Commentary

Can Anyone Close the Gap on Leon Marchand in 400 IM? For the last four years, Leon Marchand of France has dominated rivals around the world in the individual medley events. Those races were part of his historic four-gold-medal sweep at the Paris Olympics, and he swept world titles in the 200 and 400...

By Katie Lively, Swimming World College Intern If at first you don’t succeed, it’s probably not worth the effort, right? That was how I felt all through elementary school, and looking back, it’s not surprising. I followed in the footsteps of many kids who find their niche at a young age: I was reall...

5 Strategies to Build Excellent Team Culture The cultivation of great team culture is critical to a team’s success. Anytime a swimmer is looking for a new swim team, it's likely that one of their primary concerns will be how well the team gets along, as teamwork makes the swimming experience far mor...

How Sam Short and Daniel Wiffen Match Up for the 2026 Commonwealth Games With the Commonwealth Games coming up in just a couple of weeks, the men's 800 and 1500 freestyles could emerge as two of the best races of the meet. Sam Short, the 22-year-old from Australia, and 24-year-old Daniel Wiffen of N...

Can Ahmed Jaouadi, Sam Short and Bobby Finke Lead Assault on Vaunted 800 Freestyle World Record? For almost 17 years, the world record in the men’s 800 freestyle has stood as an impossible challenge for the world’s best distance swimmers. China’s Zhang Lin achieved the mark of 7:32.12 at the 2009 Wo...

Plan vs. Strategy: The Ways to Approach the 200 Butterfly Ah, the butterfly. It is routinely acknowledged as a "power" stroke, and the 200 distance is where the rubber meets the road. Butterfly may be the event where there is the least amount of crossover by distance. What I mean by this, is that yo...

No Simple Answers: When Hormones, Cancer and Sport Collide By Leann Rossi I’ve learned more about hormones in the past few weeks than I ever expected to in my lifetime. When my biopsy results came back, the explanation was both simple and devastating: my estrogen was feeding the cancer. Suddenly, so...

What if the Stroke 50s Were in Paris? Another Gold for Sarah Sjostrom? Last year, the International Olympic Committee approved the addition of the 50-meter stroke events to the Olympic program for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. For the first time, there will be 43 sets of medals awarded in the pool,...

What if the Stroke 50s Were in Paris? France Would Have Challenged for Another Gold Last year, the International Olympic Committee approved the addition of the 50-meter stroke events to the Olympic program for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. For the first time, there will be 43 sets of medals awarded...

Katie Ledecky Facing Incredible Competition in 800 Freestyle: How We Got Here Never in swimming’s history has an individual dominated an event the way Katie Ledecky has run roughshod over her competition in the 800 and 1500 freestyle. She has never lost either race at a major international competiti...

Falling in Love with Swimming Again - From the Outside  There comes a point for many swimmers when the love story with the sport changes.  For some, it happens after retirement. For others, it begins during college, after years of chasing times, standards, and expectations. The black line that once ...

Could John Shortt Be the Breakout Swimmer of the Summer? Nineteen-year-old Irishman John Shortt has been on a tear ever since the European Short Course Championships. Shortt, the current world junior record holder in the short-course 200 backstroke, has taken a majorleap this season. After big-time ...

Is Distance Swimming Dying? Top Coaches Discuss Future of the Events Katie Ledecky’s gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle at the 2012 Olympic Games in London is a moment that will last a lifetime. A rising star at the time, Ledecky stunned the world, cutting through the water with a ferocious ease....

A Letter to My College Coach  Dear Coach, As athletes, we spend so much of our careers chasing measurable things. We chase best times, national cuts, conference titles, All-American honors, and records. We learn to define success by numbers on a scoreboard and rankings on a psych sheet. For years, I...

Latest World Record Continues Stunning Ascension of Gretchen Walsh A masterclass at the Sette Colli meet over the weekend in Rome has eliminated all qualifiers to the following statement: Gretchen Walsh is the best sprinter in the world. Not best short course sprinter, not best sprint butterflyer. B...

Built to Win in Court, Paid for Downstream: The NCAA's New Eligibility Rule a Danger to Olympic Sports  The NCAA’s new five-year eligibility rule is built to win in court. The bill may land on Olympic sports.  By Alexander L. Ballard The NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval last week of a fi...

How Michael Andrew’s TYR Pro Series Swims Have Set Him Up for Success At the 2026 TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis, Michael Andrew showed signs of his old self. The 27-year-old Andrew swam some of his fastest times in over a year, showing that he is a major threat at this summer's Pan Pacific Cha...

American Women Poised to Topple Australia in 400 Freestyle Relay at Pan Pacs; Aussies Still Tough in 800 Free Relay One year ago, the American women had positioned themselves as gold-medal favorites in the 400 freestyle relay for the Singapore World Championships. Thanks to the speed of Torri Huske,...

Marrit Steenbergen, Anna Moesch Have Changed Landscape of 100 Freestyle Until recently, there had only been two occasions ever when a woman swam the 100 freestyle under 52 seconds. Sarah Sjostrom first broke that barrier on a relay leadoff at the 2017 World Championships, touching in 51.71 to oblite...

Plan vs. Strategy: The Ways to Approach the 200 Freestyle Swimming is not unique in the respect of a sport demanding a clear mind during competition. Overthinking during competition can be the death knell for success. Sports, as constructed, demand on-your-feet (or feet-on-wall) thinking. Overthink ...