The Soak – Swim News In Brief: Aurélie Muller Targets 1500 After Missed Marathon Mission – Swimming World Magazine

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Wednesday, January 8

Can Muller Master A Move From Marathon To 1500 For Tokyo 2020?

Aurélie Muller, the French open water ace who made the Marathon podium at Rio 2016 before a controversial disqualification knocked her out of contention, will seek a berth on the French team for Tokyo 2020 in the inaugural Olympic women’s 1500m freestyle.

The French pool trials and Championships at Chartres in April will provide Muller, who switched coaches to Fabrice Pellerin in Nice last year, with a last-chance shot at a ticket to Tokyo after she finished in the worst of all places in the 10km at World Championships last summer.

The top 10 finishers at the World Championships in Korea named themselves as the first 10 marathon qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 but Muller fell one place shy in 11th at the back of a blanket finish, China’s Xin Xin on 1hr 54:47.2 with gold, the French swimmer on 1:54:51.2, 0.01sec ahead of her much-relieved then training partner and Dutch Olympic champion in Rio, Sharon Van Rouwendaal.

Muller might have had another chance of qualifying for Tokyo at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier 2020, scheduled for May 30-31 in Fukuoka, Japan, but for the fourth-place finish of France teammate Lara Grangeon in the World-title race last year. The Olympic marathon qualification only allows for two swimmers per nation if both swimmers make the top 10 at World Championships the year before the Games. Says Muller of her next challenge:

“The time to do at the French championships is 16:21. I have a personal best of 16:24 and in recent years I have not specially and specifically trained for the 1500m. So I tell myself that within a few seconds I can get my qualification.”

Muller, World 10km champion in 2015 and 2017, made the 1500m her goal at the start of her time with Pellerin to “make the year less painful than it would have been if I had continued to swim elsewhere”. She admits that open water will “always be at the back of my mind, but finding pragmatic strategies to get over painful disappointment has been a part of who Muller is.

She tells Le Républicain Lorrain: “It’s not easy to switch from open water basin because it is a different method of swimming.”

Muller – Rio Recollections

Back in 2016 in Rio in the days after silver had turned to the dust of a DQ – one caused less by her being forced to swim in the path of a rival than the layout of a course that had funnelled her into the wall of a giant buoy in the very last strokes of a race and years of preparation – Muller wrote that her “Olympic flame was extinguished that night”.

She added in a social media post at the time: “I could not enjoy the last days of celebration [at the Games]. I fought to the end to try to regain my honour, which was flouted because, more seriously than disqualification and loss of the medal, was just how hard it is to accept that I am considered a cheat or someone who did not uphold fair play at these Olympics. The decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport acknowledges that there are problems related to the decision of the disqualification. They admit that my situation deserved consideration by the Olympic judges. However, judges are not authorized to reverse the arbitration award, they refused to replace the referees (FINA). This is understandable. It’s like that. Injustice is sometimes part of the sport. Of life.”

Muller found perspective by walking in “expensive ‘France’ kit with its pretty tricolor crocodile [Lacoste]” through the ‘favelas’, the impoverished shanty towns of Rio. She wrote:

“This helps to put things into perspective …”

The Sign Over Lane 5 At St Peters Western

Dangling over Lane 5 at St Peters Western pool Down Under is a sign that simply reads “Tokyo 2020”. It was put there after Tokyo 2018 Pan Pacific Championships by coach Dean Boxall and while time, weather and the heat of a scorching southern summer have left the sign worn and tethered, the message remains as relevant as it was the day it went up, as relevant as it ever was on any training day at one of the most iconic swim clubs in Australia and the wider world. Boxall tells Westside News:

“I wanted to have something there to keep it (the Toyko 2020 Olympics goal) going. I put it in the middle of the pool because the middle of the pool is symbolic with the fastest swimmers in the pool. That way everyone could see it all of the time. It is something I really want to highlight. They know the Olympics is coming up.”

St Peters Western is home to Ariarne Titmus, Mitch Larkin, Clyde Lewis, Jack Cartwright, Abbey Harkins, rookies Meg Harris, Mollie O’Callaghan, Ella Ramsay and Jenna Forrester and New Zealand sprinter Michael Pickett, a boarder at St Peters Lutheran College.

