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...

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🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Girl Power

Five of the fastest swimmers in the world put up some world-class in season times this week at three different meets.

At the Sydney Open, world record backstroker Kaylee McKeown continued her dominant season, cranking out some historically significant swims in her specialties. First, she became the second fastest Australian and seventh fastest ever performer with a 2:07.19 200 IM, a PR by a second:

Kaylee McKeown 2:07:19 200IM

With splits of 27.88/31.95/37.03/30.33, it's clear she's figuring out how to harness her best-in-the-world backstroke while maintaining back half speed.

The next day featured another IM PR, this time a 4:31.68, and a 58.33 100 back win. Final day of competition she popped a 2:04.18 200 back, not a PR for the world record hold but still the fifth fastest swim in history.

NCAA record smasher Kate Douglass was in action on the other side of the world at the Atlanta Classic. Her schedule was a little more eclectic - over the course of the weekend she compiled 24.40/55.79 (scratched finals), 1:07.07/2:22.75 breast, 57.19 100 fly, and 2:12.04 200 IM, getting the best of early spring sensation Summer McIntosh several times.

Katie Ledecky was also in action at the meet, and showing she's still going to be impossible to take out in the longer freestyle races come Worlds - she compiled a fantastic 200/400/800 trifecta with 1:55.63/3:58.84/8:13.56.

MR.CARTER @NelsonCarterJr

🏊‍♀️. Katie Ledecky 🇺🇸 a réalisé un excellent temps de 3:58.84 sur 400m nage libre à Atlanta (GA).

La finale du 400m nage libre des mondiaux s’annonce palpitante !
#Natation

9:30 AM • May 14, 2023

4 Likes 1 Retweets

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Meanwhile at Mare Nostrum - Canet, Sarah Sjostrom and Siobhan Haughey put down some world class times. Sjostrom can't be touched in the sprints this season thus far, blazing to a 24.02 50 free and 25.24 50 fly. Haughey, meanwhile, broke her Hong Kong national record in the 50 free with a 24.56 and added a world 3rd ranked 52.85 100 free and a 1:55.42 200 free.

So many potential showdowns between these five and others come Worlds.

Sydney Open

King Kyle Chalmers looked much better than his last showing at Australian Nationals, popping a 47.69 100 free.
Cam McEvoy was the heir apparent to Australian men's sprinting before Chalmers showed up. At 26, he's making a bit of a resurgence with a 21.84 50 free. Also of note in the splash-and-dash, Thomas Nowakowski popped a 21.89 leading off a 200 free relay.
200 breast World Record Holder Zac Stubblety-Cook also looked a bit out of sorts at Nationals. This weekend, he put together a much better swim with a 2:07.62.
New Zealand's Erika Fairweather backed up her national record setting performance at NZ Nationals last month with a 1:55.80 200 free, less than half a second off her record.
Meg Harris hit a PR and moved to 3rd in the world this year with a 24.29 50 free win.

Atlanta Classic

Biggest thing story-wise was the return of 3-time individual Olympic gold medalist and American relay stalwart Caeleb Dressel, who bowed out of last year's World Champs after a single individual event and relay each and hasn't been seen in competition since. He was solid but not spectacular here, with 22.57/50.29 frees and 52.41/2:05.18 flies. Gotta start somewhere!
Josh Liendo probably put up the best overall swim for the men on the weekend with a 51.79 100 fly. He also went 22.50/49.19 frees and a 1:59.58 200 fly.

MR.CARTER @NelsonCarterJr

🏊‍♂️ Le canadien Joshua Liendo 🇨🇦 devance le champion olympique et coéquipier d’entraînement Caeleb Dressel 🇺🇸 sur 100m papillon à Atlanta (GA) 51.79 contre 52.41.

Dressel effectue actuellement sa première sortie depuis les mondiaux 2022.
#Natation

11:08 PM • May 12, 2023

16 Likes 2 Retweets

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Staying with the sprints, Liendo's UF teammate Macguire McDuff continued his breakout year with a PRs and an almost-PR - 22.42/49.29.
Meanwhile, another sprinter, UVA's Maxine Parker also had a couple PRs and one almost-PR on the women's side, with 24.94/54.21/2:01.28. That 100 puts her right in the mix of being a threat to make the Worlds team, at least as a relay swimmer - 54.09 was 6th at 2022 Trials.

