CNN: Diana Nyad Started Her Cuba to Florida Swim

Diana Nyad has begun one of the boldest attempted sports feats ever.

We pray for her to succeed.: "(CNN) -- Diana Nyad's personal test has begun. At 7:45 p.m. ET she jumped into the water and began her 103-mile swim between Cuba and Florida...."

See "Nyad: Today's swim shows 60s 'not too late' for goals," by Matt Sloane, CNN.

Times: Swimming Pool Photos to Cool You Off

We have not yet started liking that new Sunday section in the Times.
This is a lovely photo spread of pools from the "Times Sunday Review."
OPINION   | July 24, 2011
Swim, Meet
A collection of photos by Kate Orlinsky. 

Diana Nyad will swim from Cuba to Key West

The Times has an article about endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, "Ready to Swim 103 Miles With the Sharks: Swimming From Cuba to Key West, Without Leaving the Water"

We find Diana's ambitious project, her quest, her goal -- inspiring. We like best the end of the article with Nyad's explanation for undertaking this massive challenge after a long hiatus.

But why go through this agony again?

Ms. Nyad pinned the reason on her gallop toward 60; it unsettled her greatly. She needed a fresh, powerful target to stir up her energy and ambition. And although she had given up swimming abruptly in 1979, a casualty of burnout, her mind seized on her unsuccessful swim to Key West.

“This is what I need to remedy my malaise,” Ms. Nyad said. “I need commitment to take over. That level of commitment has such a high. There is no thinking about regrets or what will I do with the rest of my life. I’m immersed in the everyday, full tilt. It’s so energizing.”

Ms. Nyad no longer swims in anger, as she did in her youth, when she was working through the sexual abuse she said she suffered as a teenager. Now, she said, she swims in awe of the world around her.

There is ego involved, of course. But her swim has helped her turn a corner, she said, adding that she hopes it will empower others her age.

“I hope a couple will say, ‘I want to live life like that at this age,’ ” Ms. Nyad said. “I want the candle to burn bright. We have changed a lot. Our parents’ generation, at 60, they considered that old age. I’m in the middle of middle age.”

We know one person who might say something similar about the agony of writing a challenging book.

Another great Nyad article is here at Second Act.

Did the United Arab Emirates Kill Swimmer Fran Crippen?

It's wrong to conduct a competitive swimming event in water that is too hot to be safe.

We swim every day. We know that hot water -- above 83 degrees -- is uncomfortable for lap swimming. Water near 90 degrees is unsafe for a swim race. Period. Everyone knows that.

So why conduct a race in such dangerous conditions? It's unprofessional, unsafe, and unfortunately, in this case, it was lethal.

Swimming in warm water can take deadly toll on body
By Madison Park and Ashley Fantz, CNN

(CNN) -- Competing outdoors in almost 90-degree water is like racing inside a hot tub, swim experts said Monday.

Merely sitting in a tub saps energy, said extreme swimmer Diana Nyad. "When you get out, you're feeling light-headed and very thirsty. ... Imagine now, you're going to crank your entire body, and swimming uses the entire body."

U.S. swimmer Fran Crippen died during a 10-kilometer marathon Saturday in the United Arab Emirates. Several of the athletes complained about the water temperature...more...

So we ask, Did the United Arab Emirates Kill Swimmer Fran Crippen? Should they have canceled the race due to the unsafe heat?

Yes, they should have.

Update -- Newsy Video

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Is Rabbi-Loving Carl Paladino anti Speedo Bathing Suits or anti Gay or Both?

Here is our confession. We are coming out right here in this blog post.

We wear a Speedo bathing suit every day that we go swimming. We have been doing this nearly daily since 1982. Speedo bathing suits are the best that there are for swimming. There is nothing gay about them. They are nylon or nylon and lycra and they are perfectly designed for serious swimming. There is nothing wrong with wearing them in the pool, near the pool or anywhere else. In the picture above we are wearing our Speedo suit at the Gordon Pool in Tel Aviv.

Candidate for NYS governor, Carl Paladino, has disparaged Speedo bathing suits in remarks that some people consider homophobic or anti-Gay.

