We sat down with the S11 Paralympic gold medalist from Tokyo in the 400 free, Anastasia Pagonis. The 18-year-old Paralympian is in the midst of her preparation for the para world championships in Madeira, Portugal, which start on June 12. Pagonis discusses her Paralympic experience, coming down from that and deciding what she wanted her relationship with swimming to look like heading into Paris, and why she ultimately chose to compete in this year's para worlds.

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Music: Otis McDonald

USA Swimming CEO, Tim Hinchey, drops in on the SwimSwam podcast to talk about 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. Tim honors the past, noting the success in Omaha paved the way for the larger venue, Lucas Oil Stadium, in Indianapolis, and he addresses any concerns that the new venue might be too big. Tim has lead the governing body through some tough times, the pandemic being the most notable, and he feels it is time for swimming to grow. Tim’s bullish on the Indy venue, detailing it’s central location. 25% of USA Swimming’s registered swimmers and their families are within an eight hour drive to Indy, something the Omaha location did not deliver. Tim’s so bullish on the Indy location he is projecting an historic attendance record, at least for one night.

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Music: Otis McDonald

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Teri McKeever abuse allegations, Matt Bowe and Hunter Armstrong moving west to Cal, and Ariarne Titmus being one of the oldest in history to break a distance world record.

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This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discussed the Australian championships, the Mare Nostrum stop in Monaco and the 2024 Olympic Trials Cuts.

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Amanda Sovik-Johnston, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in working with high achieving athletes and teenage girls as well as a masters swimming national champion. She recently published an article detailing her Top 10 ways to take care of a swimmers mental health.

Amanda was kind enough to come onto the SwimSwam Podcast to go into more detail on a few of those as well as share her personal experience working with athletes as both a clinical psychologist and a swimmer.

Amanda Sovik-Johnston, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in working with high achieving athletes and teenage girls. She is currently training for Masters Swimming Nationals this August. For more information on Amanda and her services you can find her at www.virginiafamilytherapy.com or on Instagram at Virginia Family Therapy, or shoot them an email at [email protected]

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Music: Otis McDonald

US Tokyo Olympian Patrick Callan has announced that he will be transferring to Cal to use his COVID-19 fifth year. Callan made the announcement by placing the Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving Instagram handle in his own Instagram bio. Callan sat down with SwimSwam to explain why he made the move, emphasizing that he loves Michigan but after not performing the way he wanted to in multiple championship meets this season, he was feeling burnt out and ready for a change.

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Music: Otis McDonald

Jamal Hill, 2020 Paralympic medalist in the men's 50 free, has huge goals, and he's making waves. Jamal dropped in on the SwimSwam podcast to explain the swimming ecosystem he's building at a fast pace. This Team Speedo athlete is the Founder and President of swimuphill.org, a non-profit with a moonshot goal to teach million people to swim - per year - by 2028. Jamal is also a spokesperson for the LA 2028 Olympic Games, and he's the Managing Director for Aquatics Today, which just hosted their inaugural Aquatics Equity Summit.  Jamal's has a unique voice in our sport, one we should all listen to closely to. If you're hungry for inspiration and want to support real change and positive evolution in swimming, take the Jamal journey. You'll be happy you did.

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Music: Otis McDonald

In this episode of the SwimSwam Podcast, we sat down with newly-minted world record holder Hunter Armstrong of Ohio State. Armstrong, who is fresh off of 2 national titles in the 50 and 100 backstroke, speaks about his spring season, from a career Big Ten Championships to an underwhelming NCAAs. He also dissects his decision to go pro, leaving the NCAA system behind in favor of a more long course and swimming-centric focus.

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Music: Otis McDonald

Dr. Kirk Grand is the new National Team High-Performance Specialist at USA Swimming. He will be working with the national teams and as many USA Swimming coaches and swimmers as possible as a resource.

He comes to USA Swimming after years of coaching experience at the high school, club, and collegiate levels. He has his Ph.D. in Psychophysiology from Auburn University and earned a master's degree from the Councilmen Center at Indiana University. He coached at both Universities and most recently at the University of North Carolina.

In this episode of the SwimSwam podcast, we dive into all of that experience and education as well as his new role. It's basically a coach conversation that flows from motivating athletes with language to solving the sport's problems like how much aerobic do we really need to why do we lose the "feel," for the water so easily. Another informative coaching conversation that you don't want to miss.

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Music: Otis McDonald

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the upcoming Australian World Champ Trials, what excites us most from the Mare Nostrum psych sheets, and the Girls' high school class of 2023.

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