WHOA! It happened. Did you feel the earthquake when Kate Ziegler broke Janet Evans' 1500m record?

She blazed, she raged, she stormed it at the TYR Swim Meet of Champions. She didn't violate the record by a measly 9-hundreds-of-a-second nor did she break it by 9-tenths-of-a-second. She beat Janet Evans record of 15:52.10, a record that has stood since Kate Ziegler was a three-month-old baby, by 9-seconds-plus! Tonight the new record is 15:42.54.

This is overwhelmingly decisive. She is not just the best in the world but the best who ever was. This American girl will be unstoppable in Beijing. There is so much enthusiasm, technique and strength in this girl that I wonder how can a swimmer get more motivated than Kate Ziegler? I don't see how Laure Manaudou with all her media distractions and the sniping between France and Italy can.

Lane 9 news used phrases like: "finest performance in history", "vengenance","she attacked", and of course, "made history." Ultimately, this is a huge event. [Link]

Brendan Hansen has his own Leukema Research Foundation page - How impressive is that?

As most know, Brendan Hansen swims breaststroke and he holds two world records in both the 200m and the 100m events. Add to that portfolio an American record and a NCAA record in the 200 SCY, another three medals total in all three flavors from the Athens Games in 2004 and you have a athlete with world class talent.

I just found out today that he is also quite charitable in that he has his own Leukemia Research Foundation pledge page here: [Link]

Lane 9 News has a report that he will be participating in a fund-raising walk to help raise research funds  with leukemia on June 21st in Chicago. He will be walking at the 3K Walk and Survivors Strut portion of the 13th Annual ABC7 Jim Gibbons Run/Walk. [Link] - [Carbuyer Article Link]

I found a cool site for both swim rankings and world records.

It 's called Swim-Rankings-dot-net. Bookmark it! Not only does it have the latest swim news but it has a reference section to world records for both men and women. Click here to see: [Link].

I believe the site is out of the UK despite the "dot-net" domain for the swim rankings therein are just for European swimmers and the language is in English.

That gentleman to the right is Alexander Popov, world record holder in the 50 free LCM.