Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast with Anette Philipsson - Dual Olympian and Masters World Champion

Ever wondered how a dual Olympian and Masters World Champion swimmer prepares for their races?  Swedish swimmer Anette Philipsson lays it all bare in this episode of Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast She vividly recounts her experiences in the Olympic Games held in Los Angeles and Seoul, her early life and career in swimming, as well as her strategies for dealing with pre-race nerves. Anette’s engaging narrative is sure to inspire anyone who has ever dreamed of stepping up to the starting block.

Annette shares her journey from her first career in swimming to her return to the pool after retirement, now as a masters swimmer. She talks about the changes she has had to make to her swimming technique and the unique challenges presented by masters swimming. You'll be intrigued by her candid sharing of the differences between the swimming scene in the 80s and present-day masters swimming. Anette tells us her tricks to stay focused in crowded competitions.

Join us, and be inspired by Anette and her resilience and passion. Prepare for a deep dive into the world of elite swimming, packed with invaluable insights and unique experiences that you can learn from and apply to your own swimming.

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Torpedo Swimtalk is sponsored by AMANZI SWIMWEAR

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Transcript

Danielle Spurling: 0:08

Hello Swimmers and welcome to another episode of Torpedo Swim Talk podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Spurling, and each week we chat to a master swimmer from around the world about their swimming journey. I'm delighted to be joined today by my first Swedish master swimmer, the lovely and accomplished dual Olympian, Anette Philipsson, recently crowned world champion in Japan. Annette shares all her perspectives on master swimming and her Olympic experiences in Los Angeles and Seoul. Let's hear from Anette now. Hi, Anette, welcome to the podcast. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's so lovely to have you on. Where in Sweden are you based.

Anette Philipsson: 0:57

I live in Sweden. It's cold here, we have about two degrees. I live in Linköping, that's about 200 kilometers south from Stockholm, our capital, yeah, so it's a city with about 150,000 inhabitants, and I was born here and I grew up here, and I am still here. It must be a lovely place, and if you're still there, Well, you know, with family, if you have your parents here and your siblings, so you want to keep in contact with them. So it's nice to be here. Yeah, yes.

Danielle Spurling: 1:42

Yeah, lovely, and have you had a swim in this week?

Anette Philipsson: 1:50

I'm so, so lucky and we're so happy here because we've got a new swim arena in Linköping. It's fantastic. I'm so excited every day when I go to practice. It's amazing.

Danielle Spurling: 2:08

What kind of complex is it? 50 meter, 25 meter?

Anette Philipsson: 2:12

Yeah, it's one 15 meter Olympic pool and then there is 25 meters and it's also for diving and for leisure and I don't know how many pools there are. Actually it's huge. But just that we have an indoor 50 meters is fantastic, and it's so fresh, it's nice air, it's nice lightning, the water is fantastic. Of everything it's great.

Danielle Spurling: 2:47

So when you obviously you grew up in that town, where did you train when you were younger?

Anette Philipsson: 2:53

I trained here too. Then we got an older swimming pool. It actually was built the same year I was born, 1965. So I was almost raised in that pool. I've done so many meters there. Well, we lived not that far away from the swimming pool and my parents thought, well, just try to do a course. When I was about yeah, let's say I think I was about seven or eight years old. So I started in a course to just learn the different strokes and I thought, well, this is fun. But I did everything. When I was young, I did a lot of sports.

Danielle Spurling: 3:46

Well, obviously, swimming was the thing that you were the most successful at, because you went on to represent Sweden at two Olympic Games, in LA and in Seoul, which is amazing. As a medley swimmer, tell us a little bit about that experience when you first, when you got onto your first team in LA, and a little bit about the experience in LA and Seoul.

Anette Philipsson: 4:08

Yeah, and that was fantastic. That's every swimmer's ultimate dream to get to the Olympics. It's huge and I was swimming during the 80s and it was very different than when it come to the Eastern German swimmers. I don't know what they did, but it was a little bit strange. Yeah, I think I know what they did. So it was actually quite hard to get to the Olympics because they were so dominant and I trained really, really, really hard and we trained a lot of meters during those days.

Anette Philipsson: 5:04

But I qualified in 1984, and then the Eastern countries they didn't participate. It was sort of a politic. In 1980 in Moscow the Western countries didn't participate and in 84, the Eastern countries didn't participate. So in 84, it was quite different from 88 when the whole world participated, but it was fantastic. So the competitions were at USC and we lived at UCLA but there was a lot of traveling. I remember huge distances between the competition pools and so on in LA. But just to be there with those thousands of people and swimming, it was fantastic. I didn't make it to the final, I came 12th and it was the same thing in Seoul, in South Korea, and that was really hard because first I didn't make the qualifying times. So I got one more chance at the Nordic Championships to qualify and I did it, but two of my mates didn't make it, so it was really, really hard. But I was very, very happy to go to Seoul also and I made the 12th place also in Seoul.

