Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

This post is inspired by a number of recent events. First, I watched Michael Phelps on 60 Minutes Sunday night. The next day, i saw an interview with the author of a recent Mark Spitz biography. Then finally, the nail in the coffin came with Darian Townsend's excellent blog about the unpredictability of training and rest. The Phelps and Spitz interviews brought into focus a topic that has often concerned me. There is a deep tradition in our sport to want to make models out of the top athletes. The belief is that because a swimmer is a World record… more »

I know I know. Thanksgiving is over and you've read a hundred different lists of things to be thankful for. Maybe you family, like mine, each takes turns listing what they are thankful for before they wrestle over drumsticks and gravy boats. Still, I've been meaning to write this blog for quite some time. I thought about waiting for my one year anniversary at floswimming (coming up in January) but I just couldn't wait. This blog is my thank you to you, the floswimming consumer. I can tell you honestly that I never expected my involvement in the site to… more »

Last year I wrote a blog about my childhood fascination with Chas Morton, an age group swimming legend in the United States. If you haven't read it, go here before moving on. At the conclusion, commenters wanted to know: where is Chas now?The answer came amidst the Beijing Olympics. An e-mail appeared in my inbox, subject heading "Alive and Well". The sender was listed as Chas Morton. He wrote me this: Chris-Caught up in the swimming hype of the Olympics, one of my co-workers decided to Google me and just informed me of your blog about me in May. To… more »

I'm trying to be philosophical today. The feeling of what transpired in the past twenty four hours has been gnawing on me. I'm haunted by a deep loss? What happened, you ask? Our bulkhead broke. Yes, sadly the bulkhead in the center of our pool came to screeching halt just high enough to prevent us from swimming long course but not low enough to turn on for short course swimming. As I stared forlornly at my swimmers doing shadow flipturns on the tiled "T's" this morning, I mourned its loss. The truth is, sometimes life breaks your bulkhead. You're just… more »

Another world record fell victim to what Craig Lord referred so fondly to as the "World Record Bull Run" of 2008 a few days ago. The short course 100 breaststroke was felled by South African Cameron Van Der Burgh a couple days ago. Setting aside any discussion of suit technology (who wants to talk about that!), I wanted to use this as an excuse to reflect on the former record holder- Glenn Edward Moses. In case you haven't noticed yet, I've always been particularly interested in the fickle nature of breaststroke, having experienced it myself as a swimmer. If you… more »

If there's one theme I'm picking up on in our recent coverage, its the people or teams that most people love to hate. Some videos pass by with just a smattering of comments, some go for over 300. Most of you know I'm talking about Auburn, but they aren't alone in this phenomenon. Last year I made the mistake of posting an article from Kenyon College's website comparing their coach Jim Steen to Vince Lombardi, John Wooden, Casey Stengel and Red Auerbach combined. Hundreds of comments later the dust settled on some serious hate. If there's one thing that unites… more »

With one week to go, I am going to make another plea and update for the Hour of Power. I just recieved and e-mail from Ted's parents last night with a very encouraging update on the progress. If you want to read the original post click here. Still need to sign up? There is time! Click here. You can register right up through Nov. 5. Here are the teams currently signed up: COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES Big East: Georgetown, Providence CAC: Salisbury, York (PA) CCC: Univ. of New England, Regis (MA), Roger Williams CCIW: Illinois Wesleyan Centennial: McDaniel ECAC/Bluegrass Mountain: Johns… more »

Its an event that you may have just glanced at as it passed by the news ticker. Just last week, the Flying Dutchman, Pieter van den Hoogenband, or as I liked to call him "Hoogie", retired. If you've been reading my blogs you know i am an unabashed Hoogie fan. I deliriously picked him to win olympic gold this summer when he just didn't quite have it anymore. Often in this space I've taken time to talk about greats of the past. Well, today I'm going to write about someone who we'll remember as one of the greats. First, if… more »

It seems like people liked the first positive psychology blog so I am going to give one another go. For this one, I am really looking for feedback from coaches and swimmers as to the topic. I hope to make some more blogs in the near future that are starting points for discussion on coaching topics. I'm doing this because I'm greedy and I want to learn everything about swimming (in case you didn't know that already). Today's topic is motivation. Yesterday I read a paper by Kirk Warren Brown and Richard Ryan that discussed a six part continuum for… more »

