Michael Phelps featured on Google Zeitgeist Year in Review for 2012

Michael Phelps featured at the 1:30 mark on searches for inspiration.

Ric Frazier photographs Dana Vollmer in a flip turn cycle for ESPN

Ric Frazier is my favorite underwater photographer; I hope to do some work with him someday.

In the photo above Dana Vollmer executes a flip turn in captured steps or frames.

Lovin' her suit too.

Ric has an amazing portfolio that even includes the Nirvana baby all grown up. Check it out here: [Link]

EVAN MORGENSTEIN: "when the thieves at FINA made a decision that they were going to get rid of the techsuits. What they did was they almost bankrupted several of the swimwear companies"

Natahn Jendrick does an amazing interview for Swimming World with sports agent, Evan Morgenstein. This is an insiders view as to how the industry conducts swim business and how terrible swimmers have it.

The techsuits were once criticized for being so cost prohibitive for poor families that they were an uworkable choice for swimmers. I wrote that this was a red herring so as to obfuscate the truth - most swim families are affluent and a simple rule to disallow techsuits at the junior level was quite acceptable on moral grounds. But some five years later a pair a jammers are actually costs more than the techsuits back in the day. (See that Speedo system cost that went nowhere. The costs therein were stratospheric)

Michael Phelps is gone, long live MichaelPhelps, blah, blah,blah: It is now time for techsuits to return from their exile and grow this sport. It's time that swimming not be dominated by one or two players but that the playing field is leveled just like the over sized tennis rackets leveled the playing field in tennis. Other sports have done much the same thing via technology to grow their ranks and bring in investment and so should swimming.

A snippet of what Evan had to say:

Evan: Oh it is terrible. I mean if you were a swimmer looking to make this a career. There could be a worse time to do it. You know unfortunately when the thieves at FINA made a decision that they were going to get rid of the techsuits. What they did was they almost bankrupted several of the swimwear companies and they have never recovered from that because they were so vested in that, but they actually hurt the sport and hurt the popularity of the sport. People love Olympics sports like swimming because of world records and although there were a couple of world records broken in London comparative to Beijing there was virtually no records broken and that is a shame. Technology changes in every other sport.

You know I noticed people don't want go back to the 1950s they love going to you know drive-in movies and you know the past is great, but the fact is when it comes to technology you can't stop, you have to keep moving forward and this isn't cheating right, you know the Lance Armstrong's of the world, this is technology and technology and shoes rackets whatever changes in every sport. Yet FINA singularly changed the sport and then once that happened the apparel companies had millions of dollars of inventory they couldn't sell.

[Link]

Nathan Jendrik: U.S. author, lecturer, model, photographer and celebrity personal trainer. Jendrick has written several books, although never attending college, primarily with/for celebrities and notable personalities. His first book, Dunks, Doubles, Doping was a USA Book News Award finalist. His literary properties were for a time represented by Mollie Glick at the Jean Naggar Literary Agency in New York, NY. In December 2004, Jendrick married Olympian Megan Jendrick.

Colder than that swim at the North Pole: Russian swimmers swim outdoors in -20C temperatures

Russians go hard! No doubt about it. Definitely the best "polar bears" in the world.

Colder than that swim at the North Pole I believe - Russian swimmers swim outdoors in -20C temperatures

Russians go hard! No doubt about it. Definitely the best "polar bears" in the world.

I reported an accusation of sexual molestation that occurred at the North Baltimore Aquatics Club to USA Swimming and Child Protective Services.

I have been critical of those individuals who heard rumors of sexual abuse and did nothing. This inaction is likely due to ignorance, confusion or the monetary fear of a defamation lawsuit.

I was contacted two weeks ago about a sex abuse situation that occurred in February 2012 at the North Baltimore Aquatics Club (NBAC). When fully informed regarding what exactly happened I told the person who emailed me the information that I was reporting it.

After gathering as much information as I good, which took about a week-and-a-half, I assembled a 1,200 word report with digital evidence, scanned notes and hastily sent them off to USA Swimming, Irvin Muchnick and another reporting outlet I won't name.   

Reporting the incident to USA Swimming was absolutely painless. After I had sent my detailed report on a late Sunday afternoon, I received a reply at 7:38 AM PST the following Monday morning stating that it was going to be investigated. Subsequently all my emails to USA Swimming have been quickly acknowledged and all of them have been both cordial and professional. Within hours USA Swimming staff contacted Ms T. Blue at Child Services in Baltimore and the investigation is in motion.

