Yawwwwwwn. Someone wake me when there's some swim news...

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

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I'M BACK!

And I know you all missed me terribly (if you even noticed I was gone.) A few things happened while I was in Paris for the past week or so...

1. European Championships
2. The formally Kerr-McGee, now Elite Pro-Am
3. Laure Manaudou

In the case of the first, I got to watch a lot of it, both on German Eurosport and on one of the Parisian channels. It was so much fun to watch guys like Mike Cavic, Markus Rogan and Duje Draganja at a meet where they were the big stars and got great coverage. I won't go through a laundry list of who won what (you can find that at omegatiming.com), but I did want to mention Markus Rogan's new European record in the 200 back because he is auctioning his gold medal for the charity 'A Spark of Warmth' which helps the poor in Austria stay warm by paying for heating material. Craig Lord over at Swimnews.com had a great idea - that Aaron, or Ryan should purchase it. It's their best shot at a European Gold medal. I think Phelps should throw some of that Speedo money at it - or better yet since Markus is a Speedo athlete himself, they should purchase it from him for an obscene amount of money and then gift it back. Don't y'all agree?



Onto the second matter, Floswimming once again rocks my world with their meet coverage. If you haven't been over there to see the videos from the Elite Pro Am, what are you waiting for? Interviews with people like Craig "Chappy" Chapman for Pete's sake! Eddie talks about Ian Crocker's amazing 500 free, followed by him winning the 50 free shoot-out (rockstar.) and Peirsol is seriously playing with my emotions in that hat. There was some excellent swimming going on over there in Oklahoma.

And finally, a story I probably wouldn't comment on normally but after reading some of the editorial comments at other sites about Laure Manaudou and the release of some privately taken nude photos of her I feel the need to put in my .02 cents. Laure is a grown woman and nothing she did was illegal. Even if you want to say it was immoral, you would perhaps be in the minority in that opinion, and it's not really my place to demand that she live by my standards (nor is it anyone else's). When she get's a DUI (while nude), I'll jump on the soap box. For now I'm going to wish her the best and hope she bounces back quickly from this temporary embarrassment.

Q and A with David Cromwell

A Harvard Grad and now Texas Longhorn, as well as National Champion in the 100 and 200 (scy) backstroke, anyone who might have doubted David Cromwell (or anyone else for that matter) could challenge Aaron Peirsol's backstroke supremacy can doubt no more. Men's backstroke has become one of the most competitive events nationally and Cromwell is right in there jostling for the podium in a packed field that includes Lochte, Peirsol, Phelps, Bal and Sun. His victories in both 100 and 200 (scy) distances at 2007 Spring Nationals as well as a silver in the 100 (lcm) at Summer Nationals (with a time that ranks him 10th fastest of all time) make him a serious contender for the US Olympic team. And the picture below makes him one of my favorite swimmers of all time or at least for this week. I like it that much.


Photo Credit: David Cromwell

1. You just got back from doing the Grand Prix over in Italy. How was the experience for you? Do you enjoy traveling to international meets and what has been your best experience so far?

Italy was amazing. My Grandpa, who was a professional boxer and my hero growing up, came over to America from a town called Lucca, Italy which was very close to where I swam. I got to meet some of my relatives from over there and that was certainly the highlight of the trip. I was pretty laid back over there and just tried to make the most of the situation as the conditions weren't exactly ideal for fast swimming. I love traveling though, and that's actually a goal of mine, to try and work out how to swim internationally next year.

To be honest, I don't think I have enough international experience to have a "best moment" but for now I will actually say that it was swimming in Vancouver, Canada last summer. My parents drove up from Montana and I think that town is about the prettiest in the world.

2. You've had very good results and seem to be right on track. Are you happy with where your training is right now and the program at Texas? What are your short and long term goals?

I am just so, so thankful I was given the opportunity to train here in Texas. It has made all the difference in my career and I cannot do enough to try and make it up to Eddie Reese, Kris Kubik and the Longhorn Family. We're training our tails off down here and I think that if we can keep it up, the Longhorn Aquatics Men will make a lot of noise in the next year. Some of my specific goals are private, but the overall goal (unfortunately, as cliche as it sounds) coming down here was just to completely dedicated myself to training with the goal of finding out just how good I really can be. I think that by this summer I will know that answer.

3. You couldn't be in a more competitive stroke. For good or bad the US men own the backstroke right now and it's going to be harder to make the team than to make the Olympic final. Does knowing that make it easier or harder to get in the pool and train every day?

