British Olympic Swimmers Visit Hospital
The Olympic swimmers Duncan Goodhew and Mark Foster visited Christ’s Hospital school as part of a promotion for the Sport Relief Swimathon. This year there are 644 pools around the UK taking part in the swimathon.
OLYMPIC swimmers, Duncan Goodhew and Mark Foster, and BBC Breakfast sports reporter, Mike Bushell, joined Christ’s Hospital school pupils for a swimathon promotion to be broadcast on BBC Breakfast show.
The swimmers joined pupils at Bluecoats Health and Fitness Club to recreate some of the swimming categories of the 1900s, including the plunge, the under water swim and the obstacle, which have now been dropped from the Olympics.
Ben Way, who organised the swimathon said Christ’s Hospital have been one of the biggest school supporters of the Sport Relief swimathon over the last few years.
He said: “Considering there 644 pools around the country taking part, to be one of the biggest school pools involved is a big achievement.
“People who do a 2.5 to 5KM swim will be doing it for Marie Curie. This is the first time we have had a swimming option as well as a running option and we already have a few thousand people involved and we are hoping that’ll be tens of thousands by the time of… continue reading
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Olympic Coach Unimpressed With Phelps
Olympic coach Bob Bowman was left unimpressed with Michael Phelps’ performance at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Thursday. Even though he won the 100m butterfly and was runner-up in the 100m freestyle, Bowman felt Phelps did not prepare mentally for the competition.
INDIANAPOLIS, US – Michael Phelps won the 100m butterfly and was runner-up in the 100m freestyle at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Thursday, but the Olympic swim star did not impress coach Bob Bowman.
Nathan Adrian managed to ignore his torn swimsuit to hold off hard-charging Phelps in the 100m free final, winning in 48.62sec. Phelps was second in 48.74.
Phelps bounced back with his 100m fly victory in 52.23, but Bowman said the 14-time Olympic gold medallist was not paying enough attention to the details.
Bowman said Phelps’s seventh-fastest qualifying time in the freestyle was due to lack of mental preparation.
And he was unhappy with Phelps’s glide to the finish in the fly final, ahead of Poland’s Marcin Tarczynski (52.92).
“I can’t stand those finishes like that. He’s got to start making that important,” Bowman said. “We’re at a point now where the details are important and you can’t just keep blowing them off till later. It is later.”
Phelps, who reigned over the Beijing… continue reading
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USA Swimming Director Delighted With 2012 Team
Frank Busch, the USA Swimming director, thinks the 2012 team could be the best yet. Busch believes this team has the speed and experience to surpass the 31 medals won four years ago.
OMAHA, Neb. — The national team director for USA Swimming thinks the Americans have enough experience and speed going into the London Olympics to eclipse the 31 medals won in Beijing four years ago.
“Everybody in the rest of the world is going to try to make that difficult,” Frank Busch said Thursday. “From our perspective, we wouldn’t be looking at this thing any differently than we want this to be the best Olympics ever. We have the potential to have the best Olympic team we’ve ever had.”
Busch was in Omaha to promote ticket sales for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which will be held June 25 to July 2 at the CenturyLink Center. The trials probably will mark the last appearance for Michael Phelps, who has said he plans to retire after London.
Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing and has a total of 16 medals, needs three more of any kind to become the most decorated Olympian in any sport.
Ryan Lochte, who is coming off two wins over Phelps at the World Championships and won five golds and one bronze at the meet, has the best chance of supplanting Phelps as… continue reading
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A Look at the British Olympic Synchronized Swim Team
This summer the British Olympic synchronized swim team is striving for gold. They are hoping to sweep up medals with routines are very physically challenging and graceful and expressive at the same time.
It is late morning on a Tuesday in January and I am poolside at the Garrison Sports Centre in Aldershot which, as well as providing sporting facilities for the Army, has been the home of Great Britain’s elite synchronised swimming squad since 2007.
Thirteen pairs of flip-flops, 13 sports bottles and the odd muesli-filled Tupperware box line the water’s edge.
Suddenly in front of me two rows of swimming-capped heads and blue-costumed torsos burst through the surface of the water and plummet down again, one after the other. Their linked hands shoot into the air as a wave of movement passes through the group.
A second later, all you can see above the water are two rows of perfectly extended legs overlapping and scissoring. Then each swimmer’s legs trace an arc in the air, the group making a movement like the closing of a fan.
The effect is magical and – for an Olympic sport – frankly rather odd, not least because the girls’ faces are split by identical… continue reading
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