Passion: Swimming

I feel like it is rare that I get to say this, but there has been huge news in the world of swimming. Much like every single other facet of our lives right now the swimming world (and sports world in general) has been shaken by the COVID-19 disease. It was just recently announced the Olympic is being moved to 2021. While basketball, football, baseball, and any other number of sports have their big crowning competition every year, swimming only has its internationally crowning competition once every four years. Yes, swimming does have a world championship every other year, but many top athletes don’t take it anywhere close to as seriously as they do the Olympics. So the Olympics moving is perhaps the single biggest thing to happen to the swimming world since (maybe) the 8 gold medals that Michael Phelps won in 2008.

The effects of this move are very hard to foresee so soon after the announcement, but at a minimum, you can do the math and figure out that it will significantly help the younger athletes hoping to make the team and hurt the older athletes hoping to make it. The biggest name that comes to mind is Ryan Lochte who announced he was going to try to make the team in 2020. Lochte is already incredibly old for an elite swimmer, and it will be interesting to see how he handles one more year of training before trying to make the team. On the other hand, it will definitely help people who are on the younger end of the spectrum. For example, Keiren Smith. Keiren is a sophomore in college at the University of Florida. He had a break out season at SECs this year. He broke a national record and looked poised to swim even faster at NCAAs. At the rate that he is improving, it is scary to think what he may be able to do with another year of college training under his belt. 

 

Another thing that is really interesting to think about is drug suspensions. There are always athletes who are getting suspended from competition for using PEDs. What happens to the athletes who were banned recently, and now will get to serve out there the whole suspension and still get a shot at making the Olympic team? Or on the other hand, with non-life sustaining businesses all staying home

 right now, might some athletes be tempted to use banned substances hoping that they won’t get tested?

I am also personally fascinated to see how people bounce back from this long hiatus. Swimmers all across the country are looking for new ways to train. Olympic hopeful Michael Andrew just announced that he was doing 4-5 hour surfing sessions to stay in shape. 

As I mentioned in my last post swimming has been pretty much canceled. Making it hard to write about swimming (obviously). However, a few organizations outside of the US have not fully shut down, so I will be focusing on the times out of those meets for this article. Hopefully hearing a story about something not COVID-19 related will be a nice break from the relentless spray of news that everyone else is spraying. 

One of the few meets that is still going on is in Edinburgh England. It is an international meet, but most of the top times have come from British swimmers. The most notable time comes from Adam Peaty. Peaty went 58.13 in the 100m breastroke this week. A time good enough to put him number one in the world rankings right now. 58.13 is so fast that it would be the fastest time done by anyone ever were it not for other even faster times also done by Peaty. What makes this swim so impressive is the time that it was done. Peaty, as great as he is, is not known for swimming fast during the regular season. He usually swims quite slow (for someone his speed) and then at world and Olympic championships steps up to another level.

 

Another great performance was posted by Duncan Scott, who broke his own Scottish national record in the 50m freestyle in a time of 22.21 and then posted a best time in the 100m free with a 48.49. These swims are very encouraging for him at this point in the season, to be able to go best times without a lot of competition is a good sign as the Olympics looms ahead. 

 

Also at the meet, British national record holder James Guy swam the fastest he ever has during the regular season going 51.84 in the 100 fly. Guy swam that time in the prelims session deciding not to even swim at finals. Why he made that decision is unclear, but it is certain that he will be happy with hitting his stride so close to his national selection meet. 

Not in Edinburgh, but Olympic 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers put himself number one on the Australian all-time list in the 100m fly; going 51.31. Chalmers has had a very tough few years since his Olympic championship, having had to undergo two heart surgeries. To see him swimming so fast in an off-event is a very promising sign that his training is going well as Australia prepares for its Olympic championships.

