Morning Roundup: Dunford to Carry the Flag; Madness at Y Nats; ’48 Olympian Passes

We’re bringing a special morning edition of Sprint News today, and expect to continue to do so as the news-wire picks up headed toward the Olympic Games

…Jason Dunford has been given the great honor of carrying Kenya’s flag at the opening ceremonies on Friday night. This is a huge honor for a country where 47 out of the 52 Olympians are participating in Athletics (track & field). The honor is well deserved, as Dunford is the first Kenyan to win an African Championship in swimming, the first to qualify for the Olympics not via a FINA wildcard invite, and the first to win a Commonwealth Games medal. The Stanford Cardinal grad doesn’t swim his first race until nearly a week later, Thursday morning, so the efforts of carrying the flag all night shouldn’t affect him too much…

…The only American swimmer to ever carry the flag at the Olympics was Gary Hall Sr. in 1976…

…The YMCA National Championships, at the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center (operated by the rec sports department, not the athletics department), have descended into near-chaos. After fire-alarms interrupted finals on Tuesday, Thursday morning in the dorms, swimmers were snapped to attention by more fire alarms. Upon arriving at the pool, there was three feet of water in the pump room, and the warmup pool was deemed out of commission as the competition course rose above the gutters. Then the lights went out, and three heats of the 400 IM were swum “in the dark”, though fortunately there’s a significant amount of windows in the pool. Almost makes one miss the Hall of Fame pool…

…On the eve of the Olympic return to London, 1948 triple medalist Ann Curtis has passed away, according to the Los Angeles Times. Curtis won two golds and a silver at the ’48 Games for the United States in a year where there were only 5 Olympic events available to women. She was the champion in the 400 free and broke an Olympic Record, and was also a member of the Olympic Record breaking 400 free relay. The post-war 1948 Games were the last to be held in London…