Swimming’s Championship Season Approaches

Photo Courtesy: Atom Van Doos

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By David Rieder

Ask any swimmer, and they will tell you, “There’s no offseason in swimming.” The endless grind of training continues year-round, from the cold, dark days of Christmas training to the early morning sunrise swims in the summer. But twice per year, athletes get a little bit more amped up, their adrenaline pumping just a little bit faster. All of the hard training builds to a climax in late February and into March, and then again in July and August. Championship season has arrived.

For most of the top swimmers in the world, this season will be a big one: the last chance to prove themselves in international waters prior to the Olympic Games next summer. Almost all of the big contenders for Olympic hardware will compete at one or more of three major events: the World University Games in Gwangju, Korea; the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada; and the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

The World Champs in the pre-Olympic year often resembles dress-rehearsal for the big event. In 2007, for instance, Michael Phelps won seven gold medals and set five world records at the Worlds in Melbourne on his way to topping that with his historic effort in Beijing. Four years later in Shanghai, Missy Franklin made the leap to superstar status just 12 months before her four-gold medal-performance in London.

Jun 21, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Michael Phelps USA) swims the Men's 200IM Prelim in the final heat during the morning session of day four at the George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara, Calif. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Courtesy: Robert Stanton/USA Today Sports Images

However, this year’s championships have become watered-down, especially on the men’s side, with the withdrawals of two defending champions − James Magnussen (100 free) and Yannick Agnel (200 free) − and of reigning Swimming World Swimmer of the Year Kosuke Hagino. But the women’s meet still looks like a doozy, with Missy Franklin seeking to reclaim her spot on top of the world after an incredible NCAA season, Katie Ledecky hoping to defend her three distance world titles, and Katinka Hosszu going after what could be a record medal-haul.

But still, Olympic honors surpass world titles in prestige, and plenty of swimmers that could be going after those awards next summer won’t make the trip to Kazan. For instance, backstrokers Rachel Bootsma and Elizabeth Pelton, both expected to challenge for spots in Rio, will compete at the World University Games, and they will try to put up times competitive with what Kathleen Baker, Elizabeth Beisel, and Franklin produce at the World Championships.

Olympic legend Natalie Coughlin will have to make her mark at Pan Ams this year, as will 200 IM Olympic bronze medalist Caitlin Leverenz, NCAA record-breaker Kelsi Worrell, and late-blooming breaststroker Katie Meili. On the men’s side, veteran sprinters Cullen Jones and Josh Schneider will both be Canada-bound to test themselves against top Brazilian sprinters Cesar Cielo, Bruno Fratus, and Matheus Santana.

Photo Courtesy: Kara Sekenski

But championship season does not equate to Olympic preparation for everyone in the sport. The next six weeks will bring opportunities for swimmers to test themselves at a level they’ve never before competed at, a chance to renew old rivalries, and another chase for some good ol’-fashioned national titles. Down here in the southeastern United States, championship season begins on Thursday at the four-day Speedo Sectionals in Athens.

On hand in Athens will be the usual local suspects: the host Georgia Bulldogs and the nearby club powerhouse Dynamo, along with collegians from Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Duke, and elsewhere. The SwimMAC Elite crew will make the trek down I-85 from Charlotte as Ryan Lochte, Baker, Cammile Adams, and Kirsty Coventry get in their final tune-up for Worlds.

Meanwhile, the Michigan crew comes from a bit further away to get in some top-flight racing. Connor Jaeger will test the waters in events other than his signature 800 and 1500 free before he heads out for the World Championships, while Japan’s Junya Koga headlines the backstroke events in Athens. Concurrently, your humble writer will try to improve from his 117th seed in the 100 back and at the very least not get dead last. Check the psych sheet. This meet is fast.

Photo Courtesy: SW

But look deeper into those entry lists. Down there, you’ll find plenty of swimmers age 15 and younger, plenty making their Sectionals debut with absolutely no hope of competing with the likes of Jaeger or Baker but rather star-struck in their wake. Their coaches would be not surprised to see their pupils add time and finish dead last. But still, the trip would have been one worth making for just the experience of swimming alongside superstars at the highest level, a level at which the same swimmers will soon enough be competitive.

After Sectionals, championship season moves from UGA’s Gabrielsen Natatorium to the small deck of a six-lane, 25-yard seasonal pool with slippery walls and starting blocks in Goose Creek, South Carolina. Teams from all over the Charleston area will cram onto that deck beginning on Friday, July 17 for the annual City Meet. These teams consist of tiny eight-and-unders brand new to the sport, teenagers who swim year-round but keep competing with their summer league teams, and recently-graduated high school seniors back for one last hurrah with the team they’ve known for more than half of their lives.

Nothing in swimming can bring an entire community together like a summer league championship meet. For the vast majority of the competitors in this meet, City Meet is the ultimate championship, the highest level they will ever reach. For me, the meet brings a chance to share the passion and excitement of these kids with anyone who wants to watch. For the second straight year, I will be working with one of the local TV stations to webcast the meet to friends and family of the swimmers and anyone with connections to the Charleston swimming community.

Skeptical about the impact a webcast of a summer league meet can have on a community? During the first day of our initial attempt at a webcast one year ago, a parent approached me in tears, exclaiming that her husband was overseas and could only see the meet thanks to our webcast. One swimmer had been recently diagnosed with leukemia and was stuck in the hospital, but she could watch her brother compete in his final ever swim meet via the webcast.

Even around the facility, people tuned into our stream on their iPads to try to keep up with the results and score while they sat off the deck in tents, waiting their turn to compete. As soon as the day after the meet, I knew that there would be another webcast the following year, and I planned on making every effort to be there as host yet again. Just like the meet is central to championship season for hundreds of local age group swimmers, it has become a part of mine.

And finally, championship season will wrap up deep in the heart of Texas with another National Championships. Many of the members of team USA from the Pan Am Games and World University Games will be back stateside to compete at Northside Swim Center in San Antonio, and they will be joined by two prolific U.S. Olympians who won’t compete internationally this year, Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt, as well as former Olympic bronze medalist and newly-minted Serbian Arkady Vyatchanin.

Photo Courtesy: Jessica Ralston

Those in San Antonio will have the last chance among Americans to throw down a tapered long course swim in their respective events prior to next summer’s Olympic Trials in Omaha. Most events at Nationals will take place after the corresponding event at the World Championships, so the swimmers in Texas will have the final chance to add their names to the rankings of top Americans for the pre-Olympic year. And for the second straight year, I will be down in Texas, covering all of the action for Swimming World.

During only one other period of the year do swimmers get as juiced up to compete as they do during the summer months. But only during the summer are the big competitions held in long course, especially vital during the pre-Olympic year, and only during the summer does swimming expand its reach to the entire community, as it does right here at Charleston’s City Meet. I will see swimming of all sizes and levels over the next few weeks, and I can’t wait for the ride.

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Ben Hobbins

8 years ago

San Antonio Sports Northside Independent School District

Mercy Cain

8 years ago

Wow