July 11

Swimming Australia wants to put its top sporting talent on paid contracts within three years as it develops a team for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and fights off lucrative enticements offered to swimmers from rival sports and events.

In today’s Australian Financial Review, Swimming Australia CEO Rob Woodhouse shares a vision to reshape the sport for a more sustainable and viable future - including exploring athlete contracts.

"It’s about evolving how we support our Dolphins, driving performance and setting the benchmark as we build towards Brisbane 2032."

Swimming Australia’s bold plan to put athletes on contract

The Enhanced Games was derided as an athletic flop, but it showed juiced-up competitors could rake in big dollars, while clean athletes struggled for support.

Australian Financial ReviewDavid Mills

The background behind the drive to create a professional, waged environment for athletes:

The International Swimming League is planning a comeback and is in the process of paying some $7m to athletes and others owed their due in the last season in 2021. Here's how ISL chapter 1 ended:

Rob Woodhouse Urges Swim League To Let Athletes & Teams “Have A Say In The Direction, Vision & Strategy”

“The bottom line is that it’s got to work commercially and the signs are, especially with an expanded season, that it’s going to be more and more difficult.” - Rob Woodhouse

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Rob Woodhouse Steps Down As London Roar Boss & Crisis-Torn ISL Faces Wave Of Manager Defections

Aussie leader believed to be the first of several pending resignations at ISL with Lenny Krayzelburg, of LA Current, Kaitlin Sandeno, of DC Trident, and Kosuke Kitajima, of the Tokyo King Frogs, among team managers considering their positions

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

And here's our Fair Play for Fair Play coverage from last month:

Forum: A Measure Of Medals In A Fund That Favours The Fed

As athletes call for Olympic fair pay for fair play to keep the Enhanced wolf from the door, World Aquatics launches a post-career compensation fund that feels a lot like a World-Cup attendance incentive scheme in a retirement wrapper for the few not the many needed to build a growth economy

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 1

FORUM: Where Will Swimming Find Patience Without Passivity On The Way To Growth?

Having considered just a few reasons why the jury is out on ‘reformists’ old and new at the top tables of international governance, our FORUM now turns to why traditional formats are misfiring. The Tao opens the way to deeper understanding of why League trumps Cup between Olympic Heights

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 2 

FORUM: How Will Swimming Break Dow Barriers To Building An Economy Fit To Pay The Swimmer?

In Part 1 of our latest FORUM mini-series, we asked why traditional race-day formats are misfiring. Today, in Part 2, we outline swimming’s economic model, consider prize money & bonuses build ‘a poor athlete’s sport’, & call on the athlete and coach voice to return with the League

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 3

FORUM: What Happened To The Swim In Swimbledon?

Part 3 - Swimming’s Search For Growth. It’s ten years since SwimVortex published a vision headlined “Great Day Out At Swimbledon At The Dawn of a Golden Era for Professional Swimmers”. Every bit as relevant today

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 4

FORUM - Has Swimming Lost Its Lore & Love of Storytelling?

“People are not interested in swimming ... they’re interested in swimmers”. So said Buck Dawson 40 years ago. In 2026, swimming is still treading water in its niche pool between Olympic Heights, with no pro-sports economy to speak of. What’s gone wrong & how can swimming spread its song of swimmers?

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 5

Time For Athletes To Make A Stand: Fair Pay For Fair Play Or No Show

FORUM: Have chance of an Olympic athlete boycott grown? Yes. Would it be easy? No. Would it work? Yes. Why? The perfect storm is building. The question is whether Olympic sports bosses see athletes for what they are: the hand that feeds that must be fed

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 6

FORUM: Will This Season’s Athlete Bloom Be The One That Lifts The Olympic Game To Next Level?

By aping the Olympic status quo that says no matter how wealthy we become, sports stars should not be paid, Kirsty Coventry has triggered a revolution, in which the real Athlete Voice could finally be heard through the truly independent collective that is essential to change

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 7

FORUM: Beautiful Game(s) , Beastly Governance. Time For Change

We extend our latest mini-series, one stretching along a spectrum from what swimming might do to achieve real growth to the Fair Pay for Fair Play debate, with a concluding Part 7, using the Beautiful Game as a guide to ugly structures and patterns long past their sell-by date

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Editorials

Forum: A Measure Of Medals In A Fund That Favours The Fed

As athletes call for Olympic fair pay for fair play to keep the Enhanced wolf from the door, World Aquatics launches a post-career compensation fund that feels a lot like a World-Cup attendance incentive scheme in a retirement wrapper for the few not the many needed to build a growth economy

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Olympic Boss Of A Business Slipping Directors $55m A Cycle Tells Athletes ‘No Pay Day For You!’

