World Champs silver medalist Hali Flickinger has moved her training base from Georgia to Arizona State, SwimSwam has learned.
A source tells us that the 2016 U.S. Olympian has moved to Arizona, and her club registration – Unattached Sun Devil – appears to confirm that. Flickinger is entered in this week’s Pro Swim Series opener in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her club affiliation in USA Swimming’s database is currently Sun Devil Swimming. Her social media also appears to confirm that she’s now based in Arizona. We’ve reached out to Flickinger for comment but have not yet received a response.
Flickinger was a high school standout in Pennsylvania, but has had most of her international success at the University of Georgia, both as a collegiate swimmer (from 2012 to 2016) and as a professional as part of Georgia’s Athens Bulldog Swim Club.
The 25-year-old Flickinger is coming off the biggest medals of her career. In 2018, she won U.S. Nationals in the 200 fly and went on later that summer to win gold at the Pan Pacific Championships. This past summer, she finished second at the 2019 World Championships in the 200 fly, though she was a tenth off of her career-best time set in 2018.
Flickinger is also a member of the Cali Condors of the International Swimming League, and competed at the Condors first meet in Indianapolis this fall.
She joins an Arizona State program that is run by Bob Bowman, a former Olympic head coach and longtime coach of Michael Phelps, a dominant 200 flyer throughout his career. Bowman has had connections with Georgia swimmers before – he spent time coaching Olympic IMer Chase Kalisz and Olympic freestyler Allison Schmitt, both UGA alums.
I’m sure she’ll do amazing.
Hali is an absolute FORCE. Proud to be able to say I trained with her back in York. Wishing her continued success in AZ!
Wow. Flickinger has always spoken so highly of Jack and the Georgia training so this is a surprising move- especially to do so this close to 2020. Perhaps there is something going on in her personal life that prompted the move?
Why can’t we just wish her good luck?
She’ll need it. Is that better?
There will be lots of meets to watch how she’s progressing with her training for the Olympics.
Unless she gets injured, her 2:05s are good enough to make the team.
Charlotte Hook is rising fast, then there’s Drabot and McLaughlin surging. I wouldn’t say it’s a given.
This is pretty old news, she has been training in Tempe for months now. At least since August. She is a pretty big beast, just saw her push a 4:51 400 fly the other week. Negative split 2:28/2:23.
Source: Me, I swim masters at ASU and see her there twice a week. She trains with Schmidt, House and now Giles Smith.
Lots of great 2flyers there! No doubt she is a stud but the whole confusion why change now when you have been #1 and number 2 in the world the last two years
Great, she can go 4:51 in the 400 Fly. Let’s see how that translates into a 200.
I have serious doubts about whether the naysayers posting here have any real insights into Hali’s reasoning for this decision. She has been around long enough to make a rational decision about where she trains and to deserve respect for her own decision.. As great a coach as Bauerle is, maybe Flickinger simply felt the need for a change from Jack’s program. Maybe she had personal conflicts with a coach or athlete there. Maybe her husband got a job in Arizona. Maybe she broke up with her spouse and needed to get away. I’m in no way suggesting any of these is true. The point is there are a huge number of possible reasons for a training change, and unless… Read more »
Dangerous move this close to Trials. Competition in the 200 Fly will be TIGHT. Drabot, Smith, Nordmann, Luther, Hook, Carter, etc. All of these girls will be VERY hard to beat. Flick may find herself on the outside looking in. It’ll take 2:05.low or better.
They’re women Dan. Girls are on the age group team. On topic though, she will thrive there in the competitive atmosphere. Plus, she has not done a lot of training at altitude (Colorado Springs) and she will now as Bowman has that dialed in pretty well. The coaches do leave the deck often at ASU though with their involvement in all of the college meets, ISL, and speaking engagements. But, I mean, they did just beat usc. So maybe everyone should go there.
Women are still girls, it’s the same gender lol
Nope. Women are adult females and girls are child females. Just like men are adult males and boys are child males. They are not the same.
Get over yourself. Wow. Thin skin.
The difficulty with this conversation is that, although there is a noteworthy point to be made here about gendered language and its effects, the point itself was not necessarily offered in the most constructive way. Another complication is that the relevant list of 200m butterfliers in the original comment does include at least one high school junior (possibly more, but I do not know the age of everyone listed).
The concern about using “girls” to describe college/university swimmers (and beyond) is that it generally comes across as infantilizing and unequal when the male swimmers are referred to as “men.” Imagine if an announcer at a university swim meet were to say: “Now, it’s time for the girls’ 100m freestyle… Read more »
Thank you. Yes .
Thank you for a very reasonable comment. I fully agree with your perspective. I very much saw Smith/Nordmann/Cook at 17/16/15 and said “girls” instead of women. As someone with several daughters, I am most certainly not anti-women or at all interested in slighting the gender. But I must say, I very much DO often say “boys” when referring to male teenage swimmers. I don’t do it as a slight. Maybe it’s because I’m 45+ years old. Again, thank you for bringing civility to the table.
TOM BRADY SUCKS!
Adult males are called boys all the time.
Say hi to Katie Mclaughlin