Katharine Berkoff on First World Title, Illness in Singapore, & Insane NCS Backstroke Group

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss World Aquatics' announcement regarding qualification for the 2028 Olympics in the 50s of stroke, the new USA Swimming CEO, and Ben Proud going to the Enhanced Games.

Jon Maccoll, the head coach of the Rutgers Women's Swimming and Diving team, is taking an idea from many other sports and bringing it to the pool. Maccoll has brought in a number of male swimmers as "practice swimmers" to train with the Rutgers women's team. While they are not technically a part of the NCAA team (Rutgers does not have a men's swimming program), they will train with the team and receive team gear. The men will compete in USA Swimming competitions, but they will have the same expectations as the women's team in terms of practice attendance and effort. Maccoll says this is commonplace in sports like women's basketball and is tired of losing recruits to programs that have men and women on the team.

Today on the GMM podcast we have 50 freestyle Olympic and World Champion Cameron McEvoy. This sprint star, known as The Professor, has done more than win medals, he has revolutionised training in a way I don’t think we can turn back from. Cameron, a graduate from Griffith University with a bachelor’s in physics and mathematics, trusts the data and it has rewarded him. This isn’t just another training conversation, Cameron shares the far edge of human performance and what it takes to move water at top speed. The results are undeniable, and the ripple effects are going to change how the sport thinks about sprinting.

Ben Proud sent shockwaves through the swimming community on Wednesday morning with his announcement that he’s joining the Enhanced Games, essentially ending his competitive career on the international stage representing Great Britain. Although it’s not yet confirmed if Proud plans to be put on the Enhanced Games doping protocol, or race in the Games clean, World Aquatics has enacted a new bylaw barring anyone who participates in the Games from competing in one of their events (this could change with the $800 million lawsuit the Games filed last month). Following the bombshell news drop on Wednesday, SwimSwam’s Braden Keith and James Sutherland reacted to the news, outlining what they believed Proud is capable of doing at the Enhanced Games, what his motivation to join the Games might have been, and if this move will lead to more swimmers joining the Games.

If you’ve been following Shaine Casas since his NCAA glory days when he swept the DI championships with a triple-win, this is the world stage moment we've all been waiting for.  Shaine has shown flashes of brilliance, moments that hinted at greatness, but 2025 feels different. This summer feels like a corner was turned and the promise of potential bent into the hard reality.

This summer, 16-year-old Rylee Erisman became the fastest 18-and-under in US history in the 100m free, swimming a 52.79 to earn gold at the 2025 World Junior Championships. That was just 1 of 8 medals in Romania for Erisman, who walked away with 5 gold and 3 silver and helped USA top the medal table. In this episode of the SwimSwam Podcast, Erisman discusses her experience at the US Trials in Indianapolis, World Junior Champs, her Florida state high school season, and the college recruiting process that she's in right now.

In what was a surprise to many, Summer McIntosh, the best female swimmer in the world currently, decided to spend the majority of her 2025 season in Antibes, France. After training with storied coach Fred Vergnoux at a 3-week altitude camp, McIntosh decided to spend the rest of her preparation for Singapore in the south of France with Fred as well. This resulted in the Canadian super star winning 4 gold medals and 1 bronze in Singapore. Vergnoux, known for guiding Mireia Belmonte to Spain's first-ever Olympic gold medal in swimming at the 2016 Rio Games, discusses at length what the first half of 2025 looked like for his teenage pupil. He also shed light on what makes Summer as great as she is and why she's been able to enjoy all of the international success she has had in her relatively short career so far.

Olympic medalist Katharine Berkoff kept her momentum rolling from Paris, capturing 2 golds and a bronze in Singapore at the 2025 World Championships. This included gold in the 50 back, her first individual world title. Berkoff discusses competing through illness, NC State's crazy deep backstroke core, and winning individual medals at each of the last 4 major summer international competitions.

SwimSwam sat down with Braden Holloway, the head coach of the NC State Wolfpack and head coach of Team USA at the World Championships in Singapore this summer. Holloway unpacks in detail the highs and lows from this team trip, from the excitement of training camp firing on all cylinders to managing the sudden contraction of a team-wide virus. From traveling to Singapore, to making relay decisions on the fly and trying to keep morale high, Holloway gives an honest and open recollection of a World Championships that, despite adversity, still saw the USA top the medal table.

Today on the GMM Podcast, we sat down with Regan Smith, and this conversation only confirmed what I’ve been thinking for a while: Regan needs her own podcast. She doesn’t just swim. She explains. She unpacks. She brings you inside her head in a way few athletes ever do. Regan’s evolution has been painfully hard fought, and she’s grown into a pro that articulates the details that hit and transcend for anyone who understands our sport. Regan is no longer the young upstart. She’s a veteran with world records, medals, and battles etched into her career. She has deep knowledge of the sport, not just in the pool but on the dry side too: the Olympic industry, the nuances of governance, and the relentless pressure that comes with being America’s best backstroker in an era with Aussie star Kaylee McKeown. In this episode, she breaks down the fight for gold against Kaylee, what it feels like to come up just shy, to manage the emotions, and then turn that fire into a weapon for Team USA relays. And if you’ve watched Regan in a medley relay, you know the story: she always delivers. Time and again, she lines up against Kaylee on the leadoff and beats her, setting the tone for the Americans to close it out. That’s what makes this conversation special. Regan isn’t hiding the grind or the heartbreak (or the behind the scenes events that can easily distract most elites). She’s giving us beat-by-beat insight into how she processes it, how she stays sharp, and how she transforms setbacks into fuel for the next swim.