The SwimSwam Podcast

Thomas Heilman  captured fans attention December of 2021 as a 14 year old, breaking 14 National Age Group Records over 11 days at three different swimming meets.  18 months later, and only 16 years, Thomas became the youngest member of Team USA's World Championship squad, making it in two events, 100 and 200 meter butterfly -- breaking Michael Phelps' 2001 200 butterfly National Age Group Record  in the process. At 2023 World Championships Heilman shaved more time off his 200 butterfly PB. He made the World Champs final and tied for 4th touching the wall in an astounding 1:53.82 -- the fastest time for any U.S. male under the age of 18.

Hubi Kos of Hungary surprised many when he touched first in the men's 200 backstroke at the 2023 World Championships. The World Jr Record holder in the 200 IM recently moved to Tempe, Arizona in December to train with Bob Bowman at Arizona State, the famed coach of Michael Phelps. Kos describes how training in the training environment that Bowman has created in Tempe helped him get to the top of the podium in Fukuoka, Japan.

Sam Short won a medal of every color at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, earning gold in the 400 free, silver in the 800 free, and bronze in the 1500 free. SwimSwam sat down with the distance ace to discuss his meet and season.

Three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Kaylee McKeown sat down for a lengthy conversation after sweeping the 50, 100 and 200 meter backstroke at the 2023 World Championships. Kaylee is a rare type of pro swimmer when it comes to managing media--one to watch and learn from.  Graciously she did the interview despite a slight cold, and I thoroughly enjoyed the talk because everything was on the table to discuss. Kaylee's simply so grounded in her confidence and humility, she just spoke plainly across a lot of topics.

We had a full sitdown with Kyle Chalmers, the 2023 world champion in the 100 free, 400 free relay, and mixed 400 free relay.

SwimSwam caught up with Matt Richards, the unexpected world champion in the 200 freestyle in Fukuoka. To be fair, Richards had a sensational season leading up to world champs and looked prime to medal. Richards explains what the X-factors were throughout his season, from switching clubs to race strategy, that all lined up when it mattered most.

Olympic Champion Gold Medal Mel Stewart and Coleman Hodges have an open and honest conversation about the comments Cate Campbell recently made on an Australian morning talk show.

After just one season at Stanford University, NCAA champion Claire Curzan is transferring to the University of Virginia, where she’ll be eligible for the three-time defending champion Cavaliers next fall after an Olympic redshirt year.

At the conclusion of the 2023 World Championships, SwimSwam sat down with Team USA men’s co-captain Ryan Murphy, who’s leaving Fukuoka with 2 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze. Murphy discusses what it takes to get through an 8-day meet like this as well as how he’s been able to maintain his podium status in the 100 and 200 back for the last 7 years.

Join Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart, SwimSwam host Coleman Hodges, and our rotating cast of special guests as we watch and react live to Day 8 of the World Championship finals! Today we are joined by 5x Olympic gold medalist Josh Davis, SMU Women's head coach Ozzie Quevedo, and Auburn Associate head coach Vlad Polyakov.

Join Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart, SwimSwam host Coleman Hodges, and our rotating cast of special guests as we watch and react live to Day 7 of the World Championship finals!

After helping Team USA to a silver medal finish in the 800 free relay, Texas teammates Carson Foster and Luke Hobson gave perspective on their time in Fukuoka. Both athletes swam more races than they ever had at a senior international meet, with Foster swimming 3 individual events plus this relay and Hobson swimming the 200 free individually plus the relay.

Join Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart, SwimSwam host Coleman Hodges, and our rotating cast of special guests as we watch and react live to Day 6 of the World Championship finals! Today we have 5x Olympic gold medalist Josh David and Virginia associate head coach Tyler Fenwick.

We got to sit down with Bella Sims and Alex Shackell after their silver medal performance in the women's 800 free relay tonight. For Shackell, today was her first and last day of competition, swimming prelims and finals of the relay. She was surprised to be put on the anchor but didn't question her coaches decision and made the most of the opportunity. For Sims, this was her 3rd time in 3 years swimming on this relay, but the first time at a major international meet that she had other individual events to focus on.

Join Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart, SwimSwam host Coleman Hodges, and our rotating cast of special guests as we watch and react live to Day 5 of the World Championship finals! Today we have 5x Olympic gold medalist Josh David, new Cal associate head coach Josh Huger, and Virginia associate head coach Tyler Fenwick.

