Alshammar pregnant - but swimming career might not be over

Swedish World Champion Therese Alshammar is pregnant and will not be swimming the Barcelona World Championships this summer.

Alshammar (35) reveals that she and her coach and partner Johan Wallberg are expecting in an interview with Swedish national broadcaster SVT today.

"I've got a new challenge and a different perspective on life" says Alshammar, who is expecting her child in june.

"It's a big change for me, of course physically, but also mentally. It brings along with it a lot of thoughts and philosophizing about life which are about far bigger subjects than before".

Alshammar is a two-time long-course swimming World Champion, but in addition has ten short course titles. The Olympic Gold medal though has eluded the two time silver medalist from Athens 2000. A grand total of 71 international championships medal makes her one of the most successful athletes ever.

The freestyle and butterfly sprinter, who has taken the crown and $100,000 cheque of World Cup Winner on several occasions is held in high regard in her native country, widely thought of as one of their all-time great athletes - regardless of sport.

Although out of the World Championships this year, the 35 year old refuses to draw a line over her swimming career.

She says shes been training during her pregnancy, albeit not as usual.

"It's strange to feel that no matter what I do my physical condition gets worse" jokes the swimming star with a tattoo that reads "Diva".

"One of my greatest dreams is to continue to try to compete and see if I can still improve. I still have a longing to be the fastest in the World"

The safety and well-being of her child naturally comes first, but the Swedish swim Queen does not even rule out swimming in Rio for the next Olympics.

"Never say never. I find swimming really fun and as long as I feel that way I will continue to do my sport. I don't promise anything, but it would be really great if that could happen."

Alshammar has not previously revealed in public that Johan Wallberg in addition to being her coach also has been her boyfriend for the last couple of years. Wallberg and Alshammar returned this year to Sweden after several years of training and traveling mainly abroad.

"Every relationship has its challenges, no matter if it is of a private or professional nature. It has been important to us to separate those two roles, so that we could focus on swimming" says Alshamar.

Listen to the interview here:
(In Swedish)

Top 51 Swimmers of 2011 - 21 to 11

As another year of great swimming comes to a close, here is a rundown of the Top 51 Swimmers of 2011. There is no set criteria, but clearly the World Championships in Shanghai carried a big weight in the decision making process. That being said, outstanding achievements away from Shanghai were still acknowledged.


Thanks for reading Speed Endurance this year. Next year should be something a bit special!


Here is the rundown from 21 to 11.

21. Zhao Jing – 2011 Highlight – Winning one of the most exciting races at Worlds, the 100m Back, in 59.05

Zhao Jing produced her best swim of the year at exactly the right time. She added the world title to her Asian Games gold from 2010 and has topped the world rankings in each of the last two years. She beat Zueva by the slimmest of margins, but goes into 2012 with a great couple of years behind her. The world now waits to see the impact Missy Franklin will have on the event.

20. Daniel Gyurta – 2011 Highlight – Making up a deficit of half a second on the last 50m to win the 200m Breast in Shanghai (2:08.41)

Gyurta once again was under the radar for most of the year before producing the goods when it mattered the most. Trailing Kosuke Kitajima at 150m, he used his trademark strong finish to win gold. He ended the year with a textile best time and 3rd fastest swim in history in the short course 200m Breast (2:02.37) at Euro SC. He couldn’t produce the same time a week later when he raced Brendan Hansen at Duel in the Pool, but that doesn’t change how strong a year Gyurta had.

19. Jiao Liuyang – 2011 Highlight – Hanging on to win the 200m Fly in Shanghai in a time of 2:05.55, with a winning margin of just 0.04

Jiao Liuyang was involved in the two best 200m Fly races of 2011. At Chinese Nationals she finished second in an incredible time of 2:04.44, just 0.04 behind Liu Zige. However, Jiao Liuyang turned the tables on her team mate in Shanghai winning the world title with Liu Zige back in 3rd. As we enter the Olympic year, the Chinese-British battle for the 200m Fly title should be great. After a dominant 2010 and a world title in 2011, the favourite at this stage has to be Jiao Liuyang.

