Swimming has been an Olympic sport since 1896, but it wasn’t until 1924 that the sport unearthed the standard 50 metre pool for lane races. Swimming is one of the more popular sports at the Olympics, with nations such as Australia and the United States the usual heavyweights. In the 2008 Beijing games, male Swimmer Michael Phelps achieved a world record eight gold medals to make him the greatest Olympic Swimmer of all time.
Yolane Kukla became the youngest female to make a senior Australian swim team in a generation after trouncing reigning world champion Marieke Guehrer in the 50m butterfly at the Commonwealth Games trials.
The stocky 14-year-old stunned the field in the non-Olympic event on Wednesday night to win in a time of 25.92 seconds ahead of Guehrer [...] Read article
Nick D’Arcy has always found a reason to keep on swimming, no matter the setback.
So with the words of his late grandmother urging him on at the Commonwealth Games trials in Sydney on Tuesday night, he was never going to be headed in the 200m butterfly.
Doreen D’Arcy died last week and her grandson proudly dedicated [...] Read article
Having overdosed on world records, it is now time for swimming to go cold turkey. The sport’s reputation has taken a bashing in the past two years as performance-enhancing suits saw the record books butchered with last year’s Rome world championships turned into a circus.
This week’s Delhi Commonwealth Games trials in Sydney represent the first [...] Read article
Geoff Huegill’s bid to qualify for this year’s Commonwealth Games remains on track after he took out the 50m butterfly at the Victorian Open swimming championships on Saturday night.
The 30-year-old, who has shed more than 50kg since returning to the sport after a four-year absence, stopped the clock in 24.20secs to take first place ahead [...] Read article
Tiger Woods was announced on Wednesday as Athlete of the Decade by US sports editors, a result that reflects 10 years of greatness on the golf course rather than three weeks of headlines about a shocking sex scandal.
Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by Associated Press member newspaper editors since last month. More [...] Read article
The 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi have already provided plenty of major talking points. Not many of them positive ones. Think concerns about security in the wake of the Mumbai bombings. The tardiness of venue construction. Worries about the extreme heat. And so on.
All of which are valid issues, although Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) [...] Read article
A review of the Australia’s sporting year in 2009.
AFL
In July it was a pack mark and in September it was a toe tap. Not much could split Geelong and St Kilda, the stand-out sides of the season. Amid a season of exceptional football, both clubs won their first 13 games, which made for an unprecedented [...] Read article
Libby Trickett’s name is all but erased from the world record books, but even in retirement she will be the one to catch in 2010.
She may only have a solitary short course swimming mark to her credit but the Australian remains the only woman to have broken the 53 second barrier for 100m freestyle in [...] Read article
Leading Australian sprinter Eamon Sullivan says it would be “incredibly stupid” to retain the world records set by swimmers in the suits which have now been banned.
Beijing Olympic 100m freestyle silver medallist Sullivan was one of several top Australian swimmers modelling Speedo’s new LZR Racer Elite suit on Tuesday.
The new swimwear is fully compliant with [...] Read article
And so did the great sporting empire of Australia, forged in the white heat of battle, driven by an unstinting passion and adored by a green and gold clad people, crumble into the dust. The dust of a south London pitch.
They used to say that the sun never set on the Australian sporting empire. That [...] Read article
Controversial swimmer Nick D’Arcy was named in Australia’s World Cup series team on Tuesday, continuing his rehabilitation after an assault conviction.
D’Arcy, who escaped jail in March for breaking a team-mate’s jaw, was named in the 20-strong team along with former world record-holder Leisel Jones, who skipped this month’s World Championships in Rome.
D’Arcy, Jones and Libby [...] Read article
Australia lost its status as the second best swimming nation in the world, falling to fourth on the medal table after winning four bronze medals on the final day of the FINA world championships.
Stephanie Rice (400m individual medley), Cate Campbell (50m freestyle), Sarah Katsoulis (50m breaststroke) and the men’s 4×100m medley relay team all collected [...] Read article
In Rome overnight, after a week of controversy which saw 43 world records fall (a record in itself), leaving stars of swimming such as Ian Thorpe and Inge De Bruin without a world best time remaining in the book, one record stood tall and unbroken. Grant Hackett’s gold medal winning 14:34:56 over 1500m at the [...] Read article
Head coach Alan Thompson believes Australia’s decision to ban the super swim suits for age group swimmers this year will put the Dolphins in a strong position to adapt to the new rules in 2010.
Australia banned any suit containing polyurethane, including the team sponsored Speedo LZR, from the age championships this year to prevent the [...] Read article
Australia’s former Madame Butterfly Susie O’Neill says the new suits are rewarding undeserving swimmers and she hopes the pre-rubber world records are still recognised.
Almost 30 world records have been set already at the current FINA world championships in Rome thanks to the new generation of polyurethane swim suits.
“I’ve always been a fan of technology but [...] Read article