Danielle Spurling: 6:49

Well, that's amazing to even get there and do that, and actually those were the days when there wasn't a semi-final, so you didn't get a chance to do a bit of a makeover, did you?

Anette Philipsson: 7:00

Exactly, it was only one race and then you got the A final and the B final, so I swam the B finals. That's for the people who comes on plates 9 to 16.

Danielle Spurling: 7:14

And out of the two Olympics, which one was your favorite?

Anette Philipsson: 7:18

Seoul, I think, because everyone was there and the village was a little bit better and, yeah, I really loved it. But you should also remember when you stand there, then you have to do your race of your lifetime, it's very nervous, and so on. Now I do swimming for fun much more.

Danielle Spurling: 7:46

Yeah, how did you cope with the nerves Like? I can imagine that going into the ready room and seeing all those famous swimmers around you is pretty overwhelming. How did you cope with that in your mind?

Anette Philipsson: 8:01

We did some, even though, then some mental preparing. So we tried to memorize our races in our heads, just to get into your bubble and think it all through. So I learned a sort of technique just to keep everything out of your mind and go you can only focus on your own swimming. You can't focus on everyone else's swimming. They are doing what they are doing. You can only try your best with your capacity that you have. So we tried to really go into that bubble.

Danielle Spurling: 8:54

Yeah, no, that's great advice. I think everyone and I hear that more with a lot of the elect swimmers that speak today just talking about the process rather than worrying about the end result, and I think that's really great advice just to think about your own lane, your own race, and remember what you've done in training.

Anette Philipsson: 9:13

Yeah, and sort of when you do your race, you shouldn't think too much. You shouldn't think too much, it should just your body and your mind should know what to do. Actually, it's sort of start-button.

Danielle Spurling: 9:30

And you were in the 200-400 medley in LA and Seoul. Is that correct?

Anette Philipsson: 9:34

Yeah, yeah, but in LA I didn't get the chance to swim 400 IM, so it was only the 200 IM, because the philosophy was that now you have not qualified exactly for the 400 IM. So I did just have one race and the 200 IM. It's rather late in the program I think it's not the last day, but the second last day so you just walk one week and wait for you to race. That's very hard, very hard.

Danielle Spurling: 10:17

I bet that's like the 50 freestyle. Now they have to wait right till the very last day to swim. That it's such a long time to sit around and wait, isn't it? Yeah, who won that 200 medley with Tracy Corkins?

Anette Philipsson: 10:33

Yeah, she was fantastic. She was the world-leading lady and actually we weren't on a training camp in the States in Florida, and we lived in the same family that hosted also Tracy Corkins, but you didn't take pictures then you just oh, there she is Fantastic.

Danielle Spurling: 11:04

Yeah, she actually married an Australian Olympian, mark Stockwell, and she lives in Australia now. Yeah, tracy Corkins.

Anette Philipsson: 11:10

Yeah, she was fantastic. Where does she live in?

Danielle Spurling: 11:16

She lives in up in Queensland, I think. Yeah, yeah, on the Gold Coast. Yeah, she was President of Swimming Australia at one point, but I think she stopped doing that, but I think she's still involved in swimming. Good to have her expertise here, which is great. And what sort of what insights or lessons did you learn from your time at the Olympics that have sort of shaped your life or your approach to swimming now?

Anette Philipsson: 11:43

To be grateful for the things that you can. Yeah, it's not for everyone. It's fantastic, and now, too, I always also now join the Olympic World Olympic Association. That's for every Olympians and just to meet others who have joined the same community, so to speak, it's fantastic. You meet so many new people and that's also what's so interesting with master swimming the thing to just meet new people who have the same interest and you don't have to focus on your work or other things. It's so nice to come into your swimsuit and just to your practice and meet your friends and chat about other things than your other professional work.

Anette Philipsson: 12:54

Yes yes, exactly, and then it's so fantastic to meet other sports. So in the Olympics you live together with other athletes in other sports and it's fantastic to follow them and see how they prepare and what their challenges are, and that's something I think. Now you look more at other sports and see if you could train and find out some exercises that could be good for swimmers. Yeah, fantastic.

Danielle Spurling: 13:35

And how old were you when you retired from your first swimming career?

