We sat down with NCAA champion Andreas Vazaios , who is now training and working towards his masters degree at Loughborough University. Vazaios is studying psychology, specifically emotional intelligence and self care. The Greek swimmer shares some of the things he's learned about these topics and how they've trickled into his life as a swimmer and as a human. Read Andreas Vazaios' blog about emotional intelligence here. Click here to listen and subscribe on Spotify Click here to listen and subs...
Feb 14, 2021•37 min•Ep. 435
We sat down with Calvin Werts, swimmer at the University of Puget Sound and video producer at the CG Sports Company. Calvin, like many other athletes, has numerous passions, two of them being swimming and video production. After going to a swim clinic led by Olympian Jacob Pebley , Werts ended up calling Pebley's agent, CG Yung and asking if he needed help on the video-side of things. Calvin tells us how he worked his way from intern to paid employee and some of the things he found helpful along...
Feb 13, 2021•36 min•Ep. 434
We sat down with Notre Dame standout Coleen Gillilan to get her perspective on the past year. Gillilan put up impressive times recently at the Shamrock Invite , where the Irish put on racing suits and the sophomore surprised herself with near PB's. Gillilan explains the training that the Notre Dame team has been able to get in the last 2 semesters since getting back to campus, including a look into her favorite (everybody's favorite): 200 fly practices. Click here to listen and subscribe on Spot...
Feb 12, 2021•29 min•Ep. 432
Olympic and World Champion Lilly King was SwimSwam’s 2020 U.S. Swimmer of the Year because the global pandemic did not slow her down. King crushed her competition over ISL’s second season representing the Cali Condors. At USA Swimming’s most recent Pro Swim Series in San Antonio King swept the 100 and 200 breaststroke, but she was edged by Emily Escobedo at the Richmond Pro Swim. I have a feeling King would’ve swum faster had she been racing head-to-head with Escobedo. Emily Escobedo - 100 breas...
Feb 11, 2021•5 min•Ep. 433
We sat down with North Carolina native and high school senior Coleman McCreery, who has had a bit of a bumpy road in terms of finding a swim program. He originally committed to East Carolina in April of 2020 (as a junior), about a month before the program was announced as getting cut . After dealing with that blow, McCreery got back into the recruiting pool and landed on Michigan State, signing in October 2020 (as a senior) just weeks before their program also announced it would be getting cut ....
Feb 11, 2021•30 min•Ep. 431
We sat down with Olympic, World, Pan Pacific, and Commonwealth champion Emma Mckeon to talk about the pandemic, how her 2021 Olympic prep is going, and dive into her swimming story a bit. Emma has been on the Australian national team for over a decade now but admits she wasn't always in love with pushing herself to the limit. Mckeon reveals when she was younger and went to her first major international meet (2010 short course world championships), she decided she wanted to focus on her social li...
Feb 10, 2021•55 min•Ep. 430
We sat down with NCAA All-American Grace Countie to talk about the 2-week stint in which UNC raced 4 dual meets. Countie particularly shined in the last of these against Duke, where she won the 100 back and 100 free and was a part of the winning 200 medley and 400 free relays. Countie discusses that she gained confidence racing back-to-back like this, getting the opportunity to make small adjustments and fine-tune the details of her races. Click here to listen and subscribe on Spotify Click here...
Feb 10, 2021•33 min•Ep. 429
We sat down with head coach for the Cal men and for the 2021 Men's US Olympic team, Dave Durden . We've seen some exceptional swimming from the bears in the last few months, and Durden breaks down the purpose behind each race since November. Durden also speaks on the uncertainty moving forward in the season and how that he helped to mold their mindsets into focusing more on the here-and-now. Click here to listen and subscribe on Spotify Click here to listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts Click ...
Feb 09, 2021•44 min•Ep. 428
Shaine Casas is the swimmer to watch. His star is rising fast! Shaine can swim backstroke, butterfly, IM, and freestyle at the elite level. Sounds like he even wants to make a run at breaststroke. Shaine’s consistently racing fast—making improvements like an age grouper. At the college level, he's pure gold, but can he net hardware this summer? Can he make the U.S. Olympic Team? WAY TO EARLY 2021 SWIMMING PREDICTIONS I see this Texas A&M swimmer making the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team in the 100 b...
Feb 08, 2021•5 min•Ep. 427
We sat down with NCAA All-American Izzy Ivey , who is coming off of an electric 3-day, 4-session dual meet performance in which she broke Cal dual meet records in the 100 free, 100 fly, and 4 relays . Ivey reflects on the racing that she and the bears have gotten to get in this year as well as the heavy training they've done throughout the fall and winter. Ivey also delves into the perspective she's gained through the COVID-19 pandemic, admitting that the 2020 NCAA's getting cancelled was a tipp...
