Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast with Olympic Medallist and WR holder Geoff Huegill

What does it take to turn swimming punishing kilometres into smarter, faster racing? Olympic medalist and world record holder Geoff Huegill joins us on this week's episode of Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast to unpack the evolution from “character-building” grind sessions to a sprint philosophy built on skill, precision, and purpose.

Geoff takes us inside the old-school sessions that forged his resilience—10×400 fly, 100×100 on 1:20—and how those lessons translated into race-smart efficiency. He shares how two kicks per stroke, two strokes per breath in fly, and mastering underwaters can win races long before the pain sets in.

We dig into the art of butterfly done right: minimising drag over muscling the water, and training your subconscious to execute when chaos hits. Geoff reflects on the Sydney 2000 Olympics—an Olympic record in the semi, a missed start in the final, and the gratitude that came with bronze—and the later breakthrough under Gennadi Touretski, learning to “use easy speed for 35 meters, win the last 65.”

Beyond technique, Geoff opens up about redefining success—his Delhi gold, comeback journey, and recent Masters cameo—proving that experience can’t be rushed, and that smart training always beats empty volume.

Whether you’re a coach, sprinter, or Masters athlete juggling real life, this chat leaves you with clear takeaways: Skills over show. Execution over anxiety. The pool builds people, not just athletes.

💬 If this episode fired you up, follow or subscribe, share it with a swim friend, and leave a review to help more swimmers find the show.

 Question: What butterfly skill will you train differently this week?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Jeff’s Early Years
• 2:47 Moving To Ken Wood And The Grind
• 7:35 Horror Sets And Character Building
• 12:25 Sprint Training Then Vs Now
• 16:45 Butterfly Skills And Breathing Philosophy
• 21:40 Sydney 2000: Semis, Finals, And Pressure
• 26:30 The Home Crowd And Gratitude
• 28:55 State Of Men’s Butterfly And Role Models
• 33:10 Brisbane 2032 And Inspiring The Next Wave
• 36:40 Comeback Story: Health, Stolwinder, And Delhi
• 41:10 The 100 Fly Race Plan Explained
• 45:05 Illness, Recovery Limits, And 2012 Trials
• 49:30 Life Lessons, Travel, And Giving Back
• 54:00 Masters Racing, Family, And Balance
• 58:20 Favorite Sets, Music, And What’s Next
• 1:02:30 Closing Thoughts And Sign-Off

Transcript

Hello, swimmers, and welcome to Torpedo Swimtalk—the podcast celebrating swimmers at every stage, from Masters legends to Olympic champions. I’m your host, Danielle Spurling, and each week we dive into inspiring conversations about performance, resilience, and the pure love of swimming.

We’re welcoming a very well-known and inspiring guest today: Olympic medalist and world record holder Geoff Huegill. The former Australian swimmer is now based in Singapore with his young family and is still very involved in the swimming scene. You’re going to be intrigued by what he has to say about butterfly. Let’s hear from Geoff now.

Danielle: Hi Geoff, welcome to the podcast. I wanted to start by going back to the beginning of your swimming journey and refresh everyone’s memory—especially those who don’t know much about your background. You grew up in Mackay, which is a long way from the world stage. Do you remember when swimming stopped being just lessons and started feeling like your thing?

Geoff: That’s a really good question. You’re right—I grew up in Mackay. For everyone who isn’t familiar: if Sydney’s here, a thousand kilometres north is Brisbane, and a thousand kilometres north of Brisbane is Mackay. My backyard was the Great Barrier Reef and Hamilton Island. It was a beautiful part of the world, and life was different 40-odd years ago. Like most kids, I learned to swim and joined a local club. From there it grew—local meets became regional, then state, then national and international. You still remember little bits like it was yesterday, but it goes by so quickly.

Danielle: It really does. I know you spent a lot of your early career with legendary coach Ken Wood from the time you were 11. What kind of mentor was Ken, and how did that shape you as an athlete and a young man?

Geoff: I first joined Ken’s squad in February 1991. I realised that if I wanted to take my swimming to the next level, I had to move away from country Queensland. The opportunity came up to join Ken’s squad and I didn’t think twice. I remember the first day—Ken picked me up from the airport just before my 12th birthday. I didn’t know what to expect. One of the first things he said to me was, “Son, by the time I’m finished with you, you’re going to have muscles in your eyebrows.” I had no idea what I was getting into. It turned out to be one of the best things I ever did. For those unfamiliar with Ken: he put a swimmer on every Australian team from 1976 to 2016—40 years. There was method to his madness. We came up in a “bred to believe” mentality. We did it tough—survival of the fittest. Looking back, I laugh with a few mates from that era. A good friend in Singapore, Greg Fasala from the “Mean Machine,” and I swap stories about the programs and sets. No matter how hard a set was, we never said to the coach, “I’m not going to do this.” Ten 400s on five minutes? You did it. It was a big journey.

