This month, CBS News on Logo interviewed Lifesavers with Pride at the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. (click on this link to see the video on the Lifesavers with Pride blog.)

This seemed an appropriate moment to revisit Sydney’s out and proud gay lifesavers, who according to this month’s CBS story now number more than 90 trained lifesavers.

WetSpeedos last posted on my discovery of 18-month-old the Lifesavers with Pride blog in March, with this blog’s 100th post.

Here are some photos from a recent DNA Magazine photo shoot with Lifesavers with Pride. Credit goes to the blog aussielicious for the alert on this DNA Magazine coverage. Also, I’m posting a bunch of photos from the Lifesavers with Pride blog.

A second post follows.

From Finneye’s latest swimming photoset on Flickr.

PlanetOut.com/Gay.com has posted a coming out interview this past week with NCAA swimmer Scott Jordan. Here’s the story, and the photos from it.

Taking the plunge:
An NCAA swimmer comes out and excels
by Robert Ordona

He’s a tall, hunky, lean and ripped champion swimmer at New York’s St. Bonaventure University, but Scott Jordan found himself in too deep when he realized he had to come out to his teammates at his small-town school. The 21-year-old swimmer talks to us about his teammates’ reactions, his views on masculinity and his search for love in all the wet places.

You’re gay and you’re a jock. When did you first realize you were a jock?

I learned to swim when I was really young — 2 or 3 years old. When I was 11, I joined a club team, which was when I first started swimming seriously. We trained all year and I had a really good coach. I found it easy and started winning. But I played other sports, too — baseball, soccer, basketball. I made my town’s all-star team in baseball when I was in eighth grade, but I got to the point where I was much better at swimming. It was what I wanted to do and saw that I had the ability to get a scholarship for college as a swimmer. And so I kept swimming and I love it.

And when did you realize you were gay?

I’ve always known that I’ve been attracted to men, since puberty — 11 or 12 years old, but I didn’t realize I was different till maybe I was about 15, when I understood what a gay person was. I kind of made a connection, like, “Wait a minute, I have these sexual feelings for men and that’s the definition of a gay guy.” I guess that connection made me a little fearful. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I could actually admit to myself that I was gay.

I grew up in Connecticut, which is very liberal, but I’m from a pretty small town of about 8,000 people. When I was 18, I decided to come out to my family. We were on a camping trip and I was sitting next to my mom by the fire and I said, “I have something to tell you,” and then I just broke down and started crying. And she goes, “Did you get a girl pregnant?” And I’m like, “No, no!” And she thought for a moment and said, “You’re gay.” And I’m like “Yes! Yes!”

Her reaction was really good. She hugged me and said that everything was going to be fine.

Read the rest of this extensive interview here.

Like other speedo fan bloggers, I think I’m beginning to regret the move toward full body suits. These new Speedo LZR suits look a bit like wetsuit armour. They are not pretty. They are efficient. Sigh.

Joel Greenshields adjusts his cap as he participates in the 400m Medley Relay timed trial wearing his new Speedo LZR suit at the Canadian Olympic swimming trials in Montreal in this April 6, 2008 file photo. (Christinne Muschi/Files/Reuters)

Sunday, Reuters posted one of the most important stories about competitive swimming in years. With tensions running high in the swimming world over who will wear — and who will be allowed to wear — Speedo’s new LZR suit at this summer’s Beijing Olympics, all of the other major competition swimwear brands are scrambling to produce comparable suits in order to keep their sponsored swmmers and swim teams from jumping ship to Speedo. Arena, Adidas, Nike, Mizuno, Descente, Diana and Asics all are facing a fall off in sales compared to Speedo because of the new Speedo LZR suit.

Here’s the beginning of the Reuters article, including a jump to the source story on Yahoo News.

Speedo’s suit divides swimming world

Reuters
By Ben Klayman
Sun Jun 22, 8:09 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A revolutionary bodysuit has divided the world of swimming into the haves and the have nots just weeks before the Beijing Olympics, testing relationships between federations, athletes and rival suppliers.

Australian and U.S. swimmers and others wearing the Speedo LZR Racer suit have set 38 world records since its introduction in February. Australian Libby Lenton said it made her feel she was swimming downhill.

As the buzz has grown — an LZR is even on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in an exhibit on superheroes — swimmers using other equipment are weighing the merits of breaking existing contracts and switching to Speedo.

And rival manufacturers are rushing to upgrade their bodysuits to a level that will satisfy swimmers and federations desperate to win medals in Beijing in August.

Perhaps the highest-profile revolt was by Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima, who won 100-metre and 200-metre gold in the breaststroke at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

His move forced the Japanese team to ditch its contract with Mizuno and two other suppliers and allow swimmers to race in LZR suits.

The Italian swimming federation, which has an agreement with Arena, said its athletes can break the contract if they are prepared to pay a fine.

And German swimmers are expecting Adidas to upgrade its suit in what former world record holder Britta Steffen called a technological race that “seems a bit like Formula One.”

Introduced 15 years ago, bodysuits have drawn charges of unfair advantage ever since. In 2000, Australia’s most famous swimmer, Ian Thorpe, demanded to wear an Adidas suit at the Sydney games, despite his federation having a contract with Speedo.

They range from full suits to torso and waist-to-knee suits, and have carried names like Acquablade, Fastskin, Sharkskin and Jetconcept.

The LZR suit, designed with help from U.S. space agency NASA, keeps swimmers in a corset-like grip which allows the swimmer to maintain the best body position in the water for longer and reduce drag.

Some reports have credited it with reducing swimming times by up to 2 percent, although Speedo officials said that is impossible to verify.

Read the rest of the story here.