This week the Arizona State University men’s swimming and diving team took down defending the defending NCAA Champions in Tempe, another sign of the program’s fast rise over the last few years. Read about that meet and all of the biggest stories from the week in The Week That Was!
The Week That Was #5 – New Zealand Adds Gary Francis to High Performance Team
Photo Courtesy: Swimming New Zealand
Swimming New Zealand announced this week the addition of Gary Francis to their High Performance team. Francis will take over the new role of Targeted Athlete and Coach Manager for the organization where he will offer support and guidance to identified target athletes and coaches across the country to aid in their development. Francis has previously served as the Para Swimming National Development Coach for Paralympics New Zealand and served as a Paralympics Games coach in 2012 and 2016. Francis will begin his new role next month.
The Week That Was #4 – Peaty, Sjostrom Win 2017 LEN Awards
Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA
The 10th edition of the European LEN Awards were handed out last week last week, celebrating the best European aquatics athletes and their accomplishments from 2017. Great Britain’s Adam Peaty repeated his LEN Most Outstanding Swimmer win from 2016, while Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom won for the same award for the first time of her career. Both swimmer’s had very successful World Championships, with Peaty breaking the world records in the 50 breaststroke while Sjostrom broke the world records in the 50 and 100 freestyle en route to winning three golds and one silver at the same meet. You can see a full list of all the LEN Award winners here.
The Week That Was #3 – U.S. Congress Launches Sexual Abuse Investigation, Sends Letter to USA Swimming
Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott
A U.S. Congressional Committee has sent letters to various athletic organizations, including USA Swimming, seeking information about sexual abuse and handling of sexual abuse cases as it launches an investigation. This comes in response to the conviction of former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State Dr. Larry Nassar for rampant violations over a multi-decade period. The letter to USA Swimming asked the organization to discuss incidents of reported sexual abuse from past years, including how the organization responded to claims of abuse, who reported the allegations and who responded, what policies are in place to prevent future sexual abuse and how those policies have changed since the last batch of allegations came out in 2014.
The Week That Was #2 – European Stars Leave Mark at Luxembourg Euro Meet
Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA
The 20th annual Luxembourg Euro Meet was underway this week, with many of Europe’s best swimmers taking the opportunity to throw down some of the fastest swims so far of 2018. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was one of the stars of the meet, winning the 50 fly (25.07), 100 fly (56.77), 50 free (24.24), and 100 free (53.44). Her time in the 100 fly was a meet record and the fastest swim so far of 2018. Britain’s Adam Peaty also threw down a meet record in the 50 breast (26.94) and posted the fastest time in the world this year for the 100 breast (59.62). You can see recaps of the Euro Meet here and here and the full results of the meet here.
The Week That Was #1 – Arizona State Men Take Down Defending NCAA Champs Texas
Photo Courtesy: Blake Benard
The Arizona State University men’s team sent shockwaves through the college swimming scene this week when they took down defending NCAA champions University of Texas in Tempe, Arizona. ASU came away with the big win over Texas 162 to 138. While Texas has a reputation for focusing less on dual meet wins and more on their performance at NCAA’s at the end of the year, the win still shows how far Bob Bowman’s Sun Devil team has improved in his three years at the helm, particularly after a shocking dual meet loss to Harvard a few weeks ago. The Texas men bounced back the next day against the University of Arizona, winning a tough meet 155-143, while the Longhorn women continued their undefeated season against both Arizona teams to improve to 8-0 for the season. You can see full recaps of all major college meets from this week in our College News Coverage Page.