Swimming Blogs - Floswimming Blogs

The feeling started last Wednesday as a faint flutter. By the time i woke up Friday morning, it was a constant, if slight, pang in my abdomen. I knew the exact last time I had felt this way. It was over two years ago, standing on a pool deck in Williamstown, Massachusetts for what was supposed to be my last race. I had walked off that deck believing that I had just completed my last year of serious swimming. I knew I would never has as much time to train again, never have so many teammates to help me along.… more »

There are no words more beautiful in a swim-coach family than these: a new pool. Imbued with the sweet scent of hope that only a UV air-purification system can deliver and able to erase the memory of unidentifiable rashes like a diatomaceous-earth filter, a new pool is a harbinger of better things to come in any swim-coach family. The swim-coach family will say to themselves, "This is going to be the year that Daddy finally kicks the Singulair habit." Or maybe they’ll say, "This is the year that the guys from the local OSHA office stop calling and asking if… more »

Yesterday the news dropped into the American swimming community like a megaton bomb: Jessica Hardy had tested positive for a banned substance and been removed from the Olympic squad. In following the discussion over the past twenty four hours, a lot of it has focused on what she tested positive for, discussions whether she is guilty, and the possibility of replacement swimmers. It is the last topic I wish to address, one which I think is the most egregious part of this. When Jessica Hardy competed at our Olympic trials aided by a banned substance, she prevented two swimmers from… more »

To get some perspective on the world swimming picture heading into Beijing, I tried to put myself back in time to last summer. In only twelve months, some swimmers have gone from looking like sure things to being completely out of the discussion when it comes to Beijing. Much of it is just the nature of an Olympic year, where you can often find tremendous volatility in performances and certain swimmers like Gary Hall Jr are peaking for just that summer. The upheaval in men's sprinting has been well documented. Just a year ago Alexander Popov's 21.64 seemed only to… more »

The first time Mrs. Coach ever went to a swim meet was on her honeymoon. In Fort Lauderdale. As part of the annual Swim Coaches’ Forum, which has been held since like 1857 at the International Swimming Hall of Fame pool complex. And, oh yeah, she was staying in a hotel with about 30 college students and their coach, her new husband. As Mrs. Coach looks back now on her decision to elope on Christmas Eve and then spend the first couple weeks of married life with a bunch of chlorine-impaired, hormonally-charged, voraciously-hungry social degenerates whose idea of welcoming the… more »

John Naber startled me, but I had to keep my composure. Mid-way through an answer to my question as to whether his 1976 Olympic men's team was the greatest ever, he threw in that he thought they were "until now". The comment got me thinking. In Omaha everyone seemed pretty confident that most first place finishers were gold medal favorites in Beijing, even going so far as to say that there would be swimmers left off the team that would be bronze medal favorites. As good as team USA is, their dominance in some events may be more tenuous than… more »

Come home, have a little dinner, relax and go to a couple of my favourite websites to see what is going on in the world today.

ESPN, let’s see – Alex Rodriquez has been seen with Madonna – okay what’s next – Alex Rodriquez’s wife is leaving him and has been seen with Lenny Kravitz – alright, get the point, what’s next – Jaguar’s wide receiver charged with cocaine possession – okay this is boring.

Then to do what every good person in their late twenties to early thirties does (come on give me… more »

My life will never be the same. Any preparations I had made for my trip to Omaha were completely insufficicent. For six days I was in swimming nirvana. My senses were assaulted by the frenzied energy of success as well as the agony of defeat. I walked among the best our sport has to offer.The truth is, this weekend blew away everything I thought I knew about our sport. My whole life i had been conditioned to believe that swim meets outside of the Olympics would be poorly attended and recognized. When Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte dueled stroke for… more »

8 days, 9 World Records, 21 American Records, 43 Olympians, 136 flocasts, 2 floswimming guys. If I took one thing away from last week it was pride. I am so proud to be a swimmer. Michael Phelps, a swimmer, is the most dominant athlete in the world. Wanna argue? Tiger Woods loses. Enough said. Swimmers are the toughest athletes in the world. Ryan Lochte's 200 Back, 200 IM double with just 16 minutes in between is only comprehendible to swimmers like Katie Hoff who managed to set American Records in both the 200 Free and 200 IM in the same… more »