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Review Of 2012: August To Happy New Year

Jan 1, 2013  - Craig Lord

Happy New Year to all our readers. In Part 2 of our review of headlines in 2012, August to year-end, the news is dominated by the passing of our founder, Nick Thierry, the man who kept the swimming score for 40 years

AUGUST

11: China's Sun Yang, the first Chinese swimmer to win an Olympic gold in the pool with victory in world-record time over 1500m freestyle, is set to get $18 million in endorsement funds, two thirds to be handed over to China swimming, a third for the fed, a third to be shared among teammates

11: Michael Phelps teams up with Tiger Woods' former coach Hank Haney for a golf reality show

11: The 2004 and 2008 200m backstroke Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) is elected to the Athletes’ Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as one of four new members

16: And you thought he might be on his hols … Chad Le Clos, otherwise known to all from the back of his 14-year-old bro Jordan's t-shirt as "My Brother, My Player, The Phelps Slayer", qualified for the world s/c championships  .

17: The Olympic Games are done but the next generation is already stepping up to challenge the order of things: Akihiro Yamaguchi clocks 2:07.84 in the 200 breaststroke at the Japan Inter-High School Championships

18: Long-time Yale swimming and Hall of Fame coach Phil Moriarty passes away peacefully; he was 98 years old

19: The South African National Short Course Championships ended in Pietermaritzburg with 18 swimmers, including Phelps slayer Clad Le Clos, qualified for the FINA World s/c Champiopnships in Istanbul, Turkey, in December

23: Olympic champions Pieter Van Den Hoogenband (NED), Gary Hall Jr (USA), Yana Klochkova (UKR), Dagmar Hase (GER) and the late Italian head coach Alberto Castagnetti are among the Class of 2013 headed for the International Swimming Hall of Fame

25: Baltimore's fastest bullet has laid down his weapons but the Bob Bowman school of speed is on the move nonetheless: at the Junior Pan Pacs in Honolulu, Chase Kalisz cracks out a 4:12.59 victory in the 400m medley

26: Jack Conger (USA) earns the backstroke double a Junior Pan Pacs in Honolulu with a 1:57.20 meet-mark victory in the 200m - and then joins 4x100m free teammates for another of USA's six victories on the day

27: The seniors trounced all-comers at London 2012 and the USA junior team, with four gold that left six for rivals on the last day, top the table at the Junior Pan Pacs pool meet in Honolulu

28: British Swimming asks a rugby expert and Thomas Lurz, an excellent open water swimmer from a nation that had its worst swimming Games since 1932, to help find out why the vast majority of its swimmers stepped down at a home Games

SEPTEMBER

6: Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwean Olympic champion in 2004 and 2008, visits two Kenyan well construction projects run by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) as an ambassador for global swimwear brand, Arena

10: Olympic 100m butterfly champion and sub 56-sec pioneer Dana Vollmer features in an Australia documentary "On Bicheno Beach" alongside The Water Whisperer Milt Nelms and his wife, living legend ands national treasure Shane Gould

11: It looked like the end of the road for La Fed after three Games, London the weakest but the Italian is not done yet: Federica Pellegrini will take a sabbatical from 400m racing, focus on 200m - and have just the one coach on the way to 2016 

11: Bob Bowman, mentor to the greatest Olympian, Michael Phelps, joins Britain's London 2012 Performance Debrief panel

12: SwimNews announces that Nick Thierry, our founder and proprietor, is recovering from serious illness and is unable to man the editorial desk

12: Members of Australia's Olympic men's 4x100m freestyle team stand accused of engaging in pranks that damaged their efforts at the London Games and contributed to undermining morale; Brenton Rickard calls for wholesale change...

