2024 Swammy Awards: U.S. Coach Of The Year – Todd DeSorbo
12/31/2024 12:45 PM
See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.
When we evaluate who wins the Swammy for U.S. Coach of the Year, we take into consideration all of an American coach’s successes, whether it be on a club, college and international level. However, in an Olympic year where the results of the Paris Games are the end goal and stand out more than anything else, the coach’s contributions to Team USA on the biggest stage are what matter the most. For this reason, we’ve decided to give out the 2024 U.S. Coach Of The Year Swammy to University of Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo.
DeSorbo had three jobs in 2024 on three different levels. His highest-scale job was to be the head coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s team. Then, on a smaller but still super-high scale, he had to coach and train his own swimmers to compete at international competitions. And for his full-time day job, he had to be the head coach of the UVA men’s and women’s collegiate teams. In all three jobs, he went above and beyond.
At the 2024 Olympic Games, DeSorbo coached the contingent of Team USA swimming that was responsible for most of America’s success. Out of Team USA’s 28 medals, 18 of them were won exclusively by women, while female swimmers contributed to a 19th medal in the mixed medley relay. And out of the U.S.’s eight gold medals, five were from women (six if one counts the mixed medley relay). America’s most dominant pool showing in Paris was the 4×100 women’s medley relay, where Regan Smith, Lilly King, Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh destroyed the field by nearly four seconds and shattered their own country’s world record. Keep in mind, Paris was Team USA’s worst Olympic showing since 1988. Without the standout performances of the American women, it could have been a lot worse.
Obviously, DeSorbo shouldn’t get all the credit for the success of the American women, especially the swimmers that he doesn’t actually coach on a day-to-day basis. But it’s not easy to be the head man in charge of an entire team at the biggest competition in the world. So because his team achieved all that they did in Paris, he absolutely deserves the recognition.
Four Virginia athletes that DeSorbo directly coached also made it onto the U.S. Olympic team this year: Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh and Emma Weber. Douglass took gold in the 200 breast and silver in the 200 IM, becoming the first Virginia swimmer to ever win individual Olympic gold. Gretchen Walsh took silver in the 100 fly and helped Team USA win gold in the mixed and women’s medley relay — in the latter race, she recorded the fastest fly split ever for a woman. Weber saw massive development in the 100 breast, dropping over a second in a year to upset defending Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby for a trip to Paris. Alex Walsh found herself in bronze medal position in the 200 IM final, but she was eventually disqualified. However, she continued her consistency of being one of the top two Americans in the event for the fourth year in a row.
Although DeSorbo didn’t put the most swimmers on the Olympic team, the success and development that his swimmers had makes him stand out. Weber wasn’t a top contender to make the Olympic team a year ago, and she defeated several Americans seeded ahead of her. Douglass dropped two seconds in the 200 breast and broke the American record in the event, getting past the 2:21 barrier which she had been stuck at for two years. She also broke 2:07 for the first time in the 200 IM.
But Virginia’s biggest development success story was with Gretchen Walsh. In the span of a year, she finally translated her short course stardom to something similar in long course, improving nearly a second in her 100 fly to break the world record. Despite not matching that time at the Olympics, she still had a considerably better showing at that meet than she did at the 2023 World Championships. Her 100 fly silver was her best result ever in a major international long course meet, and she made two crucial contributions in the event on relay (after being way off her best on relays at the 2023 Worlds). She also somewhat got the monkey off her back in the 100 free, setting a personal best in the Olympic final and hitting a sub-53 split for the first time. Walsh talks frequently of how DeSorbo has helped improve her confidence as a swimmer — it’s clear that he’s made major contributions toward her success.
To close out the year, DeSorbo’s swimmers had a terrific showing at the 2024 Short Course World Championships, where Douglass and the Walsh sisters all took home individual medals. Douglass also shattered world records in the 200 breast and 200 IM, while Gretchen Walsh had her historic meet where she took down ten individual world records.
