Lane 1 - nine posts (w/video) "Bearded Magnussen hits the water. Featuring a beard and body hair, swim star James Magnussen has hit the water in Manchester alongside Australia’s other Olympic hopes in the pool, confident they’re about to make waves at the Games."
nine posts "Magnussen wants to be like Thorpe. James Magnussen remembers the confidence he felt as a youngster watching Ian Thorpe race - and now he wants all Australians to feel the same about him." The Sydney Morning Herald posts "Magnussen lies back and thinks of Port Macquarie. Things will be very different in less than two weeks when the beard comes off, and Olympic gold medals are in the offing. But for now, with the hype and warming hysteria of London still a few miles down the road, James Magnussen is content just being Port Macquarie James."
Lane 2- Herald Tribune posts (w/video) "Sarasota pool company star of Olympic swimming. More than 1,700 swimmers competed in Omaha, Neb., to represent the United States at the London Olympics that are set to take place later this month. To get one of the coveted 49 U.S. team spots, swimmers battled it out in nationally televised trials and in pools specially built on short notice by Sarasota-based Myrtha Pools USA Inc. Over a 10-day period, more than four dozen workers labored around the clock to construct two pools, a process that normally takes eight months."
Lane 3 - The Washington Post has "After back surgery, Cavic has more motivation than simply desire to beat Phelps. It’s not just about taking one last crack at beating Michael Phelps. For Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic, the London Olympics represent a chance to prove all his doubters wrong. All the doctors who told him that back surgery would end his career. The friends and family members, too, who begged him to reconsider before having a herniated disk repaired in July 2010. “I’m making history and defying the odds, and that means a lot to me,” Cavic said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Every doctor told me that I would never be at this level again, and here I am, I’m doing it, and I think that’s testament that a little bit of human will is greater sometimes even than science.”
Lane 4 - Metro posts "Rebecca Soni: Swimming into pool of expectations. Instead, Rebecca Soni will jump off the blocks and splash down into a shimmering pool, hopefully "teeter-tottering" her way to three Olympic gold medals. Soni will compete in three events — the 100-meter breaststroke, the 200-meter breaststroke, the 4x100 medley relay — at the 2012 London Olympics. Surprisingly, it was another Olympic sport that piqued her interest when she was growing up in nearby Plainsboro, NJ."
Lane 5 - Haaretz posts "Israeli swimmer lives father’s aborted dream with trip to London Olympics. Imri Ganiel gets opportunity denied to his father, Amir, by 1980 boycott. Amir Ganiel was no doubt one of Israel’s greatest swimmers ever. An Israeli record holder and freestyle champion, he also did well on the international stage. He qualified for the 1980 Moscow Games but could not go because of the American-led boycott. Thirty-two years later, Ganiel’s son, Imri, is due to live out his father’s thwarted dream when he competes in the London Games in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events."
Lane 6 - Speedo Australia posts via youtube "Speedo 2012 Fashion. Speedo's 2012 summer fashion range featuring Rachael Finch at Hamilton Island!"
Lane 7 - The NY Times posts "It’s Lonely and Clammy, Yet a Shaper of Dreams
‘Swimming Studies,’ by Leanne Shapton. The talented illustrator Leanne Shapton, in her pointillistic and quietly profound new memoir, “Swimming Studies,” recalls how, in 1988 and 1992, specializing in the breaststroke, she made it as far the Canadian Olympic trials. Ms. Shapton writes as confidently as she draws, and memorably conjures swimming’s intense, primordial and isolating pleasures."
Lane 8 - The Press-Enterprise posts "Hemet Masters’ swim aces never felt better. There is no Michael Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte-like rivalry for Hemet senior citizens Fred Hoppe and Bill Coles."
