2025 World Cup Series: Press Conference Quotes

2025 SWIMMING WORLD CUP – CARMEL

• October 10-12, 2025
• Carmel, Indiana
• SCM (25 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• All The Links

The first World Cup stop begins tomorrow in Carmel, Indiana at Carmel High School. The high school has a brand new pool that will serve as the first out of three stops in the World Cup Series.

Some of the top athletes spoke in a press conference today. Carmel natives Alex Shackell and Aaron Shackell who both represented the US at the 2024 Paris Olympics also spoke with media.

Among the topics discussed was the addition of the 50s of strokes for the 2028 LA Olympics. Athletes expressed mixed feelings on the changes.

Hubert Kos of Hungary said, “We have almost three years (to prepare) so we could work out way down to the 50 back or the 50 free, but that’s really for people who really specialize in sprint events.  I know that Noe’s ready for these events.  He was probably the happiest man on the planet when this was announced.”

Kos continued, “I also think it makes the Olympics exciting. It’s obviously easier to watch a 50 meter event. If I was a non swimming fan, I am sure that the 50’s of stroke events will be very interesting. There are people in my events that are probably really happy with the opportunity to swim these events.”

American Kate Douglass said, “I mean, that honestly does really impact me as much just because 50s of stroke events aren’t really my thing. Obviously the 50 butterfly is something that I kind of figured out I could kind of swim last summer and I really enjoyed training for it. So maybe that’s something I would focus on in the future. But I definitely think there’s been a lot of positive and negative feedback on the addition of the 50’s of stroke events. I think a lot of spectators didn’t really enjoy watching it because they didn’t really find it as interesting (perhaps) because you couldn’t really tell who was going to win (because) it was such a short race. And so I think it’ll be interesting to see how it goes at an Olympic Games. I’m not exactly sure if they’re here to stay forever for a meet like that. It’s kind of frustrating for athletes when they just keep adding more events for us to swim. You know, with prelim semifinals and finals, it’s a lot and it gets exhausting. And so thinking of adding another event is not really something I want to do.”

Douglass also spoke on being able to compete on American soil. She is spending the next few weeks alongside Regan Smith as well.

Douglass said, “I’m honestly really happy about this (shorter) travel involved with all that. There’s not a lot of time zones. All the traveling we’ve had to deal with in these past few years has been pretty difficult for us and it’s hard to always get up and race and train when we’re dealing with jet lag. I’m really excited to just kind of stay in the U.S. for two of these meets. (plus the stop in Toronto). I think that gives us a good opportunity to race fast. And I think hopefully, yeah, obviously leading up to a home Olympics, maybe that’ll get more US. fans involved and excited about swimming. So we’ll see if that happens.”

Smith smoke on building on her performances in the last year. “I think you build on it and practice every single day, I built on it throughout last spring and into the summer at worlds in Singapore. And with this year, in no way am I wanting to compare myself to last year. I mean, of course, you always intuitively just do that, but it is such a different ball game that we’re playing this year as opposed to last year, last year coming off of the Paris Olympics. We were at a completely different headspace. feeling different physically and mentally. And Kate and I were just going over there to explore Asia and have a nice time, and then we ended up stumbling backwards into some great swims, and we were like, what?”

She continued, “So this year, it’s very different. Bob (Bowman, swim coach)  has really put us to work this fall. So since, gosh, like August 25th or so, it’s been like, full steam ahead. We’ve been getting slammed pretty good. So I’m definitely in shape, but in terms of like feeling race ready, I’m very curious. I know that I’m decent at racing when I’m tired. But in terms of how my body and mind are doing in a completely different spot than I was last year. So again, I don’t want to compare myself, but I’m going to go out there and expect the best of myself. Absolutely, and then we’ll just see what happens.”

Switzerland’s Noe Ponti revealed that he would be coming to train in the US at some points to train in the next few years leading up to the LA Games. “We’re going to be coming back every year, I think. 
So, for example, this season in February and in the coming years to do a training camp in Flagstaff at high altitude. This year’s’s going to be that and the year after we still have to see, but probably we’re going to come here for another training camp or so maybe maybe a competition will be nice. So yeah, to just get familiar with everything and yeah, with the states because it’s quite different than at home.
So I think it’s good to get up a bit to adjust a little bit to the US, how it goes, and everything. So to make sure that when we come to L.A., it’s going to be everything more familiar and easier to (adapt).”

The Shackell siblings Aaron and Alex are swimming at their high school pool. The two will compete for Indiana this season, splitting training time at Indiana and with their club team at Carmel Swim Club.

Aaron spoke on the Carmel community saying, “I think there’s gonna be a lot of people. I think it’s sold out. That’s what I’ve heard. I’m not sure what you’re usually a type of showings people are the World Cup usually gets, but I know this has been talked about ever since it was announced in March or April whenever it was. and people have been looking forward to it ever since. So there’s going to be a lot of people there and a lot to choose to be a lot of kids asking for autographs. So, yeah, a lot of support for someone here.” 

Alex said, “The Carmel kids are obsessed with swimming. I don’t know what they’re doing at those groups, but those kids, I see them running and they hug their friends every single practice. Like, they saw each other yesterday, but they just love it so much. I think that’s really important for the younger kids not making it too serious. And I think our parents had a good job at that. I didn’t do a double until I came to Carmel, which I was 14. And, I mean, I just think it worked out really well for us, and I think Carmel does a good job of, like the motto that’s teaching excellence through swimming through life. But that comes with fun and not getting the burnt out as some other clubs you can do.”