With the Olympic year in full force, posts about World Records, Olympic qualifiers, and Dirty Doubles dominated the SwimSwam Instagram account (@swimswamnews) in 2024.
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10. Katie Ledecky, Aaron Shackell Book Their Tickets to Paris (Day 1 Recap)
Its only fitting that the opening post on this list also happens to be the post wrapping up the first day of the 2024 US Olympic Trials, which saw Katie Ledecky and Aaron Shackell qualify for the Olympics in the 400 freestyle.
9. Caeleb Dressel Leads 50 Freestyle at Trials (Day 7 Recap)
The final day of the US Olympic Trials saw Caeleb Dressel, Regan Smith, and Carson Foster add extra events to their Olympic schedules.
8. Alex Shackell Winning Olympic Gold Before Her Senior Year of High School
Not many athletes can walk into high school with an Olympic medal around their neck, nevermind a gold one. However, Alex Sackell returned to school with 2 medals from Paris to start her senior year.
7. Stroke 50s In the Olympics…Say No More
For years, it’s been a debate: should stroke 50s be added to the Olympic schedule? World Aquatics seems to think so.
6. Summer and Gretchen Strike Again
There were a lot of World Records at the 2024 SC World Championships and these records certainly stood out.
5. Gretchen Walsh Shatters 100 Fly World Record
At the US Olympic Trials, Gretchen Walsh turned heads when she broke Sarah Sjostrom’s World Record in the 100 butterfly, signaling the start of a great summer for the Virginia swimmer.
4. Leon Marchand’s Olympic Dirty Double
Leon Marchand threw down several impressive swims in Paris. However, winning gold in the 200 breast and 200 fly with less than 2 hours between races was certainly the highlight of the meet, marking a true “Dirty Double”.
3. They’re Back!
Entering the US Olympic Trials, many fans were wondering what kind of form Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel would be in. However, those doubts were quickly settled with both swimmers posting impressive performances following breaks from the sport.
2. Celebrating the Anniversary of Michael Phelps’ Record-Breaking Gold
With the Paris Olympics in progress, we reflected back to Michael Phelps’ historic 8th gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which ended up being one of the most popular posts of this Olympic year.
1. Dressel and Others Lead the Road to Paris
Our most-liked post of 2024 was a compilation of photos taken by Jack Spitser, highlighting some of the US swimmers who booked their tickets to Paris during Trials, including Caeleb Dressel, Regan Smith, Ryan Murphy, and Jack Alexy.
Caeleb, Ryan and Bobby with Cookie Monster had to be the greatest ever.
Number 6 looks wrong with 8K likes?
Thanks for pointing that out! We had McIntosh’s 400 IM when her 400 free was the post intended for that spot.