…USA Swimming has begun to update their SWIMS Database to reflect the new time standards for the next quadrennial as we head toward the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona. The most noticeable difference is that the designation of long course times has largely shifted from “Olympic Trials” to “13 World Championship Trials” in long course events, and “Summer Nationals (LCM)” to “U.S. Open” in yards events. That is because during this quadrennial, there has not yet been any “Summer Nationals” standards revealed; the 2013 equivalent will be the World Championship Trials, which don’t allow yards qualifying, and 2014 standards haven’t been revealed yet. As of late Saturday night, it appears as though the switch was still in transition (some times still read as “Olympic Trials” standards), but when it is complete, athletes will have a better idea of which meets they have qualified for, and in which events…
…The Northwestern Swimming & Diving teams h0sted a breast cancer fundraiser event on Wednesday known as “Breaststroke4BreastCancer“. The incredible event pulled in 150 participants from different athletic teams, student groups, and even fraternities and sororities; that included an entire relay made up of members of the men’s basketball team. The team, along with co-organizers Megan Goss and Jackie Powell and the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, had a goal of raising $5,000 for local breast cancer research. They more-than-doubled that goal, raising a stunning $11,000 at the event…
…According to the South China Morning Post, Chan Yiu-hoi will retire his role as the Head Coach of the Hong Kong National Team when he turns 60 at the end of March: the official age of retirement in China. Chan has held the post since 1995, and has overseen a recent growth in success of the program: especially the women’s team. That includes swimmers like Stephanie Au, Yvette Kong, and Hannah Wilson. Most recently, Hong Kong had good success in the first two Middle-Eastern stops of the FINA World Cup Series in the last month. Among those that the Morning Post report to have applied for candidacy is Zhao Ge. Ge was the former head coach of the Chinese National Team from 2000-2005, where he fought of similar attacks from top American coaches to those we’re seeing against the current Chinese program over doping allegations…
And here I thought Swims was getting improved, not a change in language…
Speaking of which has anyone heard when USA Swimming is going to get up with the times and get a mobile friendly website? With as many iPhone, iPads, tablets and droids out there (not to mention their apps) it sure would be a great thing to have as a coach since they pushed this deck pass. Deck pass plus doesn’t do it all.