Incoming FINA President rumored to favort a return to briefs!

From USA Today: Incoming FINA President rumored to favor briefs over speedsuits:

But FINA doesn't appear ready to budge.

"A swimsuit is not a device. A swimsuit is equipment," FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told The AP. "They can propose whatever they want, we are in a democratic world, but a device is clearly defined in the rules."

But with the rules changing from month to month, manufacturers have been left guessing.

"I still don't know what rules to use starting in September. If the rules change for January, we need four months of time for redesigns," Arena's Musciacchio said.

Making matters more complicated is that Julio Maglione of Uruguay will take over from Mustapha Larfaoui as FINA's president on Friday.

Maglione is rumored to favor a return to briefs.

"I'm hope it's more than a rumor," Zimmer said. "The new president is going to have to clean house. That's really the only way that this can happen. And I don't just say that for us. We know that Arena is very upset, Speedo has got to be really upset about what's happening, just because we've all invested a lot of money.

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In my opinion, it's not going to happen for if FINA does not approve speedsuits, the suit companies will find someone, or create a sports governing body that will.

USA Today: Katie Hoff Opens Up!

I came away from the article thinking that Katie Hoff is overworked, overstressed, and not very happy. Not good news whatsoever. First rule of swimming: Swimming is suppose to be fun and Katie Hoff needs to have some fun!

From US Today:

After returning from Beijing, the 20-year-old Hoff made a coaching change, remaining at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC) but choosing to train under Bob Bowman, who also is Michael Phelps' coach.

"He's someone I thought could help me take my career to the next level," Hoff says of Bowman.

Bowman changed her training regimen, adding more work in the weight room and putting her through the same brand of grueling practices he used to mold Phelps. Hoff has sought Phelps' advice on dealing with Bowman's hard-driving style.

"I'm not going to lie, there have been a lot of times where I've been going through some rough moments, days, weeks," Hoff says. "(Phelps) has been good, because he knows Bob really well and he's done this training for years so he knows the ins and outs of everything."

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Katie, go watch a TV show and relax. In fact go marathon a season's worth of America's Next Top Model on some lazy Sunday and skip your workouts for that day.

Don't go near a pool till your well and you can't wait to get back in.

In fact, It's summer so go fall in love for a couple of months and get some time away from your several "to-do lists."

Then when you are all comfy an relaxed, go call a professional like Natalie Coughlin or Libby Trickett and asked them what they think? Both of these ladies have made tough career decisions when they were on the ropes and it changed them for the better.

USA Today: Phelps not happy with his 400 IM prelim swim!

Ryan Lochte beat him; from USA Today: "...Swimming in the last heat, Phelps touched in 4:13.43 to be second-quickest, well off the world record of 4:06.22 he set at last year's world championships in Australia.

"I'm not really too happy," he said. "That was slower than I went in worlds in the morning. Hopefully I'll be faster tonight. ..." [Link]

USA Today: More than half of black and Hispanic kids can't swim

USA Swimming did the study and here is the snippet from the report: "...COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A national, first-of-its kind survey found that approximately six out of 10 African-American children are unable to swim, nearly twice as many as their Caucasian counterparts. Similarly, 56% of Hispanic and Latino children are unable to swim. ..." [Link]

From USA Today: "...The survey found that "children do not buy in to the stereotype that minorities don’t or can’t swim. When asked whether they believed swimming was “just for white people,” over two-thirds of African-American and Hispanic/Latino children aged six to 16 disagreed (68% and 71% respectively), more than 40% of each group disagreed strongly. ..." [Link]

Caption to the photo: (Olympic freestyle swimmer Cullen Jones teaching Tavion Traynham and five other 8-year-olds at a YMCA in Omaha, Neb., in March. Photo by Daniel Johnson via AP.)