Update on the 'Timed Prelims' autographed kickboard for charity auction at eBay.

The Timed Prelims kickboard for charity action went very well. I was told today that Mr. Scott Goldblatt ponied up the winning bid and now $102.50 cents will go towards teaching under privileged kids how to swim. :-)

WHAT is going on! I got an email today telling me it was over! I guess I got pranked! The auction is still in progress. Go bid on it here: [Link]

WMG secret swimming site leaked on College Swimming message board: Is the Wasserman Media Group closing down or rebranding Timed Finals?

It looks like Flowswimming has really struck a nerve with the WMG and they apparently are going to copy Floswimming's style, narrative, and content delivery premise. If you go through the site you will see that they don't get it right. Though the site is "alpha" the editorial is still mostly about the writers themselves rather than their subjects.

These writers are the same people from Timed Finals, hence, I suspect Timed Finals is going to evaporate. What will be interesting is to see what sort of role Scott Goldblatt will have?

Also, why did WMG buy Timed Finals which has an established brand and a devoted following? Now they are starting over with a new name, a new URL and a new engineering platform or content management system?

You would think they would have made an offer for Swimming World instead since when it comes to posting meet results I find it hardly coincidental that Timed Finals publishes the same results a 1/2 hour after Swimming World has.

Here is the new Swim Network alpha: [Link]

Here is College Swimming message board post that it was leaked: [Link]

Sorry, I can't enclosed any screen shots because I am afraid WMG will sue me.

Speedo has a Podcast page

If you have iTunes; (it's free), you can listen to dozens of interviews and profiles of the Speedo stable of swimmers. Most of the interviews are personality profiles but they do include some insights on how the athletes train. On Page 15 of the Podcast page there is an interview between Olympian Scott Goldblatt and founder of the website Timed Finals and Natalie Coughlin regarding her training, Pan Pacs performance and life after swimming. [Link]

Timed finals is creating a "fantasy swim game" for World Swimming Championships; pass it on!

Athens Gold medalist, Scott Goldblatt; [His name is now spelled correctly and the correct medal placing as well], has created a really nice swimming related blog called Timed Finals. It is so current and topical that even Google News links to it. (That's a photo of Scott chilling with Michael Phelps.)

As the headline states, they are expanding the blog by adding a FREE fantasy swim game called FantaSwim. I copy pasted this promo for it from Timed Finals. I am going write a review once I am allowed in.

• Timed Finals announces the imminent launch of FantaSwim, the first ever chance for swimming fans to compete interactively with each other across the globe in a Fantasy Swim League for the World Championships in Melbourne at the end of the month. This will provide swimming fans the opportunity to be even more involved in what’s happening down under.
• FantaSwim will not just be limited to the World Championships. Timed Finals will be running FantaSwim for most major competitions, but our first event will be the World Champs.
• In typical Timed Finals fashion, FantaSwim will be 100% free for our readers. Check back soon to enter the game for the World Champs.

I have now included a news-feed from Scott Golblatt's Timed Finals.

Scott Goldblatt has participated in two Olympics: Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. He even brought home a couple of souvenirs; that's right, both a silver from Sydney and a gold medal from Athens. Each was well earned in the 4x200 Freestyle relay.

Timed Finals is my favorite swim related website. If you look at the archives you can see that I have a linked to several articles from the site. In fact, even Google News links to Scott Goldblatt's site because he is so in the loop. Hence, I have included his topical news feed.

Not only does Scott have a big site, he has a big heart too. this from the USOC website [link]:

"...While in Athens, Goldblatt organized an Olympic Team memorabilia charity auction to benefit the Melanoma Research Foundation. He asked Team USA athletes to donate unique items to benefit the Melanoma Research Foundation. In May of 1997, Goldblatt lost his mother, Linda Goldblatt, to this disease. "I have seen what this disease can do, and together with your help, hope to educate others in the prevention of the disease," said Goldblatt. ..."

So, to add equity to this site I have included a news feed from Timed Finals in the left navigation. It's below the "links" section. Be sure to check out the headlines every day.