For once, we’re going to let others gush over our favorite coach, Paul Yetter. I think we do enough of that around here, so now we step aside and allow his swimmers to do the talking.

In case you didn’t know, Paul was just named the USOC Developmental Coach of the Year.

The Baltimore Sun took it upon themselves to not only publish a story on this big news, but also recorded some video praise from some of our fave NBACer such as the Hoff, Flee, and Danny M. (No, it’s not a good nickname, but we’re working on it. Rest assured we’ll have a good one by the time he heads off to Ann Arbor in the fall.)

This video doesn’t just feature Paul’s swimmers. He gets to talk about his methods and motivations as well. We’d like you to make note of his excess energy. He can’t stand still! It’s too bad they didn’t catch some of the on-deck action. We pretty much live for that. It may or may not be part of our ritualistic swim meet drinking game festivities.

Behold:

The Baltimore Sun’s embed code is wonky, so I had to upload it elsewhere.

Everytime I head to the grocery store, I take a short detour through the magazine aisle. During today’s trip, I spotted Dara Torres, so I thought I’d share the news.

She is gracing the cover of the April 2008 issue of Experience Life Magazine, on newsstands now. I don’t know if anyone else has heard of this magazine, but I hadn’t. Seems like everyone and their mama has a magazine these days!

For a preview that may or may not be the entire magazine feature, visit the mag’s website.

There’s been a lot of chatter re: the new Speedo LZR suit and how much of an advantage those who wear it hold.

It’s putting athletes who possess contracts with other swimwear companies (e.g. Nike, TYR, Arena) in a unenviable position heading into the Beijing Games and the selection meets.

Do they risk fines and other penalities and wear the LZR suit? Or do they remain loyal and possibly (I said possibly) miss out on a faster time that could be achieved in the Speedo suit. That is pure speculation based on what I’ve been reading/hearing on the internet.

U.S. National Team head coach, Mark Schubert, has gone on record with the Associated Press that “he will tell every swimmer on his team to wear Speedo at the U.S. trials.”

He will tell them to wear Speedo? Does that mean he will demand/order they wear the suit or strongly suggest it? Can USA Swimming really force a swimmer to wear Speedo; especially if it directly conflicts with their swimwear contract?

Upon doing a little more research, his words were clarified:

“I would strongly advise them to wear the suit at trials, or they may end up at home watching on NBC. Do you go for the money or for the gold? These athletes have been dreaming about winning an Olympic medal since they were eight or 10 years old and nobody can afford to give up two per cent.”

The AP article called out the US Nike contingent of Brendan Hansen, Aaron Peirsol, Jason Lezak and Kaitlin Sandeno.

All the other major players in the swimsuit sweepstakes are developing their own version of the LZR, but it seems the higher-ups of the governing bodies don’t think it will compare with the technology of the Speedo suit.

We already noticed that Erik Vendt, Larsen Jensen, and Mark Gangloff left TYR and are now wearing Speedo suits. It’ll be interesting to see who else defects and from which company.

Things are fixin’ to get mighty interesting coming down the stretch!

And I’m not talking about the “white boy fro”.

AP Photo/Paul Thomas

We have yet to see the Lochtenator rock his grill during a domestic meet. Every time we meet up with him we ask him if he brought his grill. His reply is always “of course!” Yet when the awards ceremonies roll around, he never has them in! So our mission for Santa Clara is to capture the Lochte grill for ourselves!

Stay tuned!

BTW, based on his performance across the pond, we owe Ryan 4 more cases of Heineken. We’re glad to pay up. Really.

Here it is a week after the Ohio State Grand Prix ended and I’m just now starting to go through the bulk of the photos I snapped.

Like I have before, I will be posting a small assortment of shots here. They will be of the swimmers that I don’t cover on Swim Stars.

I didn’t take any instant classic pictures this time around, even though I told The Hoff that I did. She’s always suspicious that I’m lurking ’round the deck doing my best paparazzi impression. I wish I could, but I can’t. I kind of stand out, ya know. It’s hard to be sneaky with a telephoto lens when the people you’re trying to shoot know you personally and you can’t blend in!

But I know I’m slacking. We usually stumble upon the classic shots when there’s more than one Swim Aid at a meet anyway.

So, basically what I’m saying is if you’re looking for post meet photo LOLZ, your best bet would be to make a beeline here shortly after Santa Clara ends. The on deck set-up for the media is perfect there!

Time to order up another case of Heineken for the Lochtenator.

According to the rules we set in place back in 2006, we owe Ryan yet another case of beer. He obliterated the 200 IM (SCM) World Record at the 2008 FINA Short Course Worlds Champs. PWNAGE!

We’re so proud of our guy. He never disappoints. We look forward to seeing his bright shining grill out in Santa Clara next month.

Cheers!

Continuing our role of being the Austin Staab Fan Club, we are pleased to report that Austin has just been named the “Pac-10 Swimming Newcomer of the Year”. Congrats to him!

Austin Staab, Fr., Stanford
Staab, from Westerville, Ohio, is a six-Time All-American in his freshman season and Pac-10 Champion in the 100 fly. Staab finished third at the NCAA Championships in the 100 fly (45.61). He was a member of the school-record 400 medley relay team (3:05.43) that finished third at the NCAA Championships. He also was a member of the 200 free relay (1:17.47) team that finished 4th. Staab was a member of the 200 medley relay (1:24.95) that finished 4th at the NCAA Championships and a member of the 400 free relay (2:51.46) that finished 4th at the NCAA Championships. Staab finished 15th in the 50 free (19.59) at the NCAA Championships and 20th in the 100 free (43.33) in the prelims of the NCAA Championships. Staab also tied Ben Wildman-Tobriner’s school record in the 100 fly (45.36).

I saw Austin’s former club team at the Ohio State Grand Prix last weekend. I thought about how cool it would have been if her were here competing too. But he was likely recovering from his awesome showing at NCAAs the previous weekend.

Check out some pics from NCAAs at TheSwimPictures.com.