PHOENIX, Arizona, April 28. THE top five stories coming out of last week included a huge return of the Greatest of All Time, a sport mourning after the loss of a great man, and an historic team retaining rights to remain put for another two decades. Let’s get started with our top five countdown.
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The Mission Viejo Nadadores had a bit of a dog fight at City Hall to renew their exclusive rights of the city-owned facility Marguerite Aquatics Center. The Nadadores successfully renewed a 20-year agreement with a 4-1 vote. Expect Mission Viejo to continue pushing out strong talent for the next 20 years.
The swimming community had their eyes on the Arena Grand Prix in Mesa, Ariz.,this past weekend. Unfortunately fans did not get see Ryan Lochte swim Saturday finals because of an aggravated knee. The 200 IM Saturday morning was Lochte’s first attempt to race breaststroke since injuring his knee in a fan related accident. While his butterfly currently ranks among the fastest in the world, it looks like his IM is a little further from ready than we all hoped.
Cesar Cielo continues to push forward and mark his spot among the dominant sprint freestylers. This past week at the Maria Lenk Trophy meet in Brazil Cielo clocked a 21.39 in the 50 freestyle to move him to the top of the SwimVortex world rankings. His time is only 7 one-hundredths off his textile best from the World Championships in 2013.
The swimming community suffered an unexpected loss this past Thursday. University of Florida’s head diving coach Donnie Craine died in a boating accident off the coast of Bokeelia. The investigation currently believes Craine’s boat collided with another boat after they both turned the same direction and hit each other. Craine is survived by his wife Mindy and three children Keith, Christopher and Stephanie. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Craine family and the Gator community.
And finally our number one headline of the week is the return of Michael Phelps! We all hoped he would return and he did. Every sports news outlet in the world anxiously waited to see how he would do in his first meet back after the London Olympics. Well he got second to Ryan Lochte and swam in lane 8 in the 50 which was probably the first time he’s ever done that. But with that said, he proved to have enough speed that we should see him represent the United States at the end of the season on the Pan Pacific Team in Australia.
As for his event line up, he claimed in a press conference he will never ever again swim the 400 IM. But didn’t he say that about retiring? Well the Under Armour sponsor has yet to sign a swim suit deal since his contract ended with Speedo. Everyone will anxiously wait to see what the greatest athlete will swim and in what!
