Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd Newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming. This week...

• 🌎 Fast Swims Around the World

• 📰 Swimming Headlines

• 📜 Set of the Week

• 🤡 Swimming Meme of the Week

This Week in Swimming is brought to you by...

Imagine Swimming, New York City’s Premier Swim School, is looking for instructors and coaches! Imagine offers aquatics for all. Beginning with infant Baby Splash courses, Parent & Me classes, group lessons for ages 3 & up, on to competitive club teams (including a swim team, a water polo team, and a synchronized swimming team), and finally adult classes for all levels. There is something for every swimmer at Imagine.

🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Brazilian Champs

Headline meet of the weekend was the Brazilian Swimming Championships, that country’s selection meet for Worlds.

Some podium drama early on as 100 breast bronze medalist Ana Vieira apparently slapped gold medalist and teammate Jhennifer Conceicao. Conceicao got the last laugh in the pool though, taking the 50 breast over Vieira as well.

In terms of raw swims, the best efforts came from the men’s 100 free. 32 year old Marcelo Chierighini popped a 47.86 morning swim as an appetizer. He’d come in second in the final in 48.14 to rising Tennessee sophomore Gui Caribe’s 48.11, while the entire final came in under 49 seconds. Needless to say, they should be a shoo-in to make the finals in the 4×100 at Worlds. Marcelo also won the 50 Free in 22.00.

In other “older” swimmer news, fellow 32-year-old Leonardo de Deus hit a strong 1:55.47 200 fly. That makes him the 2nd oldest dude ever to break 1:56 according to Swimming Stats.

Olympic Bronze medalist, Fernando Scheffer, took the 2 Free in 1:46.28.

The best swim from the women’s side was probably a 1:57.76 200 free from Maria Oliviera. That’s a 3 second PR!

Other notables:

• Oliviera would also hit a Worlds A cut taking silver in the 400 free in 4:06.85 behind a 4:06.25 from Gabrielle Goncalves.

• Staying on the distance theme, Guilherme da Costa swept the longer men’s events in 3:47.31/7:58.69/15:17.87.

• Kayky Mota slipped under the A cut in the men’s 100 fly by .01 with a 51.95 win.

• Gabrielle Assis set a new Brazilian record in the 200 breast with a 2:25.31.

Romanian Cup

“Skinny Legend” David Popovici was at it again in his home country. He started out Day 1 of the Romanian Cup with a very solid 52.45 100 fly.

Day 2 featured a 47.85 100 free that’s just a couple tenths off his season best. The World Record holder in the event is sitting second in the world rankings at the moment, behind China’s Pan Zhanle after his scintillating 47.22 last month.

23.24/24.61 splits are about as close are we’re used to seeing for him.

Another international-level Romanian youngster, Vlad Stancu, also continues to make some waves. He hit a new PR 400 free in 3:47.17 - and he needed that PR; his new best puts him under both the A Cut for Worlds and the Olympic qualifying standard for the first time. He also took on a heck of a double the next day, with a 200 fly PR of 2:00.16 followed by a 15:32.87 mile win.

Tokyo Champs

A couple notables from Japan here:

• Ippei Watanabe seems like he’s raring to go this summer. He’s had a very busy meet calendar thus far, having taking part in Mare Nostrum a couple weeks ago, but is getting faster and faster. This time he posted a 2:07.55 200 breast season best, behind only Kirill Prigoda in the world rankings.

• Ageless Ryosuke Irie went 53.51/1:56.26 backstrokes. It’s easy to say we don’t know how he’s still doing it at age 33, but the fact is that the man still has one of the most technically efficient backstrokes in history.

• Tokyo Olympic double IM champ Yui Ohashi was back in action with a 2:11.21 200 IM win, just off her season best 2:11.00. Repeating in Paris in either IM event is going to be a tough task with Summer McIntosh, Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, and Kaylee McKeown all staring down Katinka’s World Record.

Fast Swims Around North America

The Mel Zajac Jr. Invitational

• Josh Liendo put up some good training times, going 22.33/49.02/1:50.33 frees and 23.99/51.59 flys.

• Maggie Mac Neil had some travel issues and missed the first day, but made it up with 3 races on day 2, 57.70 100 fly, 28.23 50 back, 25.30 50 free. Not bad for jet lag!

