The SwimSwam Podcast

We sat down with Olympic champion and world record-holder Cesar Cielo to talk about his career, where it's at, and where it has been. Cesar recounts many of his highlights, taking extra care to give details on his time at Auburn alongside sprinter greats like Fred Bousquet , George Bovell , and Matt Targett . He recalls the power work they did on Monday and Friday mornings as well as the competiti...

We sat down with Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich , who has seen quite a few top transfers to his program in the last year. Kredich discusses how he's developed his coaching style to understand and communicate effectively with athletes and shares what he's learned along the way. This includes being aware of his body language, letting athletes decide what success means to them, and straying away f...

Rich Roll , globally famous podcaster and former DI swimmer from Stanford, has a superpower—vulnerability—and when times get tough, he taps into its marrow. There was a point early in his rapid rise when Rich appeared to own the world. His book was on countless top-10 lists, his podcast was blowing up with listeners, and CNN had crowned him one of the Fittest Men on the Planet. At the some time, h...

We sat down with Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo , who has been at the top level of swimming for well over a decade, winning her first Olympic medal as a part of the winning 4x100 free relay in 2008. Not only does Ranomi share some of her vast swimming experience with us, but she delves into what may come after swimming. Ranomi is a big proponent of self-development outside of the pool and st...

USA Swimming CEO Tim Hinchey has three decades of sports business executive experience, holding leadership positions across Major League Soccer, English Premier League, National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League. Tim’s also thoroughly chlorinated. Before his sports executive run-up, he swam DI at UC Irvine, coached for Dave Salo, and he still swims masters. (If you train with...

We sat down with NCAA champion Andreas Vazaios , who is now training and working towards his masters degree at Loughborough University. Vazaios is studying psychology, specifically emotional intelligence and self care. The Greek swimmer shares some of the things he's learned about these topics and how they've trickled into his life as a swimmer and as a human. Read Andreas Vazaios' blog about emot...

We sat down with Calvin Werts, swimmer at the University of Puget Sound and video producer at the CG Sports Company. Calvin, like many other athletes, has numerous passions, two of them being swimming and video production. After going to a swim clinic led by Olympian Jacob Pebley , Werts ended up calling Pebley's agent, CG Yung and asking if he needed help on the video-side of things. Calvin tells...

We sat down with Notre Dame standout Coleen Gillilan to get her perspective on the past year. Gillilan put up impressive times recently at the Shamrock Invite , where the Irish put on racing suits and the sophomore surprised herself with near PB's. Gillilan explains the training that the Notre Dame team has been able to get in the last 2 semesters since getting back to campus, including a look int...

Olympic and World Champion Lilly King was SwimSwam’s 2020 U.S. Swimmer of the Year because the global pandemic did not slow her down. King crushed her competition over ISL’s second season representing the Cali Condors. At USA Swimming’s most recent Pro Swim Series in San Antonio King swept the 100 and 200 breaststroke, but she was edged by Emily Escobedo at the Richmond Pro Swim. I have a feeling...

We sat down with North Carolina native and high school senior Coleman McCreery, who has had a bit of a bumpy road in terms of finding a swim program. He originally committed to East Carolina in April of 2020 (as a junior), about a month before the program was announced as getting cut . After dealing with that blow, McCreery got back into the recruiting pool and landed on Michigan State, signing in...

We sat down with Olympic, World, Pan Pacific, and Commonwealth champion Emma Mckeon to talk about the pandemic, how her 2021 Olympic prep is going, and dive into her swimming story a bit. Emma has been on the Australian national team for over a decade now but admits she wasn't always in love with pushing herself to the limit. Mckeon reveals when she was younger and went to her first major internat...

We sat down with NCAA All-American Grace Countie to talk about the 2-week stint in which UNC raced 4 dual meets. Countie particularly shined in the last of these against Duke, where she won the 100 back and 100 free and was a part of the winning 200 medley and 400 free relays. Countie discusses that she gained confidence racing back-to-back like this, getting the opportunity to make small adjustme...

We sat down with head coach for the Cal men and for the 2021 Men's US Olympic team, Dave Durden . We've seen some exceptional swimming from the bears in the last few months, and Durden breaks down the purpose behind each race since November. Durden also speaks on the uncertainty moving forward in the season and how that he helped to mold their mindsets into focusing more on the here-and-now. Click...

