Anyone who knows me knows I love me some Shaquille O’Neal. And if you aren’t following him on Twitter, you’re missing out!

Shaq is always good for entertainment. There is absolutely no disputing that. To further his case, he will begin filming on a new reality TV project titled “Shaq Vs.” this week. The show will feature Shaq challenging other elite athletes to competition in their respective sports.

Each episode is to include preliminary challenges, banter from news conferences, interaction with needy kids, and O’Neal and his rival negotiating a handicap. The laughs come from “trash talking,” but “when it comes to competing, there is no joking,” O’Neal says.

Athletes confirmed to tape episodes are Ben Roethlisberger (football), Oscar De La Hoya (boxing), Albert Pujols (baseball), Serena Williams (tennis), Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh (beach volleyball), and swimming’s own Michael Phelps.

I’m already laughing at the thought of seeing The Big Shaqtus in a LZR Racer! It will definitely bring the LOLZ!

The series debut airs August 18th at 9 PM (ET/PT) on ABC. I can’t wait!

It’s no secret that my love for all things Michigan swimming took a hit when RegFly stole my mgoswim.com domain away from me. Don’t you worry, though. Every night, I bust out my RegFly voo-doo doll. They’ll get theirs!

Anyway, the love hasn’t really left, so it will be openly expressed right here on our Swim Aid shrine, just like it originally was, pre-domain.

I’m bringing it back with a congratulatory post. Michigan junior Chris Brady was recently named to the 2010 Order of Angell class.

Because I’m not that “in the know”, with regards to clubs and societies in the greater Michigan community, I’ll simply direct everyone to Wikipedia for further explanation.

Make no mistake. This is a big friggin’ deal!

Swim Aid favorite, PVK, is also a member of this select group of Michigan Men, as is one of my all-time favorite football players, Mike Hart.

At last month’s NCAA Championships in College Station, TX, Chris earned 4 All-America honors in the 400-yard medley relay (8th), 200-yard medley relay (7th), 100-yard butterfly (4th), and 400-yard freestyle relay (6th).

The Staabster strikes again!

It’s only been a short while since we revived the Austin Staab Fan Club and here comes news that Austin has claimed the NCAA record — and his first individual title — in addition to bettering his own brand new American Record set at the recent Pac-10 Championships. The new record stands at 44.18.

It’s been an eventful month for Austin, and it’s nice to see him continue to excel! The Fan Club is impressed.

Thanks to my local newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, I finally have learned that Austin was M.I.A. last Spring/Summer due to shoulder surgery. Yay for the internet research!

We were in awe at the Olympic Trials watching Lia Neal race. And she was only 13. Holy cow!

In the media section, we had some wonderful people around us (from Do Tell Productions). They had been following/promoting her for a while, and let us know that we should keep an eye on Lia because she was going to do big things!

ESPN just published a wonderful Q&A with Lia that we recommend everyone check out. (LINK) I don’t know about y’all, but I was nowhere near that level-headed when I was in the 8th grade!

It’s going to be a pleasure to watch Lia grow up and make waves in the sport. We’re still impressed and will routinely give Miss Lia shout-outs here on the Swim Aids website.

P.S. We took some pictures of Lia, at Trials, that would have been perfect to use in this story. But again, kiwi has all of them and won’t mail them to me

I know it’s appeared that our posts reppin’ for Austin Staab have disappeared. We can explain!

See, what had happened was…

#1. He completely fell off our radar last Spring/Summer after NCAAs. And, to our knowledge, did not compete at the Olympic Trials.

#2. Our West Coast Correspondent left the Bay Area, in favor of SoCal, and no longer can make a short 20 minute trip to Stanford to check in on young Austin.

I’m from his hometown, but it’s not like he competes for WAC anymore. So, our bad!

Anyway….this post is to congratulate Austin on that bad ass 100y Fly he swam Friday at the Pac-10 Championships. He turned in a 44.69 to establish not only a new Pac-10 and Stanford Record, but also American Record that previously belonged to teh Crockah. You may now refer to Sir Staab as ‘American Record Holder Austin Staab’. Bad. Ass.

It does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Look!  Another post?  It’s like Christmas all over again, eh?

Not much news has been going on in the swimming world, as you may know. But we Swim Aids can still find stuff to blab about! It’s a gift.

Well, this isn’t a “swimming update” post per se. It’s more like a shout out. A shout out to the current reigning Miss South Dakota. “Why?” you ask. I give you three reasons:

• She’s an accomplished swimmer, holding numerous titles

• She goes to the same school I do, South Dakota State University (I was gonna say SDSU, but let’s not confuse my SD with Kiwi’s SD)

• And well, because we can!

Recently, Alexandra represented South Dakota in Las Vegas, placing in the top fifteen in the Miss America competition. She’s the first person in sixteen years to win Miss SDSU and Miss South Dakota! Girl’s breaking records in AND out of the pool.

So let me introduce you to Miss South Dakota, Alexandra Hoffman:

Height: 6′2
From: Eureka, South Dakota
Trains: During season, about 7,000-10,000 yards/day
Birth date: November 10, 1987
Club:  Eureka Area Swim Team
High School: Eureka High School
College: South Dakota State University
Platform: Don’t Risk It: Keep Sports Healthy
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We’d like to send a special lil’ shout out to the Swim Aids visitor with the coolest name in the world. Don’t even front like you don’t know who I’m talking about.

Facebook stalked Spindrift Beck for me and informed me that she has committed to the Texas Longhorns.

So, on behalf of all the Swim Aids, I’d like to extend another “Congrats!”

Suddenly I wish I was on 6th St. with those awesome people who do double dutch without the jump rope. Don’t try to understand that comment. There were only a couple of Swim Aids with me when that happened, and, to be perfectly honest, the rest of that night is blurry. But this is part of the reason why we like meets that take place in Austin so much!

P.S. I totally would have used one of the pictures from Trials that I’m pretty sure one of us took, but kiwi has ALLLLLL of the pictures still. So no can do!