Exactly one month left to Trials!

Please note that I've gone ahead and added the television schedule for Trials to the sidebar so you'll have no excuse not to watch! Brendan swims on the 29th, 30th, 2nd and 3rd so I've bolded those days making it easy to remember.

I've also added a few more photos from Santa Clara to the Gallery such as the one below.


Photo Credit: Getty Images

Whacked-Out Wednesdays?

It seems every week lately there is some new drama in the swim world which leads me to think maybe I should start a new weekly category of posts. USA Swimming has already claimed Tuesday for 20 Questions (that are never with Brendan and don't think we haven't noticed!). So what's it to be? You should never start/end the week on a bad note so Mondays and Fridays are out. Tuesday I've discussed. Wednesday could work but I'm having trouble coming up with a clever alliteration. Thucky Thursdays? I'm taking suggestions.

First ...

ASU cuts Men's Swimming. What? What? What? That's where we keep our Brunelli!!! Nick and others have started a donation drive to try to endow the program and protect it's future. If you'd like to make a donation you can visit the page they've set up for that purpose - Save ASU Swimming.

The second ...

Texas A&M pool 3cm too short - Bulk of Texas Senior Circuit Times Will Not Count. So all those who made their Trials cut times this weekend in the A&M pool will have to try again. You'd think USA Swimming could come up with a way to convert those times, wouldn't you? It seems a shame that they just get tossed away like that. It's not clear from the articles when the problem started but I'm assuming it was just for this weekends meet?

And finally the third ...

Who didn't see this coming? TYR Files Lawsuit Against Speedo, USA Swimming, Mark Schubert, and Erik Vendt. I figured it would be the Italian team the way they were talking at Europeans but it's turned out to be TYR and they aren't just unhappy with Speedo, they are going after USA Swimming, Schubert and Vendt too. Why not FINA? Y'all may remember that I commented on Schubert's Speedo shilling back when he said that athletes not wearing the new LZR at Trials risked not making the team. It seems really inappropriate for someone in his position with USA Swimming to be making that claim. I don't know if it rises to the level of a criminal offense but there certainly appears to be a conflict of interest there. Going after Vendt however seems ridiculous and of course there's a great deal of anger among his fans and peers. Erik's agent, Evan Morgenstein from PMG, says they will no longer persue TYR contracts for their athletes. Hopefully this will be resolved in a way that doesn't hurt Vendt but which maybe clarifies Schubert's role as both USA Swimming rep and Speedo rep.

New video!

Brendan's 200 Breaststroke final

Kara Lynn Joyce gives Brendan a shout-out in her Floswimming interview.

You can also see more of lala's photos from Santa Clara in the Gallery.

200 Breaststroke Results

200 Breaststroke Final Result:

1 Hansen, Brendan J 2:10.62M
30.01, 1:03.40 (33.39, 1:36.79 (33.39), 2:10.62 (33.83)

New meet record by over 2 seconds.

2 Calder, Craig 2:13.03
3 Tateishi, Ryo 2:14.22
4 Criste, John I 2:15.91
5 Mate, Hunor 2:16.04
6 Mahoney, Sean R 2:18.58
7 Alexandrov, Michael P 2:18.75
8 Ash, David 2:19.00
9 Zaich, Paul D 2:21.32

Prelim Results:

1 Hansen, Brendan J 2:13.60
2 Calder, Craig 2:16.33
3 Tateishi, Ryo 2:16.70
4 Criste, John I 2:17.27
5 Ash, David 2:18.06
6 Mahoney, Sean R 2:18.18
7 Mate, Hunor 2:18.24
8 Alexandrov, Michael P 2:19.07
9 Zaich, Paul D 2:19.35

Full Results Available HERE.

Brendan also took the opportunity to try out the new LZR Legskins today...


Photo courtesy of lala at Deckchange.com

No Races for Brendan today...

...but a great interview with him up at Floswimming. He's a happy breaststroker.

And a couple more photos from lala...


Photo courtesty of lala from Deckchange.com


Photo courtesty of lala from Deckchange.com

100 Breast Results...

100 Breaststroke Race

Post race interview with Brendan and Nelson Diebel

You can see video interviews and full results at Floswimming's Santa Clara GP page. They have added a LIVE pre-meet show to their format and tonight featured Bob Bowman and others and you can log on and ask question! I love Garrett's interviews so much. Also, Swimnetwork is apparently going to have race footage up although they are being pretty slow to post it. Their event page is here.

