The SwimSwam Podcast

Marrit Steenbergen had a heck of a 2025 season. At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, she touched first in the 100 free, defending her world title from 2024. Then, to end the year, she won 6 gold medals in Lublin at the SC European Championships, where she also set 5 European records. Steenbergen joins us to discuss her big year and her new training style that has brought her success so far. While she's in the water 8-9x per week during much of the season, she's started the last two seasons by only swimming 3 days per week (5x within those three days) and focusing on building strength outside the pool.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we review the Pro Swim Series in Austin, USA Swimming's financial situation, and the future of the Enhanced Games.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we preview the upcoming Pro Swim Series in Austin and make our wild predictions for the 2026 year of Swimming.

Hannah Bellard turned heads last weekend when she topped the 200 fly field at the Indiana-Michigan dual meet. The reigning Big Ten Champion in the event, Bellard touched in 1:50.72, a Michigan school and Big Ten Conference record and the top time in the country by over a second, not to mention a huge PB for the junior. 

When we sat down with Bellard to discuss the swim and her season, we got an interesting piece of insight. In the spring of 2025, the rising junior felt like she was just going through the motions with her swimming. This was after winning a Big Ten Title in the 200 fly and becoming an NCAA All-American in the same event. After talking with her coaches, they decided it was best if Bellard take a month off and not compete in the summer. After coming back in the fall, the now junior felt refreshed and reenergized by her sport.

After seeing this swim in January, it certainly seems like that break is continuing to pay dividends for the Michigan Wolverine.

Cody Miller signing onto to the Enhanced Games was a curveball, but not wholly unexpected, which is partly why we asked Miller to come on the podcast. For the record: SwimSwam has no commercial or financial affiliation with the Enhanced Games. We are covering it journalistically. That will make some people uncomfortable. But discomfort isn’t a disqualifier, especially when the moment is this consequential.