Back during the Beijing Olympics, I fell for Australian swimming sensation Stephanie Rice, and I know that if she were to meet me she’d feel the same way. She must have sensed that because, since the Olympics and her breakup with a fellow swimmer she has been linked to several men but according to her, none of the rumors are true.

“Everyone’s always ‘Steph, you need a boyfriend’ and I’m like ‘I know, but apparently I have four’. Believe me, one would be just perfect,” she said.

Stephanie also added that while she’s busy with training and being in the public eye, that isn’t stopping her from looking for a gentleman friend. “I can definitely fit it in, that’s not my problem and I’m not making that an excuse,” but it’s not always easy knowing people’s motivation. “It’s hard to tell if people like the idea of (a relationship with Stephanie Rice) or if they really like you,” she said.

Well, Stephanie, despite having never met you, I can say that I’m in it for YOU and not your fame. Sure, you have worldwide fame, gold medals, sponsorship deals and seemingly you have it all, but without the proper life-companion, it’s all useless. Let’s take this journey through life together, let’s meet up, say halfway, how about we meet in LA?

Call me!

Also, can someone buy me a plane ticket to LA?

And the rest of you, stay away!

[Courier Mail]

Australian swimming champ, Stephanie Rice, wants a man for Xmas

(FFS stop pushing at the back there!!)

21-year-old triple Olympic gold medallist, Steph, has been finding romance hard to come by – despite her name being linked in the media with that of – “American swimming superstar Michael Phelps, bad boy Aussie swimmer Nick D’Arcy, Sydney rugby league star David “Wolfman” Williams and long-time training partner Brendan Capell.”

She would love to have just one man in her life she could be certain wanted her for herself and not for the kudos of dating a ’star’

Source . . .

P.S. I’ve already sent my application off – assuring Steph her money and fame mean nothing to me and that I am earnestly seeking a deeply meaningful one-night stand !!!

Nick D'arcy e Stephanie Rice

Rumores na imprensa autraliana de que um novo casal de nadadores se formou.

Stephanie Rice,  bi campeã olímpica, e Nick D’arcy, recordista nacional e do Commonwealth dos 200 borboleta, estariam juntos. Apesar de ambos terem negado o relacionamento, foram vistos quase que inseparáveis durante a festa dos melhores do ano realizada esta semana na Austrália.

Rice tem fama de “Party Girl” sendo várias vezes vista em festas em boates e em fotos espalhadas pela internet, enquanto que Nick D’arcy ficou mais conhecido após ter agredido a um ex-nadador ano passado, o que lhe custou uma suspensão que lhe deixou de fora da seleção olímpica de Beijing e do Mundial de Roma.

Hello, internet! I’m sorry for bringing this to you much later than expected, but sometimes offline life gets in the way, you know? As of this writing, I haven’t even finished watching NBC’s broadcast of the final day of the FINA World Championships, so this will be kind of a half liveblog, yeah? hahah.

In any case, like I said, this is the final day of the Worlds and I am sad, sad, sad to see them go. Killer Kim is into all kinds of sports, but I pretty much just follow Swimming, which can be difficult when it’s not widely covered outside of a giant event like the Worlds or Olympics. So, after today, I’m really gonna have to think up new content to bring you until the next big meet that I’ll get to cover. Alas! Anyway, onto the good stuff.

Today, there were seven finals:

• Men’s 50m Backstroke
• Women’s 50m Breaststroke
• Men’s 400m Individual Medley
• Women’s 50m Freestyle
• Men’s 1500m Freestyle
• Women’s 400m Individual Medley
• Men’s 4×100m Medley Relay

Since I don’t really like to liveblog 50m races (what’s the point? They’re so short that they’re over by the time I’ve typed only the header), I’ll just go ahead and give you the results right now.

Men’s 50m Backstroke: No Americans made it to the finals of this event. The big players for this one were Liam Tancock of Great Britain (Lane 4), and Junya Koga of Japan (Lane 5). Spanish hottie Aschwin Wildeboer was also in this race, but he missed the podium by .53. Sad! Tancock came in first and broke the world record with a time of 24.04. Koga came in second, and South Africa’s Gerhard Zandberg came in third.

Zandberg, Tancock, and Koga.

Can I just interrupt myself to tell you guys that I just planned an entire hypothetical trip to Shanghai for the 14th World Championships in 2011? Wowww, Celisse. I’m totally insane, dudes. Turns out, if I have the estimations correct, the whole trip would come out to just under $2,300 including tickets, flight, and hotel for the entirety of the swimming portion.

If only I had.. you know.. a job? SIGH. Anyway.

Women’s 50m Breaststroke: The American swimmers in this event were Kasey Carlson (Lane 2), and Rebecca Soni (Lane 7). The number one qualifier was Sarah Katsoulis of Australia (Lane 4). Russia’s Yuliya Efimova came in first, Soni came in second, and Katsoulis came in third. I don’t think Soni had as good of a meet as she anticipated this week, but she adds this silver to the gold she already got, so I think she’s doing pretty well for herself. Yay!

Rebecca Soni, Yuliya Efimova, and Sarah Katsoulis.

Womens 50m Freestyle: In the last 50m race of the Worlds, there were a couple of big names, including the USA’s Dara Torres, Australia’s Libby Trickett, and Germany’s super adorable Britta Steffen, who already won the gold in the Women’s 100m Freestyle earlier this week. Steffen, true to form, came in first, Sweden’s Therese Alshammar came in second, while Australia’s Cate Campbell and The Netherlands’ Marleen Veldhuis tied for third.

Therese Alshammar, Britta Steffen, Marleen Veldhuis, and Cate Campbell

Unfortunately for the US, Dara Torres came in dead last, bringing her rather disappointing run in these championships to a close. She did an interview a few days ago that said if she had managed to get a gold at Beijing last year, she probably wouldn’t be swimming today. Does that mean we’ll be seeing her again at Nationals next year? Who knows.

I really don’t understand Dara Torres, to be honest. Her medal record is quite impressive, so what is this need to continue on in this sport, past her prime? This sport can be so hard on bodies and despite the fact that she’s still in incredible shape, she already has a terrible knee problem which I believe she’s having surgery on quite soon following the championships. More power to women of any age who want to follow their dreams and all, but I feel like she shoulda quit while she was ahead, you know? If she’s looking for that one last gold medal, I don’t know how much longer she’s gonna have to look for it.

Men’s 1500m Freestyle: I almost feel like it’s pointless to blog about this event, because it is super long, and two of the athletes who medalled in this event last year in Beijing managed to medal in it again this year, with the exception of Grant Hackett, who has retired. Ous Mellouli of Tunisia grabbed the gold in this event, unsurprisingly, while Canada’s Ryan Cochrane, who got the bronze in this event last year, came in second today. Sun Yang of China came in third in this event. Most surprising and yet somehow comforting is the fact that with all the 43 world records that fell this year, Grant Hackett’s record in this event — from 2001! — still stands. Whew.

Ous Mellouli and Ryan Cochrane

Sun Yang does not look excited :C

Men’s 400m IM

Hellooooo, Ryan Lochte. Today (August 3rd) is actually his 25th birthday. Happy Birthday, cutiepie! Now, go kick some ass in this event, k?

Italy’s Luca Marin is in this race, hilariously. It’s mostly hilarious cos I know pretty much nothing about him or his swimming record, but I do know that he’s the creep who leaked those REALLY AWFUL dirty photos of Laure Manaudou to the tabs.

Tyler Clary of the US is also in this race in lane 4. He’s gonna give Lochte a run for his money but I know Ryan won’t let me down, RIGHT? Right. Lochte’s Hungarian rival, Laszlo Cseh is also in this race. Exciting!

AHAHA The announcers introduce lochte in lane 6 and says that it’s his birthday tomorrow (today), maybe he’s gonna buy a new grille. SHUT UP, ANNOUNCERS. Don’t encourage the grillz. Brazil’s Thiago Pereira is also in this race. Buncha big names, let’s see what happens.

The menz hit the water and the announcers are talking about Lochte’s free spirit and laid-back attitude. Is Lochte the new Peirsol in terms of the announcers opining endlessly about his ~*~*free spirit~*~*~? As of the 100m, Cseh has the lead, with Clary in second and Lochte in third, but they’re going into the backstroke now, which Lochte has perfected. At the 150, Lochte starts pulling ahead of Cseh, who is now in third, but Clary is keeping up very close to him. 200m, they move into the breaststroke.

The announcers mention that while they were talking to Ryan’s dad, Steve Lochte, he mentioned that Ryan loves the breast stroke. Oh, I’ll bet he does. WINK WINK. I’m 12 years old.

