Olympic Medalist Alex Shackell Commits to Indiana University

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Double Olympic medalist Alex Shackell has announced her commitment to swim for the Indiana Hoosiers beginning in the spring of 2026. She was originally committed to swim at Cal, but decommitted to stay home and train with the Carmel Swim Club.

The top ranked recruit in the girls’ class of 2025, her versatility and international achievements make her one of the most valuable female swimmers to matriculate to collegiate swimming this decade.

Besides the Carmel Swim Club, Shackell swims for Carmel High School, the 39-time state champions. Indiana University is about a 75 minute drive from Carmel.

She finished her high school career two weeks ago as the Indiana High School State Champion in the 100 yard fly, which she won all four years of her high school career. She also won the 50 free title in 2023 as a sophomore and 100 back in 2024 as a junior.

At the 2024 Olympic Trials, she earned her spot on the U.S. Olympic Team via a 2nd place finish in the 200 meter fly (2:06.69) and a 6th place finish in the 200 meter free (1:57.05).

At the Olympic Games, she finished 6th in the 200 fly, won a silver medal via a prelims leg of the American 800 free relay, and added a gold as a prelims leg of the 400 medley relay – a swim she got because the versatility of the American women’s team meant swimmers like Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass were able to swim multiple legs of that relay.

Shackell’s Best Times in Short Course Yards/Long Course Meters

The Indiana women last week finished 2nd at the Big Ten Championships, but will graduate three of their four best scorers from that meet: Anna Peplowski, diver Skyler Liu, and Ching Hwee Gan.

While she can’t singlehandedly replace all of those points, her best times would currently rank her 5th in the 100 fly, 2nd in the 200 fly, and she will fill in the formidable relay gap left by the loss of Peplowski.

She joins a class that includes Canadian Laila Oravsky, Billie Blu Mondonedo, Kamile Zinis, Grace Hoeper, Liberty Clark, Luci Gutierrez, and Skyler Knowlton.

Shackell is part of a swimming dynasty. Her dad Nick Shackell, was a member of the NCAA Champion team at Auburn in 1997, where he was an 18-time All-American. He represented Great Britain at the 1996 Olympic Games. He also had five Commonwealth Games medals between 1994 and 1998.

Her mom, Ali (Hansen) Shackell, also swam at Auburn, where she was a three-time All-American.

Alex’s older brother Aaron was also a member of the Paris 2024 Olympic Team and began his college career at Cal before transferring to Texas and ultimately returning home to Carmel to train late last year. Her twin brother Andrew also swam at the 2024 US Olympic Trials and is committed to swim at Texas in the fall after also originally committing to Cal.

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