Stubblety-Cook Aiming For Best Version Of Himself

Zac Stubblety-Cook is a breaststroke ace on the move with a world-record breaking target to pin his speed to in the shape of fellow Aussie Matt Wilson. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games could see two Australians in the 200m breaststroke final with a shot at the podium. Sydney 2000 was the last Games at which two Aussies made the 200m final, while in Rio 2016, none made it through.

Speaking to the Southern Star, Stubblety-Cook, fourth at World titles last July in Gwangju when Wilson claimed silver after having set a world record in semis, looked forward to his national Olympic trials in June but would that the momment like “another swim meet”. Of late, “I notice myself lifting in sessions,” he added. “I want to be on the team and do my best this year. I am in a good position. I was fourth at the worlds.”

Coached by Vince Raleigh, Stubblety-Cook clocked 2:07.36 to fall 0.63 shy of the podium led by Russian Anton Chupkovand a world record of 2:06.12, Wilson on 2:06.68, former world-record holder Ippei Watanabe, of Japan, on 2:06.73. Says the fourth man home.

“I was happy with that, but I want more. Having that experience (at the worlds) last year fuels me every day. I want to show them the best of me and get the best out of myself. I am moving forward. It is one day at a time. I am enjoying the ride.”

He tells the paper of his first Olympic memory: as a Wellers Hill State School student in 2008, he watched Michael Phelps rocket to a record eight golds. Says Stubblety-Cook: “I did not know I would be a breaststroker, but I was watching the swimming and the atmosphere and the performance of Phelps, even though you did not know the gravity of what he did at the time.”

The moment of the “Ice Doc” cometh

The World Open Water Swimming Association (Wowsa), has recognised the chilly achievements of “Ice Doc” Alexander Fuzeau, a 53-year-old doctor from Rouen. In January last year, he swam the “Ice Mile” in Volendam, the Netherlands in standard suit, cap and goggles – and then on July 28, took part in the Hamburg Ironman (3.8km swim, 180 km bike and a marathon in 14h 48mins). Wowsa award the “Ice Doc” and fifteen other international swimmers a “Performance of the Year” honour, in recognition of his contribution to the growth of “extreme sport”.

Athletics may be on the cusp of its own shiny suit moment

World Athletics is coming under increasing pressure to introduce strict rules on running shoes amid concerns that technological advances by Nike could allow inferior sprinters to break Usain Bolt’s world records, The Times reports today. The newspaper gives the following examples of speed that some say relies too heavily on the shoe not the athlete:

“Nike’s controversial Vaporfly shoe for endurance athletes has had a transformational impact on the times run by the world’s elite long-distance runners — including Eliud Kipchoge, who wore them as he became the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon — and amateurs.

“Laura Muir, Britain’s leading middledistance runner, wore special Nike spikes last year that benefited from similar innovations in shoe design, and industry insiders fear that prototype Nike spikes developed specifically for sprinters could allow athletes such as Christian Coleman, the 100m world champion, to beat Bolt’s best of 9.58sec at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.”

The article in full

British Swimming welcomes official breakfast partner

British Swimming has announced UP&GO as its first official breakfast partner.

UP&GO is a milk and oat-based drink high in protein, calcium and fibre and fortified with vitamins and minerals and is the fastest-growing major breakfast drinks brand in the UK.

The partnership will also work closely with 2008 double Olympic champion Becky Adlington’s SwimStars, a learn-to-swim programme for children aged 3-11.

Twelve thousand children across Great Britain are involved each week and with the backing of UP&GO there are plans for to increase that number over the next three years.

French Multi-Sport Masters Games

Between 5,000 and 10,000 athletes are expected to race at the first multi-sport French Masters Games, to be held from October 1-4 in the French spa town of Vichy. The competition is being organized by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (the French NOC) and will be open to athletes of all levels, ages 35 or older. Swimming is among the six disciplines chosen for the first event.

