Another Olympic medal-winning swimmer has entered the ranks of collegiate coaches. Georgia Tech announced on Wednesday the hiring of Melanie Margalis as a new assistant coach. She fills the spot previously occupied by Ryan Kauth, who left the program in the offseason to become the head coach at Division III Messiah University.
While Margalis, 30, has no prior formal coaching experience, she has a ton of experience in elite swimming. At the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Margalis won a gold medal as a member of the American 800 free relay and finished 4th individually in the 200 IM. She is now the second Olympic gold medalist on the Georgia Tech staff: head coach Courtney Hart has two Olympic gold medals from the 2000 Games, one of the few NCAA Division I head coaches with an Olympic gold medal herself.
Most of Margalis’ time as an adult swimmer, both in the NCAA and as a pro, was done at the University of Georgia, about 90 minutes east of Atlanta. After missing the 2021 US Olympic Team, though, she moved to the city and began training with the Georgia Tech coaches.
Hart is also an alumus of the University of Georgia program.
“I’m so thankful to Courtney and the Georgia Tech athletic department for this opportunity! After swimming for these coaches for the last year, I cannot wait to work alongside them,” Margalis said of her recent experience at Georgia Tech.
“I always knew I wanted to use my swimming experience to help the next generation and I’m ready to pass along all of my knowledge. I’m so excited for the future of this program and feel extremely grateful that I get to be a part of it.”
In addition to her Olympic medal, Margalis has a number of other international medals. That includes long course World Championship gold medals in relays in 2017 and 2019, another in shortcuorse in 2018, an individual Pan Pacs silver medal in the 400 IM in 2018, and 7 other World Championship medals.
At her last meet, the US International Team Trials in April, she swam one race, finishing 14th in the 200 free.
Margalis also brings national championship pedigree as she was part of the 2013 and 2014 women’s NCAA National Championship teams. Margalis was a key member of both teams earning All-American honors in the 200 breast, 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay in 2013.
She improved this impact with a fourth-place finish in the 200 breast, third place in the 400 IM and second place in the 200 IM while also swimming on the third place 400 medley relay team and fourth place 400 free relay team in 2014. In total, she is a 17-time All-American.
With Margalis’ hire, the GT coaching staff combined have 61 All-American honors from their time as athletes. That includes 17 from Margalis.
They are also the only power five program in the nation to have three full-time female coaches on staff.
Also on staff are diving coach John Ames, assistant coach Angie Nicoletta, assistant coach Michael Norment, and assistant coach Chico Rego.
The Georgia Tech men finished 5th at the 2022 ACC Championships, but graduate a huge portion of their points. Out of 319.5 individual points scored at that meet, 138 were done by 5th year seniors, and another 51 were done by traditional seniors, who could return next season, but have not yet announced plans to do so. There is still an upward swing for the Yellow Jackets, however: their freshman class were their top scorers with 179.5 individual points, including 61 from Berke Saka.
The Georgia Tech women finished 10th at ACCs. While they don’t lose nearly as much as the men with their senior class, easily their top scorer at the meet Cami Hidalgo (72 points, diving) did graduate.
Margalis is at least the second Olympic gold medalist to get her first collegiate coaching job this offseason: former NCAA Champion at Louisville Kelsi Dahlia was named an associate coach at Notre Dame earlier this month.
Margalis says that she’s not planning to compete anymore, but is leaving the door open for a “fluid future” if she decides that she wants to start racing again later.
Mel,
Congratulations on a phenomenal career in the water. I have confidence that you will do great coaching and mentoring the next generation of college swimmers.
And the team is still mediocre
Is she also taking classes there? I know Fink is, not sure if both sides of the genius swimming power couple are…
Combined staff with 3 female coaches. Hell yeah!
Well, TCU and Iowa both had three and BYU, soon to be power five has four
Love seeing former Bulldogs in White and Gold! #GoJackets #THWG 😉
she is awesome, in Des Moines 2020 her 400IM was epic
Fantastic career. What sticks out to me most that I don’t think I’ll ever forget is how gracious she was when getting beat out of spots on Team USA and her immediate and genuine congratulations to those who bested her. Incredible sportsmanship.
I couldn’t agree more with this comment. She always brings the positive energy with her on the pool deck. She will be a great coach.
I understand the issues some have with the recent former pros/olympians getting assistant jobs with no coaching experience over respectably more seasoned and proven coaches. I think we can easily forget that the biggest asset is recruiting and these Olympic medalists have probably given talks to thousands of potential recruits over the years and are household names in the swimming community.
Having an Olympic medalist call you up to recruit you over a name they may not know is a rather big first step in the insane recruiting game. It makes a difference and I wonder if these head coaches are seeing that as an opportunity.
I will admit, it really sucks for the coaches that have put in… Read more »
The issue is less with Melanie, I guess she has sort of an understanding of the USA Swimming club system. What I take issue with is the NCAA becoming a place where foreign coaches AND swimmers are given priority over native ones. These swimmers don’t know what scy is, or high school swimming and therefore don’t respect it much.
GT is one of the worst offenders for this and has been recruiting internationally for over a decade, with little results to show for it.
Given that you’ve posted now 8 comments on this thread with 8 different usernames, it’s pretty clear that you have some personal beef here.
If that personal beef is that you wanted the job and didn’t get it, I want you to consider the totality of your comments, and whether you would hire somebody who has that sort of tact and demeanor to mentor 18-22 year olds. It might be time to look internally for why you’re not getting these jobs, then looking externally for people to blame.
I get that you’re frustrated. But coaching by nature is frustrating, as is elite athletic competition. I’m sure you would expect your athletes to handle frustration differently than you are with these… Read more »
Interviewed, wasn’t hired. Now I’m but hurt about it. 🙁
#turboburn
So not enforce this?
I don’t understand this point. Universities choose swimmers that they think will benefit their program. I doubt any university is choosing a lackluster foreigner over a proven American, and the vast majority of the NCAAs are still from the US. Why do you care who they recruit?