It's one thing that he is a neanderthal right winger. It's another thing that he is obviously anti-gay. But when he turns anti-Speedo, he's gone too far. Shame on you Carl Paladino.

Here is a story from the blog, Gothamist about this whole matter:

Paladino Apologizes For Gay Remarks, Loses Rabbi's Support

Like a real-life Michael Scott, Carl Paladino must be getting used to apologizing for his continual gaffes and goofs: Paladino took the advice of the Mayor of 9/11 Town and formally apologized for the comments on homosexuality he made to orthodox Jewish leaders over the weekend. He wrote, "I sincerely apologize for any comment that may have offended the Gay and Lesbian Community or their family members. Any reference to branding an entire community based on a small representation of them is wrong."

Even so, he focused on his "poorly chosen words" rather than disavow the substance of his speech, which was anti-gay marriage. He still maintains that he dislikes gay pride parades and doesn't believe homosexuality should be discussed in schools. But he made it clear that he was a supporter of gay rights, and he was worried about the ramifications of his remarks. "My entire life, I have never equivocated at all on defending gay rights...Ugly. Horrible. My God. I didn't want any questions on this topic, because I don't want this feeding frenzy of nonsense going on in the press to hurt anybody," he said while campaign stumping.

The most breathtaking swimming pool in the world opens in Singapore

See the report here:

...the infinity pool seems to end in a sheer drop, it actually spills into a catchment area where it is pumped back into the main pool. At three times the length of an Olympic pool and 650ft up, it is the largest outdoor pool in the world at that height.

It features in the impressive, boat-shaped 'SkyPark' perched atop the three towers that make up the world's most expensive hotel, the £4billion Marina Bay Sands development in Singapore.

The Mah-Jongg (mainly Jewish) Tradition in Atlantic Beach

During our summers growing up in Atlantic Beach, we used to watch with an odd fascination from afar as the ladies played the mysterious game of mah-jongg all day long. Now the next generation carries on the tradition and the Times takes note and even tries to explain.

At These Cabanas, ‘The Tiles That Bind’
By JOSEPH BERGER
ATLANTIC BEACH, N.Y.
Summer Rituals
A weekly series on what makes summer summer for people in and around New York.

ON a blazing afternoon, the Silver Point Beach Club was as indolent as molasses, with some sun worshipers stretched out coma-like on lounge chairs and others, slightly more upright in lawn chairs, dipping drowsily into the latest romance novel. The only sounds were the snap of flags in a muscular ocean breeze, a seagull’s haunting cry and the din of the surf.

But then came some more-exotic noises.

“Two bam!”

“Two crak!”

“Four dot!”

It was the sound of mah-jongg, a call that, for some New Yorkers, is as redolent of summers past as a mint julep on the veranda is for Mississippians. At Catskills bungalows and the Rockaway and Brighton Beach shore, the sharp but soothing clack of mah-jongg tiles has been heard since the 1920s, when this Chinese parlor game first began to fascinate Jewish women.

At Silver Point, an unpretentious collection of hundreds of cabanas and lockers set along the Atlantic shore, five women — Joyce Cohen, Cora Sue Kaufman, Lonnie Parker, Susan Mingelgreen and Laurie Sheinberg — play throughout the summer. The women, most of whom are retired teachers from the Five Towns area of Nassau County, clack their tiles during the rest of the year as well. But summertime lends a special flavor to mah-jongg, with the baking sun, the sweet smell of tanning lotion and the brine-seasoned air...more...

Bergen Record Calls Our JCC on the Palisades Pool Quirky

Gee whiz. Do they have to editorialize about everything in the Bergen Record?

On the sports page, in an article about the Tenafly High School swim team, the paper proffers opinions about the character of the swimming pool that we do our laps in every day.

They happen to be right in everything that they say about the pool, especially the "quirks."

Anyhow, we can't figure out why a neighborhood so wealthy has no High School swimming pool and needs to use the JCC facility at off-hours. Neither can the sports writer at the local paper.

Sunday swim
BY DARREN COOPER
TENAFLY — Visitors to the JCC of the Palisades are directed to follow the yellow footsteps to the swimming pool.

