…American Paralympic champion and World Record holder Victoria Arlen will be honored in her hometown of Exeter on Saturday with a celebratory parade, where her accomplishments in London will be honored. Arlen went into London with high hopes, despite being virtually a beginner in the world of the Paralympic side of the sport, but even before the swimming started was mired with controversy over her classification, reclassification, an alleged “removal from the meet” that never happened, and then finally putting her right back where she started. After days of stress and testing that actually aggravated her impairments, she shook it all off to win four medals and break the World Record in the 400 free. That perseverance is certainly worthy of a parade…
…In a warmup for their World Cup debut later this week, France’s two individual Olympic Champions made their returns to competition over the weekend at the Puy-en-Velay National meet. The two swimmers from Nice were in off events at the short course meters meet, but performed quite well. Yannick Agnel was a 47.53 in the 100 free and a 1:59.84 in the 200 IM. After sitting out the whole of the short course season last year, that’s a best time in the IM and within half-a-second of his best in the 100 free. Don’t be surprised to see Agnel contend for the 100 free title in Istanbul in addition to his 200 free. Muffat also swam the 100 free, with hers coming in 52.96. Despite not being her primary freestyle distance, that’s already the best time in the world this year. She also put up a 58.39 in the 100 fly: a career-best. At this meet, they inaugurated the brand new aquatics center in Puy-en-Velay, which figures to jump into the national rotation…
…Swimming Australia’s High Performance Youth coach Vince Raleigh has stepped-down from his national position to return to coaching at the Queensland Academy of Sport in Brisbane. He will replace Stephan Widmer, who had held the job since Raleigh was promoted in the last national coaching overhaul that saw Leigh Nugent elevated from junior to senior national coach. Among the swimmers on Raleigh’s resume from his last time in Brisbane is multiple Olympic medalist Brenton Rickard…