The weekend news was filled with drowning stories - Still after all our efforts the public does not understand that swimming well is important!

In the late spring and all through the summer there is a preponderance of drowning stories that I have to confront. Headlines like:

• Teen dies after being pulled from pond

• Teen Swimmer Drowns In Schuylkill River

• Memorial Day weekend sees at least four deaths in Iowa waters

• Two Swimmers Missing, Presumed Drowned

I wasn't even searching for drowning stories this weekend and these four stories have greeted me 4-days in a row.

Turns out a loaded gun in a home is less dangerous than a swimming pool:

Paraphrased from the book Freakonomics:

"... According to the most recent statistics, there are about six million residential pools, meaning that one young child drowns annually for every 11,000 pools.

About 175 children under the age of 10 died in 1998 as a result of guns. About two-thirds of those deaths were homicides. There are an estimated 200 million guns in the United States. Doing the math, there is roughly one child killed by guns for every one million guns.

[Link]

Very depressing...

Every noticed that there are a lot of Jewish Olympic swimmers? Here is a list of seven off the top of my head: Mark Spitz, Jason Lezak, Dara Torres, Scott Goldblatt, Chris Jacobs, Ben Wildman-Tobriner, Garrett Weber-Gale, on ad infinitum.

There is that many because it is part of the Jewish culture to teach their kids how to swim.

Fred Pinn sent me this link:

"...The Talmud teaches that "a parent has the following obligation towards the child: to circumcise him, redeem the firstborn, teach them Torah, find them a life partner and teach them a profession. And there are some who say they must also teach them how to swim. ..."

[Link]

There are that many Jewish Olympians because there is a cultural reference within Judaism and the demand that their children learn how to swim well. In my opinion America needs both a cultural reference and a demand that both adults and children learn how to swim.

If I was tasked with the job of inspiring people to swim via a Madison Avenue marketing campaign, I would position swimming as something both successful people and educated people know how to do, I would play the fear card with parents as well, and use the line from the Talmud as a de facto obligation referencing the Talmud in the fine print.

Pool Bombarded by Incredible Hail Storm

Swimming pool is pummeled by baseball-sized, ice-balls from a hail storm. At about two-thirds into the video, the swimming pool looks like it is being shot by machine gun rounds from several Apache helicopters.

The 8th Annual Black Heritage Swim Meet held at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, North Carolina!

The 8th Annual Black Heritage Swim Meet drew over 700 swimmers and Olympian, Cullen Jones, was there signing autographs as well. The meet was held at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, North Carolina, on May 20th. Organizers were very happy with the event and they plan on bringing it back to the same venue next year. Below is a link to the... photo gallery. Gallery has been taken down. Here is a link to an article on the event.

[Link]

USA Swimming is to slow: USOC is stepping in to bypass them and make a sound policy!

Thanks goes out to the USOC for paying attention.

"... The guidelines should serve as “a toolkit of best practices,” [Nina] Kemppel told The Associated Press. “For smaller NGBs, this picture may look very different than for larger NGBs. It’s the key things of being really effective and promoting safe environments for kids.”

That safe environment didn’t exist when Uchiyama, a Colorado Springs resident, coached at Southern California Aquatics in Los Angeles, says an anonymous woman now in her mid-30s who alleges Uchiyama baited her into a sexual relationship that began when she was a 14-year-old. The woman never filed criminal charges and hasn’t sued in civil court.

[Note: SCAQ only coaches 18-year-olds, SCAQ or Southern California Aquatics has never coached minors - it is a Masters Swimming club - the club mentioned above is not affiliated with SCAQ and there is no other swim team in Los Angeles called, Southern California Aquatics.

There is a So Cal Aquatics in Orange County I believe]

Uchiyama resigned from perhaps USA Swimming’s most high-profile coaching position Jan. 27, 2006, and his name was put on the banned list four days later for “inappropriate sexual behavior.” He quit his job Wednesday as aquatics director at The Country Club of Colorado after Cheyenne Mountain Resort saw him on the list, published late Tuesday.

