The SwimSwam Podcast

We sat down with James Guy , the world champion, Olympic medalist, and FINIS athlete who's looking for gold in Tokyo. Guy gets deep when talking about his preparation as well as what his relay teammates are doing to get ready for the Tokyo Olympics. Come Tokyo, Guy is not only eyeing individual hardware but also looking to top the podium in the 4x200 free and 4x100 medley relays, both of which Bri...

We sat down with Washington State head coach Matt Leach , who coached one of his athletes to a Pac-12 championship title, the first in WSU history. Leach takes us through the race as well as the season for the Cougars, detailing the ups and downs they've faced throughout this season. Leach, who was the head coach at Indiana State before relocating to WSU, also dives into what it takes to build up...

We sat down with Cal women's head coach and Olympic coach Teri McKeever . Teri gives some context to the Cal women's Pac-12 team title, it's first since 2015, and explains what her team has had to go through with COVID protocols this past season. She also gives her perspective on how NCAAs will look different, especially with timed finals of all relays. McKeever is a proponent of prelims/finals re...

ACC Swimmer of the meet Jack Hoagland lit it up at the ACC championships for Notre Dame, taking wins in the 500 free, 400 IM, and 1,650. Hoagland sat down with us to break down his races and tell us about his year of training. Last year at ACCs, Hoagland made an immediate impact but was somewhat riding the coattails of his distance-star teammate, Zach Yeadon . After Yeadon transferred to Cal, howe...

We sat down with the 2x ACC Champion in the 50 and 100 free, Matt Brownstead . The Virginia freshman gives us his take on his swims at the championships, training in Charlottesville, and his NCAA class as a whole. We've already seen a slew of 18-unders drop 18+ and 41+ swims in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and Brownstead thinks the NCAA Champs will just bring more. SWIMSWAM PODCAST  LINKS Click here...

We sat down with the University of Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero , who is fresh off of his team's first men's ACC championship title in program history . Albiero explans the attitude of gratitude and keeping things day-to-day that got the cardinals through the season and he believes aided them through the ACC Championship meet. On paper, not even Albiero was confident that the cardinal coul...

Oakton senior  Anthony Grimm was in excellent form last week, picking up another 2 individual VHSL titles to cap off his career , and providing a few more stellar relay performances. Grimm kicked off his meet with a blistering 20.87 lead-off on the 200 medley relay, establishing a new personal best. The swim was the fastest back split in the field by over 2 seconds. Grimm also provided a 19.24 anc...

We sat down with Olympic and World champion, Katie Ledecky . Ledecky took us through what her quarantine has looked like going back to March, and the restrictions she's had to adhere to in Santa Clara county. Ledecky has a positive outlook, saying she's grateful to have kept in the water for the most part and having gotten a good training block in over the past few months without any travel. Ledec...

We sat down with Florida sprint coach Steve Jungbluth to discuss this success that Florida's sprint core had at the SEC championships, specifically breakout freshman Adam Chaney . Jungbluth admits that Adam's backstroke speed surprised even him, but his freestyle speed was about what they thought he could be, especially given his predecessor. Jungbluth compares his former pupil, Caeleb Dressel , t...

We sat down with UNLV head coach Ben Loorz and associate head coach Pat Ota, who are coming off winning conference championships with both their men's and women's teams. The two describe what it was like to both win a nail-biting victory on the women's side , which came down to the last relay, and a dominant one on the men's side . They also discuss working with the ISL sprint star Kasia Wasick ,...

In the SwimSwam podcast , we talk with Speedo 's head designer, Chris Johnson, and Speedo Athlete, Tom Dean , about the launch of Speedo 's new range of goggles, Hyper Elite . Speedo , the world’s leading swimwear brand, has launched its new range of racing goggles, the Hyper Elite . Designed to help athletes of all abilities level up their swim, the Hyper Elite features the latest hydrodynamic an...

We sat down with Northwestern head coach Katie Robinson to discuss the wildcats performance at the 2021 Women's Big Ten championships. Overall, it looked like the women came out swinging, putting themselves in a tight battle with Indiana for 3rd place for much of the meet and overall finishing in 4th. Robinson also gave her thoughts on the "Honest Effort" DQ that one of her swimmers garnered on ni...

We sat down with now 2x Big Ten team champion Ohio State's head coach, Bill Dorenkott . Dornekott gave some really interesting insight as to how his team prepped for the Big Ten champs, saying they weren't focused on repeating as champions in this pandemic year but rather performing to the best of their ability. One thing Dorenkott talks about them doing in their prep work is splitting into event...

