Coach Phelps

We’ll kick off this Friday’s news update with a fun little story about Michael Phelps.  He’s jumped into the pool once again, but this time not to train or compete, but to teach.  This past week he helped 60 middle school students learn how to swim as part of the Make A Splash program that aims to make swimming lessons available to all.  Can you imagine showing up for your first day of swim lessons to find Michael Phelps as your teacher!?!  How fun!

In other Team H2O Audio news, the triathletes are at it again.  This weekend Laura Bennett will compete in the race the ITU calls the ‘worlds largest triathlon‘ in Hamburg, Germany.  While Greg Bennett will race in the third event of the Lifetime Fitness Series in New York and Craig Alexander will take on the Racine Ironman 70.3 in Wisconsin.

Also, in the ocean, the ASP Would Tour has invaded Jefferys Bay in South Africa, with the competition heats starting Thursday.  You can check out the rankings and match ups here.

Slater Trout adding another victory to the list.

Another busy weekend for team H2O Audio, with great performances and first place finishes.

Starting with the swimmers, Michael Phelps was competing close to home in the NBAC Mid Summer Classic where he nearly cleared his seasons best time in the 200 fly.  Natalie Coughlin also wasn’t far from home taking first place in the 100 back at the LA Grand Prix of Swimming.

In the Triathlon world, Craig Alexander took third a mere second behind the top two finishers, while Greg Bennett wasn’t far behind finishing 8th at the second event of the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series in Minneapolis.

Also, paddling phenom Slater Trout, took a break from learning to drive with his new learners permit to grab a first place finish at the Hennessey’s US Championships in Redondo Beach California.  Aside from taking to the roads and winning trophies, he’s been spending his summer participating in Junior Lifeguards and working on his outrigger canoe paddling skills.

Greg Bennett will join Crowie at the LTF Tri this weekend.

We hope everyone, including our H2O Audio Athletes enjoyed their 4th of July weekend, but now it’s back to business!  Both swimmers and triathletes will be competing this weekend in different locations across the US.

Natalie Coughlin joins 12 other fellow Olympians at the Los Angeles Grand Prix, which is the final stop of the USA Grand Prix Swimming Series.  The event started yesterday and runs through Sunday.  Check back next week for an update on how Natalie swam.

Craig Alexander and Greg Bennett will go head to head in the second race of the Life Time Fitness Series this Saturday in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  This will be Greg’s first race after 5 weeks of rest due to illness, and also marks the start of three straight weeks of competition.  There’s never a dull moment in the triathlon world!

Natalie Coughlin did what she set out to do in Santa Clara.

Natalie Coughlin did what she came to do this past weekend at the Santa Clara Grand Prix of swimming.  Although her time for the 100 freestyle put her last in the field of 189 swimmers, her 50 split of 25.63 was what she was after.  That time will qualify her to compete in the upcoming U.S. National Championships.  Read more on the Santa Clara Grand Prix on Swimnetwork.com

H2O Audio Triathletes, Greg and Laura Bennett, were scheduled to compete this weekend in Philadelphia in the first of the Lifetime Fitness Series events, but have had to withdraw due to illness.  Just a pestering sinus infection, the Bennetts are planning on resting up and being back in top form to continue with their competition schedule.  Also, Ironman Craig Alexander is in the midst of competition season, check out a recent interview about his career future Ironman plans.

Waterman Laird Hamilton has always been vocal about ocean conservation and recently took a trip to the Gulf Coast to further aid efforts related to the BP Oil Spill and posted photos and videos on his blog.

Team H2O Audio was on the competition circuit this weekend!

Ironman Craig Alexander repeated as the Boise 70.3 champ in a close victory just 10 seconds in front of second place finisher Ben Hoffman.  And while both Greg and Laura Bennett were scheduled to race at the Hy-vee triathlon in Iowa, Greg had to withdraw due to illness.  But, Laura still raced strong finishing 6th amongst the tough female competitors.

For the swimmers, while Natalie Coughlin was making the trip home from the Mare Nostrum swim series in Europe, Michael Phelps was racing close to home in the North Baltimore Long Course Championships.  Just coming off three weeks of training at altitude in Colorado, Phelps took 1st in both the 100 breast and 100 fly.

An important race in the Stand Up Paddle world, the Gerry Lopez Battle of the Paddle hosted over 600 of the worlds top competitors in Honolulu over the weekend.  Our own Slater Trout put up a solid fight to finish 7th.  He details the play-by-play of the big race in his latest blog posting.

This is just the start of the competition season for team H2O Audio, keep checking back every Tuesday for the latest standings.