If you’ve been following Shaine Casas since his NCAA glory days when he swept the DI championships with a triple-win, this is the world stage moment we’ve all been waiting for. Shaine has shown flashes of brilliance, moments that hinted at greatness, but 2025 feels different. This summer feels like a corner was turned and the promise of potential bent into the hard reality.
On this episode, we cover:
- Training under Bob Bowman. What’s it like training under him day-to-day?
- Training with Leon Marchand. Iron sharpens iron, how has one of the best swimmers in the world pushed Shaine to level up?
- The sickness at World Championships. Shaine talks about what it cost him and how he bounced back.
- Swimming a 1:54.30 in the 200m IM. What that breakthrough means on his long path toward the LA 2028 Olympic Games.
- Shaine’s overall World Champs performance: Swimming the 4×100 free relay, and his plans to chase that relay through the remainder of this quad.
- Shaine’s schedule this quad: He’s versatile. Determining where to focus is an on going challenge. He’s been 50.40 (2022 U.S. Nationals) in the 100m fly and he’d like to develop that race more.
Shaine has remained among the most talented athletes in the sport. Now the question is whether that talent and the work will collide at just the right moment. Shaine’s building confidence, and he’s looking forward to racing in the near term at the World Cup this fall. He’s already back in training after a short break.
What events do you think Shaine should focused on between now and the 2028 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials? Drop your comments below.
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I’m really looking forward to seeing him at the World Cup. It’s a competition that gives a lot of momentum and confidence, and he’s very good in short course. He’ll also be able to interact and learn from some highly-minded athletes, like the nine announced.
This might be a hot take, but I think it might be best if Shaine just went all in on the 200 IM. We spend a lot of time floating the idea of him potentially being the next great flyer or the savior for men’s backstroke, just for him to struggle with meeting expectations for multiple events. He’s clearly extremely versatile, but I think the weight of expectations to perform in one event alone is actually much more daunting than we often assess it to be and Shaine continuously seems to hit roadblocks in major competition settings because he goes for multiple events and the disappointment from some seems to carry over to the others. He’s clearly got an incredible… Read more »
I disagree. At this stage Leon seems unbeatable in the 2IM. If I’m SC I would be doing 2IM plus some potential relay events.
SC is also much better at relay events than Alex Walsh. None of her PBs would even make a relay heat at this stage if the team is full strength.
I’m with you on this one. I figured a 1:54 low was the ceiling for Casas this year, and given the injuries and reduced training I thought that would be enough to beat Leon. Obviously I (and everyone else except maybe Bowman and Marchand himself) didn’t think he was gonna go 1:52. That’s a whole other level that I don’t think anyone else can reach right now
two turntables how cool! Audiophile Shane, I love him even more!
I think he’s into music production as well – seem to recall a pic he shared on social media with Ableton showing
He is everything MA aspired to be. (Other than humble, that was never on MA’s list)
He continues to grow on me. He needs more media exposure, I appreciate his honesty and candor
He was ducking media at the Pro Swims this year.
“One gold medal is worth a million silvers” – Shaine Casas
So Shaine agrees with sorting the medal table the correct way lol
He’s just being real and honest
At what minute does he refer to that?
15:10
Shaine should speak up next time NBC sorts it by total medals.
Wish he’d give the 200 back another go. With a 1:55.3 PB from 3 years ago I think he’d be a great medal threat there. More so than the 100 fly to be honest.
Ain’t nobody choosing to swim a 200 back over a 100 fly if they can go 50.4
50.4 ain’t getting you on the podium, and I don’t think he’s a 49 second 100 flyer. He’s his best at the middle distances. 100s are good but the 200m races are his sweet spot
Last person to do the 200 IM and 200 Back at the Olympics died and couldn’t win both although he was the favorite
It’s crazy to see that on the guy’s side from World Champs, Shaine’s 1:54.3 was the 4th ranked swim based off of the FINA Points. It’s listed behind Marchand’s x2 200 IMs under 1:54.00 and Popovici’s 100 free.