Pan Ams + French SC Champs + Marek Petrusewicz Memorial

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 the #1 pace clock in swimming.

Last chance to save $100 on wireless pace clocks! Clocks arrive next week!

“We purchased a clock last year for our younger groups and the kids love the color! The app works well with the clock and we often use it for drop-a-second sets. We brought it to our high school pool this summer. The high school coach liked it so much, he bought two!” - Coach Converse

🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

International short course season is back baby! The World Cup circuit was 🔥 and it is the Olympic year so all we can think about is long course. But this week was all about short course. French SC Champs. The Marek Petrusewicz meet - the largest in Poland - included elimination skins races and 25’s.

Since COVID and the ISL, it seems everyone is trying to make swimming more fun. DJ’s and pyrotechnics and marching bands. Weird distances. Head-to-head racing. Even coaches are racing!

18th French Elite Short Course Championships-25m

The meet kicked off on Thursday with some strong swims from Maxime Grousset (100 IM 🥇 in 51.99, 100 Fly 🥇 in 49.24), Beryl Gastaldello (100 Free 🥇 in 52.12), Mewen Tomac (200 Back 🥇 in 1:49.21), and Charlotte Bonnet (200 IM 🥇 in 2:06.79).

Friday saw some wicked-fast times in the men’s 800 free from Pacome Bricout (7:35.30 🔥 ), Beryl Gastaldello (50 Fly 🥇 in 25.09), Mewen Tomac (100 Back 🥇 in 49.99), Charlotte Bonnet (200 Free 🥇 in 1:54.92), and a serious battle between Maxime Grousset (20.98) and Florent Manaudou (20.99) in the 50 Free.

Saturday’s speedy swim streak continued with Maxime Grousset winning the 50 Fly (22.34 🔥), Beryl Gastaldello winning the 100 Backstroke in 56.18 and 50 Free (23.84), Carl Aitkaci winning the 100 Breast in 57.89, Charlotte Bonnet once again showed her versatility by winning the 200 Breaststroke in 2:20.64, and Roman Fuchs who won the 200 Free (1:42.16) ahead of Maxime Grousset (1:41.41).

On the final day of competition, the women’s 400 Freestyle had a tight battle between Anastasiia Kirpichnikova (4:01.30) and Lucile Tessariol (4:01.94), steaming hot times from Mewen Tomac (50 Back 🥇 in 22.96, 200 IM 1:54.15), Beryl Gastaldello (100 IM 🥇 in 57.49), and Maxime Grousset (100 Free 🥇 in 45.79).

Pan American Games

Picking up where we left off last week, here is how the remainder of Pan Am’s panned out:

Maggie MacNeil made it 3 for 3 in the sprint events by winning 🥇 the 100 Freestyle in 53.64 (a new PB) and the 50 in 24.84 - tying with American, Gabi Albiero.

Guilherme Santos won the men’s 100 Freestyle in 48.06 - Americans Brooks Curry and Jonny Kulow tied for silver in 48.38.

Canadians Sydney Pickrem and Kesley Wog went 1-2 in the women’s 200 breaststroke (2:23.49 for Pickrem and 2:23.49 for Wog).

Jake Foster (USA) won his second breaststroke event (this time in the 200) in 2:10.71.

American, and Olympic Silver Medalist, Jay Litherland, won the 400 IM in 4:15.44.

Sydney Pickrem won the 200 IM in 2:09.04, a personal best. Second, was countrywoman Mary-Sophie Harvey (2:11.92).

Canadian Olympian Finlay Knox won the 200 IM in 1:58.74.

To cap off the meet, the U.S. men won the final medley relay ahead of Brazil and Canada.

U.S. Dominated the medal tally once again.

Marek Petrusewicz Memorial

Over the weekend we streamed the biggest swim meet in Poland on the Inside with Brett Hawke YouTube Channel.

The best thing about this meet was the skins races which included 25’s.

The worst thing about this meet was the DJ which caused YouTube to block the stream due to dozens of copyright claims. 🤪🤪

Here were the top 10 performances in “normal” events:

Women: 

1. Tes SCHOUTEN - 100m Breaststroke - 1:04.55

2. Dominika SZTANDERA - 50m Breaststroke - 29.40

3. Barbara MAZURKIEWICZ - 100m Breaststroke - 1:05.06

4. Julie Kepp JENSEN - 50m Backstroke - 26.43

5. Emilie BECKMANN - 50m Butterfly - 25.63

6. Wiktoria GUSC - 200m Freestyle - 1:57.25

7. Anna DOWGIERT - 50m Butterfly - 26.08

8. Wiktoria PIOTROWSKA - 100m Butterfly - 57.87

9. Signe BRO - 200m Freestyle - 1:58.15

10. Karolina PIECHOWICZ - 100m Breaststroke - 1:07.05

Men:

