Category: Swimming & Diving

Daughter confirms swimming great broke four ribs and required a hip replacement after accident last week

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Dawn Fraser’s family has spoken of their fear of losing the Australian swimming great after she fell on the driveway of her home and sustained a broken hip and four broken ribs.

Fraser, 87, is convalescing in hospital after the “scary” incident last week that initially prompted fears she had suffered internal bleeding.

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• Olympic champion beats mark set during ‘shiny suit’ era
• 21-year-old in action at Short Course World Championships

US Olympic champion Gretchen Walsh continued her sparkling year by shattering the 15-year-old world record for the 50m butterfly on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old set a mark of 24.02 in the heats of the 50m butterfly on the opening morning of the Short Course World Championships in Budapest. The previous record was held by Sweden’s Therese Alshammar, whose time of 24.38 came during the so-called “shiny suit” era in 2009 when records fell regularly.

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• McKeon calls time with 14 Olympic medals to her name
• ‘Swimming has given me so much,’ says 30-year-old

Emma McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian, has announced her retirement from competitive swimming, bringing to a close a glittering career during which she won 14 Olympic medals, including six golds.

The 30-year-old, who said earlier this year that the Paris Games would be her last Olympics, said she had given her all throughout her career, and was proud of her numerous successes in the pool.

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The double Olympic champion on why the shorter sprint could drive him to another Games, the lack of support for his female coach and what needs to change in anti-doping

“I think the 50m sprint is a great opportunity for me,” Adam Peaty says with a glint in his steely gaze as he reveals that, after winning two golds and a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke at three successive Olympic Games, he is ready to keep swimming until 2028. After a bid from World Aquatics, the sport’s governing body, to persuade the IOC to include more sprint events at the Los Angeles Olympics, the greatest breaststroke swimmer in history could resist retirement.

“If the 50 metre is part of that I will 100% dedicate myself to getting there,” Peaty continues. “If the 50 metre isn’t part of that then it’s a big question mark. It’s a 50-50 decision.”

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The British endurance swimmer, Sam Farrow, is believed to have broken a world record with the fastest swim by a woman across Lake Geneva. Farrow, a 31-year-old from Wigan, swam the length of the lake from the Château de Chillon to the Bains des Pâquis – a distance of 45.2 miles (72.8km) – in 22hr and 48min.

"I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet," Farrow said. "We went out there to try and get the fastest British female record and just in hopes of finishing it. I wanted to see what I could do. I never expected to get the overall fastest female or the time that I got. Complete shock." Her swim time is yet to be ratified, but she will find out at the end of this month if she has broken the world record.

• British swimmer claims women’s record for fastest Lake Geneva crossing

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