Pieter Coetze, the current South African world champion in the men’s 100 backstroke, announced that he will not be pursuing an NCAA career after previously committing to the University of California, Berkeley. He will remain at home in Pretoria, South Africa.
Coetze sat down with SwimSwam’s Coleman Hodges for an interview, detailing his recent successes, training, and a deeper dive into his decommitment from Cal.
Coetze initially committed to Cal in 2022, drawn by the idea of the Golden Bears’ world-class backstroke group.
“I had the opportunity to go to Cal, which at the time… was probably the best place I could go with all the backstrokers that they had,” he said. “The thought of training with those guys, having them to push me was perfect.”
But as the decision drew closer, Coetze began to look a little deeper than just the training at Cal.
“It really can affect your career a lot. Not only your career, you know, you’re leaving your family behind, you’re leaving your whole support system back home… It was probably the biggest decision I’ve had to make up to that point.”
Another factor in his decision came from the NCAA’s yards format and its championship season conflicting with South Africa’s national championships and Olympic/World Championship qualifying meets.
“I kind of didn’t really know how I felt about the whole yards… and our nationals are in April, our trials are in April right after NCAAs. It’s like after a few months of training for NCAAs, which is obviously like they’re going to be super focused on… they’re not going to worry about South African nationals.”
A worry that developed for Coetze was steering away from his backstroke background.
“If me, as a foreigner, goes to a U.S. college… if they need a freestyler and I’m a backstroker, will they push me into another direction than what I have planned for my own career?”
Ultimately, Coetze decided that the costs of leaving outweighed the benefits. Coetze decommitted from Cal back in 2023.
“The pros of going didn’t really outweigh the cons for me personally… I felt like I wasn’t done with South Africa yet. I wanted to stay here and stay home close to the family and close to what I know.”
At the 2025 World University Games in Berlin, Coetze captured three medals: gold in the 100 and 50 backstroke, and silver in the 100 freestyle. That momentum carried over into the World Championships in Singapore, where he became South Africa’s most-decorated swimmer ever at a single Worlds.
- Gold – 100 backstroke (51.85, African Record)
- Silver – 200 backstroke (1:53.36, African Record)
- Silver (tie) – 50 backstroke (24.17, African Record)
His victory in the 100 back gave him his first World Championship title of his young career, ahead of Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon.
“It’s like they say a happy swimmer makes a fast swimmer… I was happy here so I didn’t really need to change it and I was swimming pretty well. So, I decided to see where it takes me to stay here. I sat down with my coach and we said… he’s committed to be here until 2028. And I said, I’m going to be here until 2028. So, let’s get to work.”
Great article! Great swimmer! Great writer!
Thats great for South African swimming, and at least there wont be criticism against him that he’s using American resources to fund his gold medal wins as some have cruelly stated during Worlds against certain swimmers winning gold.
Exactly.
Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh would have still been as successful had they stayed in France/Canada.
If training under Bowman meant automatic Olympic individual gold, then Carson Foster, Regan Smith etc would have had Olympic individual gold already.
I just hope the best for Ahmed Jaouadi and Hafnaoui.
Marchand and Summer McIntosh would be world class swimmers even if they were in the worst programs around.
Obviously the access to great coaching they have had will allow them to maximise their talents.
“Marchand and Summer McIntosh would be world class swimmers even if they were in the worst programs around.”
Yep. They are generational talent.
Real example:
Ian Thorpe first coach was a mediocre coach whose only great swimmer is Thorpe.
Thorpe’s second coach had never fully trained swimmer and Thorpe was her first swimmer.
I don’t believe that Leon would have been AS successful. An Olympic champion in the 400 IM, yes, but he choose Bob Bowman for a reason. He went from 4:09 to 4:02 in 2 years and you’re saying the guy who coached Michael Phelps to a 4:03 had nothing to do with it?
Nobody said that training with Bowman gives you automatic gold. But Smith has drastically improved since she joined Bowman compared to where she was in 2022. Casas is drastically improving right now.
Smith may have drastically improved in 100-200 fly
But her 100 and 200 back best times did not drastically improve.
Shout out to Coetze for clearly making the right choice for him even if he would have been really fun to watch in the NCAA. As a NC State fan I’m still bummed we never got to see guys like Ponti destroy records in yards but it’s awesome to see him breaking much more important records. Also funny that the vocal minority is whining about US coaching resources being used on non citizens when there are plenty of recent examples of rising stars rebuking the NCAA and clearly doing just fine
Most intl stars don’t come here. No Aussies, no Brits, no Russians (except Stanford), no Japanese, no Chinese, etc
There are a number of Brits, including some pretty high profile ones, who have swum NCAA
I’m more referencing the discourse going on right now in the fallout over the Phelps letter and people whining about scholarship $ and Bowman’s attention going to swimmers like Marchand and Kos instead of Americans. And while plenty of stars don’t come, there have been some high profile cases lately changing their mind on the NCAA and it working out very well for them. Only case I can think of not working is Sates, lol
“Only case I can think of not working is Sates, lol”
And Hafnaoui.
Yeah I had that thought but will wait to see what he does (if anything) at UF. Seems like there was a lot of weird circumstances surrounding his time in the US and he clearly has some personal issues to work through. IIRC Ponti cited his mental health as one reason to stay in Switzerland and it clearly worked
This is the same thing his interview said and Ibreiterated in comments!
Great decision! He’s clearly looking at the big picture
I’d say the opposite of the big picture
Not everyone needs a degree from an american university to satisfy the big picture
Can’t argue with the success he’s had.