The Litherland brothers - Jay, Mick and Kevin - are competing for Georgia State University in this week's NCAA Swimming Championships.

With most of New Zealand's top swimming talent based overseas, the top local hopes are impressive Auckland teens Bobbi Gichard and Gabrielle Fa'amausili.

For most part-time athletes, finishing one Ironman New Zealand endurance challenge is something to cherish.

Kane Radford and Charlotte Webby made it a double at the weekend, claiming honours in the 5km New Zealand Open Water Championships at Lake Taupo.

Two world-class female swimmers, New Zealand's Lauren Boyle and Sweden's Michelle Coleman, have been churning up the lanes in Auckland

Something is obviously awry when a country with one of the worst drowning rates in the developed world is struggling to save the very places where many youngsters learn to swim.

World champion silver medallist and double Olympian Lauren Boyle is supporting a campaign to save 130 of New Zealand's school pools from closing.

Gabrielle Fa'amausili has successfully defended her title with a superb swim at the Fina World Junior Championships in Singapore.

New Zealand's men face a struggle to sustain medal parity with the country's best women at the Rio Olympics and next year's Games could see women win more medals than men for the second time.

The Kiwi swimmer is among the world's elite freestylers and says she won't throw in the towel.

After a "very frustrating" week for Marina Macartney - who had her surf lifesaving gear stolen - she finally has something small to celebrate.

Lauren Boyle has collected her fifth world championship medal with another great swim today.

Does Lauren Boyle get the recognition she deserves in this country? Probably not. The 27-year-old Whenuapai-raised freestyle swimming

Breaststroke swimmer Glenn Snyders produced a top class swim on the third morning of the world champs

American swimming sensation Katie Ledecky has set a world record mark - without intending to do so.

Lauren Boyle is through to her second world championship final but she was overshadowed by a world record time.

Lauren Boyle has her own high grade ambitions at the world swimming championships starting in Kazan, Russia, late tomorrow night.

As the swimming world championships commence in Russia tomorrow, the Olympic hopes of several New Zealand swimmers remain up in the air.

Early in 2012 a group of friends chatting around a table agreed Nic McCloy could probably do an ocean swim race - if she spent a couple of years training to do so.

Returning from the IPC world champs in Glasgow with a bumper haul of medals, the paralympic swimming team are now looking ahead to Rio.