Multi-national citizen Ali Galyer, who in 2018 declared for New Zealand as her sporting citizenship, will move to her adopted country to continue training toward the 2021 Olympic Games. Galyer flew to New Zealand on Monday.
“I decided to move to NZL after my NCAA career ended in March,” Galyer said of her decision. “I wanted to take the opportunity to go train in my home country which I have never done. I chose Coast because I got to interact with some of the coaching staff at World Championships last summer. I was very impressed and thought they could bring new things to the table for me. After swimming for Kentucky for my 4 years, I wanted a change of pace and change of scenery. I am excited to see what new things I can learn and for the new adventure ahead.”
Galyer was born in Brisbane, Australia and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. She has New Zealand heritage through her father Roy who was born in Matamata and grew up in Te Puke and Tauranga. Galyer’s mother was born in Canada and is an Australian Citizen.
She will train at the Coast Swim Club in Auckland, New Zealand under head coach Michael Weston. Among others who train there is Helena Gasson. She shared the country’s domestic Swimmer of the Year award last season after breaking 7 National Records in butterfly and IM events.
Eve Thomas also represents the club in domestic competition, though she trains in Australia.
Galyer represented New Zealand last summer in both the 100 and 200 meter backstrokes. In the 100 back, she finished 30th in a time of 1:01.53, while in her specialty, the 200 back, she qualified for the semi-finals and placed 12th overall in 2:10.19. Her best time in that event is 2:09.77, which ranked her just outside of the top 25 in the world in 2018.
Galyer completed her collegiate career at the University of Kentucky in the spring, where she scored 80 points at the SEC Championships – a meet that wound up being the final one of her collegiate career after the NCAA Championships were canceled.
In early June, New Zealand declared ‘victory’ in the battle against the coronavirus, with life having essentially returned to normal there, at least domestically. New Zealand registered 1,534 coronavirus cases nationally with 22 deaths as of Monday, with no deaths reported since late May and only occasional new cases. Kentucky, meanwhile, has recorded almost 17,000 cases of the coronavirus and 615 deaths with a smaller population than New Zealand. While Kentucky has seen a slight uptick in new cases over the last few weeks, the climb has not been anywhere near as dramatic as other states.
Wow good for her!! Congrats! Does she have to live in the country for 12 months before declaring athletic nationality or is that something else?
She doesn’t have to – that rule only applies if you’ve previously represented another country’s national team, which she never did.
Rumor mill is that Finnerty from IU is also going international.
Does the rumor mill specify a country?
He would have to be there since he was on USA national team, therefore he has to living there a year before trials?
He is joining Dean in Ireland I hear
Tough to make Olympics for New Zealand. Swimmers must have showed potential of making top-8. https://swimswam.com/new-zealand-denies-kane-radford-olympic-open-water-spot/
However, the best of luck to Ali.
If I was given that opportunity I’d go for it! Even if she’s not too successful swimming wise, it would be great to experience a new culture and I’m sure it’ll be great for her figuring out who she is.
A new culture? WTF she is supposed to be a New Zealander .
NZ is paying the price for lenient citizenship now everybody with one of these passports wants to go there . They will have a lot of economic problems keeping them on quarantine , finding housing & jobs until they can escape again .
Kiwis who have done the hard yards of high level lockdown are getting angrier.
Hope she quarantines on arrival for 14 days. But thats another person taking an isolation spot paid for by the government.
okay ? shes a dual citizen, its her country and she has a legitimate reason since she will be living there. can’t blame her for leaving the absolute mess in the US. all the luck to her in the transition in her life and future swimming career!!