Chicago police officer and endurance swimmer Nial Funchion swam between Spain and Morocco in order to raise funds to benefit fallen officers. Safely on shore again, his support team told him that 5 orcas had followed him a a distance of 100 yards (91 meters) for nearly the entire time. His response, “thanks for not telling me” :-)
Read seattlepi.com
Great video here, know at least one Faroese girl who is fascinated by this ‘old’ lady repeatedly beating the up-and-coming kids. Dara Torres, 44, has won 12 Olympic Medals and is not stopping here. She hopes to compete in one final Olympic Games and at 45 become the oldest ever Olympic swimmer (already the oldest swimmer on a US team). Read The Huffington Post.
16-year-old Melissa “Missy” Franklin from USA set a new short course world record in the 200 backstroke today at the World Cup leg in Berlin, with an agonizing 2:00.03, so close to the magic 2 minutes. Japan’s Shiho Sakai set the old world record in a ‘supersuit’ also in Berlin in 2009. Read The Swimmers Circle
A Mutual of Omaha Breakout! Swim Clinic here hosted by the Blue Dolfins in Oviedo, Florida. Coaches Great Gobat and Charlie Rose, plus Ryan Lochte and Josh Davis. “Repeat after me: Thumb by thigh, elbow high, gliding on my side, streamline makes you fly!”
Wow, wild story here on thestar.com, about life-banned Canadian coach Cecil Russell who apparently has continued to coach ever since being banned for life in first 1997 and then 2007. Right, his own kids are of Olympic quality, his daughter a finalist in this year’s world championship, and the Dolphin Swim Club parents are supporting him, claiming it is a violation of human rights to punish their club for having this guy on deck. But, we are not talking ‘just’ doping, but also narcotics and disposal of a murder victim. I will second this: “It’s a black cloud that hangs over Canadian swimming“. Via SwimNews.com
South Africa’s world record holder Cameron van der Burgh presents the crap stuff that he keeps in the trunk of his Audi A1, including swim stuff (of course) and golf clubs. Sponsored by Audi, yes, but also truly fond of his car.
Funny story about Cameron and his car: After competing in the South African Swimming Championships in the spring of 2010, our Pál Joensen and his coach Jón Bjarnason got stuck in Joburg Airport, because of the smoke from Eyjafjallajökull, all the way up here in the North Atlantic.
After waiting for a day and a night and being told that they might have to wait for 14 more days, Pál gets frustrated and posts “get me out of here” on Facebook. 5 minutes later, the then world champion Cameron calls and says ‘I’ll be there in half an hour’.
So he picks them up in his Audi (A3 Quattro then, I think), takes them with him to Pretoria, for a little bit of altitude training in his 50 meter pool, some nice home cooking and a sleepover. The day after, he drives them to Johannesburg again, where they somehow get on a plane.
Now that is a great guy !
Paulus Wildeboer, national coach of Denmark, describes here to local folks in high altitude Leadville how his Olympic swimmers train. That the old myth in his view is wrong, that ‘the harder you work, the better you become’. That it instead should be ‘the better you work, the better you become’, which doesn’t necessarily mean hard work every day. He describes how he introduces anaerobic training early, rather than build a pure aerobic base first, which I guess/know is based on the theories of Dr. Jan Olbrecht. At 6 min 50 sec, we even get to see how he gives Lotte Friis direct feedback :-)
Gary Hall Sr discusses swimming with world renowned head coach of Mecklenburg Aquatic Club David Marsh. Among other things an interesting theory that backstrokers like Nick Thoman are more prone to hit blue lane lines than red ones.
Great explanation and footage, more to be seen on Speedo Pace Club
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