Check out this great SWOT Team video … SWOT is a partnership among Conservation International (CI), the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG), Duke University’s OBIS-SEAMAP, and an ever-growing international team of local organizations, scientists and conservationists.

In the spring of 2009, swimming stars Amanda Beard, Janet Evans, Jason Lezak and Eric Shanteau joined in the movement as coaches for The Great Turtle Race 2009. Check out this video of Eric Shanteau reacting to his turtle winning the race. Come on Backspacer!

Swim stars Jason Lezak, Amanda Beard, Janet Evans, and Mark Spitz have released some public service announcements about water safety. As part of the “Be Water Aware” Campaign, these messages “[focus] on educating the public on how they can stay safe in the water, including learning to swim, supervising kids in and around the water and much more!” (source).

Amanda Beard’s video has the most views, with 217, for her PSA on sun safety. Trailing in the number of views are Jason Lezak’s video on life jackets, and Mark Spitz’ PSA on following the rules (with 8 total views).

I guess people aren’t that excited about following the rules, even when Olympic legend Mark Spitz tells them to.

My friend Mike, of The Adventures of Travelin’ Mike, sent me this info just now. It looks like the next Great Turtle Race will be launching this Thursday, April 16th. The race is put on by Conservation International and National Geographic, and will track 11 leatherback sea turtles from the Canadian Atlantic coast all the way to the Caribbean.

There is a website that allows you to sign up for updates on the race (link). “All 11 turtles are tagged with a satellite-tracking device that will allow you to follow them, in real-time.” According to the educational website GreatTurtleRace.com, “U.S. Olympic swimmers Amanda Beard, Janet Evans, Jason Lezak, and Eric Shanteau will “coach” our competitors and post notes of encouragement to the turtles throughout the race.”

It is also rumored that Aaron Piersol and Rowdy Gaines have signed on to help out with this conservation awareness event, as well as rock bands REM and Pearl Jam.

For more information, and to track the turtles online, sign up on the Conservation International page here.

For the first time ever, swimmers swept the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Sportsman / Sportswoman of the Year awards. Michael Phelps took home Sportsman of the Year honors for the second time in his career, while Natalie Coughlin joined the likes of Janet Evans, Sippy Woodhead and Jenny Thompson as recipient of the Sportswoman of the Year.

A total of 13 swimmers have taken the honors 16 times. It is the first time in history that both Sportsman and Sportswoman honors have gone to swimmers.

>>Read the full story on SwimNetwork.com