SwimSwam sat down with Greg Meehan, the newly named National Team Director of USA Swimming, to discuss his vision for the national team’s future. When Meehan laid out his plan, his three key points were “winning” the 2028 Olympic Games, building a “team-first culture,” and having transparency in the national team’s methodology and communication.
Meehan has already implemented significant changes in how the USA Swimming navigates an Olympic quad, including naming a single head coach for the 2025 World Championships (Braden Holloway) and having the results of the 2025 season determine the roster for the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships.
- 0:00 Greg Meehan Introduction
- 1:55 Ft Lauderdale Madness
- 5:47 First Few Weeks as Nat’l Team Director
- 8:32 Vision for National Team
- 14:20 Emphasizing Having Coaches on Staff
- 19:10 Coaching Selections for 2025 International Meets
- 25:42 Relay Selection at World Champs
- 27:04 Roster Impact of Prioritizing 50s of Stroke
- 33:05 2026 Pan Pacs Selection Process
- 43:25 End of an Era at Stanford
- 48:46 Moving into LA28
In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
All I want to say is Greg got me with his logic on the 26 selection. I was pretty mad last week about the news, but it does make far more sense for a pan pac selection than a worlds. Hopefully the numbers work out where 3-4 get in on most events.
It does still only serve the highest end, established swimmers which is whatever…. I prefer the chaos of the young guns coming through and “ending careers” of the old guard so Id be annoyed if some 17 year old guy goes a top time at 26 nats and wont swim pan pac, but ill take it if it means overall olympic performance improves.
When he was… Read more »
This thread is unreadable. Relay names guy put more than half the comments. Smh russian bots really got ahold of swimswam
I wonder how the transparency will work when he has a similar situation as the men’s 4×200 relay where one coach was so angry by the decision that he LEFT the session and did not stay to support TEAM USA.
I wonder what that will look like? Otherwise, it’s just lip service.
Who are you talking about? I never heard this story
Go Bears!
That’s CORRECT!
Down Vote all you want…but this ACTUALLY happened!
Downvoting because just tell the story instead of gloating as if whatever you’re on about is common knowledge…
WHAT actually happened… you’re talking in generalities and there’s no way to validate anything you say lol
numbers: they say it all… that relay pick was wrong… and BTW let’s not blame the head coaches for what went down in Tokyo either, similar cast of characters were involved then as well …
Can someone please just f*cking say who yall are talking about
My guess is Durden did not like Seliskar getting dropped in favor of Zapple in Tokyo for the 8 free relay
I don’t blame him…
Valid durden reaction
And he was correct. Seliskar admittedly wasn’t spectacular in the prelims, but he beat Zapple at trials and had been one of the top Americans in the 200 free for years. Zapple’s terrible split almost definitely cost them a medal
You need to drop names
In the interest of transparency, Meehan should tell us why he lost Ledecky, Eastin, Manuel, and Regan Smith and the Standford program collapsed. The only one who stayed was Huske.
Eastin, Ledecky, and Manuel all graduated. Eastin has an illness and isn’t swimming/she retired because of that. Regan Smith has gone on record saying that it wasn’t the right fit for her and she took some responsibility for that. Regan and Ledecky found a new place that was a better fit for them.
They love to continue to push that lame ass narrative with no legs to stand on
You forgot about the following female swimmers who have also moved on from Greg Meehan and Stanford University:
Curzan, Claire
Manuel, Simone
Ruck, Taylor
Interesting considering all these swimmers became NCAA champions while training under Meehan at Stanford.
Claire improved a lot at Stanford, became a national champion there, and actually I would venture to say that during the timespan of her leaving Stanford to Trials, she might have regretted leaving for UVA, by the way her Trials went. She would have made WCs in 2023 if not for the emergency room visits a week before 2023 Nats. She has gone on the record by saying she loves Stanford and that team, she just is a big homebody and needed to be closer to NC. Manuel left because of isane SF COVID-lockdown training situations that left her in a really rough place. Ruck has also gone on the record saying how thankful she is for Stanford and Meehan,… Read more »
And it’s apparent that it was college, not just Stanford, that wasn’t the right fit for Smith. She didn’t transfer to another school, she turned pro with 2 or 3 years of collegiate eligibility remaining.
She did try to appeal to get college eligibility back.
Eastin??? EASTIN?!!?
Seriously. Of all the things to criticize Greg for, Eastin’s swimming is certainly a choice. She made huge improvements at Stanford and was one of best NCAA swimmers ever imo. She developed an autoimmune disorder after graduating and retired for medical reasons. She’s now enrolled in Stanford med school
That “collapsed Stanford team” looked pretty good at ncaa this year.
other than smith, didn’t the rest graduate from Stanford, which is kinda the whole point of going to college???? College is hard.
Stanford is one of the hardest and demanding schools in the world
Yeah I always got the impression from Ledecky that she was there more for the Stanford education and the college experience than Greg’s coaching per se. I think it’s accurate to say that Stanford training wasn’t a perfect fit for her, but she was still one of the best swimmers in the world while she was there. People act like her career completely regressed under Greg.
He doesn’t owe us an explanation.
Add Curzan to your list.
Do you have any idea how much it cost to live within any reasonable distance to Palo Alto, let alone CA state taxes when FL or TX is an alternative
Yeah…it’s cheaper to live in Texas and Florida because they don’t offer many things that people want to live near. But like…finding the cheapest cost of living is not the end-game for everyone.
You can get a nice 3 bed, 2 bath newbuild home in Mountain View or Redwood City for under $500k. That’s well within the price range of a $200k base salary + $60k camp job individual, even if their spouse doesn’t work.
Sure, that same house would be $450k in Austin or $350k in College Station, but….then you have to live as an adult in College Station. Some folks would rather spend the extra $15k/year to live in the Bay Area,… Read more »
He gave an interview to swim swam regarding Regan’s decision to leave, which is more transparency than most coaches would provide.
Yeah, no coach on earth answers 100% of our questions all the time, and I wouldn’t expect them to. But Greg is more responsive and transparent than 99% of coaches.
Great interview! I’m excited for the future of the National Team under coach Meehan. After Worlds, I hope he does a follow-up podcast.
Given the impact of the 50s on roster selection, I wonder if they should get rid of the priorities for relay selection and instead consider national team selections, whether by the director or some combination of the director and coaches.
In this way, should you be roster constrained like we anticipate might happen with the men, you could consider taking swimmers who are adept at both the 100 and 200 free rather than just the 5th or 6th best in one of those strokes. You could also consider swimmers who are better at exchanges based on relay camps. If you have the full complement of roster spots available, as we expect to have with the women, you could also consider… Read more »
Screw this, the real scandal everyone wants to know about is this supposed 7.9 25y free by Ryan Held
If Held ever went 7.9 then he would be a 20.8 LC. Right?? What do we think Dressel would be to a hand at 2018 NCAAs? 8.0? How much time does a turn add?
I didn’t see any culture issues with the female contingent of USA Swimming at the 2024 Short Course World Championships. Perhaps, that’s because there were no females swimmers from Stanford University on the squad.
2024 Short Course World Championships
USA Swimming
Women – 13 G, 8 S, 6 B, 27 Total
tori huske?
Torri Huske did not compete at the 2024 Short Course World Championships.
Why would there be culture issues if a Stanford swimmer was there? It would make no difference
Relay names guy must have applied to Stanford and been rejected.