2016 U.S. Olympian Jacob Pebley Joining Team Elite – San Diego

2016 U.S. Olympian and U.S. National Team member Jacob Pebley has moved to San Diego and will be joining the Team Elite pro training group coached by 2016 U.S. Olympic women’s head coach David Marsh.

The club is based out of UCSD, where Pebley’s wife Nikki is currently attending medical school.

Pebley qualified for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team in the 200 back, where he placed 5th. A year later, at the 2017 World Championships, he placed 3rd in the same event. Internationally, he’s also been a member of the 2016 Short Course World Championship team (three silver medals), and the 2015 World University Games team (where he won the 200 back).

Pebley had been training with the post-grad group under Dave Durden at his alma mater Cal, where, among others, he swam daily with the defending Olympic Champion in the event, Ryan Murphy.

At the recent 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Pebley won the B-Final in the 200 back. He fell to that heat after being the 3rd-fastest swimmer in prelims (1:55.95), but because the two swimmers in front of him (Murphy and Austin Katz) were also Americans, by rule, he was moved to the B Final.

In that B Final, he swam 1:57.12. He also swam 53.96 in the 100 back prelims.

Pebley’s 1:55.68 from Nationals still leaves him as the 2nd qualifier for the U.S. team for the 2019 World Championships.

Pebley’s move will join a growing backstroke group that includes Japanese 3-time Olympic-medalist Ryosuke Irie, and women’s 100 backstroke World Record holder Kathleen Baker (when she’s not at Cal attending classes), among others.

Pebley isn’t the only Cal Bear who will be making the move south. Cal alumni Chris Rogers, who spent the last 4 years as the Junior Aquatics Manager at the Olympic Club in the Bay Area, will join Team Elite – San Diego as an assistant coach.

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E Gamble
5 years ago

Separating from Ryan Murphy and a new training enviroment might be good for Peebles.

PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
5 years ago

(steels self while preparing for the downvotes)

This is almost certainly by far the best move personally, and that matters a huge amount more than my next sentence.

This is a pretty big risk professionally. The backstroke group at Cal is much improved over the past few years, plus how good Murphy is. Marsh has traditionally never been a huge backstroke coach-outside of Coventry, has he had another backstroker reach the elite international level? (Edit: forgot about Baker, my fault) The records at Auburn when he left were Doug Van Wie at 46.17 in the 100 and Chad Barlow at 1:40.83 in the 200. Those times were definitely better than they seem now, but it doesn’t look like the school… Read more »

Dudeman
Reply to  PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
5 years ago

Tyler Clary trained with him as well, though I can’t remember if he was at swimMAC before London 2012

Skoorbnagol
Reply to  Dudeman
5 years ago

No he was at FAST with Jon urbancheck training 400IM, there’s a video and he says his aim was to win the 400IM in london. Missing the 400Im was a blessing for his 200bk, and a curse for Phelps’ 200fly.

Zanna
Reply to  PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
5 years ago

They say that Florida was not known to train sprinters..

PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
Reply to  Zanna
5 years ago

They were wrong. I might be too.

(Sidenote: While researching what was going to be a longer post that wasn’t very good, I found that Georgia has only had 1 guy lifetime under 19.49 and 3 guys under 43, while they’ve had a ton of sub 22 and 48 girls. Sometimes recruiting matters a lot more than coaching. Or maybe not. Either way, it’s odd.)

Skoorbnagol
Reply to  PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
5 years ago

Nick Thoman 2012 silver medalist 100bk.
Clary and Lochte were poor with him on backstroke but that wasn’t really the sole focus. Clary was still 1.54high.
I think Jacob will be fine, not a great Marsh fan but think he will fit in fine.
Marsh seems to suit one stroke / 1 event swimmers everything based around that, pebleys focus just 200bk Marsh will do a good job.