Join Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart, SwimSwam host Coleman Hodges, and our rotating cast of special guests as we watch and react live to Day 4 of the World Championship finals! Today we have five time Olympic gold medalist Josh Davis, UVA associate head of coach Tyler Fenwick, and Will Glass, University of Texas NCAA All-American and volunteer swimming coach.

Join Mel, Coleman, Annie Lazor, David Berkoff, and Josh Davis as we watch and react live to Day 3 Finals of the World Championship!

Join Mel, Coleman, and Josh Davis as we watch and react live to Day 2 of the World Championship finals!

Listen as Mel, Coleman, and our rotating cast of special guests as we watch and react live to the 2023 World Championship finals.

Join Coleman and YanYan as they dive into a comprehensive event-by-event preview of the 2023 World Championships on the men’s side. Come ready with questions and predictions!

Join Coleman and YanYan as they dive into a comprehensive event-by-event preview of the 2023 World Championships on the women’s side.

We sat down with Kira K. Dixon, who in simple terms, interviewed every US athlete right after they made the 2023 world championships team for NBC. Kira gives us her perspective on reporting for swimming vs golf (her normal day-to-day), winning Miss America, and the lifestyle of working in media.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the top stories from the 2023 US World Champ Trials, including selection priority, DQs, and the very young men's and women's teams.

After a year of silence, 7x Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel spoke to the press at his second swim meet since the 2022 World Championships. Although he didn’t share his reason for departing early from Budapest last summer, Dressel was candid about the fact that he needed time away and took it. He said he was conflicted by his performances in Indianapolis, on the one hand not being thrilled to be so far away from his personal bests, but on the other hand proud of his results for where he was at and the year he has had.

Matt Bowe was just named as head swim coach of the University of Michigan, a storied program both at the Olympic and NCAA level. Bowe, a native of Great Britain, coached in Michigan (Eastern Michigan University) as his first coaching role in the United States and had fond memories of the area. The Cal associate reveals that even though he had promised Cal head coach Dave Durden 2 years, it was with the caveat that if the Micigan head coaching vacancy opened, Bowe would pursue it.

We sat down with Coleman Stewart, the NCAA champion and world record holder who recently retired as a swimmer and started his college coaching career at Duke University. Stewart discusses why he ultimately decided to hang up his goggles and what motivated him to pick up the stopwatch. We also address the ongoing conversation of elite swimmers getting offered positions at DI Power-5 schools without* prior coaching experience. Stewart explains what he feels any elite swimmer (and himself in particular) brings to the coaching table that you don't learn anywhere else.

*Stewart has coached on a club and summer league level and run swim clinics, as mentioned in the podcast.

Watch as SwimSwam goes day-by-day through the entire 2023 US World Champ Trials schedule on the men's side and analyzes each event and who we think will qualify in Indianapolis for the World Champs team.

Watch as SwimSwam goes day-by-day through the entire 2023 US World Champ Trials schedule and analyzes each event and who we think will qualify in Indianapolis for the World Champs team.

Eleven-time World Championship medalist Shaine Casas unpacks his new Sporti release, his Back To The 90s Sporti Swim Collection.  Less than a week out from 2023 U.S. World Champ Trials, the collection dropped. Most of the work was done well in advance, capturing the media at Shaine's training-hub in Austin, Texas. The collection's big, the biggest on record for an elite male swimmer with nearly 30 products offered for men and women in sizes from youth to adult XL.

We sat down with Olympic medalist, Speedo Athlete, and openly gay swimmer Erica Sullivan. In honor of pride month, Sullivan delves into her story of finding her identity as a human and athlete. Sullivan is open and honest about her experiences and advises others with similar struggles to do the same, noting that not living authentically makes the journey of self-discovery even harder. We also discuss Sullivan's training leading up to the 2023 US World Champ team trials, including what a Texas taper looks like for the distance ace.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Australian and French Trials, multiple South Africans skipping 2023 World Championships, and Elite Swimmers transitioning to DI coaching roles.

Bryan Christiansen is the Head Coach at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois. The University added Men’s and Women’s swimming in 2021 and ’22-’23 was their first season competing. This is the second time that Quincy has started a swimming program. In 2015, they added Women’s swimming but cut it in 2017 due to budget issues. Bryan seems confident that won’t happen again. Including men this time is a big reason why. The support seems to be in place with scholarships, a full coaching staff, and enough budget for things like power towers and a training trip.

