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Newport Harbor High product Aaron Peirsol is among the nominees for the 2007 Golden Goggle Awards, an event celebrating the accomplishments of top American swimmers.

Peirsol is nominated for 2007 Male Athlete of the Year, where he will be up against fellow world record-holders Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. All three set individual world records this summer at the FINA World Championships.

Peirsol won the 100-meter backstroke at the world championships in Australia in March, lowering his own world-record time to finish in 52.98 seconds. It was his third straight time winning the event at Worlds and his eighth individual gold.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- When Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol is swimming in the pool, he's thinking about the declining health of the world's oceans.

The 24-year-old backstroke champion is back home to raise awareness about the importance of saving the oceans at Saturday's Green Port Fest in Long Beach.
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"The oceans are more or less in disrepair," Peirsol told The Associated Press on Friday. "Long Beach really is making an effort to acknowledge this and that's a great place to start. I'm trying to spread at least the knowledge that it's never too early to take care of our oceans and our environment."

Hey racers,

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was great – I spent it in Long Beach, Calif. at the Green Port Festival signing autographs for a few of you and also making a difference for the oceans.

I accepted a check for $10,000 from Toyota on behalf of the Race for the Oceans campaign. Toyota’s got this thing called the “Engines of Change” program, where they look to support athletes working at a local level to make changes on a more global level.

And speaking of donations, the Race for the Oceans campaign could surely use some more help. We’re not looking for anything big, but if a lot of people contribute a little bit we’re bound to make a big difference.

LONG BEACH - Over the years, Olympic swimmer Aaron Peirsol has noticed a major decline in Southern California's ocean water.

"We've started to see more red tides and closed beaches," said Peirsol, who got his start swimming and surfing near his hometown of Newport Beach. "The oceans today are in serious disrepair."

Peirsol won three gold medals in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and now holds the world record in the 100 backstroke and the 4x100 medley relay.

An advocate for ocean conservation, the swimmer spoke about ways to improve the world's oceans on Saturday at the Port of Long Beach's Green Port Fest.

Growing up in Newport Beach as a surfer, swimmer, and water polo player, Aaron Peirsol was certainly no stranger to the water. And while swimming pools never bothered him (he owns three Olympic gold medals and two world records), what he saw at some Southern California beaches left him a bit queasy.

“I remember going to Belmont Pool (in Long Beach) for swimming competitions, and it’s one of the nicest pools in the state,” says Peirsol, now 24 and training for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. “But the beach outside was polluted — brown water, garbage — and I thought there was something wrong with that. I thought that someday I might be in a position to make a change.”

Hey racers,

Check out this release the good people at Oceana put together about my upcoming trip to the Green Port Fest this weekend. I'm stoked to be headed back home for a few days and even more stoked that it's for such a good cause.

Here's the deal:

LONG BEACH, CA — On the road to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, three-time gold medalist and world record holder Aaron Peirsol, is making a stop at the Port of Long Beach’s Green Port Fest on Saturday, October 13, 2007 to address the declining health of the world’s oceans. Peirsol is returning to his home state of California to recruit advocates and raise awareness about the importance of saving the oceans as part of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc.’s “Engines of Change” campaign, a national program that supports top athletes who are making a difference and creating positive change in their communities.

Those interested in 21st century dockside operations, trains, ships, trucking, maritime culture or the environment are invited to visit the Port of Long Beach on Saturday for an annual festival showcasing the ins and outs of a working seaport.

The free event, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at port headquarters, 925 Harbor Plaza, includes field trips aboard boats and trains at locations around the harbor.

Billed as the "Green Port Fest," the event gives visitors an up-close look at port operations in the nation's busiest port complex, which, with neighboring L.A., handles nearly half of the country's foreign trade.

Newport Harbor alum Aaron Peirsol is using his fame as a three-time swimming Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder to bring attention to a different kind of water, one with no chlorine.

Peirsol will be at the Port of Long Beach’s Green Port Fest Saturday to adress ocean pollution. He’s hoping to recruit advocates and raise awareness about saving the ocean.

Peirsol is a spokesman for Oceana, the largest international organization dedicated to advocationg for ocean conservation. He launched a fundraising campaign for the cause on his website, www.racefortheoceans.org.

So far, Peirsol’s site has raised $45 towards its $10,000 goal.

Hey racers, if you live in the Long Beach, Calif. area, you should definitely head over to Port Fest on Saturday, Oct. 13 because I’m gonna be there along with Oceana staffers and their mascot Finley the "species-neutral" fish.

I’ll be doing some interviews and signing autographs, as well as exploring the Long Beach Aquarium, which if you’ve never had a chance to check out I highly recommend. I might even have the opportunity to talk a bit at the event about the Race for the Oceans project and the importance of saving our oceans.

Hope to see some of you there!

AP

Back to school, and now back to the pool. Yep, training has resumed after some down time since the Paris meet. Coach Reese (who’s the college coach at Texas and also our Olympic coach) has got us swimming once a day for now, but the load should be picking up as we get back into better shape.

I swam about 6,000 yards the other day. It sounds like a lot (well, it is), but we break it up so we’re not swimming it all at once. We’ll do something like swim three 200-yard rounds, then three 100-yard rounds, then three 50-yard rounds, and then we’ll rest and start all over. We also shake it up by practicing different strokes.