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).

It seems that the only times TMZ picks up and posts stories about swimmers not named Phelps is when a lawsuit is involved.

The last time I recall was the Penta Water issue, which also involved Mr. Aaron Peirsol.

This time around, a ‘marketing company’ has been using Aaron’s image, without permission. Big no, no. He appears in swimwear ads that have run in popular swim mags such as Swimming World and USMS.

Aaron doesn’t like when shady people seek to profit from his image. It makes him sad. We can show you what his face would look like in such a situation:

Classic, right? This picture will forever be in the Swim Aids Hall of Fame.

(This post is like two months in the making…thanks crappy SD State internet!)

Not gonna lie, Ryk Neethling’s book is pretty much the shit.  It’s in my top 5 of athlete books – and that’s quite the list, mind you.  It’s really opened my eyes to what swimmers have to go through to get their justice.  And it really showed me how good US swimmers have it!  But I think the number one reason I love this book is from what the previous owner left for me:

Awesome, no?

Whenever someone here brings up Phelps, my response is, and like any Swim Aid, “uh!” and an eye roll.  Then I get the obligatory response: “Why are you judging him?  You don’t know him!”  Oh how wrong you are!

So I would just like to thank the previous owner of Chasing the Dream for backing the Swim Aids. You, whomever and where ever you may be, you have a place here with us!

Seriously, I laughed so hard water  came out of my nose!  And that hasn’t happened since the fourth grade when my friend Sarah “accidentally” tripped one of our teachers.

P.S. Sorry for the not so great picture quality – my camera doesn’t like to read!

If you’re part of the cool crowd that is tweeting on Twitter (good for you), then this post is for you!

Dara Torres just created her own Twitter account, so y’all should definitely follow her! She’s currently gracing the cover of More Magazine. And don’t forget her book, Age Is Just A Number, is coming out soon; April 7th to be exact. Find more info, including her book signing dates, on her official website < /shameless plug>

And since we’re talking Twitter, you should follow our Swim Stars account too! You’ll not only get the news items from SwimStars.org, but also all the good stuff from right here on Swim Aids. It’s called consolidation and we’re big fans.

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

There can never be enough swim blogs, and we’ve got a new one for y’all to add to your bookmarks: The Swim Brief.

It’s brought to you by Swim Aid stalker fan, Mike Gustafson, best known from his hilarious contributions to the uber-fab Chlorination. We spent a ton of quality time with good ol’ Gus in Omaha and got to know him rather well. I also had the pleasure of spending 3 loonnnnggg hours in an airport with him on our way back to our respective homes. Layovers pretty much suck, but anyone who can entertain me for that long — that early in the morning — is obviously worthy of your time as well.

So check out his blog at theswimbrief.blogspot.com, and tell ‘em The Swim Aids sent ya.