The footsteps take one past the basketball courts, down hallways with shops on either side and past smiling pictures of the JCC hierarchy. Twisting and turning, swimmers and their fans finally arrive at one of the most unique venues for a high school sporting event, at an even more unique time.

It is 7 o’clock on a Sunday night at the JCC. The place is empty except for dance classes in the ballroom. In the pool, it’s a Tenafly home swim meet.

"For us, swimming at night, swimming at all hours of the day is what we are used to," said Tenafly senior John Bendes. "This is actually the earliest we come."

Tenafly, like many other North Jersey swimming programs, struggles to find pool time. Bendes is correct when he says Sunday at 7 is early; the team usually practices from 9-10:30 p.m.

"We just roll with it," said Marilyn Brown, the mother of Tenafly freshman Jessie Brown. "I think you have to give kudos to the team, who makes an extra special effort to get here and then get home at 11 p.m. and sometimes do homework."

The facility has a few quirks. The locker rooms are being renovated, so teams have to change in shifts in the family room. It’s generally either too hot or too cold in the pool. (On this Sunday night despite the chill outside, all of the ceiling fans were on.) There are no touch pads, and no shoes allowed on the deck.

Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel: Solid Swimming Pool - Leaky Finances

We were in Miami Beach to attend a wedding this weekend and had a chance to check out the high profile Fontainebleau Hotel mainly because it boasts one enormous swimming pool. We call it a great place to swim (~75 yards long).

But what is with those tall guards all over the deck and the open pool side cabanas with flat screen TVs? We wondered if this was a scene come to life from Woody Allen's film Sleeper. A friend observed that many of the guests looked like they were affiliated with shady elements, whatever that means.

And now we learn from the Miami Herald that although the utterly swank hotel has undergone in solid reality a total renovation, it stands on the shakiest of financial footings, as the owners teeter on the verge of bankruptcy.

Fontainebleau hotel's glitzy rebirth tarnished by debts
The Fontainebleau hotel's grand launch -- with fancy parties and lingerie models -- is a dim memory as financial challenges mount a year later.
BY DOUGLAS HANKS

A year ago, developer Jeffrey Soffer presided over the most lavish hotel opening in South Florida history as supermodels, pop singers and movie stars celebrated his $650 million renovation of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

Just weeks from his 41st birthday, the real-estate heir joined family friends James Caan and George Hamilton in the VIP section for a private concert by Mariah Carey. Victoria's Secret models sashayed in a televised lingerie show hosted by Heidi Klum.

Exactly 12 months later, the $5 million weekend bash seems a mere financial footnote as Soffer confronts mounting challenges at South Florida's largest resort.

Among them:

• Contractors claiming more than $60 million in unpaid bills.

In court papers and interviews, contractors say they were ordered to work double- or triple-time to get the Fontainebleau ready for the Nov. 15, 2008, Victoria's Secret show, but that the resort stopped paying its bills at roughly the same time.

• The possibility of bankruptcy.

For the first time, a senior Fontainebleau executive on Saturday said publicly that bankruptcy was an option under consideration as the resort tries to reduce its $660 million construction loan and settle the contractor claims.

Last year, the investment arm of the Dubai government paid Soffer's ownership group $375 million for a 50 percent stake in the Fontainebleau. That deal gave the Dubai entity, part of Nakheel Leisure, the option to take over restructuring negotiations if there were problems with the resort's loans.

Days ago, Nakheel exercised that option, said Hamza Mustaffa, Nakheel's managing director. On Saturday, he said Nakheel and Soffer were waiting for recommendations from a restructuring consultant on the next step, and that one of the options could be a Chapter 11 filing that would let the resort continue operating while forcing creditors to negotiate.

``We haven't made a decision right now if we're going to file, or if we're not going to file,'' Mustaffa said.

While Nakheel has officially replaced Soffer as the lead negotiator with Fontainebleau's banks, Mustaffa said Soffer remains in charge of the hotel and that the partnership is solid.

``This is not us saying, `Jeff, you're out and we're in,' '' Mustaffa said while praising Soffer's role as the Fontainebleau developer. ``We've been working together.''...much more...

Telegraph: Muslims Swimming Back to the Dark Ages

In the modern world we learn to respect each other's customs.

