USA Swimming Names 5 Assistant Coaches for 2022 World Championships

USA Swimming has announced a group of 5 coaches who will serve as assistants for pool swimming at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships.

Along with the previously named head coaches of the women’s team (Todd DeSorbo) and men’s team (Anthony Nesty), the staff will include Ron AitkenCarol CapitaniBill DorenkottGreg Meehan, and Eddie Reese.

Unlike at the Olympics, the assistant coaches were not assigned to either a men’s or women’s team; rather they have just been named as assistants. That is in spite of the fact that three of the five assistant coaches (Capitani, Reese, and Meehan) coach single-gender teams. The staff will also be one smaller than we’ve seen in most recent years, with only 7 coaches instead of 8.

The staff includes one club coach, Ron Aitken, who is the head coach of the Sandpipers of Nevada. After putting three women on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team, Aitken was left off that staff.

This year, again with three women on the team (including newcomer and the youngest member of Team USA, 15-year old Claire Weinstein), he received his first international appointment.

The staff includes one female coach, Carol Capitani, who coaches the University of Texas women. She also coaches Texas post-grad Leah Smith, who made the team in two individual events and a relay. Only one other swimmer on the team, teenager Leah Hayes, swims for a team with a female head coach: the Fox Valley Park District Riptides are led by Nancy Hooper.

Current athletes on the U.S. roster by coaching staff member

  • University of Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo (3) – Kate Douglass (200 breast, 400 free relay), Alex Walsh (200 IM, 800 free relay), Emma Weyant (400 IM)
  • University of Florida head coach Anthony Nesty (6) – Caeleb Dressel (50/100 free, 50/100 fly, relays), Katie Ledecky (200/400/800/1500 free, relays), Natalie Hinds (400 free relay), Bobby Finke (800/1500 free), Trey Freeman (400 free, 800 free relay), Kieran Smith (200/400 free, relays)
  • Sandpipers of Nevada head coach Ron Aitken (3) – Katie Grimes (1500 free, 400 IM), Bella Sims (800 free relay), Claire Weinstein (200 free, relays)
  • University of Texas head women’s coach Carol Capitani (1) – Leah Smith (postgrad, 400/800 free, 800 free relay)
  • Ohio State head coach Bill Dorenkott (2) – Hunter Armstrong (50/100 back, 400 free relay, 400 medley relay), Charlie Clark (800/1500 free)
  • Stanford women’s head coach Greg Meehan (2) – Regan Smith (100 back, 200 fly, relays), Torri Huske (50/100 free, 100 fly, relays)
  • University of Texas head men’s coach Eddie Reese (5) – Coby Carrozza (800 free relay), Drew Kibler (200 free, 400 free relay, 800 free relay), Carson Foster (200/400 IM, 800 free relay), Shaine Casas (postgrad – 200 back), Charlie Swanson (postgrad – 200 breast)

One of the two Olympic head coaches Greg Meehan, who led the women’s team into Tokyo, will be on this year’s staff, albeit as an assistant. He has a new crew of swimmers in Torri Huske and Regan Smith as part of his group at Stanford. While both were Olympians in 2021, both are freshmen at Stanford and began training with Meehan this season. Another member of the team, Claire Curzan, will start at Stanford in the coming fall.

The head men’s coach from the Olympics Dave Durden is not on this year’s staff. He had two athletes qualify for the World Championships: Ryan Murphy, a Cal post-grad, in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, and Trenton Julian, who just completed his collegiate eligibility, qualified in the 200 fly and 800 free relay. Durden has been the head coach of every U.S. men’s World Championship staff since 2015 and was also an assistant in 2011.

For Ohio State head coach Bill Dorenkott, this is his biggest international U.S. appointment. Dorenkott has been the head coach of the women’s team at Ohio State since 2008 and the men’s team since 2017, when the programs combined under his leadership. At this meet, both of Ohio State’s qualifiers were men: Hunter Armstrong, who won the 100 back and set a World Record in the 50 back, is USA swimming’s new star. The other is Charlie Clark, a distance swimmer and just a freshman for the Buckeyes. Clark is a good swimmer – he’s the defending Big Ten Champion in the mile and has finished in 8th place at the last two NCAA Championship meets in that event – but this qualification was a huge leap forward for him. His top placement was 5th in the 1500 at last summer’s Olympic Trials.

This is a young staff by USA Swimming’s standards, and a relatively-novice international staff with the exceptions of Meehan and one other member: legendary University of Texas coach Eddie Reese.

After putting two swimmers on the Olympic team last year, Texas broke through for four at the World Championships this year. Three of those were expected: Carson Foster, Drew Kibler, and post-grad Shaine Casas. The fourth was a surprise: Coby Carrozza made the U.S. team in the 800 free relay. Reese’s accomplishments at the collegiate and international level are almost too long to name, and he has served on many U.S. coaching staffs in his 43 years at Texas. This is his first major U.S. staff since the 2017 World Championships.

