Swimmer's Daily

  • IOC member Patrick Hickey is proposing a “European Games”, thought to have backing of IOC president Jacques Rogge, and likely to be put to a vote in November, with the support of 47 of the 49 European National Olympic Committees. The reason being that other continents already have their own Games with Pan American Games, Pan Arab Games, All-Africa Games and Asian Games, and that Europe is loosing track when it comes to Olympic medals.

    “European results at Olympic Games are diminishing all the time. Whereas we used to win the most medals, we are now dropping out of that zone,” he [Patrick Hickey] said.

    “We have a feeling that a European Games can be used to spark European supremacy again at the Olympic Games.”

    The big problem is of course scheduling, with the sporting calender already being crowded, and meaning that a European Games might have to replace existing events such as the European Athletics Championships [and maybe the European Championships in swimming?].

    Read more here on bbc.co.uk.

  • 1) Listen to you coach, 2) Set goals, 3) Have fun!

  • Faroe Islands hasn’t seen the same stagnation in records now after the supersuits were banned, as most of the rest of the swimming world. Since the ban in January 2010 the Faroese swimmers have set 42 Faroese records and 127 junior records in 2010, plus Pál Joensen’s Nordic record of 14:56.90 in the 1500 meter long course, from when he won silver at the European Championships in Budapest 2010.

    This year, there have set 17 more Faroese records and 37 junior records, the latest being set yesterday and this morning at the ongoing Faroese Short Course Swimming Championships in Tórshavn. There will most certainly be more records set this evening and tomorrow, during finals and the last day of the championships.

    Faroese television is broadcasting the finals live, as far as I know also unlimited on www.kringvarp.fo, and we also try to have informative landing pages on www.livetiming.se and www.svimjing.com/live, embedding and linking to live timing, live streaming, live chat, etcetera.

    Schedule

    • Friday May 20th, Heats 10:00-13:00, Finals 18:30-2030 local time (GMT-1h)
    • Saturday May 21st, Heats 09:30-12:30, Finals 18:00-20:00 local time (GMT-1h)
    • Sunday May 22nd, Heats 09:30-12:30, Finals 17:00-19:00 local time (GMT-1h)

  • Talking about her recent victory in the LEN 10K Open Water Cup in Eilat, Israel, about the upcoming World Championships in Shanghai, China, and about open water swimming in general, compared to pool swimming.

  • The parents of double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington were cheated out of more than £1,000 by bogus ticket touts as part of a multi-million pound fraud, a court heard today.

    Kay and Steve Adlington paid £1,100 to what they thought was a legitimate website selling tickets to the Beijing Olympics, jurors heard.

    But the tickets never arrived forcing them to miss their daughter’s first gold medal triumph in the 400m freestyle final.

    Read more here on thisislondon.co.uk

  • Olympic medallist Keri-anne Payne launches the British Gas Great Swim.

  • Having lost a whopping 18kg since he embarked on his secret swimming comeback seven months ago, a toned Thorpe fronted a media throng at Darling Harbour yesterday to tell the world he was “satisfied” with his progress. Read more here on the Herald Sun.

  • Ian Thorpe said he’s targeting the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle events as Australia’s most successful Olympian builds his swimming comeback toward the 2012 London Games.

    “I’m definite on what I will be swimming,” Thorpe, 28, told reporters in Sydney today. “It’s 100 and 200 freestyle and I’m preparing for both of those now. Already with what I’m doing in the time frame that I have, it’s a tough ask.”

    Read more here on bloomberg.com.

  • Natalie du Toit represented South Africa at the Commonwealth Games in 1998, at the age of just 14, before having half of her left leg amputated after a car hit her scooter in 2001. That didn’t stop her Olympic dreams though, first qualifying and winning five gold medals at the Paralympic Games in Athens, and then again in Beijing 2008 winning 5 gold medals at the Paralympics and qualifying for the able-bodied Olympics in the 10K open water event. Read more here on cnn.com.

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