For years, swimming and water polo have been two sports that shared a pool but little else. Yet for a growing number of athletes, the lines between these disciplines are beginning to blur.

Historically, Duke Kahanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, and Brad Schumacher were perhaps the most prominent US Olympians who both swam and played water polo at the highest levels. Matt Biondi was another example. After competing in both swimming and water polo in his youth, Biondi accepted a scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, to swim under head coach Nort Thornton and play water polo for legendary head coach Pete Cutino. As a swimmer, Biondi earned 11 Olympic medals and set world records in five events. As a water polo player, Biondi helped Berkeley win three NCAA Championships, was named All-America four times, and voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1985.

Even so, for a long time, it was often believed that participation in one sport might negatively impact the other.

“There’s an antiquated notion that water polo takes away from swimming…but being open to trying and showing the benefits of doing something different as a means of improving your primary thing has been huge for us,” said Michael Koziol, the head coach of water polo at Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania.

In Texas, Pennsylvania, and beyond, a new generation is embracing the synergy between swimming and water polo and finding ways for the two sports to build upon one another to create more complete athletes and stronger teams. As a result, dual-sport athletes like Biondi are becoming less of an exception.

“I think [swimming and water polo] really do go hand in hand,” said Brandon Dion, the head coach of both swimming and water polo at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas. “Whether you’re using swim season as your conditioning to make you a better water polo player or you’re using water polo as a break from staring at the black line year round, there is definitely room for both,” he said.

Dion grew up swimming in Texas because the state did not yet offer high school water polo. At Fullerton College in California, however, he competed in freestyle sprints, breaststroke, and water polo.

Another Texan, Scott Slay, participated in both sports growing up but admits the swim season was much longer since water polo was not officially sanctioned. As the Texas High School Coaches Association 2024-25 Girls Water Polo Coach of the Year, the Boerne Champion coach now insists that his water polo players swim in the offseason because it improves their conditioning.

“We are doing a lot of sprint training in swimming practice,” Slay said, “but water polo [also] helps build endurance as well as the quick-twitch muscle fibers you need for sprint swimming.”

Koziol, at Germantown Academy, emphasizes that a team-sport mindset can also reinvigorate even the most dedicated swimmers.

One of the biggest advantages is the carryover of camaraderie. Athletes tend to build trust and chemistry in the high-octane world of water polo and bring that energy into the more individual setting of swimming.

Dion said that water polo establishes “the feeling of team and family…so when we roll into swim season, it makes it a little easier to focus on the group as a whole. With the relays, [athletes] know they are [performing] for somebody else – just like they do in water polo – as opposed to just them versus the clock.”

Koziol, in Pennsylvania, sees a similar crossover. “The inherent teamwork in water polo makes it more attractive to kids who are more collaborative,” he said, and when they shift to swimming, the “swimmers then take lessons learned in water polo and focus more on relay[s] or on finding time [to] connect with their teammates between swim sets.”

Slay agreed. “Kids are very close after water polo heading into swimming,” he said. “We’re more like a family than just a team.”

“Water polo is in the fall and swimming is in the winter, so it’s a nice lead-in,” Koziol said.  “Some coaches look at [water polo] as an extended pre-season for swimming, [but] being more of a water polo guy, I view it as two sides of [the same] coin.”

To train athletes effectively in both sports, sprint sets are essential. Dion emphasizes Ultra-Short Race-Pace Training (USRPT), a method of swim training focused on short intervals at race pace or faster. This helps both sports because athletes often sprint between two-meter lines in water polo, and high school swimming primarily focuses on short distances.

Koziol, meanwhile, tends to blend traditional and modern training methods. For example, he will have his water polo players swim with goggles several times a week for conditioning.

All three coaches agree that blending swimming and water polo not only makes athletes faster and fitter – it also keeps them more motivated.

“It’s really hard to do something uninterrupted for eleven-and-a-half months of the year,” Koziol said. “It’s great to break things up so swimmers get their mind off the black line for a few months while increasing their aerobic capacity.”

Dion has also seen his swimmers thrive by adding water polo.

“Maybe they weren’t successful in other team sports,” Dion said, “but they always wanted to be part of a team. It’s an easy transition because they crave that camaraderie. We’ve had success with kids who crave that switch.”

