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
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
In this Gold Medal Minute takeover of the SwimSwam Podcast, we dive deep on butterfly with Coach Bob Bowman.
During this pandemic, the COVID (coronavirus) shutdown has impact my brain chemistry in a bad way, bringing me down. Talking with The Butterfly Guru, the man behind Michael Phelps, was the perfect medicine. I hope it’s good medicine for you too. We cover age group butterfly challenges to elite training to what swimmers and coaches need to be thinking when striving for butterfly mastery.
We all know Bob’s fly knowledge runs deep. We know Bob’s an Olympic coach, a hall of famer, and that he helms Arizona State University, but did you know Bob was a flyer his entire competitive career? “I swam it going back to summer league,” Bob explained. I loved learning that and more in this 30-minute butterfly clinic.
Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
We sat down with Sydney Pickrem, one of the most decorated swimmers in Canadian history. She gives a candid recollection of her career, starting in Florida where she was a product of Randy Reese, renowned coach in his own right as well as brother to Texas Men's head coach, Eddie.
She evolved to the international stage and in 2017, won her first LC world championship medal in the 400 IM. That came, however, after Pickrem exited the pool after the fly leg of the 200 IM, where she choked on water. Pickrem talks us through that worlds and more, the ups and down of her career, and how she's grown from each one of them.
Sunday May 31, 2020
Sunday May 31, 2020
We sat down with Davis Tarwater, who shared his story of painfully missing 2 Olympic teams before missing a third but then making it after all. Tarwater talks us through how his 7th place in the 200 free at the 2012 Olympic trails turned into a spot on Team USA, and his long, long journey to get to that point.
Davis explains his training as an age grouper, including beating Michael Phelps at Jr Nationals, Swimming at Michigan under Jon Urbanchek and Bob Bowman, taking a year from 2009-2010 to study at Oxford, and finally coming back to the sport to train for a final Olympic push under David Marsh.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Saturday May 30, 2020
Saturday May 30, 2020
We spoke with legendary coach Jack Roach, who took us through a lot of his life in and outside of coaching. Roach reminisced on some of his favorite memories on building the national junior team, which he was the director of from 2008-2013. He talked fondly of how Michael Phelps came to a Jr Pan Pac meet to watch a finals session, and was so impressed by the amount of energy and excitement generated.
Roach also dips into topics such as his time coaching in Austin at both the club and collegiate level, how much senior level swimmers can learn from junior level swimmers, and going to every international meet with Team USA from 2008-2016.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Friday May 29, 2020
Friday May 29, 2020
SwimSwam writer Torrey Hart and I sat down with 1st-year UCLA head coach Jordan Wolfrum on how her first season as a head coach went. Wolfrum dove deep on a number of topics and the wisdom that she's gained throughout her coaching journey thus far was evident. She touched on forming a relationship with Cyndi Gallagher, PAC-12 head coaches meetings, and the differences of coaching men and women.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Tuesday May 26, 2020
We sat down with Shaine Casas to discuss how he’s been handling this quarantine period. He admitted that he’s been a bit more edgy than normal, but working out and getting to swim irregularly has helped. Casas also delved into his past, explaining how he spent a life-changing summer in Austin training at Nitro while living with now-A&M teammate Ethan Gogulski.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Monday May 25, 2020
Monday May 25, 2020
We sat down with world-record holder Aaron Peirsol, who is currently quarantining in Virginia. We spoke with Aaron about the past, present, and future of swimming, in terms of the sport itself as well as swimming as a business. Peirsol shared his experience of being a professional during the "super suit" era, and his thoughts on what they brought to the sport both in and out of the pool.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Monday May 25, 2020
Monday May 25, 2020
We sat down to speak with Olympic legend Janet Evans, who gave us her unique perspective on not only past Olympics but future Games as well. Janet shared some of her favorite stories with us, including a memory from her first Olympic Games in 1988 where she won gold and set the world record in the 400m free, beating the East German women who were quite a bit psychically bigger than she was.
At the VERY end of our talk, Janet also described running the Olympic torch to Muhammed Ali at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Evans says it was by far the best moment in her Olympic career, and would give up all of her medals to do it again.
Thursday May 21, 2020
Thursday May 21, 2020
We caught up with Calypso Sheridan, who is currently back in her native Queensland. She explained her long journey of finally getting back into Australia, which included a 2-week hotel quarantine once she got back into the continent. However, the silver lining was that once she was able to move about freely in Australia, she got to “train” with her longtime friend and current world-record holder, Minna Atherton.
Calypso also recognized the fact that her former coach in the States, Jeremy Kipp, had just left for the head coaching job at USC. Calypso says that although she’s not totally sure, she think’s she’ll return to Northwestern to finish her senior year without Kipp, and is happy for her former coach that he was able to land a dream job of his.
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Tuesday May 19, 2020
We all know that Katinka Hosszu is the Iron Lady. She's famous for her "racing as training" style of competing at an insane number of meets, and entering unprecedented amounts of races at said meets. Not only does she swim a lot of races, she often wins a lot of races, prompting the World Cup to put a cap on how many races you can win prize money for.
But how did Katinka become the Iron Lady? Hosszu talks us through her age group days in Hungary, AKA swimming boot camp, and her successes and failures once she came to the US and Southern California.