News

Gould slams coaches (May 26)
Former Olympic swimmer Shane Gould has been very critical high profile coaches, during an interview with Radio SEN in Melbourne. Don Talbot (Australian coach) and Bill Sweetenham (now with the British team) were among the people in her sights.
The swimmer, who ended her Olympic career at just 16 after winning three gold medals, said, “I think a lot of these guys have probably destroyed more swimmers than they've actually created."
She went on to say her own experiences with coaching clinics included boredom and inappropriate training.

Lenton returns with golden swag  (April 10)
From Swimming Australia: Australia’s swimming superstar Libby Lenton has topped off a remarkable month in which she has won ten international gold medals by being awarded the FINA Trophy for the best female athlete at the 8th FINA World Short Course Championships in Shanghai.
Lenton followed her five gold and two silver medal winning performance at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games with a whopping five world titles in China including a golden double in the 100 metre butterfly and 50m freestyle on the final night of the five day competition.
Lenton’s other medals, that included victories in the 100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and world record breaking 4x100m medley and a silver in the 4x100m freestyle, helped Australia top the medal count with an astonishing 25 medals - six more gold and four more overall than the USA.
Australia won 12 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals to make them the best short course swimming nation in the world, with the USA next on the medal tally with six gold, seven silver and eight bronze.
Host country China won twelve medals, five of them gold, while Russia and South Africa each won three gold and Italy won twelve medals but only two gold.
Swimming Australia story

Golden week for swimmers in Shanghai (April 9)

Australian swimmers have been dominant in the world short course championships in Shanghai.

Virtual swimmers to speed the real ones (April 4)
CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Sport are using mathematics in a bid to speed up our top swimmers by testing changes to swimming strokes.
The research will make use of the same software CSIRO uses for other fluid simulations such as animating water for movies and modelling volcanoes and tsunamis. Researchers are hoping to see some practical results in time to implement improvements for the London Olympics in 2012.
"Firstly we need to understand how water interacts with the human body during competitive swimming," CSIRO researcher Chris Glendenning says.
"We are building a virtual model of a swimmer and are using mathematical techniques known as Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics or SPH to run simulations of the virtual model swimming in a pool.
"In contrast to traditional methods, SPH describes fluid flow as the motion of individual particles. Using this technique means we will be able to more accurately simulate the interactions of water with a swimmer, which is particularly complex at the water’s surface."
To start with, the researchers will scan the skin surface of a swimmer with a laser body scanner and use motion capture information to discover how they move through the water. By combining the skin surface and motion capture information, they will be able to simulate the skin surface for all the poses the swimmer adopts while swimming. 
"Once we’ve built the virtual swimmer, we’ll need to validate the simulations to find out whether what’s happening in our computer matches what happens in reality," Mr Glendenning says.
Source: CSIRO

Australia takes Gold in synchro (Mar 23)
Australian’s Bree Cole and Sharleen Stratton have taken out gold in the first diving event at the Commonwealth Games yesterday, winning the 3m synchronised springboard event.
The pair sealed the deal with a sublime final dive; finishing with a score of 290.7, well clear of the Canadian silver medallists Melanie Rinaldi and Rebecca Barras while English duo Tania Indergaard and Rebecca Sage claimed bronze.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Chantelle Newbery and Kathryn Blackshaw did extremely well to place fourth after Blackshaw was a last minute replacement for the injured Loudy Tourky. The pair had only been training together for a week. They were poised to take bronze but dropped back to fourth after making a mistake on their final dive.
In other diving news, Australia’s Loudy Tourky and Chantelle Newbery won gold in the 10m synchronised platform event last night, narrowly defeating fellow Australians Melissa Wu and Alex Croak. Canada’s Roseline Filion and Meachan Benfeito claimed the bronze medal on 303.15 points.
13-year-old Wu is the Games youngest athlete while Croak is a former gymnast, competing for Australia in the gymnastics team in Sydney in 2000 and also at the 2002 Manchester Games.
Tourky and Newbery were favourites to take out the event since winning the silver medal at the World Championships last year, despite living in different cities and rarely training together.
By Jessica Craven

Schipper adds 2 (Mar 22)
Australia's Jessicah Schipper claimed two more gold medals on the last night of the Games Swimming competition.
Spectators at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre were last night treated to a night of super swimming with the Australian team setting a world record in the Women's 4x100 Medley Relay.
The team, consisting of Games heroes Sophie Edington, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Lisbeth Lenton set the world record time of 3.56.30.
England came second in a time of 4.04.61 and the bronze medal went to Canada with time of 4.05.95.
In the 200m Butterfly, Australia's Jessicah Schipper led all the way to win in a Games record of 2:06.09. Fellow Aussie Felicity Galvez swam a strong race to claim silver in 2:08.16, holding off Terri Dunning of England who won the bronze in 2:09.87.
After her win Schipper said: "I'm happy to go that fast. I think it is my second fastest time ever."
Australian Stephanie Rice claimed her second gold medal of the Commonwealth Games winning the Women’s 400 Individual Medley in a new Games record of 4:41.91.
English swimmer Rebecca Cooke was second in 4:44.60 and Jennifer Reilly from Australia came third in 4:47.13.
Rice led for most of the race and beat her own personal best time by five seconds. She also won the 200m Individual Medley in these Games.
Source: Commonwealth Games

