Swedish swim stars form new company set out to lift swimming

PARTNERS: Sarah Sjöström, Lars Frölander and Stefan Nystrand are teaming up - to help young swimmers improve.

Lars Frölander, Stefan Nystrand and Sarah Sjöström are some of Swedens biggest swimming names in the nation's history. Now they've formed a company aiming to help the Scandinavian nations aspiring swimmers to a higher level.

Champions Crew Swimming, a stock noted company planned to start up this fall, are targeting young swimmers who wants to take their swimming to a higher level, writes Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

"We will try to stimulate and motivate Swedish age-swimming to get even better."

Speaking at the Swedish National Championships in Halmstad, Lars Frölander, who originally intended his career after swimming to be separated from the sport he's excelled in and made a living from for the last 20 years, explained why the swim stars have joined together.

"The main idea of the project is to use the experience we as elite swimmers have gained throughout the years. We are quite strong brands, profiles and idols for young swimmers so I believe we could have a great influence in their motivation to get better", Frölander said.

The 39 year old retired after the Olympics last year, but has returned to the pool for the ongoing Swedish championships, only to see his 12 year winning streak in the 50 meter butterfly broken. Karlskrona (and Texas A&M)-swimmer Henrik Lindau beat the living legend.

That should not interfere too much with the six time Olympian and 2000 olympic 100 butterfly champion's standing in Swedish swimming.

The business idea is a website set up with a variety of different training methods and targets for swimmers to report and aspire to. Swimmers will have their own profile, and the different targets will have different levels - so that there are always things to reach and do better. Profiles will be more or less open, meaning that users will be able to measure themselves against opponents and see how their own development is going.

SILVER MEDALISTS: During the World Short Course
Championships in Shanghai (2006), Nystrand (far right) and
Frölander next to him teamed up to form part of the silver
winning 4x100 meters freestyle team together with Jonas
Tilly (left) and Marcus Pihl.

There has been a debate in Sweden if local talent is training enough, particularly as the nation has a tendency of being a force in the sprint-events, but less so in the middle-distance and long distance events.

"It's not about training harder, but smarter. To improve in different skills. Sometimes I think we focus on the wrong things," says Frölander.

When the young swimmers reach different targets they will be able to buy performance medals marking their achievement. This is intended to be the company's main income. If the company makes money, some of it is intended to go back into the clubs.

"Some of the money from buying such a medal will go to the clubs, and the rest into the company for further development, where we are also looking to help our best swimmers in the race against the world's elite," says Lars Frölander.

And if anybody wonders about the 39-year olds stature in Sweden, just listen to the newly-crowned swedish champion Lindau after beating the retired old man by 0.07 of a second.

"This is huge for me. Lars has always been an idol for me, ever since I started swimming. I've always thought that sometime I have to beat him. And now I have. It feels great" said the 23-year old gunning for Rio.

PS: Nordic countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are all having their countries national long course championships this weekend.

Norway: Results and live-streaming
Sweden: Results
Denmark: Results
Finland: Results

Women's 100m Freestyle Living Up To It's Blue Riband Billing

Photo courtesy of @aadvangroningen

Today in Eindhoven Ranomi Kromowidjojo vaulted herself back to the top of the list of favourites in the women's 100m Freestyle. Having seen Sarah Sjostrom move past the rest of the world at the end of last year, Kromowidjojo broke out with a stunning 52.75 effort. 



This time not only breaks Sjostrom's previous textile best mark of 53.05 from November, but also clears Libby Trickett's time of 52.99 set in a mixed relay back in 2007 (in a lane next to Michael Phelps).

To highlight the depth of this event, here is a list of swimmers with a legitimate medal chance (and their best time in textile). I've put them into the tiers I see them currently:

Tier 1

Ranomi Kromowidjojo - 52.75
Sarah Sjostrom - 53.05

Tier 2

Fran Halsall - 53.48
Missy Franklin - 53.63
Aleksandra Herasimenia - 53.45
Jeanette Ottesen - 53.45
Femke Heemskerk - 53.60*

Tier 3

Britta Steffen - 53.30
Natalie Coughlin - 53.40
Yi Tang - 53.71
Mel Schlanger - 53.74
Cate Campbell - 53.84
Dana Vollmer - 53.94

There will not be many (if any) events at the Olympics with a deeper final field than the women's 100m Freestyle.

* Heemskerk didn't compete in Eindhoven today, with Marleen Veldhuis swimming 53.95 today she may not have qualified for the individual 100m Free.

Breaking Down Sarah Sjöström's 1:55.23 200m Freestyle

Sarah Sjöström ended her time in London on a high after an impressive 1:55.23 effort in the 200m Free guest final. Dominating the field from the start she split 26.71 / 29.38 / 29.45 / 29.69.

What makes this swim so impressive is the comparison to her 200m Free final in Shanghai. For the first 100m it was a mirror image of tonight's swim, in Shanghai she split 26.77 / 29.36 before coming back over a second slower in 30.31 / 29.97.

Sjöström has had a tremendous finish to 2011 and start to 2012, and her ability to bring races home has been one of the key reasons behind her success. With a full taper ahead of her, it will be fascinating to see where she can drop even more time in this event.

As a comparison, here are some of the main competitors in the 200m Freestyle and their splits (in bold the fastest split of the group)

Sjöström ---- 26.71 / 29.38 / 29.45 / 29.69 - 1:55.23
Franklin ----- 27.09 / 29.35 / 29.38 / 29.24 - 1:55.06
Heemskerk - 26.90 / 28.66 / 29.71 / 30.27 - 1:55.54
Pellegrini ---- 27.62 / 29.42 / 29.14 / 29.40 - 1:55.58
Palmer ------ 27.65 / 29.20 / 29.33 / 29.55 - 1:55.73
Barratt ------ 27.66 / 29.27 / 29.46 / 29.35 - 1:55.74

If you add in the likes of Camille Muffat and Allison Schmitt when the Olympics roll around, it is going to be a wild final.

Top 51 Swimmers of 2011 - 31 to 22

As another year of great swimming comes to a close, here is a rundown of the Top 50 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.


Here is the rundown from 31 to 22.

31. Natalie Coughlin – 2011 Highlight – Leading off the US 4 x 100 Medley relay at Duel in the Pool in an American record 55.97, setting up the US team to break the world record.

Coughlin’s year was highlighted more by her contribution to a historically good US women’s medley relay (both long course and short course) than her individual exploits. Things were almost different when she came close to winning the 100m Back final finishing 0.10 shy of gold. Having led the entire race, she eventually had to settle for bronze. A solid lead-off for the US silver medal freestyle relay gave Coughlin the role of team player in 2011.

30. Yulia Efimova – 2011 Highlight – Reaching new heights in the 200m Breast, taking silver in 2:22.22.

Efimova emerged in 2011 as possibly the only swimmer that can challenge Rebecca Soni in the 200m Breast. Efimova split 1.2 seconds faster than Soni on the second 100m of the final and continues to learn how to swim the event after focusing for years on the 100m. The speed is still there, as evidenced by her silver in the 50m Breast and 4th place in the 100m Breast (missing a medal by 0.04).

29. Ryosuke Irie – 2011 Highlight – Winning silver in the 200m Back in Shanghai (1:54.08).

There is no more consistent swimmer than Ryosuke Irie. He owns an incredible 6 of the fastest 7 swims this year in the 200m Back. Unfortunately he has to race a certain Ryan Lochte, but swimming his fastest time of the year in the world final was a step forward. He also owns 8 of the top 14 times in the 100m Back and picked up a bronze in Shanghai.

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.