The Danes have brought a national team that consists of four women to compete in Barcelona. The team is made up of veterans Lotte Friis, Jeanette Ottesen Gray and Rikke Moller Pedersen with the fourth member of the team being nineteen year old Pernille Blume, who was a member of the 2012 Olympic team, but is still making a name for herself on the international stage.
After a disappointing Olympics, where the team came home without a medal, Mikkel von Seelen, the Danish Director of Sports expects to see this team win a minimum of two medals, “The aim is that the girls come home with two medals. However, I will refrain from naming and the discipline where the medals exactly come from,” von Seelen told Nora Thomsen who writes for the Denmark Swimming Federation website.
Going into the meet three of the swimmers are ranked top three in the world in their specialities:
- Lotte Friis – 1500 freestyle (3rd) 16:01.41
- Jeanette Ottesen Gray – 50 butterfly (1st) 25.56
- Rikke Moller Pedersen – 100 breaststroke (3rd) 1:06.05 and 200 breaststroke (1st) 2:20.53
At the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai Friis won the 1500 freestyle and finished second in the 800 while Ottesen Gray shared the gold with Aleksandra Gerasimenya of Belarus.
The 2013 FINA World Championships will also be the first time that National Team Coach Nick Juba and the National Training Centre Head Coach Shannon Rollason will guide the Danish team. Rollason told Thomsen that he felt that the team is ready to swim well, “The training has gone very well up to next week’s championships.”
“I think the atmosphere is good and the girls seem like they probably should be ready, both physically and mentally when they are behind the starting platforms next week. We are now to be where we want, when it comes to getting started, and it’s always a good sign.”
This is also the first major competition that will incorporate a coaching structure that sees the role of the National Team Coach separated from that of the National Training Centre Head Coach and for one of the swimmers that is an ideal situation, “I think it is absolutely perfect,” Ottesen Gray told Avisen.dk.
“It’s almost a shame we first got introduced it now, when you can see how well it runs.”
From 2008-2012 Paulus Wildeboer held both positions and did a tremendous job developing Denmark’s international swimmers, but Ottesen Gray felt that dealing with the responsibilities of both jobs may have been too much for one man to handle, “It is really nice to have a coach on the edge, who should take care of all the other things that interfere with our training.”
“Paul spent so much energy on anything but us athletes. And it went beyond us when we were going to big shows because he was stressed.”
“So it’s really cool that the job is broken up.”
Very funny to see almost every time the same 4 swimswam readers in these hours. Me from France, swimfanfinland from Finland, danishswimfan from Denmark and aswimfan from Indonesia. We can write what we want while our American friends sleep. 🙂
France will win the 4×100 free!
Just testing 🙂
Hahaha
women’s 4×100 free?
bold prediction!
😀
yes, I’ve paid attention to this fact too. When it comes to the last time commentating about what’s going to happen in finals, we have a substantial advantage on our side during the Worlds as we can see live what has happened in the morning session.
It’s not going to be easy for ASwimFan to watch finals though. 🙂 I mean, in the middle of the night.
last year, I suffered more than 2 weeks during London olympics where I had to stay up until 1 to 2 am ..grrr… I was seriously lacking sleep and now it’s happening again…
Very funny that your American friends can now exact their revenge while you 4 musketeers are fast asleep (not that I’d be all that surprised if ASWIMFAN will be up)… 😉
Rikke won’t get past the semis in the 200 breast! Breeja will be crowned Rebecca’s successor instead!!!
Yannick will blow a 1 sec lead anchoring as he takes a super long glide into the wall, thus allowing Ryan to squeak past him for the 4×100 win by .01 of a second!
🙂
Our best bets for medals would be Rikke in the 200 breast, Jeanette in the 50 fly, and Lotte in the 1500. Then, less so, Rikke in the 100 breast and Jeanette in the 100 fly.
Not sure Jeanette can medal in either the 50 or 100 free this year and Lotte will have a tough struggle in the 800, but you never know. I would like to see Pernille get into the final of the 100 free.
Still gutted we can’t field any relays 🙁
Whatever happens, I just hope the Danish media can keep a sense of perspective. The backlash against our swimmers for failing to win a medal in the Olympics was totally over the top.… Read more »
It’s SUCH a pity that Mie Nielsen is injured, otherwise I can see Denmark getting to 4th or even challenge for bronze in the 4×100 medley.