But how does a college program start? In this podcast, Bryan takes us through the year of coaching before he started coaching. Most of that year was spent recruiting and building a roster. Luckily, he has some experience with transitioning a program. Bryan came from Frostburg State University in Maryland. During his time there, the program transitioned from DII to DII. That experience gave him some patience in this first season at Quincy.

That first season went well for the program. You could almost say it went better than expected. Freshman Wyatt Walsh dropped 6 seconds in his 400 IM and 4 in his 200 IM, down to times that would have qualified for DII NCAAs. The only problem was that the first-year program fell two swimmers short of the required roster number to send an athlete to NCAAs. A tough lesson but in their very first season, it was a sign that things are going in the right direction.

The program appears to be in a great place heading into season number two.

Today on the SwimSwam Podcast, 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte and International Age Group Championships founder Brian Wilson unpack the details behind this event. The International Age Group Championships has partnered with Pan Am Aquatics, the governing body for multiple swimming-based disciplines across of the Americas.

SwimSwam sat down with world champion Torri Huske after the Mission Viejo Pro Swim Series Finale, where she won 2 events (and swam a 3rd) on the last night of the meet. Huske, who is usually swimming doubles and triples at bigger meets like world championships, sees this type of racing as a good learning experience and preparation. The Stanford sophomore doesn't just stay busy in the pool though. Taking on a daunting course lode this quarter, she tells how she is able to balance being great both in the water and classroom.

We sat down with Indiana sophomore Anna Peplowski, who is on a roll in this long course season. She's gone from a PB of 1:59 to 1:58.4 (then 1:58.0 that night) in April at the Westmont Pro Swim to 1:57.0 just a couple weeks ago at the Indy Cup. Peplowski breaks down her relationship with long course and what's made the difference these past few months.

We sat down with Julia Dennis and Ella Welch, two Louisville freshmen who both made huge contributions to the Cardinal sprints this season. Dennis and Welch traded ownership of the Louisville freshman records in the 50 and 100 freestyles all year, with both finishing the season faster than Cardinal legends Mallory Comerford and Kelsi Worrell (Dahlia) were as freshmen. The two discuss adapting to college life, sprint training at Louisville, and the culture head coach Aruther Albiero has established revolving around performing at NCAA Championships.

Nathan Adrian, 5-time Olympic champion and the co-founder of AC Swim Club, has a lot of swim fans wondering if he's fully retired. Nathan has the talent to be competitive on the world stage, and he's clearly prioritizing training. Whether he's focused on training because he heads AC Swim Club or because the Olympic pool is calling him remains a bit of a mystery.  Right now he's enjoying the Olympic glow in retirement and fatherhood, and he's found some swim-tech he loves, the FINIS Smart Goggle. In this podcast Nathan breaks down what he likes about the FINIS Smart Goggle and why.

On this SwimSwam podcast, we talk with Olympic medalist, World Champion, and NCAA Champion, Alex Walsh and USA National Champion, NCAA Champion, and NCAA Record holder, Gretchen Walsh. The Walsh Sisters are back with their second Sporti Swim Collection. Following the NCAA NIL policy change, the Walsh sisters were the first collegiate swim athletes in history to team up with a nationally recognized swim brand for a co-branded collection. This second collection comes on the heels of the sisters’ continued accomplishments in the sport. Inspired by the vibrant glamour and mid-century design of Palm Springs alongside the stunning golden hours of Joshua Tree, the Sporti x Alex & Gretchen Walsh ‘Palm Springs Swim Collection’ transforms every training session into a pool party - all set in the heart of Southern California’s desert paradise.

