Who is, or was, the oldest competitive swimmer in the world?

Participating under the auspices of Masters Swimming Canada, which offers competitive swimming for contestants aged 25 years and upwards, the oldest competitive swimmer in the world was the late Jaring Timmerman, who died in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the age of 105, in November, 2014. Remarkably, Timmerman did not start swimming competitively until 1978, but subsequently set a raft of Canadian national records, in the 85-89, 90-94, 95-99 and, most recently, 100-104 age groups.

Equally remarkably, he set his first world record, or records, on a day of days in April, 2009; at the age of 100, Timmerman set new marks for the 50-metres freestyle (twice), the 50-metres backstroke, the 100-metres freestyle and the 100-metres backstroke. Indeed, he improved on his own world record in the 100-metres freestyle shortly afterwards and, at the time of his death, all four world records still stood. In fact, in January, 2014, less than three weeks shy of his 105th birthday, Timmerman was still competing, leading to the creation of a 105-109 age group in Masters swimming, solely to accommodate him.

Who is Diana Nyad?

As far as hobbies go, swimming is almost universal in its appeal. Whether you’re looking for the best online casino australia, of for the latest hit movie to watch, in all likelihood in terms of sport at least you’ve also had a assing interesting in swimming. Diana Nyad is an American long-distance swimmer, broadcaster and journalist, best known for being the first person to complete the 110-mile swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Nyad first attempted to swim across the Straits of Florida in 1978, while still in her late twenties. On that occasion, she swam with the protection of a shark cage, but her attempt was thwarted by tempestuous weather and power currents, which pushed her far off course. The following year, she did complete the epic, 102-mile crossing from Bimini, in the Bahamas, to Jupiter, Florida without a shark cage, but shortly afterwards retired from competitive swimming.

However, in 2009, at the age of 60, Nyad sought an all-consuming challenge and dedicated her life to training and fund-raising for another attempt at the notoriously elusive Cuba-to-Florida swim. In fact, she tried, and failed, three more times, succumbing to asthma and painful box jellyfish stings in 2011 and stormy weather and jellyfish stings, again, in 2012. Nevertheless, on August 31, 2013, at the age of 64, Nyad finally achieved her lifelong ambition. Armed with a lycra body suit and face mask and supported by a comprehensive crew, she completed the crossing in 52 hours, 54 minutes and 18 second to earn her place in history. In this internet age of www.sagamblingsites.co.za and other trusted sites, it’s quite something that such impressive real world feats still take place.

Who is or was the top Australian Sportsman?

Of course, asking who the best sportsman or woman from a particular country is, is about as subjective as it comes. There are any number of potential answers to that question. It does pay to consider though that the best sportsman doesn’t necessarily come from the most popular sport in any given country. Personally I’d say that this is the case with Australia and that swimmer Ian Thorpe is one of the countries greatest ever sportsmen.

The Sydney born swimmer more than earned his stripes – and nickname of ‘Thorpedo’ – during the course of his career. All in all he won 5 Olympic medals  (an Australian record), set 22 world records, and excelled at the highest level in a country where sporting excellence is viewed as the pinnacle of achievement. His discipline was core to his success. While many of us were chilling on bestaucasinosites online casino, he was doing lengths in the pool.  100m, 200m, 400m, no distance was beyond his abilities.

The early 2000s saw him at the height of his abilities, and after taking a break in 2005 his efforts to return never quite saw him reach the dizzying heights of those former years. His final comeback attempt was the 2012 Australian Olympic trials for the London Olympics.

His Olympics successes included finding initial gold success at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with repeats at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He claimed several golds at various World Championships too. His fame and popularity at its height was worldwide, and record and talent unrivalled. No doubt many real money casinos us and sportsbook fans were cheering him on too. In fact there is very little in the sport that he did not achieve. He had nothing more to prove.

 

Who is, or was, ‘Eric The Eel’?

‘Eric The Eel’ was the nickname given by the media to Eric Moussambani Malonga, who represented Equatorial Guinea in the 100 metres freestyle swimming event at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in 2000. Amazingly, Moussambani only taught himself to swim, in a 20-metre hotel pool in the capital city of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, after his entry to the Olympics, via a wild-card scheme. When he arrived in Sydney, he had never seen a long course, 50-metre swimming pool.

In his heat, at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre, Moussambani faced just two, unheralded opponents in the form of Karim Bare, representing Niger, and Farkhod Oripov, representing

Tajikistan. However, both men false-started and were disqualified, leaving Moussambani to race alone, against the clock, in the hope of achieving the qualifying time of 1 minute, 10 seconds. Suffice to say, he did not, eventually coming home in a time of 1 minute, 52.72 seconds, which, although a personal best, was the slowest time in Olympic history. Moussambani later admitted, ‘I have never been so tired in my life.’ Nevertheless, he became the most heralded Olympian in Sydney, famous not for his success, but his valiant failure.