French NOC boss Denis Masseglia, was in Vichy this week for the first Masters Games organisation meeting. He told the French media that the format is not new: it will follow that of the the World Masters Games, which will be held in Kansai, Japan, in 2021, with about 50,000 athletes expected.

Canadian Masters in May

The 2020 Canadian Masters Swimming Championships will be held
May 22-24 at the Etobicoke Olympium Masters Aquatic Club, Toronto, Ontario.

• Keep up with the meet news on Facebook
• More information and tickets at Swimming Canada

Tuesday, January 7

Anderson, Guy and Koch among entries for Flanders Cup

Olympic year gets under way at the Flanders Cup with Freya Anderson, James Guy, Marco Koch and Konrad Czerniak among the field in Antwerp on 18-19 January.

Anderson heads the 100m and 200m free fields and is second into the 50 behind Kim Busch, who was part of the Netherlands 4x100m free quartet that won 2017 world bronze.

The 18-year-old, who trains under Alan Bircher at Ellesmere College Titans, delivered a golden double plus two relay bronze medals at the European Short-Course Championships last month in Glasgow with a fourth place in the 400 free that hints at a very special 200m to come.

Guy, with two Olympic and eight world medals among his silverware, will compete in the 200m freestyle – in which he was world champion in 2015 – plus the 100m butterfly and 100m free.

Of note in the 100m free is the appearance of Guy’s fellow Briton Jacob Whittle who became the first 14-year-old to crack the 50-second barrier when he blasted 49.97 at the European Junior Championships and the European Youth Olympic Festival.

Koch recently announced he is now training under former Germany head coach Dirk Lange and the 2015 200m breaststroke world will go in the 100 and 200m.

He will face competition in both races in the form of Giedrius Titenis, the 200m breaststroke 2014 and 2016 European bronze medallist, and his Lithuanian compatriot Andrius Sidlauskas, who reached the world 100m semi-finals last year in Gwangju, South Korea.

Also competing will be Darragh Greene, of Ireland, who missed making the semi-final cut by 0.07secs behind Sidlauskas.

Jesse Puts, 2016 world short-course champion, heads the 50m freestyle field which also features Czerniak, best known as a butterfly specialist but who won silver in the splash and dash at the 2014 European Championships, and Whittle.

Mie Nielsen, who led off Denmark’s bronze-medal winning 4x100m medley relay at the Rio Olympics, and world 400IM finalist Arjan Knipping of the Netherlands also compete.

Yannick Agnel Back For Olympic Duty With Flo-Mo

France Television has signed up Yannick Agnel, the Olympic 200m freestyle champion and deliverer of French gold in the 4x100m freestyle at London 2012, as expert commentator for its Tokyo 2020 swimming broadcast team alongside Alexandre Boyon.

Agnel made a fine debut for France TV Sport at the World Championships in Gwangju last year. His place in Olympic history was immortalised by his towering and dominant 200m victory at London 2012, his 1:43.14 still the swiftest ever effort in textile by a significant margin over the two giants below him on that list: 1:43.86, Michael Phelps; 1:44.06 Ian Thorpe. At the time, Agnel’s 46.74 split bringing France home to gold in the 4x100m free at London 2012 was the second-fastest ever split in textile after a 46.70 from Pieter Van Den Hoogenband in 2003.

Still 27, Agnel might still be racing but … he had no wish to do so. After some turbulent changes, including leaving long-term coach Fabrice Pellerin for a spree in the USA with coach Bob Bowman, Agnel was back in hopeful form for the French trials in Montpellier for the Rio 2016 Olympics. He appeared to finish second in the 200m freestyle to Jérémy Stravius but the pad did not register and Jordan Pothain was declared second man home and on to the team for Rio.

Agnel’s path to defending his Olympic 200m freestyle title was cleared by Pothain’s decision to swim the 400m freestyle and not the 200m freestyle. However, in Rio, Agnel did not make it past heats of the 200m, while the France 4x100m free relay fell well shy of previous form. In 2018, Agnel was back at the helm of a sport: eSport, as sports director of a Marseille club.

France TV, meanwhile, will include a podcast “Entre-deux” in its Tokyo 2020 coverage. Leading athletes will talk about their career – and the first guest is sprint ace and London 2012 50m free champion and comeback king of 2019, Florent Manaudou.

