I know, I know. I get a little too excited when swimming shows up on TV. That excitement is increased exponentially when swimming is covered by the local news media.

So, since the Women’s NCAA Championships are being hosted here in the magnificent McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion — and Buckeye Basketball is in the tank — it pretty much commanded the attention; or at least that’s what I’m going to tell myself.

The University of Kentucky women’s swim team has not 1, but 2 Columbus area natives on its roster. Those 2 outstanding athletes are twins Heather and Jenny Bradford. So NBC4 was kind enough to do a nice little fluff piece on the pair. Naturally it had to air after the obligatory Terrelle Pryor story.

Here it is:

The Swim Aids are big fans of Libby Lenton. There’s so much to love about her. And while you’re probably expecting a bulleted list of why we love her, we’re not going to bore you with the details of this girl crush. On to the news!

We haven’t posted about Libs (yea, just made that up) in a while and thought it was time to share an update.

• Libby is going to carry the Olympic Torch on its way to Beijing
• Libby was named top female athlete at the Australian Sports Awards
• Beijing could be Libby’s last Olympics

The Australian Olympic Trials begin March 22 and we wish Libby the best of luck, although we’re well aware that she doesn’t need it.

Just a fair warning: we will probably post little news round-ups for all of our swim chick crushes this spring. And no, they are not all US athletes. We’re equal opportunity around here!

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:

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!

We’ve made it no secret that Megan Romano is our girl. We love her to death, not just because she is so ghetto, but also because she just kicks major ass!

We met Megan’s mama, Rhonda, many moons ago at the 2005 CP Summer Nationals. That’s when we decided that I’d create and maintain her official website. I hadn’t heard from Rhonda in a few months, but I got quite the spirited phone call today from her.

The reason being that Megan was currently appearing on the front page of the Yahoo! website. Big time, baby!

We’ve been rooting for Meg for years and don’t see that changing any time soon! Get to know Meg’s story a little better by reading the spotlight here.

Back in September, we made a post about Amanda securing a new sponsor. This particular sponsor was a beer company, though, and was not identified in the interview we linked.

Carrie — who actually checked out her SI Swimsuit Issue, unlike me — stumbled across the answer to our question. Amanda has teamed with Budweiser, who is a “proud sponsor of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team”. In the Swimsuit issue, Amanda scored her very own 3-page foldout ad. She is photoshopped to all get-out, but looks good, as always. Check it out below:

There is another Budweiser ad, featuring Heather Mitts, Brianna Glenn, and Lovie Jung, on the back cover of the swimsuit issue.

In addition to Amanda’s 1st Budweiser appearance, there is another ad (in poster form), with Amanda on Harley Davidson bike, that is making the rounds on eBay.