Feb 08, 2021•43 min•Ep. 426
We sat down with NCAA All-American turned coach, Pavel Sankovich. Pavel shared what worked for him when he was an age-group, collegiate, and professional swimmer when trying to develop the best underwater in the world. Sankovich delves into his focuses, his kick counts, and even a few of his favorite sets. One in particular he shared is simple in make-up but much trickier in execution: 3x300 on 3:30, descend 1-3, must kick to 15yds off of every wall and maintain stroke & kick count throughou...
Feb 07, 2021•43 min•Ep. 425
We sat down with NCAA champion and former van-lifer, Emma Reaney . Reaney had a full swim career and has had a full life since stepping away from swimming, taking us through both journeys in today's podcast. Reaney describes the joy of swimming in college and opening yourself up to an entire team, noting the best year of her swimming (junior year, when she won the 200 breast at the 2014 NCAA Championships in American record fashion) was also the year she was in the best headspace and living with...
Feb 06, 2021•49 min•Ep. 424
We sat down with the head coach for the HPC - Toronto, Ben Titley . Titley has been in the coaching game at the highest level for a long time now, both in Canada and his home country of Great Britain. He shares stories about coaching Olympic and world champions such as James Gibson , Mel Marshall , Penny Oleksiak , and more. One topic Ben gets into that many maybe don't consider is lactic acid and what is the most successful way of removing it after a race for a swimmer. Titley notes that if you...
Feb 05, 2021•54 min•Ep. 422
World champion and World record holder Regan Smith came off of some brutal winter training to win the 100m back (59.75), 100m fly (58.55), and 200m fly (2:10.10) at the 2021 San Antonio Pro Swim (JAN) . She scratched out of the 200 back final, but swam the 200 free notching second (1:59.49). By my math, Regan is exactly where she needs to be this early in the season. I see Regan back at her 2020 Des Moines Pro Swim times as she works through Feb and March. 2020 DES MOINES PRO SWIM - REGAN SMITH ...
Feb 04, 2021•6 min•Ep. 423
Leigh Ann Caldwell is a swammer with a big career as a network news correspondent. In many ways, her unique vocation is all about politically unearthing what matters right now and reporting it as the first draft of history to a national audience. Sounds like fun, right? I know it’s a career a lot of young swimmers might be dreaming of—even planning for. For Leigh Ann the dream started very young, and her journey has been hard-fought. She has earned her position on the national media stage. I’d l...
Feb 04, 2021•26 min•Ep. 421
We sat down with sprinter turned distance ace Kristen Stege . Stege, now a sophomore at Tennessee, just dropped a PB 9:40 1,000 free in a dual meet against Georgia. She made headlines in February when she won the AAC title in the 1,650, which was her first time ever competing in a 1,650. Stege takes us through her last year of swimming and why she has actually warmed up to distance swimming after adamantly opposing it as an age group swimmer. Click here to listen and subscribe on Spotify Click h...
Feb 04, 2021•34 min•Ep. 420
We sat down with University of Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo , whose Cavaliers are coming off of some exciting dual meets in the last couple of weeks. For the men's team, it was a tight battle with UNC that came down to the last relay, a trend that DeSorbo says has been unusually common for the men since he's arrived in Charlottesville. For the women's team, it was the next day versus NC State that came down to the final relay after UVA's 1-2 finishers in the 1,000 were both DQ'ed for being i...
Feb 03, 2021•48 min•Ep. 419
We sat down with Chris Mooney (head coach of University of Sunshine Coast in Australia) and Dave McKean (head of physical performance at University of Sunshine Coast) to talk about their 21-day training cycles that we covered in our interview with 2020 Swimmer of the Year Kaylee McKeown . They each give their perspectives on why they wanted to try this method out and how it's worked so far, McKean coming from a heavily scientific background and Mooney wanting to push the boundaries of innovation...
Feb 02, 2021•34 min•Ep. 418
We sat down with Olympic champion Florent Manaudou , who is coming off of his second ISL season with Energy Standard. Manaudou hits on a myriad of topics, including why he will be training in France for the Olympic lead-up , how he spends his free time outside of the water, and what he gained by taking a break after the 2016 Olympic Games. Florent is extremely personable and it's refreshing to hear his perspective on things in and outside of the pool Click here to listen and subscribe on Spotify...
Feb 01, 2021•32 min•Ep. 417
We sat down with Morgan Scroggy , the Pan Pacific and World University Games champion who is the lowest-seeded athlete (41st, 200 back) to have made a final at the US Olympic Trials in the last 20 years. This is significant as it was the line USA Swimming decided to make for the Wave II Olympic Trials meet, basing the cuts on the times of the 41st seeded athlete in each event as of the day they came out (January 26, 2021). Scroggy competed in 3 different Olympic Trials (04, 08, 12) and candidly ...
