There’s a certain quiet confidence that comes from longevity. You don’t need to thump your chest when the résumé does the talking. This GMM podcast brings together Thad Schultz, one of the most experienced coaches in swimming, and Erkhes Enkhtur, a rising international talent rewriting Mongolian’s swimming-history-books from the lanes of SPIRE Academy.
Thad’s coaching career spans more than 25 years across club, collegiate, and national-team pipelines. As the Director of Aquatics at SPIRE he’s developed:
- 20+ Olympic swimmers
- 18 NCAA All-Americans
- Dozens of state and sectional champions
Erkhes Enkhtur is carving a lane entirely his own. At Spire Academy, Erkhes has become a record-breaking force for Mongolian swimming, competing internationally at events like the Asian Youth Games and setting national records across backstroke and breaststroke. Erkhes’ journey is interesting. In Mongolia he trained in a three-lane, 70 meter pool with only one block. He’s forthcoming, funny and ambition about the future, and he credits Spire Academy with ramping-up his development and opportunities scholastically and athletically.
In this conversation, we wrap-up Junior Nationals results, Spire’s holiday training camp in St. Thomas, and their upcoming meet schedule over 2026. I hope you enjoy this conversation.
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Many thanks to Swimoutlet.com for their 14 year partnership and support of this swimming news and media.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
FANTASTIC interview, full of thoroughly enlightening and insightful responses. I was at a Masters meet once and saw Summer practicing as our pool times overlapped. Maybe she was 15 years old. I only had time to watch one of her races, and of course I already had heard of her star rising. She was a fabulous swimming talent from the day I heard of her, and I knew then her future was bright. But the comment about her becoming a commentator or other analyst hit the right note for me. Her speech is calm, articulate and full of personality and specific details. It’s going to be hard to let go of Katie Ledecky as my all time hero, but I… Read more »