When it came time to select assistant coaches for their U.S. Olympic swimming staff, University of Virginia’s Todd DeSorbo and University of Florida’s Anthony Nesty were already experts on the topic.
As first-time Olympic assistant coaches at the postponed Tokyo edition in 2021, they shared visions of their hypothetical U.S. coaching staff while rooming together, half-jokingly just to pass the time. But those conversations continued the following summer, and they stopped seeming so theoretical after DeSorbo and Nesty served a successful stint as American head coaches at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Discussion three years in the making finally came to fruition after U.S. Olympic Trials last month as Carol Capitani (Texas), Dave Durden (Cal), Braden Holloway (NC State), Chris Lindauer (Notre Dame), Greg Meehan (Stanford), and Chris Plumb (Carmel Swim Club) were picked for Paris. Durden and Meehan were the men’s and women’s head coaches, respectively, at the Tokyo Olympics.
“We’ve been talking about it along with USA Swimming for quite some time,” DeSorbo said at a media session on Monday, right before he left for the first pre-Olympic training camp in Cary, North Carolina. “It’s been a lot more about staff dynamics than anything — trying to create a staff that’s just going to create a great environment for the athletes to thrive in, to have a good time in, to work hard in, and to help build a bond.
“It might not have been the most traditional way of picking a coaching staff, but we had in our mind a list of coaches that, assuming they put an athlete or two on the Olympic team, then these are the people that we would want to go with,” he continued. “It’s people that we trust, people that work really well with others, and can work well with a lot of different athletes and a lot of different personalities. It’s a little bit more about managing than it is coaching at this point — at this level, a lot of these athletes coach themselves.”
“I think the coaching staff that we have is just a great staff that we’ve worked with quite a few of them in the past at the last few Worlds,” DeSorbo added. “We get along really great. I think that the staff dynamic is just gonna create a great environment for the team to, again, have a good time and enjoy themselves because it’s the biggest stage for our sport. It’s the pinnacle of our sport, and there’s gonna be a lot of pressure and there’s gonna be a lot of stress. We want to try to relieve a little bit of that by providing an environment for them where they’re enjoying themselves, taking a little pressure off of them and just setting themselves up to be as successful as possible.”
Team USA has big goals for the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month. The Americans are aiming to top the medals table as well as the gold medal count this summer, which should be more challenging than usual going against stacked squads from Australia and China. One way DeSorbo will look to ease that pressure by encouraging coaches and swimmers alike to soak in the moment and remember they are fulfilling childhood dreams.
“I’m going to try to really impress upon them to just go back to when they were 10 and 12 and 8 years old or whatever, whenever they started swimming and they were dreaming about the Olympics,” said DeSorbo, who boasts five current UVA athletes headed to the Paris 2024 Olympics (Gretchen Walsh, Alex Walsh, Kate Douglass, Emma Weber, and South Africa’s Aimee Canny), one former (Paige Madden), and one future (Thomas Heilman). “And now that dream has come true. It’s an amazing accomplishment.
“I think that they’re so locked in on continuing to perform at a high level of the Olympics that they may have missed that kind of side of things. And I think that thinking about it that way will also take a little bit of pressure off. Not necessarily being content with having made the Olympic team, but certainly the goal was to go there and perform at a high level. But just to take a step back and really look at what it took to get there, but also the dream that they had as a young person that now has come to a realization. It’s pretty special.”
DeSorbo conceded that the U.S. has “a significant amount of ground to make up” in certain events before the pool swimming portion of the Paris Olympics kick off on July 27. But the four-time reigning NCAA champion coach of the Cavaliers also pointed to America’s track record of exceeding expectations at the Olympics.
“Historically, the U.S. has done the best job of any country in the world of being better at the Olympics and performing at a high level,” DeSorbo said. “I’m confident in the motivation and excitement and commitment of everybody, men and women on the team, that are prepared to do that and do some pretty special things. I think there’s a lot of examples over the years — Lesak’s comeback, the U.S. women, you know, beating the Germans in the 4×100 free relay way back — where we weren’t supposed to win, the U.S. finds a way to do that.”
The U.S. Olympic swimming team will spend the next 10 days at North Carolina’s Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC), where all personal coaches are invited to attend for the first five days. Not only does it give staff an opportunity to learn more about their athletes, but it can also serve as a launching point in the careers of other coaches who weren’t chosen for Paris.
