Commentary

Staying Motivated Through Holiday Training  The holidays are a time filled with warmth, festivities, and celebration. But if you are a swimmer, December and the holidays also come with something else: Holiday training. This time consists of long practices, tired muscles, early alarms, and a heavy st...

How NCAA Swimmers Navigate the 400 IM - Arguably Swimming's Hardest Race For sprinters, there’s no joy like the rush of energy that comes from a 50 freestyle. For distance swimmers, the grinding battle often generates a sense of pride. These are two very different swimmers, also training in vastly d...

A Swimmer's Guide to Chlorine Hair: How to Keep Your Locks Healthy Anyone who has swum since they were little knows the struggle of chlorine hair — dry, frizzy and bleached. “Swimmer hair” is a tell-tale sign in every group, the kind of signal that says, "oh hey, she definitely swims." From the outs...

Supporting Stars Break Out for Defending Champion Texas Men at Midseason The Texas Longhorns assembled a complete roster talented enough to win the NCAA team championship in men's swimming and diving in the first year under head coach Bob Bowman. The team defeated main rival California by 19 points ...

Virginia Shows Off Lineup Pursuing Six-Peat, With Claire Curzan and Anna Moesch Starring At the conclusion of the 2024-25 college swimming season, Virginia graduated two of the most accomplished collegiate swimmers ever. During her four years with the Cavaliers, Gretchen Walsh rewrote the record boo...

4 Reasons To Be Thankful For Your Swim Parents By Nicole E. Johnson Behind all of the hard work and dedication that swimming takes, there are swim parents who have stood by you and pushed you to be your very best. Most athletes would agree that they would not have come as far in their sport if it we...

Who Are You? 4 Swimmer Personalities Found on the Pool Deck Swim meets are pretty much the ideal place to people watch. Every swimmer prepares to race fast completely differently. This can all depend on your personality, your meet lineup, or even what kind of day you’re having. Yet every swimmer has...

Brian Goodell vs. Vladimir Salnikov: 'The Duel We Missed' Documentary Receiving Academy Award Consideration Documentary films, at their core, take a deep dive into a specific topic. They are detailed. They offer emotion. They introduce engaging characters and storylines. They take the viewer behind ...

How NCAA Champions Have Performed at Their Midseason Competitions: The Numbers Are Interesting As the weather begins to chill, the holiday season has arrived. It’s a time of relaxation and cheer, a break from the pressures of the world. That is, except for swimmers.  In the swimming world, the start...

Why We’re Thankful for Swimming  As Thanksgiving rolls around, swimmers, families and coaches across the country naturally find themselves thinking about what they are thankful for. Between the early mornings, the long meets, and the endless hours spent around the water, the sport has a way of shapi...

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...

Luca Urlando, Ilya Kharun Setting Up Elite 200 Butterfly Rivalry in College and International Competition When he began his college career at Arizona State University, Ilya Kharun was already an internationally-acclaimed 200 butterfly, having surged down the stretch to tie for fourth in the World Ch...

Guest Editorial: Steps Away from Hall of Fame, Fort Lauderdale Honors Swimming’s Greatest Fraud By Daniel Slosberg If the City of Fort Lauderdale’s International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) ever completes construction of its new home, visitors will be able to learn about the sport’s greatest champ...

After Incredible World Cup Performance, Josh Liendo Shooting for Big Finish to Florida Career He raced at all three stops of the World Cup circuit, but something shifted when Josh Liendo got back on home soil for the third and final stop in Toronto. Liendo had been nowhere close to the front of the ...

Versatile American Women Must Consider New Schedule on Road to Los Angeles Olympics This year's World Championships concluded with the American team of Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske winning gold in the women's 400 medley relay in world-record time. It is impossible to fu...

Virginia’s Thomas Heilman and Maximus Williamson Among Freshmen Men in Contention This College Season Freshmen male swimmers often struggle to immediately make a scoring impact on the national level. Some swimmers arrive as already-established performers, like Canadians Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo i...

Motivational Monday: 5 Ways to Stay Motivated - A Letter to Those Who are Stuck in the Mud Dear Struggling Swimmer, You’re tired and sore all the time, you’re not getting anywhere, and all you want to do is eat a tub of Ben and Jerry’s, get into bed, and nap for the next few weeks. If you have been ...

Six Ways Swim Parents and Coaches Can Work Together In A Beneficial Manner The coach-parent relationship is critical as athletes work toward improving and achieving their goals. In many cases, this relationship is smooth and proves beneficial. Unfortunately, there are times when parents do not give ...

The Duel We Missed: Swim Documentary Examines Political Influence on Olympic Games (Trailer Included) The United States-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow robbed hundreds of elite athletes of lifelong dreams, and a superb documentary by Bravo Film & Media has emphasized the impact that ...

By Katie Wingert, Swimming World College Intern Swimming alone can be a struggle between staring at the black line and wanting to smash your incessantly beeping tempo trainer with your fins. Ideally, we swimmers would always have a team to practice with. Sometimes, though, life gets complicated. Sch...