Just before the 300m, Clary and Cseh both start fading really fast and really equally, which gives Pereira a chance to kinda squirm his way into 2nd place. He’s gaining on Lochte and as they begin the freestyle, he’s really close to Lochte, who isn’t letting up. It’s the last 50 and Pereira has totally faded and now its Cseh and Clary fighting for 2nd place! Lochte hits first but doesn’t break a record, Clary comes in second, and Cseh in third. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYAYAYA.

Sorry. I get excited.

Oh, Ryan. You're the second best swimmer in the world, you're gorgeous, you have your pick of any lady on the planet, and you've got a beautiful smile to boot. Why do you ruin it with THAT THING IN YOUR MOUF? Stop that.

Thank you, love.

Tyler Clary, Ryan Lochte, and Laszlo Cseh.

Oh, you know, just because.

Wow, check me out posting way more pics of Lochte than of anyone else. Creepy fangirl much? Get a grip, Celisse! ahahaha

Women’s 400m Individual Medley

Oh, I’m getting really sleepy. It’s almost 8am and now I’m getting sleepy? Wonderful. Anyway, let’s look at the field, shall we? Lanes:

1. Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe
2. Julia Smit, USA
3. Katinka Hosszu, Hungary
4. Stephanie Rice, Australia
5. Elizabeth Beisel, USA
6. Tanya Hunks, Canada. Ahaaahahaha Hunks? That’s awesome.
7. Hannah Miley, GBR
8. Zsuzsanna Jakabos, Hungary

Oh, God, this is gonna be a tough one for me to pick a favorite. We all know I love Coventry, but I also really love Stephanie Rice. Hosszu has shown herself to be someone to watch at these championships as well, so I really have no idea how this is gonna go, but I’m really rooting for Rice.

The ladies hit the water and LOL the announcers are talking about Katie Hoff, and how she’s the 2-time defending world championship in this event, but she didn’t make the team at Nationals. Know why? Cos Katie Hoff, as we all know, is the official face of fail blog.

At least as far as I’m concerned.

At the first 50, Rice is in the lead, but not by much, and Hosszu has already pulled ahead of her. Coventry is in third, and everyone else is just kinda trying to keep up. Coventry has actually pulled ahead and is in the lead, with Hosszu just behind her, and Rice has fallen into 6th place. Coventry and Hosszu are neck and neck right now, on their way to the 300m and the Freestyle. Hannah Miley has moved into 3rd place. Uhoh! Hosszu has sped ahead of Coventry, and hits the wall first and breaks the championship record, followed by Coventry just before Rice.

Well, dang. If it wasnt going to be Rice, then I was hoping it would be Coventry, but alas. At least they both made it onto the podium. Katinka Hosszu really did well at these championships, dude! Good for her.

Kirsty Coventry, Katinka Hosszu, and Stephanie Rice.

Men’s 4×100m Medley Relay

Alright, this is the final race of the evening, and the final race of the championships, and it’s set to be a good one. I looove relays! The distinct way that each person swims makes such a difference and it’s just really exciting. I’m a nerd.

Here are the lanes:

1. Great Britain
2. Brazil
3. USA
4. Germany
5. Australia
6. France
7. Russia
8. Japan

Some of the big names in this race are Liam Tancock of Great Britain, who won gold in the 50m backstroke earlier tonight, Cesar Cielo of Brazil who has won 2 gold medals so far this week, Germany’s Paul Biedermann, who rather arrogantly and infamously beat Phelps in the 200m Free earlier this week, and of course, JERKFACED Alain Bernard, swimming anchor for France. Puhlease.

Swimming for the US team are Aaron Peirsol (yay!), Eric Shantaeu (yay for Kim!), Michael Phelps (yay for AMERICA!), and David Walters (…yay?).

I refuse to doubt the power of a US relay team to do anything but dominate against the French, so let’s do this.

The teams are getting prepared, and I’m giggling cos everyone is all set up and ready to go, except for Peirsol, who’s like, JUST putting on his goggles and cap while he walks out. He looks to be one of only a few wearing a half suit, as well, which is always enjoyable. Cos I’m a perv. Oh, Peirsol, we love you.

The 100m comes and goes and Peirsol hits the wall first, but doesn’t manage to get an individual world record, although he was above the overall world record for this event. Shanteau swims the breaststroke and hits the wall in first place, and off goes Milky to swim the butterfly. I pause my DVR, and Australia’s Andrew Lauterstein seems to be in first, followed by Phelps, and then by Benjamin Starke of Germany, but Phelps always holds off a bit at first, yeah? Going into the 300m, Phelps starts to pull way ahead, of course, and then it’s time for David Walters to bring it home. Walters is more than a body length ahead of everyone else, and he hits the wall YESSSSSSSS.S.S.S.S.S.SS.S.. Killed the world record too!

Germany hits second and Australia gets third YES YES YESSSSSS.

I swear the Men’s team makes me so happy. They never make me cry. Way more than I can say for the women’s team pshhh.

Aaron Peirsol, Eric Shanteau, and Michael Phelps, waiting for David Walters

Arms to the sky, boys.

Aaahahaha on the way to the medal ceremony, some freak rushed the field and tried to get her grubby little paws on Milky. That, clearly, did not work out as planned. Also, nice kicks, Milky.

Awww, Michael poses with Dara. Sweet.

Someone told me recently that I should start a tumblr called PhelpsFace, cos he makes the most amazing facial expressions, like, ALWAYS, and it's so true.

Alright, guys, that brings my coverage of the Worlds to a close. Now, I sleep for 5,000 hours. HAH Just kidding, but thanks for sticking with Kim and me, and apparently the 2009 Visa Gymnastics Championships start in about a week and a half, so we’ll try to bring you some more AWESOME then!

Kim and I were absolute nerds and watched the video of Day 5 together, sorta, on our lappies in our respective cities, just like we used to do with Lizzie McGuire back when we were.. way too old to be doing so. Yeah.

Today’s finals were a little bit boring, mostly just because there weren’t that many big names in the pool that I recognized, aside from Ryan Lochte, who swam a final and a semi-final, Aaron Peirsol, who swam a semi, Eric Shanteau who swam a race and a semi, and of course the lovely ladies: Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer, and others I can’t quite remember right now.

There were 5 finals tonight:

• Men’s 200M IM
• Men’s 100M Freestyle
• Women’s 200M Butterfly
• Women’s 50M Backstroke
• Women’s 4×200M Freestyle Relay

Okay, let’s go!

Thursday, Day 5. [video]

Before the first final, there was a women’s semi-final for the 100m Freestyle, and I honestly don’t remember much about that semi, but I do know that one of the swimmer’s names was Victoria Poon, and that made me laugh really, really hard. I am 12 years old.

I just looked her up, and she’s a Canadian swimmer. Just like Keith Beavers. I am kind of in love with Canada’s swim team for having names like that right now. ahahaha. Victoria Poon and Keith Beavers. I am ridiculous.

Kim loved that semifinal just cos there was also a swimmer named Ranomi Kromowidjojo, of The Netherlands, who made it to the final. Yep.

Men’s 200M IM

Ryan Lochte was the favorite for this race, and I was excited, just cos while he may not be my favorite person out of the pool, he sure has a pretty smile. So any opportunity to see that boy smile after a race is good enough for me, ridiculous grille and all. What can I say? I’m a sucker for pretty boys.

That sounded way more dirty than I meant it to, I swear.

Other big players in this race were Eric Shanteau, Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh, and Brazil’s Thiago Pereira, the latter two of whom I remember from Beijing last year.

For the first 50m or so, Lochte and Cseh were pretty much head to head, but during the backstroke, Lochte started pulling ahead, and only increased his lead as the race continued. This was an important race for Lochte because he’s been planning to break the world record in this event, set last year by his BFF Michael Phelps just last year. In the last 50m, Pereira started sneaking up on Lochte, but Cseh pretty much shut him down, and then out of nowhere, after Lochte broke the world record and grabbed the gold and Cseh took the silver, Shanteau creeped up and took the bronze away from Perieira!

Amazing day for both Lochte, as well as Shanteau, who won his first ever individual championship medal with this event.

Sup, hottie? How you feelin'?

Laszlo Cseh, Ryan Lochte, and Eric Shanteau celebrate their medals.

I like how the Men's US team is like PSHHHH we don't need no shirts. Also sup Matty G.?

Aw, Lochte, I still love you and your pretty face, even with the stupid grille. I just really wish you would never, ever, ever speak, basically.

Steve Lochte, Ryan's father, on the left.

