New training device helps Olympic swimmers shoot for gold

Swimmer David McCagg won the 1978 World Championship in the 100-meter freestyle. He won two more golds at the 1979 Pan-Am Games.

After his competitive career, he decided to step away from the pool. But when came back more than three decades later he knew he had to help change the sport.

“I got back into swimming after 37 years of being out of it. I walked out onto the deck, and basically, they had the same type of resistance training,” said McCagg, founder and CEO of GMX7. “So what we came up with is a device that is like inventing the Apple iPhone back with the payphone.”

He’s talking about the X-1 Pro. It’s a six-inch-long weighted device that’s hooked on a line (that stretches the length of the pool) and provides water-resistance while swimmers tow it behind themselves in the water. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s changing how world-class athletes train.

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