Jan 31, 2021•36 min•Ep. 416
We sat down with Emily Escobedo , the breaststroking machine that has been on fire this past year. Escobedo had a successful season in the ISL Budapest Bubble, helping a rebuilt New York Breakers team to a semi-final appearance . Less than a month after that, Escobedo suited up in practice and came within .2 of a lifetime best in the 200-yard breaststroke . But she wasn't done there. At the January Pro Swim in Richmond, she topped the field in both the 100 (1:07.11) and 200 (2:23.46) breast , go...
Jan 30, 2021•41 min•Ep. 415
Matt Biondi , an 11-time Olympic medalist, details his progress to further athletes’ rights as the manager of the International Swimmers’ Alliance. The Alliance, an association of the world’s top 120 elite swimmers, is ready to officially get down to business after 20 months of development. For Matt, a three-time Olympian, this journey has been far, far longer. The Olympic icon has been a pioneer in this effort going back to the 1980s when Olympians were not allowed to earn endorsement dollars u...
Jan 29, 2021•44 min•Ep. 414
We sat down with 2 of SwimSwam's Co-Founders, Braden Keith and Mel Stewart , to discuss the recent news that the 2021 US Olympic Trials will now be 2 meets . We discuss whether this was the right decision, what led to this choice behind the scenes, and if there may be a better solution out there. Braden and Mel also dive into what this means for Olympic Trials moving forward, with the potential for this "2-meet system" being a recurring theme for trial meets to come. Click here to listen and sub...
Jan 29, 2021•38 min•Ep. 413
We sat down with David Curtiss , the 18-year-old national team member that logged a PR in the 50m free at the Richmond Pro Swim. Curtiss revealed that he had only been in the water for 2 1/2 weeks before the Pro Swim, being forced out of the pool for a month prior due to COVID restrictions. Curtiss explains that he's focused a lot on power and strength work outside of the pool, which he's been able to translate into the pool. Click here to listen and subscribe on Spotify Click here to listen and...
Jan 28, 2021•27 min•Ep. 412
We sat down with Grant Shoults, the NCAA All-American who recently took to twitter to give a personal update . After recovering from shoulder surgery a year ago, Shoults was back in the pool training toward the beginning of quarantine. However, he started having shoulder pain and realized he would need a 2nd surgery on his other shoulder. We go into the details of how it went and what recovery looked like. Shoults also explains the environment that has been created within the Stanford men throug...
Jan 27, 2021•32 min•Ep. 411
SwimSmart ( https://www.swimsmarttoday.com ) co-founders Karl Hamouche and Mike Peterson drop-in on the SwimSwam Podcast explaining how they've flexed their entrepreneurial muscle, building one of the fastest growing companies in our sport. Karl Hamouche is the founder of Swim Smart and co-inventor of the Squeezline. He moved to Iowa from Lebanon when he was 12 years old, joined the local swim team, and instantly was part of a family in a place 8,000 miles away from home. Years later, he ended u...
Jan 26, 2021•37 min•Ep. 410
We sat down with NCAA-champion Austin Surhoff, who turned some heads by racking up 2 lifetime bests at the Richmond Pro Swim. Surhoff went 22.5 in the 50 free and 49.6 in the 100 free , very solid times that put him on the list for potentially finaling at Olympic Trials. As someone who was always a grinder in practice but didn't necessarily love it, Surhoff takes us through the process that has helped him embrace and enjoy swimming again. This routine includes 45-minute workouts, just enough to ...
Jan 26, 2021•49 min•Ep. 409
We sat down with British music producer and activist Ed Accura , who recently announced a sequel to his wave-making documentary “A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim" , scheduled for release in May 2021. The new film, titled “Blacks Can’t Swim The Sequel,” will feature scripted scenes combined with real interview footage of 14-25 year olds from the Black community talking about why their generation doesn’t swim. This is an evolution of the original film, which included interspersed interview footage ...
Jan 25, 2021•25 min•Ep. 408
We sat down with Olympic champion and swim-vlogger Cody Miller after the breaststroke had a strong showing at the Pro Swim in San Antonio. My favorite part about Cody is his vulnerability; his honesty. We get into the nitty-gritty of being a new father, training through a pandemic, and being someone people look to for hope and excitement in a time of uncertainty. Cody shares that through these ups and downs of the last year, he's gained perspective and is now training the best he has in years. C...
Jan 25, 2021•48 min•Ep. 407
If you didn't see our first talk with Matthew Marquardt, you can revisit that conversation here , when he was in the middle of cycling across the United States. Marquardt recently finished his trek, 3 days ahead of schedule, and was kind enough to sit down with us and break down what he gained from the ride. Matthew goes into details of where the hardest struggles came, how his diet changed, and being too sore to even sleep some nights. But all in all, he was able to complete the ride. Matthew i...
Jan 24, 2021•27 min•Ep. 406
