Being in the middle of the Olympic quad, some may not have had that high of expectations for swimming in 2018. However, there were still a lot of great swims, both in competition and in training sessions. SwimSwam compiled our 12 favorite video clips (roughly one for each month) to tell a story of the highlights in swimming for 2018.
January: Eddie Reese’s Infamous 20×50’s
we heard a myriad of tales of this set from the Texas crew, but Madisyn Cox takes the cake for doing it not only IM instead of all fly, but also doing it twice.
February/March: Caeleb Dressel’s NCAA Swan Song
Between SEC’s and NCAA’s, Dressel broke a whopping 5 NCAA and American records in scy, most mind blowing of which (in this authors opinion) was the 17.6 he dropped in the 50 freestyle, beating 2nd place Ryan Held by a full second and successfully breaking out sport.
April: The Chase and Olivia Show
With college season over, we shift our attention to the professional side of things in the long pool. Which means we found out just how hilarious Olivia Smoliga and Chase Kalisz are when on camera together.
May: Katie Ledecky makes Pro debut with World Record in 1500
If anyone was going to do it, it was going to be Katie Ledecky. Shortly after wrapping up her 2nd year in the NCAA, Ledecky announced that she would be going pro, giving herself 2 full years to adjust before the Tokyo olympic games. In her first meet as a pro in Indianapolis that May, in her first swim as a pro, she smashed her own world record in the 1500 by a good 5 seconds.
July: Missy Franklin Competes on US Soil for first time since 2016 Trials
We’ve given this interview quite a bit of attention, but thats because it was just so dang good. Getting to see an Olympic icon be so candid and honest with their disappointment is something we rarely get to witness, and something we should appreciate when we do. It shows us that failure is more than ok; it is an inevitability for everyone at some point. And even at your worst, it is possible to make the best of your situation and find a positive outlook.
July: Michael Andrew makes 1st long course World Championship team
We know we skipped June and had 2 in July, but there were just too many good storylines at US nationals to not highlight more than 1. Michael Andrew had a breakout meet in Irvine, capturing 3 national titles and securing himself on major international teams for the summer of 2018 and 2019.
August: Boglarka Kapas goes viral after saying 200 Fly is “short”
From the European championships, the video with the most views surprisingly wasn’t of a more prominent star like Adam Peaty or Katinka Hosszu, but the Iron Lady’s Hungarian countrywoman and distance stud Boglarka Kapas. Though she wasn’t crowned champion in her pet event the 800 free, she did win the 2000 fly, which was more of a fun event for her. In her post race interview, she explained she loved the butterfly stroke as well as the 200 race itself because of how short it was.
October: Dual Meet season heats up with IU dominance in Austin
Perhaps one of the most exciting meets of the college fall season was the tri meet in Austin between Texas, Indiana, and Florida. The most popular video of the meet was the 100 fly, in which Vini Lanza and Gabriel Fontoni went 1-2 in the 100 fly, and passionately displayed their excitement afterwords, only to fire up not only the IU crowd, but the UT team and fans as well.
October: Joe Schooling plans to head home to Singapore after finishing school
Again, we skipped 1 month to highlight 2 things from another. We caught up with Joe after a practice at UT in October, and the olympic champ said after finishing school in December, he planned on heading to his home country to prepare of the Tokyo Olympics.
November: Madison Kennedy Swims 24.8 without Warm up/Warm down
Madison Kennedy has been a sprinting mainstay in the US for nearly the last decade, and has only gotten better with age. She is now to the point in her career where she knows if she needs to warm up/warm down or not, at times supplementing the usual in-water pre-race routine with breathing techniques and dryland movements instead. As we saw, it works for the veteran, as she went under 25 seconds in Greensboro.
December: Patrick Mulcare drops #1 200 Back (1:38.9) with massive beard
There were a number of impressive and exciting swims during the mid season invites. However SwimSwam got video of perhaps the aesthetically remarkable one, which was Patrick Mulcare going under 1:39 in the 200 backstroke with a beard so long that he can eat it. His secret? Having fun.
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