Danielle: What do you remember as the horror set from those days? Was it ten 400s butterfly—or worse?

Geoff: We did a lot of ten 400s fly—on 6:30, not five minutes. For a while, every Saturday morning was a 1500 fly. The standard 100×100 on 1:20 was there. On gym mornings—Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday—recovery would be leg-heavy: 3×200 kick on 4:00, but they had to be under 3:00. I’d go 2:55 on the first and end around 2:30–2:35 for a 200 kick. We did lots of 40×50s: one push easy, one dive max—20 max-effort 50s. Push easy on 1:20, dive max on :40. Leading into 2000 I’d average 25.8–25.9 on the dives. I’d work the last 10 harder than the first 10. Monday and Friday mornings were the worst: I’d walk in and expect 9k—remember, I was a 50/100 swimmer. If it hit double digits, you knew it’d be a big one. But you never turned around and said no. One of the hardest lessons I learned came from a meet we trained through. I was too lazy to check the program and missed that I had the 100 back. The announcer called my lane; everyone looked up. Ken just put his head back in the program. The next morning, my Collins diary session read: “50×100 backstroke on 1:30—then see me.” Ten on 1:30 is 15 minutes; at one point he checked his watch and said, “58:30—you’ve only done 39. Mr Seiko never lies.” After the 50 hundreds, I still had another 5.5k with the squad. I did 10.5k that morning—all because I didn’t pick up the program. Lesson: be accountable. If you ever asked “why,” Ken would say, “It’s character building, son.”

Danielle: I never met Ken, but I’ve heard the stories. He sounds like a great character.

Geoff: He was good—tough but fair. I probably deserved some of the bollockings; I was young and cocky and tried to cut laps. He had a great sense of humour too—important when you’re doing five hours a day, five or six days a week.

Danielle: Did you get the nickname “Skippy” because you skipped laps, or the kangaroo reference?

Geoff: Just something I picked up at school. It stuck. There are worse nicknames.

Danielle: Do you look back at that type of training and compare it to what someone like Cam McEvoy does now for the 50 free? If you’d trained differently, would it have helped your times, or was what you did best for you then?

Geoff: There were two parts to my career. Early on with Ken, I learned foundation, hard work, and what it took to get to the top. Later I finished with coach Grant Stoelwinder—Eamon Sullivan’s coach—who was very forward-thinking. His approach changed sprint training in Australia and progressed through to coaches like Brett Hawke and to where Cam is now. With Grant, I had to unwind the high-volume, million-miles-an-hour mindset. Much of our work was front-end or back-end speed—simple as that. Cam’s focus is pure 50-meter speed, and he can do that because of his background and experience. You can’t substitute experience. By learning how to lose races, you learn how to win them—velocity, distance per stroke, last five meters, breaths—things you only learn by racing in front of thousands of people and executing 23 or 51 seconds under pressure. As we get older, it’s strength-based: maintain velocity; the easiest way to increase speed is to minimise drag. Training becomes strength, drag-resistance, and execution.

Danielle: That makes sense. Cam had that background as a 100 freestyler. Kids now might want to think about that before jumping straight into pure 50 sprint work—you need the technique to replicate at high speed.

Geoff: And you need skills. Technique is one component, but without the foundation of skills you’ll default to subconscious patterns on race day. Butterfly is all about twos: two kicks per stroke, two strokes per breath. You “double breathe” to keep the head down and the hips high, to get over the stroke. In Paris 2024 women’s 100 fly, look at two amazing athletes—how they manage the last 10–15 meters and head position. When you fatigue in fly, your hips drop and you go from horizontal to vertical. Younger swimmers often copy seniors’ quirks without understanding the why. You don’t rise to expectations; you fall to your level of training. Practice sloppy, race sloppy. Educate the why, then let them learn.

Danielle: You’re known as a great butterfly technician—love hearing the philosophy.

