Sunday's Swim Report - It's Summertime Swimming Day!

Lane 1 - The Australian posts "Summer time, and the swimming is easy.  COAST to coast yesterday, the nation took the day off to swim and feast -- whether with seafood, turkey or a barbecue -- and as always, charities made sure that no one had to miss out.  In Perth, hundreds of families flocked to the calm, protected waters of Mettam's Pool on the city's northern beaches for a Christmas morning swim."

Lane 2 - BBC has "Weymouth's Christmas Day swim attracts hundreds.  Hundreds of swimmers have taken part in Dorset's annual Christmas Day swim across Weymouth Harbour.  About 5,000 spectators saw 247 people swim in the charity event, which is organised by Weymouth and Portland Lions Club.  This is the 64th year the 73m (239ft) long swim, from Old Rooms Inn to the Royal Dorset Yacht Club, has been held.  Two pub landlords started the event in 1947 and last year it attracted 240 swimmers."

Lane 3 - NZ Herald posts "Training camp gets hearts racing.  Some New Zealand swimmers will go to any lengths for success at next year's London Olympics.  In the case of top breaststroker Glenn Snyders, that's been around 3700 lengths of a 50m pool over the past three weeks - the most he has ever achieved in any single block of training."

Lane 4 - The Sydney Morning Herald posts "The deep end. Dementia has changed Julie Power's mother, but in the swimming pool she returns to the woman she used to be.  My mother cuts through the water without a splash. She manages about 200 metres of evenly paced freestyle before she stops and grins at me while I pant behind her. Even in her demented state, a 75-year-old, she can outswim her daughter. It pleases her to see me straggle."

Lane 5 - Sun Sentinel posts "Manatees check in to South Florida for the winter.  Along with tourists, traffic and crowds, winter has brought a swarm of manatees to South Florida.  An aerial survey this week found 213 in Broward County, most clustered in water warmed by discharges from the Florida Power & Light plant west of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport."

Lane 6  - The Daily Progress posts "Hair's mission is to teach kids how to swim.  Gordon Hair has made it his mission to “waterproof” Central Virginia by teaching 50,000 children to swim. Through his nonprofit organization, the Ben Hair — Just Swim for Life Foundation, Hair has begun to set up sustainable programs to teach low-income children to swim."

Lane 7 - Why Not!  Mystic River company posts "2010 Boston Speedo Run" via Youtube

Lane 8 - The Australian posts "Sharks put fear into swimmers.  SHARKS forced Perth swimmers out of the water twice yesterday and seven times over the weekend.  A shark spotted from a privately owned helicopter about 200m off Scarborough led surf lifesavers to close the beach between 11am and noon yesterday, while further north the popular beach of Mullaloo was also closed for an hour when the chopper run by Surf Life Saving WA spotted a 2.5m shark about 400m off the coast. Hammerheads and a tiger shark were among the species spotted."