Schipper leads 200m butterfly (Mar 21)
From the Commonwealth Games web: After the heats in the final morning Swimming session of the Games, the Australia team is well placed to add to their medal winning in the pool in the finals tonight.
Australia's Jessicah Schipper has qualified fastest for the Women's 200m Butterfly final in a time of 2:08.27. Compatriot Felicity Galvez qualified fourth and Terri Dunning of England swam a personal best time to qualify second.
Jessica said that she had enjoyed the whole experience and was looking forward to finishing her campaign with a 'big bang'.
“I just came to swim!” she reiterated.
The fastest qualifying time of all three of the Men's 200m Breaststroke heats was claimed by Canada's Michael Brown with 2:14.49, the winner of a bronze medal from the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, who is fired-up for the final.
Australian Stephanie Rice (pictured) had the fastest time of 4:47.89 in the Women's 400m Individual Medley and said that she was hopeful for tonight’s final after an up and down swim in her heat.
“There's been so many amazing races and it's so great to sit in the stand and cheer the swimmers on. It's going to be great tonight and I'm so excited," said Rice. (Pic: Commonwealth Games)
Commonwealth Games story

Swimmers dominate day 1 Games (Mar 17)
The first day of competition, watched by approximately 110,000 sports mad fans, saw new Commonwealth Games records set in both Swimming and Cycling. A total of 10 gold medals were awarded, with Australia early leaders on the medal tally.
Australia won a total of 12 medals in four sports – three gold, five silver and four bronze. Stephanie Rice smashed the Games record in Swimming with gold in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley and on the Cycling track Anna Meares claimed the Games record from her sister Kerry. Anna is now the holder of both the Commonwealth and world records. Also at the Cycling, Ben Kersten claimed gold in the Men’s Individual Pursuit.
Games story

Lenton & Jones welcome drug tests (Mar 13)
Australia’s swim champions Libby Lenton and Leisel Jones have challenged drug agencies to test them “ as much as they like” during the Commonwealth Games.
Their declarations come after reports that the Games will be subject to heaviest drug tests ever; with anti-doping officials conducting more than 200 snap tests over the next two weeks.
Lenton and Jones, both record holders in their events, said they would to oblige testers and enhance the Australian swim team’s already “clean image”.
Lenton, particularly, is expected to come under scrutiny from drugs authorities because of her massive participation at the Games, competing in seven events.
“It's going to be a lot (of testing). Ideally, I'll be swimming well enough to get a lot of drug tests and that's kind of a compliment in that respect," said Lenton.
Lenton and Jones are two stars of perhaps the strongest female swimming team in Australia’s history. The team has drawn comparison to the drug-fuelled teams that came out of East Germany in the 1970s and 80s and out of China in the 1990s.
Far from taking these comparisons as an insult, Jones says it’s a compliment. "It's funny that we are performing like them and we are clean as a whistle. It's a nice comparison," she said.
Meanwhile, Australian officials are trying to shelter the women’s team from some of the pressure of expectation in the countdown to Thursday’s Commonwealth Games competition in the pool.
Australia’s golden girls are tipped to win at least fifteen of nineteen events and have been thrust even more into the spotlight with the withdrawals of Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
"I want to point out that we are not competing here as a women's team," team captain Giaan Rooney said.
"We are all fighting under the one banner of Australia and all of us, the men, women and multi-disability swimmers, have to swim as a team.
"It's irrelevant all this talk. All three components of the team have to come together."
Head coach Alan Thompson refused to speculate on how many gold medals the women would reap at the Games.
"I don't predict medals. If you are focusing on what's happened in the past, you might only be watching the presentation ceremony at the end," Thompson said. "You are on a hiding to nothing.
"It doesn't matter where you are ranked, it all depends on the day in the pool.
"But we believe we could be the dominant team at the Games.”
By Jessica Craven
Commonwealth Games
Jones bio page (pictured)
Lenton bio page

Jones & Lenton scoop awards (Feb 23)
Swimmers Leisel Jones and Libby Lenton scooped the major gongs at last night’s announcement of the Australian Sport Awards. Jones was given Female athlete of the year and Lenton the junior title.

