NCAA Champion Anna Moesch turned heads last weekend when, at the AP Swim International, she clocked a 51.94 100 Freestyle. This was not only a new American record, but it was the first time a woman had dipped under the 52-second barrier since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (in 2021) when Emma McKeon won gold in 51.96. This made Moesch the #2 performer all-time in the event at the time, a position she has since ceded to Marrit Steenbergen, who went 51.86 just days later in Canet, France.
Moesch came on the SwimSwam Podcast and revealed what her last year has looked like. Last summer, Moesch missed qualifying for the US National team by one place and subsequently told her coach, Todd DeSorbo, that she never wanted that to happen again. Moesch has been putting a much bigger emphasis on threshold and middle distance training this year, even going into longer IM groups once or twice per week, in favor of just focusing on sprint training. This appears to have shown up in the back half of her races, specifically in her 51.9 100 free, where she came home in 26.7.
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There are many different training methods for the 100. Some of the fastest 100 freestylers I have known do a lot less with a lot higher intensity while some have had a lot of success with more volume more aerobic. One size doesn’t fit all. Women physiologically tend to do better with more aerobic capacity than the men, and if that’s something she was lacking in while already being an incredibly fast swimmer it makes sense that improving her aerobic system would help her. But lets not use this as confirmation bias because while there are aerobic contributions, the 100 free is not primarily an aerobic event
We might actually have a chance against the Aussies in 2028 in the women’s 4 x 100 free relay!
we probably would win this year if we had a world champs, there are 3 people who could feasibly split sub 52 (huske, Douglass, moesch) and rylee is looking in better shape as well so far so she could prob go like 52.5 leading off
You’ll win at Pan Pacs anyway. Aussies aren’t sending a full team and they have their focus meet 2 weeks before.
In saying that, if Aussies were at full strength they could have a 52 low leadoff from Meg, two 51 mids from MOC and Jack, and a 52 low-mid from Wunsch.
This just keep swimming person is very optimistic. Good thing that we will soon be able to verify it in real life.
52 anything is rather optimistic for wunsch… she didn’t even break 53 with a rolling start at worlds last year
Jack also hasn’t split sub 52 since 2023 so 51 mid feels like a bit of a reach
Sorry I thought we were doing “best case scenario but still conceivable” because that’s what yours seemed to be. I was just using best times from the last few years, which is what your appeared to be doing. You have Huske as a 51 split but she hasn’t been anywhere near that in 2 years.
Wunsch split a 53.0 at worlds last year, so why would a “52 anything split” be “rather optimistic”? You don’t think it’s possible for her to drop 0.06 in a year?
In the race where Wunsch split that 53.0 she was outsplit by Huske by 0.1, and you have Huske as a 51. Doesn’t really make sense.
Wunsch also withdrew from the meet because of… Read more »
Well if you had seen anything swimswam posted, torri literally had to delay her travel to the meet and scratched the 100 fly completely because of illness. based on how much she improved throughout the NCAA season, I think it’s reasonable to believe she can get back to 51 or even faster. Also I doubt wunsch is gonna pop a 51 just cuz her and Anna had similar PBs a month ago. While I agree mine is optimistic and everyone would have to be at their best, yours is a bit inconceivable
Why is your response so hostile? I was totally polite.
We both used best case scenarios. If you think your best case scenario is more reasonable then that’s fine. It’s not like us speculating will actually impact any results.
I also didn’t ever suggest Wunsch would go a 51. But you said that her splitting a 52 is “rather optimistic” despite the fact that she split a 53.0 last year while sick and has previously split a 52.6. I was just contrasting that with Moesch’s progression to illustrate that what you said doesn’t make sense and your sense of what is “conceivable” seems to be pretty skewed.
Well split 52 3 years ago and is at an age where she should be improving but is kind of stagnant. Either way, she could go 52.5 and the US would still likely beat them with 3 51s and a 52 mid lead off (which are all pretty likely)
“Wunsch split 52.6 three years ago and a 53.0 last year so couldn’t possibly split 52 again”.