In the past few months, the world has been turned upside down. Towns, cities and entire countries are being ravaged by the Corona Virus. It seems like all facets of regular life are being flipped on their heads. The swimming world is no different. It all started when the Ivy League declared that it would not be sending any of its sports to any more competitions. Then other conferences followed. Like dominos, one after the next organizations all canceled their swim meets. USA swimming put a 30-day ban on all competition. The YMCA canceled its national meet. Finally, the NCAA canceled the college national championship. 

All of these cancellations have had huge effects all across the sport. High school juniors and seniors who counted on having a championship meet to help them in college recruiting are now left high and dry. College swimmers who worked their entire lives to qualify for the second-fastest meet in the world (behind the Olympics) have had their hopes and dreams slashed without any warning. Some careers have ended, as TS Elliot would say, with a whimper, not a bang. 

 

Aside from the huge personal tragedy that this mass cancelation has been. The effects of the cancellation will be felt long after swimmers are allowed back in the water. Swimming is a sport that doesn’t really have an offseason. Since the impacts are so low swimmers do not worry about the negative injury effects of overtraining and since the water is not a natural medium for humans to move in, swimmers try and maintain their “feel” for the water by swimming a few miles every day even when in the offseason. Since most pools have been closed, and all university teams have been forced to stop organized practice a lot of elite swimmers will be taking the longest break from the water that they have had in years. With less than 150 days until the Olympics being away from training is not a good thing. The next few months will see Olympic hopefuls across the US and abroad fighting for pools space, and trying as hard as they can to maintain normalcy.

The effects of the forced hiatus will be hard to fully quantify, but I suspect that certain nations will be noticeably lacking at the Olympics in a few months. Italy is a nation that usually has a few very good swimmers. Being on house arrest will make it not only hard to train in the water but also hard to stay in shape at all. All this to say: don’t be surprised if the next Olympics has few world records fall.

In my first few swimming blogs, I have focused my emphasis on fast swims, big meets, and impressive age group phenoms. This week I am going to be talking about something decidedly different. Something that is very connected to the swimming world, but also about a young man’s life.

News broke yesterday a few days ago about an Ohio State Swimmer Cameron Craig getting arrested. Craig was charged with his second DUI this year. He was cited with “driving under the influence, driving under the influence while having a suspended license, failure to control a vehicle, and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence – high level.” In Ohio getting 2 DUI’s within a certain time frame means you have to serve 10 days in jail, and since his second DUI was a “high level” one the mandatory becomes 20 days. 

Craig has not been kicked off the swim team, in fact, the team released a statement that they stand with Craig and that he will be taking a leave of absence from swimming. Since Big Tens is sooner than 20 days away it is no surprise that Craig is not swimming right now. From a swimming perspective missing Craig is huge for Ohio State. He is a very fast swimmer, and was a favorite to win two events. Craig has been in the news frequently over the past few years. He swam for Arizona State his freshmen and sophomore years of college before taking a year out to train with his club team at home in Michigan before committing to Ohio State. Even Before announcing his intent to transfer Craig was making headlines when he posted this incredible 50 kick time (24.6). I know most non-swimmers won’t understand quite how fast 24.6 is, but I felt I had to include it just because of how incredible it is.

 

It is still possible for Craig to make it to NCAAs, once all of the conference championships are over there is usually a week or two time period where people can still qualify for the NCAA championship. Craig certainly has the ability to do that if he so chooses. Even if he does not make any individual events for NCAAs, with his speed he will definitely be able to swim on the Ohio State relays at NCAAs. 

 

Obviously, as a swimmer for Penn State, I have a certain level of bias in this whole situation. That being said, I find it incredible that Ohio State is standing behind Craig even though he put people’s lives in danger by driving under the influence. I don’t think it should matter how good you are, if you do something as monumentally stupid as driving with a very high BAC then you should face ramifications.

It was a relatively quiet week in terms of pro swimming this past week, however with the college season drawing to a close there were a lot of fireworks in the last duel meets for the top division one teams. Just as an aside a duel meet is just a meet were (typically) two teams swim against each other with the top few places being scored and then the final added up, it is kind of the equivalent of a regular-season game in football or basketball. 

