By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
How good was Caeleb Dressel‘s NCAA Championship meet in 2018? He’s entered rare air alongside some of the greatest swimmer in the history of the sport, responsible for SwimSwam’s most-read post of 2018. Past most-read articles have often been live recaps, and when they’re not, they’re usually about swimmers like Ryan Lochte or Michael Phelps, or something particularly gruesome like when Ryan Geheb earned all-state honors after a piece of steel fell on his head and he bled his way to all-state honors.
In fact, Dressel was responsible for the 2 most-read, non-live-recap articles on SwimSwam in 2018.
Among the top 50 most-read articles on the site this year, 19 were live recaps, which is up 1 from last year. That was a bit surprising, given how more disjointed the major meets were this year – we expected more live recaps to crack the top 50.
Many of the articles revolved around the absolutely-bonkers NCAA Championship meets in March, which far outweighed the interest in any international-level swims.
Some articles, like the Missy Franklin retirement article that just happened in the last few weeks, are still racking up views, and so that article would probably climb if Franklin had announced her retirement earlier in the year, for example.
Some articles were controversial – like the article that every coach loved to hate about researchers who believe that the kick may not provide any benefit to freestyle swimming. Others were more informational – looks at good pre-race meals (every swim parents favorite request when a championship meet is approaching and they decide that 24 hours out is the best time for their athlete to start that new healthy diet).
There’s still one old article from The Swimmers’ Circle that pops up in the top 50 every year: Why is a Swimming Mile 1650 Yards? Truly an evergreen marvel, this one pops to the top every year as fitness swimmers and novice swim fans try to decipher the ‘mile’ lingo to describe a race that most certainly is not a mile in length.
Check out the most-read articles of 2018, including a breakdown by type of article.
See Past Lists