The Stanford Cardinal have hired Chris Lindauer as their new head women’s swimming & diving coach. Lindauer spent the last 3 seasons as the head coach of the men’s and women’s teams at Notre Dame.
Stanford launched a national search to replace Greg Meehan, who is leaving to become the USA Swimming National Team Director. No Stanford women entered the NCAA transfer portal in the special 30 day window allowed when a school announces a head coaching change, which has already closed (the change was announced April 11).
That means, barring any defections or redshirt years, Lindauer will be left with a full cupboard after the Cardinal finished 2nd at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. The Cardinal return 76.7% of their individual points (197), which is more points than any team in the country besides the defending champion Virginia Cavaliers, and a higher percentage than any other team in the top 4.
That includes Olympic gold medalist Torri Huske, who has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining.
Lindauer’s prior stop before Notre Dame was as an associate head coach at Louisville. When he moved up to his first big head coaching position, he hired most of his staff from that Louisville family – including assistants Joao de Lucca, Kameron Chastain, Kelsi Dahlia, and Trevor Carroll, who all swam at Louisville.
Dahlia, a U.S. Olympian in the 100 butterfly like Huske, would be a tantalizing choice to join him in Stanford, though current Stanford associate head coach Katie Robinson is one of the top associate head coaches in the country and would be a viable candidate to stay in that role – although that is an uncommon transition.
Lindauer had quick success at Notre Dame with the men’s team, which finished a record 10th at the 2024 NCAA Championships a year after a record 18th place finish in 2023. That included coaching Chris Guiliano from an unheralded recruit to a U.S. Olympian.
That progress came screeching to a halt when the entire Notre Dame men’s swimming team was suspended for the 2024-2025 season amid an investigation into gambling and other team culture issues. Guiliano ultimately transferred to Texas.
The Notre Dame women didn’t have quite that same level of success. They didn’t score at the 2023 or 2025 NCAA Championships. At the 2024 championships, they placed 32nd with 6 points scored by diver Caroline Brady.
Lindauer and his wife Beth have three sons, Jack, Owen, and Brady.
Stanford listed the position with a salary range of $160,000-$195,000, though that doesn’t include an estimated annual take of $60,000 from swim camps or the university’s housing stipend. As a private university, Lindauer’s salary and contract are not subject to public records.
Mike Stevens to Notre Dame!
Kinda surprised that there’s only 28 comments (now 29 with mine)
Fine swimswam I’ll post under my real name. The men’s team kept it a secret that Lindy and other coaches knew about the gambling in order to protect the future of the program. Men’s team had your back coach, but you clearly didn’t have ours especially when administration was making baseless accusations that you knew were false. Wish the Stanford women the best for the future!
the program isnt going to have a future or legacy if it rises or falls on the back of a single person. notre dame is a pretty attractive school to recruit from — im sure theyll find another decent caliber coach to come in
he must be a pretty good coach if you feel that strongly that he should have stayed w the program
Woah! 👍
Has anyone seen the Notre dame swim cloud of the men vs women’s progression since Chris got hired?? Men: 📈 women: 📉
didn’t bet on that happening
Maybe those Stanford gals will also pick up a little knowledge about odds and betting…
Good hire. Since Lindauer has experience as a head coach for a combined men’s and women’s team at Notre Dame, any chance he could do the same at The Farm?
The idea has been floated to me today by lots of coaches in a speculative way.