In the midst of a dramatic budget shortfall, the University of Arizona has announced plans to make enormous cuts, which could include entire athletics programs. The school recently realized that its budget projection model for 2023 was off by $240 million, meaning that the school had only 97 days of cash on hand instead of a projected 156 days.

This week, Arizona President Robert Robbins told the school’s monthly faculty senate meeting, “This is going to require some draconian cuts” after he and chief financial officer Lisa Rulney described the situation as a “financial crisis,” according to Tucson.com. Robbins added,” I did know we were spending money, but I thought we had the reserves to spend money on… But this is a big miscalculation.”


 

New Zealand breaststroke star Monique Wieruszowski has become the latest Kiwi medal hope to change training bases this month, moving from Taranaki to Auckland.

Wieruszowski’s decision comes on the heels of Olympian Lewis Clareburt moving from Wellington to Auckland after a dispute over training time and facility availability at a community-owned pool.

Taranaki, on the western edge of New Zealand’s North Island, lacks a 50-meter indoor pool for Wieruszowski to train in, she told media in the country.

“It’s quite frustrating,” she said. “It’s quite hard to get to training and train easily. There’s not that many pools and it’s quite hard to find lanes and everything. “(It’s) only (25m pools) and then a 50m outdoor pool.”

Swimmers do not know the luxury of free time. Since we were little youngsters swimming 25s in the 8-and-under heats, we made a commitment to show up to practice every day and show up to every meet with vigor. This commitment only got stronger as our age division increased.

One-hour practice became three-hour practice. Playing wall-ball before practice became dryland workouts. One practice a day became two during the summer. It seemed like every hour of free time we were granted was traded in for more pool activities.