Analysis: Kirsty Coventry says she doesn’t believe athletes should be paid for their work. Then again, she presides over a business that pays directors more in an Olympic cycle than any single international federation gets as a share of Olympic revenues for its entire sport

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

How The Athlete Can Boycott Without Shutting Down Their Showcase Races & Spaces

Having heard from several keen minds since launching a well-received FORUM on the case for athletes getting a far fairer share of Olympic revenues than they do, here’s a map of coordinates where athletes can make their case powerfully without shooting themselves in the foot

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The Gulf Between Shores Where Integrity Sits On Shifting Sands

Enhanced waters having stilled, we take a last look at two sides of a coin from the perspective of two public posts by Australians, one a doctor working in the Enhanced project, the other from a talent agent who works with athletes in the realm of tested sport, with SOS commentary

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

July 9-10

Loss Of CEO Stacks The Odds Against Trust Being Restored In Swim England

Andy Salmon’s departure as CEO coincides with silence on whether a Swim England chair under pressure from Olympians to resign played any role in the appointments of new independent board members. Plus: a timeline of events & what Salmon told SOS late last year

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

McIntosh The Maple Flagbearer For Canada’s Pan-Pacs Squad Of 44

“The Pan Pacific Championships will provide an important opportunity for our swimmers to test themselves against some of the best in the world as we continue building toward LA 2028.” - performance head John Atkinson

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

July 8

Brown's Record Waited 18 Years For Dawson To Place It On Warning

Canada's teenage breakout breaststroke ace Oliver Dawson produced the points swim off Day 4 at Canadian Trials in Montreal, his 2:09.50 win over 200m breaststroke the sole 900-plus effort, just shy of the career-high 2:08.93 he clocked on May 25.

Coached by his father Alex Dawson at the Grande Prairie Piranhas in Alberta, 18-year-old Dawson was just eight months old when Mike Brown set the Canadian 200m breaststroke record at 2:08.84 on the way to the Olympic final at Beijing 2008. The record was set in the semis, while Brown clocked 2:09.03 for fourth place in the final, his qualification time just faster by a margin that would have placed silver round his neck in the showdown.

A sport of fine lines. For Oliver Dawson, that's 0.09sec right now - and this was not the day for on which he would surpass Brown on the clock - but bank on it. He won the race over Apollo Hess, 2:11.40, and Nathan Thomas (2:12.12), no others in the final breaching 850 points:

Dawson came to international prominence over the course of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. At last year's Trials, he swept all three breaststroke events. This year, he's on track to repeat the feat, the 50m in the bag yesterday, in 27.65sec, the 100m due on the last day of racing in Montreal tomorrow.

A national 200m age record in 2025 and his win in the 100m secured Dawson his first national-team selection to a Canadian senior long-course team, and for the World Championships no less, Singapore the venue for his debut.

That followed a breakthrough 2024, when he made his senior national team debut at the 2024 World short-course championships in Budapest, where he broke the Canadian age mark for 21st place in the 200m. Earlier that year, at Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Australia, he claimed bronze in the 100m breaststroke and fourth in the 200m, while taking silver with teammates in the 4x100 medley relay.

The Dawson family moved from England to Grande Prairie, about 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, when Oliver was seven when his dad was appointed coach and director of the Piranhas. 

In September, Oliver will start a new chapter in life, as a student-athlete on scholarship at Indiana University. He told CBC:

“I'm going to train under Ray Looze, one of the best breaststroke coaches ever at one of the best breaststroke unis in the world, and I'm hoping to stay there for about six years."

He aims to race for Canada at the LA2028 and Brisbane 2032 Olympics, while his dad will leave Grande Prairie this autumn, bound for the job of performance coach at the Killarney Swim Club in Calgary for the 2026-27 season.

In its nationals preview, CBC rated Summer McIntosh story No1 - of course. No2 was Oliver Dawson - and here's the tee-up and an interview with son and father in which the swimmer's spirit and attitude is more than tangible

In other finals...

