Olympic Silver Medalist Erica Sullivan Joins #TeamSpeedo Under New NIL Rules

Speedo is a SwimSwam partner.

Speedo has announced the addition of Olympic silver medalist Erica Sullivan to #TeamSpeedo. With her signing, Sullivan joins fellow Olympic medalists Regan Smith, Kieran Smith, and Maggie MacNeil on Speedo’s roster of sponsored collegiate athletes. 

Erica Sullivan is the newest member of #TeamSpeedo

Sullivan, a first-year at Texas, won an individual silver medal in the women’s 1500 freestyle during her Olympic debut in Tokyo last summer. Following her win, Sullivan gained celebrity status in the media as one of the only openly gay swimmers to ever medal at the Olympics

In the short course pool, Sullivan is currently ranked as the 2nd fastest 1650 freestyler in history, only behind American Record holder Katie Ledecky. Despite it only being her freshman season, Sullivan also already holds a lifetime best in the 500 free of 4:34.07, which would have placed 2nd at the 2021 NCAA Championships. 

After graduating in 2018, Sullivan initially committed to USC, but opted to defer her enrollment until after the 2020 Olympic Games. After the Games were delayed and USC’s coach Dave Salo retired, Sullivan ultimately switched her commitment to Texas’ class of 2025. 

Swimwear brands have capitalized on new Name, Image, Likeness rules that allow college and high school athletes to sign sponsorships by signing athletes who were previously considered “amateurs. 

In This Story

12
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

12 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Big Mac #1
2 years ago

It is worth 1,000,000,000,000 dollars, possibly more

Last edited 2 years ago by Lucas Caswell
Anonymoose
Reply to  Big Mac #1
2 years ago

i believe in the words of Big Mac #1

bobthebuilderrocks
2 years ago

Damn, forgot she’s class of 2018. She’s a freshman while people her age are seniors. No judgement, just interesting, I forgot about that fact and kind of grouped her with the two Sandpiper teens in the same “age group”

jeff
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
2 years ago

seems that you get a 1 year grace period, and then from then you have 5 years to compete in 4 seasons. Sullivan’s grace period would’ve ended in 2019, and then she would have the opportunity to swim 4 seasons between 2019-2024.

Under the usual rules that would mean just 3 seasons in 3 years (so every redshirt year would just mean 1 less year of swimming), but idk how Covid affects that

Last edited 2 years ago by jeff
Katie
Reply to  jeff
2 years ago

There’s an extra Covid grace year, and there’s also an available grace year for athletes training for Olympic Trials/Olympics (in many team sports, competing at the Olympics requires a year off from school to train with the national team). Gymnasts are being allowed to “stack” the Covid year and the Olympic training year (many deferred 2019-2020 to train for Olympic Trials and then deferred 2020-2021 when the Olympics were postponed). I presume that if gymnasts are being allowed to do so, swimmers will be allowed to do so as well.

jeff
Reply to  Katie
2 years ago

Interesting, I presume that means that Sullivan still has the full 5 years to compete in 4 seasons then? First grace year for free, second for Covid, third for the Olympics?

LBSWIM
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
2 years ago

Is this something new? I know someone who didn’t go to college until 10+ years after high school and was eligible to still swim NCAAs.

2Fat4Speed
Reply to  LBSWIM
2 years ago

What Division? And we’re you in the military?

LBSWIM
Reply to  2Fat4Speed
2 years ago

D3 and wasn’t me as I said. Late 90s I believe. She was in her 30s. One of the most successful masters swimmers of all time.

LBSWIM
Reply to  LBSWIM
2 years ago

Sorry D2 not D3.

ReneDescartes
Reply to  LBSWIM
2 years ago

D2 and D3 have different eligibility rules than D1

Sunday Morning Grind
Reply to  LBSWIM
2 years ago

Agreed. What about the international freshman who are starting at age 22-24?

About Nicole Miller

Nicole Miller

Nicole has been with SwimSwam since April 2020, as both a reporter and social media contributor. Prior to joining the SwimSwam platform, Nicole also managed a successful Instagram platform, amassing over 20,000 followers. Currently, Nicole is pursuing her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After competing for the swim …

Read More »