Ultimately, the goal is to showcase the benefits of both sports and “showing them they can be successful in both,” Dion said. “You can apply your swim background to a team sport with a water polo ball, and you can take all this sprint work you’ve done in water polo, put it on a block, and be successful there too.”

Combining swimming and water polo offers more than just a two-season routine; it offers a complete athletic experience.

As Slay put it, “[I think] they do well for each other.”

Even if “water polo players who swim kinda grin and bear it,” Koziol surmised, “[when it’s] time to get the ball back in their hands, they realize the payoff.”

In the pool, as in life, sometimes the best way forward is to look at things from both sides.

 

6/3/2025 11:07:00 AM | Men’s Water Polo USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – The 2025 West Coast Conference men’s water polo game schedule has been released, announced today by the conference office. The Falcons host three home matches, in addition to being the host institution for the 2025 WCC Men’s Water Polo Championships. Air Force’s WCC-opener is Oct. 2 at Pacific. The Falcons then play its first conference home game Oct. 12, hosting Cal Baptist. The ensuing weekend has the Falcons in Southern California to take on LMU on Oct. 17 and Pepperdine on Oct. 19. Air Force plays its final two WCC…

And colleges have taken notice, as the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s senior has committed to run both track and field and cross-country at Southwest Minnesota State University.

“I’ve always enjoyed running in high school, and I had some friends that took that next step, and they really liked it,” Christensen said. “They really encouraged me to take that next step with them and run with them, and they helped me go through the steps and told me what to do, and that’s what made me want to do it. And it’s fun to run. I enjoy doing it.”

Christensen runs the 400-meter and 800-meter races in track and field, as well as the corresponding relays. Christensen’s best time in the 400 is 53.25, and his best time in the 800 is 2:01.19. Christensen also has a personal-best time of 16:44.6 in cross-country. Those times were good enough to convince SMSU that he was a worthy addition to its program.

“I had some friends there,” Christensen said. “And the main thing is they have the programs I want to go for. They have [agriculture] business and agronomy. They’ve got a good program for that, and it’s close to home where I get to see my younger brothers and my family. If I want to come home and watch them play sports or need to help my dad or need to see my mom or something, I can be home in an hour. It’s close to home, I have my friends there, they’ve got the program I want to go for.”

File photo by Fritz Busch
River Valley 4×400 relay runner Noah Christensen battles a Windom runner at the Section 2A Track and Field Championships at Mankato West High School this past Saturday.

Christensen said he got some insight into the program from his friends and from a campus visit.

“Before I committed, I went out and visited their coach, and he was really nice,” he said. “I had some friends there too that told me about it, so I kind of knew what to expect. But he was really nice and they have a good facility. Their whole campus is all indoors, so you don’t ever have to go outside, which is really nice.”

Christensen said it will be challenging to be a two-season athlete at the next level.

“I’m going to be extremely busy,” he said. “It has its pros and cons, obviously, but it will keep me out of trouble anyway … Time management with school and sports. I’m not going to have my parents there to help me with everything, so that’s going to be a learning curve, but I’m sure it’s going to be alright.”

He added that the level up in competition would be an adjustment in college.

“Right now, I’m one of the better athletes that I see,” he said. “But there, I’m probably not going to be one of the top athletes, so that will take some getting used to for sure.”

Christensen hopes to be All-Conference in both track and cross-country during his time at SMSU.

“Getting conference is a big thing out there,” he said. “If you make conference, I’m sure that’s going to be one of my goals for cross-country and track. And just getting good grades and completing my major and minor eventually.”

Christensen also hopes to continue to contribute on the relay teams with the Mustangs.

“Relays are fun,” he said. “It’s fun to go with your guys. My roommate next year at SMSU [Springfield’s Matthew Groebner] is actually on the relay teams with me [at River Valley], so we’re going to be rooming together next year, which will be fun to have somebody I know to talk to and room with. That will be really fun, to have some people you know, but then also have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and make a lot of new friends.”

Christensen and the River Valley 4×400 and 4×800 relay teams will run in the state meet preliminary rounds on Tuesday. Christensen hopes to place in the top nine with the 4×400 team to advance to the finals.

“The 4×800 I don’t really know where we stand, but it will be fun to go against some good teams,” he said.