Anette Philipsson: 13:41

Well, I participated in 1988 in Seoul, south Korea, and then in 1989 I sort of faded out and then I stopped. So I was about 24 and that's young. But then you felt old actually, because the 50 meters were just coming. Then we participated in 100 meters. That was the shortest races, so you felt actually pretty old when you were about 24, 25. That's crazy. So everyone asked why are you doing this anymore? Oh well, well, but then I finished my university studies and I thought okay, now let's try another life. I got married in 1992. So, and then we got our two kids. So I didn't do any swimming in about 15 years or so. But then I realized I joined the smell of chlorine water.

Danielle Spurling: 15:02

Yes, I know what you mean. I also took a big break and I remember we had the world championships here in Melbourne in 2007 and I hadn't been to the pool for a long time. I avoided it and I walked in and I walked up the steps and I just got that waft of chlorine and I really felt like I was at home. It's a funny smell and it just brings back so many good memories.

Anette Philipsson: 15:33

Yeah, yeah, but I think I needed that break also because we had been training so so, so hard. We did, as I said, a lot of meters. That was crazy. I don't think it was healthy. Actually it was. We could do like 10,000 in the morning and then 10,000 in the evening, or 100,000 meters in a week, and we did that over and over again. It's amazing that you didn't broke everything and got injured all over the place. So, yeah, it was really hard. So I didn't no, it was. I didn't loved it at the end because we had been doing so much practicing.

Danielle Spurling: 16:36

Yeah, and how did you first hear about master swimming?

Anette Philipsson: 16:40

Then, after 15 years, when I got my kids and so on, I realized I need to do something. And I'm not good at, you know, coordinating in gymnastics or something, and I'm not good at running, or so. And then I came to I got a coach who said we got this master swimming, are you interested in joining? And I thought it was actually a little bit. Why? Why should I compete? I'm old now. No, I'm not interested, but I could join for practice. So I went down and once a week I practiced and that was nice. And then they asked aren't you interested just doing one race, just one? And I felt so, oh, isn't that a little bit stupid? I've done that, I'm over with it. And then I did one competition and set a Swedish record at the first time. So then something, okay, this is might not be so bad.

Danielle Spurling: 18:05

Yeah.

Anette Philipsson: 18:07

But there was a couple of years I just did one practice a week because yeah, and I thought, okay, that will do. But when the years then went on, I realized I really love this and that was also. I realized I did it for fun. I didn't have to make any special results. It's only what I think of myself, what I would like to achieve. And also I needed to think that my previous career was a book that now was closed and now I started a new book with a new chapter. I needed to leave everything of my previous career behind, because when you then, after 15 years, go into the water and you know we have a sport, that is very exactly, you know exactly your times. It was awful, oh, it was horrible. You realized okay. But then I thought, okay, I should not compare to what I've been doing before. I compare with myself and I compare with others in my age group. That's the only thing that I have to focus on and leave the rest. The rest is I have done that.

Danielle Spurling: 19:52

Yeah, I think that's such a healthy way to think about it, because it is hard to separate yourself from those early PBs that you had and you're always comparing yourself in your mind, so it's good to leave it behind.

Anette Philipsson: 20:02

Yeah, and even in practice also, you really really have to just leave it.

Danielle Spurling: 20:09

That's right. You just got to do your best on the day at training and, as you know, throughout a training week. You can feel quite good on one day and the very next time you feel just terrible for some reason. Yeah, how often do you now train a week? We?

Anette Philipsson: 20:27

have with this new swim arena. We have a lot of training occasions, so we have six times a week. But I can't cope with that. That's too much. But I try to do at least, let's say, three to four, four times a week in the water. So four times a week in the water is my goal, and then also some weightlifting, and so one or two times a week.

Danielle Spurling: 21:08

Yeah, that sounds good. And how far do you now swim in the water compared to what you used to do?

Anette Philipsson: 21:13

Very, very different. We have one and a half hours training sessions and now we have a much, much, much more focus on quality and quality and details and swimming techniques. We have a great coach. She's an elite swimmer in our club in Linköping, emma Magnusson, and sometimes we think she's more ambitious with the Masters group than we are ourselves. No, but she's fantastic because she introduces us to the latest news in swimming techniques. And I had to change everything, did you? Yeah, wow, you know, when I swam, you swam breaststroke with the water line here. You were not allowed to get your head under the water. For instance, you were not allowed to do the kick underwater in the turns. I think every turn has changed. Yes yes.