13: Sun Yang back racing with three golds so far at China Uni Games in Tianjin as he and 4x200m quartet go inside what was China record until 2009

13: Ben Titley, coach at Loughborough University to three medals hopes who just missed their mark in the pool at London 2012, set to leaveBritain for a new role as head of the National Swim Center Ontario in Toronto

14: A independent-panel review of the Australia's swimming performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games is to be led by former federal sports minister Warwick Smith

15: Japan's Akihiro Yamaguchi sets his sights on matching four-times Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima after breaking the 200 metres world record in 2:07.01 

16: Phelps may have been the most decorated athlete at London 2012 across all sport, his tally delivering the crown of undisputed greatest Olympian of all-time - but USA Swimming gave its top swimmer award to Missy Franklin 

17: After short-course nationals came to a close in Perth, Australia announces a team of 19, for the FINA World Short-Course Championships, to be staged in Istanbul, Turkey, in December, as tweaks are made to take account of problems at London 2012 - financial and team culture issues key to London 2012 inquiry Down Under

18: Former World Record holder Annamay Pierse, of Canada, retires

18: Aussie guru Don Talbot has calls on his nation's swimmers and coaches to rediscover "unity" in pursuit of regaining the world No2 spot lost to China at London 2012; he tells reporter Michael Cowley that sometimes the head coach needs to be "a bastard"

18: Olympic champions Yannick Agnel, Camille Muffat and Florent Manaudou lead large French squads for the World and European short-course championships; Agnel reveals that he has been swamped by marriage proposals from girls … and guys, since climbing …two gold medals at London 2012

19: USA Swimming bans Rick Curl for life  after the coach at the centre of abuse allegations waived his emergency board of review hearing and his right to a National Board of Review hearing

19: Libby Trickett and Melanie Schlanger air their resentment over the lack of action taken against a "disruptive" Australian men's 4x100m freestyle relay that arrived at London 2012 as clear favourites for gold but fizzled out in 4th

16: Frenchman Fred Vergnoux, coach at CN Sabadell and the man who guided Mireia Belmonte to two Olympic silvers, is Spain's coach of the year

16: Britta Steffen moves from Berlin to Halle to be with boyfriend Paul Biedermann

17: Nike terminates agreement with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong "due to the insurmountable evidence" that showed, said the sports kit maker, he had "participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade"; Armstrong steps down at charity too

19: Dinko Jukic, the Austrian butterfly specialist, responds to a 10-month suspension handed down by the Austrian swimming federation by announcing his retirement

21: Gemma Spofforth, British 100m backstroke world record holder, 2009n world champion, 2010 European champion and Florida Gator, hangs up her race suit for good; next up, post-grad counselling study, voluntary coaching and teaching at UF and an ambition to work with kids who need help

22: Mireia Belmonte and Aschwin Wildeboer, of Spain, opt to base themselves at Barcelona's CN Sabadell in readiness for a home World Championships in the fabulous Catalan Capital next summer - but for Belmonte, trouble looms and by the end of the year she will have left Barcelona in a storm of controversy with her club

22: Olympic 400m and 1500m freestyle champion Sun Yang easily wins the the  200m freestyle on the opening day of the Chinese national swimming championships in Huangshan, Anhui Province on his way to a freestyle triple 

22: Olympic 100m freestyle champion of 2008, Alain Bernard, 29, waves goodbye to swimming at a party thrown for him by his coach Denis Auguin in Antibes; Bernard will work in aquatic teacher training at a chain of resorts

22: Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old schoolgirl who swam in controversial fashion to 200m and 400m medley golds at London 2012, has received more than a quarter of a million euros from state and provincial authorities, and has been rewarders too with a luxury flat overlooking the ocean

22: French coach Philippe Lucas leaves Paris and sets up shop in Narbonne on a three-year, 150,000-euros-a-season contract; Leveaux goes with him; Pellegrini may follows but Italian debate goes on

22: French sprinter and 4x100m Olympic gold medallist Fabien Gilot has shoulder op and will be out of action until 2013

23: At China nationals in Huangshan, Anhui Province, 13-year-old Xu Danlu, of Ningxia, entered the 800m with a best of 8:37.65 and emerged champion in 8:27.43

23: Four US sprinters won the Raia Rápida [Fast Lane] dash duel in Rio. Adam Mania, Mike Alexsandrov, Eugene Godsoe and Josh Schneider clocked the best time ever in the non-official 4x50m medley race at the made-for-TV event

