Streamlined News: April 19, 2012


PHOENIX, Arizona, April 19. DAY three of the Russian Olympic Trials produced some fast times that will put some Russians in medal contention at the Olympics. Anastasia Zueva posted the fastest 200 backstroke in the world today with a 2:06.59, just barely surpassing the 2:06.68 Belinda Hocking swam at the Australian trials. Zueva is mostly known as a sprint backstroker, so we will be watching her 100 backstroke closely later this week.

Yesterday on Streamlined News I mentioned that Danila Izotov won the men's 200 free final in 1:47.9, but actually yesterday's swim was a semifinal. Today, Izotov won the actual 200 free final in a 1:46.56, making him fifth-fastest in the world. The time is about a second faster than Izotov swam at the world championships last summer.

Yulia Efimova was the class of the field in the 100 breast final today with a 1:07.05, a tenth slower than she swam in yesterday's semifinal.

Down in South Africa, the Springboks are gearing up for what could be an epic final of the men's 100 freestyle final. Gideon Louw, a product of Auburn University, swam faster than the Olympic qualifying time with a 48.74. The rest of the final will be packed with big names. Darian Townsend, Graeme Moore and Roland Schoeman have represented South Africa internationally in this event before, and national junior college champion Brad Tandy is coming off a big championship meet recently, though he told us on the Morning Swim Show that he's nursing a shoulder injury that could hamper his performance in tomorrow's final.

Chad Le Clos cruised through the final of the 200 fly today, winning with a 1:56.17, eight tenths slower than he swam in yesterday's semis. Le Clos has the 200 and 100 fly left this week, and could bring his individual event total for London to five.

Yesterday afternoon Arizona swimmer Marcus Titus began a Facebook campaign to alert the community about an injustice he learned of regarding the use of hand signals for deaf swimmers at the Olympic Trials. Titus, who was diagnosed as deaf as a child, learned that hand signals would not be used at Trials for deaf swimmers, but this morning, Swimming World got confirmation from USA Swimming that hand signals will be used at Trials. Hand signals for deaf swimmers are very important. They give the swimmer the indication to step up to the blocks, and also gives the “take your mark” command. The swimmer starts the race with the flash of the starter's strobe either at the side of the pool or next to the lane. Titus has often experienced difficulty with this, including the 2010 nationals and here in this video at the 2011 Missouri Grand Prix, when the starter did not give the “take your mark” hand signal, and thus Titus, in the lane closest to us, was left on the block as the rest of the field dove in. Currently, Titus is the only swimmer we know of that will need this accommodation at Olympic Trials, but deaf swimmers have been doing well with this hand signal rule for more than 10 years. In 2000, South African Terence Parkin won a silver medal in the 200 breast, the first swimming medal for a swimmer officially diagnosed as deaf. American legend Dave Wharton was technically hard of hearing, but had enough hearing in one ear to hear the starter's commands.

And finally today, we want to thank the College Swimming Coaches Association of America for giving Swimming World the prestigious Ben Franklin Award, which honors CEO Brent Rutemiller and writer Mike Stott for coverage that “promotes the integrity and enhancement of the student-athlete ideal.” The award will be presented at a banquet in May.

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