The SwimSwam Podcast

Chris Ritter , the founder and CEO of RITTER Sports Performance and creator of SURGE Strength , drops in on the SwimSwam Podcast with Gold Medal Mel Stewart. The importance of having a repeat-able and adaptable process for your dryland training has never been realized more than this past year. Chris sat down with us to announce he is hosting a FREE upcoming webinar on The Process of Dryland Traini...

We sat down with legendary coach Dave Salo , who recently announced that he would be dawning the role of assistant coach at Orange Coast College. Salo explains that after so long of being a head coach, he's excited to coach without all of the extra worries that come with heading a Power-5 Division I program. He also gets into the nitty-gritty of how he runs workouts, if he's a "player's coach", an...

We sat down with Claire Curzan , the 16-year-old swimmer for the TAC Titans who turned heads when she dropped a 56.20 100m fly 2 weekends ago in Cary, North Carolina. Swimming fans had already been looking forward to this meet, as Curzan and fellow age-group star Torri Huske were slated to race in the 50/100 free and 100 fly. Huske ended up taking the 50 and 100 free races, while Curzan won the 10...

We sat down with Andrei Minakov , the Russian sprinting sensation who just qualified for his first Olympic games in both the 100 free and 100 fly. Minakov takes us through the Russian Trials as well as how he's adjusted to studying at Stanford (remotely from Russia). We also get into some throwback memories for Andrei, including the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (where he won 5 gold medals) and the 201...

We sat down with Brent Hayden , the Canadian Olympic medalist who is now on the athlete board of the International Swimmers' Alliance. Hayden discusses what it's been like to cooperate with a group of athletes like this and what he thinks they can accomplish for swimmers everywhere moving forward. Hayden emphasizes that he wanted to be a part of this as a way to give back to the sport that has alr...

We sat down with Velimir Stjepanovic , a 2x Serbian Olympian and member of the DC Trident in the ISL. We talked about a wide range of topics, from Velimir's upbringing in life and swimming to his last year navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic. One topic we covered was swimming without pressure, which Velimir explained was the case as a member of the DC Trident. Knowing that the team was not a...

We sat down with Torri Huske who went a slue of best time at the TAC Titans LCM Premiere meet this past weekend. Huske Battled Claire Curzan head-to-head in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly, where she took wins in the 50 ( 24.44, new 17-18 NAG ) and 100 free (53.40) . She also went a huge PB in the 100 fly ( 56.69, new 17-18 NAG ) and 200 fly (2:09.97). Huske discussed that just a couple weeks b...

I have four hours with Mark captured. This is only the first chapter, which is about 35 minutes. We meander, but when you're talking to Mark the side stories are where all of the detail and color become fully saturated. Mark covers: his start, how and why he chose swimming what fueled him in childhood to win blue ribbons his swimming hero his secret warm-up, the same warm-up he used for years beca...

We spoke with Olympic champion Olivia Smoliga at the 2021 Mission Viejo Pro Swim, where Smoliga was looking very strong on the back half of her races. Olivia explained to us that she's been really focusing on aerobic training with coach Jack Baurle and saw the extra Olympic year as a good time to challenge herself and work on her 200 free, an event she says is "the ultimate".  SWIMSWAM PODCAST  LI...

At the Pro Swim Series stop in Mission Viejo, we spoke with standout Cal freshman Destin Lasco . Lasco had a sensational Pac-12 championship, highlighted by leading a 1-2-3-4-5-6 Cal finish in the 200 backstroke . He turned even more heads at the NCAA Champs, where he became the fastest freshman ever in the 200 IM (jumping from 58th seed to finishing 2nd overall), the 100 back , and the 200 back....

We sat down with British record holder and ISL standout, Abbie Wood . We talked through Abbie's career, especially how hard the transition can be from being a fast swimmer as an 18-under to trying to compete on a national and international stage at the senior level. Wood also takes us through her ISL season and what went into the stellar results that she posted in Budapest. SWIMSWAM PODCAST  LINKS...

At the Pro Swim Series in Mission Viejo, 2016 Abbey Weitzeil dropped a 24.57 in the 50m freestyle. In her post-race interview, Weitzeil revealed that in prelims, when she went 24.80, it was the first time she had done a no-breather 50m free during a race. She admits that it gave her a lot of anxiety and in finals instead of focusing on not taking a breath, she instead put her energy toward having...

Big announcement!  Olympic swimming champion Caeleb Dressel will be producing another Dressel Dissects video, and it will be his 100 scm IM World Record from the ISL. So, stay tuned. He feels guilty for not producing one for awhile, but he assured me that episode is coming. See his YouTube channel here . Caeleb was nice enough to drop-in for 15 minutes of conversation, and he unpacks his ISCA meet...