In the last few weeks of the year before conference and national championships, swimmers will typically rest a lot, and when resting you don’t really want to have to travel and then compete against another team, so this week is probably one of the last weeks that any top team will be racing before conference. 

Texas: the number one team in the country and the team that has won 3 of the last 4 national championships swam two duel meets in the last week, they traveled to Tempe Arizona on the 31st of January and then down to Tuscon Arizona on the first to swim against Arizona State and Arizona respectively. They won both matchups and looked really good against Arizona State, although the next day they seemed to be lacking in speed, presumably because of the day of travel, and the meet they had the day before.

Cal (the number two team, and defending champs) swam USC this weekend and won. Michigan (number three) swam Michigan State and wiped the floor with them. Most of the other top teams either swam really bad teams and crushed them or were off this weekend.

Maybe the biggest meet, although not the fastest, was the HYP Classic. HYP is a tri-meet (like a duel but with three teams) between Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. They are the three top teams in the ivy league conference, and winning the HYP is a huge momentum boost heading into the ivy league championships in a few week’s time. This year Harvard got first Princeton got second and Yale got third; however, the meet was only separated by 12 points so it was very close. Although Harvard won, the top swims of the meet certainly belonged to the Yale relays and Ranak Khosla. Khosla won everything he swam and dominated the meet, posting times that would stand up at any conference in America.

In more local swimming news, Penn State Crushed Villanova this Friday. The most notable swim was Gabe Castano who went the fourth-fastest time in the Big Ten this year and broke the Penn State pool record in the 50 freestyle.

This is only my third blog in this series, but it seems I can’t go a week without mentioning Daiya Seto. The Japanese phenom who has been absolutely lighting the pool on fire the past couple of months. Earlier this year Daiya set the short course meters world record in the 400 IM and then last week broke the Asian record in the long course meters 200 fly. This week at a meet in Japan Daiya had maybe his most impressive performance yet. He went the fifth-fastest time ever in the long course meters version of the 400 IM. Some of the people ahead of him on the list are swimmers that even a non-swimming fan will have heard of.

The world record holder is Michael Phelps,

the second-fastest time ever is held by Ryan Lochte, the third and fourth fastest times are held by Chase Kalisz and Kosuke Hagnio respectively. The last two names whom I suspect you will not have heard of are both either Olympic or world champions in the 400 IM. This time by Seto is incredible for many reasons. Firstly, he had no one to race when he swam hi

s time (race video) having someone breathing down your neck in a race that takes over four minutes can really help to squeeze an extra couple of seconds out of you. If Seto gets a better race at either the Japanese trials or the Olympics it is conceivable he will be breathing down the neck of Michael Phelp’s record. The second thing that is really shocking about his swim is how he split the race. The 400 IM consists of 100m of each stroke (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breastroke, Freestyle), Seto was actually ahead of Michael Phelp’s world record split at the 100. Meaning that he was faster at the fly then Phelps (Phelps was mainly known as a butterflier). His breaststroke split was also faster then Phelp’s when he set the record. Also, one of the most incredible things about Seto is his height, he is listed at only 5’7, which is very short for a swimmer. Seto said he was actually surprised by the time given where he is in his training. He also said he thought that there were corrections to be made. If he really can clean up some stuff about his race and go faster then he will pretty much be a lock for gold in 400 IM come Tokyo. Meaning that he will be in contention for gold in both IM events plus the 200 fly. If he were to win all three in his home country at the Olympics then he would become an instant national hero.

Welcome back everyone,

 

As I am writing this blog post the second full day of the Knoxville leg of the TYR Pro Swim Series is going on. Much like the meet I talked about in my previous blog (The FINA Championship series) the TYR Pro Swim meets always attract a lot of swimming talent. Mostly domestic superstars, but it is not uncommon to see international swimmers fly to America just to take part in these meets.

