One of the top female breaststrokers in the United States is headed to the other side of the pool deck.
Annie Lazor, a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalist and 2018 world champion, has been named an assistant coach at the University of Florida, ending her competitive career in the pool come the fall.
Lazor told SwimSwam she will race at the U.S. National Championships later this month before transitioning into her new position.
Welcome to Gator Nation Annie! 🐊
📝: https://t.co/iVNDpbnj8d#GoGators pic.twitter.com/IWGdyFTBS1
— Gators Swimming & Diving (@GatorsSwimDv) June 12, 2023
“I want to thank Coach Nesty, Mike Spiegler, and the swimming and diving staff for giving me this opportunity to coach at the University of Florida,” Lazor said.
“This historic program continues to push the boundaries of greatness both at the NCAA and international level of the sport, and I cannot wait to work with and learn from high achieving athletes and coaches on a day-to-day basis. I can’t think of a better way to make my transition from one side of the pool deck to the other. Go Gators!!”
Lazor, 28, has been based out of Bloomington at Indiana University for the better part of the last five years, where she thrived under coach Ray Looze and quickly became one of the world’s best breaststrokers.
Lazor won the women’s 200 breast at the 2018 Short Course World Championships, and then claimed triple gold at the 2019 Pan American Games. Despite not racing at the LC World Championships that year, due to the U.S. team being selected the summer prior, Lazor finished 2019 ranked second in the world in the 200 breast (2:20.77).
The Beverly Hills, Michigan native then came through to win the women’s 200 breast at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, qualifying for Tokyo where she won bronze in a time of 2:20.84.
Lazor qualified for the 2022 World Championships in the women’s 50 and 100 breast, but missed out in her primary 200 breast event despite swimming a time faster than what ultimately won the world title at the U.S. Trials (2:21.91).
Prior to joining the Indiana pro group as a post-grad, Lazor started off her collegiate career at Ohio State before transferring to Auburn prior to the 2013-14 season. She went on to become a four-time All-American, and after graduating with a communications degree, missed the 2016 U.S. Olympic team, placing seventh in the 200 breast, and effectively retired from swimming.
Lazor took an administrative position at Cal under former Auburn coach Dave Durden, but ultimately decided she wasn’t finished in the pool and made a comeback. After first joining another former Auburn coach, John Hargis, at Pitt, Lazor made the move to IU to join a post-grad group and her career took off from there.
At the 2022 World Championships, she finished 13th in the 50 breast, but was disqualified in the semi-finals of the 100 breast due to a non-simultaneous kick. She then raced at the Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, placing 20th in the 100 breast and 23rd in the 50 breast, and has competed at two of the Pro Swim Series stops in 2023 and most recently raced at the Indy Spring Cup in May.
The University of Florida had a vacant coaching position after Steve Jungbluth was let go early in the 2022-23 campaign.
“Annie will most certainly enhance our coaching staff as a celebrated Olympian who is extremely enthusiastic and motivated,” Florida head coach Anthony Nesty said.
“She has a tremendously infectious positive attitude and our athletes will undoubtedly respond to her. Annie brings a wealth of knowledge and skill to the sport and will contribute to the team immediately upon arrival. We look forward to having her join the Gators!”
Florida is coming off a massively successful season, as not only did the men’s team win their 11th straight SEC title, but the women’s program won the conference championship for the first time since 2009.
Lazor is the latest competitive swimmer to immediately land a Division I coaching job upon retirement, with the likes of Kelsi Dahlia (Notre Dame), Margo Geer (Alabama), Melanie Margalis Fink (Georgia Tech/SMU) and Noelle Peplowski (Indiana) among those having done so recently.
Lazor is engaged to Brazilian pro Vini Lanza, who has also been based out of Indiana since 2018.
A great hire of a seasoned female with International experience and no excess baggage like a few other hires! Go Gators
Pretty sure Nesty and his staff know what they’re doing with this hire. I predict she will be a great coach.
I understand some criticisms of hiring coaches with no experience, particularly for top 5 teams, but a 28 year old Olympic medalist is not that comparable in my eyes to a 22 or 23 year old who just graduated and wasn’t that level of an athlete. The expectation at Florida is that they should be putting people on international teams every year. There’s few people who could help their athletes navigate that process or speak to what it takes better than someone who just went through it.
It’s true that some top athletes make bad coaches because they can’t always communicate or translate what made them successful or it came easily to them, but there was very little about… Read more »
Lazor has plenty of experience at the collegiate and pro-group level.
She is 28 years old, not a fresh graduate.
Florida will get more than their money’s worth with her as coach.
Nesty is not about handing out participation trophies or ceremonial positions.
Everyone relax and be happy for Lazor
Shocked that Florida needs to go to this depth to create a sales pitch of why a sixteen year old student athlete should verbally commit to swim at Florida.
I know I’m kicking up a hornets nest, and I’m sorry mods for doing it, but I genuinely wonder what is going to happen to Florida given the way the school is being politicized.
Some will like the politics changes, some won’t, but for many…just staying away from the chaos in a choice-among-equals might be the least-stressful choice.
Stop. Like literally stop. There is zero drama right now at Florida and athlete and coaches are very happy and the men’s and women’s teams are a cohesive family.
I think you misunderstood me. I wasn’t talking to all the back-and-forth in the comments section regarding the swim team. I was referring to Ron DeSantis remaking higher education in Florida in his own image.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/05/15/desantis-new-college-higher-education-sb266-christopher-rufo-critical-race-theory-gender-major-changes-legislation-indoctrination/
If you want to go quick, choose controversy & pick a side. If you want go long, blend in w the masses.
Right. 90% of us don’t really care either way, but why involve yourself in this when there are other options. If DeSantis wants to use college sports to score political points, meh, just avoid it all together.
It doesnt really work like that. You cant choose to ignore the laws etc in the state
Look at the abortion issue, some people party hard in college and sleep with other people without protection. No judgement from me.
Are you or your daughter willing to risk being forced to carry an unplanned pregnancy while in college and trying to compete
I would heavily advise my daughter against going to school in Florida or any other red state for this reason. College kids make mistake, and the consequences are very high
As unpopular of a comment as this will sadly be, it’s needs to be said…
This shouldn’t be that hard to understand… Regardless of experience, these coaches are being hired for the intangibles that may not always be seen. I understand that most of these newer female coaches are successful in the pool, and that’s what makes people salty right off the bat… But…
I can assure you that every one of these women are qualified for reasons well beyond their success in the pool,
Can they communicate efficiently enough to recruit and get the next wave of talent excited about college swimming? YES
Can they learn administrative duties that most new employees of any job have to… Read more »
Well said.
Thank you for this comment! These women are qualified and kick ass!
This might be true, or it might not
Many great athletes are awful coaches.
I have never met Annie Lazor so cannot comment on her, but other great athletes have personalities that do not translate at all into being great coaches
Are they able to make it all about someone else, when they are used to it being all about them
I musta missed the retirement announcement
Relax. Ledecky was hired as an assistant coach too. These are just titles so they can train with the team.
Ledecky was a volunteer assistant. Annie will be a paid, full-time assistant. It would appear Annie is transitioning away from competing
The rules have changed since ledecky was “hired”, but yes Annie is transitioning.