2015 was one of the wildest years that we recall in swimming, especially for a year without and Olympic Games. The year was pockmarked with tragedy, beginning with a rash of suicides from American high school swimmers that shook the foundations of the way we all coach and interact with young athletes. In 2015 we also lost Olympic Champion Camille Muffat, who stunningly retired on top of the world after the 2012 Olympics and died in March in a helicopter accident while filming for a French reality television show.
But there was also plenty to celebrate in 2015, most notably the World Championships, where we got the last global data points ahead of this year’s Olympic Games. The daily recaps of the World Championships led to the 8 highest-trafficked days in SwimSwam history, and all 8 fell within our top 30 most read news articles of the year.
As much focus as there was on the World Championships, they were trumped by a swimmer who wasn’t at that meet, but instead raced in San Antonio, Texas at U.S. Nationals: Michael Phelps. Phelps posted world-leading times domestically while missing a meet he qualified for, but ultimately couldn’t race after a DUI suspension in 2014.
There was also plenty of controversy that led headlines in 2015. Some if it involved one swimmer’s attempt at innovation: Ryan Lochte experimented with a new underwater technique on which he did his dolphin kicks on his back in freestyle. His attempts to gain a few extra tenths, and FINA’s subsequent finger-wag, accounted for 3 of the top 12 articles in SwimSwam’s year.
On the more negative side of the controversy were two incidents that play into a broader narrative of how college students, and specifically college athletes, are expected to behave. One of those two was when Stanford freshman swimmer Brock Turner was arrested on allegations of sexual assault, and the other came when Western Kentucky University suspended their men’s and women’s swim teams for 5 years after repeated allegations of hazing. Both cases are still winding their ways through the legal system, and could rear as top 50 stories again in 2016.
The year ended with more highlights in the pool during a time where one expect most of the major names to swim through the traditional short course season and focus on a longer buildup to the Olympics. Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri broke the World Record in the 1500 free at the European Championships in December; Katie Ledecky became the first woman ever under 9 minutes in the 1000 yard free – a barrier that is almost hard to compute; and Ryan Hoffer swam a 41.23 in the 100 yard freestyle that makes him the 4th-fastest swimmer in history at any age, and he’s only 17.
Below, we’ve posted our top 50 articles split into two categories: 25 news articles, along with 25 articles from the softer side, including motivational articles, educational articles, and the occasional laugh or two. These are the articles that gave our sport its voice in 2015 and guide the conversation into 2016.
From Jake Miller and Camille Muffat early last year to Tate Ramsden last week, we lost a lot of swimmers in 2015. I won’t pretend to comprehend all of the circumstances involved, but I believe at least some of these deaths could have been prevented.
Regardless, let’s remember those we lost in 2015, and to honor them, let’s create a swimming environment that is safer and more aware in 2016.