The SwimSwam Podcast

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 loved swimming and now feels he can continue on for at least through the end of 2025.

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 challenges Bowman puts his athletes through on a daily basis in practice, Kos says it makes navigating the Olympic Games feel easy.

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.

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 at the top of her game.

"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 need a different approach." Listen to how coach Andrew Sheaff is changing how he looks at teaching and learning for both swimmers and coaches.

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. After making The U.S. Olympic Team at the U.S. Olympic Trials, in the middle of the meet, Dressel considered pulling out. Mentally he was battling---at war in his head. His wife, parents, and therapist were all there, all supporting him. So, he pushed on. After the U.S. Olympic Trials, Dressel considered pulling out again. He wondered if it would be better to give other, up and coming swimmers a shot at the Olympic stage. Dressel battled these thoughts. At one point, he considered only swimming the Olympic relays. It all made sense in his head. We now know Dressel completed his Olympic schedule, and in this podcast he gives a beat-by-beat account of what he experiences. It's real, raw, and courageously vulnerable.

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 ended up competing in both and it paid off for her as the world saw her crowned Olympic champion twice in her two signature events.

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 the fall with short course meters on the horizon.

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 before she even hit the water. Heading into her races in Paris, she was able to see herself as a fan might, as pure entertainment, and with that came the freedom to swim her own race. Regan walked away from Paris with 3 silver medals in her individual events and 2 gold medals as a part of Team USA relays. Listen to the growth Smith has made as she describes taking control of her swimming and having pride in her accomplishments.

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. Gretchen takes SwimSwam's Gold Medal Mel Stewart through each of her races, and she looks ahead to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

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.

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 low self-confidence. The backstroking legend is candid about how she handled herself throughout the meet, even when fatigue set in the later stage of competition and she earned a bronze medal in the 200 IM because of a DQ.

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 fellow Australian swimmer Bobby Hurley, the pieces fell into place. Over the next year and a half, it was trial and error while McEvoy and Lane completely revamped what swim training could look like. Cam was barely counting yardage with many workouts not cracking 1,000 meters. But he was putting in work and the results came, with Cam registering more sub-22 50m freestyles in that year than he had in his entire 13-year career combined. Listen to what "The Professor" of swimming says about how we train in swimming and what worked for him in his pursuit of Olympic gold.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 told SwimSwam that the investigation has been ongoing at least since January and authorities were allegedly monitoring activity during US Olympic Trials. The review found that gambling was an occurrence for most of the team members that were set to return for this upcoming season. Swimmers place “over/under” lines on swims at meets. One former member of the team says they even took wagers on “how many women would cry after their races.” In addition to betting on swimming, some of the athletes participated in betting on other sports such as the NCAA March Madness tournaments.

At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Dan Wiffen became the first Irish swimmer to win a gold medal in swimming since 1996. After winning double distance gold at the 2024 World Championships earlier this year, the Loughborough resident swam a gutsy race in the 800 free and came out on top ahead of USA's defending champion, Bobby Finke. Wiffen explains the mindset that helped him achieve this feat and how he celebrated afterward. The distance specialist also debriefs his first (and last) foray into open water after competing in the 10k race in the Seine River.

Bobby Finke walked away from the Paris Olympic Games as the back-to-back champion in the 1500 free, the world record holder in the same event, and USA's only individual male gold medalist in swimming. The distance phenom walks us through his experience in Paris, from the bittersweet feeling of earning silver in the 800 to topping the podium on the last day of competition. Finke also shows his fun side, admitting just how bad his "off" practices can get and reflecting on his limited relay experience as a distance swimmer. He proposed having a mixed 4x50 free relay in which you can only participate in if you swam a distance event at the Olympics.

17-year-old Alex Shackell just finished what has been, in her words, the best month of her life. This whirlwind started when she made the US Olympic team alongside her brother, Aaron, in their hometown of Indianapolis. After experiencing training camp in beautiful Croatia with Team USA, Shackell headed to Paris, where she made her first individual Olympic final and swam on two relays that earned her gold and silver medals. Once the Games concluded, Shackell returned home to spend time with family, be around her friends, and relax for a week before embarking on her next big chapter: senior year of high school.