In a statement, USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun said the top priority is “the safety of our athletes,” adding that the panel was designed to “take a comprehensive look at practices and guidelines in order to give sport organizations more resources to create positive training atmospheres and, above all, safe environments for all athletes.”

[Link]

Chuck Wielgus just called the unwashed bloggers and news people "lazy analysts"

Here is what he said to AP:

"There are far too many people today who make a lazy analysis about something that happened some time ago, or didn't happen some time ago," he said. "Do you think the guys at BP who were in that meeting and talked about having the right amount of control over the mouth of that pipe, do you think they have a different opinion that they had five weeks ago? That's human nature."

Wielgus said too many critics have characterized the organization as "irresponsible, and we have not been irresponsible. I think that stinks. I really do."

"In a way, I hate to say this, but there may be some fated reason why USA Swimming was put in this position, because we have the commitment and wherewithal not to shy away from an issue, to embrace an opportunity to make things better," he added.

[Link]

Here is my analysis on how USA Swimming does business:

Scandals:

USA Swimming has been in disarray starting in the Spring of 2008 and continuing on till today.

First, USA Swimming was sued by TYR for anti-trust violations and though the case was dropped, the Judge did acknowledge wrongdoing but since TYR was unable to show any sort of monetary damage as a result of their behavior, the trial did not go to court.

Next, we had the "Tara Kirk incident:" A breastroker who missed out on being rightfully placed onto the 2008 US Olympic team after Jessica Hardy flunked her doping test.

Apparently USA Swimming did not project manage the timing correctly to ensure that all drug tests would be completed in time to sort out who would or should be placed on the US Olympic team. When, Jessica Hardy, failed her test, the rules stated that Tara Kirk move up one position and be placed on the team but USA Swimming would not comply.

Now, we are witnessing the sex scandals and consequently somewhere around five lawsuits to defend. The USOC has now gotten involved after accusations from former USA Swimming Vice President, Mike Saltzstein, and Coach Ken Stopkotte, who have filed a complaint with the organization stating that USA Swimming plays favorites, suppresses descent, and denies work to those that criticize the organization.

The USOC is now drawing up best practices guidelines as to how children should be protected an other guidelines. What do you think would happen if a professional sports organization made this many mistakes?

Video: Finswimming German Style!

The response has been pretty good so I went to You Tube and was surprised to see dozens of videos.

What is Finswimming? - It's fast and looks really fun!

Martin from Zurich sent us this and I have decided to cover this sport at the new site I am building. So what is finswimming?

From FinSpirit.com:

[...]

Invented for use by the Russian Special Forces, a mono-fin was first strapped onto the feet of swimmers in order to allow them to move more quickly in the water while keeping their hands free. The military invention led to an interesting discovery. The easiest and most natural stroke to use while wearing a fin is the Dolphin Kick. The Dolphin Kick requires snaking the body in exactly the same way as the mammal from which the name was taken. The combination of the two allows you to swim extremely fast, faster than any other method before it.

[...]

A bi-annual World championship was started in 1962 and the sport was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1986 where it has been staged as an exhibition sport ever since. Today, Fin Swimmers beat even the fastest free-style or butterfly Olympic times by over three seconds on a 100 meter race. The sensations are incredible and the swimmers claim that they are literally flying through the water. They don’t swim as much to beat records as for the thrilling sensation of speed.

[Link]

Martin put up an ad hoc gallery at Flickr.com; here is an image from that gallery. Can you figure out which swimmer false started?


Here is a list of finswimming sites:

Martin's gallery at Flickr: [Link]

FinSwimmer.com: [Link]

All Fin Swimming blog: [Link]

Fin City: [Link]

Well so much for background checks and 'USA Swimming' keeping a sharp eye on who gets to coach!

USA Swimming gives a good reference to someone they had fired for sexual misconduct so he could go coach some kids.

This is becoming "Hurricane Katrina meets the Vatican" for Chuck Wielgus. Time for the USOC to step in and put them ion probation.

