Matt Grevers has joined Twitter. The Swim Aids have a soft spot for him, dating back to his Northwestern days where we got to see him compete regularly. (Ahh, the good ol days!) And how could we forget his ginormous TYR ad in Omaha for the 2008 Olympic Trials? Awesomesauce. That was a Swim Aid pleaser. Also, he has the distinction of being the only person on the planet that I’ve ever had to get on tip toe in order to hug. He is that tall.

So follow him, and some junk. Ok?

S/O: Is Davis Tarwater on Twitter? I honestly feel a social network like Twitter was made for him. There isn’t a wittier human being on the planet. For real. (Read his 20 Question Tuesday from last week if you don’t believe me. We go way back, though. T-DUB!!)

We’re real quick to point out when media members have huge mistakes in their work. We’ve been there ourselves except our work isn’t broadcast out to millions on the internetz and on major news outlets like ESPN.

The Charlotte UltraSwim is going on right now and there was a great race tonight in the 200 Free featuring Michael Phelps and Swim Aid favorite Peter Vanderkaay.

It’s just too bad that the Associated Press thought that race was the 100 Fly. Have you seen PVK swim the fly? We have. And it aint pretty. (We still love you, Pete!)

Behold the screencap, because I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually fix it! They have to, right?

Also, what’s a “400 IM relay”? That was in that article as well. I’m familiar with a 400 Medley relay, but that event hasn’t taken place yet…

Oops?

Attempting to knock the dust off this place and give y’all a little more insight to our recent attendance of the Columbus Grand Prix.

1. USA Swimming and Ohio State can’t figure out what they want to call this meet. 2 years ago, it was the Ohio State Grand Prix. This time around it was the Columbus Grand Prix. According to the meet director, the meet will occur again next year. I wonder what it will be called then…

2. Easter weekend is a horrible weekend to have a swim meet. Attendance left much to be desired! I wonder how much money Ohio State lost hosting this meet…

3. This meet seemed like the ugly stepchild of Grand Prix meets. Now, I haven’t been to any other this year, but I can’t imagine any of the others being as ghetto as this one. Never, in my 5 1/2 years of attending/covering grand prix meets have I been to one that didn’t have awards ceremonies…until this past weekend. Blew my mind!

4. I also haven’t been to a meet where SwimStars.org made up approximately 1/3 of attending media.

5. Swimmers in the championship final get a say in the music that is played during the athlete parade to the block. I figured it did when I heard all the heavy hip-hop accompanying Felicia Lee’s events.

6. Speaking of Felicia Lee, she is the leading candidate for immunity here on Swim Aids. We don’t grand that privilege very often, but she is deserving because we love her! BTW, if you see her live, check out her shoe collection. She will soon be rivaling The Lochtenator for flyest kicks on deck.

7. We still love Coach Bob.

8. We became Markus Rogan fans during the Athens Games and this was our first time seeing him in person. We’re still fans

9. There were a lot of awesome swimming-related vanity license plates on hand for this meet.

10. We really, really, really miss Kaitlin Sandeno.

11. McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion is still the best indoor facility I’ve been to.

12. If we had the $$$, one of us would go to the Charlotte UltraSwim meet. We hear that everyone and their mama will compete there (because of all the prize money), so it will be the complete opposite of the Columbus Grand Prix.

13. Countdown is on for Irvine 2010. Be there!

Ever since I first read about this, there has been one question on my mind: Exactly how much weight does a potential Michael Phelps boycott of International events really hold?

Before anyone jumps down my throat, let me explain why I would ask such a question…

Here are Bob’s words:

“That would be my recommendation to him, not to swim internationally. The mess needs to be stopped right now. It can’t go any further.”

Ok, but I’m still a little confused. Does he mean that he won’t swim in any international meets until the ban starts (April/May 2010) or any international meets until FINA deals with all the WRs being set in the super suits? Because it makes a difference.

