In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 15, 2020
Wednesday Jul 15, 2020
Head coach of Virginia Todd DeSorbo dives into changes as a head coach now that we are on lockdown for the coronavirus. DeSorbo admits that he had prepared himself for the decision to cancel NCAA's prior to the NCAA actually making that decision, and he was ready to move forward once the call was actually made. His priority now is finding ways his team can keep improving, whether that's physically or simply through staying connected.
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Originally published March 26, 2020.
Wednesday Jul 15, 2020
Wednesday Jul 15, 2020
We sat down with swimming power couple Missy Franklin (5-time Olympic champion, as if you didn't already know that) and Hayes Johnson, former Texas Longhorn swimmer and current president of Swimmingly, to talk about one simple thing. Swimming joy.
Hayes and Missy took us through their summer league experiences as youths, and how that shaped the rest of their career moving forward. Realizing that many young swimmers around the country are missing out on their own summer league memories this season, the couple have been conducting a ton of zooms with teams to give them advice and help them through this tough time. They also started their own swim swag store. aptly titled SwimSwag, where swimmers can buy swimmer-specific swag to really bring out their inner swimmer.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
NC State coach Braden Holloway gives his take on the cluster that took place between the ACC Championships (women and men) and the eventual cancelation of the NCAA Championships. Given the fact that this is a global crisis, and the athletes' health comes first, Holloway noted that he kept moving throughout the process, and didn't linger too much on the fact that NCAA's weren't happening. However, on the day I spoke with him, it would have been the first full day of competition for the women, and he said that got to him.
The NC State women, in particular, were shooting to get a trophy (place top 4 in the team battle), something that had never been done in NC State history.
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Originally published March 22, 2020.
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
In this Gold Medal Minute takeover of the SwimSwam Podcast with three-time 2016 Olympic Champion Ryan Murphy, we cover backstroke, but also hit on some interesting topics you might like. For example:
- Do the Team USA backstroke legends get together and hangout? There are a lot of them, like Murph, Matt Grevers, Aaron Peirsol, Lenny Krayzelburg, Jeff Rouse, David Berkoff, Rick Carey and John Naber. (Who is the coolest and/or weirdest among them?)
- From the famous and storied Bolles School days, who is more fun to hang out with, Joe Schooling or Caeleb Dressel?
- And, does Murph have a future as a Cornhole pro athlete? (He does, but not if the richest man on earth, Jeff Bezos, is delivering the Cornhole kit. This is not a joke. Bezos factors into Murph's answer.)
In this podcast, we don't hold back, and Murph delivers. Murph even provides a backstroke clinic, and we learn what gains he's made while not training in a pool. Is that possible? Yes. It is. Murphy's focused, positive, and he's made use of his COVID-19 shutdown time.
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Olympic gold medalist Tom Shields was kind enough to talk to me (twice, my computer pooped out and didn't record the first time) about his last couple weeks. As reported yesterday, the Olympic Training Center was closed, and Shields was there when it happened. He just got back to his home in the Bay Area yesterday, and has been doing his part to help stop the spread of Covid-19 since.
As a swimmer, his heart goes out to all of the affected athletes who missed their championships and struggle training. Shields said he was particularly excited to watch Zheng Wen Quah, affectionately known as "Wangers", go for the 200 fly title as a senior. However, Shields stressed that the focus should now be turned to our public health, not just the athletic events we are missing. He said that the biggest struggle for him personally moving forward wouldn't be staying in shape, but making sure social interaction was a priority, now that it won't be automatic.
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Originally published March 19, 2020.
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Monday Jul 13, 2020
I sat down with Mitch Dalton, the brand new assistant coach for the Texas women's swim team. Before that, Dalton was the Director of the National Jr Team for 5 years. Now, I understand what that is... but also, I don't. Is it a manager? A coach? Mitch broke down how he ended up in that position, what it actually entails, and why the NJT is so important for the future of USA Olympic success.
We ended our podcast with a game based off of James Cordon's 'Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts'. As we didn't have any disgusting foods to eat, we decided to tweet rather outlandish statements, drawn out of a hat by the other person, if we didn't want to answer the question or didn't give a satisfactory answer. We each ended up tweeting once, and I have to say, Mitch's tweet was pretty golden.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
2-time Olympic champion Maggie Steffens sat down with us to speak about a variety of topics. She filled me in on what a normal water polo training day looks like at the elite level (note, from the sound of it, it could be more hours than a swimmer!). During this pandemic, she's been able to stay busy by filming a lot of her at-home workouts, and sharing them to her social media as well as her water polo platform, 68 sports.
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Originally published on March 24, 2020.
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
We sat down with Trevor Freeland, the 2nd black man to ever win an ACC championship in swimming. Freeland was a member of the famed PDR Swim Team of Philadelphia coached by Jim Ellis in the 1980s that was immortalized in the Lionsgate film Pride. Freeland spoke candidly on his time at PDR and the adversity he faced being on the first-ever all-black swim team. However, Freeland emphasized that he focused on the positive interactions he had with people, and learned from a young age to brush off micro-aggressions from outsiders.
Freeland went on to swim for the University of Virginia under Mark Bernadino, where he saw success in and out of the pool. Not only did he win a conference championship with UVA, but earned his bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering. Freeland went on to earn his MBA from Duke and is now the Managing Director of Deutsche Bank.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Saturday Jul 11, 2020
Saturday Jul 11, 2020
Michael Andrew has always done things differently, in and out of swimming. So when everyone is told that they can't train in a pool, Andrew hasn't had too much trouble adapting so far. He's gone back to 3-5 hour surfing sessions as a way to build endurance and get in the water, and he has a makeshift gym in his garage where he can work out.
Andrew does recognize the weirdness of social distancing and hopes that it will be sooner rather than later that we can all get back into the swing of things.
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Originally published March 22, 2020.
Saturday Jul 11, 2020
Saturday Jul 11, 2020
We sat down with Russell Mark, the USA National Team High Performance Manager AKA Technique Guru. Russell was literally a rocket scientist before he was working in swimming, but the love for swimming actually came first. After swimming in high school, Mark went to the University of Virginia for academics, but tried to walk onto the swim team, then led by the legendary Mark Bernadino. After 1 year of trying, Mark got a walk-on spot in his sophomore year.
After finding out his life as a rock scientist would be the movie Office Space, Mark pursued an internship at USA Swimming, where he was mentored by Jonty Skinner. The rest is history, with Mark currently traveling around the country doing routine checks with the entire National and Jr national team as well as going to every major US and international meet.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com