Kim: wow steve lochte
Kim: there’s ryan lochte’s future
Celisse: HAH

Men’s 100M Freestyle

The 100M Free was a big race for me, just cos any race that France’s Alain Bernard is in is big for me, because I like to watch him LOSE. Anyway, this was the start list:

Celisse: GROSS.
Celisse: H8U FRENCHIE
Kim: i wish alain bernard wasnt such a douche
Kim: or id so love him
Celisse: why
Celisse: HES NOT EVEN CUTE
Kim: he kind of is
Celisse: NO HES NOTTTTTT
Celisse: PUKE
Celisse: hahaahah i’m such a hater

I was rooting for Brazil’s Cesar Cielo, who won the 50M Free in Beijing, but like I said to Kim, I love anyone who will kick Alain Bernard’s ass. Oh, I only just realized that this was the final that Nathan Adrian didn’t advance to. That’s sad.

The race started and as of the 50m, most of the swimmers were all head to head in all but three of the lanes. France’s Frederick Bousquet was in first place at the turn, but at about half-way to the 100, Cielo and Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand seemed to both be just slightly ahead of the world record line. At the finish, Cielo just manages to hit the wall before STINKFACE Bernard, who grabs second, and Bousquet who grabbed third. HAH.

What ensues afterwards was… massive. I have seen people happy to win races, man. But Cielo is friggen intense:

You could actually hear him scream, over the cheering, over the announcers, homie was EXCITED.

He actually punched the water just after this. Yep.

Frederick Bousquet, Cesar Cielo, and Alain Bernard

Shortly after this, homie BROKE DOWN and started crying like a baby on the podium. It was cute but a little bit concerning.

Bernard, of course, uses this as an opportunity to molest poor, unsuspecting, vulnerable Cielo.

And then he grabbed Bousquet's boob. Weirdo. From now on, he is the new MOLESTATION LARRY.

I don’t think you’re supposed to eat the medal, honey.

And now we pause for another edition of Priorities! with Kim and Celisse:

Kim: I WISH WE WERE IN ROME
Celisse: meeee tooooo
Kim: CAN WE GO TO WORLDS NEXT YEAR
Celisse: i wonder how many condoms they give out at the worlds
Celisse: they arent next year
Celisse: they happen every 2 years
Kim: fuck
Celisse: i know, dude. what are we gonna do next year
Kim: there has to be something we can go to
Celisse: i think its a dead year next year :C
Kim: yo there has to be SOMETHING
Kim: hahaha
Celisse: well theres nationals right
Kim: theres no way they dont have trials or something
Kim: see theres something
Celisse: nationals are boring!
Kim: UM SEEING LOCHTE IN JAMMERS IS NEVER BORING

Dang, kids. Do not get in between Kim and jammers.

Women’s 200M Butterfly

The big players in this final were Australia’s Jessicah Schipper, USA’s Mary Descenza, who broke the world record for this event during the heats, and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who came in first during the semifinals.

At the first 50, China’s Liu Zige in lane 7 hits the wall first. She and Aurore Mongel of France are both about a half-body length ahead of world record pace, but there’s still a long way to go. On the third turn, Zige is still in the lead, while Mongel has faded, and Jessicah Schipper creeps up to second! Schipper and Descenza start inching their way up to the world record line, and Zige loses just a bit of speed. Schipper hits the wall first and takes the world record away from Descenza, who ended in 4th place, after Hosszu who kinda came out of nowhere to take third, and Zige, who took second.

I could NOT find a photo of all three of the winners, so here's just Jessicah Schipper of Australia

Liu Zige of China

I think Katinka Hosszu is so cute. Aw.

Women’s 50M Backstroke

This race was a little bit eh. There weren’t any swimmers that I recognized, other than Russia’s Anastasia Zueva and Australia’s Emily Seebohm who won the silver and bronze, respectively, in the 100m Backstroke on Tuesday night. This race will probably be similar to that.

You know me and 50’s.

HAH, and I am proven completely wrong (even after I already saw this race — I guess I wasn’t paying very much attention!). Jing Zhao of China breaks the world record and gets the gold medal, Daniela Samulski of Germany takes the silver, and China’s Chang Gao takes the bronze.

Gao Chang and Zhao Jing. This is a cute photo.

Daniela Samulski celebrates her silver. I like how they give plushie dolls to the medalists. So random hahaha.

Next up are the semifinals for the Men’s 200m Backstroke, and seriously, the video gives us NO time to appreciate the fact that Aaron Peirsol is swimming this intensely important semi, after failing to final in the 100m back. But he comes in first to advance to the final in this event, and in the second semi, hottie Ryan Lochte advances as well, so that final, happening tomorrow, is gonna be amazing. HAH, and new love of my life, Aschwin Wildeboer, is also advancing to the final in that event. It’s gonna be hottie central up in that piece lemme tell you.

On Aaron Piersol, btw:

Women’s 4×200m Freestyle Relay

This is the last final of the evening, and I cannot tell a lie, Kim and I were kinda too preoccupied with attempting to befriend our imaginary FINA boyfriends on Facebook, that we didn’t pay much attention to this event. Whoops!

But some good came of it:

Anyway, back on topic, the teams to watch in this final were the American team, considting of Dana Vollmer, Lacey Nymeyer, Ariana Kukors, and Allison Schmitt, as well as the Chinese team, and the Australian team. I don’t really recognize anyone on the Australian team, aside from Stephanie Rice, who is swimming second.

During the first leg of the race, Vollmer and China’s Yu Yang are neck and neck, but Vollmer hits the wall first, with China coming in just behind her. Ellen Fullerton of Australia came in 7th. Dang. Great Britain is in third. Nymeyer hits the water and does the most poorly on the American team, coming in 4th after her leg of the race, with China coming in first, GBR coming in second, and Stephanie Rice with Australia coming in third.

During the third leg of the race, Kukors picks up the US team, coming in 2nd behind China, with GBR right behind her. And during the final leg, China keeps their lead, hitting the wall first and breaking the world record, followed by the US coming in second, and GBR coming in third for the bronze.

Australia came in fifth place, with Rice actually pulling the best time on her team, coming in third place after Fullerton came in SEVENTH. Good for Stephanie, but what a mess.

Literally the ONLY photo I found of this event. Alas! Allison Schmitt, Ariana Kukors, Lacey Nymeyer, and Dana Vollmer

Alright, I’m off to bed finally. I wanted to have this blog done so long ago, but that never happens the way I want it to. Anyway, tomorrow (today?) is the AMAZING Men’s 200M Backstroke, AND the Men’s 4×200 Free, so it should be an awesome day, and I’ll be back to freak out over it.

Have a great night!

I haven’t had time to sit down and blog the past couple days, and I feel badly about it, like I am failing you, dear readers, so now I am catching up on day two highlights on Universal Sports and enjoying the crap out of myself. It’s the simple things, okay?

While we’re talking of simple things making me happy, and while the highlights show I’m watching shows me, again, the Men’s 4×100M Free Relay (I have no idea why, since that was on Day 1), I’m sure you’ve noticed a new layout here at OlyVil. It took Kim and myself literally like 3 days to finally decide on a WordPress theme we liked, and then HOURS of me trying to make a header that 1. would fit, and 2. wouldn’t be compressed so ridiculously that it was better to just not have one.

Isn’t the header cute?! It’s a collage of all our favorite things we like to blog about, clearly. ADORABLE. We also updated our blogroll, so go take a look at it and visit some of our friends! If you wanna be on the blogroll, let us know and we’ll work something out. Wink wink.

Anyway, I apologize again for the delay on this recap, but, man, life. Later today I’ll try to also post a short recap of days 3 and 4 just so I can get caught up for the rest of the week.

During breaks in this video, they keep showing this hilarious shot of Milky at Nationals and it keeps making me LOL pretty hard, not gonna lie:

This should be our new header, clearly. Just this.

The video was just going over things we can expect from day 2, and it just said that  Ariana Kukors is getting ready to smash the world record. Honestly, smashing world records anymore is kinda boring, considering everyone and their mother has been smashing them lately. That doesn’t take away from the incredible discipline and skill it takes to smash a world record, but I’m just saying — it’s less exciting when it’s happening every 15 minutes.

Speaking of Ariana Kukors, let’s introduce her to the world, shall we?

Athlete Profile: Ariana Kukors

Ariana Kukors

Ariana Kukors, in my opinion (and kind of in everyone else’s opinion right now as well), is the athlete to watch on the US Women’s Swim Team this year in Rome. While the team is usually dominated by Olympic veterans who are mostly absent from this year’s World Championships (Natalie Coughlin is taking some time off after Beijing, [skankfaced] Amanda Beard is having a baby pretty soon, Katie Hoff is fail blog), this year’s team gives a few fresh faces a chance to prove themselves and show us what to expect over the next few years.

According to the wikipedia, this 20 year old Washington native swam for a bit for the Washington Huskies before joining the King Aquatic Club. She impressed spectators at Nationals when the unknown made 3rd place in the Women’s 200M IM, and then after Elizabeth Pelton scratched the event, positively shattered Australian cutiepie Stephanie Rice’s world record in the 200M IM Semifinals in Rome on Sunday. I believe that’s the only event she’ll be swimming in Rome this year, but I think we need to put this girl on our radar, cos she’s gonna be all up in our fries soon.

