SwimSwam sat down with Camille Spink, who won the Commissioner’s Trophy at the 2025 SEC Championships for scoring the most individual points, sweeping her individual events. Spink became the first athlete since 2007 to win the 50, 100, and 200 free at a single SEC Championships. The Tennessee Vol takes us through her eventful meet, highs and lows, and gives her rationale for why she doesn’t like the word “Taper”.
- 0:00 Camille Spink Introduction
- 2:35 Not saying the word “Taper”
- 5:38 Goals Going into SECs
- 11:56 Winning SECs as a Freshman
- 14:19 800 Free Relay
- 18:51 Sticking to your process
- 24:36 50 Free/200 Free Relay
- 30:18 200 Free
- 37:55 4×100 Free in 24 Hours
- 46:40 400 Free Relay
- 49:39 Training
- 56:16 NCAAs
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.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Haha NCAP coaches for you there. Instilled that it is “rest” not taper.
Excellent interview, thanks. What an outstanding person, teammate and swimmer she is.
but can we talk about how sweetness is back? And what this means for the future?
I’ve been around for half a century, so I’ve seen language evolve before, but somehow I missed that taper had taken on negative connotations. That was interesting as Camille defined taper precisely how I remember it from the 80’s and 90’s while discussing the process she goes through. Simply put reduced load, but not reduced effort. The whole point being to let the body recover from all the effects of heavy/previous training. You still do some intense training during a taper, and you absolutely have to put the effort into every practice. You have to pay even closer attention to form and technique, you just manage the workload so that you can be as healthy as possible when the competition… Read more »
I also remember taper being define as something that you can “only” do x number of times. So some swimmers thought that they could only taper once like for conference and that the taper would not be as “good” for NCAAs. I have seen swimmers get scared if they swim too fast during the season like that is going to hurt them. It has also been used as a coping tool as well, “they only swam fast because they are tapered and we are not so we will swim faster at the end.” Anyone remember the trend of swimming conference with beards as a flex?
So maybe not using that term helps swimmers understand that you can swim fast multiple… Read more »
Yeah I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Language changes all the time and words have meaning. It was just really interesting to realize that I missed or didn’t fully grok everything Camille and Coleman said and what you’ve added. Now that’s it’s been pointed out I see it and get it. I’m all for whatever helps the swimmer. For me taper is always going to be an awesome thing that helped me get closer to feeling like Neptune several times a year and I’ll still taper for targeted 10k and half marathons too and enjoy having a connection to Mercury. If the word or methods don’t work for others, great, let’s figure it out so everyone can swim fast!