Skimalaya - (Author)

How Can Swimmers Deal With Adversity? As an athlete, you are always on display. Every time you go out to compete, you are under a microscope. Rivals assessing your results. Friends and coaches hoping for the best. Neutrals looking for an exciting race. It is a pressure cooker of an environment. Ever...

The Tribulations of Returning After Summer Break September signifies the start of the swimming season. A blank slate. Everything from the past year is forgotten as you prepare yourself for another roller-coaster year. This time can be exciting. Perhaps you had a rough year and want to move on. You m...

Swimmers Who Overcame Tall Odds to Achieve Their Dreams There is an image of a swimming career that many of us have ingrained in our heads. The well-lit chlorine pools. A nice warm shower after a tough training session. The use of gym equipment for dryland work. For the vast majority of those readin...

Hanging Up Your Goggles: The Ins and Outs of Retirement The only inevitability that comes attached with each part of life is that everything must come to an end. For a swimmer, this is no different. The number of considerations applicable to this point in a career are infinite. Some lose passion ext...

How Swimming Equipment Makes a Difference in the Pool: What Are Your Needs? The summer sees us approach the critical point of the season where the training of the past 12 months comes to fruition and the best separate themselves from the competition. At this stage, every hundredth of a second is vit...

An Inside Look at the Yangtze River Crossing Festival On July 16, 2025, the Chinese city of Wuhan made waves with the 50th Yangtze River Crossing festival, an exhilarating yet challenging 1800-meter swim across the Yangtze, the third largest river in the world. Seventy international elite athletes, ...

What Happened to the International Swimming League? Across the late-2010s, the world of swimming was dominated by discussions surrounding the idea of an International Swimming League (ISL). The Olympics consistently attract new fans to swimming, but the sport has struggled to keep fans' interest wit...

What Goes Through the Mind of a Swimmer During a Race? As we approach the business end of the swimming season, athletes will be competing across a number of large and important target meets - regardless of level. The dedication they have put in over the past few months will be tested by the stopwatc...

The Art of Bouncing Back: Comeback Tales That Proved Fruitful World-class swimmers typically discuss leaving the sport based on their love for the grind, their current athletic prowess, and if another major competition is worth pursuing. This decision to retire, for the vast majority, is final. A ca...

A Look Into Race-Day Psychology When discussing the elements of what makes an elite-level swimmer, answers can tend to become somewhat formulaic. The answers will likely jump straight to that of immense talent, years of pure hard work and dedication and a great team of individuals - whether that be ...

Lessons Swimming Can Learn From British Docuseries Panorama on 'Dark Side' of Club Programs On May 24, the BBC released an episode of its investigative docuseries, Panorama, about the 'dark side' of swimming clubs in Britain. This episode sent shockwaves through the British swimming community and I ...

Adam Peaty on LA 2028, Career Training Evolution and AP International Meet While poolside at the 2025 AP International Meet last weekend, I had an opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Adam Peaty for a few minutes and discuss several aspects of his career, including his plans as LA28 approaches an...

AP Race International Shows New Side, Opportunity for Swim Meets This weekend, I was privileged enough to be given a media pass to the AP Race International Meet in London. With a money-can't-buy view from the media event and poolside, I had the opportunity to witness a completely new, innovative si...