Former USA Swimming national team director Everett Uchiyama no longer works for a Colorado club after his named turned up on a list of those under a lifetime ban from the national governing body.Uchiyama was the aquatics director at the Country Club of Colorado, located about five miles away from the USA Swimming headquarters in Colorado Springs. He landed a job at the club after resigning from USA Swimming over allegations that he had a sexual relationship with an underage swimmer.

The club released a statement late Wednesday afternoon saying that Uchiyama had "resigned" effective immediately.The statement says that USA Swimming gave Uchiyama a positive reference, and he didn't show up on any background checks since he was never charged with a crime.

[Link]

This is an example of a potential situation that can occur when no crime has ever been committed before employment. Hence, USA Swimming has to adopt a policy of no one-on-ones without a parent or parent representative being the "watchman" watching the "watchman."

This simple idea is so "sturdy and industrial" in that everyone is protected, everyone is responsible, and everyone is safe.

Thank you Ken S. for sending me this.

Do sunscreens work? : Apparently no full consensus

Disclaimer: Science is not about certainty but rather a preponderance of evidence and even the evidence they do have should always be rechecked.

The Environmental Working Group group has released a report on sunscreen protection and most got sketchy ratings or thumbs way down. Now, with that in mind, I don't trust these guys and their findings but they do supply references.

Why don't I trust them? Because they have singled out their favorite brands which says to me they have a brand bias rather than ingredient bias. Now, to give them the benefit of the doubt, it also may suggest that they are going under the assumption that each sunblock company has their own SPF factory but none of them do.

These"brands" simply buy 100's of 55-gallon barrels of the goop from an original equipment manufacturer, squish it into brightly, colored, plastic, bottles and then sell it for 10xs what they paid for it. (That is the business plan. same goes for vitamins, supplements and shampoo. Shampoo only cost a 2-cents in real life.)

In my opinion, If I put on a cheap sunscreen, I don't burn and burning causes inflamation and inflamation is associated with cancer. Do they prevent skin cancer? I don't know but I want to go outside anyway and not burn so I not going to play favorites until the FDA comes out with an opinion.

Here is a snippet:

1. There’s no consensus on whether sunscreens prevent skin cancer.

"... The Food and Drug Administration’s 2007 draft sunscreen safety regulations say: “FDA is not aware of data demonstrating that sunscreen use alone helps prevent skin cancer” (FDA 2007). The International Agency for Research on Cancer agrees. IARC recommends clothing, hats and shade as primary barriers to UV radiation and writes that “sunscreens should not be the first choice for skin cancer prevention and should not be used as the sole agent for protection against the sun” ..."

[Link] - For the report go here: [Link]

Home page screen shot of the new swimming news site I am building - It is still a work in progress and I need your help!

This is a partial screen shot of the layout which is now finished. The secondary pages look amazing but I need help with some input such as what categories should I put into the new site. Categories such as: Masters Swimming, Platform Diving, etc. etc.

Also, I have said so many times before in the comments section that the SCAQ blog readers are for more knowledgeable than I am, and consequently, I want your voice. What sort of section do you want? Le me explain, I want in some way to allow user submitted content. What are your thoughts on that or what are your thoughts in general?

If you notice, Glenn Mill is the Swim Technique adviser to the site and he will hook us up with drills and short blasts of aquatic info. I am very flattered that I was able to talk him into it. His input and endorsement will make the site great.

I pulled off another coup which I can talk about is a few weeks.

I will start posting more screen shots as the site gets more fleshed out. I am looking forward to hearing what you would like it to be.

I was just sent a contract that Australian swimmers are suppose to sign if they want to swim in the Pan Pacific Championships!

The beast of a document is 29-pages long and after a fast glance it essentially says: We so own you and we are going to leverage your talent for every dollar we can. You are not allowed to think freely, dress freely, write freely, work freely, or self promote freely, because you are owned by the "company store!"

I will read it fully and completely tonight but here are some points that stand out.

Team members cannot communicate with the media unless they wear a team uniform and they can only talk about their events, their prospects and their performances while at the event itself; nothing else.