Swimmers triumphant at games trials (Feb 5)
The Australian women's swim team looks set to continue their domination of Australian swimming, leaving the men's team trailing in their wake. The women have smashed a number of world and Commonwealth records during this weeks Commonwealth Games trials and are expected to bring home a swag of medals during the Games next month, following their phenomenal success at the Athens Olympics
Leading the charge is breaststroke champion Leisel Jones, who shattered the world records in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke, becoming the first woman to ever break the 1.06sec mark on Friday night.
Golden girl Libby Lenton has also shown that the best is yet to come, reclaiming her 100m freestyle world record in Friday's semi-final. Lenton stormed home in 53.42sec and said she was out to prove her coach Stehan Widmer wrong after he angrily questioned her motivations and commitment after a disappointing second place in the 200m freestyle final. "I had a bit of a, well, not a tantrum, but Stephan had a few words with me about my attitude," she said. "I swam fast to prove him wrong. I really hate it when he's right.”
Lenton and Jones weren't the only swimmers tearing up the pool: Jade Edmistone lowered her own world 50m breaststroke record, while Giaan Rooney set a Commonwealth record in the 50m backstroke. Tay Zimmer set a new national record in the 100m backstroke while Jessicah Schipper set a Commonwealth record in the 100m butterfly.
Schipper will be one to watch during next month's Games. Schipper is out to claim the world record which is rightfully hers, after she was robbed of the 200m record in last year's world championships in Montreal. Schipper finished 0.04sec behind Polish champion Otylia Jedrzejczak's time of 2.05.61 in a race in which both swimmers beat the previous record. However, video replays showed Jedzrejczak illegally touched the wall with only one hand. FINA rules state that breaststroke and butterfly swimmers must touch the wall with both hands.
“ I guess I was angry at first, but I turned it around and made it my fault and something I could learn from,” said Schipper after last night's race. “I died a lot in the last 50m over in Montreal and if I had not died she would not have caught me and it wouldn't have happened.”
The women's success in the pool stood in stark contrast to the men, who after five days of competition, had failed to break a single record. There were a number of disappointing swims, with Thorpe swimming a fairly pedestrian time for him in the 200m freestyle of 1 min 46.42sec, more than two seconds outside his own Commonwealth record.
With the exception of Thorpe and Hackett, the women have stole the limelight on the world swimming stage for the past two years. The women won nine of Australia's 15 medals at the Athens Olympics in 2004, with Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry winning three gold medals apiece. They also won 10 of Australia's 13 gold medals at the world championships in Montreal.
However, Leisel Jones still believes the women have a way to go before achieving the profile of swimmers such as Thorpe and Hackett. “ I would like to think that we are closing the gap but I know if Hacky (Hackett) was here it would be an absolute show and I'm so glad he's not here.”
One thing's for sure: Australia's golden girls are the ones to watch come March.
By Jessica Craven
Leisel Jones profile (pictured)

Records tumble at Comm Games trials (Feb 1)
The Australian national swim championships -- the main run-up to this year's Commonwealth Games -- has already produced two new world records from Melbourne's new swim centre at Albert Park.
Last night 20-year-old Libby Lenton (pictured left) reclaimed her 100m freestyle record from popular compatriot Jodie Henry, with a time of 53.42 or 0.10 off the old mark.
On Tuesday, 23-year-old Jade Edmistone (pictured right) set a new 50m breaststroke record of 30.37. "I can't wait for the 100m, that's what I've come here to do," Edmistone said.
Pics: Australian Swimming

Swimmer wins Sportswoman of the Year (Oct 20)
The American Women's Sports Foundation has named Erin Popovich, an Olympic Gold medallist in paralympic swimming, the 2005 Sporstwoman of the Year.
The 26th annual event honours those women whose performance over a twelve-month period has been exceptional.
The criteria for nomination is based on new records achieved and world championships won.
Popovich's performance at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens was what secured her the award.
She won a gold medal in every event that she competed in for Team USA and set five new American records.
Popovich also won three gold medals at the Sydney Olympics and plans to compete in Beijing in 2008.
"As I look at it, there's still four more world records I can achieve," she said.
Popovich said all of her victories were hard fought for.
"It always comes down to the wire," she said.
"There's always somebody staring me down the last 10 yards or so."
Australia's Lauren Jackson was nominated for the 2005 Team Sportswoman of the Year category along with Kristen Kjellman (lacrosse), Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh (beach volleyball), Krissy Wendell (hockey), Cat Osterman (softball), and Ogonna Nnamani (volleyball).
Cat Osterman, the youngest member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic softball team, won this category.
Osterman is currently a senior at University of Texas-Austin and has led her team to a third-place finish last season at the Women's College World Series for the second time in three seasons.
Osterman competed well at the Athens Olympics pitching 14 2-3 scoreless innings and said she is saddened that her sport has since been dropped from Olympic competition.
"It was a heartbreaker," she said.
"None of us expected it. It was devastating for our sport because it was on the rise. We're in a fight to get it reinstated right now. We do feel very confident in that fight."
Osterman has also been honored with two ESPY Awards.
Angela Duckworth was presented with the SportsGirl of the Year award.
Duckworth, 15, is an up and coming American swimmer and already holds a national ranking.
The Women's Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King, hosted the 26th annual awards dinner, which raises more than $1 million annually for education and grant programs for girls and women in sports.
By Jacqueline Scott

