Is this what went through Aaron and Amanda’s minds when they were asked to compete at the French Open EDF meet (which conflicts with the 2007 CP Summer Nationals)?

Swimming World Magazine was first to report that the event’s website is declaring that both Amanda and Aaron have signed on to compete there. It’s left many people wondering “why?”.

Tara Kirk referred to it as a “pretty awesome money meet” and revealed that she, too, had been invited to compete. FYI, Tara declined so that she can continue to work with her coach on her 200 Breast.

So is the allmighty dollar the motivation behind Aaron and Amanda’s decision? And how many other elite US swimmers may be lured over to France for the Open Meet?

If July 20-something rolls around — when we finally see the pysch sheet — and we see a large chunk of the National Team missing from it, there are going to be some mighty angry Swim Aids runnin’ loose. Y’all really don’t want to see that. It isn’t pretty. Best believe.

So now, we wait…

To be continued!

We caught up with The Lochtenator briefly in Ann Arbor, and it made our heads hurt. No, really. But that’s not the point of this post.

We got him updated on his final tally from our Heineken Challenge during Worlds. Homeboy did a shitload of damage ‘Down Under’!

We were discussing how we were to deliver the requested cases to him since we only see him every couple of months or so. We even argued over if it is illegal to ship beer or not. It is. (I win, Lochte) Loophole would be to pack it in good with styrofoam and not tell the Post Office/UPS/FedEx that it is beer that we want delivered. Y’all know they like to lock black people up for stupid shit, right? So with my luck, they’d realize what I was trying to pull, and nail me. I really don’t want to be another statistic. I also don’t want to be anyone’s “girlfriend”.

I mentioned to Ryan that there are some “Beer of the Month” clubs and other random sites who claim that they can/do ship beer, and said we might have to try those. Then we told him that it probably wouldn’t be his precious Heineken if we went in that direction. To that Ryan said:

Beer is beer…well, unless it’s Nati…

So, no Nati Light for The Lochtenator. And I have to agree. I honestly don’t know how they can even call that crap beer in the first place…

We’ll keep y’all posted!

Flashcards are an excellent tool for studying. So, print these out and practice, practice, practice. We don’t want you to get left behind.

Erik Vendt’s names is spelled with a ‘K’ not a ‘C’.

*cough* swimroom *cough*

Eric Namsnik passed away last year in a car accident. He was an amazing athlete, father, coach, and much more. Let us remember that his name is spelled with a ‘C’ and not a ‘K’.

Is everyone still with us?

Lastly,

Kaitlin Sandeno is just to amazing too have her name misspelled. Kaitlin not Kaitlyn or even Kaitlynn. This one should be a no brainer but we just thought we would remind you. It is a review session afterall.

That’s right ladies, (and gentlemen?) Lloydene is coming!! Now everyone knows I’m not the most grammatically correct person, so if there are mistakes in this post… I don’t care. Currently most of you don’t know who (or what) Lloydene is, but don’t be afraid, his closest friends don’t either. But in a month, you all shall come to know and love Lloydene in all his greatness!

USA Swimming interviewed Paul for 20 Question Tuesday!

Here it is:

He’s one of the up-and-coming coaches in the world, and North Baltimore’s Paul Yetter has a lot more goals on the horizon. He talks about his top swimmers, staying at the top of his game, and why he seems so much more low key these days in this week’s 20 Question Tuesday with special correspondent Bob Schaller.

1 In your mind, how did Worlds go for Katie Hoff?

Paul: I think Katie performed great. The expectation going into the meet was that she’d do well. She performed well in several events, and that’s a tough test.

2 Aren’t you more geared toward 2008?

Paul: We certainly were going after this meet in Melbourne as an experience in itself, not as a stepping stone. That being said, though, everything is a stepping stone. We just take it one day at a time. Katie always goes out to swim as well as she can. It doesn’t matter what day it is or where she’s swimming.

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We try to spread the love around when we’re at meets. The “Swim Stars” keep us pretty busy, so we don’t have as much free time in which to snap shots of other swimmers. However, we always do manage to get some pics of athletes we don’t directly promote on SwimStars.org. And we’re going to share some of those with you now; along with some commentary.

There are 8 pictures in all in the post, so you need to check out the cut to see all of them. You also need to click the thumbnail picture to see the full size. Most of the pictures are too wide to fit with our site layout, so the thumbnails are posted. I’m not trying to break our Swim Aids shrine (like Carrie & Erika do when they post).

We usually loiter around starting blocks at meets for our pictures. That just wasn’t working out on Canham’s tiny-ass deck. With bleachers out, there are like 3 inches of deck in which to move around. That’s way too cramped for our liking. So, we spent most of the meet at the 50m turn, which makes for amazing shots of the fly and breast.

And no, these pictures are not all of Club Wolverine swimmers, you smartasses!

This is Mr. Alex Vanderkaay’s fly leg of his 400 IM prelim. First event we shot from the turn and loved the results. There’s a full set of these AVK pictures, but you’ll need to talk to Alex himself — or his mother — if you want to see them all. We kinda have a system going.

We attempted to take pictures from the blocks on the first day and they all pretty much sucked…except for this start shot of Charlie Houchin’s 400 Free prelim. Go fig!

Future Wolverine Dan Madwed during his 200 Free Final. And don’t ask me about the random blue line going through the picture. I haven’t the slightest idea where it came from! Up in A2, Dan’s coach started the campaign for him to be added to Swim Stars. I can’t hate. Paul Y. is my favorite coach. He could tell me to jump and I’d ask “how high?”. I kid.

Now before any nasty rumors start spreading, we ask that you not take the title of this post the wrong way. There is no hanky panky going on between ANY of the Swim Aids and the CWers. Referring to someone as a “CW Whore” is a figure of speech, and not something to take literally, ok?

Isn’t it sad that we had to give that little disclaimer? Because some people have seriously defective “sarcasm radars”, it became a matter of necessity.

And because this list was basically never-ending, there are a bonus 10 items, effectively making this a Top 20 List.

ENJOY!