This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discussed the 2021 Speedo Winter Junior Championships, the upcoming Short Course World Championships, and the prospect of Sarah Sjostrom being an NCAA swimmer. See below for full list of topics:
- Winter Jr Champs were nuts. Just nuts. Kids are so fast these days. See full coverage of that meet here.
- Short Course Worlds start in Thursday, and we discussed our must-see events for the meet, including the men’s 400 IM, men’s 200 free and the women’s 50 fly.
- The Queensland Championships signaled the first big post-Olympic racing for many Aussies, including defending Olympic champs Zac Stubblety-Cook, who posted a blazing 2:07.00 200 Breast, and Ariarne Titmus, who took the 400 free in 4:04.
- The CSCAA released their Top-100 College Coaches of All-Time this week. Who do you think deserves to be on the list?
SINK or SWIM
- We had a Shouts from the Stands post this week hypothesizing what it would have been like if Sarah Sjostrom swam in the NCAA. Do you think she would have broken records in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly?
- Golden Goggles saw, among other awards, Katie Ledecky win her 7th Athlete of the Year award, tying her with Michael Phelps for the most of all-time. Will Ledecky win an 8th in her career to pass the GOAT?
- International rising star David Popovici announced a sponsorship deal with arena this week. Do you think this will lead to medals this week in Abu Dhabi at SC Worlds?
I think this is the correct pronunciation of Tessa’s last name:
“Ci (like the first sound in Cincinnati) – plew – cha”
Syllable emphasis on the “plew”
@Bradenkeith – You’re spot on about the LA 2028 Games being a huge financial perfect storm for these youngsters. Essentially hosted by Southern California Swimming, it is something to continue to discuss and watch shape up over the next 6 years.
Another view:
First of all, no mention (that I know of) but Torrey Hart took a job at The Athletic. Congrats and does that mean she won’t be reporting for SwimSwam?
Secondly, no mention of the biggest clickbait of the week….Lia Thomas. Sink or Swim?
World jrs, World sc-I think the biggest the mistake in our sport is that if you don’t go to the Olympics, you are viewed as a failure, then if you do go the Olympics, did you win a medal? If not, then you are viewed as a failure! Then they ask, did you win a Gold medal. If you only win what many here call a “minor” medal, we go “oh”. And this… Read more »
Riverside or San Bernadino barely scored in the JR’s west. In fact people in the LA area overlooked the Inland empire since it has a lot of warehousing but Sandpiper’s of Nevada comes from an area with a lot of Casinos. So, maybe USA swimming in Southern Ca holds it against blue collar areas.
Another interesting article for SwimSwam would be how many Olympic medals would Sarah Sjostrom have now if she had been born American or Australian? Would she outrank Dara and Jenny at this point and be the most decorated female swimmer ever?
Interesting article about C1 about her extended break and resuming training at the end of the year: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWPBohFBjH4/
Look, I don’t mean to be THAT person, but titmus going a 4:04 isn’t an indication that she’s gonna be the favorite in Paris. I’m not saying she isn’t the favorite but an in season time from 3 years in advance doesn’t mean anything. Ledecky went a 4:00 and had a negative prelims split race and you guys said nothing about it on the podcast last week despite the time being four seconds faster
Like titmus is great and all and I thought her 200 was promising but her 400 time isn’t an indication of anything and also it wouldn’t have medaled it would have placed 6th
I agree that zac stuebbly cook wasn’t talked about enough though
S-Cook seems destined to pop a 2:05 next year. It doesn’t look like he’s planning an off year like some others.
Agree 👍
Season to season a good number of swimmers have trouble getting back to peak form. Titmus I think won’t have that problem but Ledecky is HUNGRY. Titmus will need her best to stay on top and nothing less.
going by his insta, Zac SC had a 1 month break after tokyo and returned to the pool at the start of september