Update: After publishing, USA Swimming provided a letter that Greg Meehan sent to USA Swimming National Team Coaches outlining a new structure. The article below has been updated.
USA Swimming has named NC State head coach Braden Holloway as the singular head coach of the 2025 World Championship team, deviating from almost every meet in recent memory where there has been a separate men’s coach and women’s coach.
This is Holloway’s first appointment to lead a long course World Championship team, though he has several other major international appointments. That includes being named the head coach for the 2022 World Short Course Championships and the 2019 World University Games.
Prior Major Team USA Appointments:
- 2024 Olympic Assistant Coach for Team USA
- 2023 World Aquatics Championships Assistant Coach for Team USA
- 2022 World Short Course Swimming Championships Head Coach for Team USA
- 2019 World University Games Men’s Head Coach for Team USA
- 2017 World University Games Assistant Coach for Team USA
Holloway has been the head coach at NC State since summer 2011, and in that time he has been named a 10-time ACC Men’s Coach of the Year and 1-time ACC Women’s Coach of the Year. His teams have won 7 NCAA relay titles and 11 NCAA individual titles along with a combined 11 ACC team titles.
“A seasoned leader with prior experience on Olympic and World Championship staffs, Holloway offers a proven track record in athlete development and a strong commitment to Team USA’s continued international success,” USA Swimming said in a press release.
Assistant coaches are usually chosen at the conclusion of the selection meet, which this year is the US National Championships from June 3-7.
While the singular head coach is a deviation from past years, USA Swimming’s full-time National Team staff has also seen a dramatic reimagining in the last few months. Shortly after the NCAA Championships, Stanford head coach Greg Meehan was announced as the new USA Swimming National Team Director, returning the job to an elite coaching position that it has been for most of the last 35 years. His predecessor Lindsay Mintenko was an elite athlete and did have some coaching experience, but shifted the position to more of an administrative role.
Meehan also brought in Yuri Suguiyama, the former University of Wisconsin coach and the coach who first brought Katie Ledecky to international prominence, as the National Team Senior Director. Kim Williams, who was Meehan’s assistant at Stanford, was also brought on as Senior Manager and Coach.
This gives USA Swimming arguably the most robust National Team coaching staff in the modern era – which then shifts the needs of the National Team staff.
In a letter from Meehan to USA Swimming National Team coaches, he outlined a new coaching staff structure where a USA Swimming staff member would provide coaching support at various international meets.
“We’re also excited to be modeling a new potential staff structure this summer,” he said. “Greg Meehan (World Championships), Yuri Suguiyama (World University Games), Brendan Hansen (World Junior Championships), and Kim Williams (World & World Junior Championships) will serve as support coaches during international travel. In these roles, we will work alongside all coaches and directly with athletes, providing mentorship, insight, and cohesion across our teams. Our goal is to create a more unified experience across all of our international teams.”
The letter also outlined a commitment to “deliberately offer opportunities to emerging coaches to gain invaluable experience at the highest levels, while also allowing our more experienced coaches the chance to rest and recharge following an intense Olympic cycle.”
Meehan said that the total number of coaches on staff would remain unchanged.
USA Swimming won the medals table at an off-beat 2024 World Championship that was missing many of the world’s top swimmers in an unusual Olympic year scheduling. At the last complete World Championship meet in 2023, USA Swimming won 7 gold medals to 13 for Australia – the first time the U.S. didn’t lead the gold medal count since 2001.
The swimming portion of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships will be held from July 27-August 3 in Singapore.
Greg Meehan‘s Letter to National Team Coaches
Dear National Team & National Junior Team Coaches,
As we look ahead with great anticipation to an exciting summer of international competition, I’m writing to share important updates regarding our 2025 World Championships, World University Games (WUGs), and World Junior Championships coaching staff.
First, we are proud to announce Braden Holloway as the Head Coach for the 2025 World Championship Team. Braden’s leadership, experience as an Olympic/World Championship assistant coach as well as Short Course Worlds head coach, and deep commitment to athlete development and Team USA make him an outstanding choice to lead our team in Singapore.
As part of the restructured National Team Division, and in alignment with our long-term strategy toward success at LA 2028, we will name only one head coach for the World Championship staff this year. However, we want to emphasize that the total number of coaches on staff will remain unchanged. The remaining coaches, including Open Water, will be selected following the Toyota National Championships in Indianapolis. This adjustment allows us to move forward with greater cohesion and flexibility, supporting both our athletes and coaches in more strategic ways.
