John Wood joins Helen Gorman to reflect on the European Masters Short Course Championships held in Lublin, Poland. We discuss everything from John's impressive gold medal and lifetime best performance in the 100m butterfly to the size of pizza slices available at the pool cafe.

We review the world record breaking performances and highlight a few star performances by British swimmers. We also cover the organisation of the championships and the value of having a major international short course event in the masters calendar.

Celebrating a new year, we look at key meets for 2026, and how to structure training cycles. We also consider the importance of preparation meets and scheduled recovery.

Rival Inter County team managers from Surrey (Laura Kerrigan) and Hampshire (James MacTavish) take on the 'Inter County Christmas Cup', a new podcast game show devised without any rules or a scoring system. Helen Gorman asks the questions and Joe Malone is called in work out who wins.

This Christmas special covers training traditions as well as a review of what happened in 2025. We put forward nominations for the Freestyle Media masters swimmer of the year and look ahead to 2026. See you all in the new year, thanks for listening! Follow us on Instagram for video clips and https://www.instagram.com/freestyle_media_swimming/.

Visit https://www.allensswimwear.co.uk and use the code ‘MastersPod’ to access discount on non-sale items.

Hear from Jane Asher following her induction into the Swim England Hall of Fame.

Jane has broken over 100 master’s swimming world records and won numerous world titles. Now she’s preparing for the next age group with a laser focus on the record books! Even in her 90s, her swims are a master class in technique and pacing and her approach to training is a lesson in longevity (assuming no one gets in her way!)

Hear stories from Jane’s childhood, including moving from Zambia to South Africa to get treatment for malaria, a life-threatening condition at the time, and how that move enabled a celebrated swimming career to begin.

Follow https://www.instagram.com/freestyle_media_swimming/ to access video footage and some bonus interview snippets.

Visit https://www.allensswimwear.co.uk and use the code ‘MastersPod’ to access discount on non-sale items.