Commentary

'We’re the Recruits Living This Nightmare'; How House vs. NCAA Reshaped College Recruiting A Firsthand Look at How House vs. NCAA is Changing Recruiting Away From D-I Programs The New College Recruiting Reality: House vs. NCAA and the Future of Olympic Sports Op-Ed: This article is an op-ed. The vie...

3 Reasons Age-Group Coaches Are Valuable in Molding Young Swimmers (From the Archive) By Julia Czentye (formerly Warnken) If you were a swimmer, you should remember your first coach, right? Or like any sport you played when you were young, some of the most memorable older figures were your first tea...

Is the NCAA Olympic Pipeline Collapsing After House v. NCAA?: What’s at Stake for Olympic Sports as College Athletics Restructures Part II in a three-part op-ed series Op-Ed: This article is an op-ed. The views expressed are solely those of the authors, Grayson Bloes and Atlas Metin, and do not nece...

Goal Setting for Age-Group Swimmers in the New Year  The first practice of the New Year always feels a little different.  The pool deck maintains the same chlorinated smell. The water is just as freezing. The beep from the clock on the wall still seems louder than it should. But something about Janu...

35 Things Swimmers Sometimes Take for Granted 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 ...

The Hidden Cost of House vs. NCAA: Is America’s Olympic Engine at Risk? Part I in a Three Part Series Op-Ed: This article is an op-ed. The views expressed are solely those of the authors, Grayson Bloes and Atlas Metin, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine or its staff....

Invisible Injuries in Artistic Swimming: Awareness, Resources, and Safety Measures By Kate Mortell, MS Artistic swimming (formerly known as synchronized swimming) on the surface appears as a harmless showcase of extraordinary poise and talent—a dramatic display of master showmanship and athleticism ...

In Defense of Short Course Season For much of the year, beginning in September after the summer championship season, swimming swaps out 50-meter Olympic-sized pools for their shorter, 25-yard and 25-meter cousins. During this transition, times get faster while turns and the underwater phase of races...

What I Wish I'd Known As An Age Group Swimmer By Temarie Tomley After celebrating my recent birthday, I realized just how old I’ve gotten and how long I’ve been in this game. I’ve been swimming for 15 years, and in those 15 years I have learned so much. Everyone’s journey through this sport is diffe...

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...

As holiday training prepares to ramp up, Swimming World is running this piece from the archive that emphasizes the connection between an athlete and the grueling nature of holiday work in the water and the weight room. The piece stresses the importance of this time of year, so get yourself ready to ...

Top Women's Performances of 2025: Summer McIntosh Tops List With Her First Record of the Year With the final days of 2025 approaching, it's time to look back on the year of swimming and determine the top performances in the pool. The list will emphasize long course and championship-winning performan...

Top Men's Performances of 2025: Leon Marchand Shines Again With 200 IM World Record With the final days of 2025 approaching, it's time to look back on the year of swimming and determine the top performances in the pool. The list will emphasize long course and championship-winning performances, and e...

Best of the Best: Stacking Up Summer McIntosh Performances From 2025 A run of world records at June's Canadian Trials gave Summer McIntosh numerous options to be considered as the top performance of the year 2025. The versatility of McIntosh is a trademark, and so is the dominance she has demonstrat...

Which Mile Are You Swimming? The Many Ways Distance Swimmers Count a Mile “50, 100, 150, 200… wait, was that the 200 or the 250?”  Whether we like to admit it or not, most distance swimmers have been there. You’re in the middle of racing a mile when your mind suddenly goes blank, and you silently th...

Cold Water and the Mind Behind Speed There is nothing worse than one of those first outdoor summer practices in May when the air has not touched 80 degrees yet. The pool sits there cold. Colder than cold. Jumping in feels like punishment, and getting through the set becomes the hardest part of the d...

David Popovici, Jack Alexy Chasing World Record of Enigmatic Pan Zhanle in Men’s 100 Freestyle Like many world records in men’s swimming, the mark in the 100 freestyle stood untouched for years following the polyurethane suit era. In a two-year stretch when the suits were legal, the long-standing wo...

Can Anyone Track Down Sarah Sjostrom’s World Record in Women’s 100 Free? When Sarah Sjostrom became the first woman ever under 52 seconds in the 100 freestyle, her world record seemed unlikely to last eight days, let alone eight years. On day one of the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Sjostrom...

The Art of a Negative Split: How the Tough Take Over Negative split. What does it mean? What is its significance? A negative split in swimming means the second half of the race is faster than the first half. It is a pacing strategy built around discipline. Start strong and controlled to conserve ene...

Leon Marchand Alone Atop 400 IM Rankings as Today’s Rivals Struggle to Make Inroads on All-Time List For Ryan Lochte, the best moment of his Hall-of-Fame career came on opening night of the 2012 Olympics in London. On that late July evening, Lochte declared his status - for the time being - as the w...