24: Plymouth Leander Head Coach Jon Rudd, guide to 15 year-old Lithuanian Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte, is named Coach of the Year by the British Swimming Coaches Association - beyond Martyn Wilby, part of the coaching team at the Florida Gators, Rudd is the most successful British coach at a "home" Olympic Games

24: Olympic champion Sun Yang, denies that he and overseas mentor, Australian Dennis Cotterell, have been told to part company by the Chinese federation after a story of divorce appears in the Chinese media

24: Norbert Warnatzsch's retirement didn't last long: the Berlin Neukolln coach, who left the stage in August lamenting the performances of Britta Steffen and a medal-less German team in London, will work on until a home Euro Champs in 2014

25: A Chinese official denies the link between China's Olympic swimming success and Australia's downfall in the sport; Xinhua says that that is "despite the fact that Australian coaches were giving Australians black eyes all over London"

26: Olympic champion and world record holder Sun Yang clocks 14:50.30 to take the Chinese national 1500m freestyle title in Huangshan, Anhui Province, for a third gold of the meet

26: Confidentiality will be assured to any who wish to give evidence to the independent review into Australia's performance in the pool at London 2012

26: The former head coach of Spanish Synchro stands accused by 15 former team members of verbal abuse; allegations and complaints put to federation "years ago" were ignored, say athletes

26: Denis Cotterell will continue to build China into a force fit to keep ahead of Australia; 20 swimmers to head to Miami from late December; Chinese swimmers to continue to spend most of their time back home

27: Sabadell in Barcelona throws double Olympic silver medallist Mireia Belmonte out of the club less than a year before the Catalan capital hosts the world championships; schism follows row over "rudeness" and "arrogance" at a celebration for London 2012 athletes

28: The Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra prepares to welcome 30 swimmers at the outset of a six-day Talent Identification camp led by High Performance Youth Coach Vince Raleigh; camp has no age limit, 24-year-old in the mix

OCTOBER

2: No sadder note has SwimNews ever sounded. Nick Thierry, our founder and publisher, keeper of the world rankings and bastion of swimming statistics, passes away in Toronto; he had suffered a stroke; his dedication and devotion will be sorely missed, as will a man of many talents well beyond the pool. SwimNews observes 10 days of mourning; SwimNews observes a period of mourning

11: The damning USADA report into Lance Armstrong and the USPS cycling team built to further his cycling career is not only significant to the future of the world of wheels but to the culture of all sport and those who run the show - swimming federations and swimmers will be forced by events to revisit official bios that cite Armstrong as a hero 

11: Lance Armstrong's United States Postal Service (USPS) Pro Cycling team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen", a USADA report says

13: World Cup, round 3, Stockholm, day 1: Katinka Hosszu (HUN) continued her winning ways after a golden run at the first two rounds of the cup; after victory in the 800m freestyle, she added triumph in the 200m freestyle, then the 200m medley

13: Barclay Nettlefold, a Melbourne businessman, is elected as President of Swimming Australia Ltd - and an Olympic medallist of 1992, Nicole Livingstone, joins the board...

14: Another sizzling day on world cup tour for Katinka Hosszu (HUN) resulted in three more victories and a silver a touch behind teammate Zsuzsanna Jakabos as the Stockholm round of the series came to a close

15: British coach Jon Rudd receives two top honours in Lithuania for coaching 15-year-old star Ruta Meilutyte to the Olympic 100m breaststroke title in London; he receives Cross of the Knight of the Order of Merits and Olympic Gold Star

15: Ian Thorpe suffered depression and drank to drown his sorrows, he reveals in his aquatic autobiography

16: Australia eyes the US college system as it tries to find ways of fighting back to the world No2 spot at Olympic and world-championship level; federation Down Under seeks director to provide knowledge for CEO and wants coaches under contract to Australia alone

17: Lawyers for the family of Fran Crippen, the American marathon swimming ace who died in a FINA World Cup in the UAE two years ago, have lodged legal papers to ensure that any potential claim against authorities will not fall foul of limitations law

17: At the World Cup in Moscow, Leah Smith, 17, and Becca Mann, 15, crack 8:20 in a stroke for stroke 800m free battle, while Katina Hosszu takes two more wins