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Chris
2 years ago

Why is there only one female coach?What’s the criteria for selection?

Last edited 2 years ago by Chris
Zanna
Reply to  Chris
2 years ago

Please read the whole tread

Gulliver’s Swimming Travels
2 years ago

Do most of the swimmers travel to Worlds with their home coaches anyway? Assuming there are no travel restrictions, etc?

Smith-King-Huske-Curzan
Reply to  Gulliver’s Swimming Travels
2 years ago

Schmitz and Suguiyama travelled to the London 2012 Olympics.

I was there
Reply to  Braden Keith
2 years ago

It seems like a positive thing that USA Swimming makes an effort to bring more coaches. They probably get extra credentials from FINA and that’s why it can be published officially.

Paul Szuszkiewicz
2 years ago

Congratulations Coach Ron Aitken well deserved honor.

Lpman
2 years ago

Wait…no Shane Tusup???? This is an outrage

steer
Reply to  Lpman
2 years ago

#cancelUSAswimming

Coachy
2 years ago

Ron Lockwood, club coach in Utah, has coached more kids on the team than Carol. Trey Freeman and Rhyan White.

Coachy
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

I don’t understand the downvotes. It’s a factual statement.

Christine Breedy
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

I believe the down votes are due to you putting a Coach ‘up’ while putting a Coach ‘down’.. Either way I think (as a former national teamer) it is great and helpful to have A female on the coaching staff!
Best of luck to the world games team!

Coachy
Reply to  Christine Breedy
2 years ago

Am I putting a coach down or just stating facts? There’s no shame in “only having 1”. In just pointing out that club coaches aren’t as respected as they should be.

John Kennedy
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

Sometimes facts hurt feelings.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

how can FACTS get downvotes??

idk bruh post the fact that someone from UPenn won the 500 free at women’s ncaas, see how them votes roll in.

(You could have said Lockwood has coached the same number of swimmers that Meehan and Dorenkott are currently coaching, but for some reason, did not. There’s also the fact that it’s past tense, semi important detail there.)

Coachy
Reply to  Steve Nolan
2 years ago

Bruh, you wrote the dumbest post I’ve ever read on here. Writing someone has matching qualifications doesn’t mean as much as saying someone has more of a qualification than someone on staff.

I’m not sure how you don’t get that.

Last edited 2 years ago by Coachy
Steve Nolan
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

I guess I have to spell it out very clearly for you!

Given the rest of the comments on this post – read the room, man! – it’s not shocking people would assume you’re purposefully trying to minimize the qualifications of the only female coach on this staff. (And maybe hit the dreaded “downvote” button!! On facts no less!)

And given you now have said my framing of those “facts” – which are just as factual as yours, if not more so – “doesn’t mean as much” it’s clear that’s basically what you were trying to do.

You also ignored that Lockwood is a former coach of both of those athletes, an important distinction. (Which, if I’m not… Read more »

Go CC
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

I think it’s a good idea to have at least one female coach on staff.

Question
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

When was the last time Coach Lockwood coached a full season for either of these athletes?

That coach out of Utah
Reply to  Coachy
2 years ago

Speaking for Ron Lockwood…

I couldn’t be more proud of what Ozzy and Anthony have done for these Rhyan and Trey. They have done an exceptional job of developing these two long after they left our program!

Congratulations to all!

Ghost
2 years ago

Glad to see Eddie accepting the spot!

Go the Distance
2 years ago

Congrats Bill Dorenkott – Love it when good things happen to good people.

Last edited 2 years ago by Go the Distance
H2O
Reply to  Go the Distance
2 years ago

Dorenkott is just riding the wave of having great associate and assistant coaches getting the job done.

Last edited 2 years ago by H2O
I was there
Reply to  H2O
2 years ago

Big part of his job is hiring those associate and assistants so I don’t see anything wrong here.

Anonymous
Reply to  H2O
2 years ago

Bill Dorenkott would be the first one to praise the work his coaches have done. And yes, he has surrounded himself with excellent coaches which is what any good leader should do, but that doesn’t take away from his coaching abilities. After all, he is the distance coach.

The boi
2 years ago

It was honestly super unfair that Peter Andrew was a coach last year. Good that they left him off this time.

swimmer
Reply to  The boi
2 years ago

He is the coach for an integral piece of the men’s team and no other coaches understand that training style. By not bringing him they would of been setting MA for failure, which would hurt US relays.

USA
Reply to  swimmer
2 years ago

MA did sort of fail even with him on the staff

Alex Dragovich
Reply to  swimmer
2 years ago

I disagree. It’s not like no one else in the US uses USRPT-like training methods. They were already incorporated into the training of elite swimmers before Tokyo. And the practice minutiae of plenty of the other US Tokyo swimmers weren’t 100% “understood” by the head/asst coaches. That didn’t set up a ton of failures.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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