• For those who read French, here’s where to find the novel “Yann” based on Agnel’s adolescence, penned by the swimmer with Pascal Ruter.

Mehdy Metella Operation A Success

Sticking with France, L’Equipe reports that the shoulder operation that will keep Mehdy Metella out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was a success. Metella had suffered a partial rotator-cuff tear. He is expected to be in rehabilitation for between 4 and 6 months ahead of a steady return to elite training.

At last summer’s World Championships in Gwangju, Metella finished fifth in the 100 butterfly, missing the podium by .22. He was also a semifinalist in the 100 freestyle and a member of France’s eighth-place team in the 400 freestyle relay. Metella was the bronze medalist in the 100 freestyle at the 2017 World Championships and twice medaled in the 100 fly at the European Championships. He was also a European Champs medalist in the 100 freestyle. In relay duty, Metella has helped France to three medals at the World Championships.

In his social media post, Metella made it clear that his shoulder surgery would not deter his career. The Frenchman emphasized that he was seeking to return for a successful 2021 season, in which the World Championships will be the target meet of the year.

Swim England’s Value of Swimming: measured in money & social care impact

Swim England commissioned what it describes as “robust research to demonstrate the value of swimming to individuals and to society”. The findings “show clearly how swimming positively contributes to physical and mental wellbeing, to individual and community development, and helps to reduce the burden to our health and social care system”, says Swim England. Swimming therapy for dementia sufferers saves the health system £139 million a year, Swim England head Jane Nickerson claims. Here’s what the research was about and what it found as part of the association’s “Value of Swimming” campaign:

German Aces Koch and Heintz Confirmed For Euro Meet

German pair Marco Koch and Philip Heintz will compete at the 22^nd edition of the Euro Meet in Luxembourg from 24-26 January. It will follow swift on the heels of the Flanders Cup for Koch, the 2015 200m breaststroke world champion.

The triple European medallist is unbeaten over 200m breaststroke at the annual meet since making his first appearance at the Centre Aquatique in 2013. Heintz is a 200IM specialist and took silver at the European Championships in Glasgow in 2018 and Berlin in 2014. The event acts as a qualifier for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in July.

No Partying For Etiene Medeiros

Etiene Medeiros, the Brazilian backstroke World 50m champion, went to bed early on December 31, 2019. There’s a job to be done: Tokyo 2020. To get away from the Carnival up-all-night atmosphere at the start of 2020 back home, Medeiros travelled far away: the turn of the year found her at altitude camp in Spain’s Sierra Nevada.

Medeiros outlines her season ahead in the Brazilian media with this summary beyond mention of 2020 starting in 2019 because she was already on high in the Sierra:

“In February have South American in Buenos Aires, and a preparatory competition at a date to be determined. Then, 20 to 25 April, the Maria Lenk, which serves as selections trials for Tokyo. I’m ready, I’ve set it all up with Fernando Vanzella, my coach … [we] planned every detail of another year together. The goal is to arrive in Tokyo in best shape.”

Her schedule at the Maria Lenk may extends beyond the expected 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke: she notes that she has here eye on the 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke (the latter non-Olympic), too.

Lausanne 2020 in Winter Olympic first with gender equal programme

Lausanne 2020 gets under way on Thursday as the first Winter Olympic event to be gender equal. The third Winter Youth Olympic Games will feature the same number of women as men among a total of 1,872 athletes, the largest ever to compete at the event. Switzerland has the largest delegation of the 79 NOCs with 112 athletes followed by Russia (107) and the United States (96) while Albania, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago are among 12 countries making their debuts. The Games will take place from 9-22 January and follow previous editions in Lillehammer, Norway, and Innsbruck, Austria.

British Swimming Signs Nutrition Deal

British Swimming is delighted to confirm it has signed a multi-year partnership with Healthspan, who have come on board as official supplier of Sports Nutrition Products, Sports Drinks and Sports Recovery Products. The Guernsey based company already work with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton FC, Scottish Rugby and The Lawn Tennis Association.

