The Most Read SwimSwam Articles of 2022

2022 was a roller coaster of a year.

That’s safe to say both in swimming – and outside of it.

While a utopian outcome would be the world of sport isolated from the chaos of the world around it, that is, unfortunately, not the reality. And often, for better or worse, the outside world bleeds, heavily, into the pool.

There were four overarching stories that dominated swimming in 2022, and they were all controversial. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ensuing war crimes, resulting in protests and bans from the pool, were among the topics that SwimSwam readers were most interested in for 2022.

From an interview with a Ukrainian coach buried under the rubble of a building for two hours after a Russia missile strike, to bans on Russian athletes, to protests by two high-profile Europeans, Ruta Meilutyte and Ukrainian-Turk Viktoria Gunes) were among the most-read SwimSwam articles this year.

One of the top 50 most-read SwimSwam articles of 2022 was Belarusian Olympic medalist Aliaksandra Herasimenia being sentenced to 12 years in prison this week, in absentia, over her protests against the Belarusian government. While those protests began before Belarus aided Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, they are part of that same ecosystem. If it weren’t for the timing near the end of the year, that article almost surely would have wound up in the top 20.

American Caeleb Dressel left the World Championships this summer early and has not returned to competition since. His initial withdrawal, and ongoing curiosity about what the future holds for the world’s dominant swimmer, have been another major storyline for swimfans this year.

Allegations of abuse against highly-successful American athletes and coaches also caught a lot of attention. Cal women’s swimming & diving head coach and 2012 US Olympic Women’s Team head coach Teri McKeever is on a leave of absence after her athletes alleged abuse; Paralympic gold medalist Robert Griswold is currently under sanction by the US Center for Safesport over allegations that he physically, emotionally, and sexually abused his teammates, and US National Teamer Trenton Julian is also currently under investigation for unknown Safesport violations.

While the furor has mostly subsided inside of swimming circles (though it continues to range on in the political world more broadly), 2022 also saw the coming-to-a-head of transgender woman Lia Thomas racing for Penn at the NCAA Championship meet. Thomas won the 500 free at that meet amid organized protests from non-swimming people.

Stories about Thomas’ results, as well as the reactions of her peers to those results, dominated the early news cycle in 2022.

The attention that Thomas drew resulted in a noticeable shift: for the first time in more than a decade of SwimSwam, the recaps of the Women’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships drew more views than the Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships. The men’s meet, overall, still drew more total views, but the peaks from the top articles of the women’s meet were overall higher than the men’s meet (including recaps).

But we can’t really point to Thomas’ presence as the sole evidence for that shift, either. For example, this year, for the first time, the girls’ high school class of 2023 rankings drew more eyeballs than the boys’ class did.

Swimming continues to be, arguably, the most gender-equitable sport in the world.

COVID stories subsided a bit, though not entirely – as lots of international medal contenders (Drew Kibler, Lilly King, Ariarne Titmus, and Duncan Scott) all had their competitive results directly impacted by cases of the virus that has caused almost 7 million deaths globally in almost three years since the pandemic began. Those stories still drew a lot of interest, even as most of the world normalized into a more endemic mindset.

There was plenty of positive and excitement in the top stories too. People were excited about the time standards for the 2024 US Olympic Trials being announced. People were really excited about Alex and Gretchen Walsh releasing their own swimsuit line – one of three advertisements that made the top 100 most-read SwimSwam articles this year.

And lest you think that the United States has the market cornered on highly-zealous age group parents: two Italian-language articles about Italy’s national youth championships also made the top 75 non-recaps.

Interestingly, of the 25 World Records that were broken in 2022, the only swim to crack the top 75 non-recap articles was David Popovici, the Romanian teenager, in the men’s 100-meter free. That was a legendary record in one of history’s favorite swimming events, and Popovici did it at only 17-years old.

This once again shows that it’s the narrative that drives the interest in sports. There were a lot of great World Records broken in 2022 by wide margins, but none of them captured the imaginations of swimfans quite the way that Popovici’s did.

Which Meets Mattered Most?

In the most-unusual of years, with an international championship coming up seemingly every week as the world’s sporting organizations tried to catch up on what was missed during COVID, you might wonder which meets SwimSwam readers cared about most.

The list isn’t really that surprising if you were to think about it hard enough. The Commonwealth Games being as high as they are is mostly a function of the fact that the best swimmers from those meets come mostly from English-speaking countries – the language we use most here at SwimSwam.

The ranking of Duel in the Pool, though, probably is worth some analysis, as organizers might have hit on a formula that is working. At a minimum, it shows that people are still hungry for the Duel in the Pool, and if that meet could be tightened up and perfected a bit, it could once again become a jewel of the scene.

Pecking Order:

• World Aquatics Championships (long course)
• Women’s NCAA Division I Championships
• Commonwealth Games
• US World Championship Trials
• Men’s NCAA Division I Championships
• Duel in the Pool
• World Short Course Swimming Championships (25m)
• European Championships
• World Junior Championships
• European Junior Championships

75 Most-Read SwimSwam Articles of 2022 (Non-Recaps)

55 Most-Read SwimSwam Articles of 2022 (Recaps)