Kyle Chalmers is an Olympic champion and after Paris, a 9x Olympic medalist, winning two silvers and a bronze at these most recent games. The Australian swimming legend logged a 47.xx (flat start and relays) seven times throughout the 9-day meet, with his only 100 free swim not in that category coming in his prelims 100 free, where he was 48.0. Chalmers was kind enough to take some time out of his engagement celebration in Norway to chat about the highs and lows of his experience in Paris. Coming into his 3rd Olympics, Chalmers was dealing with injury and had to change coaches and training locations 4 months prior. Despite this, he is still walking away with his 3rd individual medal in the 100 free, a historic feat.

The 2024 Olympic Games are officially over (in the pool) so let's talk about it. We dissect the best of's from the women's swimming competition in Paris.

The 2024 Olympic Games are officially over (in the pool) so let's talk about it. We dissect the best of's from the men's swimming competition in Paris.

Listen to the Olympics with SwimSwam! Join us for the last day of swimming competition in Paris as we react live to the women's 50 free, men's 1500 free, and both 4x100 medley relays. Gold Medal Mel and Coleman Hodges are joined by PhD Wyatt Hodges (Coleman's brother).

Listen to the Olympics with SwimSwam! Day 8 gave us a lot of great races and ended in a world record. Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart react live and are joined by Olympic champion Craig Oppel.

Listen to the Olympics with SwimSwam! Day 7 saw 3 exciting races and even more guests on today's broadcast. Dive with Olympic champions Maya DiRado, Matt Grevers, Gary Hall Jr., Tom Jager, and Craig Oppel.

Listen to the Olympics with SwimSwam! We talk through every race in Day 6 of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Join hosts Coleman Hodges and Mel Stewart along with today's guests, Milo Cavic, Clark Burckle, and Tyler Fenwick.

Listen in as SwimSwam reacts live to Leon's big double of the 200 Fly/200 Breast plus the men's and women's 100 freestyle. Mel and Coleman are joined today by Olympians Clark Burckle and Matt Biondi.

Listen along with SwimSwam as we talk through Kaylee Mckeown vs Regan Smith in the women's 100 back, Bobby Finke trying to defend Olympic gold in the 800 Free, and every other race of Day 4 finals. We are joined by special guests Nathan Adrian and Kaitlin Sandeno!

Listen along as SwimSwam (plus special guests) watch Day 3 of Olympic Swimming, featuring David Popovici in the Men's 200 Free and World record holder Ariarne Titmus battling Aussie teammate and world champion Mollie O'Callaghan in the women's 200 free.

SwimSwam CEO Mel Stewart and Video Guru Coleman Hodges watch Day 2 finals of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris along with Olympic champion Breeja Larson.

Listen to SwimSwam CEO Mel Stewart and Video Guru Coleman Hodges along with Olympic legends Jason Lezak and Kelsi Dahlia as they watch Day 1 finals of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Welcome to the complete, no-holds-barred SwimSwam event-by-event Olympic preview. Join Coleman, Sophie, and Laura as we go through the entire Olympic schedule and dissect each final. This episode is part 3 of 3, discussing Day 7-9 in Paris.

Welcome to the complete, no-holds-barred SwimSwam event-by-event Olympic preview. Join Coleman, Yanyan, Sophie, and Laura as we go through the entire Olympic schedule and dissect each final. This episode is part 2 of 3, discussing Day 4-6 in Paris.

Welcome to the complete, no-holds-barred SwimSwam event-by-event Olympic preview. Join Coleman, Yanyan, Sophie, and Laura as we go through the entire Olympic schedule and dissect each final. This episode is part 1 of 3, discussing Day 1-3 in Paris.

Coming into July 2024, Regan Smith was a world record-holder, 2x Olympian, and favored to medal in all 3 of her individual events in Paris. So SwimSwam sat down with the world champion's coach from ages 13-19, Mike Parratto, to discuss her rise to the top of the world stage. Parratto shares what he saw in Smith as a 10, 11, and 12-year-old all the way up to making her first Olympic team in 2021. The head coach of Riptide Swim Club emphasized that Smith was very dedicated to what she was doing even as a brand new 13-year-old swimmer in his group, which played a big part in the success that was to follow.

