Welcome to the October installment of my newsletter!
Since you last heard from me, I have been traveling the world competing at the Swimming World Cup. There is a lot to share, so let’s dive right in!
Looking to directly support me? If you place an order at TallSlim Tees using my referral link, I will receive a commission. You can also get a 15% discount on your order by using my code: JACK15. Thank you!
What’s Happening?
Before heading off to Asia, I spent a week in California with the Mission Viejo Nadadores pro group doing a training camp. The Swimming World Cup (SWC) series is competed in the short course meters (25m) format. We did some training with the pool set up at that distance to start getting comfortable. I mostly compete in short course yards (25y, the NCAA format) or long course meters (50m, the Olympic distance), so it took some getting used to with the differing stroke counts and times!
Shanghai
We eventually embarked on the 14 hour flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai for the first stop of the SWC in Shanghai. At this meet, I elected to race as often as I could to get back in the racing mindset and make finals. I had multiple races in the mornings and made finals in the 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly and 200 freestyle across the three day meet.
The extra racing took its toll. On the first day, I had about 10 minutes between my 200 back and 100 fly prelims swims and that went about as well as you would expect. I went a best time in the first race (1:53.97 for fourth in the heats), but the second race went from “try to find opening 200 fly speed and details” on the first 25 to “survive and don’t throw up” by the end! I had more time between my prelims races on the other days, but each finals session, I added about a second from my time in the morning. I ended up 6th in the 200 back and 8th in the 200 fly and free.
These performances placed me overall at 29th. The scores are decided by finals time and finish and top 20 at each stop win prize money.
Incheon
With improving my standing in mind, I decided to swim only the 200s at the Incheon stop and make some adjustments to swim best in finals. After a relaxed morning swim in the 200 back, I swam a 1:53.88 for a new best time and 5th in the final.
I followed a similar strategy in the 200 fly the next day and placed 7th with a 1:55.61. That time marks a new best time and brings my SCM time under my LCM PB of 1:55.65. On the final day, I didn’t have the luxury of a relaxed morning swim and had a to race hard for 7th in the heats with a 1:44.12 (0.05 away from my PB in Shanghai). Going into finals, I needed a good time and 5th place to win prize money, but ultimately added time and finished 7th. That put my final standing at 22nd and only two points shy of $4,000.
With two weeks of racing under my belt, I was thankful to have my fiancée, Audrey, with me. Direct Travel sponsored our flights, allowing her to come out and cheer me on in Incheon and Singapore. On our flight to Singapore, we travelled in style in the upper deck of a 747! Thank you Direct Travel!
Singapore
I continued to take steps forward at the final installment of the series. Once again, I cruised the morning of the 200 back and put together my best race at night. I captured bronze with a 1:52.80 (only 0.05 ahead of the next finisher)!
Riding that momentum into the next day, I lowered by best time in the 200 fly to 1:55.13 and placed 7th in the final. With a stacked field in the 200 free, I knew it would take a good race in the morning to earn a second swim. I was in the thick of the race in the last heat of the morning and swam a 1:44.17. Unfortunately, that landed me 9th and 0.29 away from the final. With only two scoring events, my standing at the Singapore stop was 35th.
Across the whole series, my total standing was 25th. I thoroughly enjoyed getting back into racing and being in such a competitive environment. Racing all sorts of elite international swimmers over the course of nearly a month was an unforgettable experience and I hope to do it again next year! I am excited to follow the success of the new friends I made and eagerly await the next time I get to race them.
Looking Ahead
Now that competition has wrapped up, I am going to spend a few days in Hong Kong on vacation before heading back to the states.
I will be hosting a clinic with Columbia Swim Club November 10th.
I am pleased to announce that I am partnering with Elsmore Swim Shop!
You can purchase all of your swimming needs from their website. Using my discount code JACK15* will get you 15% off your order!
Be on the lookout for the hilarious series featuring my “dive into daily life with Elsmore” over the next few months.
*Excludes Mizuno, Birkenstock, clearance or sale items, team page product, gift cards and Jolyn. Cannot be combined with other discounts and offers
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