After coming off of a sensational NCAA season, Josh Liendo kept his momentum rolling in Paris, walking away with a silver medal in the 100 fly. The Canadian sprint star was also a part of a podium that featured 2 Canadians, himself and Ilya Kharun in the 100 fly, which is the first time that has happened since 1976. Liendo breaks down his performances in Paris, revealing how he approached his program from a mental and physical standpoint. He talks about technique in butterfly and freestyle and w...
Sep 30, 2024•42 min•Ep. 1185
On the eve of the 2024 Australian Short Course Nationals, Olympic champion Lani Pallister was kind enough to sit down with SwimSwam and discuss her last 8 weeks of swimming and life. Pallister admitted that she pushed through the urge to take a break from training after Paris to prepare to compete in the Surf Lifesaving as well as Short Course World Championships (via AUS short course nats). On Day 1 in Adelaide, Pallister hit a lifetime best in the 200 free (1:52.73) to win the event. After 20 ...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 1184
Todd DeSorbo is fresh off serving as Team USA's head women's coach for swimming at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The UVA head coach reflects on training camp, the Olympic Village, and the Games themselves, happy with the overall performance of the team and himself. DeSorbo also discusses the NCAA realm, including how he's navigating recruiting in the new NIL landscape and what the Virginia team has in store for this fall.
Sep 25, 2024•34 min•Ep. 1183
Florent Manaudou has medaled in the last 4 Olympic 50 Freestyles, winning gold in 2012, silver in 2016 and 2020, and now bronze at his home Olympics in Paris. It hasn't been an easy path for the sprint legend though. Florent starts by speaking honestly about his emotional highs and lows coming off of the Olympics. He is already back in the pool training with the goal of competing at the 2024 Short Course World Championships and ultimately the 2026 European Championships in Paris. He goes on to r...
Sep 23, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1182
After only swimming in relay prelims at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mollie O'Callaghan has been on an absolute warpath on the international swim stage since, capping it off by winning individual gold in the 200 free and relay gold in the 4x100 and 4x200 free relays in Paris. Just before Tokyo in 2019, O'Callaghan had considered herself primarily a backstroke swimmer who swam sprint freestyle. But as she's progressed under coach Dean Boxall, she's dipped her toes more and more into mid-distance free...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 1181
Katharine Berkoff secured her spot in Olympic history by contributing to a USA 2-3 finish in the women's 100 back, earning a bronze medal with her third-place finish. The 25x NCAA All-American also earned Olympic gold as a member of the 400 medley relay prelims team. For Katharine, making her first Olympic team was a generational accomplishment, as her father, David Berkoff, was not only her inspiration growing up but also an Olympic swimmer in his own right. After the Paris Games, father and da...
Sep 18, 2024•58 min•Ep. 1180
Carson Foster finished his summer as a first-time Olympian and a 2x Olympic medalist. Returning to Austin this fall, Foster is going through a ton of change. His longtime coaches at Texas, Eddie Reese and Wyatt Collins, are now replaced by Bob Bowman and his staff. In his personal life, Foster just married his longtime partner, Meredith, and is now living with her. SwimSwam spoke with the world champion about his whirlwind summer and all the changes he's adapting to now in Austin.
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 1179
Torri Huske finished 4th in the 100 fly at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. A year later, she won the world title in the same event. At the next year's world championships after taking on an extreme course load at Stanford, still managed a bronze in the event. And finally, in Paris, Huske topped the podium once again... plus much, much more. It's no exaggeration to say the Paris Olympics was Torri's best international competition to date. Not only did she score gold in the 100 fly (55.5), but sh...
Sep 16, 2024•53 min•Ep. 1178
Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby recently announced her decision to forego her remaining 2 years of NCAA eligibility and transition to being a professional athlete. Jacoby will continue to pursue her degree in fashion at Texas and for the time being, train in Austin. However, this will allow her more flexibility to travel, rest in the fall, and compete in events like the World Cup and Pro Swim series. Jacoby openly discusses her decision in addition to her summer of travel, going to New York Fashio...
Sep 15, 2024•26 min•Ep. 1177
Antonio Lutula has been the head coach at the Swedish National Centre in Stockholm since January 2022 and has already accomplished what many coaches wait a lifetime for. He led sprinting superstar Sarah Sjostrom to Olympic gold in both the 50 and 100 freestyle in Paris, her first Olympic titles in both events. Lutula discusses what coaching at the National Centre is like, why Sarah Sjostrom has been so consistent in racing, and what were the keys to winning gold in Paris.
