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In this issue we cover the Maritime Life Winter Nationals and CIAU Championships, the major championships in the Canadian short course season.
The University of Calagry ran away with team honours at nationals as well as the men's team title at CIAUs, losing the women's title on the final relay. Calgary swimmer Chris Renaud was very much in the spotlight with a Canadian record in the 200 backstroke in Halifax and three CIAU marks in St. Catharines including a world record for the 50 backstroke. A special thanks to Chris for allowing Marco Chiesa, our Photo Editor, the time needed to set up the cover shot. It was quite late by the time we were done. Hope you like the end result.
In Halifax we had help from Katharine Dunn, who wrote last year about how hard it was to retire from swimming. She is in her fifth year at Dalhousie completing her degree in Philosophy and History. She started swimming at age seven with Dartmouth Crusaders, at 15 joined Halifax Trojans, and swam at Dalhousie for two years, winning a 50 backstroke medal at the 1994 CIAUs. Katharine may have retired from the water, but her writing will keep her involved for years to come.
John M. Hogg asked me to mention his Mental Skills series which has been running since September, and this month's can be found on page 19. His new book Mental Skills for Young Athletes has been published recently and is available now.
Cecil Colwin writes about training conditions in Australia in the 1940s and 50s where Olympic champion John Devitt trained.
The decline in boys participation in swimming in the U.S. was much in evidence according to George Block, who writes on the Phillips 66 Winter Nationals. The good news was the return to swimming of Chad Carvin and the solid women's results.
Britain will send 29 swimmers to the World SC Championships in Sweden and Alex Bennett has returned to swimming after a horrific car accident writes, Anita Lonsbrough.
The French Interclubs is the highlight of the winter season in that country. And club loyalty is such that retired swimmers come back to swim for their teams and foreign swimmers are routinely hired to swim for the highest bidder, reports Karin Helmstaedt.
Controversies around Michelle Smith and the submarine butterfly are touched on by Karin and Paul Quinlan.
Profiles of Michael Kilm and Leah Martindale round out Karin's contribution. David Pyne, physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport, was interviewed by Cecil Colwin.