Anette Philipsson: 22:38

And we learned really to swim freestyle with the water, like here and looking forward very much.

Anette Philipsson: 22:45

Yes, and the backstroke turns completely changed the backstroke turns completely changed the starts Very, very, very different. So we now focus very often on details in the swimming and she does a fantastic work with us and she's very patient with us. That sounds lovely. It's very hard to change anything now in my age. When you have done something for 30 years or 40 years, then it's hard to change to another technique and it takes a little while until you do it automatically. So you need to focus on one thing at a time and then, when you have implemented, you can focus on the next thing.

Danielle Spurling: 23:49

Yes, that sounds good and I know you just got back from a very successful time in Japan, in Fukuoka, and you won the 50 and 100 freestyle. Was that the first world champs that you'd been to? Congratulations, that's amazing and I'm sure you've been one of the best masters world champs you'd been to.

Anette Philipsson: 24:10

No, the first one was actually in Sweden in 2010. Then there was a World Master Championship in Gothenburg. So we thought, okay, that will be our goal, to participate in the World Championships. Then I won three golds in Gothenburg and then I really realized this is fantastic. What a competition with thousands of swimmers in every age group. You met those very, very old swimmers. I remember there was a Japanese swimmer. She was 104 years old and came to Sweden Just to make the trip.

Danielle Spurling: 24:59

I get tired walking around the block.

Anette Philipsson: 25:05

You were so inspired. I got so inspired to see all those swimmers and to meet everyone. It was fantastic. So that was my first World Championships. Then I participated in Richorne two years later, 2012. Then I met a very nice swimmer, Jenny Bucknell.

Danielle Spurling: 25:34

Jenny- yes, I know, jenny, she's lovely.

Anette Philipsson: 25:42

She won the 100 free and I was second, so that was so thankful. She was fantastic. That's one of the swimmers I met. I really loved her very much.

Danielle Spurling: 26:02

I actually trained with her once a week. She coaches and so she has a squad that we go to on a Friday morning. We do a lot of sprints.

Anette Philipsson: 26:14

She's very good at sprints. We can do like a set. Last week we did 40 times 25. That was the only thing we did that practice. You could choose if you wanted to do every second 25. That should be really hard for every fourth or every fifth 25. You could choose, and that was the only thing we did, but then you should really really push it hard. So that's a huge difference from what we did before in the 80s. Then we just did meters. It didn't depend on any quality, you just should do your meters. It could be really slow, it didn't matter, just do your meters. And now it's just the opposite. It should be quality, it should be hard, hard, hard. And even when we practice we sometimes do races in practice. We should. The coach said okay, you choose one, two or three races. We do that on Thursday. You should have your competition suits with you. Okay, wow.

Danielle Spurling: 27:39

Wow.

Anette Philipsson: 27:41

And that's very unusual for me. I'm not used to that. It's very fun.

Danielle Spurling: 27:51

It's so much fun. How many people are in your squad?

Anette Philipsson: 27:56

We are about a little bit more than 20. I think 20 to 25. But as we have six different occasions, we often let's say 10 to 15, sometimes like that yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 28:16

And looking at your time in Japan, how did you approach that 100 freestyle? What was your strategy? When you walked down onto pool deck, you were about to swim.

Anette Philipsson: 28:25

Talk us through the race, oh yeah, First of all, this is at the beginning of the competitions. So in the master's competitions it's not always that you get into the warmup pool before you are going to race, and because there are so, so, so many swimmers. So we just you need to don't get stressed of the things around you. You know that there will be a lot of swimmers. You don't know how the procedures before the race goes and so on, so you just need to keep calm and so on. I was rather early at the pool and I went into the pool and I did two starts from the starting block and then I did my warmup and afterwards I thought, okay, I might do one or more, two more starts. But then the queue to the starting blocks, it was the whole 50 meters long. I couldn't go. You had to wait for 20 minutes to just go out.

Danielle Spurling: 29:37

Yeah, that's too much. Yeah, yeah.

Anette Philipsson: 29:40

And that is typical things that happens in the master's event. There are so many swimmers, so just okay. And there was another world championships. I didn't get into the warmup pool to the pool racing pool at all before the race, so you need just to. Okay, I do my thing, I get into my bubble and before the race you are in the what do you call rooms? Yeah, the ready room, yeah, and you don't know how many there are, because sometimes it's one, two or three, and sometimes it's five, six, seven. You don't know when you are coming into the pool.

Danielle Spurling: 30:27

Oh, really Wow.