17: Kim Brackin, coach and mentor to Kirsty Coventry and other world-class swimmers, launches Brackin Elite Swim Training (BEST), to focus on improving technique and efficiency for elite swimmers and triathletes

17: The board of the DSV, the German swimming federation, appoints Jochen Zinner to its "structural committee", the group considering changes in the wake of disappointing results at the London 2012 Olympic Games

18: Katinka Hosszu and Zsuzsanna Jakabos continued their rhapsody of Hungarian 1-2 finishes as the Moscow round of the World Cup drew to a close, Hosszu taking three more victories, in the 400IM, the 200 'fly and 100 IM

18: "A wealth of foreign candidates are being considered for the vacancy" of Russia head coach; appointment to be made by December 1; Vladimir Salnikov seeks candidate with "exemplary knowledge" and able to "see the trends in world swimming"

19: Federica Pellegrini is to train in Narbonne with Philippe Lucas

20: The top woman swimmer and the top women's coach from the US at London 2012 are teaming up: Missy Franklin is to attend the University of California and coach Teri McKeever, ending speculation over her NCAA choice

20: Japan's Daiya Seto set a World Cup record of 4:00.12 over 400IM in Berlin

21: Christian Donze, director of the French swim team that celebrated its best-ever Olympic Games swimming performance in London, dies after taking part in a mountain bike race. He was 51

21: Olympic champion Camille Muffat, coached by Fabrice Pellerin in Nice, falls just 0.01sec shy of taking down a shiny suit world record when she clocked a stunning 3:54.93 to win the 400m freestyle by 10sec at the Berlin round of the world cup

21: Australian 100m freestyle world champion James Magnussen tells Sunday Nine TV Down Under today that he made mistakes at the London Olympics but that those had made him stronger

22: The downfall of Lance Armstrong is almost complete: the UCI, cycling's governing body, stripped the American of all seven Tour de France titles and banned him for life in the wake of a damning report from USADA

23: Sally Foster is planning to pen a diary comparing her Olympic experience with that of her late aunt, Evelyn de Lacy, who raced four Australia at the 1936 Games in Berlin

24: Former head China coach Zhao Ge is among candidates for the Hong Kong head coach job after Chan Yiu-hoi retires early next year; a team coach at a time when China was swamped in doping scandals, Chan led his nation's team from 2000-05

24: In the wake of the Armstrong scandal, Dick Pound, ex-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and former swimming champion, says: "I think every sport is at risk. They use different drugs in different sports: track and field, swimming ..." 

24: Double Olympic gold medallists Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) and Yannick Agnel (FRA) are voted European swimmers of the year by LEN, while open water king and queen are Eva Risztov (HUN) and Thomas Lurz (GER)

25: USA Swimming Foundation grants reach $2.5m mark; that translates to 44,000 free swim lessons for children and saved lives; the investment feeds more talent into the world's dominant aquatic force in the elite pool

26: Disgraced Canadian coach Cecil Russell has had his prior lifetime ban from sport reduced to three years starting September 10, 2012 by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) as judge denies his appeal to end the ban altogether; strict compliance rules in place

26: Keri-Anne Payne, the double marathon world champion who fell a hand shy of the podium at London 2012 four years after silver at Beijing 2008, has left her base at Stockport Metro to follow new husband David Carry in a move to Edinburgh

26: Rick Curl, banned for life by USA Swimming last month, surrenders to police to face a charge of child abuse after allegations that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with a young swimmer in the 1980s

26: Cesar Cielo (BRA) announces that he will not defend his 50m and 100m freestyle world s/c titles in December, as he tries out new strength training

27: Both the 2019 and 2012 World Championships look set to be staged in Asia, with China, Japan and Korea the nations that have expressed an interesting in hosting the FINA long-course showcase event of five Olympic disciplines

29: The review into Britain's home Olympics has been delayed by a month but the report is set to suggest radical change in line with US thinking

29: Former World 50m breaststroke Champion James Gibson is appointed Interim Sprint Coach at Loughborough University 

29: The Olympic 100m butterfly bronze medallist and 2010 comeback swimmer of the year, Geoff Huegill retires from swimming for the second time

