Break out the Grog!!

Hey, I'm famous! Let's celebrate!

Tony Austin not only wrote nice things about me at the SCAQ blog... he also replaced his SwimNews link with a link to my blogspot. Tony is kind of like the investigative reporter of swimbloggers. Most of my juiciest stuff always somehow ends up linking to his site, as I am usually one step behind. He is quick about posting the latest swim news and he does excellent work. I have had him on my RSS list for a long time and I am flattered that he is a fan.

But, ummm.... should I be worried about repurcussions from across the pond?

Professional Swim League?

Recently, the SCAQ blog has made a couple of posts calling for us to consider pushing for a professional swim league. We are now in the dawn of the professional swimming athlete, tech suits, and more importantly, the age of Michael Phelps. We are getting the press. I feel that we have reached the point where we are getting many of the negatives of being a premier sport, but we haven’t quite capitalized on all of the positives.

Brent Rutemiller at Swimming World recently made the case that there has never been a better time than now to take the plunge. A professional swim league that embraces suit technology could be the perfect way to keep the Olympics and our traditional system intact and pure, while allowing the suit companies to innovate and keep the sport fresh and growing. Who says we can’t have meets that don’t follow FINA rules? The high schools have been operating that way for years. It would not surprise me if the NFHS continued to allow tech even if FINA goes back to permeable with length restrictions.

So what if we were to host a meet where the times wouldn’t count as traditional world records? Why couldn’t we add the 50’s of the strokes and underwater fly kicking as events without pressuring FINA to add it to their meets? This honestly could let FINA off the hook regarding suits, and give us a way to resolve the issues that might come up with the looming decision on whether or not to let records set in technology stand. It would not have to be done with a spirit of defiance… It could be something completely separate from the way we currently do things, but it could be done in the interest of enhancing and promoting our traditional system.

We now have hubs of post-college excellence in teams like Club Wolverine, North Baltimore, Mecklenburg and the Race Club. Why not have suit company sponsored training sites with sponsored coaches leading them? Team TYR and Team Speedo could have a whole new meaning. They could set up a college-style system of dual meets and a championship, or even a system of invites for pro athletes similar to the Grand Prix series that would not interfere with our current club system. They could keep it light and fun, and give pro athletes a way to take an exciting detour during the season and generate income to keep their traditional swim careers progressing. I would personally buy a ticket to watch Ian Crocker put on a tech suit and put Lochte and Hill Taylor to shame with some serious fly kicking. College or high school format duals would be fun. Eight man 50 free shootouts are a blast. Anything that makes swimming more spectator friendly could be fair game.

Come on, guys. Let’s get creative. Just like butterfly spawned from people innovating their breaststroke technique, a great thing could come out of suit companies innovating their products. Let’s help write a mission statement for this thing and come up with a way to end the fighting over tech. Let’s allow it to bring our sport to a new and exciting place while simultaneously ending the debates over the purity of the sport.

In the comments section below, I want to know what you would like to include in the mission statement, format and rules for a professional league. Let’s bust the door to the house of ideas wide open. We could create a real solution.

I don't think I have ever swam in a OOL.

1 in 5 pee in the pool? That's all? I am pretty sure every team I have ever been on had a better than 20% average. Some teams even took it a little further by peeing on people in the shower when they weren't looking. When you can cut loose during a flip turn, that's how you know you are a swim-pee ninja.

With all the coughing and hacking at the mizzou grand prix last year, the chloramines had to be pretty outrageous. Lots of pee-ninja's in that warm up session fo sho.

Don't we all wish there really was a chemical that could humiliate pool pee'ers with a red cloud when they let it go? I gotta find a way to fake that for a prank some day.

Since someone actually took the time to do a survey on it, I thought we would celebrate by embedding a couple of youtube vids. Enjoy:

Is Cap Really Back?

Hey, we all know that in the world of comics, dead doesn't really mean dead. When people would say that as evidence that comics are dumb, I was one of the geeks who would always chime in that "Bucky Barnes stayed dead."

But then, of course, over 60 years after his death, Bucky Barnes all of a sudden wasn't dead anymore. Just like Earth X, I thought it was going to be one of the dumbest things I ever read, and then it blew my mind with it's awesomeness.