Geoff: The easiest way to gain or lose ground is skills: starts, turns, finishes. Under pressure—white noise, pain—you revert to subconscious thinking. Before the 15-meter rule, backstrokers and even butterfly swimmers were going 40 meters underwater. Spectators weren’t seeing strokes—hence the rule. The easiest way to get faster is to reduce drag. The moment your head moves around or you start muscling water, you add resistance. Watch how elite programs hammer 15 meters underwater consistently—it’s trained, not wished into existence. Why come up at two meters and swim 48 meters of fly when you can be underwater to 15 and swim 35 meters? Swim smarter.

Danielle: Thinking back to Sydney 2000—you broke the Olympic record in the 100 fly semi (51.96) and qualified fastest for the final with a home crowd. Tell us about the semi and walking out for the final.

Geoff: In the semi, I felt flat and dehydrated, so I told Ken I’d just work on skills. I executed, and with 15 to go I was a body length up—shut it down and still went 51.96. Fast-forward 24 hours to the final: I wanted Ken to run through the race plan. He tapped me on the shoulder and said, “This is it, son. You know what to do.” I had a mind blank and kept thinking, “Whatever you do, don’t miss the start.” In psychology, what you fixate on happens. Starter said, “Take your marks”—gun went—and I froze a split second. Then it was catch-up. Still a bronze, which took time to appreciate. The toughest thing was knowing the semi time would have won the final. But that’s racing—especially at a home Olympics. Gratitude was the big takeaway. Nothing in life since has matched that pressure.

Danielle: The atmosphere in the stadium was electric. Could you feel that on deck?

Geoff: Absolutely. Even if you weren’t in the stadium, Sydney was deafening. It was a different era—pre-9/11, pre-GFC, pre-high-speed internet, pre-iPhone and social. Corporate dollars flowed, people watched at venues or at home. Start of a new millennium, spring in Sydney—amazing energy. I’m grateful to have been part of it—and to finish with medals, including the medley relay silver.

Danielle: Thinking about our current Australian male butterflies—some struggled to get near 51.96 at trials. What do our guys need to do to be more competitive? I know you’ve talked about skills.

Geoff: Matt Temple has been swimming well—50-point for the 100 fly. There are a couple of young kids coming through. Men’s swimming is in an interesting place. The women have dominated for so long. There’s a generational shift in society—role models, mindset. Depth breeds depth; success breeds success. Leading into Sydney 2000, the men’s 4×200 free had huge depth and strong personalities—Thorpe, Hackett, Klim, Dunn, Kirby, Pearson, Kowalski. A home Olympics sharpens that. We’re at the end of 2025—Brisbane 2032 is just over six years away. If you’re 14–15 now, you’ll be 21–22 in 2032—the right age to step up. One of the best questions Ken ever asked me was, “Do you want to be king of Redcliffe—or king of the world?” That challenge still applies. With the current team’s success, young swimmers can either rise to the challenge or not—and that’s fine. But when you stand behind the blocks, all bets are off. It’s about executing a 23, 51, 49-second race under pressure.

Danielle: We also lose a lot of young guys to AFL and rugby league.

Geoff: Sure, but before Sydney 2000 there were talent scouts pulling kids into Olympic sports. A home Games will shift attention again. You won’t get many chances to represent your country at home. Kids will have choices—and they can go back to other sports later.

Danielle: I think Brisbane will do a great job.

Geoff: Absolutely. The atmosphere will be amazing.

Danielle: Back to your career—you retired after Athens, then made a comeback in 2008. What prompted that?

Geoff: When I left the sport in 2005–06, it wasn’t on my terms. I came back with a clearer head. I put on 50 kilos in 12–18 months, so first it was about health—physiological and psychological. As the weight came off, I set a clear goal to swim for Australia again, targeting the Commonwealth Games. They take three per event (worlds/OLY take two), so it was a realistic path. Grant Stoelwinder put together a sprint group—50/100 flyers and freestylers. It was brutally hard to restart—the first sessions had me in the fetal position thinking, “What am I doing?” Like waking a sleeping bear—fast-twitch fibres dormant for years. But it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Danielle: It worked—you won gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games and went faster than ever.

Geoff: Exactly. You can’t substitute experience. My 100 fly race model was completely different from ten years earlier. There’s a better strategy than “blast and hang on.” A 100 is won in the last 65. Use easy speed for the first 35, set distance-per-stroke and body position, build into the wall, then nail the last 65. It’s easier to swim 65 meters max than 75–80 max and hang on. I learned this properly in 2010 from the late Gennadi Touretski in Switzerland. He told me I’d been swimming the 100 wrong for years. Once he explained it, everything made sense. From May through to Delhi, the confidence rebuilt. In the final, I knew what to do—and executed.

Danielle: And you finished up after trials for 2012?

