In 2008 David Marsh created Team Elite as an extension of the SwimMac program. The goal of Team Elite was to provide post-graduate swimmers who had their eye on medalling at the Olympics an appropriate training environment to reach their goals.
With the team being part of the SwimMac program they also provided leadership and mentorship for the club swimmers.
Team Elite was an overwhelming success placing six swimmers on both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams.
Those swimmers include:
2012 Olympians
- Cullen Jones – Gold
- Davis Tarwater – Gold
- Nick Thoman – Gold, Silver
- Cammile Adams
- Kara Lynn Joyce
- Micah Lawrence
2016 Olympics
- Kathleen Baker – Gold, Silver
- Anthony Ervin – Gold, Gold, Team Co-Captain
- Jimmy Feigen – Gold
- Katie Meili – Gold, Bronze
- Ryan Lochte – Gold
- Cammile Adams
In September Marsh moved out west taking the Head Coaching position at UC San Diego. His vision for the Team Elite is to expand the program to the west coast.
In this video he explains where they are in that process.
Kendyl Stewart is listed on Marshe’s Team Elite Roster for Team USA 2019. She came out of North Coast Aquatics Club (NCA).
It is probably not advertised but Team Elite West which he is starting in San Diego resulted in kicking out ~130 NCA kid (ages 7-14) swimmers out of pool they rented for 24 years. They have nowhere to go. Next time dear “Team Elite” here might be no new Kendyl’s to join you. What a shame…
Is there a current Team Elite roster?
I notice his recruits are mostly D2 talent level. I thought he would have gotten some higher level swimmers by now.
cammile adams was also team captain in rio
I get that number of Olympians is a big thing, but when they fall in your lap, you also look to see how they progressed. The 2016 figures are not necessarily something to brag about. Tony Ervin went there for a cup of coffee at the end of the quad. Maybe (maybe) it helped his start at Rio. Feigen spent most of the quad with Eddie, and regressed with Marsh. Lochte was terrible at Rio, Camille swam as expected, and Meili and Baker broke through. In 2012, it was really only Cullen and Thoman who swam well. All that said, it’s good that there’s a place where post-grads can go as a group with a common goal. It certainly didn’t… Read more »
Agreed. I would not give Marsh credit for Kara Lynn Joyce as she was with Sean H and Todd very close up until London.
Tough words but true.
I suppose you could spin it either way. i think six team members per a quad is impressive. I’d probably would want to look at who he coached that bombed at trials as opposed to trying to be negative towards the ones that actually made the team.
Tony Ervin has publicly and in more than one occasion thanked Marsh for his Rio campaign, so you are wrong on that score.
Cullen got Gold, Silver, Silver in 2012