The coaching staff for the United States’ pool swimming team at the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships has been named. Joining head coaches Greg Meehan (women) and Dave Durden (men), who were announced to their posts in January, will be joined by an all-male coaching staff that looks rather similar to the one named to last year’s Olympic staff.
Women’s Staff
- Greg Meehan, Stanford (Head Coach)
- Arthur Albiero, Louisville
- Cory Chitwood, Virginia
- Ray Looze, Indiana
Men’s Staff
- Dave Durden, Cal (Head Coach)
- Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- Eddie Reese, Texas
- Gregg Troy, Florida
All 8 of the coaches on this year’s staff are collegiate coaches, which mirrors a very college-heavy World Championships team. Each of the ‘Power 5’ conferences are represented by at least one coach, and no programs from outside of those conferences is represented on the staff.
There is one anomaly on this year’s staff – Cory Chitwood will represent Virginia on this year’s staff. Virginia is the training ground of Leah Smith, who qualified for the team in 5 individual events (200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 1500 free, 400 IM), which is more than any other swimmer on the American team.
Typically, while assistant coaches might serve on more minor teams like at the World University Games, World Championship rosters are reserved for head coaches. The head coach of Virginia, Augie Busch, is the son of outgoing USA Swimming National Team Director Frank Busch, who has announced his upcoming retirement after Worlds. Augie’s absence will fuel rumors that he’s the front-runner to take over the team at Arizona, where his dad was formerly the head coach, and who are currently looking for a new leader themselves.
Among the coaches missing from the list in spite of putting multiple swimmers on the team are Texas A&M head coach Steve Bultman (Bethany Galat, Sarah Gibson), Ted Knapp (Abrahm Devine, True Sweetser), and Cal head coach Teri McKeever (Kathleen Baker, Abbey Weitzeil).
The staff is among the most-accomplished that USA Swimming has ever assembled. The entire men’s staff is made up of coaches who have been head coaches of U.S. Olympic Teams. The women’s team has thinner resumes (they’re generally a much younger staff), but includes Arthur Albiero – who has served on 3 World Championship staffs (for Portugal), plus an Olympic staffs (2012 for Portugal) and as the head coach for the 2016 SC World Championships.
A rundown of the coaches on staff and which athletes are currently members of their teams:
Greg Meehan (Women’s Head Coach)
- Katie Ledecky (200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 1500 free, 4×100 free relay)
- Simone Manuel (50 free, 100 free, 4×200 free relay)
- Lia Neal (4×100 free relay)
Arthur Albiero (Women’s Assistant)
- Mallory Comerford (100 free, 4×200 free relay)
- Kelsi Worrell (50 fly, 100 fly, 4×100 free relay)
Cory Chitwood (Women’s Assistant)
- Leah Smith (200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 1500 free, 400 IM)
Ray Looze (Women’s Assistant)
- Lilly King (50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast)
- Cody Miller (50 breast, 100 breast)
- Blake Pieroni (200 free, 4×100 free relay)
- Zane Grothe – Indiana post-grad group (400 free, 800 free, 4×200 free relay)
Dave Durden (Men’s Head Coach)
- Nathan Adrian (50 free, 100 free)
- Ryan Murphy (100 back, 200 back)
- Jacob Pebley (200 back)
Jack Bauerle (Men’s Assistant)
- Pace Clark (200 fly)
- Nic Fink (200 breast)
- Chase Kalisz (200 IM, 400 IM)
- Jay Lithelrand (400 IM)
- Hali Flickinger (200 fly)
- Melanie Margalis (4×200 free relay, 200 IM)
- Olivia Smoliga (100 back, 4×100 free relay)
Eddie Reese (Men’s Assistant)
- Jack Conger (200 fly)
- Townley Haas (200 free, 4×100 free relay)
- Clark Smith (400 free, 800 free, 4×200 free relay)
Gregg Troy (Men’s Assistant)
- Caeleb Dressel (50 free, 50 fly, 100 fly, 100 free, 4×200 free relay)
- Elizabeth Beisel (400 IM)
Editor’s note: Swimmers who qualify for relays as a result of swimming the relevant event individually (such as Simone Manuel in the 100 free) are not listed separately in their relays, following USA Swimming’s official event announcement.