Ed Brubaker was the writer who brought us Bucky Barnes' resurrection as the Winter Soldier. He was also the writer who killed Captain America. I am sure some people will gripe that he might be the writer who brings Steve Rogers, the original Cap, to life again with the biggest story line of the summer.

Marvel is allowing a free preview of the digital version of the prelude of "Captain America: Reborn."

I have to admit... I can't wait.

Congrats to Aschwin Wildeboer...

"Hello, Mr. Wildeboer. My name is Craig Lord. I am a journalist for a highly respected aquatic sports publication called SwimNews. I just wanted to congratulate you on your new world record. You just raced the 100 meter backstroke faster than any human in history! Please allow me to write a one thousand word editorial to tell the world all the reasons you suck.
Oh, don't worry about the negative press. Don't let it stand in the way of your training as it has Ryosuke Irie. I won't be nearly as hard on you as I was on Fred Bousquet, either. The Frenchman finished last in every race he ever swam until he put on a Jaked01. The only reason he even races the 50 meter freestyle is because he does not have the discipline or work ethic to complete any longer distances. I hear that in the French summer leagues they call him Freddy Failure and he is often disqualified for pulling on the lane ropes.
Keep up all the hard work! Maybe some day someone other than your parents will give you a little credit for a lifetime of following the black line. Just remember: you are still a disgusting cheater, even if you are playing by the rules."

Way to go, Mr. Lord. Let's run our best and brightest out of the sport when they haven't really done anything wrong. I am sure glad I have never broken any world records. I don't think my self esteem could handle that kind of success.

If you ever write an article about me I will quit blogging and start my own magazine. I will call it SwimOpinions and I will hire people who actually have something nice to say when a swimmer does something amazing. Maybe I will even include a fashion section with a few articles about how we can all slim up for summer by wearing suits that have better compression, dress more modestly at the beach by covering everything from ankles to wrists, and avoid sunburn with 100% non-permeable fabrics.

How's that sound?

Since the FINA flip-flop...

Ever since FINA did the right thing by deciding to allow all the suits until they could provide real evidence of why the LZR was allowed over others, journalists and bloggers have been putting out so much great stuff that I can hardly keep up! Craig Lord has already published 18 articles since the suit list was negated on Monday, while I have posted a pathetic ZERO. I just don't even compare.

There are now facebook groups to boycott Speedo products and to form an athlete professional organization to take some control of the sport. The Washington Post even cares enough about swimming that they started their own page dedicated to it called reachforthewall.com. Not only is it great reporting, but they have the best list of links to current swim news across the world that I have ever seen. Here is a link to one of their articles about a whole bunch of Speedo sponsored athletes whining that they are at a disadvantage because their 2% advantage has been taken away by FINA's flip-flop.

Also, please tell everyone to take my newest poll. Now that FINA has shown that they are actually listening to the bloggers (at least a little bit), my blogspot might be the perfect place to show them how we really feel with the most important poll in swimming history. According to Professor Hanson (errr, or is it Manson?), my poll is perfectly constructed to be 100% accurate and will give FINA the best data from which to make future decisions regarding suits.

Stay on the lookout for more craziness until the new list comes out in January. I can only see this getting better.

A Conversation with Ginny Fuldner (uncut)

Don’t know who Ginny Fuldner is?… If you are into swimming history, you might know her better as Virginia Duenkel, a former world record holder and multiple medalist at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. I have had the honor of getting to see Ginny in action for the last twelve years as a coach in our local summer league. She is one of those rare people you meet in swimming whose love for the sport and love for the way swimming can help raise kids to become good people shines through in everything she does.

It is not every day you get to chat with someone who has a pool named after her. In all the time I have known Ginny, she never once brought up her Olympic history. In this vid, you will hear the story she told me the day I finally brought it up myself… and you will also hear how this video interview might be getting her into trouble when she gets home after the meet. Sorry Ginny!

I didn’t ask Ginny for this interview to ask her any of the hard questions. What I was really hoping is that floswimming fans would consider this a treat, and could get a small taste of what it has been like to be friends with one of the darlings of Olympic swimming history. It was nice to sit down with her and just have a conversation about something we both like to talk about: all of the different ways we can fall in love with competitive swimming and appreciate our time spent hanging out at the pool.

Swimming Videos on Floswimming

To read a great article about Ginny at age 15, click here.