If there's one question I've gotten by e-mail more than any other, its this: How do I stay involved in swimming and become a coach? Its a tough question that I don't pretend to know all the answers to. Finally in response to my last blog someone asked the question in the comment section. Mike Gustafson messaged me to advise that I finally make a blog about it. Although I've taken all of Mike's suggestions with a grain of salt since he lost bragging rights to me over the summer, I decided to write it anyway. As I've mentioned many… more »

I know I've been slacking on my blogs and I promise I will do better. Oh sure I could give you a laundry list of excuses for why I haven't been posting frequently here, between balancing my coaching work with a full time master's program and running a household. But to be honest, I follow the well known axiom about excuses. I won't repeat it in full, but suffice it to say, everybody's got 'em. I wanted to make a blog to update all of you on the Hour of Power that I posted about a few weeks ago. The… more »

I put this title up because I think its a good question to ask yourself if you are participating in swimming on any level. As some of you may know, I am a student this year on top of my coaching. I am getting a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. From time to time, I hope to incorporate some of what I am learning into this blog. A few days ago I was reading research that psychologists had done into varying perceptions of work. After all, for most adults work is the activity we spend… more »

I'm jumping on the bandwagon, and I'm not ashamed. In fact, I feel like I'm a little late. Its a bandwagon that's growing by the year among college swim teams, and rightfully so. If this blog helps a few more teams to jump on that bandwagon, I'll be very happy. The bandwagon I'm referring to is the Ted Mullin Hour of Power Relay for Sarcoma Research. I'm going to give you a little background as to why I think this is something you should get your college team involved in, as well as show how easy it is to do.… more »

Garrett and I were chatting on a Friday afternoon and decided to get a conversation started about suits: garrettmccaffrey: so at the olympic trials and at the games we both agreed the suits weren't an issue 'cause everyone had access to it 1:51 PM me: yep garrettmccaffrey: how does that change for college programs? will everyone at NCAAs have a suit? me: I think its pretty likely 1:52 PM even at less funded schools, they will find a way to not put there kids at a competitive disadvantage at NCAAs garrettmccaffrey: really? 1:54 PM at 400 dollars a pop, that… more »

Last week, I gave you the Slackers Guide to College Coaching. I didn't expect the response, most of which did not make it to the comments page. I received numerous e-mails from people for whom the joke hit a little too close to home. Those that did choose to post did so mostly anonymously. Honestly, i felt a little guilty. People sounded so depressed about the state of college swimming. So, just like the Norsefire party from V for Vendetta, I will give you both the disease and the cure. I want to talk to you about a few people… more »

If you're cool, you've probably read the Slackers Guides to Training Trip Survival and Taper Survival by Mike Gustafson. Since a lot of us have moved on from our college swimming and on to coaching, I have taken the time to produce this guide. Disclaimer: This guide is intended for satire only. If you experience any feelings of sadness/frustration/hitting too close to home please contact your doctor as these may be symptoms of a greater condition. First, lets start with some new ground rules:1. Avoid physical exertion of any kind. Many coaches mistakenly believe that they must present some level… more »

As the Olympics wound down, I found myself getting anxious. Anxious about what was next and where we go from here. Everywhere I went, people that had no association with swimming wanted to talk some swimming. People knew that I was obsessed and wanted some insight. They wanted to talk about Phelps, of course, but they wanted to talk about Lezak too, or what happened to Brendan Hansen. Swimming exploded to the front page of major newspapers, magazines and websites that otherwise never mentioned its existence. Don't get me wrong, I love all the attention swimming is getting. However, I… more »

No, I'm not in Beijing like my "friend" Garrett. I'm at home, just like most of you, watching the NBC telecast. Still, Garrett has only made his way into one session, so I decided I would recap last night's finals because essentially we saw the same thing. The only difference was that I had Rowdy and Dan Hicks and he had no idea what anyone was saying. The lead story was the big win by Alain Bernard. Bernard had it tough for a few days, weathering the media storm surrounding his comments and his last second loss to Jason Lezak.… more »

Well this morning's prelims brought both joy and misery. Joy in seeing that I was right and that Daniel Gyurta was in top form for the 200 breaststroke. Misery in seeing Alexander Dale Oen miss the semi-final. Still, I can't be mad at myself, most would have picked him after his great 100 earlier in the meet. It looks like I've also severely underestimated Laszlo Cseh, who has a strong chance for the silver medal in the 200 fly. I didn't get to watch prelims to get a feel for how others swam (Audrey Lecroix, for example) so I don't… more »