Anette Philipsson: 30:31

And then you meet your mates at the call room and okay, there you are, and some you know and some you don't know. And this time in Japan, there were a lot of Japanese swimmers, of course, and they are so, you know, tiny and fit and they don't speak that well English, so it was just an experience to have all these Japanese swimmers around. I knew from the entry list that there were a lot of swimmers in my last heat. That was really really good we have. I think we were five or six swimmers with the same entry time, almost yeah. So I knew this will be very, very tight if everyone is going to swim at their best. So when I it's important to get a start, but I don't focus on the other swimmers, I try to focus on my own swimming. Previous it was much more easy to swim like easy speed. You know it should go fast, but you shouldn't push it too hard. Now it doesn't go that fast, but you have to push it hard anyway.

Anette Philipsson: 31:56

But in the ideal race you go like for easy speed the first 50 meters. So that was my intention to do that. I had something to put in the last 50 meters. I didn't realize it was so close, but when I look at the results I can see that I think we were six swimmers who made the 50 meters turn all out Wow yeah. And then the race the 50 back to the goal. I really tried to focus on the technique and that's a thing that works for me to focus on one detail and try to get that one. And then also the thing you shouldn't breathe. At the end it's so hard, but this is the last 10 meters you shouldn't breathe, so I just tried to put down the head and let's go for it. So I didn't realize I had one and you know the scoreboard. It's just a few seconds you can see the results. And then I okay, what was the result? I didn't realize until later on when I looked up at my husband who waved great, okay, okay.

Danielle Spurling: 33:31

Do you have a certain breathing pattern that you follow in the 100 free, or do you just breathe when you need to?

Anette Philipsson: 33:38

We practice a lot of reading in the training sessions, but I don't have a specific scheme like three breathings, the first 50. But I think that is what happens anyway. But it's getting harder and harder to not to breathe. I don't know if it has to do with the age, but we train a lot on that. Do you do that too?

Danielle Spurling: 34:14

Yeah, yeah, particularly in 25s and 50s, thinking about the breathing that you would do. So we have when we do short course masters meets in Australia. We actually do a 25 sprint, so we would try to be aiming to not breathe during that and maybe three to two to three times during the 50. But then when I get over 50, I stick to a sort of a four to pattern with my freestyle breathing yeah, yeah, yeah. Very nice. And what did you? What was your sort of favourite memory from Japan? Obviously, you won those two medals.

Anette Philipsson: 34:53

It's hard to put out one memory because it's so many impressions from from everything. I actually was really really pleased also with the 50 fly, where I came third, but, yeah, but that was because in in 2018, I got an injury, a severe injury, and I thought I might not be able to swim anymore. It's called Padgett Schrotter syndrome. It's very rare. What is that? Yeah, that's the. The vein to my right arm got broken. Yeah, and that is it goes through a channel between the first rib and the collar bone and it got squeezed so it broke. And then I did a huge surgery. So they said we don't know the results of the surgery, we will see, but we will try to do our best. And then I thought, ok, my goal after that surgery will be to come to the world championships in South Korea again in 2019. That would be almost, I think, 31 years after I've been to South Korea for the Olympics.

Anette Philipsson: 36:34

That was one year after the surgery and I thought, ok, this, this is my goal. And I went to South Korea one shoe and won the 53. It was then the tears came. Actually, I was so, so, so glad that I could. Yeah, I came back with with my swimming, so and it has been hard since then to do the butterfly, and because they needed to do it, open up the chest actually, yeah, and then they removed the first rib bone, so so it couldn't occur again. And therefore I was very pleased with the 50 fly because that was my best racing in fly after this surgery and so on, and the two, the first and second in that race, they were under the world record in that race, so sometimes you could be very pleased with the third place.

Danielle Spurling: 37:54

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And I actually I love the color of the bronze medal. I think they're. They're so pretty, they're like a rose gold, yeah, yeah.

Anette Philipsson: 38:07

But the Japan experience is fantastic. Japan as a country is very nice and, and yeah, and, to see all those Japanese and then also to compete in the same pool as as the ordinary world championship with, with everything On place, that's fantastic. When you come into the arena, wow, you see my swim, but the same lane as Sarah Kerstrom. I'm very proud of that, and just try to imagine how was it, with all the people shouting and yeah, so it's fantastic, yeah, it's a great experience.

Danielle Spurling: 38:52

She swam so well at the world championships. Didn't she say just amazing after coming? Because did she fractured her elbow?

Anette Philipsson: 39:01

Elbow. Was it yes, yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 39:03

That's amazing that she came back and was able to get to Tokyo as well.

