Y’all aint ready!

USA Swimming has sent out a press release pimping the AquaZone that will be available to all in Omaha for the Olympic Trials. Entry to the AZ is free with your paid admission to any session at the Qwest Center.

Typically, the AquaZone provides fans the opportunity to interact with swimming’s biggest stars - past, present, and future - as well as other fun activities and other swimming-related exhibits. The Omaha AquaZone boasts more of the same. And don’t forget to pick up your Speedo catalogues. The Swim Aids may or may not have made return trip to the AZ to get multiple copies…

On the guest list for the legends are Matt Biondi, Donna de Varona, Mary T. Meagher, Debbie Meyer, Pablo Morales, John Naber, Mark Spitz, Mel Stewart and Jenny Thompson. I don’t know about y’all, but the Swim Aids will be stalking Jenny Thompson. We love her! She retired just as we started getting into the sport. Figures, huh?

Here is a list of activities that USA Swimming is promising for Omaha:

• Measure up to your favorite athlete, challenge an Olympian to swimming on the Wii and play the trivia gameshow with USA Swimming.
• Be one of the first to compete and play Beijing 2008â„¢ - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games before it hits store shelves in July.
• Meet and greet a legend of the sport during the Athlete Journey on the USA Swimming stage.
• Experience the wildlife of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Adventure Tour.
• Shop for Olympic Trials, Beijing and Speedo merchandise in the USA Swimming Store
• See how the pool was built inside the Qwest Center at the Myrtha Pools exhibit.
• Create your own commercial at the Toyota Moving Forward Studios.

Omaha is the center of the swimming universe for the week of the Trials, so learn how the athletes got here with the Omaha Sports Commission

• Learn about the ground-breaking technology behind the latest LZR swim suit from Speedo’s AquaLab.
• Test the latest mobile and digital technology from AT&T.
• Come relax and get your picture taken in the Hilton resort display.
• Create a cheer card for the Olympic Team with the USA Swimming Foundation.
• Watch live reports and broadcasts from Swimnetwork.com.
• Test your reflexes off the blocks with the American Swimming Coaches Association.

We are fond of the AquaZones, in general. We had a simply wonderful time last year. (Proof: Part 1 | Part 2) And even though we’ll be without one of our core members — she’s too fabulous to attend — we still look forward to exploring the scene and putting our stamp on it. Ya heard?

Yea, I’m a little slow with this. Just trying to decide where I wanted to post this (on amanda-beard.com or here), and Swim Aids won!

Last Wednesday the MAXIM “Hot 100″ 2008 party was held at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. (See the full list)

Anyway, check out a few pics of Amanda on the red carpet:

HT: SuperiorPics

No, it’s not a swimmer. Calm down!

Following in the footsteps of Miss Amanda Beard, American tennis player Ashley Harkleroad has revealed that she has posed for Playboy Magazine’s August 2008 issue. She is the first tennis player to appear in the mag.

Harkleroad is ranked #61 in the world and was beaten today by fellow American Serena Williams (whom I love) in the 1st round of the French Open.

There has been a lot of attention paid fo the sexualization of female sports lately. This is in light of the sudden retirement of tennis’ Justine Henin (World #1) and the announcement that golfer Annika Sorenstam will call it quits at the end of the 2008 season. These two women, who excelled in respective sports, did not rely on their sexuality to market themselves.

I know y’all are probably wondering why I’m making a post about this considering Ashley Harkleroad not a swimmer.

Well, I’m interested in the response to her decision to pose. I am wondering if the media, fans, parents etc. will react similarly to when news (and photos) broke about Amanda posing. I know Ashley isn’t as high profile a female athlete as Amanda, but the sport of tennis is much more visible than swimming here in America. I guess we shall see!

What does everyone think?

The Swim Aids are excited. We all are big fans of the TLC reality show “What Not To Wear”. We’ve referenced it on here before. Actually, co-host Stacy London wore the same dress Kaitlin did at Golden Goggles on one of their shows.

Anyway, for those of you who aren’t as informed, “What Not To Wear” is a makeover show. TLC was inspired by the wildly popular version of the show that airs across the pond.

The fashion victim, referred to as contributers, is usually stuck in a rut or just doesn’t know how to dress themselves well. They are typically nominated by friends and family. Then they are secretly filmed for a couple of weeks. This evidence collection will be thrown back in the contributer’s face during the show. Oh, the embarassment!

Stacy London and Clinton Kelly offer the contributer $5000 to purchase a brand new wardrobe as long as their rules for fashion are followed. The victim’s old wardrobe is critiqued and thrown away (not really, they donate it to charity). The cherry on top is that the contributer also gets a session with a hair stylist and makeup artist to help them put their new look together.

So now that I’ve explained the premise of the show, get ready, because Tara will be featured in an upcoming episode. Read her account of the experience on her blog.

I already watch “What Not To Wear” every Friday. I can’t wait to see Tara’s episode!

Apparently I’m all about sharing links these past 24 hours. What can I say? I like to do my part! I now ask you to visit the following link:

This link was sent to me by Erik’s reps. They set up a cafepress shop to sell items such as t-shirts, hats, and buttons in an attempt to raise money for Erik’s impending legal fees. It must be frustrating to have distractions like this so close to Trials, but Erik is making the best of the situation and trying to concentrate on his swimming. Did you see his meet record 1500 Free swim from Thursday?

Keep on keepin’ on E.V.!

I’m sure you’ve all heard the news about the Arizona State Men’s Swim Program being cut. If not, click here.

Because I’m sure I’ll forget to make a post, save the following link:

This site isn’t up yet, but it will be very shortly and will provide you with all the info you need to help the Arizona State Men’s Swim Program stay alive.

ETA: ASU cut the men’s wrestling program as well. They have launched a website to save their program as well. You can visit them at www.saveasuwrestling.com.

There have been constant complains from the online swim community about how we are not seeing enough race coverage this season. This is due to the Wasserman/SwimNetwork/USA Swimming partnership which restricts broadcast rights. We’ve already shared our stories about having our Nationals prelim footage pulled from YouTube, even though it wasn’t available anywhere else…

Many have tried to share footage from grand prix meets and been shut down. SwimNetwork was on the scene at the Ohio State Grand Prix, however no races were recorded. Some brave fans added some races to YouTube, and so far they are still there. *knock on wood*

To its credit, SwimNetwork is allowing fans to upload race footage to the SwimNetwork website. From there you can grab an embed code and share it elsewhere (a la YouTube). So, now there is at least a place where you can share it without wondering if “the man” is going to come after you or take your video down. That’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Another step is FloSwimming kissing and making up with USA Swimming & Co. We all really need to get along. After all, we all want the same thing; to promote the sport!

So another positive step is the announcement that this weekend’s Santa Clara International will be available on-demand on SwimNetwork.com. This includes interviews. From what I understand, Garrett from FloSwimming may be aiding in this effort. I was beyond thrilled when Swimming World Magazine made NCAAs available live and on-demand, and this is no different; especially since I was unable to make the trip out this year.

Yay for progress.

And kiwi - who will be covering Santa Clara fo Swim Stars this weekend - would like to make it known that she will not be doing her own installment of Tales From The Deck, like I did for the Ohio State meet. She is still a student and says:

I do not write for fun

Funny girl, that kiwi.

Also, more on the Aussies invading our shores can be found here. Cate Campbell v. Nat Coughlin is going to be a great race!