On the NCAA level, DeSorbo continued to achieve success with the Virginia women’s team. The Cavaliers took home their fourth-consecutive NCAA title in March 2024, taking home first place in ten contested events at the NCAA Championships. The Walsh sisters as well as Claire Curzan all broke NCAA records, and Gretchen Walsh went three-for-three in individual events and with three NCAA records at 2024 NCAAs. Meanwhile, the Virginia men finished 17th with a roster depleted of its top scorers from years prior, but have a bright future ahead of them with many highly-touted recruits coming their way.
As the cherry on top of a successful year, DeSorbo scored the commitment of Katie Grimes, the top girls’ recruit of the 2024 high school class who already has an Olympic medal under her belt. She will arrive in Charlottesville in the winter of 2025.
In 2025, DeSorbo will have high expectations placed on him. Thomas Heilman and Maximus Williamson, two of the most promising young talents in American men’s swimming, will be under his tutelage. If he can develop a male swimmer up to the caliber of his top female swimmers, he will truly cement himself as an all-time great coach. The same goes for Grimes, who comes from the Sandpipers of Nevada, a club that has seen mixed amounts of success with its female swimmers once they go to college. But for now, we’re going to recognize all that he’s accomplished in the past year.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Bob Bowman (Arizona State/Sun Devil Swimming/Texas/Longhorn Aquatics) — Because of how much we weighted his success with international swimmers last year, Bowman was in serious contention to take this Swammy. However, in an Olympic year, we thought that it would be best to give the award to someone who was on the U.S. Olympic staff. That being said, Bowman’s countless achievements deserve a mention in this article. Amidst a change-filled year that involved moving from Arizona State to Texas as head coach (and several swimmers coming and leaving his training group), Bowman still saw much success amongst both his American swimmers. Regan Smith broke the 100 back world record, set the 200 fly American record and picked up three silver medals, while Paige Madden qualified for her first major international meet since 2021 and made huge improvements in the 800 free to take bronze. But his bread and butter came with the European swimmers that he coached. Frenchman Leon Marchand had an outstanding home Olympics where he won four gold medals and was the most decorated athlete at the Games, while Hungarian Hubert Kos won gold in the 200 back. And of course, Bowman also reached the pinnacle of NCAA swimming for the first time in his career, leading Arizona State to its first-ever NCAA title.
- Anthony Nesty (Florida/Gator Swim Club) — Nesty was DeSorbo’s partner-in-crime in Paris, leading the U.S. men’s swimming team. His two star swimmers, Bobby Finke and Katie Ledecky, dominated the distance races at the Olympics, with Ledecky sweeping the 800 and 1500 free for the second straight Olympics while Finke took 800 free silver and 1500 free gold. In the latter event, he broke Sun Yang‘s world record and won the only individual gold for the American men. Other U.S. Olympians he coached included Emma Weyant (who took 400 IM bronze), Caeleb Dressel (who won three relay medals, including two gold), and Kieran Smith(who won silver on the men’s 4×200 free relay). On the NCAA side, he led the Florida men and women to third-place finishes, with the women’s team placing being their highest since 2010. Nesty also coached Canadian Josh Liendo to a sweep of the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly at the Men’s NCAA Championships, and Liendo went on to win silver in the 100 fly at the Olympics.
- Dave Durden (Cal Berkeley/California Aquatics) — Durden deserves a mention in this article for coaching the most swimmers on the U.S. Olympic team with six. Abbey Weitzeil, Brooks Curry, Ryan Murphy, Hunter Armstrong, Jack Alexy and Keaton Jones all represented the United States in Paris, with Murphy being the only one of the bunch to win an individual medal (100 back bronze). In addition, he also coached the Cal men to a second-place NCAA finish and the women to an 11th-place finish.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
- 2023: Bob Bowman (Arizona State/Sun Devil Swimming)
- 2022: Anthony Nesty (Florida/Gator Swim Club)
- 2021: Todd DeSorbo (Virginia)
- 2020: Ray Looze (Indiana Swim Club/Indiana)
- 2019: Greg Meehan (Alto Swim Club/Stanford)
- 2018: Dave Durden (California Aquatics/Cal)
- 2017: Greg Meehan (Alto Swim Club/Stanford)
- 2016: Dave Durden (California Aquatics/Cal)
- 2015: David Marsh (SwimMAC Carolina)
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