“In 2016, when Ryan Held made the U.S. Olympic team, I was his coach and I had the ability to go to San Antonio with the Olympic team in 2016 before they went to Rio,” DeSorbo recalled. “it was probably, at that point in my career, the coolest, most exciting, most fun experience of my career. It’s probably the moment where I was like, ‘This is what I want to be doing. I want to be coaching at this level.’ I was like, ‘My dream is to be a U.S. Olympic coach.’”
Once the first pre-Olympic training camp comes to a close on July 11, the U.S. Olympic swimming team will head to Croatia until July 22. Team USA will stay in the same hotel and use the same training facilities as its camp before the 2022 World Championships. The main difference is that it will be a true training camp instead of a “taper camp.”
“In Croatia, it’s gonna be a grind,” DeSorbo said. “We’re still just under four weeks away. It’s a long time before the meet starts. So it’s a true training camp and to be somewhere like Croatia definitely just takes the edge off a little bit of that grind.”
DeSorbo was also asked about the Chinese doping controversy from 2021 as well as Katie Ledecky swimming the 200 free individually. He said “there’s been hardly any discussion” about China, and that he couldn’t say yet whether Ledecky will swim the 200 free individually, even though he knew the answer already.
We are seeing the next generation of international coaches. It will be interesting to see how the USA performs. I would imagine they will do very well….a lot of coaching talent on that staff.
This whole article says if you’re not in the click, you’ll need tickets to watch your athletes in Paris.
And yet again Open Water is not in the conversation.
This is definitely a solid staff for the most part, but not talking about the whole USA Team staff(including OWS) just further separates them from the Team. We only have one medal so far in open water swimming at the games. Maybe acting more inclusive will help. I know it doesn’t fit the university coach agenda of today, but when will the ngb begin to outwardly care about the10k race?
Officials have embraced it, club coaches have embraced it, but only a handfull from the college ranks actually try.
Maybe DeSorbo left them out of this discussion because OW coaches were named a long time ago.
Actually, they weren’t. First time the Open Water staff wasn’t selected and announced prior to Trials and pool team. Unfortunately given all the ambiguity surrounding the Open Water events in Paris due to the lack of a Plan B, it’s a shame there isn’t one coach devoted specifically to OW – both Ron & Corey are good coaches but they have swimmers competing in the pool so it gives the appearance of the Open Water swimmers being an afterthought. Of the 4 racing the 10K, two are only doing Open Water, would’ve been more fitting, respectful and appropriate for one coach to be focused solely on the 10K.
Good interview!
DeSorbo is “as sharp as a tack.”
(Not everyone can honestly make that claim.)
Did I dream a great Yanyan article on the 200 IM last night? Can’t find it now.
https://swimswam.com/2024-olympics-preview-will-we-finally-get-the-race-we-anticipated-in-the-womens-200-im/
I really don’t understand what is happening on the home page. Is there one place to see new posts?
Many new articles disappeared and reappeared it’s so weird.
Based on the dismal results of the University of Texas women’s swimming program at the 2024 USA Swimming Olympic Team Trials, why hasn’t Carol Capitani been fired? Where is the accountability? Where is the statement from the University of Texas athletic director?
I also think Texas should be better but why on earth would she be fired or the athletic director make a statement when they have been back to back runners up at NCAAs? They still get a lot of good recruits. That’s an extremely marketable stat. Looks like you shifted all your Meehan hate to Carol huh?
After I saw this comment my first thought was wondering what coach will be on the chopping block next year. 2023 was Meehan, 2024 is Capitani, 2025 is TBD
DeSorbo has set a high bar for himself, if he can’t maintain the pace of putting 3-5 swimmers on the international team each year it might be him.
Not really, DeSorbo just has three of the most talented swimmers in the world right now. Many of his other swimmers at Trials were really not good. Two examples: Howley third at Trials last year, was 4 seconds off this year to finish seventh, and Gormsen, who finaled in 2021, was 6 seconds off in her 400 free to finish 28th. People just don’t seem to notice how poorly other UVA swimmers are performing when the big three swim well.
Right, that’s kinda my point. Those 3 have helped him get a lot of accolades and obviously he’s regarded as one of the best coaches in the country right now, hence the head Olympic coach job. When they are done and gone it’s going to be kind of a crash landing for him, because they are irreplaceable, and I can see people like relay names guy turning on him.
Relay names is an uninformed troll.
Lea Maurer
Greg Meehan’s saving grace is Torri Huske redshirting her junior season.