I chose sending the reports to Irv Muchnick and another press outlet so as to put some sunshine on this incident and to ensure that no politics; (or what I call "poolitics") would interfere with a thorough investigation.

A recognized coach once told me that NBAC can arguably be considered "America's Premiere club" primarily because of the success of Michael Phelps...  However when you look at this club over the last 12-months this club has had a seriously bad year if you exclude the Olympics.

The cold, stark, truth is that NBAC has proven over the last 12-months that supervision of their younger athletes is sorely lacking. Examples include the shallow water drowning death of Louis Lowenthal, the abuse that happened in February and the mysterious firing of a founding member some months ago.

These events are scarlet-red flags and they need addressing.

For details about these events and my reasons for not blogging it and publishing see Irv Muchnick's site Concussion Inc:

Irv Muchnik at Concussion.net:

Last week a former NBAC employee filed papers about the incident with state Child Protective Services. In addition, California swimmer-blogger Tony Austin -- who, along with ConcussionInc.net, was given copies of the file -- forwarded email texts and other documents to Susan Woessner, the athlete protection officer of USA Swimming in Colorado, the sport's U.S. Olympic Committee-authorized national governing body.

The victim's direct account, along with the two assailants' vaguely worded confessions and a resolving email by NBAC's chief executive officer and head coach, Bob Bowman, cast grave questions on whether NBAC coaches and executives observed both state law and the safe sport policies of USA Swimming. ..." 

[Link]

Yes, Bob Bowman's email was shrill, vaguely threatening to kick the victim off the team and just plain ugly. There is a snippet of the email at ConcussionInc.net.

Sing along: On the second day of Swim-mas the SCAQ Blog gave to me...

On the second day of Swim-mas the SCAQ Blog gave to me;

Two Swimming Caps and...

A stopwatch on a starting block

- See first day of Swim-mas artwork here -

CBS: Denise Stapley outplayed, outwitted and outlasted 17 players to win the $1 million prize and honor of being named sole Survivor

Yeah, US Masters swimmers are pretty awesome, huh? But wait, though registered she never competed in a USMS meet.

From Swimming World:

Stapley was not the only "Survivor" contestant with Masters swimming credentials. Roberta Saint-Amour, who was eliminated on the October 31 episode, competed in Masters meets in 2008 and 2009, posting a couple of No. 1 times in freestyle and backstroke.

[Link]

Sport England threatens Swimming and Tennis programs!

British swimming funding is in trouble along with tennis. Participations numbers have to increase or millions of English pounds are going to be spent on triathlons, cycling, and get this, netball! - Netball? (A scaled down version of basketball with no dribbling or backboard behind the basket.)

Is it that bad for for swimming and tennis that a sport called netball gets their funding?

From the Guardian:

"... But the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) were among six governing bodies effectively put on probation. The money devoted to developing talent at the top of their sports is protected, but grassroots funding is only guaranteed for one year.

Price said that the ASA had endured a "tough time" and its new plan was unproven, while the LTA's "simply wasn't good enough". While it has delivered on the "talent" part of its remit, developing promising junior players at the elite end of the sport, it has failed to grow the grassroots. "Its thinking has been some distance behind other governing bodies. We hope they're starting to turn the corner now. They are right at the beginning of this journey. We need to give them a year to step up their game and prove they can deliver it," she said. ..."

[Link]

Sing along: On the first day of Swim-mas the SCAQ Blog gave to me...

On the first day of Swim-mas the SCAQ Blog gave to me;

A stopwatch on a starting block

- Another one tomorrow! -

Griffith Institute for Educational Research: Swimmers are Smarter! - And I don't think so!

Can swimming make kids smarter? A study from Australia thinks so and I feel the results are incredulous.

From the Washington Times:

The study found that the younger the child began swimming lessons and the longer they continued, the greater the benefits. Benefits come not only in the form of reaching physical developmental milestones early, but also those involving language and mathematics. Swimming helps with coordination and visual motor-skill development, but also with more intellectual skills, like counting or following verbal instructions.

[Link]

I suspect soccer, ballet, T-ball may have the same effect for any stimulation is going to help but I wonder if affluence is also the key?

Kids born to affluent families, those parents that can afford and can provide good nutritional delivery, understand homework assignments or can afford tutors do really well and that to me is the real "brain effect" happening here.

Swimming is expensive to learn and I suspect most swim families are doing pretty good. I also suspect swimming is just one part of the puzzle of raising an "above average kid."