I was going to try and come up with something original to say about Jason Lezak in this space, but I couldn't. Day 7 Picks: 200 Backstroke Women: 1. Kirsty Coventry 2. Elizabeth Beisel 3. Margaret Hoelzer Rationale: Coventry looks like a complete no brainer after her world record 100 back and 4:29 400 IM. To make things interesting, I'm going out on a limb and predicting she will be 2:04 here. Beisel has shaken off her first Olympic swim at age 15 and is ready to sneak onto the medal stand. Hoelzer also looks strong but is a little… more »

Hey, remember that time I picked Helge Meeuw to win silver in the 100 backstroke? I was feeling pretty good about it. After all, Helge was the second seed in the meet. He was a German guy with a name Dan Hicks was sure to struggle with. Fast forward to today. On the first day I had purposely shielded myself from prelim results. When i had to wait until 4:30 pm eastern to watch them, I decided I would just satisfy my curiousity from then on in the morning. I was giddily scanning through results after breakfast to find the… more »

Now that I've had the chance to watch some prelims, I am ready for those day 5 picks. I already feel vindicated in my pick of Alexander Dale Oen. Even if he does not gold medal, I think few would have even picked him to go 59.4 and lead qualifiers. While I wait anxiously to watch those live morning finals tonight and see who's at their best at 10 am, I start back with the breaststrokers. Men's 200 Breaststroke 1. Kosuke Kitajima 2. Alexander Dale Oen 3. Daniel Gyurta Rationale: Kitajima has shown his mettle on the Olympic stage and… more »

I'm doubling up today because we are very far behind. Its likely that half my picks will take place after preliminaries have begun in Beijing. Some people will cry foul- "You have to make all your picks before the games start!" they'll say. Well to them, I really have no defense. My picks won't be done before the start. and if you don't think I'm going to take full advantage of the first few days of results to make my picks then you don't know me at all. Day 4 Quebec Quietin' Picks: Women's 200 Free: 1. Federica Pellegrini 2.… more »

Ok. So I've let the accusations of being an Aussie-hater simmer now for a couple of days. I wanted to draft a crafty rebuttal, but in all honesty I can't. The truth is, I do hate the Aussies. I think that hate really dawned as I watched Michael Klim play air guitar in Sydney. It grew when Ian Thorpe became the only swimmer a typical American could name. Then, ever so quickly the Aussie men fell off as a rival, partly due to Thorpe's early retirement. Sure, the women have been routinely beating the US in the past few years,… more »

Looks like I really stirred things up with round one. I'm sorry if some of my rationale's came off a bit cavalier. To be honest, I decided this time around that I would make a few emotional picks even though my rational strategy worked last time. Jeff, the quality of your Canadian support rings true. I was so scared that I tried to anticipate your moves by hunting down Jeff Rouse to counteract the possibility of Mark Tewksbury posting for you. Unfortunately, Rouse was unavailable. Day 2 picks! Women's 100 fly: 1. Libby Trickett 2. Jessica Schipper 3. Jemma Lowe… more »

Theres a few things you should know about Jeff and I before you read my prediction. Jeff is a very successful coach, I am just getting started. Jeff is from Canada, and I am former citizen of the Kingdom of Denmark but now just an American. Jeff's favorite swimmer is Victor Davis, and mine is Mike Barrowman. The last is what really puts us at odds. You see, Victor Davis and Mike Barrowman just missed overlapping each other. Victor was a better 100 breaststroker, and Barrowman better at the 200. This puts us naturally at odds. When Jeff approached me… more »

How do you outperform the best swim of your life? Thats the question that has been looming over many of America's Olympians in the past few weeks. With the exception of a privileged few, most athletes who qualified for Beijing did so with the swim of their career. It was the closest to a perfect race they have ever been. Just one month later, they have the chance to create an indelible legacy through Olympic glory. Only the most ardent swimming fans will remember the two who qualified, far more will recall the best from Beijing. One such swimmer is… more »

The feeling started last Wednesday as a faint flutter. By the time i woke up Friday morning, it was a constant, if slight, pang in my abdomen. I knew the exact last time I had felt this way. It was over two years ago, standing on a pool deck in Williamstown, Massachusetts for what was supposed to be my last race. I had walked off that deck believing that I had just completed my last year of serious swimming. I knew I would never has as much time to train again, never have so many teammates to help me along.… more »

Yesterday the news dropped into the American swimming community like a megaton bomb: Jessica Hardy had tested positive for a banned substance and been removed from the Olympic squad. In following the discussion over the past twenty four hours, a lot of it has focused on what she tested positive for, discussions whether she is guilty, and the possibility of replacement swimmers. It is the last topic I wish to address, one which I think is the most egregious part of this. When Jessica Hardy competed at our Olympic trials aided by a banned substance, she prevented two swimmers from… more »

To get some perspective on the world swimming picture heading into Beijing, I tried to put myself back in time to last summer. In only twelve months, some swimmers have gone from looking like sure things to being completely out of the discussion when it comes to Beijing. Much of it is just the nature of an Olympic year, where you can often find tremendous volatility in performances and certain swimmers like Gary Hall Jr are peaking for just that summer. The upheaval in men's sprinting has been well documented. Just a year ago Alexander Popov's 21.64 seemed only to… more »

John Naber startled me, but I had to keep my composure. Mid-way through an answer to my question as to whether his 1976 Olympic men's team was the greatest ever, he threw in that he thought they were "until now". The comment got me thinking. In Omaha everyone seemed pretty confident that most first place finishers were gold medal favorites in Beijing, even going so far as to say that there would be swimmers left off the team that would be bronze medal favorites. As good as team USA is, their dominance in some events may be more tenuous than… more »

My life will never be the same. Any preparations I had made for my trip to Omaha were completely insufficicent. For six days I was in swimming nirvana. My senses were assaulted by the frenzied energy of success as well as the agony of defeat. I walked among the best our sport has to offer.The truth is, this weekend blew away everything I thought I knew about our sport. My whole life i had been conditioned to believe that swim meets outside of the Olympics would be poorly attended and recognized. When Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte dueled stroke for… more »

I know, this is the moment you've all been waiting for. The moment at which a middling blogger puts forth his complete predictions against another middling blogger. Who will emerge victorious? I think its pretty obvious. When you see the picks, you'll realize that one of us knew the true value of Presley Bard, and one of us didn't. To be clear, the scoring will work as follows: 6 points for correctly picking first 4 for second 2 for third 1 for each additional swimmer in the top eight, with a bonus point for correctly picking their location. Also one… more »

So, if you read my blog post a couple of weeks ago, you know that i have challenged swimming television star Mike Gustafson to a high stakes game of picking trials finishes. Soon after we traded boastful blog posts I called Mike to hammer out the details for our pick off. Not content to pick just who would qualify in each event or go one place extra as in Swimnetwork's Fantaswim, Mike and I agreed to go out to an astounding eight places in each event. For all 26 events that will be contested in Omaha, we would each attempt… more »

Well, today I have to admit I'm pretty tired. You see, I started work this week at Harvard Technique Swim Camp, and although my hours are 8-4, I rarely feel as if I'm done. To compound my exhaustion, my beloved Boston Celtics insisted on winning a championship game that ended just a shade before midnight. While I revelled in their victory today, I was also struck by the sharp juxtapositon of two of my favorite sports: swimming and basketball. Listening to a guilty pleasure of mine (sports radio), I overheard the following themes repeated throughout the day: 1. Kevin Garnett… more »

Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will be on the Olympic roster. So will Katie Hoff and Natalie Coughlin. Ask anyone to prognosticate what will unfold at rapidly approaching Olympic trials and they will be sure to agree on at least those four. Then again, Craig Beardsley seemed like a pretty sure thing to make the team when he entered the 1984 trials as the world record holder in the 200 butterfly. He missed the team, finishing 3rd. Pablo Morales, one of the greatest butterflyers ever, tasted the sting of defeat at trials. Chances are there will be some shocking results… more »

If you think that my first post this week will cover the meets this weekend and who seems to be improving their chances going into Omaha, I have just one thing to tell you. You know me too well! It seems crazy that there was this much fast swimming this weekend, just three weeks from the big one, yet there was. If you missed or had trouble keeping up, here's a little cheat sheet for a couple swimmers who are trending upward after this weekend. Allison Schmitt: Allison decided to contest the 200 free in Omaha, and among some pretty… more »

