Commentary

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...

By Sarah Noll, Swimming World Magazine College Intern. Not all swimmers are created equal. Some are sprinters, some are distance swimmers, and some are everything inbetweeners. Some swimmers like butterfly more than backstroke. No matter their stroke, swimmers come in all shapes, colors and speeds. ...

By Rachel Helm, Swimming World College Intern.  Transitioning from high school swimming to college swimming is a massive step for incoming freshmen, but for others, the transition is nearly seamless. Moving away from home and into college independence can hard enough, but to add college practice on ...

By Ashleigh Scott, Swimming World College Intern. Once upon a time, there was a child who developed a particular passion for the water. Playing in the pool was nothing short of a favorite pastime, and the resulting prune-like fingers became a proud symbol of the time spent in the water. Salt water o...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. Swimming is a cool summer activity, right? For many the image of paradise is being surrounded by a cloud of sunscreen while lazing by the ocean or pool before slipping into the water to escape the sweltering heat. However, competitive swimmers are ver...

By Jennifer Yoo, Swimming World College Intern. When you hear that there is an event called the “24-Hour Arena Swim,” what do you think of? Most would automatically think it’s an event reserved for professional swimmers who have been training their whole lives – but that’s not true. This German even...