During DAY TWO (well, day 11, technically) of Worlds, Kukors swam the Women’s 200M IM Final, an event whose commentary is usually dominated by the long-standing rivalry between Stephanie Rice and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry. Yesterday, though, Kukors led the pack, yet again breaking the world record she set on Sunday, and winning gold with a time of 2:06.15. Rice came in 2nd, and Coventry was shut out of the medal standings by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who came in 3rd. Sucks to be Kirsty.

Rice, Kukors, and Hosszu

Next event coming up is the Men’s 100M Breaststroke Final. [Cancer Free!!!!!!] Eric Shanteau is swimming this event. Rowdy Gaines is saying he could become the world’s best breaststroker, depending on the results of this race, and 12 year old me giggles at “breast stroker lolz.”

AAAAND I just spoiled myself to this race while browsing Wikipedia, and that is really annoying. I’ll pretend I didn’t just see the results. TABULA RASA, CELISSE.

Shanteau is in lane 4, and he’s the only American swimming this race. I’m not familiar with any of the other swimmers previous to Sunday’s semi-finals, so I’m going to ignore them, sorry.

The buzzer goes off and the men hit the water. At the 50, Shanteau has fallen behind, but picks up some speed towards the 100. He just misses the wall, though, and comes in 4th after South Africa’s  Cameron van der Burgh (3rd), France’s Hugues Duboscq (2nd), and Australia’s Brenton Rickard, who walks away with a gold medal and a new world record.

Cute.

Sorry, Shanteau. I guess you’re not the world’s best breast stroker after all.

Next up is the Women’s 100m Butterfly Final, and Dana Vollmer is the only US swimmer in this event. And this time I am not going to spoil myself. Other important names in this event are Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom AAAAND I JUST SPOILED MYSELF AGAIN. Jesus, Celisse, when will you learn?

Anyhow, big names in this event, again, are Sarah Sjostrom, who came in first in the semi finals on Sunday, and Australia’s Jessicah Schipper, who came in second. Should be a good race, let’s get this party staaaaarted.

100’s and 50’s drive me nuts cos they’re really just too short to get into, honestly, but whatever. At the turn, Vollmer is in 7th place, and the announcers are calling it another Shanteau since Vollmer is way behind. Brazil’s Gabriella Silva had the lead at the 50, apparently, but now it looks like Sjostrom is in the lead, and just a tiny bit ahead of the world record, with Schipper following closely behind! Vollmer isn’t even in this race, dang. She hits the wall FIFTH, and looks like she’s about to cry or something. Jeez.

Sjostrom gets the gold, Schipper gets silver, and China’s Jiao Liuyang gets the bronze. Vollmer actually tied for 5th with Gabriella Silva, after France’s Aurore Mongel, who came in 4th place.

Oh hello, podium which does not include Dana Vollmer.

For as much as I generally love the Men’s US Swimming Team, the Women’s team makes me want to cry on a semi regular basis.

The Men’s 100m Backstroke Semi is up next, and the only dreamboat who has managed to stay a dreamboat for me since Athens 2004, Aaron Peirsol, is gonna ROCK THIS. Or else. RIGHT? Right.

Oh, Peirsol, you half-suited hottie.

Matty Grevers is swimming the first semifinal, and all I have to say about that is that Kim better admire the level of bulge happening while Grevers is massaging our boy Milky:

I’m not blogging a semi-final, dudes. I’m sleepy. Japan’s Junya Koga came in 1st in the first semifinal and the announcer are in awe. Grevers came in 4th. Moving on!

Second semi-final, let’s do this. Oh God, he hasn’t even been on the screen for 5 seconds and the announcers already mentioned how he exemplifies everything California Cool. WE GET IT. YOU’VE BEEN SAYING IT FOR LIKE 5 YEARS.

WHOA WHOA WHOA. HOTTIE ALERT! Who is this Aschwin Wildeboer? Apparently he’s from Spain and also a DREAMBOAT!

Sup hottie!

I have no idea who this guy is but I wanna make out. Don’t you guys love how I not only liveblog the events, but I also liveblog my personal hottie preferences? Jeez.

Uhoh, Peirsol didn’t place in this semifinal. That Spanish dreamboat came in first, Greece’s Aristeidis Grigoriadis (holy Jesus what a name) came in second, and GBR’s Liam TANCOCK (rofl rofl) came in third.

OH DANG, OH MY GOD. Peirsol gets SHUT OUT of the final, coming in NINTH PLACE. Oh my God. The standings hit the board and his face DROPS, dude. He is SHOCKED. I am too. This breaks my heart into a zillion pieces. Matt Grevers actually makes it in the 5th spot. That’s gotta hurt. The crowd is as completely baffled as I am, gasping loudly when the times hit the board. The announcers, for once in their miserable careers, don’t even know what to say.

Aaron, I have faith in you. I still love you. :C He’s still got the 200m coming up so we’ll see what happens. DANG, man. I just wanna give him a hug.

Okay, well, whatever. Up next is the Women’s 100M Breaststroke Semi. I’m pretty tired so I’m skipping this one. USA’s Rebecca Soni and Kasey Carlson both make it into the final, which was an event from tonight that I’ll blog about later. Soni broke the world record. Everyone’s breakin’ world records.

Moving on, the Men’s 50m Butterfly is next, and y’all know I hate 50m’s. There aren’t any Americans on tis race, but I’m gonna go ahead and call it for Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, in lane five. Let’s see if I’m right! They’re almost at the end of the pool and no one has reached the world record line yet. That’s a first. EYEROLL.

AHA, I was right! Milorad Cavic takes the gold, followed by Australia’s Matthew Targett in second, and Spain’s Rafael Munoz in third.

This is Cavic’s first world championship title, and the announcers actually just said that he’s “no longer a bridesmaid.” Oh, announcers. You’re weird.

I’m pretty sure the rest of the events for Day Two were all semi finals so I think I’m gonna end this here. Have a great day, guys. Like I said up there, I’ll try to play catch up on days 3 and 4 later tonight. Enjoy!

Ever have one of those days where you wake up and have a very specific goal in mind for the day, and then it seems like everything in the world begins to conspire in an effort to completely derail you? Boy oh boy, am I having one of those days. The goal I had in mind was very simple — watch and liveblog Day 1 of the FINA World Championships for Swimming. I caught only recaps of Diving and ignored water polo and synchro, but I was excited for Swimming and bringing you recaps and liveblogs of all the amazingness going on in Rome right now.

4 hours after NBC’s coverage for the day ended, I am only now beginning this liveblog, and I apologize for the hefty delay. It’s just been one of those days, man.

Before I begin, just a reminder that the only days after today that NBC will be covering of the Swimming World Championships this week, are this coming Saturday and Sunday, starting at 12 noon, EST. Universal Sports, however, has live feeds coming out of Rome every day, and if you can’t catch them live (or if you have the crappiest internet on the planet, like I do), they have video of every event since the Worlds began last Friday. Here’s the link for the site.

Okay, hopefully without any further interruptions, let’s get this party staaaaarted!

Before the races begin, there are some clips of Michael Phelps from the Beijing Olympics last year, and I get all gooey over the gorgeous Watercube, wishing  had been there. And now it’s a clip of Garrett Weber-Gale molesting Milky after the relay. Remember that?! Still hilarious. Oh good, this broadcast is brought to us by Subway. I could go for a nice foot-long right now. Where’s that cutie Nathan Adrian? omg omg omg ok jk.

The first event is the Women’s 100m Butterfly First Semifinal. Lane assignments:

1. Daynara De Paula (Brazil)
2. Jiao Liuyang (China)
3. Jeanette Ottesen (Denmark)
4. Dana Vollmer (US)
5. Zhou Yafei (China)
6. Aurore Mongel (France)
7. Marleen Veldhuis (Netherlands)
8. Gabriella Silva (Brazil)

The announcers are talking about how this is a bounce-back year for Vollmer, who missed making the Olympic team last year. The other announcer mentions that she’ll have no problem moving on to the finals in this event. The other athlete to watch in this race is Marleen Veldhuis. The ladies get into the water and apparently the oldest world record on the books is in jeopardy in this race. Vollmer is in the lead but she doesn’t look like she’s gonna beat the record. Vollmer touches first but misses the record by one second.

Now that the new swimsuits are officially illegal for all races following the World Championships, I think a lot of the records made over the past 6 months are so are gonna hold for a long time.

In any case, results:

1. Dana Vollmer
2. Jiao Liuyang
3. Aurore Mongel
4. Gabriella Silva

Veldhuis tied for 5th with China’s Zhou Yafei. See, that’s what happens when the announcers hype you up. Prime example: KATIE HOFF.

