TYR is alway impressing the Swim Aids. (Speedo, Nike: take notes!) And they don’t show any signs of slowing down.

There’s a new ad up featuring Mr. Erik Vendt, the newly minted 800 & 1500 Free National Champion. The picture used in the ad was immediately familiar to me. It was from this year’s Santa Clara meet, and we have some shots of our own that are similar to it.

And if you remember, it was also the 400 Free prelim race where poor Erik was rockin’ the hole-y suit.

Good times, good times.

We’ve been wrong so often when it comes to the 2007 Men’s Signing Sweepstakes, that we feel a little bit of vindication those rare times that we are right!

Leave it to our boy, Matt Grevers, to make us feel better ourselves. We boldy predicted that TYR would be insane to not sign him. Not only was his college team, Northwestern, already a TYR school, but he also routinely pimped TYR gear while out of the pool. No-brainer! And apparently TYR agreed!

I also predicted that Grevers would eventually relocate. And it seems he is headed south to train at Tuscon Ford Aquatics. We were hoping he’d head on over to Stanford (making it easier for us to cover his career since kiwi lives in the Bay Area), but that does not seem to be the case.

None of that matters because we’re still glad we’re right about SOMETHING!

In other signing news, Erik Vendt is no longer the only TYR-sponsored athlete training up in Ann Arbor. TYR signed Notre Dame product Kate Carroll before the Pan Am Games.

Ok, we weren’t going to say anything…all right, that’s a lie. We so were. So allow us to share a story from Santa Clara.

Erik Vendt was all about the comedy; even though we are fully aware it was unintentional. After Erik lined up behind the wrong blocks for the 200 Free Final on the first day of the meet, we hoped we were in for a weekend of comedic genius. That would have been welcome since T-Dub!! skipped this meet. Now, we just think TYR is slacking a little.

Flashing back to the Missouri Grand Prix, we caught The Vendt rocking a suit that was less than flattering. (It looks worse in person and conjures up a slew of bad UPS jokes)

So imagine our surprise when we spotted Erik at the blocks, in Santa Clara, wearing a suit with a hole in it! It definitely got a double-take from the crew. We wondered if he was having trouble getting his suits on, a la Kaitlin. Difference here, is that Kaitlin eventually got her suit on, and without any holes.

So our message here goes to TYR. Erik is one of your top signed athletes. You have got to make sure he is outfitted in non-fug and hole-free suits! Or not. Because it gives us more to write about here. So, nevermind.

As you were…

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.

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 »