21.56

For those of you of a sprinty bent eavesdropping on this blog; Eamon Sullivan's stroke rate on his world record 50m yesterday was 68 on the first 25m and 58 on the second 25m.

Just thought you'd like to know so you could check your sprinters' rates :)

... and, contrary to the impression given by TV ONE, there were many more great swims in North America last weekend than in Australia!

Asthma

Rick DeMont's problem was beaurocracy but his underlying problem was asthma. Same with me; I've had it since I was 9-years old. It started the week after the Munich air disaster. My dad used to take me to watch Manchester United every home game but I can't remember any of them before the air crash; asthma's a funny old thing.

Rick talks about living in Arizona and, 'I believe I'm healed' because of the dry air. My experience is similar; if I take Britain as the starting point, because I was brought up there, and give that an index of 2 for asthma-controlling drug use, I then moved to Canada and used 1, then Greece where I used 0 (literally, my medication use was totally negligible), then back to GBR (2) and on to Godzone where it's been continually at least 4 for the whole time I've been here.

You all have asthmatics in your swim squads and the medics here don't accept the climate as a problem.

It is.

Rick DeMont

swiminfo.com, the online arm of Swimming World magazine, has an interview with Rick DeMont on their Morning Swim Show tv slot.

Rick was the first man to break 4 minutes for 400m Freestyle (think Roger Bannister in Track & Field) and finished first in the 400m Freestyle at the 1972 Olympics. However, finishing first wasn't good enough and he didn't win the gold medal - check out the interview to understand why. It needs broadband, so don't try it on dial-up!

Consider also that the swim meet was interspersed by Mark Spitz winning seven golds in seven world records and 17 people were killed by terrorists or anti-terrorists. The Games was brought to a halt and re-scheduled; I know because I was there.

The interview illustrates how a screwed up beaurocracy can potentially ruin an athlete's career but also beautifully displays Rick's personal qualities of work ethic, attitude to racing, challenges and his humble opinion of his own abilities (in my opinion, probably technically the best freestyle we have EVER seen).

He talks about switching from 4-beat crossover to 6-beat freestyle, negative splitting and all the good things about swimming fastest, but is most emotional (understandably) when talking, 35 years after the fact, about the monumental screw-up by the United States Olympic Committee which resulted in him being branded a cheat and, at 16 years of age, having his Olympic Gold Medal taken away.

He quotes a terrific piece of psychology gleaned from possibly the worst film ever made, Dumb and Dumber; when given a 'One in a million chance' of suceeding with a girl, Jim Carey's character responds with, 'So, you're saying I've got a chance?'

As part of the history of our sport Rick's story is a watershed in doping control and values, and possibly the most unfair decision in swimming, EVER.

Attendance.. Application Attitude

Regarding the attendance aspect of training - remember, 'Stay healthy; if you can't train, you can't improve.'

Read it