From Finnish Pools to US Colleges: Eetu’s Journey of Growth and Resilience. Hidden Secrets of Long‑Term Swimming Development and Why Progress Isn’t Linear
From Finnish Pools to US Colleges: A Swimmer’s Journey of Growth and Resilience
The Hidden Secrets of Long‑Term Swimming Development and Why Progress Isn’t Linear
Finnish swimmer‑turned‑coach Eetu Karvonen breaks down his 25‑year swimming journey from early childhood in Finland’s “golden age” to his later success as a sprinter in the U.S. and the coaching insights he now shares.
In this video you’ll learn:
How the Finnish swimming boom shaped his early career and mindset.
Why “more training” isn’t always better – the injuries and plateaus he faced.
The game‑changing shift to technique‑focused training introduced by Milton Elms & Bill Boomer.
How discovering his sprint strengths in U.S. college unlocked his best performances.
Practical coaching takeaways on progressive training, motivation, and guiding young swimmers (and parents).
“Swimming Against the Current: From Finnish Kid a Coach of a Record‑Breaking Sprinter (and Why the Real Gold Is the Love of the Process)”
“I never won an Olympic medal. What I did win was learning to love the grind. The secret to any swimmer’s success isn’t more laps; it’s falling in love with the daily improvement.”
Keywords
Finnish swimming, early specialization, Alex Nikitin, breaststroke, Jani Sievinen, Antti Kasviok, training volume, hard work mindset, shoulder injuries, knee injury, Milton Elms, Bill Boomer, technique focus, video analysis, swimming drills, US college swimming, Grand Canyon University, sprint training, sprinter development, coaching progression, plateau breaking, intrinsic motivation, athlete mindset, parental support, age‑group development
My Career — Almost Made It from presenter, Eetu Karvonen, Ph.D., to the audience at WAFSU.org
Dennis Antonio Cordero of UCSSC & WAFSU.org
We would like to give the floor to our consistent volunteer speaker coming from Finland, Dr. Eetu Karvonen. Coach, the floor is yours.
Eetu Karvonen
This first hour, or 50 minutes, or however long I end up talking, is about me. Of course, this is the hardest topic for a Finnish guy because we don’t really like to discuss ourselves and our accomplishments. At the moment I am a coach and I’ve been professionally coaching for more than 10 years now, about 12 years already, and semi-professionally for 10 years before that. At the same time, while I was already coaching, I was also a swimmer, and I used to look like that. I hope I would still be as powerful as I was back then.
My best stroke was breaststroke. When Dennis asked me to speak about this topic, I thought the best way to approach it would be to go through my whole career, especially because there are swimmers and parents listening who might want to understand what the development path toward international-level swimming can look like.
I was not Michael Phelps. I was not Léon Marchand. I never won international medals. But I did swim in a European Championship final in short course and a World Championship semifinal in long course, and I swam in relay finals as part of the Finnish team at the European level. It has already been about 20 years since I started competing internationally.
Everybody has a beginning. I started swimming in 1989. My father’s colleague’s daughter was a swimming teacher, and they asked whether I wanted to learn how to swim. So I joined a club at age three. That is very young and not typical in Finland, but apparently I was excited enough that I competed in the 50 freestyle already in 1990. I remember that as my first competition.
Even then I had massive confidence. My mother always tells me that after that meet I only talked about the competition and how I won it. Of course I was dead last, because nobody else there was as young as I was.
This happened during the golden age of Finnish swimming. Two swimmers dominated the 1990s: Antti Kasvio, who won Olympic bronze in the 200 freestyle in 1992, and Jani Sievinen, who placed fourth in the 200 IM at the same Olympics. Soon after that they began winning medals at European Championships, World Championships, and beyond. In 1994 Jani broke the world record in the 200 IM and held it for nine years until Michael Phelps finally broke it.
For Finnish swimming this was completely unprecedented. There had never been elite swimming like that before, and really not since. At age eight it became clear to me what I wanted to become. I never reached that level, but I decided I wanted to be like Jani and Antti.
The great thing was that I could actually see them in person. Competitions were held every month in Finland, and if you chose the right meets you could swim in the same pool as these super swimmers. That shaped how I thought about what was possible.
At the time, the dominant training paradigm in Finland—and really across swimming for many years—was simple: more training was better. When I was young I remember swimming 10 kilometers during Christmas and New Year holidays. Every holiday period was basically about swimming. This approach taught me the value of hard work, even if the work was not always smart.
Because of the success stories of Kasvio and Sievinen, a whole generation of swimmers in Finland followed the same training philosophy. Today things are different. Now swimmers can watch athletes around the world on YouTube or Instagram. If your country does not have elite swimmers locally, you can still learn from the best internationally. At that time we had to attend competitions in person just to watch how Antti swam freestyle and try to remember it afterward.
From a Finnish perspective I was quite talented as an age-group swimmer. I won almost every event at national championships between ages 11 and 14. Looking back, it was clear why. It was not mainly training—it was early biological development. By age 14 I had already reached my adult height.
In 2001, at age 15, I won my first medals at the Finnish senior national championships. I took silver in the 200 breaststroke and bronze in the 100 breaststroke. Those times would not be fast today, but at the time they were competitive in Finland. That period was probably the peak of what I could achieve under the traditional training system we were using.
