USA Swimming Announces Yuri Suguiyama As National Team Senior Director and Coach

Longtime University of Wisconsin head coach Yuri Suguiyama has been named USA Swimming’s new National Team Senior Director and Coach, the organization announced Wednesday.

Suguiyama joins USA Swimming after seven seasons as the head coach of the Badgers, aligning with another former NCAA coach, Greg Meehan, who was announced as USA Swimming’s National Team Director earlier this month.

In this new full-time role, which is a coaching/senior director hybrid position, Suguiyama will support both the National Team program and USA Swimming’s National Team Division.

This includes guiding performance strategies and aiding the country’s top swimmers through the Olympic quad, focusing on building relationships with athletes and mentoring other national team coaches, and assisting in other areas such as strategic planning, international competition, and designing domestic racing schedules and selection procedures.

“Yuri has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership and a deep commitment to athlete development in all levels of the sport,” said Meehan. “His vision and experience helping club, collegiate, and professional swimmers make U.S. Olympic teams make him an outstanding choice to coach and support our team.”

Meehan and Suguiyama were notably both assistant coaches at Cal under Dave Durden before moving on and taking head coaching jobs of their own programs.

During his time at Wisconsin, Suguiyama’s swimmers won three NCAA titles, 29 Big Ten titles, earned 66 All-America honors, set 49 school records and recorded three top-15 finishes at the NCAA Championships.

“It is an honor to be joining USA Swimming in this role and I’m thrilled to be working with Greg Meehan,” said Suiguiyama, who will relocate to Colorado Springs. “My experiences with the U.S. National Team have been the highlights of my career and I’m ready to work and help our nation’s top athletes prepare for the competitions ahead.”

Most recently, the Wisconsin women placed 12th at the NCAA Championships, moving up from 15th in 2024, while the Badger men also saw noted improvement from last year, moving up from 31st place in the team standings to 22nd.

“We want to thank Yuri for his seven successful years at Wisconsin and congratulate him on this exciting new opportunity,” Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McCintosh said.

“Under Yuri’s leadership, our program achieved success in and out of the pool and he is leaving Wisconsin swimming and diving in an even better place than when he arrived.

“I’m proud of the role our program and student-athletes have had in helping Yuri earn this new position and wish him the best as he moves on to represent Team USA.”

Prior to his time at Wisconsin, Suguiyama served as the associate head coach at Cal under Durden from 2012 to 2018, winning CSCAA Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2014. He joined the Bears after spending six seasons as a coach at Nation’s Capital Swim Club, where he worked with Katie Ledecky prior to her Olympic gold medal victory in the women’s 800 freestyle at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Suguiyama has plenty of experience representing the U.S. on the international stage, including serving as the Special Assistant to the National Team Director at the 2016 Olympics and serving as an assistant coach on the American staff at the 2014 Pan Pacs, 2015 World University Games, and 2023 LEN U23 European Championships. He was also the head men’s coach at the 2016 Short Course World Championships.

With Meehan and Suguiyama in place, USA Swimming continues its search for its next CEO. Chrissi Rawak was named to the role in February before withdrawing shortly thereafter, after a SafeSport complaint against her surfaced.