Commentary

The End - When the Final Race Looms “Step up.” “Take your mark.” “Go!” Between practices and meets, practically every swimmer grows up having these three phrases ingrained into their heads. We condition ourselves in preparation of hearing the horn of a starting system beginning our race. Age groups....

The International Swimming League has been a huge success this fall with many of the world's best swimmers participating in the exciting league that gives them a chance to race the best and travel around the world more often. It's been a big win for the athletes who have been longing for something m...

Commentary WADA, The Russian Roulette With Clean Sport & The Need For A Blanket Ban The latest report on Russia's systematic doping program screams of attempts to manipulate not only samples in the chain of custody but witness statements and more in a cover-up aimed at implicating whistleblowers and...

Swimming Brains Behind World-Class Braun Should athletes have influence in society? Should they have a say in the way their sports are run? We take a first look, with contributions from Wayne Goldsmith and sportswriter Sabrina Knoll.  Should elite athletes be spokespeople for things they feel strong...

International Swimming League founder Konstantin Grigorishin said in an interview with the Washington Post this week that he is committed to expanding the league following next summer's Tokyo Olympic Games, despite the financial struggles within the first year. The ISL has received plenty of media c...

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Marathon Goes North for runners and walkers - swimmers deserve the same safety protections: time to Go North, move the swim 500 miles upstream Commentary: The Coordination Committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is meeting in Tokyo this week. If they have a scintilla of interes...

Fran Crippen Commemoration Day Editorial-Commentary Today marks the saddest day on the world-class swimming calendar: it is the ninth anniversary of the death of Fran Crippen, the first swimmer to lose his life on the watch of FINA and USA Swimming. Tragedy upon tragedy, it is also a day on which we...

The Swim League Editorial Great lights, logos, suits and setting; fine racing. None of that is enough. It's early days. Even so, let's be clear: given all the potential of the International Swimming League to transform the sport and the lives, lifestyles and livelihoods of athletes and other players...

Sunday Essay - Swimming Finding Its Mojo Two weeks to the start of a new era. Expects bumps, turbulence, settling in, fun, thrills, spills and something new. Don't expect an overnight leap for swimming in the pecking order of sports, professional or otherwise, at the heart of a trillion-dollar-a-yea...

The Butt Cheek Of It & How A DQ for 'showing butt cheek' got overturned Commentary “I told her, ‘I need to know how you’re defining this, because this is going to blow up,’” Annette Rohde said after she “froze in disbelief” when she saw the disqualification decision by the meet referee, who has not ...

By Danny Whirlow, Swimming World College Intern.  On August 18, 2018 - fifteen years after he beat leukemia - Dutch Olympian and gold medalist Maarten van der Weijden plunged into the frigid waters of the Netherland's famous Elfstedentocht. Typically used a speed skating course, the Elfstedentocht c...

By Madilyn Sindelar, Swimming World College Intern. When young children begin the basic steps of learning how to swim, the main focus is water safety. Simply becoming comfortable in the water is an important skill. This involves floating, blowing bubbles, playing games and singing songs. With drowni...

By Molly Griswold, Swimming World College Intern. “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” -JK Rowling Division can occur both within and between sports teams due to a variety factors. Unification, however, plays a vital role in success for all sports, including swi...

BROOKLYN, NY. As I sit in a little-too-trendy coffee shop on Atlantic Avenue, with Taylor Swift blaring and people, walking, running, biking and driving (rationally), my thoughts turn for a moment to Lima, Peru. Having not so long ago returned from a week covering the 2019 Pan American Games, now se...

Commentary by David Levinson (History of Meadville Swimming) Most of today’s swimmers have grown up with palatial 50-meter pools, touch pads and electronic scoreboards, jammers, goggles, and inclined starting blocks.  But there was a time when dedicated competitive swimmers lived in a world with no ...

By Kate Walter, Swimming World Intern.  Every summer, swimmers from all walks of life flock to Lake Tahoe, Ca., to compete in the Olympic Club Trans Tahoe Relay. Olympians, Masters swimmers and past college teammates alike eagerly await to partake in this annual event. Founded in 1976, the Trans Tah...

In a story from earlier this week that at first glance seems patently absurd, video clips jangling around social media show water polo players from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California making “Heil Hitler” salutes and chanting a Nazi anthem during a sports banquet. Originally broken by T...

By Alexa Kutch, Swimming World College Intern.  As the last swim season approaches for college seniors, they begin thinking about the next chapter of their lives. For most collegiate athletes, this means graduating and entering the work force. While it may be difficult to say farewell to a sport tha...

By Claire Russell, A Swimming World College Intern. As an athlete, we have all had to make sacrifices. We have missed a high school dance for a swim meet and watched our friends eat pizza during taper. And yet we all somehow kept choosing the athlete lifestyle, and it all definitely seemed worth it....

By Haley Wen, Swimming World College Intern. Being a team captain is a unique role to play. Although every team follows a slightly different procedure for voting, team captains are known to be teammates who have exhibited exceptional behavior both in and out of the pool. So exceptional that their pe...