Streamlined News: Jan. 31, 2012

PHOENIX, Arizona, January 31. THIS is Streamlined News for January 31, 2012 presented by Swimoutlet.com The Web's most popular swim shop.

Germany is in the news today, according to friend of the show Craig Lord of SwimNews. In an article posted yesterday, Craig explained that a Dr. Andreas Franke is currently under investigation for conducting what has been termed as "blood washing." This is serious cause for concern for all professional and Olympic athletes.

A top-tier manager in the cycling world, Iwan Spekenbrink told Cycling News that Franke has performed a blood transfusion treatment during which the doctor treats an athlete's blood with UV light to eliminate infections and other illnesses, and then reinjects that "washed" blood back into the athlete.

Overall, Germany's national anti-doping agency has stated that it will investigate 28 athletes to see whether they underwent this procedure. Local media has already stated that names being investigated include former Olympic speedskating champion Claudia Pechstein, former 800-meter Olympic champion Nils Schumann, rising German cycling competitor Marcel Kittel and Jamaican long jumper James Beckford.

Claudia Pechstein has been the center of the storm surrounding a blood passport system for monitoring athletes. The nine-time Olympic medallist, and five-time Olympic gold medallist in speed skating was cleared of charges surround abnormalities in her blood values. This new revelation will certainly bring her back into the limelight.

In some more heart-warming news back in the States, Olympians Kosuke Kitajima, Markus Rogan and world record holder Jessica Hardy joined Trojan Swim Club coach Dave Salo this weekend for a fund-raiser put on by Zenith Aquatic Program in Los Angeles. ZAP Swimming held a fund-raiser to put together a donation for Sendai, Japan, which is still ravaged from the tsunami that occurred last year.

The event took place at the Miraleste Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and was in partnership with the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Swimmers have also joined forces with other charitable undertakings across the Pond. Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington and Keri-Anne Payne have joined the Sainsbury's Sport Relief Mile, which works with the Standard's Dispossessed Fund. The Fund was created to help pull people in London out of poverty.

So far, nearly 3,000 people have signed up to participate in the fund-raising run.

That is it for today's Streamlined News. See you again tomorrow.

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