The Charlotte UltraSwim is going on right now and there was a great race tonight in the 200 Free featuring Michael Phelps and Swim Aid favorite Peter Vanderkaay.

It’s just too bad that the Associated Press thought that race was the 100 Fly. Have you seen PVK swim the fly? We have. And it aint pretty. (We still love you, Pete!)

Behold the screencap, because I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually fix it! They have to, right?

Also, what’s a “400 IM relay”? That was in that article as well. I’m familiar with a 400 Medley relay, but that event hasn’t taken place yet…

Oops?

Boy were we wrong!

After just one year, the Yetter train will be relocating to Florida and the club coaching realm. According to Swimming World Magazine, Paul will be the head honcho at newly established T2 Aquatics in Naples, FL.

Congrats, Paul! But again, we wonder if the porch disco ball is going to make the trip…

Way to give the head’s up Yetter! You emailed me like 3 days ago! *shakes fist*

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. USA Swimming and Ohio State can’t figure out what they want to call this meet. 2 years ago, it was the Ohio State Grand Prix. This time around it was the Columbus Grand Prix. According to the meet director, the meet will occur again next year. I wonder what it will be called then…

2. Easter weekend is a horrible weekend to have a swim meet. Attendance left much to be desired! I wonder how much money Ohio State lost hosting this meet…

3. This meet seemed like the ugly stepchild of Grand Prix meets. Now, I haven’t been to any other this year, but I can’t imagine any of the others being as ghetto as this one. Never, in my 5 1/2 years of attending/covering grand prix meets have I been to one that didn’t have awards ceremonies…until this past weekend. Blew my mind!

4. I also haven’t been to a meet where SwimStars.org made up approximately 1/3 of attending media.

5. Swimmers in the championship final get a say in the music that is played during the athlete parade to the block. I figured it did when I heard all the heavy hip-hop accompanying Felicia Lee’s events.

6. Speaking of Felicia Lee, she is the leading candidate for immunity here on Swim Aids. We don’t grand that privilege very often, but she is deserving because we love her! BTW, if you see her live, check out her shoe collection. She will soon be rivaling The Lochtenator for flyest kicks on deck.

7. We still love Coach Bob.

8. We became Markus Rogan fans during the Athens Games and this was our first time seeing him in person. We’re still fans

9. There were a lot of awesome swimming-related vanity license plates on hand for this meet.

10. We really, really, really miss Kaitlin Sandeno.

11. McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion is still the best indoor facility I’ve been to.

12. If we had the $$$, one of us would go to the Charlotte UltraSwim meet. We hear that everyone and their mama will compete there (because of all the prize money), so it will be the complete opposite of the Columbus Grand Prix.

13. Countdown is on for Irvine 2010. Be there!

Keeping with our recent posting trend of swimmers making public appearances, below are some shots of Amanda Beard (another longtime Swim Aid favorite) hosting an Olympic Opening Ceremony Viewing Party in Las Vegas on Friday.

The party, hosted in Lagasse’s Stadium at The Palazzo featured a pretty cool Olympic-themed cake. More pictures below.

Get that paper, mama!

Resident BAMF Dara Torres participated in the annual ‘The Heart Truth Red Dress’ celebrity fashion show Friday. It typically kicks off Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York.

See some more pics when you read the rest…

She don’t need no stinkin’ shoes! Fab dress, though.

You can watch the full video of the fashion show here. It’s just over an hour long.

Everyday he's hustlin. . .

Heeeeeyyyyy! Remember us?

We’re slowly getting back into the swing of things. That means we’re bound to be slow on general swim news for a while. We tend to peak during the summer when we’re up to our armpits is lots of swim news and swim trips. We hope this summer is no exception.

But for now, we thought we should say a little something as founders of the Austin Staab Fan Club. The latest news is that he has taken a leave of absence from Stanford.

“In other news, defending NCAA 100-yard butterfly champion, Austin Staab, has taken a leave of absence from Stanford University for a private and personal matter and will return to Stanford at a later date. Staab (Westerville, Ohio), a junior and 13-time All-American for the No. 2-ranked Cardinal, informed the team of his decision this week. Stanford asks for privacy in regards to this matter, both to the Staab Family and the Stanford Swim Program”

We’re not going to pry, not that we’d know how to even if we wanted to. We wish Austin well, but are a little bummed given that the Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championship are right here in his hometown (Columbus, OH) and you know he would have received a ton of support as he defended his 100y Fly title.

That’s life, though. Best wishes, Austin! But in his absence, the Fan Club will carry on!

Please forgive us for our negligence of this Swim Aids shrine. We know not what we do and can only hope our visitors return and forgive us for our sins.

No, seriously. We fell off for a bit, but it’s never forever. We’re never going away! Swim Aids Forever!

Our next apology is to the Swim Gods for not making it to the Minnesota Grand Prix. We booked our hotel back in early August and were pumped! Then life happened — along with some crappy roommates — and the entire thing fell apart. We’re sorry for that as well!

But don’t worry. There will be swim trips for us in early 2010 and we’ll keep you posted! If nothing else, Ohio State gets a Grand Prix stop, and I will be in the hizzy because I live in Columbus, just 10 minutes from the pool!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Download the full episode here or watch on ABC.com.

Now that the major International meet of the year is over, we’re going through a bit of withdrawal already. Yes, the US Open is going on now, but the writing’s on the wall. We’re pretty much not going to have any swimming to follow until October-ish when NCAA season kicks into gear. That’s when we’ll be back to stanning for the Michigan Wolverines, I guess. Different year, same ol’, same ol’.

So, we’re already looking ahead to next summer’s Conoco Phillips Summer Nationals in Irvine, CA. Can anyone say “party”?! Well, we can!

The Swim Aids conquered the 2005 and 2006 Summer Nationals that were held in Irvine and had a blast doing so! Well, except for some unnecessary drama and having to drive on Cali roads (I thought I was going to die). We can’t wait to do it all over again and here’s why:

1. It’s an outdoor meet! Most of us reside in states where meets are contested indoors. So the chance to enjoy swimming outside — and the frolicking that goes along with it — is just wonderful. We don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s that we don’t inhale as much chlorine, but we just enjoy outdoor competitions. We’re more spirited and fun, if you can believe that. Actually, most of us lost our voices cheering during the Irvine ‘06 Nationals.

2. In-N-Out Burger. ‘Nuff said.

3. Hot tub parties! The Swim Aids, for some reason, are obsessed with hotel hot tubs and jacuzzi’s. If our hotel has one, you will find us in it every night. That’s not even an exaggeration.

4. Most of the Swim Aids, if not all, will actually be able to make this meet. Our quality time together has been severely limited in the last 1.5 years. We aim to change that as soon as possible!

5. Tailgate possibilities. We’d like to think we were some of the first people to tailgate at a swim meet. Don’t be surprised if we bring that back next summer. Gotta make sure we get clearance/permits/etc. It’d be fun! Our last (and first) tailgate was a success! We had a pretty nice guest list which included Sir Phelps briefly, Katie Hoff, Kaitlin Sandeno, and Davis Tarwater. Debbie Phelps also stopped by and brought us cookies and balloons; which we later fought over. If we end up pulling off an Irvine tailgate, you won’t want to miss it. Trust us!

6. Post meet after parties. There will be some, and if we don’t have one ourselves, we will be cruising for others. Last time out, we partied with the Florida Gators and the Lochtenator. We owed him some Heineken (and still do), so we were able to get him some after the meet. It was a good time until hotel security shut it down! *shakes fist*

So, clearly we’re already psyched about next year! Show of hands: Who’s in?