Anette Philipsson: 39:08

Yeah, fantastic yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 39:11

Yeah, she's just swimming so fast, especially in that that 50 fly just amazing.

Anette Philipsson: 39:18

And then just another memory, that's was from the prize ceremony of the 53. I competed with the European Great Britain swimmer, nikki Harris. She was great, she was fantastic, very nice to meet you. And there was a Japanese swimmer too and she could speak a little bit English. And she asked oh, are you really doing 28 in 50 freestyle? Well, we will see. I don't know yet, but not the. At the prize ceremony she began to cry and it was so, but on a very nice way. Nice way, yeah, I realized it was so many emotions that came up on the prize ceremony and so on, so that was very emotional, that moment.

Danielle Spurling: 40:16

Yes, yeah, it's lovely those friendships that you can make through master swimming. It's just amazing.

Anette Philipsson: 40:25

And the results, it getting less and less important actually. Yes, just to join is very, very is very good.

Danielle Spurling: 40:37

Yeah, are you still swimming the 200 I am and 400 I am these days, or do you stick to the shorter events?

Anette Philipsson: 40:45

I try to do it. It was a couple of years I did the 400. It's I don't know if I can do it anymore.

Danielle Spurling: 40:53

Horrible, that's horrible. Right, I don't blame you.

Anette Philipsson: 40:58

I did the 200. I am at the world championships too. It was at the same. It was just one or two, two hours after the 53. And I was totally. It was so exhausted and I was so pleased with the 50s, I couldn't put it together for the 200 I am, I can imagine, I think. I got six. That's not bad, but but.

Danielle Spurling: 41:26

Yes.

Anette Philipsson: 41:28

So I try to do that. I am. I really love it, but it's not that easy anymore.

Danielle Spurling: 41:36

When you swim it, when you swim it back in the time that you were at the Olympics. What was the best stroke for you in the medley? Because everyone has one stroke that's more dominant.

Anette Philipsson: 41:46

Yeah, often it's that way. I was very equal in all strokes, but the best stroke is the worst. I, the best breaststroke is always hard so. So when it came to butterfly, backstroke and freestyle, I was pretty good at the three. So often I only participated in I am, but I had a Swedish record also in 200. I am, 200 butterfly, sorry, sorry. So I was really a sort of long distance swimmer in that way, and now I became a sprinter. I don't know.

Danielle Spurling: 42:36

Yes, Well, that's amazing though, but it's. It's good though that these days now you sort of concentrating more on quality and and and sprints in training. That's obviously feeding into that, Obviously, that for those fast twitch fibers that you've still got to do a 28 for 53. That's very nice. Yeah, I'm.

Anette Philipsson: 42:55

I'm very pleased. Anyway, we swim at longer distances too. In in, in practice, we, we, we have, and we swim, I am also, and so on. So it's a huge range, but when I compare to what we did in the past, it's, it's. It's not comparable at all. Actually, yes, absolutely.

Danielle Spurling: 43:22

What? What's the master swimming scene like in Sweden? Is it a big, a big sort of concern?

Anette Philipsson: 43:29

I think it's. It's growing. What we can see is we have a lot of swimmers interesting in doing practice to join in practices. It's a little bit harder to get them to compete. So so when we go to the, the Swedish nationals, master's nationals, we we could be, let's say, from five, six to eight people from from our swim squad, but on training we are yeah, as I said, we could be 15 and so on. So they're they are not everyone who's interested in competing and we can see that all over in in Sweden. So the, the, the in in Stockholm, neptune is the largest club. They were six swimmers from from at the Nordic championships and they are about 40 swimmers or more actually on practice. So that is what we can see and and we really need to have more master's competitions at their national level. We are now we could join every other competition, but it's not that easy to stand with an 12 year old.

Danielle Spurling: 45:04

Yeah, I get that.

Anette Philipsson: 45:07

It's a little bit challenging.

Danielle Spurling: 45:10

Yes, absolutely. I think we need some. Every country needs more master's from me. So I hear that a lot with people I'm speaking to and I think COVID obviously impacted that a lot around the world. When pools were closed and I know here in Australia in Melbourne, we didn't have any swim meets for nearly two years. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anette Philipsson: 45:34

Yes.

Danielle Spurling: 45:35

So similar situation we have. I think we've got 170 people in our club, in our master's swimming club, yeah, but we we would get maybe 30 going to our Australian master's nationals. So similar. Yeah, it's hard to get people to to race.

