The Week That Was: Honoring the World’s Best Swimmers

Australia makes a shocking choice for its Swimmer of the Year award, while swimmers in the United States are recognized for their accomplishments in the pool during the first eight months of 2015. These are just a few of the headlines that had swimming fans talking recently, and we will count down the top five on The Week That Was.

The Week That was is supported by AgonSwim.com

The Week That Was #5: Swimming World Magazine names high school team champions

As is the custom every September, Swimming World Magazine has named the schools that won the high school team championship. With no actual national high school championship in existence, the magazine has been the place where the top schools and swimmers are grouped into a “mythical” championship meet, with times from the past season used to rank the top schools. For the third year in a row, Carmel High School won the women’s title thanks to a dominating performance at the Indiana state meet where the national high school records in all three relay were broken. On the boys’ side, the Bolles School gave head coach Sergio Lopez a great sendoff with another great Florida state meet to win another national title. The full report can be found in the September issue of Swimming World Magazine.

The Week That Was #4: Los Angeles officially named U.S. candidate city for 2024 Summer Olympic Games

After Boston dropped out of the race, Los Angeles quickly stepped in as the replacement for the U.S. city in the running to host the 2024 Olympic Games. Organizers submitted a bid book that proposed using the yet-to-be-built soccer stadium next to the L.A. Coliseum as the venue for swimming, diving and synchronized swimming. Temporary pools would be built inside, the first time that would happen in more than 100 years at the Olympics. Los Angeles will compete with Paris, Budapest, Hamburg and Rome for the prestigious honor.

The Week That Was #3: USA Swimming announces national team

Placing in the top six in each Olympic event got 107 swimmers onto 2015-2016 USA Swimming national team. Twenty-three were named to the list for the first time, while several others are household names: Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky, Ryan Lochte, just to name a few. Also, the personal coaches of the athletes were named to the national team coaches, which gets them an invite to an elite seminar and other perks down the road depending on how successful their athletes were at the world championships.

The Week That Was #2: Emily Seebohm, Bronte Campbell tie for Australian Swimmer of the Year Award

For the second time in history, two people are sharing the Australian Swimmer of the Year award. Emily Seebohm and Bronte Campbell both won two individual events at the world championships, including two relay medals. In all likelihood, that was the reason why they were able to share the award and beat out a very impressive team that performed well at the worlds. The last time the award was shared was in 2003 by Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.

The Week That Was #1: 800 free relay moved at Division I NCAA Championships, creates fourth day

After a survey revealed that the majority of coaches support moving the 800 free relay at the NCAA Division I swimming and diving championships, the NCAA voted to create a special session at the meet for the event. The relay will be swum as a timed final event on Wednesday evening, with the 200 medley relay moving from the first event on Friday to the last event that day. The move eliminates the pressure of swimming three 200-yard freestyles in one day, which often affected the performances on the 800 free relay. With teams already at the meet on Wednesday night, it was not likely to affect travel, though some teams might arrive earlier than usual to be ready to swim the relay. Also voted on was the decision to change start times to 10 a.m. for prelims and 6 p.m. for finals.