In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges, Garrett McCaffrey, and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
Daniel Diehl joined the SwimSwam podcast after a four day break from swimming, following his performances at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. He discusses his swims in Hawaii, including his National Age Group Record in the 100 Backstroke, of 53.27. Daniel doesn’t have a ton of experience racing outside which can be a tough adjustment, especially for backstrokers. He also learned a lot about relay starts and did them well enough to have the fastest split on the Gold Medal winning 4×100 free relay for Team USA (48.66). Looking back on his last year, he’s come a long way.
Training at the YMCA of Cumberland, MD he has the advantage of working with a small group but only trains five or six times a week with no doubles. Daniel breaks down some big sets that he remembered from the past year and talked about his motivation.
Going into his junior year of high school, Daniel is SwimSwam’s #1 ranked male in the Class of 2024. He talks about the five trips he has planned and what he’s looking for from a college program. He also discusses his goals and motivation for the upcoming year. All that plus a little insight into what he does so well with his strokes. You don’t want to miss this conversation with one of the best young swimmers in the world.
Daniel ” the Real “Diehl is a great kid. My twins had a chance to hang with him at a meet at Univ. Maryland.
Why is his team 4 swimmers? Isn’t that a little weird?
and his dad is the coach
His dad is not his coach.
He lives in a very rural section of Maryland. It is a remarkable story
CUY was never a large club but especially after covid their number dropped a lot
With the backstroke group NC State has going seems like a great fit for him.
cals backstroke group better
Great interview- he’s so down to earth. Amazing at what he has accomplished with so little; makes you think if doubles, tons of dryland are necessary at his level….I think he will surprise people with his college choice, I don’t see him at Cal or Texas (not a knock on those 2 schools, I just get the sense he will want to be on the east coast…)
Seems like a good fit for NC State but let’s not rule out SMU.
How could I forget SMU!
His coach is an NC St alum for what it’s worth. I’d say NC St would be the least surprising choice at this point
Can’t fault the young athlete for wanting to stay on the east coast, but if he decides on enrolling at Cal, his backstroke training group could include (given Covid extra eligibility) Dustin Lasco, Bjorn Seeliger, Seb Somerset, Ziyad Saleem and Keaton Jones. And maybe Ryan Murphy will still be part of Durden’s pro group.
But I can see positives in all of the programs he is visiting, and he will commit to the program that checks all of his boxes.
Yeah but if he decides to stay closer to home, there’s a great option too: NC State, home of the defending NCAA Champion.
Braden,
I have no insider input on young Mr. Diehl’s inner thoughts regarding his college priorities, but certainly NC State can boast about their backstroke success and their location would seem to be an advantage versus Cal or Texas. Louisville and Indiana also have solid programs and possibly a college scene that appeals to a kid coming from a non-urban environment.
Both NC State and Cal now apparently have verbal commitments from top junior international swimmers who happen to excel at backstroke, Pieter Coetze (Cal) and Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk (NC State). So, at either school, Diehl can look forward to a competitive training environment with focus on developing long course excellence.
I will be a little surprised if Daniel selects… Read more »
Noticed a trend here with the ‘main’ 100m US backstrokers over the years, oddly the successors develop, come and go over a 4 year Olympic cycle period (Probably how the US won the Men’s 100 back from 1996 to 2016).
Rouse -> Lenny -> Piersol -> Grevers -> Murphy -> Armstrong? —–> Diehl??
Covid might have messed up the cycle but I see the baton being passed to Diehl in Los Angeles (He’ll be in a prime 21 years of age). IMO Armstrong still hasn’t fulfilled his massive potential in the event yet so Paris will be his show.
With all respect to Heilman, Williamson, and the others, DD has the highest ceiling of any US juniors swimmer right now. I don’t think it’s particularly close.
He’s doing this without being pushed whatsoever, in less than ideal training conditions. No 50m pools in the area, no outdoor training, no other fast swimmers to train with, very little weights or dry land.
He has another couple years to grow and fill out. He already has the height and he’s still growing. Its going to be amazing to see what he can do once he actually trains.
Let’s hope they all have really high ceilings. But I can see where you’re coming from. Speaking of ceilings, Max Williamson goes 3:42 in the 4IM yards with a 1:06 breast split. Either a sub 3:40 is coming soon or he’s gonna be a Tyler Clary
He eats junk food daily, has a practice group of 4 kids (the other 3 are not in HS yet), does minimal dryland and lifting on his own “2 or 3 times a week”.
Heilman and Williamson basically already have college resources in their training. For Heilman, it’s actually literally true bc I’m pretty sure they train at UVA several times a week, which is s great facility with a long course pool. I’m not knocking them, it’s great. I’m simply saying Diehl is already better and his practice s are what most of us would consider normal for a summer league team. You can tell he’s still nowhere near peak testosterone — it’s going to be crazy when… Read more »
You might be right. DD’s circumstance reminds me of Ian Crocker’s (look it up if you don’t know). But I am not sure I agree with the “higher ceiling by far comment.” DD, MW and TH all have absurdly high ceilings.
DIEHL WITH IT.
The yeah buddy pre workout clutched up