USA-Swimming has reached into two of the NCAA’s top programs to choose their head men’s and women’s coaches for the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Heading the men’s side will be Gregg Troy from the University of Florida. The reigning Golden Goggles Coach of the year is Ryan Lochte’s personal coach, and thus was a logical choice to head the men’s squad. In addition to coaching Lochte, he led both Gators squads to top 5 team finishes, including the women’s National Championship. Besides Lochte, Troy has also coached possible Olympians Gemma Spofforth (Great Britain), Teresa Crippen, Elizabeth Beisel, Conor Dwyer, and Omar Pinzon (Colombia), among others.
Teri McKeever is the head women’s coach for the University of California-Berkeley, where she coaches US National Team members Natalie Coughlin and Dana Vollmer (on the club side), and Caitlin Leverenz, as well as potential Olympians Liv Jensen, Sara Isakovic (Slovenia), and Cindy Tran. She was most recently named NCAA Coach of the Year after winning the 2009 Women’s Championship. McKeever is the first ever woman coach of a US Olympic Swim Team, which is probably a huge honor to her.
Interestingly, these two coaches have claimed the last two women’s NCAA titles. They will succeed Eddie Reese (Men) and Jack Bauerle (Women). These roles are separate from the role of National Team Director that was recently vacated with the firing of Mark Schubert, though they carry a lot of overlapping duties.
Among the duties of Olympic Team Coaches are keeping in contact with the coaches of all National Team members or other fringe team members expected to make a push for the Olympic team, discussing possible meet schedules with swimmers, and overseeing the final practices between the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games.