“Huske split 51 two years ago and a 52.4 last year so is guaranteed to split 51 again”.
That’s literally what you’re saying. You have literally said that suggesting Wunsch might drop 0.06 off her split from last year when she was sick requires significant optimism lol.
Just admit you want best case scenarios for the Americans and worst case scenarios for everyone else and that’s why you started an argument. Again, us speculating won’t impact the results so I don’t know why you’re so mad that someone has a different opinion to you.
OK but your not applying the same standards on Australian athlete’s either. O’Callaghan hasn’t gone a 51 relay split since Paris 2024 same as Huske. Jack is even more egregious cuz she hasn’t been a 51 since Fukuoka 2023. You also assume a big drop for Wunsch that while possible there isn’t any evidence that it will materialize. At least with Moesch you had NCAA to point to; what can you point to besides wishful thinking with Wunsch.
What are you talking about? I said both of us were using “best case scenarios” which is what we were doing. The difference is that I was honest about it and yuh is pretending like their predictions are super likely and mine aren’t.
Wunsch has been a 52.6 and she went a 53.0 last year while sick. Saying she can go a 52 low-mid is not just blindly assuming some huge drop lol. It’s literally just clearly what is within her current range even without a significant drop.
Come on down to Austin Anna where we have the best aerobic coach in the business!
-Hook EM
right – because she seems to be struggling or something?
Awesome swimming Anna!
would be exciting to see Anna swim 200IM at Indy
and a 400/500free soon
mentally tough to just swim 50-100-200free in meets until LA28
TOdD dOesN’T dO aErObiC tRaInInG!!
…I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that. Is that a thing that’s floating around?
I feel like it’s kinda shifted more towards “Katie Grimes isn’t improving!” 15 meters would call UVA an aerobic graveyard, that type of thing
Also they say it about Alex Walsh and Hayes too
Recently I haven’t seen it but I feel like last summer I saw a lot of comments about the “uva aerobic graveyard” or uva not doing aerobic, usually in regards to Grimes, Hayes, and Alex and on the rare occasion Gormsen (in response to her shifting to a 200/400 swimmer LC and not having dropped in her 800 in a while).
It could’ve just been a couple people being loud, I just know I saw it enough times to stick in my head and annoy me a bit
Mainly the trolls, occasionally non-trolls criticizing Walsh or Hayes’s performances.
Actually yes. Grimes. Alex Walsh. Etc
Everyone does aerobic training, just some do more than others. My guess is that they don’t do the type of aerobic training that they do at UF and some of the other notable distance programs.
I bet if you asked Behm, DeSorbo, and Nesty what their definitions of “aerobic” are, you’d get 3 wildly different answers. And yet, all 3 are successful in their own ways.
The Night Swim boys will be crapping on this take later for sure.
Not if you actually listen to them. You’ll know they won’t.
… do you actually listen to them?
Yeah they have literally said women do better with aerobic training
and then continue to shit on Simone and say she should have stayed with Herbie.
Has she made progress with Bob? 🤷‍♂️ for older swimmers it may not be as beneficial, or for everyone….
He brought her back from the OT syndrome, good in my book
1/3 of their recent videos are about “low yardage training” and “exposing why traditional swim training is broken”
Although I guess this is what they want, saying the stuff that’ll get them more clicks.
She was faster in the 100 at nationals last year than she was at 2016 trials or 2017 nationals. She typically improved a lot from trials to Worlds, but like a lot of the team last summer, dealt with illness in between. It did feel like the Herbie/Bob blend was going to be a good combo for her, but obviously that was off the table after Bob took the Texas job. She definitely hasn’t done poorly with him, but US women’s sprinting is in a different place than it was a decade ago when 53 mid at a trials meet would comfortably make the team. I’m not counting out the GOAT American sprinter moving forward though.
They’re right about that
About Simone staying with Herbie? Maybe, but I also find it hard to believe at this point that she’s a sprinter in the way everyone seems to classify her. Her best 50 free is from 2017
I hope Alex is doing the same IM training, for her performances sake
The only swimmer who seems to make the comment section of every article not about her.
creeps me out to be honest