Commentary

Approaching Legendary World Record Elevates Hubert Kos Alongside Marchand as World's Dominant Swimmer Last month, Summer McIntosh erased the last women's long course world record surviving from the polyurethane-suit era, her 2:01.65 in the 200 butterfly at Canadian Trials finally beating the 2009 ma...

Pan Pacific Championships: United States Could Consider Unconventional Lineup for Mixed Medley Relay Conventional thinking around the mixed 400 medley relay, an event part of the Olympic program for only the past two Games, suggests using a male breaststroker and female freestyler. Based on a team's...

Five Men's Storylines to Follow at the Pan Pacific Championships: Bobby Finke, Sam Short Set for Distance Matchups The Pan Pacific Championships are days away, with swimmers from Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, China and elsewhere traveling to Irvine, California, for what could turn ...

Josh Bey, Gabe Nunziata Raise the Bar for U.S. Men in 200 Breaststroke Last year, Josh Matheny was the only swimmer to break 2:09 in the 200 breaststroke final at U.S. Nationals, following up an Olympic final appearance with a time of 2:08.87. Matheny struggled in the event at the World Championship...

The Race That Didn't Go Your Way: How to Respond to Adversity There are few feelings in swimming that sting quite like missing a cut by one hundredth of a second.  You touch the wall, look up at the scoreboard, and immediately begin doing the math. One more dolphin kick off the wall. One cleaner bre...

What Can We Expect From David Popovici at the European Championships? The reigning world champion in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle, David Popovici will look to add more gold medals to his already impressive resume this summer. The 21-year-old from Romania has done it all over the past few years, ...

Improved American Freestyle Depth Bodes Well for Relay Prospects At the past three years of international competitions, the gold-medal podium has been an elusive target for the United States in freestyle relays. The U.S. men dominated the 400 free relay in Paris, and the mixed 400 free relay secured...

American Women Setting Up World Record Challenge in 400 Freestyle Relay Australia has not lost the women's 400 freestyle relay in nine years, a stretch dating back to the 2017 World Championships. Most recently, the Aussies scraped out a win over the United States by less than a half-second at the S...

Kai Taylor and Flynn Southam Have Shifted Australian Hierarchy for Better On August 10, 2016, Kyle Chalmers secured a place in swimming lore that will endure. Racing in Rio de Janeiro, the Australian was crowned Olympic champion in the 100-meter freestyle, the 18-year-old defeating Belgium's Pieter ...

Commonwealth Games, Day Five Finals: Kylie Masse Gets Revenge in Women's 50 Backstroke After a disappointing silver medal in the 100 backstroke, Kylie Masse came back to defeat Aussie Iona Anderson in the 50 backstroke. Already one of the greatest backstrokers of all-time, Masse has padded her resum...

Commonwealth Games, Day Five Finals: Jenna Forrester Completes Medley Sweep with 200 Win If Jenna Forrester wasn’t a well-known name coming into these Games, she has certainly become one now. After wins in both the 200 backstroke and 400 individual medley, Forrester now puts herself on a short list ...

Commonwealth Games, Day Three Finals: Iona Anderson Upsets Kylie Masse for 100 Backstroke Gold Iona Anderson of Australia won the Commonwealth Games title in the women’s 100 backstroke in a time of 58.71, the 20-year-old rallying from a deficit at the 50-meter mark. Anderson flipped second in a time...

Commonwealth Games Finals, Day Three Finals: Angharad Evans Wins Scotland's First Gold in Women's 100 Breast For the first time at the Commonwealth Games, a Scottish female swimmer has won gold in the 100 breaststroke, with 23-year-old Angharad Evans topping the field. Evans touched in a time of 1:0...

Luca Urlando is 200 Fly World Champ, But Marchand, Milak and Others Looming He supplied the lone glorious moment for the American men at last year’s World Championships, dominating the 200 butterfly final. The medal was the first Luca Urlando has captured at a major international competition and the...

Commonwealth Games, Day Two Finals: Mollie O'Callaghan Outlasts Lani Pallister for 200 Freestyle Gold Defeating Mollie O'Callaghan in the 200 freestyle has been a nearly-impossible task. The 22-year-old Australian has captured gold medals on the global stage in the event each of the last three summe...

American Men's Swim Team Has Chance to Build Momentum at Pan Pacs The latest showdown between the two superpower nations in women's swimming, the United States and Australia, will take place at the Pan Pacific Championships. The men's competition, however, will be short on swimmers who have dominate...

Why Quiet Confidence Matters Most Before Championship Season  As championship season approaches, the atmosphere around the pool begins to change.  Practices become more intentional. Conversations shift from technique and volume to taper, qualifying times, and championship goals. Swimmers start check...

Shin Ohashi, Filip Nowacki Aiming to Lead Speed Surge in Men's 200 Breaststroke At last year’s World Championships, the men’s 200 breaststroke final produced one of the most exciting finishes of the competition as the lead changed hands three times and the winner came from Lane Eight. The order of f...

Stroke and Turn Officiating – We Have Liftoff By Ron Van Pool Stroke and turn officials are indeed the “eyes of the referee.” The foundation of swimming officiating is to ensure that all the athletes are treated fairly and that any benefit of the doubt goes to the swimmer. Throughout the race, the s...

Expect American Women's Swim Team to Continue Domination at Pan Pacs This summer sets up as the quietest championship season for American swimmers since the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Tokyo Olympics back by a year. USA Swimming will not hold a selection meet, having picked the team for the Pan Pac...