I absolutely believe that being in such a competitive environment makes it easier to get in the pool and push yourself. Now, for your overall health and stress levels...I don't know :). But seriously, since my goal was to find out how good I can be I view it in a positive light, it helps me reach the level of self-betterment I am aiming for.

4. Mike Cavic said in his Q&A that he likes to "talk a bit of trash to raise the stakes and energy before a lactate swim". You ever try that with Aaron and Chappy or are backstrokers too laid back for that? Can you give us your best taunt?

I don't talk smack before races that I am serious about, but I love to in workout and mid-season meets. Brendan Hansen and I were going back and forth before the Texas Invite about the IM's, I believe my typical line went something like "Brendan, you realize there is mathematically no way you could possibly beat me right?" He crushed me in the 200IM and then out-touched me in the 100IM. It was a serious blow.

But for the backstroke group, I'll never forget when I first came here I was beating Aaron in a set and then he said "Hey, I just want you to know that I am going to win this next one," right before I pushed off. I started laughing and he demoralized me. What makes our training group work is that we are all hyper-competitive but laid-back guys that love to have a good laugh. I mean, take a look at this and tell me you could ever take Aaron seriously.

5. You are kinda famous for your Top 5 lists, so we'll leave with an easy one. Austin is known for it's amazing food, but you're a working athlete on a TYR/Timed Finals budget. What are your Top 5 dollar menu items?

Oh man, the dollar menu. I don't eat fast food but yes, have been a little "tight" financially since graduating with an exorbitant amount of college loans to repay. Here have been my go-to's for both eating in and out:

5. Green Bell Peppers. No, not the red ones as those cost a ridiculous 89 cents/pepper. The Green ones average somewhere between 29 cents and 49 cents. Makes all different cooking possible, from fajitas and migas to stir fry.

4. El Arroyo Margaritas. $1 Dollar on Thursday nights. I tutor weekday nights now, but for a newly arrived, poor college grad this was a godsend my first few months here.

3. Black Beans. As I cooked Tex/Mex an average of 5 times a week when I first got down here I quickly learned how cheap and good these guys are. Canned beans win for convenience, but take serious points on the sodium scale. Buying the packaged ones and then making a bunch at once saves you that 37 cents as well. Hey, it adds up.

2. HEB/Costco Frozen Chicken Breasts. Healthy, economical but loses points for convenience. Still, at 8.99 for 14 of them an absolute must.

1. The "Don Juan" at "Juan in a Million." As an Austin breakfast afficionado, this absolutely wins out: cheap and plentiful on top of the ambience of East Austin. If you're ever in Austin please enjoy this local classic. I realize it's disqualified for being $3.25 but as it is almost two meals I stand firmly behind it.

Photo credit: lala from deckchange.com

You can read much more about David on his website .

More Results from the Dutch Open and NBAC's Christmas Meet

50 Fly winner...Joe Bartoch (24.34)
50 & 100 Free winner...Brent Hayden (22.23)

And if that weren't enough to make it a great couple days of swimming, we've also got the 50 free silver going to Duje Draganja (22.38) and Peiter VDH picking up the silver in the 100m (48.78) bronze in the 50 at 22.51.

Daren Mew won yesterdays 50 Breast final in 28.13 and Mathieu Bois (28.44) and Scott Dickens (29.05) of Canada finished 3rd and 7th respectively.

Randall Bal tied his own American Record in the 100 back today with a time of 24.84, and Keith Beavers won the 400 IM in 4:19.53.

For some reason after all that was done they switched over to short course format and the women's team from the Netherlands broke Australia's World Record in the 400m free relay.

Find the full results at Omega Timing

Over at NBAC's Christmas meet Katie Hoff decided to break a few American Records - the 500 free (4:30.47), the 1000 (9:10.77) the 200 IM (1:53.77) and the 400 IM (4:00.66). Not bad work for a couple days work Katie!

All this good news calls for some celebratory behavior I think. Here's Italian sprinter Massimiliano Rosolino (best name in swimming) doing a little number with his partner, and his girlfriend now too apparently,from the show "Ballando con le Stelle" (Italy's Dancing with the Stars). This is just an exhibition. Unfortunately all the show videos are offline now :( ...



Tear it up Massi!

Catching up - Results and News

Sorry I've been a little MIA this week, but I've been finishing up fall semester. I took my last final yesterday and now I have 2 whole days to get my life together and learn French before leaving for Paris on Monday.

Let's start the weekend with some meet results...

