Swimmer's Daily

  • Third time was not the charm for Diana Nyad, attempting to cross the 103 miles from Cuba to Florida. In a frequently emotional news conference in which she removed her shirt to reveal sting marks from toxic jellyfish, Nyad said she initially planned to muscle through the intense pain, but eventually had to give up, as the toxins began to cause partial paralysis and made it increasingly difficult for her to breath. Read more here on CNN.

  • Two weeks after completing his 140-mile swim along the Thames, David Walliams continues to pay the price for it in terms of his health. He tore a disc in his back as a result of the swim, is ordered by his doctors not to leave his hospital bed, has to undergo physio, and has also been suffering a bad bout of ‘Thames tummy’ also from swimming in the sewage-polluted river. But OK, he raised £1.1 million for children in need, read The Telegraph.

  • Funny little story, cute little girl :-)

    Monster in my swimming pool from brent bokovoy on Vimeo.

  • Official song of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, released 25th September 2011. It’s getting closer!

    Here is another video from the organizers, “1 year to go to London 2012 – the story so far”

  • Funny phenomena, including several big names in swimming, #swimmerproblems on Twitter. Some additions these last 12 hours …

    • Jessica Hardy, Oussama Mellouli and Sarah Sjöström: “Hungry, all day long.”
    • Natalie Coughlin: “when water (built up from underwater repeats) uncontrollably pours out of your nose at awkward times.”
    • Natalie Coughlin: “smelling like bleach no matter how much you shower”
    • Nathan Adrian: “Coach put tape over snorkel during practice and it felt like I was breathing out of a bendy straw”
    • Markus Rogan: “working between 21sec and fourteen and a half minutes every four years. Amazing hourly wage at that rate”
    • Matt Abood: “a packet of pasta supposed to serve 9 will only really serve 2 :-(“


  • Interesting post here on the Swimmers Circle, by Chris Ritter on the pull-up exercise, guidelines and variations. Especially this claim is intriguing:

    There’s usually a correlation to the swimmers that can do more pull-ups and those that never seem to have shoulder issues. So if you want to stay in the pool season after season make sure you get strong shoulders through pull-ups.

  • Hot gossip here on SwimNews: “Federica Pellegrini has refused to return calls and has not spoken to French coach Philippe Lucas since the last day of her racing schedule at the world championships in Shanghai in July, the coach claims today.” …

    (Commercial featuring Lucas and something Pellegrini-similar. Was it an omen?)

  • “Vicissitudes“, a sculpture installed in 4.5 meters of water at the Moliniere Bay Sculpture Garden in Grenada. It could spook me intensely.

    The artist is Jason deCaires Taylor, specialising in underwater art. See www.underwatersculpture.com

  • After more than 40 hours of swimming and hitting a second Portuguese Man o’ War, Diana Nyad decided to quit, told by her medical team that she could risk long-term cumulative effect on her body, if she suffered additional likely stings. She had then completed about 67 nautical miles of the 103-nautical-mile passage, and suffered from paralyzed muscles in her back. Read diananyad.com and for instance wpbf.com