Next up is the Second Semifinal and here are the lane assignments:

1. Ellen Gandy (Great Britain)
2. Felicity Galvez (Australia)
3. Christine Magnusun (US)
4. Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden)
5. Jessicah Schipper (AUS)
6. Ingvild Snildal (Norway)
7. Aniika Mehlhorn (Germany)
8. Yuka Kato (Japan)

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden is being heralded as the girl to watch in this race. Apparently she’s only 15 years old and won the European Championships. That’s pretty hardcore. The buzzer goes off, ladies go flying, and Sjostrom seems to be in the lead thus far. Sjostrom and Schipper are just behind the world record, and Sjostrom sneaks under and hits the wall, breaking the record! She is exciiiiited, and that’s really cute. Magnuson doesn’t make it to the finals. Oh well. Standings!

1. Sarah Sjostrom (WR)
2. Jessicah Schipper
3. Ingvild Snildal
4. Christine Magnuson

So the eight women moving on to tomorrow’s finals are: Sarah Sjostrom, Jessicah Schipper, Dana Vollmer, Ingvild Snildal, Jiao Liuyang, Aurore Mongel, Gabriella Silva, Zhou Yafei, and Marleen Veldhuis.

The Men’s 400M Freestyle Final is up next, and I managed to get spoiled to this one, I think. Dang. Lane assignments:

1. Ryan Cochrane (Canada)
2. Photobomber Extraordinaire Peter Vanderkaay (US)
3. Ous Mellouli, aka the Tunisian hottie who won the 1500M Free last year in Beijing. 1500M, dude!
4. Paul Biedermann (Germany)
5. Zhang Lin (China)
6. Mads Glaesner (Denmark)
7. David Davies (GBR)
8. Gergo Kis (Hungary)

I love how I have to pause this every five seconds to make sure I got the names and countries right. Oy. The men are in the water! 400M’s are so long, so let’s sit back and relax for a bit. I kinda like 200M’s the best. Who cares? You’re not here to read about my race length preferences. ANYWAY.  All the men seem to be a good length behind the world record, and thus far, it seems like Ous Melloili is in the lead, but the camera angle is so awkward that I’m not really sure. Oh, Cochrane has the lead, actually, with Mellouli inching ahead of him! Vanderkaay doesn’t look like he’s gonna make it thus far, but there’s still time. They’re at the 300M and Mellouli is still ahead. Cochrane seems to have fallen off the radar! Biedermann is in second, Lin in third, and UHOH Biedermann gets ahead of Mellouli! He’s close to the record! ACK HE BEAT THE RECORD HOLY CRAP. The two oldest Swimming records broken today in Rome, DANG.  Biedermann beat the record by 1/100th of a second. Standings!

1. Paul Biedermann (WR)
2. Ous Mellouli
3. Zhang Lin

Aw, Peter Vanderkaay. He came in 4th. I don’t know what happened, but better luck next time, homie. Go bomb some more pictures to make yourself feel better. Apparently the record Biedermann just beat was set in 2002 by — get this — the Australian Thorpedo, Ian Thorpe! Hilariousssss. I miss him. Why do Aussie hotties have to retire? Grant Hackett, I’m lookin’ at you, mister banker.

Oh, NBC is hosting a poll. Whose World Record is Most Likely to Fall in Rome? Lemme put in a poll and see. Actually, WordPress does not want to host a poll, apparently. Greeeeat. Anyway, the options are A. Eamon Sullivan (AUS) 100M Free, B. Aaron Peirsol (USA) 200M Back, C. Michael Phelps (USA) 100M Fly, and D. Grant Hackett (AUS) 1500M Free. Soooo many records have already been broken this year, it’s hard to think any one of those wouldn’t fall this week in Rome. I think I’ll go with A, Eamon Sullivan’s record. Just cos. Whose record do you think will fall?! Leave comments with your choice!

AHA I figured out the poll.

AAAAND wonderful, my lappy wire just broke. Brb. Alright. Back in business. That took way, way, way longer than I wanted it to. The next race is the Women’s 200M Individual Medley First Semifinal. Lanes:

1. Tomoyo Fukuda (Japan)
2. Evelyn Verraszto (Hungary)
3. Julie Hjorth-Hansen (Denmark)
4. Katinka Hosszu (Hungary)
5. Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe)
6. Emily Seebohm (GBR)
7. Joanna Maranhan-Melo (Brazil)
8. Li Jiaxing (China)

Kirsty Coventry, of course, is the athlete to watch in this race. Assuming she and Stephanie Rice (who is swimming in the next Semifinal) both make it to the finals, it’s gonna be a helluva race to watch. Out of the two of them, I don’t really have a favorite — I like them both a lot.

The race starts, and the butterfly is the starting stroke. The announcers are saying that this isn’t Coventry’s best stroke but that the backstroke and the freestyle are really strong for her. So far, she’s in seventh pllace, but most of the ladies are all around the same place so there’s still time for her to pull up. Evelyn Verraszto has the lead as they inch up to the 150.  Coventry is pulling up for the last 50, but Hjorth-Hansen has the lead. Hjorth-Hansen with the impossible name to Liveblog hits the wall first, and gets a Danish national record, while Coventry and Verraszto both tie for second. Standings!

• Julie Hjorth-Hansen
• Kirsty Coventry
• Evelyn Verraszto
• Katinka Hosszu

Women’s 200M IM Semifinal 2 is up next, and they’re showing clips from last year of Rice and Coventry’s infamous rivalry. Kirsty Coventry’s accent always makes me laugh. She sounds like a California girl. Wikipedia says she’s born and raised in Zimbabwe, although she attended and swam for Auburn University in Alabama. Weird. Moving on! Lane assignments for the Second Semifinal:

1. Francesca Segat (Italy)
2. Camille Muffat (France)
3. Hannah Miley (GBR)
4. Ariana Kukors (US)
5. Stephanie Rice (AUS)
6. Julia Smit (US)
7. Liu Jing (China)
8. Daria Belyakina (Russia)

Stephanie Rice isn’t wearing her signature green earrings (at least not that I can see), but she is sporting some hot pink nailpolish, which I can totally appreciate. I think half the reason I like her is cos she knows how to accessorize. Yep. Hannah Miley is in this race, aka the girl who constantly reminds everyone of Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana. Poor thing. Maybe that’s just me? I don’t know, I know we mentioned it a few times last year. Anyway!

Kukors is kind of up-and-coming, isn’t she? She wasn’t at Beijing so I’m guessing she’s the girl to watch in this race, but if she makes it to the Final she’s gonna have some heavy, heavy competition. Anyway, the buzzer goes off and the women go in. As of the 50m, Rice seems to be in the lead, but not by much. Kukors pulls ahead of her during the backstroke. They’re both ahead of the current world record, and now they turn for the 150 and Kukors is actually way ahead, wow. Rice is way in second. Kukors is WAY ahead of the world record and she’s stealing it away from Rice. Dang, Rice didn’t even break the existing record. Way to go, Ariana! This is her first world record. Awww.

Stephanie makes it a point to reach over and congratulate and hug Ariana, which is sweet, although the announcers are being CYNICAL by saying it was a fake smile. Pshhhh. Here are the results:

1. Ariana Kukors (WR)
2. Stephanie Rice
3. Hannah Miley
4. Camille Muffat

Moving on to the finals are the following ladies: Ariana Kukors, Stephanie Rice, Hannah Miley, Julia Hjorth-Hansen, Evelyn Verraszto, Kirsty Coventry, Katinka Hosszu, Camille Muffat, and Julia Smit.

The Men’s 50M Butterfly is next. It’s a semifinal, but I just realized that I’m not even half finished with this liveblog and it’s already SO long, so I’m gonna skip the semi’s and just tell you who’s moving on to the finals: Rafael Munoz (SP), Milorad Cavic (Serbia) [you might remember Cabbage as the guy who ALMOST beat Milky last year during the 100m Fly. He's from California. Random!], Nicholas Santos (Brazil), Duje Draganja (Croatia), Matthew Targett (GBR), Albert Subirats (Venezuela), Jason Dunford (Kenya), Jakob Sciøtt Andkjær (Denmark), Roland Schoeman (South Africa).

Clips of Milky and the boyz from Beijing. They’re going through all eight of his golds, actually. Dang. I skip ahead cos we’ve all seen that 234823948 times.

