Morning, Nerd!

Welcome to the Swimnerd newsletter, the most interesting stuff going on in swimming.

In today's email...

• 🏊‍♂️ Team USA World Champ Trials -- we will be LIVE -- watch with us!

• ⚔️ Duel in the Pool is back -- Aug. 19-21 in Sydney, Australia -- Ledecky v. Titmus

• 👀 Rylov suspended by Fina 💰 USAS expecting 2-3x OT revenue 

• 🤡 Swimming Meme & 📜Swimming Set of the Week

🏊‍♀️ WORLD CHAMP TRIALS 🌎

USA World Champ Trials start tomorrow!

Watch Prelims every day right here at 9 AM EST.

Links to Finals are live on the Olympic Channel Tues / Weds / Thurs / Fri 6 PM EST. Finals on Saturday are on CNBC at 6. Refer back here for the links.

We will be live on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook watching Finals LIVE. Watch along with us as we see who makes Team USA.

Couple of ThoughtsOn the Women's side of things, with no Simone Manuel, I'm anxious to watch the women's sprint free events. Claire Curzan has been 💥 and is just a couple of tenths off Simone's 50 Free AR of 23.97. She will get a couple cracks at it. You don't want to miss her heats swim.

As always in the 100 Free & 200 Free, there are some relay spots up for grabs. I expect UVA to fill a lot of gaps. Also, I'm watching Morgan Scott who had a breakout year at Alabama. She's swimming the 50/100/200.

On the Men's side, I think the big takeaway will be how thin we still are in the distance events (400/800/1500). This is definitely where the "opportunity lies" for Paris 2024 on the Men's side. Who will emerge alongside Kieran Smith & Bobby Finke?

Order of Events:

⚔️DUEL IN THE POOL

Last week we officially learned that Ledecky v. Titmus Round 2 wouldn't be happening at World Championships because Titmus was opting out to focus on Comm Games. 

But according to Phil Lutton of The Sydney Morning Herald, the Duel in the Pool has been resurrected and Round 2 just got the green light. It'll be held a couple weeks after Commonwealth Games -- August 19, 20, and 21 at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center. 

According to USAS, the "new format will see each country select a team of 30 Olympic, Paralympic and National Team athletes to contest pool events at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC), and an open water component at one of the world’s most renowned beaches, Bondi."

So this will be a very different Duel in the Pool. It'll include Paralympians and Open Water swimmers. Each country gets 30 athletes. 

Wonder how they are going to pick the team? Will Australia allow Michael Andrew in the country or will he get the Novak Djokvic treatment?

What's the prize money look like? According to Phil Lutton via Twitter, there will def be $.

📰 Swimming Headlines

HONG KONG UNABLE TO SWIM

"The Sai Kung Swimming Pool has now been closed for six months for “annual maintenance”. In this SCMP article the national swimming coach purports that the closure of the city’s pools “robs swimmers of the opportunity to represent Hong Kong at this year’s China hosted Asian games”. Too bad, a Hong Kong swimming champion made the city sparkle at the latest Olympics. Whether the measure is a stroke to prevent Hong Kong from continuing to make a splash on the national and international stage is indeed questionable." - Erik Famaey, Senior Associate, European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS)

DOUBLE OLYMPIC BACKSTROKE CHAMPION SUSPENDED

Evgeny Rylov has been officially suspended by Fina for 9 months for attending a pro-war rally. His last day of suspension is January 20, 2023. The suspension doesn't mean much in regards to competing - he was already banned from competing throughout the year in Fina meets.

In fact, he's competing at Russian Championships right now.

"I don't understand what I did, but in the end they filed a complaint against me for that offended the feelings of other athletes. You see, I offended them by simply supporting my country, my president. I don't know how to argue with that." - Evgeny Rylov

USA SWIMMING TO 2-3x REVENUE AT LUCAS OIL STADIUM

US Olympic Trials were awarded to Lucas Oil Stadium and according to Tim Hinchey, could double or triple revenue. The stadium will seat 30,000-35,000 swim nerds hovering over a beautiful 50m Myrtha pool

More numbers...

• 25% of USAS membership has an 8 hour drive or less to Indy

• USAS & Indiana Sports Corp are committing $400,000 to "supporting water accessibility and water safety legacy initiatives in underserved local communities" -- would love to learn more about that. Curious to know if Indianapolis has any water safety education built into their public education or if swim lessons are built into the PE portion. If you know please let me know.

BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

• Federica Pellegrini's 200 Free Race Strategy

• Q&A with the ISL's new Commissioner Ben Allen & CEO Matt Dawe

• The State of Italian Swimming with Coach Matteo Giunta

• Michael Klim doing head out of water straight arm freestyle drill

• How to apply strength & conditioning to swimming. Yes, this is from last week's newsletter. Hopefully you've gotten around to reading Paul Talty's article. If not, no worries, you can now listen to it! We went ahead and turned it into a podcast. You can also find it on YouTube. Read by our friend Bill Bell. Thanks again to Paul for sharing. Follow him on Twitter @PaulTalty.

Today at 12 PM EST on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...   South African coaching legend, the Midmar Mile man himself, Wayne Riddin!

Wayne Riddin is an Olympic swim coach from South Africa; coach of the Seals Swimming club in Pietermaritzburg. You might be familiar with one of his star pupils, Matt Sates, who just won the 500 Free at NCAA's in a 4:06.

Wayne is also well known and respected throughout the open water world, as he is the race director and organizer of the aQuellé Midmar Mile in South Africa, the largest open water swim (20,000 swimmers) in the world.

If you haven't seen  @TheSwimsuitGuy  's vlog on the Midmar Mile from last month be sure to check it out.

SET OF THE WEEK

Jodie Henry's 100 Freestyle Set for Back End Speed

Australian Jodie Henry won the Women's 100 Free at the 2004 Athens Olympics. This set helped build one heckuva backend for her 100 Free. 

What's even crazier is that she did this set while training by herself.

LCM.

4 Rounds...

8x50's Freestyle on 35 seconds holding 30 or faster 1x200 recovery swim

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK