In a SwimSwam exclusive breaking story, Olympic gold medalist Ous Mellouli of Tunisia is switching to NBAC to train under the famed coach Bob Bowman. Mellouli has been in Florida with the NBAC group on a winter training camp and plans to return to Baltimore with the team and continue training with them.
When we contacted his publicist Jerry Shandrew, of ShandrewPR, he confirmed the switch and iterated that “Ous will always be a USC Trojan, but he wanted to try new coaching styles before he retires so that he can keep swimming fresh and exciting for the next few years.”
The 29-year old Mellouli was the Olympic Champion in 2008 in the 1500 meters freestyle and in 2012 in the 10km open water swim. He also took a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in the 1500, making him the first swimmer to win medals in pool and open water in the same Olympic Games.
“Ous first trained with us last summer and Colorado and I immediately recognized that he was a tremendous addition to our program in terms of both leadership and performance,” his new coach Bowman said. ” We were thrilled when he chose to join us full time in December and we have spent the past several weeks helping him get back into a training rhythm.”
“As far as the training program, we have emphasized the IM, an area where he has had great success. Obviously, he is spending time working in freestyle as well. The greatest change in his total program is probably in the area of dryland training and conditioning here he is doing a great job. He has a tremendous attitude and is a pleasure to coach.”
Mellouli moved away from Tunisia at 15 to study and train in Marseille, France. He then moved to California to train with the USC Trojans after the completion of his secondary studies, and has now been there for the better part of a decade, including most of his international success. He has also done a lot of open water training with USC’s open water guru, Catherine Vogt.
He joins an incredible NBAC freestyle group that spans the distances; on the men’s side, it includes Olympians Yannick Agnel, Michael Phelps, Conor Dwyer, and Matt McLean, and on the women’s side includes Danish distance star Lotte Friis and American gold medalist Allison Schmitt.
More than likely at Conor Dwyer’s grandfathers place on the Gulf.
To “in the know” I don’t think that’s Romano. The one next to Schmitt looks like lotte friis. Not sure who the brunette next to her and ous is but doesn’t look like Romano. Has Megan officially said she’s training with nbac?
Woww.. What a great collection of swimmers Bowman is accumulating.
I think it would simply be fun to hear them all speaking different languages at practice.
It’s a good thing they all can speak English.
Why doesn’t he train with Dr. Rushall?
😆 😆 😆 😆
He’d probably do quite well, based on his history of success with Dr. Salo.
REALLY? Yeah that makes sense. Risk the last 2 years of your career with theories. So much hype for a guy who has never actually produced an Olympian. In case you are confused I was referring to Rushall and the band of happy one lap swimming folk. Bob Bowman has produced multiple Olympians and has an amazing pro-team where endurance is valued and proven to be successful. Well done Bob and good luck Ous.
Maybe you ought to read his paper before you start spouting off about 1 lap swimming folk… Rushall makes no claim to train open water, but this system can apply to mid-distance and distance swimming. You would know that if you had read it, along with his other papers and visited the USRPT website.
Do you honestly think that Bowman came up with all of his training protocols on his own, that he didn’t have a mentor and didn’t read a single book? Also, not sure why you bash people who are taking the risk of trying a different method. I guess that’s what makes you the nameless, faceless troll that you are…
Coach Erik-love your enthusiasm-that’s what will one day get your athletes to an Olympics, national team, national team, senior nationals, or junior nationals. My comment was in reference to the actual results produced by the Rushall method. I apologize for the happy comment if that was offensive though they do seem happy swimming a lot of short distances. My intent was not to “bash” as you put it.
There may be a day when you and others are proven right and ahead of the curve after these “untraditional” methods are validated by actual swimmers being developed and making it to the World stage. Until that time, don’t take it personally. It simply wouldn’t make sense for Ous or anyone… Read more »
Ous my god!! They could make a bundle charging to watch practice.
AND I LOVE THAT PHOTO!
Does anyone know who they are, left to right?
I think I recognize:
Bowman next to Agnel with the long hair, Schmitt in the green shirt, and McLean on far right.
Left to right I think Bowman, Agnel, Long, ? ,maybe Lotte ,Ous, Dwyer, not sure (maybeTom L) ,Mcclean with the USA sweatshirt
1 or 2 of them are probably the coaching staff
Bowman, Agnel, Long, Schmitt, Romano, Friis, Mellouli, Dwyer, Keenan Robinson (trainer, dryland coach), McClean (back to camera) not sure who is standing in background, Luchsinger most likely taking picture
yup really great photo! everyone in it looks soo happy & relaxed, like they r best buddies!
another nice picture tweeted by Tom & Matt this one has MP in it 🙂
http://instagram.com/p/jAdkyBCgi9/#
Yes saw that! Sweet photo!
Wow! NBAC looks more and more like Trojan Swim Club will all these international stars!
Good for Agnel to have around him so many great mid-distance and distance freestylers.
But about a possible comeback of MP, are you sure NBAC would still be the best place to train for him? I know it’s a sacrilege to ask the question. 🙂
Most of swimming fans think he would be back on sprint (100 free and 100 fly). Mellouli, Dwyer, Agnel or McLean are not sprinters. Friis neither.
Agreed – NBAC keeps looking more and more like a distance-focused program (which it always was, but all of them now focus on 200+ races)
Agnel’s been training with Bowman and he won the 100 free at Duel in the Pool. Not exactly the most prestigious event to win but there was a pretty impressive field with pretty good sprinters that he beat.