This new staffing approach reflects a broader vision: prioritizing the long-term development of our coaching cohort and ensuring Team USA is best positioned for peak performance at our home Olympics in 2028. To that end, we will deliberately offer opportunities to emerging coaches to gain invaluable experience at the highest levels, while also allowing our more experienced coaches the chance to rest and recharge following an intense Olympic cycle. This balance is essential to sustaining excellence across multiple Olympic quads.
We are also pleased to announce the head coaches for the 2025 World Junior Championships: Abi Liu will serve as Head Coach for the Junior Women and Peter Verhoef will serve as Head Coach for the Junior Men. Our National Junior Team Director, Brendan Hansen, made these appointments after their successful leadership of the NJT Performance Camp this past April. We are confident they will continue to build on the momentum they started there throughout the team’s time in Romania! The remaining World Junior staff will be selected following the Toyota National Championships, built around those coaches whose swimmers earn spots on the team — mirroring our approach with the World Championships staff.
The WUGs staff will be selected and announced promptly following Nationals. While we recognize that WUGs staffing will depend on selections from our two higher-priority competitions (Worlds and World Juniors), we want to underscore that the World University Games remains an important international meet for Team USA. It is a valuable opportunity for athlete development and international racing experience, and we are fully committed to assembling an excellent staff to support our team.
We’re also excited to be modeling a new potential staff structure this summer. Greg Meehan (World Championships), Yuri Suguiyama (World University Games), Brendan Hansen (World Junior Championships), and Kim Williams (World & World Junior Championships) will serve as support coaches during international travel. In these roles, we will work alongside all coaches and directly with athletes, providing mentorship, insight, and cohesion across our teams. Our goal is to create a more unified experience across all of our international teams.
We are incredibly excited for the opportunities ahead this summer, as Team USA competes across the globe. Whether in Singapore, Germany, or Romania, we are one team—Team USA—driven by a shared mission and unified by pride in representing the stars and stripes at the highest level.
Thank you for your continued dedication and leadership. We look forward to seeing many of you in Indy soon and working together to build something truly special on the road to LA 2028.
With appreciation,
Greg Meehan
We’ll see how it goes, I’m curious to see who else is gonna make the coaching staff. Gonna be weird if the big names like Nesty and Desorbo sit completely
To further Braden’s point, why do we even need a head coach when we have three highly qualified and highly paid National coaches?
And ones who have actually won national titles…..
Short Course Worlds in 2022 was overall a pretty strong meet from USA, especially in terms of relays & decisions there even without some key pieces. Hoping for more of the same from Holloway this time around!
Yes ….letting keiran Smith to do all the sprint relay anchor duties was such a awesome decision comparing the cohort available on that time…they broke the WR in 100 mens medley relay even without a strong backhalf
Hello Braden,
I’m going to need you to coach the men’s AND women’s national teams, that would be great.
Straight from the “Office Space” playbook.
This is an interesting departure from norm, but a relatively low-stakes year to try something new. Relay culture at NC State has been unimpeachable, so I imagine Braden will be able to put together sensible lineups. Will be rooting for him and Team USA.
Good luck with that when the UVA contingent has said in interviews they basically don’t give a crap about relays and are only in it for individual medals.
Do we think that this will become more “normal”? Just naming one head coach. And then Meehan, Sugiyama, and Williams effectively naming themselves to each staff as well? Is this why Sugiyama and Williams are NT coaches?
Updated with more insights from Meehan. Sounds like it’s a pilot, they’re trying something new to see if they want to shift it long term.
Brendan Hansen will be involved too.
I wonder if the Olympic team coaches wanted to take a breather after Paris being sandwiched between the NCAA seasons and this was ultimately a decision made because of limited high profile options. Chris Plumb was the sole returning coach from the summer for SCM Worlds and he managed by himself given the success of that team.
The female contingent of USA Swimming were on autopilot at the 2024 Short Course World Championships.
Looks like the letter from Greg Meehan that got added affirms your thinking somewhat, though the decision to go with someone slightly less high-profile was intentional.
A good strategy as far as I am concerned.
Yeah I mean, I don’t mind trying something new, especially something sound.
My instinct is that I would rather have a single head coach and an extra spot for “assistant chosen based on who qualifies” than two head coaches, especially with the NTD role back in coaches’ hands. I think between Meehan and Holloway, they can capably play leadership/culture setting for a roster of 52.
Team USA always goes with separate Men’s and Women’s head coaches so I think it’s pretty obvious that the decision to have Holloway coach both this time is a last minute bandaid solution Team USA begrudgingly had to make now that Brett Hawke is no longer available to coach the Women.
Willswim never misses.