We sat down with Ryan Spoon , a name you may not be familiar with... but you should be. Ryan is the current COO of BetMGM as well as the former Senior VP of Digital and Social for ESPN. If that didn't sell you, he's also a Duke Swimming alumnus, so he's got chlorine in his blood. Ryan knows how to draw a sporting audience and hold them, and he shares his thoughts on what swimming can do to boost t...

We sat down with Camden Murphy , the Georgia butterflied who was a big contributor in UGA's 4th place finish at the 2021 Men's NCAA Championships. Murphy takes us through his senior season, starting with having an extended period of time out of the water due to COVID and nearly deciding to not come back at all. Ultimately, Murphy did come back to complete his 4th year on the team and ultimately go...

Olympic swimming star  Simone Manuel delivered at the recent San Antonio Pro Swim, sweeping the 50m and 100m free: 50m free - 24.70 100m free - 54.62 Simone said she wasn't happy with her races, saying "there were goal times I didn't hit." However she felt there were positives she could takeaway from the competition.  Considering the masks, no fans, and that she hasn't raced during COVID, she was...

We sat down with Andi Murez , the 2016 Olympian and Stanford All-American who is now training in Coronado, California. Murez takes us through her swim journey, most recently recapping the 6-week ISL Budapest bubble as a member of the LA Current. She also takes us through what it was like training as a professional as well as going to medical school, balancing two activities that take a huge amount...

We sat down with Jozsef Nagy , the breaststroke coach extraordinaire to talk about all things breaststroke. Nagy goes into detail on how the stroke has changed and what methods he thinks are best for training the stroke. One of the most interesting things Nagy brings up is the fact that in his opinion, the 100 breast world record has taken leaps and bounds in the last 20 years, while he thinks the...

Olympic Champion and Youtube star Cody Miller partners with the world’s leading swimwear brand, Speedo , a SwimSwam partner. This has been in the works for awhile; however, for Cody fans, it might be the worst kept secret in swimming. He’s been wearing Speedo in his last few video episodes. In this podcast Cody unpacks the industry details behind the partnership, and he PLAYS THE PREDICTION GAME f...

I sat down with #12 ranked recruit in the class of 2021, Arsenio Bustos . Arsenio swam a troth of lifetime bests this past week at the ISCA Senior Cup in St Petersburg, Florida, including 1:43.94 200 IM, 53.57/1:02.95 100 Breast, 1:59.03 200 breast, 19.96/23.02 50 free, 46.51 100 fly, 1:36.31 200 free, and 43.27/49.25 100 free. Bustos breaks down his racing at the ISCA Cup, what made racing Dresse...

I sat down with Brazilian Olympian Brandonn Almeida , who at the time was training at an altitude camp in Mexico. Almeida takes us through the bulk of his career, including his experience at a home Olympics in 2016 and competing in the NCAA at the University of South Carolina. Almeida has found, especially over the past 3 years, that his swimming really benefits if he is in the right environment w...

Michael Andrew  shocked us all at the San Antonio Pro Swim opting out of the 50m free to focus on the 200m IM.  He was out fast in 200 IM final, touching in 54.75 at the 100.  He built his lead with 33.29 breast split, closing in a 1:58.05–enough for the win over Abraham DeVine and Andrew Seliskar. Michael Andrew  (Race Pace), 1:58.05 Abrahm DeVine  (Team Elite), 1:59.65 Andrew Seliskar  (Cal Aqua...

Cal’s  Trenton Julian  was first at the halfway mark at 46.64 while Louisville’s  Nicolas Albiero  was 5th at 47.40. Yet Albiero’s strong underwaters allowed him to catch Julian on the last 25, sealing his first individual NCAA title at 1:38.64. That time knocked 0.01s off his own 2020 Greensboro pool record from the 2020 ACC Championships. He remains the 5th-fastest swimmer all-time and 3rd-faste...

Finke won his second NCAA title in as many days on the final day of competition, blowing away the field and registering his 3rd 14:12 in history, a mark no other competition has gotten near. The Florida gator tells us of his disappointment in not going a best time, but also of the good feeling in winning 2 national titles. He also explains the meetings that the men's team has had in order to open...

In the final heat, Florida freshman  Adam Chaney  led off in a 20.55 backstroke split, which is the 9th-fastest lead-off all-time. In the same heat, Louisville’s  Evgenii Somov  came in hot with a 22.87 breast split, the 13th-fastest split all-time, to put the Cardinals in the lead. Senior  Nicolas Albiero  held on to the narrow lead with his 20.07 fly split. Cal’s  Ryan Hoffer  (19.70) and Florid...