In an article on Universal Sports, Jason Devaney talks about the recent success of USA Swimming and how its women are roaring back to life.

Jason has high expectations for the leaders of the American pool team led by Rebecca Soni, Katie Hoff, Kate Ziegler, Natalie Coughlin, Dana Vollmer and Jessica Hardy.

But from our perspective, the American open water swim team is also quite formidable – arguably even more deep than their pool counterparts – and they are starting to demonstrate their potential on the international scene. Not only do they have a dynamo in world 5K champion Eva Fabian who was also leading the 10K race at the 2010 world championships until the very end when she went around the wrong side of an intermediate buoy, but they also have the fast-improving Queen of the Sea and RCP Tiburon Mile winner Christine Jennings, the incredibly strong Chloe Sutton and the converted pool star Emily Brunemann. They have all battled stroke-for-stroke with each other in numerous domestic and international competitions – and every competition can see a different swimmer emerge. Then there are Emily Brunemann, Emily Hanson, Kirsten Groome, Haley Anderson and Heidi George who have all proven to be able to stay with the leaders.

The American women are very deep, relatively young and capable of being serious medal threats at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic 10K Marathon Swims.

How close are there? Check out this video one minute into the video to see Emily Brunemann and Eva Fabian sprint together in the Cayman Islands.

USA Swimming is supporting its elite athletes through a variety of services listed here.

Photo courtesy of NYC Swim from the 2009 New York City Pro Swim.

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