Rikke: 1 gold, 1 silver/bronze
Jeanette: 1 gold and a slight chance for a minor medal in 100 fly. No freestyle medals this year.
Lotte: I really don’t know. Probably one or even two podiums if she’s able to find her best form and all those times posted during the season were under super-heavy training. She has trained hard in France so she may be better than many expect as they don’t understand that she doesn’t have to worry about trials.
Denmark should have swum the medley relay anyway. I’m sure there is someone to use regardless of Nielsen’s injury. What about Lotte?
The 2nd ranked backstroker in Denmark currently is Cecilie Hansen with a 1:03.43, but at the time of the Danish Open which was the qualifying meet for Barcelona it was Sarah Wiegant Bro with 1:03.87, neither are FINA A cuts. The Danish qualifying standards are also actually quite tough, hence why we only have 4 swimmers.
But just for fun I looked at the best times of our 4 actually selected to see what sort of relays we could put out.
Lotte’s backstroke PB is 1:07.23 from 2008, not really going to cut it. Pernille’s is even worse. So that leaves Jeanette and Rikke.
Rikke has the best backstroke PB of the 4 in Barcelona but we lose a… Read more »
Yes, I’m sure Lotte is capable of posting a decent time in 100m free. Come on, Muffat went below 54. Jeanette is a strong sprinter. They can always do multiple strokes. Herasimenia is very fast in backstroke and as she is just as fast as Jeanette in 100m free, why wouldn’t it be also the other way round. 🙂
i think the Danish women will win easily more than two medals. Double the number is my prediction.
French team expects at least the same results as 2 years ago in Shanghai. 10 medals and 2 in gold. I know they secretly hope 1 or 2 more in gold. 🙂
If I remember well my predictions, I see France with 7 gold medals which would be crazy. Jérémy Stravius (50 back, 100 back), Yannick Agnel (200 free), Florent Manaudou (50 free), Camille Muffat (200 free), men’s 4X100 free relay and men’s 4X200 free relay.
So you predicted the victory for Muffat in 200m free but not in 400m free? Who was your choice for a winner in 400? In my book Muffat is much more vulnerable in 200m than in 400m.
Miss Ledecky of course!
In 2011 I say she will be a champion.
Last year I say she will win the triple 400 free/800 free/1500 free in Barcelona. I’m not going to change now. But on paper, you’re right. Miss Muffat is favorite in the 400 free.
And which book do you talk each time about? Is it a real book?
Hehe. It’s definitely real but is it correct? We’ll see it after the Worlds and pick’em contest.
In case you wasn’t kidding -> “in my book” = idiom, and is used when you are giving your opinion. I don’t want to write “I think” or “in my opinion” everytime. I’m trying my best to add a bit diversity in my bad English. But there are many ways to express your opinion:
if you ask me…
in my book…
in my own conceit…
in my estimation…
methinks (ASwimFan uses this one sometimes, humorous one)
meseems…
in my mind…
I regard…
speaking for myself…
to me…
Our native fellow commentators know… Read more »
I didn’t know that expression.
Native English speakers on this site are using all the time expressions, phrasal verbs or idioms, that I’m not familiar with. But hey, this is also a good way to improve our English. Have a conversation about the subjects we’re interested in while learning English.
In case you need an excellent eng-eng dictionary, check out Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary:
http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
For example, if you write “book” on the search field, you find out if the word has meaning as adjective, verb, noun, preposition etc. This list is on left side. There are always all different meanings of that word explained with examples and when you scroll down you find a list of phrasal… Read more »
I’ve had the advantage of having worked in the UK for longish periods which helped my English no end. The first time I went there I was so confused!
But then I watched the faces of my English colleagues when I tried to explain ‘hygge’ to them 🙂
You are clearly not afraid of challenges. I wouldn’t have even tried.
I agree with almost every one of your picks, but not the 4×200 relay… i don’t think they are going to win that one…
SWIMFANFINLAND are you a coach in Finland? Or are you a swimmer?
I’m a former competitive swimmer but, yes, probably still a swimmer if being a masters swimmer is accepted :). But nothing too serious, you know, just enjoying the pool, staying healthy and having fun.
oh okay, then you might know who my coaches are, Mika kekalainen and Samuli Aalto… Mika was headcoach of the Finish national team for a while, and Samuli was a pretty sucsessfull breaststroker and later on as a coach.