Top 50 Swimmers of 2013 - 40 to 31

The third annual Speed Endurance Top 50 Swimmers of the Year list is upon us. There is no set-in-stone criteria, but priority is given to achievements in Barcelona at the World Championships. World records and textile best times also carry a lot of weight. Other outstanding achievements away from Barcelona were acknowledged, but it took an extraordinary feat to better a World Championship medal. Also worth noting, as this is a list of the Top 50 individuals, relay medals did not come into play, however race-changing relay contributions were valued highly.

Top 50 Swimmers of 2013 - 50 to 41

40. Jessica Hardy - 2013 Highlight: A tremendous return to form in the breaststroke for Hardy culminated in double bronze in the 50 and 100 in Barcelona. In a bumper year of great women's breaststroke performances, Hardy held her own.

39. Aya Terakawa - 2013 Highlight: The queen of consistency once again delivered with bronze in the 50 and 100 backstroke in Barcelona and an impressive 58.70 opening medley relay split. A fitting end to a great career.

38. Federica Pellegrini - 2013 Highlight: Just running out of pool in the 200 freestyle final to take silver in 1:55.14 behind Missy Franklin. Her 29.07 final split was the quickest of the entire field by some distance. The next 200 free showdown between Franklin, Pellegrini and a rejuvenated pair of Schmitt and Muffat will be must-watch stuff.

37. Thiago Pereira - 2013 Highlight: Winning his first two World Championship medals with bronze in the 200 and 400 medley. He missed out on silver in the 200, and a few places higher on this list, by just 0.01 seconds.

36. Ryan Cochrane - 2013 Highlight: Leading Sun Yang at the 1400m mark of the 1500 freestyle final in Barcelona before settling for silver in 14:42.38. Cochrane also picked up a bronze in the 800 free final and
missed out on bronze in the 400 freestyle final by 0.17 seconds.

35. Zhao Jing - 2013 Highlight: The first world champion from Barcelona on the list took the 50 backstroke in 27.29. She finished 0.10 seconds clear of compatriot Fu Yuanhui in a Chinese dominated event. The 100 back world champion from Shanghai in 59.05 disappointed over the longer distance in 2013 with a strongest effort of 1:00.28.

34. Dana Vollmer - 2013 Highlight: Vollmer had a down year after her stunning 2012. Despite this the American was still able to win bronze in the 100 butterfly in 57.24. Vollmer's place on the list though is down to her medley relay split of 56.31 which was comfortably the fastest of the field and put the USA in complete control of the race.

33. Vladimir Morozov - 2013 Highlight: Winning world silver in the 50 freestyle in 21.47. Morozov split a jaw dropping 21.98 in the first 50m of the 100 free final, but paid for his exertions on the way home finishing in 5th. His disappointed of missing out on a medal in the 100 will have been tempered by his stellar final year at NCAAs, dominance at the World University Games and prize money from the World Cup tour totalling $183k.

32. Camille Lacourt - 2013 Highlight: The second world champion from Barcelona on the list took the 50 backstroke final in 24.42. He also led-off the 4 x 100 medley relay in 53.23,  faster than his individual final for the gold winning French team (albeit thanks to a USA DQ).

31. Nathan Adrian - 2013 Highlight: From an individual standpoint the Olympic 100 free champion didn't have the best 2013. He took bronze in the 100 free in 47.84 and fourth in the 50 free final. What won't be so obvious at first glance was Adrian's contributions for the USA relay teams. He touched the wall first when leading off the USA 4x100 free relay ahead of James Magnussen, although the team had to settle for silver, but it was his 46.69 relay split from the DQ'd USA medley relay that was the most special. The split was the fastest ever in textile, beating Pieter van den Hoogenband's 46.70 from 2003 and Yannick Agnel's 46.74 in London.

Top 50 Swimmers of 2013 - 50 to 41

The third annual Speed Endurance Top 50 Swimmers of the Year list is upon us. There is no set-in-stone criteria, but priority is given to achievements in Barcelona at the World Championships. World records and textile best times also carry a lot of weight. Other outstanding achievements away from Barcelona were acknowledged, but it took an extraordinary feat to better a World Championship medal. Also worth noting, as this is a list of the Top 50 individuals, relay medals did not come into play, however race-changing relay contributions were valued highly.

50. Chase Kalisz: 2013 Highlight: A fast finishing 400 IM in Barcelona to win silver in 4:09.22 and announce his arrival on the international scene.

49. Jimmy Feigen: 2013 Highlight: Winning a surprise silver in a loaded 100 free final 0.02 seconds ahead of compatriot Nathan Adrian. Would have been higher up the list but a poor (by his standard) anchor leg helped France win the 4x100 free relay over the US.

48. Melani Costa - 2013 Highlight: While Katie Ledecky was chasing the world record in the 400 free, the race for second in Barcelona was comfortably Costa's with nobody getting within a second of her in the last 200m.

47. Laszlo Cseh - 2013 Highlight: Silver in the 100 fly gave him his ninth World Championship medal 10 years after his first.

46. Belinda Hocking - 2013 Highlight: The Australian put her 2012 disappointment behind her to repeat as World silver medallist in the 200 backstroke

45. Pawel Korzeniowski - 2013 Highlight: 1:55.01 in the 200 fly to take silver in Barcelona. Led Chad le Clos with 50m to go.