Sep 13, 2024•49 min•Ep. 1176
Fresh off of leading Arizona State to its first NCAA team title in program history, Bob Bowman announced he would be leaving to head up the swim and dive program at Texas. A number of athletes left Arizona State following this announcement, either to follow Bob Bowman to Austin or pursue their swimming at other programs. One athlete who had trained under Bowman and was expected to follow him (from the outside) was freshman Ilya Kharun. The Canadian national had seen vast improvement under Bowman...
Sep 12, 2024•46 min•Ep. 1175
Hunter Armstrong was one of the more surprising narratives from Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games. While the former world record holder in the 50 back narrowly missed the final of the 100 back, his freestyle seemed to more than make up for it. He split 46.7 to help the men win the 400 free relay then was given anchor duty on the 400 medley relay, where he split 47.1 and touched for 2nd. In this discussion, Amrstrong doesn't hold back about a number of topics. He's describes losing his grandfath...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 1174
Ben Proud had won every accolade out there in the 50m free: LCM World title, SCM world title, Commonwealth champion, European champion. But in Paris, he finally earned an individual Olympic medal, touching second for silver. Ironically, it came at a point in his career when he wasn't focused on the result of the race. After Tokyo, Proud almost stepped away from swimming entirely. He knew something about his approach to swimming had to change and it did in 2022. In the last two years, Proud has l...
Sep 09, 2024•59 min•Ep. 1173
In just 12 months, Hubi Kos became a world champion, NCAA champion, European champion, and finally Olympic champion, taking gold in Paris in the men's 200 back. With Leon Marchand as his training partner and Bob Bowman as his coach, Kos has made great strides in the pool over the last 18 months since he's lived in the US. Kos explains that Bowman obviously knows how to train athletes bodies but what really sets him apart is how he prepares his athletes mentally. Because of the rigorous challenge...
Sep 04, 2024•58 min•Ep. 1172
Thomas Nguyen is best known now for being a contestant on the 21st season of The Bachelorette. But before that, he was an NCAA DII All-American for Florida Southern and trained with SwimAtlanta in hopes of representing Vietnam in the 2016 Olympic Games. Listen to what Nguyen has to say about his experience in the dating and swimming pools over the last few years.
Sep 03, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1171
Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey showed out in Paris, winning bronze medals in the 100 and 200 freestyles, both of which were the fastest fields in history. That put Haughey's overall Olympic medal count at 4 (after winning double silver in Tokyo), making her the most decorated Olympian in Hong Kong's history. The world champion and NCAA All-American joined the SwimSwam podcast to discuss her experience in Paris, her iconic partnership with Chanel, and having no real training base but still staying a...
Sep 02, 2024•42 min•Ep. 1168
"It’s extremely challenging to help swimmers develop skills that win races. It’s overwhelming trying to teach skills to each and every athlete, particularly when it seems like no one is listening. And everything that’s learned seems to disappear once it’s time to start training, or when it really counts in championship races that matter. The solution isn’t to get better at what you’re doing. You don’t need new drills, you don’t need new cues, and you don’t need an expensive video system. You nee...
Aug 31, 2024•32 min•Ep. 1169
10-time Olympic swimming medalist Caeleb Dressel is happy to be back on his Florida farm after the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. His results were mixed. He knows that. He knows he fought hard, and he didn't exactly have the Olympic Games he wanted. At a minimum, he's just glad he did it, went to Paris, because there were two moments when he thought he might not go at all. Dressel thought a repeat of the 2022 World Championship would happen, when he abruptly left in the middle of the competition. Aft...
Aug 30, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 1170
Sarah Sjostrom dreamt of winning Olympic gold in the 100 free. Literally. She had a dream about herself winning a gold medal in the 100 free. Then did it. Sjostrom, the world record holder in both the 50 and 100 freestyle, had achieved everything in the sport there is to achieve in both events outside of individual Olympic titles in both. Coming into the Paris Olympics, Sjostrom herself wasn't even sure that she was going to swim the 100 free. But once Paris kicked off, the Swedish sprint star e...
Aug 29, 2024•31 min•Ep. 1167
Heading into 2024, Kate Douglass had pretty much everything one could have on a swimming resume: NCAA champion, American record holder, and world champion. In Paris last month, she added Olympic champion to that list. When the competition was over, Douglass walked away from the 2024 Olympic Games with 4 medals, 2 from Team USA relays (gold, silver) and two individually from the 200 breast (gold) and 200 IM (silver). Listen to Douglass' experience in Paris and her plans for swimming moving into t...