When Boycott is Too Big To Ignore…

The 2022 Commonwealth Games is set to stage shooting and archery in India several months before the main event starts in Birmingham, the host, thousands of miles away in England. The unprecedented proposal has been put forward by India, who had threatened to boycott Birmingham 2022 after shooting was excluded from the Games. India is rather good at shooting… including from the hip. BBC Sport reports the story – and understands the results of the competitions held in India would count towards the official medal tally.

Portugal Has Five Swimmers Past the Post For Tokyo 2020

Portugal has five swimmers qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as 2020 gets underway. They are:

• Men: Gabriel Lopes and Alexis Santos: both on 1:58 over 200IM
• Women: Tamila Holub and Diana Durães, 1,500m free (16.20 and 16.31 respectively) and Ana Catarina Monteiro, 200m butterfly (2.08)
• A surfer has also made the grade for the Games. He is Frederico Morais, the top European at the 2019 World Surfing Championships.

Monday, January 6

Appeal For Bushfire Victims

The Australian Swimming and Teachers Association (ASCTA) has launched a Bushfire Relief appeal for Swim Coaches, Swim Teachers and Swim Schools who have been affected by the Australian bushfires. Some have lost their homes, their pools and employment.

ASCTA Cares is a benevolent fund to support its members.

ASCTA CARES – DONATE HERE

Queensland’s 2032 Olympic Bid

It’s been a horrid time Down Under but the catastrophic bushfires have not dented Australia’s passion for Olympic sport, including support for Queensland‘s desire to host the Olympic Games in 2032.

All eyes are on the fires, the fallout and the continuing evacuation (such as that involving the community where the McKeon swim family have a home) and the generosity of sports stars and others at home and around the world, including acts of kindness from the swimming community sharing the shock of what has unfolded, with more challenge to come. Today, Federica Pellegrini took to social media to appeal for all to work to change the course of history.

Games business goes on regardless. Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) boss John Coates arrived in Switzerland today to officially notify his International Olympic Committee colleagues that a Queensland bid is being drafted. He told the Courier Mail  that he wants formal documentation submitted by June 30 ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games in July.

Coates has the backing of a powerful athletes’ lobby, including some proposed as members of a “Team Queensland” board to include politicians and business leaders. A new public company for the bid team still needs to be established, but its first meeting is planned for early next month with Prime Minister Scott Morrison as chairman at a time when the nation’s top politician has come under fire over his handling of the bushfires crisis.

Among athletes invited to the party are swimming Olympic gold medallists Susie O’Neill and Cate Campbell and Mark Stockwell, who represented Australia in swimming at the 1984 Olympics and is now a Brisbane-based investor and property developer. Stockwell’s wife is Tracy Caulkins, an Olympic champion for the USA and one of the most versatile swimmers in history. Stockwell served as the 2018 Commonwealth Games Bid Committee Chairman. You can hear him talk about his new Life Journey in an ABC interview back in 2011.

Queensland is the most advanced of all potential candidates for a 2032 bid process expected to include campaigns from Indonesia, a multi-city bid from regional Germany, India and China. Russia, which was planning to make a bid for St. Petersburg, cannot now take part because it has been banned from bidding to host any major sporting events in the next four years as part of sanctions handed down by the World Anti Doping Authority last month. That time frame rules Russia out of being able to bid for events to be decided up to eight years beyond the end of the suspension period.

Two more Israeli swimmers earn Tokyo spots

Two swimmers joined the Israeli Olympic swim team during the weekend, reaching automatic qualifying standards for the 2020 games.

Tomer Frenkel, 19, earned a spot in the 100 butterfly (51.92), while Ron Polonsky, 18, earned a spot in the 200 IM (1:59.45). Both times were achieved at the Swim Cup Amsterdam.

The Israeli team now includes: Meiron Cheruti (50 free), who won the event in Amsterdam with 22.08, Anastasia Gorebenko (200 IM), Frenkel (100 fly) and Polonsky (200 IM.).

They will be joined by two more swimmers — one man and one woman — to form the Israeli mixed relay.