I thought Roman Sloudnov was out of my life, but I was wrong. I can remember being completely petrified of him. For some reason the glimmering last gasps of the cold war that hung over my childhood had significantly biased the way I percieved Russian athletes. I could only picture them in two molds: Dark haired and stone-faced (Alexander Popov) or blond and even more stone-faced (Ivan Drago from Rocky IV). So when Roman Sloudnov became the first man to go under a minute in the 100 breaststroke in 2001, I developed an immediate caricature of him in my mind.… more »

In the second of my trials preview articles, I'm going to take a look at the great unknown in Omaha: the young trials rookies. In this I'm trying to search out swimmers that may be similar, at least generally, to Ian Crocker in the year 2000. It may seem hard to remember, but Crocker was no sure thing to make that team. At 17 years old, he was probably the best swimmer his age and based on his track record he seemed most likely to make the team in the 4x200 relay. After all, he had been 1:49 as a… more »

Well folks, believe it or not trials is less than a month away. No doubt that the attention being payed to our sport and our swimmers is building as the meet approaches. Once the team is selected the wave of momentum for our Olympic sport will carry through to Beijing.

When I hear people discussing trials, the discussion inevitably drifts to a discussion of favorites. What I mean by that is that swimmers like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Katie Hoff or Natalie Coughlin dominate coverage. To some extent this is deserved, they are the best in the… more »

I shuffled to the front of the convention room nervously. On the one hand, I had nothing to be anxious about. If Frank Busch, head coach of the women's and men's NCAA champions, was anything like I had heard, he would no doubt graciously grant my request to come out and watch a practice. Yet I still approached him with trepidation, armed with the knowledge that I had nothing to offer but so much to gain.

"Coach Busch, I'm Chris DeSantis, an assistant coach with the University of Pennsylvania. I also work for floswimming." I introduced myself.… more »

When I began in 1998 to scour the internet for anything I could learn about what was going on in the country, I became particularly interested in USA Swimming's published top 16 lists. As an age group swimmer myself, I was fascinated to see who the fastest 10 and under or 15-16 year old swimmers in the country were. They all seemed very fast to me. There was one name among these lists that consistently piqued my interest: Chas Morton.

At that time Morton had a number of records spanning several age groups. Initially I was completely… more »

This weekend the meets at Santa Clara and Texas A&M highlighted a number of swimmers who's chances of making the olympic team seem to be on the rise. One of the primary reasons cited by USA Swimming for having Olympic Trials at such a late date is to be able to select athletes who are performing on a high level in close proximity to the games. Some forecasters surmised we wouldn't see that much high level swimming by American swimmers in advance for the trials as swimmers narrowed their focus toward that meet. Still, there have been a number of… more »

I don't follow any sport the way I follow swimming. In my major professional sports leanings, I am a complete monogamist to New England teams, owing to my Boston area upbringing. Yet in swimming, my fandom is far more promiscuous. While both as an athlete and a coach I want to succeed and win, it also brings me a lot of satisfaction to see peers and competitors achieve their goals. I love the sport of swimming, and I'm a fan of watching it done well. This made the news yesterday particularly painful.

I've been a fan of… more »

Well another week in the swimming world and another opportunity for me to take a look at whatever is striking me at the moment. It was a fairly slow week in the world of swimming news, with two events-The Brazilian olympic qualification meet and the Open Water World Championships in Seville Spain- garnering most of the attention.

At the open water event, most of the media attention seemed to surround a picture of Grant Hackett's midsection, originally featured in an Australian newspaper. After the photo was released message boards were flittering with gossip about Hackett being fat… more »

My post on Giorgio Lamberti got me thinking about other swimmers who held the world record for a long period of time but for the most part garnered little attention stateside. It occurred to me that nearly contemporary to Lamberti there was a woman who held the 200 free world record for an even longer period of time. Although unlike Lamberti she did medal in the event over a career that spanned four olympics, she swam in two of those games as the world record holder and came home empty handed in her best event. The swimmer was Franziska Van… more »

Before you read this you should realize I'm heavily biased. As a swimmer I have trained sporadically with different masters programs for the past eight years. I know its wrong to generalize but I have found them to be pretty great people. So I guess I could say I've always enjoyed swimming masters, but for the first time this weekend I had an epiphany and fell in love with watching masters.