Catherine Vogt should have been named to the open water team! She coaches 2 of the 4 female swimmers on the open water team (Haley Anderson and Becca Mann) and has also been coaching Brendan Casey. Only reason I can think of that she wasn’t named to the team is because USA swimming didn’t want to name a female coach.
Do you mean the Catherine Vogt who was the head open water coach for the US WC team in 2015 and the US Olympic team in 2016?
The “all male” comment does not make me think less of this staff. This is an amazing collection of coaches. It does reflect on the current state of the sport though. A fully mature sport would have a collection of amazingly qualified, diverse coaches from all races, genders, cultures, etc. The fact that the pool of great coaches to choose from is mostly white men tells you the sport has a long way to go.
Part of the current state comes from swimming availability in the U.S. towards people of color; part comes from chauvinistic attitudes towards ADs not wanting to hire female head coaches; part comes from the country club, high priced nature of youth participating in USA… Read more »
IMHO the reason why we do not see more female coaches at the elite levels of swimming is because they simply do not want to do it. If they wanted to, they would. Women can coach just as well as men if not better. The time demands and stress of the job does not mesh well with raising a family, and the family and health of the baby is more important. Read the studies on breastfeeding and the importance for immune system health and cognitive ability of the child, per one example…if moms care about the health and IQ of their babies and they are able, they will breastfeed for a year if not more. This doesn’t work so well… Read more »
It’s not always a choice though. When it’s men hiring, they are going to hire another male first. Women are putting themselves out there and need to work together to create their own network cause the “good ole boys” aren’t letting them in. The women they do let in typically have big names cause they were an Olympian or on a NCAA team. That’s not the same standard male candidates are held to. And it’s a shame because there are many amazing female coaches out there getting overlooked. Or get pegged with a negative tags that are not placed on their male peers (see earlier comment someone made about McKeever).
ADs make the hires of HC…not other male HC. There are plenty of female assistants, heck every staff has to have one. Now a female HC, that’s a different story. Your logic would imply male HC are in this “old boy” network with ADs? Farfedtched. By and large, women just don’t want to be head coaches, that is the bottom line, as much as some wish it weren’t so.
How many female ADs do you think there are?
347 D1 schools 10% female AD’s. So not many.
As much as I think every person on the staff roster deserves the position and has my respect, it is a shame that there are not any female coaches in USA swimming that qualify. (s’pose the managers have to fit that role) I would not ever make a statement as to why just that there are few.. I swam for one amazing female (Penny Taylor) in high school but the rest of my coaches (Frank Busch & Nick Hansen) were male and were AWESOME!! Just the times, I guess!
2 of the coaches for the Women’s Team only have one female swimmer represented on the squad. I get that Leah Smith and Lily King are great swimmers, but coaches should be put on the staff based on their overall ability and track record. Passing up Steve Bultman for a spot on this coaching staff is just crazy. What does he need to do to get the same respect that these other coaches have done? Get top 3 at NCAA’s? Oh wait…
i think part of the protocal to picking a coach is determining what are the odds that they will get a medal or medals.. Leah has a pretty good shot of getting a medal or medals. Same thing for Lilly. Probably not so much for the TAMU swimmers. This is why Bruce Gemmell went to every Worlds and Olympics with Katie in the last quad. How one’s team does at NCAA’s doesn’t really factor into all of this…..
Technically, Looze is listed as a coach for the women’s roster, but he also coached Miller, Pieroni and Grothe. I would guess that coaches tend to coach event groups instead of specific genders regardless of how they are listed.
rolling my eyes that commenters think “all-male” is an indictment of this staff more than the US coaching system in general. There should be and need to be more women coaching at the top level.
We gonna have great Worlds with this staff and the great team of athletes. Go USA!!!
The coaches are usually chosen from the pool of coaches for athletes on the team. If the coaches are all male, it is because the current athletes on Team USA have overwhelmingly male coaches. It is not an attempt by Team USA to slight women coaches. Oh,and Kathleen Baker has Marsh listed as her coach for nationals, not Teri. Until women are more represented in college coaching jobs, this will continue to be a trend.