USA: As racing gets underway at the Austin GP in Texas, Michael Phelps can be found preparing to testing himself in four events at the Maryland Swimming Championships at the US Naval Academy. As the Baltimore Sun notes today: "...his participation is further proof of just how unique swimming is compared to other sports. It's not likely you'll ever see LeBron James compete in a local 3-on-3 tournament, or Tiger Woods tee it up in a friendly scramble at the municipal course just down the street from his house. But this weekend at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Phelps will be just another face in the crowd at the short course meet where a majority of the competitors are teenagers or younger." No one is out there suggesting that that ought to change in swimming because Tiger Woods does not appear in little league golf across America, of course. The two sports, the two worlds, the two realms are very different. But there are still those who point to a new type of club and say "see, so why can't swimmers wear shiny suits?". Among the answers to those short and shallow on lateral thought: the two things are not comparable (teenagers don't wear a club on their skins, for example); swimming has never been an equipment-based sport and does not want to be, hence why 168 nations voted to ban shiny suits; why would swimming want to govern its world according to the rules of others. Back to Phelps and that great plus for swimming: here is a 14-times Olympic gold medal winner mixing on the deck with aspiring youth at a short-course meet - in the 200 and 400 medley, 200 'fly and 500 freestyle. Imagine the inspiration, imagine the chat back home at the dinner tables of so many homes of families there at the Maryland gathering. Elizabeth Pelton will be there too, showing an age-group world she is leaving behind how to swim well and fast and have fun.
Australia: Rebecca Williams at the Herald-Sun notes that 1991 100m breaststroke world champion Linley Frame will race at Commonwealth Games trials this month, 14 years after quitting the race pool at 25 while suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. The 38-year-old mother of two will race the 50m breaststroke at the trials, which get underway in Sydney on March 16. She intends to make the semis and test how fast she can go today compared to her best speed back in 1991.
Austria: Mirna Jukic will not defend her European 100m breaststroke crown in Budapest this summer. The most successful Austrian swimmer of 2008 (bronze in the 100m at the Olympic Games in Beijing) and 2009 (bronze at Rome 2009), Jukic is to extend her post-Rome break from the sport. She has not ruled out the possibility of returning to racing in time for the FINA world short-course championships in Dubai in December.