We sat down with Claire Curzan to catch up on her last couple of months. She recently announced that she'll take an Olympic redshirt next year (along with Stanford and USA teammate Torri Huske) and attended the Team USA relay camp in Austin. She also takes us through her first NCAA Championships with the Cardinal.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Atlanta Classic, the first half of the Mare Nostrum Tour, and the Sydney Open

Six-time Olympic medalist and Speedo Athlete Ryan Murphy headlines USA Swimming's Mission Pro Swim this weekend.  In this podcast Murphy unpacks his training so far, and he's more than ready for taper-time ahead of the 2023 U.S. World Championship Trials (aka 2023 Phillips 66' National Championships). As a pro the season's been long, 10 months without a full taper. Murphy feels he's done a lot more base-work than he did ahead of last year's World Champs where he dropped a 51.97 100 back (silver) and a 1:54.52 200 back  (gold). May is National Water Safety Month, and as a Speedo, Goldfish, and USA Swimming Foundation Ambassador, the lifesaving skill of swimming is top of mind for Murphy. In this podcast Murphy brings a fresh perspective to the mission, and, based on this conversation, he'll clearly be an actively engaged advocate for lean-to-swim long after he retires. Many thanks to our partner Speedo for making this conversation possible.

On the SwimSwam Podcast today is an elite swimming peer. Our careers fell over the same years when he represented New Zealand at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, 1991 World Champs, 1991 Pan Pacific Champs, and the 1992 Olympic Games. Today we have Simon Percy, Vice President of Malmsten INC.

We chatted with Canadian national teamer Ingrid Wilm to discuss her years-long journey at one of Canada's top backstrokers. Wilm discussed what it was like training through the pandemic, why she nearly had to stop swimming altogether, and what it took to win a national title in the 100 backstroke at the 2023 Canada Trials.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we preview the Atlanta Classic, recap the Chinese World Trials, and discuss what summer meet is the most desirable for Americans.

We sat down with Kevin Mann, the head coach of Loyola High School, days before the end of his season AKA the CIF State Championships. Mann has been coaching at Loyola for 23 years and puts an emphasis on team culture, even with standouts on his team like Rex Maurer. After losing the Southern Section meet to Santa Margherita by 3 points, Mann looks to lead his team to a back-to-back state title this weekend. Mann also discusses the work-life balance between coaching during the CA high school season (February-May) and being a producer in Hollywood, having just wrapped on shooting a film Tuesday that stars Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis.

Just days before his last CIF Championships (and high school meet) ever, Loyola senior Rex Maurer sat down with SwimSwam to give an insider's look at his last two weeks. Last Friday at the CIF-SS champs, after contracting the flu and being bed-ridden for 2+ days, Maurer clocked a personal best in the 200 free (1:33.57) while winning the 500 free in 4:12.70, a new national high school record. Maurer looks to carry his momentum into this week's CIF Champs, where Loyola is seeded to win the meet and repeat as champions.

We sat down with Team USA's World University Games coaching staff for swimming, including head women's coach Jacy Dyer, head men's coach Peter Richardson, and Director of Swimming Ian Quinn. Without funding from USA Swimming on this trip, the staff has had to do everything on their own, including selecting a coaching staff and roster as well as completely funding the trip themselves. Each member discusses what that has looked like so far and what it will look like moving into the Games. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor of Team USA going to the World University Games, email Ian Quinn at iquinn@unca.edu

JR DeSouza is an Olympic finalist, Pan American Games finalist, World Champion, Brazil National Champion, and SEC Champion back when we both swam for the University of Tennessee. JR is also an entrepreneur, the co-founder and CEO of Outex.

What is Outex? The Outex phone case is the perfect waterproof tool for swimmers and water sports. It’s faster, easier, and cheaper than action-cams, and delivers better imaging results. It works with the phone you already have safely underwater, and it’s compatible with all brands and models. There are no apps or downloads so you’re ready to edit and share immediately. The system installs in seconds and maintains control over your buttons and touchscreen. The Outex phone case borrows from the company’s 13+ year history, and its patented camera housing line to combine the best of both worlds, professional results, compatibility that protects your equipment, complete functional control, lightweight, compact design, and affordability.

Carson Foster announced that he will forego the rest of his NCAA career and turn pro, focusing on long course in the lead up to the 2023 world champ trials and 2024 Olympic Trials. Foster discusses what went into this decision for him and the timeline in which he made this decision.

Foster discusses a myriad of topics, including racing Leon Marchand, 2023 NCAA Championships, and his partnership with Mizuno

We sat down with Abby Dunford, the newly named open water world championship team member for Canada and member of the elite Sarasota Sharks training group. Dunford shares experience not only training with the Sharks but with the Sandpipers of Nevada for 3 years before moving to the Sharks as well. The high school junior shares her favorite distance sets, one of her hardest sets ever, and what it's like training with world champions such as Summer McIntosh and Claire Weinstein.