Why is everyone calling the meet that’s going on in Japan the “Japan Open”? As far as I can see, the 2007 Japan Open was held March 3-4 of this year in Tokyo’s Tatsumi International Pool and is a completely different competition from what’s going on now in Chiba. The Japanese Swimming Federation hosts the Open every year. But every year it’s late February or early March. The 2008 Open is set to jump off February 23.

The meet going on now is officially titled “International Swim Meet 2007 in JAPAN”, not the Japan Open, and not the Japan Grand Prix. So, either the meet was renamed (resulting in 2 Open meets for Japan) and I missed the memo, it’s just a nickname because “International Meet in Japan” is too long of a name, or everyone else is wrong…

Explanations are welcome. I really am curious!

www.japan2007.org/eng/index.html

So all year last year, the 2006 US Open was advertised as the last one ever. It was set to be replaced by the newly created Short Course (SCY) National Championships. The inaugural meet, taking place in Atlanta this year, will be the selection meet for the 2008 Short Course World Championships in Manchester.

So after all of these announcements, we figured that it was true that the US Open tradition was dead.

The other night I was futzing around on the USA Swimming website, and saw that there was a “2008 US Open” listed. Now it isn’t scheduled in its old timeslot (end of November), but instead July 29th in Minneapolis. There’s no inclusion of it on the Quad Plan, but it wouldn’t be the first discrepancy between the events section and the quad plan. 2008 Eric Namesnik Grand Prix anyone?

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see if USA Swimming will ultimately keep the US Open alive.

You were so wrong. You don’t know us!

Today I stumbled across another article that very well could have been written by any of us Swim Aids. We are still very much “Team Beard”, so it’s nice to see another journalist share our point of view. To be honest, there are more that share our view than those who do not. Great minds think alike.

In any case, I’d like to quote a few passages in the feature:

There’s not a reason in the world to feel guilty about looking at attractive athletes and admiring their beauty and fitness in addition to their sports accomplishments.

Beard is fit, healthy and attractive. She showcased the human body, though not all of it.

When Maria Sharapova wears a tennis skirt on the court or swimsuit off it, it’s not demeaning. Same goes for Danica Patrick - who looks gorgeous in a head-to-toe race-car suit.

It’s not degrading. And it certainly doesn’t make anyone a bad role model. Did a few photos lessen Beard’s athletic accomplishments in the pool?

Absolutely not.

Beard isn’t a Playboy centerfold lookalike. It’s her athletic accomplishments that help make an otherwise pretty girl-next-door ultra sexy.

Success is sexy, isn’t it?

Pundits say Beard shouldn’t have posed in Playboy because she’s a role model. But what kind of parent would allow their child to read Playboy? Or leave a copy lying around?

PREACH!

Read the full piece here.

We’ve been wrong so often when it comes to the 2007 Men’s Signing Sweepstakes, that we feel a little bit of vindication those rare times that we are right!

Leave it to our boy, Matt Grevers, to make us feel better ourselves. We boldy predicted that TYR would be insane to not sign him. Not only was his college team, Northwestern, already a TYR school, but he also routinely pimped TYR gear while out of the pool. No-brainer! And apparently TYR agreed!

I also predicted that Grevers would eventually relocate. And it seems he is headed south to train at Tuscon Ford Aquatics. We were hoping he’d head on over to Stanford (making it easier for us to cover his career since kiwi lives in the Bay Area), but that does not seem to be the case.

None of that matters because we’re still glad we’re right about SOMETHING!

In other signing news, Erik Vendt is no longer the only TYR-sponsored athlete training up in Ann Arbor. TYR signed Notre Dame product Kate Carroll before the Pan Am Games.

Being the major blog whores that we are, we stumbled upon Tara’s most recent WCSN blog and learned that Tara’s boyfriend Greg popped the question and the happy couple is now engaged! Not only that, but the engagement location was none other than Half Moon Bay, where a couple of us Swim Aids celebrated the 4th of July last month. (Good times, good times. There’s a funny video from that day on my facebook profile, for anyone that’s interested HA!)

Anyway, we just wanted to congratulate Tara. She, as well, is one of our favorite swim chicks. She’s always very sweet when we see her at meets, and shortly she’ll be doing a Fan Q&A on her SwimStars.org network site, TaraKirk.net.

Click here to read Tara’s account of the proposal and check out a picture of the happy couple and Tara’s gorgeous ring!

Hotmail users probably have already discovered this, but Miss Kate Ziegler is currently featured on the front page of MSN in their “Popular Searches” section. That’s pretty pimp, if I do say so myself!

The Swim Aids are big Kate Z. fans (maybe it’s just swim chicks whose names start with ‘K’?). She won us all over at Nationals, where she and her mother were absolutely wonderful to us! Most memorable was Kate’s eyes lighting up whenever the conversation topic turned to Harry Potter. Classic! We also can’t forget her pledge to bring back the phrase “plum tuckered out”. So fetch!

There’ll likely be more Kate stories here on Swim Aids from here on out. I’ve been hired to design and maintain her official website. So gotta show the love to people who, in turn, show love to me!

Go Kate!

Moving from an angry Vanderkaay story to a celebratory one!

Just got word that the other VK brother we show love to (no, not that one. He’s still a hater) has won his first international medal over in Bangkok. Competing at the 2007 World University Games, AVK had already raced the 200 Fly and 800 Free. But his podium appearance came courtesy of the 400 IM, where he turned in a 4:17.34 performance to score the silver medal.

So we take a moment to salute a Vanderkaay named Alex for representing the USA the only way he knows how; like a P.I.M.P.