All right, I understand how journalists can mistake such names as “Kaitlin” or “Erik,” but not a swimmer that is practically known world wide. 

 Pelps to withdraw from Europe competition

American swimmer Michael Phelps withdrew from the Mare Nostrum European competition due to back injury. 

Ever heard of peer editing?  Seriously, a recent high school grad should not be able to read your article and find five things to correct.  Just keeping it real.

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.

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.

Looks like swimming’s most photogenic male swimmer, Chris DeJong, wasn’t enjoying life in the retirement home.

Just a short (or long, depending on who you ask) year ago, Chris competed in the Day 1 prelims of the Eric Namesnik grand prix. Shortly after that session, he withdrew from the meet and disappeared from the sport. As the summer of ‘06 wore on, we began to fear that we’d seen the last of The Asian. We asked PVK what was going on (because we were too pussy to ask for ourselves) and he told us that CDJ was “unofficially retired”.

This revelation lead to many tear-filled Swim Aid nights, because can’t nobody strike a pose on the pool deck like The Asian!

At Nationals, the name ‘Chris DeJong‘ turned up on the psych sheet. But we knew better. A quick text to PVK confirmed our prediction that he was indeed not competiting. Luckily we didn’t get our hopes up too much!

In the fall, The Asian started turning up on the pool deck, but not in a competition Speedo. He was keeping stats for the UM team. Better than nothing, but still not like old times.

So imagine our surprise when his name popped up on the Eric Namesnik Memorial grand prix psych sheet. Is our celebration premature? We hope not!

We’ll see for ourselves this weekend!

P.S. Don’t ask us to explain why we call Chris DeJong “The Asian”. If you don’t know, you betta ask somebody…ELSE

ETA: MGoBlue is adding more fuel to the fire! I hope, for their sake that they are not yanking our chains, ladies! Check out the latest release:

Current Wolverines who will participate in the event include 2007 NCAA 400-meter individual medley national champion Alex Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich./Adams HS) and 10-time All-American Lindsey Smith (Dexter, Mich./Dexter). Vanderkaay will be joined by his brother, 2004 Olympic gold medalist and five-time NCAA champion Peter Vanderkaay (2003-06), and other former U-M stars, including three-time NCAA champion Davis Tarwater (2003-06) and five-time All-American Chris DeJong (2003-06). Club Wolverine members Erik Vendt, Kaitlin Sandeno, Hayley Peirsol and Kalyn Keller will also be competing at the event.

Ok, is it just me, or is anyone else annoyed by the fact that major publications and websites are continually mispelling a swimming great’s name?

See that logo for the Eric Namesnik Grand Prix? See how it’s Eric and not Erik? That’s how it’s supposed to be. The widespread use of the ‘k’ makes me think that many are thinking about Erik Vendt, and not Eric Namesnik. If I see one more mispelling of Snik’s first name, I’m going to lose my mind! And I didn’t even know him!

But seriously, shouldn’t everyone do justice to his legacy by spelling his name properly.

Someone please forward this memo to Swimming World Magazine and USA Swimming. One would think they knew how to spell his name…

Twenty-One Olympians to Compete in Columbia

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – More than half of the 2007 World Championship team and a total of 21 American Olympians are expected to compete at the Missouri Grand Prix, Feb. 16-19 at the Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia, Mo. The third stop in the Toyota Grand Prix Series, it is the last major competition before Team USA heads to Melbourne for the 2007 FINA World Championships, March 18-April 1 in Melbourne, Australia

The World Championships is considered the top international swimming competition in the world outside of the Olympic Games, and this meet will be the best indicator of the stars to watch in 2008. Twenty-two members of the 2003 World Championship squad went on to make the 2004 Olympic Team.

Eight-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md. / Club Wolverine) and five-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin (Vallejo, Calif. / Cal Aquatics) headline the Grand Prix field. Phelps and Coughlin both kicked off the Toyota Grand Prix Series with impressive performances in Long Beach, Calif., in January. Phelps claimed four victories, and Coughlin captured gold medals in five events. Continue Reading »