Definitely Not Sun Yang
5 years ago

He will be overtaken by Katz come 2020

Maverick
Reply to  Definitely Not Sun Yang
5 years ago

Lol definitely not Katz. I guarantee he does not make 2020 Olympics.

spectatorn
Reply to  Maverick
5 years ago

Maverick = Austin Katz? and you are going to retire before the trial or you have already decided not going?
LOL

SwimFan
Reply to  spectatorn
5 years ago

Maverick = Katz Hater!! Katz has dropped a ton of time since he now has a coach!(not SYS) Will be great to see how he does in 2020! Go Austin!

Tea rex
5 years ago

If I was an elite swimmer going second in the lane after Ryan Murphy for six years, I’d look for a change.

Ryosuke should be a good training partner also

Yooz
Reply to  Tea rex
5 years ago

I definitely feel like they swim next to each other not in the same lane

anon
5 years ago

Good for him. He and his wife need to be together.

25 free champ
5 years ago

IMO team “elite” is anything but. There are very few elite swimmers in the world. For USA elite swimmers I would say it’s Ledecky, Dressel, and Murphy. I guess I could also throw Chase in there but that is all of them. Baker and King are the next closest but they need to expand beyond a 100 for me to give them that label. Remember this is just MY opinion. Leave the downvotes and hater comments out this time.

50Breast
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

Uhhh… Lily King, the world record holder, Baker, the world record holder, and Chase, the multi-time WC gold-medalist, are maybes? What is your definition of Elite? And as much as I love Dressel he doesn’t have any world records, so why are you including him in your misguided metrics?

SRS
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

World record holders not Elite? I guess your on another level 25 Free Champ!

Yooz
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

I dont think I have ever read anything more wrong on this website

phelps swims 200 breast rio
Reply to  Yooz
5 years ago

You obviously haven’t read some of my predictions.

dmswim
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

I think you’re reading way too much into the team name. I’m pretty sure the group was originally called SwimMAC Team Elite to differentiate between the pro group and the rest of the club. When Marsh left SwimMAC for San Diego, it just became Team Elite. It’s sort of like club teams that have “national” practice groups when most of the athletes in that group haven’t qualified for nationals.

sven
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

Any Olympian is elite. Especially in the US, which is overall the hardest Olympic team in the world to make. Not to mention that he swims backstroke, which the US seems to always have a ton of depth in, so if you make the Olympics above that field you are indisputably elite.

As I recall, several Team Elite swimmers won medals at the 2016 Olympics and 2017 Worlds, so I think it’s fair to say that the name fits.

Dan
Reply to  sven
5 years ago

I would like to disagree that the US Olympic team is the hardest Olympic swim team to make, I would agree with that the US Olympic swim team is the fastest and largest team (country) at the Olympics.
If the US had used the same qualifying criteria that some other countries use, we would not have had 2 swimmers in all events at this last Olympics.

SwimGeek
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

This has to be trolling. WR-holder’s not “elite”, eh? ha

Ex Quaker
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

We all know the best way to avoid downvotes is to demand people don’t give them…

Hmmm.....
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

Marsh developed Kathleen Baker, last I checked she became an Olympian under him and broke the world record while training with him again this summer.

E Gamble
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

Simone Manuel….Lilly King. How can you forget Olympic and World Champions? 😳

running start to touch backstroke flags
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

In terms of money, you are right, And that is according to Cody Miller, who broke down the money received for placement on different funding levels in his last vlog. Or no money for not making international teams, which is the majority of “elite” swimmers.

Pebs on the worlds team is Elite, financially speaking however, and he will receive some money for that. Swimming is a get-by-financially sport for most top swimmers, not a build-a-nice-nest-egg sport..

anonymous
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

Anyone that makes the National A team is an elite swimmer. They beat up 99.7 percent of US swimmers.

Joe
Reply to  anonymous
5 years ago

99.99%

AWSI DOOGER
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

Baker needs to expand beyond the 100…like her victory at 200 last week

Manifolds
5 years ago

it is a smart move, professionally, and obviously personal…

dude
5 years ago

he got married last summer

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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