• 15-year-old Aiden Hammer (great name for commentators) had a couple big PRs and notable swims for his age with an 8:09.84 800 free (11 second PR) and 3:56.73 400 free and 15:49 in the mile.

• Fellow 15-year-old Laon Kim went 23.18/1:52.18 in the shorter frees.

NCAP Invite

• Alex Walsh and Erin Gemmell had a nice 200 free showdown, with Gemmell trying to run down Walsh in the last 50 and Walsh just coming in ahead on the touch, 1:57.84-1:57.98.

• The defending World Champ, Alex Walsh, also won the 200 IM in 2:09.61.

• Gretchen Walsh laid down some dangerous times - 24.52/54.02 frees, 27.75 50 back, 25.97/56.73 flys. That 56.7 puts her 4th in the World in 2023.

• Teammate Maxine Parker was just behind in the 50 free with a 24.83 PR. She’s been on a tear this summer.

• Big Tom Heilman won a few events. 23.06/49.72/1:49.13 Freestyles and 52.78/1:57.81 100 Fly.

Sun Devil Open

• Regan Smith put up some scary good times in Tempe. She started off with a 2:08.48 200 IM that’s the fastest time for the US woman this year. The splits (27.45/31.29/39.67/30.07) show both her greatest strength and what she’s got to work on if she wants to pursue this event at an international level. She nearly broke 57 in the 100 fly. Later in the meet, she hit a 57.83 100 back to continue her back and forth with Kaylee McKeown for #1 in the world. And these were only appetizers for her Day Three event - she dove in for the 200 fly on a mission, splitting 27.75/31.83/32.24/32.05 for a 2:03.87 American record (breaking Mary DeScenza’s supersuited 2:04.14) that is a mere .01 off of Yufei Zhang’s Tokyo Olympics-winning time. A Worlds team threat in the 200 free, 100/200 back, 100/200 fly, and 200 IM, it’s going to be interesting to see what events Regan picks for Trials and how she handles what might be a historic workload.

• There was a Luca Urlando sighting, his first competition since dislocating a shoulder at the SCM World Cup last winter. He didn’t do a ton, 1:50.33/3:55.92 in the middle distance frees, but it’s good to see him logging results again.

• Chase Kalisz remains the metronome of US men’s IM. He went a 1:57.51 in the shorter IM, as well as 53.93/1:56.34 flys and 1:02.06 100 breast, good in-season times for a guy who definitely isn’t known as a sprinter.

• Hungarian Hubert Kos came in just behind Kalisz with a 1:59.18 IM, also winning the 100 fly (52.15) and the backs (54.00/1:57.25).

• Hali Flickinger is still going strong - 1:58.70/4:08.69 frees are good efforts for her, and a 2:06.80 200 fly is great for in-season.

• Patrick Sammon won the 200 Free in 1:47.84

• Simone Manuel hit her fastest 50 Free time (25.22) since her time off.

• Youngster Jonny Kulow looks like a revelation for the Sun Devils. After a breakout NCAA season as an ace relay anchor, he’s hitting PRs almost every time he touches the water in the long pool - he went 22.39/48.70 frees and 52.74 100 fly. He will be in the fight to make the team this month.

FAST Senior Open

• Caeleb Dressel swam the 100 Free. He went 49.80 (24.24/25.56).

• Emma Weyant almost broke 2 in the 200 Free (2:00.83).

• Mac McDuff beat Dressel going 49.26.

• Kieran Smith went 55.18 in the 100 Back (new PB) and 1:59.48 in the 2 IM.

• Aleksas Savickas won both breaststrokes in 1:01.80/2:12.26

Miscellany

• Matt King popped 21.97/48.72 sprints on the Texas Senior Circuit. Those both rank #2 in the US at the moment.

• 16-year-old Finnley Conklin went PRs 1:02.78/2:19.46 breasts at the Jack Pittinger Invite in Madison, WI.

• In the St. Louis suburb of St. Peters, Clayton-Shaw Park Swim Club 11-year old Emma Fouke went 34.79/1:17.13 breast PRs. The latter is #3 in the nation for 11-12s and she’s the fastest 11 year old by over 3 seconds thus far this year.

• Bosnian 17 year old Jovan Lekic neared his PRs with 50.83/1:48.55/3:51.58 frees in his home country.

• Jakub Majerski went a season-best 51.49 100 fly at a Grand Prix meet in Poland. That puts him at 17th in the world this season.