1. Arno KAMMINGA - 100m Breaststroke - 56.49

2. Caspar CORBEAU - 100m Breaststroke - 56.90

3. Dylan CARTER - 50m Freestyle - 20.89

4. Chad LE CLOS - 100m Butterfly - 49.72

5. Jan KALUSOWSKI - 100m Breaststroke - 57.72

6. Ben PROUD - 50m Butterfly - 22.74

7. Kenzo SIMONS - 50m Freestyle - 21.10

8. David POPOVICI - 200m Freestyle - 1:44.08

9. Kondrad CZERNIAK - 50m Butterfly - 22.87

10. Dominik DUDYS - 100m Freestyle - 47.41

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

“Water Safety Needs to Start at Birth”

Last week we talked about the NY Water Safety Hospital Bill. Little did we know that Imagine Swimming’s Brendan O’Melveny was one that spearheaded this educational feat. We will get him on the podcast to do an interview to go more in depth about this important topic.

Last week, after writing about the Hospital Bill, all I could think about was this clip I had shared with Rowdy Gaines from Bode Miller, the 6x Olympic medal winning Alpine skier.

But I couldn’t find it.

This week, though, someone miraculously favorited the tweet, popping it up in my notifications!

In 2020, Bode & his wife, Morgan Beck, lost their daughter 19-month old daughter, Emmy, in a drowning accident.

Listen to what Bode Miller says in this clip:

“ We both regret not doing more research and seeing what is the number one cause of death for kids. What's number two? What's number three? We lost ours to number one. Number one cause of death for kids under that age is drowning. We'd never heard of that. Like, of course we know drowning, right? Everybody does. But like, if we knew that, I think we would have approached it differently.”

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

#341 Talent Identification and Development of High Performance Athletes with Dr. Karin Hugo

This week on the podcast we’ve got one of South African’s finest, Dr. Karin Hugo! Dr. Hugo is a Swim Coach, Trainer, Sport Scientist, and Strength & Conditioning Coach. She spent many years working with the University of Stellenbosch from National Coordinator of Talent Identification to Manager of the Sport Science Division at the Sport Performance Institute, while also coaching the swim team.

In this podcast episode, listeners can expect to learn about:

• The challenges faced when coaching a large group of swimmers and how to overcome them.

• The importance of being proactive and addressing issues in real-time.

• The significance of recognizing and nurturing talent, regardless of available facilities or circumstances.

• Ways to tailor workouts according to the readiness and performance of athletes.

• The influence of both physical and external factors on an athlete's performance.

• Her experiences and thoughts on producing Olympians and her hopes for the future.

• The importance of not being discouraged by setbacks and using them as motivation to continue with coaching and training athletes.

• Techniques for coaches to adjust their athletes' training regimen based on their performance and energy levels.

• Understanding when a group is overworked and when an individual issue might be stemming from external factors.

Dr. Hugo’s determination, stoic endurance, and love for her craft serves as an inspiration to us all.

#342 Fostering Enjoyment & Perseverance in Australia’s Future Swimmers with Adam Pine

Adam Pine is the longest serving Dolphin in Australian swimming history. Following his retirement from competitive swimming, he embarked on a career as a sports administrator and a high performance leader. He is currently the Director of Teams at Invictus - Australia.

He is also the founder of the Physical Activity Foundation, an NPO devoted to fostering physical activity and promoting healthy living amongst individuals of all ages and abilities. Under his leadership, the foundation initiated several programs to make sports and other physical activities more accessible to all people.

Brett & Adam discuss the importance of fostering the next generation of elite swimmers in Australia. They highlight the need to create a solid pathway that includes opportunities for all potential talents and to nurture their development at a pace that suits each individual.

ICYMI last week…

#340 Fares Ksebati, Founder of MySwimPro

Fares Ksebati unravels various aspects of his journey, shares his thoughts on contemporary issues, and discusses the wide-ranging impact on fitness swimmers that his innovative smartphone application, MySwimPro, has had.

📝 SWIM SET OF THE WEEK

Kate Ziegler Distance Descend Set

3×400 get times at 300 + 100 DPS, descend 1-3 @ 6:00

3×300 get times at 200 + 100 DPS, descend 1-3 @ 4:30

3×200 get times at 100 + 100 DPS, descend 1-3 @ 3:00

3×100 get times at 50 + 50 DPS, descend 1-3 @ 1:30

300’s are White to Pink (75-80%)

200’s are Pink to Red (80-85%)

100’s are Red to Blue (85-90%)

50’s are Bluet to Max (90-100%)

This set was shared by the Sandpipers of Nevada’s Jake Des Roches.

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK

Qin Haiyang just announced he is looking to break more World Records and to win the World Championships in Doha as well as the Olympic in Paris next year.

Enjoy this Qin Haiyang version of Pac-Man:

📅 COMING UP…

In America, the next big meet is in 30 days - the US Open is being held in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is long course.

Here’s a look into the future, with America announcing they will host Pan Pacs in Southern California. Sorry, Canada.

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