Noè Ponti Talks Military Service, World Records & Taking A Break From The 200 Fly
Noè Ponti is on a train returning home from his first week of military service after a whirlwind few weeks in which he twice lowered the 50 fly short-course world record before reporting for duty.
Military service is mandatory for men in Switzerland with Ponti based in Macolin in the canton of Bern from Sunday to Friday. His obligations, however, will not preclude him from competing at next month’s World Short Course Championships in Budapest.
There he shares a room with a fellow swimmer, doing “basic military stuff” while training once a day in a 25m pool on the base as well as making a twice-weekly 30-minute trip to a 50m pool.
Noè Ponti: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The 23-year-old will spend four weeks in Macolin before returning to his base at the National Training Centre in Tenero where he is coached by Massimo Meloni and Andrea Mercuri.
Given he is based at a national high-performance centre, the Tokyo 100 fly bronze medallist will there complete his military service which will end in March 2025.
Clad in military fatigues, Ponti told Swimming World: “Us athletes we don’t have weapons…it’s more basic military stuff – nothing special or extraordinary.”
He added:
“We’re able to train: there are some basic rules we have to follow but in the end it’s a bit easier (than regular military service). Also, they let us train because the one I’m doing is only for elite athletes.
“So, we have to be in the national team at least and you have to have good potential to win medals or qualify for some international meets in the future. If you have the standards, you can do this kind of military service. In Switzerland it’s mandatory to serve in the army and like this you can also train.”
Re-Writing The History Books
Ponti finished second behind Leon Marchand in the overall men’s rankings on the World Cup tour which ended earlier this month after sweeping the 50/100 fly double at each of the three legs in Shanghai, Incheon and Singapore.
He lowered the 50 fly WR to 21.67 on the opening leg in Shanghai, shaving 0.08 from the 21.75 shared by Szebasztian Szabo and Nicholas Santos.
The Swiss athlete then cut a hefty 0.17 from his own record to post 21.50 at the final leg in Singapore.
With that, Ponti became the owner of the four fastest times in history while also lowering his European 100 record to 48.40.
Ponti shocked himself with his World Cup campaign, especially given he’d spent six weeks away from the pool following the Olympics in which he finished fourth in the 100 and fifth over 200.
Noè Ponti: Photo courtesy: European Aquatics
He went on holiday to Kenya and Italy and “just had a life without swimming like a normal person” before he resumed gym work, doing weights and Pilates, and returned to the pool in late September.
At first it was three or four times a week which he gradually increased but “took it easy” with military service to come and the plan to fully restart in January 2025 with batteries recharged.
He said:
“So that’s why I was a little impressed with my times because I knew I was capable of swimming them but not after only three-and-a-half weeks of training.
“I’m super-happy. I think I was just very relaxed mentally and I was doing very well so it didn’t really matter if I trained a lot or not before.
“Physically I was in a pretty good shape even though I haven’t trained as much as I’m used to.
“In a month and a half, you lose…a bit of feeling in the water, the catch isn’t that good anymore.
“But after training three, four weeks you get that back, I think. I didn’t need that much aerobic training because I swam a lot this last year.
“It was short course so it’s a bit easier to deal with competitions even with less training.”
Dropping The 200 Fly – At Least For Now
In an interview with Swimming World ahead of Paris, Ponti spoke about the challenges he faced in the 200 fly which he described as “so very hard”.
He had yet to find the right pacing and stroke rate, especially on the first 100: the slower he goes out, the harder it gets.
“You get to the point where your legs are hurting so bad that you can’t really use them that much anymore,” he said. “The upper body – especially the arms and everything – are burning so it gets to the point where it’s hard to even keep going, to move.”
Despite that, Ponti finished fifth at La Défense Arena in 1:54.14, matching the Swiss record he set in the semis.
Noè Ponti: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
That may have been his final outing over 200 in a long-course pool with Ponti dropping the four-length event for the foreseeable future including the World Championships in Singapore.
“I don’t know if I am going to swim the 200 again – at least long-course I’m taking a long break from it.
“We’re going to see about it short-course: I know I can be very quick and also long-course I could be very good – it’s not that I’m not good but it’s not really a race I like that much.
“I struggle quite a lot especially mentally with it and also physically – it drains me and mentally even more so.
“We have to figure out if I still want to do it or not or maybe take some time off the 2 fly and maybe start swimming the 200IM again which is a race I have always loved and I really like it.
“All I need to do is train a little bit on the breaststroke and then I think I can be pretty quick in that as well.
“This year I will do the 50 and 100 long-course but I am not going to do the 200. It’s always before the 100 in international competitions and both physically and mentally I spend too much energy on it and I need to try and not swim it.
“I do it because I’m pretty good at it but not because I like to swim it.”