Anette Philipsson: 45:54

And I also have a lot of contacts with previous swimmers and I said join our master's team. And the answer is very often oh, first I need to train so I can join you. No, it's not that hard. Yeah, you swim that fast. No, you shouldn't focus on me, just come, just join. So everyone have that high. That first they should train for half a year, one year, before they can join us. Oh, no, I've heard that too. But what we can see in Sweden, I know in Australia, swimming is like the national sport. It's fantastic.

Danielle Spurling: 46:51

You would think that, but it's not During the Olympics. Yes, it's probably our best Olympic sport, but compared to Australian rules football and cricket it's probably not as many people would be interested in it.

Anette Philipsson: 47:08

But what we can see there are growing interesting in, like swimming for leisure and swimming for keep fit. So we can see that there are many swimmers who are doing their own practices and I often try to speak a little bit to them and ask what background they have and if they're interested in joining a group, because I can say I would never do master swimming if I didn't have my team, my master's team. I always tell them they are so important, especially like this summer. The world championships were in August and we all in Sweden have vacation in July. No one is practicing. Actually they are doing something else and I know I needed to keep in shape, but we had practices the whole summer and my teammates they came, so we were always like three to five swimmers on every occasion. That's huge, different than to swim alone. When you swim alone, I'm not motivated at all, not at all.

Danielle Spurling: 48:43

Me either. I don't know how people do it. Some people train all the time by themselves. I just don't know how they do it. I really don't, and it's so boring.

Anette Philipsson: 48:55

Yes, it's very boring to swim by yourself, but when you have your team, I love my team and we have very much fun on practices and we laugh a lot.

Danielle Spurling: 49:13

I love it. I think that's sort of the cornerstone of master swimming. Just having that group of people that you check in with three or four times a week and you have so many laughs with them. It makes it all just so worthwhile, doesn't it.

Anette Philipsson: 49:28

And often you don't know. I know, when we have new swimmers to the team and I always ask a little bit about their swim background and so on, and then we come along and then I realise after a couple of months or so, okay, what are you doing otherwise except from swimming? You don't talk about that. It's so nice. Just to. Everyone is equal in the pool.

Danielle Spurling: 50:02

Yes, but it's also nice to have that break from such. We all lead such hectic, busy lives with your career and your family and being online and everything that's sort of there in your face with social media and all those kind of things. It's really nice to be in the pool and have that sort of meditation time as well as laughing with your friends.

Anette Philipsson: 50:25

We often say that when we meet before practice and just the moment when you should go into the pool, you are a little bit tired. You have been working all day. Now we're here again and then we do our practice and afterwards we always go into the sauna. You know, we are in Sweden, it's cold, and those minutes in the sauna we always say now I feel so much more energy and, yeah, it's fantastic after the practice.

Danielle Spurling: 51:06

So we remind ourselves it's worth it, yes, absolutely, and what can we expect to see from Annette Phillipsen coming up in the next year or so with competitions? Have you got any plans on the horizon for competing?

Anette Philipsson: 51:25

Well, the timescreen dual for the world championships is a little bit weird. After COVID, so there's a world championship in Dua now February, march but I won't go there. One reason is, of course, the political situation, so I don't feel it's motivated to go right now, but I'd really like to go to Singapore in 2025. So I'd need to focus on some other international competition during 2024. So I haven't pinpointed yet what, but I tried to find out something that will suit me.

Danielle Spurling: 52:22

Do you have the European Masters Championship, so they every year or every second year.

Anette Philipsson: 52:28

They are every second year. It's often the world championships is one year and the other year it's the European, but they also have trouble in the time schedule with the European Championships, so we don't go there. I think the next one will be in Budapest, in Hungary. So we will see. And they have some great swimming pools in Budapest. Yes.

Danielle Spurling: 53:04

I've heard that I would like to go to the next world championships there. I think it's in 2027 in Budapest. Yeah, that'll be good. So as a Masters in Sweden, can you go to any of the other European countries and do their Masters meets?

Anette Philipsson: 53:22

Yeah, I haven't done that very much yet. We often go to Denmark. It's close and this time the Nordic Championships were in Denmark, in Copenhagen, just a month ago, and we're actually going there the next weekend again on the Copenhagen Open Masters.

Danielle Spurling: 53:49

Oh nice.

Anette Philipsson: 53:51

It's a small competition but it's nice. You meet other Masters swimmers from the Nordic countries, so that's great. And then we have the Swedish Championships in the spring the last weekend in March, and that's actually the main meet in Sweden which everyone is trying to focus on. So I've also been to Mallorca the Open Mallorca Masters. That's also a nice competition, but sometimes I'm thinking of going to other competitions. But I'd really like to have my teammates with me so we could have some relays. I love the relays, but I need to have my teammates with me.