Nobody talked about technique. Nobody talked about recovery or nutrition. Training was about volume. After those results in 2001, my coach and I doubled my training load. At age 15 I was already swimming nine sessions per week. At age 16 it increased to 12 sessions per week plus dryland training. Within four months both shoulders became severely painful. MRI scans showed serious damage, and I had shoulder surgery at age 17 and another at age 18.
One of the most important lessons I learned during that period was that my biggest improvements came when I could not train. I dropped several seconds after weeks of reduced training while waiting for surgery. That was my first realization that performance is not only about building capacity—it is also about learning how to use the capacity you already have.
During rehabilitation I became one of the best breaststroke kickers in the world, but I also developed a knee injury that still affects me today. Recovery matters. Training more is not always better.
The first major change in training philosophy in Finland came when Milton Nelms and Bill Boomer introduced a technical approach to training. Before that we almost never discussed technique. After their influence we began filming strokes and working with drills. The training volume remained high, but the perspective changed. That shift allowed me to improve again around age 20.
In 2006 I had the best year of my swimming career. I dropped more than two seconds in short course, broke one minute in the 100 breaststroke, and qualified for international competitions regularly. But again, improvement stalled after two years. That pattern repeated throughout my career: improvement when training changed, followed by plateaus when it did not.
In 2009 I moved to the United States. I could not join a Division I college program because of my age, so I trained in Portland while studying at Portland State University. Later I transferred to Grand Canyon University, where coach Steve Schaffer allowed me to train as a sprinter for the first time in my life. That change transformed my performance. I began improving immediately, broke barriers I had chased for years, and won multiple Division II national titles.
My best performances came late, between ages 25 and 28. Looking back, if I had trained that way earlier in my career, the outcome might have been very different. The most important lesson from my 25 years in swimming is that development is not linear. Progress depends on finding the right training approach for the individual athlete at the right time.
Age-group swimming is mostly about maturity and skills. If you want to beat the current champions someday, your skills must be better than theirs. The best time to learn skills is before age 15. This is the foundational period for development—not just learning how to train, but learning how to recover, how to eat, how to think about improvement, and how to love the sport.
Junior swimmers must learn to identify their strengths. Development is rarely linear. You win because of your strengths. There are physiological ceilings and technical ceilings. The physiological ceiling will eventually plateau, but the technical ceiling can always be improved. Improvements in training eventually transfer to racing performance.
Motivation begins with competitive goals, but long-term success depends on loving the process. Improvement in swimming follows the same principles as improvement in any other field. Swimming becomes a microcosm of life.
Mark Rauterkus of WAFSU.org and International Swim Coaches Association
Today, who do you watch? Who do you follow online for coaching insights or practice ideas?
Eetu Karvonen
Lately I have been following the sprint discussions around Cameron McEvoy. There is also a podcast called I Don’t Get It by Nate McKay and Kyle Johnson that has very good coaching conversations. Beyond that, I stay connected with several coaches here in Finland and in the United States whom I can consult whenever needed.
Mark Rauterkus
How can people follow what you are doing in your programs?
Eetu Karvonen
I have a YouTube channel connected to my coaching education work. Dennis keeps saying I am the Finnish national coach, but I retired from that role in 2025. Now I am a club coach in Finland and I run an online coaching education platform. Most of my YouTube content is aimed at triathletes and master swimmers, but the principles can still apply indirectly to age-group swimmers. If I suggest training three times per week for adults, multiply that by three and you are probably close to the right number for competitive swimmers.
Mark Rauterkus
Tell us about your family background.
Eetu Karvonen
My father was an almost-made-it ice hockey player, just one level below the professional leagues in Finland. That probably influenced my goal-oriented approach to sport, but my parents never forced me into swimming. They could see that I was extremely passionate. I read my first sports science book at age 11 and spent my allowance ordering swimming VHS tapes like Auburn Sprint Secrets and Ed Moses materials. Swimming was everything for me.
My wife is not from swimming, which is probably a good thing, but we did meet at a swimming pool.
Mark Rauterkus
How are your knees and shoulders now?
Eetu Karvonen
My shoulders are fine after surgery, but my right knee has remained problematic since those rehabilitation years. At one point I spent six months doing only kicking twice per day while my arm was immobilized after surgery. Looking back, it is not surprising that the knee never fully recovered.
Mark Rauterkus
Tell us about your graduate school experience and your PhD.
Eetu Karvonen
My master’s degree was very helpful. The PhD took nine years and required a lot of persistence, especially after I moved away from the United States. It was valuable personally, but mostly as a lesson in resilience.
Parent on the Webinar from PH
As a parent, what advice would you give when children lose motivation or make excuses about training?
Eetu Karvonen
First you need to define what the swimmer wants from swimming. If they want a certain result, they need to understand the process required to achieve it. Parents and coaches cannot create intrinsic motivation for the swimmer, but they can help make the connection between goals and daily work clear.
In my club swimmers are not forced to attend practice, but if they miss training and then miss their competition goals, we talk honestly about why. Inspiration also helps. Watching great swimmers can motivate athletes to return to training with purpose.
Dennis Antonio Cordero
Thank you so much
Also see the other seminars from Eetu at WAFSU.org.
Click the image below to go to, https://wafsu.org/course/swim-coaching-career-of-eetu/