Sun The Singer

Sun Yang, the Chinese Olympic champion awaiting Sun Yang Vs World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA): A Detailed Analysis From CAS Arbitrator made a guest appearance as a singer at a New Year’s party at which he cheered fans with “The Swimming Song“:

Fanny Lecluyse: 3rd Games at Tokyo 2020 To Be Fun, Pressure a Thing of The Past

Belgium has three swimmers who have qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games so far. They include Rio 2016 surprise silver medallist in the 100m free Pieter Timmers (with a 48.32 clocking in the build up to the Games next year), 200 ‘fly ace Louis Croenen (on 1.56.35) and Fanny Lecluyse, the national breaststroke record holder who last year took out the Belgian 100 and 200m breaststroke records and (1.06.97 and 2.24.97) and is heading for her third Games with a new attitude.

Lecluyse tells L’Avenir that Tokyo is about “having fun” and shrugging off the pressure to perform she felt at her first two Olympic Games, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Now 28, Lecluyse, whose partner is elite cyclist Victor Campenaerts, says that every major event was followed by a fear that she would lose her motivation to get back to work in the pool. Her coach Horatiu Droc begged to differ early on. Back in 2012 he told Belgian media that such things were part of the journey, saying: “Fanny is a swimmer who will last.” How right he was. At the World Championships in Gwangju last year, she cracked her own national 100m and 200m records with efforts of 1:06.97 and 2:23.76 in semi-finals. Her 100m time led her to a swim-off for the last place in the final but 9th was where it ended, while she finished 7th in the 200m final. Lecluyse currently holds nine national records, including all breaststroke marks, short- and long-course and the 200m medley (l/c) and 400m medley (s/c) standards.

You can catch up with Lecluyse on her YouTube channel here:

Petter Løvberg To Lead Norway Beyond Tokyo 2020 To Paris 2024

Petter Løvberg is to stay in the role of Head Coach to Norway until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Løvberg will lead both able-bodied and para-swimming programs.

Through the Norwegian federation, Løvberg said: “We have a young and exciting national team that is developing rapidly. I feel highly motivated to embark on four new years and contribute to developing Norwegian swimming ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris 2024. In addition to an amazing national team, I look forward to continuing to work with very talented colleagues.”

King of Butterfly Train Takes Flight in Moscow

The Moscow Metro Circle Line has a new train dedicated to swimming: the King of Butterfly. Dmitry Volkov, one of the keenest rivals of the last British Olympic breaststroke champion before Adam Peaty, Adrian Moorhouse, and other ace sprinters in his day as an elite racer, served a project leader for the swim train. Speaking through the Russian swim federation, Volkov : “Our train is a time and space machine in which passengers of the Moscow Metro will be able to plunge into a world where harmony and beauty rule, touch the history of the exploits of our famous swimmer ancestors, swim beyond the horizon of everyday life and visit different parts of the world.”

Julia Temnikova, deputy head of the Moscow Metro, explained: “The King of Butterfly train is the first Moscow metro train dedicated to swimming. It will run on the Koltsevaya Line for six months and will transport about three million passengers who can learn more about the tradition of sports swimming in Russia and abroad.”

A ceremony to launch the train was attended by Vladimir Salnikov, president of the Russian swim federation and Olympic backstroke medallists Anastasia Fesikova (nee Zueva) and her husband and fellow Russian team member Sergei Fesikov.

12 USA Officials Selected For Tokyo 2020 Duty

United States Aquatic Sports (USAS), the body the combines the national federations for all aquatic sports disciplines in the country, has announced the names of the 12 officials selected by FINA from its specialist committees for duty at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. They are:

• Diving: Colleen Huffman  (Ann Arbor, Michigan), Julie Ahlering  (Saint Louis, Missouri)
• Open Water: Sid Cassidy  (Boca Raton, Florida); Matt Wilson  (Fishers, Indiana)
• Swimming: Dale Neuburger  (Indianapolis, Indiana); Carol Zaleski  (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
• Synchro: Virginia Jasontek  (Loveland, Ohio); Betty Hazle  (Santa Clara, California), Denice Wepasnick  (Daytona Beach, Florida), Amy Hoppenrath  (Phoenix, Arizona)
• Water Polo: Takeshi Inoue  (Huntington Beach, California); Michael Goldenberg  (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

Bill Smith, President, of USAS, said: “This is a significant honor for each of the individuals and for the National Governing Body that they represent.  Their dedication and experience is without parallel. l am pleased that we have so many people involved in the integral preparations for and in the successful conduct of each aquatic discipline at the 2020 Olympic Games.”

