a ticket. They are quite expensive, from £20 to £450 to see the swimming, depending on where you sit and if it is prelims or finals. Kids under 16 get away with paying their age in pound sterling, and seniors above 60 with paying £16. Here is a video promoting the greatest show on Earth, where swimming gets its fair share.
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Per Stig Møller Culture Minister of Denmark is to put pressure on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), to clear up its rules on the possibility of clenbuterol traces from contaminated food in doping tests.