Geoff: I finished 2010 ranked second in the world. 2011 was good but inconsistent—I kept getting sick. After a lot of tests, we found a dental infection; every time I loaded the system it flared. There wasn’t enough time between fixing it and trials. Two swims under 52 weren’t the issue—the third swim hurt me. You give away recovery with age. Racing kids in their teens/early 20s when you’re 33 catches up. That’s life. I was grateful to get another World Champs and a real shot. A third Olympics would’ve been nice, but I walked away on my terms this time.

Danielle: An amazing career, Geoff. You should be proud.

Geoff: I am, thank you. I’m grateful for the international career and the exposure to performance physiology and psychology, overcoming adversity, mental health, teamwork, discipline, goal-setting—everything swimming gave me. I relocated to Singapore about eight years ago. Before 30 I was on my fourth passport because the first three were filled with stamps—swimming gave me that. Now I try to package those lessons for the next generation—ignite the spark that takes them from one part of their journey to the next. Sport is an enabler—even if you don’t reach the top, it can be a pathway to uni or opportunities. Biggest drop-off happens at 15–17; keep kids engaged and out of mischief. And swimming is a team sport: when you’re diving in at 4:30 a.m. with 10–12 like-minded people, that’s a team. Those bonds carry you. Also—if you’re crying into your goggles, the good news is they don’t fog.

Danielle: So true. I love those bonds too—just avoid shampoo in the goggles clashing with the tears!

Geoff: I was old school—spit and go. It evaporates eventually!

Danielle: You raced Masters in Singapore recently?

Geoff: I begrudgingly signed up—for my family, friends, and the athletes I coach. It’s not every day you get Worlds in your backyard. It was awesome to share the groundhog-day mindset: reset daily, focus on what’s in front of you. On 50 fly day, with two little boys (two and four), I carved out three hours, turned the phone off, warmed up, and felt like my old self for a moment. Raced, then back to reality—diapers, cleaning, the lot. A special moment—my boys saw me race; my team was there. It reminded me it’s more than swimming: once you’ve experienced it, you can’t unring the bell.

Danielle: Exactly. Those bonds stay, even years later.

Geoff: You go to Worlds and it’s a brief time machine—back to your teens or early 20s, reliving why you did it. Highs and lows, not always the result you want—that’s sport.

Danielle: Deep Dive Five—first thing that pops into your mind. Favourite all-time set that gets you ready to race?

Geoff: Front-end/back-end speed set: eight 50s with progressing cycles—dive 20 fly max/30 easy free; push 25 easy/max 25 fly; 50 easy; 50 max. Intervals climb: 1:00, 1:10, 1:20, 1:30. If you push a 26.0, you’re back up and repeat. The second round screams; by the third you’re burning everywhere. You throw fins on for a 300 swim-down between rounds. Only ~200m max effort per round, but 2–3 rounds is 400–600m of very high intensity—puts you in the fetal position.

Danielle: Epic. Training song you listened to before racing in Singapore?

Geoff: A Ministry of Sound house version of “Silence” by Delerium. Early career I liked upbeat; into Delhi 2010 I went chill—if you spin your wheels in the first 25 of a 100 fly, your race is over. I wanted calm and control.

Danielle: Best advice you’ve ever been given?

Geoff: Be good to the people you pass on the way up; you’ll pass them again on the way down.

Danielle: What’s next for Geoff? More swimming goals—another World Masters—or happy coaching?

Geoff: I’ll definitely do another World Masters. I love replicating the “train–travel–race” rhythm. I’ve got a round-the-island Hong Kong relay in a few weeks—need to get fit! I enjoy ocean swims, but Singapore/region isn’t ideal for that. I’ve got businesses I’m building—need to stop procrastinating and execute.

Danielle: Maybe get some open-water events going around Asia?

Geoff: That’s in the works—finding locations is a logistical beast, and safety regs can crush the dream a bit. Open water isn’t huge in the culture here, but we’re trying.

Danielle: Geoff, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s been a pleasure, and you’ve given listeners a great insight into your journey.

Geoff: It’s been great—thanks for your time.

Danielle: Take care, Geoff. Bye.

Geoff: You too. Bye. Thanks, boss.

Thanks for tuning in to Torpedo Swimtalk—the podcast celebrating swimmers at every stage, from Masters legends to Olympic champions. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favourite podcast platform and leave a review to help more swimmers find the show. You can also catch past episodes, guest highlights, and swimming stories at torpedoswimtalk.com. Until next time, happy swimming!