If a team member has a blog and he wants to talk about "team content", all advertising on their blog has to be removed unless they are Swimming Australia sponsors.

Team members are not allowed to be sponsored by a competitor of the Swimming Australia sponsors and one of them just happens to be Speedo. Consequently, you can't be sponsored by a rival brand unless you fill out a bunch a paper work and demonstrate that the brand is faster. Now how do you do that?

Now it gets worse: Let's say a telecom wants to sponsor you; forget it, It is not allowed because Telstra sponsors Swimming Australia. Since Telstra has an internet presence, this sponsorship precludes the athletes from being sponsored by internet companies both domestic and international which sell products, services, equipment etc. etc. This also includes online portals such as Yahoo or Google, blogs, movies, video games, children-sites, and more.

Let's say a brokerage house, an insurance vendor, a mortgage bank, a credit card company wants to sponsor you: It's not allowed unless Swimming Australia allows it after you fill out a "schedule 2" which definitely sounds formidable. I would love to get a hold of that form for I wonder if Swimming Australia would demand a cut?

I may make this contract available as a download. When you view it you will marvel at how a national governing body can bring a swimmer to their knees "voluntarily" just so that they can swim. I need to talk to a lawyer first before I make it available and I do have a lawyer who was the chief strategist for Sketchers (the shoe company), and he is partnering with me for the new swimming news site which will go live on July 1st. If he says, I can publish this, I am going to put it up.

Swimming Australia athletes work hard for their daily bread, same goes for all the world's swimmers. I think it is time we look at the culture within the sport at large and put a spot light on how athletes are treated, how underpaid they are, and what they have to do to be able to swim. To me this "voluntary" servitude is akin to working as a "share cropper."

I don't know what Swimming Australia's budget is. USA Swimming makes about $30-million a year and it's head boss, Chuck Wielgus, gets 2% off-the-top of each million-dollars the organization brings in. Recently, the Organization is talking about giving pro swimmers a $50,000 a year salary but will this salary set our athletes up to sign contracts that suppress speech, suit choice leveraging their income? This is something for the sports agent to really look at? [Link]


What I really want is for athletes, coaches, suit manufacturers, meet directors, and even the agents to make as much money as they can. "Industrial age" contracts like the one that was sent to me is not going to deliver a wage comparable to the salary that the CEO of USA Swimming and probably Australia Swimming is going to make.

Associated Press does a writeup on tech suits and masters swimming! - Love the quote from David Marsh.

From AP:

"...I love the way it makes me look and I love the way it makes me feel in the water," said Gaines, who won three gold medals at the 1984 Olympics and still competes in the Masters division at age 51. "It sucks everything in and gives me a little more buoyancy. We could all use that in life."

The U.S. Masters short course nationals held in Atlanta this past weekend were the final opportunity to wear the neck-to-ankle suits, which revolutionized the sport but are now banned by all the major governing bodies. Masters was the last group to outlaw the suits, allowing them to be worn through the end of the month.

Not surprisingly, 103 individual and 19 relay records were set at the same pool used for the 1996 Olympics.

"I think they've been great for the sport," Gaines said. "I'm really sad to see them go. ..."

[Link]

Temporary exile - they will rise up and reclaim the kingdom once Phelps retires.

Here is the mailing address and the phone numbers for the USOC!

It took me 10-minutes to find this address, names and phone numbers. I am going to be writing them a letter regarding some topics that are on my mind and if you would like to suggest a few things on your own: tear into it, sparky!

United States Olympic Committee

Officers:
Chairman: Lawrence F. (Larry) Probst III
CEO: Scott Blackmun
COO: Norman Bellingham

Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909-5746

CO Tel. 719-632-5551
Fax 719-866-4654

Kastaway: Diver Ton Daley poses with Kate Moss for Italian Vogue!

Good for him! Kast-a-way has a bunch more photos and details: [Link]

Japanese movie monster found in Chinese lake!

I want one but imagine what you have to feed it? Probably a live monkey or something.

