So, USA Swimming did right by us, earlier this summer, when they published a feature on Alex Vanderkaay. We liked the recognition for him because he had more than earned it.

But what we really wanted was a 20 Question Tuesday. In the back of our minds we thought AVK might be able to give T-DUB a run for his money in terms of 20QT entertainment. If you haven’t ready it, you are missing out. It truly is the Holy Grail of 20 Question Tuesday interviews.

Pssst, USA Swimming, you frequently repeat the swimmers you interview for 20QT. Time for a new one with Mr. Tarwater!

Anyway, today we were pleasantly surprised to see that today’s 20 Question Tuesday interviewee was none other than Alex! (link) And we were wrong in hoping that he’d unleash his sense of humor during the interview. He’s keeping it under wraps and y’all are missing out. We’re sorry. Around here, we know how funny AVK can really be. It’s just a fact. Perhaps next time. Yea, next time!

SO FRESH AND SO CLEAN
The University of Michigan gave its entire athletic website a facelift! Check it out! It was long overdue and looks wonderful!

Moving from an angry Vanderkaay story to a celebratory one!

Just got word that the other VK brother we show love to (no, not that one. He’s still a hater) has won his first international medal over in Bangkok. Competing at the 2007 World University Games, AVK had already raced the 200 Fly and 800 Free. But his podium appearance came courtesy of the 400 IM, where he turned in a 4:17.34 performance to score the silver medal.

So we take a moment to salute a Vanderkaay named Alex for representing the USA the only way he knows how; like a P.I.M.P.

So we’re sure you’re all well aware that we like pointing when other mess up. It makes us feel better about our own shortcomings. So now it’s time to point out another goof:

After all the blazing times being posted at the Pan Ams, I wandered over to the FINA site to see how some of those swims stacked up against the current world rankings. Then I happened upon the men’s 400 Free rankings. FINA thinks that Alex Vanderkaay competed at Worlds and then Pete took over at Duel in the Pool. While we would have enjoyed seeing AVK compete at Worlds, it did not happen. So the 6th and 7th fastest times in the world this year both belong to PVK. Oh FINA!

P.S. There’ll be no more CVK posts around here. We just found out that he’s a hater. Can you believe that? Who knew?! We’re watching you, CVK! Be afraid. Be very afraid!

ESPN is in search of ultimate sports athlete. They have compiled a list of thirty-two well known athletes of the day, pitting two athletes in a bracket tournament.  During Sportscenter every night for the month of July, two athletes will be compared and the fans will chose.  The following night the winner will be revealed and move on to the next round.

These are the brackets:

The Complete Bracket

MICHAEL JORDAN BRACKET
July 1: (1) Tiger Woods def (8) Matt Leinart
July 2: (4) Dwyane Wade vs (5) Shaun White
July 3: (2) LaDainian Tomlinson vs (7) David Beckham
July 4: (3) Steve Nash vs (6) Serena Williams

MUHAMMAD ALI BRACKET
July 5: (1) Peyton Manning vs (8) Amanda Beard
July 6: (4) Dale Earnhardt Jr vs (5) Chuck Liddell
July 7: (2) Alex Rodriguez vs (7) Terrell Owens
July 8: (3) Kobe Bryant vs (6) Ronaldinho

BILLIE JEAN KING BRACKET
July 9: (1) LeBron James vs (8) Kelly Slater
July 10: (4) Jeff Gordon vs (5) Barry Bonds
July 11: (2) Derek Jeter vs (7) Sidney Crosby
July 12: (3) Reggie Bush vs (6) Danica Patrick

BABE RUTH BRACKET
July 13: (1) Tom Brady vs (8) David Ortiz
July 14: (4) Maria Sharapova vs (5) Vince Young
July 15: (2) Roger Federer vs (7) Tony Parker
July 16: (3) Shaquille O’Neal vs (6) Michael Phelps

And yes, you are reading correctly.  Two - count ‘em - TWO swimmers are on the list.

To read more about the Ultimate Sports Star or to vote, log on to ESPN.com.

And on his birthday too, how cute!

So yesterday, USA Swimming put up another one of their swimmer features. This time they big-upped a Vanderkaay named Alex. We’d been wondering when they might jump on the AVK Train, and bets may or may not have been placed. But it’s nice to see his hard work acknowledged. My only critiques are that there were no mentions of his NCAA title from March (that was a huge deal!), and that they should have done a 20 Question Tuesday with him instead. That would have been pure comedy!

Anyway, ch-check it out here.

P.S. I am also amused that the picture of Alex that accompanies this feature is from 2005 (note the non-fug cap). That’s all they got? I have a larger selection than that! And nevermind that it’s only so I can help his mama build up her own collection; it’s still funny!

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.

So we are back from our always-eventful trip to Ann Arbor for the Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix. Actually, we got back last night, but were far too exhausted to give any reports. Over the course of our stay, we got a grand total of 12 hours of sleep. So yes, that is 12 hours spread out over 3 nights. How we functioned is beyond me.

So we return to our respective lives in Ohio and California with more stories to add to our Swim Vault. Unfortunately for y’all, we can’t share all of them. It’s not that we don’t want to; it’s that we were pretty much sworn to secrecy by Mama VDK and Papa Tarwater. So, no dish from them!

But we’ve got other stories, and we’ll roll them out on here, provided we don’t forget them before then. You know how it is.

The trip also inspired another Top 10 List, which is going to be supersized into a Top 20 List because we really couldn’t narrow it down to just 10 items.

The overall word of the meet was “socialize”, because really, that’s pretty much all we did when we weren’t updating Swim Stars Live. No really. We were constantly visiting our friends (and fellow swim fans) in the stands, meeting new people, catching up with swim parents, or teasing our favorite swimmers. And yes, they love it. Especially the one who currently resembles our lord and savior.

The Asian was absolutely awesome this weekend! We are so glad he is back in the pool and competing! And, as usual, every single picture that we took of him came out spectacular. The kid is just too photogenic for his own good.

We will also share some pictures of swimmers who aren’t necessarily covered on SwimStars.org. For example, we know AVK has some major fangirls out there who are always dying to see pictures of him. Who are we to deny them that bounty? We aim to please, remember? Speaking of Alex, we finally met him this weekend. Very nice guy; contrary to what we’ve been told over the past couple of years by a person we now know to be clinically insane. No, really. Said individual should be locked up wearing a straight jacket. But we won’t get into that because that leads to drama, and the Swim Aids are finally drama-free and loving it!

We also made some decisions about the general direction SwimStars.org is headed in. They are dramatic changes, but we are confident it will prove to make our work in promoting the sport’s athletes more efficient and effective. We’ll keep you posted!

So there’s a quick rundown of our trip. Be sure to check back for more stories and commentary. We promise you won’t be bored!