Keeping with our recent posting trend of swimmers making public appearances, below are some shots of Amanda Beard (another longtime Swim Aid favorite) hosting an Olympic Opening Ceremony Viewing Party in Las Vegas on Friday.

The party, hosted in Lagasse’s Stadium at The Palazzo featured a pretty cool Olympic-themed cake. More pictures below. Continue Reading »

It seems like every few months there a lawsuit filed on behalf of a swimmer against some triflin former sponsor that just couldn’t get their shit together.

We’ve seen it with Kaitlin Sandeno, Aaron Peirsol, and Mark Spitz. And now it’s Amanda Beard’s turn.

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Amanda Beard claims GoDaddy.com breached a 2008 settlement agreement in which the Web host company agreed to stop using her name and image. In the suit filed in Superior Court, Beard said the December 2008 agreement terminated a previous contract she had with GoDaddy.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Go Daddy. Be prepared to feel the stiff arm of justice!

Speaking of GoDaddy, though, I think I need to renew some domains I have registered there. Not this one, though!

They say it’s a “nude” ad, but after seeing her Playboy spread, this doesn’t qualify as “nude” to me. Amanda covers her chest with her hands/arms and is turned sideways so as not to reveal her girly parts. Or as the hilarious Cheslea Handler calls it, her “peekachu”.

I think it’s well done. Amanda rarely disappoints in the photoshoot department. It’s the red carpet appearances that tend to leave us scratching our heads.

Regardless, we still love us some Amanda and probably always will; especially after meeting her at Trials where she was incredibly sweet.

So, behold Amanda’s PETA anti-fur ad.

And if you knew me personally, you’d understand how huge that statement is!

Our dear Ryk, whom the Swim Aids refer to as “The Hotness”, has an autobiography coming out this fall and some snippets are starting to leak.

In the book, titled Chasing the Dream, we will get some insight into his longterm relationship with Miss Amanda Beard a few years back. (Hottest. Swim. Couple. Ever.) We also learn more about how he got into the sport, which was that he almost drowned as a 5 year old. How PVK-esque!

Other topics include the reasoning behind turning down Qatar’s offer to race for them, as well as why he still calls South Africa home.

In other words, I am intrigued. I want to read this book. And I don’t read books. Such power Ryk holds. This has the potential to be simply dangerous!

Also, Ryk recently turned down an offer to be the next “Bachelor” for ABC. He only wants to concentrate of preparing for Beijing, like a good little Olympic athlete. That’s unfortunate, though. And by unfortunate, I mean for us Swim Aids. Because if there’s one thing American TV needs, it’s a healthy dose of “The Hotness”. Maybe Dancing With The Stars will come calling too? I don’t care what show it is. My ass is going to watch. Just keepin’ it real!

Eric Shanteau was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. Prayers to he and his family!
Erik Vendt is fighting back and countersuing TYR.

IOC is trying to clean it up, will increase doping tests in Beijing. Good!

Video Watch: Dara Torres was featured on yesterday’s Access Hollywood.

Amanda Beard is selling her house in Venice, CA.

Video Watch: Ryk Neethling in VISA ad, because this post needs some hotness and everyone’s already seen the Lay’s spot.

I can’t believe it’s Day 5 already. This is insanity! What’s also insane is that I can’t find an earlier time in the day/night to write these. I mean WTF, it’s after 3AM!

Anyway, there is only one emotion that can sum up tonight’s action at the pool:

*GASP*

That about does it, doesn’t it? I’m pretty much at a loss for words after tonight’s men’s 200 Breast final. We went from hangin’ out at Farrell’s and looking forward to an awesome B-Han showing to picking our jaws up from the floor. It took me a good 5 minutes after the race to get my shit together and write up the update for Swim Stars Live. I was literally just standing there with my mouth open. The Olympic Trials are so bittersweet. And while Bren won’t be swimming his “baby” in Beijing, he is already on the team. So all is not lost.

We also felt sad for Mary Descenza. I could have sworn she’d take 1st or 2nd. In hindsight, I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not a better gal, or else I’d be out some serious dough at this meet!

Yay for Cullen Jones. Yay for Jason Lezak. Yay for Kathleen Hersey. Wow for Scott Spann.

And how about Amanda Beard? I definitely was not expecting her to go as fast as she is, but you can’t ever count out a former World Record holder and 3-time Olympian. That women’s 200 Breast final is gonna be bananas tomorrow and I can’t wait!

