Because I rarely pay attention to splits of relay teams I’m not directly covering for Swim Stars or MGoSwim, I completely missed the newest World Record-setting swim that took place at the All-American Long Course Champs in Austin last night.

Because of that omission, I’m going to give this swim chick her due right now. Miss Hayley McGregory swam the lead-off leg of Longhorn Aquatics’ women’s 200 Medley Relay last night and her 50 back split established a new World Record! She also became the 2nd American woman to break a minute in the 100 Back. She joins some elite company; with the event’s World Record-holder. Get it, girl!

Nearly a year ago it was Leilz Vaziri who shocked the world with her own 50 back World Record.

The US backstroking swim chicks are making a loud statement! Trials is gonna be bananas y’all!

So, congrats to Hayley and keep up the awesome work!

O/T: IIRC, Jenny is in Austin right now. I’m guessing she saw this awesome race and will be able to share more!

ETA: Watch Hayley’s WR swim, courtesy of the embattled FloSwimming, here.

Because when I set my mind to find something, I find it!

Amanda made another reality TV show appearance last week. On Thursday, she was on LA Ink getting a new tattoo on her right calf. Check the new tatt and the video below:

Carrie found this. Not sure why she didn’t post it herself. Maybe it’s my oh-so-colorful commentary? I kid.

Anyway, here is a PSA, featuring Speedo athletes, promoting the World Swim for Malaria on April 5..

Glad they’re all involved, but as someone who does quite a deal of work with video, I can’t help being a little nitpicky. The production sucks. Sorry, people.

We’ve already displayed our venom for Wasserman Media Group on here before, but there are new things going on that sadden us.

We don’t know the details, but Garrett at FloSwimming has been suspended from covering USA Swimming competitions.

I will preface most of this post by stating that I absolutely do not know the entire story behind this move. From an outsiders perspective it just looks bad.

I also have been informed by WCSN that they own the rights to the Grand Prix meets. I’m not sure where WMG comes into the picture, but I’m they’re in the mix somewhere. Regardless, this has created a mess for fans of the sport!

The Missouri Grand Prix was stupid fast. Absolutely ridiculous. Why are we not allowed to see footage from that competition? Why are the powers that be sitting on these races? When will we see them, if we see them at all?

My situation is definitely different than what’s going on at floswimming, but I feel like this will be the standard when it comes to USAS competitions and that saddens me. If you can’t get to the meet yourselves, pickings will be slim.

This is all very frustrating for those of us who put so much time, money, and energy into promoting swimming. It effectively clips our wings and those who have to suffer are the fans and participants in the sport.

Anyone else have more info on this story?

P.S. I don’t want my media credentials revoked too, so don’t expect me to post much (if any) race footage from meets I cover from the deck. These days, our vids tend to mostly be goofy, like Davis telling us about his 400 Free prelim at the Eric Namesnik GP meet last year. We have some plans for some Swim Aid shenanigans, but now we know that none of those will include any races!

ETA: The 2 WCSN reps I spoke to, who told me the co. owned grand prix footage, seemed to have mispoken. They were referring to Diving Grand Prix meets, while I was asking about swimming competitions. WCSN has nothing to do with the Toyota Grand Prix Circuit.

We’re kind of obsessed with “Girls Next Door”. Don’t ask us why. We’ll tell you that it’s certainly not because we wish we were sleeping with Hugh Hefner. Ew. The show is just ridiculously addictive and you know it!

Anyway, we were pleasantly pleased to see Miss Amanda Beard make an appearance on last night’s season finale. And because we want you to experience the excitement too, we are sharing the video with you. Don’t say we never did anything for our visitors!

P.S. Does anyone know when Amanda’s appearance on LA Ink was supposed to air? I feel like it was on recently. If so, we totally missed it!