2024 U.S. Olympic Selection
Five of the nine days of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials have concluded, essentially taking us to the halfway point of the competition.
With the starting doubles confirmed on Wednesday night, it's a good time to start predicting which coaches the U.S. Olympic coaching staff will be made up of.
Already assigned
There are many requirements to become the head coach of the U.S. team. The good news is, Anthony Nesty (Male) and Todd DeSorbo (Women) have already mentioned the names, so you can ignore most of those things.
But they weren't the only ones to drop out. The other obvious choice was: Bob Bowmanhas already been named to the France coaching staff. Regan Smith, Paige Madden, Drew Kiblerand Chase Cullis He was already in the team and would have been an easy pick for the staff had he not already committed to France.
The Sandpipers' race at this event and Katie Grimes Already a member of the open water team, this analysis Ron Aitken He was appointed head coach of the open water team.
standard
After some experiments with “joint staffs,” the U.S. is back to having three coaches for the men's and women's teams, which means they'll need to consider who fits on which staff. It's possible that a fourth coach for the men's team has a better resume than a third coach for the women's team, but a fourth coach with only men's-qualified players may not have an advantage.
There is a long list of criteria, like a typical job description, but the main ones are that you must be on USA Swimming's long list (which is private), be over 25 years old, be a U.S. citizen and a USA Swimming coaching member, and not be a USA Swimming official.
In addition, there are many other requirements, such as being a staff coach at a recent major international competition, being the lead coach of a swimmer on a recent big international team, or being the official coach/lead coach of a swimmer member of the 2024 Olympic team. In fact, the latter is the key criterion. A coach cannot be selected as an assistant without having swimmers on the team.
Then there's the practical side: coaches need to be able to coach other players, not just their own. With only eight coaches on a team (with the occasional bonus thrown in) and a maximum of 52 players, coaches are responsible for training other coaches' players, so experience levels and personality types tend to take precedence.
Athletes with larger entries also tend to be given priority. If there are two coaches, each with one athlete, if one of the coaches wins three or four medals, that coach will often be given priority.
candidate
These are the primary coaches (as far as we know) of players who qualified through the first five days of competition. While our focus is on the head coaches of programs, we understand there are many complexities within programs regarding who coaches who.
- Todd DeSorbo (Kate Douglas, Gretchen Walsh, Emma Weber)
- Anthony Nesty (Emma Weyant, Kieran Smith, Katie Ledecky, Bobby Finke, Caleb Dressel)
- Ron Aitken (Katie GrimesClaire Weinstein)
- Ray Luz (Lily King, Anna Peplowski, Blake Pieroni, Josh Matheny)
- Bob Bowman (Regan Smith, Chase Cullis, Paige Madden, Drew Kibler)
- Dave Durden (Ryan Murphy, Hunter Armstrong, Brooks Curry, Jack Alexie, Abby Weitzeil)
- Bob Bowman/Harvey Boehm (Simone Manuel, Ryan Held)
- Chris Plum (Alex Shackell, Aaron Shackel)
- Greg Meehan (Tori Fuske)
- Braden Holloway (Katherine Berkoff)
- Carol Capitani (Erin Gemmell)
- Eddie Rees (Luke Hobson, Carson Foster)
- Billy Doughty (Luca Urland (Until recently, he was with Mr. Bowman)
- Chris Lindauer (Chris Juliano)
- Greg Rodenbaugh (Nick Fink)
- Matt Bowe (Charlie Swanson)
- Joe Keller (Luke Whitlock)
- Gary Taylor (Thomas Heilmann)
- Mike Schnur (Matt Fallon)
- Corey Stickels (Matt King)
Additionally, Matt Kredich instead of Erica Connolly, or Katie DeLuff (I spent time in both Knoxville and Ann Arbor last year) and am waiting for the 100m freestyle swim off.
One thing is clear from this list: they chose their head coach well. They had a lot of swimmers on their team.
A few other names stand out clearly.
The obvious
Ray Luz Has to be on this staff. He was on the 2016 and 2020 staffs. We have four swimmers on the team. He's flex so he can be on the men's or women's staff.
I think Chris Plum is clearly a top candidate for the staff. Besides having two swimmers on the team, USA Swimming currently has a “club coach relations” issue. If they were to pull Plum (remember they pulled Aitken for 2021), there would definitely be uproar. There is a lot of youth on this team, so they need a club coach.
I think Dave Durden He too has to be a top candidate to join this staff. He has four men and one woman under him. He may devolve authority to Marsh, but let's give it a serious go now.
That means there are three positions currently secured: Durden is probably a boy, Looze is probably a girl, and Plumb is probably a boy (but there is flexibility).
But who will join them?
With eight finals matches still to go, many more players will be selected for the team before the tournament ends, but of the current candidates, these are the ones that stand out the most to me:
- Greg Meehan – Tori Fuske While this is his only eligibility at the moment, he is the head coach for the 2021 Olympics and understands the world he is entering. Huske has competed in four events so far, with the potential to compete in more.
- Chris Lindauer – A relative newcomer to this group, Giuliano's win in the 100m freestyle on Wednesday was a big boost for Lindauer's contenders, as it means Giuliano will swim at least five races in Paris.
There are some names that probably aren't on the list at this point. A coaching staff that has one relay runner (Corey Stickels) and one runner-up (Braeden Holloway) probably wouldn't be a top contender. But remember, DeSorbo and Holloway coached together for a long time at NC State. That connection and comfortable working relationship could lead DeSorbo to push for Holloway to be hired from the perspective of the entire staff.
It's also unclear if Eddie Reese will go, even though the team has had two coaches and is one of the most experienced coaches in existence: Reese, 82, is in decline and a long trip that includes training camp would be tough on him.
There aren't many obvious results that would vault you higher on this list, and I think there are scenarios where hiring an assistant coach who is an assistant coach would be justified, like Wyatt Collins at Texas, Dave Marsh at California, or even Alex Walsh, who is one of Virginia's assistant coaches if he joins the team.
That would leave one position pretty open. If there is pressure to bring in a female coach, Carol Capitani is currently a candidate. If they decide to make Harvey Boehm the “head coach” of Manuel and Held, I think he would be a good fit for the position as well (the more sprint coaches the better).
The seven current coaches we have confidence in above all have well-rounded coaching reputations when it comes to stroke specialization – there are sprint coaches, distance coaches, breaststroke coaches and some who do it all – so that last spot is really open.
