Olympic Champion Maggie MacNeil Reflects on Her EPIC Swimming Career

At the NC State-Arizona State dual meet last weekend, wolfpack freshman Leah Shackley won the 100 back in dominant fashion, touching in 50.40. This not only cleared the field by over .4 but it also earned her an Individual NCAA 'A' cut, making her one of four women to achieve that feat thus far this season. Shackley speaks on what has been going so well for her at NC State so far and how she has adjusted to the training in Raleigh.

Tatjana Smith (Schoenmaker) is a 4x Olympic medalist, 2x Olympic champion, and South Africa's most decorated Olympian in history. After winning gold and silver in Paris, Smith announced that she would retire from competitive swimming. Smith sat down with SwimSwam to share how her retirement came about and what it has been like for her so far. The breaststroke specialist gets raw about the highs and lows of stepping away from a sport that has been such a big part of her life for well over a decade.

After breaking the world record in the 50m butterfly (SCM), Noe Ponti sat down with SwimSwam to discuss his experience at the world cup so far. After placing 4th and 5th in the 100 and 200 butterfly at the Paris Olympics, Ponti took a long break from the pool before returning to training. At present, he is mentally relaxed and it seems to have an effect on him physically as well. Not only did Ponti break the world record in the 50 fly in Shanghai, he also won the 100 fly in Shanghai and in Incheon, losing his goggles in the latter but still prevailing.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we are discussing all things college swimming... plus Kate Douglass's world record in Incheon.

Malmsten COO Christian Malmsten details his family's long history of support providing lane lines for Olympic swimming competitions going back to the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Malmsten supplies lane lines for the recent Pairs Olympic Games, and Malmsten will supply lane lines for the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we are discussing the ridiculous weekend of SCM racing that included the World Cup stop in Shanghai and the Virginia-Florida NCAA dual meet.

After breaking his neck 6 months before the competition and then contracting COVID during the competition, Zac Stubblety-Cook still walked away from the Paris Olympic Games with a silver medal in the 200 breast. The Australian breaststroke specialist takes us through his whirlwind Olympic saga, what kept his head level through all of it, and how he's running a coffee business on the side.

At the tender age of 15, Australia's Tim Hodge participated in his first Paralympic Games in Rio. 5 years later in Tokyo, he was chasing gold and came close, leaving Japan with 2 silver medals a 1 bronze. In Paris, after breaking a world record and becoming World champion in 2022 and 2023 in the 200 IM S9, Hodge finally touched the wall first, winning gold in his signature event. Speaking with SwimSwam, Hodge documents the work he put in and changes he made from 2021 to 2024. From switching coaches to racing the 400 free, it was all worth it for the Para athlete who is now on top of the world.

Claire Weinstein had a whirlwind summer that saw her win medals at both the Olympic Games and Jr Open Water World Championships. The new high school graduate takes us through dealing with sickness throughout the Olympic Trials and training camp, winning her first Olympic medal, and competing in (and winning) the 3k knockout sprint in Italy.

In the span of 2 years (2021-2023), Maggie MacNeil won essentially every major title in swimming that she could: Olympic Champion, World Champion (LCM and SCM), NCAA Champion, Commonwealth Games Champion, Pan American Champion, and world record holder. Last week, following the 2024 Paris Olympics, MacNeil announced she was retiring from competitive swimming. Speaking on the SwimSwam Podcast, MacNeil said she was ready to pursue other things in life and knew even before the 2024 Paris Olympics that retirement was on the horizon for her. MacNeil will look to pursue law school starting in the fall of 2025, with potential internships abroad occupying her first 6 months of next year. Currently, she is working on a 6-week intensive LSAT course. Listen as the Canadian swim star reflects fondly on her time in the pool and dives into some of her favorite moments throughout the last 5 years.