Aug 28, 2024•44 min•Ep. 1166
Heading into the 2024, Regan Smith had been one Olympics, won 3 medals there, won 9 world championship medals, won an NCAA title, and set 3 world records. But none of it was enough to make Smith feel good about her accomplishments in the pool. Since the 2022 season, Smith has been slowly working on changing how she views her swimming and the success that comes with it. For much of her career, she would enter a race and feel immense pressure to win, to the point that she would derail herself befo...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 1165
Gretchen Walsh barely missed making the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team in Tokyo, but she made up for it at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, winning four medals. Gretchen had a lot of naysayers from outside of the United States. Swim fans knew she was great based on her 2024 NCAA DI Championships performance, clearly the greatest in history. Many critics felt her yards (NCAAs) to meters (Olympic pool distance) talent would not convert. Gretchen proved her critics wrong with a fantastic Olympic debut. Gretch...
Aug 26, 2024•39 min•Ep. 1164
Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen came into his 3rd Olympic Games looking for memories in the pool but left with much, much more. After going viral during the Games on TikTok for a video featuring one of the Village's chocolate muffins, Christiansen ran with it and soon became known as the Olympic Muffin Man. Listen to what inspires Christiansen both in and out of the pool (aside from muffins) and how he's feeling after the whirlwind experience of his 3rd Olympics....
Aug 24, 2024•30 min•Ep. 1162
At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Kaylee McKeown became the first woman to ever win back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. She also became Australia's most successful individual medalist with 4 golds. And surprisingly, she's just as human as the rest of us. From how she reflects on Paris, you wouldn't immediately realize her success there. McKeown is a high achiever and constantly pushing herself to great heights, which she admits can sometimes be a downfall and lead to l...
Aug 23, 2024•47 min•Ep. 1163
After his 3rd Olympics in 2021, Cam McEvoy was burnt out with swimming and retired, thinking that was it for his swimming career. After 2 years of studying high performance within weight lifting, track, and cycling, McEvoy wondered if principles from each sport could be applied to swimming. The sprint star decided to give swimming one last chance, but he was going to do it on his terms. When he proposed his training plan to many coaches, many turned him away. But once he found Tim Lane through f...
Aug 22, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 1161
9-time Olympic medalist Ryan Murphy unpacks the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Murphy takes us inside the Olympic Trials to the Olympic Games process, sharing insights, stressors, and the mood as Team USA worked through the grueling 9-day event. Murphy details his 100 back, mix medley leadoff, and the 4x100 medley leadoff. Murphy also digs into the 200 back where the 2016 Olympic champion under-swam the semi-final costing him a lane in the Olympic final.
Aug 20, 2024•27 min•Ep. 1160
French Swimmer Leon Marchand won 4 Gold Medals at the Paris Olympics, going a perfect 4-for-4 in his individual events. Marchand was coached by Bob Bowman leading into the Olympics, the same man who helped Michael Phelps win 8 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Bowman takes us into the Olympic Games and shares behind-the-scenes stories of what made Leon's accomplishment so great in Paris.
Aug 19, 2024•51 min•Ep. 1159
After missing Olympic qualification for Tokyo in the pool, Moesha Johnson decided to dip her toes into open water racing. In 2 short years she became a world champion, and one year after that she won her first Olympic medal, a silver in the 10k. From strategizing how to race in the Seine River to going viral in TikTok during the Games, Johnson recalls her experience in Paris in full.
Aug 18, 2024•54 min•Ep. 1158
SwimSwam photographer extraordinaire Jack Spitser has documented swimming at the highest level for years and is just coming off of his biggest competition yet: the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Spitser recalls the ups and downs of travel, work/life balance (aka all work and no life), and navigating unexpected road bumps during an Olympics Games. Between having bed bugs and photographing 10+ sports over the course of two weeks, Jack gives his full perspective on his time in Paris.
Aug 17, 2024•43 min•Ep. 1157
The Notre Dame men’s swimming program has been suspended for a minimum of one academic year after an investigation into potential gambling. The men’s swimming and diving programs are coming off their best combined finish at NCAAs in school history as they were 10th at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Just after U.S. Olympic Trials in June, the school announced that the law firm , Ropes & Gray LLP to conduct an external review after “potential issues with the culture” of the team. Sources have to...
Aug 15, 2024•12 min•Ep. 1156