Okay, I’m at the half-point of the broadcast and I have genuinely no idea which event is up next, but the ladies are filing out, and they cut to a shot of a very annoyed looking Federica Pellegrini. AH okay, it’s the Women’s 400M Freestyle Final. Lanes!:

1. Lotte Friis (Denmark)
2. Camelia Potec (Romania)
3. Joanne Jackson (GBR)
4. Federica Pellegrini (ITA)
5. Allison Schmitt (US)
6. Coralie Balmy (France)
7. Ophelie-Cyrielle Etienne (France)
8. Rebecca Adlington (GBR)

Let’s do this. There are a lot of colorful suits in this race. Someone is wearing bright pink, I think. Another is wearing orange. I love that this is what I choose to comment on. Nice work, Celisse. Anyway, so far it looks like Joanne Jackson is in first, and literally 2 seconds after I say that, Pellegrini overtakes her at the 100m. At the 150, Pellegrini is still in the lead and Jackson is only a tiny bit behind her. Apparently Allison Schmitt is in third but I can’t even see her.  Oh wait, Adlington is in third, I believe. Schmitt is in 7th, dang. Pellegrini and Jackson are almost neck and neck, although Pellegrini is slightly more ahead. They’re at the 250 now and Jackson is falling back, and Pellegrini is just under the world record pace. Adlington is still in 3rd with Schmitt in 4th, and at the 350, Pellegrini is still way ahead, and shes above the world record! She hits the wall and everyone basically FREAKS OUT. Wowwww. Aww, she sits on the lane line and waves to her country and they freak out, and it’s really sweet. Results:

1. Federica Pellegrini (WR)
2. Joanne Jackson
3. Rebecca Adlington

Someone needs to explain the lane assignments to me, cos you very rarely see someone get a medal whos on one of the end lanes. I read about how they’re assigned, but I didn’t quite understand, or I don’t remember, or I dunno. Either way, that was a great race.

More semifinals coming up, so I’ll skip that and let you know who’s gonna be swimming the Men’s 100M Breaststroke Final. For the record, one of the semi-finalists is Giedrius Titenis, which is as epic a name as Rexford Tullius. Just so you know. Anyhow: Eric Shanteau (US), Cameron Van Der Burgh (South Africa), Hendrik Feldwehr (Germany), Brenton Rickard (AUS), Igor Borysik (Ukraine), Giedrius Titenis (Lithuania), Hugues Duboscq (France), Henrique Barbosa (Brazil).

And now comes the part of the races where I get really tired of liveblogging cos sitting here for 2+ hours and constantly pausing and FF and RW is killin’ me, maaaaanz. Like I said during Nationals, I’m way more used to liveblogging the Olympics, where there’s 23893209 other events going on in between each Swimming event I’d liveblog. Sheesh!

Up next is the Women’s 4×100M Freestyle Relay Final. I love relays, they’re probably my favorite, since each swimmer is different so from one swimmer to the next, the whole game can change. Here are the lanes:

1. United States
2. China
3. Australia
4. Germany
5. Netherlands
6. Sweden
7. Great Britain
8. Hungary

Dara Torres is gonna be swimming second for the US, after she just recently had a crazy knee surgery that she’s hoping will carry her through the rest of the week. One of the announcers said something like: “You have to have surgeries like that when you’re 42,” and he immediately shut up as if it was kind of a shitty thing to say, cos it was a shitty thing to say.  So far, Australia and Germany is neck and neck for the lead, with the US waaaay behind. Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands are all way ahead of world record pace. The Netherlands are ahead of everyone, and the US is way behind. Like, WAY behind. UHOH it looks like Germany is sneaking up to the Netherlands and they are sooo close. Germany pulls ahead! Netherlands gets ahead in the last few feet! More world records. Ladies screaming. Dara does not look happy. Alas. Standings!

1. Netherlands (WR)
2. Germany
3. Australia

With the sad, sad US team coming in 4th. Oh well.

The Men’s 4×100M Freestyle Relay Final is up next and they’re talking about last year’s show down with those jerkfaced Frenchies. That was such an amazing race, guys. Nothing pisses off a bunch of Americans like a bunch of arrogant French guys talkin’ smack. That was, 100%, my favorite moment of the Beijing games, with Lezak coming back from way into 2nd place and taking away the Gold. Amaaazing. Also the Milky molestation by Weber-Gale, of course.

In any case, Milky is making his World Championships debut here in Rome tonight in this event, so it’s guaranteed to be an amazing one. The men are coming out and OOH I see Nathan Adrian standing behind Lochte, while Michael Phelps wipes down the block and gets ready to start the team. Who’s the 4th man? I can’t see him. OH hahaha it’s Matt Grevers. SUP, KIM?! ahahaha. Right next to the US is the French team again, and there’s that crapfaced Alain Bernard, who will be swimming 2nd for his team. Here are the lane assignments:

1. Australia
2. Italy
3. Great Britain
4. Brazil
5. France
6. USA
7. South Africa
8. Russia

To be honest, I THINK I’m spoiled for this race, but I closed the window so fast that I’m not sure. We’ll see. Oh God, the buzzer goes off and the men legitimately FLY into the pool. As of the first 100M, Phelps was 3rd, and Lochte is swimming second for the US.  The US is still third behind Brazil in first and France in second. Oh maaaan! France is in the lead as of the 250! Matt Grevers is pulling a little ahead! THE US IS CLOSING IN. Nathan Adrian is swimming anchor and he’s pulling ahead!  AGH OH MY GOD HE PULLS WAY AHEAD AND HE TAKES IT

MY CUTIE RULES, GUYS, JS. BACK OFF OF HIM COS I CLAIMED HIM FIRST JSYK.

I love how I managed to use minimal caps UNTIL this friggen event HOLY GUAC. AW, DANG, I CAN’T STOP SMILING. I love the US Men’s Swimming Team, guys. Results:

1. United States
2. Russia
3. France rofl.

And that was the last event of the night and I get up off this compy and go get some real life stuff done. I’ll be back tonight with some pictures of today’s events. Have a good evening!

It seems as though Australia’s national swim team will be a little lackluster at this year’s FINA World Championships (taking place RIGHT NOW) in Rome.

Grant Hackett retired last year after his third Olympic appearance, in which he won a silver and bronze medal. He’s now a banker and expecting twins with his wife, which is a complete turnaround from crazy famous Olympic swimmer, though he does do sports reporting for the Nine Network on weekends. He also has political aspirations. Hey Grant, we’ll help you with your aspirations if you help us with ours, yea?

Lethal Liesel Jones is “on sabbatical” (I guess that’s what the Aussies call it) to study beauty therapy. She’s only 23 and already SO LETHAL, so we can’t wait for her return to the pool.

Hayden Stoeckel, with some Matt Grevers & Aaron Peirsol for good measure.

Hayden Stoeckel is out with a shoulder injury that he sustained during practice. Yikes.

Saddest of all, the much celebrated return of Eamon Sullivan’s torso to our American television sets took a hit when Eamon cancelled his Nationals appearance to head back to Australia.

His royal torso is ill with an undiagnosed virus that he’s been fighting since being in Singapore about six weeks ago. Rupert Grint survived the swine flu, so I’m confident that the resilient torso will make it out of this alright and be back in action in no time. In all seriousness, though, we do hope that it is nothing too critical.

So what do we have to look forward to from down under next weekend? Olyvil’s Olympic hero Stephanie Rice should be there, wearing adorable earrings, however, she has been hit by a respiratory illness that might force her to sit her events out. Libby Trickett will be there, fighting those with sleeker suits.

And Andrew Lauterstein, who ditched his Speedo LZR suit for one of those new polyurethane ones, will be swimming the butterfly.. aka that race that Phelps won by .01 second in Beijing.

Can’t wait!

They might not be quite in Olympic form, but many of the swim stars from last year’s Beijing Games will compete this weekend at the Santa Clara International Invitational at the Haines Swim Center.

Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals in Beijing, is expected to swim in four events – the 200-meter butterfly (Friday), the 400 freestyle (Saturday), and the 100 free and 100 backstroke (Sunday).

Other notables in the lineup include world-record holders in the backstroke (Kirsty Coventry, Ryan Lochte), breaststroke (Leisel Jones) and individual medley (Stephanie Rice).

Other familiar names on the meet sheet include Katie Hoff, U.S.-record holder in the 200 and 400 free, Dana Vollmer (Cal) and Julia Smit (Stanford).

The meet starts Thursday with two distance events, and continues through Sunday. Finals begin about 4 p.m. each day, depending on when the preliminaries finish. Tickets for one session are $8. A meet pass is $25. Go to santaclaraswimclub.org for more information.

Via: San Francisco Chronicle

SUITS: Blueseventy is claiming US$10,000 a day in compensation from FINA, the international federation, for the loss of approval of its wetsuit-lookalike race suits. The New Zealand-based company, with a production unit in Germany, lodged its case in the Swiss Courts yesterday. The nero comp suit failed to make it on to the approved suits list because it “may cause significant air trapping”. The company offered its customers full refund on any suits that may now not be used to race in. Such a scheme will come at a high cost. The case hangs on whether FINA has acted unfairly and whether it can prove its case “scientifically”. From January 1, 2010, suits based largely on non-textile, non-permeable fabrics are likely to be barred from race swimming.