Brazil Has More Women Than Men Qualified for Tokyo 2020 – So Far

According to the Folha de São Paulo, Brazilian sport has more women than men qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: the count marks a gender watershed in the country’s Olympic campaigns, with 80 women across the qualification line, compared to 65 men. Most of that is down to team sports, while the men dominate the numbers yet in swimming.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian Government has announced an investment of $84.2 million Reais (currency Real), or about $21m in the Athlete Purse for 2020. Athletics gets the lion’s share in terms of the numbers of athletes benefiting from the money, at 862, swimming next in line at 483.

Why Being Sent To Coventry Might Be Quite Nice

The saying “sent to Coventry” will soon take on on a more positive spin for visitors to the city as well as those already there. The Coventry Telegraph reports that while the new and long-awaited 50-metre pool at the Alan Higgs Centre in the English city was set to open in 2019, the wait for works to end will be worth it beyond talks between the facility’s operator CV Life and contractors that it remains “in discussions with” over undisclosed reasons for delays to the project.

Along with the new pool, a large “health suite” is set to open this year, including sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi complex, while the centre’s new 100-plus station gym opened its doors just before Christmas last month. It includes an indoor cycle room, while the pool and health suite will operate alongside new and neighbouring indoor and outdoor 3G football pitches and existing four-court sports hall. The Coventry Telegraph estimates that it costs £13.5 million to updating the gym and fitness suite along with the health suite, re-locating the 3G indoor pitch and building the pool, the budget includes investment from Coventry City Council and Sport England.

Tom Derbyshire Calls Time On Elite Career

Tom Derbyshire, the British distance swimmer and former European Junior 1500m free champion (2016) announced his retirement from racing on January 2 in a tweet in which the University of Bath swimmer highlighted his mental health:

“It has been the hardest decision of my life but I have decided to bring my swimming career to an end. After a difficult few months, I have decided to focus on myself and on improving my own mental health as I search for new challenges and move on in life.”

All change at City of Derby

Kyle Hudson is to be head coach at the City of Derby Swim Club in England. He moves into the role from Derventio Excel, where he helped develop a regional squad. Mel Marshall, mentor to Adam Peaty, was the guiding light to City of Derby swim club in England, for the years leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A shift for Britain’s top 2 coach-swimmer partnership to Loughborough meant changes at Derby too. Those changes gathered pace late last year when Mandy Bell announced she was leaving Derby to be head coach at Stockport Metro.

China and Uruguay – Athletic Partners

The Global Times of China reports that the country has a new sports partner: Uruguay. The two nations have only had diplomatic exchanges since 1988 but now a strategic partnership agreed between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez in 2016 is about to be extended to sport.

“As a soccer powerhouse, Uruguay has a lot of know-how that China can learn from. They recently established a second Uruguayan soccer base in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province (the first one is in Tangshan, North China’s Hebei Province) during Caceres’ visit. The base aims to train China’s future soccer talents and enhance China’s level in this field, the GT reports Uruguayan Sports Secretary Fernando Caceres tells the paper that while soccer takes up the oxygen in the room, China may yet help his country in sports such as swimming, which has no world-class elite swimmers. Uruguayan octogenarian Julio Maglione is in his third term as FINA president having served as treasurer before that and a Bureau member stretching back 35 years. Says Caceres:

“The relationship between Uruguay and China in terms of sports is a bit uneven at the moment, because four out of five Uruguayan athletes choose soccer in Uruguay. Even though we have 65 federations of sports, most of them chose to go for soccer. So Uruguay is strong in soccer but is lacking in other sports disciplines. China is really strong because it has been able to diversify its fields of sports, such as table tennis, gymnastics and swimming.”