This isn't the first time I've dabbled in master's fandom. My initial burst came in and around 2000. I was amazed by the performances of Ron… more »

Reader Brian Church piqued my interest with a request for an article earlier this week. His request was that I try to put something together concerning one Amanda Beard. At first I felt a bit conflicted. After all, I'm trying to give coverage in this space to people and events that you wouldn't here otherwise, or at least offer a fresh perspective. Beard to some extent has been covered ad nauseum. In fact, to non-swimming fans she is probably the most recognizable female swimmer. However, since her outstanding performances in the 2004 Olympics, the majority of coverage has been about… more »

I spent a good amount of time yesterday thinking about Giorgio Lamberti. I don't know why, but he popped into my head. On the one hand there wasn't much to think about. I realized I know hardly anything about him. I embarked on a quest to find out more. Surely a google search would satisfy my thirst for biographical information on Giorgio. Alas, I found very little and I'm left with a question. Why doesn't anyone care about Giorgio Lamberti?

Ok, maybe that question is a little too dramatic. I'm sure that somewhere out there are people… more »

Could the French men be favorites to win the 400 freestyle relay this summer? If their fast swimming today at their Olympic trials is any indication of whats to come in the 100 free final tomorrow, then the answer would be yes. I found myself wrestling with the idea today. Maybe I should have seen it coming when earlier this season they set an unofficial world record for short course meters. Still, its hard to believe that the French team is so fast. In 2007, I would have ranked the favorites in the 400 freestyle relay in this order:
… more »

It turns out I didn't need anyone to save me this week. Swim results continued to pour in, starting with Japanese Olympic trials with the German trials quick to follow. Now, the French trials have begun and I'm back in results heaven. Still, something isn't quite right about these latest results. You see, since the dawn of 2008 I'd become quite used to records being flattened by steamrolling LZR suit-wearing elite swimmers. All of a sudden at Japanese and German trials the momentum nearly came to a screeching halt. Yes, there were still some good performances at each meet, and… more »

A couple weeks ago I kicked off my look back at great male swimmers of the past with an article on Don Schollander. This week's article is for Erik Hochstein, who reminded me of one of my personal favorites. This week's article will take a look back in time at Duke Kahanamoku, a great swimmer in his own right but perhaps overshadowed in his day and very likely better at his other sport.

Duke's story has many more facets than I can probably cover in a 1000 word article. He was many things: the father of modern… more »

As a new week dawns I have to face a scary prospect: it appears that there are no big championship meets to follow this week. Now, I'm not sure of course. With any luck, some country somewhere will be running a trials meet. I'll wake up every day and do my usual swim site hunting. My life just won't be the same unless someone is swimming fast out there. So if you care about me, let me know if you know theres a meet I should be following this week.

In the same vein as my articles… more »

I'm really on a kick with records this week. After re-reading my post from monday, I realized there was a pretty glaring hole in the piece. I failed to pay tribute to a number of impressive women's records that were broken this year or withstood the onslaught.

The second oldest women's record on the books entering 2008 was Krisztina Egerszegi's 200 backstroke. It had stood since 1991. Its startling to find seventeen years later so little discussion of Egerszegi despite her amazing career. Egerszegi was barely 14 when she burst onto the scene and won gold in… more »

As records tumbled at YMCA Nationals over the weekend, I felt a little bit wistful. A sentimental part of me loves old records. An old record can remind you of a swimmer who later went on to great fame and where they started, or it can leave you curious why it seems you never heard from them again. In this post, I'll review the records broken by swimmers at Y Nats and last weekend's NCAA meet as well as the stories of the swimmers who saw their longstanding records fall.

In the 100 free, Dod Wales lost… more »

Due to the high volume of requests that I make this post, I'm getting to my Don Schollander article. Ok, ok, not that many people wrote it. Fine, no one even so much as mentioned Schollander to me this week. Still, I wanted to write a companion piece to my argument for Ragnhild Hveger as the greatest female swimmer of all time. The problem was, I just couldn't decide who the greatest male swimmer ever is. Phelps and Spitz are obvious picks, Weismuller if you want to way back. However, I'm choosing to write about Don Schollander first. Schollander is… more »

This week I'm going to tackle a few topics in one post. I'd also like to add that I am wearing the aretyreedo lazerpowerskintripwire x while posting today. I was given a prototype of the suit by the manufacturer and I've already witnessed a 6% reduction in typing drag. Other bloggers are complaining about my access to the suit, while raising suspicions about other enhancements I have made to start posting twice a week. I'm denying all allegations despite my 100% improvement in writing ability.

