The University of Florida has announced their list of three signees in the spring of 2014, which indicates some level of finality (though with international ranks on the table, Florida is always the biggest wildcard to bring in someone late). The first two swimmers on their list we’ve reported on: Ben Lawless, the fabulous late-bloomer middle-distance swimmer from Maryland; and Ally Donahue, the Tampa-based breaststroker who graduated high school a year early.
Now they’ve added another project-type swimmer, another interesting case, with the signing of Greek sprinter Elisavet Panti. Panti trains with the YMCA Thessaloniki program, and has long course bests of 26.98 and 59.24 in the 50 and 100 long course freestyles.
Those swims aren’t going to scare anybody yet; they convert to around a 23.5 and 51.9 in yards, respectively. However, she’s part of a young nucleus of Greek women’s sprint talent that has three teenagers under 27 seconds (there’s a 26.5/57.3 sprinter named Visiliki-Stayroula Baka who’s even a year younger than Panti). The Greek federation, while suffering along with the national economy, will be very interested in seeing if they can develop that group to another Olympic-qualifying relay for 2016. They sent a group in 2012 that finished 16th, but that was a veteran group that will likely lose some pieces before Rio.
Sometimes, that sort of domestic support (and pressure) can really roll off of a swimmer and create good results and motivation.
On a more micro scale, the Florida women need to continue developing their sprint group depth. 2014 was a solid year for them (9th in the 200 free relay, 5th in the 400 free relay), but they graduate Ellese Zalewski, which means there’s a hole in both of those relays. They seem to be always sort of right on the perfect number of sprinters for their relays, and they would love to have some depth to play with pieces and install the ‘hot hand’ at season’s end if they can.