Ilya Kharun Explains Decision to Switch Sporting Citizenship from Canada to USA

2x Olympic medalist Ilya Kharun announced earlier this week that he would be switching his sporting citizenship from Canada to the USA.

Carsten Vissering was an absolute force during his time in the pool. Breaking national high school and age records as a teenager, he went on to swim for the University of Southern California in college. As a Trojan, Vissering won an NCAA title in 2018 as a part of the 200 medley relay and 2 Pac-12 Titles. Once Vissering walked away from swimming, though, he wasn't done with elite sport. After aquatic retirement, Vissering still wanted to compete and ended up stumbling into bobsledding in 2022. He made the US national team and worked his way up the ranks until, earlier this month, he qualified for the 2026 US Olympic team. Vissering will compete next month in Milan Cortina dawning the Red, White, and Blue. SwimSwam sat down with the now winter athlete to discuss what training, competition, and the mental side of bobsledding is all about. Vissering details the nuances and hardships of the sport. He also tells his personal side of the story, sharing his drive to still compete, the will to learn and grow in a new sport, and the balance it takes to be a full-time athlete and work at a Big Four consulting firm.

Marrit Steenbergen had a heck of a 2025 season. At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, she touched first in the 100 free, defending her world title from 2024. Then, to end the year, she won 6 gold medals in Lublin at the SC European Championships, where she also set 5 European records. Steenbergen joins us to discuss her big year and her new training style that has brought her success so far. While she's in the water 8-9x per week during much of the season, she's started the last two seasons by only swimming 3 days per week (5x within those three days) and focusing on building strength outside the pool. 

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we review the Pro Swim Series in Austin, USA Swimming's financial situation, and the future of the Enhanced Games.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we preview the upcoming Pro Swim Series in Austin and make our wild predictions for the 2026 year of Swimming.

Hannah Bellard turned heads last weekend when she topped the 200 fly field at the Indiana-Michigan dual meet. The reigning Big Ten Champion in the event, Bellard touched in 1:50.72, a Michigan school and Big Ten Conference record and the top time in the country by over a second, not to mention a huge PB for the junior.  When we sat down with Bellard to discuss the swim and her season, we got an interesting piece of insight. In the spring of 2025, the rising junior felt like she was just going through the motions with her swimming. This was after winning a Big Ten Title in the 200 fly and becoming an NCAA All-American in the same event. After talking with her coaches, they decided it was best if Bellard take a month off and not compete in the summer. After coming back in the fall, the now junior felt refreshed and reenergized by her sport. After seeing this swim in January, it certainly seems like that break is continuing to pay dividends for the Michigan Wolverine. 

Cody Miller signing onto to the Enhanced Games was a curveball, but not wholly unexpected, which is partly why we asked Miller to come on the podcast. For the record: SwimSwam has no commercial or financial affiliation with the Enhanced Games. We are covering it journalistically. That will make some people uncomfortable. But discomfort isn’t a disqualifier, especially when the moment is this consequential.

In this GMM Podcast, we sit down with Jake Gibbons, a talented young coach at one of the most powerful prep programs in swimming history, The Bolles School. Jake’s connection to Bolles is personal. He swam for the Bolles Sharks from 2013 to 2015, absorbing the culture, the expectations, and the weight of a program that has produced Olympic champions and global stars. From there, his path wasn’t linear. He detoured briefly through Yale before landing at Texas A&M, where his career sharpened into leadership as much as performance. At A&M, Jake captained the team, earned multiple CSCAA Scholar All-American honors, and etched his name into the Aggie record books with a 9:05.38 in the 1000-yard freestyle. He was also awarded the Texas A&M Distinguished Letterman Award, the school’s highest recognition for athletics, scholarship, and leadership.

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 swimming history books from the lanes of SPIRE Academy.

Recently, at the Katie Ledecky Invite, a swim meet hosted by Nation's Capital Swim Club and named for their most notable alumna, history was made. Katie Ledecky herself participated in the last night of competition, swimming in the 1,650 freestyle. The 14x Olympic medalist wowed her hometown crowd as she threw down a monstrous 14:59.62, breaking her own American and US Open records in the event and making her the first woman in history to dip under the 15-minute barrier. This swim not only rippled across the entire current swimming landscape, but it will undoubtedly inspire swimmers for years to come. SwimSwam spoke with two young girls, Milly Birch and Emma Stein, who were at the venue during this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Milly, 14, swam in the lane next to Katie during the 1,650 while Emma, 11, was on deck watching with her friends. Listen to how Katie Ledecky is not only breaking down barriers for herself, but showing many more that they can do the same.