• Katharine Berkoff posted a nice 59.03 100 back in Greensboro, NC, two tenths off her season best and fourth tenths off career best. She’s still in the mix for the US team in the sprint backstroke spots next month!

• At same meet, NCAA mile champ and runner-up teammates Will Gallant and Ross Dant went 7:58-7:59 season best 800s. Certainly building momentum, the fight for the second US spot in those distance events is going to be hot.

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

Why Iceland is #1 in Swimming

I love Iceland. When coaching at Old Dominion, I recruited Erla Dogg Haraldsdottir and Arni Arnason. Both represented Iceland in the Olympics and both qualified for NCAA’s - the first in our schools history. I got to see Icelandic swimming first hand, spending several days in Reykjavik recruiting, attending a swim meet, and eating loads of dry fish.

A few years later, while attending the World Conference on Drowning Prevention, I sat in on an Icelandic professor who explained why Iceland never has any drownings — because they teach everyone how to swim in school. He said that up to 1/3 of all PE credits are swimming related. In America, our favorite model seems to be the “10 lessons in 2nd grade” check-the-box model.

Icelandic filmmaker Jón Karl Helgason's new film Sundlaugasögur, or "Swimming Pool Stories", highlights the communal importance of swimming pools in Iceland. With approximately 160 swimming pools in the country, they serve as social hubs. Iceland, and it’s 372,000 residents, have a deep-rooted swimming culture dating back to the Norsemen who settled the island in the 10th century. School-age children receive compulsory swimming lessons from ages 7 to 14 in school as part of their physical education.

“I took my children there…and my children will take their children — it’s the life of swimming pool culture in Iceland.”

And in places where people don’t learn to swim, what do we hear?

“The water is fire. Don’t touch it.”

In contrast, the United States has an estimated 11 million swimming pools, but less than 3% are open to the public. Iceland's smaller population size and abundant geothermal power allow them to maintain and use swimming pools year-round.

The Icelandic model raises questions of whether the US should work to make swimming pools more accessible and communal for public health and social benefits, similar to Iceland's approach. Plus, it would help prevent the ~1,000 American children that drown every year.

Michael Andrew Stars in NLE Choppa Music Video

BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

• Polo Drill aka Tarzan Drill aka Head out of Water Drill

• Working the front quadrant of your catch

• Brian Barnes thoughts on what it means to be a leader

• Best drill for working on high elbow in freestyle recovery

• Leave a footprint with Brian Barnes

• You won’t believe what Kosuke Kitajima said before the Athens Olympics

• 12 kick switch drill

• Swimming with your fists

• How good was Adam Peaty’s swim meet?

• The Breaststroke Shrug with Keri Hehn

• Breaststroke Body Position Kick

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

Tomorrow morning at 12 PM EST...

Catch up on all the world's fastest swimming and stories with Brett, Sonny, and Nate on Dive Inside LIVE.

Tomorrow...

#320 The Foreign Connection: Uniting for the American Dream in Swimming with Lionel Moreau

Brett Hawke speaks with his longtime friend Lionel Moreau. They discuss their connection as "brothers from another mother" and their journey as swimmers who moved to the United States in search of the American dream. Lionel and Roman Barnier didn’t make the 1996 Olympic team, but they decided to stay in the US and attend college for swimming.

They reminisce about their beginnings at Auburn University, where they formed the "foreign connection" - a team consisting of Lionel, Roman, and Brett. Their experience at Auburn began with some financial sacrifices, supported by their parents back home. They took pride in being part of the foreign connection and embraced the American culture, proving themselves through hard work and dedication.

📝 SWIM SET OF THE WEEK

Federica Pellegrini 200 Free Set from Matteo Giunta

32×50 Freestyle

3 at 200 pace @ 1:10

1 ez @ 1:30

24×50 Freestyle

2 at 100 backend pace @ 1:20

1 ez @ 2:00

Here’s another Federica Pellegrini set from Matteo Giunta.

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK

June is here. Australian & American Trials are on the horizon…

We are 48 days away from Fukuoka…

Countdown to your next big meet with the Swimnerd “Countdown to Your Big Meet” Timer. Use code “swimspam” for 25% off.

What is your favorite part of, "This Week in Swimming"?

Click on a link to tell us...

• 👍 Super helpful thank you!

• 😐 Meh - it was ok.

• 👎 Next week better be better or I might hit the unsubscribe button.