USA: More than 20 US Olympic team members, including Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Katie Hoff will compete at the Santa Clara International Grand Prix on June 11-14 in California, alongside a strong Australia selection. The meet is the final stage of the USA Swimming Grand Prix Series and the last test for many before the much-awaited ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships, and Rome 2009 world-title trials next month. The Santa Clara meet will feature 30 Australians, including Olympic champions Stephanie Rice and Leisel Jones (the breaststroke ace who will not race at world championships this summer), as well as Brenton Rickard and Hayden Stoeckel. Olympic backstroke champion Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) will be there to challenge the woman who pipped her for gold in both Beijing medley finals. Rice has been training at altitude in Arizona for the past two weeks as part of a study by Swimming Australia and the Australian Sports Institute. Among other visitors testing themselves before Rome is Brent Hayden (CAN), world 100m free champion. You can watch events at USA Swimming’s official news outlet swimnetwork.com.

Rome: Two more pools have been seized by police working on the order of the public prosecutor in the Italian capital, venue for the world championships in July in an investigation into whether urban planning rules were observed. The latest pools to be seized are the Flaminio Sporting Club and the Riserva Macchione. Meanwhile, the president of the organising committee of Roma 2009, Giovanni Giovanni Malagò, may resign today, according to Italian media reports. An “extraordinary assembly” meeting will be held at which Roberto Diacetti, Malago’s right-hand man, may be asked to go. If that happens, Malago has indicated that he will follow. 

Via: SwimNews, Craig Lord

Japanese swimming phenom Ryosuke Irie is upset because the international swimming regulatory body FINA has yet to ratify his record-setting 200 meter backstroke performance from last month. FINA is concerned over the bathing suit that he wore and whether or not it unfairly aided his abilities.

“It’s sad everyone keeps talking about the swimsuits. Mentally it was a bit upsetting for me,” Irie said, “My swimming went to pieces and I didn’t want to get in the pool for a while.”

“It would be better if all the swimmers did (wear tiny g-strings) but it would be tough to make them do it,” he told a Reuters reporter.

I for one am ALL in favor of, well, at least the women, wearing g-strings. I think it will add a much needed boost to the sport and capitalize on the brief period of popularity that lasted right after the Summer Olympics and has already faded from consciousness.

I would like to be the first to suggest, obviously, that my favorite swimmer, Stephanie Rice be the first to race in g-strings. Or she can just come over to my apartment in one and work on this new training regimen I’ve come up with…

[Yahoo!]

The nominations for the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards are out!! Here are the nominees:

Laureus World Sportsman of the Year:

Usian Bolt (Jamaica)-first man to win 100m, 200m & 4×100m Olympic gold medals in world record times

Lewis Hamilton (UK)-youngest Formula One World Champion in history (23 years and 300 days)

Rafael Nadal (Spain)-won French Open, Wimbledon & Olympic gold medal en route to capturing the number one ranking

Michael Phelps (US)-won eight gold medals in a single Olympic games to overtake Mark Spitz’s record

Christiano Ronaldo (Portugal)-beat Giacomo Agostini’s record 68 500cc wins, and won 6th senior world title

Valentino Rossi (Italy)-beat Giacomo Agostini’s record 68 500cc wins, and won 6th senior world title

Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year:

Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia)–became first woman to win 5,000m & 10,000m at same Olympics

Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia)–created her 24th world record in Beijing to win the pole vault gold medal

Lorena Ochoa (Mexico)–won seven tournaments in 2008, was almost $1m ahead on money list

Stephanie Rice (Australia)–won three swimming gold medals in Beijing; set 5 world records in 2008

Lindsey Vonn (US)–won Alpine World Cup title, also World Cup discipline leader in downhill

Venus Williams (US)–won her 5th Wimbledon title in 2008, also won Olympic doubles gold medal

World Breakthrough of the Year:

Rebecca Adlington (UK)-19, unknown at the start of the year, won Olympic 400m & 800m freestyle

Novak Djokovic (Serbia)–21, won his first Grand Slam tennis title at the Australian Open and rose to number 3 in the world rankings

Ana Ivanovic (Serbia)–20, won first Grand Slam at French Open, was tennis World No.1 for 9 weeks

Anthony Kim (US)-23,won two PGA Tour events and was a member of the winning US Ryder Cup team

Sebastian Vettel (Germany)–youngest ever F1 Grand Prix winner (21 yrs, 73 days)

Zou Kai (China)-won three gymnastic gold medals in Beijing on his Olympic debut

Who do you think should/will win?

More info at Great Tennis Photos

Swimmers seem pretty good at staying out of the limelight when on the consuming a drop. With swimming legends like Kieren Perkins saying that swimming has a “binge drinking culture“. But for such a ‘drinking culture’, there is not many incidents that have been publicly discussed when it comes to intoxicated swimmers. Of course this does not include Nick D’Arcy, who not surprisingly has a post dedicated to himself.

Why does this sport not have as much press related drunken incidents? Potentially its not as big and popular as its other sports, or many these athletes behave themselves better when drinking.

The only two real bits of controversy is Eamon Sullivan short changing a cabbie on the way home and Stephanie Rice’s raunchy photos drinking and partying at a fancy dress event. My grandparents generally do more controversial things at the local bowls club so really these stories are nothing compared to bad boy D’Arcy but I’ll include them anyway for your viewing pleasure.

First Eamons night courtesy of the ABC

“Swimming Australia says Olympic medallist Eamon Sullivan could be fined for an alcohol-related incident on Wednesday night. A taxi driver complained to police that Sullivan had short-changed him after he had dropped the swimmer home. Sullivan says he was drunk and has made a public apology. Swimming Australia officials will meet Sullivan early next week, and he could be fined part or all of the $5,000 he won at this week’s skins meet in Sydney.

Channel Seven reported the swimming star left the driver short of his $10 fare after being driven home from a pub crawl at Kings Cross on Wednesday night. After realising he did not have the money to pay the fare, the world’s fastest swimmer spent more than 15 minutes rummaging through his Sydney house for extra cash. The 23-year-old returned to the waiting driver with only a few dollars and the cabbie went and complained to police. Officers knocked on Sullivan’s door just after midnight but he was asleep and flatmate and training partner Matthew Abood stepped in and handed the driver $20.

Sullivan publicly apologised to the driver for the incident on Thursday. “It is just one of those rare times that we get to relax and have a drink and I realised I had had a few too many drinks and decided to catch a taxi home by myself,” he said.”I feel a bit disappointed and obviously embarrassed obviously of the misunderstanding and I just hope that he can accept my apology.” Sullivan’s night out came after the Australian swim team broke camp following last week’s world championships trials in Sydney.”

And here’s one of Steph’s explicit photos

As I said before, both stories are very boring and probably not news worthy. So in examining drinking and swimming it is apparent that they do mix and that the sport (bar young D’Arcy) has been very successful in controlling the athletes when they drink.

So Michael Phelps is in hot water again as this time he’s caught on camera hitting a bong. Everybody says that he’s embarrasing himself, I say “to who”. The guy is a swimmer, I mean come on. So he’s good, and he wins medals in the Olympics, that’s great, but do I really care about what the guy does on his own time? Not really. Then there are those that say “well he’s a role model and has to be perfect” yeah that may be, but he’s not a machine, he’s  just a a human kid. He’s going to live, and make mistakes, and kiss girls, and drink, and smoke, and have sex and gamble. That’s what we do!

Of course his publicist will make statements for him like, “I’m sorry, my bad, won’t happen again” but come on we all know he was probably thinking more like, damn they caught me slippin. If your famous, rich, popular there is no way you can have a normal life which means zero privacy. Your always going to have your life on display, and this dude knows that. So should he have been more careful, yeah sure probably, but he was at a college campus party, like this isn’t normal or what?

So chances are he’s going to lose a few sponsors but he’s the bad guy for being normal and making personal choices that are considered wrong by other peoples standards who don’t matter since they don’t pay his bills but life goes on. At least it wasn’t a drug like crack or heroin. It’s just a normal plant that comes from a seed and grown in the ground, good think he’s only tested during competitions. It’s his biggest news yet since his latest nite out with Aussie Swimmer Stephanie Rice shown below. If I ever make it to Brisbane you know where to find me.

she says she’s proud of how she looks and doesn’t mind showing it off, yet is always considered a bad olympian role model because she’s good looking. What do you want America? geeze. Would you rather her try to look less attractive? is that the ultimate goal here or what, the paparazzi just needs to stay out of everybodies lives, that’s not news!!

Ce am învăţat din 2008? Ce sper de la 2009?

În 2008 am rămas cu multe nume. Şi mai multe promisiuni. O idee m-a marcat.