Coughlin leads USA into Sydney (Oct 16)
USA Olympic champion Natalie Coughlin is on her way to Australia to tackle our best female swimmers at the FINA World Cup to be held in November.
Coughlin may take on the likes of Libby Lenton, Giann Rooney and Jodie Henry on November 19 and 20 at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
Coughlin has won 11 world championship medals and despite holding four short course world records, the Californian is yet to win a World title in a 25m pool.
Joining Coughlin for the US will be Margaret Hoelzer, who is reining world short course champion of the 200m backstroke.
A finalist over 200m backstroke at last year's Athens Olympics, Hoelzer has finished second at FINA World Long Course Championships in the same event for the past two years.
If Coughlin decides to concentrate on backstroke she and Hoelzer will line up against World long course 50m champion Giann Rooney, but if freestyle is to be her forte she will run into Jodie Henry and Libby Lenton.
Henry forced the Coughlin into the minor medals in the 100m freestyle event at both the Olympic Games in 2004 and the World Championships this year.
And Lenton is in contention too after beating the world record for the distance twice at the Telstra Australian Short Course Championships in August with stunning times of 51.91 and 51.70.
Despite the performances of these Australian swimmers, USA Swimming's High Performance Director John Walker is confident of Couglin's short course abilities.
“Natalie is known internationally for her success in the long course arena, but she has been one of the most successful and versatile short course swimmers in American history,” he said.
Australia's National Head Coach Alan Thompson said he welcomes Coughlin and Hoelzer to the event.
"There is certainly no room for complacency in any sport and for our girls to know that Natalie and Margaret will be here will ensure there will be some great racing," he said.
"Natalie is one of the finest all-round swimmers in the world and when it comes to short course racing her skills off the walls are second to none,”
"She will be a major draw-card, that's for sure and we are in for some awesome races,”
"Margaret is also one of the best backstrokers on the international stage and it will be ideal for our girls to have her here."
By Jacqueline Scott

Swimming Champion's condition 'improving' (Oct 6)
World and Olympic swimming champion, Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak has been shifted from a hospital in Plock to one in Warsaw and her condition upgrade from 'critical' to 'stable' as she recovers from severe head and spine injuries sustained in a car accident in which her 19 year old brother was killed. The chief surgeon at the Plock hospital reported that "She is in good condition, is now being moved to a hospital in Warsaw and should recover after three or four months of physiotherapy."
Dr Robert Smigielski, Poland's national swimming squad physician, told the media that "Otylia suffered only minor spinal injuries that do not require surgery and a head wound that has been stitched up," while her personal physician Dr Miroslaw Zabek added "We've seen a clear improvement in her condition."
While her physical condition improves, Jedrzejczak is said to be suffering severe shock as the severity of the accident begins to sink in, blaming herself for her brother's death.   Jedrzejczak and her brother Szymon, also a swimmer, were traveling to their parent's place to celebrate Szymon's 19th birthday when the car, with Otylia behind the wheel, veered off the road and into a tree. Witnesses reported that the car was attempting to overtake a string of cars but was forced off the road to avoid a collision with an oncoming vehicle. Szymon was killed instantly. It was also reported that the car was travelling at faster than the 100 kilometer speed limit and that Otylia could possibly face charges of negligent homicide.
She is expected to recover enough to resume her stellar career with coach Pawel Slominski saying "I can't imagine that Otylia wouldn't make a comeback. For me and for all of us the most important thing is that she returns to good mental and physical health."
Jedrzejczak is regarded as a sporting icon in Poland.   She won the gold in the 200m butterfly at the Athens Olympics and the silver in the 100m butterfly and 400m freestyle. Just recently, at the July World Championships she broke her own world record in retaining the 200m butterfly title.
She has been nominated for Polish sportswomen of the year and is widely known for her charitable activities, donating her Olympic gold medal to a children's cancer ward in Southern Poland.
By Sally Browne
FINA

Features

Dawn Fraser profile (Oct 17, 2005)
2006 Comm Games preview (Oct 13)

Links

Australian swimming: http://www.swimming.org.au/
Austswim: http://www.austswim.com.au
FINA: http://www.fina.org/
Australian Institute of Sport: http://www.ais.org.au/swimming/index.asp
Swimming and water safety: http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/swimming/
Swimming World magazine: click here
Commonwealth Games: click here
Athens Olympics 2004: click here
Swimming New Zealand: click here