Also this study was conducted in Australia which is not exactly a melting pot either. Ethnic demographics: White 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%. The average median income per household there is also $55,000. In West Virginia, USA it's $38,482

Ryan Lochte scoring a handful in mighty Istanbul!

Lochte grabs two golds at short course meters championships. That's got to feel good.

From AP:

The American posted a time of 1 minute, 41.92 seconds in the 200-meter freestyle event at the Sinan Erdem Dome. Paul Biedermann of Germany, the world-record holder, finished second in 1:42.07, while Conor Dwyer of the United States was third in 1:43.78.

Lochte earned another gold in the 4x100 freestyle relay with teammates Anthony Ervin, James Feigen and Matt Grevers, finishing in 3:06.40. The Italians, who were fastest in the heats, won silver in 3:07.07, followed by Australia in 3:07.27

[Link]

Lovin' that Anthony Irvin is swimming for his suffer and getting to see crazy places.

Austrian politician wears Ryan Lochte's shoes!

From Reddit: "...This guy is an Austrian politician, and this is what he is wearing in the parliament...." His name is Stefan Petzner, a former journalist turned politician. Wikipedia tells me that the party he represents is economically liberal and socially conservative. The BZÖ party or the "Alliance for the Future of Austria" wants to end the draft, join NATO, establish a flat tax of about 39%, allow the utility companies to go private, and a more moderate stand on immigration. The Austrians, I am told at Reddit, find him an ultra conservative wheres here in the United States he would probably be considered a moderate liberal. He apparently has the same taste in shoes as Ryan Lochte.

Anonymous group "HADESAntiSec" is very cross with Brazil and I presume with the Olympics being held there as well!

The IOC has another headache about the 2016 Rio Olympics: HADESAntiSec, an Anonymous affiliate so to speak is defacing numerous Brazilian sites and openly states their upset with the Brazilian government.

A total of twenty-sites or more have been defiled and replaced with political messages. Each defacement has a link to the the HADESAntiSec Twitter page which states: "...Against a corrupt government and in favor of a better Brazil! ..."

Looks like Brazil is going to have some serious internet challenges these next four years!

Zone-h.org: has links to to the sites defaced and/or taken over or "pwnd" : [Link]

2016 RIO Games in trouble? - The IOC thinks so

The 2016 Rio Games are having some problems: Rio officials don't know what their budget is yet. The land for the golf course is currently under a legal dispute. They have no field hockey location yet. The rugby field has to change locations. The Rio Committee  has replaced their chief executive and the the Brazilian economy is slowing down.

Subsequently the International Olympic committee (IOC)  is now telling Rio Officials emphatically to put the "petal to the metal" and get something going.

One has to ask these questions: If they don't have a budget was the Rio bid all smoke and mirrors? Will Rio get the money to do this? Does the International Olympic committee have a "Plan B" if Rio defaults?

From the L.A. Times:

"...Our message remains: There is time, but time is ticking, and they need to carry on attacking this one with all vigor,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in an unusually blunt public statement about an Olympic organizing committee.

The meeting came just a few weeks after IOC officials were in Rio for a debriefing with organizers of the London Olympics. While London's seven-year preparations for the games went off without any major crises, the IOC is concerned that Rio organizers are still facing major challenges. ..."

[Link]

That's what the IOC gets for telling Chicago and President Obama to go home. That's what IOC gets for telling the number-two economy on earth, Japan, to go home.

The next World Cup of soccer will be held in Rio two-years from now and if they screw that up then the IOC may have to confront the fact that Rio may produce a highly unprofitable Olympic games forthem.

An obvious "Plan B" would be London but the likely candidate would be Los Angeles for L.A. is the "go to person" when the IOC is in trouble. Los Angeles saved the IOC in 1932 L.A. saved them again from bankruptcy in 1984.

L.A. has the facilities in triplicate and the transportation infrastructure with numerous airports just 40-minutes from one another.

Stupid girl holds plate of food in front of hungry dolphin and gets bit - Stupid Sea World puts dolphins in a pond to beg for their daily bread!

I actually appreciate and support both zoos and aquariums when the animals have a high standard of living and plenty of organic and natural space. Sea World is not like that. They imprison mammals in small cement swimming pools, feed them dead fish, and pimp them out to beg or do tricks for their food.

In this case a kid gets her arm bit after accidentally holding the plate of food in front of a hungry dolphin's nose.