Among the many notable entrants to the meet (psych sheets can be found here), this year are two junior phenoms whom the swimming world has their eyes on in this coming Olympic year: Carson Foster, and Regan Smith. Foster is 18, and Smith is 16. Foster comes from Mason Ohio outside of Cincinnati, and Smith is from Minnesota. Smith is not only a big name among age group swimmers, nor amongst just Americans, because at the world championships this past year broke the world record in the 100 Back. Smith has yet to swim her either of her signature events at the meet (100 and 200 Back) but she has still posted a good performance in the 100 butterfly placing second. If she continues to show improvement in that event it is not inconceivable that she makes the Olympic team in that event as well. Foster has also swum one finals race so far this meet. He competed in the 400 IM one of his two signature events. He placed third behind Keiren Smith and Jarod Arroyo. Although he only got third his time (4:18) was very good, and bodes well for him as he moves towards trials in the early summer. For the full results updating as they get swum, you can click here.

 

In other swimming news from across the globe, Daiya Seto just broke the Asian record in the 200m fly. He was swimming at the FINA Championship Series that I mentioned earlier and went 1:52.53 breaking the old record which was from 2008. Seto made the Rio Olympics back in 2016 but did not a huge mark. This time around with the meet being held in his home country of Japan he is looking like a force to be reconded with. He broke a short course meters world record late last year, and he has been on a warpath ever since. In the 200 fly the race is shaping up to be between Seto, and Kristof Milak the reigning world record holder from Hungary. My dark horse in the race is 17-year-old American Gianluca Urlando, who has been improving very quickly over the past 14 months and may be one to watch come trials. Over the next few months, it will be very interesting to see if either of these two rising stars have what it takes to dethrone Milak the reigning world champion and world record holder.

Welcome one and all,

 

I am Michael Challis. A student here at Penn State University. I am also a swimmer, I swim for the varsity team here at Penn State. I am incredibly passionate about swimming. And I truly belie that if people knew more about the sport they would enjoy it too. I am not going to pretend that swimming will ever be as exciting as a sport like football or soccer, but when I turn on the TV and see something like golf or bowling on ESPN it reaffirms that swimming could be a semi-mainstream sport in America if only it was better covered. With my short introduction done, I would now like to delve very briefly into swimming.

Swimming on its most basic level is just like Track, or Horse racing. It is just a race to see who can touch the wall first while staying within the rules of the race in which they are competing. Of course, the sport is infinitely more complex than that as you further investigate it. That is why I thought for my first of many blog posts I would just explain some of the terminology of the sport.

 

Competitions:

Swim meets are contested in three different types of pools. Short course yards, short course meters, and long course. Shortcourse refers to pools that are 25 meters/yards long. Long course pools are 50 meters long. In the US all high school and college competitions are contested in short course yards. In most of the rest of the world, any short course competitions are in meters. The whole world competes in long course meters, and that is the pool length that the Olympics are swum in. All three different pools have their own sets of world records. Short course yards, short course meters, and long course.

 

Levels:

There are many different levels that you can compete at in the sport of swimming. From summer league competitions hosted at country clubs and community pools, to the Olympics. For my blog, I will be focusing on colligate level swimming and pro swimming, with perhaps a foray into highschool swimming if something extraordinary happens.

 

Since I have spent a lot of time clearing up nomenclature without mentioning anything substantive about actual swimming I am going to make this section brief for my inaugural blog. In January there are two huge meets being swum in China that promise to attract some of the top competition from across the globe. The series is called the “Fina Championship Series” and the way it works is that each event has four people race, with prize money on the line. The money will be awarded as 10 8 6 5 thousand dollars for first, second, third, and fourth respectively. There is also a bonus of 20,000 dollars for anyone who sets a new world record. I am very excited to see how fast everyone goes at these two meets, especially with the Olympics looming this summer I expect to see some incredibly fast times.