Celebrating a Legend: The Swimming Community Memorializes Jon Urbanchek on Social Media

The death of legendary swim coach Jon Urbanchek shook the swimming world late last week, marking the loss of one of the sport’s most influential coaches ever. While it’s not surprising because of the warm, friendly, and caring person that Urbanchek was, the number of high-profile people in the swimming community who posted on social media celebrating Urbanchek’s life and mourning his death was jarring. It feels like nearly everyone in the swimming community had been impacted by him in some way. The thing is, in reality, we all have been. Whether it was being directly coached by him, indirectly by being coached by someone who learned from him, or even more indirectly by training using concepts that he developed, Urbanchek’s impact on the sport of swimming is truly massive and incredibly far reaching.

In this post, we wanted to do a social media roundup of posts about Jon Urbanchek in the wake of his death. We had put a number of such social posts in our article on Urbanchek’s death, which are included here as well. Since the last edit on the article, so many more posts were published that we felt it was appropriate to aggregate them in a separate article.

This is a very long list of social media posts, though it is, of course, far, far from all the posts made about Urbanchek on soical media in the past few days. Feel free to throw any other posts that were particularly meaningful to you in the comments and we can include them in this post. Now, without further ado, let’s celebrate the life of one of swimming’s greatest ambassadors.

Mel Stewart, SwimSwam co-founder, 3-time Olympic medalist

Very sad day. I’ll miss Jon’s smiling face, a positive presence on deck since the 1980s “Legendary Olympic and Michigan Swim Coach Jon Urbanchek Dies at 87” https://t.co/bJZoUoTdX3 via @swimswamnews

— Mel Stewart (@goldmedalmel) May 10, 2024

Michael Phelps, 27-time Olympic medalist, trained at CW when Urbanchek was coaching there in the mid-2000s

University of Michigan Swimming and Diving

❤️ pic.twitter.com/OLzpFZQGK1

— Michigan Swimming & Diving (@umichswimdive) May 13, 2024

John Dussliere, former US Olympic coach

Katie Ledecky, 10-time Olympic medalist

Bob Bowman, former Michigan head coach, Urbanchek’s successor at U of M

Ryan Lochte, 12-time Olympic medalist

Anthony Nesty, Florida head coach

Braden Holloway, NC State head coach

Mike Bottom, former Michigan head coach

Stefanie Moreno, Georgia women’s swim & dive head coach

Kaitlin Sandeno Hogan, 4-time Olympic medalist

Summer Sanders, 4-time Olympic medalist

Mats Nygren, swam at Michigan under Urbanchek

Ous Mellouli, 3-time Olympic medalist for Tunisia

Eric Wunderlich, US Olympian and 5-time World Championship medlaist

We asked on X for people to share their favorite memories of Jon Urbanchek. Replies came from former swimmers (both those who swam under Urbanchek and swam against his teams, as well as coaches, former Michigan swim campers, and those who just met him by random chance. These replies really paint the picture of Urbanchek, who outwardly valued the friendships and relationships made through sport over the ultimate performances.

Growing up and having Jon around on deck at my club team was such an honor. He’d help coach some days, but it was the times he’d stop by practice on a Saturday mid-walk "just because" that stuck with me. I was always impressed by his patience and sincerity (1/2)@FAST_Swimming

— Annika Johnson (@nniejohnson) May 11, 2024

I was in the B1G coaches meeting and we had some inane argument over something that was pointless. Coach @jonurb was staring off into space and I remember thinking, 'his mind is on how to get his kids on Olympic teams.' Great coach, greater person.

— Matt Gianiodis (@MGianiodis) May 10, 2024

Decades ago when I swam for @jonurb he gave me the feeling that he and I had a special relationship as coach and swimmer. Now I realize he made most swimmers feel that way. One of many reasons he was the best.

— Tony Anderson (@anderswimmer) May 10, 2024

Msu vs u of m swimmeet 1989. As captain of the Msu swimteam I respected Coach Urbanchek immensely. He told me that I was always there when it mattered (big meets). In season I was pretty bad :). Rip coach.

— Sidney Appelboom (@SidneyAppelboom) May 10, 2024

In 1996, I was at an ASCA Clinic looking for a seat at the banquet and went to the only one available upfront not knowing who I was sitting with. Jon took the time to listen to a newer club coach & welcomed me to the table.

— Angie Fain (@scucswimcoach) May 11, 2024

I met Jon in 1978 at LBSU, worked out with him in morning & never on team, graduating in December same year. He never forgot my name, was always so kind when I ran into him. I suppose that says it all about him, extraordinary man! ❤️

— novamaster (@novamaster1) May 10, 2024

Mid 80’s – Oakland U was d-2. We’d swim at UofM every season. As soon as Mich scored enough to win, they’d go exhib rest of way. OU school paper would always write about us losing a close one in Ann Arbor. If they only knew! RIP Coach.

— Mike Koleber (@mikekoleber) May 10, 2024

Mid 80’s – Oakland U was d-2. We’d swim at UofM every season. As soon as Mich scored enough to win, they’d go exhib rest of way. OU school paper would always write about us losing a close one in Ann Arbor. If they only knew! RIP Coach.

— Mike Koleber (@mikekoleber) May 10, 2024

Going to swim camp at Michigan and meeting Jon for the first time. I remember a practice we had in the afternoon and how he talked to us about how racing in practice and our times in practice mattered. He helped me to understand the sport better.

— Chris Bushelman (@bushelman1) May 11, 2024