This Weekend's Racing

Another good weekend of racing coming up as many swimmers compete in their final competition before their national championships.

British University Championships - Feb 11-13 - (LC) - Psych Sheet - Results

British Swimming are sending the big guns to compete alongside the students.

UPDATE - Rebecca Adlington just swam 8:23.85. Moves to the top of the world rankings and just 2.6 seconds down on last year's best effort. Splits of 2:04.48 / 4:12.63 /  6:18.66 / 8:23.85 (negative split). In a mixed race Adlington beat 6 men and just finished shy of Stirling's Josh Walsh (8:23.36). Shows what a racer she is.

(Feat. Rebecca Adlington, Fran Halsall, Joanne Jackson, Elizabeth Simmonds, Gemma Spofforth, Amelia Maughan, Steph Proud, Stacey Tadd, Liam Tancock, Ross Davenport, Robert Bale, Laurent Carnol, Antony James, Joe Roebuck, Michael Jamieson, Kris Gilchrist, Chris Walker-Hebborn, Roberto Pavoni)

New South Wales State Championships - Feb 11-13 - (LC) - Result 

Britain's Ellen Gandy was hugely impressive beating both Steph Rice and Therese Alshammar comfortably in the 100m Fly. Gandy's time of 58.23 vaults her to the top of the early world rankings.

(Feat. Stephanie Rice, Leisel Jones, Therese Alshammar, Marieke Guehrer, Ellen Gandy, Belinda Hocking, Megan Nay, Katie Goldman, Ryan Cochrane, Andrew Lauterstein, Ryan Napoleon, Kyle Richardson, Matt Targett, Kenneth To, James Magnussen, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Ashley Delaney, Hayden Stoeckel)

Swedish Grand Prix - Feb 12-13 - (LC) - Start List - Results

Marleen Veldhuis (25.13) held off Ranomi Kromowidjojo (25.30) in the 50m Free. Sarah Sjöström won the 100m Fly in an impressive time of 58.47 (just shy of Gandy's time from the other side of the world).

(Feat. Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Sarah Sjöström, Marleen Veldhuis, Sharon van Rouwendaal, Jennie Johansson, Petra Granlund, Gabriella Fagundez, Stefan Nystrand, Simon Sjödin, Petter Stymne)

Meeting National Nice (LC) - Feb 11-13 - Results (Thanks to Dublincat for the tip)

(Feat. Yannick Agnel, Alain Bernard, Danila Izotov, Stanislav Donets, Boris Steimitz, Camille Muffat, Coralie Balmy, Ophelie-Cyrille Etienne, Alexandra Putra)

Incredible times from Camille Muffat (1:56.63 200m Free, 8:2655 800m Free) and Yannick Agnel (1:46.55 200m Free), strengthening their claims as serious contenders for Shanghai later this year. Also featuring a 1:04.91 100m Breast from none other than Alain Bernard... how about a switch to IM? He can swim 200m Free and 100m Breast... Just saying.

FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup - Singapore

Top swims from the Singapore leg of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup:-

Thiago Pereira - 200m IM - 1:53.45 - 951 Points - Game over for the overall men's point title. Pereira has now notched up the maximum available 75 points from the first three legs of the World Cup series. He leads Darian Townsend by 36 points with just four legs remaining. With Pereira scheduled to compete in each of the remaining stops on the tour, the only viable way for him to be overhauled is if world records start dropping, and Pereira has been the only man this year to threaten a world mark. Pereira's time of 1:53.45 improved upon the time set a few days previously in Beijing, but was 0.73 down on his world leading time from Rio.

One of the races to look forward to at the World Shortcourse Champs will be Pereira v Ryan Lochte. It might also be the race that sees 2010's first World Record go down. Darian Townsend's 1:51.55 might be within the reach of Pereira. It's definitely within reach for Lochte.