Mai degrebă un fel de a gândi sănătos într-o lume care nu mai are răbdare. Echipajul de 8+1 al României tocmai luase medalia de bronz  la Beijing. Toată lumea aştepta aurul. Chiar şi “fetele”, dintre care 5 sunt femei trecute de 30 de ani. “Ne cerem scuze! Trebuia să luăm aurul.” Nu s-au bucurat pentru un bronz. Într-o lume a sportului românesc unde toţi se bat să iasă în faţă, 9 femei îşi cer scuze în faţa cuiva că nu au fost cele mai bune.  Asta vreau eu să ţin minte din 2008.
Li Xiaopen, Venus Williams, Angelo Taylor, Stephanie Rice, Usain Bolt,  Yang Wei, Kenenisa Bekele, Ian Crocker, Ryan Lochte, Grant Hackett, Natalie Coughlin, Giovanna Trillini, Dara Torres.
Vedete din tânara generaţie. Una şi una. Şi ei au făcut istorie la Beijing. Toţi au cîte 3 sau 4 medalii de aur la Olimpiadele la care au participat. Dar acolo în China a fost o româncă ce a ajuns la 5 medalii de aur la Olimpiade.  Georgeta Andrunache, fostă Damian, o botoşăneancă de 32 de ani le-a egalat pe Nadia Comăneci ş Elisabeta Lipă la medaliile de aur luate la Olimpiadă. Şi cum sunteţi toţi iubitori de sport ca şi mine. Vă întreb: Ştiţi cum arată femeia asta?
Poate o ştiu din vedere băieţii cu şalupele de pe Herăstrău.  Ăia care fac valuri doar aşa la mişto să le răstoarne barca la antrenamente.
Aşa că în 2009 îmi propun să nu o cunosc pe Geta Andrunache. Cât timp nu o văd la TV zilnic o să ştiu că sportul românesc mai trăieşte. Nu prin infrastructură, ci prin ultimele urme de bun simţ.

Echipajul României de 8+1 la Beijing:
Constanţa Burcică
Viorica Susanu
Rodica Şerban
Beniko Barabas
Simona Muşat
Ioana Papuc
Georgeta Andrunache
Doina Ignat
Elena Georgescu

Hackett,

Swimming sensaion Stephanie Rice reportedly has plans to spend the New Year Eve partying with Paris Hilton. Rice is believed to have accepted an invitation to attend the celebrity party where the hotel heirness will appear at Kings Cross nightspot Trademark, reports the Daily Telegraph. Rice, who this month stripped down to shoot her latest campaign for Davenport underwear, girlfriends, fellow swimmers Megan Nay and Bronte Barrett. It looks like Hollywood’s partying sisters Paris and Nicky Hilton have found their match in Rice on the party circuit.

Stephanie Rice

Amanda Beard

4 cô gái Đức cũgn máu luôn – Những vận động viên Đức đồng ý khoe mình trên tạp chí Playboy (ấn bản tiếng Đức) số ra tháng 9/2008 là Katharina Scholz – đội hockey, Petra Niemann – đội đua thuyền kayak, Nicole Reinhardt – đội canoeing và Romy Tarangul – đội judo.

]]> http://noitisnt.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/my-favourite-athletes-part-2/ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:20:56 +0000 noitisnt http://noitisnt.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/my-favourite-athletes-part-2/

Eversince my first part, here, I’ve been getting more hits steadily, and it accounts for over half of my views. And why not? I’m sure everyone enjoys a little Allison Stokke in their life.

I know I do.

But that’s not what we’re here for today. This time, I’ve come to honor some of my other favourite athletes, of the girl-ular variety.

Stephanie Rice

Born in June 17, 1988, she currently holds the world record for 200m and 400m individual medley, winning 3 golds at t

he Beijing Olympics. She was born in Brisbane, Australia. I don’t know about you, but I find the Aussie accent just tantalizing.

Recently, her facebook account had pictures deemed too raunchy for Swimming Australia, so she had to take them off…though not before getting over 1.7 million hits. And I wouldn’t blame all 1.7 million, as the pictures showed her in a questionable police uniform.

Of course, the pictures were taken off and replaced with more wholesome pictures of her modeling in her swimsuit.

Ellen Hoog

Ellen winning gold at the Olympics with her less attractive friend

I certainly love the foreign girls. Ellen Hoog, born March 26, 1986 in Bloemendaal (Netherlands), is a member of the Dutch field hockey team. She was part of the Dutch squad that became World Champion at the 2006 Women’s Hockey World Cup. As well she won the 2008 Olympics with the Dutch team.

Not only is she talented in field hockey, a sport that I suddenly now have interest in, she has also starred in the movie “Goud”. The movie is a documentary that will absolutely teach you nothing what-so-ever about hockey, but will entertain you nonetheless.

Lolo Jones

Lori Jones, also known as Lolo Jones, was born August 5, 1982. She went through a tough childhood. She went to eight schools in eight years while her single mother, Lori, often held down two jobs to support her family of six. In 3rd grade, her family settled in the basement of a Des Moines church. There was a camp at the church in the summer and Lolo would wake up early to avoid being teased by other kids if they found out she was living in the basement.

When her family wanted to move to Forest City, she begged her mom not to go somewhere without track and field, telling her that she wanted to pursue her dream. And pursue her dream was exactly what she did. She won three NCAA titles gaining 11 All-American honors while at LSU. She also won an indoor national titles in 2007 and 2008 in the 60m hurdles. Lolo also won her first world championship in 2008 in 60 m hurdles.

It was heartbreaking in the Beijing Olympics. She was expected to win the 100m hurdles, but clipped the 9th hurdle, losing her first place position, coming in at 7th. She fell to the floor crying, mouthing “why?why?” I felt her pain when I watched. Despite all her hard work, she ended up in a crushing defeat. Not only is she beautiful, but she is also a determined person, overcoming many obstacles.

I have a teacher-friend who recently shared the following joke with some of his female students:

Q. Why did the Irishman wear two condoms?

A. To be sure, to be sure. 

He might have gotten away with it except that he happened to be working as a teacher at a Catholic Girls’ school. Need I say anything more than “Ouch!”? And no, there’s no point asking what he was thinking because it’s safe to assume he wasn’t thinking anything at all. Except, perhaps, “How can I ensure 100% that they won’t renew my contract?”. 

Humour is a tricksy medium and it can go so wrong so easily. Many a time, I’ve cracked a joke and had it fall flatter than the flattest thing possible (even flatter than my mood after a four hour stint in an indoor playcentre) because I’ve misjudged my audience. I personally maintain that my post-vasectomy jokes are amongst my funniest material but apparently there’s about 50% of the population who don’t (see “The Snip Snipe“). One of my uni friends got up at his housemate’s 21st birthday party and told an oh-so-amusing anecdote about her having loud sex with her boyfriend. Which he might have carried off had her octogenarian grandmother not been sitting in the front row with a face like thunder – and the rest of the audience knew it. Let’s face it: it’s hard to laugh uproariously when you’re afraid of being bashed on the bonce by a zimmer frame. 

The strange thing about the internet is that you’re never sure who exactly your audience is so you end up writing for the void. And since some of my audience stumble across my blog by the strangest of routes (see “Best Boy“) they themselves don’t really know which show they’ve come to see. I particularly enjoyed the visit the other day from the lady who came to my blog via the search terms “I piss on my husband” – whether that was “from a great height” or “to get my husband horny”, I’ll never know – it may even have been both. But I was sure glad she paid me a visit because it really made my day. It made me think of when Australia’s own Swimming Sensation™ Stephanie Rice won gold at Beijing and the mainstream media were touting her as “Golden Rice”. If only, I said at the time, her name was Stephanie Shower. If only…

But I digress. My husband very rarely laughs at my jokes in person (when he does it’s a sound more surprising than an unprompted “please” from The Pixie’s mouth) but he sometimes gets a chuckle or two from my blog (or so he claims). He’s a tough crowd – but I forgive him, only because his early forays into comedy were stunted by his father, who told him rather sternly “I tell the jokes around here”.

Luckily for our kids, he hasn’t taken that same fierce line with them and we both encourage and enjoy the comic material they’ve been working on around the dinner table. Mostly, they involve variations on the “Knock Knock” and “Why did the [blank] cross the road?” joke – those cornerstones of Western comedy. Usually their jokes are fairly harmless, but occasionally they get seriously weird-arse. I’ll wrap this post up with a joke from the “extreme enthusiasm and creativity” of six year old Mr Justice, who likes to have the last word on most subjects:

Mr Justice: Why did the concrete go up onto the fence?

Me: I don’t know. Why did the concrete go up onto the fence?

Mr Justice: So he could show his butt.

(Baffled silence)

Mr Justice: His butt is short for button.

Me: (forced laughter) That’s a strange joke.

Mr Justice: No, it’s funny. Jokes are meant to be funny. Not strange.

I think there’s a lesson in that for all of us.