PODCAST: World #1 Backstroker Apostolos Siskos on Training Alone, Choosing Not to Swim in NCAA

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Pro Swim in Indianapolis, Chinese Nationals, and the new *new* NCAA Championship meet format.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Australian and Russian Trials, Cal Poly's new $45M Football Facility, and preview the Indy Pro Swim.

In this GMM takeover of the SwimSwam Podcast, we sit down with Mike Orn, Olympic medalist, NCAA champion, and CEO of Malmsten Inc., the U.S. division of Malmsten AB. Mike was an NCAA champion in the 200 freestyle, going 1:36.02 in 1983, and later won Olympic hardware as part of Sweden’s 4x100 freestyle relay at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Now, more than four decades later, he is preparing for a very different kind of return to LA.  This time, Mike won’t be racing between the lane lines. He’ll be helping put them in. Malmsten is the official lane supplier for World Aquatics, European Aquatics, and PanAm Aquatics, which means its lane lines sit in the water for many of the biggest meets on earth. That includes the road to LA 2028, where Mike returns to the Olympic stage 44 years after his medal-winning moment (this time helping install Malmsten lane lines in the Olympic pool at SoFi Stadium).

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the ongoing Australian and Russian Trials Meets, the Longhorn Invite, and last week's many episodes of the SwimSwam Podcast. 

Greece's Apostolos Siskos is on a roll right now. At the 2026 Acropolis Open in May, Siskos dropped the #1 time in the world (1:54.12) in the 200 back this year so far and broke an 11-year-old Greek record in the 200 fly (1:56.13). We sat down with the 20-year-old and talked about his approach to racing, training on his own, and his decision to forego coming to Harvard to stay and train in Greece.

Jack Kelly has been making waves in the pool since graduating from Brown University last year. The 3x NCAA finalist in the breaststroke events decided he would give pro swimming a go and moved to Austin to train with Bob Bowman. Since making the move, Kelly has progressed immensely, not only going best times in all 3 breaststroke distances, but showing a ton of consistency throughout the last year. He broke the 1:00 barrier for the first time in December, but has since dipped under it on 6 different occasions. He's also been under the 27-second barrier in the 50 breast twice and the 2:10 barrier once in the 200. He's qualified to swim all 3 events at the European championships in August. Kelly discusses what it's been like training with Bowman, racing in the Ivy League, and being a lifelong New York Knicks fan.

Olympic gold medalist Hunter Armstrong left the inaugural Enhanced Games with $375,000 in prize money after two podium finishes, but the bigger story may be what happened before, during, and after the meet. Armstrong, who competed as a clean, non-enhanced athlete, won the men’s 50 backstroke in 24.21 while racing in a polyurethane “super suit.” The swim earned him $250,000, though it was about half a second off his American record of 23.71. He returned in the 100 freestyle, finishing 2nd in 48.0 behind Kristian Gkolomeev, who won in 46.6. Armstrong’s lifetime best is 47.59. The runner-up finish added another $125,000, bringing Armstrong’s total Enhanced Games payday to $375,000.

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.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss Marrit Steenbergen and other star athletes from Canet and Barcelona, the IOC president saying she doesn't believe in paying athletes, and Caeleb Dressel training with Virginia.

In this GMM takeover of the SwimSwam Podcast we have Vern Gambetta, founder of GAIN (the Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network) and Chris Webb, Director of GAINswim. Vern Gambetta is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of functional sports training, a movement that helped shift athletic development away from isolated machine-based strength work and toward training the whole athlete.