West Virginia University swimming and diving head coach Brent MacDonald announced that three-time Canadian Olympian Sydney Pickrem will join the staff as an assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach. Pickrem will join the team after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where she is scheduled to compete later this month.
Pickrem told SwimSwam on Thursday that taking the role does not mean the end of her competitive career. “I’m definitely still swimming, not retiring any time soon!” she said.
Pickrem previously competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, which included a bronze medal as the breaststroker on Canada’s women’s medley relay. She also placed 6th in the 200 IM in Tokyo and Rio individually.
Pickrem, 27, also has seven World Aquatics Championship medals. Earlier this year, she won silver in the 200 IM; in 2019 she won bronze in the 200 IM; and in 2017 she won bronze in the 400 IM. Her other four World Championship medals were in relays.
She also has five World Championship medals in short course, including two gold medals.
Pickrem is the second hire of new head coach MacDonald since he was hired away from Xavier in May. The first was former Texas A&M men’s assistant Michael Walker, who helped coach Pickrem in recent years at A&M.
“Sydney is a really exciting hire for us,” MacDonald said. “It will be great to have such a strong example of grit, perseverance and success on the pool deck every day. In my conversations with her, it was clear that she has a passion for teaching the sport and what it takes to be great. She has been readying herself to take a coaching role over the past few years, and we’re excited to have her land in Morgantown after the Olympics.”
Pickrem also chaired the Olympic Program Athlete Council for Swimming Canada. In this role, she advocated for the needs of athletes in the Olympic program.
Pickrem competed collegiately at Texas A&M from 2015-2019. As an Aggie, she was an 11-time All-American and was Texas A&M’s Athlete of the Year in 2017 and 2018.
As a team, Texas A&M won the SEC conference title from 2016-2019.
Pickrem was the SEC Freshman of the Year and an SEC champion in the 400-yard IM in 2016. She won three SEC titles in 2017 (200 breast, 400 IM, 800 freestyle relay) and four SEC titles in 2018 (200 breast, 200 IM, 400 IM, 800 free relay).
Pickrem was named SEC Swimmer of the Year for the 2017-18 season and was named First Team All-America after placing third in the 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships.
In her sophomore season, Pickrem placed second in the 400 IM, fourth in the 200 IM and fourth in the 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships.
In her final season, Pickrem placed third in the 200 IM, second in the 400 IM and second in the 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships. At the time of her graduation, Pickrem held school records in the 200 IM, 400 IM and the 800 free relay.
Pickrem is a native of Dunedin, Florida, and graduated from Texas A&M in 2020 with a degree in Kinesiology.
The West Virginia women finished 6th out of 8 teams and the men finished 5th out of 5 teams last season in their first season in the Big 12. The conference will look very different next season with the departure of the dominant Texas Longhorns and the addition of Utah, Arizona, and the defending NCAA men’s champions Arizona State.
So she will be training at WVU while coaching?
Yes, that’s what she told us.
Where is all the haters now
What is her Canadian connection?
Both Sydney’s parent’s are Canadian having been born in the province of Nova Scotia. She was born in Florida and is a duel citizen and chose to swim for Canada.
Her parents are both from Halifax.
Her non-IM LC Worlds medals are from 200 br (2) and relays (2)
Always thought she could be a good coach.Big time competitor….good choice.
The most memorable parts of her career have been giving up midway through a world championship final because it wasn’t going her way, no-showing multiple times for her ISL team earning them negative points, and pulling out of national teams for “undisclosed reasons”. Hope they’re not leaning on her to impart any mental toughness lol
You’re not her.
No matter what you think you don’t know exactly what’s going on in her life.
How many Olympic Medals do you have?
Many swimmers have many reasons to skip a swim.Lots of them have nagging injury problems which can flare up in the middle of a meet.Even more have dealt with mental aspects of the sport.I have no inside information on Sydney,but I trust her to have a good reason.This I do know…when she dives in the pool she gives it all.You,re not very understanding , I’ll guess you were never a swimmer or you would cut people a little more slack.
Tired, tired old narrative….
Yes she stopped in the 2IM at 2017 worlds after CHOKING ON WATER! Freak thing, very rare, but has and does occur. She did it once…and CAME BACK to win bronze in the 4IM later in the meet. I call that mental toughness.
Yes she pulled out of a couple ISL races, that fall she struggled with mental challenges she openly discussed later on, anxiety etc. Ideal for her team at the time? Of course not. She also earned more points for her team over a 3 yr span than most.
Yes she withdrew from an occasional individual event at World/Olympics. None were of any ‘hidden’ or resiliance issue, NONE were at the expence of another… Read more »
Awesome