At the 2021 SEC Men’s Championships, Florida freshman  Adam Chaney  put up two of the fastest 100-yard backstrokes in 17-18 age group history. Chaney also became the 4th 18&U swimmer to break 19 seconds in the 50-yard free . During prelims on Day 3, Chaney put up a 45.44, smashing his previous lifetime best of 47.10 from 2019. Then in finals, Chaney nabbed SEC runner-up with another lifetime best...

We sat down with Minnesota junior and NCAA All-American Max McHugh , who has looked stellar in what little racing we've seen from him this winter. In the 2 dual meets he swam this semester, McHugh put up 22.6/22.7 on the medley relay (breast), 50.6/50.5 in the 100 breast, and 1:53.7/1:53.1 in the 200 breast. Max says he was suited for these races, but these are still monster times for untapered sw...

Florida junior Kieran Smith was already the American and NCAA record-holder with his 4:06.32 from last year’s SEC meet. The fastest swimmer in history in the event, Smith hit the gas early, going out 1.3 seconds faster to the 200-mark than he was in his American record swim a year ago. Meanwhile, Georgia freshman  Jake Magahey  went out in about the same pace Smith did a year ago. And the distance...

Torri Huske wasn't the only swimmer to break 2 national high school records this week. We sat down with Aiden Hayes , who clocked a 19.20 50 free and 45.47 100 fly just 13 minutes apart from one another (both national high school records). The high school senior also clocked 20.7 in his 50 back lead-off of the 200 medley relay and 43.00 leading off the 400 free relay. Hayes admits that out of all...

US National Teamer  Torri Huske  made her mark on the final day of the 2021 VHSL Class 6 State meet, breaking two National High School records.  Huske, a senior at Yorktown High School, began her meet by swimming a time of 1:53.73 in the 200 IM, chopping a tenth of a second off of  Dagny Knutson ’s National Public High School record of 1:53.82 that had stood since 2009.  About 27 minutes later, Hu...

Kieran Smith  tied his 500 free American and NCAA Records on the nose tonight at the SEC Championships , clocking 4:06.32 for the second straight year to defend his title. Smith said this difference in splitting was by design, reflecting that he needed to be out faster if he wanted to get to that next level. However, Smith is optimistic that there is a good middle ground to be found from his 2 4:0...

The University of Kentucky won its first-ever SEC Championships title after 40 years of women’s swimming in the SEC Conference. Their victory was by a margin of 53 points over the University of Florida. The defending champions, Tennessee, placed 5th. The Wildcats achieved this victory both with swimmers who arrived on their campus as stars, like Sorenson who became the Iowa state record holder in...

In a shocking turn of events, t he 2021 CCSA Women’s championship ended in a tie . Two-time defending champs Liberty earned a 3rd-straight conference title, although they share this year’s title with the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. FGCU outscored Liberty by 58 points on the final night, but ultimately fell a half-point short of singular ownership of the CCSA title. We sit down with FGCU head coach...

Olympic Champion and 4-time Olympic medalist Cullen Jones is the new philanthropic sales manager for Speedo USA, his longtime partner.  Cullen’s mission is very focused. Under the title and message SPEEDO POOL TOGETHER, Speedo USA and Cullen are helping to get swimmers and swim teams back in the water safely during this challenging period in swimming history. HOW IT WORKS: This March is the month...

We sat down with NCAA champion Ryan Hoffer , who's looking to help the bears defend their NCAA title from 2019. Hoffer breaks down what Cal's limited racing opportunities have been like this season and explains the difference in mentalities between practicing (or even racing in practice) and racing in a meet format. Hoffer admits that when he came to Cal, he wasn't the best in-season swimmer, focu...

SEC Network will debut its latest SEC Storied documentary “Once Upon a Comeback,” the story of swimming sensation Dara Torres, on Monday, Feb. 22 at 9 p.m. ET. The film’s debut coincides with the SEC Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, with the women’s airing Sunday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. and the men’s airing Saturday, Feb. 27 at 11 a.m. Dara Torres pushed boundaries for both her gend...

Two-time Olympic medalist Abbey Weitzeil has signed with Speedo ahead of the 2021 Olympic summer.  Weitzeil's place on #TeamSpeedo is well-deserved. Weitzeil has had a long, successful career. In fact, this summer will be her third trip to U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha. Back in 2016 Weitzeil swept the 50 and 100 free at U.S. Trials. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Weitzeil notched the fastest split on...