2020 Olympic medalist, Bella Sims, experienced something all swimmers do, a challenging meet. Hers was, of course, a consequential one--the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. Many fans expected a strong performance in Indy after Sims' lights-out NCAA Championships this past spring. Spoiler alert! Sims was not sick and did not miss her taper at Olympic Trials. From her perspective, and her Sandpipers' club coach, Ron Aitken, the reason was very specific. Sims unpacks it all in this podcast, talks about her competition ahead at this week's SPEEDO SUMMER NATIONALS, and she charts her future.

2020 Tokyo Paralympic silver medalist and Speedo Athlete, Ahalya Lettenberger, heads to Paris to compete at the 2024 Paralympics in the 400m freestyle and the 100m breaststroke. The Rice University graduate, who recently turned pro this past spring, continues to train under coach Seth Huston. Ahalya unpacks her expectations in this podcast, her views on the growth of Paralympic swimming, and her future goals to build a better world for all people, disabled and able-bodied, through her educational focus on design. Right after Paris, Ahalya jets off to the U.K. to fulfill her obligations as a Marshall Scholar recipient, and change the world by studying Disability, Design and Innovation.

Rohan Taylor, head coach for the Australian Olympic team, spoke with the media during the final leg of the AUS staging camp in Chartres. Taylor spoke on several topics, including the lengthy process the coaching staff will go through to assemble their relay orders.

At Olympic training camp in France, Ariarne Titmus spoke with the media about a myriad of topics heading into the Paris Games. Titmus is coming to Paris as the defending Olympic champion in both the 200 and 400 freestyles, both of which she holds the world record in and #1 rank worldwide this season. Titmus also won a silver medal in the 800 free at the last Olympics and looks to put her best foot forward again in that race, saying that her training has indicated better results than what she's been able to post.

Cam McEvoy spoke to the press in France during the last leg of the Australian Olympic prep camp. McEvoy notably skipped the first leg of the camp to stay home in Australia and continue his training there, which seems to have paid off for the sprint specialist. The 4x Olympian notes that he has been hitting PBs in training and swimming the fastest he ever has in practice. Audio courtesy of Swimming Australia.

Sergio Lopez has built up programs everywhere he's been a head coach. Currently, he's the head coach at Virginia Tech, but he also won a conference title while captaining the West Virginia program. His most legendary stop, though, may have been being the head coach at the Bolles School Sharks, where he coached Olympic champions Ryan Murphy, Caeleb Dressel, and Joseph Schooling, who were all in high school at the time. Listen to Sergio think back to coaching Murphy and Dressel and what he recalls about what he learned as a coach by working with such immense talents.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we dissect the 2024 Olympic Games entry list.

As is tradition at this point, the big meet of the summer is upon us and your favorite SwimSwam GMs are back in their drafting chairs. SwimSwam is proud to present the 2024 Olympic Games Fantasy Draft.

Olympic champion and current world record holder in the 50 freestyle Cesar Cielo joined SwimSwam to preview the men's sprint events heading into the 2024 Olympic Games. Cielo dissects the difference that has sprouted in recent years between the 50 and 100 freestyles while hoping to see historic times in both. The Brazilian native will be in Paris for the opening ceremonies of the Games and then travel to Rio to help the Brazilian broadcast team for the entirety of their Olympic coverage.

Doug Wharam is the associate head coach and senior coordinator for the Nashville Aquatic Club in Nashville, Tennessee. This means that Wharam met Alex and Gretchen Walsh when they were 13 and 11 years old and coached them through high school. Wharam shares heart-warming anecdotes about how different the two were as sisters and how they developed in the pool.

Today's guest on the SwimSwam Podcast is the author of "Three Kings: Race, Class And The Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Launched The Modern Olympic Age", Todd Balf. The acclaimed author discusses his inspiration behind this new swim story and the impact it has on the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the 2024 European Jr Championships, which male is most likely to defend his gold medal in Paris, and what Sarah Sjostrom would go in a 50y free.

On June 22, 2024, SwimSwam reported that 2020 Olympian Michael Brinegar would not be competing in the 1500m Free prelims of the 2024 US Olympic Trials after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favor of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)’s allegations of blood doping during a three month period in 2022. This means that Brinegar is facing a four-year ban. Hear Brinegar's side of this 2-year process and the effect it has had on this athlete who still claims his innocence in the situation.