From the Telegraph:

"...The creature's alien status meant that it could have posed a danger to the local ecological system, they added. ..."

[Link]

Ummm, You think?

I am electrified by these 'aqua forest aquariums"

In most aquariums you might a plastic, sunken, ship and cheesy deep-sea, diver blowing bubbles out his mask. These Aquariums make both the "living terrain" and the fish the focal point rather than $1.99 castle and sea shell.

Ultimately, the tank itself is actually a garden that the fish swim around and exist in it making it an "aqua forest".

I found these images a Aqua Forest Aquariums:

About Aqua Forest Aquarium:

AFA (Aqua Forest Aquarium) is a unique retail aquarium store owned by Archaea Int'l Corp.

AFA is the first aquarium store in US dedicated to Nature Aquarium Style concept. We have the largest selection of aquatic plants in the San Francisco Bay Area, excellent selection of fresh water tropical fish, and carries full line aquarium supplies. Whether or not you are a hobbyist, come visit our store to enjoy yourself with our 6 nature aquarium display tanks and discover the limitless world of Nature Aquarium.

[Link] Here is a link to the gallery: [Link]

Underwater art with a senseof humor and imagination!

Rational Exploration of the Undersea von Philippe Ramette! Five images total and the composition in all them is both unique and humorous. [Link]

The USMS National results are so "off the hook" I question if the live results are accurate?

Extraordinary results demand careful validation and the USMS National results are so "off the hook" I question if some of the live results are correct and if they are I wonder if the bulkhead placement is accurate? These times are very significant.

What I am questioning:

In the 200-free relay, 47-year-old, Richard Hughey, was about to swim in the third position. Presumably his son, Austin Hughey, would follow and I suspect the adrenalin was pumping. With a rolling start Mr. Hughey exploded off the blocks and swam an incredible 50-free; (a personal USMS best even), stopping the clock for his split in a time of 20.15 which is about a second or more faster than his last five 50-free swims over a period of five-years. (Reference: event rankings USMS.) This is definitely probable but then the anchor of the relay, Austin Hughey, did something more extraordinary.

Austin Hughey, out of Auburn, was next up in the anchor leg and he too swam a time so fast and so incredible that he bested Cullen Jones' 22.4 in the same event finishing in a time of 17.88. He also swam faster than Cesar Cielo's 18.4 NCAA National record in that relay leg. Austin Hughey's seed time for the 50-free Sunday is 22.5.

In the Medley relay look at these times:

WMAC: 1:36.62

1) Tiltmann, Laren A - M40 - 25.22

2) Schaetz, Daniel J - M39 - 42.72 (17.50)

3) Fulbeck, Kip M45 - 59.73 (17.01)

4) Power, Michael L - M42 (36.89)

I find it unlikely that Daniel swam a 17.01 for 50-fly, and, Kip Fulbeck, swam a faster leg doing breaststroke. Obvious mistake, so are the results accurate? I think not.

Ultimately maybe the universe has changed and "Baby Boomers" are redefining middle age. Maybe middle age starts, and not ends, at 50-years old for the "Boomers." Maybe an actuary should crunch the numbers in the USMS database comparing it to muscle decline in similar age group studies. Something has happened in the last 5-years but some of these times are questionable, and if some of these times are questionable, then there could be more errors.

I hope the Live result times, will be corrected or explained and do not effect the placings. When you have two or three events where timing was skewed badly, who is to say it did not effect the placings?

I once had my placing bumped down ten spots because of a timer error in an open water event. What was even more frustrating is that the person I was behind got moved up two spots even though we finished together. We were both perplexed and I almost never did the event again.

Friend and fellow SCAQ swimmer Mark Savage's post at the USMS board was the idea behind this post.

TYR will sponsor the biggest swimming governing body on the planet!

USA Swimming has roughly 300,000 members. Swimming Australia has 90,000 members. Even if you combined both the membership of USA Swimming with the membership of Swimming Australia, they still fall short of the behemoth known as the German Swimming Federation (DSV).

