2009 Getty Images

Arkansas Quarterback Ryan Mallett now using swimming a part of his training.

07/19/10

1) Make Your 2010 National Championship Predictions. A long time ago, back in the era when I actually had an office (as opposed to the plethora of coffee chops I “rent” with my never-ending caffeine addiction) I spent many hours in the build-up to the U.S. Swimming National Championships on Fantaswim. Remember that website, Swim Geeks? It was a fantasy swimming website, and on it one could make official picks and predictions and talk trash to each other while earning “points” based on how swimmers finished at the nationals. It was great. Well, in the build-up to this years’ national championships, there isn’t a Fantaswim, but that doesn’t mean swim fans can’t participate in some good-old-fashioned prediction picking. Swim blogger David Rieder is sponsoring a competition of sorts on his blog. The prize for winning the prediction contest? “The satisfaction of being the best swim geek,” David told me.

2) Swimnetwork’s own Casey Barrett was recently featured on Fox News as part of a discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of infants learning to swim on their own. For those of you unaware, Casey owns his own swim school called Imagine Swimming in New York City, and if you’ve seen those recent You Tube videos featuring parents shoving their infants into the water, solo, completely unassisted, and you have recoiled in horror – you should take a look at this candid discussion.

3) Football Players Using Swimming for Training. “I’ve gained a whole new respect for swimmers.” Ryan Mallet, superstar quarterback for Arkansas (via transfer from Michigan) was quoted in an ESPN article about his recent training – as a swimmer. The QB has a foot injury and uses swimming to keep in excellent cardiovascular shape. “I feel like I could try out for the Olympics right now,” Mallet told ESPN. “I’m used to just kicking around in the pool, but this has really kept me in great condition since I haven’t been able to run.”

4) If you know Matt Grevers, you know that he’s a huge World of Warcraft fan. He’s an avid video-gamer. Recently, the swimming Olympic gold medalist was featured on a website dedicated to the numerous celebrities that play World of Warcraft. It’s actually a really great interview – better than some other interviews on actual swimming websites --  but a majority of the content, expectedly, is about World of Warcraft (a foreign language to me.) But you really get a true insight into Matt’s personality. He talks about how he actually built his own gaming desk (because of his height) and balancing training and playing video games.

5) Swim Video of the Week: Underwater footage of the oil spill. A reporter goes down and scuba dives into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and records massive amounts of oil everywhere. Open water swimmers should be the most concerned party about all of this. Just one more reason why we must protect our bodies of waters.