Commentary

David Popovici Will Chase Another 13-Year-Old World Record Next Month Over the last six months, David Popovici has exceeded expectations at every opportunity. After dominating a pair of individual events at the World Championships, the Romanian teenager broke a world record more than a decade old in...

5 Outside-the-Pool Activities For Faster Swimming When thinking about ways to become a faster swimmer, it makes plenty of sense to consider certain things you can do differently and better IN the water. However, more swimming does not always translate to better results. As a matter of fact, there ar...

By Makena Markert, Swimming World College Intern. Have you ever felt like you were doing everything you possibly could to get better and weren’t seeing results? Consider trying these five things that require absolutely no talent. If you incorporate them into your life, you just might see the improve...

8 Ways to Thank Your Teammates Teammates are special people. We spend hours of our weeks throughout the year with them, during long meet weekends and long practices. They are there to pick us up after hard races and hard days at school and work. Teammates are some of the most important people within...

By Maggie Lasto, Swimming World College Intern. The life of a swimmer is complicated. You can take the swimmer away from the pool, but you can’t take the pool away from the swimmer; or the chlorine for that matter. Swimming is a sport that not only follows you around, it also impacts the people clos...

College Swimming Record Chase: What Barriers Could Be Broken in 2023? After pulling away from Torri Huske and hitting the wall first for her second consecutive NCAA title in the 200-yard IM, Alex Walsh looked genuinely shocked — not necessarily because of her victory but because she had recorded the...

15 Truths About Swimming Swimming is a sport like no other. You learn a lot about yourself throughout your years as a swimmer and the sport inherently instills valuable life lessons in you. Even when your time as a competitive swimmer is done, you still continue to learn more about the sport and hav...

As swimmers, we can look for quick fixes. We know that we can adjust a flip turn here, tweak a breath there, and throw in a few extra dolphin kicks off of our start—and that could shave time off of even the shortest of races. However, we are not always eager to reach for the more long-term aids to o...

By McKenna Ehrmantraut, Swimming World College Intern. As the summer winds down and the school books come out, college swimmers are preparing for another eventful season full of grueling practices and best times. While the coaches are preparing tough sets, team captains are looking for ways to help ...

3 Ways To Maintain Mental Toughness Through Demanding Sets Whether you're a club swimmer trying to qualify for Olympic Trials or a high school swimmer trying to capture your first state cut, every swimmer has endured their share of hard practices. Tough sets make swimmers some of the strongest a...

There’s probably been several times where you’ve asked yourself “why are swimmers doing that?” I know that I’ve heard my family and even random people out in restaurants asking questions about the things swimmers do at the pool. So let’s clear some things up! Why wear goggles under the swim cap? Eve...

Sprint Freestyle Digest: The Men Contending for Collegiate Titles in the Splash-and-Dash The 50-yard freestyle final at an NCAA Men's Championships is an experience best described as whiplash. Start, sprint, turn, sprint and finish in a flash, and it's essentially impossible to sort out the winner u...

By Chandler Brandes (From the Archive) It has come to that point in the season. Exams are around the corner, it’s getting darker earlier, and holiday training is fast approaching. Many midseason meets are over, and maybe we had a great meet, or maybe it didn’t go how we had planned. Long story short...

Meal-Prepping for Race Day: Three Foods That Will Fuel the Body The big day has finally arrived. Over the last few months, you have spent hours in the pool perfecting your strokes, turns and dives for this moment. And now it’s time to compete. While training is crucial for high-pe...

4 Ways To Look Out For a Teammate's Mental Health By Mauro Pacsi Athletes, no matter the sport, all face individual challenges. However, these challenges eclipse more than just their bodies. They affect their minds, too. Mental health is an ever-growing topic of concern around the sports world. Alth...

Can Torri Huske and Claire Curzan Make Stanford Women a National Title Threat? In March, a long-awaited battle for the NCAA women's team title between defending champion Virginia and a resurgent Stanford squad never materialized. The Cavaliers utterly dominated the national championship meet as Kate...

Golden Goggles: The Ballot for 2022’s Top American Swimmers Coming off a World Championships where the United States captured 45 medals in the pool, the most of any major international competition ever, USA Swimming has announced its nominees for this year’s Golden Goggles, with awards scheduled to ...

Midseason invitationals are now in full swing, and quick times have popped up around the country. More will be produced in the coming weeks, while others will refocus and prepare for the next stage of the season. At this juncture of the season, it is critical that athletes buckle down in training an...

Cutting Time: Tips For Improving Turns, Underwaters and Breakouts One of the most effective ways to drop time quickly is to improve your turns, underwaters and breakouts. Sloppy transitions can easily add time to a race. When you’re performing them well off every wall, those seconds add up quickly. ...

8 Things You'll Learn In Your First College Swim Season By Cassidy Lavigne Freshman year is full of new learning experiences and memories for everyone. As a collegiate athlete, your college experience will already be vastly different than your peers outside of athletics. The transition from high sch...