Freestyle Media

Four strokes, the English Channel, a hospice fundraiser and a world record. In September, Nik Haynes, Olly White, Ross Szender and Adam Tapp set a new world record for a medley relay crossing of the Channel. We catch up with Olly and Ross to hear the stories behind their swim.And what stories! There’s a unicorn, giant jellyfish, a burning building and a bout of appendicitis — and that’s before we...

Dan Mills joins Helen Gorman to preview the National Masters Short Course Championships in Sheffield. Last year, 17 world records fell - could we see even more this time around?We pick out the races to watch, including a mouth-watering men’s 50m freestyle showdown between Aaron Francis and Tom Cahoon, with Commonwealth Games medallist Jamie Ingram in the mix.The men’s 100m freestyle could see as...

How do you plan a training camp that caters for everyone, from 50m sprinters to open water swimmers? Julie Howe chats to Mike Hodgson from Woking Swimming Club - he has tackled that challenge four times, organising the club’s training camp in Cyprus.Mike shares what he learned from getting it wrong in year one, how he structures training for such a diverse squad, and why race-pace work becomes a...

How much can you really achieve in the gym if you only have 40 minutes a week? Strength and conditioning coach Nathan Oxford works with some of the best Masters swimmers in the world, helping them make their time in the gym count. In this episode, Nathan shares practical advice for fitting effective strength and conditioning around a busy schedule - from fundamental movement patterns and...

Nick Parkes shares the remarkable story of his return to swimming after suffering a cardiac arrest at the National Open Water Championships in 2023. Clinically dead for around 20 minutes, Nick has since dedicated a series of fundraising challenges to the air ambulance service that helped save his life.Now he has taken on his biggest challenge yet: swimming the full 22.5 miles of Loch Ness.Nick...

After an eight-year break from competitive swimming, Tom Cohoon has made a remarkable return to sprint swimming.Inspired by watching his younger brother Alex compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Tom took on board lessons from the world’s best sprinters - and he has since broken a British Masters record in the 50m freestyle and found himself lining up alongside Olympic swimmer Alex at National...

Jane Hansom’s story is one of transformation, resilience, and rediscovery. Once a promising swimmer in Scotland, Jane took a 20-year detour through the vibrant world of marketing and nightlife before returning to her athletic roots to become a world triathlon champion. Jane gave up swimming at 16, and returned to sport almost by chance - first as a runner, then as a triathlete - and went on to...

Olly Espinasse - a lifelong Basingstoke Bluefins swimmer, British and European record-holder, and former coach - joins Julie Howe to share training sets spanning three decades of his swimming life.We look back to Olly’s teenage years, when he trained for everything from the 200m to the 1500m freestyle, tackling high-volume sets at high heart rates. It was a grind that taught him to hold his form...

What’s it like to compete at your first European Masters Championships - and come home with gold?European champions Katie Rees and Ben Winter join Helen Gorman to share their experiences from this year’s championships in Šamorín, Slovakia. Both making their European Masters debuts - and their first appearances on the podcast - they take us behind the scenes of the racing, the venue and the unique...

US Masters swimmer and distance swimming World Record holder Kelly Palace joins Helen to share her fascinating journey through swimming - from coaching NCAA Division I athletes and writing books to hosting more than 300 episodes of the Champions Mojo Podcast, where she has interviewed over 50 Olympians.Kelly and Helen compare the Masters swimming scenes in the US and UK, exploring what makes them...