'TNT' had track and field Olympic trials tonight and the girls were dressed like swimmers circa 2000!

Shalane Flanigan, in the 5k, was wearing "Speedo" briefs and a halter tank-top. She was definitely not hard to look at; but enough abut my problems. [Link to the photo from Daily Life]

Now contrast that to the speedsuit in swimming. So much for seeing extraordinary human bodies stepping up to the blocks looking like they stepped out of the Getty Museum. Instead both the men and the women now look like refugees from the movie March of the Penguins.

'Speedo' admits paying USA Olympic Swimming Coach Mark Shubert to endorse Speedo!

TYR is suing Speedo and USA Swimming for anti-trade practices which in my opinion are so obvious and so overt it boggles my mind that the only press publications being objective about this lawsuit are coming from outside the swimming spectrum. TYR is being portrayed as the villain and Speedo the poor, innocent, innovator. See SwimNews if you don't believe me.

With that said the L.A. Times has been quite fair with this lawsuit: here are some restated quotes about TYR's management practices from Coach Mark Shubert from an L.A. Times article:

"... USA Swimming's head coach, Mark Schubert, took jabs at TYR Sport, which is suing him, USA Swimming, Warnaco Swimwear Inc. -- the parent company of Speedo -- and swimmer Erik Vendt in connection with the LZR Racer swimsuit. The antitrust lawsuit alleges that there was a conspiracy to steer swimmers to Speedo.

Schubert, who has steadfastly refused to comment on the lawsuit, Saturday took pains to compliment Nike, which has been allowing its sponsored athletes to experiment with high-tech suits from other manufacturers. He said Nike shows it wants its athletes to succeed. ..." [Link]

Now, consider this: Mark Shubert set up a quasi-demonstration of the LZR in Manchester, England at the FINA SCM Championships. The meeting was mandatory and according to the TYR lawsuit brief, some athletes felt "hard sold." If Shubert is all for swimsuit choice, then why didn't he demo all the swimsuits so they could "...experiment with high-tech suits from other manufacturers" and why did he just demo the Speedo?

Now compare his credibility as a unbiased coach and a moral authority in regards to swimsuit choice in a court filling by a Speedo exec in regards to the Speedo lawsuit. From the L.A. Times:

".... But an earlier filing, a declaration attached from Stu Isaac, a Speedo senior vice president, stated that Schubert is a paid spokesman for the company, which backs up TYR's assertion.

Now I read the Ted Stevens Act twice through today. The Stevens Act summarily created the concept of National Governing Body status. In my opinion, USA Swimming is not a business like the NFL or the NBA. Those organizations are businesses and can use their for-profit status to endorse, or forward the aims and interests of those that pay them "mad bank" to do so.

It's my interpretation that National Governing Bodies such as USA Swimming can't use their non-profit status as a for-profit engine so as to set up swimsuit monopolies for those such as Speedo or anybody else. USAS is a non-profit governing body set up by the United States Senate. What USAS overtly or covertly endorses essentially is endorsed by the auspices of the US government. It can't be done in my opinion.

Now for my tastes, the proper way for an endorsement deal to take place would be for USAS to state out loud that Speedo pays their bills and then state they are thankful for the cash but they won't say which suit is the best then I could live with that.

So, the TYR case has been moved to September 15th. How coincidental that is is after the games.

China's smog problems are relentless!

From inhabitat: Already a large number of athletes are severely concerned about how competing in the Olympics will harm their health and chances at winning. The Australian track and field team, and the Canadian athletics team are skipping the opening ceremony due to concerns about pollution. [Link]

Hopefully the air in the Watercube is filtered. If smog screws up these Olympic Games then the IOC royally screwed up by choosing a country devoid of air clean enough to compete in. The blame should be placed on the IOC rather than China.

The Europeans film swimming so much better!

NBC is not showing enough underwater work, they is no red line displayed upon the water to denote the WR pace, and the names are not superimposed or displayed within the lanes as the first three swimmers touch.

I am actually angry about it. NBC is a billion dollar organization, they have an underwater camera but they are only showing the turns. The interviews suck too. Should have let Rowdy do them.

I am watching trials right now and I had a thought/question?

I am actually suffering through track and field right now waiting for the swimming though I love the homage to Jesse Owens that one athlete made.

So, here comes my thought and question: in 1968, George Foreman, after winning a gold medal pulled out a small American flag and walk around the ring with it to display his love of country. Bruce Jenner, after winning the Decathlon in 1976 grabbed an American flag and ran around track with it. Ipso facto it has now become the patriotic standard to display your country flag when celebrating victory.

Now here is a question that has been dancing around my house and head. What if Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, or Erik Vendt, won a gold medal and instead of pulling out an American flag they chose instead, the Golden Bear flag of California? Would there be political fallout? Would the USOC freak! Would the country be outraged? Would relay team designations change? What would California think? I would be elated to see it.

