Claire Alongi - (Author)

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. Swimming is a cool activity, right? For many the image of paradise is being surrounded by a cloud of sunscreen while lazing by the ocean or pool before slipping into the water to escape the sweltering heat. However, competitive swimmers are very in-to...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern.  When people think of going for a swim, they typically picture diving into a 25-meter chlorinated pool instead of a vast expanse of open water. While the former type of swimming is highly publicized, the latter has a niche of its own. Open water swimm...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. Sometimes, it seems like athletes might actually be superheroes. Our favorites seem to always be on the winning side - untouchable. From basketball players who soar over seven feet tall to athletes like Michael Phelps with the ideal physique for his s...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. When swimmers are racing to the finish of their 100 free, they probably aren’t thinking of whether or not the pool is clean.  In fact, they probably don’t think of it much at all. It is a more or less acknowledged fact that everyone pees in the pool. ...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. Swimming is a very physical sport, but that’s certainly not all. Just as much rides on an athlete’s mental training when it comes to their prowess in the pool. Sure, it helps to have height or longer arms. But that will only take a swimmer so far. A s...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. Before college graduates are set free into the world, they have to sit through a commencement speech. To commence means to begin - a fitting name for the speech given at college graduations which signifies the end of undergraduate or graduate educatio...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. Name a movie about football. Okay, now baseball. Basketball? Try boxing. Track. Now swimming. Got anything for that last one? Vulture’s list of the Best Sports Movie of All Time features over a dozen different sports, yet not one is a swimming movie. ...

By Claire Alongi, Swimming World College Intern. The Myth of Speed From the outside looking in, swimming is just a sport of speed. It’s how quick you can flip, take a breath and jump off the block. It’s the millisecond between the touches of first and second. It's the pan of the camera because Katie...