Aurora is arguably the most improved swimmer in the NCAA this year. Lucy Bell had a great trials run and amongst the most improved swimmers this year.
The public doesn’t care about women’s collegiate swimming but the USA Swimming women’s national team. Compare the television ratings of the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships to the 2024 USA Swimming Olympic Team Trials. It’s night and day.
Carol Capitani is solely responsible for the demise of former Olympic Gold Medalist Lydia Jacoby. Failure of that magnitude is not acceptable to the American public nor USA Swimming. Not only has Lydia Jacoby regressed at the University of Texas women’s swimming program but freshmen Jillian Cox and Erin Gemmell, as well. Try to sweep that under the rug.
The AD doesn’t care about the long term trajectory of individual swimmers’ careers and how they perform in LC. He doesn’t know enough about the nuances of a non-revenue sport to know how their LC times are stacking up to their high school times. He probably doesn’t even realize that a lot of those points come from diving. He cares that they consistently rank high in the major competition each year and they get top recruits who stick around. That’s saying a lot in the NIL era.
Time to hire a new athletic director. “Ask not what your country can do for you …..”
Lol on what grounds? Texas is highly ranked in nearly every sport. Hate to break it to you but swimming matters far less to the board of regents than it does to you. On paper they see:
3 time national champ runners up
Consistently high recruits who stay 4-5 years, meaning the team is happy
Coach selected to be the head coach for the world champs in 2023 and Olympic assistant coach
Regardless of how you feel about her, she has a good resume.
The Texas Longhorns won the NACDA Director’s Cup this year. The national award for the most successful athletic department. You’re as far off about the athletic department and AD as you are about Capitani.
https://www.si.com/college/texas/news/texas-longhorns-secures-third-ever-directors-cup-01hzxar3em2x
Jillian Cox redshirted this year. Many of the other Texas swimmers (the butterfly group) swam best times at Trials. Get your facts straight when you attack.
Wake up and smell the coffee!
Compare the performances of Jillian Cox (800 FR), Erin Gemmell (200 FR), Lydia Jacoby (100 BR) at the 2023 Phillips 66 National Championships to the 2024 USA Swimming Olympic Team Trials. Regression! Regression! Regression!
The University of Texas women’s butterfly group was embarrassed by a 17 year old whippersnapper from the Carmel Swim Club in the women’s 100 meter butterfly and women’s 200 meter butterfly. While Alex Shackell booked a plane ticket to Paris, the likes of Luther, Pash, Sticklen, Bray will be sulking at home during the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Relay names doesn’t care about facts.
Is that really just women’s swimming specific? I’d imagine ratings for Olympic Trials far surpassed the men’s NCAA swimming ratings as well right? Olympics beats NCAA…
Eddie Reese develops Olympic swimmers, Carol Capitani ruins them (Jacoby, Sullivan).
I agree Eddie has had way more Olympic success – but Carol is hired primarily to perform well at the collegiate level, which she has done. Presumably the lack of success at the Olympic level would/could impact recruiting, but so far it’s tough to say that’s been a detriment to her collegiate success. Texas shouldn’t fire her because Olympic Trials didn’t go well.
I agree – but maybe it justifies the decision to bring Bowman in as her boss.
Fully agree there!
So Bowman can wreck Texas as he did Michigan? ASU worked because his star was on the ASU team. Michigan didn’t work because Phelps was not. Marchand will not be swimming for Texas.
Marchand will also not be at Texas for the fall semester.
I think Bowman is a much more matured coach than he was when he was at Michigan, and as great as Marchand is, he doesn’t carry the same weight of a Phelps.
I think Bob has learned lessons from his prior stops. There’s no guarantees that he is going to win a million titles, but if it doesn’t work, I don’t think it will be for the same reasons that Michigan didn’t work.
With NIL, and being at Texas, it’s going to be a whole different universe than his time at Michigan, or even at Arizona State.
As an once proud swimming nation, we should continue to lower the bar? Lydia Jacoby failing to qualify in the women’s 100 meter breaststroke for the 2024 Summer Olympics is the very definition of regression. From individual gold medal to bust!
Ummmmm ok……so I hope you get the stick out of your…
This is pure lunacy. Imagine calling for the Purdue AD to make a statement and for basketball coach Matt Painter’s job because his team only finished 2nd in the tournament and didn’t have any players taken in the first round of the NBA draft.
To be fair to Matt Painter, he did have Zach Edey taken in the first round
That’s right. I don’t know why I was thinking he was taken in the second round.