Gotta go, swimming is on!

(I know Dara is living in Florida and Erik training back east but I consider it a temporary exile for both these swimmers. They are Californians through and through.)

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]

The 1980 US Olympic team receives the 'Congressional Gold Medal'

On June 25th 1980, the 96th congress of the House of Representatives voted 374-28 in favor of awarding the 1980 US Olympic team the Congressional Gold Medal - But that is not what they received! Instead, they received was a gold plated bronze medal from the USOC which the USOC had to pay for. (Who were the 28 people who voted against it and why?)
So the athletes get their medal but it's called an Olympic Medal instead of a Congressional Medal.

So, Congress, after being prodded and corrected by Dave Sims and Ron Neugent, have changed the designation of the medals with a certificate now entered into the public record.

From the USOC website: "... COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Twenty-seven years after Congress authorized President Jimmy Carter to present a congressional medal to the 461 athletes of the 1980 United States Olympic Team, the medal has now been confirmed as being the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed by Congress. Until this recent designation, the medals awarded to the 1980 Olympic Team have been denied full recognition due to a technicality in production. ..." [Link]

Swimming World asked Glenn mills for his reaction to this last December and this is what he said: "... First, a very heartfelt thank you to Dave Sims and Ron Neugent. Thanks for caring enough to research and fight for recognition. Regardless of the significance of the medals, or the loss we all feel for not having had the chance to participate and represent our country, I feel the overriding message in this story is how we've all remained friends over the years. This is a team that shares a special bond. Dave and Ron's caring for all the athletes, and the heartfelt letter he wrote to all of us is a testament that no matter what our signification to the outside world, we remain The 1980 U.S. Olympic Team." [Link]

Now I wanted to find out if Congress followed through so I wrote Glenn Mills and asked if he could send me a photo as evidence that they followed through. Above is Glenn Mills holding up the certificate validating his medal as a Congressional Medal.

Winning the Congressional Medal is a big deal! Here is a page to the US House of Representatives of those that have received the Congressional Gold Medal. It's quite impressive, it includes Pope John Paul II; Navy Commander and de facto father of the navy, John Paul Jones; Prime Minister Tony Blair; Mother Teresa of Calcutta; Simon Wiesenthal; Gold Medalist, Jesse Owens, and many more. [Link]

Here is a link to Glenn Mills' (Congressional Medal Mills) website, GoSwim.tv

I placed 9th in my age group at the 'Alcatraz Sharkfest'

I also finished 69th in the mens wetsuit division, 91st out of 800+ swimmers, More on it when I get home. I am the guy in the silver cap.

2008 'Open EDF' Photostream at Guyomedw's 'Flickr' page

Guillaume is coming out with a book later this year; for now he has given me permission to post his photos. Here is a link to his 2008 EDF photostream. Feel free to leave a comment or two. [Link]

I can swim better than John William Anglin

Anglin used a rubber raft to escape Alcatraz but he and two others apparently drowned during his attempt. I will swim it wearing a neoprene wetsuit this Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and hopefully I will enter Aquatic Park about a half-hour or so later. I will let you know how how it went.

'EPO' or 'Epogen' still undetectable in anti-doping drug tests!

From the Herald Tribune: "...The investigators asked whether the sole reason for the improvement was increased numbers of red blood cells, and it was. But they also realized they had an opportunity to investigate the validity of the EPO test. So, without telling the anti-doping labs what they were doing, the investigators sent the men's urine samples for EPO testing.

One of the two labs, which the researchers refer to as Lab B in their paper, never declared any sample positive, even when the men were taking high doses of EPO every other day. Lab A was inconsistent. It found EPO during the high dose phase. But in the maintenance phase, it found EPO in only 6 of the 16 samples.

It is not terribly surprising that the labs disagreed, researchers said. The EPO test, like urine tests for other hormones, including growth hormone, is extremely difficult. The lab must look for tiny chemical differences between the EPO a person makes naturally and EPO that is injected as a drug. ..."

The photo to the right comes from penston's photostream at flickr.com. It is entitled Aranesp. [An EPOgen analog] Here is a link to the actual photo. [Link]

Britta Steffen: "I'd like to see everyone swimming in a normal bathing suit..."

Britta Steffen on tech-doping over at Reuters: "I'd like to see everyone swimming in a normal bathing suit," said Steffen, who set a European 100 metres freestyle record of 53.20 seconds at the German championships in April.

"That way we could see who's the best swimmer and not who has found the best material. I'd have no problem finishing second or third and knowing 'Okay, you just weren't better than the others'. [Link]

The photo above is Britta Steffen exiting the pool. The photo was found on guyomedw's photostream at Flickr. Here is a direct link to the photo: [Link]

Glenn Mills not only endorses the 'blueseventy,' he sets a masters world record in one and feels guilty about it.