NOVEMBER

1: Olympic 200m breaststroke silver medallist, Michael Jamieson, Britain's most successful aquatic athlete at London 2012, is reunited with his Olympic kit after he left it on a train

5: The man who took down Michael Phelps in the Olympic 200m butterfly final, Chad Le Clos (RSA), is voted sports star of the year at the South African Sports Awards

6: FINA suspends the Ecuador Swimming Federation, due to "major interference of the Government in the functioning of the Federation"

6: FINA decides that Masters world championships are to be held immediately before the elite event from 2015

6: At the World Cup in Tokyo, Daiya Seto shaves a fraction off 400IM world cup record in 4:00.02 and Katinka Hosszu adds a further three wins - 200m, 800m free, 200IM, to take her World Cup Victory tally to 33

6: Aussie 'fly ace Jessicah Schipper and husband Brett Gillan are expecting a baby next April after an Olympic frolic at London 2012

7: On the last day of the Tokyo round of the World Cup, Hungarian Katinka Hosszu takes two more gold medals on her way to a $100,000 pay day when the curtain closes on this season's circuit in Singapore 

8: Double Commonwealth Champion of 2006, England's Ross Davenport, a three-time Olympic team member, retires

9: Alicia Coutts, with five medals at London 2012, has been unable to attract a single sponsor in 'swimming paradise', she reveals in interviews with the Aussie media

10: In Singapore, Hungarian Katinka Hosszu has the $100,000 World Cup prize for best woman in her grasp after two more victories at the start of the final round of the 2012 circuit ...

10: Olympic 100m and 200m backstroke champion Missy Franklin, of Colorado, sets a US junior record on her return to the limelight on the first night of the Minneapolis Grand Prix, a year out from a new phase of her career, at college

11: On the list of hard-working World Cup $100,000 prize winners, Hungarian Katinka Hosszu surely leads the way after concluding a tour of some 30km of racing with two more triumphs to take her tally to 39 victories at eight meets; World Cup Champion among men is Kenneth To (AUS), who also celebrates a $100,000 pay day

12: "Essentially we are moving from the toxicology approach that existed in the seventies to now a more forensic science approach" - Dr Mario Zorzoli, UCI Doc who says that the doping war can be won

12: David Davies, Olympic silver (2008) and bronze (2004) medal-winning distance freestyle ace, retires a decade after his international senior debut for Wales at the 2002 Commonwealth Games

13: Head of the Dutch swim programme Jacco Verhaeren will remain with the KNZB as technical director until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games but is to quit his role on the deck as coach at the NZE centre of excellence

13: Dr Pippa Grange and a team at Bluestone Edge will lead an "assessment of culture and leadership" in Australian swimming; move welcomed by swimmers' association...

14: London 2012 organisers admit that 1,047 tickets for swimming and 2,327 for diving were among 263,000 tickets unsold despite demand

15: Cal women's swimming heralds Missy Franklin's autumn 2013 arrival with official confirmation that the 17-year-old four-times Olympic gold medal winner from London 2012 has signed on the dotted line

15: Olympic 200m freestyle champion Yannick Agnel (FRA) sets a world short-course record of 3:32.25 over 400m at French nationals in Angers

16: Where men went back in 1978, Camille Muffat is threatening to go in 2012 as the Olympic 400m champion from France challenges the 8-min mark at the French s/c nationals in Angers, her 8:01.06 a world record that goes where no shiny suit ever went

16: The morning after setting a world short-course record of 3:32.25 over 400m freestyle at French nationals in Angers, Yannick Agnel clocks a European s/c mark of 7:29.17 in the 800m heats, the second fastest ever in textile after Grant Hackett

16: An Olympic medallist at 15 at a home Games in Sydney, Leisel Jones retires; she overcame adversity to become the world's pacemaker on breaststroke, crashing into uncharted waters in the middle of the last decade as the honours piled up

17: Australia, China and South Africa will clash in the 2013 BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series in Perth in January, with half a million dollars up for grabs over two days of racing in Perth; top team gets $100,000, it is announced