I think that sums things up from the pool.

Now on to the fun stuff!

You guys, we totally met a celebrity today! I know you’re dying to know who, right? Well, you’ll never guess, so I’ll just tell you. WE MET DAVID DUCHOVNY!! I bet you guys didn’t know he was a big swim fan, huh? Well, he is! However, there was something weird about meeting him. He kind of likes people to call him “Chris”. Isn’t that weird?

We also finally got to hang out with Miss Felicia Lee. She spotted us wandering around the AquaZone so we chilled for a little bit. Love that girl! She’s a riot. I think we may need to add her to our “protected” list, because she has a completely different idea of what “creepy” is in the swimming fandom than we do. We’ve seen some things and they aint pretty! We’ve been known to be very overprotective of some of our fave swimmers, so we’ll take her under our wing and guide her along. She aint seen nothin’ yet!

We also got to congratulate Matt Grevers on making his 1st Olympic Team. Being that I haven’t seen him in a year, due to his move out to AZ, I forgot about how circus freak tall he is. I mean, I’ve always known, and it’s not like this is the first time I’ve been face-to-face face-to-stomach with him, but damn. I had to go on tip toe just to give the boy a damn hug! We’re very proud of him. When I first saw him swim, back in 2005, I just knew he’d be a special one. The day after that meet I bought MattGrevers.com and went through the process of adding him to SwimStars.org. Good call, right?

Have you all been to Farrell’s AKA the official TYR hangout? That place is pretty dope, especially that humongous Grevers billboard on the side of the building. I gotta admit that’s pretty bad ass. He thinks it’s all a little ridiculous, but I beg to differ. That’s ballin’, baby. Simply ballin’.

I’ve been informed that we are now official members of NBAC. Apparently when Coach Paul, whom we love, makes you a mixed CD you’re considered “in”. Well, we got ours today. It’s the “Swim Stars Mix” too; specially made for us. Bet you wish you were “in” like that. We’re now going to wait for our official NBAC gear to wear to meets. *cough*

I’m looking forward to celebrating the 4th tomorrow, er today. If there are parties jumpin’ off, we want to know about it. Actually, I take that back. Party aint a party unless we roll through, so if you want yours to be a good one, you should probably let us know. Just keepin’ it real.

Ok, so I’m not dozing off during prelims, I’m gonna shut this down and go to bed. Peace out!

So I realized that I didn’t do one of these yesterday and now, unfortunately, the days are starting to blur together. So here goes on another edition of “Tales From The Deck”

After tonight’s session we felt extreme sadness. I’m talking like being on the verge of tears. Why, you ask? Because T-Dub!! finished 3rd in the men’s 200 Fly, thus not making the Olympic Team. I don’t know if there was anyone else in the meet we wanted on the team more than him, so when Gil Stovall swam the race of his life (props to him, that was badass!) we knew Davis‘ chances at punching a ticket for Beijing were reduced to zero. But he left it all in the pool. That was his best time. For our own selfish reasons, we want him to continue one more year — like a couple of his teammates — but we understand if he’s ready to move on. Seeing how upset his mom (whom we adore) was after the race, was almost too much to bear.

And the sadness didn’t end with T-Dub!! It also extended to Miss Kaitlin, a regular Swim Aid reader. She’s been fighting a string of health maladies and injuries in recent months, the after effects causing her to lose critical strength and stamina. But, she’s been dealing with it like a champ and with the smile we’ve all come to love. She’s going to be in the AquaZone Friday, so everyone go, say “hi”, and wish her well! And please know that she’s ok. She wants people to know she’s not on suicide watch or anything.

Other National Team veterans who look to be on the outside looking in include Tara Kirk, Rachel Komisarz, and Neil Walker. Both Tara and Neil were regular Team USA captains. So this is going to be an adjustment. Tara has another race in the 200 Breast, but with such a deep women’s field, you just never know! We wish her good luck in that race!

Today’s session really broke our hearts though. There were a lot of happy moments, but I think the sad outweighed the good from our point of view. We were elated at Allison Schmitt and Caroline Burckle making the team. I’ve called Allison to the team before, and as recently as last night. She’s such a great kid and we love how her personality calms others before races. She was classic in her press conference tonight. Classic. It didn’t even sink in that she was on the relay until that presser when a reporter asked her about it.

I’m going to put the rest of this post behind a cut because it is looooooong as hell. I’m not kidding! So get to clickin’ to read on.

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