The SwimSwam Podcast SwimSwam

Olympic medalist and World Champion Alex Walsh and NCAA swimming superstar  Gretchen Walsh, take us behind the scenes of their latest SPORTI collab, the Star Spangled Summer Collection.  The collection is inspired by Americana vibes as a nod to the country’s, and the sister’s, collective spirit going into the 2024 Olympic Summer. Coming off of UVA's 2024 NCAA Championship Team Title, the Walsh Sister dove right into their SPORTI photo capture for this collection.  They only took a few days off.  They did the photo shoot and launched their STAR SPANGLED SUMMER COLLECTION May 8th.  A lot had to happen to make this collection a success. We talk about that process, and we look ahead to the Olympic summer and the Walsh Sister's goals in the pool.   Notably, Alex unpacks her decision to take a 5th year UVA...and she was on the fence about doing it.  The Walsh Sisters cover a lot of ground in this podcast. We hope you like it!

Matt Leach was recently announced as the new head coach for Iowa State Swimming and Diving. This surprised many as Leach had massive success at his last stop, Washington State, and most likely could have landed a job at a more traditional powerhouse. However, Leach explains that his first priority is family and his wife's parents live nearby. He also dives into his coaching journey and why building a team into a family is much more fulfilling to him than having the status of coaching at a Top-10 swimming program.

Tunisian swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 400 freestyle, will not be competing at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. According to Africa Aquatics, this news was revealed by Tunisian Olympic Committee head Mehrez Bousyan on a televised sports program and had also been confirmed by Hafnaoui himself.

Olympic and world champion Kyle Chalmers just had one of the best in-season meets of his career last month at the Australian Open, going lifetime bests in the 50 free (21.9) and 50 fly (23.1) as well as a 47.6 in the 100 free. This is coming on the heels of moving clubs to train with Ash Delaney at St. Andrews on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss Summer McIntosh's potential lineup for the 2024 Canadian Olympic Trials, a high school swim team getting locked out of their section meet, and the major moves that have happened so far in the NCAA off-season.

During the 2024 Polish Swimming Championships (which qualify swimmers for the 2024 Olympics in Paris this summer), a swimmer in the Women's 200 IM final ended up in the wrong lane halfway through the race and ended up getting disqualified for it. We discuss how this happened, why it was a DQ, and what questions this raises about the rules for this race.