After competing at the 2018 World Short Course Championships with Team USA in Hangzhou, China, Ryan Held has appeared in a recent podcast on U.S. Olympic medalist Cody Miller‘s YouTube page.
Sources tell SwimSwam that Held is currently shopping around for a pro group to join, putting Indiana’s pro group into the conversation. Miller, who has been regularly producing vlogs on YouTube, recently began posting podcasts. For this podcast, which was posted on January 5th of this year, Miller talks SC Worlds, training, movies, and more with Held and Blake Pieroni. Held spent a week in Bloomington.
Miller and Pieroni are both Indiana University alums who stuck around to join their pro group. The pro squad at IU has picked up steam over the last year or so, as swimmers like Zane Grothe, Amanda Kendall, Annie Lazor, Margo Geer, and Ashley Neidigh have all made the move to Bloomington. Renowned sprint coach Coley Stickels is one of the recent coaches to have joined Ray Looze‘s staff, which could be a draw for Held.
The 23-year-old Held is one of the top sprinters in the U.S., wrapping up his career at NC State this spring. An illustrious collegiate swimmer, Held was part of NC State’s first-ever NCAA relay title in 2016, and developed into one of the top sprinters in SCY history. After winning Olympic gold in Rio as part of the 4×100 free relay, Held has since been part of the U.S. team at the 2018 SC Worlds, where he was on five relays, four of which won gold, and three of which set new World Records.
I listened to the podcast and was happy to hear the good vibe that was going on between Ryan, Blake and Cody. Sometimes, it is more than the coaching staff that gets an athlete to his or her goals – it is the strong bond between the teammates who encourage and work towards their goals together. It felt like a good fit for Ryan. He would have some of the best sprinters in the world to train with day in and day out. We need these guys to put it on the line this summer and especially next year. The other swimming nations have incredible sprinters and the day in and day out push from the sprinters at Indiana would… Read more »
Is there no “pro group” in Raleigh? I kind of find that hard to believe. So why leave there? I know he is from that region, correct? Indiana or Illinois? Maybe try out the new group in C-ville with Conger…. work on that 100 Fly a bit, and some 100 free maybe 200 free too… there are worse training partners out there than Conger.