Best of 2010: Five takeaways from swimming

The swimsuit effect
FINA's ban on full bodysuits began Jan. 1, 2010, and the effects were evident all season in the form of zero world records in long-course competitions. In fact, we nearly made it a full year without a single world record before four marks fell at the Short-Course World Championships in early December (here, here, here and here.

Will we ever have a year like 2009, when swimmers were breaking world records on a daily (and sometimes hourly) basis? Probably not, but there will be a time when some of those low times will fall -- perhaps in 2011.

Has anyone seen Michael Phelps?
The winner of eight-gold medals at the Beijing Olympics decided to take it easy in 2010. Michael Phelps swam at a handful of Grand Prix meets early in the season and then competed at the U.S. Nationals and Pan-Pacific Championships in August, the latter of which led to five gold medals -- the 100m and 200m butterfly and all three relays. But it was a year in which Phelps was upstaged by fellow American Ryan Lochte in every way.

Some folks, like this blogger, questioned Phelps' priorities with the 2012 London Olympics less than two years away. But here's the bottom line: Until someone has a better Olympics than Phelps did in 2008, he will be the king. He needs to be completely dedicated to swimming in 2011, however.

Lochte is lights out
Speaking of Lochte, what he did at the Pan-Pacs (six gold medals) and the Short-Course Worlds (five individual wins, two world records) was something special. He broke the only two individual world records of 2010. He was also named USA Swimming's Male Athlete of the Year. It will be interesting to see how Lochte does against Phelps at the 2011 Worlds in Shanghai, assuming Phelps is in better shape.

Hardy rebounds from suspension
Jessica Hardy had one of the best comebacks of 2010. After returning from a drug suspension in August 2009, she was officially cleared of knowingly taking the banned substance clenbuterol in May of this year. Hardy responded by winning four races (two individual) at the Pan-Pacs and earning two relay silver medals at the Short-Course Worlds. She also won four national titles and relayed a funny story about Japanese toilets.

U.S. women roar to life
Led by Rebecca Soni, Katie Hoff, Kate Ziegler, Natalie Coughlin, Dana Vollmer, Hardy and others, the U.S. women won 15 titles at the Pan-Pacs (including the 10k open-water event). Soni completely dominated the breaststroke all year and is the world's best in the stroke right now. Hoff and Ziegler rediscovered their winning ways after relocating to California to train. Coughlin returned to the pool for the first time since Beijing. There's also a new women's national team head coach in Terri McKeever. The squad is in excellent shape at the moment.