A collection of brief aquatic-themed stories from across the web for February 2nd, 2015.
…As dismal swimming numbers were released last week by Sport England’s “Active People Survey,” showing that 245,000 fewer people in England swam weekly in 2014 as compared to 2013, the sport may have gotten a small boost from an unexpected source: the gossip columns. According to Us Weekly, Prince William and Kate Middleton are in the middle of a two-week trip to the West Indies. The headline reads that the couple taught their 18-month old son Prince George to swim while on vacation. While mostly intended as entertaining fodder for the masses, the Royal Family does have a lot of cultural influence in their home country, even if it is subliminally. This will hopefully increase attention paid to the sport at competitive, fitness, and life-saving levels in a country where accidental drowning deaths in children are still rising year-over-year…
…FINA has approved the Indian Swimming Championships as a qualifying meet for the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia. India had an up-and-down year in 2014 that included both a major scandal (that never seemed to be acknowledged by the federation) and a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games from Sandeep Sejwal in the 50 breaststroke (28.26). The country sent three swimmers to the 2013 World Championships: Sejwal Virdhawal Khade, and Pooja Alva. None came close to making the semi-finals…
…The Palestinian Swimming and Aquatic Sports Federation has approved a plan from the Palestinian Paralympic Committee for 2015 para-swimming activities. Palestine, who made its Paralympic debut in 2000, has never had a Paralympic swimmer, though they did send swimmers to the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic Games. The plan includes having classification sessions for athletes to be classified, hold training sessions for officials and coaches, first aid courses, create training materials to help facilities work with disabled athletes, and to hold at least two training sessions (separated by gender) for athletes…
