Courtney Bartholomew - (Author)

2025 in Review: Which Events Produced Biggest Percentage Gap Between World Leader and No. 2 The year-end rankings for 2025 featured Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh on top of four events, with American star Gretchen Walsh leading the way in three disciplines. But the women didn't just headline in ...

What Was the Best Women's Long Course World Record of 2025?  During the past 12 months, five women's world records were set in the long-course pool. Three of the records were established by Canadian star Summer McIntosh, who went faster than anyone in history in the 400-meter freestyle, 200 individu...

Jack Alexy Honored As Swimming World Americas Male Swimmer of the Year These days, something in sub-47 territory is required to grab attention in the 100-meter freestyle. It's a realm that defines the premier athletes in the event, and a time of that sort is now required to contend for gold in major...

Female Breakout Swimmer of the Year: Lani Pallister Proved She Can Contend with the Big Guns During the early stages of the year, Lani Pallister made a major move in her career. Although established as one of the world’s premier distance freestylers, the Australian was determined to maximize her pot...

Cal Freshman Ryan Erisman Deserving of Attention as Mid-Distance Freestyle Upstart When the surname Erisman arises in conversation, there is a tendency to assume the focus of the chat is Rylee Erisman. As a multi-time gold medalist at last summer's World Junior Championships, the 16-year-old is rega...

USA Swimming Pro Series Action for 2026 Just Around the Corner at University of Texas Less than a week remains in 2025, so let's look ahead to the first major competition of the next year. Just two weeks into the New Year, the USA Swimming Pro Series will get underway, with action slated for Jan. 14...

What Was the Year? An Event-By-Event Look at the Last Time the USA Won Olympic Gold (Men's Edition) No country has won as many gold medals at the Olympic Games as the United States. The American arsenal has always been stacked, from the early days of Johnny Weissmuller to the greatness of Mark Spitz...

How Long Has It Been? Event-By-Event Look at Last Time the USA Won Olympic Gold (Women's Edition) Given its century-long dominance in the pool, it's rare for the United States to go too long without capturing Olympic gold in a specific event. Sure, some events yield greater production than others, b...

Lukas Maertens Enjoyed Banner Year, Highlighted by Venture to Previously Unvisited Territory The highlight of Lukas Maertens' season is obvious. It arrived in April, when the German star raced at the Swim Open Stockholm and took down Paul Biedermann's 15-year-old world record in the 400-meter freest...

Open Water Swimming Qualification Process Announced for 2028 Olympic Games The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Aquatics have announced the qualification process for open-water swimming at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Open-water competition will be held in 10-kilometer event...

Kate Douglass Continued to Demonstrate Range in 2025; Emerged as Major Player in 100 Breaststroke Coming off a spectacular 2024 season, which was highlighted by a gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Olympic Games in Paris, Kate Douglass entered 2025 riding a wave of momentum. And over th...

What Is the Most Overlooked Swimming Performance of 2025? The results from last summer's World Championships in Singapore list Katie Ledecky as a dominant victor in the final of the 1500-meter freestyle. The American prevailed in the 30-lap event by five-plus seconds, and followed a few days later w...

A Breakdown of Women's World Top-10 Rankings for the 2025 Season; USA Dominates Over the past 12 months, the American women have proven themselves well-positioned for the push toward the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. While Team USA's veteran contingent is rock solid, the latest rising crop of y...

U.S. Women's Water Polo Celebrates 25 Years of Olympic Inclusion (Plus: Where Are They Now?) By Aimee Berg In 2000, women’s water polo finally made its official Olympic debut – a century after the men’s game. “We thought for sure (the International Olympic Committee) would add it to the Olympics in ...

A Half-Century Apart, Katie Ledecky and Casey Converse Are Now Linked By Their Distance Greatness The Site: Cleveland, Ohio. The Meet: The 1977 NCAA Championships. The Event: The 1650-yard freestyle. On March 26, 1977, Casey Converse made history in the pool. Less than a year removed from representi...

'Duel We Missed' Captures Best Feature Film Award at Paladino d'Oro Sport Film Festival As the year nears its end, "The Duel We Missed" has picked up a major film award. The documentary, which highlights the missed opportunity for a 1500-meter freestyle showdown between American Brian Goodell and th...

A Breakdown of Men's World Top-10 Rankings for the 2025 Season; 31 Nations Represented In major international competition, 17 individual events are found on the program. Consequently, there are 170 opportunities to register a top-10 performance in the world rankings. During the 2025 season, which fe...

Miss Versatility: The Sensational Talent and Range of Summer McIntosh Spoiler Alert: In the coming weeks, Swimming World will announce its annual winners of various awards. When it comes time to reveal the World Female Swimmer of the Year, there is no mystery. It will be Summer McIntosh, the Canadia...

Katie Ledecky Goes Sub-15:00 in 1650-Yard Freestyle at Namesake Meet A few months ago, organizers announced that the Nation's Capital Invitational was being renamed the Katie Ledecky Invitational, in honor of the distance-freestyle legend who emerged as a future star in Potomac Valley Swimming. Well...

Fueled by Katie Ledecky, the 800 Freestyle Has Risen to Special Heights As 2025 ticks down, we'll occasionally assess the past 11-plus months and select highlights from the year to showcase. Unquestionably, the women's 800-meter freestyle offered a number of fireworks. There was Katie Ledecky's worl...