Swimmer's Daily

  • Melanie Margalis calls them complete mental breakdowns. They used to be commonplace for the Olympian — at every meet, before she swam the 400m individual medley.

    “The event freaks me out so bad,” Margalis said of a race labeled the decathlon of swimming for its grueling, all-around test. “I wish it didn’t. People are like, Mel, you’re so good. I’m like, you don’t understand what it does to me.”

    Margalis, a 28-year-old who trains at the University of Georgia, finally overcame the block in recent months with the help of a sports psychologist.

    On March 6, Margalis took 2.97 seconds off her personal best in the four-and-a-half-minute event at the last meet before the coronavirus pandemic halted sports. She improved from the fifth-fastest American in the 400m IM since the start of 2019 to No. 1 by a whopping 2.94 seconds. She’s now fourth-fastest in the world in that span.

    “I wasn’t scared of what could happen,” she said of her mindset at the meet in Des Moines. “I wasn’t letting myself be scared of what could happen if I tried to have a good race.”

    Read Yahoo! Sports

     

  • How to relax and stay calm before a meet, before a swim and after practice

    This episode of #FFTLive was led by Olympian and Olympic Coach Brett Hawke, and Olympian Kim Vandenberg.

    We discussed:

    • Relaxation techniques
    • Importance of relaxation as it relates to recovery
    • How to stay calm before a meet
    • How to control your nerves before a race
    • …and much more!

  • Irish Olympic diver Oliver Dingley joined OTB AM ahead of the release of his Off The Couch video which will be live across our social channels from lunchtime today.

  • Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, seniors in the Spider swim and dive program were unable to attend an in person graduation in the spring of 2020. The program set up a virtual commencement program for the team, complete with gold medalist Maya DiRado as the keynote speaker for the event.

  • Even as we reach a plateau of coronavirus cases, Missy Franklin says we still need to be responsible. Spread the word not the virus. Stay safe. Wash your hands. Use social distancing.

  • Disgraced Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has made a last-ditch attempt for eligibility at the Tokyo Olympics by lodging an appeal against his eight-year ban.

    The controversial 28-year-old has was hit with the suspension in February following a drug test in September 2018 when he was accused of ordering a member of his entourage to smash vials containing his blood with a hammer.

    The Australian reports that Sun’s appeal was lodged to the Swiss federal court on 29 April in response to the long punishment handed to him by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

    Sun has claimed the correct testing procedures were not followed and believed the drug tester was not fully accredited to take the blood.

    The world swimming body Fina had originally cleared Sun to compete after an internal investigation of the blood testing furore, but the World Anti-Doping Agency successfully appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

    Read The Guardian and Yahoo! Sports

    Photo by jdlasica

  • International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Redmond takes about his historic Oceans Seven achievement with International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairman Ned Denison on WOWSA Live

  • Are you ready for our “Top 3 Dives”? We asked Jack Laugher, Olympic and World Championships medallist in the individual and synchronized 3-metre springboard to tell us which 3 dives from the FINA World Championships he considers his top 3! Enjoy these spectacular dives!