The Dutch Open started Thursday and Randall Bal, Duje Draganja, and all my favorite Canadian guys are over there doing some Long Course swimming. I won't list full results, you can find those at OmegaTiming.com, but a few notables:

• Randall Bal won the 100 Back in a time of 53.54.
• Joe Bartoch came close to his National record (53.53) and won silver in the 100 fly in 53.99.
• Pieter Van Den Hoogenband (1:46.46) won the 200 free with Romans Miloslavskis of Latvia following at 1:48.85 and Brent Hayden took the bronze in 1:49.08.
• Annamay Pierse of Canada broke her own National record in the 200 breast swimming 2:25.22 to win the event.
• Inge Dekker of the Netherlands won both the 100 fly (58.88) and the 200 free (1:58.63).

The third day of competition is in progress and it's sprint day! Prelim results this morning included Fairplay award winner Emil Tahirovic of Slovenia qualifying for the 50 breast in a time of 28.29, and Scott Dickens in 29.09 (no sign of the Greeks this meet). Joe Bartoch qualifying for the 50 fly in 24.58 with the winner of the 100 fly, Portugal's Simao Gomes Morgado, just behind him at 24.72. Brent Hayden (22.52), Matthew Rose (22.64), Duje Draganja (22.78, and George Bovell (23.27) all qualifying for the 50 free final, but in a quirk of this particular meet that allows Melbourne medalists to skip prelims and take a spot in the final, Bovell got knocked into the B final by the entrance of Van Den Hoogenband.

Finals begin in just a few short hours! You can watch it "live" on Omega Timing.

I'll add more about finals later...

In other swimming news, Congress has awarded Congressional Gold Medals to the 1980 Olympic team who was forced to boycott the games. Team members affected include swimmers Jill Sterkel, Glenn Mills, Rowdy Gaines, and Mike Bottom, and coach George Haines who was scheduled to head the team, and Randy Reese and Mark Schubert who were on the schedule to be assistant coaches. Swimming World Magazine has put their 1980 Olympic Trials issue online for those who'd like to see the full team list and read more about the 1980 Olympic season and the details of how the athletes, coaches and politicians handled the disapointment. It's really fascinating and I'd hope current athletes would take a look and find a little extra motivation in it.

Q and A with Brent Hayden

Just in case you've been living in a cave, Brent Hayden is the World Champion in what some consider THE main event, the 100 free. He's also the Canadian National Champion and holds their national records in the 50m (22.19), 100m (48.43) and 200m (1:46.85) events. He earned a spot on their 2004 Athens team and it's pretty safe to assume he'll be in Beijing as well, this time as a favorite for the podium. Um, is there really much more I need to say than that? He also has a day named after him in his home town of Mission, BC and he has a black belt, so he's in a more than metaphorical kinda way.


Photo Credit: Rob Griffith / AP Photo

1. First question has to be the standard - How does it feel to be the first Canadian in 21 years and only the fourth Canadian EVER to win a gold medal at Worlds and be crowned a World Champion? Was it tempered by the presence of Filippo Magnini on the podium beside you or is victory just as sweet when it's shared?

Being the first Canadian in 21 years to win a gold medal, and only the 4th to do so, is a huge honour. But after doing so, I pray that it doesn't take another 21 years to happen again. Being on that podium with Fillipo Magnini didn't in any way dampen the victory for me. Being the first tied gold medal performance at the World Championships is something to be proud of, in an odd way.

2. You've only just recently been diagnosed with asthma after years of coughing attacks and what you thought was an adverse reaction to chlorine. How were you diagnosed, how are you treating it, and how has it affected your training, if at all?

I was doing some lung testing prior to my trip to Beijing. The point of the testing was to get some numbers, go to Beijing, do the test again and see how much the pollution affected me. After the first test, the doctors concluded that I did indeed have asthma. The only thing I'm doing to treat it is to take a couple puffs 15 minutes before each training session or race.

3. I keep seeing little snippets about you being beaten and arrested by the Greek police on the night of the opening ceremonies in Athens but haven't found the whole story. What happened?!

