The following overview covers the news and facts that characterized the swimming world in 2010.

Part 1, JANUARY - JUNE

JANUARY

05
Mark Regan new NZ swim coach. Australian Mark Regan was named head coach of Swimming New Zealand. FINA and The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have extended their partnership by an extra three years in a deal that takes the arrangement through to 2013.

16
Zhang Lin and Liu Zige were Saturday named Chinese male and female Athletes of the year, by CCTV.

18
The FINA Bureau, at its meeting in Bangkok, considered some anti-doping issues and a couple of innovation in open water discipline. Anti-doping programme: Investigate the introduction of the “biological passport” for athletes Open Water Swimming: Launch of a team event (one man, one woman team time trial), starting from the 2011 edition of the FINA World Championships in Shanghai (CHN) Creation of a FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships, starting in 2012.

20
George Bovell and Kimberlee John-Williams were named male and female swimmers of the year for 2009 by Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT).

Auckland’s Cameron Gibson retired from competitive swimming, ending a successful 10-year career with the national team. Gibson, 27, is a two-time Olympian (Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008) and won a bronze medal in the 200 metres backstroke at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

FEBRUARY

05
Clarke Scholes, a Michigan State University swimmer who won a gold medal in the 100 metres freestyle at the Helsinki Games in 1952, has died. He was 79.

11
Ohio State’s men’s swimming coach Bill Wadley has been appointed Interim FISU (International University Sports Federation) Technical Swimming Chairman.

16
Brazilian swimmer Vinicius Rocha Barbosa Waked tested positive to banned substance during the Troféu Open de Natação in December 2009, Fina said in a statement.

MARCH

07
Michael Phelps has set the men's 200-yard fly national record at the Maryland State Championships held in Annapolis this weekend. The US superstar touched in 1:39.65, beating his previous mark of 1:39.70 set in 2006.

14
The Circolo Canottieri Aniene swim club based in Rome, has won the Italian team title at the final event of the Coppa Brema Trophy, held on a short-course, in the Massimo Rivetti swim complex in Biella, on Sunday. The men’s team scored 91 points while the womens achieved 99.5.

16
Multiple Belgian champion Bruno Claeys is retiring from competition to become a comedian. The 28-year-old backstroker is unbeaten in the 100 metres event since 2001 and still holds the national record for this event (55.65, Eindhoven 2008).

Swimming Australia announced to have signed a new contract with Singapore Airlines. The partnership will see Swimming Australia use Singapore Airlines as its preferred carrier for all international team travel where possible, providing valuable support and travel assistance for Australia’s most successful Olympic and Paralympic sport.

Leigh Nugent was today named head coach of Swimming Australia for the next four years. He will be responsible for heading the Australian team's build-up to 2013, with a three years option up to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

24
US swimmer Dana Vollmer of California Aquatics signed a two-year endorsement contract with Speedo, as she became professional swimmer.

Japanese legendary swimmer and former world record holder Jiro Nagasawa has died due to throat cancer. He was 78. Nagasawa was the first athlete to set a world record swimming modern butterfly.

Former US Olympian Kristy Kowal was among the athletes inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. In 1998 she became the first American woman to win the World Championship title in the 100 breaststroke and two years later she got a silver medal in the 200m breast at the Sydney Games. She retired from swimming in 2004.

26
Pescara will host the 2010 Seven Hills Swimming Trophy, on June 11-13, Swimming Italia said in a Satement. The meeting has been held in Rome, in the Foro Italico swimming complex, since 1962, while Pescara hosetd the 16th Mediterranean Games last year.

APRIL

03
USA Swimming announced a new contract with Universal Sports until 2012 which will allow the coverage of the USA Swimming Grand Prix Series. 03 Chris Nesbit has been appointed to lead the English team in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

04
Former Olympic champion Laure Manaudou of France, gave birth today to her first child, a daughter, with swimmer Frédérick Bousquet, the Chairman of Cercle des nageurs de Marseille (CNM) Paul Leccia announced. The baby, weighing 3,7kg, was born in Marseille and named Manon.

09
A couple of swimmers have been banned from competition because guilty of doping, FINA announced this week. Nikita Leviakov (RUS) was tested positive to the substances Stanozolol and Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone metabolites, Wei Kun (CHN) was tested positive to the substance Formoterol.

11
France’s Jean Boiteux, who won an Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres freestyle in Helsinki in 1952, has died accidentally. He was 76. At the 1952 Games he won the bronze medal with the men’s 800m freestyle relay and during his athletic career he also won 44 national titles.

15
Former head coach Alan Thompson has been cleared of an allegation of misconduct, Swimming Australia said yesterday, since a probe found no evidence to back anonymous allegations of professional misconduct.

18
FINA cancels diving world series event scheduled to take place this week in Sheffield, due to volcanic eruption in Iceland.

25
Gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer Jason Lezak, was among seven inducted into the Jewish Hall of Fame. The 34-year-old was part of the USA 4x100m medley relay and 4x100m freestyle relay teams which won gold at the Beijing Games last August.

Olympic champion Federica Pellegrini is to be the new face of Italian energy supplier Enel. Pellegrini will launch a campaign with a TV advert for this year.

29
Sonja Schöber was suspended for a year by the German swimming federation federation Thursday after an elevated testosterone test.

MAY

04
Swim legend Ian Thorpe has denied reports he plans to make a return to competitive swimming. Reports this week claimed the Australian intends to comeback to competitive swimming in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

05
British Swimming has appointed Jo Kirk, Head of International Programmes at British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS), to the newly created role of Manager of National Team Environment.

06
Philippe Lucas will coach French sprinter Amaury Leveaux, Ramzi Khiroun, the spokesman of the Lagardère Paris Racing swim club said in a statement.

17
Swimming's governing body pulled the 2013 world championships from Dubai because of financial commitment. The decision has been agreed between FINA and Dubai Worlds Organizer last week. Anyways, Dubai would still host the World Swimming Championships on a short-course next December.

20
Swimming New Zealand has appointed Scott Talbot as new coach at High Performance Centre at the Millennium Institute in Auckland.

24
Richard Locke, longtime Secretary of US Virgin Islands Swimming passed away in a Gainesville, Florida, hospital while waiting for a lung transplant.

26
USA Swimming has released a list of 46 coaches banned from the Organization. Of the 46 names released by the organisation, the breakdown of offenses is: 36 sexual misconduct or inappropriate sexual behavior, 2 fraud, deception or dishonesty, 2 unspecified felonies, 1 illegal drugs or substances.

JUNE

02
Dutch Olympic Champion Marleen Veldhuis, gave birth to her first child, a daughter. The baby, weighing 3260g, was born in Eindhoven and named Hannah. Mum and baby are doing fine, as is dad, Camiel.

17
Olympic medallist Martina Moravcova, 35, has given birth to her first child, a daughter by the name of Karolina. Congrats to swimmer, dad and the new champ to be.

20
Circolo Canottieri Aniene wins the Italian championships for the fourth consecutive year at Le Naiadi Swimming complex in Pescara. The team of Federica Pellegrini won the 23rd edition of the tournament scoring 306 points winning ahead of Ispra Swim Planet (235) and Larus Nuoto (199). Rari Nantes Torino and Salaria Nuoto were relegated to second division for the next year.