August 19th,2006

Speedo in New Partnership with b5media at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships

By Duncan Riley

Speedo, the world’s leading swimwear brand, has announced the newest installation of its “Speedo Make Waves” podcast series – daily podcasts from the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Vancouver, Canada (August 17-21), the biggest international swim meet of the year which has already witnessed two new world records by Speedo sponsored athletes Michael Phelps (USA) and Jessicah Schipper (AUS).

In a new partnership with b5media and Olympic US gold medallist Scott Goldblatt, editor of b5media’s swimming blog Timed Finals, the “Speedo Make Waves” Pan Pacs podcast offers a unique insight from the pool deck along with daily news and interviews with some of the world’s top swimmers as they compete for glory.

As host, Goldblatt made blogging history by being the first Olympian to blog live at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He said: “Speedo has truly made waves in introducing podcasting to the swimming world. While podcasting is not a new medium, connecting world class swimmers to the swim fan is. Swimming, for a long time, has needed the benefit of this forward thinking to reach the time conscious sports fans. Bringing swimming directly to an audience ‘on the go’ is a great advance for the sport from Speedo.”

In addition to the “Speedo Make Waves” Pan Pacs podcasts, Goldblatt is also posting daily content from the Championships on Timed Finals

This is the fifth edition of Speedo’s new Make Waves Podcast Series, following the global success of interviews with US phenomenon Michael Phelps and US Olympic gold medallist and cover girl Amanda Beard. The series then followed with a special edition video podcast starring Australian sensations Leisel Jones and Libby Lenton. Last week, James Hickman (British swimmer and five times World Champion) and Ada Kok (1968 Olympian) served as guest podcasters reporting from the European Championships in Budapest.

The podcasts are available at www.speedo.com/podcast and can also be downloaded and subscribed to from iTunes. To read Scott Goldblatt’s daily blog postings from Pan Pacs, visit www.timedfinals.com.

The Conversation

angelo on August 20th, 2006 at 02:09

woot! Grats boss!

Maria making pictures on August 21st, 2006 at 13:31

Interesting development.
I guess speedo is tasting new ways to find active people who enjoy life as much as they can.

Thank you for sharing this story with me !

Robyn Tippins on August 21st, 2006 at 21:52

That is very, very cool. I was already impressed that we had a gold medalist blogging, but to be speedo-casting too… Mucho cool!

Ramsay on August 21st, 2006 at 23:16

This is fantastic! Great news for Bloggers and b5! Well done.

Duncan on August 24th, 2006 at 01:39

thanks guys, it’s a first for us, and I only hope we can do more, particularly in helping Scott out in the leadup to the 2008 Olympics…that he keeps refusing to swim for Australia is another matter I’ve still go to work on :-)

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