Edey makes your analogy better. No matter how much relay names tries to run her down, Gemmell made the Olympic team and will be swimming the individual 200 as well as the 4×200 relay.
You are most definitely an Australian bot.
Relay names person notoriously criticises Australian swimmers. How are they an Australian bot?
Tell me you are new at Swimswam without telling me you’re new at Swimswam.
Relay names guy CONSTANTLY trashed Australian swimmers.
I could be wrong, but I think Texas women just put their first swimmer on the team since Erin Phenix in 2000. Hersey made the team before arriving at Texas and then left the team after a year to train under Ed in the lead up to 2012.
In the competition the AD cares about, Texas has been second for what, three straight years now. I think they were 3rd in 2001 and again in 2009. You’d have to go back to around 1994-1995 for when Texas was last this successful.
If you want to suggest Carol doesn’t fully realize the potential of the athletes she coaches, I think you have an argument. To suggest she should be summarily… Read more »
Madisyn Cox from Lubbock improved DRAMATICALLY during her time swimming for Carol.
“Texas Tap Water”
I’m not arguing for firing Carol. I would suggest that having one example of a swimmer who improved dramatically under Carol in 12 years isn’t a great argument for her coaching abilities. I know there are others who have improved, but I think if you look at the numbers, you’d probably find she hasn’t consistently developed the talent she had. She wouldn’t be alone in that category.
What will be interesting is if in the new setup, if there is any change affecting the women’s side, she takes more of a group/focus vs coaching the whole team. She can coach and absolutely was an asset on the staff at Georgia. Maybe that format plays more to her strengths. … Read more »
Pash, Sticklen, Longi, and Coe have all also improved dramatically while at Texas.
It’ll be interesting next year when they are in the SEC. Hitting their taper consistently seems like the general problem for Texas, and up till now they haven’t had to worry about a double taper due to the complete lack of competition in the big 12.
Also TBH that’s the part that does make me a little nervous having carol on staff for the Olympics. Maybe being an assistant she won’t be in charge of the taper so much but she’s really inconsistent with it.
Erin Gemmell was developed by Bruce Gemmell. Erin Gemmell regressed her freshman year at the University of Texas.
So did Bella Sims. Her performance at trials was way more shocking than anything put up by Texas. Yet you say nothing about Nesty
Bella Sims did not win an individual gold medal unlike Lydia Jacoby at the Tokyo Olympics.
Nice deflection. Getting you to have an actual conversation about the points you bring up is impossible, you can’t back anything up with logic. It’s like talking to my toddler
I don’t know how to ask this without sounding snarky, but I swear it’s a genuine question!
By the time athletes have made the team, what impact do these coaches have (other than relay decisions)? Is it getting the most out of those last few weeks of training? Managing the taper? How much guidance do they get (and take) from an athlete’s individual coach, if that coach is not there? Presumably athletes are still in contact with their coaches during this time? I’m actually really curious about the day-to-day duties of the Olympic coaching staff.
Taper, team building, keeping things organized, dealing with emotional flareups.
Team managers keep things organized, mental health team takes care of “flare ups”, team captains handle the team building; so you need the best coaching available to handle the training and taper, not the case with a couple of the picks. Sorry.
Over the history of Olympic staff picking there have always been “great coaches” who have been incredibly disruptive/negativ but were added to the team because they either had numbers on the team or a reputation that demanded they be included. I am really pleased that USAS gives the head coaches the discretion to add positive team players to the staff.
Genuine question…if swimmers will be in Croatia July 11-22, and Olympic swimming starts July 27, why would 5-15 days out be a “grind”? Would think that time period would be generally be taper for most (outside of some distance swimmers or youngest females on team).
I realize that for many, this may be more like 10-20 days out, but still…you’d think any grind/re-taper base work happens now in NC. Could just be Todd getting excited/mixing up dates or he and I have different definitions of grind, unless I’m missing something?
I honestly think he’s just talking about how little time is left. Grinding out some of the smaller things (or larger, talking about Hunter’s backstroke start) so they’re perfect for the big race(s).
It’s also worth adding some people consider taper to be harder. While it’s great because the practices are usually substantially shorter, there are people who prefer longer threshold sets to max effort/race pace. Each are hard in their own right.
Surprised to not see Coach Peter Andrew on the staff this time around
He’s at the beach.
Hardy har, so funny.
Too busy timing 25’s, comparing stroke cycle times from the 1st rep to the 50th rep, with the interval set at :40