Taylor Ruck made it four golds in four finals with victory in the 50m free, and Finlay Knox added the 200m medley to his Pan Pacs roster next month on Irvine California when he triumphed in the 200IM:

These were the other senior elite finals:

July 7

Summer Blown Off Course By Illness But Heights of McIntosh Power 'Now, & In The Next Four Years', Says Bowman

Summer McIntosh is out of sorts, an unspecified illness having brought her Canadian Trials campaign to an end after she clocked 4:11 in the heats of the 400m freestyle this morning in Montreal.

The 19-year-old broke a world record of 2:01.65 in the 200m butterfly on day 1 at trials, and followed up with a 4:27 400IM victory on day 2 (see lower down in this Vortex). The World Record:

Summer McIntosh Shinier Than Shiny: 2:01.65 WR In 200 ’Fly

Summer’s advance ended Liu’s WR season after 16 years, 8 months and 14 days, ensuring that one of the greatest ahead-of-time standards ever set in the sport lives to fight another decade: Mary T. Meagher’s 2:05.96 in 1981, which stood for 18 years, 9 months and 4 days

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

In a statement, McIntosh said:

“I'm so sorry, but on the advice of my doctors and coach, l've made the difficult decision to scratch from my remaining events at the 2026 Canadian trials. I started feeling ill yesterday morning, and while I hoped I'd be able to keep racing, this is the right decision.”

“There is so much magic in this pool, and I'm incredibly grateful I got to experience it. I'm so disappointed that I can't continue racing in front of these amazing crowds, but my focus now is on getting healthy so I can be ready to represent Canada at the Pan Pacific Championships.

“Thank you for all the love and support this week. I'm so sorry our time together was cut short, and thank you for cheering me and all of the athletes on. Best of luck to everyone for the rest of the competition.”

She emerged from 400m free heats to make her decision to withdraw on ad visa from Swimming Canada doctors and her coach Bob Bowman.

After McIntosh's two finals this week, Bowman spoke of the maturity and prospects of McIntosh in the third Olympic cycle of her career. He told CBC:

John Atkinson, performance director at Swimming Canada, said:

“Summer came to Montreal with clear performance objectives, and she leaves having delivered another memorable moment for Canadian swimming fans. After ongoing discussions with Bob, our medical team and Summer, the decision was made with Swimming Canada’s full support that this is the best course of action."

Meanwhile, the show goes on ...

On Day 3 in Montreal, Taylor Ruck became just the second Canadian to win three national titles on three different strokes at one championship, after McIntosh (free, fly, medley).

That feat and match alone had Ruck, the four-times Olympic medallist based at the Vancouver Performance Centre, saying "That’s crazy!"

Ruck won the 100m butterfly in 58.15, after having triumphed in the 100 back on the opening day and the 100 free yesterday. Speaking through Swimming Canada, she said:

“I feel like, I’ve never really thought of fly as my best event. I mean, it was my first event when I was 10, that was my best stroke. I did it just for fun this year, so it’s definitely really cool to be able to just go out there and see what happens in that event.”  

Ruck edged out Leilani Fack (58.60) and Matea Gigovic (59.01).

The 26-year-old Ruck will now race the 50m free tomorrow and conclude her campaign in the 50 'fly on the last day of racing Thursday. She said:

“I’m very happy with how things are going so far. The first two days, I feel like I saw times that I haven’t seen in a long time, so that’s been encouraging, showing just how much of my heart was in training this year. I feel like this is just a celebration of this year so far.”

In other finals there were wins for:

Oliver Dawson, in 27.65, in the 50m breaststroke ahead of a 27.68 from Brayden Taivassalo.

 Ella Jansen, in 4:08.05 in the 400m free

Ethan Ekk in the side 3:50, 3:47.22, over 400m free

Finlay Knox in 51.82 in the 100m 'fly

Sophie Angus in 30.40 in the 50m breast.

July 6

McIntosh's 12th Entry Delivers First All-Time Sub-4:30 Club In 400IM

Olympic and World champion Summer McIntosh gave the world its first Top 20 sub-4:30 400m medley club with a 12th entry in 4:27.35 for her latest victory by more than 10secs in domestic waters at Canadian Trials in Montreal.

Retired Hungarian and 2016 Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu has four entries on the list, her fifth best a 4:30 no longer in the all-time top 20.

