NCAA All-American Jack Kelly Is Now Training as a Pro at the University of Texas

Former Ivy League swimming star Jack Kelly has re-emerged as a member of the pro training group at the University of Texas. He has been training in Austin since August.

Kelly, who was a First Team All-America breaststroker at Brown University, says that he initially planned to end his swimming career at the NCAA Championships in March, but persistent thoughts about his unknown potential kept gnawing at him.

“I was planning to work for Wells Fargo* down in Charlotte,” Kelly told SwimSwam. “But as the weeks went by after NCAAs, I kept thinking, ‘What if I just went for it?’ I have the rest of my life to work in the corporate world. What’s 37 years of working versus 40?”

*Kelly majored in mechanical engineering, but after doing internships with banks during college, decided to pursue a career in Finance. He will be working as a research assistant with the University of Texas’ engineering department, which he says will “give him some balance” and “help fuel this dream.”

“I reached out to some of the alumni at Brown to talk through my thoughts,” Kelly recounted. “One of them, Tommy Glenn, who swam for Bob Bowman back when he was in Baltimore, got me in contact with Bob. Bob gave me a call and said he had a spot for me down in Austin. And honestly, when Bob says come down to Austin, you go. I called my boss, and he completely supported my decision and told me to keep him in the loop.”

Glenn, who trained with Bob Bowman at NBAC while completing financial internships, went on to a career in health system analytics and strategy after retiring from swimming in 2015. He also volunteered as a coach at Loyola University Maryland from 2017-2021.

“My plan is to see how far I can go in the sport over the next three years with the awesome environment Texas has…it’s been a great experience so far to swim with these guys and to just experience Texas, even as a swimming fan.

“Texas has been insane, just the sheer speed in practice every day has been eye opening. And it’s also still crazy to be swimming with a lot of swimming’s biggest stars. I feel like I was star struck everyday for the first couple of weeks.”

His new coach Bob Bowman says that he thinks Kelly has a high ceiling.

“I think he has potential to compete with the top breaststrokers,” Bowman said. “So far he’s doing well and progressing as he acclimates to our training system.”

The Jack Kelly File:

Kelly, a native of New York, swam 52.32 in his specialty event, the 100 yard breaststroke, in an exhibition race on Friday during the Texas-Tennessee dual meet. He finished 8th at the NCAA Championships in March in both the 100 and 200 yard breaststrokes.

His best times in the breaststrokes:

• 100 yard breaststroke – 50.60
• 100 meter breaststroke – 1:00.40
• 200 yard breaststroke – 1:49.80
• 200 meter breaststroke – 2:11.81

His best time in the 100 meter breaststroke was in 2023. At only 20 years old, that ranked him as the 10th-best American. He also finished 11th in the 200 meter breaststroke at the 2024 US Olympic Trials.

Kelly skipped the 2025 long course season after going lifetime bests in both breaststroke events in yards.

As for specific goals, Kelly says they aren’t related to times or specific results. “Honestly the biggest goal is to just give myself closure with the sport. At the end of the day, I’ll be able to say I swam with one of the best programs in swimming and gave the sport everything I had instead of having ‘what if’ in the back of my head.”

“But being an Olympian would be pretty sweet,” Kelly added with a laugh.