Lydia Jacoby has cut her NCAA career short, opting to forgo her remaining college eligibility and become a professional swimmer.
Jacoby, 20, had two seasons of eligibility remaining at the University of Texas, having represented the Longhorns the past two seasons and winning an individual national title as a freshman in 2023.
She plans on continuing to pursue her degree in Austin. She did not specify if she would continue to train under women’s head coach Carol Capitani or work with men’s head coach Bob Bowman.
Jacoby announced her decision on Instagram Wednesday:
After careful consideration and with the support of my coaches and loved ones, I have decided to forgo my collegiate eligibly to pursue professional swimming. I committed to Texas long before my life was forever changed at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, and am glad I honored that commitment. I have absolutely loved my two seasons of swimming for the Longhorns and I’m eternally grateful for the coaching staff and my teammates at Texas. I’m continuing to work on my degree in advertising at the University of Texas and am excited for the future.
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A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Jacoby achieved worldwide fame before she joined the collegiate ranks at Texas in the fall of 2022, soaring to an upset Olympic gold medal victory in the women’s 100 breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
After falling shy of qualifying for the U.S. World Championship team in 2022, Jacoby had an exceptional freshman year at Texas in 2022-23, sweeping the Big 12 conference titles in the women’s 100 and 200 breaststroke before winning the NCAA title in the 100 breast in a time of 57.03.
She represented the United States at the 2023 World Championships, winning bronze in the women’s 100 breast, placing 9th in the 50 breast and adding a gold medal as a member of the women’s 4×100 medley relay team.
After opting to sit out of collegiate competition during the first semester last year, Jacoby repeated as the Big 12 champion in the 100 and 200 breast in 2024, and followed up by placing 5th in the 100 breast and 9th in the 200 breast at her second NCAA Championships.
At the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, Jacoby placed 3rd in the final of the women’s 100 breast, missing out on an opportunity to defend her Olympic title in Paris. She went on to scratch out of the 200 breast and declared “I will be back. And I will be better,” after the setback of missing the Olympic team.
Regan Smith, Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, Missy Franklin and Kathleen Baker are other examples of female swimmers who have opted to forgo NCAA eligibility to turn pro early, while Leon Marchand is the latest example on the men’s side. Both Smith and Marchand notably will be training at Texas under Bowman.
HOW THIS AFFECTS TEXAS
The Longhorn women have been loaded in breaststroke the past two seasons, with German Olympian Anna Elendt and Jacoby forming a formidable 1-2 punch. However, Elendt has graduated and will not return to the Longhorns to use her fifth year of eligibility, leaving a big hole for Texas to fill with Jacoby also departing.
Thanks to strong recruiting, that hole will be seamlessly filled in by Piper Enge, one of the top recruits in the girls’ high school class of 2024, who joins Texas this season with best times of 58.95 in the 100 breast and 2:09.09 in the 200 breast. For context, Jacoby’s best times prior to her arrival in Austin were 58.87 and 2:08.61.
The Longhorn women have reeled off three consecutive runner-up finishes at the NCAA Championships, and are poised to be a top-tier contender again this season with several returning fifth-year seniors, a strong recruiting class and a well-established existing core despite the loss of Jacoby. The team will join the SEC this season after an unprecedented run of dominance in the Big 12.
I’m excited to listen to the podcast interview whenever it drops.
It sounded like she was in a rough place after Trials, and was considering walking away from swimming at that point. I do wonder if “going pro” is a precursor to retirement in this situation. If she announced her retirement now, I think it would be hard to keep getting brand sponsorships, and we do see some athletes who are clearly not training or competing, but who have not announced their retirements (so that they can keep the sponsorship money going for a while)? I think the longer Lydia goes without a clear plan for a new training environment (whether that be with Bowman or someone else), the more… Read more »
She needs to be with a coach that knows how to handle a pure breaststroker without breaking them.
Mark Faber
Brian Pajer
Dave Salo
Ray Looze
Sounds like she and CC aren’t on/haven’t been on the same page and she’s going to switch to Bowman.
Thought you meant Claire Curzan and I was quite confused for a second
I first thought Caitlin Clark
Avery nice person – We wish her all the best
TBH, not surprising to me. She sat out last fall to focus on Olympic training and that didn’t work out so well. She goes to different meets than team. She has an atypical stroke and might be hard to coach unless someone from 1970 coaches her.
Good luck!
Looking forward to more razor commercials!
Does Texas have an online program?
Her post says she is continuing to work on her degree at Texas, but it doesn’t strictly say she will continue to live in Austin. It also doesn’t strictly say that she will be taking classes *this semester*
Ay chance this leaves open the possibility of e.g., moving to Indiana? Lily King hasn’t retired yet. Looze seems to have more success with only-breaststroke swimmers than anybody else
She also seems to have changed her major from textiles and fashion to marketing… maybe marketing classes can be done remotely? She also appears to have a boyfriend from Spain so maybe she wants the flexibility to be able to train there or just visit during season?
I was thinking the same thing on the online part. Just because she’s still pursuing her degree at UT doesn’t mean she is going to be living and training in Austin. Indiana is an interesting option I hadn’t thought about…would make a lot of sense.
She’s going to come on the podcast later this week to answer some of these logistics questions.
Dave Salo might be the coach with the largest number of impressive breaststroke Olympians (Beard, Hardy, Soni,…) Now he’s going to ASU. Would that also be an option for Lydia?
I have never met the man. He has an impressive list of coaching accomplishments.
He’s awesome.
He made some public comments about the Teri McKeever case (comments were critical of the athletes who submitted the abuse allegations), and that left me scratching my head a little bit.
Aside from that, I have no basis to be critical of the man. He has been very successful coaching breaststrokers.
He also twice drafted swimmers who were already taken in the ISL draft and I will never forgive him for that.
Adam loves him for his politics.