2024 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS
USA Swimming has officially named the six coaches who will be Team’s USA assistants for the upcoming Paris Olympics. They’ll be working with women’s head coach Todd DeSorbo (Virginia) and men’s head coach Anthony Nesty (Florida), who were chosen as head coaches last fall. Also announced were the coaches who will lead the USA’s open water team.
While the coaches will technically be divided into a men’s and women’s staff, per the criteria, they will all be available to all participating athletes.
You can click here to get some insight into the selection criteria and some of our-mid meet thoughts about who might get the nod. But without further ado, here’s the USA Paris coaching squad:
Carol Capitani, Texas
- Erin Gemmell – 4×200 free
The University of Texas coaching situation is in flux right now, with soon-to-be-retired Eddie Reese still there, new Director of Swimmer Bob Bowman there, and women’s head coach Carol Capitani there. There are currently three different groups under the Longhorn banner, and Gemmell was the only woman who swam under Capitani this past season to make the team. However, roughly another seven athletes who have been training at Texas recently made the team, so it makes sense to have some Texas coach in Paris.
Dave Durden, California
- Ryan Murphy – 100 back, 200 back
- Hunter Armstrong – 100 back, 4×100 free relay
- Brooks Curry – 4×200 free relay
- Jack Alexy – 100 free
- Abbey Weitzeil – 4×100 free relay
- Keaton Jones – 200 back
This was a no-brainer, as the Bears put six athletes on the team, including a good chunk of the men’s free relay athletes and both 200 backstrokers. It’s been just under two years since Durden, the long-time men’s coach at Cal, took over the women’s team as well, and the Golden Bears haven’t really missed a beat. Durden will be on the Olympic staff for the third time, having previously been an assistant in 2016 and the men’s head coach in 2020(1).
Braden Holloway, NC State
- Katharine Berkoff – 100 back
Holloway may only have one athlete on the team, but he brings a wealth of international team experience. He was the men’s head coach for World Championships (2022) and World University Games (2019) teams, and served as an assistant on several other teams. Additionally, DeSorbo served on Holloway’s staff at NC State during the Wolfpack’s men early meteoric rise early in Holloway’s tenure.
Chris Lindauer, Notre Dame
- Chris Guiliano – 200 free, 100 free, 50 free
It’s fairly rare to see a see a college coach get their first Olympic team appointment with only one swimmer on the team, but this one makes sense. The Notre Dame men have exploded in general over the last two years under Lindauer, and more importantly, this week Guiliano became the first US man since Matt Biondi to qualify in the 50/100/200 freestyle. It probably didn’t hurt Lindauer’s case that another swimmer training at Notre Dame, Serbia’s Andrej Barna, had a great week at Euros as well.
Greg Meehan, Stanford
- Torri Huske – 100 free, 100 fly
Another one-athlete coach, but Meehan has a ton of international team experience. He was the women’s head coach for the Tokyo team, an assistant for the Rio squad, and has coached on numerous other international teams over the last decade-plus, so like Holloway, he brings a ton of international experience.
Chris Plumb, Carmel Swim Club
- Alex Shackell – 4×200 free
- Aaron Shackell – 400 free
As head coach of the Carmel Swim Club, Plumb has led one of the most consistently-successful club teams in the country over the last decade or so. He’s served on several junior international team staffs, including a stint as head coach of the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Championships team. He got his feet wet on the senior international side as an assistant coach on last summer’s World Championships team.
Open Water Coaches – Ron Aitken (Sandpipers) and Cory Chitwood (Indiana)
The open water team will be led by a pair of familiar faces, as Aitken and Chitwood also led the 2023 World Open Water Championships squad last summer. Aitken, the head coach of the Nevada Sandpipers, has Sandpipers swimmers Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein on the pool team, and Grimes is also slated to contest in the open water discipline.
Surprisingly, Indiana head coach Ray Looze wasn’t selected for the pool staff, despite putting four swimmers on the team, but Chitwood’s selection ensures that the Hoosiers are represented in some capacity. Additionally, several other Indiana swimmers will represent other countries in Paris, so Looze will probably be on deck in Paris anyway.
