Swim coach Eddie Reese has been named the winner of the 2024 USA Swimming Award, considered by many to be the organization’s highest honor, in recognition of his over-40-year long coaching career. The honor is a lifetime achievement award of sorts for individuals who have contributed to the sport in transformational ways.
Reese is one of a number of individuals honored this weekend at the USA Swimming Workshop/Annual Business Meeting in Denver.
Full List of Award Winners
- USA Swimming Award: Eddie Reese
- Developmental Coach of the Year Award: Chris Plumb
- James (Jimi) Raymond Flowers Coach of the Year Award: Jamal Hill
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award: Maritza Correia McClendon
- Trischa L. Zorn Award: Anastasia Pagonis
- 2023 Pinnacle Award: Marianne Walling
- 2024 Pinnacle Award: Jamie Cahn
- Athletes Distinguished Service Award: Ashley Twichell Wall
- Athlete Appreciation Award: Derek Paul
- Adolph Kiefer Safety Commendation Award: Mike Seip
- Open Water Achievement Award: Mark McCaw
Reese retired as the head coach of the men’s swimming & diving program for the second time at the end of the 2023-2024 season, having led the program for 46 years. In that run, he led the team to 45 consecutive conference titles, 44 consecutive top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, and 15 NCAA Division I titles – more than any other men’s program in history.
He also served as the men’s head coach for the U.S. Olympic Team in 2004 and 2008 and as an assistant coach in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2012.
Other coaching awards included Chris Plumb of the Carmel Swim Club for Developmental Coach of the Year Award after putting two current (and one former) swimmers on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team. Siblings Alex Shackell and Aaron Shackell both trained with Plumb in the leadup to the Games, with the 17-year-old Alex winning gold as part of the women’s 400 medley relay and silver as part of the 800 free relay.
Jamal Hill won the Jimi Flowers Coach of the Year Award for coaches who work with athletes with disabilities and/or promotion of swimmers with a disability and disability swimming within the nominee’s sphere of influence. Hill has promoted his sport as a leading face of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games, and he also swam at the 2024 Paralympic Games, placing 5th in the S9 50 free.
Other honorees include Maritza Correia McClendon winning the USA Swimming DEI Award. She is a former chair of the USA Swimming Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, and is the current Board Treasurer of Diversity in Aquatics. In 2004, she became the first African-American swimmer to win an Olympic medal for the United States and the first black American swimmer to set an American and World Record in swimming.
Ashley Twichell Wall received the Athletes Distinguished Service Award. The 35-year-old won gold medals in open water swimming at the 2011 and 2017 World Championships. After giving birth to her first child in 2022, she returned to competition and made finals in both the 800 and 1500 frees at the US Olympic Trials.
Anastasia Pagonis received the Trischa L. Zorn Award as the “swimmer or relay team with a disability with the most outstanding performance during the previous year.” Pagonis made three individual finals and a relay final at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Marianne Walling and Jamie Cahn received the 2023 and 2024 Pinnacle Awards for their effort as meet officials; Mike Seip won the Adolph Kiefer Safety Commendation Award; Mark McCaw won the Open Water Achievement Award; and USA Swimming Associate General Counsel and former Tennessee Aquatics Executive Director Derek Paul received the Athlete Appreciation Award after being hired by the organization in June.