ETA - 100 Breaststroke Final Results:

New meet record for Brendan! Which is fabulous news because he swims this meet every year and he held the old meet record. That must mean he's swimming faster than he ever has at this point in the season, right? That's really good news, right? Someone cheer with me here.

1 Hansen, Brendan J 1:00.01M
2 Dugonjic, Damir 1:01.67
3 Tateishi, Ryo 1:01.68
4 Mate, Hunor 1:02.55
5 Alexandrov, Michael P 1:02.76
6 Ash, David 1:02.91
7 Matsueda, Takao 1:02.95
8 Calder, Craig 1:03.22
9 Bloch, Cheyne R 1:04.58

100 Breast Prelims:

1 Dugonjic, Damir 1:01.74
2 Hansen, Brendan J 1:01.75
3 Mate, Hunor 1:02.56
4 Tateishi, Ryo 1:02.86
5 Matsueda, Takao 1:03.23
6 Ash, David 1:03.36
7 Alexandrov, Michael P 1:03.55
8 Calder, Craig 1:03.56
9 Bloch, Cheyne R 1:04.01

And Brendan tried out the new Nike suit this morning as well. Lala sent me some photos and it's by far the best looking of the new suits.


Photo courtesy of Lala from Deckchange.com


Photo courtesy of Lala from Deckchange.com

SANTA CLARA!

The psych sheet for Santa Clara is now up and Brendan is on it! The meet is coming up this weekend and our own lala will be there "representin" for the BHO. Hopefully she'll take us a few pics or maybe even a video or two.

Y'all commence to begging....NOW.

More information here.

Happy Mother's Day!

Endorsers' Relationships Tested by Suit Swapping

By Karen Crouse of the New York Times

The Speedo representative walked onto a pool deck in South Austin, Tex., a salesman there to try to lead two Nike athletes into temptation. He showed up at a Longhorn Aquatics practice last week with two bags containing an assortment of Speedo swimsuits, including the hotter-than-a-jalapeno LZR Racer, the uniform of choice for swimmers who have accounted for 36 of the 40 world records set this year.

Aaron Peirsol, a two-time Olympic backstroker and a four-time medalist, was summoned from the pool by his coach, Eddie Reese, to meet with the Speedo man. He picked out an LZR Racer and disappeared into the locker room to try it on. He was followed by the breaststroker Brendan Hansen, who won three medals at the 2004 Olympics.

At an Olympic news media summit in Chicago in April, Hansen had begged to differ with Mark Schubert, the United States national team director, who has said that anybody not wearing the LZR Racer would be at a distinct competitive disadvantage at the Olympic trials this summer in Omaha.

"I've looked at the research done on both suits, I've done testing on both suits, and I don't see a difference," Hansen said, referring to the Speedo and Nike brands.

He added that the designers of the Nike suits were responsible for the racing uniform worn by the cyclist Lance Armstrong.

And yet there was Hansen on the deck last week in his blue Nike practice suit pondering which Speedo suit to try - he eschewed the LZR Racer for the Fastskin Pro Male Legging - and quipping that what he was doing felt like someone cheating on his wife.

In fact, the word on the pool deck was that Nike had given its athletes permission to wear another manufacturer's suit if there was one more conducive to fast times than Nike's Swift or Swift Amp'd.

"I respect them for saying that," Peirsol said.

This open marriage between Nike and its swimwear endorsers came as news to Dean Stoyer, the company's United States media relations director.

"That's actually the first I've heard that specifically," he said when reached by telephone Tuesday. "I know some of our athletes have been approached by other companies. I haven't actually gotten word that they had tried anyone else's suits."

Stoyer said swimmers were naturally curious creatures keen on testing the latest innovation that promised fast swims, be it sugar-pill-popping routines that were all the rage in the 1970s or, more recently, the space-age goggles and suits.

"It is certainly not uncommon in swimming in general, particularly when there is buzz about something new," Stoyer said. "It's pretty common that other athletes will want to try on something new really to appease their curiosity."

But Stoyer said swimmers under contract to Nike were expected to wear its swimwear at the Olympic trials and the Olympics.

"Speaking in general," Stoyer said, "if you break the contract, we certainly would have to have a discussion."

And also, our own TimtheSwimmer is growing up so fast. He and his date Shelby at the Prom last weekend...