Danielle Spurling: 54:47

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, relays are so much fun, aren't they? Yeah, yeah absolutely. Now, everyone that comes on the podcast. I always ask them a deep dive, five questions, which gives us a bit of a snapshot about your swimming. So you can just tell us the first thing that pops into your mind what's the favourite pool that you've ever raced at?

Anette Philipsson: 55:06

It's hard to say, but the pool in Kazan was fantastic in Russia.

Danielle Spurling: 55:11

Yes, that sounds good. What about your favourite freestyle training drill?

Anette Philipsson: 55:19

Oh, what is the underwater? I don't know how to explain it in English. You go to get the grip in the water. You don't do the arm above the water, you go back under the water.

Danielle Spurling: 55:39

I think we call that long dog. Yeah, under the water.

Anette Philipsson: 55:42

Exactly so focus on the grip.

Danielle Spurling: 55:46

Yeah, very nice. Which swimmer do you most admire in the world at the moment? Sara, sara, sara Hirstrum, of course. How do you pronounce the name? Because I say Sara Sostrum. That's probably incorrect.

Anette Philipsson: 56:03

Sara Hirstrum, it's hard. Hirstrum, hirstrum, okay, hirstrum C, c Hirstrum, okay. That's good. That's a good lesson to know Sweden will never have that great swimmer. She's fantastic, yeah, she is fantastic.

Danielle Spurling: 56:25

Yes, I met a lovely Swedish swimmer last year when the World Championships the Short Course World Championships were in Melbourne, Louise.

Anette Philipsson: 56:37

Johan Son. Yes, yes, they are two sisters. Two sisters, yeah, it's really tall.

Danielle Spurling: 56:44

Yeah, they're both lovely, so lovely. I was doing some interviews in the media zone and they were coming through and they were both so friendly and happy to have a chat to anyone.

Anette Philipsson: 56:55

Yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 56:56

Yeah, beautiful, beautiful girls. Yeah, what's your favourite master's training set?

Anette Philipsson: 57:04

We do know new sets all the time, I will say but we did a 12 times 25 and then you should lower your speed with one second for six 25 metres and then we started all over again and then you should lower once again with one second. So you should have a goal time, which was really hard, and then you should lower. That's a very good set and you could also do it with. You should lower with two seconds and do just three times four 25s and you lower two seconds each 25.

Danielle Spurling: 57:45

How much rest did you take in between each 25? Start about 40.

Anette Philipsson: 57:50

Yeah, so not a lot of rest really Every 40 seconds.

Danielle Spurling: 57:54

It's a tough set yeah.

Anette Philipsson: 57:56

No high heart rate, so you had a high pulse.

Danielle Spurling: 58:01

And last question I wanted to ask if you were picking next year's winners of the 100 Free in Paris for the men's and the women's. Who do you think is going to win the gold medal for the 100 Free?

Anette Philipsson: 58:12

At the master's or senior level. The senior level, yeah, at the Olympics. Yes, yes, I wish Sarah, but she's not that strong in 100 metres, so I think there would be one of the Australians. Oh, yes.

Danielle Spurling: 58:27

Yeah, can you tell us which one or not?

Anette Philipsson: 58:31

No, but you're always fast when it comes to the Olympics. Yeah, yeah, but I love watching it and all the Olympics are invited. They often have some events and so for old Olympics, but you know the prices are very high when you would like to go there. So we will see. It's not that far away for us to go to Paris, but perhaps it would be fun to watch.

Danielle Spurling: 59:07

Absolutely Well. Annette, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. It's been a delight speaking to you and hearing all about Sweden's master's swimming, and congratulations on your recent successes in Japan, and we'll be looking out for what you're doing in the future.

Anette Philipsson: 59:23

Oh, thank you very much. I'm so proud to be on your podcast. Oh, thank you. It wouldn't be the first Swede. I'm very yeah, I'm very excited about that. It was so fun, yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 59:36

Oh, fantastic, great, Okay, thank you, bye. Thanks for listening into the podcast today. I hope you enjoyed my chat with Annette. I always find it so interesting to hear everyone's different perspectives about swimming and I hope you're enjoying listening along while I find out more about everyone's swimming journeys. If you are enjoying the pod, how about leaving us a review on Apple or Spotify, or even through our website? It is really easy to do and helps other swimmers find our show On Apple and Spotify. You can leave the review under all the episodes and if you would like to leave one through our website, it's at www. torpedoswimtalk. com Until next time, happy swimming and bye for now.