U.S. Olympian Alex Shackell has decommitted from Cal and deferred her college enrollment for a year, deciding to remain home at the Carmel Swim Club and continue training under Chris Plumb.
Shackell was originally committed to arrive at Cal in fall 2025, but speculation began after she first removed Cal from her social media bios a few months ago, and then in the last couple of weeks removed her commitment photo.
Shackell explained the decision to SwimSwam in a statement:
After much thought and discussion with my family and coaches, I have made the decision to defer my college enrollment for one year. This choice will allow me to continue my training at Carmel, where I have grown so much as an athlete and person. I believe that dedicating this next year to training at Carmel is the best decision for my continued growth and development in the sport.
I want to emphasize that this decision is not a reflection on the college program I verbally committed to. My choice to defer is solely about my personal goals as an athlete at this stage in my career. When the time is right, I remain fully committed to pursuing my academic goals.
I’m grateful for the support of my family and coaches during this decision-making process.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Shackell is the undisputed #1 recruit in the high school class of 2025, leading the group in five events coming out of her junior season in high school.
At the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, she finished 6th individually in the 200 fly and anchored the prelims 800 free relay that would go on to win silver in finals. She served in a similar role on the prelims medley relay, swimming the fly leg, but that relay won gold in finals.
She was part of what was scheduled to be a monstrous class of 2025 for Cal as head coach Dave Durden and associate head coach Dave Marsh really began to take control of the school’s women’s program with this recruiting cycle. That class also included the #2 commit Teagan O’Dell, the #3 commit Claire Weinstein, the #8 commit Annie Jia, the #9 commit Elle Scott, the #19 commit Ella Cosgrove, and a handful of other highly-rated recruits in what might have been the best women’s recruiting class in history.
#3 Weinstein, also an Olympian, reaffirmed her commitment to Cal on Instagram this week by posting “No occasion but go Bears” with a photo of her in a Cal jacket.
The Carmel Swim Club, one of the most successful clubs in the United States, has had a big gravity for its swimmers. Alex’s brother Aaron Shackell left Cal after a semester last season to return to Carmel to train, ultimately becoming one of the biggest surprises to join the Olympic Team. He is now beginning his second season of college swimming at Texas.
Drew Kibler also wound up returning to Carmel to train as a pro for a period of time after four years at Texas, as did Wyatt Davis after time at Michigan.
Alex’s twin brother Andrew Shackell is also now committed to Texas, having flipped his verbal commitment from Cal to Texas for the class of 2025.
So basically, Texas doesn’t have a scholarship for Alex this year, so she is deferring and will attend Texas next year.
California can be much different for those from the Midwest or the east coast than expected so some just do not adjust and come back. I had a buddy that told me the coldest swim practices he ever attended were August days at UCLA back in the day. I have not idea what happened with Aaron Shackell but he is not the first or the last to go out west and bounce.
This seems weird but I don’t know what’s going on in her personal/family/academic life, so I’m sure there are reasons.
One general comment on recruiting: there’s something to be said for being a big fish in a small pond. Even if you’re a 5-star recruit, you’ll be getting about 1% of Bob Bowman’s attention. The best recruit in ’24 went to one of the best swimming universities, and sounds like she didn’t get as much individual attention as she was used to.
who
Bella Sims? (Best recruit in 23, not 24)
Bella Sims scored 56 individual points out of a maximum 60 individual points at the 2023 NCAA DI Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
and added in everything and SAID they missed changes in her stroke. no disrespect, 56 points is still an incredible feat, but she was a better recruit than that
What’s added mean? Nobody adds time
56 points for the TEAM. That’s pretty good for a freshman.
Genuine question: programs like Carmel and Sandpipers really haven’t had a great run of success lately in college. Between the athletes’ inability to follow through on commitments and the struggles they’ve had with success at various institutions, is there a point where the top 5-10 programs stop recruiting the swimmers? OR are they so good that you live with “less than their best” Sandpipers alums or “maybe you don’t get four years” Carmel alums?
Maybe this is a pre-House question. On one hand, roster limits make those spots more precious. On the other hand, for the real “haves” in this world, everyone gets a scholarship, so maybe you’re not really rationing the way you were before.
I think it’s an… Read more »
Who are you thinking of specifically? Ilya Kharun as had a fair amount of success. Bella Sims has not (at least measuring by improvement). Drew Kibler was really good for Texas recently. Wyatt Davis struggled a bit, but I think he rebounded last year. Are there others?
Sullivan was not as impressive as expected
Sullivan was substantially older than the typical college first year and had achieved an Olympic dram she was unlikely to surpass, and SwimSwam tells me female distance swimmers peak before 20. I suspect the expectations for her in college may have been unrealistic.
Top level swimmers from the clubs are far and away better than almost all swimmers even if they aren’t performing at their best, so I don’t think it’s relevant for them. An Olympian (like Sims) is an Olympian, and teams are not going to turn down an Olympian.
For lower level swimmers on the clubs who presumably do similar training, it might be a concern. I know some college coaches avoid recruiting from specific clubs due to the assumption that that club has maxed out a swimmer’s potential due to their high training volume.
I think for a program like Sandpipers, the top talent have essentially been training like pros for a few years before they get to college especially with virtual high school, and there’s an adjustment to be made when they become full time student athletes when they get to college. For example, Claire Weinstein in her recent Coleman interview said she’s already completed high school and will be spending the next year training full time. Taking on a full course load at college is likely an adjustment for them, and might have some impact on their swimming. But the kicker is, they’re already so good that even if they regress a little, they’re still some of the best swimmers in the… Read more »
Coaches should for sure temper their expectations, like realistically Grimes is probably not gonna drop 4 seconds in the 400 IM or 500 free like a normal college swimmer might but being able to easily make 3 A-finals is still a huge pick up for any team
it’s no longer 5yr full-ride, the big new thing is full-ride +++,+++
Club coaching letter than college coaching
Alex Shackell would most likely be the missing piece of the puzzle to the University of Virginia’s sixth title.
I’m not sure that puzzle is missing a piece…
For the 2025-2026 NCAA Season? Way too many individual points going out the door after the 2025 NCAA DI Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships:
Keating, A.
Parker, M.
Tiltmann, R.
Walsh, A.
Walsh, G.
Why not wait until May/June of 2025 and then decide? Clearly anyone will make a spot for her on their roster and that’s plenty of time to see how bowman does and then can assess. Also how much will bowman coach Texas women’s team, if not would she not be in better with durden than capitani?
Bob Bowman has his hands full with the men’s team and the pro team that migrated from Arizona State University, what’s left of it that is.
Her announcement is very careful worded to be vague about her college future. Is it possible she’s considering going pro and skipping NCAA swimming?
Best of luck to her whatever path she chooses.
Going pro without winning an individual medal at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships or 2024 Summer Olympics? Not even Katie Grimes pulled that stunt.
especially considering how good she is at short course…
Hey maybe she’ll come back to Cal after a year? Though it does seem like the Shackell family likes to stick together. Either way, wishing Alex the best wherever she lands. She’s one of the bright up and coming stars for the US and I’m looking forward to what she’ll do in 2028 and beyond for the stars & stripes!
Wishful thinking.
Classic jp radio
Not likely.