Swimming & Diving – Worldwide Sports News

July 25, 2024

‘Nothing’s ever good enough’: the secrets behind Adam Peaty’s success

British swimmer is going above and beyond as he chases another 100m breaststroke title in Paris

Swimming is a fingertip sport with wins measured in hundredths of seconds. When Adam Peaty is on form though, the margins are much wider. Peaty is one of those rare athletes who has redefined what’s possible in his event. He was the first man in history to swim the 100m breaststroke in under 58 seconds and is still the only man in history to swim it in under 57. He owns every one of the 10 fastest times in history, and 17 of the top 20. It so happens that the swimmer who owns the other three, Qin Haiyang, is the man Peaty needs to beat in Paris if he is going to become the second male swimmer to win the same event at three consecutive Games. The other was Michael Phelps.

You can talk about Peaty’s size 12 feet, his 38cm biceps, and 117cm chest, you can talk about his high stroke rate, passive glide time, his propulsive kick, and his quick recovery, and you can talk about his competitive streak, which is absolutely pitiless. But according to Bill Furniss, the head coach of British Swimming, if you really want to know what makes Peaty such an extraordinary athlete, you have to start with his work ethic. Now, no one gets to be an Olympian without one of those, but Furniss says Peaty’s is something else. Furniss has been an elite coach for 30 years, and never seen, or heard of, anything quite like it.

July 24, 2024

Wada move after Chinese doping case could threaten LA 2028 Olympics

Wada takes US anti-doping agency to independent court
Ruling could jeopardise 2028 and 2034 Olympics

The World Anti-Doping Agency will take the United States Anti-Doping Agency to the Independent Compliance Review Committee next month, a landmark move that could jeopardise the country hosting the 2028 and 2034 Olympics.

Wada is taking the step as a result of a dispute with Usada over its handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in 2021. The move would be the first time Wada has taken the US anti-doping body to the Independent Compliance Review Court and could come with huge implications for global sport given the US’s outsized commercial influence.

July 22, 2024

‘A perfect storm in Paris’: Australian swimmer Sam Short eyes Olympic treble | Kieran Pender

The 20-year-old has to juggle a law degree with his sport but is a real chance of winning medals over three distances at the 2024 Games

Australian swimmer Sam Short will go for Olympic gold in the men’s 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle later this month with a very real chance of standing on the podium for all three events. That potential feat is all the more remarkable given just three years ago, the 20-year-old came close to quitting the sport.

Rewind to Swimming Australia’s trials for the Tokyo Olympics, midway through the pandemic, and Short was a rising talent in the middle-distance program. Then only 17, Covid-19 had dashed the Queenslander’s dreams of competing at the cancelled junior world championships, But at the Olympic trials in Adelaide, Short placed second in the 1,500m with a time within the official qualifying standard.

July 17, 2024

Paris mayor swims in the Seine to show it’s clean enough for Olympic swimming events – video

The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, swam in the long-polluted Seine, fulfilling a promise to show the river was clean enough to host open swimming competitions during the 2024 Olympics. The opening ceremony kicks off in nine days

July 15, 2024

Hope, hopelessness and heroism: why theatre is making a splash with sport

From the Gareth Southgate play Dear England to Red Speedo, about a swimmer caught doping, dramatists are using sport to examine class, race, morality – and life in Britain today

Will no one think of the playwrights? Defeat in Sunday’s Euros final stole the perfect ending from James Graham, who is currently updating his footballing hit Dear England for its return to the stage next year. Still, at least Gareth Southgate’s men didn’t go out in their quarter-final shootout against Switzerland. The possibility that an underwhelming campaign might be ended by penalties caused a flurry of texts between Graham and director Rupert Goold at the end of extra-time.

Sports are having a moment in the theatre. Red Pitch, like Dear England, used football to explore what it means to live in the UK today, exploring gentrification through the lives of three teenage hopefuls on a south London estate. Red Speedo, which follows an elite swimmer caught doping, has just opened at the Orange Tree. Director Matthew Dunster has pursued the project for six years. “It’s the most finely tuned play about capitalism that I’ve come across for a very long time – all the moral compromises that the characters make in the name of success.” Kate Attwell’s Testmatch was recently performed in the same space, interrogating racism and other colonial legacies through two cricket matches set 200 years apart.

July 8, 2024

US anti-doping chief sceptical of investigation into Chinese swimmers

Swimmers were cleared of doping after positive tests
Wada has received criticism for handling of case

Travis Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), said on Monday he has doubts about the effectiveness of an investigation into positive drug tests by 23 Chinese swimmers.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has faced mounting pressure to explain how Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance weeks before the Tokyo Olympics but escaped punishment, with some going on to win gold medals.