44. Radoslaw Kawecki - 2013 Highlight: A new European record in the 200 backstroke on his way to silver, pushing Ryan Lochte all the way.

43. Emily Seebohm - 2013 Highlight: Not able to recreate her 58.23 fireworks in the 100 back from London, but her 59.06 effort in the final was good enough for silver in Barcelona. Hopefully the next few years will see some more classic 100 backstroke battles between Seebohm and Missy Franklin.

42. Connor Dwyer - 2013 Highlight: A blazing 26.59 closing split in the 200 freestyle final at Worlds to move from 5th at 150m, up to silver at the touch. This marked the first major individual long course medal for the talented American.

41. Fabien Gilot - 2013 Highlight: A stunning 46.90 third leg of the victorious French 4x100 freestyle relay team. Gilot took over in 4th, and put Jeremy Stravius in the water first. His relay split was half a second faster than all others in the race.


On the bubble: David Plummer, Florent Manaudou, Arkady Vyatchanin, Eugene Godsoe, Marco Koch, Tyler Clary, Camille Muffat, Elizabeth Beisel, Fran Halsall, Konrad Czerniak, Connor Jaeger, Michael McBroom, Ying Lu, Wu Peng, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Fred Bousquet, Felipe Lima, Ye Shiwen, Hilary Caldwell, Giulio Zorzi, Matti Mattsson, George Bovell, Steffen Deibler, Jiao Liuyang, Elizabeth Pelton, Michael Jamieson

Enjoy Ruta Meilutyte's World Record 100 Breaststroke With Lithuanian Commentary

Stunning start. Stunning swim.

Watch 2013 World Swimming Championships Live

Live video from the 2013 Barcelona World Swimming Championships can be found here.

Results can be found here.

Live Timing can be found here.

UK TV coverage schedule

Swedish swim stars form new company set out to lift swimming

PARTNERS: Sarah Sjöström, Lars Frölander and Stefan Nystrand are teaming up - to help young swimmers improve.

Lars Frölander, Stefan Nystrand and Sarah Sjöström are some of Swedens biggest swimming names in the nation's history. Now they've formed a company aiming to help the Scandinavian nations aspiring swimmers to a higher level.

Champions Crew Swimming, a stock noted company planned to start up this fall, are targeting young swimmers who wants to take their swimming to a higher level, writes Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

"We will try to stimulate and motivate Swedish age-swimming to get even better."

Speaking at the Swedish National Championships in Halmstad, Lars Frölander, who originally intended his career after swimming to be separated from the sport he's excelled in and made a living from for the last 20 years, explained why the swim stars have joined together.

"The main idea of the project is to use the experience we as elite swimmers have gained throughout the years. We are quite strong brands, profiles and idols for young swimmers so I believe we could have a great influence in their motivation to get better", Frölander said.

The 39 year old retired after the Olympics last year, but has returned to the pool for the ongoing Swedish championships, only to see his 12 year winning streak in the 50 meter butterfly broken. Karlskrona (and Texas A&M)-swimmer Henrik Lindau beat the living legend.

That should not interfere too much with the six time Olympian and 2000 olympic 100 butterfly champion's standing in Swedish swimming.

The business idea is a website set up with a variety of different training methods and targets for swimmers to report and aspire to. Swimmers will have their own profile, and the different targets will have different levels - so that there are always things to reach and do better. Profiles will be more or less open, meaning that users will be able to measure themselves against opponents and see how their own development is going.

SILVER MEDALISTS: During the World Short Course
Championships in Shanghai (2006), Nystrand (far right) and
Frölander next to him teamed up to form part of the silver
winning 4x100 meters freestyle team together with Jonas
Tilly (left) and Marcus Pihl.

There has been a debate in Sweden if local talent is training enough, particularly as the nation has a tendency of being a force in the sprint-events, but less so in the middle-distance and long distance events.

"It's not about training harder, but smarter. To improve in different skills. Sometimes I think we focus on the wrong things," says Frölander.

When the young swimmers reach different targets they will be able to buy performance medals marking their achievement. This is intended to be the company's main income. If the company makes money, some of it is intended to go back into the clubs.

"Some of the money from buying such a medal will go to the clubs, and the rest into the company for further development, where we are also looking to help our best swimmers in the race against the world's elite," says Lars Frölander.

And if anybody wonders about the 39-year olds stature in Sweden, just listen to the newly-crowned swedish champion Lindau after beating the retired old man by 0.07 of a second.

"This is huge for me. Lars has always been an idol for me, ever since I started swimming. I've always thought that sometime I have to beat him. And now I have. It feels great" said the 23-year old gunning for Rio.

PS: Nordic countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are all having their countries national long course championships this weekend.

Norway: Results and live-streaming
Sweden: Results
Denmark: Results
Finland: Results

Watch Jordan Harrison's 1500 free in 80 seconds

Watch Full Races From Australian Nationals

Full list of races here

Watch Steffen Deibler's 51.19 swim in the 100 butterfly from German Nationals

World leading swim (51.19) from Deibler and a time that would have won Olympic gold last year (although Phelps did swim 50.86 in the semi-final). The 100 fly will be wide open this year in Barcelona with Deibler going up against the likes of Chad le Clos and Evgeny Korotyshkin. It should be a tremendous race, but the event will have Phelps' shadow looming over it until one of the men take the event back under 51 seconds.

More highlights from German Nationals can be found here.