I’m sure many of you have been wondering why the Hoffster has a “free pass” here on Swim Aids. It’s really because she is head and shoulders above all the swimmers that we are friendly with. She goes above and beyond the call of duty, and let me share with you the latest reason why.

If you know who I am and have seen me around at random meets over the past 2 years, then you have probably seen my infamous ‘Black Girl’ t-shirt. If you haven’t, then you are blind because I am pretty much the token darkie at the meets I go to.

Back in ‘05, when Katie and I first started to get acquainted, I told her about that shirt. She’s been obsessed with it ever since! I even wore it on the final day of CP Summer Nationals last year in Irvine, at her request. As she walked out with the other 100 Free finalists, it caught her eye and laughs were shared all around.

So, when I met up with Katie at the recent Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix, I had a different idea in mind. Instead of me wearing the shirt, SHE was going to! She’s still not sure how I talked her into it. My powers of persuasion should never be underestimated. So, not only did she put the shirt on, she let us take a picture of it. If you are my “friend” on facebook, then you’ve already seen it. If you’re not part of the cool crowd on facebook who gets to call me a “friend” — what’s wrong with you?! — now’s your chance!

And this, Swim Aid followers, is why Katie Hoff is awesomer than you.

I am well aware that awesomer is not a word, but damnit, it fits!

P.S. It should also be noted that “The Hoff” is not the only one to wear a shirt at my request. I have a picture of PVK in a “classic” shirt I had made for him last fall. Taking a picture of himself in it and then sending it to me earned him a ton of keepin’ it real points! It’s kind of an inside joke and he’d likely kill me if I posted it on the internet. No, seriously. He could crush me with little effort and I’m much too young to die!

Now we don’t want to toot our own horns, but maybe we aren’t so horrible at predicting signings!

We admit we were waaaay off with Hayley P. signing with TYR. (Still trying to get our heads around that one). But we were right about Jessica Hardy and Whitney Myers! I had a feeling that Jess would go Speedo and she, in fact, did. I also really wanted NIKE to step up and sign another female athlete. And I wanted that new Team Nike member to be Whitney. Welp looks like it is!

That should be pretty interesting, though. Because Whitney is the only Octagon-repped swimmer who isn’t signed to Speedo. I wonder if that poses any problems with the whole Swim With The Stars program. Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

We are awaiting more signing news. I’m pretty sure at least one of the graduating seniors is holding out on me, and I will deal with him accordingly; like I did PVK last year.

NOTE TO SWIMMERS PROMOTED ON SWIMSTARS.ORG: Don’t keep major career news, like signing a swimwear/sponsor contract, from Suz. She doesn’t like it. You’re making her job (which is helping YOU out) harder. Fill a sista in, mmk?

Extra, Extra! Read all about it! Everything you need to know about next year’s Olympic Trials can be found in the following press release. So read up, take notes, and share with your friends!

Officials of the Omaha Sports Commission, USA Swimming, City of Omaha and Qwest Center Omaha announced today that approximately 9,000 all-session tickets to the 2008 Olympic Team Trials for Swimming, set for June 29 to July 6, will go on sale Thursday, May 24, at 10 a.m.

Tickets will be available at Qwest Center Omaha and the Center’s ticket outlets, online at ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at 402-422-1212 in Omaha and 402-475-1212 in Lincoln.

Only all-session tickets will be available for purchase. Three price levels have been established — $475, $375 and $275. An all-session ticket will include seven daytime preliminary sessions and eight evening finals sessions. Officials are working with Visa, a long standing sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Team, and said that tickets for the Olympic Team Trials for Swimming must be purchased using cash or a Visa card. No other credit cards will be accepted for the Trials.
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Cullen Jones was bumped from last week’s episode of Ballers, but BET made good on airing it last night. Since Cullen is our current “Special Guest” here on The Swim Aids website, it’s pretty much our duty to pimp him out whenever possible. So below is the video of his feature on BET’s Ballers. Enjoy!

There’s been a lot of talk about Amanda Beard these days; mostly in regards to her upcoming Playboy cover. This post is not about that. Shocking, I know.

This post is pretty much directed at nay-sayers who feel that Amanda was just stringing the swimming community along with no intention of competing again. Many believe that she is simply using her fanbase to further her out-of-the-pool ambitions. Hopefully this weekend will be the first of many steps to silence her critics when she competes at the 2007 Speedo Grand Challenge. Yes, you read that correctly. Amanda will be back on the blocks in Irvine, CA.

The Swim Aids are oozing with envy at those who get to see her swim, and we remain hopeful that some kind soul will keep us in the loop as to what’s going on during the meet in addition to scoring some shots of Miss Beard.

Being the Swim Nerds that we are, I’m sure we’ll be hovering over the live Hy-Tek Results this weekend, seeing how Amanda does in her first meet back!

So we are back from our always-eventful trip to Ann Arbor for the Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix. Actually, we got back last night, but were far too exhausted to give any reports. Over the course of our stay, we got a grand total of 12 hours of sleep. So yes, that is 12 hours spread out over 3 nights. How we functioned is beyond me.

So we return to our respective lives in Ohio and California with more stories to add to our Swim Vault. Unfortunately for y’all, we can’t share all of them. It’s not that we don’t want to; it’s that we were pretty much sworn to secrecy by Mama VDK and Papa Tarwater. So, no dish from them!

But we’ve got other stories, and we’ll roll them out on here, provided we don’t forget them before then. You know how it is.

The trip also inspired another Top 10 List, which is going to be supersized into a Top 20 List because we really couldn’t narrow it down to just 10 items.

The overall word of the meet was “socialize”, because really, that’s pretty much all we did when we weren’t updating Swim Stars Live. No really. We were constantly visiting our friends (and fellow swim fans) in the stands, meeting new people, catching up with swim parents, or teasing our favorite swimmers. And yes, they love it. Especially the one who currently resembles our lord and savior.

The Asian was absolutely awesome this weekend! We are so glad he is back in the pool and competing! And, as usual, every single picture that we took of him came out spectacular. The kid is just too photogenic for his own good.

We will also share some pictures of swimmers who aren’t necessarily covered on SwimStars.org. For example, we know AVK has some major fangirls out there who are always dying to see pictures of him. Who are we to deny them that bounty? We aim to please, remember? Speaking of Alex, we finally met him this weekend. Very nice guy; contrary to what we’ve been told over the past couple of years by a person we now know to be clinically insane. No, really. Said individual should be locked up wearing a straight jacket. But we won’t get into that because that leads to drama, and the Swim Aids are finally drama-free and loving it!

We also made some decisions about the general direction SwimStars.org is headed in. They are dramatic changes, but we are confident it will prove to make our work in promoting the sport’s athletes more efficient and effective. We’ll keep you posted!

So there’s a quick rundown of our trip. Be sure to check back for more stories and commentary. We promise you won’t be bored!

So we’ve been enjoying ourselves at the Eric Namesnik Grand Prix and we just thought we’d share that we miss Klete. It just doesn’t look or feel right with him not being around. No one else is as entertaining, nor is anyone else carrying on his pre-race yawn tradition.

Someone else needs to step up ASAP and entertain us! I nominate T-DUB!! as the next heir to the throne. The dude is hilarious. Seriously.