Alexa Kutch - (Author)

A Letter To the Coach Who Left Me Throughout our careers, we will have relationships with a few different coaches. If we are lucky, we will get to know and be close to a few. Those relationships will be some of the most important and influential ones of your career and life. They mean a lot to you -...

A Conversation with an Unlikely Best Friend: The Black Line By Jamie Kolar Swimming is unlike any other sport. It is the only sport where you cannot talk to any other person or coach during most of the practice or during a race, allowing for a lot of time alone. Being alone for those extended period...

By Jamie Kolar, Swimming World College Intern. Since the beginning of time, humans have been asking a simple existential question: Who am I? This question can be followed with subsequent questions of what makes me special? What is my purpose? These questions all get down to our deep desire to know w...

Our Away-From-The Pool Heroes: The Debt That All Swimmers Owe By Jamie Kolar, Swimming World College Intern. Swimmers live busy lives. We never stop moving from the moment we wake up until the moment our head hits the pillow at night. We wake up, run to practice, run to class and then run to practic...

The Confessions of a Back-Halfer Swimming World continues a brief series from the archive that identifies confessions of specific types of swimmers. Previously, articles discussed the confessions of a distance swimmer and the confessions of a butterflyer. By Jamie Kolar, Swimming World College Inter...

Two Lies And A Truth: How Individuals Can View the Sport By Jamie Kolar Being in the water in swimming can be seen as a blessing because it can block out the rest of the world for a brief two-hour period. However, every blessing has its curse. The water can trap us in solitary confinement with our o...

Bidding Final Farewell to Coach is One of Most Difficult Aspects of Swimming and Life Jamie Kolar was a former intern with Swimming World and continues as a regular contributor In swimming, we generally think of losses in terms of racing or even practice. Losing a race, losing a bet with your coach ...

Swimmers are Control Freaks: The Paradox of Control What is control? Is it power? Is it dominance? For the majority of history, human kind has fought for control, and that is especially true for swimmers. While we have lost men, time and sometimes blood, we have stopped at nothing to deem ourselves ...

My sister and I have swum together since I was 7 and she was 5. We did summer league together, went to club practice together and went to neighboring colleges. Swimming was the base of our relationship. We spent an ungodly amount of hours together — whether we wanted to or not. I can’t say that ever...

By Jamie Kolar, Swimming World College Intern. Dara Torres once said, “Age is just a number.” In many ways she was right. Swimming is one of the few sports that you can start at any age and continue doing for the majority of your life. Through your career and as you get older, you learn different le...

Mental Health Awareness: A Message of Hope to Former Swimmers Struggling October is a month that is dedicated to mental health awareness. In swimming, we usually talk about our mental health while involved in the sport, which is important, but what happens to the conversation when everything you kne...

Finding Inspiration Out of the Pool. Today: Lessons from Walt Disney When you hear the name Walt Disney, a lot of feelings and thoughts probably come to mind — the magic, the joy, the household empire that it has become in the last 60 years and of course Mickey Mouse. Who people normally do not thin...

The last night of the 2019 New Zealand Swimming Championship was one for the record books. The Women's 800m Freestyle was one to watch tonight with four potential swimmers possibly finishing under the qualifying time for World Championships. It was Eve Thomas, Carina Doyle who touched with A qualify...

Night four of the 2019 New Zealand Swimming Championships was one that saw may records fall.  The women competed in the following events: 200 free, 100 fly, 50 back 200 breast and the 800 free relay. The men competed in the 200 IM, 50 back, 50 free and the 800 free relay. Daniel Hunter broke his own...

The third night of the 2019 New Zealand Swimming Championships was an eventful one. The nigh consisted of the following events for the women: 200 IM, 100 back and the 400 free. The men competed in the 400 free, 100 fly, 50 breast and 200 back  Erika Fairweather made the FINA A qualification time for...

The 2019 New Zealand Swimming Championships were in full swing for day two. The nigh included the following women's events: 400 IM, 50 breast, 200 fly and the 400 medley relay. The men competed in the following events: 200 breast, 50 fly, 200 free and the 400 medley relay. Several records fell as we...

The first night of the 2019 New Zealand Swimming Championships were in full swing. The night's events included the women's 50 free, 200 back, 50 fly and the 1500. On the men's side the event list included the 400 IM, 100 back and 800 free. There were also several swimmers that have qualified for the...

Night two of the Santa Clara International was in full swing. The night included the following events: 100 free, 200 back, 100 fly, 400 IM and the 50 breast. Katie McLaughlin continued her extremely strong year, finishing with the second-fastest time of her career (57.77) in the 100 fly to win. It r...

The first night of the 2019 Santa Clara International is underway at the George Haines International Swim Center. The meet began with the distance events. Both the women and the men swam the 800 free today with some major conviction. Women's 800 Free In first was Tessa Cieplucha of Swim Ontario with...

Just diving back into the water for the first race was the victory Nathan Adrian needed. Adrian, one of the most decorated U.S. sprinters in Olympic history, made his return to competition this weekend at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Bloomington after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in January ...