Former Auburn standout and South African Olympian Gideon Louw will be returning to his alma mater, leaving the University of Minnesota to join head coach Gary Taylor‘s new staff in Auburn.
Louw was part of the 2009 NCAA Championship team at Auburn, winning three relay titles. He also made a pair of South African Olympic teams, representing his country in 2008 and 2012, making individual semifinals both times and swimming in the 4×100 free relay final in 2012.
He’s been coaching at Minnesota for four seasons, helping coach the team’s combined-gender sprint group. He guided NCAA bronze medalist Bowen Becker, who went 18.69 this past season as a junior. Previously, Louw had coached at Florida State for two seasons.
Louw will join the new-look Auburn staff after his college coach, Brett Hawke, resigned this offseason. The Tigers are now led by Gary Taylor, the former NC State assistant who is also a Minnesota swimming alumnus. Louw jumps from his associate head coaching position at Minnesota to join Taylor’s staff.
Taylor has already hired Duncan Sherrard away from UNC, where he was credited for working with the Tar Heels’ standout female sprinters. It’s not clear yet how Auburn will structure its training groups under the new staff, but Sherrard’s experience with Caroline Baldwin and Louw’s with Becker might suggest that each sprint-oriented coach will work with single-gender sprint groups.
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Gideon is THE HEMAN!!!
Think he had enough of the weather up north 🙂
EPIC HIRE! One of the BEST!
Congratulations Gideon!
Great hire! Cue the trolls crying foul that he didn’t hire a token female.
I think he still has 1 spot to fill, right? I imagine it will be a female. Having a female on staff is a necessity on many different levels. A combined program that doesn’t have at least 1 woman on staff is at a disadvantage.
This is a GREAT pickup for Gary!!!!