Shaine Casas is the swimmer to watch. His star is rising fast! Shaine can swim backstroke, butterfly, IM, and freestyle at the elite level. Sounds like he even wants to make a run at breaststroke. Shaine’s consistently racing fast—making improvements like an age grouper. At the college level, he's pure gold, but can he net hardware this summer? Can he make the U.S. Olympic Team? WAY TO EARLY 2021...

We sat down with NCAA All-American Izzy Ivey , who is coming off of an electric 3-day, 4-session dual meet performance in which she broke Cal dual meet records in the 100 free, 100 fly, and 4 relays . Ivey reflects on the racing that she and the bears have gotten to get in this year as well as the heavy training they've done throughout the fall and winter. Ivey also delves into the perspective she...

We sat down with NCAA All-American turned coach, Pavel Sankovich. Pavel shared what worked for him when he was an age-group, collegiate, and professional swimmer when trying to develop the best underwater in the world. Sankovich delves into his focuses, his kick counts, and even a few of his favorite sets. One in particular he shared is simple in make-up but much trickier in execution: 3x300 on 3:...

We sat down with NCAA champion and former van-lifer, Emma Reaney . Reaney had a full swim career and has had a full life since stepping away from swimming, taking us through both journeys in today's podcast. Reaney describes the joy of swimming in college and opening yourself up to an entire team, noting the best year of her swimming (junior year, when she won the 200 breast at the 2014 NCAA Champ...

We sat down with the head coach for the HPC - Toronto, Ben Titley . Titley has been in the coaching game at the highest level for a long time now, both in Canada and his home country of Great Britain. He shares stories about coaching Olympic and world champions such as James Gibson , Mel Marshall , Penny Oleksiak , and more. One topic Ben gets into that many maybe don't consider is lactic acid and...

World champion and World record holder Regan Smith came off of some brutal winter training to win the 100m back (59.75), 100m fly (58.55), and 200m fly (2:10.10) at the 2021 San Antonio Pro Swim (JAN) . She scratched out of the 200 back final, but swam the 200 free notching second (1:59.49).  By my math, Regan is exactly where she needs to be this early in the season. I see Regan back at her 2020...

Leigh Ann Caldwell is a swammer with a big career as a network news correspondent. In many ways, her unique vocation is all about politically unearthing what matters right now and reporting it as the first draft of history to a national audience. Sounds like fun, right? I know it’s a career a lot of young swimmers might be dreaming of—even planning for.  For Leigh Ann the dream started very young,...

We sat down with sprinter turned distance ace Kristen Stege . Stege, now a sophomore at Tennessee, just dropped a PB 9:40 1,000 free in a dual meet against Georgia. She made headlines in February when she won the AAC title in the 1,650, which was her first time ever competing in a 1,650. Stege takes us through her last year of swimming and why she has actually warmed up to distance swimming after...

We sat down with University of Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo , whose Cavaliers are coming off of some exciting dual meets in the last couple of weeks. For the men's team, it was a tight battle with UNC that came down to the last relay, a trend that DeSorbo says has been unusually common for the men since he's arrived in Charlottesville. For the women's team, it was the next day versus NC State...

We sat down with Chris Mooney (head coach of University of Sunshine Coast in Australia) and Dave McKean (head of physical performance at University of Sunshine Coast) to talk about their 21-day training cycles that we covered in our interview with 2020 Swimmer of the Year Kaylee McKeown . They each give their perspectives on why they wanted to try this method out and how it's worked so far, McKean...

We sat down with Olympic champion Florent Manaudou , who is coming off of his second ISL season with Energy Standard. Manaudou hits on a myriad of topics, including why he will be training in France for the Olympic lead-up , how he spends his free time outside of the water, and what he gained by taking a break after the 2016 Olympic Games. Florent is extremely personable and it's refreshing to hea...

We sat down with Morgan Scroggy , the Pan Pacific and World University Games champion who is the lowest-seeded athlete (41st, 200 back) to have made a final at the US Olympic Trials in the last 20 years. This is significant as it was the line USA Swimming decided to make for the Wave II Olympic Trials meet, basing the cuts on the times of the 41st seeded athlete in each event as of the day they ca...