I verified that the German Swimming Federation does indeed vastly exceed the numbers mentioned above coming in at just under 600,000 members total.

USA Swimming should take notes as to how they too can grow the organization as large as the Germans have. The Germans must be commended.

The gravity of this sponsorship is great for TYR for FINA will now have to think twice before bullying TYR as they did all throughout 2008 and 2009. TYR now has constituency at the "FINA table" that obviously appreciates the company and they will defend it when needed.

One could argue that a couple or so German swimmers will pick up a suit contract from a rival manufacturer or two but the fact remains that there will still be over half-a-million German swimmers supported directly and indirectly by TYR and these swimmers will have to be seriously considered when FINA attempts to play favorites.

TYR Press Release:

TYR Becomes Official Supplier to German Swimming Federation (DSV)

Huntington Beach, Calif. – May 17, 2010 – TYR Sport, Inc. extends its international footprint with the sponsorship of the German Swimming Federation (DSV). TYR becomes the “Official Deck Apparel Supplier” to the largest federation in the world (580,000 members). The partnership extends through 2013. TYR will outfit the national team on deck, during public and personal appearances and will provide Tracer technical suits to all federation members that choose to compete in TYR.

“Signing the German Swimming Federation (DSV) is an incredible achievement for our brand,” commented Franck Horter, TYR’s General Manager for Europe. “The DSV is currently the largest Federation in the world and has a unique tradition and a history of high performance swimmers. TYR is deeply engaged in making this partnership a big success for the federation and TYR.”

Germany holds the third highest amount of swimming world records (seven). At continental European Championships (LEN), the country consistently places in the top three amongst the 51 participating European national federations. At the most recent European championships, Germany captured five gold medals.

“In addition to being the premiere American performance swim brand, TYR is becoming the most recognizable brand on the international level in swim and triathlon,” said TYR’s Executive Vice President Steve Furniss. “To welcome the German Federation into our growing family only strengthens our ties to the global market.”

The country is also amongst the top nations in international competition. At the 2009 FINA World Championships, Germany’s Britta Steffen and Paul Biedermann took two world titles with world records in each of their respective events.

Olympic history runs rich for the German Swim federation, with 10-time Olympic medalist Franziska von Almsick amongst one of the most recognizable in past games. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Steffen was the fastest female of the games winning the 50m and 100m freestyle en route to setting two Olympic records. In 2012, TYR will offer the outfit of the German swim team in the most successful technical suit collection ever offered by TYR – the Tracer series.

'New York Times' - "2 Officials Say They Face Retaliation for Addressing Sexual Misconduct"

Coaches Mike Saltzstein and Ken Stopkotte have filed a formal complaint with the United States Olympic Committee against USA Swimming stating that they have been singled out due to their pointed opinions and criticisms regarding the current sex abuse scandals within the organization.

The complaint states that they both have been denied work and access to leadership positions within the organization but USA Swimming disagrees. A food fight ensues and the New York Times has it covered.

Karen Crouse has the details:

"...Jamie Olsen, a USA Swimming spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message Wednesday, “I’m told by Pat Lunsford that the reason Mike was not nominated was because in the last quad he’s only applied to work ONE meet.”

In response, Saltzstein said meet assignments were not applied for, but were handed out by Lunsford. He also provided an extensive list of completed assignments, starting with the 2008 Olympic trials..."

[Link]

All kidding aside, I am seeing a very negative progression here from the original Associated Press coverage, to an ABC News: 20/20 report, then the ESPN: Between the Lines, coverage, now two articles in The New York Times, and USA Swimming still has no official child protection policy.

This fiasco started 6-months ago. Both the news media and the swimmers are demanding leadership from the "front" on his issue not from the "rear" like a "sheepherder." You don't build consensus as to what to do when the "wolves are spying on the flock", you identify the problem and organize a stop gap as fast as possible. The public and the news media don't see that being stop gap implemented as of yet.

I am at the point where I am wondering who will solve their most "pressing problem" first: USA Swimming or British Petroleum? Then ask yourself which problem is more complicated.