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Sam Short on Distance Training, Going Out Fast in Races, and Becoming a World Champion

Sam Short won a medal of every color at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, earning gold in the 400 free, silver in the 800 free, and bronze in the 1500 free. SwimSwam sat down with the distance ace to discuss his meet and season.

  • 0:00 Sam Short Introduction
  • 0:53 Overall Thoughts on World Champs
  • 2:35 Preparing for a Heavy Distance Program
  • 3:45 400 Free Strategy
  • 5:30 Taking the 400 Out in 1:49
  • 9:52 First World Title
  • 11:30 Fastest 800 Free Final Ever
  • 15:12 800 Free World Record
  • 17:07 1500 Free Strategy
  • 22:30 Takeaways from Fukuoka
  • 23:51 Training at Rackley
  • 25:00 Double-Distance Taper
  • 28:12 Why Rackley?
  • 30:46 Why Distance Swimming?
  • 32:55 Managing Training for 400-800-1500
  • 35:46 200 Free
  • 36:50 Typical Training Week

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Fake Double Observer
1 year ago

Oh, look, yet ANOTHER distance double. Sorry, triple.

Ask when we’ll accept that the 800 and 1500 are the two most redundant events in all of sports, and get the 800 out of the Olympics.

zThomas
1 year ago

Cannot wait to listen to this, thanks!

Steve Nolan
1 year ago

swimswam interview one american (or just non-australian!) challenge

Fukuoka Gold
Reply to  Steve Nolan
1 year ago

I’d rather Swimswam interview swimmers who give interesting insights, talk openly, regardless of NATIONALITY.

Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
Reply to  Steve Nolan
1 year ago

They’ve interviewed all individual gold medallists so far. Doesn’t leave too many non-Australian options for them lol.

Reply to  Steve Nolan
1 year ago

Steve…I think you’re being funny, but we interview all athletes from around the world. Our international audience increases year over year. It’s important to note we interview athletes who respond and show up, and Team Australia and Team GB are very professional and prompt with media.

Riser
Reply to  Gold Medal Mel Stewart
1 year ago

Mel, if you were looking to interview athletes from Canada such as Maggie, Summer or Josh for instance do you have to get permission from Team Canada or can the individual athlete make the decision on their own?

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Gold Medal Mel Stewart
1 year ago

What if instead those athletes decided to just never respond to the media, and waited to let the Olympic Machine do all their publicity for them every four years??

Just something to think about, clearly could be a better way.

MICHAEL
1 year ago

Did anybody else read the title and think “O some guy named Sam was short on the amount of distance training he’s done this year” or is that just my 2:45 work fog brain kicking in…

Mark69
Reply to  MICHAEL
1 year ago

If it wasn’t for the photo, yes I probably would have thought the same.

Fukuoka Gold
Reply to  MICHAEL
1 year ago

Did you not follow just concluded World Championship?

Michael Schwartz
Reply to  Fukuoka Gold
1 year ago

Was literally in 2:45PM work fog mode…needed a 2 minute break and it was only for a moment…Jesus

Clutch
1 year ago

So he won’t swim the relay next year. Australia could have used him in the 4×200, I‘m sure he could drop a flying 1:44.

Troyy
Reply to  Clutch
1 year ago

The 4×2 final isn’t long after the 800 final which is enormously stupid!

M d e
Reply to  Troyy
1 year ago

Is it though? How many relevant athletes would be in both of those events?

Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
Reply to  M d e
1 year ago

People who swam both the 800 free and 200 free (either relay or individual) in Fukuoka:

-Martens, Costa, Woo-min, de Tullio, Winnington, (Short previously but not in Fukuoka), Pallister, Titmus, Ledecky, Fairweather, Bingjie, Thomas, Yang, Gose, Kesely. And that’s just what I found from a quick check, not a complete list.

Seems like a pretty common crossover. Whereas they moved the 1500 away from the 200 because literally like 2 people do both

Troyy
Reply to  Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
1 year ago

Lots of other swimmers have done both at some point in time including some very big names like Sun Yang, Thorpe and Hackett.

Fukuoka Gold
Reply to  M d e
1 year ago

Laughs in LEDECKY and co

Fake Double Observer
Reply to  Troyy
1 year ago

What’s stupid is even having the 800 in the WC and the OG. It is completely redundant to the 1500, and this is shown by IMMENSE number of athletes doubling in wins/medals and WRs between the 800/1500 over the years.

No other two events are like this, and here we are talking about the pointless 800 crowding the schedule. Ha!

Mike McCormack
1 year ago

Humble champion! So young seeming. You astonished us in Japan, Sam…

Swimforlife
1 year ago

Its so crazy to see all then new future big names start to emerge, i still remember when the name Michael phelps was unrecognizable. The future of swimming is just incredibly fast.

chazoozle
Reply to  Swimforlife
1 year ago

That is because he was like 13 lol

randomswimmer2
1 year ago

Great interview. To see his perspective on those men’s distance free races was awesome.

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