Therese Alshammar - 100m Butterfly - 56.32 - 934 Points - Game over for the overall women's point title. Ok... Alshammar doesn't have the title sown up to the same degree as Pereira has, however by taking 25 points in Singapore (total of 55 for the series) she has gone a long way towards making it a formality reality. Her closest rival is Julia Smit, who is back on 30 points. At this stage Alshammar just needs to score consistently in the last four rounds to wrap up the points title. Ominously for her rivals, the Swedish sprint queen is also getting faster round by round (57.04 in Rio, 56.80 in Beijing, 56.32 in Singapore).

Julia Smit - 200m IM - 2:08.14 - 919 Points - I wrote back in August, that until Julia Smit proves otherwise, I'm marking her down as a short course specialist. After a swift 2:08 in Singapore I haven't changed my opinion. She is now ranked third in the world, just half a second behind Australians Emily Seebohm and Kotuku Ngawati. This year Smit also broke the NCAA & American record in the 200yd IM but has only been able to manage a 2:12.5 in LC metres (22nd in the world this year, 8th fastest American). With the domestic competition so fierce in the 200m IM, Smit is going to need to improve in a LC pool if she is going to make future national teams.

Natalie Coughlin - 100m Backstroke - 57.78 - 873 Points - Coughlin was victorious on her return to short course swimming, a discipline she dominated for most of the last decade. Her time of 57.78 is off her very best from 2008 (56.51), but represents a successful return. Emily Seebohm leads the world on an impressive 56.58. Gao Chang (57.45) and Belinda Hocking (57.67) have also been faster than Coughlin's time this year. The 100m Backstroke should be a fantastic race in Dubai and Coughlin will need to get back down to her best time or better to stand a chance. With the quality of her starts and turns, I would find it hard to bet against her.

If you've read down this far, you're probably a pretty big fan of swimming. If that is the case, check out Fantasy Swimming. You pick the Top 3 swimmers per event and get points for each correct selection. They have the remaining legs of the World Cup available to make your picks, as well as Short Course Worlds.

47° Trofeo Sette Colli

Seven Hills Trophy - Pescara

Following on from the Mare Nostrum series a whole host of international swimming stars have descended on Pescara for another high quality 50m LC meet.

Psych Sheet here

Results here

Heats begin at 9am (Italian Time)

Finals begin at 4:30pm (Italian Time)

*UPDATE* - The first night of finals is already in the books with outstanding, world leading swims from Therese Alshammar (24.27 - 50m Free) and Federica Pellegrini (4:03.12 - 400m Free).

Fast Times Downunder Part II - New non-tech suit fastest time for Seebohm!

The NSW State Open Championships continued to produce some excellent swims on day 2 of the 3 day meet.

Emily Seebohm impressed in both heats and finals dipping below the 1:00 mark both times. Her heat time was an impressive 59.89, but she backed this up with an incredible 59.25 in the final. In what I hope to be a Speed Endurance exclusive, I can reveal that Seebohm's 59.25 has broken Natalie Coughlin's previous WR of 59.44 set at the World Champs in 2007. The significance of Coughlin's mark is that this was the last WR in the Women's 100m back to be set in the non-techsuit era, making Seebohm the fastest women ever in the 100m Back wearing a 100% textile suit. Still just 17 years of age, Seebohm is one of swimming's brightest talents. A potentially epic duel awaits in the 100m Back at the Commonwealth Games later this year between Seebohm and current WR holder and World Champion Gemma Spofforth.

Notable performances came from Tae Hwan Park, winning his 3rd event at the meet with 1:46.98 in the 200m Free, Geoff Huegill going 2nd in the world rankings this year with 23.83 in the 50m Fly and an impressive 2:26.14 from Leisel Jones in the 200m Breast.

Other winners from day 2 were Therese Alshammar (50m Free - 24.98),Felicity Galvez (100m Fly - 58.73), Leith Brodie (200m IM), Brenton Rickard (100m Breast - 1:02.01), Bronte Barratt(400m Free - 4:09.28) and Daniel Arnamnart (200m Back - 2:01.75).