Mare Nostrum - Canet

Mona McSharry's 1:06.54 100 breast was not far off her Irish record from earlier this year. A couple pure sprint breaststrokers got the better of her in the 50 (30.71), with Lara van Nierkerk hitting 30.37 and Imogen Clark just behind in 30.39 (30.33 prelims).
A couple Japanese youngsters are primed to carry on that country's legacy in the event. '03 born So Ogata and '05 born 2022 World Junior champ in the event Riku Yamaguchi finished as close as possible with 4:13.67-4:13.68 400 IMs. Yamaguchi was 4:14.88 in his WJ Champs win. Ogata also went 1:58.47 in the 200 IM, only a few tenths off his PR.

High School Champs

A couple states with spring swimming champs hit the water this week. The most notable swims came from California, where Teagan O'Dell (only a sophomore!) hit a national high school record in the 200 IM with a 1:53.38 (25.38/26.94!/33.61/27.45). That might just be the fastest women's back split in a 2IM - for reference, Missy Franklin's best 200 IM back split was a 27.09. Certainly the fastest by a high school sophomore.

Santa Margarita's Teagan O'Dell blazes national high school record

She added 24.20/50.96 backs and a 22.40 200 free relay leadoff as well.

The men's meet was a cornucopia of broken state meet records: Rex Maurer got the 200 free (1:33.58), Colin Geer got the 200 IM (1:44.94), Ethan Harrington handled the sprints (19.57/42.92), and all three relay records went down.

In Colorado, Chase Mueller had some strong mid-D altitude swims with 1:35.93/4:21.21 in the 2/5 at the 5A champs, while Joshua Corn went a 53.73 100 breast. At the 4A champs, Jake Eccleston starred with a 54.08 100 breast and a 1:47.28 200 IM.

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

Today is International Water Safety Day

International Water Safety Day, on May 15th every year, aims to raise global awareness about the drowning pandemic and promote water safety education. The day is meant to be celebrated IN THE CLASSROOM. Anyone that reads this newsletter knows how passionate we are about water safety and the lack of education in our hospitals and schools in America.

The National Water Safety Coalition, including the American Red Cross, NDPA, NRPA, PHTA, and WWA, encourages people to take action for water safety.

On a related water safety/beach safety note, we had a young man tragically pass away last weekend after his sand dune tunnel collapsed on top of him. The first person to respond was a swimmer on our Masters team. He had a shovel in his truck and he dug this kid out. He told us you wouldn't believe how blue he was.

Today, on International Water Safety Day, here's a reminder that we should discourage digging on the beach. Sand castles are one thing but when you start trying to create a tunnel, that's a big time no-no.

SWIMNERD @SwimNerds

An absolute tragedy.

If water safety education was taught in schools, this would be one of the lessons you learn under, "Beach Safety".

This young man was from where I grew up - Chesapeake, Virginia. No water safety or beach safety in our schools despite being 30 mins away.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

3:12 PM • May 9, 2023

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BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

Extending too far back in freestyle
Power drilling with Cal swimming
Can McEvoy swims 21.8 in Sydney
Chalmers swims 47.6 in Sydney
Visiting Cal Swimming & Diving with Jonathan Parouty
Cal catch and kick drill
Ben Titley gives his swimmers choice
Chopping wood with Marko Malvela, 5x Finnish Olympic coach
What is Bob Bowman doing differently?
Training underwaters with Leon Marchand
Appropriate Mental Preparation for Age Group Athletes

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

This morning at 11AM EST...

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

Tomorrow...

#317 Swimming Through Life: Romain Barnier's Journey from Auburn to International Success

Throughout this engaging interview with Romain Barnier, we learn about his first experiences in America and how those moments have shaped him into the successful swimmer and coach he is today. We also discuss the importance of team dynamics in college swimming, their career similarities, and Romain's remarkable intellectual capabilities that have contributed to his achievements in the sport.