The beating in Athens occurred the night before the closing ceremonies. I was done competing a week earlier. Some other athletes and I were enjoying some night life in town, and just after we left a small club, we noticed that there were riot police everywhere. We didn't really know what was going on yet, so we just stopped and watched. The watching didn't really take long because less than 30 seconds after we got to that spot, some people around us starting moving dumpsters into the middle of the street and began throwing rocks and bottles at the police. As soon as that happened, we all ran back to the club we had just come from to get out of the way because we could hear rubber bullets being fired and didn't want to get hit...obviously. To make this long story short, I was grabbed from inside the club (I didn't make it in very far because that's where everyone seemed to be going for cover), dragged into the street, thrown face down, and beaten severely by what the other athletes said looked like at least 10 cops with sticks. Even while I was taking the beating, I used the arm that wasn't covering my head to flash them my Athlete Accreditation, but they ripped it off and tossed it aside. After, what I remember taking about 2 minutes, they cuffed me, took me down the street, and threw me head first into a corner where I would be kicked, hit, spat on, or threatened with pepper spray whenever I asked why I was targeted. After 30-45 minutes, I was released with the only explanation being "You were tall and wearing a dark shirt." One of the athletes handed me my Athlete Accreditation which he had picked up after I was taken away...guess that wasn't a long story made short now was it.

4. You have some really beautiful photographs on your facebook page. How long have you been interested in photography and is it something you are pursuing as a career or is it just a hobby for you? Let's photo geek out for just a moment....tell us about your equipment. ;)

I've always been into it. Ever since I was little, always using my parents camera, and yelling at them whenever they tried to get in front of my picture to smile. I did two years of photography classes in high school. Development, darkroom, theory, all that kind of stuff. But after high school, I didn't have access to a darkroom anymore, so I stopped doing it. Finally, I asked my parents for money towards a digital SLR camera for my birthday, and that rekindled everything. I've been getting back into it very seriously, and am now considering on taking more courses after the Beijing Olympics and getting into it professionally. I do mostly black and white landscapes, but am drifting into more b&w portraits. But I'm really just trying to dip into all forms of photography, learning the new techniques and such. Right now, I'm using a Canon Rebel XTi, Canon 18-55 mm lens and a Sigma 70-300 mm lens. Also have a lensbaby for selective focus photography. My newest addition, which I used my birthday money for this year was a Canon 580EX II flash.

5. North American swimmers cannot really complain of the same media scrutiny that Australian swimmers are under, but this is your year! What are you going to do to shame and embarrass your family and countrymen?

I don't really know how to answer the last question. I mean, I do a lot of things that embarrass the people around me, like, yelling in the movie theater, doing a crab scuttle across busy crosswalks downtown, taping blow up dolls to my best friend on his stag and riding around on scooters wearing tuxedo t-shirts at the same time...but that's not really the same thing as embarrasing my country. I think I'll just stick to embarrasing my friends for now :P

Photo Credit: Brent Hayden

And I thought Brendan had a bad Athens story! Unbelievable.

Many thanks to Brent for allowing me to publish one of his personal photos. He told me it's his favorite and he had to contort himself in some garbage to get the angle. Well worth it! (I get to see the real thing soon!). Read more about Brent on his Wikipedia page, or you can listen to this entertaining podcast where he talks about his favorite haunts in Vancouver. Brent will be joining other members of the Canadian National team in Holland this week for the Dutch Open I believe. Competition begins Thursday.

All-Star 100 IM from Texas Invite

Neil Walker, Alex Hetland, Aaron Peirsol, Adam Ritter, Ian Crocker, David Cromwell and Brendan Hansen entertain the crown with an unofficial 100 IM. Crocker just about swims the whole thing underwater. haha. So much fun to watch and seals my undying love for Floswimming dude for getting it on my computer.

Check it out.

Have I told you lately, that I love you....

Floswimming dude?

Full Texas Invite video coverage over on Floswimming! With Interviews! And every freaking race!

I was kinda dreading posting results on here with all those numbers and splits in nicely formatted text, with bolded race titles and italicized highlights, (cause you know I treat you right). I mean, text is cool, but video is COOOOL!

So just to summarize - Bren won both the breaststrokes and he also won the b-final of the 200 IM with a time that was good enough for a 6th place finish in the A final (which Aaron won), and Crocker finished 3rd in the 100 backstroke (backstroke? say what?) And of course they won the 200 Medley Relay. I mean, come on.

Now go WATCH it!


Direct links to Bren's races and his interview:

100 fly prelim
100 breaststroke prelim
100 breaststroke final
200 breaststroke prelim
200 breaststroke final
200 IM prelim
100 IM final
200 Medley Relay with Aaron, Ian and Neil
Interview

This one is with Adam Ritter, and you shouldn't miss it. He talks about the 200 breaststroke race against Brendan and he's obviously a smart, thoughtful swimmer. Great answers! Maybe my favorite of the bunch.

ETA: This is on a totally different topic but just wanted to update you that Markus Rogan's girlfriend Christine Reiler made the Semi-finals at Miss World. I won't say who won for those of you who might want to watch on tv later or something. You can find the full results here.