Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd newsletter, where we share cool swimming stuff.

On today's (May 9, 2022) agenda...

• Let's do a quick review of the Swimming Calendar 🗓️

• 📰 Headlines: Ledecky drops the 200 Free. Queens to D1. Maxime Rooney retires.

• How do you break Michael Phelps' 400 IM World Record? 🌐 

• 🤡 Swimming Meme & 📜Swimming Set of the Week

📅 SWIMMING CALENDAR

With no ISL Season 4, the Mare Nostrum should be stacked.

The Fina World Cup is coming to Indianapolis this fall. We've been talking on the pod a lot about the global swimming calendar and the lack of large, international meets being held in America. It's not World Champs but it's something. Yes, it is being swum in SCM.

Ian Hanson announced that Australia will be host of Fina's Short Course World Championships somewhere, sometime in December.

Australian World TrialsMay 18-22

Circuit of Mare NostrumMonaco : May 21-22Barcelona : May 25-26Canet : May 28-29

TYR Pro Swim Series Mission ViejoJune 1-4

Fina Long Course World Championships in BudapestJune 18-25

Duel in the Pool in Sydney, AustraliaAugust 19-21

Asian Games in Hangzhou, ChinaSeptember 10-25POSTPONED!

Fina World CupBerlin: October 21-23Toronto: October 28-30|Indianapolis: November 3-5

US Open in Greesnboro, NCNovember 31 - December 3

Fina Short Course World Championships in AustraliaDecember 2022

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

LEDECKY DROPS 200 FREE FROM WORLD CHAMPSThe 200 Free and the 1500 are both on Day 3 in Budapest and it looks like Ledecky has opted to focus her attention on the 1500.

She hasn't been a PB in the 200 Free since the 2016 Olympics when she broke 1:54 for the first and only time. She's been consistently 1:54 mid. She was 1:55.1 at Trials. To go from the 1500 into the 200 Free Final just isn't conducive to high performance. And thus, she punts.

Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus aren't there. If you can break 1:54 you are likely to win.

The 200 Free will probably be a showdown between Siobhan Haughey (Hong Kong), Summer McIntosh (Canada), and the Chinese.

Is Mollie O from Australia swimming it? She's also a big time threat.

QUEENS HEADED TO DIVISION 1The Royals have won seven (7) consecutive NCAA Division 2 Championships -- BOTH the Men and the Women have won 7x titles in a row.

While this move (which doesn't happen for 4 more years) isn't going to change D1 significantly, it is going to dramatically change D2, as they will lose the perennial champion ON BOTH SIDES.

Drury, Indianapolis, Nova Southeastern. You got a 4 year window to slay the giant. May the force be with you.

MAXIME ROONEY RETIRESI had the pleasure of meeting Maxime at Texas this past fall and can't say enough nice things about him - he was extremely hospitable to Brett and I - an incredible human being.

He did more than a beat up job manning the microphone during the Orange vs. White Texas Intrasquad Meet (thank goodness he was there he knew everything about everyone). He's also been a guest on the show a few other times including a full blown episode, one of our first 100 interviews.

Check him out here in Episode #87. 

How fast was Maxime? Braden put together a chart of swimmers adding up their best times from both the 100 Free and 100 Fly LCM and Maxime came out the 5th fastest man ever (Milak & Cavic) & 3rd fastest American ever (Caeleb & Phelps).

That's not good company. That's best ever company.

BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

• How do you break Michael Phelps' 400 IM World Record? This clip from Episode #252 with Carson Foster is AWESOME! Carson has watched this race 50+ times. He knows all of MP's splits and obviously has thought about this many times before because he is a super student of the sport.

• Lifting for Sprinters vs. Distance Swimmers

• When should a swimmer start lifting weights?

• Coach Wayne Riddin talks about managing pressure.

Today on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

The Comedic Duo from Down Under: Kyle Chalmers & Zac Incerti

SET OF THE WEEK

Hunter Armstrong Backstroke Set

Garrett McCaffrey interviewed Ohio State Head Coach Bill Dorenkott a few days after Hunter Armstrong set the 50 LCM Backstroke World Record.

Here's a LCM set he did two weeks out:

4x Rounds...

3x50 @ 1:00 (1st round) 1:10 (2nd rd) 1:20 (3rd rd) 1:30 (4th rd)1st 50: 25 dive all out/25 easy2nd & 3rd 50's: back end pace for his 100 Back or 100 Free 100 ez after 1st round, 200 ez after 2nd rd, 300 ez after 3rd rd, 400 ez after 4th rd.

Hunter did the first two rounds backstroke and the second two rounds freestyle. On his 4 backstroke pace efforts, he averaged 26.4.

DYK? Hunter likes freestyle more than backstroke and trains way more freestyle. 🤯

Hunter Armstrong's 50 Back World Record Finish

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK

This was the runner up from last week. But due to a lack of hilarious swimming meme's this week, has won MOTW.

Best part, Jake provided an update on his Grandma shortly after the 100 Breast Finals.

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