People who swim in public pools customarily wear bathing suits, not clown costumes.

There is nothing immodest about wearing a bathing suit at a public pool. It is accepted behavior and quite proper.

Men at the pool do not mistake the women who dress according to the prevailing norms as sexually provocative or immodest.

Yes, Ultra Orthodox Jews do not participate in mixed swimming for reasons that only they need to know and to explain to others if they wish to.

So too should be the case for Muslims in France or England. If they wish to act outside of the norms of society, they may stay home and do so and explain their decisions to their group's own members.

By imposing on others a practice that appears to be from the Dark Ages (calling it medieval would be anachronistic), Muslims are mocking themselves. They are not preserving any meaningful cultural or religious values.

See the story, which will continue to gather coverage in the media for another two or three weeks and then fade away, as the summer comes to an end.

ynet: Outrage? Iranian Mohammad Alirezaei Won't Swim Against Israeli Mickey Malul

We were just about ready to write a vigorous opinion to protest the outrage that ynet reports, namely that Iranian Mohammad Alirezaei won't swim against Israeli Mickey Malul at the world championships in Rome. He did the same thing at the Beijing Olympics.

We wanted to say this was an instance at least of bad sportsmanship on a national level, that it was a bad way to mix politics into an international sports competition, and perhaps that it represented a blatant racist act.

Then we remembered that... most of the Haredi, Hasidic and other Orthodox Jewish men that we know won't swim in the same pool with any woman.

Yes, different explanations. But similar outcomes.

So we said to ourselves, Never mind.

Phelps v. Lochte: The Duel of Perhaps the Greatest USA Men's Olympic Swimmers

The Times tells the tale of the Phelps v. Lochte duel that fueled a world record at the Olympic trials yesterday... a great story...

Rival’s Fast Finish Propels Phelps to Another Record By KAREN CROUSE
Michael Phelps set a world record in his first event of the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, touching just ahead of Ryan Lochte to win the 400-meter individual medley.

And today Hayley McGregory set a new world record in the 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha -- broken in the next heat by Natalie Coughlin. Much more to come at the actual Olympics...

Backstroke Record Lasts Only as Long as Next Race By KAREN CROUSE
Natalie Coughlin’s record for the 100-meter backstroke was broken by Hayley McGregory in the Olympic Trials Monday, so Coughlin lowered the record in the next heat.

Times: Training Secrets of Swimmer Ryan Lochte

I'm in the pool every day. And every four years the Times rediscovers the sport of swimming, just in time for the Olympics.

Faster, Higher, Stronger
A Swimmer’s Different Strokes for Success
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

RYAN LOCHTE may be the best American male swimmer not named Michael. At the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, he won a silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley, losing only to that Michael (Phelps, of course).

He also earned a gold medal as part of the 4-by-200-meter freestyle relay in Athens. And at the 2007 World Championships last March, Lochte shattered the world record in the 200-meter backstroke on his way to capturing a gold medal, serving notice for what may come at the Beijing Olympics this summer.

Lochte (pronounced LOCK-tee) swims 3 to 5 miles most days, sometimes even twice a day. Few non-Olympic hopefuls could, or would want to, replicate that kind of distance. But other aspects of the 23-year-old Lochte’s training (such as his use of fins and buoys) and routines (his dryland exercises) can be adopted by recreational swimmers or athletes, and perhaps even by parent coaches facing a rough patch with their teenage protégés. ...

Brown U will build new natatorium

I recall with great fondness swimming at 10 PM at the "new natatorium" at Brown in 1973. The pool has just opened and it was one small factor in my decision to attend Brown for graduate school. A brand new 50 meter pool - wow.

The Smith Swim Center was among the best in the nation when it opened in 1973. It featured a 50-meter long course, a 25-yard short course, spectator area, locker rooms and squash courts. Brown hosted major competitions at many levels.

The roof, which suggests a circus tent, became a landmark on the East Side.

It was my second favorite long course pool - after my favorite - the famous Gordon pool in Tel Aviv.

Well the pool has seen better days. It had to be closed because of timber rot. So now the Brown Corporation (=Board of Trustees) has committed to building a new $35 million structure. Good decision.