Swimming Blogs - Floswimming Blogs

I know, this is the moment you've all been waiting for. The moment at which a middling blogger puts forth his complete predictions against another middling blogger. Who will emerge victorious? I think its pretty obvious. When you see the picks, you'll realize that one of us knew the true value of Presley Bard, and one of us didn't. To be clear, the scoring will work as follows: 6 points for correctly picking first 4 for second 2 for third 1 for each additional swimmer in the top eight, with a bonus point for correctly picking their location. Also one… more »

Quick post this time. Good luck to all the Olympic Trials competitors out there. To those I know personally, all the best and I am thinking of you all. Remember all the hard work that went into qualifying and let the performances come out. Good Luck!!! B more »

So, if you read my blog post a couple of weeks ago, you know that i have challenged swimming television star Mike Gustafson to a high stakes game of picking trials finishes. Soon after we traded boastful blog posts I called Mike to hammer out the details for our pick off. Not content to pick just who would qualify in each event or go one place extra as in Swimnetwork's Fantaswim, Mike and I agreed to go out to an astounding eight places in each event. For all 26 events that will be contested in Omaha, we would each attempt… more »

Putting the puzzle together:In my last post, I had talked about a race I was getting ready for... Well, that race was about three weeks ago, and it went well. It was amazing, I felt like before that race I wasn't sure that I was quite ready for Trials yet, but after getting out and attacking that race, and going less than a half second off my best in the 100 free, a switch flipped, and I was then ready for the meet, which is now next week already! After that meet, I had great practices the following week, and… more »

Well, today I have to admit I'm pretty tired. You see, I started work this week at Harvard Technique Swim Camp, and although my hours are 8-4, I rarely feel as if I'm done. To compound my exhaustion, my beloved Boston Celtics insisted on winning a championship game that ended just a shade before midnight. While I revelled in their victory today, I was also struck by the sharp juxtapositon of two of my favorite sports: swimming and basketball. Listening to a guilty pleasure of mine (sports radio), I overheard the following themes repeated throughout the day: 1. Kevin Garnett… more »

Change... I guess change is hard for any of us. And I knew it would be tough to introduce a new re-design on a site and layout that people seemed to really enjoy. But change is necessary for improvement and if you aren't moving forward then what are you doing? The new version of Floswimming.org is a step up in technology. Options like races allow you to search through races by strokes, distance, gender, and level in order to find the races you want to see. The calender feature on the video and news pages allows you to scroll through… more »

Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will be on the Olympic roster. So will Katie Hoff and Natalie Coughlin. Ask anyone to prognosticate what will unfold at rapidly approaching Olympic trials and they will be sure to agree on at least those four. Then again, Craig Beardsley seemed like a pretty sure thing to make the team when he entered the 1984 trials as the world record holder in the 200 butterfly. He missed the team, finishing 3rd. Pablo Morales, one of the greatest butterflyers ever, tasted the sting of defeat at trials. Chances are there will be some shocking results… more »

Well, I had quite an adventure making it to Omaha.? I guess the lesson I learned is that no matter how much you prepare there is always the potential that life can prevent you from acheiving what you think you want. And, more importantly, there are more important things in life then swimming fast, like family, health, and being a good person. I won't trouble you all with all the details, but here is the quick summary.? I was supposed to fly out of O'Hare (in Chicago), but my flight was cancelled and all the other flights to Omaha were… more »

If you think that my first post this week will cover the meets this weekend and who seems to be improving their chances going into Omaha, I have just one thing to tell you. You know me too well! It seems crazy that there was this much fast swimming this weekend, just three weeks from the big one, yet there was. If you missed or had trouble keeping up, here's a little cheat sheet for a couple swimmers who are trending upward after this weekend. Allison Schmitt: Allison decided to contest the 200 free in Omaha, and among some pretty… more »

I thought Roman Sloudnov was out of my life, but I was wrong. I can remember being completely petrified of him. For some reason the glimmering last gasps of the cold war that hung over my childhood had significantly biased the way I percieved Russian athletes. I could only picture them in two molds: Dark haired and stone-faced (Alexander Popov) or blond and even more stone-faced (Ivan Drago from Rocky IV). So when Roman Sloudnov became the first man to go under a minute in the 100 breaststroke in 2001, I developed an immediate caricature of him in my mind.… more »

Hello all, Hope this works to post an entry (I like the new format of Floswimming, but I had a hard time finding a place to post this blog). As some of you may know, I am training for Olympic Trials in the 100 Breast. I still need my cut, so this weekend I am heading over to the Omaha Grand Prix. I am looking forward to the meet, it will be my first time in a pool that has been constructed in an arena and a first time wearing a body suit. Training has been going good and the… more »

In the second of my trials preview articles, I'm going to take a look at the great unknown in Omaha: the young trials rookies. In this I'm trying to search out swimmers that may be similar, at least generally, to Ian Crocker in the year 2000. It may seem hard to remember, but Crocker was no sure thing to make that team. At 17 years old, he was probably the best swimmer his age and based on his track record he seemed most likely to make the team in the 4x200 relay. After all, he had been 1:49 as a… more »