Erik Hochstein sent me this as a supplement to the Gary Hall jr. endorsement below. Glenn Mills storms a 200LCM breaststroke ion one and feels . Here is a snippet:

"...When I touched the wall on the finish, and glanced up to the clock, I was hoping I would be within a respectable measure of David Guthrie's World Record of 2:26.1, and the time I saw surprised me for the first time since I was 15 in a swim race: 2:22.6. I waited for the clock to reset, or change. I figured there was a missing light because I knew UMD had just ordered a beautiful new scoreboard. The more I looked, the more confused I got. Did I really just go 2:22? No way. I couldn't have gone that fast. The last time I swam this race meters, I went 2:30 in December, and it HURT! The 2:10 yards in Austin was a good race, and I was READY for that one. I didn't do anything for this... except, change my stroke a bit, and put on a Blueseventy suit. ..." [Link]

Gary Hall Jr. tacitly endorses the 'blueseventy' speedsuit!

Here is a quote /snippet from Gary that he posted on his Race Club message board:

"... We also need to give credit where credit is due. The suit. I know, I know. I hate to admit it. There is something to the suit. I was training with Mark right before I left for Omaha and he had the new Blue Seventy suits. He was talking about leaving Speedo who he has been with for decades(!) to sign with Blue Seventy. We were testing the suit and there is something there. No question. Could it account for a .16 drop? I think so. ..." ['YouTube' Link to the reaction]

I actually think Gary Hall is a contender this weekend, albeit a dark horse.

Here is a link to thread: [Link]

Underwater Swimsuit Fashion Show

I think it is a Howard Schatz video. I posted some of his stuff before here: [Link]

Since it was over 100 degrees in So Cal yesterday, I post Lewis Gordon Plough swimming a 1,000 meters at the north pole!

I would love to swim in water that clean but make the water two-and-a-quarter times warmer.

"The Big Bad Swim" movie trailer

A movie about learning how to swim - but note that the phrase "learning how to swim" is primarily a metaphor for what these functional and non-functional adults are struggling with.

What it illustrates amazingly well is the diverse and friendly people you meet when you put on a swimsuit.

"And we would have got away with it if it wern't for you meddling kids!"

Look what happens when you get 3,700 kids together in Santa Monica, California. From Inhabitat.com:

The event, hosted by the Malibu Foundation and sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Stormwater Program and California Coastal Commission, also included a massive beach cleanup on Dockweiler Beach. The event was the climactic celebration of 20 elementary schools that participated in ocean presentations held throughout the academic year in and around the City of Los Angeles.

For more images and information visit www.malibufoundation.org and www.LAstormwater.org.

When you swim open or open water races in So Cal you really do appreciate efforts like this. These kids made more people art so go take a look at Inhabitat: [Link]

And speaking of nuclear fission, Michael Phelps owes the dolphin kick to nuclear physicist, Volney C. Wilson!

Amy Shipley from the Washington Post explores the history of the dolphin kick which ultimately transformed the freestyle into a hybrid event. Here is a snippet:

"... The underwater dolphin kick attracted the interest of swimming innovators as early as the 1930s. The late Volney C. Wilson explored its possibilities before diving into later work on nuclear fission and the atomic bomb, according to David Schrader, a research professor at Marquette University who is Wilson's biographer.

Schrader said Wilson, an alternate on the 1932 Olympic water polo team who studied fish propulsion at a Chicago aquarium, claimed to have shown the kick to Johnny Weissmuller, a training mate at the Illinois Athletic Club. ..."

I think Weissmuller would have been way more receptive to it if the flip-turn was part of a swimmer's lexicon.

There are so many gems in this article regarding swimmers Misty Hyman; Neil Walker; local boy, Lenny Krayzelburg; Michael Phelps; and they even bring in propeller heads from the Navy into George Washinton University to study its effectiveness. It is a total must read: [Link]

Thanks for sending this ;-)

A near life experience: Nuclear Cake

A near life experience: Nuclear Cake - On March 1, 1946 the United states evaporated the Bikini atoll with a thermonuclear explosion, an atoll in the South Pacific that engineer, Louis Réard, and French fashion designer, Jacques Heim, named the two-piece swimsuit, the Bikini, after.

In the above photo, Admiral 'Spike' Blandy, celebrates the detonation with a simple thermonuclear themed cake! Am I the only one perplexed by the enthusiasm? This was a less than one year after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I found this gem at one of my favorite blogs, Spy's Spice Here is a You Tube of the actual explosion, an event that brought back into the present the two piece swimsuit from the pools of ancient Rome. What will take to bring it back again post LZR and the Tracer era?