Commentary

Gretchen Walsh Tracking to Bring Individual Dominance to Long Course Worlds While she wracked up NCAA titles and American records in short course yards, Gretchen Walsh took a little longer to find her footing in long course. And even while representing the United States and winning medals at the 202...

The Importance of Sleep for Recovery: Make Sure You Follow These Steps Mac Robertson, Swimming World College Intern. Going to swim practice each day can become extremely tiresome to even the world’s best. The rest and recovery that occurs out of the pool can be just as essential to fast swimming as ...

Amid Historic Career, Katie Ledecky Just Had Her Greatest Achievement With Latest World Record Two main factors have made Katie Ledecky the consensus greatest female swimmer in history. The first is an unflinching consistency in the distance freestyle events, leading to a streak of dominance unparal...

It Takes a Village: The Support System of a Swimmer When I look back on my swimming career, the milestones and medals are clear—but what stands out even more is the incredible network of support that helped get me there. My parents volunteered as officials, drove countless miles to early morning pra...

American Men Seeking Answers in Stroke Events in Fort Lauderdale Nine months past the Paris Olympics, and the international outlook for United States swimming has changed relatively little. The women maintain the deepest team in the world, likely to arrive in Singapore for this year’s World Champion...

Could College Swimming Changes Lead to More Coaching Exits? The first departure was a coach who has captured three NCAA team titles while guiding numerous swimmers to individual Olympic gold. Greg Meehan had just led the Stanford women to their best season in six years, culminating in a runnerup nat...

Drowning Prevention Starts with Swim Lessons By The United States Swimming School Association Water activities are a source of enjoyment for people of all ages, but they also come with inherent risks. Drowning remains a leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths among children in the Unite...

Caeleb Dressel, Leon Marchand Take on Fort Lauderdale in Historic First For Men’s Swimming Only four male swimmers ever have won three or more individual gold medals at a single Olympics. This weekend’s Pro Series meet in Fort Lauderdale will mark the first occasion with two such champions competing...

15 Truths About Swimming Swimming is a sport like no other. You learn a lot about yourself throughout your years as a swimmer and the sport inherently instills valuable life lessons in you. Even when your time as a competitive swimmer is done, you still continue to learn more about the sport and hav...

By Alice Reeves-Turner, Swimming World College Intern. There comes a day in every swimmer’s career when they realise it is time to hang up the goggles. This may be for numerous reasons-- age, injury, lack of time for such a demanding sport or just simply falling out of love with swimming. Regardless...

Returning Kliment Kolesnikov Plus New Contenders Poised to Lead 100 Back in Singapore Twenty-seven months after Aaron Peirsol became the first swimmer under 53 seconds in the 100 backstroke, he smashed through another barrier by clocking 51.94. This was at the height of the polyurethane suit era in ...

6 Things to Take Away From a Bad Meet By Jacob Riley Alright, so you just came back and had a bad meet. You’re pretty down in the dumps because you didn’t put up the times you wanted to. This is a tough situation that even some of the greatest swimmers in the world fall into. A disappointing perform...

Motivational Monday: 5 Ways to Stay Motivated - A Letter to Those Who are Stuck in the Mud Dear Struggling Swimmer, You’re tired and sore all the time, you’re not getting anywhere, and all you want to do is eat a tub of Ben and Jerry’s, get into bed, and nap for the next few weeks. If you have been ...

Sacrifice and Reward: A Swimmer's Mental Battle By Ailish Dougherty It’s hard to describe that moment right before a race. I’ve heard of that mystical phenomenon of getting “in the zone,” where the noise, the movement, the thoughts in your head fade into the background and all you can see is the cle...

As swimmers, we can look for quick fixes. We know that we can adjust a flip turn here, tweak a breath there, and throw in a few extra dolphin kicks off of our start—and that could shave time off of even the shortest of races. However, we are not always eager to reach for the more long-term aids to o...

Thoughts From a Distance Swimmer: A Beautiful and Inspiring Part of the Sport In the fast-paced, highlight-driven world of sports, it’s no surprise that sprint events have become the crowd favorites. In swimming, the 50-meter races of each stroke have been added to the Olympic program, showcasing po...

7 Reasons to Swim Long Course By Emma Foster, Swimming World College Intern Long Course. These two words have huge implications for even the most seasoned swimmer. The beginning of long course represents the transition from shorter pools broken up into 25­ yards, to the much longer and sometimes mor...

By Chandler Brandes, Swimming World College Intern We all have a love-hate relationship with swimming. Although we sometimes complain about the early mornings and the hard workouts, at the end of the day, we keep coming back. We can get caught up in the stress of balancing classes, homework, practic...

The 3 Types of Swimmer: What Mold Do You Fit? By Annie Grevers (From the Archive) This may be a narrow view, but in the most simplistic language, there are three types of swimmer: The in-season sensation; the taper talent; and the forever fast phenom. Let's dive into a brief case study of each. 1. T...

Why Being an IMer is the Perfect Situation (From the Archive) By Cathleen Pruden Full disclosure: I am a 400 IMer and I absolutely love it. It took me a while to come to terms with my fate as an IMer. I struggled with the fact that I didn't have a "prime" stroke. It wasn't until being well rounded s...