Melanie Margalis

Melanie Margalis
Melanie Margalis is a versatile swimmer, but primarily a breaststroke and IM specialist from her hometown of Clearwater, Fla. Margalis was born to parents, Bob and Caryn, and her brother is Robert Margalis, also a stand-out Georgia swimmer and a NCAA Champion. Margarlis studied Fashion Merchandising.

High school swimming 
Margalis graduated from Countryside High School, where she was also a club swimmer for St. Petersburg Aquatics. There, she was coached by Fred Lewis. In high school swimming she was a three-time state champion, and she held the state record in the 200-yard IM.

For four years in a row, Margalis was named her teams’ MVP. Proving her versatility, she also swam the 500-yard free in 2009 in which she also won a state championship. After her performances that season, she was named the 2009-2010 Pinellas County Female Athlete of the Year. That same year she was named to the National Youth Championship Team.

College swimming
A college choice wasn’t too difficult for Margalis, especially after she saw how successful her brother, Robert, had been at Georgia. She committed to the Bulldogs, and immediately made an impact.

2010-2011

As a freshman she got a lot of exposure on the national level — she swam as a part of the winning 400 free relay team, and individually she finished sixth in the 200 IM and ninth in the 400 IM at the NCAA Championships. Coach Jack Baurle mentioned that Margalis could’ve performed even better as a freshman, if she had not have been overwhelmed with the speed of her teammates.

2011-2012

During her sophomore year Margalis was twice named the SEC Swimmer of the Week. At SEC’s she picked up three second-place finishes — 400 IM, 200 IM and as a leg of the 400 free relay. Margalis also finished fourth in the 200 breaststroke, and was on the winning 800 free relay. At the NCAA Championships in 2012, she finished sixth once again in the 200 IM and 10th in the 400 IM — this year she also finished in the semi-final of the 200 breaststroke, finishing 11th.

2012-2013

Margalis had her first individual SEC win in 2013, when she won the 200 IM. She also finished fourth in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and swam on two relays. She qualified for the NCAA Championships for her third year in a row, and Margalis qualified for two championship finals. She finished sixth in the 200 IM and seventh in the 400 IM. Margalis also finished 11th again in the 200 breast to help the Lady Bulldogs win their fifth national title.

2013-2014

During her senior year, Margalis was making headlines across the country. Many people were just hearing her name for the first time, and she was a frontrunner at the NCAA Championships. As team captain, Margalis finished second in the 200 IM by less than .20 seconds and third in the 400 IM. She also picked up a fourth-place finish in the 200 breast.

International Swimming
Margalis first competed internationally at the 2013 World University Games in Russia, where she picked up a win as a member of the 800-meter free relay and brought home a bronze in the 200 IM.

2014 National Championships/Pan Pacs

At the 2014 Phillips 66 National Championships, Margalis won the 200-meter IM and finished third in both the 400-meter IM and 200-meter breaststroke to earn a roster spot on the Pan Pac team — she finished 12th in the 400 IM and ninth in the 200 IM. Later that year she also competed at the 2014 World Short Course Championships, swimming the IM events. She won a bronze in the 200 IM and finished sixth in the 100 IM.

2015 World Championships 

In 2014 she was announced to the 2015 World Championships roster. In Kazan, Margalis was listed to swim the 200 IM. She advanced the the final of the 200 IM, and swam a 2:10.41 to finish 7th.

Melanie Margalis (photo: Mike Lewis)

2016 U.S. Olympic Trials

The youngest of the swimming Margalis family, Melanie found success in the 200M IM and finished second to Miya DiRado, shoring up a spot on the US Team headed to Rio. She had a great deal of catching up to do in the freestyle leg, having started eigth after the fly, sixth after the back, 5th after the fly, and splitting the fastest free split of 30.26 to finish .57 seconds behind first place with a time of 2:10.11.

Margalis also finished sixth in the 200M Free and earned a spot on the 4x200M Free Relay.

2016 Rio Olympics

Margalis finished just out of the medal stand in the 200M Individual Medley. She helped Team USA win the gold in the 4x200M Free Relay.

2017 US World Team Trials

Margalis swam to a third place finish in the 200M Free behind Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith, earning her a spot on the USA Team in the 4x200Free Relay. Margalis won the 200M Individual Medley out-touching Madisyn Cox , 2:09.57 to 2:09.69.

2017 World Championships – Budapest

Margalis 2017 World Champs (photo: Mike Lewis)

Margalis had a strong swim in the 200m Individual Medley, but could not hold off the final 50 surge of US teammate Madisyn Cox, and finished fourth.

Day five of competition in the women’s final of the 4x200m freestyle relay, Leah Smith led off for the Americans in a personal best 1:55.97.  Mallory Comerford (1:56.92) and Margalis (1:56.48) took over the middle legs of the relay as they battled down the stretch with China and Russia. It was a very tight race with China going into the final leg, but Katie Ledecky took off with a 1:54.02 split to help the Americans strike gold again.

2017 Winter National Championships

Margalis had a busy weekend as she competed in five individual events and managed to grab three individual titles. She broke the Championship Record in the 200IM with the time of 1:52.63 and finished first in 400IM and 100 breaststroke.

2018 U.S. National Championships

Margalis was the runnerup in the 200 IM (2:09.43) and finished third in the 400 IM (4:35.50) at the Phillips 66 National Championships. She also placed sixth in the 200 freestyle (1:57.32, after posting a 1:56.84 in the prelims).

2018 Pan Pacific Championships

After making qualifying as the fastest American in the prelims of the 400 IM on day 1, Margalis secured a silver medal in the 400 IM final with a time of 4:35.60.

2018 Short Course World Championships

Margalis earned the silver medal in the 400 IM, turning in a career-best time of 4:25.84 in the event finals. She was also runnerup in the 200 IM (personal best 2:04.62) and finished fourth in the 100 IM, clocking a 58.32, just .21 of a second off the podium. Margalis was a part of two medal winning relay teams, earning gold in the 4×100 medley relay and silver in the 4×200 freestyle relay.

ISL – Cali Condors

On June 11, 2019, Melanie Margalis was announced as a member of the Cali Condors ISL team, headed by GM Jason Lezak

2019 World Championships

Margalis started off her world champs in the 200 IM, where she placed 4th in the final once again in a time of 2:08.91. On Day 5, Margalis raced in the 4×200 free relay, where she split 1:55.81 to help USA to a new American record and silver medal behind Australia.