18: Nice training partners Camille Muffat and Yannick Agnel bring their French short-course nationals campaign to a world-beating conclusion with global textile bests in their respective 200m freestyle finals: 1:51.65 for her; 1:39.70 for him

19: Xu Danlu, 13, wins the 800m free at the Asian Champs in Dubai on 8:22.24, the swiftest for her age in history

19: The "Osaka Rule", which banned drug cheats from competing at the Olympics, has been scrapped from the latest draft of the WADA Code in favour of moving from 2 to 4 years for serious offences; back to where FINA was 10 years ago 

20: Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin are crowned king and queen of America at the ninth-annual USA Swimming Golden Goggle Awards their 8 gold, 2 silver and a bronze better than second-best nation at London 2012

21: Seven years after arriving in Shanghai with his Chinese wife to start a new life, British coach David Lyles finds himself honoured for his part in the achievements of six swimmers who have won 13 medals at Olympic, World and Asian levels

22: At the European s/c championships in Chartres, Katinka Hosszu (HUN) takes a brace of titles - 200IM, 200'fly (both in 2:05.78)

22: Kevin Neil resigned as Chief Executive of Swimming Australia, a move that the board of the federation accepted in the midst of reviews into London 2012 Olympic efforts; CEO role to be examined before new appointment

23: Michael Scott offers his resignation as Britain's performance director 

23: Australian swimmers are thrown a financial lifeline; a minimum war chest of Aus$10m over the next four years from The Georgina Hope Foundation Swimmers Support Scheme, formed after fed talks with Gina Rinehart

24: Denmark splits its top coaching job in two as it seeks new leadership after the departure of Paulus Wildeboer 

24: As the board of British Swimming accept performance director Michael Scott's resignation, parents of British Olympians take to Twitter to call on CEO David Sparkes to resign

24: Olympic reflections as the year draws to a close - at London 2012, nations boasted 82 swimmers honed in NCAA Division I. On average, the tuition grant for each of those kids is at least $20,000: a minimum $1.64 million of funding through the American system into the Olympic pool

24: At the European s/c Championships in Chartres, Olympic champion Camille Muffat sets a world record of 3:54.85 in the 400m freestyle; there is also a world textile mark for Vladimir Morozov (RUS), champion of the 100m freestyle in 45.68

24: Alicia Coutts is named the 2012 EnergyAustralia Swimmer of the Year at a gala dinner in Melbourne at the end of a stellar year in which she picked up five Olympic medals at London 2012; her mentor John Fowlie is coach of the year

24: Arena, the swimwear maker, signs deals with the Royal Dutch Swimming Federation

25: On the last day of action at the European s/c Championships in Chartres, Hannah Miley (GBR) sets 4:23.47 European record in the 400m medley on her way to a crack at the world title in Istanbul; Rikke Pedersen goes ER in 100 breaststroke

27: John Leaonard, head of ASCA, asks the world swim community to pray for the CEO of USA Swimming as he faces life-saving surgery after a long battle with cancer

27: Joanne Jackson, Olympic bronze medallist over 400m freestyle in the Beijing 2008 final won by Britain teammate Rebecca Adlington, retires

27: At Canada's annual Big Splash Awards Gala, Olympic medallists Ryan Cochrane and Richard Weinberger take top male honours; Martha McCabe is best woman

28: Bruno Fratus, the Brazilian sprinter, and coach Arilson Silva, join Andrea Di Nino, founder of the eponymous ADN Swim Project, as they prepare for a home Olympics at Rio in 2016; project grows with new collaborations

28: Dr Andrei Vorontsov, former head coach to Russia, will start a new job at the National High Performance Center in Stockholm from January 1

28: A week after announcing a $10m deal that establishes a funding foundation for athletes and coaches, Swimming Australia starts the search for a new Director of High Performance 'to help steer the sport towards future international success'

30: Olympic 100m back champion Matt Grevers and Kevin Cordes set US records in the 100y back and 100y breast and Missy Franklin takes a brace of victories at US nationals

30: The Lance Armstrong doping scandal, relevant to all international sports, takes a new twist today when the UCI announces an independent inquiry into all matters related to the USADA decision to ban the cyclist for life 

