Wednesday's Swim Report - Charlotee's Ultimate Swimdown #Berens vs #Marsh

Lane 1 - WCNC posts "VOTE: NBC Charlotte's Person of the Year.  We have selected five nominees:  1. Ricky Berens, Olympic gold medalist: Born and raised in Charlotte, the 24-year-old swimmer took home gold this summer in the 4x200 freestyle relay team in London. (#Berens)  4. David Marsh, CEO of SwimMAC Carolina:  One of the most prestigious swimming coaches in the nation, he helped lead the U.S. Olympic swim team and SwimMAC Carolina stars in London. (#Marsh)"

Lane 2 - ABSOLUTE RADIO posts via youtube "Ian 'Thorpedo' Thorpe on the red carpet at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.  Watch Ian 'Thorpedo' Thorpe talk to Absolute Radio on the red carpet at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards."

Lane 3 - Product Design & Development posts "Strokes of Genius.  Fourteen U.S. Olympians trained with it prior to this summer’s London games. College swim teams from coast to coast (Harvard, USC, Michigan, Northwestern University, and the U.S. Naval Academy, to name a few) have added it to their training arsenal. The first high school team to embrace the technology won its state championship, and numerous other high school programs now use it.  AvidaMetrics is the biggest little tool to hit the sports world since stopwatches. And it’s a training tool like no other. AvidaMetrics is a sophisticated telemetry system created by new-product development specialists at Twisthink in Holland, MI, for Avidasports."

Lane 4 - The Australian posts "Robert Hurley was on the verge of quitting the pool.  ROBERT Hurley has dragged his career out of the doldrums to become Australia's first gold medallist at the world short-course championships in Turkey.  Hurley, who missed selection for the London Olympics, has re-emerged as a world-class competitor in Istanbul, beating the Olympic 100m backstroke champion Matt Grevers and the previous world champion Stanislav Donets to claim victory in the 50m backstroke yesterday.  The last couple of years have been really, really tough," Hurley said.  "A couple of times I thought about pulling the pin, but I'm glad I stuck with it."

Lane 5 - The Sydney Morning Herald posts "Changes make news for Seven.  Seven has hired Olympic swimmer Giaan Rooney to present the weather on its news over the holiday season and for the tennis in the new year."

Lane 6 - ESPN W posts "Summer on the Run.  Training with my girlfriends lifts me.  Summer on the Run is a 12-week blog and video series that follows former Olympic swimmer and avid runner Summer Sanders on her journey to train for Disney's Princess Half Marathon on Feb. 24."

Lane 7 - SNTV posts via youtube "Mark Spitz questions doping in swimming.  Former multiple gold medal winning Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz reflects on his career in the pool and the current state of the sport.  Mark Spitz, Former Olympic Swimmer (On being a swimming 'icon'):
"I think any sport that has had an icon come from it is always searching for the next Michael Jordan or the next Michael Phelps for that matter. It could be a long time in coming. It is human nature to want to know who is going to be the next star that we can follow and who is going to be the next inspiration for those in the sport of swimming or whatever the sport may be."

Lane 8 - The Australian posts "Reality hits for Olympic sports.  ON the day that Australia's great sporting rival, Britain, announced a record $536 million to be spent on its Olympic and Paralympic campaigns for the 2016 Rio Games, Australia's national sports federations were facing a brave new world as the reality of a restructured government funding program began to hit home.  Australian Institute of Sport director Matt Favier, who returned this year after working in the British system for a decade, confirmed that there would be winners and losers under the new funding model, just as there were in the UK funding announcement yesterday."

On Deck Update/Follow Up:  Sport 24 posts "Le Clos clears up confusion.  Le Clos was believed to have scratched from the final day's 200m butterfly - an event in which he is the reigning Olympic champion - in order to attend the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony in London at which his father, Bert le Clos, was nominated for the Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award.  However, Chad took to Twitter to clear up the confusion, writing: just to be clear! i have been in Turkey for 10days, no where else - i didn't attend London with my dad, tweaked shoulder so had to withdraw."