… Nearly-simultaneously with losing one of their Intensive Training Center coaches (Ben Titley from Loughborough), British Swimming will see one return to the deck. Sean Kelly, the head coach of the ITC in Stockport, returned to practice on Wednesday morning. Kiley, who was the coach of Britain’s open water star Keri-Anne Payne among others, was hospitalized in February with what has been described as a very serious illness. Not much information has come out about what kept him off deck for more than half-a-year (including both British Trials and the Olympic Games), but whatever it was dragged out much longer than expected; initial indications were to put him back “well before the Olympic Games.”…
…Fred Bousquet, in the midst of a move back to his native France with partner Laure Manaudou, is making a stop in Miami along with Matt Targett. The pair are training with Aaron Ciarla to compete for their respective teams at the upcoming Fast Lane meet in Brazil (Bousquet for France, Targett for Australia). The two will face off head-to-head at the meet as the former Auburn teammates are both swimming as the butterfly entry for their countries. They are familiar with Ciarla from their time with the Tigers, where Ciarla is a former assistant. Combined with the recent move of Olympic finalist Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, there’s going to be a whole lot of speed down in the Sunshine State for the next few week or so…
…The secret is out: after weeks of rumors, it has been confirmed that Australian superstar Alicia Coutts has gotten secretly engaged to longtime boyfriend Steve Hardy. Hardy is a teacher from Canberra, and the couple met while Coutts was training at the Canberra-based Australian Institute of Sport. Coutts was the most successful of the Australian swimmers at the London Olympics, where she won 5 medals. That includes a gold as a part of the 400 free relay early in the meet…
…Along the same vein of happy family news, 2000 Olympic platform gold medalist Laura Wilkinson and husband Eriek Hulseman have been approved for adoption of their second child. The couple welcomed their first child, Arella Joy, in May of 2011 after adopting her from China. That makes her just older than number two, Zoe, who is 10 months old. Before David Boudia won a gold medal on the platform in London, Wilkinson’s shock-the-world gold medal was the last Olympic diving champion for the Americans…
And for the easily amused, Ricky Berens needed a Buzzword Bingo car to get through the USAS House of Delegates meeting:
http://www.whosay.com/rickyberens/photos/225376
Breaking news! Federica Pellegrini wants Philippe Lucas to train her until 2016. But she wants to stay in Italy. And Clément Lefert retires. It’s a bad news for the french freestyle relays.
Don’t have much faith in Fed anymore, the world’s moved on and I doubt that even under Lucas she will be able to move up to the likes of Muffat and Schmitt
As for Lefert… totally did not see that coming, and is definitely a real shame for France. Lefert was outstanding at the Olympics this year and this means France really needs some youngsters to take the place of the old guard. Fabien Gilot is old, Leveaux might have a few swims left in him but probably not for Rio, Bernard is off the radar, Bousquet is already old… With Florent Manadou seemingly only a 50 guy Agnel really needs some new teammates to fill in the gap. … Read more »
Just checked, thank god for Stravius being 24 still 😀
Agree with you about Federica Pellegrini. She’s a champion but even if she comes back to her best the world has much improved. In the 200 free Allison Schmitt and Camille Muffat are ahead now and in the 400 free Katie Ledecky will be very tough to beat.
About french swimmers on the men’s side and especially freestyle because almost only freestyle works in France, I have recently written France would probably win the 2 freestyle relays next year in Barcelona. Now I’m less sure for the 4X200 free.
Alain Bernard has retired. Clément Lefert retires. Fabien Gilot wants to continue and perhaps to train in Netherlands or in USA. Amaury Leveaux, if he’s serious on his training which isn’t sure, can swim under 48 in the 100 free. William Meynard will be back next year after disappointing french trials like Jérémy Stravius. And of course Yannick Agnel will be the chief of all this squad. I see him around 47.00 in the 100 free next year.… Read more »