First of all, Mike probably wouldn’t have done anything international before May anyway. He doesn’t do the World Cup Circuit and he doesn’t really concentrate much on the SC season enough to want to qualify and compete at their World Championships in Dubai. Those are in December 2010 anyway.

So, the next international FINA meet MP would possibly swim in would be Pan Pacs, held in Irvine, CA next August.

So really, what does Bob’s threat mean? From the looks of it, Mike wouldn’t have been doing an international meet before the ban went into effect anyway. I don’t see what he’d be missing. That is, unless this year was the year he was planning to fully commit to doing the World Cup Circuit. I guess that’s a possibility.

But if Bob was referring to not swimming internationally until the rewriting of the record books is dealt with, that could be a significantly longer boycott. I’m pretty sure this isn’t what he’s talking about, but on the off-chance that it is, I thought I’d put it out there. He wants immediate action and probably isn’t going to get it.

So, as you can see I’m quite confused. Anyone care to drop some knowledge on the situation? It’d be greatly appreciated!

I know it’s appeared that our posts reppin’ for Austin Staab have disappeared. We can explain!

See, what had happened was…

#1. He completely fell off our radar last Spring/Summer after NCAAs. And, to our knowledge, did not compete at the Olympic Trials.

#2. Our West Coast Correspondent left the Bay Area, in favor of SoCal, and no longer can make a short 20 minute trip to Stanford to check in on young Austin.

I’m from his hometown, but it’s not like he competes for WAC anymore. So, our bad!

Anyway….this post is to congratulate Austin on that bad ass 100y Fly he swam Friday at the Pac-10 Championships. He turned in a 44.69 to establish not only a new Pac-10 and Stanford Record, but also American Record that previously belonged to teh Crockah. You may now refer to Sir Staab as ‘American Record Holder Austin Staab’. Bad. Ass.

It does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Look!  Another post?  It’s like Christmas all over again, eh?

Not much news has been going on in the swimming world, as you may know. But we Swim Aids can still find stuff to blab about! It’s a gift.

Well, this isn’t a “swimming update” post per se. It’s more like a shout out. A shout out to the current reigning Miss South Dakota. “Why?” you ask. I give you three reasons:

• She’s an accomplished swimmer, holding numerous titles

• She goes to the same school I do, South Dakota State University (I was gonna say SDSU, but let’s not confuse my SD with Kiwi’s SD)

• And well, because we can!

Recently, Alexandra represented South Dakota in Las Vegas, placing in the top fifteen in the Miss America competition. She’s the first person in sixteen years to win Miss SDSU and Miss South Dakota! Girl’s breaking records in AND out of the pool.

So let me introduce you to Miss South Dakota, Alexandra Hoffman:

Height: 6’2
From: Eureka, South Dakota
Trains: During season, about 7,000-10,000 yards/day
Birth date: November 10, 1987
Club:  Eureka Area Swim Team
High School: Eureka High School
College: South Dakota State University
Platform: Don’t Risk It: Keep Sports Healthy
Continue Reading »

For a grand total of 4 hours last night and this afternoon swimming came back into my life!

It’s been a very long stretch since I last covered an event. And while I wouldn’t call what I was doing this weekend “covering”, it was still nice to experience.

Everyone knows of my love affair with the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on the Ohio State University Campus. It’s literally one of the nicest facilities I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to quite a few in the past 4.5 years. I went to the Ohio State vs. Kenyon meet, back in October, but that didn’t do a whole lot for me. In my heart, I knew it wouldn’t be right unless the men of the Maize and Blue were in the house.

This weekend they were and I couldn’t have been happier! Not just because I rep for Club Wolverine, but because it meant I got to gossip with one of my fave sets of swim parentals: the Vanderkaays. If you don’t know, you betta ask somebody! Anyway, OSU hosted a big quad-meet that brough Northwestern, Penn State, and Michigan to town. In addition, the Penn State women made the trip to duel the OSU women. For those reasons, the meet pretty much had to be broken up into 2 days. Continue Reading »