A day after McIntosh's World record of 2:01.65 in the 200m butterfly, all eyes were on the 400IM ... just in case. Far ahead of the best of the rest, the 19-year-old Torontonian was almost four seconds outside her own global mark, from Trials a year ago:

McIntosh's WR splits:

• 59.18 (31.43) 2:05.31 (1:06.13) 3:23.33 (1:18.02) 4:23.65 (1:00.32) - Victoria 11/06/2025

Here's where that fits on McIntosh's outstanding list of sub-4:30 medleys:

McIntosh's count of entries on the all-time list is all the greater in textile-only, while her latest swim is faster than her dominant Paris 2024 Olympic victory performance of 4:27.71, a year before her World record of 4:23.65 at last year’s Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria. Closest to her today was Paris Olympian Ella Jansen, on 4:38.17.

Speaking through Swimming Canada, McIntosh said:

“Having achieved great feats in the past, I know exactly how to cope with doing a really good swim and coming down from that. One of my old coaches told me a long time ago not to get too high on the highs and not to get too low on the lows. Coming off last night, obviously there was a lot of excitement, but I try to just compartmentalise it and focus on the next races to come. I had broken the 400 IM world record three years in a row, so my streak is finally over. I know I have a lot more in me, and Pan Pacs become the main focus now.”

Wigginton Confines Johns' 2008 400IM Mark to History

Nonetheless, day 2 did not pass without a Canadian 400IM record. Calgary’s Lorne Wigginton clocked 4:11.32 for the win, a ticket to Pan Pacs and ownership of a national mark that was set when he was just two years old.

Now 20, Wiggington is the man holding the standard, the 4:11.41 set on August 9, 2008 by Brian Johns at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in shiny suit saga season 1 of 2 finally surpassed.

“It’s definitely old,” chuckled Wigginton, a 2024 Olympian representing the Etobicoke Swim Club and the University of Michigan.

“I heard from Brian out there. It’s a great feeling to know that a lot of Canadian swimmers still have love for the sport and are following along. I just want to keep making them proud. I’m just really happy. I don’t think my smile is off my face yet.

“I’ve been working so hard this year. I’m just very happy with what I’m doing and just myself in general. All the work has just been paying off, ” added Wigginton. “I knew there was a chance (of breaking the record), just based on the way I’ve been training. I have a lot of momentum right now, a lot of confidence in what I’m doing.” 

Olympic teammate, Tristan Jankovics took silver in 4:16.57, with Toronto's 19-year-old Jaques Harrison a pb of 4:20.78 for third.

Other Day 2 winners on the Olympic side were Taylor Ruck (53.06) in the women’s 100m freestyle; Toronto’s Ruslan Gaziev (48.69) in the men’s 100m free; Kylie Masse (27.35) in the women’s 50m backstroke; Javier Acevedo (25.10) in the men’s 50m backstroke; and Edmonton’s Emma Finlin (16:31.53) in the women’s 1500m free.

• RESULTS IN FULL

Also in The July Vortex for Registered Readers:

• Steenbergen Follows 4th Sub-52 With 24-Flat Dash
• Steenbergen 51.82 - Queen Of Sub-52 Consistency
• Steenbergen Dashes To 27.4 Back Best
• Italy Heads To Paris 2026 With 48-Strong Squad
• Sweep Sweeps Ndoye-Brouard To Paris Showcase For Showdown With Kós
• Steenbergen Strikes Again! 58.33 Dutch 100 Back Record
• Sacha Velly On Aubry's Trail

In other coverage this month so far:

On This Day ... When Sippy Put The Cat Among The GDR’s State-Pumped Pigeons

January - April- The SOS Daily Trawl of official World long-course records (plus all pre 1954 standards, all pools and metrics) set this day throughout history.

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

George Gibney Guilty Of Sexual Crimes Against Four Girls Aged 8-15

After years on the run in the United States, the Irish former head coach of his national swim team is found guilty in Ireland of 39 out of 40 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape. Sentencing has been set for July 29

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

FORUM: US Supreme Court’s Backing For Sex-Based Sport The Only Fair Outcome

An argument that ought never to have started is, effectively, won, yet women still find themselves having to fight to see fair play, safe play and sex-based rights back where they should be: as the three pillars holding up the two gateways to sport

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Not Good Enough? Words No Kid Should Ever Hear...

Wayne Goldsmith nearly spat his coffee out while watching World Cup highlights. One young player on his debut, living the dream and full of the joy of the occasion, revealed that when he was 12 he was rejected by two academies & told ‘you’re not good enough!’ Cue spirit ... & words to the wise

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord