Commentary

Lydia Jacoby: The Rapid Rise from Alaskan Unknown to Gold Medalist If you say you’d heard of Lydia Jacoby before this past April, at least 90% of you are lying. Don’t even bother claiming you correctly predicted that Jacoby would stun the world and win Olympic gold. Before April, Jacoby’s claim to f...

Olympics: After Historic Start in Tokyo Pool, Great Britain Destined for 800 Free Relay Gold Off the final turn in the men’s 200 freestyle final, Great Britain’s Tom Dean and Duncan Scott asserted themselves, getting past early leader Hwang Sun-Woo of South Korea and beginning to pull away. The only...

Katie Ledecky Validates Her Confidence and Her Greatness With Stellar Silver-Medal Swim The world just watched Katie Ledecky swim an Olympic final and not take home gold for the first time in her illustrious career. The question “What’s wrong with Katie?” has been buzzing around Olympics fans in the...

Olympics Day 3 Notebook: Critical Stretch Coming for Team USA After every bounce benefitted the United States on day one of the Tokyo Olympic swimming competition, day two brought some less joyful outcomes. Torri Huske barely missed her best time in the 100 butterfly final, but she ended up fourth, ...

After Swimming Faster 400 IM than Olympic Gold Medalist, Carson Foster More Motivated Than Ever Six weeks before Jay Litherland moved up from sixth place after 300 meters into silver medal position at the finish in the men’s 400 IM final at the Olympic Games, Litherland pulled the exact same comebac...

Olympics Day 2 Notebook: Time for Emma McKeon’s Individual Shining Moment? Emma McKeon has been an international force for Australia since 2013, a presence never missing from the Dolphins’ lineup in any of the relay events at an international meet during that eight-year span. She has won 17 medals a...

Olympics: Prelims-Leading Italians, Dressel-Led Americans and Outside Smoke Russians to Battle for Gold in Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay Prior to the 2000 Olympics, the American men were undefeated in Olympic competition in the men’s 400 freestyle relay. But since then, every time we have seen this even...

Olympics: United States Overcomes Apparent Weakness for Hot Start in Tokyo It would have been easy to excuse a slow start for Team USA on day one. Coming out of Olympic Trials, the team had significant weaknesses across various events, particularly on the men’s side. The U.S. men won medals in all b...

Olympics Day 1 Notebook: American Kalisz and Weyant with 400 IM Opportunity Prior to the Olympics, there was a clear favorite for gold in both the women’s and men’s 400 individual medley races, although the women’s favorite looked shaky off a challenging year. That favorite, Katinka Hosszu, did not ...

The Mystery Behind Swimmers’ Feel for the Water By Vanessa Steigauf, Swimming World College Intern With their special “feel for the water,” swimmers know just how fascinating this element is. Water can be soft like air and floating in it can sometimes feel like flying. But it can be soft and hard at...

Olympics: American Women Need Entirely New Squad for 400 Freestyle Relay Final In recent years, the American women have had some success in the 400 freestyle relay. At the 2017 World Championships, they edged out Australia for gold by three tenths, even though the Aussies were missing legendary spri...

Tokyo Olympics: No Looking Ahead as History Written Over Eight Days So much time in swimming is spent looking ahead. We watch performances and analyze them, figure out what they mean in the grand scheme of the sport. Was a swimmer fully rested and shaved at this meet or that meet? Who is trending up...

How does one define This moment in time? Resilient? Naïve? Persistent? Make Believe? The Torch is lit, The athletes are fit, The world is watching, There is no stopping. Life is celebrated, Lives are devastated- The Humanity of it all! One point on earth gathers us all; To witness what is best in ou...

The Crystal Ball: How the Tokyo Olympics Swimming Competition Will Unfold Finally, the Olympics have arrived, the week the global swimming community has been anticipating for five years. The athletes and coaches are in the Olympic village and training at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Tokyo (and Row...

Swimming World’s Pre-Olympic Male Rankings: The Top-25 Ahead of the Tokyo Games In June, Olympic Trials meets, particularly in Australia and the United States, completely shook up the status quo for the women’s swimming events at the Tokyo Olympics. Incredible performances from Aussies Ariarne Titmu...

Swimming World's Pre-Olympic Female Rankings: The Top-25 Ahead of Tokyo Ranking the top swimmers in the world involves comparing swimmers from one event, how a 50 freestyler stacks up next to a 200 butterflyer and a 100 breaststroker to a miler. It’s always subjective, depending on what qualities on...

An Appreciation For 5 USA Swimming Veterans Who Made An Impact On The Sport By Shweta Krishnan, Swimming World Magazine Intern The Tokyo Olympic Games are set to start in two days. The battle for the 52 spots on the USA Swimming roster was fierce as always, with the United States forced to leave som...

9 Jobs for Swimmers That You've Never Considered When searching for a job, people want to find something that relates to what they are good at and what they enjoy. If they've been swimming long enough, or love swimming enough, logically they may want to look into jobs related to swimming! However, n...

European Men’s Olympic Preview: Kristof Milak Heads to Tokyo as Established Star The first time the name Kristof Milak captured the world’s attention was in July 2017, when he won the European Junior Championships in the 200 butterfly in 1:53.73. But a few weeks later, Milak would not represent Hung...

Why an Olympic Year is Great for the Sport of Swimming By Annika Hobson, Swimming World College Intern Buzzing with anticipation, sports fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo and eight days of fast swimming. For the most part, swimming is a beloved sport to only swimmer...