Speaking of improvements, Eamon Sullivan ruined my entire post into his rapid… more »

I'm finally getting back to the second part of my 1980 Olympic rundown. If you recall from my last post, the US boycotted the games and didn't participate, leaving athletes behind that lost their one chance at the game as well as likely gold medalists. This week I'll be running down the men's side of the Olympic trials and how they compare to the actual Olympic results. The 1976 team was the peak of American men's swimming, a performance so dominant that some cite it as the reason FINA would eventually disallow countries from entering more than two swimmers per… more »

I’m taking a break from my regularly scheduled post about the 1980 Olympics to answer a floswim user submitted question. The user wanted to know more about the LZR racer, for better or for worse. It’s a story that has been covered extensively by the swimming media, so I won’t rehash too much of what’s already been written. If you want to catch up, read the following links. I’ll be following each link with some context and commentary.

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/17027.asp - An article written by Swimming World’s John Lohn about the debut of the suit. Lohn highlights the… more »

For my second post of the week I thought I’d continue my Oympic retrospective with a look at one of the most memorable years for one of the worst possible reasons. In 1980 the United States selected an Olympic team for swimming that never got to swim. A government enforced boycott prevented the athletes from competing in Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. This article will cover not only the highlights of the 1980 trials but also serve to feature the athletes who missed out on their only chance to swim in the Olympics and the farce that was… more »

As I promised, I’m back from my one-week hiatus. Now that my collegiate season has come to a close I plan on updating the blog more often. I’m going to be taking these articles in a couple new directions that I hope you will enjoy. One of the things I’m going to try and do is take the swimming news of the week and put it in historical context. To the uninitiated, the background on a breaking news story can often take some digging.
One of the biggest stories this week was the war of words between Gary… more »

In case you haven’t noticed yet, I am a pure, unadulterated, swim nerd. In college, you could most often find me reclining on my futon with my laptop perched on my stomach, my eyes in a deep trance. My teammates characterized my habit innocently as “looking at swim times”. In truth, I was searching for not only times but any coverage I could get of our sport. As I explained to my non-swimming friends, you can’t turn on ESPN Sportscenter to see highlights of Summer Nationals. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Red Sox, I just don’t care about… more »

I ran out of room in last week’s blog to talk about the women above 25 that will be in the hunt for medals come Beijing. I’m adhering to a strict 1000 word limit because my doctor has advised that I spend at least one half hour period a day away from my computer. Since my last post, Timedfinals has posted excellent articles that pertain to the topic at hand. The first is a description by Melvin Stewart of an interview he submitted to concerning Dara Torres. It’s a good read particularly for Mel’s spirited defense of Dara. The second… more »

At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Michael Phelps and Dara Torres stood in stark opposition. Phelps, at 15, was the youngest male Olympian in half a century . Torres, 33, once a precocious youngster herself, proving that a woman's swimming career shouldn't peak in your mid teens. Despite Phelps' presence, the men's and women's Olympic teams were older than they had ever been.

And yet, in some ways, swimming remains a young person's sport on the Olympic stage. Looking over the results, I was hard pressed to find very many Olympic Gold medalists older than 25.… more »

It’s a debate that can spring up at any moment, in any sport. Who is the greatest? Everyone has their own opinion. Along with that opinion goes a criteria, a recitation of world records, medal hauls and versatility. The discussion today rarely, if ever, features anyone who hasn’t competed in the last thirty years.

Start a discussion about the greatest female swimmer of all time and you’re bound to hear cases made for Katie Hoff. People who have been around longer will dig deeper for Tracy Caulkins. Versatility is important, and these two possess it in… more »

I am starting my look back at previous Olympic Trials with 1976. The Trials put on display a number of dominant stars for both men and women. On the women's side, Shirley Babashoff showed nearly unprecedented versatility. At the trials she won the 100, 200, 400 and 800 meter freestyles as well as the 400 IM. The only event where she was remotely challenged was the 100 free, where eventual American record holder Jill Sterkel would finish second by .29. Each of her freestyle swims were American records, with the 800 also a world record. Babashoff left trials with a… more »

I decided to start this blog in response to Garrett's post about the history of the sport. It is fitting that I start it almost exactly ten years to the date I truly fell in love with the sport. In the middle of a marathon club meet, swimming a 100 breaststroke I decided I loved everything about swimming. I have always felt fortunate that it was precisely at that time that the internet bloomed. At home, on my computer, was a wealth of information to look up. Of course, back then it was numbers mostly. I poured over top sixteen… more »