DECEMBER

2: The board of British Swimming welcomes the review panel report into British performances in the pool at London 2012 and says "system not broken"; main recommendations of report published but the entire document will never be made public to ensure confidentiality agreements are not broken

2: Dennis Pursley, the American head coach to Britain whose contract ended with racing at the London 2012 Olympics, talks to SwimNews about blame, "poor leadership" and a “perfect storm” of events that left swimmers “just the wrong side of a fine line” 

3: Ellen Gandy, the medal hope at a home Olympic Games in London who froze in the headlights and went down as the biggest miss on the British team, is to switch allegiance to Australia; 2014 will be first year of international eligibility for her new nation

4: Double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington calls for a radical shake-up of British Swimming's ruling board and says she feels "insulted, disheartened and saddened" because British Swimming "ignored" athletes

4: Scott Talbot, son of Don Talbot and Jan Cameron, is to leave New Zealand to take up a new role created by the NSW Institute of Sport and Sydney University from January

6: Rebecca Adlington holds talks with the British federation after criticising the board over its handling of a post-Games review; federation to meet athlete leadership group in January

7: Luis Villanueva, the Technical Director of the Spanish Swimming Federation, is to take up the role of High Performance Director in New Zealand

7: Britain is to switch to later trials, moving from a spring date to one a month out from the major international event of the year, in keeping with the US model recommended in a review of London 2012 performances; GB Open to be held March

8: The inaugural European Games are approved by the continents Olympic committees, Baku the host in June 2015, right before world titles, in the middle of the Mare Nostrum Tour, British Trials, Paris Open and all the rest - calendar chaos continues

11: Organisers of the 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona next July launch their ticket sales campaign, with prices starting at just 9 euros

12-16: World Short-Course Championships, Istanbul - USA follows up London 2012 dominance with victory in the little pool: full coverage

17: Olympic and world short-course silver medallist Michael Jamieson signs a sponsorship deal with British Gas, the energy company that funds British Swimming to the tune of £15 million

17: In the biggest kit coup of the commercial age in swimming, Arena lands a deal with USA Swimming under which the world's aquatic superpower will wear the 3 Diamonds brand for all national-team events for the next two Olympic cycles; Grand Prix circuit also part of the contract...

17: The question of China's missing EPO positive test result looms as large as Christmas: national team member Li Zhesi tested positive for EPO in March but her case file has yet to make it to FINA's list of anti-doping cases; FINA awaits news from China

18: British Swimming was the biggest casualty in a funding announcement from UK Sport for the four years leading up to Rio 2016, its budget cut by £4m; job cuts "inevitable" says chief executive amid calls for his own head

19: Francesca Halsall talks to use about how she wrestled with a shoulder injury, coped with home Olympics disappointment, emerged from a crisis of confidence feeling stronger; work underway with new coach James Gibson 

20: Brazil, host to the 2016 Olympic Games, has its 10th and 11th positive doping tests in swimming on its hands; at Brazil Open in November, Diego Prado tested positive for the steroid stanozol and Leonardo Sumida for marijuana

20: Fabrice Pellerin, mentor to Olympic champs Yannick Agnel and Camille Muffat, the freestyle duo who played a part in all but one of the national team's tally of 7 medals, is L'Equipe's Sports Manager of the Year; Nice launches new website for success story

21: World Cup queen Katinka Hosszu, almost 35km of racing in her 2012 treasury alongside a prize pot that will top $200,000 by the year end, is the star of the the short-course Salnikov Cup in Russia today with four golds and a silver on day 1.

22: For the first time in the history of Russian swimming, the coach of the year is a foreigner: Andrea Di Nino, head of the eponymous A.D.N Swim Project and coach to Olympic butterfly medallist Evgeny Korotyshkin 

22: the Canadian Olympic Committee awards Brittany Maclean the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in Toronto

22: Merry Christmas to all our readers at the end of a year in which we lost our captain, our founder and guide, the man who kept the swimming score for 40 years, Nick Thierry

In 2013, Nick Thierry's work will be honoured with a new start. A fresh platform is on its way and we will announce news come the moment. 

A happy and healthy New Year to all our readers.