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The University of Florida announced the addition of Ahmed Jaouadi to its men’s swimming & diving roster on Friday, with the Tunisian fresh off winning a pair of World Championship titles last week in Singapore.
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Although SwimSwam cannot confirm that Jaouadi will join the Gators in the upcoming 2025-26 season, given that he’s 20, and that other recent international commitments are joining their college teams right away, including another recent Florida commit, Dutch breaststroker Koen de Groot, that is presumably the case with Jaouadi.
Jaouadi proved that he was the best male distance freestyler on the planet at the 2025 World Championships, kicking things off by winning gold in the men’s 800 freestyle in a time of 7:36.88, a new textile world record and the third-fastest performance in history.
The Tunisian followed up by claiming the 1500 free title in 14:34.41, emerging after a close battle with Germany’s Sven Schwarz (14:35.69) and American (and now, future training partner) Bobby Finke (14:36.60) to rank #6 all-time in the event.
The University of Florida is now the training home of three of the world’s best distance freestylers, as in addition to Finke and now Jaouadi, female GOAT Katie Ledecky trains in Gainesville with head coach Anthony Nesty.
On top of that, Ahmed Hafnaoui, a fellow Tunisian who won the same double that Jaouadi won at the 2023 World Championships with double gold in the men’s 800 and 1500 freestyle, is transferring to Florida this fall after a short stint at Indiana.
The addition of Jaouadi will be significant for the Gators, as he’ll immediately be a big favorite to win the NCAA title in the 1650 freestyle, and he’ll also be a contender in the 500 free. Last season, Gio Linscheer was Florida’s lone scorer in either event at NCAAs, placing 12th in the 500 free (4:12.05) and 9th in the 1650 free (14:33.10).
Although maybe lacking a bit at the top end, the Gators do have a deep distance group, with Linscheer joined by Jake Mitchell, Oskar Lindholm, Josh Parent, Luke Corey and Eric Brown under the 15-minute barrier in the 1650 last season (and Luke Whitlock, who has transferred to Indiana). Among that group, Mitchell has retired and Lindholm has exhausted his NCAA eligibility.
Adding in Hafnaoui and Jaouadi could easily mean a 1-2 finish at NCAAs in the 1650 free, with Hafnaoui being a contender for the title in the 500 free as well after he won Olympic gold in Tokyo in the 400 free.
JAOUADI’S BEST TIMES
| Event | LCM PB | SCM PB |
SCY Conversion (Fastest)
|
| 200 free | 1:51.96 | 1:48.96 | 1:37.98 |
| 400/500 free | 3:45.95 | 3:38.57 | 4:09.79 |
| 800/1000 free | 7:36.88 | 7:31.93 | 8:31.91 |
| 1500/1650 free | 14:34.41 | 14:16.40 | 14:11.29 |
Acknowledging that time conversions are not an exact science, Jaouadi’s projections show that he will challenge Finke’s NCAA Record in the 1650 free (14:12.08) and that he’ll be a top contender in the 500 free, with 4:09.52 having been the cut-off to make the NCAA ‘A’ final last season.
The transition to yards shouldn’t be a difficult one for Jaouadi, given he’s found plenty of success in short course meters thus far in his career. At the 2024 Short Course World Championships, he won the world title in the 1500 free in a time of 14:16.40, ranking him #9 all-time, and he also claimed bronze in the 800 free in a new African and Tunisian Record of 7:31.93. He also showed some speed by making the final of the 400 free, clocking 3:38.57 in the prelims before placing 7th in the final (3:39.32).
At his debut Olympics last summer in Paris, Jaouadi placed 4th in the men’s 800 free (7:42.83), 6th in the 1500 free (14:43.35) and 9th in the 400 free (3:46.19).
Although he’s a native of Tunisia, he has trained in France for the past three years under distance coach Philippe Lucas.
The Florida men’s team is coming off a runner-up finish at the 2025 SEC Championships, as the newcomers from Texas snapped the Gators’ 12-year winning streak. Florida then placed 4th at the NCAA Championships, one spot lower than 2024 (3rd).
In addition to de Groot, Jaouadi joins fellow class of 2025 signees Nil Cadevall, Alex Cohoon, Charlie Hutchison, Jordan Willis, and Marvin Johnson for the Gators this fall.
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If Wiffen was serious about breaking the 1500 wr he would go to Phillipe Lucas, not freaking CAL
Florida is the most stacked distance team in the world
Nice get for Coach Nesty and Florida.
I’m curious how many languages he speaks. His life journey seems very international.
Roughly 2/3 of Tunisians speak French, which is probably why many of them wind up training in France.
Why!?
Does he have to give his prize money up to the point like they wanted Lani Pallister to do?
We’ll never really know. There are lots of loopholes to this rules – which if you know you’re going to swim in the NCAA are easy to apply, but are harder to apply retroactively.
Thanks! So different from the Canadian system.
He should but they will probably just lie about it and the meets he competed in that were not national level, which would take years off eligibility
💯
Lani Pallister was probably too honest for her own good.
Nesty distance boys, don’t mean a thing
Oh, you Nesty boys… HUH
Nesty distance boys, don’t ever change, huh
Oh, you Nesty boys
Under new NCAA rules, how much $ would a guy like this get paid by Florida?
With the context that I have absolutely no idea if/what he’s getting paid, and it’s entirely unclear still what NIL money is legal for foreign athletes to accept, or for anyone to accept pay-to-play money, but with all the caveats in mind, I’d guess a full ride + $30k.
That’s purely based on hearing rumors about what the top American guys are getting, and anticipating that the value of a true distance swimmer versus a sprinter and an international versus an American is different.
Someone tell me if they think that’s way off market.